Blush (13 page)

“You’re out of your freaking mind,” she muttered, hating the flare of hope in her heart. “You’ve just thrown away your life. Everything you’ve worked for—”

“No, this isn’t my life.” He flung his arms wide, gesturing at his immaculate office. “This is what I do. Did. Not anymore.”

“You’re crazy.” Her legs wobbled as the implication of what he’d done hit her anew, and this time she let him steady her and lead her back to the sofa.

“Crazy about you,” he murmured, sitting way too close next to her, making her skin prickle with awareness. “Surely you can see how much I want to be with you?”

That’s when the real horror sunk in.

Because she couldn’t be with him.

Even now, without the possible political fallout from the muckrakers, she couldn’t be the kind of woman he deserved.

“It’s not too late to take it back,” she said, pointing to the door. “Go out there right now and stop that resignation.”

Incredulous, he shook his head. “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“We can’t be together,” she said, compressing her lips and half turning away from him.

She couldn’t let him see the devastation in her eyes, couldn’t let him see how much this was killing her.

She loved Reid. Loved him enough to give him a chance to find a woman more suited to his lifestyle. A woman without a sordid past.

“Bullshit.” His hand clamped on her thigh and she jumped. “My job was your main excuse. As long as I was on my way to the senate, I couldn’t date someone who worked at Burlesque Bombshell.” He patted her thigh and released it. “Here’s a newsflash for you, sweetheart. I’m not headed for the senate any more. I just quit politics, for good. So we can date, get married, have a baby, whatever it takes to convince you I love you and I’m in this for the long haul.”

Joy blossomed for a heart-rending moment before Adele slapped it down. This incredible man loved her and he’d gone to great lengths to prove it. He’d given up his world. For her.

Now she had to tear it down.

Because until she told him the entire truth Reid would keep pushing. For him to make this giant sacrifice did prove his love. She believed him. But unless she pushed him away once and for all, he would keep trying. And with a baby to co-parent, he would keep pushing. Harder and harder until her life would be unbearable, and she would go insane having to consistently refuse something she wanted so badly.

“Did you know I used to be a dancer at Burlesque Bombshell too?” She eased into the truth, surreptitiously wiping her sweaty palms against her jeans.

His flash of surprise made what she was about to tell him that much worse. “No.”

His slow grin made her heart skip a beat. “But you’re so hot, something tells me you would’ve been very good at it.”

Typical guy. By the wicked gleam in his eyes, Reid was envisaging her on stage, naked. If only that was the worst of what she had to tell him.

“Doesn’t it bother you at all?”

Not that she’d ever stripped completely but to someone who she’d pegged as conservative when they’d met, she’d imagined her first confession would’ve daunted him more than it had.

He tilted his head, studying her. “No, should it?”

Adele gnawed on her bottom lip, hating how he’d look at her when she told him the truth, knowing it was the only way to end this.

“I used to take my clothes off in front of a roomful of people and that doesn’t bother you?”

“Why should a job in your past bother me?” Reid waved a hand between them. “You know what the problem is with us? We never got to have a real relationship. To get to know each other. To discover the quirks and the faults and all those little hidden secrets that make us unique.” He captured her chin and tipped her face up. “There’s nothing you can say that would bother me. Other than the fact you won’t give us a chance.”

Adele stared into Reid’s eyes, a dazzling blue filled with hope and excitement, and prepared to say the one thing that would change everything forever.

“I used to be an escort.”

Confusion clouded his eyes as she edged her chin out of his grasp, the shame of her past weighing so heavily she could barely breathe.

“Escort?” The word rolled off his tongue like something distasteful.

She should be relieved. Instead, all she could think was how he would never look at her the same way again once she told him the rest.

“Years ago, in Chicago.” She plucked at a tiny fray in the denim covering her thigh. “My mom was an alcoholic. We had no money, no place to live. So to pay rent on a tiny, grungy apartment, I worked as a hostess at a bar.”

Reid remained silent, staring at her with increasing wariness.

