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“It doesn’t matter to me where you come from,” he stated, the earnestness in his voice like a balm soothing her ragged nerves. He turned to take one of her hands, effectively ending her twiddling. “I’m only interested in where we will go from here. In our future.”
His words, the way he had said our future, had the sting of tears prickling at the corner of each eye.
“But you must know I’ve never lived in your world,” she said, as the tears that had been threatening before began to fall now. “I don’t know how to be a billionaire’s girlfriend.”
“You haven’t been anybody’s girlfriend anyway,” he chuckled, squeezing her hand. “No matter who you choose to be with for your first time, you’ll still have a lot to learn. And I want to be the person to show you, to teach you everything you’ve been missing.”
“No, I’m talking about how to act and stuff,” she protested. “What to do at some high society function, or what sorts of things your friends would think was not okay to say or do.”
“So what?” he scoffed. “I’m attracted to you. I want you the way you are, and if they can’t see the amazing person that you are, well, then they aren’t really my friends anyways, right?” He could see that his words hadn’t really helped to ease her tension. “There’s always etiquette class, right? Or just act like you’re on the runway. Be confident. I’m sure you could figure it all out, Kady.” Archer gently squeezed the hand he had engulfed by his own. “Or, we can figure it out together.”
“I—I don’t know, Archer, maybe we should just take this slowly?”
“Well…” He paused, and suddenly it was his turn to look nervously at his hands, his long fingers tangled intimately with hers. “ It can’t be too slow if we’re actually wanting to do the baby thing,” he replied, his voice held an edge of trepidation as he continued slowly, finally looking at her with resignation in his eyes. “My mother told a bit of a lie to keep me out of prison last month. That’s why I was trying to figure out what to do about it in the first place.”
“What kind of a lie?” Kady wanted to know, the hope that had been kindling in her chest taking a nosedive at his words.
“She told the judge that since my girlfriend was pregnant, that it would be unfair to send me to jail for three to five years, especially for a crime I didn’t even commit,” he replied, obviously struggling to find the right words to explain. He leaned back and sighed deeply. “She really laid it on kind of thick, you know? But it got me thinking, though. I’ve been tired of the endless parties and all the women who don’t even care how I think or feel. I figured, even if I can’t find a girl who loves me, I could at least produce one who was pregnant at the hearing in two months, and keep myself from going down.”
“So, you’re trying to get a girl pregnant with your child to get out of a jail sentence? You know how crazy that sounds, right? And saying that you want to start a real relationship with me, but you don’t even know if you’d be able to participate in it beyond the next two months?” Kady growled. “I really can’t believe what I’m hearing from you.”
“I know, I know, it might sound stupid, Kady,” he responded. “But I’ve had
months to think it over, and while yes, originally I was thinking only of selfish reasons to go forward with this idea, I also…” He paused for a moment before continuing, his words slow and deliberate, “I came to realize that I want more than the playboy lifestyle I’ve been living. I want, I want a family. Someone to make all this, all the hard work and millions of hours that I’ve put into building this business, worth it, you know? I only know I was speaking straight from my heart. I don’t know if I could deal with having you without my heart getting involved along the way. I’m trying to be honest here.”
“So is that everything that you need to tell me before I make up my mind?” she questioned, trying to process everything he had just told her, the honest sincerity shining in his dark eyes, helping to make her believe that he really had spoken the truth.
“Yeah, it is,” he answered, sounding suddenly drained. “I’ve come completely clean, and I’m hoping that you have, too.”
“I’ve got no secrets,” she admitted easily. “I grew up in the slums and pulled myself out of them. And if I say yes to this crazy idea, it’s not because you could elevate me any further, just so you know.”
“I know that,” he reassured her. “I’ll tell you what: we’ll give this thing a try, and if I do go down, you can keep living in my house even if we don’t manage to get you pregnant. You could get yourself on your feet and move on if you wanted to, or you could decide that you want to wait for me. That’s assuming that I don’t completely avoid jail at all. The judge must know that I’m just a guy trying to make an honest living. My business record should have been enough on its own to prove that.”
“So what, then, we’re just trying each other out or something?’ Kady scoffed. “You don’t want to define it, you just want to do it, is that it?”
“Sure, why not?” he said, kissing the top of her head. “But one thing, Kady. If you get scared again, promise me that you won’t run away. We can talk to each other and work through it, okay?”
“What about if I panic when—well, you know,” she asked, blushing harder than ever.
“When we’re about to make love?” he asked, his voice tickling at her ear as he whispered the words.
“Y-yeah, that,” she said, looking at their joined hands nervously.
“Mm, I think I could probably make sure you don’t want to run away by the time we got that far,” he smirked.
“Just getting me hot and bothered is no guarantee I won’t freak out,” Kady replied. “I get panic attacks. I can’t help that.”
“Well, do you panic when you are out on the stage?” he asked.
“Never, only the entire time beforehand,” she said. “Once I’m on, I’m solid as a rock.”
“Making love is just like being center stage.” He winked. “Once you’re actually out there, it’s all about the show. Just remember that and you’ll be fine.”
Kady laughed when he kissed the side of her neck, glancing over at his grinning face as he did so. Relief, and something more, something like affection but deeper, shone from the depths of his gaze. It made her breath catch in her throat as she stared back at him. “You’re crazy, Archer,” she told him. “You really, really are.”
Chapter 12
They got out of the car and Daryl drove on, parking it in the garage and thus proving Kady’s theory about his employment status once and for all. She heard, rather than saw, him driving out again, probably in his own car so he could return home to the wife he’d told her he had. Kady briefly glanced back just as they reached the front door and saw him exit the gate.
