Whatever it was, Nick told himself firmly, it was time to nip it in the bud. No way was he going to be tripping on his own heartstrings. Not over a woman he already knew to be an accomplished liar.
Besides, she hadn’t come on this trip for him, he told himself sternly, but for what he could give her. She’d booked passage on his ship with the sole purpose of getting money out of him. Sure, it was for child support. But she still wanted money. So what made her different from any other woman he’d known?
“I’m attracted to you,” she was saying, and it looked like admitting that was costing her, “but then I guess you already figured that out.”
Was she blushing? Did women still do that?
“But I’m not going to let my hormones be in the driver’s seat,” she told him and met his gaze with a steely determination. “Pretty soon, you’ll be back sailing the world with a brunette or a redhead on your arm and I’ll be back in Seal Beach taking care of my sons.”
The babies.
Hers? His?
He wasn’t going there until he knew for sure. Instead, he decided to turn the tables on her. Remind her just whose ship she was on. Remind her that he hadn’t come to her, it had been the other way around.
“Don’t get yourself tied up in knots over this, Jenna,” he said, reaching out to chuck her under the chin with his fingertips. “It was one night. A blip on the radar screen.”
She blinked at him.
“We had a good time,” he said lightly, letting none of the tension he felt coiled inside show. “Now it’s over. End of story.”
He watched as his words slapped at her, and just for a minute he wished he could take them back. Yet as that feeling rushed over him, he wondered where it had come from.
“Okay, then,” Jenna said, her voice nearly lost in the rush and swell of the sea below them, tumbling against the ship’s hull. “So now we know where we stand.”
“We do.”
“Well, then,” she said, forcing a smile that looked brittle, “maybe I should just fly home early. I can catch a flight out of Acapulco easily enough. I talked to my sister earlier and she’s going a little nuts—”
He cut her off instantly. “Are the babies all right?”
She stopped, looked at him quizzically and said slowly, “Yes, of course. The boys are fine, but Maxie’s not used to dealing with them twenty-four hours a day and they can be exhausting, so—”
“I’d rather you didn’t leave yet,” he blurted.
“Why not?”
Because he wasn’t ready for her to be gone. But since admitting that even to himself was too lowering, he said, “I want you here until we get the results from the DNA test.”
Her gaze dropped briefly, then lifted to meet his again. “You said we’d probably hear sometime today, anyway.”
“Then there’s no problem with you waiting.”
“What’s this really about, Nick?” she asked.
“Just what I said,” he told her, taking her arm in a firm grip and turning her around. Heat bled up from the spot where his hand rested on her arm. He fought the urge to pull her into him, to dip his head and kiss the pulse beat at the base of her throat. To pull the hem of her shirt up so he could fill his hands with her br**sts.
Damn, he was hard and hot and really irritated by that simple fact.
Leading her along the wide walkway, he started for his suite. “We’ve got unfinished business together, Jenna. And until it’s done and over, you’re staying.”
“Maybe I should get another room.”
“Worried you won’t be able to control yourself?” he chided as he opened the door and allowed her to precede him into the suite.
“In your dreams,” she said shortly, and tossed her purse onto the sofa.
“And yours,” he said.
Jenna looked at him and felt herself weakening. It wasn’t fair that this was so hard. Wasn’t fair that her body wanted and her heart yearned even as her mind told her to back away. She had to leave the ship. Soon. In the strained silence, a beep sounded from another room, and she glanced at Nick, a question in her eyes.
“Fax machine.”
She nodded and as he walked off to get whatever had come in for him, Jenna headed for his bedroom. All she wanted to do was get the underwear she’d left in there the night before. And better to do it while he was occupied somewhere else.
Opening the door, she swung it wide just as Nick called out, “It’s from the lab.”
If he said anything else, she didn’t hear him. Didn’t even feel a spurt of pleasure, knowing that now he’d have no choice but to believe her about the fact that he was the father of her sons.
Instead Jenna’s gaze was locked on his bed, and her brain short-circuited as she blankly stared at the very surprised, very na**d redhead stretched out on top of Nick’s bed.
Eight
“Jenna?” Nick’s voice came from behind her, but she didn’t turn.
“Hey!” The redhead’s eyes were wide as she scrambled to cover herself—a little too late—with the black duvet. “I didn’t know he already had company….”
Nick came up behind Jenna, and she actually felt him tense up. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded, pushing past Jenna to face the woman staring up at him through eyes shining with panic.
“Babe of the month?” Jenna asked curtly.
“Look,” the redhead was saying from beneath the safety of the duvet, “I can see I made a mistake here and—”
“Oh,” Jenna told her snidely, “don’t leave on my account,” then she spun on her heel and marched down the long hall toward her own bedroom.
“Jenna, damn it, wait.” Nick’s voice was furious but she didn’t care. Didn’t want to hear his explanation. What could he possibly say? There was a na**d woman in his bed. And he hadn’t looked surprised, just angry. Which told Jenna everything she needed to know. This happened to him a lot.
That simple fact made one thing perfectly clear to Jenna.
It was so past time for her to leave.
God, she was an idiot. To even allow herself to think that she loved him. Was she a glutton for punishment?
She marched into her room on autopilot. Blindly she moved to the closet, grabbed her suitcase and tossed it onto the bed. Opening it up, she threw the lid back, then turned for the closet again. Scooping up an armful of her clothes, she carried them to the suitcase, dropped them in and was on her way back to the closet for a second load when Nick arrived.