“Oh come on, Em! With Nate’s crazy interning hours, I have to live vicariously through you,” Casey argued.

Warmth flooded into Emma’s cheeks. “Okay, fine then. Four…No wait five. There was the time in the shower, too.”

Casey’s dark eyes widened, and she clapped her hands gleefully. “Em, that’s fanfuckingtastic!!”

“Only you would clap for orgasms!”

“I can’t help it! I’m just so happy for you.”

A dreamy sigh escaped Emma’s lips and then she told Casey some of the details that weren’t so mortifying. When she got to the part about Aidan staying the night, Casey’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s wrong? Didn’t you think that was sweet?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, it is but…”

Emma twisted her hands frantically. “Would you just spit it out?”

“I just want you to be careful, Em. You’ve slept with him once, and you’re already starting to invest too much emotionally.”

“I am not!” Emma protested.

“Yes, you are. You wigged out when he tried to leave last night, and you’re already giddy about him texting you this morning. I just don’t want to see you get hurt, okay?”

Emma let her head fall back against the chair’s headrest and sighed. “You’re right. I am feeling too much.” She blew a strand of hair out of her face and gazed over at Casey. “Why does everything have to be so damn hard on me? Women everywhere can drop their panties and have mindless sex, but no, not me. I have to get emotionally invested in a douchenozzle who is only willing to knock me up for his own pleasure!”

Casey laughed. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Even I have to admit that the douchenozzle, as you call him, does have some serious seductive game. Hell, I might’ve even been tempted to feel a little more with the fact he took me to dinner, gave me lingerie, and stayed the night.”

“I need a new strategy. I’m going to have to keep it purely physical from now on out. I’ll go in, do the deed, and get the hell out of there.”

“That’s my girl.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

On Wednesday when Emma stepped into Aidan’s office, he glanced up from his paperwork and drank in every aspect of her appearance. She knew she appeared so different than how he left her the other morning—practically na**d under the sheets with her long auburn hair splayed across the pillow. Today she appeared every bit the seasoned professional woman in her pencil thin grey skirt, black frilly blouse, and heels. She’d also swept her hair into a loose knot. But even as finely dressed as she was, she might as well have been na**d from the way he was staring at her.

Get in and get out quickly, and you don’t get hurt she tried reminding herself. She met Aidan’s hooded eyes and blushed. “Hi,” she said, shyly.

“Hello. To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you?”

Deep breath, Em. You can do this. All he can do is say no…and then potentially embarrass the hell out of you for suggesting such a thing in the middle of the day. Not to mention he could potentially file a sexual harassment charge. She glanced around. “Um, you aren’t busy right at the moment, are you?”

“No, I’m in between meetings. Why?”

She chewed her lip Once again, she was unsure if she could actually approach him like this. From the moment she took her ovulation test in the bathroom, her mind screamed how crazy she was to even think of propositioning Aidan while they were at work. The entire elevator ride up, her conscious worked in overdrive to call her a brazen slut for even considering a booty call in the middle of the day.

She tuned the voices in her head out. “Well, you see, my temperature spiked a little while ago.”

Aiden’s brows furrowed. “You came up here to tell me you’re sick?”

With a nervous laugh, Emma replied, “No, no, it’s nothing like that. It’s just…” She drew in a breath, trying to still her nerves. It did little to help her shaking knees. Especially since she was going to have to talk about more alleged unmentionables again. “You see I’ve been taking these tests to tell when I’m ovulating and when I’m most fertile. And well…it’s now.”

He stared at her, unblinking and barely breathing, for a moment before a smirk curved on his lips. “Oh, so you came up here for a f**k?”

Emma cringed. “Do you always have to be so crude?”

He chuckled. “I’m sorry. Would you prefer I call it an afternoon delight?” he teased, seeming to enjoy the fact she was now squirming in her heels.

“Please stop,” she murmured. Testing her courage, she stepped closer to his desk. Miraculously, the legs that felt rubbery actually supported her. With him acting like such a sex crazed ass, she didn’t have to worry about not feeling anything for him. This was the despicable Aidan she remembered from the Christmas party, not the one who had spooned with her the other night. She realized she needed to file away his behavior in her mind for whenever she started slipping into the emotional land mine of feeling more for him.

Drawing on more willpower caused her to inch around the side of the desk. When she met Aidan’s leering gaze, she sighed. “Could you please act the way you did the other night?”

“And how was that?”

She ducked her head. “I don’t know…just not like this.”

“I’m sorry, Em. It’s just I’m not used to being made to feel like a piece of meat in the middle of the day.”

She met his amused gaze. “I’m sorry if I made you feel like that. I would much rather have waited for tonight. You can’t imagine how hard this is for me. To come up here and proposition you like this is absolutely terrifying, not to mention mortifying. But as much as I hate it, I need you to help me conceive. And I need you now.”

Aidan shifted in his chair, and Emma could tell her plea was having an effect on him. “I have to admit that you needing me like this is one hell of a turn on, Em,” he mused. Motioning to the door, he instructed, “Lock it.”

Emma scurried to ensure nobody would interrupt them. When she returned to his side, Aidan pressed the button on his phone. His secretary’s voice came over the speaker. “Yes, Mr. Fitzgerald?”

“Marilyn, please push back my 3:00 meeting. I’ve had something unexpectedly come up.” He winked at Emma.

“Yes sir.”

“And please make sure I’m not disturbed for the next thirty minutes.”