Momentary Marriage(58)
Jared went still.
Damn. He’d known as soon as he’d talked with Chloe that it was a mistake. So excited to have his plans and dreams coming true, he’d slipped up.
Kelsey’s beautiful face was now tense with anger, the line of her jaw belligerent.
Damn.
Jared felt himself shift into crisis mode. This was why he kept emotion out of business, out of most things. Feeling like this for a woman made a man’s intellect turn to mush.
“Well?” she asked, the word sharp with impatience.
“She told you I said that,” he said, stalling for time as he scrambled for damage control.
“You told her we were going to try to get pregnant right away, didn’t you?" Kelsey demanded, the smooth dark curtain of her hair swinging against her chin.
“Why don’t we sit down and talk about this,” he suggested, turning toward a cluster of chairs.
“I can’t believe you.” Kelsey’s laugh was short and hard, but she followed him over and sat down. “Why would you say such a thing when you know it’s absolutely untrue? Do you know how disappointed mother will be when this doesn’t happen?
In a situation like this, Jared decided, a certain amount of the truth was required, mixed with a judicious amount of camouflage.
“I didn’t mean to upset your mother,” he said honestly.
“She’s not upset now,” Kelsey said scathingly. “She’s thrilled. I wouldn’t be surprised if she goes off shopping for baby clothes as soon as her plane lands.”
Kelsey brushed at suddenly damp eyes. “My mother doesn’t need any more disappointments.”
“Honey, it’ll be all right,” he said, reaching for her hand.
She jerked it back, looking at him incredulously. “How? How could this possibly be all right?”
“Well,” he said with a slow smile. “We could actually…have kids.”
Kelsey wondered for a split instant if she’d heard him right. “What!”
Jared got up and went to stand in front of the office’s broad expanse of windows. “We talked about this at the cabin. I’d like to have kids with you. Unless I’ve read you wrong, you’re not opposed to having children. I think you’ll make a great mother.”
The large, beautifully-decorated office seemed to spin for a moment. “Excuse me?”
He turned back to face her. “I said you’ll make a great mother.”
He was serious, Kelsey realized with a jolt. She sprang to her feet, a turmoil of emotion wallowing in her stomach. Rage came first, followed by a piercing longing, along with panic and confusion. Who better to have a child with than the man who’d been her loving companion in the last week? If only she could freeze that time and live there indefinitely.
Traitorous thoughts. It couldn’t be. Fantasies were lousy places in which to bring a child. She knew better than most how it hurt the youngest when marriages evaporated like the morning mist.
Her own father hadn’t cared enough about her to even see her and Amy after he divorced their mother.
“I can’t believe you," she gasped. “At the cabin, you said you wouldn’t mind if I got pregnant accidentally.”
Shaking his head, Jared said, “That’s not what I said or what I meant. I think I said I’d be happy if you got pregnant. Carla and Mike are having a great time getting ready for their baby. I think we could, too.”
“We made a deal,” she said through the roaring in her ears, the sick surge of her own longing. “Marriage to convince Doug. Sex. One year. How could you think—“
“We could amend the deal,” Jared said gently, his gaze on her face. “It’s not like either one of us is seriously interested in anyone else. We both want children.”
Kelsey’s queasiness turned sharply to nausea. “So we’ll procreate because we don’t have anything better to do? Bring a child into the world because we happen to have good sex?”
She took a step back, stumbling against a chair. This couldn’t be happening. Distressed and deeply disturbed, she wondered where the thoughtful, reasonable man she’d agreed to marry had gone? How could he be so callous about a child?
Was he trying to manipulate her into bearing children for him? Had he’d married her with this in mind?
She’d thought she could trust him and now just a week after the wedding, he was trying to take their understanding down a wholly unacceptable road.
“I have to go,” Kelsey gasped. Turning, she bolted from the room.
“Kelsey!” he called after her.
She didn’t falter, only hurrying away, feeling as if a knife had been shoved in her heart.