“Why does that seem so unbelievable to you?”
“Because you made it clear from the beginning that your only purpose in getting close to Penny was to best the McCords.”
“That was almost five months ago.”
“Well, if your reasons for being with Penny changed, you might have let the rest of us in on it,” Travis told him.
Which was a valid point, if not one that Jason was in the mood to acknowledge. Because although his reasons for being with Penny had changed, it wasn’t something he’d been willing to admit to himself, never mind share with anyone else. So all he said was, “It was none of your damned business.”
“But it was,” Travis reminded him. “It was Foley business.”
“No, it wasn’t. What was between Penny and me wasn’t business at all,” Jason said, and, finally realizing it was true, stormed out of the room.
He resisted the urge to slam the door on his way out. Although the solid smack of wood against wood might be a satisfying reflection of the anger and frustration that were churning inside of him, he was conscious of the fact that his brother’s house was filled with guests. The last thing he wanted were witnesses to his suddenly churning emotions, especially when two of those potential witnesses were sisters who were already ticked off at him enough without his temper interrupting their slumber.
So instead of slamming the door, he decided to take a walk, get some air and try not to think about how thoroughly he had destroyed any chance of a relationship with the most amazing woman he’d ever known.
He was on his way down the hall when he heard a sound from the kitchen and, pausing at the doorway to investigate, found Penny at the counter.
She had her back to him, but this time there was no doubt in his mind as to which twin was standing in his brother’s kitchen. The pain that stabbed through his heart and the need that twisted in his belly were proof enough of the fact.
She was wearing a long white nightdress that covered her from throat to ankles. Flannel, he guessed, as the heavy fabric didn’t even give a hint of the luscious curves hidden beneath. But he knew the curves were there, he knew how soft her skin was, and he knew how she would quiver in response to his touch.
His hands itched with the need to reach out to her, but he curled them into fists.
“Penny.”
She turned so quickly she swayed on her feet, nearly losing her balance.
He instinctively moved forward, reaching out to her.
She knocked his hand away, instead grabbing hold of the edge of the countertop to steady herself.
But she was pale. Too pale. The dark smudges under her eyes seemed even darker now, and he wondered if she was even half as lonely as he’d been since she ended their relationship.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” he said, and felt a twinge of guilt that he might in some way be responsible for that.
“I’m hungry,” she said, and picked up half of the peanut butter sandwich she’d just cut.
“You didn’t eat much dinner,” he noted.
“I wasn’t very hungry then.”
“You didn’t drink your wine, either.”
“I wasn’t thirsty.” But she went to the fridge and poured herself a glass of milk now.
He remembered that her favorite late-night snack was a peanut butter sandwich, and that she always washed it down with a glass of milk. He’d never been particularly fond of peanut butter—until he tasted it on Penny’s lips.
“You have every right to be upset with me,” he said.
“Yes, I do,” she agreed, but she sounded more weary than angry. “But not everything is about you, Jason.”
He wanted to make her smile—to see her lips curve and watch some of the clouds lift from her eyes—so he tried to lighten the moment by asking, “Then you didn’t skip the wine because you were afraid you wouldn’t be able to control yourself around me?”
“No,” she said, and looked him straight in the eye. “I skipped the wine because I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Three
Penny had imagined a dozen scenarios in which she finally told Jason that she was going to have his child—but blurting out the news in his brother’s kitchen wasn’t one of them. And it never would have happened that way, except for Paige’s nagging and the fact that she couldn’t get the pregnancy out of her mind.
“Pregnant?” Jason echoed, confusion—and more than a hint of panic—evident in his deep blue eyes.
“Yes, Jason, I’m going to have a baby.”
He swallowed. “You mean, you’re going to have my baby.”
“Yes,” she said again.
He leaned back against the counter. “But we were careful.”
“Not careful enough, obviously.” And she knew that was her fault.
“Are you sure?”
“I took three different home pregnancy tests, and a couple of weeks ago, my doctor confirmed the results.” Penny picked up the second half of her sandwich and nibbled. She wasn’t feeling very hungry anymore, but she knew that she needed to eat, at least for the baby’s sake.
“Come with me.”
“What? Where?”
“Outside.”
She dropped the rest of her sandwich back onto the plate. “Are you crazy? It’s after midnight, I’m in my nightgown, and—”
The rest of the words tumbled back down her throat when Jason picked her up off her feet.
Obviously, he wasn’t in a mood to debate the issue any more than she was in a mood to acquiesce to his demands. She wriggled and squirmed, hoping to make him set her down again. But he only tightened his grip on her and moved resolutely toward the back door.
“Put me down right now,” she hissed. “Or I’ll scream so loud everyone in this house will wake up.”
“Is that really how you want our families to learn that you’re carrying my child?”
She clamped her lips shut.
“Good answer,” he said. “Although you might want to stop wriggling around so much, or I’m going to forget that I’m supposed to be too pissed off to get turned on.”
