Baby Bonanza (12 page)

In moments she was on her bed, staring up at him as he tore his jeans off and came to her. In the next instant he’d pulled her nightshirt up and off, and slid her white lace panties down the length of her legs and tossed them onto the floor.

Since the second he’d walked, unannounced, into her home, Jenna had wanted this. She’d lain awake at night hungering for him, and now that he was here, she had no intention of denying either of them. Though, for all she knew, this was his way of saying goodbye. He might be getting ready to leave, to go back to his world.

And if that was the case, then she wanted this one last night with him. Wanted to feel him over and around her. Wanted to look up into those pale eyes and know that at least for this moment, she was the most important thing in the world to him.

Tomorrow could take care of itself.

He moved in between her legs and stroked her now all-too-sensitive center. She moaned softly, spread her legs farther and rocked her hips in silent invitation. All she wanted was to feel the hard, strong slide of his body into hers. To hold him within her.

Then he was there, plunging deep, stealing her breath with the hard thrusts of his body. He laid claim to her in the most ancient and intimate way. And Jenna gave him everything she had. Her hands stroked up and down his spine. Her short nails clawed at his skin. Her legs wrapped themselves around his hips and urged him deeper, higher.

When he bent his head to kiss her, she parted her lips and met his tongue with her own in a tangle of need and want that was so beyond passion, beyond desire, that she felt the incredible sense that
this
is where she’d always been meant to be.

He tore his mouth from hers, looked down into her eyes and said on a groan, “Jenna…I need you.”

“You have me,” she told him and then arched her spine as a soul-shattering climax hit them both hard. Holding him tight, Jenna called out his name as wave after wave of sensation crashed, receded and slammed down onto them again and again. She felt his release as well as her own. She held him as his body trembled and shook with a power that was mind numbing.

It seemed the pleasure would never end.

It seemed they were destined to be joined together for the rest of time.

But finally, inevitably, the tantalizing pressure and delight faded and they lay together in a silence so profound, neither of them knew how to end it.

Nick was gone when she woke up.

Not gone gone. His duffle bag was still in one corner of the living room, so he hadn’t gone back to the ship. He was just nowhere to be found in the house. That shouldn’t have surprised her. After all, he’d avoided her the morning after their night together on board ship, as well. But somehow, disappointment welled inside her, and she wondered if he was deliberately distancing himself from her. To make the inevitable leaving easier.

With the sting of unshed tears filling her eyes, she slipped into her normal routine of taking care of the boys, and tried not to remember how it had felt to have Nick there, sharing all of this with her.

Once the twins were fed and dressed, Jenna decided to get out of the house herself. Damned if she’d sit around the house moping, waiting for Nick to return so that he could break her heart by telling her he was leaving. She had a life of her own and she was determined to live it.

Buckling the boys into their car seats, she then grabbed up a stuffed diaper bag and her purse and fired up the engine on her car.

“Don’t you worry, guys,” she said, looking into the rearview mirror at the mirrors she had positioned in front of their car seats so that she could see their faces, “we’re going to be fine. Daddy has to go away, but Mommy’s here. And I’m never going to leave you.”

Those blasted tears burned her eyes again and she blinked frantically to clear them away. She wasn’t going to cry. She’d had an incredible night with the man she loved and she wasn’t going to regret it. Whatever happened, happened.

When her cell phone rang, she assumed it was Maxie until she glanced at the screen and didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

“Jenna.”

“Nick,” she said, and tried not to sigh at the sound of his deep, dark voice murmuring in her ear.

“You at home?”

“Actually,” she said, lifting her chin as if that could help her keep her voice light and carefree, “I’m in the car. I’m taking the boys to the mall and—”

“Perfect,” he said quickly. “Have you got a pen?”

“Yes, I have a pen, but what is this—”

“Write this down.”

Both of her eyebrows lifted at the order. But she reached into her purse for a pen and a memo pad she always carried. Behind her Jacob was starting to fuss, and pretty soon, she knew, Cooper would be joining in. “Nick,” she asked, pen poised, “what’s this about?”

“Just…I want to show you something and I need you and the boys to come here.”

“Here where?”

“Here in San Pedro.”

She nearly groaned. “San Pedro?”

“Jenna, just do this for me, okay?” He paused, then added, “Please.”

Surprise flickered through her. She couldn’t remember Nick
ever
saying please before. So when he gave her directions, she dutifully wrote them down. When he was finished, she frowned and said, “Okay, we’ll come. Should be there in about a half hour.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

He hung up before she could ask any more questions, and Jenna scowled at her cell phone before she set it down on the seat beside her. “Well, guys, we’re off to meet your father.” Cooper cooed. “No, I don’t know what this is about, either,” she told her son. “But knowing your daddy, it could be anything.”

It turned out to be a house.

Cape Cod style, it looked distinctly out of place in Southern California, but it was the most beautiful house Jenna had ever seen. It was huge, and she was willing to bet that five of her cottages would have fit comfortably inside. But for all its size, it looked like a family home. There was a wide front lawn, and when she stepped out of the car in the driveway, she heard the sound of the ocean and knew the big house must be right on the sea.

“What’s going on here?” she wondered aloud. But then Jacob’s short, sharp cry caught her attention and she turned to get her sons out of their seats.

“Jenna!”

She looked up and watched as Nick ran down the front lawn to her. He looked excited, his pale eyes shining, his mouth turned into a grin so wide, his dimple dug deeply into his left cheek. Naturally, Jenna felt an involuntary tug of emotion at first sight of him, and she wondered if it would always be that way.

