Page 24 of A Baby to Make Her His Bride

“No, I don’t need to hear what they’re saying,” she said with a strained smile. “I can imagine.”

“Okay, but the fact that no one’s seen you is becoming a story of its own,” a woman on-screen was saying. “My concern is that Mr. Briggs might dox you.”

“Neal has no idea where I am,” Vienna said confidently. “Continue with the statements about requesting privacy and release whatever Hunter sends you. I hate to wish anyone ill, but isn’t there a politician with his nose in the trough whose exposure could take some heat off me?”

The other woman laughed. “I’ll see what I can find.”

They signed off and Vienna released a shuddering breath. For one second, her expression was both haunted and hunted. How had he seen her as shallow? She felt things very deeply. She was too damned sensitive for a marriage based on business. Had no one seen that? Why hadn’t anyone tried to stop her? Why hadn’t Hunter?

She glanced self-consciously at him, then straightened her face and shoulders and spine.

“Everything’s under control,” she assured him with a bland smile. “Can I help with dinner? It smells delicious.”

“No, it’s ready if you are.”

The food was delicious, but Vienna could hardly swallow. The silence between them felt thick and heavy. Sticky as tar.

When she found the courage to lift her gaze, she found Jasper watching her over the tilt of his wineglass.

The lump of food in her throat turned to stone. She washed it down with her own wine.

“I can’t imagine what you think of me,” she said in a voice scored by the tang in the wine.

“I think you’re someone who wants more for herself and I can’t help admiring that you’re going after it, despite what you’re up against.”

“Really?” She searched his flinty expression, finding it far easier to believe that he would look down on her than up. “I thought you’d be wishing you’d never met me.”Or touched me. Or held me.

All they’d done rushed back into her thoughts, making her cheeks sting.

“Not at all. But I can’t help wondering if you’ll wish you hadn’t met me, once the dust settles.” Something shifted behind his eyes, too indefinable for her to properly catch. “I’m happy to be your port in a storm, but I don’t want to take advantage of you during a vulnerable time.”

Her heart took a leap and a dip.

“I’m not vulnerable.” She reflexively rejected any label that suggested she was weak. She couldn’t afford to be. Ever.

His brows went up, skeptical. Was that slow blink of his patronizing? Pitying? The way he was focused on her gave her the sense he saw right through her. Almost as if he saw her more clearly than she saw herself. It was disconcerting.

“Vi. Can I call you that? I like it.” He set his glass aside.

She nodded jerkily, even though it was a short form only people very close to her were allowed to use.

“I want you to be honest with me. I really do. But if you choose not to be, I can’t stop you. Be honest with yourself, though.”

She sucked in a breath, one that entered her chest like a blade. Inexplicably, fresh tears arrived behind her eyes.

“You told me today that you don’t know who you are. Start by acknowledging what’s true. You’re not hiding here because you’re a coward. You’ve made a really tough decision to leave the life you had, knowing you’d be attacked for it. You’revulnerable. If you can’t acknowledge that, then I’m definitely taking advantage of you.”

She was so disconcerted by his assessment she could have sobbed.

“I’m not allowed to be vulnerable,” she said on a soft cry. “I’m not allowed to be anything.” Didn’t he realize that?

That was the crux of it, though, wasn’t it? She had spent her life trying to be what she thought others wanted her to be, rarely letting her true self into the light. When she had, she’d been mocked for it.

“What if you don’t like who I am?” she asked in a near whisper. She couldn’t take that kind of rejection. That was why she wore all these layers, so the scoffs and dismissals weren’t really a rejection ofher. She definitely couldn’t take that depth of rejection fromhim.

She had already revealed a lot to him, though. Things no one else knew. And he was still here, saying that he wanted to be her port in a storm.

“I want...” Oh, it was hard to give voice to her desire. It was an even greater risk now than it had been a few hours ago, when she had still thought she could have a fling with him and keep possession of herself. That wasn’t possible at all now. She knew that, but she still wanted to be with him. If he rebuffed her after she worked up the courage to say so, she’d be crushed.

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