Just the Husband She Chose Read online

  She didn’t realize she was crying now until Hunter came into the room, knelt down before her and took her hands in his. “I know you miss him.”

  She just nodded, her tears falling fast.

  Standing, Hunter pulled her up into his arms, holding her tight, pressing his lips against her temple. She couldn’t hold the sobs back and Hunter absorbed them, stroking her hair, making soothing circles on her back.

  “It’s okay,” he murmured. “It’ll be okay.”

  She hoped it would be. She hoped the missing would become less. She hoped in some way her dad was still with her. But right now the grief seemed to be all there was.

  Finally Hunter led her to the bed and sat beside her. “Tell me what you remember most about your dad.”

  So many memories came rushing in that it was hard for her to choose. “I remember his pipe and the smell of cherry tobacco. I remember him sitting in his office, poring over the details of every business deal. I remember his favorite navy pin-striped suit. He always said it was his lucky suit and he always wore it when he had a business meeting with someone new. I remember how much he liked cherries jubilee and rare steak and sitting at the creek behind the house just watching the water flow over the rocks. He and Mom used to do that a lot when she was alive.” Eve lifted her gaze to Hunter’s. “I’m afraid I’m going to forget the details…all the little things, and the big ones, too.”

  “You won’t forget. Not if you have reminders and pictures of things that hold special memories.”

  “I want to believe that’s true.”

  They sat there together in silence for a little while.

  Eventually Eve said, “I remember how strong he was, how protective, and how I liked it but fought against it, too.”

  After another silence, Hunter shifted on the bed and his knee brushed against hers. “Why didn’t you marry the man your father had picked out for you?”

  In her heart, Eve knew they couldn’t build this marriage on anything but truth. It was time to tell him about her pregnancy. Taking a tissue from the pocket of her slacks, she blew her nose to give herself a few moments to think, and then she stuffed the tissue back in her pocket. “I’ve been wanting to tell you something, but the time just didn’t seem right.” She looked down at her hands in her lap and then she faced him. “Six weeks after you left Savannah, I found out I was pregnant.”

  Hunter looked stunned. “With whose child?”

  “It was your child. I’d never been with a man before you.” She hurried on before his mind rushed ahead. “But then a couple of weeks later, I had a miscarriage.”

  He not only looked shocked, but disbelieving, and then his blue eyes became cold and his voice terse. “You weren’t a virgin. There was no barrier.”

  “I guess clinically I wasn’t a virgin. I’d fallen off a horse when I was fourteen and…” She shrugged, and she felt heat in her cheeks.

  Hunter stood and walked over to the window. He stared outside as if he was searching for answers or maybe trying to control his emotions. But when he came back to her, his expression was as stern as before. “Why didn’t you tell me about the pregnancy? If you had, maybe you wouldn’t have miscarried.”

  She hadn’t expected this vehement reaction from Hunter. To combat his accusation, she said, “I did try to contact you. But you were already involved with someone else.”

  “You’re lying. I wasn’t involved with anyone else, not for months after I left Savannah.”

  Maybe he didn’t want to admit he’d taken another woman into his bed so soon after her, but he had. “I called your hotel room in Florence and a woman answered. It was late evening and I knew…” She stopped, drew her shoulders back and pulled herself together. Her pride kept her from giving him any further explanations, from pleading with him to believe her.

  There was a look of betrayal in his eyes and so many doubts that she didn’t know what to say. She suspected there was one thought eating at him. “I might have been confused after you left, Hunter, but I wanted the baby.”

  His gaze raked over her face, searching for the truth. Tension vibrated around them until he asked, “Can you have more children, or did you marry me under false pretenses?”

  False pretenses? Did he think she would deceive him to get her inheritance? Apparently so. She’d been right when she’d guessed he didn’t trust her. She wondered if he trusted anyone. All he wanted from this marriage was a baby. If that hadn’t been obvious before, it certainly was now.

  Icily, she answered him. “I had a thorough checkup before I came to Denver, and there’s nothing to prevent me from becoming pregnant again.”

  “And that can be confirmed?”

  “Yes,” she answered, suddenly weary. “That can be confirmed. You can call Dr. Roberts if you want.”

  Hunter raked his hand through his hair and looked at her as if she were a stranger. “I deserved to know about this when it happened. You should have told me before the wedding ceremony.”

  What would have happened five years ago if she had tried to contact him after the miscarriage? Would her doubts about leaving home have vanished? Would she have realized she could follow him anywhere and be happy? She’d never know. But he was right that she should have told him before the wedding ceremony, because now, whatever she said would be suspect. She was going to have to earn his trust from ground zero.

  “I’m sorry, Hunter. I should have told you before the wedding, but everything happened so fast….”

  “That’s no excuse, Eve.”

  No, it wasn’t. She’d wanted to wait until she was feeling closer to him, and now she didn’t know if she’d ever feel close to him again. If he’d let her get close.

  He went to the doorway. “I’m going to change and go for a jog. I’ll be back in time to get showered before dinner.”

  Then he was gone, and she felt as if she’d lost him all over again.

