Nine Months Part 2 (36 Hours)

by Beverly Barton

  Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Releasing her left wrist, Jared lifted his hand to her face and stroked her cheek. Jerking free of his hold, she ran into her office. Jared followed her, cornering her behind her desk.

  If he could trust what his senses told him, if he could believe his own eyes and ears, then he could accept Paige at face value for the romantic, loving, sweet innocent she appeared to be.

  Dear God, would he be a fool to continue doubting her? Or would he be a fool to think that she truly loved him?

  “You lit into those detectives like a spitting, clawing she-cat.” Grabbing her chin, he tilted her face, forcing her to look at him. “Thanks for jumping to my defense, honey. After the cold shoulder I’ve been getting from you this past week, I’d just about decided that you hated me.”

  “I don’t hate you.” I love you, you big dope, she wanted to shout at him. I love you so much it hurts.

  He skimmed his thumb tenderly across her bottom lip. “Maybe we’d both be better off if you did hate me. The way things are…”

  She closed her eyes, accepting the inevitability of his kiss, longing for and yet dreading the sweet agony. Intense desire spiraled up from the depths of her trembling body when his lips covered hers. Paige melted against him. Jared tensed. Ending the kiss abruptly, he released her chin.

  She was pregnant with his child. She wanted him. He wanted her. No matter how many problems marriage wouldn’t solve, it could, at least, give him two things he wanted. Legitimacy for his daughter. And Paige in his bed every night.

  Of course, theirs wouldn’t be an ideal marriage. But he was more than willing to give it a try—if Paige would ever accept their relationship for what it was and not what she wished it could be. She was putting them both through hell, and for what? Because she wanted him to love her? Or because she thought if she denied him long enough, he’d marry her without a prenuptial agreement?

  He had always pictured his wife as a tall, cool, sophisticated blonde from a wealthy family. Someone who, like him, would consider marriage a mutually satisfying business arrangement. But the woman carrying his child was a voluptuous, earthy redhead, who said she believed in romantic love. Was he overly optimistic to think he could change this woman, make her over into his ideal?

  “I promised that I wouldn’t ask you again,” he said. “And I won’t. But you could ask me, honey. All you’d have to say is, Jared, will you marry me?”

  If only it were that simple, Paige thought. But no matter how wonderful being Jared’s wife might be for a while, sooner or later, the marriage would fall apart. The hot sex would bind them together at first, and later their child would unite them, but eventually Jared would look at her and see that she wasn’t the woman of his dreams, the wife he had wanted at his side, the accomplished, sophisticated, socially prominent partner he had planned to share his life with. And when the day came that he realized he couldn’t change her, he would resent Paige, perhaps even grow to hate her.

  And eventually, his inability to love her would break her heart and she would hate him.

  “Ask me, honey,” he repeated his request. “Ask me to marry you.”

  “I can’t.”

  She ran from him, not daring to look back. She didn’t slow her pace until she entered the ladies’ room. Leaning against the wall, she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.

  * * *

  When Paige returned to her desk, eyes dried and face washed clean of her smeared makeup, she found Kay waiting for her.

  “Are you all right?” Kay asked.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Why?”

  “Because when Jared called me into his office before he left, I noticed that you were conspicuously absent from your desk.” Kay glanced down at her watch. “That was fifteen minutes ago, and it’s not afternoon break time. Besides, Jared was roaring like a wounded animal, issuing orders right and left. He couldn’t wait to get out of here. And your eyes are red and swollen. You’ve obviously been crying. So, I assume something happened between you two.”

  “Jared left? For the day?” Paige stared at Jared’s closed office door.

  “For the weekend,” Kay said. “He said he was going to Aspen.”

  “Was he going alone?” Paige asked, really not wanting to know the answer if Jared had taken along a companion.

  “He didn’t fill me in on his personal plans.” Kay laid a comforting hand on Paige’s shoulder. “Want to tell me what happened?”

  “Nothing new.” Paige slumped down into her cushioned swivel chair. “I want him. He wants me. I love him. He doesn’t love me. And despite what he’s said, he still thinks marriage will solve our problems. I know that our marriage would end in disaster and we’d wind up hating each other.”

