Once Pregnant, Twice Shy (Gage Brothers 3)

Eyes widening at the lines of agony carved in his face, she curled her fingers into her palm because they tingled after his touch.

H

e inhaled long and deep before his lids finally lifted open, and her heart melted when he looked at her with that dark, tired gaze. His glassy look killed her, but something there, something she couldn’t decipher, made her stomach constrict. His pupils were fully dilated and his eyes held a strange awareness.

“Please just leave,” he said, and there was something very desperate in his voice that almost made her hesitate.

“Come here, Garrett.” She slid closer until her back was against the gray suede headboard, and she urged his dark head to rest against her chest and ran her fingers through his hair. “If you don’t want to eat, just let me keep you company.”

He groaned on contact, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Kate, I don’t have the energy to do this with you today.”

“This what? I’m not planning to fight you.”

“This... Damn.” He made another deep noise when she lightly massaged his scalp. As her fingers twined in his hair and he pressed closer and tightened his hold around her, her body experienced all sorts of chemical reactions. He was adorable. She wanted to hug him. To tuck him into her suitcase and take him with her.

Crazy girl. The point was to get away from him, wasn’t it?

She continued caressing his hair until he relaxed against her, and her body also turned mushy. When his voice reached her ears minutes later, she started, for she’d almost been falling asleep with him.

“You used to bring me soup when I was sick.” He spoke in a murmur against her chest, and his warm breath slipped seductively into her cleavage. “I liked getting sick because of you.”

She laughed. “You’re a very troubled man, Garrett.”

“I was a very troubled young boy.”

He angled his face so he could peer up at her, then raised his hand and absently ran his thumb down the bridge of her nose. “And you? You weren’t Little Miss Perfect. When you heard the thunder and lightning and that huge storm one night, you lost your marbles completely. Do you remember?”

She dropped her hands as he sat up.

“I’m not sure, since I lose my marbles with all the storms.”

“The one that made both you girls run into the boys’ room. Before we knew it, Molly had jumped into Julian’s bed and you were in mine. But Jules tried to hide her under the covers, and you and I immediately went all around the house looking for Molly, thinking she was somewhere else.”

“Okay. Now I remember.”

He sat back with his temple propped against the headboard, his eyes suddenly warm with the memory. “You and I ended up splitting up to find Molly, and I found you asleep in the living room after I found out Julian had hijacked her and was hiding her in his bed. Do you remember what you said?”

Kate was so riveted by his retelling, by the way his smile flashed as he remembered, she’d lost all power of speech. He looked...happy. And also sad?

And devastating.

When she didn’t answer, he tipped her head back by the chin, and his voice acquired a strange note. It was deeper. Especially with that strep-throat rasp. “You asked me why I hadn’t hijacked you, too.”

A strange tingle was growing in the pit of Kate’s stomach, and she couldn’t stop it, couldn’t control it.

“I was probably more asleep than awake.”

The atmosphere around them felt heavy with something unnameable and untamable. She became fiercely aware of every point of contact of their bodies. Her knee against his thigh. Her shoulder against the side of his arm.

“Do you want me to hijack you now, Kate?”

Her stomach tightened at the question. “What do you mean?” She narrowed her eyes and told herself his husky tone was due to the strep throat, but it was too thick, too heavy, as heavy as those coal-black eyes.

He cupped her cheek in one huge, dry palm. “You always took care of Molly until she found Julian. You always put her first, before anything else. Didn’t you?”

When Kate could only nod, he continued.

“This is how I am with you, Kate. It’s instinctive in me. Putting you first. I’d never take advantage of you, that’s my number-one priority. But if I knew you might want something from me, I would like to give it to you. So...”