Page 30 of Consequence of One Reckless Night

“I failed to use protection the second time.”

“Second time?” She stared blankly up at him. “We made love twice that night? I don’t remember!”

He looked away, shame suffusing his features. “Sometime during that night, I reached for you again. I was barely awake, but I felt this desperate need to slip inside you, feel you contract around me.”

As he spoke, memories began to surface—of his hand on her breast and her pushing back against him as he thrust into her lazily. Raquel’s heart raced. She’d thought those images were figments of her imagination, but they weren’t. She must have been half awake herself, to remember some of what he’d done to her. “You were behind me,” she whispered, remembering the feel of his naked flesh inside her.

“Yes,” he admitted. “I’m sorry I didn’t stop to think about protection.”

His apology shattered the warm fuzzy feeling that cocooned her. Pushing away from him, she grabbed the sheet and tied it around herself like a rough sarong.

“How could you do such a thing?” Anger spiked her voice as she strived to rummage through the emotions that buffeted her.

Disbelief, and—anger.

“I was a virgin. You were the more experienced one,” she pointed out, while feeling equally responsible for yielding to temptation without any thought of consequence. “How could you be so irresponsible?”

Beside her, Alexandre stiffened with anger, at her obvious attempt to shove all the blame at him, although the blame was entirely his. “I’m sorry I didn’t think about protection!” He sat up, comfortable in his nakedness as he glowered down at her. “I’ve never had sex without protection before. Not once!”

She shot him an angry glare.

“You’re the only woman I’ve shared a bed with,” he added, which only made her angrier.

“So it’s usually just wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am?” she asked, anger staining her cheeks a dark red as her eyes flashed with unbanked fury. “Should I commend you for being such a disreputable rake who won’t even bother to share a bed with a woman he’s had sex with?”

“You don’t know the workings of a purely sexual relationship!” he shot back, affronted.

“No, I don’t!” she cried, pushing at his chest, scowling when he grabbed her hands and pulled her against his chest. “Your carelessness ruined me!”

“Yes, I know!”

It wasn’t his shout of admission that took the wind out of her sails but the absolute disgust on his face—his revulsion, at his own despicable behavior.

“I know I ruined your life. I should have known better.” He sighed dejectedly. “That night... I received some distressing news and it messed with my head. I didn’t know I was looking for comfort... for healing—anything to take away my pain.

“But in your arms, I found pleasure, and peace so poignant that it calmed my troubled mind. I vaguely remember wanting to experience that same feeling again sometime during that night. Only I wasn’t cognizant enough to think of the repercussions of unprotected sex.” Pain colored his features. “I’m ashamed of what I’ve done and I’m terribly sorry. You really deserve a better man than me.”

“After hearing this, do you still expect me to trust you?”

“No, I don’t,” he replied honestly. “But the truth is, that one night has bound us together, forever. And I’m not willing to let you go.”

“Why won’t you let me go?” she asked, when a fierce expression, something like possessiveness, filled his face.

“Because I want to claim my child.”

Her chest suddenly felt constricted. He wanted this baby? But doubt chased away her sudden elation. “Then why did you ask me to get rid of it?”

“Why do you keep saying that?” He glowered at her. “I would never ask you to do that.”

“You did!” she cried, pushing out of his embrace. “When I told you about the baby, you said it was impossible that you could father my child.”

“I remembered our second time the day you came to see me,” he replied honestly, thrusting a hand into his hair, tension snapping his body tight. “I knew I had used a condom the first time, but it was later that I remembered that I had forgotten protection that second time.”

“But why would I lie to you?”

Her question proved how guileless she was, and a strange feeling expanded in his chest. Had he ever met someone so innocent before?

“That’s the kind of woman I know. Cunning and calculating. Always on the lookout for a rich man they can sink their claws, any way they can.”

---