  Paige moped around the office the rest of the day, then drove directly from work to her parents’ home and ended up spending the night. Her mother listened with loving patience, consoling Paige and trying to convince her that Jared wasn’t enjoying a cosy weekend with another woman.

  “I hope he is with someone else,” Paige told her mother. “Some beautiful, skinny model or some rich and famous movie star.”

  She said it, but she didn’t mean it. The very thought of Jared with another woman ripped her heart apart. But she might as well get used to the idea of other women in Jared’s life. After all, he wasn’t the type of man who’d stay celibate for long.

  On her way back to her apartment on Saturday morning, Paige stopped by the Decorating Center and purchased paint and wallpaper border. Then she spent the day cleaning out the small storage room that she’d filled with many dolls from her collection. Part of her collection remained at her parents’ home, but when she’d moved into her downtown apartment three years ago, her father had built shelves along one wall to house more than two dozen of her prized dolls.

  The room was small, but certainly large enough for a nursery. The baby bed, chest, stroller, car seat, high chair and bassinet Jared had purchased in Denver would arrive next week, and unless she cleared out this room, there would be no place to put them. Thank goodness, she wouldn’t have to remove her dolls. They made a perfect background for a baby girl’s room.

  Paige would make sure that her little girl had more than enough huggable, squeezable, drag-around dolls, but she would teach Angela from an early age which dolls were toys and which were treasured untouchables.

  Angela? Now she was calling their baby Angela. She couldn’t believe it. Jared had brainwashed her. Damn Jared. Damn him for getting me pregnant. Damn him for making me love him. Damn him for not loving me. Damn him for going off on a ski trip with someone else. Paige stomped her foot. Damn Jared for everything!

  She spent Saturday evening removing the dolls from the shelves in the storage room and placing them on the floor in rows against her bedroom wall. Once the spare room was bare, she applied the first coat of pale pink paint. She finished the job on Sunday afternoon, and by the end of the day, she could envision how completely perfect this tiny space was going to be for Angela.

  Yes, Angela. Jared had named his daughter and the name had stuck. Paige finally admitted to herself that she couldn’t imagine calling her baby girl anything else.

  Just as she climbed off the ladder at the end of the day, a fluttering sensation rippled inside her. Gasping, she grabbed the ladder with one hand and placed her other hand over her tummy. Tears sprang into her eyes. Angela moved again. Slowly, cautiously, Paige stepped down off the ladder and slumped to the floor, covering her belly with both hands, as tears trickled down her cheeks. Their little girl had moved inside her. She wanted to share the moment with Jared. But she couldn’t. He wasn’t here. He wasn’t even in town.

  Exhausted, but filled with a sense of accomplishment, Paige crawled into bed on Sunday night. She couldn’t help wondering what Jared was doing right at that minute. Was he en route, returning to Grand Springs? Or had he stayed over another night in Aspen, sharing a bed with some willing woman? Groaning loudly when images of Jar
ed making passionate love to some willowy blonde flashed through her mind, Paige pulled the covers over her head and prayed for dreamless sleep.

  The ringing telephone woke her at five o’clock the next morning. Only partially awake, she reached for the phone and knocked her alarm clock off on the floor.

  “Hello?”

  “Sorry to wake you,” Greg Addison said.

  “Mr. Addison?”

  “Yes, Paige, it’s me. I know this is a godawful hour to wake a person, but Jared insisted I get in touch with you immediately.”

  “Jared? Is something wrong?” Paige sat up in bed, bracing her back against the headboard.

  “Jared had a skiing accident yesterday afternoon,” Greg said. “He’s all right. Just a badly sprained ankle. He’ll have to stay off it for a few weeks.”

  “Please tell him…” Paige paused momentarily. Tell him what? Tell him that she was sorry he hadn’t broken his damn fool neck? Tell him that he deserved to be in pain since she’d spent the entire weekend in misery imagining him with another woman? “Tell him I hope he gets better soon.”

