He could charm the pants off of billionaires, rub shoulders with royalty, and not fucking once could he get beneath this woman’s skin.
“Do you want to be spread on a table when they, you know, do that kind of stuff?”
She started to chuckle. “You know, you’ve got quite the way with words, in a rather strange way.”
“It’s what I go for.”
Meredith took another sip of her coffee. “Look, I know you mean well, but me and … sex, it never works out.”
He stared at her. Clearly, he hadn’t heard right.
She pushed some hair out of her eyes. “I’m not very good in bed. I don’t tend to inspire enough desire for a man to … complete. They don’t like making love to me at all.” Her face had gone an even deeper shade of red.
“I find that hard to believe.”
“No, it’s true. You have no idea how many times I’ve been told I remind someone of their sister.” She looked down at the table.
“I have sisters, and believe me, Meredith, you don’t remind me of them at all.”
She licked her lips. “I don’t want to be in pain anymore. I haven’t had a good track record with relationships, and I just feel if we get all personal, you’re not going to want to have a kid with me.”
He reached over the table. “Meredith Shaw, there is no one else I’d want a child with more. How about we do a full physical? I can prove to you I’m healthy, and I want to have this baby the right way.” And he so badly wanted to get into her pants, it was unreal. He hadn’t had a woman do this to him in a very, very, long time, in fact, not at all.
Meredith was the first woman who made him lose his mind.
Chapter Two
One week later
Meredith tried to rub out the wrinkles in her shirt, but nothing was moving or sticking, or doing anything she wanted.
This was a mess. A big, old, fat mess.
She tried to rearrange her bun, but again, not working. Pushing some hair out of her eyes, she glanced in the mirror and frowned. She looked like a stern teacher. Quickly, she removed the clip from her hair and allowed the locks to fall all around her face.
“This is so stupid.”
It had been a week since she’d made the arrangement with Jared. Since then, she’d talked herself out of being a mother to his baby at least a hundred times. She’d gotten the full physical and of course, she was healthy, for the most part. The doctor still liked to complain about her weight and she got the usual spiel of losing extra pounds.
Doctors sucked.
Pushing the meeting to the back of her mind, she took several deep breaths while Jared rang the doorbell another two times.
Finally, when she’d composed herself enough, she opened the door, offering him a smile. “Hi.”
“I don’t like the security here. You know the man at the front desk just let me come right up? No looking at my ID. Nothing. I have to complain,” Jared said. “Security must always come first.”
She took his jacket. “That was Phill on the door, and he knew who you were. I showed him your picture and asked if he’d send you right up.” She nibbled on her lip. “The security here is good, I promise. Phill is a great guy. A dad to three girls and he takes all of our safety seriously.”
There had been a story of a rape and murder a couple of blocks away, and no one got past Phill now. One woman’s boyfriend on the floor above her was nearly arrested when he refused to show his ID. It was why she’d taken the cautious step of showing Phill Jared’s picture, so she wouldn’t have to be embarrassed.
“Oh,” he said. “I’ll be leaving a tip.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I do.” Jared smiled. “Nice place.”
“Thank you.” She prided herself on her apartment. It was two bedrooms. Right now, the second bedroom was her workspace where she had endless projects on the go. As he hung up his jacket, she caught the designer label, but she didn’t react. Jared clearly had a lot of money, not that she cared.
She owned three haberdashery shops all around the city. Each shop was doing amazingly well. She had an online store as well. Whenever she saw an opportunity, she expanded.
Her love of sewing and crafting was evident around her apartment. She was the one who made the quilts, the throws for the sofa, and she’d even covered old chairs with beautiful new fabrics. She liked to create, and when she wasn’t working, her time was spent doing what she loved. What she wanted to do was make some baby blankets and little onesies. She wanted a baby so badly. For a long time, she’d waited to see if the right man would come along. No one came and this was her final resort.