Momentary Marriage(54)
***
“Tell me about your first marriage,” Kelsey said softly, lying next to him in the magical darkness of the night.
He stroked a hand over her naked stomach. “What would you like to know?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know. The high points, I guess.”
“There weren’t many,” Jared said honestly. “We met in college, got married after graduation and were divorced a year or so after that.”
“Her name was Marianne?”
“Yes,” he confirmed, wondering what sparked her curiosity. “She was blond, about five foot two inches, slender like a ballet dancer.”
“So…you just fell out of love with each other?”
“No,” he said seriously, knowing his answer was important. “I don’t think we really knew how to be in love. At least, I didn’t.”
She stirred, rolling over to face him. “What do you mean?”
Jared shrugged. “I was in the middle of building the corporation, wheeling and dealing as fast as I could. I didn’t really spend much time on the marriage. Back then, I thought if you loved each other, you got married and that was it, like some sort of perpetual motion machine that didn’t need any maintenance.”
“So, she left you because you ignored her,” Kelsey concluded slowly.
“We both left each other. Regrets, but no hard feelings.” How could he explain his own lack of investment with Marianne…and convey how different it was with her?
“Where is she now?” Kelsey murmured.
“I’m not really sure,” he said. “Somewhere in Virginia the last time her lawyer contacted mine, but that was years ago.”
“And you’ve never been tempted to marry again?” she asked, the faint outline of her face seeming pensive.
Jared smiled. “Not until recently.”
***
“My God,” she muttered, rummaging again through her carry-on luggage.
“What’s the matter?” Jared ask lazily, still lying naked in the bed they’d shared so passionately these past glorious days.
“I can’t find my birth control pills,” she said finally, her efforts in the carry-on yielding nothing. Kelsey sat back on her heels beside the bed. “I’m almost sure I put them in here.”
He rolled over, surveying her tumbled bag. “Did you look in your other suitcase? Your purse?”
“Yes,” she said, nervously worrying her lip between her teeth. “They’re not anywhere.”
Reaching out, Jared brushed strong fingers along her cheek, his gaze dark and warm on her. “Don’t worry about them. Birth control pills aren’t good for you anyway. You’re better off not taking them.”
She looked up at him in shocked surprise. “If I don’t take them, I run the risk of getting pregnant.”
For just one flash, the image of Jared laughing with his niece burned in her brain, followed swiftly by a picture of the three of them—she, Jared and a baby of their making, all cuddled together in this same bed.
Jared met her gaze and shrugged, a crooked smile on his face. “There would be worse things…”
Her breath caught in her throat, raw suddenly with fear and longing.
“…but if having a baby right now doesn’t appeal to you and you wanted to get off the pill, there are other means of birth control,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her as he got up from the bed. “It’s up to you. I’m saying I wouldn’t be upset if you did get pregnant, which can happen when even when you’re on the pill.”
Watching him as he disappeared into the bathroom, Kelsey drew in a shaken breath.
After the last few halcyon days, the idea of having a child with him made her all warm inside. Kelsey drew herself up on to the now-empty bed, her heart racing at the realization of how many of her defenses he’d found his way around. If she felt this way after only a few days of marriage, what would a year do?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“How lovely that you could both spare the time for lunch,” Chloe said, opening her menu as she beamed at her daughters.
“Of course, we have the time to have lunch with you, mother,” Kelsey said with a smile. She dropped her napkin into her lap, thinking how familiar this was. All her life, it had been Kelsey, Chloe and Amy against the world, despite the coming and going of husbands. How many times had they sat like this, across the table at an expensive restaurant?
“Well, this is your first day back at work since the honeymoon.” Chloe reached over and patted Kelsey’s hand. “I do hate having to fly home today. It seems we’ve hardly had time to say hello.”
“At least you got to spend time with me,” Amy said brightly. “We’ve practically shopped all week.”