He’d jumped to the worst conclusions, but then again, he was primed to do it.
An image of Teela’s flushed cheeks materialized behind his closed lids. The hairs at the nape of his neck prickled and other select spots felt a little tingly as well. Maybe more than a little. His dick hadn’t stood down all day. It was a wonder the bastard hadn’t fallen off from the lack of blood properly circulating through it since he’d finally had to make a fast exit into the staff washroom and tuck the bastard into the waistband of his boxers to keep it from making an embarrassing tent in his pants all day. And he absolutely could not understand why it was reacting that way, especially after hearing what Teela had to say.
Teela’s face was uncertain in his mind. Her eyes were wide, as green as a lush meadow in spring. Her lips quivered, like she was actually going to cry, but her eyes remained dry. And then she smiled. It was a dazzling smile, completely gorgeous. The kind of mega-watt smile that could power a small country for a generation.
He recalled how gorgeous Teela looked in just a regular old pair of jeans and a t-shirt. How soft the fabric looked straining over the swell of her breasts and the way that old denim cupped her gently rounded hips. She was the kind of woman who looked good in a paper bag or a sack or however that saying went.
Ross forced his eyes open and gave his head a shake before he actually started drooling all over himself. His pulse was racing, and his heart beat out a ridiculously painful pattern behind his ribs.
“God, how ridiculous is this?” he muttered over the sound of the TV. Too late, Ross realized that it was even more ridiculous that he was talking to himself. His voice was all wrong too. Raspy and weird and too deep. It was more than pathetic that merely the thought of Teela turned him into a teenage fool. He hadn’t felt that way in ages.
That road was a whole lot of nope. It was the kind of road that was littered with booby traps and potholes, complete with signs and billboards that screamed DEAD END.
Ross was forced to wipe his damp palms on his jeans. He’d changed after work and the stiffer denim helped a little to keep his erection where it belonged. Facing south. His chest tightened up and it was suddenly hard to breathe.
He imagined Teela’s hands, small and delicate, those long, tapered fingers wrapping around his cock. He imagined her bow shaped lips, so incredibly soft, sucking him into her mouth. He imagined how she’d look up at him with those sea green eyes and how her perky nipples would peak through the thin fabric of her bra and t-shirt. He imagined stripping off her jeans and finding out she wasn’t wearing panties and finding her wet and slick and ready.
Holy fucking hell. What is wrong with me? He wasn’t just thinking dirty thoughts about the most inappropriate woman, a woman who would just as soon tuck his balls into a vice and squeeze as she would take them into her hands and fondle them gently for his pleasure, a woman who would rather bite his cock off if he put it anywhere near her mouth. Yeah. That little fantasy he’d just had going on was never going to happen.
Not only was Teela wrong for all the wrong and right reasons in the world. She was pregnant. Apparently with his child.
He shouldn’t be thinking dirty thoughts about a pregnant lady. Or about doing anything to her mouth. He shouldn’t be thinking those thoughts about anybody. Normally, he had all the self-control in the world.
So, what the hell was going on when it came to Teela McDaniels?
Ross let out a low frustrated groan and swiveled his legs off the couch. He felt hot and achy, like he was coming down with something. The Teela virus. The Teela flu. She was like a disease that permeated every single part of him. She was in his bones.
Since he obviously didn’t have a shred of common sense left, he made a fatal decision.
There was a good chance she was lying, and he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life and that he’d regret it for years to come. That the remaining splinters of his heart would be shattered completely.
Apparently, he’d never been an overly smart man. Apparently, that leather skin was getting thinner and thinner with every passing moment.
There was a check sitting on the desk that was now his. A check with Teela McDaniels written on the front. He’d done something silly and given her a small severance package even though she’d threatened to set the hounds of hell on him and quit of her own accord. He’d asked that Sarah, the new admin, mail the stack in the morning.