“It catered to foreigners mostly. Businessmen. The hostess would be assigned to a client for the evening.” She clasped her hands together to stop fiddling, her apprehension increasing the closer she got to revealing the entire truth. “We’d talk. Get them to buy as many drinks as humanly possible. And then…”

Adele swallowed the bile scorching her throat. She couldn’t look at Reid to deliver the rest, couldn’t face the disgust that would contort his handsome features.

“Then we’d perform favors for them.”

“What kind of favors?” His frigid tone made her shiver and she wrapped her arms around her middle.

“Hand jobs. Blow jobs. They’d pay a lot for it.” Adele dashed a hand across the tears pooling in her eyes. “No intercourse. But the other stuff was bad enough.”

She focused on a spot on his immaculate rug. “I’m not proud of what I did. But I came through it, looked after Mom ’til she died, left Chicago and made a new life for myself in Vegas.”

The spot she stared at blurred as the tears she’d been battling finally fell. “I’m successful now. And I’m going to be the best damn mother I can be to our child.” She stifled a pathetic sob. “So that’s what we need to concentrate on now, working out our co-parenting arrangements. And if you’re smart, there’s still time to renege on your resignation.”

The constant ping of emails landing in his inbox from the computer on his desk was the only sound breaking the tense silence.

Adele sniffled and wiped away the tears, waiting for him to say something, anything, so they could move past this and focus on the only thing binding them: their unborn child.

“Say something, damn it,” she muttered, finally risking a glance at Reid.

What she saw took her breath away.

She’d expected repugnance and loathing and retribution.

Not pity. And certainly not compassion.

“I won’t lie to you. I’m frigging furious that someone as special and classy as you had to stoop so low to make ends meet.” He dragged a hand over his face to eradicate the tension. “But you were desperate and you did what you had to do to survive. And to look after your mother who obviously needed help.”

Stunned by his acceptance, Adele struggled to process what he meant. This wasn’t turning out how she expected. She couldn’t have him accept her wholeheartedly because that would mean…what? That she had no more arguments to deliberately sabotage the only relationship she’d ever had, and she could take a risk on loving a guy like Reid?

Touched by his understanding, she hugged her middle tighter. “What are you saying?”

He braced his elbows on his knees and lowered his head, pondering for a few moments before straightening. He eyeballed her and the fervor blazing there sent a jolt of something inexplicable through her.

Reid truly loved her.

He believed in her enough to accept her past and move forward.

“I appreciate your honesty but nothing has changed for me. I love you. And I should’ve told you when I rocked up at your house today. That was the plan, to tell you I was leaving politics and would you give us a shot at a real relationship. But we got sidetracked…and I guessed about the baby…and you thought I was sticking around just for the baby’s sake…fuck,” he muttered, holding out his hands to her and compressing his lips until she took hold of them. “I’ve never had a committed relationship in my life. Politics consumed me. But it lost its appeal months ago and even if you hadn’t come along and bewitched me, I would’ve probably left.”

Adele dared herself to hope. A hope that flared when he raised her left hand to his lips and kissed her ring finger.

“I’m a selfish prick. I always get what I want. And right now I want a ring on this finger telling the world you’re mine. I want us to be a family. And to raise our child away from the spotlight.”

Her heart soared as his lips grazed her knuckles. “I want to make a bucket list and do everything on it twice and cook exotic dinners for my fiancée when she comes home from the office.” He kissed his way along her fingers. “I want to work part-time at a job that doesn’t bust my balls and not have to wear a stuffy suit every frigging day and still have enough energy to come home to read bedtime stories to our kid.”

His words painted such a tempting picture of domestic bliss that Adele forgot to breathe.

It was what she’d always wanted, a family of her own. A family she’d never had growing up.

But she’d never dared to dream it could really happen for her.

Until now.

Reid accepted her unconditionally. He knew her deepest, darkest secret and he wasn’t repulsed.

Her baby was going to have one hell of a dad.

“I never imagined I’d meet someone like you, let alone love you and have that love returned.” She gripped his hands so tight he winced and she laughed, easing back on the crush. “And I do love you. More than I can say. I’ve pushed you away because I didn’t want your reputation tainted by my past or your career damaged.”