  As they sipped their after-dinner coffee, Douglas Creighton turned to Eve. “You’ve met the conditions of your father’s will.”

  They’d made polite conversation throughout dinner, Hunter and Douglas discussing noteworthy legal cases that had been in the news recently. Hunter had barely looked at Eve, and she didn’t know what to do. Where he’d been cautious before, now there was a protective wall between them that she couldn’t begin to scale. But Douglas acted as if he hadn’t noticed anything was amiss.

  “Does that mean we can move some of the furnishings from here to Denver?” she asked.

  “Oh, yes. The photocopy of your marriage license will be sufficient for my files. And I’m sure you want to get moved into that new house as soon as you can. We’ll miss you here in Savannah, though. You know that, don’t you, Eve?”

  “Thank you for saying that. And I’ll miss everyone in Savannah.”

  “If you hold on to the house, you could come back here for extended visits.”

  “It just doesn’t seem practical, Douglas.”

  “Sometimes practical isn’t always the best solution,” he said sagely.

  The conversation turned to real estate in Denver compared to real estate in Savannah, and then after a while Douglas looked at his watch. “Oh, my. It’s almost ten o’clock. I should be going. After all, this is your honeymoon,” he said with a knowing grin.

  Eve glanced at Hunter, but he was taking a final swallow of coffee.

  A few minutes later she walked Douglas to the door.

  Before he opened it, he turned to her. “I wasn’t a bit surprised when you called me to tell me you were marrying Hunter Coleburn. That’s what your father had hoped.”

  “He expected it?”

  “Yes, and I imagine now maybe you can see why your father wrote his will as he did.”

  With blinding insight she suddenly realized what her father had seen. She’d fallen in love with Hunter almost immediately and had glowed with the wondrous sensation. They’d gone out and taken long walks together, but at the end of Hunter’s first week in Savannah, her father ha
d warned her not to become infatuated, not to take the chance on a fledgling lawyer who didn’t know if he could make a name for himself. He’d told her for the umpteenth time that she needed to marry into the society she knew, and give him grandchildren who would have a proud heritage as well as secure futures. Blunt as always, he’d told her Jerry Livingston was her future, not Hunter Coleburn.

  She’d left her father’s study that night more confused than she’d ever been. As she’d spent time with Hunter the next week, she’d realized her father had meant her to entertain him, not fall in love with him. There was no doubt that Emory Ruskin had expected her to obey him as she always had and follow his advice.

  But maybe after her miscarriage, he’d realized how wrong he’d been. Or maybe that certainty had come years later when she was working and sleeping and not doing much else. Whenever it had been, he’d apparently seen this clause in his will as a way to see her happy.

  Her heart swelled with love for her father, and then she hugged Douglas and saw him on his way.

  When she went back to the dining room, Hunter was nowhere in sight.

  Ida was removing the linens from the table. “Mr. Coleburn said he was going to take a walk. I think he went out the back.”

  Eve wanted to go after him, but she wasn’t sure what she could say or do to make him trust her. Had there really been no other women in his life after he left Savannah? Had she made some kind of mistake? She didn’t know. What she did know was that Hunter thought she was lying about trying to contact him.

  She’d made a mess of things. Now somehow she had to figure out a way to convince Hunter to believe in her again, a way to make their marriage succeed.

  Sweat dripped from Hunter’s brow as a walk turned into another jog along the residential streets of Savannah. His chest tightened, not from the exertion of running, but from the thought of losing a child. He’d almost been a father. Almost.

  He’d felt as if he’d been poleaxed after his conversation with Eve. She’d been a virgin when he’d taken her. He’d thought her shyness was simply inexperience. He’d never expected…

  She’d been almost engaged to Jerry Livingston.

  But it made sense in a way—her father keeping her protected as long as he could and Eve being afraid to venture into a relationship with a man. She had no reason to lie to him about her virginity, did she?

  But she had to be lying about trying to contact him. He hadn’t gone near another woman for months after he left Savannah. Maybe she was just trying to make herself look better. Maybe she thought he was gullible enough to believe her.

  The Ruskin home came into sight again, and Hunter slowed to a walk.

  A pregnancy. A child. A miscarriage.

  Had she really wanted his child? Wouldn’t an unwed mother in Eve’s position pray for a miscarriage…or hope that something went wrong so she could go back to the life she’d intended to have?

  He shook his head trying to make some sense out of the jumble of thoughts and questions. One thing he did know. He couldn’t share that bed with her tonight. He wanted her in an elemental way that absolutely disconcerted him, but he couldn’t make love to her tonight.

  Not until he sorted some of this out.

  When Eve awakened the following morning, she realized Hunter had never come to bed. She’d waited up till three, then tossed and turned most of the night, finally falling into a fitful sleep. Hurrying to the closet, she saw that his clothes were still there. At least he hadn’t left.

  Quickly she showered and dressed in red shorts, a white top and sandals, then went downstairs in search of her husband. She found him on the screened-in porch, holding a mug of coffee. He was looking out over the gardens in the backyard to the magnolias beyond.