  “In typical Jared fashion, he’s being a royal pain in the butt about this.” Greg chuckled. “They released him from the hospital around midnight and he flew straight back to Grand Springs and called me to come to the airport and drive him up here to his place on Eagle Ridge.”

  “I don’t suppose Jared will come into the office today, will he?” Paige asked.

  “I was getting around to that,” Greg said. “Jared insisted I call you so you can get an early start. The doctor doesn’t want him putting any weight on his ankle for a while, so he’s going to be working at home for at least a week. He wants you to come out here this morning.”

  “Oh. I see.” She didn’t want to spend the day alone with Jared in his home. It would have been difficult enough seeing him at the office, wondering every time she looked at him if he’d spent the weekend with another woman. But to be alone with him? No, she couldn’t do it. But she had to. It was her job. “I understand. Tell Jar—Mr. Montgomery that I’ll be there by eight. But I’ll need directions.”

  “No need for directions,” Greg told her. “I’ve been instructed to come get you and deliver you personally to the great man’s door.”

  “It seems he’s thought of everything,” Paige said. “I’ll be ready by seven, Mr. Addison.”

  * * *

  Snow covered the mountaintops, their sharp peaks piercing the blue sky. The aspens and cottonwoods stood tall, proud and barren, like emancipated sentinels guarding the verdurous evergreens. A heavy frost coated the land. The farther they drove up the mountainside, the denser the early morning fog and more concentrated the fine mist.

  Greg whipped his Explorer into the circular gravel drive in front of Jared’s enormous three-level log home. Perched on a sloping hillside, surrounded by towering ponderosa pines, the wood-and-glass structure blended with the rugged, north central Colorado terrain. The glass face of the A-frame core of the sprawling cabin reflected the frost-tipped trees as they shivered in the cold November wind.

  “What do you think of the place?” Greg asked. “Impressive, huh? Jared doesn’t do anything by half measures. Nearly five thousand square feet of house and over fifty acres, all for a single man living alone.”

  “It’s fabulous.” Paige surveyed the massive structure as she opened the door and got out of the Explorer. This was the house Jared had offered to give her?

  Wooden stairs led upward to the second level, joining the first tier of decks that spiraled around and upward like a garland on a Christmas tree.

  “The front door’s straight up those stairs.” Stepping outside, Greg pointed toward the double glass doors, flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows across the expanse of the A-frame section. “He’s waiting for you. I think he’s expecting you to prepare his breakfast.”

  “Oh, really. When did meal preparation become part of my duties?” Paige stuffed her gloved hands into the pockets of her quilted thermal parka.

  “I’m not issuing orders, Ms. Summers,” Greg said. “But I’ll warn you that he’s not in a good mood, so you might want to give him a little leeway and—”

  “Pamper the poor invalid?”

  Greg chuckled. “Yeah, something like that.”

  “Aren’t you coming in?” Paige asked.

  “No, thanks. I’ve got a ton of work waiting for me at the office.” He glanced meaningfully up at the cabin. “Besides, I’ve done my tour of duty. Now it’s time for you to earn your hazardous duty pay.”

  “Thanks for warning me.”

  Paige squared her shoulders, stiffened her spine and marched up the steps. Turning the brass door handle, she found the front door unlocked.

  “Hello? Jared?” she called out to him, but received no response.

  Entering the foyer, she gasped as her mind assimilated the massive grandeur of the cabin’s interior. Pine log walls reached upward toward the cathedral ceiling. A hand-carved staircase led to an upper balcony. The hardwood floors glistened as the early morning light, descending from an enormous skylight, spread across the polished surface.

  “Jared.” She called to him again.

  “I’m in here,” he said.

  Going in the direction of his voice, she entered the living room. Stopping suddenly, she glanced around the thirty-by-thirty-foot area. Jared, wearing faded jeans and a long-sleeved cotton shirt, sat in a large navy blue corduroy recliner, his leg resting on a matching round ottoman. A pair of crutches lay propped against a square wooden table beside the chair.

  “What the hell took you so long?” Tilting his head to one side, he glared at her. “I was getting worried. Thought maybe that light drizzle out there had turned to sleet and Greg had had a wreck.”

