Page 60 of The Virgin's Baby
“You don’t mean that.” His expression changed to one of sheer joy. “You’re getting what you wanted.”
His arrogance was mindboggling. “What makes you think that I wanted to marry you?”
“Come on.” He put his hands on his hips as his eyes danced. “You were honest about wanting to have sex with me and only me. But you expect me to believe that you didn’t want me to marry you to get that? Shit. At one time last night as I thought over everything, I even considered that you might’ve been the one to tell my grandfather to do this.”
Now, I was just pissed. “Get out.” I pointed at the door. “Get the hell out of my bedroom, Ransom Whitaker. I can’t believe you’ve known me this whole time and you would think I would do such a thing.”
“Calm down,” he said soothingly. “Remember the babies.”
“They’re fine. I’m not though.” Steam had to have been coming out of my ears. “I’m going to tell your grandfather that I will not marry you. I will never marry you. Not unless you love me. Which you don’t.”
He leveled his eyes at me, and I saw defiance in them that I’d never seen before. “This isn’t a thing we should be fighting over. And who are you to tell me that you know I don’t love you?”
“Who am I? I’m the woman who has professed her love to you. The woman who was left hanging after telling you that. If you loved me, then you wouldn’t have been able to keep your hands off me.” I crossed my arms over my chest, just then realizing that I didn’t have a bra on and my nipples were hard as rocks.
“To be honest, I’m not ready to tell you that now.” He looked at the floor. “But in time, I think I’ll be able to.”
“That’s not good enough for me.” I shook my head. “I’m not exactly unlovable. And you’ve made me feel that way more than once, Ransom. I don’t want to marry you. Not right now, I don’t.”
“Well, we don’t have a shit ton of time, Aspen. You know as well as I do that those babies are going to come early. One to two months early. And I know my grandfather. If we haven’t done what he’s asked, then we’ll be out on our collective asses without a dime.”
“Then I guess you should start thinking about what you’re going to do to support your kids and me until I can get a job.” I was adamant. “I will not be forced to marry a man who doesn’t love me.”
“If I just said the words you want to hear, then will you marry me?” He threw his arms up in the air again. “I cannot believe I’m having to beg you to marry me. This is insane!”
“I agree.” I thought about what he’d asked me, and I knew I couldn’t believe him if he did say the words now. “My answer is still no. I will not marry you if you tell me that you love me. Ransom, you could just say the words, you know. I need to feel that you love me.”
“First you needed to hear the words, and now you need to feel the love?” Now he looked exasperated. “I don’t know what the hell to do now. I thought you would be over the moon. I thought this would be exactly what you wanted. You could be my wife, for the love of God. You could be Mrs. Ransom Whitaker. You would be set for life. You would probably become the damn president of Whitaker Oil, and still, you say no.”
All that didn’t matter to me at that moment. “I will speak to your grandfather, and this will not be an issue any longer.”
Ransom laughed all the way out the door. Then I got up and got myself dressed. Lucius Whitaker had no idea who he’d just messed with.
As I stomped to the other wing and then down the long hallway to Lucius’ bedroom, it came to my mind that the man might not be as well as I thought he was. He might’ve felt like the cancer had returned.
I had to put my anger aside. But I had to explain that I wasn’t one to be pushed around when it came to something as serious at matrimony.
Knocking on her door, I asked, “Can I come in?”
“I’ve been expecting you,” he called out.
I came in and found him sitting on the sofa in the living quarters of his suite. He had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. It reminded me of the way he would keep himself wrapped up when he was sick. “Are you feeling okay?”
“No.” He gestured for me to take a seat. “I’m sure my grandson has told you all about my demands by now.”
“He has. And I’m here to let you know that I’m not about to marry him,” I sounded stern, I thought.
“You love him, don’t you?” he asked me before coughing a little.
The cough scared me. He’s not coughed once since the tumor had gone away. “That doesn’t matter.”
“To me, it does.” He wiped his face with a white hand towel. I recalled him sweating a lot when he was sick too. “And he loves you, by the way. I know he won’t say the words, but you know his actions have told you as much. That man dotes on you like he’s never doted on anyone. Sometimes people just can’t say those three little words. I don’t understand exactly why Ransom has such an issue with saying them, but he does. You’ve got to be the bigger person and just accept the fact that Ransom won’t be telling you that he loves you. But you will always know that he does.”
It didn’t matter to me if Ransom told me he loved me or not at that point. “Lucius, I don’t want him to be forced to marry me. You’ve got to understand,” I pleaded.
His pale blue eyes drooped as he looked at me. “Little momma, if time weren’t a fleeting thing, then I would say to let him have all the time he needed to move forward with you. But time will be gone before you know it.”
“Please, don’t talk like that. There’s plenty of time for Ransom to come to love me and want to marry me on his own. And quite frankly, Lucius, I’m not ready to be anyone’s wife.” I’d never even shared a bed with a man before. Being married carried all sorts of new things with that, things would really change between Ransom and I if we got married.
