How the hell was a man supposed to control his baser instincts when he was presented with such a ravishing temptation? He’d been a fool to think that he could spend the night alone with Paige, even in separate bedrooms, and not want to make love to her.
The moment Paige observed the dimly lit room, the elegant dinner, complete with flowers and candles, her stomach tightened painfully. When she heard the soft, sweet music floating through Jared’s open bedroom door, she halted abruptly.
“You look lovely,” he said.
She stared at him. He was smiling at her, damn him. Didn’t he know what his smile did to her? It turned her knees to jelly and set free a hundred tiny butterflies in the pit of her stomach.
He held out his hand and her instincts told her to flee, to turn around, run back into her bedroom and lock the door.
Had he set this romantic scene intentionally? If so, why? Had he been lying to her when he’d promised not to pursue her, not to ever again ask her to marry him? Or did Jared have another scenario in mind? Were his motives less honorable?
But during the next hour, she couldn’t fault his actions in any way. He was the perfect gentleman, engaging her in conversation while they enjoyed the delicious meal. They discussed the legal document Jared’s lawyer had drawn up concerning their child and tentatively agreed to the terms.
“Are you sure you don’t want your dessert?” Slicing off a piece of the chocolate cheesecake with his fork, Jared coaxed her to take a bite as he waved the sinfully rich concoction under her nose.
“Don’t tempt me anymore,” she pleaded. “With my inherited tendency to gain weight easily, I could end up looking like a baby whale by the time I deliver. You should see the pictures of my mother when she was expecting me.”
Jared laid his fork on his plate. “Are your parents upset that we aren’t going to get married?”
“Mama understands.” Paige wiped her mouth with her linen napkin, then folded it and laid it beside her plate. “Daddy’s another matter. He’s so old-fashioned. He just doesn’t want his unmarried daughter to have a baby and be a single mother. Besides, he likes you. He and Austen think I’m being a foolish female and that I’ll regret not…” She lifted her glass and downed the last drops of chilled water.
“Do you think that there’s even the slightest chance your father and brother are right?” Jared asked. “Is there a chance that you might regret refusing to marry me?”
Grasping her folded napkin, she twisted it tightly. “Oh, it’s not just my father’s and brother’s opinion, but Kay’s, too,” Paige admitted. “They all think I’m nuts for not agreeing to marry you. After all, you’re everything a woman could want. Rich, successful, handsome, intelligent—”
“And your baby’s father.”
“Yes, and my baby’s father.”
Jared reached across the table, removed the wrinkled napkin from her grasp and took her hand in his. “Do you think that someday we’ll both regret not marrying?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Their gazes met and held. Paige’s heartbeat accelerated. “Do you think we will?”
“Maybe.” He caressed her knuckles with his thumb. “Probably. The first time Angela asks us why we didn’t get married.”
Tilting her chin, Paige shook her head. Her long, loose hair bounced back and forth across her shoulders. She closed her eyes and bit down on her bottom lip. “You’re determined to name our little girl Angela, aren’t you.” Opening her eyes, she glanced across the table at him and laughed softly.
God, she looked delectable enough to eat. Her light olive skin all creamy perfection. Her cheeks glowing with healthy vibrance. Her lips moist and pink and inviting.
Still holding her hand, Jared rose from his chair, rounded the table and drew her up and into his arms. She made no protest, verbal or physical, simply waited for him to make the next move.
“I think we can dance to this music.” His lips brushed her ear as he whispered to her.
She responded by placing her left hand on his shoulder and stepping closer into his embrace. Her mind told her that she shouldn’t be doing this. Her heart told her that she should.
“We’re playing with fire, aren’t we, honey?” Pressing her closer, allowing her to feel his arousal, he lowered his head and pressed his cheek against hers. “I don’t want you to think that I set this evening up to seduce you. I didn’t. At least not consciously.”
