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He eyed her. “You’re celibate?”
“Oh, no, I mean in social skills. I have little practice.” With the opposite sex, that was.
“So… you’re not celibate?”
She regarded him then leaned against the porch post. “Trying to figure out why you’d ask that,” she decided to say right out.
“Sorry,” he chuckled, setting the empty cup on the rail.
“What kind of business you need to discuss?” she remembered, helping him past what looked like embarrassment.
“Yeah,” he sighed, palming the railing as he faced the swamp.
She tore her eyes off the bulge of muscles the casual position produced. “If it’s in regard to needing something for this war, I’m happy to help however I can outside my commitments. My brother and nephew are my world and I’m the only one they have to look after them.”
“It’s…well it’s definitely for the war,” he said, seeming to realize. “And you know we’re taking wives.”
Her stomach had multiple spasms at those words. Taking wives. Coming from him, it felt very literal. He was surely capable of taking anything he wanted. “I heard,” she nodded, fighting to keep her opinion out of her tone but it was hard. She thought it was dumb, forcing grown men to pick wives when they’d learned not to need them. She could identify.
“I know your reasons for signing up for the Ball, which…I found admirable. I also know you don’t need a husband and don’t want one.” He shifted on his feet and the slight move sent a ripple through the muscles in his arms as he surveyed the swamps. “Turns out that is exactly the kind of woman I’m looking for and was hoping to talk to you about teaming up with me, seeing as we both have the same needs or lack of them.”
Her head drew back all on its own with that bit. “You don’twanta wife?”
“I want to do my job. You want to do yours. You don’t want or need a man. I don’t want or need a woman. You’d want for nothing of course. I’d take care of you financially.”
She faced the swamp too now, just so she could have something besides his endless muscles to look at. Mercy of mercies, what a proposition! “So, you’d provide for everything but…the…intimate stuff is what you’re saying?”
“Well,” he said, his low tone tying up her guts. “It’s simple biology. If you need it, as your husband I would provide it.”
Her pulse was ringing in her ears with that bit. “And if you need it?”
“I’ve been celibate for twelve years. I know how not to need it.”
“Same here.”
She felt his gaze on her as she pretended to study the trees. “Is that a yes? You can think about it,” he added.
Oh, she was, all while stunned in disbelief. Why me, kept jumping on her tongue. Because you signed up, dummy. And he picked you because of your clever answers that would never get you picked. “Can I say no?” she wondered, since he mentioned it was war related.
“Yes,” he chuckled.
She nodded but sure didn’t feel any less trapped. “You said this was war related. How so?”
He turned and put his butt on the rail, crossing his arms with a deep breath. “We voted to take wives. I agreed. And…there’s a war,” he said simply with a shrug. “That’s how it’s related.”
She watched his face, and he assaulted her with his swampy gaze, her poor lungs taking the direct hit. Marry. That man standing right there.
Wasn’t just any man, he was the leader of one of their hatches. Nobody considered the unthinkable when wanting this, that or another in their life. Did she want to be married? Hell no. Did she want to be married to the leader of the Tech Hatch? Completely different question.
“Think about it,” he repeated quietly. “I know it’s a lot to ask.”
It damn well was. The more she considered a yes answer, the more questions popped up in her head. What if he was wrong about wanting ornotwanting the intimacy thing? And what if kids cropped up out of that? What then? A father that visited every Saturday? That was one bad thing about being single. No kids. And while she didn’t want a gaggle of them like her friends, she had often dreamed of a daughter to dote on.
The image of a raven-haired Cajun beauty—all compliments of Sir Gorgeous—formed in her mind. He wasn’t attracted to her in any marital way and that was actually no bother. He mentioned the sex stuff as biological. A sometimes-necessary human need. Like for having kids. She could like that idea. Unless he didn’t.
Wait a minute. She had leverage in this. She could…request things just as he had.
“So…what if there’s something I want out of it? Would you consider it?”
