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He sank his fists back into his pockets, his voice sharp and annoyed. ‘Of course I am.’
She couldn’t believe it. He’d rejected her, had put them both through hell, had even convinced himself the baby wasn’t his, out of some twisted sense of gallantry.
He really did love her. She could see it behind the temper and embarrassment. She felt the heavy, dragging weight that had been lodged in her chest for days begin to lift.
Her lips quirked, relief warring with disbelief.
His eyes darkened. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘You are, Monroe. You mean to say that because you went to prison all those years ago you thought you weren’t good enough for me?’
‘Well, yeah.’ It suddenly sounded dumb to Monroe, too.
She stepped up to him, placed warm hands on his cheeks. ‘Monroe, you complete fool.’
Annoyed or not, humiliated or not, he wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to touch her at last. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her closer. ‘So, do you believe that I love you now?’
She smiled into his eyes, but only said, ‘Hmm.’ He went to wrap his arms around her, but she slipped away, leaving him empty-handed again.
She pointed a finger at him when he tried to follow her. ‘Don’t come any closer, Monroe,’ she said. ‘I want to get something straight here.’
Monroe didn’t like that considering look in her eyes, or the fact that she’d been close enough to smell and now she was gone again.
‘So you mean to tell me you decided you weren’t good enough for me?’ she said.
‘Yeah, that’s right.’ He wasn’t sure where this was leading, but he had a feeling he wasn’t going to like it.
‘And you also decided that you were going to let me go.’
He nodded, warily.
‘And then, when I told you I was pregnant, you panicked. You accused me of cheating because—’ she paused for effect ‘—let’s face it, it was easier to jump to that conclusion than to have to actually deal with all those messy emotions that you didn’t want to deal with.’
At this point, he decided, it was probably best to keep his mouth shut.
Jessie walked up to him and poked him hard in the chest. He stumbled back, shocked to see the satisfaction in her face when he did.
‘And, although when you thought about it you knew I hadn’t slept with someone else,’ she continued, the glint of steel in her eyes making him very nervous, ‘it still took Linc to persuade you to go and get checked out.’
‘Okay, so I was an idiot.’ What the hell else did she want from him?
‘You weren’t just an idiot, Monroe. You were a coward.’
He bristled, but looked her square in the eyes and nodded. ‘Yeah. I was.’ He took her arm in a firm grip and pulled her back to him. The tantalising scent of summer flowers made him ache. ‘Jess, just tell me, do you still love me, despite all that?’ He couldn’t wait any longer to know for sure.
She stared at him for a long time. ‘You know, I’m not sure if it was really love in the first place.’
It seemed a lifetime ago, Jessie thought as she watched Monroe’s face fall.
The eager, impulsive, stupidly romantic girl she’d been but a week before was gone. In her place was a woman, with a woman’s heart, a woman’s love and a new life growing inside her.
> He dropped her arm. He looked bewildered and hurt, but Jessie knew she had to see this through, for both of them. She hadn’t been fair to him, either. She could see that now. She’d put him on a pedestal, when he was just a man—a man who’d been through hell and had all the insecurities to show for it. She hadn’t seen him for what he was. Funny, now she did, she loved him so much more.
‘I idolised you,’ she said, thinking back. ‘You were gorgeous, cooler than cool with that Harley and that easy, devil-may-care charm. And you were incredible in bed. You gave me an orgasm.’ The heat throbbed low in her belly at the memory.
‘Hey, I gave you a lot more than just one,’ he said—rather testily, she thought.
‘But it wasn’t really love. It was infatuation. I can see that now.’
