"I'm getting married."
"We're getting married. Having second thoughts?" he asked casually.
"Just thinking that if someone had said something like that to me a year or so ago, I would have laughed them to scorn. And now, here I am, pregnant and about to say, 'I do.'" She looked at him. "You never came close to proposing to anyone?"
"No. I had relationships before, one or two serious ones where I idly contemplated that it would lead to something permanent, but then it didn't pan out." He finished his beverage and put away the cup to concentrate on rubbing her legs. "I always had my parents' marriage as well as my brothers' to use as a measuring stick and decided that I wanted what they had. Nothing less."
His voice rang with such conviction that it had her marveling.
"I was brought up in the church." It still pained her to talk about the long hours of sitting on a hard and unforgiving pew and required to sit still and take notes. Ones that would be asked of her as soon as she got home. "And I thought to myself often what kind of God would allow a little girl to go through such torment." She shrugged and shook her head when he started to reach for her.
"You don't want me to talk about my past."
"Not if it pains you to do so." He acknowledged grimly. Realizing that he had unconsciously tightened his fingers on her calves, he let go. "I don't need it rehashed."
She smiled at him. "I know. But transparency, remember?"
"Not if it opens those old wounds." His eyes glittered with suppressed anger. "It's not worth it."
"It's supposed to be cathartic." She pointed out.
"Is it?" Removing her feet carefully from his hold, he rose and went to the cabinet. Touching the button, he grabbed the bottle of scotch as soon as it appeared and poured a generous amount. "I would offer you some, but." He gestured towards her swollen belly.
"You're taking it personal."
"And I shouldn't?" he demanded as he took a swallow. "I happen to be in love with you. Loving someone means taking on the hurt and pain."
"You have no idea what that means to me." She told him quietly, trying to calm his anger. "All I wanted to say was that I rebelled.When I went to college, I decided to hell with all the rights and wrongs and what the Bible said about sex before marriage. I picked someone. A nerdy guy from my sociology class and had sex with him. It was lousy of course. He had no idea what he was doing. There we were fumbling around in the dark and me thinking that God was going to strike me down right in the act."
She paused. "Suffice it to say that it went to crap. We tried to salvage something from it by talking afterwards and seeing each other socially. Grabbing cups of coffee, having pizzas in our rooms and going for ice cream, but it was already doomed."
He quirked a brow at her and she could tell that his anger was waning. "Trying to make me jealous?"
Picking up her cup, she took a sip. "Of a nerdy geek, whose name I don't remember?" She countered lightly.
Swallowing the rest of the scotch, he put away the glass and crossed the room. She watched as he lowered himself to the blanket and removed the tray. Taking the cup from her, he moved it out of the way. "I'm jealous of every moment I never spent with you. I'm hurt by everything that brought you tears." His voice thickened as he took her hands in his. "Am I making it clearer how much I'm in deep?"
She swallowed the lump in her throat as she moved into his arms.
"Yes." She whispered.
"I ache when you ache." He removed her sweater and tossed it aside. Then came her bra. "I bruise when you bruise." His thumbs flickered over her already rigid nipples.
"You're inside me, in my blood." He lowered her back on the pillows, his eyes on hers. "You're my heart and the soul of me."
He showed her in a very specific way.
Chapter 11
"We're getting married on the Kostas Royale?" Leanne stared at him wide-eyed.
"Something like that." He told her with a grin. The night of the snowstorm that heralded the end of winter had been another eventful time for them. That was the night he made it official by putting a stunning emerald and diamond ring on her finger.
The celebration had come after, a party thrown by his family. She was beginning to let go of the hurt and pain of her mother not even contacting her. She had a family who had embraced her as their own.
"Aren't they supposed to be heading to Europe?"
"Not anymore. We will be flying to Miami to meet the ship there."
