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Could never be true about Murphy. After talking to him these past weeks as Cabin Fortress, I was even more sure of that. He couldn’t have faked everything.
Maybe he hadn’t faked any of it, except the part about us not being that familiar to each other. If we hadn’t been before, we sure were now.
“No.” His voice was almost violently steady. “You aren’t a joke. The farthest thing from it.” He took an unsteady breath and tipped back his head before meeting my gaze squarely once again. “You asked if you’re Veronica or Vee to me? You’re both. You’re beautiful and impetuous and strong and brave and smart. You’re going to be a wonderful mother someday, and any man would be lucky enough to—"
“Wait. You want to have a baby with me? That was true too?”
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple moving up and down. “It took me a few days to get there, but yeah, I guess I do.”
I sank to his chair, clutching the puppy carefully to my chest while I tried to make sense of what I was hearing.
“You barely know me.”
“Maybe that was true a couple of weeks ago, but it’s not true any longer. Everything we talked about was all true. I didn’t lie about any of it, just hid a few details that would allow you to identify me.”
“But why didn’t you want me to know it was you? And how the hell were you going to knock me up if I never saw you in person? Newsflash, online ejaculation doesn’t count.”
“Thank God, or you’d have been pregnant a few times over by now.”
I blinked. And blinked again. “You’re saying you…while we…on the computer…while I was…what?”
“No, but it was a close thing.”
“I aroused you that much?”
He never looked away. “Oh, girl, you have no idea.”
Slowly, I stood and walked over to the couch to set Latte on the thick blanket tucked there. He stared up at me, his little tail wagging, while I spoke softly to him and urged him to lay down. Once he complied, still watching me, I pivoted toward Murphy.
“Do you realize what I’ve gone through these past weeks? First, I put up that crazy post in the wrong place. I didn’t know who would respond. Meanwhile, there’s this guy who comes in the café who never speaks to me no matter how I try to flirt.”
His brow furrowed. “When did you try to flirt?”
I buried my face in my hands and laughed. I wasn’t near to tears, thank God. Because beneath the now fading feelings of hurt and confusion was a thick layer of relief.
My two men were one. I didn’t have to choose. Amen to that.
“You never spoke to me, but you talked so easily to Sage. Yet you were online trying to get me naked every night.”
Not able to have this conversation in front of a child—who just happened to have fur—I rushed into the kitchen, as far away from Latte in the cabin as I could get.
“I was not trying to get you naked,” he shot back as he followed me, his tone rife with indignance. “But if I had been, so what? Wasn’t that what you wanted from this whole thing in the first place?”
I stopped near the counter and whirled around to shove him. I had to get my aggression out or that lamp was going to be in peril anyway. “I don’t know what I want anymore. Yes, at first, I wanted a freaking baby.”
“But now you don’t?”
God, did I hear disappointment in his voice?
This man. I didn’t know what I was going to do with him.
Okay, that was a lie. I had a pretty good idea. But he was gonna grovel first, dammit.
“Of course I do. But I was hoping to meet a decent guy. And I didn’t.”
He reeled back as if I’d sucker-punched him. “You didn’t?”
