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"Why would that happen? I don't have time for anything else right now. D&D's keeps me busy and I'm not dating anyone."
"Right now, but you change women as often as you change your pants."
"That's not true. I haven't been with a woman in the last year and a half."
"Sure, you haven't."
"Believe what you want but I've never lied to you."
"Low blow."
"The truth hurts."
"I don't think this will work. Maybe I should take Jake and leave Savannah."
"You can leave if you want to, but you're not taking my son." Jake wasn't going to waste a single day of his time with Peter now that he knew he had a son. His dad, who'd always been busy with the shipping company, had made time for family. He wanted the opportunity to do the same.
She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands and then looked at him. He knew this was hard on her and he sympathized with her to a certain extent but they wouldn't be in this predicament now if she'd come to him when she'd first found out she was pregnant. "I don't know what to do. But I don't want to make things worse than they are now."
"I'll take care of everything for you."
"I'm not looking for a hero."
"Good, because I'm not much of one," he said. He'd always known his own faults.
He wanted to reach out and touch her. To take her in his arms and promise he'd shoulder her burdens, but he knew she wouldn't accept that. "Trust me on this, Rissa. I'll take care of everything."
"You aren't doing this for revenge, are you?"
"I don't follow."
"You know, make me move in here and then … do something to keep Peter and kick me out?"
"That's a nice opinion you have of me."
"Well, I wouldn't blame you if you tried it."
"You're important to Peter," he said. Larissa was the center of Peter's world and his son was the most important person to consider.
"People are going to say I trapped you."
"Let them talk. Anyone who knows you won't believe it."
"It's easy for you to say."
"Nothing about this is easy for me."
"I know. So we'd live with you until your uncle's campaign is over? Then the media scrutiny around your family will die down and we can go back to our normal lives."
"I'm not going to disappear after this reporter moves on to her next juicy topic." He realized the words were true as he said them. Larissa and Peter were his responsibility now and forever. And whether she lived with him or not, he'd always be involved in their lives. And that felt right to him deep in his soul.
"Promise?" The word was hardly out before Larissa bit her lip wishing she could take it back.
Jake closed the gap between them and cupped her face in his big hands. His brown eyes more serious than she'd ever seen them before, he leaned close to her. There were hidden depths to this man she'd scarcely explored.
She wondered what he'd do if she turned the tables on him—if she held his face in her hands and looked down on him with something like tenderness.
"I promise."
She shivered. This was the secret dream she'd harbored since she was a young girl. That she'd find a man, a big, strong, attractive man who'd make her feel that she was the center of his world. But her dream had always been a bittersweet one, because time and experience had taught her that being the center of any man's world was a fleeting thing.
"Oh, Jake, don't say things you don't mean."
"Woman, I don't know why you have such a low opinion of me."
"I don't. It's myself I don't trust."
"What's not to trust?"
"You. Saying things that I'll take to mean something you aren't feeling."
"This isn't the love thing again, is it?"
"Don't be flip."
"I can't help it. You make me want to be a better man than I know I can be."
She was flattered that he thought she had any power over him. And saddened to realize that Jake thought he wasn't a great man to begin with. "Really?"
"Really."
"There you go again, making me believe you could be my knight in shining armor," she said, feeling her control shatter.
"I thought we both agreed I was no hero."
"When you touch me I can't think of anything but you."
"Rissa," he said. Lowering his mouth to hers, he brushed his lips back and forth over her own. It was a simple, gentle kiss, but it shook the moorings of everything she believed about herself.
She brought her hands to his shoulders, holding on to him for balance in a world that was suddenly spinning further and further out of her control. He traced the shape of her mouth with his tongue, running it over the closed seam of her lips. She knew what he wanted—what they both wanted. She opened her mouth on a sigh. And he teased her with his tongue. Teased her by giving her a hint of what was yet to come.
