Oh hell. The time of reckoning had come. It wasn't as if Garrett hadn't prepared for this moment. He'd planned to tell her everything. Today.
Not with them barely inside the front door, his pants missing and his body spent inside her. But he had planned to tell her about the boys and to ask her to meet them. He'd even told his mother about Jennifer, admitted to having strong feelings for the lovely doctor. But she did funny things to his willpower, made him go a bit crazy. Plus, her new underwear had undone him. Literally.
"About that," he began.
Scooping up her clothes, she shook her head. When she bent to retrieve the scrap of black silk, desire punched him and he was right back to Horny 101 and eager to prove he could ace the class.
But he wanted more than just hot sex from Jennifer.
He wanted her heart.
She straightened, turned, caught sight of his quick rebound. She glanced away, but her unsteady breaths told him she'd liked what she'd seen, that his reaction turned her on.
"Never mind," she said, staring at a collage of school photos of herself. "I have no right to ask."
"You have every right."
Her clothing clutched protectively in front of her, she smiled derisively. "That's sweet of you to say."
Garrett touched her face, stroking his fingers across her smooth skin. "I'm not being sweet, Jennifer. You have every right to ask me anything. I want you to ask."
Her lips parted. Her eyes searched his.
"I don't want you to go back to Madison." He took her hand in his. "You are not a fling, Jennifer. And neither am I."
"You are," she denied, but her eyes told a different tale. She loved him.
As sure as he was of his feelings for her, he knew Jennifer felt the same.
How would she feel about his children, though?
Could she find a way to love his kids? To be the mother they needed?
If she couldn't, then what?
He lifted her fingers to his lips. "Then this fling doesn't plan to let you go without a fight, because he's fallen in love with you."
He'd meant to tell her about the boys before telling her how he felt. But Jennifer was in his heart alongside his boys. He wanted her in his life always.
As if on cue, his phone buzzed with the programmed ringtone from his home number. His mother or one of the boys. Not taking his gaze from Jennifer, Garrett grabbed his pants off the floor to retrieve his phone. "Hello."
***
Jennifer began slipping on her clothes.
How could a man look sexy while taking a phone call naked? There should be rules about that level of attractiveness.
Even as she thought it, she recognized that she was focusing on the physical to keep from dealing with the emotional.
Garrett wanted her to stay.
He'd said he loved her.
They had no future, weren't supposed to be anything beyond a fling.
A fling. His words about fighting for her struck a mushy spot in her heart. Part of her wanted to believe him, but hadn't Jeff once said the same thing? He'd promised undying love and to fight for her always. 'Til death do they part.
It had been Carrie's death that parted them.
Garrett might think he loved her. He might even love her enough to want a long term relationship. But eventually his instinct to procreate would kick in and he'd want children.
Children she couldn't give him. Then what?
"No, it's fine." His cell phone cradled between his ear and his shoulder, Garrett pulled his pants over his hips. He fished his shirt off the floor, dragged the material over his head. "Tell the boys I love them and will be home soon."
The boys? Who was he talking to?
He snapped his phone shut and gave Jennifer an apologetic look. "Sorry about that."
An apologetic look filled with guilt.
Oh God. Invisible hands gripped her throat. God, could she have been any more blind?
No wonder he never took her to his place.
Fully dressed, hands on hips, she confronted him. "Are you married?"
Her mother had said he was single. Jennifer had never asked, never considered her mother might have been wrong. Panic pounded in her heart.
"Married?" Confusion darkened his eyes. "Why would you think that?" He moved toward her, his gaze narrowed. "Do you think I'd be here if I was married?"
"It wouldn't be the first time a man's cheated on his wife." God, she felt dirty. Dirty and used. She'd wanted Garrett so much she'd refused to see he'd been hiding something. Now that the blinders had been lifted it was so obvious.
His lips tightened into a fine white line. "He really did a number on you, didn't he?"
"Who?"
"Your ex."
"We're not talking about Jeff."
"Maybe we should. He's why you left Huntsville, why you won't allow yourself to consider a real relationship with me."
"Jeff has nothing to do with this conversation." Her ex-husband hadn't been why she'd left. Memories of Carrie had been why she'd run. Memories of what a failure she'd been as a mother. "Who was on the phone?"
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