Baby Fever. Susan Crosby
icy skin. He’d been waiting for almost an hour. Perhaps waiting wasn’t the right word. He’d walked past the building then returned three times, not wanting to see her, not being able to keep his distance.
“Jasmine.” Her name sound magical and mysterious to him, conjuring up visions he should probably ignore. “Did you mean what you said last night?”
She looked away from him and sighed. “Yes and no.”
“Meaning?” Somehow her hands had settled within his and her warmth radiated to him.
“What I said to Maggie was just automatic reaction. It didn’t really pertain to you in particular.”
“You’ve been hurt before.”
“Haven’t we all?”
“But you more than most, I think.”
She shrugged one shoulder, and he focused on their joined hands, feeling her anticipation as she waited to learn what he wanted from her.
“I’m not making any promises—”
“I don’t want promises, Patrick.”
“I just want to spend some time with you. You can’t imagine the loneliness.” The nights are long and scary, he wanted to tell her. I lie awake listening to my heartbeat, and sometimes it feels like it stops.
“Yes, I can,” she whispered. “Oh, yes, I can.”
He heard it in her voice, too—loss and longing. “Night Flower,” he said softly, “will you spend an hour with me?”
She rubbed the bridge of her nose in a nervous gesture. “I could use some warming up.”
He leaned a little to block the rain from her face as it began to fall. The wind howled. “What’s open around here where we could get coffee?”
“Do you have a coffee maker in your hotel room?”
Surprised, he focused his gaze intently on her. “Yes,” he answered slowly. “And a fireplace. Two, as a matter of fact.”
“Sounds good to me.”
If it hadn’t been pouring he would have made her be specific about what she expected of him. But first he needed to get them out of the rain.
They ran the short distance, splashing through potholes of trapped water that was accumulating quickly in the deluge. He tugged her around a three-story house that had been converted into a hotel, then followed a pathway until they ended up at a brick cottage nestled in an Edenlike garden of greenery behind the building.
“Quick,” he said, urging her forward with a hand at her lower back as he unlocked the door.
“I can’t go inside like this!” Jasmine pressed herself against the building, under a short overhang, as he swung open the door.
“Why not?”
“I’ll get everything soaked. So will you.”
“People will clean it up.”
The patient exasperation in his voice made her smile. “Men. You know, if you had to do the cleaning, you wouldn’t be so blasé.” She glanced inside. “Go get some towels from housekeeping.”
“At this hour?”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought about the time. Well, I guess—”
Patrick swept her into his arms and carried her over the threshold, then kicked the door shut. He walked directly into the bathroom and set her in the claw-footed tub. “Take off your shoes. I’ll get towels.”
“Take yours off, too,” she said, grabbing his arm. “You’re squishing water out with every step.”
They sat on the rim of the tub and each pulled off soaked leather sneakers. The intimacy of the act struck Jasmine as soon as they both set their bare feet flat in the tub and looked at each other.
“Do you want to take a hot shower?” he asked finally.
“Okay.”
He sat up a little straighter. After a few seconds he climbed out and grabbed the hotel-provided, navy blue velour bathrobe, laying it within arm’s reach of the tub. “You don’t need to lock the door behind me,” he said carefully. “I won’t come in.”
Why, he’s nervous, Jasmine realized, more nervous than she was. The thought relaxed her. She smiled. “I trust you.”
He nodded. “I’ll fix something to warm us. I’ve got coffee and tea, or—”
“You.”
His head jerked back a little and his nostrils flared. “Me.” Not a question, but a statement of controlled surprise.
Jasmine stood and moved close to him. She lifted her hands to brush back his wet hair, not daring to look at his face until she thought she could actually get words out. She settled her hands at the back of his neck, letting her thumbs brush his skin from his ears to the base of his throat. “I haven’t made love in seven years.” If his pulse hadn’t started pounding in the neck veins beneath her fingers, she never would have known how her words affected him. She tried not to smile. “I’d like to end the drought.”
“With me?”
She laughed. “No, with the president.”
“It’s just…You don’t know me.”
“I know what I need to know, and I’m afraid if I wait, there won’t be a chance at all. Am I right?”
“Maybe.”
“You probably don’t like forward women,” she said as she pressed her lips to his throat. “You probably like being the one who initiates everything—”
“No.” Ba-boom. Patrick’s heart announced its reaction. Ba-boom. Ba-boom. The sound vibrated in his chest and echoed in his ears. He took a deep breath. Her rainsoaked hair smelled of strawberries, inundating him with anticipation of the sweetest dessert in his memory. “Your full participation is welcome,” he said finally, putting his arms around her as she laid her head against his shoulder. “But I can’t help wondering, why me? Why now?”
“Why not you? Why not now?”
Ba-boom. Her arm snaked around his waist and glided under his sweater to stroke his damp skin. Ba-boom. He clamped his hands on her elbows, pushing her back a little. “I don’t have protection,” he said.
“You don’t need any.”
He searched her face, seeking answers she either didn’t have or didn’t want to give. “I’m forty-seven years old. I don’t have any desire to become a father at this age.”
“I should have phrased it differently,” she said, calmly meeting his gaze. “You don’t have to worry about my getting pregnant. I’m no spring chicken, either. I’m not going to trap you. I just want to be with you.”
“And when I go home?”
“I know you live a life totally different from mine. You belong with your own. I belong with mine. That’s it.”
“But for now—”
“For now, we can ease the loneliness for each other.”
Because he couldn’t wait another minute, he kissed her, softly, briefly. Ba-boom. “I’ll be waiting,” he said, then turned to leave.
“Patrick?”
He faced her and saw shyness as she twisted her hands together, an action distinctly at odds with her boldness of just a minute ago. “I have just one favor to ask.”
“What’s that?”
“Could you, just for tonight, pretend you love me? Just a little?”
Ba-boom.