“I got together with the ladies of The Mom Squad.” She’d mentioned the group to him before and crossed her fingers that none of the women had seen fit to call her today. She glanced at her mother, but there was nothing in the other woman’s face to indicate that she suspected her daughter was lying. “Lori’s definitely beginning to show and I think that Joanna looks like she’s going to pop any second.” Given that the women had looked this way a week ago, she figured she was safe in making the comment to Sin-Jin.
“Are they coming to the christening?” Sheila asked.
Sherry nodded, making a mental note to caution the women not to say anything about not having seen her today. She sighed inwardly. This was getting complicated. “They wouldn’t miss it.” She turned to Sin-Jin. “How about you? Are you still coming?”
He found that he was actually looking forward to the experience. “I cleared my calendar.”
“Johnny will be honored.”
Even as she said the name, Sherry was suddenly struck by the irony of the situation. Inadvertently, without knowing it, she actually had named her son after the man who had delivered him. That was why Sin-Jin had looked so surprised when she’d told him her baby’s name. He’d probably thought that she had somehow stumbled onto the truth.
She still didn’t understand why he’d done what he’d done, only that he had.
Sheila picked up her purse and sweater from the sofa. “Well, I’ll leave you two to do whatever.”
“Mom—” There was a warning note in Sherry’s voice.
Sheila was the soul of innocence. “I wasn’t being specific, was I, Sin-Jin? ‘Whatever’ covers a huge range of things.” Passing him, Sheila patted him on his arm. “See you at the church.”
“Church?” he echoed, looking from the woman who’d just walked out to the one beside him.
“The christening, remember?” Sherry laughed. She kicked off her shoes. “You look like someone who’s just seen a ghost. If you think she was saying something about weddings and marriage, that was far too subtle for my mother.”
“I’m beginning to see that.” Moving her shoes out of the way, he sat down on the sofa again, making himself at home. “I like your mother.” He took her hand, pulling her toward him. “Your father, too.”
Sherry slipped onto his lap, getting comfortable. “That’s good, because they like you.”
And so do I. That’s what makes this all so hard, Sin-Jin.
Guilt nibbled away at her. She felt somehow disloyal by probing into his life this way, and yet it was her job. Owen wouldn’t fire her if she didn’t come through; they had too much history together. But she would be disappointed in herself if she dropped the story. Letting her feelings dictate what she did or didn’t write would set a precedent, one she didn’t think she could live with.
But could she live with hurting Sin-Jin? He obviously didn’t want people knowing about his past, and here she was, debating exposing it in exchange for her own byline. It felt like a lose-lose situation.
Sin-Jin brushed back her hair from her face, catching her attention. “A penny for your thoughts.”
“Hmm?”
“A penny for your thoughts,” he repeated. He laced his hands together around her. “You look as if you were a million miles away.”
“A penny, huh?” She laughed, threading her arms around his neck. “Boy, now I know how you got so wealthy. You pay rock-bottom prices for everything.”
He looked at her, his eyes growing serious. “Not always.”
He certainly wasn’t paying rock-bottom prices for getting involved with her. It was going to require the ultimate price eventually. No matter how you dressed up the scenario, he was certain that it would end the way all his parents’ liaisons and marriages had: with bitter feelings all around.
Damn it, he’d sworn to himself that it wouldn’t happen to him, that he was above those kinds of needs, and here he was, up to his forehead in the very same thing. And still not willing to walk away while he still could.
He still could, couldn’t he? he thought, framing her face with his hands.
He’d never been less sure of anything in his life, not even when he’d turned his back on his former life and just walked away. The only time he’d returned to the town where he’d grown up was when he’d heard about Mrs. Farley taking an early retirement from the school district. He’d flown back for her party, waited until it was over and then approached her with his proposition. She’d come to work for him the following Monday.
But except for that, he’d never gone home again.
No, it wasn’t home, he amended, it had been a place where he’d grown up. Sherry’s house was more home to him than that place, that castle, had ever been.
Sherry was home.
The concept scared the hell out of him.
“Okay, my turn.”
Her voice drifted into his thoughts, mercifully pushing them aside. He looked at her. “Your turn for what?”
“To offer you a rock-bottom price for your thoughts. I’ll even make it two pennies.” There was something in his eyes, something troubling. Something was bothering him, she thought. “You looked like you were a thousand miles away.”
“Only a thousand?” he teased. “I allotted you a million.”
She lifted a shoulder casually, then let it drop again. “I’m not given to exaggeration.”
He raised his brow, pretending to take offense. “Oh, and I am?”
