“I know. I’m not sure what I was thinking. It’s just… You were being so understanding, and I want a baby so badly. And well, look at you.”
“So you think I’m good-looking? That I’d make a good-looking child for you?”
“Well…yeah. We both have dark hair, brown eyes. But seriously. Forget it. I…” She shakes her head. “Callie says I get too emotional. She’s right. I have that emotional artist’s brain, compared to her logical brain. I let my emotions get away from me, and I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.” My tone comes out kind of robotic.
“Yeah, I do.” She lets out a forced laugh. “Do you still want to get to know me?”
Do I?
It only takes me a millisecond to reply.
“Yeah. I do.”
She smiles, sort of. It’s forced again, but it’s…not an unhappy smile. If such a thing even exists. It’s more of an apologetic smile.
“Good.”
I take her hand in mine. Even her hands are beautiful, perfectly formed, with pink polish on her nails.
“Listen,” I say. “I can’t just forget that you said that, but I have to tell you, I’m not ready to be a father.”
“I get it. It was a stupid idea. I have no business thinking about babies with all the other stuff going on in my life right now anyway.”
“You have every business to be thinking about babies, Rory. If it’s a dream you have, you have every right to think about it.”
“You did say you wanted children.”
“Of course. Someday. I just haven’t given it a thought in the present.”
“You’re young.”
“So are you. Twenty-eight is hardly old.”
She opens her mouth, closes it, but then opens it once more. “Reproductively speaking, twenty-eight is getting up there for a woman.”
She pauses, and for a moment I think she’s going to say something else, but she doesn’t.
I get it.
It’s just nothing I’ve ever considered before.
I was hoping tonight would lead to the bedroom. I suppose it still could, but I’m not sure how to approach it now.
Me. Brock Steel. I’m not sure how to get this woman into my bed.
My God, what is the world coming to?
And the even weirder thing? Her comment about making a baby should have sent my dick running for the hills, but it hasn’t.
I’m still so hard for this woman that I’m not sure I’ll be able to stand.
Why does the thought of making a baby with Rory Pike have me primed and ready to go like this?
This is some scary shit.
Maybe I just need to get laid. Maybe I need an escape from all the crap coming down on my family. From the fact that I spent the day searching for human decay on Steel property.
Whatever it is, I want her more than ever.
I finish my Armagnac, letting it soothe my throat and my stomach.
“Rory,” I say.
“Yes?”
“You’re so fucking beautiful, both inside and out, and I really want to go to bed with you.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever uttered those words to a woman before. Usually I just kiss her until she melts.
I could kiss Rory right now. I could give her all the patented Brock Steel moves.
But I don’t want to do that. She’s different. She’s worth more. I don’t want this to be a quick fuck.
I want it to mean something.
I want it to mean something to her as well.
“Can you please just forget that I said what I said?” she asks softly.
“Sure.”
I’ll try, anyway.
She finishes her Armagnac and then taps the glass. “This is potent stuff. Seems I let my mouth run quite a bit tonight. First my old high school drama, and now…”
I touch her then. Stroke my fingers over the side of her cheek and down her slender neck. I tingle at the softness of her skin. “I’m not sure what’s going on in my head,” I say. “I want to be honest with you.”
“Please do.”
“I like you. I like you a lot. Sure, at first I thought it would just be great to get busy with the most beautiful woman in Snow Creek, but for some reason, I wanted to get to know you. And what I know about you, I really like.”
“Honestly?” she says. “Ditto for me. I figured you were just some gorgeous playboy with a hard-on. You’re not.”
“It is nice to be known as something more than just a pretty face,” I can’t help saying.
“Touché.”
I rise then. To hell with my hard-on. She’s going to find out about it soon enough.
I can’t get a read on her, but she knows what my fathering a child would entail, so surely she was thinking the same thing.
I grip her shoulders, pull her into my body, and smash my mouth to hers.
She opens for me. Smoothly and liquidly, her lips part as her tongue flows into my mouth.
Yes, we’ve kissed before. A wonderful and exhilarating kiss behind her band’s van at Uncle Talon’s party. But I knew that wasn’t leading to anything.