  “The rain has almost stopped,” Paige said. “And it’s not late.” She checked her watch against the mantel clock. A roaring fire burned brightly in the huge rock fireplace.

  “It’s after eight,” he told her. “And I’m starving. Do you suppose you could scramble me some eggs or something? I haven’t eaten a bite since lunch yesterday.”

  And just who did he have lunch with yesterday? she wondered. “Maybe you should have had Greg bring out a cook for you instead of an administrative assistant.”

  Jared rolled up the newspaper he held and slapped it across his palm. “Dammit, Paige, don’t play women’s lib with me this morning. You’re not just my administrative assistant. You’re supposed to be my friend, aren’t you? Is it too much to ask a friend to fix me a little breakfast?”

  “As a friend, I’d be glad to fix your breakfast.” She unzipped her gray ankle-length parka and removed her purple knit cap and gloves. “But as a friend, I’m warning you that, after breakfast, your disposition had better improve or I’m out of here.”

  Sticking out his lip in a little boy pout, Jared looked at her pathetically. “Have pity on me, honey. I’m an injured man in pain. I haven’t had any sleep in twenty-four hours. Haven’t eaten in eighteen.” And haven’t had sex in five months. But he could hardly say that to her, could he? If he admitted that he hadn’t been with another woman since the evening they met, she’d know just what a powerful hold she had on him.

  “You poor baby.” She tossed her parka, gloves and cap across the back of one of the two red-navy-and-gold plaid sofas that formed an L in front of the fireplace. “Since you seem to be in need of pampering, why didn’t your weekend ski bunny come back to Grand Springs with you?”

  “My what?” Turning sideways in the recliner, Jared stared at Paige. Lovely, vibrant, scowling Paige. How could a pregnant woman in a nondescript gray-and-tan pin-striped jumper look so damned sexy?

  Paige thought Jared looked too sleek and tanned and gorgeous for a man who’d spent hours in a hospital emergency room. With his long, lean, powerful body sprawled out in the comfortable chair, he projected an aura of pure, unadulterated masculinity.

  “I was referring to the woman you spent the weekend with in Aspen.”


  “Oh. That woman.”

  Jared grinned. Paige’s stomach quivered. He laughed. She frowned.

  “Just what’s so funny?” she asked.

  “You are,” he said. “What gave you the idea that I spent the weekend with some woman? Or should I say who put the idea in your head?”

  “No one put the idea in my head. I just assumed that you… Are you saying that you didn’t spend the weekend with a woman?”

  “Would you care if I had taken some cute little snow bunny with me to Aspen?”

  “Why should I care? We’re not married. We’re not engaged. We’re not—”

  “Lovers? No, honey, we’re not any of those things, are we.” Jared glanced meaningfully at her stomach. “So why didn’t I spend the weekend with another woman?”

  “Are you telling me that you didn’t?” Paige mentally scolded herself for feeling so relieved. “You spent the weekend alone?”

  He could lie to her and see how she reacted. Or he could be honest with her, the way he wanted her to be honest with him. He could take a chance and trust her. God knew he wanted to trust her.

  “Did I mention that not only am I tired, sleepy and hungry—” he paused for effect “—but that I’m also lonely and horny as hell?”

  Amusement rose in her throat and erupted in an uncontrollable giggle. “You’re awful. Do you know that? You’re absolutely awful.”

  But you love me, anyway. God, where had that thought come from? He didn’t really believe Paige loved him, did he? But maybe she did. Maybe she— Hell, what difference did it make? He didn’t want her to love him, he just wanted her to— To what? Marry him. Be his lover. Allow him to train her how to be Mrs. L. J. Montgomery.

  “So, will you fix this awful guy some breakfast?” he asked.

  “If you promise to behave yourself today and not give me any trouble.” She took several steps toward the foyer, then paused and turned halfway around. “Where’s the kitchen?”

  “Go out into the foyer, down the hall past the stairway. It’s straight back. You can’t miss it.” When Paige headed toward the foyer, Jared called out, “Hey, you can cook, can’t you?”