“I believe you.” Laying her head on his chest, she listened to the hard, sturdy beat of his heart. “You’ve been kind and gentle and understanding. You’ve done everything you could to make this day special for me.” She looked up at him at the precise moment he looked down at her. “You can’t help it any more than I can, this insanity between us.”
“You know how much I want you.” He held her gaze with his as surely as his strong arms held her soft, ripe body.
“Yes, I know.” She gazed longingly into his eyes. “You want me as much as I want you.”
“Paige.” He closed his eyes, blocking out the sight of her, willing himself not to lose control. Burying his face in her hair, he breathed in the sweet, fresh scent of her.
He kissed her throat. She groaned. Holding her in his arms was like possessing a little bit of heaven, but knowing he didn’t dare make love to her was pure hell.
“We can’t do this to ourselves, honey.” Leaning into her, Jared opened his eyes and brushed his lips across hers. “It’s tearing me apart wanting you the way I do and knowing our making love again is the worst thing we could do to ourselves.”
“I know. I know.” If he didn’t kiss her—completely, thoroughly—and soon, she thought she’d die from the wanting.
“You need a man who can love you for the wonderful person you are. I can’t give you that.” He caressed her buttocks. Cupping her firmly, he lifted her enough to fit her femininity against his throbbing sex. “All I can give you is this.”
His mouth covered hers. She parted her lips, accepting his probing tongue. Easing her hand up the back of his neck, she threaded her fingers through his thick, dark hair and held his head down, encouraging him to deepen the kiss. The world around them disappeared, replaced by a sensual haze, and the only thing that mattered was getting closer, giving more, taking more and appeasing an insatiable hunger.
Swooping her into his arms, Jared carried her to the sofa and sat down, holding her in his lap. With great urgency, he unzipped her dress and lowered it to her waist, all the while kissing her, taking her breath away with the frenzy of his caresses.
She stilled his hands as he eased her bra straps down over her shoulders. “Please, Jared, don’t. I can’t let you make love to me and then later pretend…” She had almost said pretend I don’t love you and that it doesn’t matter that you don’t love me. “We’ve already decided that we aren’t going to get married, so if we make love now, after you’ve spent so much money on me today, it will make me feel as if you’ve bought and paid for me.”
“Dammit, Paige, you know it isn’t like that!”
“It would be so easy for me to give in to what we both want,” she admitted. “But afterward, I’d hate myself. And I’d hate you, too.”
He eased her off his lap and onto the sofa, then stood and glared at her. “Have it your way!” Without a backward glance, he stormed off into his bedroom and slammed the door.
Paige stumbled as she made her way across the sitting room, a sudden burst of tears almost blinding her. If only things were different. If only Jared loved her the way she loved him. But he didn’t. If only he could accept her for the woman she was and not expect her to change to suit him. But he couldn’t.
She didn’t dare put herself in a position to be hurt even more. She had given in to her deepest desires once, without considering the consequences. Now she was in love with a man who didn’t love her. And she was five months pregnant with his child.
Chapter Seven
“I’m sorry, Paige. I let things get out of hand last night,” Jared
told her. “What happened was my fault, and I had no right to get angry with you and storm off the way I did.”
“It wasn’t all your fault,” she said. “I’m as guilty as you are. There just seems to be this magnetism between us that we can’t resist.”
“Do you suppose we can still be friends?” he asked. “For Angela’s sake?”
“We can try…for the baby’s sake.”
He didn’t offer his hand to her for the traditional deal-making handshake, nor did she offer hers. Jared had come to realize that it was dangerous for them to touch, and he suspected that she had come to the same conclusion. Paige might be faking her reluctance to marry him and her disinterest in his wealth, but the one thing he knew she wasn’t faking was her desire for him.
He took her to breakfast at Ellynton’s in the hotel before they headed back to Grand Springs. Their return trip, if a bit strained, was pleasant enough. But she seemed as relieved as he was when they arrived at her apartment.
“You go on in,” he told her. “I’ll unload everything.”
