Married Right Away. SUSAN MEIER

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      She grinned. “This morning.”

      “Oh, God, please,” he said with a groan of pleasure. “Coffee and one of those rolls sounds like heaven.”

      “Coming right up,” she said and gathered a plate, cup, saucer and appropriate silverware for her guest. For the first time since his arrival at her house the night before, she heard a tone of normalcy sneaking into their conversation and she desperately wanted to keep it. They didn’t merely need to be comfortable with each other to negotiate visitation fairly. They also needed to relax because they would be living together until after the baby was born. Somehow, they had to break through the awkwardness between them once and for all to make their lives bearable until they divorced.

      Trying to lighten the mood, she said, “Marrying me is going to have some hidden advantages. I bake like no one you know.”

      “So it seems,” he agreed, but his voice was oddly quiet. Almost reverent.

      She turned and caught him staring at her stomach and recognition of what he was thinking sent a ripple of unease through her and breathed new life into the tension she had hoped was dying. Though they had both had less than twenty-four hours to acclimate to the fact that they were having a baby together, she had had five months to adapt to being pregnant. For him, all of this was still new and until he got accustomed to her pregnancy he would not be comfortable with her.

      She licked her dry lips. “Pretty amazing isn’t it?”

      His gaze didn’t move from her tummy. “Fascinating.”

      “As my stomach grows, I realize the baby is getting bigger, becoming more developed, and it just sort of blows me away.”

      “I can understand that,” Ethan whispered.

      Savannah took a long breath and set the plate and utensils on the countertop. He sounded like an outsider looking in, and she realized that was the problem. As the baby’s father, he had as much right to be part of this experience as she had. Once he got those rights, once this pregnancy became as much his as it was hers, the awkwardness would vanish.

      “Would you like to touch?” she softly offered.

      Though he wore jeans and a simple shirt, he straightened in his chair as if he were wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a briefcase. “No. No. That’s not necessary. I’m sorry, Savannah. I don’t mean to be staring.”

      She took a few steps closer to the table. “Ethan, this is your baby, too.”

      His gaze fell to her stomach again. “I know.”

      “And it’s good for you to want to be a part of things.”

      He raised his dark brown eyes until they met hers. “You think?”

      “Sure,” she cheerfully agreed, though her heart was beating a million miles a second because they were face-to-face with the intimacy that was actually the catalyst of their nervousness. When they worked together they hadn’t even been friends, just acquaintances. They never expected to be intimate, and didn’t want to be intimate, but they now couldn’t avoid it. So it was better to hit it head-on, because once they faced this, there would be nothing to be tense about anymore.

      She lifted the loose T-shirt she wore over maternity jeans, exposing the smooth porcelain mound containing their baby.

      But Ethan didn’t move. It hardly seemed as if he were breathing.

      Savannah reached down and took his hand and placed it on her warm stomach. The baby picked that precise second to move. Slowly, gently, the tiny body shifted, causing a soft ripple across her tummy. Not something you could see, only something you could feel. Ethan’s gaze shot to hers.

      “That’s him?”

      Savannah inclined her head and suppressed a smile. “Or her.”

      The baby moved again and Ethan grinned. “Or her,” he agreed, then laughed out loud. “My God, I can’t believe it. I’m going to have a baby,” he said, his voice dripping with awe.

      “Technically I’m going to have the baby,” she said, stepping away because she was experiencing weird sensations, none of which had anything to do with her pregnancy. Staring into Ethan’s affection-filled brown eyes, she had felt as if she were bathed in warmth. Her skin felt silky and tingly at the same time, and she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in the moment.

      Which wasn’t just wrong, it was dangerous. She didn’t really know Ethan’s full intentions about their child, but she did know he wasn’t marrying her because he loved her. With all the hormones floating around in her system and the loneliness that often consumed her, it would be very easy for her to misinterpret his affection for the baby as affection for her. She had to keep up her guard. Not lose her head. Not do something foolish.

      She lowered her top to cover her tummy and turned to the counter again to retrieve the dishes and utensils. Quietly, she took them to the table. When she turned again to get the coffeepot, Ethan stopped her with a hand on her forearm.

      Again, the silky feeling floated through her.

      “You don’t have to wait on me. I can get my own coffee. You sit.”

      Their gazes locked and, once again, Savannah felt she could get lost in his eyes. Almost black and warm with emotion, they held her as surely as the grip of a hand. She reminded herself that their baby inspired the tenderness she saw in Ethan’s eyes. She told herself it had nothing to do with her, but that didn’t stop the flood of recognition that flowed through her. Whether it was wise or not, at this precise moment she wasn’t thinking about the baby. She was thinking about how attractive he was. How awful his divorce had been. How genuinely kind he had been to her when her parents died. What she was experiencing was an appreciation for him as a man.

      Tall and lean, he had the structure and solidness of someone upon whom she could depend, and his behavior backed that up. He hadn’t demanded she marry him. He hadn’t waved his family’s money or position to threaten her. He had asked her to marry him and given her time to think it through because he was intelligent, responsible and fair. For Savannah that was every bit as sexy as his compelling dark eyes, beautiful black hair and the cute little cleft in his chin.

      Perhaps if the situation were different, if she had met him on the street and didn’t have any prior association with him, she might want to flirt with him, wishing he would ask her out, wondering what it would be like to be his wife. Instead, they did have a connection, she didn’t dare flirt with him. And in a few days or weeks, whatever timeline they decided this morning, she would be his wife.

      The thought shot a shiver through her and she backed away from the table. If she didn’t watch herself, she could end up in big trouble here. She could easily fall in love with this guy and end up completely brokenhearted.

      When Savannah stepped away from the table, Ethan rose to get his coffee from the pot on the counter. Lifting the container, he noticed his hand was shaking and he knew why. When he put his palm on her abdomen, he felt a zing that had nothing to do with the baby he was touching and everything to do with Savannah. Logically he knew that was because he hadn’t really touched a baby. He had touched her. He had stroked the soft skin of her tummy. And he felt a hundred emotions he had no right to feel. Appreciation. Wonder. Awe. And affection. He could put his genuine affection for Savannah down to having worked with her for two years, СКАЧАТЬ