Pandora's Box (previously Worth the Wait, a Zebra print best seller) (25 page)

With a deep breath for courage she entered the building and took the short elevator ride to the top floor. She wrapped her knuckles against the door and paced the hallway. Her heart lodged in her throat, threatening to choke her. She heard the deadbolt slide, and the door swung open. Damian filled the doorway, looking achingly sexy in jeans and a pullover.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hello.” He didn’t move. Didn’t smile. Not an encouraging sign, she thought nervously.

“May I come in?”

He stepped aside and allowed her to enter.

At least he didn’t slam the door in her face, which was well within his rights. She had closed enough emotional doors on him over the course of their relationship, but he’d never given up on her. She wouldn’t let him give up on her now.

He closed the door and walked past her without a word. He wasn’t going to make this easy for her. Why should he? She had gone too far, and he had an amazingly high threshold where she was concerned. She had questioned his motives, his honesty, and even his love.

She slowly made her way over to the window where he stood.

He folded his arms across his chest. “Did you come for your things?”

The question stung like a slap to the face. “Is that what you want?”

“This isn’t about what I want. What do you want?”

She wanted to erase the past few days. She wanted to take back the words she’d said to him. More than anything she wanted a sign that she hadn’t lost him. She couldn’t bear it if she opened her heart to him and he sent her away. Right now, he seemed so distant that she wasn’t sure how to reach him. Words seemed inadequate.

She laid her hand on his chest, stroking the solid muscles that rippled beneath her touch. His breath caught in his throat, and a spark of hope lightened her heavy heart. On a physical level, she could still reach him. “I want you.”

* * * *

Damian caught her wrist in an iron grip. It would be so easy to lose himself in her willing warmth, but it wouldn’t solve the basic problem between them. She had come on her own. That was a start. She had opened herself up to possible rejection, and for Charlie, who had built a granite wall around her emotions rather than let another person in, it was a major breakthrough. But it wasn’t enough.

“Why?” he asked. “Why do you want me?”

“Because I love you.”

“There’s no love without trust.”

“I do trust you.”

“Prove it.”

Raking a handful of hair back from her face, Charlie stared in silent confusion. It was no easy task to prove the existence of an intangible. Then she leaned against the wall and opened her arms to him. “My back is to the wall, Damian, and the only fear I have is that I’m going to lose you because I don’t know how to make you believe me.”

He looked into her eyes and saw the love and trust shining there. And something more: something like triumph. She had not only proven something to him, but to herself as well. She really was free.

He stepped into her arms and wrapped her in a tight embrace. “Losing me should be the least of your worries.”

She held him so tight, her body trembled. “Why do you put up with me? I don’t give you anything but trouble.”

“With a capital T. But you give me so much more.” He gently stroked a finger along her cheek. How could she be so unsure of herself when she had so much going for her? “Sometimes, just sometimes, when you forget to erect that wall of yours, I see a different side of you. A side that’s sweet and caring, and braver than any other person I’ve ever known. You’ve been through more in the past month than most people have to deal with in a lifetime. If I’m guilty of anything, it’s of trying to protect you from any more hurt”

“You can’t protect me by keeping things from me.”

He nodded. Without all the facts, it was easy to see how Monica could twist the truth. Particularly to Charlie, who had been betrayed by every person she had ever trusted. “I was wrong to keep the truth from you. But you were wrong to think I did it to protect anyone but you. You’re the most important person in my life and I would never intentionally hurt you.”

She smacked him playfully on the chest. “Then why did you let me leave?”

“I didn’t let you leave. You left,” he pointed out.

“I know. But you should have stopped me. Lord knows you’ve never had a problem making me do things I say I won’t.”

“I told you right from the beginning that I’d never make you do anything you didn’t want to do. Staying had to be your decision. I don’t know what other lies my mother might try to fill your head with, but I shouldn’t have to defend myself to you.”

She shivered and whispered sadly, “She will never accept me.”

“My mother isn’t the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“But—”

Damian cut her off with a finger on her lips. “No buts. My mother doesn’t know the first thing about me. I’m thirty-two years old and she hasn’t been there for a single important event in my life. If she can’t learn to accept us, then she’ll miss my wedding, too.”

“I guess so,” she mumbled.

“What happened to that self-assured woman who told me in no uncertain terms where I could go with her blessing? Several times.”

“So, maybe I’m not as tough as I thought I was.” Damian kissed her forehead.

“I knew that. As a matter of fact, you’re not tough at all. You’re soft and sweet and ...”

He ran his hand lovingly along her back, drawing her closer until their bodies meshed. She let out one of her adorable moans that let him know she’d grown impatient with talking. She wanted him almost as much as he wanted her. It had been torture fighting off the urge to cloud her mind with sex until they could straighten out the misunderstandings.

She brushed against his full arousal. “You were saying?”

He sucked in a deep breath. “I seem to have lost my train of thought. What do you say we finish this discussion later?”

Using the wall for support, she curled one leg around his hip and pulled him in. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all week.”

“It had better be the only offer, or some heads are going to roll at work.” He lowered his head and kissed her lips, her neck, and her throat. She let out a soft sigh.

The last shred of her conscious mind kicked in and she froze. “Damian?”

He pulled her away from the wall and gently cupped her face. He was concerned that some of her old fears had resurfaced. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you say wedding?”

He laughed and pulled her back into his arms where she belonged. “You bet your cute rear end, I did.”

Charlie giggled, sounding light-headed and deliriously happy. “You sure do have a thing for my rear end.”

