Children? Dear heaven, they hadn’t even discussed them except in the most passing way. What if Jordan really didn’t want more? What if all that white carpet had been the idea of a man who saw his house as a showplace rather than a home? What had happened to her brain? Why hadn’t she asked the most basic question of all? Do you, Jordan Adams, want a family? Paul had certainly taught her that was something that couldn’t be taken for granted.
Seeing Jordan with Dani must have reassured her, but she’d been a fool not to ask anyway. Making assumptions was the worst sort of mistake a woman could make, especially when it was a lesson she should have already learned.
Standing in the doorway, her thoughts in turmoil, she was startled when Jordan lifted her off her feet to carry her across the threshold. She was struck anew by the enormity of what they had done. Somehow, even more than the vows they’d taken, the traditional act of being carried across the threshold into Jordan’s home, onto Jordan’s turf, reminded her of all the unanswered questions, of the compromise she had agreed to to be with this man she loved. A renewed sense of panic set in.
Apparently oblivious to her shift in mood, Jordan set her carefully back on her feet in the huge foyer, then took her hand as he led the way upstairs for the first time.
It was late. The drive had taken forever and they had stopped often, rarely talking, just grabbing a bite to eat or a tall, cool, soft drink to soothe their parched throats. Going to bed seemed only logical, but Kelly wasn’t ready for that. She couldn’t seem to form the words, though, that would halt their inevitable progress up that wide, winding staircase. Being alone with Jordan in Luke and Jessie’s guest suite sure had been hard enough. This was awful.
At the doorway to the master suite, he paused. “Kelly?”
She heard an unfamiliar note of uncertainty in his voice and met his gaze. “What?”
“I want you to be happy here. I want us to be happy.”
He seemed to be imploring her to reassure him that their quick, impulsive marriage was moving onto more solid ground. Unfortunately, she had too many uncertainties herself to be able to say exactly what he clearly wanted to hear.
Instead she gazed across this threshold into a room she hadn’t seen before. In all of her previous visits she’d studiously avoided so much as a peek at a room that had seemed emotionally off-limits to her as Jordan’s friend, rather than his lover. She hadn’t wanted to see the bed to which he took other women but never her.
Now, she surveyed the dark furnishings that had been someone’s idea of a bachelor’s taste and opted for a touch of humor. “You could go a long way toward making that happen by getting rid of the fur bedspread and the waterbed.”
As she’d hoped, he grinned. “The fur’s not real.”
“No, but without it, you could probably raise the thermostat another ten degrees.”
“Too cold in here?”
“Not if you’re wrapped in that thing.”
He chuckled. “Okay, I get the message. Now, about the waterbed. Have you ever slept in one?”
“No.”
“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”
“Jordan, I get seasick. You couldn’t even take me out on the creek in a rowboat, remember?”
He turned an interesting shade of green at the memory. “I’ll have it out of here in the morning,” he promised. “Of course, we should check to make absolutely sure it’s a problem.”
Kelly regarded the bed doubtfully, but there was such a gleam of pure anticipation in Jordan’s eyes that she kept her doubts to herself. “If you say so.”
She approached the king-size waterbed tentatively. There was something incredibly seductive about it, especially with that expanse of soft, fake fur spread across it. She sat down and tested her stomach as the bed shifted beneath her. The ebb and flow of the water was disconcerting, but not entirely unpleasant.
“Well?” Jordan asked, his expression hopeful.
“So far, so good,” she admitted.
“Mind if I join you?”
She eyed the bed nervously. “Not as long as you don’t fling yourself on the bed and set off a tidal wave.”
Clearly amused, he dropped down beside her. His weight set off another softly rolling wave.
“Ready for the next step?” he inquired.
“Which is?”
“Getting out of our clothes.”
She stood hastily and backed off a step. “I think I’ll do that on firm ground, thank you very much.”
“But you will be back?”
She gazed into worried blue eyes and sensed a deep concern for getting things off to the right start here in his home. “I will be back,” she promised, then amended, “Tonight.”
“And tomorrow?”
“Maybe we ought to take one night at a time,” she said, casting a suspicious look at the bed. “You might not even want me back in there tomorrow if this doesn’t go well.”
“Maybe not in this bed,” he agreed with a mischievous smile that reminded her of the Jordan of old. “But, like I told you before, this can be out of here first thing in the morning and one more to your liking in its place.”
His expression sobered. “I want you to make this your home, to make whatever changes are necessary to make you and Dani comfortable here.”
Kelly kept silent about her intention to see that this was their home for as brief a time as possible. Instead she inquired, “Can I get rid of the white carpet?”
“Every boring inch of it,” he agreed readily.
His response, indicating his distaste for it, surprised her. “Exactly whose idea was that?”
He sighed. “Rexanne’s.”
“I should have known. Obviously she wasn’t the maternal type.”
“Do you really want to waste time discussing my former fiancée?”
“Did you have something else in mind?” she asked, even though she could see perfectly well by the gleam in his eyes exactly what he was thinking.
“Getting you back into this bed would be a start.”
Kelly
