Tessa Radley - Expecting His Child - The Pregnancy Plot / Staking His Claim / A Tricky Proposition

“Let me guess,” he said softly, finally releasing the necklace. “Your past is off-limits, right?”

She nodded, feeling foolish even though she knew that wasn’t Matt’s intention.

Tell him.

She glanced away, skin prickling under his silent scrutiny. “My mother was sixteen and pregnant with me when she was kicked out of her home. We lived off welfare until she hooked up with my stepfather, a delightful man who got her addicted to booze and drugs.” She stopped, face flaming. Too much. Way too much. Yet something in his face, in that open, nonjudgmental expression, made her forge on. “Parents are supposed to look after their kids, not make them lie and steal and dread every knock on the door. But we survived.” She managed a shaky smile. “Well, I guess Emily’s doing better than just surviving. She always was the big believer in the glorious fairy-tale of love.”

He arched an eyebrow. “You don’t believe in love?”

“Of course I do. Just not the whole Prince-Charming-riding-in-to-sweep-me-off-my-feet thing.” When he remained silent, she added a little defiantly, “I spent a lot of years on my own. It tend to makes you a realist.”

He studied her for an age, almost as if he were waiting for something more. She met his scrutiny head-on, and as the seconds passed, an uncomfortable panic began to leech in. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re sad for me. I don’t need it. I don’t—” Need you. No, that felt wrong and she managed to stop the words before they formed.

She heard him sigh and the mood suddenly changed. “Look, AJ, I understand your need for control, I really do. But closing yourself off to possibilities isn’t the right way to go about it.”

She scowled and leaned back in the seat. “Why are we even talking about this again?”

“Because talking is what people do.”

She huffed out a breath. “I knew this would happen. I’d mention my past and you’d...”

“I’d what?” Matt’s expression was a mix of sadness and understanding. Not disgust. Not pity. Yet somehow, his sympathy did something to her insides and she had to glance away. “You can let your past define you, let it keep chipping away at who you are, or you can make a decision and take control.”

“Like you did after your brother’s accident?”

His mouth tightened for one second. “Yeah.”

AJ flushed and clamped her mouth shut. Where on earth had that cheap shot come from? Yet as she studied him, she sensed something behind that smooth expression. What would it take to relieve him of that burden?

More than she could offer. Certainly nothing she could say because hadn’t she already stuck her foot in it?

So instead, she placed a hand over his, leaned in and kissed him.

It was a gentle kiss, devoid of ulterior motive. It wasn’t a precursor to passion. It was a kiss with the full brunt of her emotional state behind it, and for one second she felt him go still beneath her mouth, almost as if she’d shocked him and he was unsure of what to do.

She let her eyes close, moving slowly, testing the swell of his full bottom lip between hers. His sigh, when it came, shuddered into her and that’s when she knew she’d done the right thing.

They kissed for ages, leisurely exploring each other in the dim restaurant light, pressed together from shoulder to thigh. When they finally broke apart, Matt glanced down at the table, then laughed.

AJ followed his gaze. While they’d been lip locked, their waiter had discreetly left their meals, topped up their glasses and added some cutlery.

“This place has excellent service,” AJ got out.

Matt nodded, his smile matching hers. “I agree.”

By unspoken agreement, they sought each other again, but this time AJ felt the urgency behind his kiss. The pressure had changed, going from sweet to insistent. Then his hand slipped under the table to gently rest on her knee.

She momentarily broke the kiss. “Matt?”

“Mmm?” His hand left her knee, stroking as it eased higher to her thigh.

“We can’t.”

“Why not?”

Her head swam. Why not indeed? “For starters, we’re in a public place.”

“So we are.” AJ felt a tremor of excitement as his fingers crept under the hem of her dress, making their way teasingly up. She held her breath, desperate to see how far he would actually go before one of them put a stop to it.

Would she? Would he?

And still his hand went higher.

She met his gaze and held it. He was at her inner thigh now, his fingers creating a warm path ever upward. Then...

She held her breath as he gently stroked her through the thin cotton of her knickers.

“Matt...”

Slowly, regretfully it seemed, he withdrew. “You don’t think we should do this.” Her nod, when it came, was a little too reluctant. “But do you want to?”

She clamped off a groan and murmured something under her breath.

“What?”

She shook her head. “Let’s just eat, okay?”

He stared at her for the longest time, until her eyes darted away to her plate. With infinite care, she silently drew it across the table, picked up her fork then proceeded to eat.

“Fine, Angel. We’ll eat.”

Thirteen

They walked back to the pensione, only this time he didn’t take her hand, and it made AJ’s heart ache.

No, it was bigger than that. Everything inside ached, like someone had come along and stolen a vital part of herself, and that loss only exacerbated the chaos.

“Matt?”

“Yeah?” He pushed the front door open and let her go in first. She mounted the narrow staircase, more than aware of his presence close behind. When they reached the top of the stairs, she turned to face him. “Back at the beach. You were going to ask me something but didn’t.” His brows dipped but he said nothing. “What was it?”

“Nothing.”

He made a move to go past her but she grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop. “Just say it. I want to know.”

He huffed out a sigh. “I was going to ask you about the night we broke up.”

She dropped his arm and took a step back. “Why do you want to talk about that?”

“How long did it take for you to forgive me?”

“I just—” Wow, what could she say to that? “I didn’t blame you.” It was true. She’d blamed herself.

“Not even after the way I just dropped it on you?”

“No.” She turned and walked down the short corridor toward their bedroom door. Matt followed. “Why are you asking now? The past is past. Going over it won’t change anything.” She shoved the door open, went straight to the wardrobe and grabbed her suitcase.

“You don’t like talking about the past, do you?”

She snapped her gaze up, irritated by his brusqueness. “Just because I don’t blurt out every tiny detail about my life doesn’t mean it’s wrong.” She turned to the bureau, grabbed a handful of underwear and tossed them into the open case.

“I’m not saying that. But you need to give a little, AJ. You can’t expect someone to open up to you if you don’t do the same.”

I don’t want to open up. Not to you. “This isn’t part of our deal, Matt,” she said softly.

He studied her in cool silence before saying, “That night we broke up? I’d just come off a twelve-hour shift. My tardiness and distraction hadn’t gone unnoticed those past six months. I’d had ‘the talk’ from my parents, then my senior resident—”

“Matt...”

“And the second time, I had to step up and make a choice.”

She glared at him as he tried to make his point. The teeny, tiny point. “Your career came first.” When it came, his slow nod only confirmed what she’d thought all along. “And I wasn’t Matthew Cooper girlfriend material.”