She eased a hand out of his to cup his cheek. “But to have you accept me totally? To have you love me and want me in your life forever?”

Her thumb brushed his bottom lip. “How can I say no to that?”

He let out an exalted whoop as he bundled her into his arms and hugged so tight she yelped.

“Sorry,” he said, easing back to stare at her with a heady mix of adoration and anticipation and love. “So, I guess the only remaining question is, shall we head back on the jet tonight and get hitched or wait ’til the morning?”

Indescribable joy filled Adele and tears welled again. Those damn hormones. “A quickie Vegas wedding? Seriously?”

“It’s settled, tonight then.” He stood and tugged her to her feet, their mingling laughter the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. “Give me thirty minutes to get things organized.”

“Still bossy and commanding, huh?”

“Yeah, and don’t you forget it, wife-to-be.”

She squealed as he wrapped his arms around her waist, picked her up and twirled her. “Besides, think of the wedding night we’re going to have.”

Adele blushed as he lowered her slowly, their bodies sliding against each other until her feet touched the floor.

“I love how I can read your reactions,” he said, tracing her cheek where residual heat still lingered. “My blushing bride. Just perfect.”

“No, you and I are perfect,” she said, kissing him to prove it.

“Have you seen the latest?” Chantal flipped her cell screen so Adele could read it. “You’re trending on every social media site across America.”

“Who cares?” Adele shoved the cell away. “Nothing people can say will affect us now.”

Chantal chuckled and grabbed her left hand. “And you’ve got the gold band to prove it.”

Adele stared at her wedding ring, mesmerized by its shiny newness. “I still can’t believe any of this has happened.”

“I was a witness to the ceremony, babe, so you better believe it.” Chantal pointed to the foyer of the wedding chapel where Reid was deep in conversation with the other witness, Zane. “Besides, if this isn’t real, it means that incredibly hot Aussie is a fantasy and I’ve hallucinated him to get me out of the longest man-drought in history.”

Adele laughed. “What did you two get up to between picking him up at the airport and now?”

“I’d like to tell you I dragged him back to Burlesque Bombshell and had wild monkey sex with him on my desk, on the stage and in every other freaking room in the place.” Chantal sighed, her wistful stare lingering on Zane, who Adele had to admit, even as a newly married blissful bride, was super sexy: a strapping, dark blonde version of Hugh Jackman in a tux. “But the dufus said he was jetlagged and wanted to be dropped at his hotel.”

“And?”

“That’s it, nada.” Chantal shrugged. “Though he did take a rain check on my tour guide services.”

Adele nudged her. “That sounds promising?”

“Yeah, but I don’t like cocky guys and he seems like one of the best.”

“Newsflash, sweetie. You’re pretty confident too. So you two?” Adele smashed her palms together in a mock explosion. “I predict fireworks.”

“Shut up, the guys are heading this way,” Chantal hissed, straightening with a deliberate toss of her sleek blonde hair.

“What are you two whispering about?” Reid said, slipping a possessive arm around Adele’s waist and she gladly snuggled in close.

“Talking about the ceremony,” Adele said, as Chantal piped up and said, “Discussing the obsession men have with their balls.”

Adele glared at her brash friend while Reid and Zane guffawed.

“In that case, I’m whisking my beautiful bride away before she’s corrupted any further.” Reid nodded at Zane. “And I’ll leave you to handle the livewire.”

“With pleasure.” As Zane locked gazes with Chantal, Adele could’ve sworn she saw sparks sizzle in the air.

“Let’s go,” Reid said, lowering his head to whisper in her ear, “we’ve got a wedding night to celebrate.”

Adele tingled at the thought.

“Have fun, you two,” she said, waving at Zane and Chantal, who had finally broken their staring contest.

“Same to you, hun.” Chantal winked. “Go jump his bones already.”

Adele shook her head, her friend’s outrageous proclamations nothing new. Zane had his hands full with Chantal.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Reid said, shaking Zane’s hand and kissing Chantal on the cheek. “Wife? Shall we?”

He held his hand out to her and Adele took it, knowing she’d never get tired of hearing that word…
wife
.