From the moment I first saw your face, I knew you were potential trouble. The kind of trouble I couldn’t stay away from. And when you made it clear you were off limits….”
“You know why I did that. I just couldn’t risk getting involved with you. I was afraid it would hurt my practice, my reputation. Maybe even hurt my clients.”
“How about now?” He leaned back against the counter. “Are you still afraid that a relationship with me will harm your law practice?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I don’t believe you’d say or do anything to harm me, but—”
“What if we were married?”
***
“Married?” Nita’s heart rate, which was already tripping along at a pretty good clip considering the subject matter of their discussion, leapt into hyper drive.
“Okay, engaged and then married,” he allowed. “We could do that, at least, in the right order.”
Engaged. Married.
The words bounced around inside her brain. And he was looking at her as though what he’d said were perfectly logical and reasonable. Had he lost his mind?
“But we’re not even dating .”
“Okay, we can date for a while, then get engaged and married. How’s a six month time table sound?”
She blinked. “Let me get this straight — you’re prepared to marry me so we can continue to have sex?”
“No.”
“But you just said—”
“I want to marry you because you’re the one, Nita. Period.” He pinned her with his gaze, fierce and outrageously blue. “I’ve never felt like this before. I want to lie beside you and just listen to you breathe. When I’ve had a shitty day, I want to come home to you and lay my head in your lap and feel your hands on my face. And when you’ve had a shitty day and it feels like one more straw is gonna break your back, I want to be there to carry the load for you. I want you to tell me your darkest fears, and be able to tell you mine.”
“My God, Craig.” He meant it. He really meant it. Yearning twisted in her gut, sharp and piercing.
“Nita, honey, I’ve never been able to see my future — our future — so clearly. Can’t you see it, too? Just a glimmer?”
She could see it. All too easily. But could she have it? She swallowed. “My father died of a brain tumor at the age of 49.”
His brow furrowed. “I’m sorry. That’s way too young. But how is that significant?”
“What if it’s hereditary?” Suddenly, the fear she’d felt yesterday when Dr. Woodbridge told her she had a brain tumor swelled up again, threatening to spill out in tears. “What if I have a predisposition to the same thing?”
A muscle leapt in his jaw. “Then all the more reason to get on with this courtship, don’t you think?”
Oh, Lord, he was wearing her down. Was she really on the verge of accepting his fast track dating/engagement/marriage proposal? Was she brave enough to seize what he offered?
She gnawed the inside of her lip a moment. “What about work?”
“Easy. They’ve been wanting to rotate me out of major crime and into criminal intelligence for two years now. I’ve been holding them off because I wasn’t ready to quit locking horns with you. I just have to tell the brass I’m ready for a transfer.”
She sucked in a breath. He’d given up a sexier, higher profile assignment to stay in contact with her? A hostile her. “You seriously did that?”
“I did. Of course, I gave them completely bogus reasons. They’d have bounced me out of there faster than you can say double chocolate donut if they’d known the truth.”
She blinked rapidly. “What about kids?”
“As in us having them?”
She nodded.
“I’d like a couple, but we’re not talking about making my body into an incubator. Your body, your call. But if you do want them, I’d happily split the parental leave with you.”
“You would not! You’d never live it down with your colleagues, or your employer for that matter.”
“My employer wouldn’t like it, no, but they’re bound by statute.