The desire Kennedy inspired as he touched her coiled in the pit of Grace’s stomach. “That’s a better idea.”
He pulled away long enough to adjust his son’s covers, then guided her out of Teddy’s room and through a set of double doors that led to a large master suite with a tall four-poster bed. A small retreat branched off to the left, containing a secretary and a couch with lots of pillows. Two large walk-in closets and a giant bathroom were located to the right.
“This is nice,” she said, but the tender moment they’d shared in Teddy’s room was gone and she was feeling nervous again, supremely aware that she was in another woman’s domain.
She must have communicated her anxiety in some way because Kennedy told her to relax as he walked into the bathroom and turned on the Jacuzzi tub.
“I’m not nervous,” she lied.
Coming back to her, he slipped his hands around her waist. “Maybe it’s me. I’m afraid you’re going to walk out of here while I’m dying to make love to you.”
She glanced once more at the bed—Raelynn’s bed. “I’m considering it.”
“Last night, you asked me to stay. Now I’m asking the same of you.”
“But I don’t belong here, Kennedy.”
“I want you with me.” He tugged her bottom lip into his mouth. “Tell me you want that, too.”
“What I want doesn’t change anything.”
Slipping his good hand under her shirt, he unfastened her bra, and she caught her breath as his palm covered her breast. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’ve got plenty of birth control this time.”
“If I had my way, we wouldn’t even use it,” she said.
He jerked back as though she’d given him an electric shock. “What?”
“I want a baby more than anything,” she told him. “I want your baby.”
An emotion Grace couldn’t quite interpret appeared in his eyes. “But—”
“It’s impossible,” she interrupted, shaking her head. “I know.”
He kissed her again, more tentatively at first. But as she put her arms around his neck and began to respond to the teasing of his lips, his kisses began to deepen.
“The tub’s going to overflow,” he said and pulled her into the bathroom, where he tested the water and stripped off their clothes.
When he stood before her completely naked, she smiled. They were nearly surrounded by mirrors that showed her at least ten reflections. “Wow,” she said.
He grinned, then urged her into the water with him, where he lathered her entire body with soap. “Grace?”
The sensation of his wet skin sliding against hers made her feel as if she were floating on air. “What?”
“If I give you a baby, will you stay?” he murmured.
“The night?”
“Forever. Will you marry me?”
Grace felt as though he’d opened the drain and she was spinning down with the water. “What?”
He threaded his fingers through hers. “You heard me.”
“We’re crazy to even consider it. You know that.”
“Just tell me you’re innocent,” he said. “Tell me you had nothing to do with Barker’s disappearance and I’ll give you a baby, marry you, let you share Teddy and Heath.”
Grace’s heart was beating so hard she thought it might leap out of her chest. “Kennedy, no….”
“Yes,” he insisted, letting go so he could search out her most sensitive parts.
Grace gasped at his bold exploration. What he was doing made her weak, shaky…and eager for more. “I…can’t.”
“I know what I want, Grace. To be together. To know you’ll be here with me at the end of each day. Don’t you want the same thing?”
“More than I ever thought possible,” she whispered.
“Then you have to trust me. We can make a future together, but only if we trust each other.”
She remembered Clay telling her she deserved a chance at happiness. Did she really? Could it happen? Kennedy seemed to be offering her everything she’d ever dreamed about. But the price was absolute honesty.
“Grace?” Kennedy pleaded, kissing her temples, her eyelids, her cheeks. “Come on. I’ll never hurt you. We could be a family.”
Every muscle tensed—with hope, expectation, desire. And fear.
“We could have a little girl, a sister for Heath and Teddy.”
There were voices in her head, screaming that she was never supposed to tell. The world would come to an end if she opened her mouth. But her heart was begging her to believe, just this once.
“It was my fault,” she whispered.
He froze but didn’t remove the hand that cupped her in a very private way. “How?”
“He—he wouldn’t leave me alone.” Her chest suddenly grew so tight she had to fight for every breath. “He—he had Molly locked out of the r-room. And then my m-mother came home and knew something was wrong. H-he wasn’t even supposed to be home. He’d sent her away on purpose.” Kennedy didn’t move, but he was watching her intently. “She started accusing him, screaming that she was going to the police, that she’d reveal him for the filthy scum he was, and he…he couldn’t take it. Appearances were everything to him. He denied it, again and again, but my mother knew. She knew at last.” The words started coming quicker, like a torrent of water breaking through a dam. “The screaming escalated and things got violent. He started to hit her. I didn’t know what to do. I tried to stop him, but he threw me off and kept going after her. Then Clay came home and—” she gulped for more air “—and he got into it, to save her, to protect me.”
“And the reverend turned on him?”
She nodded. “My m-mother had to stop it, had to get him off my brother.”
“How’d she do it?” Kennedy asked softly.
“She hit him on the head with the butcher block that held our knives.”
“And?” he prompted.
“He fell,” she said simply. “He collapsed right there on the kitchen floor. We—we never dreamed he was dead. But there was so much blood and…” She blinked rapidly, trying to hold back tears. “He wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing. We didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t call the police. No one here liked us, no one would believe that it was merely an accident. My mother knew she’d go to jail and the rest of us would be split up.”