"Because of Magda. I'm going to keep her, no matter how many courts and piles of paperwork I have to plow through. She's my daughter." Her words rolled free in an out-of-control tumble, not too different from her life at the moment. "Even if I could settle for your offer, I can't live with you. The courts will never go for that."
Gray eased off his elbow onto a pillow. His chest rose and fell deeply, twice. "Okay. Good point." Another deep breath later he continued, "So let's do it."
"Do what?"
"Get … you know." He shrugged. "Let's do it."
Lori sat up, scooting as far away from him and temptation as she could without falling off the bed. "Geez, Gray! You can't even say the word and you expect me to marry you? What about love? You know, some women expect that when a guy proposes. Silly me, I happen to be one of them."
Even though he didn't answer, Lori decided to take the biggest risk of her life. Relinquishing control didn't come easily for her, but she couldn't spend the rest of her life wondering what would have happened if she'd tried. She placed her hand on his heart as she offered him hers. "I love you, Gray. But I need for you to love me, too, or it will never work."
He blinked. Nothing more. The jerk simply blinked.
Lori yanked the covers off him. "Get out."
"No." He whipped the blanket off her and threw it on the floor. "I'm not going until we talk about this."
The stubborn look in his eyes told her well enough he wasn't budging his gorgeous butt from her bed until he got his way. Never in a million years would she have imagined she would run away from marrying Gray.
Lori swung her feet to the floor. She yanked her clothes on with vicious tugs before whipping her hair into a simple ponytail. "Fine, I'll go. I'm already late picking up Magda."
"Wait." Gray left the bed, stepping over the comforter pooled in the middle of the floor. "Give me three minutes to get dressed and I'll go with you."
"You're not invited." She spun for the door.
He grabbed her arm. "Okay, Lori. You want to hear the words? Fine. I have feelings for you. Feelings for you that won't turn me loose. And believe me I've tried." He drew in another one of those deep breaths as if bracing for combat. "I guess maybe you call that love."
She jerked her arm free. Did he have to trample all her dreams? Why not bomb her Barbie house while he was at it? Pain made her lash out. "Oh, wow! You're on a roll tonight, Major." She hitched her hand on her hip in her best aviator stud stance. "'Let's get … you know,' followed by 'I guess maybe I love you.'"
"Lori, damn it, will you just listen?"
Her hands slid off her hips, her anger sliding away, as well, to be replaced by a bittersweet ache. "You just don't get it, do you Gray? This is forever we're talking about. Everything. No guesses or maybes or temporary live-ins. You have to be sure."
At least he didn't blink this time, just stared back at her with solemn eyes. She had to hand it to him. For a man who made a habit of managing life with his charm and a smile, he was laying it on the line for her. His offering touched her, even tempted her, but it would never be enough to satisfy the longing in her heart.
Lori kissed him gently, then ducked out the door into the hall, a much safer place to be than in the same room with naked Gray and his "maybe love."
She made it all the way to the front door before he caught her. She would have likely made it outside if she hadn't paused to grab her purse hanging off the coat tree. But a woman needed her keys, right? It wasn't that she was delaying to give him a chance to catch her.
And then he was there. Beside her. Naked and unrelenting. His hand fell to rest against the door.
"I'm leaving, Gray."
"Go ahead." His hand, pressed against the solid oak, defied her threat. He could keep her trapped inside, and they both knew it.
She'd run a year ago fully expecting him to follow, had even known she would likely cave to his conditional offerings in the end. But the past weeks had changed her, and she couldn't settle for less than all of him this time. She'd flat-out exhausted her ideas on how to win his unconditional love.
She couldn't spend the rest of her life cringing every time that caged look crept back into his eyes. Her love for him deserved a better end than that. She tried to tell herself remembering Grayson gloriously nude and smelling of peaches wasn't too shabby a swan song for their relationship.
"Let me go." Her eyes stung in spite of her best effort to make a dignified exit. "Please, Gray, just let me go."
He brushed away her tear and caressed it between two fingers.
His hand dropped from the door.
She stole one last look at him as he towered over her, moving neither toward or away. The message in his eyes was clear. Stay.
And the choice was hers. No choice really. "Please don't be here when I get back."