Her low moan had him sitting bolt upright. Jenny was standing on the other side of the room, leaning on the wall and rocking back and forth with pain.
“Jenny!” The light was on and he was over there faster than should have been physically possible, gripping her shoulders and turning her to face him. “Jenny, what is it?” Hell, if it was the baby…
It wasn’t the baby.
“Oh, Michael, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and there was agony in her voice. “I didn’t want to wake you. It’s not the baby. It’s okay.”
“What is it?”
“It’s just cramps. My legs…they seize up some nights. I tried not to wake you.”
“Cramps?”
“It’s a side effect of advanced pregnancy,” she said, closing her eyes in pain. “One of the things you don’t hear about until it’s too late. Like varicose veins and heartburn.”
“Let me help.”
“There’s nothing you can do. It’ll pass.”
“Lie down, Jenny,” he told her, pushing her to the bed. Before she could say a word, she was lifted and laid gently on the pillows, and he was sitting on the bed beside her. He took her legs onto his knees and pushed the loose cotton up. “This one?”
“They’re both bad, but that’s the worst.”
It had to be. Her calf muscles were rock hard, knotting in vicious spasms. “Hell,” he muttered. “Jen, this is some cramp!”
“You’re telling me. Leave it, Michael. Go back to sleep. It’ll pass.”
“Yeah, so I just lie in bed and snore while you pass out in agony. In your dreams! I’m not completely without feeling. We need some cream. Moisturizer or something.”
“There’s cream in my bag. In the bathroom.”
“Coming right up.” And he left her, diving for the bathroom to search her toiletries.
This felt wrong, he thought as he lifted her toothpaste and hairbrush and rifled through lipstick, cosmetics, toiletries. It was strangely intimate, as if they really were married.
That’s what it felt like, he realized. He felt married, and he wasn’t at all sure he liked the sensation. He’d been alone for so long, and now the woman out there needed him and he was responsible. This was taking him someplace he wasn’t all that sure he wanted to be.
But this was no time for regrets. Decisions had been made, for better or for worse, and he had to live with them. He found what he was looking for and headed back to Jenny.
To his wife.
SHE SHOULDN’T let him do this, Jenny thought as she struggled against the pain. She shouldn’t let him near. She’d tried so hard to be quiet, not to wake him.
Because she didn’t need him. She didn’t!
But the last few months had been so long and so lonely, and to know that he was here and was prepared to stand by her…
The thought was infinitely comforting.
She didn’t love him, but she needed him. Dear heaven, she didn’t have the strength to hold him away. Even Michael was better than the bleak future she’d faced two days ago.
Even Michael?
Maybe…maybe especially Michael.
MICHAEL TOOK all the time in the world. It was almost an hour before the cramps eased, and the entire time he sat at the end of the bed and massaged her calves as if he wasn’t tired-as if the most important thing in the world was to use his big hands to gently soothe the aching hurt in her legs. He applied moisturizer to soften the skin, gently working his fingers into each knot, one after another, over and over again.
He could feel how much pain she must have been in. She’d only made that one tiny groan, which had woken him, but for her legs to be in this mess, she must have been awake for hours. He swore into the night as he worked, thinking over the past few months. She’d put in long hours at the office for him, and he hadn’t granted one concession to her pregnancy. In fact he’d hardly noticed his secretary had been pregnant. And each night, she must have gone home to this.
Alone.
“Let’s forget about driving tomorrow,” he told her. “I want you checked by a doctor first.” Hell, had he caused problems by driving all the way to El Paso in one shot? He should have stopped often. Made her walk. Hired a larger car than the Corvette.
“I’M FINE,” she whispered. In fact, it was as much as she could do to get her voice to work at all. She felt wonderful. The pain had eased to almost nothing, and to lie here with her head on the pillows while Michael’s fingers worked their magic… While his hands eased the pain, taking away the desolation and loneliness of the last few awful months… She was feeling so grateful she could almost burst.
She was feeling as though she could almost reach out and take him to her, take him as her true husband.
Which was really, really stupid. She was eight months pregnant with another man’s baby. Peter. Her husband.
No! Not her husband. Peter was her first husband, and that was over. Her husband now was the man massaging her legs with such infinite gentleness that she wanted to weep.
Michael was being kind. Nothing more. Heavens, he’d done enough for her without her placing emotional obligations on him. Somehow she forced herself to lie still and she pushed her errant heart into order.
FINALLY SHE SLEPT, and Michael went back to bed. But he lay awake staring at the darkened ceiling, wondering just what he’d let himself in for.
For better or for worse, he was married, and he was starting to realize this wasn’t just the solution to one problem at all. It was the start of a whole heap more.
And it was the beginning of a brand-new dimension to his existence.
THEY TOOK the entire day to drive home, with Michael insisting on so many stops that Jenny was starting to go nuts.
“I don’t need this.”
“I don’t want you cramping again tonight.”
“At least I won’t be waking you up.”
“That’s another thing. You’re not staying in that lousy apartment.”
“It’s where I live, Michael,” she said stolidly. “They said they’ll give us warning if they check, so I’m staying there.”
“We have to act married. Besides, it’s a dump.”
“Dump or not, it’s my home,” she snapped. “It’s nothing to do with you. You’ve offered me marriage and I’m incredibly grateful, but I have no intention of interfering with your life. Or of you interfering with mine.”
“It’s not sensible. They’ll check.”
She shook her head, her curls flying in the wind. “They won’t check yet, and it’s not sensible to be anything but independent. You’re my boss, Michael, and I’m one of your employees, who from now on happens to be on leave to have a baby. We have a green card marriage. Nothing more.”
Michael glanced at her set face, and his head told him she was partly right. He’d offered marriage on the spur of the moment, and she’d accepted with gratitude. She was asking nothing more, and there was nothing more he wanted to give.
Was there?
Maybe not, but living together… It wasn’t negotiable. Whether he wanted it or not, they had no choice. Immigration officials weren’t stupid.
“Give me a day to clean out the spare room,” he told her grudgingly. In truth, his spare room was fine, but maybe she needed space, and maybe he could do with a day or two to get used to the idea of her living with him. “But you need to move in with me if we’re going to make this work.”
