Free Obsession (A Bad Boy's Secret Baby) by Adair Rymer, Nora Flite

wife out of town.
    Mal led me to the living room, commenting on how little had changed in the house since he'd stayed here. I hadn't really noticed that before. We updated the TV and a few other things but stylistically not much changed since Dad died.
    Mal surveyed the kitchen and found me some plain salted crackers to snack on, while he made an impromptu dinner out of whatever I had on hand. The crackers and the medicine I’d taken earlier seemed to help. He told me to find a movie we could watch.
    Netflix and chill? The idea of putting something on and fooling around made my chest flush. As much as I wanted to, my body was intent on betraying me. I'd only spent real time with Mal once since he'd come back, the night by the reservoir, and that had been brimming with sexual energy.
    Maybe it was the crush I'd harbored for years or the fact that we had the most spectacular sex of my life, but I was too into Mal for my own good. It had only taken a few words from him in the past to rile my emotions and light a fire in my abdomen. I honestly didn't know if we could come this close and not rip each-others clothes off.
    Was that all this was, just lust and sex? Wouldn't that fade after a while? Before we started hanging out when we were younger, Mal was never a strings attached kind of guy. I heard about him laying most of the girls in his grade. How could I really be so certain that he wasn't like that anymore?
    Worry filled me again. If I actually was pregnant wouldn't that kind of commitment mean death for a free spirit like him? The sex and the steamy phone calls we shared were amazing but that wasn't all I wanted. I'd be lying to myself if I didn't hope for more with him.
    Was that really fair to Mal? I don't know what he expected by coming back to Springfield, but I knew that it wasn't to be a father after a one-night stand. If there really was a baby growing inside me I was going to keep it. No part of me could ever give something like that up, even if that meant losing the man I’d always loved.
    “What'd you come up with? Anything good?” Mal set down a steaming bowl of mushroom soup and some brown rice for me on the coffee table.
    He had taken his over shirt off to cook and now only had a tightly clinging tank top on. I fought the urge to gawk at his muscles that seemed to overflow from the knitted cotton fabric. Why did he have to always look so damn good? I spent an hour getting ready before I felt sick, and all it took for him was to wear less clothing.
    “Uh, still looking.” I had been so lost in thought that I had barely even started trying to find anything. I peered over the couch and watched him stroll back into the kitchen like I used to do when he lived with us, back when he was forbidden fruit.
    “I can see you checking my ass out in the mirror.” Mal's voice rang out with all the smugness in the world.
    “I thought I heard you drop something,” I lied, swinging back around and sinking as low into the couch as I could. My heart was racing at being caught and my chest and face lit up like a Christmas tree.
    “You are so full of shit, Nessy.” Mal sat down next to me, placing his food on the coffee table. “You used to do the same exact thing when we were kids.”
    “What? No, I didn't!” I totally did. I leaned backward away from him and pulled one of the throw pillows over my chest and mouth. It did little to hide my guilty smile. How did he possibly know that?
    “Neither that couch, nor that mirror have moved in the last decade. I just never called you out on it before.” Mal cocked his head and raised thick eyebrows in a knowing gesture. He put an arm to either side of my retreating thighs and hovered over me. “Why did you think I was always forgetting something in the kitchen when we watched TV or played video games together?”
    I sighed, covering my eyes and the redness that radiated off me. I was so caught.
    “It's okay.” Mal pulled one of my hands away. “I liked the way you