“Then what brought this up?” In that instant, he longed to have the smooth-talking bastard alone in an alley.
“We just talked about…integrity and how it effects a marriage—“
“Shit!” Jared bit out the curse.
“I’m just trying to talk to you about it,” she said defensively. “You don’t have to get upset!”
“You’re taking the word of a man you met twice and assuming that I’m somehow cheating the bastard—“
“No! We never really talked about you.”
“If you didn’t accept his inferences that I’m cheating my workers, we wouldn’t even be discussing this.” Frustrated rage spilled into his words. He couldn’t help it. Of all the people in the world, he needed her to believe in him, needed her trust.
But she couldn’t give him even that much.
“You’re right about one thing,” Jared declared after several taut minutes passed. “You don’t know anything about my business other than what a slimy, silver-tongued asshole told you.”
“For the last time,” she snapped, “I didn’t talk to him about you. I’m asking you about this because of what I heard you say. I heard you tell your negotiator to break the union .”
Jared jerked back the sheet, unable to sit still another instant. “You don’t have to worry about my employees or my business. They’re in good hands. No one on my payroll is living in the ghetto and I can take care of my business without any interference from you.”
“Where are you going?” she asked, her voice suddenly husky.
“I have work to do,” he said, leaving the bedroom.
***
It was the first time she could ever remember Jared walking away from her, Kelsey thought muzzily, rolling over to check the clock again. Three a.m.
A sliver of light shone from under his study door across the living room. She could see it’s glow from the bed. If her head didn’t hurt so badly, she’d have gone to him and apologized.
After all, she wasn’t his real wife, didn’t have any real right to worry about his character. If he was a bastard in business, what was it to her? She should have known better than to say anything.
But they’d made love with such a piercing intensity tonight. He’d cradled her afterwards like a man who felt something other than satiated desire.
He’d never believe her now, but she didn’t really care about anything Stewart Black might have said. She didn’t stay awake nights worrying about Jared’s employees’ financial status.
It was Jared himself keeping her awake. Why should she care, she wondered again. What was it to her that he seemed to be straying across the line of common decency?
He’d shown himself to have manipulative tendencies, even with her. But she just couldn’t stand the world seeing him that way. She wanted him to have personal integrity.
At heart, he seemed a better man.
Groaning, she rolled over and buried her head under a pillow. She had to get some sleep. Maybe sleep would quiet the hammers in her head.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Hours later, Kelsey surfaced to consciousness reluctantly, her headache now a macabre marching band with cymbals. Groggily, she lurched out of bed, obeying the demands of a clenching stomach.
About the time the spasms let up, she became aware of Jared behind her in the bathroom. Still clutching the toilet as the room swam, she didn’t turn to acknowledge him.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“No,” she said with difficulty, “I’m dying.”
He stepped around her feet, going to the sink. Closing her eyes and resting her head on the toilet seat, she heard him turn on the water.
“Here.”
He pushed a damp wash cloth into her hand.
Straightening, she wiped her face thankfully and handed it back.
“Give me your hand,” he said, putting his arm around her and lifting her off the floor. “We’ve got to get you back to bed.”
She’d often thought that going to the gynecologist was the most embarrassing thing a woman had to tolerate. Now she had something else to add to the list. Being sick all over a man’s bathroom in his presence.
That would keep the sparkle in a relationship.
Jared guided her back to bed and she sunk into it with all the grace of a dead mackerel. The pain in her stomach was gone, but her head ached and she was tired to death.
Drifting in and out, she lost track of time. When she surfaced once, she found a basin conveniently next to the bed. At some point, a glass of water appeared on the night stand along with a fresh washcloth.
Coming awake again sometime later, she found Jared standing beside the bed, a glass in his hand.