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Jack rubs his face impatiently. “I want to be part of my daughter's life,” he insists. “She should have both her parents together as a family.”
I lift my chin stubbornly. “I chose to nurture this pregnancy in Paris away from you dictating how it should unfold. I don't need your overbearing father simmering and making demands in the background!”
Jack flinches. “He won’t be a problem. I won't let him interfere,” he insists gruffly. “You'll be shielded, I swear it. Just come back to me.”
I shake my head, bitterness infusing my tone. “Don't act like you suddenly want me. This is just your sense of obligation speaking.”
“You don’t understand, Little Bird. This is not chivalry. I want you with me. For real. No more pretending.”
“I won't do that, Jack. I’m not going back to desperately wanting you, only to be given the cold shoulder on the next turn,” I state baldly. “You need to accept that your place in my life will be solely as my child’s father, nothing more.”
Jack drags a palm roughly down his face before squaring his shoulders. Determination glints through his stormy eyes.
“But I want more,” he says, stepping closer and gently brushing away a strand of hair from my eyes. “I want you, Maddie. Let me take care of you properly, as a family.”
Tears spring traitorously from my eyes, rolling hotly down my cheeks. I shake my head, stepping back. “But I don’t want it! I deserve more than tethering myself to a man who thinks I'm still some silly child!”
His stricken look pierces my core. I swipe dampness from both cheeks, forging ahead. “We made this baby during confusing circumstances. But she comes first now in any choice I make.” Steadily, I meet his frown. “You're free to be in our daughter's life without us playing pretend romance again. I need something real. I won't settle.” Without thinking, I rub my belly. “I want her brought into a home with actual love enveloping her, not just two people yoked by sacrifice. I don’t want a husband sleeping on the floor or in another room. Or not sleeping at all.”
“I’m better, Maddie. I haven’t had a nightmare in months. And I know now that even if I did, I could never hurt you.”
Trying to mask my shredded heart, I lift my chin, defiance still blazing. I refuse to limp through a loveless marriage just to raise a child. I deserve affection, desire, and love, not just purported protection.
And what example would that be for my little girl? She will see me thriving on my own terms, with or without a marriage.
But my skin is flushed under the hot molten lava simmering under his gaze, its weight making my body hum. He looks at me as if he is trying to light me on fire with his glare. Then his face morphs into a scowl.
“You think I don’t love you, Little Bird?” His voice is raspy and sweet, his fingers suddenly tangled in my hair, pulling me in. My nipples pebble, a roil of heat seeping through my body despite my resistance. I swallow audibly, my pulse skittering as his lips crush into mine, unrelenting and hot. I soften into his embrace, my legs giving in under me. But he holds me steady, as I knew he would.
“Maddie, this thing between us. It’s kismet. Don’t you feel it?” he murmurs against my lips.
When he pulls back, he has a ravenous look in his eyes, and I can feel the sizzle in the air.
“These few months without you have been torturous. You are all I can think about. You are my first thought in the morning and my last one at night.”
“I know you desire me, Jack.” The words fall out of my mouth like a whispered prayer as I pull away from his grip. I’m so close to giving in again. “But that’s not enough.” I straighten, my resolve returning. “And I certainly don’t want to be with you for the sake of our child. She will be fine, I promise you that.”
With that, I turn to walk away, but he grips my hand and pulls me back to him.
He looks at me with burning eyes as he leans down and kisses me again, this time gently. And now, I have a choice. To kiss him back or not? But I don't have too much time to think about it because his tongue pries my mouth open, tangling with mine, soft and tender.
“I love you, Maddie,” he murmurs against my lips. “Come home with me.”
He pulls a moan from me, my heart flapping uselessly in my chest.
This kiss is everything. Hot, tender, possessive, demanding, loving. And before I can say anything, he drops down to his knee, pulling the engagement ring from his pocket.
“Be my wife, Maddie,” he says, searching for an answer in my eyes. “Take this ring back. I was ready to give my life for you from the first moment I saw you. You are meant to be mine. It just took time to admit to myself that I was good enough for you.”
Can this be real? Is Jack Whitmore, for once, after all these months of my pining for him, finally realizing his feelings for me?
My breath is raspy, but I can’t help the smile that forms on my lips at hearing his words. The same diamond solitaire I gave back to him in the hospital glistens in the sun.
“Take this ring back, Maddie. Take me back.”
And when I finally reach for his hand, joyful certainty breaking like dawn across both our faces, he slides the diamond solitaire back in its rightful place on my left ring finger. The facets catch the Parisian spring sunlight, throwing rainbow prisms over our tangled fingers.
Jack stands, eyes suspiciously glassy. His arms come around me tenderly, our baby nestled safe between us.
