Maureen Child - Desiring the Reilly Brothers - The Tempting Mrs Reilly / Whatever Reilly Wants... / The Last Reilly Standing

“Talk to me, Tina,” he complained and she heard the impatience in his voice and winced at it.

So much for the happy afterglow thing, she thought as she continued to grope her way across the floor, looking under tables and the edge of the bed for her wayward towel. “You know what?” She staggered to her feet, caught her toe on the hem of the sheet and stumbled forward a step or two. “Screw the towel. I’ll just borrow this sheet to go back to Nana’s house in. I’ll bring it back to you tonight.”

Then she made the mistake of turning around to look at him. Naked and comfortable with it, he was sprawled across the rumpled sheets, braced on his elbows as he watched her. Every square inch of him was gorgeous. He looked like a statue carved by a master craftsman. Well, except for the suspicion gleaming in his eyes.

“Not a chance,” he muttered.

“You don’t trust me with your sheet? ”

“I don’t give a good damn about the stupid sheet, Tina,” he said, sliding off the bed and stalking toward her. “I want to know what’s going on inside that head of yours and you’re not leaving until you tell me.”

Tina took an instinctive step backward, then stiffened her spine and stood her ground. After all, she wasn’t ashamed of what she’d done. Well, not totally, anyway. It wasn’t as if she’d had to hold a gun to his head to get him to have sex with her, right? He’d enjoyed himself. Many times.

Although , said a little voice in the back of her mind, if he’d known what you were doing, he never would have slept with you.

But then, she reasoned, however faulty, that’s precisely why she hadn’t told him.

Until now.

She forced herself to look into his eyes, because looking anywhere else would only send her blood into a frothing rush—and she knew darn well that once he knew what was going on…there wouldn’t be any more rolling around on those rumpled sheets.

Their gazes locked and Brian studied her features for what felt like forever. Then slowly, her gaze shifted to one side as if she couldn’t quite look him in the eyes. Not a good sign.

“Last night,” he said, his voice low and dangerous, “when you said I didn’t have to worry about not having condoms…”

Tina reached up and pushed her hair back from her face. With her free hand, she clutched the sheet to her chest like some ancient battle shield. “Yes?”

“You did mean that you were on the pill, right?”

“Not exactly.”

His features froze over. Some unidentifiable emotion—panic maybe, or fear—clawed at his chest. She still wouldn’t look directly at him. Oh yeah, his sixth sense was never wrong.

“Not exactly? ” he repeated, remembering just how many times he’d made love to Tina during the night. How many times his little warriors had stormed her undefended beaches. The air in the room got a little thin and he had to gulp in oxygen like a drowning man. “Just what the hell does ‘not exactly’ mean?”

“It means that I’m not on the pill, but you don’t have to worry.”

Not on the pill.

Four words guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of men everywhere. The world shifted just a bit and he felt as though he were perched on the edge of a cliff and already sliding swiftly toward a crevasse that was going to swallow him whole. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

Don’t have to worry? he thought. What the hell kind of man did she think he was? Did she really believe he could make a child and walk away? Didn’t she know him at all?

Oh, God.

A baby?

His blood pumped and the furious roaring in his ears sounded a backdrop for the bass drum beating of his heart.

“And I shouldn’t worry because…”

Here it comes. Tina had known all along that she’d have to tell him. That she wouldn’t be able to not tell him. But it was different, now.

Back home in California, when she was talking to Janet, planning all of this, thinking it through, she’d done it objectively. She’d reasoned it all out and the plan had seemed fair to her. She would have the child she’d always wanted and Brian would have the opportunity to either be a part of the child’s life or not, as he chose.

Now though, guilt was a living thing inside her.

Now, she regretted the lie to him—though she didn’t regret her actions, not one bit. She wouldn’t trade the past several hours with Brian for anything. And hopefully, they’d created a child—and she would love it with all her heart.

The problem was, she loved Brian, too. And loving him, she could feel badly for tricking him into this. For taking advantage of the nearly magical chemistry they’d always shared. But if she had to live with guilt to have his child, then that’s just the way it would have to be.

She looked up at him and etched this image of him into her brain. Stern, his face set in hard planes and sharp angles, his eyes glittering with impatience and the first stirring of temper. Outside, the sun was creeping into the sky, sending the first pale rays of light reaching into the shadows of the room. Birds chirped, the wind blew softly and the day moved forward even while time seemed to click to a standstill here in Brian’s apartment.

He reached for her, his hands coming down on her shoulders, his fingers digging into her flesh, branding her skin with heat. “Tell me what the hell you think you’re doing, Tina. I’ve got a right to know.”

She steadied herself, taking a deep breath and blowing it out again before trying to answer him. Then tossing her hair behind her shoulders, she looked him dead in the eye and started talking. “Yes, you do. And I was going to tell you anyway, I want you to know that.”

“Tell me what? ”

“That I want to be pregnant.”

He blinked, opened his mouth, then slammed it shut again, clearly waiting for more.

She gave it to him.

“And I’m really hoping that we made a baby last night.”

He let her go so suddenly, she staggered backward a step or two before regaining her balance. His eyes went wide and he looked at her as if she were a stranger who’d wandered into his room accidentally.

“A baby? ”

Tina winced slightly at the horrified tone in his voice, but she stood her ground defiantly. A Coretti didn’t hide from responsibility. “That’s right. I wanted a baby and I wanted you to be the father.”

He reached up and shoved both hands along his skull, as if he were trying to keep his brain from exploding. “ You wanted,” he said after a long, painful moment of silence. “You didn’t think I should get a vote in that?”

Tina’s lips quirked and her gaze slid past him to the bed and back again. “You voted yes, Brian. Many times as I recall.”

“I voted for sex, ” he pointed out harshly. “Don’t remember voting for fatherhood. ”

That stung and because it was true, she only nodded. “I know. But when I said you didn’t have to worry, I meant it.”

“Right. Don’t worry. Make babies, move on.”

“Brian, I want this baby.”

“Don’t say that,” he snapped. “We don’t know that there is a baby.”

She slapped one hand to her abdomen, as if she could block the ears of the microscopic life that might already be forming inside her. “I hope to heaven there is.”

“Tina, what in the hell were you thinking?”

“I just told you.”

“Uh-huh,” he muttered thickly and moved past her, grabbing up his jeans and tugging them on.

“Your biological clock ticks and the alarm goes off on me? ”

“For God’s sake, Brian,” she said, gathering up her sheet and holding it even tighter around her body, “you don’t have to act like I pulled a gun on you and forced you to have sex with me.”