Momentary Marriage(102)

“That was one of the reasons I’ve been playing hardball.” Jared told him in even tones. “I don’t like my family to be used for business purposes.”

“Ahhh.” Stewart Black hesitated a moment before saying ruefully, “I can understand that. You’re very lucky. She’s a beautiful woman.”

“Yes,” Jared said without further comment. “Perhaps we can attend to business now.”

“Of course.” Stewart opened his brief case and drew out a sheaf of papers. “We’re glad you’ve decided to reconsider our requests.”

“Some of your requests,” Jared corrected him. “Don’t get your hopes too high. I’m reconsidering, but I’m not stupid. I am prepared to listen to your concerns, however, and find a way we can agree on the important ones.”

“I’m very glad to hear that,” Stewart Black told him. “We very much want to settle this.”

“Good. Let’s get to it,” Jared said, satisfied that he’d gotten his message about Kelsey across.

In truth, their relationship might be irretrievably broken. But Jared couldn’t help wanting to change the flaws she’d seen in him. She might never know of it, but his working with the union    s on a more honest basis was a direct result of his decision to be the man Kelsey deserved.

He still didn’t know how to reach her. Having met her father and his family at the wedding, Jared was glad he’d decided not to intervene by blackmailing him.

But he didn’t know how to reach Kelsey, didn’t know what to say. Any move he made toward her, any recommendation he could put forth in his own interest, would have the taint of maneuvering.

His mind never stopped thinking of ways to win her back. But each and every scenario he dreamed up—each one more elaborate than the next—ended with her saying, “You haven’t changed. You’re just trying to manipulate me. I can’t trust you.”

For a week now, he’d felt stuck, unable to act, tied up in his own bad habits, but this morning he’d woke up wondering if the simplest, most straight forward plan was the best.

***

Jared walked into Kelsey’s office feeling like he was returning to the scene of the crime. It was here that he’d first offered to be her husband.

Seated behind her desk, just as she’d been the day he’d asked her to marry him, Kelsey looked up, her smooth dark hair swinging against her cheek.

“Jared!” she said, straightening in her chair, her body stiffening.

He closed the door behind him, stealing himself to say what he knew he had to say.

“What are you—“ she stood up, her blue eyes flashing angrily.

“I know I’m intruding. I know you don’t want to see me,” he told her with difficulty, “but I just need you to hear me out.”

She glanced at the closed door. “This isn’t the place!”

“Maybe not,” he conceded grimly, “but I’ve left phone messages and you don’t return them. I’ve gone by your apartment and you don’t answer your bell. So I had to come here to get you to see me.”

The angry tightening of her soft lips confirmed his suspicions that she’d been there in her apartment all the time, ignoring his attempts to see her.

Forging ahead with what he knew he had to confess, Jared forced the words out. “I haven’t been honest with you all this time and I’ve decided to try that approach for once.”

“This should be interesting,” Kelsey snorted, derision on her beautiful face.

“I love you,” he said baldly, “have been falling in love with you from the first time we met.”

Kelsey stared at him. “What?”

“From the first day we met,” he said with difficulty, “I’ve had a strong attraction to you, on a lot of levels. I’m not a really romantic man, but it wasn’t long after that my gut instincts told me you were the woman I’ve been looking for. A woman I could marry and have a family with.”

“You wanted children,” she said through lips that barely moved.

Jared sighed heavily. “I wanted a family. A wife to come home to, to share my life with and, yes, children.”

There was a stricken look on her face that cut into him.

Forging ahead, he said roughly, “I asked you to marry me that day because I couldn’t stand the thought of you marrying anyone else. I knew you were the one for me.”

Saying nothing, she looked at him, confusion and anger springing into her face.

He stood facing her in the narrow, cramped office feeling as if he were standing before a judge. She held his fate in her hands, whether she knew it or not.