God, she hoped not.

“Let me help with the boys,” he said after giving her a quick, hard, unexpected kiss that left her reeling a little.

“Um, sure.” She watched as he rounded the back of her car, opened the other back door and began undoing the straps on Cooper’s car seat. “Nick, what’s going on? Where are we? Whose house is this?”

He shot her another breath-stealing grin and scooped Cooper up into his arms. “I’ll tell you everything as soon as we get inside.”

“Inside?” Finished with Jacob’s seat straps, she picked him up, cuddled him close and closed the car door with a loud smack of sound.

“Yep,” Nick said. “Inside. Go on ahead. I’ll get the diaper bag and your purse.”

She took a step, stopped and looked at him. Dappled shade from the massive oak tree in the front yard fell across his features. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt and those faded jeans he’d been wearing the night before when they—
Okay, don’t go there,
she told herself. “I can’t just go inside. I don’t know who lives here and—”

“Fine,” he said, coming around the hood of the car, her purse under his arm and the diaper bag slung over that shoulder, while he jiggled Cooper on the other. “We’ll go together. All of us. Better that way, anyway.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ll see.” He started for the house and she had little choice but to follow.

The brick walkway from the drive to the front door was lined with primroses in vibrant, primary shades of color. More flowerbeds followed the line of the house, with roses and tall spires of pastel-colored stocks scenting the air with a heady perfume.

Jenna kept expecting the owner of the house to come to the front door to welcome them, but no one did. And when she crossed the threshold, she understood why.

The house was empty.

Their footsteps echoed in the cavernous rooms as Nick led her through the living room, past a wide staircase, down a hall and then through the kitchen. Her head turned from side to side, taking it all in, delighting in the space, the lines of the house. Whoever had designed it had known what they were doing. The walls were the color of rich, heavy cream, and dark wood framed doorways and windows. The floors were pale oak and polished to a high shine. The rooms bled one into the other in a flow that cried out for a family’s presence.

This house was made for the sound of children’s laughter. As Jenna followed Nick through room after room, she felt that there was a sense of ease in the house. As if the building itself were taking a deep breath and relishing the feel of people within its walls again.

“Nick…” The kitchen was amazing, but she hardly had time to glance at it as he led her straight through the big room and out the back door.

“Come on, I want you to see this,” he said, stepping back so that she could move onto the stone patio in front of him.

A cold ocean wind slapped at her, and Jenna realized she’d been right, the house did sit on a knoll above the sea. The stone patio gave way to a rolling lawn edged with trees and flowers that looked as she imagined an English cottage garden would. Beyond the lawn was a low-lying fence with a gate that led to steps that would take the lucky people who lived here right down to the beach.

As Jenna held Jacob close, she did a slow turn, taking it all in, feeling overwhelmed with the beauty of the place as she finally circled back to look out at the sea, glittering with golden sunlight.

Shaking her head, she glanced at Nick. “I don’t understand, Nick. What’s going on? Why are we here?”

“Do you like it?” he asked, letting his gaze shift around the yard as he dropped the diaper bag and her purse to the patio. “The house, I mean,” he said, hitching Cooper a little higher on his chest. “Do you like it?”

She laughed, uncertainty jangling her nerves. “What’s not to like?”

“Good. That’s good,” he said, coming to her side. “Because I bought it.”

“You—
what?
”

Nick nearly laughed at the stunned expression on her face. God, this had been worth all of the secretive phone calls to real estate agents he’d been making. Worth getting up and leaving her that morning so that he could finalize the deal with the house’s former owners.

This was going to work.

It had to work.

“Why would you do that?”

“For us,” he said, and had the pleasure of watching her features go completely slack as she staggered unsteadily for a second.

“Us?”

“Yes, Jenna. Us.” He reached out, cupped her cheek in his palm and was only mildly disappointed when she stepped back and away from him. He would convince her. He
had
to convince her. “I found a solution to our situation,” he said, locking his gaze with hers, wanting her to see everything he was thinking, feeling, written in his eyes.

“Our situation?” She blinked, shook her head as if to clear away cobwebs and then stared at him again.

The wind was cold, but the sun was warm. Shade from the trees didn’t reach the patio, and the sunlight dancing in her hair made him want to grab her and hold her close. But first they had to settle this. Once and for all.

“The boys,” he said, starting out slowly, as he’d planned. “We both love them. We both want them. So it occurred to me that the solution was for us to get married. Then we both have them.”

She took another step back, and, irritated that she hadn’t jumped on his plan wholeheartedly, Nick talked faster. “It’s not like we don’t get along. And the sex is great. You have to admit there’s real chemistry between us, Jenna. It would work. You know it would.”

“No,” she shook her head again and when Jacob picked up on her tension and began to cry, Nick moved in closer to her.

He talked even faster, hurrying to change her mind. Make her see what their future could be. “Don’t say no till you think about it, Jenna. When you do, you’ll see that I’m right. This is perfect. For all of us.”

“No, Nick,” she said, soothing Jacob even as she smiled sadly up at him. “It’s not perfect. I know you love your sons, I do. And I’m glad of that. They’ll need you as much as you need them. But you don’t love
me.
”

“Jenna…”

“No.” She laughed shortly, looked around the backyard, at the sea, and then finally she turned her gaze on Nick again. “It doesn’t matter if we get along, or if the sex and chemistry between us is great. I can’t marry a man who doesn’t love me.”