The Nurse's Baby Secret
Page 25
That thought gave her a moment’s pause, but he scooped her into his arms and carried her to her bedroom, all the while kissing her mouth as if he couldn’t bear not to and she pushed aside her flash of hesitation.
For now she could pretend it was real, that when morning came reality wouldn’t set in. It would. She acknowledged that. But, for the moment, she was going to exist in that make-believe world because in the real world, even if he said all the right things, he couldn’t undo the damage from the past two months and she wanted this one last time.
* * *
Hot, covered in sweat, heart pounding, body satiated, Charlie collapsed on top of Savannah.
His weight must have been too much for her because she wiggled and pushed at him.
“Sorry,” he said, rolling over onto his side.
“For?”
“Squashing you.”
“Oh, that.” She waved off his concern and the hand he went to hold her with. She glanced around at the tangled bed sheets. “We shouldn’t have done this.”
“You wanted me as much as I wanted you,” he reminded her.
“I’m not denying it. You know how to make my body do miraculous things.”
“You’re a sensual woman.”
“But not a sensible one.”
Her words stung. He didn’t want her to think of him as a big mistake. He’d been thought of that way, way too often during his life. He didn’t want Savannah to feel that way, too. Yet wasn’t that really how she should think of him?
“Let’s not overanalyze what just happened. Let’s just accept it for what it was.”
“One last booty call?” she interrupted.
“You were never that,” he corrected.
“I was never more than that.”
He winced at her conviction. “How can you say that?”
“Because it’s true,” she insisted.
“I’ve told you repeatedly that I enjoyed what we shared.” He sighed, knowing this wasn’t an argument he could win. It wasn’t even one he should try to win. “Let’s not talk. I’ll be gone tomorrow so just let me hold you for a few minutes now.”
Her eyes closed. “Fine.”
He held her, tracing his fingertips over the lines of her spine, noting how her bones protruded. “Have you lost weight?”
“I thought we weren’t going to talk.”
“Promise me you’ll eat.”
“I do eat.”
Something in the way she said it made him stare at her. “You’ve been sick again?”
“I’m fine.”
“Apparently not if you’re losing weight.”
“I’ve not lost weight and I’m not sick.” She sat up and tugged on the sheet, trying to cover her body.