Smiling, Paige nodded agreement. She needed rest, especially after not sleeping more than a few hours last night. It had been sheer torment to reject Jared, to sleep alone in her bed, knowing he was only a few steps away. Had she been wrong to deny them both the pleasure they so desperately wanted?
Jared gathered up an armful of packages and followed her into her apartment. She held the door open for him.
“Where do you want all this stuff?” he asked.
“Just put it down in here,” she said. “I’ll unpack everything later.”
He stacked the boxes in a corner of her living room, then returned to the Jeep for a second load. After he brought in the remainder of their purchases, he hesitated in the doorway.
“Take the rest of the day off from work and get some rest.” He surveyed her from head to toe. She was so beautiful. So desirable. So tempting.
“Thank you. I am tired.”
He hovered in the doorway, looking at her with hungry eyes, and she knew what he wanted. What they both wanted.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jared said.
“In the morning, at the office.”
“Call me if you need anything.”
“I’m sure I won’t need…I’m fine.”
“Take care.”
“I will.”
He walked away. She closed and locked the door. Wrapping her arms around herself, she bit down on her bottom lip in an effort not to cry. But tears filled her eyes. She had put herself in a no-win situation. No matter what she did about her relationship with Jared, she couldn’t be happy. She could never be happy unless he loved her. Truly loved her for the woman she was.
* * *
The next day Paige arrived at the office wearing one of her new maternity dresses, a hunter green woolen sheath, adorned with brass buttons. The dress was a bit sophisticated for her tastes, but Jared had insisted it was perfect for her.
Kay asked her a dozen questions about the trip to Denver the minute she entered the employees’ lounge. Paige removed her coat, hung it on a rack and retrieved a carton of orange juice from the minirefrigerator.
“We’ve agreed to be friends,” Paige said.
Kay eyed her skeptically. “You two are kidding yourselves if you think you can be nothing more than friends. Anyone who sees the two of you together can sense the tension between you. It’s thick enough to cut with a knife.”
Kay’s statement proved prophetic. With each passing day, the tension between Jared and her intensified to such a degree that everyone else in the office steered clear whenever the two were together. Although they were both polite to the point of nausea, they were not becoming friends. If anything, their relationship became more strained, so that by the end of the week following their Denver trip, they were barely speaking.
If she didn’t need her job so badly and the company’s good insurance plan even more, Paige would quit and end this daily torment. How long could she and Jared go on this way, tiptoeing around their real feelings? Was it going to be like this for the next four months? And what about after the baby was born? When would it stop, this hungry, desperate need? Would she go on loving Jared forever, even after he married someone else? Someone truly worthy of being L. J. Montgomery’s wife.
The row of figures on the computer screen blurred together as Paige gazed at them through misty eyes. She was so absorbed in her own misery that she didn’t hear the two men enter her office, until one of them cleared his throat.
“I’m Detective Jack Stryker,” the tall blond man said.
Blinking several times to clear away her tears, Paige looked up into a pair of blue eyes. “Yes, we met once, years ago. How may I help you, Detective Stryker?”
“Paige Summers?” the other man asked. He, too, was blond and attractive, but seemed less rigid than his partner.
Paige studied him quickly, his short, no-nonsense haircut, his cool gray eyes and his broad, rugged body. “Stone? Stone Richardson?”
“Yeah,” Stone said. “I thought that was you, Paige, but I wasn’t sure. I haven’t seen you in…what…three or four years?”
“Not since Kevin and I broke up,” Paige said. “Do you ever hear anything from Kevin now that he’s living in California?”
“No, I’m afraid not. We lost touch. The last I heard he was working for some big marketing firm out in L.A.”
“Look, I hate to break up old home week,” Stryker said, “but we’re here on official business. Maybe you can take Ms. Summers out for lunch one day.”
“Sorry, Jack.” Grinning, Stone winked at Paige. “We need to see L. J. Montgomery.”
