Читать книгу Secret Baby Spencer - Jule McBride, Jule Mcbride - Страница 11

“Married? After what we just did?” Seth managed, unable to process what she’d just said. Surely he’d misunderstood. Jenna wasn’t marrying another man! She couldn’t! His body was still on fire. His thighs were weak from how she’d sapped every last drop of his strength, and his voice was low and raspy from the raw way he’d kept whispering her name. “You’re telling me this after making love to me, Jenna?”

“We didn’t make love,” she protested nervously, quickly buttoning her top and tucking it into her leather miniskirt. “We had sex.” She colored. “There’s a big difference, Seth. There really is.”

Given the circumstances, her pointing it out was sorely offensive. His lips parted in exasperation. “You don’t think I know that?”

Exhaling a whoosh of annoyed breath, she arched a thin, dark, perfectly tweezed eyebrow and challenged, “Do you?”

If he was honest, maybe not, but under the circumstances he hardly wanted Jenna enumerating his deficiencies in relationships with women or otherwise probing his sensitive spots. For the first time, he silently damned her for knowing him well enough to guess his Achilles’ heel. The truth was, he really didn’t have much experience with women. Oh, he loved sex, of course. That was a man’s lifeblood as far as Seth Spencer was concerned—an attitude shared by all the Spencer men—but when it came to mixing pleasure with emotion, Seth had always avoided women. Until Jenna.

“I guess you make love to Dom?” he said now, trying to keep his tone even. But when could Dom and Jenna have gotten together, a voice in his mind asked. And if what Jenna said was true and she was getting married, why had she made love to Seth now?

Forget it, Seth thought. A relationship with Dom simply couldn’t have progressed to the point where they were getting married. Seth had only left New York six weeks ago! Besides, he, not Dom, had been dating Jenna for the past year and a half. Sure, deep down he’d wanted to head back to New York and claim her, but Seth had known that was impractical. He had a bank to run.

Yesterday, however, he’d begun considering calling Jenna in Manhattan, to see if she’d changed her mind and might want to keep in touch with him. He’d barely admitted it to himself at the time, but he’d been considering suggesting that Jenna fly to Tyler for a long weekend visit…. Seth hadn’t been sure he should take that risk, though.

And now Jenna was in Tyler. Just moments ago she’d been half naked and lying across his desk, too, and now Seth simply couldn’t grasp what was happening. Had Jenna really said she was marrying Dom Milano?

She didn’t bother to answer his question. He watched in stupefaction as she straightened her top, then he listened to the rustling fabric of tights as her endlessly long, showgirl legs scissored toward the door. As furious as he was, he had to admit he was affected by her graceful movements. She looked like she was dancing, not fleeing his office as if the hounds of hell were on her heels. When she turned, Seth was pleased to see her chin quivering. It was a show of weakness virtually unknown to Jenna, and while he wasn’t proud of it, Seth hoped she was feeling even guiltier than that uncharacteristic tremor indicated, especially if she was really marrying Dom.

But she’s not. She can’t be. It’s impossible. Besides, even if she was, why would she come all the way to Tyler. Once more Seth reminded himself that for the past year and a half she’d been dating him, not Dom, then pure fury whipped through him. Had Jenna been sleeping with Dom while she was seeing Seth?

He drew in a deep, steadying breath, but his mind continued to race. He had a million questions, but he was far too much of a man to make himself vulnerable. He just wished he couldn’t so easily see Dom’s appeal, but Dom was one of those sexy, swarthy Italians women always swooned over. He looked like a younger, taller Al Pacino, and he managed to share female interests without ever seeming unmasculine. He was a clotheshorse, for instance, just like Jenna, and Dom could talk as enthusiastically about street rumbles he’d fought during his youth in Little Italy as he could about other things Jenna loved so dearly, such as art shows and foreign films.

Grinding his teeth, Seth had a flash fantasy in which Dom was translating Italian movie subtitles for Jenna in a seductive voice, and then Seth tried not to recall the knowing look in Dom’s teasing, flashing dark eyes. Dom very definitely possessed the kind of challenging male gaze that promised a woman passion, and as he visualized that insinuating look, Seth’s fingers curled, knotting into tight, angry fists.

“I’d prefer to keep the specifics of my relationship with Dom private,” Jenna was saying stiffly from her place at the door. “But I—I thought you should, uh, at least know what was happening. Actually, Dom insisted you be told this. And…well, Seth, there’s something else I really need to tell you now….”

“I’ve heard enough already,” he growled under his breath, shoving his clenched hands deep into the pockets of his trousers, largely so she wouldn’t see him fidget and realize how affected he was by this news. “Jenna,” he continued, raising his voice but managing to keep it thoroughly controlled. “Let’s stick with Dom for the moment. If you’re marrying him, why didn’t you bother to tell me when you waltzed into my office?”

“How could I? You didn’t give me a chance!” she burst out, her voice still hoarse and tinged with arousal, the dark color that suffused her cheeks deepening to a guilty scarlet.

“You’re right about that,” he muttered, unable to take his eyes from her as he thrust a frustrated hand through his short dark hair. Gritting his teeth, he decided she had some nerve looking so damn gorgeous, standing against the door, so tall and slender, her scrap of a skirt topping those annoyingly long, luscious legs that had been wrapped around his waist just minutes ago, squeezing the breath out of him.

Seth bit back a groan. He’d missed her so much. Even now, her silken red-streaked hair looked too touchable, feathering against poreless cheeks that had been as smooth as water under his mouth. Her lips were swollen, berry-red and pleasantly bruised from the needy, insistent crush of his kisses. Despite the situation, looking at her made heat pool in his belly, filling him with ravenous lust all over again. He glanced at the desk, then blew out a murderous sigh.

