Compromising Positions

by Jenna Bayley-Burke

  Her face twisted. “Those positions seem so clinical. One of them is even recommended for watching television. How can you make love to someone you are not even looking at?”

  Make love. Damn. “You’re over thinking it.”

  “I just don’t see the attraction,” she pouted. “And there are some that won’t work for us.”

  “What are you talking about?” David rose up on his elbows at the challenge.

  “Think about it. You are over a foot taller than me. When we’re standing we don’t exactly, you know, line up.”

  He collapsed back as the laughter racked his body.

  “It’s not funny, David. I’ve been trying to figure out how we are going to manage. The highest heels I can get are only four inches.”

  He could feel the tears squeezing out of his eyes.

  “Stop it.” Sophie jabbed at his sides. “Stop laughing.”

  “Stop tickling me. No one has tickled me since I was five.” Rolling over, David pinned her beneath him. “I’ve been trying to tell you we don’t match up for weeks.” He caught his breath and watched the fire build in her eyes.

  “I’ll figure it out. Every one of those positions. I aced physics, I can do this.”

  He rolled off her as he started laughing again. “The physics of sex. Now that is sexy.”

  “You will like it.” Sophie climbed astride him and lifted his hands over his head.

  “Sophie,” he warned as she slid the scarf off her lamp. With one hand, she held his arms against the pillows, her fingers unable to cover both his wrists at once. “No,” he said, wondering if he meant it. It was strange the way this innocent so easily took control of his body and his responses. He’d never given away such power before.

  “No what?” Her chaste expression could have fooled almost anyone.

  “You are not tying me up.”

  Her grin sent a thrill through his body. “What fun is that?”

  ———

  Maddening beeping invaded her dreams. Warm, wonderful, naked dreams. Sophie struggled to free an arm, then slapped the alarm quiet. David had her pinned to the bed again.

  Sophie finally felt warm enough. Nestled beneath his body she felt safer than she ever remembered. The way his broad shoulders sheltered her body beneath his, the way one thigh pressed against her while the other was flung over her legs, cocooning her in his warmth. Neither of them could move without the other knowing.

  His body radiated heat at exactly the same rate hers sucked it up. Finally, something could warm her. The position made her all too aware of the thickness resting against her backside, a reminder that had her turning around and waking him again and again until she’d finally thought to pull his shirt on. The thin cotton protected him from her, dulling the sensation and allowing them some well-deserved sleep.

  David rolled off. “Don’t let me do that.”

  She turned over, facing him. “Do what?”

  “Trap you.”

  She loved the taste of his skin, the feel of his muscles just beneath the surface as she kissed his neck. “I like it.”

  Squeezing her closer he rolled, pinning her beneath his arm and leg again. She could feel his fingers twisting her curls, almost sending her back to sleep. “Sophie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Why don’t you lie?” His voice vibrated against her bare body.

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “It’s not, I was just wondering why.”

  Her hands opened and closed against his chest, her nails scratching him lightly. “Too much work. Who can keep all the stories straight?”

  He was quiet for a long moment. “You don’t want to tell me.” It wasn’t really fair, her always pushing him to be more open when she remained closed.

  “I can’t tell you without asking you to lie for me, and I don’t want to do that.”

  “I can keep a secret.”

  “I don’t know if I can tell one,” she said with a sad smile. She’d only said it out loud once, and then it hadn’t been the story, just a statement of fact under the safety of doctor patient confidentiality. “Besides, it’s too early in the morning for this conversation.”

  “If you ever need to tell, remember I want to hear it.”

  She took a deep breath and weighed the risk. “You’d have to lie to Craig, and I won’t ask you to. It’s better this way.”

  “You don’t trust me?”

  To choose her over Craig? Not yet. “It’s not that.”

  “I think it is. Not that I blame you.”

  Her stomach clenched. “Where do you see this going, with us?” If they had a future she would have to tell him someday.

  “Diversion, nice try but you taught me that trick. Did something happen to you?” His arms tightened like a vice. “Did someone hurt you?”

  “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s not even my secret to tell really. It’s just a lie that keeps snowballing and I wish it had never started.”

  “Then end it.” His lips were warm at her temple.

  “It’s not that simple. I can’t just burden her with that.”

  “Her. Now we’re getting somewhere. The her you’re worried about could only be Daphne.”

  “David, please.”

  His body stiffened and he released her. “Oh my God, she cheated on him, didn’t she?”

  “No!” Sophie grabbed both his hands in her own. “She would never. She loves him completely, just look at all she is willing to do to give him a baby.”

  David relaxed beneath her touch. “I know. I should give her more credit. I still don’t understand why they didn’t just adopt. After all, Craig is adopted.”

  “That’s why they didn’t.”

  He rolled back, facing her again. “What?”

  “Craig wanted to feel a blood connection to someone.”

  “That’s ridiculous. His parents were great. They adored him.”

  “But they didn’t look like him. And when he couldn’t find his birth parents, he put everything into having a baby. When both he and Daphne had fertility problems, he was crushed.”

