Page 48 of Hot Holiday Fling
“We shared your bed, Hunt. That’s about it.”
“I thought we enjoyed each other as much out of the bedroom as we did inside it,” Hunt replied.
And what did he mean by that?
“I’m only going to say this once... Griselda will never be a part of my life again,” Hunt said, his words clipped. “We’re done. She wanted something I couldn’t give her.”
Adie cocked her head to the side. “Love? Commitment? A proper relationship?”
“No, Griselda didn’t want that from me. What she wanted was for us to co-raise a child together,” Hunt explained, keeping his eyes on hers. “I told her no.”
Holy hell, really? “And why didn’t you tell me this before?”
Hunt’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe because we were only sharing a bed, Adie.”
Oooh, touché.
Despite knowing that she was dragging out this goodbye, Adie wanted to know more. “Did you say no because you don’t want to be a dad?”
He was anti-commitment, anti-relationships, so his not wanting to father a child, to tie himself to a woman through a baby for the rest of his life, made sense.
Hunt held her eyes, his expression enigmatic. “I didn’t think I did. I’ve changed my mind about quite a few things since you dropped into my life, Adie.
“I don’t want a cold relationship, Adie, with a cold woman. I don’t want a nanny to raise my child, to visit my child in the apartment downstairs. I want my child to run down the hall and climb onto our bed, snuggled down between us, nag us to get up because he wants to play. I want to do the midnight feedings and bath times, read stories to our kids, take them to their sports games and ballet lessons and play in the snow. I want to be a dad, not their sperm donor or bank manager.
“Be my unborn kid’s mom, Adie,” Hunt added.
“What?”
Had he lost his freaking mind?
Adie looked at him, looking for the hint of humor that would tell her he was joking. But she didn’t find it.
What was happening here? Instead of going up one level—let’s try and keep this alive, let’s see where this goes—he’d skipped five or six and went straight to the highest floor, the scariest level.
The urge to fling herself into his arms, to plaster her mouth against his and utter a series of yes’s in-between kissing him senseless, was strong. Because joy flooded her system and her heart took flight, she forced herself to take a step back and hold up her hand. God help her, she needed to leave before she threw caution to the wind and said something stupid.
Like yes.
“I—I... Hunt, God. Where is this coming from?” Adie demanded, her voice turning shrill. “We’ve known each for three weeks and now you’re asking me to be your baby mama? This was just supposed to be a three-week fling, Sheridan! No commitments, no strings, a good time and then we walk away. What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m trying to keep you in my life, dammit!”
“Why?” Adie shouted back.
“Because what we have is amazing. Because this can be something special, a once-in-a-lifetime thing!”
His words bounced off his walls, off the glass of his expansive windows and Adie felt them pummel her skin. Oh, no, no, no, no! She didn’t want this intensity, hadn’t asked for it, couldn’t trust it. This level was way out of her comfort zone.
He hadn’t mentioned theLword, but it was there, hovering between them. But love, expressed or not, would die. It always did. Maybe not by his hand but in time, by hers. She couldn’t be loved, didn’t want to be...
Love was a myth. Wasn’t it?
Adie stared into his eyes, saw the tenderness under his frustration and felt herself leaning toward him, wanting to believe that this was it, that love could last, that she could change. But that wasn’t fair, not to him and not to her.
She saw his face soften, watched as his hands reached for her, but before they could physically connect, she jerked back.
She couldn’t allow herself to be sucked into a relationship, a relationship that had no chance of lasting.