His Temptation, Her Secret

Sage didn’t think getting straight As in high school qualified anyone for that title. “TJ doesn’t know me very well.”

“He says you skipped college to take care of Eli.”

“I did. And I’m glad. And I wouldn’t change it.”

“I’m sorry.” Tasha’s voice went soft. “I didn’t mean that to sound like a criticism.”

Sage regretted her outburst. “Touchy subject. TJ has a strong opinion on it.”

“Have you thought about going back?”

“Now I know you’ve been talking to TJ. Is this a setup?” Sage was only half joking.

“It’s not a setup. I’m not the type to betray the sisterhood.”

It was Sage’s turn to apologize. “I’m sorry.”

Tasha gave a careless shrug. “No need. You don’t know me yet. But when you do get to know me, you’ll learn that I’m a huge proponent of women undertaking any career path they want.”

Sage knew that Tasha had gone against her wealthy Bostonian parents’ wishes to become a marine mechanic.

“I don’t know what your passion is, Sage. Maybe you don’t know what it is either. But you should find it. Whatever it is, you should go after it. And don’t let TJ or anyone else try to tell you what it is.”

Sage was liking Tasha. And the woman had inspired her to start thinking.

Once they’d told Eli about TJ. Once she and her son were settled in Whiskey Bay. Once they got into some kind of a routine as a household. What would she do then?

* * *

“She seems pretty great,” Caleb said to TJ.

They sat at one end of the rectangular table in the Neo seafood restaurant’s private dining room. It was Caleb’s seventeenth Neo location nationwide, and it had just opened two weeks ago.

TJ’s gaze went to Sage, where Tasha was trying to tempt her with something from the dessert cart.

He’d kissed her.

He’d known he was going to kiss her. It was what a guy did at the end of a wedding ceremony. What he hadn’t known was that he was going to kiss her—full-on, body-wide, every-emotion-and-hormone-engaged kiss her. His vision tunneled to her lips, and desire dug deep inside him.

He blinked himself back to reality. “She is great. I never said she wasn’t great.”

“But she’s not Lauren.”

“She’s never going to be Lauren.” As he said the words, TJ was overcome with guilt.

It felt like he’d betrayed Lauren by kissing Sage. Yet he’d somehow betrayed Sage by comparing her to Lauren.

He wasn’t going to compare the two women. The situations were completely different.

“I’m still not sure you’ve thought this through,” Caleb said.

“I’ve thought it completely through.” Plus, it was done. TJ wished Caleb could be as supportive as Matt.

“Marriage is big. Marriage is huge.”

TJ found his gaze drawn to Sage. He felt the rush of desire again, and he knew he had to find a way to shut it down. “It’s not that kind of a marriage.”

“There are no kinds.”

“There are thousands of kinds. Some people marry for love. Some for money. And some for the sake of the kids.”

“Usually that’s when someone is pregnant, and—”

“Better late than never,” TJ said. To distract himself, he picked up a clean butter knife and spun it in a circle on the white tablecloth. “I thought through the other options. I considered them all. But I want to be fair to Sage. She deserves security. Can you imagine living in someone else’s house, at their whim, dependent on their good graces?”

“Are you saying you might kick her out? I don’t believe that for a second.”

“I’m saying she would have no way of knowing how I’d treat her. This way, the house is half hers. I couldn’t kick her out if I wanted to.” He kept his gaze firmly on the table. He wasn’t going to look at her again and risk that emotional rabbit hole. “And I don’t want to. And I never would. But now she’ll never have to wonder.”

“The house is one thing,” Caleb said. “But the prenup better be ironclad beyond that.”

TJ didn’t answer. He spun the knife again.

Caleb levered forward in his chair. “You did not leave her a loophole.”

“I thought you said she seemed great.”

“Her seeming great and you being stupid are two totally different things.”

“There’s no loophole.”

Caleb seemed mollified.

But TJ wasn’t going to leave the misunderstanding just sitting out there on the table. “There’s no prenup.”

Caleb blinked. Then he blinked again.