  David nodded. “I know, that’s why I paid for all the treatments they needed.”

  “You did that? Even though you thought they should adopt?”

  “It was their choice. I wasn’t willing to pay for the surrogacy though, even before I knew it was you.” His fingers were woven in her hair again, massaging her scalp. “Why did you agree to do it?”

  “I wanted to. Daphne has always been focused on having a baby. She’ll love this baby as much as she can. And I had a dream the night she asked me. Daphne handed me this tiny baby, and I held him and then I gave him back to her. It was so real. I thought it was a sign.” He didn’t need to know that in the dream it felt like her insides were being ripped out as she handed him back, had woken up and cried because he wasn’t real. There wasn’t another explanation for how moved she’d been by that blue-eyed little boy.

  “Why would you want to have someone else’s baby?”

  It was so hard to explain, she wondered if she could even put it into words. “I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect, but Daphne was beside herself. It was so important to Craig the baby be theirs, his. That there be someone in the world he could look at and see himself. I got that.”

  “I’m still missing something aren’t I? Were you adopted? Is that why you and Daphne don’t look alike?”

  “No, I’m not adopted.” Sophie whispered, measuring her words. Breathing slowly so she could stay in control, keep the tears making her eyes feel heavy from falling.

  “I’m close to it, aren’t I?”

  She nodded and closed her eyes, focusing on breathing in and out, in and out. She wouldn’t lie about it, she’d promised herself that much. But did she want to tell him, or did she want him to guess? Her eyes flew open at the thought of him guessing. He might make it worse than it really was, like he did earlier assuming the secret was Daphne’s.

  He reached for h
er, pulling her closer against his chest. It might be easier now that she didn’t have to look at him.

  “You don’t have to tell me, but I want you to.”

  “Why?”

  “It feels like something I should know.”

  Her eyes closed over the tears. He was right, and if she had as much faith in them as she claimed she shouldn’t even have hesitated.

  “When I was in junior high I was doing a biology project in my parents’ living room with some friends. It was on the laws of inheritance, dominant and recessive traits. We had to do charts on our families. My dad was already sick by then, and so he was home. He overheard I was having trouble with mine. Both my parents were green-eyed blondes with straight hair, just like Daphne. All recessive traits according to the textbook. Which would mean my dark curly hair and blue eyes was impossible.” She felt the breath fall out of David’s chest as he drew her closer.

  “My dad wheeled himself in and explained to my friends his mother had dark curly hair and blue eyes, that sometimes things skip a generation. Which my friends bought. But I knew she didn’t. Her picture was in the hallway. After my friends left I asked him about it and he said, “I’m your father. That’s all you need to know.”

  “Daphne was already away at college, so I couldn’t go to her. I assumed I must have been adopted, but as I looked through family albums there were pictures of my mom pregnant with me, pictures in the hospital when I was born. So I asked her. She refused to discuss it while my father was alive. It was an awful thing to sit and wonder about.

  “After he died, she explained she had a brief affair with one of the lawyers at her firm. She was fifty years old, and had such a hard time having Daphne she never even considered it might happen again. She didn’t know she was pregnant with me until she was four months along. My dad already had cancer by then and there was no way I could be his, and when she told him, they decided to work through it and never tell.”

  “And what about your biological father?”

  “He knew about the pregnancy, but he and his wife never wanted children. They both died in a car accident when I was a baby.” She’d researched him as best she could, not liking the person she found. But then, she’d always been a daddy’s girl. No one could really measure up to the man who’d taught her to believe she could be anything she wanted.

  “Why is it still such a big secret?”

  Sophie felt her body stiffen. “Daphne can’t know.”

  “She’s an adult. There’s no need for you to have to hold onto something for her.”

  “No. Daphne idolized my parents, and they her. They’re dead. They can’t explain or defend their choices. I swore to my mother I’d never tell Daphne and I won’t.” And she wouldn’t let him either. “Don’t you wish there were things about your dad you didn’t know?”

  She felt him nod as he tucked her head beneath his chin. “Yeah, I guess so. That’s why you don’t lie?”

  “My whole life was a lie. I have a hard enough time keeping that one straight, I won’t add any more.”

  “And that’s also why you’ll need to have babies.”

  That wasn’t why at all, but she let that hang, not wanting to hear another argument against them being together, against him holding her right now.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A bloodsucker. That’s what he was. Expecting them to be able to absorb a rent increase every six months. As if any business could withstand that.

  Sophie’s tiny feet pounded the sidewalk as she marched away from the real estate development office and the disastrous meeting with their landlord. She clutched her briefcase in her hand as she made her way down the block. Just how was she supposed to fix this?

  She made it three blocks before she even realized she was headed in the wrong direction, deeper into downtown and the office building she used to work at, further from Working It Out. She tilted her head back, staring up at the skyscrapers. Her problems were taller than any of them. Daphne had been willing to trust her with a child, and she couldn’t even keep their club alive.

