Momentary Marriage(59)

***

Kelsey stared numbly at the photo layout on her desk.

Maybe this was the real reason he’d married her. Some men wanted children without the emotional entanglements of marriage. Hadn’t she known he was cunning? She’d seen him negotiating. Perhaps she was just a means to an end for him.

It had always seemed unbelievable that he’d married her for sex. A man like Jared, even without his money, would never have trouble finding willing, talented sexual partners.

And she’d realized the hostess-angle couldn’t be that strong when she’d seen his apartment. The setting was beautiful, but there was hardly a stick of furniture in the place. This was the home of a businessman who wanted to entertain?

The thought of being manipulated into having a child made her stomach jump again. She felt betrayed, mostly by the idea that he’d had this agenda all along. Had Jared been playing her for his own hidden goals? Kelsey reached for the glass of water sitting on her desk and took a sip.

It just didn’t make sense. Jared wasn’t hard and cruel. Yes, she’d seen him in action in the business world, but her every instinct had told her she could trust him.

So much for instinct. From now on, she had to be very wary, had to watch herself and her crafty husband.

The thought left her trembling in denial. She didn’t want to believe the worst of him, didn’t want her dream husband of the past week to be false. Oh God. She wanted it to be real, wanted to let herself sink into the fantasy of perfect union     and ever after.

Drawing in a trembling breath, Kelsey realized for the first time just how dangerous he could be to her heart. Jared made her want the bliss she’d seen her mother chase all her life.





CHAPTER TWELVE

“Doug, we’ve looked at over a hundred couches,” Amy said in exasperation, “and you don’t like any of them.”

He shifted on the specimen under current consideration. “Hell, I don’t know. I mean, this is fine. They’re all fine.”

Amy snorted. “We can’t buy them all. Now, is this one as comfortable as the brown one over there?”

Doug’s expression of discomfort deepened. “Yeah, sure.”

Staring at him, she couldn’t help wondering what had come over her usually opinionated lover. In her experience, men didn’t much care how a couch looked as long as it suited their posteriors when in proper tube-watching position. But Doug’s complete disinterest surprised her.

“Maybe if you lie down on it,” she suggested. In the last two weeks, they’d made love on her cramped loveseat, his couch, the floor, both their beds—anywhere horizontal. She’d never have guessed her hero was such a tiger when it came to lovemaking. But he’d looked like a man headed for a root canal from the minute she’d suggested this excursion.

Then again, what man truly enjoyed shopping for furniture? She’d felt like a hassled woman dragging a reluctant three year old behind her all day.

“I don’t know,” he said again after stretching his legs briefly on the couch before getting up restlessly. “It’s going to be your couch. You try it.”

Sinking down onto the upholstered surface, she heard the disclaiming note in his voice and recognized it with a pang. Her couch, not their couch. She was stupid to feel hurt by his unwillingness to commit to a joint furniture purchase, she told herself, as Doug turned to stare out the store’s front display window. He was in transition, this man she welcomed into her bed each night, still struggling with the habit of believing himself to be in love with her sister.

But the couch symbolized something more, she knew.

Amy got up, slinging her bag’s strap over her shoulder.

Sometimes her fears overwhelmed her and she wondered if things were really going to turn out good for the two of them. Did he kiss her and dream of Kelsey?

“Let’s go,” she said, walking up to where he waited.

Doug looked at her in surprise. “You don’t like it? Are we looking somewhere else?”

“No,” she said shortly, “I don’t think I’m in the mood for this today. It can wait.”

Relief skated over his features. “Okay, if you’re sure.”

Threading their way through recliners and bedroom suites, they left the retailer and walked toward the subway.

Despite everything, she believed Doug loved her. It was a conviction that had held her through many a lonely night, had comforted her these past months when all he could do was talk about Kelsey. But now he was her lover. It was Amy he turned to when his heart was aching, her he took out his bad moods on. The Kelsey Doug was obsessed with couldn’t hold up to the day-to-day loving Amy knew she could give him.