Her eyes widened at that announcement. “Great, one more thing to worry about,” Zoe sighed, and he did his best to ignore the fact that she was only wearing a towel, a really large towel, but a towel, nonetheless.
“There’s really nothing to worry about,” he said with a shrug.
“Nothing to worry about? There are about a million things to worry about and apparently having you committed is one of those things,” she snapped.
“And after we get married, you can legally have that done,” Trevor said brightly, grinning hugely when she scowled his way.
“Why in the world would you want to marry me? I thought you were done with this arrangement of ours,” she pointed out, sounding frustrated and more than a little confused.
“Because I love you,” Trevor said simply even though she really should have known that by now.
Apparently, she hadn’t.
For a moment, she could only stare at him, looking as though she’d been hit between the eyes with a hammer. It was actually a bit disconcerting and he was starting to wonder if she was okay.
Finally, she said, “You don’t love me, Trevor.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t,” she said, sounding irritated.
“Of course, I do and you love me, too,” Trevor said, sounding smug, but he didn’t care. He knew the woman was head over heels in love with him, so he wasn’t overly concerned that she hadn’t professed her undying love to him, much.
“I’m not in love with you?” she said, and he really couldn’t help the shit-eating grin at that declaration.
Her growl pleased him as well. “Fine, okay? I’m in love with you,” she snapped, “but that doesn’t change anything, Trevor. You don’t love me.”
“Yes, I do,” he said, feeling less than pleased that she doubted him.
She took a deep breath and when he opened his mouth to say something, she held up a hand to stop him and took another one. “Look, while I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to do the right thing here for the baby, I think that if you thought it over, you’d realize that there’s really no need to force yourself to do something that you don’t want to do. I’m sure that we can sit down and talk about this rationally and come up with something that will work for both of us where the baby is concerned. I-”
He decided to cut her off right there because this had nothing to do with the baby and he was having a really hard time following this conversation with her towel drooping in the front and flashing an indecent amount of cleavage that had him shifting in his seat. He wondered if it would always be like this, where he couldn’t keep his mind out of the gutter around her. After a moment of contemplation and cleavage staring, Trevor knew that it would always be like this. When they were in their nineties, he’d probably be chasing her down in his wheelchair, desperate for a kiss.
“This has nothing to do with the baby, Zoe,” Trevor said softly, interrupting her and earning another groan of frustration.
“Of course, it does, Trevor. Up until a couple of days ago, you didn’t want anything more than sex with me,” she said softly, but he didn’t miss the slight tremble in her voice. It killed him that he’d hurt her.
“We both agreed to that arrangement, Zoe,” he reminded her gently. “I’m not the only one who was willing to settle, sweetheart, but I promise you that I stopped looking at you like you were just a convenience a long time ago.”
“And now you want to get married,” she said flatly.
“Yes,” Trevor said without hesitation. “More importantly, I want you.”
She worried her bottom lip even as her eyes watered and he knew that she was softening. He just had to show her how much she meant to him and everything would be okay.
“I can’t do it, Trevor,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t go from being nothing to you to suddenly being your wife. How do I know that anything will change? I can’t be married to a man who’s never even held my hand in public or acknowledged me in any other way than just his tenant.”
As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. For the past couple of months, he’d been pretending that the best thing in his life hadn’t existed and that hadn’t been fair to either one of them. Now that he gave it some thought, he realized his current plan was kind of ridiculous. It would never work if she didn’t trust that he meant what he was telling her. Ignoring her the way that he had in public, and was he a fucking moron, and then suddenly getting married was never going to work. He needed to show her just how much he loved her and he needed her to know that he saw her as more than just his little tenant.
She was absolutely everything to him.
“That’s a good point,” Trevor said, standing up.
“I’m glad that you understand, Trevor. I think it’s best if we-”
“How’s your head?” he asked, interrupting her.
“Doesn’t hurt that much,” she admitted.