  She didn’t know what to say to him, but they had to discuss yesterday. “You didn’t come to bed last night.”

  He gave her a quick glance and stared out into the yard again. “I slept in one of the guest bedrooms.”

  Moving closer to him, she lightly laid her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Hunter. I don’t know what else to say.”

  He faced her then. “There isn’t anything you can say. You got pregnant and you didn’t tell me. You miscarried and you didn’t tell me.”

  “After it happened…there didn’t seem to be any point,” she murmured.

  “I lost a child, Eve. I deserved to know that.”

  She could see the pain in his eyes and hear it in his voice, and she felt as if her heart were tearing in two. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I don’t have an excuse except that I was confused, and I truly did think you had gone on with your life and it wouldn’t matter.”

  “Then you didn’t know me very well.”

  “How could I know you? We only spent two weeks together.”

  He drove his hand through his hair, walked over to the small glass table by the wicker settee and put his mug on it.

  The distance between them was too great to ignore. If she didn’t lessen it now, their marriage might be over before it began. “Hunter, I know this is between us now. Look, can’t we get around it? Can’t we make our marriage work?”

  It was a while before he answered. “You’ve lived with this for five years. I just found out about it yesterday.”

  She approached him again, hoping he wouldn’t turn her away. “I lost a child, too, Hunter. And even though it happened five years ago, every day I remember it. Every day I wonder what that child would have been like if he or she had lived.”

  When Hunter lowered himself to the settee, Eve sat beside him. “Are you going to fly back to Denver?”

  “I told you I’d help you pack up the house. That’s what I’m going to do.”

  “Are you going to sleep in the guest room again tonight?” she asked, because she had to know.

  With the nerve working in his jaw, he shifted toward her. “Do you want to have a family with me?”

  A family. Having one meant everything to him. She wanted so much more than a family, but she answered, “Yes. And I’ll do whatever I have to so that we can get past this.”

  “Your father didn’t say how long you had to stay married.”

  She could hear the suspicion and the underlying assumption that only her inheritance mattered to her. She had to convince him otherwise. “I think he knew that if I chose someone to marry, I would make every effort to make the marriage succeed.”

  Hunter’s gaze probed hers and then studied her so intently, she felt turned inside out. Finally he said, “Let’s get some breakfast. We’ll let the rest of the day take care of itself.”

  He was still angry with her. He was still trying to absorb a loss, and she had to give him a chance to work through it. She just hoped that when he did, they could start over again.

  The day passed swiftly as Eve and Hunter decided what furniture to have moved to Denver and packed up those things Eve wanted to move with it. In the afternoon, they met with the real estate agent. Later in the midst of their packing, Hunter made arrangements with Ida for her son to drive Eve’s car to Denver and then fly back home. He and Eve didn’t talk much all day, and during dinner they simply discussed which movers would be the best to use and when the furniture should arrive.

  After dinner, Eve wrapped her mother’s good china while Hunter packed up Emory Ruskin’s books. It was almost eleven when he came into the dining room and found her sealing a box.

  “Are you ready for bed?”

  She was hoping his question meant they’d be sleeping together tonight. “Yes.”

  Hunter took the box from the mahogany table and stacked it against the wall with the others. Then Eve turned off the light, and they walked together to the stairs.

  Following her to her room, Hunter didn’t say a word as they went inside. She felt awkward, not sure of what to say or do. Hunter used the bathroom, and when he came out he caught her standing naked by the bed, her gown on the spread.

  “You might as well leave it off,” he said as he turned back the c
overs.

  She could feel herself blushing. Switching off the light, she slid into bed beside him.

  They lay there for a few minutes, the gulf between their naked bodies seeming like the width of the Grand Canyon. Moonlight shone softly through partially closed blinds, and Eve could see Hunter’s profile. His jaw was tense, his arms by his sides. But he was aroused. She uncertainly laid her hand on top of his. When he shifted, she thought he was going to pull away, but he turned toward her and slipped his hand under her hair.

  There was a mastery about Hunter, a sureness that told her he always knew exactly what he was doing. When his mouth found hers, she didn’t know what to expect. The kiss was restrained at first. But when she touched her tongue against his lips, he groaned, held her tighter, then took the kiss deeper, and possessively demanded a wanton response.

  As his restraint broke, Hunter mentally swore. He couldn’t help kissing Eve as if he’d missed her all day. Because he had. He’d needed her, and he didn’t want to need her. He didn’t want to need anybody. Alone in the guest room bed last night, he’d cursed his body for wanting her.

  He didn’t know why she had the power to turn him inside out. He’d walked away from other women. He’d said goodbye easily and gotten on with his life. He’d taken pleasure and given pleasure and found basic satisfaction in that.

  But with Eve…

  The yearning and needing was so deep, he resented her for it. She’d married him for her inheritance, and now she wanted to make the marriage work out of a sense of duty and maybe even responsibility to her father.

  A small voice whispered, She could still leave.

  He was used to being alone, so why was the idea of her walking away so wrenching?