“Okay,” he forced himself to say, moving toward her, his mind whirling, his voice taking on a harder edge. “You’re absolutely right, I didn’t give you a chance to talk to me when you got here, but you didn’t exactly complain about it, did you, Jenna?” Hadn’t she come here for exactly what he’d given her? Hadn’t she been going crazy without him? His mind still couldn’t quite process what she’d said about Dom. “What did you expect me to do?” he bit out when she didn’t respond, suddenly unable to contain his uncertainty any longer.

“Expect you to do?”

“Yes…when you come all the way here to Tyler and waltz into my office dressed like that.”

She stared down, looking appalled. “Dressed like what?”

She knew what. Seth’s lips parted in shock as his eyes drifted upward, over the sinfully short skirt, to the powdery lace top that so snugly cupped her full breasts. The collar wasn’t fully buttoned, and even from here, Seth could see ample cleavage. No, he decided, it definitely wasn’t his imagination. Jenna’s outfit was calculated to drive a man wild. And it had worked.

She was surveying him with nonchalance that had to be feigned. “What happened is all my fault, I assume?”

As if I attacked her. “Since when is making love anybody’s fault?” he couldn’t help but challenge.

“We had sex,” she corrected.

“You seem committed to keeping that distinction clear,” he muttered. No doubt, because she really intended to marry Dom. Realizing he was standing numbly in front of her, like a fool, Seth lifted a hand and leaned it against the door’s molding, conscious of the fact—but hardly caring—that he’d trapped her against the wall. Warring emotions ripped through him as his gaze dropped, tracing the rose swell of breasts he’d just palmed and tortured with his tongue. Breasts, if the truth be told, he’d come to secretly think belonged to him. Dammit! Surely he’d heard her wrong. That, or he was neck-deep in denial. But he wasn’t, was he? Earlier today hadn’t Molly Blake said Jenna adored him?

“This is definitely your fault,” he suddenly said, knowing he was contradicting himself, but unable to help it since befuddling his mind was only one of the many things Jenna Robinson did so well to him. “You damn well know how I react to tights with dark seams, high-heeled boots and leather miniskirts, Jen.”

She swallowed hard, color flooded her cheeks, and as he curiously watched the pulse ticking in her neck, Seth was suddenly sure she’d worn the provocative clothes on purpose. Oh, yes, Jenna had had every intention of arousing him. Making love with her hadn’t fully cured him of his desire, either, he thought angrily, his groin traitorously aching. But why the incredible claim she was marrying Dom Milano?

“When I dressed this morning, I wasn’t thinking,” she now defended with unnerving calm. Showing a spark of the usual Jenna, her glittering green eyes now settled on his, holding a dare. “But then, I didn’t happen to pack anything made of burlap, Seth.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” he returned dryly, still fighting denial about the abrupt, southward turn of their relationship. “Judging from that crowd you attracted on the sidewalk, tights with seams up the back go over well in Tyler.” He arched an eyebrow. “Staying in town long? If you don’t mind me asking, that is?”

“A few days,” Jenna said, her low-pitched voice still stiff. “I came…to work with Molly Blake on the promotion for her new bed-and-breakfast.”

That was rich. Before this, Jenna had never left New York for freelance jobs. “Happy to have gotten the work for you.”

“Thanks for the referral.”

He eyed her. “Couldn’t do the work by courier?”

Her mouth tightened. “No, it just so happens, I couldn’t, Seth. Not this time. This job is special.”

Seth didn’t believe it. Jenna had done freelance art jobs for clients in far more desirable locales than Tyler, and she’d never bothered to leave home. No, Seth decided, relief flooding him, none of this made a lick of sense. She’d come to town expressly to see him, and maybe it was more her idea than she was admitting. “Dom?” he managed again, his eyes narrowing in challenge. “Did you really say you’re marrying Dom Milano?”

Jenna nodded. “Yes, Dom.”

She sounded so serious. But Dom was merely her friend. They’d been buddies for years. Besides, after Sue Ellis’s divorce, it seemed obvious that Sue and Dom were getting together. Seth was usually as steady as a rock, but now he felt as if the floor were shifting under his feet. “Jenna,” he couldn’t help but say. “You’re serious? You’re getting married?”

Dangerous emotion sparked in her eyes. “I take it that surprises you?”

Seth could barely control his voice. “Hell, yes, it does.”

The comment only seemed to rile her. “Why?”

His lips parted in astonishment and the roughly spoken words were out before he thought them through. “Because I shared your bed for the past a year and a half.”

“Intermittently,” she returned, her head now bobbing up and down as if this confirmed some opinion she’d privately held for some time. “And sharing my bed was fine for you. I see. But now there’s something wrong with me marrying someone else?”

“No,” he shot back, determined not to let her fluster him. “I guess not. Except for the fact that we just had some rather amazing sex on my desk.”

“Sex,” she said knowingly. “Is it really so hard to imagine a man wanting a future with me?” Her voice rose passionately as if they were now having exactly the conversation she’d anticipated. “Is it really so difficult to believe a man might love me?”

No. Of course not. He’d thought he loved her a few minutes ago, when she was still outside standing on the sidewalk. “Five minutes ago you seemed lovable enough,” Seth admitted, unable to keep the huffiness from his tone. “So lovable, in fact, that if I was Dom, I’d be worried. Last I heard, faithfulness is usually an issue when it comes to marriage.” Not that it had been with his mother.