She stopped wriggling. “Why are you pissed off at me?”
“No one’s in the guest cottage,” he said, ignoring her question. “We can talk there in private, without anyone else overhearing or interfering with our conversation.”
He snagged a key off of a hook by the back door before he pushed it open and stepped out into the darkness.
She shivered as the cold night air hit, and he tightened his arms around her. “You might have just suggested that in the first place—”
“As if you would have meekly followed,” he muttered.
“—instead of hauling me off the ground like a bag of laundry,” she continued indignantly.
“Honey, no bag of laundry ever felt or smelled as good as you.”
“Don’t call me ‘honey’,” she snapped.
“You never objected to it before.”
“I didn’t object to a lot of things—because I didn’t know that I was being played like a pawn in a chess game.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then you didn’t get close to me for the sole purpose of finding out what I knew about the search for the Santa Magdalena Diamond?”
She wanted him to deny it, to insist that he cared about her, but his silence said otherwise. And when he finally set her on her feet to insert the key into the lock of the guest cottage, she was tempted to turn on her heel and march back to the main house. But that would be both petty and pointless, as he would only follow her again. And if he was determined to get answers to his questions, well, she had some questions of her own.
He reached inside to flick on the lights, then held open the door for her to enter. She did, and gasped when her bare feet came into contact with the cold, ceramic tile floor.
“I’ll light a fire,” Jason said, moving toward the stone fireplace on the far side of the roo
m. “It will heat the cabin up quickly.”
“Don’t bother.” Penny sat on the sofa, tucked her feet beneath her. “I don’t plan on being here long enough for it to matter.”
But once again Jason ignored her. He selected wood and kindling from the box on the hearth and, within minutes, there were flames crackling and blazing.
“How far along are you?”
She shrugged. “Almost fourteen weeks.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Do you want a paternity test?”
He scowled at her. “Of course I don’t want a paternity test.”
She pushed off of the sofa, drawn to the heat of the fire. “You’re a wealthy man—I’d be surprised if your lawyer didn’t insist on it.”
“Do you think maybe we could talk about this without bringing lawyers into it?”
“No matter how much talking we do, if you want to be a part of my baby’s life, formal arrangements will have to be made.”
“I’d rather see a minister than a lawyer.”
It took her a minute to figure out what he was saying and, when she finally did, she couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re not seriously suggesting marriage?”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“Because we don’t even like one another.”
“I’d say the baby you’re carrying proves otherwise.”
“Maybe there was an attraction, for a while,” she allowed.
But there was never any real affection. At least not on his part, and that was what—even now—hurt most of all.
“The attraction’s still there,” he insisted.
Penny shook her head. “Your family must be really proud of you—to realize the extent to which you were willing to go to get the information you wanted.”
“It wasn’t supposed to go as far as it did.”
“That makes me feel so much better,” she said bitterly. “I didn’t even make you work for it, did I? I was so willing, so pathetically eager to fall into bed with you.”
“You were passionate.” He turned her around so that she was facing him. “Incredibly passionate and wonderfully uninhibited.”
“Fancy words for ‘easy’.” She pulled away from him, moved back to the sofa, partly to give herself some space and partly because she was simply too tired to continue to stand. “Except you never really got what you wanted, did you? I couldn’t tell you what you wanted to know because I didn’t even know what Paige and Blake were doing. And I’ll bet that annoys the hell out of you.”
“But I did get what I wanted,” he insisted. “Because the more time I spent with you, the less I cared about the damned diamond, the more I wanted you.”
As if she was going to believe that now, after he’d dropped out of her life so quickly and completely.
Yeah, she was the one who stopped taking his calls. But if there was one thing she knew about Jason Foley after all the time they’d spent together, it was that he didn’t give up on something he wanted. The fact that he gave up on her, and so easily, was just further proof that he’d never really wanted her.
“When I decided to try to get information from you, I didn’t know you. I only knew that you were a McCord, and that seemed justification enough for what I was doing.”
She didn’t manage to hold back the yawn as she watched him pace and listened to him talk. Now that she’d eaten, even if it was only half of a sandwich, she could no longer fight the exhaustion that had plagued her of late. Or maybe it hadn’t been hunger that had been keeping her awake, but worry about how and when she was going to tell Jason about their baby.
Now that hurdle had been knocked down, and she felt her eyes drift shut.
“But as we spent more time together, as I got to know you better, I realized…”
Jason didn’t think he’d ever been so open about his thoughts and his feelings, but never had there been so much at stake. He’d hurt Penny with his deception, and while he might have easily dismissed the possibility of such collateral damage as insignificant when he’d begun his campaign, she had become the most significant part of the campaign. And while he might have been willing to let her go, to protect himself from getting too deeply involved, now there was a baby to consider. He didn’t really expect that she’d forgive him, but he wanted—no, he needed—to convince her to put it behind them so that they could move forward. Together.
He turned back, to gauge her reaction, to hear her response. And realized that none would be immediately forthcoming. Because somewhere along the line, while he’d been pouring out his heart and soul, Penny had fallen asleep.