He slid his hands down to cover the object of his fancy. “And everything else that comes with it.”

EPILOGUE

“Damian,” Charlie gasped through her panicked cries. “Damian, I changed my mind.”

He wiped a hand tenderly across her damp forehead. The other hand was crushed in her vise-like grip. “It’s too late to change your mind now.”

“You promised . . . you said when I say stop . . . please, Damian.” She squeezed her eyelids shut and took deep breaths, followed by short panting ones. “I don’t . . . want to do this.”

“All right, Charlie,” he whispered soothingly in her ear. “Stay like this for another twenty-five years.”

“Don’t patronize me. This is all your fault”

“I’m trying to help.”

“Oh, sure. Why don’t we trade places for the last few centimeters? One little baby, you said. Little baby, my foot. There’s a linebacker in my stomach trying to kick his way out!”

“What do you want me to do? Just tell me.”

Charlie grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him down to her eye level. “Do you remember what I did to that mutt you brought home when he started roaming around the neighborhood?”

“You had him neutered?”

“Mm-hmm. You’re next.”

Damian held back a laugh.

“She doesn’t mean that,” the nurse assured him.

Damian shot a quick glance to Charlie and grinned. “Yes, she does. Every single word. But she’s fickle. She’ll change her mind in a couple of hours.”

The nurse looked at Charlie. “A couple of minutes, I’d say.”

He wiped her face with a cool cloth. “Come on, Charlie. Short breaths.”

“You take short breaths. I want a C-section, now,” Charlie demanded.

“Mrs. Westfield, you’re almost there,” the patient nurse said. Charlie’s outbursts were apparently mild compared to what the nurse was used to.

“Oh, shut up. You’re on his side. Oh ...” Charlie groaned. “I want to push.”

The nurse hit the call button next to the bed and gave Charlie an encouraging smile. “You go ahead and push. The doctor’s on her way in right now.”

* * * *

Charlie stared at the tiny, seven-pound miracle in the pink blanket, the last few hours of pain wiped from her mind.

Erik broke hospital rules and removed the mask from his face. “She’s gorgeous, runt.” He put his arm around his brother and laughed. “Damian, on the other hand, looks green. Did he make it through the whole thing?”

Charlie smiled lovingly at her husband. “I had to help him through it, but he did all right.”

“Excuse me?” Damian asked.

“Okay. He was great and I almost didn’t make it through.” She couldn’t lie in front of her child. “The next one will be easier.”

“Next one? I thought you were going to have me neutered.”

Charlie lifted her shoulders apologetically. “Did I say that? I must have been crazy. You do great work. Look at her. She looks just like you.”

Damian peeked at his daughter and tenderly, stroked her cheek. “She’s as beautiful as her mommy. Aren’t you, Kristin? I’m going to have to start looking around for an all-girls school to put you in until you’re twenty-one.”

Erik chuckled. “I hear Mother beat you to it.”

Charlie shot him a silencing glare, but Damian caught the exchange. “What’s going on?”

“I have to go,” Erik said quickly. “I’ll stop by tomorrow.”

“Just a second,” Damian called after him. Erik made another one of his timely, cowardly retreats, leaving Charlie to deal with her husband. “What did he mean by that?”

Charlie tried to put him off. “You know Erik.”

“No. I smell a rat, and I’ll just bet her name is Monica.”

She touched his arm and gave him a smile. This was a day for happiness, not sorrow. “Today is your daughter’s birthday. Let’s not start it with an argument.”

“Charlie . . .”

“She came to the house last week while you were away. You wouldn’t answer her calls, so she decided to try talking to me. While she was there she gave me some literature on the best private schools.”

His jaw tightened. “She’s too late.”

“Oh, so when you told me to forgive my parents and get on with my life, it was a lie?”

“That’s not the same thing,” he said grimly.

“Yes, it is. A year is too long to leave it unsettled. She’s making an effort the only way she knows how.”

Damian rubbed his forehead and sighed. “What did you tell her?”

“I told her that we weren’t interested in sending our child to private school. Nor were we interested in moving from our new house that she feels is too small and isolated. However, if she wants to visit her grandchild, then she is welcome to do so.”

“And what did she say to that?”

“What could she say? It wasn’t up for negotiation. Why don’t you call her and let her know about your daughter?”

“I don’t know . . .”

“Please?”

He never could refuse her anything she asked for. After all he’d done for her in the last year to help her deal with her past, she felt she owed him this. He never admitted it to her, but she knew that the estrangement bothered him. In coming to see Charlie, Monica had made the first move.

“. . . a girl, Kristin . . . just like her mother . . . no, Mother, she doesn’t want a nanny . . . no, no maid, either ... no ... no ... I don’t know . . . no, not today. Tomorrow would be better . . .” Damian held his hand over the mouthpiece and glanced helplessly at Charlie. “You’re going to pay for this.”

“I love you, too. But talk to your mother.”

“Why? She doesn’t need anyone to have a conversation.”

“Damian!”

He put the receiver back to his ear. “. . . what was that? . . . seven pounds . . . yes, the doctor knew what she was doing ... I really have to go now, Mother . . . yes, I’ll call tomorrow . . . goodbye.” Damian hung up the phone and turned back to his wife. “Happy now?”

“The question is, are you happy now?”

“Yes.” He lifted Kristin from Charlie’s arms and placed her in the tiny crib. Taking a moment to see that she was settled, he sat down on the bed and cuddled Charlie close. “So, where were we?”