immediately that he wasn’t only concerned about health issues but about pregnancy. How careless could she be? she asked herself. Hadn’t she learned anything growing up with her unmarried mother?
“I’m not on the pill,” she said. She was one of the small percentage of women who were allergic to it. It had never bothered her because she wasn’t swept away by desire. In fact, she had found the entire male-female lust-at-first-sight phenomenon to be highly overrated…until tonight.
“Well, hell,” he said, then turned away from her to utter something profane and succinct.
His words cut straight to her heart.
“Yes, hell. This isn’t the end of the world, you know.” Chances were she wasn’t pregnant.
Now he was the one avoiding eye contact. “It is for me.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I made a vow never to marry again.” His words affected her in a way she didn’t want them to, and dashed her secret hopes once and for all. She’d been dreaming of Nick Camden for so long that she’d put him on a pedestal, and here he was revealing his very real clay feet.
“I don’t recall asking you to marry me, Nick Camden.”
His laser-sharp gaze pinned her to her spot. He didn’t say anything in response to her sarcasm.
“If you’re pregnant we can discuss the choices to be made.”
“What are you insinuating, Nick?”
“That we will have to make some decisions once we know the full details of the situation.”
“This sounds like the verbiage for a damned memo. This isn’t about the job, you know. This is about life.”
“My job is my life, Lila.”
Truer words were never spoken.
“How soon until you’ll know if you’re knocked up?”
“Jeez, now that I’ve seen your charm I know why you’re so popular with the ladies.”
“Dammit, Lila—”
“Yes, dammit, Nick.”
She walked out of his office and grabbed her purse from the bottom desk drawer.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
She sighed. She knew how dogged he could be when he set his mind to something. “A few days maybe. I’m not real regular.”
She shut off her desk lamp and felt the heavy weight of his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll drive you home.”
“No, thank you.”
“It wasn’t an offer.”
“Was it an order?”
“Tell me you’re not planning to walk home in the dark.”
“I’m not planning to walk home in the dark,” she said, feeling an edge that she normally tempered with lots of baking and a call to her mother.
“Smart-ass.”
“Look, this is Youngsville, not Chicago. I’ll be fine.”
“You’re not going without me and that’s final.”
“Okay,” she said.
He grabbed his coat from the rack and reached around the corner to hit the light switch. Lila’s discarded undergarments were under his desk. He stopped and pocketed them without a word. Then he closed and locked his inner office door. He took her elbow and escorted her down the darkened hallway.
Lila felt the emotions inside her swirling like a black mist and rising so quickly she couldn’t control them. She knew she had to keep her mouth shut but somehow the words wouldn’t stop.
“So I guess I shouldn’t ask if it was good for you?”
Three
Nick had been at some low places in his life but never had he felt like this. The night was pitch dark and he was thankful that Lila was silent as they drove. He didn’t think he could take much more conversation from her at this point. In his mind’s eye he was surrounded by an image of Lila’s wide brown eyes brimming with a sheen of tears.
Though his mind screamed for him to back away his body relived the incredible rightness that their joining had brought. And he knew that he should regret that he hadn’t used a condom when they’d made love, but deep inside he was glad he hadn’t. His groin still throbbed at the remembered feel of her around him.
Lila had been the fulfillment of his dreams, of what a woman could be. But she was his assistant, dammit. How could he have let this happen?
But he knew once hadn’t been enough. In fact, as he came to a stop in front of her building, he knew that he wanted to come up tonight and mate with her again. To cement what was between them so that she didn’t have to react with her sharp tongue.
“Well, thanks for the ride,” she said and then a bitter laugh escaped her. “I meant the car ride.”
“Lila, stop it. I’m sorry for the way that our first time happened, but I won’t let you think it meant nothing to me.”
“I’m sure you say that to all the girls, Nick.”
“I don’t have a stock of lines I pull out for the appropriate moment.”
“I’m relieved.”
She looked at him, but her expression was indiscernible in the feeble light of the street lamp. He knew his reaction earlier had made his comments seem, well, like a lie, but truer words had never been spoken. Lila meant more to him than the faceless ladies in his past and she deserved better than a burnt-out executive whose only emotion was cold, hard lust.
Except it hadn’t felt cold or hard when he’d been with Lila. Buried in her sweet warm body he’d felt like he’d found the home he’d been forcing Colette, Inc. to be for years.
“Are you feeling better?”
She shook her head, the silky length of her blond hair was illuminated by the light of the moon. He wished he’d taken his time with her. He wished they’d had all night to learn each other’s bodies instead of a hurried explosion in his office. He wished that he could go back to the moment he’d pulled away from her and lie against her breast and comfort them both.
“I can’t do this right now. I’m achy and not myself,” she said.
“That’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I’m feeling mean, Nick. And I want to hurt you so deeply that you’ll still feel it weeks from now.”
“If it would make you feel better.”
She looked
