“Fuck. Randi.” Evan released a strangled sound between a yell and groan before he relaxed above her, supporting himself on his arms as she sank completely down on the bed.
She almost purred when he moved to her side and pulled her against his damp body, cuddling her against him.
“Shit! I didn’t use a condom.” Evan’s voice sounded uncharacteristically panicked.
Randi rolled slightly so she could see his face. Her heart sank when she saw the terrified look in his eyes. “I’m on birth control. You’re safe.” She’d started in college, and since it helped her periods, she’d stayed on the pill.
Noticing the look of relief on his face made her heart sink even further.
Of course he doesn’t want to get the hooker’s daughter knocked up. He’s a billionaire. Too much at stake for him.
“I’m clean,” he said in a rush. “I’ve been tested, and that’s the first time I’ve had sex with any woman without a condom.”
“You’re safe with me,” Randi replied flatly. “I’ve been checked out, too, and I haven’t been with anybody since.”
“I wasn’t as concerned about that as I was about you getting pregnant,” Evan shared blandly.
After what they had shared, hearing him say those words hurt. Logically, Randi understood his concern, but it slapped her back into reality.
This is nothing but a fling. Enjoy it, but don’t get emotionally involved. It’s sexual. You’re both scratching an itch.
She moved to the side of the bed and got up, headed for the bathroom.
“Where are you going?” Evan asked gruffly, sounding unhappy.
“I think I’ll take a bath in your enormous bathtub,” she replied, reminding herself that she’d wanted to use it before she left.
“Want company?” he asked suggestively, his tone hopeful.
“I think I can handle it alone,” she answered in a monotone voice, needing to hold it together until she made it out of the room.
He didn’t answer, and Randi didn’t expect him to.
Not a single tear leaked from her eyes until she closed and locked the bathroom door.
CHAPTER 12
The storm lost strength later that night, and Randi headed home the next morning, after Dante had called to let her know the power was back on at her house.
Restless even after his workout, Evan had headed over to Grady’s house on foot, needing an outlet for his troubled state of mind.
“I don’t know what I did wrong,” he told his brothers as they all sat around Grady’s table with a mug of coffee in front of each of them. He’d decided to confess everything about his relationship with Randi, hoping they could help. He’d risk all of them making jokes if he could get some information on the way a woman’s mind worked. There was nothing he wanted more than to make Randi happy.
“Talk to her?” Grady suggested. “I’m beginning to learn that gifts don’t really work with women when they’re angry.”
“He needs to figure out what he did wrong first,” Jared observed, frowning as he tried to figure out the problem.
“What exactly did you say to her that pissed her off?” Dante asked curiously.
Evan looked around the table, and every one of his brothers’ expressions was humorless. They were actually trying to be helpful . . . which surprised the hell out of him.
He’d been a little taken aback when all of his brothers had turned up at Grady’s house soon after he arrived. Dante was dressed for work, but said he had time to kill before leaving since he’d worked straight through the crisis of the blizzard. Jared gave no real excuse for why he had wandered over.
Evan was willing to bet that Grady had called and asked his brothers to drop over because he was here, but he had no idea why.
But all of them seemed ready to give advice, so he didn’t give a damn why they were all here.
“I don’t even know what kind of flowers she likes, and I don’t know what I did wrong. She just . . . changed.” He’d thought about sending her flowers, and it annoyed him that he didn’t know her favorites.
“What happened before she transformed?” Grady asked solemnly.
“We had incredible sex without a condom,” Evan admitted reluctantly, hating to share anything personal between him and Randi with anyone. But he was desperate.
“And then what?” Dante queried after taking a slug of his coffee.
“I told her I was relieved that she was on the pill and wouldn’t get pregnant.” It was a normal response as far as Evan was concerned.
“No way!”
“Holy shit!”
Dante chimed in, “You might as well have told her you just wanted to get laid.”
“Well, I did . . . kind of,” Evan replied, squirming in his chair uncomfortably. “But only because I really like her and I’m attracted to her. But I don’t ever want to have a child.”
“Why?” Jared asked quietly. “Because of your disability?”
Evan’s head shot up, his expression anxious. “Hope told you.” He had no doubt where their enlightenment came from.
“She told us everything. You could have told us, Evan. Damn, I took enough crap from the old man. He must have made your life a living hell,” Grady grumbled.
They had no idea just how bad it had been, and Evan wasn’t going to apprise them of the details. “I lived. But the problem does seem to be hereditary.”
“Your kid won’t have our father,” Dante reminded him. “He or she would have you.” He hesitated before adding, “Randi loves kids. Maybe she doesn’t want to have some of her own now, but hearing how relieved you were could have been mistaken for a lack of interest in anything other than sex. Did you explain?”
Evan shook his head slowly, contrite that he might have inadvertently given Randi the idea that she wouldn’t have been a fit mother for any child he fathered. She’d completely misunderstood if that was the case. In reality, he was terrified of fathering a child with any woman, and he didn’t want to talk about it. Trying to change the subject, he asked, “Any advice on what I can do to make her understand?”
“Grovel?” Jared suggested.
“Talk to her. Tell her the truth about everything,” Grady remarked.
“Make her realize that you care about more than just getting laid,” Dante replied sensibly. “You do care about her, right?”
Evan looked at Dante and nodded slowly. There was no reason to deny it anymore. Just thinking about the fact that he had obviously hurt Randi with his comments made his gut ache so much that he reached into his pocket and popped a few of his ever-ready antacids. He was getting to the point where he didn’t go anywhere without them.
Yes, he’d wanted to fuck her, but there was far more to how he felt about her than just that. Emotions were tangled with his desire, and she hadn’t understood his obvious distaste at the idea of fathering a child.
She didn’t understand that it wasn’t her; it was him.
Dante added, “Because if you aren’t serious about her, a couple of the detectives have been asking about her. Every single guy at the station thinks she’s hot.”