Momentary Marriage(76)

“What a wonderful time you must have all had,” Kelsey commented, glancing down, acutely aware of him leaning intimately toward her, his eyes intent and purposeful. She felt the heat and intensity of his focus, the power of his attention all centered on her.

“Fun wasn’t my mother’s description of a few of our escapades. It was weeks before she forgave us for bringing home the baby skunk.” He grinned in remembrance, his face all the more attractive for the hint of devil in his eyes.

“A skunk? Why would you bring it home?” she asked in disbelief.

Jared shrugged. “It wasn’t my idea, but Carla found the thing and didn’t want to leave it to fend for itself. I’d have left it there, alone or not. But I have to say in my sister’s defense that it was pretty small and didn’t much look like a skunk. But my mother knew what it was immediately when we brought it into the house.”

He’d have left the animal to fend for itself. That was Jared, a combination of callous disregard for things and people not important to him. But he’d called his sister everyday this past week, just to see how she was doing.

“Did your mom yell at you to take the skunk outside?” Kelsey asked with effort, awareness and craving swirling inside her.

“No.” He shook his head. “Mother’s a smart woman. She calmly took the thing out of Carla’s hands and walked quickly to the door with it. Later, she told us she felt like screaming when she first saw it, but she didn’t want to frighten the animal into jumping out of Carla’s hands and hiding in the house. So she just got it outside as fast as she could.”

“A very smart woman,” Kelsey approved with a smile. “I’m not sure I’d have been as calm.”

“My mother’s quite a woman,” Jared responded, a quiet pride in his eyes. “She handled the three of us well, most of the time.”

“I like your parents,” agreed Kelsey, glancing up into his eyes. It was hard not to envy the childhood he’d enjoyed when her own had been so chaotic. She loved her mother, but she’d never lied to herself about the woman’s limitations when it came to child rearing.

“That’s why I want to have kids,” Jared commented quietly, his voice firm. “There are so many idiots out there having kids and abandoning them—like your father—I can’t help but think that responsible men need to give the job a shot.”

“You think you could do it better?” she asked, her throat feeling tight at the contemptuous way he mentioned her father’s behavior. There was no reason why she should glow at his championing of her. It wasn’t as if she needed that. She’d given up on her father years ago.

But having Jared look at her like this, hearing the fierce anger in his voice when he spoke of her father—it left her feeling as though she’d been added to the list. Somehow, she’d made the list of people Jared cared about. Championed.

“I think I will do a hell of a lot better job when I have children,” he confirmed, his glance glittering over her face. “A hell of a lot better.”

***

Jared closed the apartment door behind them, setting the locks without turning on the lights. The dim light filtering up from the city streets lit the living room. Standing beside him, Kelsey didn’t want to catalog the emotions she felt. They’d finished their dinner and driven home.

Home.

That’s what this place and this man’s arms had come to feel like. She had grown accustomed to him, she told herself as he turned and took her into his arms. Never before had she made love with a man and slept beside him night after night.

How long would it last?

She’d never been this close to a man even this long before. It was proximity and lust and respect that prompted her to lift her arms to his broad shoulders, lift her seeking mouth to his.

Brushing his lips over hers, he drew her closer, scooping her up into his arms like Scarlett being carried up the staircase. Only this was no demand for wifely duty, but the hush of hearts beating together, the anticipation of losing herself in the heat of his touch.

He lowered her on to their bed without speaking, his fingers drawing down her zipper, his breath warm against the skin below her ear.

“So soft,” he murmured, the tips of his fingers caressing the curve of her breast as he tugged her dress down. “You smell…like flowers and rain.”

Spearing his splayed hands into her hair, he lifted it, bunched in his fists, guiding her mouth to his. Helpless, held for his kiss, she met his ravaging with the devilry of her tongue at his mouth. So right, his kiss. So filled with the same need she felt, the same quiet intensity.