Momentary Marriage (25 page)

But she didn’t have to because Jared was doing it for her. Even after she’d made him furious the night before.

Kelsey sighed again, sinking lower in the tub.

She must have drifted. The next thing she knew, Jared stood beside her, holding a soft towel.

“Time to get out,” he said.

Once she was dried off, his hands gentle on her body, Kelsey found herself dressed in a clean t-shirt and panties. He led her back into the bedroom.

To her surprise, he’d changed the sheets. Gone were the wrinkled mess of covers, replaced by a new set, neatly folded back on her side.

“Come on,” Jared said, helping her back into bed. He mounded up the pillows behind her. “I’ll be right back with your soup.”

Feeling weak, but refreshed by her bath, she leaned her head back against the pillow.

The phone rang and she heard him answer it in the kitchen. His sister, she thought, hearing him laughingly ask how her back was feeling.

Kelsey felt herself sink into the pillow, sleep tugging at her. It seemed only seconds later that Jared appeared next to the bed with a tray.

“Just eat as much as you want,” he said, placing it over her legs.

Flicking on the television, Jared stretched out next to her on the bed as he watched the cable news channel.

Kelsey spooned the soup into her mouth, surprised at how hungry she felt. When she was finished, she put the spoon on the tray. Jared immediately clicked the TV off and got up to take the tray.

He came back as she was wiggling down in the bed, fatigue dragging at her again. Helping her rearrange her pillows and tucking the sheet, Jared flicked off the bathroom light.

She closed her eyes, assuming he’d go back to whatever work he’d been attending to that morning. But she felt the bed sag and realized he’d lain back down next to her.

“Jared?”

“Mmmm?”

She had to know. “Are you still mad at me?”

“Yes,” he said.

She felt him smooth her hair back gently.

“I’m furious.” He brushed his knuckles along her cheek. “Go on back to sleep.”

This,
she thought muzzily to herself as she sank into unconsciousness
, was weird.
Here she was at possibly her least attractive with a husband who claimed to be angry with her and she felt…cherished.

Jared watched her sleep, unable to make himself get up and leave. How could one woman have become so important to him in so short a time?

He’d gone out on limbs before, taken risks others thought were foolish, but nothing came close to this. He still wasn’t sure that Kelsey would ever let herself fall in love with him. She’d had enough disappointments in her life to convince her to protect her heart permanently.

Her own father had never cared for her.

Lying on the bed next to her, he acknowledged to himself that he’d taken on the tiger this time. He couldn’t force her to love him, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop loving her, either.

He’d told her the truth. Their argument last night did still rankle. Somewhere in the early morning hours as he sat trying to work, he’d admitted the truth to himself. He needed Kelsey to believe in him. Maybe he hadn’t given her enough reason, but he wanted her faith, just the same.

*
**

Later in the day, Doug rang the bell at his boss’ apartment, his heart thudding hard in his chest. He shouldn’t be here, he knew.

“Hello,” Kelsey offered with a weak smile, opening the door and leaning against it.

She looked slender and pale in the over-sized robe, her feet bare on the thick pile carpet.
Jared’s robe,
his mind told him mockingly.

“How are you?” Doug asked sympathetically, ignoring the stab of jealousy. He was here for Kelsey. She’d never been one to succumb to minor ailments and he remembered now that she’d always fought against even the slightest cold.

Kelsey chuckled, stepping back and gesturing him inside. “I’m pitiful, but I think I’ll live.”

“I heard you were sick when Jared called in this morning,” he said, shutting the door firmly and flipping the lock home. “He actually cancelled several meetings. I thought you must be at death’s door.”

“He doesn’t cancel meetings often?” she asked, returning to a nest of blankets on the wide couch.

“No,” Doug said, seating himself at the other end and surveying her with concern. She looked pale and delicate. Not like his vibrant, sparkling Kelsey.

Not
his
Kelsey anymore, if she ever truly had been.

Amy’s face flashed before his mind’s eye and he pushed away the guilt that followed. When he’d heard Kelsey was sick and Jared at home nursing her, envy and resentment bit into him fiercely. He was supposed to be her knight-errant, the one who sheltered her from life’s storms. All morning he’d tried to shake the old emotion and lost the effort.

“Would you like something to drink?” She asked him, struggling to get up. “I’m forgetting my hostess responsibilities, but we’ve known each other so long you never seem like company.”

They’d always been comfortable together. If the habit of long practice still hadn’t removed the breathlessness he felt with her, Doug knew his old hopes of being man enough to win her were at fault.

“I’d like some coffee, if you have it made,” he said, “but I can get it myself. Relax. You’re the sick one.”

Ignoring his admonishment in a way that reminded him of her sister, she followed him into the kitchen. Leaning against the refrigerator, she watched as he found the coffee.

Refusing to think of how he’d left Amy this morning, his mouth still warm from her kiss, Doug told himself he hadn’t had any choice but to cancel their lunch date. He’d been compelled to see Kelsey, to make sure she was truly okay. To have a few moments alone with her now that Jared was at the office.

It wasn’t anything sexual, wasn’t like he was cheating.

“So, how are you really? Feeling any better?” He located a mug and filled it with the dark, aromatic brew.

“I may look like a wreck,” Kelsey said with a laugh as she ran a hand through her hair, “but this is a great improvement. I’m just feeling weak now.”

“Come on,” he said, his cup of coffee in one hand as he guided her back to the couch. “You need to rest.”

Sinking down, she pulled a blanket over her pajama-clad legs and leaned back with a sigh.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” he asked, his automatic reaction to her kicking in.

“No, I’m better now,” she assured him. “How did you get free in the middle of the afternoon?”

Guilt stabbed him again. He smiled at her, the effort full of regrets and old longings. “I heard my oldest friend was sick and needed cheering up.”

