She understood. “Fidelity.”
“Fidelity.”
No surprise Connor wasn’t the kind of man to sit idly while his wife entertained herself with the golf pro from the club, but within the marriage...
Her eyes drifted to where her hand was wrapped halfway around his wrist. She’d been touching him all this time, and yet this was the first moment she’d been aware of the low charge running between them. Meeting his gaze, she could see in those dark pools an answering awareness of that connection.
Her breath caught.
“You won’t be lonely with me, Megan. I know what I’m suggesting doesn’t follow the norm. It’s not the traditional courtship and promise of love. But we aren’t the most traditional people.” Reversing her hold, he took her hand in his. “We have something good. All I’m asking is for you to give it a chance.”
A chance.
She believed it could be good. Which was part of the problem. Because something good would be hard to lose.
And she’d lost so many times already. It was why she’d come up with the plan. No more waiting for the other shoe to drop. Hoping for something that would never come.
Except with Connor, love wasn’t part of the equation. He simply wanted a partner. Someone who understood his priorities the way he understood hers.
He wanted to be another parent for their children.
As many as she wanted.
She’d always dreamed of a houseful of kids. But when she’d decided on the plan, she accepted in all likelihood there would be only the one. And one had been enough.
But what Connor was offering wasn’t about just enough. He was offering her more than she’d believed she could wish for.
Still, the risk remained, reduced as it may be.
What if she got attached—let herself believe in a family—and he changed his mind? Left.
She couldn’t go through it again.
“I need to think,” she said, pushing back from the table and walking to the glass doors where the Vegas sun beat down, brutal and beautiful all at once, over their private oasis.
Moving in behind her, Connor rested his hands over her shoulders, pressing his thumbs into the tender muscles at either side of her spine. A part of her wanted to shrug him off, tell him to give her the space she asked for. But a bigger part recognized the act as an example of the kind of support he was offering. A subtle reminder she would not be alone. There would be someone behind her.
“I get it, Megan. I do. You don’t remember and it’s scary to take my word on something so huge.” Then it wasn’t merely the touch of his hands she was experiencing, but the press of his body along hers. His chin rested atop her head, his chest at her back as he continued rubbing the tension from her neck...and all she could think was how right it felt. “So I’m not asking you to believe in me right now. I’m asking you to believe in yourself.”
She turned in his arms, her hands coming to rest on the planes of his chest as if it were the most natural thing in the word. “Believe in myself?”
Connor brushed his knuckles against her temple, soft and light.
“You married me. Don’t you want to find out why?”
CHAPTER SIX
SHE’D AGREED.
Connor couldn’t quite believe it himself—and yeah, yeah, it wasn’t exactly the whole nine yards...more like a conservative six and half by his estimate—but Megan was spending the day with him. Giving him a chance to convince her of what kind of sense they made.
Which meant he was going to Gail’s wedding. Fortunately, a Vegas-style seating chart had more to do with who got to the bar first than which great-aunt was too blind to figure out she’d scored a table by the kitchen.
Pouring another coffee for himself and a glass of juice for Megan, he listened with half an ear as she checked in with Gail. She’d barely gotten past hello before a suspicious silence, followed by some stuttering and then more silence, confirmed what he’d known from the start. Jodie and Tina had been running at the mouth, probably since Megan and he took off the night before.