“Concerning what?” Paige asked, an uneasiness quivering inside her stomach.
“An official matter,” Stryker told her.
Paige announced the two detectives and showed them into Jared’s office. Just as she started to leave the room, Detective Stryker asked Jared a question that stopped Paige’s exit.
“What do you know about Olivia Stuart’s death, Mr. Montgomery?”
“Only what I read in the paper,” Jared said. “Why are you asking me? What could I know about the woman’s death? She was killed on my first day here in Grand Springs. The day of the power outage.” Jared glanced across the room at Paige, who stood silent and unmoving just inside the open doorway.
“Don’t you think that’s an odd coincidence, that Mayor Stuart was murdered on your very first day in town?” Stone Richardson asked.
“A coincidence, perhaps,” Jared admitted. “But hardly damaging evidence that I know anything about the woman’s death. Besides, it’s my understanding that the police have the murderer in custody.”
“Joanna Jackson is awaiting trial,” Stryker said. “But she was just a hired hand. We’re looking for her boss. Someone with a motive to want to see Olivia Stuart dead.”
“And you think I have a motive?” Jared grunted. “I didn’t even know the woman.”
“Mrs. Stuart’s last word was coal,” Stone said. “Does that mean anything to you?”
“Absolutely nothing.” Jared shook his head.
“We realize that we might be grasping at straws, Mr. Montgomery,” Stone admitted, “but in trying to find a connection between the mayor’s last word—coal—and her murderer, we discovered that your real estate and land development company has been buying up land and making inquiries into Grand Springs’s past mining history.”
Jared laughed heartily. “Hell, boys, don’t you think that’s stretching it a bit to make a connection between me and the mayor’s death?”
Turning sharply, Paige took several tentative steps into Jared’s office. “Montgomery Real Estate and Land Development has made it a policy to look into the past mining history of all the areas in which they invest. One of the reasons is because Mr. Montgomery thinks it makes sense to always explore alternative energy sources,” Paige told the police detectives. “For you to imply that his actions have any connection to Olivia Stuart’s
death is ludicrous!”
“It’s all right, Paige,” Jared assured her. “These men are simply doing their job, following every lead and exhausting every possibility.”
“The very idea that anyone would think Jared capable of hiring someone to commit murder is outrageous.” Paige glared at Stone Richardson. “You’re wasting the taxpayers’ money harassing an innocent man when the real killer is still out there loose somewhere.”
“Paige, we aren’t accusing Mr. Montgomery of anything. We just—”
Storming across the room, Paige pointed her finger in Stone’s face. “You don’t have a clue as to who hired Joanna Jackson, and with everyone, from the governor on down, demanding results, you have to do something to earn your paychecks. So what do you do? You malign a fine, upstanding businessman, whose plans for Grand Springs can create new jobs and give our community’s economy a real boost.”
Coming up behind her, Jared grabbed Paige by the shoulders. “Thank you for coming to my defense, Ms. Summers. I appreciate your loyalty.”
Paige’s cheeks flushed. She glanced from Stone, who smiled sheepishly, to Jack Stryker, who looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry. I overreacted,” Paige said. “It’s just that I know what sort of man Mr. Montgomery is.”
Jared was both startled and touched by Paige’s adamant defense of him. Recently, he’d begun to think she hated him. Obviously, she didn’t.
“Well, boys,” Jared addressed the detectives, “have you ever thought that Mayor Stuart’s last word might not have been c-o-a-l, but c-o-l-d? If she said the word as she was dying, it’s possible that she felt cold, and her last word had nothing to do with her murderer.”
“It’s a possibility,” Stone said. “We have to admit that all our c-o-a-l leads have hit a dead end.”
“I don’t think we need to take up any more of your time.” Stryker offered his hand.
Jared shook hands with both detectives and saw them to the door, then turned his attention to Paige, who tried to ease past him. He grabbed her wrists.
“Look at me, Paige.”
Nine Months Part 2 (36 Hours) Page 6