He stared at her, stunned. He started across the room, determined to wake her so that they could finish their conversation. They were never going to resolve anything if they didn’t talk about it.
But his steps faltered as he drew nearer.
She looked so fragile lying there. So pale and beautiful. The flannel gown she wore emphasized the slenderness of her frame. There was no evidence yet of the baby that was growing inside of her. His baby, he amended, and felt a quick spurt of something that might have been excitement or terror.
He definitely hadn’t planned for this, wasn’t ready for this. It was just another one of those strange curves that fate seemed to enjoy tossing at him, but he would step up to the plate. He wanted to step up to the plate. Maybe his mind was still reeling at the revelation of Penny’s pregnancy, but he already knew that he wanted the baby. And he wanted his baby’s mother.
He lifted her carefully from the sofa. She snuggled into him, her head pillowed against his shoulder. She wasn’t protesting now—of course, that was only because she was sleeping, but he couldn’t help but cherish the moment. It seemed so long since he’d held her in his arms, and he missed her.
Unable to resist, he dipped his head and dropped a gentle kiss on the side of her mouth. To his surprise, she tilted her head, her lips instinctively seeking—and finding—his. And though he knew he was taking advantage of her sleepy state, he couldn’t resist her avid response.
Somehow, her arms found their way around his neck, and she pulled his head down, deepening the kiss. He tasted a hint of peanut butter, and the sweeter, much more seductive flavor that was uniquely her own.
Though she weighed next to nothing, he felt his arms tremble, and he knew it was his hunger for her that made him weak. And instead of carrying her to the door, as he’d intended, he carried her to the neatly made double bed.
He laid her gently on top of the spread, and she pulled him down with her, their mouths still fused together.
Guilt and worry tugged at his conscience, but her hands were on him, sliding up his chest, over his shoulders, and it was impossible to think when all of the blood in his head had drained down to his crotch. And the way she was rubbing against him, she had to know it.
He pressed his mouth to the side of her jaw. Her skin was hot and her pulse was racing. There was no doubt that she was as aroused as he was, that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. But was it real—or had he interrupted some kind of erotic dream?
He lifted his head reluctantly.
“Penny, we really should talk before—”
“I don’t want to talk.” She was already unbuttoning his shirt, those nimble fingers making quick work of the task.
Then her palms were splayed against his chest, and her touch against his bare skin was almost more than he could stand. Okay, so talking wasn’t really what he wanted, either. “But—”
“Shut up, Jason.” She captured his mouth again, her teeth sinking into his bottom lip.
Jason shut up and kissed her.
She managed to push his shirt over his shoulders and down his arms, then reached for the button at the front of his pants. He rolled off of the bed and shucked his clothes. Penny propped herself up on her elbows to watch him. Her face was flushed, her eyes dark, her lips swollen from his kisses.
“Your turn,” he told her.
Not so very long ago, she would have balked at the request, too shy and sel
f-conscious to comply. But in the time that they’d spent together, he’d helped her to explore and enjoy her own body, and she’d quickly learned how to wield her newly discovered feminine power.
She shifted so that she was kneeling in the center of the bed, then she bunched the bottom of the gown in her fists and slowly slid it upward, revealing just the tiniest glimpse of the pale, smooth skin of her thighs, then a tiny bit more.
He wanted her naked. Now. But he remained standing by the edge of the bed—his hands curled into fists to prevent himself from reaching for her and tearing the gown from her body—and let her tease him.
When the hem of the gown finally reached her hips, he caught a glimpse of cream-colored lace, then more pale skin. Her previously flat belly was now gently curved, and this evidence of their baby growing inside of her made her pregnancy suddenly and shockingly real to him. But as the fabric continued its upward journey, inch by torturous inch, he forgot about the baby and thought only of Penny. Finally, she whisked the gown over her head and tossed it to the floor, on top of the pile of clothes he’d discarded.
She held out her hand to him, and then he was back on the bed with her. Kissing her and touching her. And she was kissing and touching him. He knew how to take things slow, how to draw out a moment and pleasure a woman.
But Penny had her own ideas this time. Her tongue plunged into his mouth, her nails scraped down his back, her body arched against his, urging him on. And, well, what was a guy supposed to do, when he had a warm, willing woman writhing beneath him?
He rose up and plunged into her.
He didn’t worry about a condom. What was the point, when she was already carrying his child? But without any kind of barrier between them, she seemed hotter, wetter, tighter than he remembered.
She cried out with shocked pleasure and began to move, pumping her hips in rhythm with his own.
It was rough and fast and just a little bit wild.
She draped her arms over his shoulders, her nails biting into his flesh. He scraped his teeth over her collarbone, nipped at her throat. She locked her legs around his waist, pulling him even deeper inside. His fingers dug into her hips as he drove her closer and closer to the peak.
The Texas Tycoon’s Christmas Baby Page 4