His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 52

#Chapter 52: The Alpha’s Gaze

Moana

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

I froze at Ethan’s words, my eyes wide as I stuttered to come up with a response. “I– I’m not–”

Ethan, seeing my uncomfortable struggle, lowered his glass and quickly shook his head to dispel the seriousness of the suggestion he had just made.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was only joking. Maybe that wasn’t a very appropriate thing to joke about. It’s fine if you don’t want to drink alcohol tonight.”

I tried to laugh off Ethan’s joke, but it was almost embarrassing how astute that joke actually was — if only he actually knew. Then, quickly, I fumbled in my mind to find the right excuse so as not to raise any more red flags about the reality of the situation. “I just… I need to be up early tomorrow, to take Ella to her training.”

Ethan nodded understandingly, but oddly looked a little disappointed at the same time. I watched as he silently took a sip of his wine, then set the glass down.

“I hope that’s okay,” I blurted out. “I suppose I should’ve said something before you spent the money on a bottle of wine.”

“No, no,” Ethan assured me. “It’s perfectly fine. Although, I must admit, I was secretly hoping for something.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Hoping for what?” Nothing could have prepared me for what Ethan said next.

“Well… I’m staying at my penthouse downtown for the weekend,” he said. “Admittedly, I was hoping to bring you there tonight, but I suppose you can’t come since you’ve got to be up early for Ella tomorrow.”

I felt a bit taken aback by Ethan’s admission, and a little uncomfortable. I had thought that we were just two friends going out for dinner; I never thought for even a moment that he brought me here tonight with the intention of taking me home to his penthouse for the night. I supposed, then, that it was silly of me to ever assume something like that, and it reminded me of how naive I had been on the night of my one night stand with Edrick, when I stupidly took a drink from a strange man.

“Ethan,” I said, frowning a little, “I thought we were just going out for dinner–”

Ethan’s face went a little red, and he nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry. I just… I guess I was hoping to have a little time to get to know you, without Edrick looming over us.”

There were several long moments of palpable silence that hung so thickly in the air that I felt I could cut them with a knife. Just as it was becoming unbearable, the waiter finally returned with two plates of food.

“Filet mignon for the gentleman,” the waiter said, abruptly ending the awkward silence, “and penne alla vodka for the lady.”

The food smelled delightful, making us both momentarily forget our uncomfortable tension. For the first time in days, I actually wanted to eat. In fact, the food was so tantalizing, that as soon as I took the first bite, I knew that this very dish could perhaps become my first pregnancy food obsession.

“This is delicious,” I said, setting down my fork so as not to eat too fast, and savored the flavor in my mouth.

Ethan smiled and took a bite of his steak. For the remainder of the night, we didn’t bring up the awkwardness surrounding Ethan’s penthouse, and actually had a lovely time and many deep chats that made me temporarily forget about the looming issue at hand of the pregnancy.

…