  Sophie tried to run her fingers through her hair, but it was locked up tight in a bun at the nape of her neck. She looked about her, watching the people rushing by. In and out of the buildings—to work, to shop. Spying the Moonstruck Chocolate’s store across the street, she smiled. She deserved a little comfort right now.

  The smell inside the chocolate café warmed her. Staring up at the menu board, her mouth watered. Cakes and cookies, truffles and candies, espresso drinks and hot chocolate. She doubted there was a single item on the menu Craig would condone.

  Her fingers wrapped tighter around her briefcase. Had David meant it when he’d offered to help the other day? Daphne would kill her if she found out, but he did know more about running a gym than either of them.

  It was a big favor. She got the biggest box they had, two of each of the twenty flavors. Maybe if he had enough of a sugar buzz he’d agree to look at the books and see something she missed. There had to be something.

  As she stepped back out into the cool morning air she clutched the blue box against her. When would she see him? He hadn’t said he was coming by tonight. She didn’t really have any plans to see him until Thursday night for the class. The guilt would eat her alive by then. And there was no way the truffles would make it either.

  She started back toward work, but stalled outside the glass enclave that was Strong Gym’s downtown location. How people could get a workout with passers-by staring at them she’d never know. There was even a step aerobics class on display.

  The corporate offices were here. She could leave the chocolates with his secretary, and he’d have to call to say thank you. She’d been there before, but that was on a Saturday when the office had been sparsely inhabited. Making her way to the receptionist’s desk was easy enough.

  Leaving the box seemed to get more difficult at every turn. Odd security rules wouldn’t let her just drop it off. As if she was trying to bomb the man into oblivion. Trying to back out seemed to cause even more trouble, so Sophie pressed on until she made it to his floor. There, three secretaries questioned her at once. It was way too much hassle just to drop off a bribe.

  “And who have we here?” a booming voice she almost recognized said from behind the fuss. Sophie turned, her eyes widening as she looked up at the man. He looked just like David. Older, and with blue eyes, but the resemblance was still startling. She blinked her eyes quickly to keep from staring. He had to be David’s father.

  One of the women explained her story at the speed of light. Sophie swallowed hard, wanting to make sure she could speak.

  “Sophie?” the man asked, extending his hand.

  Balancing the box and her briefcase in one hand, she took it, hoping her handshake wasn’t too weak in light of the fiasco she had created. “Yes. I just wanted to leave the box, that’s all.”

  “Nonsense.” He pulled her closer, walking her toward David’s office. “You might as well say hello as long as you’re here. I’ve been trying to get him to introduce us for weeks.”

  Her eyes had to be bugging out of her head as he pushed her into the room. David had talked about her with his father? Was that good? Bad? Ugly?

  David looked up from his desk as they entered the office. “Sophie? Dad?” He closed the file he was working on, shuffling it to the side with the others. He looked at his father. “What are you doing here?”

  “Tessa wanted me to check the office before she had it cleaned out.”

  David rose and crossed to them. “Did you?”

  “I’m sure it’s fine. Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

  She watched David’s lips press into a straight line. He grudgingly made the introductions. Sophie smiled in acknowledgement, and then stared at the floor. She should’ve thought this through. He was obviously upset she was there. She knew he had a rule about talking business with women he dated; showing up unexpectedly was definitely off limits.

  Lance clapped his hands to
gether. “We should all go to lunch.”

  “No.”

  Sophie jumped at the forcefulness in David’s voice. She held tighter to the box and briefcase. Maybe if she just ran…

  His tone was calmer when he began again. “We’re not retired Dad, we have jobs to do.”

  Lance nodded, his shoulders sloping slightly. His hand rested briefly on her arm. “I hope we’ll have a chance to talk at the party.” Sophie watched Lance leave, felt David retreat back to his desk.

  She took a deep breath, ready to apologize and leave. There was no way he’d be doing her any favors now. Turning, she watched as he rubbed his face, staring at the collage of photos on the wall at the side of his desk. They hadn’t been there when she was here before. Stepping to the desk, she set her briefcase on the floor and pushed the box toward him.

  “A sugar high can cure lots of things. Including me showing up and causing a ruckus. I’m sorry.”

  His eyebrows rose as he turned and looked at her, a smile slowly crossing his face. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

  “What?” Intrigued by the pictures, she walked around the desk, stopping behind his chair as she studied them. David, in every stage of life. There was only one photo he wasn’t in, a man and a pregnant woman beaming at the camera.

  “That,” his hand flailed at the door, “with my father. He can be a bit intrusive.”

  Sophie’s hand rested on his shoulder as she leaned closer. “You have her eyes.”

  “I wouldn’t know. We never met.” His shoulder squared beneath her hand.

  “Never?” The word came out before she could stop it. Craig had mentioned David’s mother was dead, but she didn’t know more.

  “Aneurysm. Less than a week after that picture actually. They say it’s a miracle I survived it.”

  “I’m sorry.” Her arms slid down his neck, pulling him as close as she could in the chair. Was that why he didn’t want children? She knew his childhood hadn’t been easy, but was it pregnancy that scared him?

  “Don’t be. You can’t miss something you never had.”