She snuggled under the blanket, a secret smile on her face. “So your kind-hearted boss let you take the afternoon off?”

“No,” he said with a wry twist of his lips. “I worked through lunch and finished early. I know how much you hate being sick and thought it might help to have someone to talk to.”

Kelsey shrugged. “This kind of virus would make Mary Sunshine feel despondent. But I’m a lot better now.”

“Well,” he said, sitting his coffee on a nearby table, “we can’t have you—
not
Mary Sunshine on your best days—feeling down. What can I do to help?”

She chuckled at his assessment, as he’d known she would. “Oh, just talk to me. Tell me about your romance.”

With unerring accuracy, she’d touched on his most tender spot, he reflected, carefully keeping his turmoil off his face. Getting up and going behind where she sat on the couch, he said, “Neck rub while we’re talking.”

“Ahhh.” Her head fell forward in submission.

“So you want me to talk about my romance with Amy?” Doug forged forward manfully. The subject lay between them just as much as her marriage to Jared had altered the terrain of their relationship. They had to find a way to go on, a way to continue a friendship he cherished while maintaining this new relationship with Amy. It had come out of nowhere, but he couldn’t imagine giving her up.

“Yes, your romance to Amy!” She reached up, slapping at his hand playfully. “Who else? I’m so excited for you both.”

“Amy’s great,” Doug said, meaning it. “She’s terrific.”

Hot, torrid lovemaking night after night. Even in his fantasies he hadn’t found better. Even more important, Amy and he shared a day-to-day rhythm, a connection he was coming to truly value. She made him laugh, made him feel loved.

He just didn’t know where to put his old feelings for her sister, his dreams of Kelsey making him someone other than ordinary-Doug. Somehow he knew he’d be a different man with her, someone brighter and stronger.

“You’ve been seeing a lot of each other,” Kelsey commented, her voice muffled by the dark fall of her hair around her face as he worked out the kinks in her shoulders.

“Yes.” And Amy would hate his being here now, he knew. Knew it and recoiled from lying to her. But this was something he had to do. How could he simply cut Kelsey out of his heart?

So he’d broken their luncheon date, lied to Amy and said he had to work through lunch.

“Amy’s the best,” Doug murmured, half to himself.

“The very best,” Kelsey agreed from behind the curtain of her hair.

Looking down at her, he remembered again the tough girl in high school. Mouthy with teachers and not intimidated by the roughest guys. Her spiritedness had drawn him like a magnet that first day.

All the days and nights of his adolescence, Kelsey had been his ideal, her spunky attitude and beautiful face making her a prize worth winning.

In a flash, he recalled the clench of Amy’s tight, silken body around his, the way she cried out his name as he drove into her over and over. In all his patient dreams of winning Kelsey’s love, he’d never really fantasized about making love to her, which was odd. Of course, when he was a kid, he’d fantasized about nailing everything that moved.

Hell, as an adult he’d fantasized fucking women he’d seen walking down the street—it was a man thing—but not Kelsey anymore. Not for years had he actually thought about her as a sexual object. She belonged to that chivalrous, stronger-than-he-felt part of himself.

How could he let her go? How could he give up on his longing to win a woman who could make him more than his ordinary, nice-guy self? More than the schlepping average-guy his father had been.

He knew he ran the risk of alienating his boss by continuing to hover around Kelsey. There was a good chance his preoccupation with her would lose him a future with Amy. But how did a man break a habit of so many years?

Doug worked at the knots in Kelsey’s shoulders, hearing her appreciative moan.

A key clicked in the lock just then. With a suddenness belied by his immediate feeling of paralysis, Doug watched with horror as the apartment door swung open…and saw Amy coming through the doorway.

Not Jared with a revolver in his hands, but still not good.

“Hey, sis!” Amy called out. “The
Calvary
has—“

She stopped then, shock, anger, hurt and disbelief hurrying over her face in a cavalcade of emotion.

Damn!
He swore to himself. He couldn’t buy a fucking break here!

Kelsey’s head had lifted under his now-nerveless fingers. “Come in! Your beloved boyfriend has been acting the angel of mercy, but I’m sure you can out do him.”

Amy slowly shut the door behind her. She turned, not meeting his eyes.

Doug snatched his hands off of Kelsey, coming around the couch to take the shopping bag Amy held.

“Here, I’ll put—“

She moved, twitching the bag out of his reach.

“I’ve got special chicken soup, several of your favorite videos to make you laugh,” Amy said with a hard cheerfulness in her voice as she spoke to her sister. “Remember laughter is supposed to make your immune system work better. And if that doesn’t help—fudge ripple ice cream.”

Kelsey sighed her contentment. “I am a lucky woman. A sister who loans me her boyfriend for a neck rub and then brings me chicken soup and fudge ripple ice cream.”

Sitting down next to her sister, Amy’s bright smile didn’t waver as she reached out to lay a hand on her forehead. “No fever. Any more tummy upset? Jared said you were up-chucking last night.”

Flashing Doug a glittering glance, Amy met his eyes at last. She was furious, he knew it. Hell, any idiot would recognize the hostility emanating from her. If Kels hadn’t been so wiped out, she’d have instantly recognized the tension in the room.

“Shall I warm the soup?” Doug asked, determined to act as innocent as he was. Dammit, it wasn’t as if he’d been ravishing her sister.

“Kelsey, are you hungry?” Amy said with terrible brightness.

“Yes,” Kelsey answered with a chuckle. “And no, I don’t have a fever and my stomach is just needing soup.”

“I’ll warm the soup.” Doug advanced on the bag sitting at Amy’s feet, irrationally determined to wrest it from her if necessary. But she ignored him as he caught up the handles of the shopping bag and bore it into the kitchen.