Page 8 of Tangled in His Embrace

It had been completely innocent, until he’d touched her, felt the heat coming off her body, calling to him. He’d looked into her eyes and in that moment he saw the same need reflected there that he felt deep in his soul. Instinct had taken over and before he knew it she was lying naked beneath him and he was buried inside her.

Gabby tucked the hair behind her ear, drawing his attention back to the present. “Are your parents going to pick her up next weekend or.. .”

“Yeah. Mom was hoping to pick her up from the babysitters so they can beat the Friday rush.”

“I’ll let Emily know.”

There was awkwardness in the air that never used to be there between him and Gabby, and he had no idea how to fix it. After Taylor’s nightmare the night before, he didn’t know if he deserved for it to be fixed. He’d caused his little girl pain. He deserved to suffer. “I should get going.”

A look of relief showed on Gabby’s face and it was like a knife to his heart.

“Mommy, why don’t we have a Twist-mas tree like Grandma and Grandpa?” Taylor walked into the room, dragging her favorite stuffed animal behind her.

“I just haven’t had time to drag everything out of the attic yet.” Gabby ran her hand over the top of their daughter’s hair in a loving gesture. “Maybe we can do it this week before you leave on your trip with Grandma and Grandpa.”

“I can get everything down out of the attic for you if you want,” Jax said.

“That’s okay. I can—”

“Come on, Daddy. I’ll shows you.” Before Gabby could even get her refusal out of her mouth, Taylor took him by the hand and coaxed him to follow her down the hallway.

Jax shrugged as he let his daughter lead him down the hall to where the attic access was in the ceiling. He reached up to pull the rope that would lower the staircase. “I need you to stand back.”

Taylor moved closer to her mother, one arm wrapped around Gabby’s legs.

The fold-up ladder creaked as he lowered it. He looked over his shoulder at Gabby. “Is there still a light up there?”

“Yeah. As soon as you get to the top it’ll be on your left.”

Jax nodded and climbed the steep rung of stairs leading up to the attic.

He’d only been in Gabby’s attic once before. They were fixing up the room that would become Taylor’s nursery. It had been a happy time for both him and Gabby. He’d been so full of nervous excitement that he hadn’t paid much attention to the attic itself or what was up there.

Gabby’s house wasn’t all that big, but it still took him several minutes to locate the artificial tree and two boxes of Christmas decorations mixed in with several boxes of toys and baby clothes. He couldn’t help but wonder why Gabby was holding on to Taylor’s old clothes. Was she hoping to have another baby one day? Or maybe she was holding on to them for her sister.

As much as it shouldn’t matter what her reasoning for keeping Taylor’s baby clothes was, Jax couldn’t shake it off. He carried the boxes Gabby needed down the ladder and placed them along the wall.

Once everything was down, he folded the ladder back up and made sure the access panel was secure before grabbing one of the boxes from where he’d left it. “Did you want these in the living room?”

“I can get them.”

He met her gaze and held it for a long moment. “I’m here. Let me help.”

She didn’t answer right away, seeming to weigh her options. Finally, she nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”

Jax didn’t stay long after putting the boxes in her living room. It was getting late and he knew Gabby would want to start getting Taylor ready for bed. As much as he wanted to stay, he knew he had given up that right when he’d decided to leave them. He had to be content with the fact that he got to see them both on a regular basis.

The ache in his chest grew as he drove away from Gabby and Taylor toward his apartment a few miles away. It wasn’t anything fancy, but that wasn’t why he’d picked it. He’d wanted to be near Gabby and his daughter in case they needed him.

He came through his front door, flipped on the hall light, and dropped his keys on the counter. After spending the last two days with Taylor, his place was really quiet. He grabbed a glass from the cabinet, filled it with water, and strolled into the living room to see what was on television.

After surfing through the channels, he found an old movie he hadn’t seen in a while. It was full of action, which he was hoping would be a good distraction.

An hour later, he realized it wasn’t. His thoughts kept drifting back to Gabby. Well, Gabby and the conversation he’d had that morning with his dad. He knew he needed to tell her where he’d been for the first three years of their daughter’s life—why he’d left—but he had no idea how. And truth be told, he was afraid of how she would react. Gabby was a bit unpredictable, but that was one of the things he loved about her. She was also stubborn, which was how he’d known that if he’d told her back then she would have altered her life to stay by his side and support him. He couldn’t let her do that.

Jax drained the last of the water from his glass, turned off the television, and headed to his bedroom. Stripping out of his clothes, he ambled into the bathroom to take care of business and brush his teeth before climbing into his bed.

As he lay there with his arms folded beneath his head, he thought over his options. If he and Gabby were going to talk they were going to need to do it without Taylor around. This was too important and the subject matter too serious for a three—almost four—year-old to overhear. It already seemed as if his absence had affected her enough. He didn’t want to be the cause of any more nightmares.

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