Tempted By The Wrong Twin. Rachel Bailey

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      She coughed out a laugh. “Are you serious?”

      “Very much. Think about it—you’d have my commitment that I’ll be in this with you one hundred percent. You’ll have all the backup you need without having to leave town. A hands-on father is the only way I know how to do it, anyway. The babies get two parents. Our relationship would look like a positive in my court case. And Tate Armor would be safe from Maverick. Everybody wins.”

      Everybody wins?

      “Nick, we don’t even know each other.” It seemed like a point too obvious to say, but apparently it did need to be said aloud. Maybe this was the one detail he hadn’t factored into his solution?

      He tilted his head, conceding the point. “And if this was a first date, that would be a reasonable objection. But you’re having my babies.” His entire body stilled, but his eyes blazed with focus. “Marry me.”

      She leaned back in her the chair, heart racing double time. Marriage? It was too much. He was watching her closely, expression expectant, obviously thinking there was a chance she’d say yes. “Still, it’s a really big step, Nick.” Her gut was churning just thinking about it. “Really big.”

      “Also,” he said, and the corners of his mouth tugged into a half smile as if he knew he was starting to bring her around, “my mother raised twins. She’s here in town, and she’ll be over the moon about our babies. She’ll help out as much as we want. And if you want your mother around, too? No problem—we’ll fly her down.”

      Harper sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and bit down on it. Marrying without love hadn’t been in her life plan, but neither was being pregnant with twins. Nick was clearly committed to being a father to their children... Oh, God, was she seriously considering it? Her pulse felt erratic under her skin. It was completely ridiculous. Wasn’t it?

      “I’ve had a pregnant wife before, and even though I wasn’t home through all of her pregnancy, I know there are things I can do to help.”

      “What sort of things?” she asked, curious. She’d spent the first three months of this pregnancy alone, and her thoughts had often strayed to how the experience would be different if she were part of a couple.

      He shrugged. “Going to the store for olives at two in the morning. Massaging feet. Help with the heavier chores and picking things up from the ground. Just the regular things a pregnant woman might want.”

      Massaging feet? Ducking out for whatever she wanted to eat? She smiled. “That does sound useful.” But her smile faded as she thought about the reality of their situation. “Nick—”

      “I know we can do it,” he said. “I love babies and kids. When Ellie was a baby, I was between tours, and her mother and I shared all her care. We can do this.”

      Try as she might, she couldn’t see it working, but her legal training wouldn’t let her ignore the fact that it was the only solution on the table that addressed each issue they faced, so she owed it to herself and the babies to at least give the idea due consideration.

      She smoothed her skirt over her lap. “Did you see us living together?”

      “Absolutely,” he said, seemingly unfazed by her zeroing on the specifics.

      “Are you thinking we’d live at your place or mine?”

      “Mine. There’s more room.”

      She almost smiled at the irony that they worked for the same company, yet she would commute to the company’s office each morning and he would stay in the house she also lived in.

      Then she realized she hadn’t even seen his place. It could be a cabin in the woods with no running water. “Hang on. What’s your place like?”

      “Big. Just outside town.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw as he thought. “Modern. Everything inside was done by a decorator, and she used words like minimalist and sleek. You can make any changes you want. I’m not fussy about that sort of thing.”

      “Can I ask you something?” Did she imagine the wariness flickering briefly in his eyes before he answered?

      He sat back and picked up his glass of water. “Sure.”

      She laced her fingers together and, for a moment, wished her lawyer’s heart could just go with the flow instead of insisting she gather all the facts to file neatly in their slots.

      “If we went ahead with this plan, do you see us as a couple?”

      He chuckled. “We would be married. That’s pretty much the definition of a couple.”

      But it was an important issue—just how married did he want to be? “That’s the legal arrangement. And we’ve discussed physical arrangements for me to move in. But what about us as two people?”

      He raised an eyebrow. “You mean lovemaking?”

      “I do,” she said. “It’s a reasonable consideration since we’re not strangers on that front.”

      “No, we’re not.” A small muscle twitched in his jaw. “I’m open to the idea of a consummated marriage.”

      Her skin heated. She swallowed. Hearing him say the words brought memories racing to the fore. Memories of their bodies sliding against each other, of sensitized skin, of the sounds he made as he found his release.

      The waiter reappeared with their meals, and Harper was thankful for the timing so she could regain her poise. There was no doubt he made her melt inside. And they already knew they had explosive chemistry. But things were different now—so much more entwined and complex. Would that dampen some of the chemistry between them? Or would his touch always affect her?

      She needed to move on, to stop thinking of his touch...

      She cleared her throat. “What about length of time? Are you suggesting a lifetime commitment?”

      “No, that would be unreasonable. Ideally it would last until our children were grown, but if we both made a commitment of, say, five years, we’d address all of our issues.”

      “Except the one about the intact family unit.”

      Nick reached out and covered her hand, his gaze softening. “It would never be the way it was with your father, Harper. Since we’d be going in with a businesslike arrangement, we’d be able to dissolve the union with little mess and drama. We’d prioritize the children and both have major roles in their lives. There would be no words in anger. Neither parent would just disappear.”

      He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze then released it and picked up his utensils to twirl a forkful of pasta.

      Her skin immediately felt the absence of his touch, which seemed to highlight the inherent problem of having to deal with his absence at the end of their marriage. What if they came to the end of five years and she’d fallen in love with him? Would she be setting herself up for another abandonment?

      The weight of everything they were discussing came crashing down on her shoulders, and she could barely keep herself upright. She couldn’t do it. There had to be another way. There had to be.

      She СКАЧАТЬ