CHAPTER THREE
During the next day at lunch, Casey strolled through Emma’s office door and tossed her wallet on the desk. “Do not under any circumstances let me near the vending machines. I have another dress fitting in a week, and it’s salads and celery until then.”
Emma half-heartedly chuckled. Her mind was still reeling from the previous night’s events to be too involved in Casey’s wedding dress diet drama. She had spent the night tossing and turning as her mind whirled with Aidan’s proposition. But mainly she’d been kept awake by her lips still burning from Aidan’s scorching kiss. Her body had ached with longing most of the night as well until she had finally broken down and dug her vibrator out of the nightstand drawer.
After plopping down in the chair, Casey cocked her head at Emma. “What’s up with you?”
“Nothing,” Emma lied.
Casey eyed her while opening up her Tupperware container. “Bullshit. You look like hell.”
“Thanks. I’m going to assume that’s the low carb diet stress talking, and you’re not just intentionally being bitchy?”
“Ha, ha. You look like you’re having a baby shower emotional hangover today,” Casey replied, through a forkful of lettuce.
“No, it’s nothing like that.” She doodled mindlessly on her desk calendar. Although she wasn’t really sure she was ready to say anything to Casey about her evening with Aidan, she would burst if she didn’t tell someone. At the same time, she knew she needed her best friend’s advice if she was really going to take his offer seriously. “Case?”
“Hmm?” Casey didn’t look up. Instead, she stared at her salad with a disgusted expression. “You know, I’d kill for some ranch dressing right now.”
“I need to tell you something.”
Casey snatched her gaze from the Tupperware over to Emma. “Oh shit. I don’t like your tone. What is it? You’re getting fired? No, wait, I’m getting fired?”
Emma waved her hand dismissively. “No, no, it’s nothing like that. It’s just…” She drew in a deep breath. “After the baby shower, I had drinks with Aidan Fitzgerald.”
“Oh Jesus you didn’t! Em, I warned you about him!” Casey pinched her eyes shut. “Please tell me he didn’t take advantage of your weak emotional state after the baby shower?”
“Give me a little credit,” Emma huffed.
Casey’s dark eyes flew open. “Then what happened?”
Emma then proceeded to tell her everything from Connor showing up and confronting her to Aidan’s offer of DNA. When she got to the part of conceiving naturally, Casey shot out of her chair, sending her salad flying. “Holy shit, Em!”
“I didn’t say yes.”
Casey’s eyes widened. “And why not?”
“Why not? You just freaked out two seconds ago when you thought I had hooked up with him!”
“That’s different. I know you want a relationship—a husband, and Aidan Fitzgerald is not husband material. But he’s sure as hell stud material.” When Emma didn’t respond, Casey leaned over her desk. “Why did you really turn him down?”
Emma refused to look up. “Well…you know.”
“That’s your answer? I can’t think of a possible reason to say no! Let me break it down for you. You have the opportunity to get what you want most in this world, a baby, from a smart, healthy, good-looking man while combining it with potentially mind blowing sex.”
Emma flushed and shook her head. “You know my experience, or lack thereof, with men. I wouldn’t even know how to begin.”
“Oh, I’ve got a million different scenarios in mind right now on how you start,” Casey replied, waggling her eyebrows.
“Ew!” Emma screeched.
Casey laughed. “Okay, okay, I won’t torture you with anymore innuendos.”
“Thank you.”
“But,” Casey said, holding up one hand, “only if you’ll promise to take Aidan up on his offer.”
Emma jerked her fingers through her hair in frustration. “Trust me, there’s a very insistent but annoying voice in my head telling me to march up to his office this very instant and tell him yes. Like it was some weird twisted stroke of fate that made him appear when he did last night.”
“Sounds like the voice of reason talking to you, and I couldn’t agree with it more. He’s offering to give you the experience of a lifetime, in more ways than one. I mean, if I hadn’t been in love with Nate for five years, I would’ve considered letting Aidan make a play for me.”
Emma crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh really?”
“Yes,” Casey replied dreamily. “It’s like I told you before, he’s sex on a stick. Who wouldn’t want to experience that at least once in their life?”
“So what you’re saying is Nate isn’t sex on a stick?”
Casey chuckled. “Nate is barely sex on a low fat wheat-thin. But I sowed a few wild oats back in my day, so I’m totally satisfied with what I have.” She bent over to grab up her abandoned container and silverware. Waving her fork at Emma, she said, “You, on the other hand, have a bag of oats needing satisfying.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Let’s leave my oats out of this please.”
“Come on, Em. Aren’t you the least bit curious what it might be like to have sex with him?”
Heat rose in Emma’s cheeks as she thought of Aidan’s steamy kiss against the car. If he could get her that hot and bothered in a dingy parking lot, what could he do in the bedroom? “Of course I am. I’m about to hit my sexual prime, so I’m not totally dead in the desire area.”
“Then what the hell is the problem?”
Emma pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Okay, here’s a really bad analogy for you. Aidan is like the Indy 500 of Sex, and I need someone who is more—”
“Bumper cars?”
“I was going to say the slow lane, smartass.”
Casey laughed. “Sorry. I couldn’t help going there.” She straightened up in her chair. “Go on then.”
Emma twirled her pencil absentmindedly. “What I meant is that Travis and I were the same speed. Sure, I’d messed around with a few guys, had some third base action, but nothing like with him. He had only been with one other girl. We dated forever, and he was patient and took his time.” She shook her head. “Aidan doesn’t impress me as the patient, understanding type. He’s more like the ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’ type.’”
“You won’t ever know unless you try. And hell, Em, he’s not a Neanderthal whose going to grab you up by the hair and drag you off to his cave.” Casey paused and licked her lips. “Although that scenario has some kinky potential.”
“Case, please,” Emma moaned.
“Fine. Here’s the bottom line. Regardless of whether you’re in love with the person or not, sex is all about communicating. So just let him know what you want or don’t want. He obviously wants you pretty bad if he’s willing to offer up his DNA for a little roll in the hay, so I’m sure he’ll be more than willing to do it your way.”
Images of Aidan’s fleeting kindness and concern flashed in her mind. He wasn’t the total a*shole she had once thought he was. “I guess so…”
Casey sighed. “Okay, Em, let’s forget all about the sex pressure and about what kind of man Aidan is. Just for one moment think of nothing else but what it would feel like this time next year to hold your very own baby in your arms.”
Tears stung Emma’s eyes at the thought, and it took her back to what Aidan had said to her last night. A baby—that was the bottom line. Sure, Aidan was practically a stranger to her, but it would be the same thing, if not worse, if she used a sperm donor. She had the opportunity to get to know her baby’s father live and in the flesh where she never would if she went to a clinic. She hadn’t been left with a whole lot of options, so if she was going to have a baby, this plan made the most sense.
She drew in a ragged breath and then exhaled it noisily. Casey had managed to break down what little resolve she had left. “Once again you’ve proven you belong in advertising because you’ve just sold me on taking Aidan’s proposition.”
Casey squealed as she came around the side of the desk. Throwing her arms around Emma’s neck, she grinned wickedly. “Oh Em, just think about the beautiful child you and Aidan are going to make together. He or she will be a hell of a heartbreaker one day!”
Emma smiled. An image flickered in her mind of a baby with her piercing green eyes and Aidan’s sandy hair. She was about to make her dreams come true.