“And what about living in the moment?” he asked her.
“I think living in the moment is good as well. But then I think there’s a time when we have to grow up and strive to find what really makes us happiest in the long run.”
“Are you happy now, Elena?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, do I make you happy?” Tyler asked her.
This was a loaded question, and again she wondered if she should tell him everything. Knowing that she was carrying his baby and not knowing how he would feel about that made her afraid to reveal too much. She needed to know whether he cared about her before she could tell him about the child. She would tell him, there was no question, but she’d like to know how he felt about her first.
“I care about you, Tyler.” Her heart raced as she told him that.
“I feel the same,” he said with almost a real smile.
“Why are you still unmarried? Do you prefer brief relationships?”
He was silent for several moments as if really thinking about what he wanted to say next. They’d talked about sex, about chemistry, about living in the moment. But they hadn’t discussed something as loaded as a future. It wasn’t who they were.
“Sometimes I’m almost addicted to being alone. Long-term relationships make that impossible,” he finally said.
“What’s the longest relationship you’ve been in?”
“Last year I thought seriously about asking a woman to marry me. That was until I found her in the broom closet with another man at my brother’s wedding.”
That shocked Elena. It hadn’t been what she’d expected to hear. “You don’t seem too upset about that,” she pointed out.
“I was upset for a while. I didn’t have a mental breakdown or anything, but it made me a little wary of the opposite sex. It made me prefer being alone.”
“One person screws you over, so everyone who looks like her must be bad, in your opinion?”
“Once burned, twice shy. What can I say? Then the next woman I pursued, ended up playing games with me.” His eyes connected with hers as he made this statement.
“And you didn’t play any with her?”
“Turnabout is fair play, Elena.”
“It’s always easy to judge when you’re in the driver’s seat,” she said before going for the gusto. “And how did that relationship turn out?”
He set down the drink he’d been holding and moved over to where she sat. “I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure that out,” he told her before grasping her hands.
Maybe it was the dimly lit room, maybe it was the way he was looking at her, and maybe it was just because she was in love with this man, but as he cupped her cheek and looked deep in her eyes, Elena let go of her fears.
He leaned forward and pushed her back on the couch, stretching his body over hers, moving slowly, more intimately than usual. It nearly brought her to tears.
He bent forward and traced his warm tongue along the seam of her lips. A sigh opened her mouth to him, inviting him inside. She felt her core quickly warming to him.
He tasted dark and rich, sweet and spicy. He explored her mouth, his touch both seductive and dark, as if he was barely keeping a leash on his hunger. She wriggled beneath him. As he took ownership of her, she knew that she might not have his love, but she certainly had his attention.
But for how long?
She would tell him about the baby the next day. For tonight, she needed their time to be about only the two of them.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Walking in a bit of a daze, Elena wasn’t sure what to think. Yes, she’d already known she was pregnant, not only because of the stick that had shown her a plus signal, but because she could feel the small changes in her body – the nausea, tender breasts, and abnormal need for chocolate.
But to be walking from the room in the hospital where they had confirmed that she was indeed with child, she found herself in deep thought. This was real. It was confirmed. There were no more excuses not to tell Tyler the truth.
Still as the shock began to dim, a tender smile lit her face. There was a baby she would be responsible for in seven and a half months, a baby who would hopefully have Tyler’s eyes and determination, and her smile and love.
Turning in the hallway as she headed for the exit, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going, and she ran smack dab into what felt like a brick wall. Before she was able to catch herself, she flew backward and trying to catch herself, she felt a sharp pain shoot through her ankle when she landed on her foot.
Tears instantly sprung to her eyes as her hand instinctively cradled her flat stomach. “My baby,” she gasped, ignoring the pain in her ankle.
“Your baby?”
Elena froze as her head slowly tilted. She knew that voice. This wasn’t how she’d been planning on telling him. She had wanted to go to his house, sit down, and talk. Her eyes drifted along the solid thighs, and hard chest of Tyler who was looking at her in total shock.
“I didn’t see you there,” she gasped before looking around. No one else was anywhere near them. “Why are you here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” he said before his eyes shifted, zeroing in on her hand which was still cradling her stomach.
She quickly removed her hand, then shifted to try to get up, when pain sliced through her foot. Dammit! She didn’t have time for an injury right now.
“I asked you first,” she said, deciding she rather liked where she was sitting.
“You said the word baby,” he practically snarled.