One Night: Sizzling Attraction. Annie West

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СКАЧАТЬ these sorts of questions?”

      Charity laughed, in spite of herself. “You mean, do you suppose she would mind helping a couple of emotionally stunted adults?”

      “I suppose you and I don’t make the most functional pair.”

      “Are we a pair?”

      “Only in the sense that there are two of us, and we will be raising this child. Though, in what capacity I’m still not certain.”

      She wanted to ask him about last night. Wanted to ask him if he had slept with someone else. But it seemed strange, and not her business. Since she had made a grand declaration about the fact that she would not be sleeping with him again.

      Though, right now she felt less resolute in that. Possibly because she felt less resolute about everything. Because as soon as she had spoken the words about not knowing who she was, she realized that they were true. She knew how to put on masks, how to play parts. Even when she had decided to step away from her father, from the con games, all she had done was put on the mask of waitress, woman in her early twenties. She hadn’t made real connections with anyone, hadn’t made friends. Had not assigned any kind of depth to the persona she had been playing for the past couple of years.

      For a moment, she was worried that was all there was. That she had played too many parts on too shallow a level to ever find anything beneath them. What kind of mother would that make her? What did that mean for the rest of her life?

      No wonder it had been so easy for her mother to leave her. No wonder it had been so easy for her father to detach from her in the end. There was no substance in her to hold on to.

       That can’t be true.

      At least, she wouldn’t let it continue to be true. And she’d...she’d felt the implications of what she’d done. She still did. That had to mean something.

      She needed dreams. She hadn’t let herself have any, not since the last con. Because, she was afraid that her dreams would outstrip her means, and that she would fall back into the same behavior she’d been raised in. But she couldn’t live like that. For the sake of her child, she had to be more.

      Of course, she had no idea what her future held, because it seemed as though Rocco was currently clutching it in his palm. For those brief moments outside of his office, back in New York, she had imagined a life blissfully raising her child, alone. That had seemed satisfactory. But once again everything had been uprooted. Her fantasies proving impossible.

      “Don’t worry about whether or not you are good or bad,” he said, finally. “What you really need to focus on is making it to a day where you don’t vomit in the morning.”

      “Oh, Rocco. You do fill a girl with hope and butterflies.”

      He frowned. “I am trying to help.”

      “But you aren’t being nice,” she said, a small smile curving her lips. “According to you.”

      He shook his head. “No, I am being practical. My mother used to bring me tea.”

      Charity’s chest tightened. Imagining Rocco as a little boy, a little boy she knew had ended up alone. It made her ache for him. And it made her feel swollen with emotion. Because, this one bit of tenderness he seemed to know, he had chosen to pass on to her. Whether he called it practicality or kindness, it didn’t change the fact that he was giving some to her.

      “Well, I appreciate it. I really do.” She cleared her throat and picked up one of the pieces of toast, neglecting the jam, because she wasn’t certain her stomach could handle it yet. “Though, you don’t need to come and hold my hair when I’m... It’s gross.”

      “I find nothing gross about it. You are sick. You are sick because of my baby. It seems only fair that I should take care of you.”

      “Is that what this is? You’re going to take care of me?”

      “I confess, I hadn’t really thought it through.”

      “Somehow, I feel like that’s the story of every single interaction you and I have had, indirectly or directly,” she said.

      “Probably. Had one of us been thinking more clearly at any stage of this, things could’ve turned out quite differently.”

      “Yes, we should begin that soon.”

      “I’m thinking quite clearly now.”

      Charity opened the small jar of jam and began to spread a little bit onto the piece of toast, feeling slightly more emboldened as she had taken three or four bites and not felt her stomach turn once. She lifted the toast to her lips, a little bit of bread crumb getting on her thumb, sticking to where some jam had made contact with her skin.

      “I’m glad to hear it,” she said.

      Silence settled between them and she looked up at him, meeting his eyes. He was watching her, a strange softness in his expression. At least, if it had been any other man she might have thought it was softness. With Rocco, it never was.

      “What?” she asked.

      “I’m thinking,” he said.

      “About?”

      “The fact that I will probably try and seduce you.”

      She sputtered, putting her toast back down on the plate, crumbs still sticking to her fingers. “I’m sorry, what?”

      “I’m going to seduce you,” he said, his tone decisive. “I will succeed. We both know that.”

      She spread her hands wide. “I just threw up in front of you, and I’m now lying in bed covered in jam. How could you possibly be thinking about seduction? And you really think I’ll agree to...be seduced?”

      “Yes,” he said, turning away and walking toward the door.

      “Where are you going?”

      “I thought I would wait to seduce you until you felt better. Do you require anything else?”

      She felt as if she’d been hit over the head with something very heavy. “No.”

      “You seem confused.”

      “How did we get from tea and toast to...seduction?”

      “I want you,” he said. “I have, from the first moment I saw you. I am...used to having what I want.”

      “But I’m a woman and not a Ferrari. So you can’t just come down to the lot and plunk down cash. I have a say.”

      “I know,” he said. “And I want you to say yes. I value the yes, Charity. It means nothing if you don’t want me, too. Which is why I plan to seduce you, not simply take you. We will talk later.” Then he stood and walked out, leaving her with a promised seduction, tea and toast.

      * * *

      Seduction really was the most logical course of action. Because he had not been able to force himself to get excited about any of the women he had encountered last night. And he needed to СКАЧАТЬ