More Than He Expected Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t working for her anymore. The decision to take the
next year off from dating was obviously a wise choice.
    But Alex didn’t know how she felt about things. Their
relationship had ended on a positive note as far as he was concerned. And given
the firm arousal that had pressed into her back less than an hour ago, he’d
arrived alone and interested in having another go at it.
    At least he had. Until twenty-two
weeks of belly had come between them. Now he probably thought she was as sexy as
a beluga whale—or worse in Alex’s mind—a pregnant woman.
    It was probably for the best. There was a reason why she’d
planned her man-break to coincide with the pregnancy. It was built-in willpower.
And lately, she’d needed it. The months of celibacy and the second-trimester
hormones had done a number on her libido. If Alex was still interested, she’d be
tempted to use him for a couple nights of hot sex, the way he used every other
woman in his life. Turnabout was fair play, right?
    But, fortunately, she didn’t have to worry. Alex would stay at
arm’s length from her all week, and she wouldn’t need the strength necessary to
turn him down. And she would have to turn him down.
She’d done so well. She didn’t want to fall off the wagon, even for a guy like
Alex.
    “Alex, have you met everybody?” Adrienne set down her glass of
tea on the table and began fulfilling her role as hostess by introducing her
guests.
    Gwen had heard it all before, but she listened a second time in
the hope she would actually retain the information. First was Emma, Adrienne’s
half sister of sorts. She was actually the child of George and Pauline Dempsey,
who had lost their older daughter in the same wreck that had nearly killed
Adrienne. They’d unofficially adopted Adrienne and let her take Emma shopping or
on trips from time to time. Emma had just graduated from high school, and when
she got home, she had to pack up and get ready for her freshman year at
Yale.
    Next was Sabine, a somewhat funky twentysomething who managed
Adrienne’s boutique. She had a nose piercing and a bright purple stripe in her
black hair, so Gwen wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. Adrienne ran in
diverse circles.
    Peter and Helena were a middle-aged couple who lived in the
brownstone next to Will and Adrienne’s new place on the Upper West Side.
Rounding off the crowd was Wade, one of Will and Alex’s friends from Yale and
Alex’s former business partner, and Jack, an editor for one of the big New York
publishing houses. Apparently he had worked with Will at the paper a few years
back.
    It was a blur of names and faces that Gwen would forget the
minute the next name was called. She’d blame her short-term memory loss on the
pregnancy—it was easy to label almost anything as a symptom of her condition—but
the truth of the matter was that she was simply bad with names. At work, it was
easy. All the staff had name tags, and all the patients had their names on a
plaque outside their door or a clipboard hanging at the foot of their bed.
    When the introductions were finished, she decided her time
standing in the sun was over. It had felt good at first, but now she was a
minute or two from starting to burn. Taking her glass of iced tea, Gwen returned
to the shade of the pergola and sat down on one of the cushioned Adirondack
chairs.
    Leaning back into the cool comfort of her chair, she instantly
felt better. Thank goodness she wasn’t full-term in the heat of the summer. Gwen
wasn’t sure she could bear that. Her apartment didn’t have central air, just a
small unit in the bedroom window. Most of the time she was cold natured and it
suited her fine, but she’d had fire running through her veins the last few
months.
    Taking a refreshing sip of the sweet tea she’d brewed earlier,
she watched the men gather around the grill. Apparently millionaires could run
companies and build empires, but outdoor cooking was a challenge. She watched
Alex open the