Page 46 of Taming a Heartbreaker

He dropped his hands from her face to his side. Her words confused him. “Then what exactly?”

She began nibbling on her bottom lip, and he detected she was nervous. “What’s wrong, Carmen? What’s bothering you at this hour? You can tell me anything. Remember, we’re in this together.”

He watched her draw in a deep breath, and then as if she’d made up her mind about something, she said, “I’ve never been into game-playing and want to be completely honest with you about something.”

This sounded serious. “Okay. What?”

She paused. “I knew if you heard me moving around up here that you would come check on me. I apologize for that.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

She looked at him with a very serious expression in those beautiful, almond-shaped, light brown eyes. “But I do.”

He tilted his head to look at her. “Why do you feel that way?”

Instead of answering, she nibbled on her bottom lip again. He doubted she knew how much of a turn-on that was. Reaching out, he took her hand and brought it to his lips to kiss her palm. He tried convincing himself he’d done it to calm her nervousness more than to placate his raging testosterone.

“Tell me, Carmen, why you feel that way,” he said, releasing her hand.

He watched her draw in another deep breath before saying in a low voice, “I wanted you to come up here so I could seduce you.”

He blinked, thinking he’d heard her wrong. “Seduce me?”

Now she was nervously wringing her hands together. “Yes.”

Desire surged through him at the thought that she’d wanted to seduce him. “Why?”

She looked up at him. “Why what?”

“Why do you want to seduce me?”

She released what sounded to him like a disgusted sigh. “The doctor planted the seed in my head by thinking we’re intimate.”

He nodded. “A logical conclusion since you’re having my baby.”

She shrugged. “That’s what Leslie said when I gave her a recap of my doctor’s visit.”

“I gather you changed your mind about this plan of seduction, then?” he asked, and thought his voice sounded husky, even to him.

“Pretty much. I can’t be that manipulating, especially since I know how you feel.”

He took her hand in his. She seemed to be a mass of nervous energy, flustered and apprehensive. “And how do I feel?” he asked.

“You said that we would never be intimate again. That you needed the willpower to make sure such a thing didn’t happen. Knowing that, it wouldn’t be right for me to try to seduce you.”

He was convinced Carmen was way too honest for her own good. She had more integrity in her little pedicured toe than some people had in their entire body. In a way, he had known from the beginning that she was different, but initially, he had refused to let that mean anything. Like all the others, he had put up his “do-them-before-they-do-you” defense.

“So, you can go back to bed, Redford. I’m sorry to have disturbed you,” she said, breaking into his thoughts.

Was she actually dismissing him now? Did she think he could walk away after everything she’d told him? He released her hand and tenderly caressed her cheek, loving the feel of her soft skin. And the degree of desire he saw in her eyes was something she couldn’t hide, and he was so glad that she couldn’t.

“What if I told you that I have no problem with you seducing me, Carmen?”

“Why? Because you know that I can’t?”

“No, because I know that you can. And as far as my willpower, I’ve discovered over the past week, it’s a lost cause where you are concerned.”

Her eyes widened like saucers. “Why?”

---