“If the shoe fits.” Before he could say anything in protest, she kissed him soundly, laughing halfway through it.
He could feel the joy spreading through him. Joy that being with her created. Sin-Jin gathered her closer to him.
“I was just thinking about the christening. What is it I’m supposed to do?”
“Nothing too taxing.” Her eyes glinted with humor. They’d been through this before. Where was his famous memory now? “Just hold him during the ceremony and try not to drop him in the baptismal font.”
“I’ll do my best.”
She leaned back and studied his face. “I don’t know. I think I’d better test those arms of yours out, to see if they’re strong enough. Purely for the purpose of research, of course.”
“Of course.” He tightened his arms around her. “Strong enough?”
“Tighter.”
The humor faded a little as she hoped that somehow, if he held her close enough, tight enough, everything would eventually resolve itself. Like a fairy tale that came with a happily-ever-after guarantee.
“Tighter.”
He held her closer still, rocking with her in silence. Wanting to ask her what was wrong, but instinctively afraid of the answer.
Chapter Fifteen
Two mornings later Sherry stood watching as the priest poured holy water over her son’s head and said words that linked one generation to another in a timeless ceremony. Her heart swelled as she watched Sin-Jin hold her son in his arms, a tender expression on his face.
It was in that moment that she knew.
It was gone.
Her resistance to ever becoming involved with another man, to ever loving another man, was gone.
Sherry knew that she was setting herself up to be hurt, that this relationship with Sin-Jin could not possibly be permanent. It was an interlude, nothing more. But that didn’t change the fact that she wanted it to be permanent, wanted this man to be part of her life and she part of his.
But there was too much against it. Too many secrets between them.
Should she tell Sin-Jin of her discovery? Should she try to prod him for an explanation about his past, or pray that he suddenly wanted to tell her on his own? And now that they’d become intimate, why hadn’t he told her on his own? Was he just passing the time with her? Was she just a filler until his interest waned?
And yet he was here and he didn’t have to be. For all her pushiness, the man did not have to be here, taking on the mantle of godfather before a church full of people. That was of his own choosing
.
There was no point in driving herself crazy with this, it wouldn’t change anything.
And at least, she thought, smiling at Sin-Jin as he looked in her direction, she had the moment. That was all that life really was, perfect little moments strung together on a necklace of time.
She wanted more.
After the ceremony was over, she managed to herd everyone out of the small parking lot to the reception, which was being held at a restaurant belonging to one of her father’s friends. Even Father Conway came along. The aging priest made a special point of singling Sin-Jin out and engaging him in lengthy conversations about the condition of business in the modern world. Sherry had her suspicions that her father had put the old priest up to it, but Sin-Jin didn’t seem to mind sharing the car and his opinions, so she made no attempt to rescue him.
The party in the festively decorated banquet room continued until six o’clock, at which time a select few adjourned to Sherry’s house for coffee and even more conversation.
Around eight, Father Conway said his goodbyes.
“I like your young man,” he told her, his thick Irish brogue molding each syllable.
“He’s not my young man,” she’d protested. The last thing in the world she wanted was for the priest to get the wrong idea.
The priest looked genuinely disappointed. “That’s a shame, because he’s generous to a fault. Gave me a donation for the church right after the ceremony.” He took out the check he’d slipped into his pocket and looked at it as if to assure himself that it was real. “This’ll cover the rest of the new roof.” And then he winked at her. “The Lord does move in mysterious ways.” Beaming, he waved goodbye to Sin-Jin before taking his leave.
She sighed, closing the door. “That He does, Father, that He does.”
It was ten o’clock before the last of her family and friends bade Sherry good-night and slipped out the door.
Exhausted, she blew out a breath. The first thing she did as soon as she closed the door was slip out of her shoes. She heard Sin-Jin laughing behind her.
Sherry turned around, looking at him quizzically. “What?”
“You always do that as soon as you’re alone.” Funny how he’d taken to noticing things about her. Without meaning to, the woman had managed to impress her actions on his brain.
It was suddenly very quiet in the room. She wondered if he planned to stay the night. Excitement began to slowly bubble through her. “But I’m not alone, you’re here.”
Yes, Sin-Jin thought, he was and he still wondered at it. Wondered how strange life sometimes was. Long ago he’d set aside the idea of ever having a family and yet here he was, being absorbed into hers and willingly so.
He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Tired?” He kissed her temple.
All sorts of wonderful feelings began to take root within her. She wrapped her arms around him for a moment and nodded.
It had been a long day for her. “I can go,” he offered.
“No.” She placed a hand to his chest as he started to reach for his jacket. A warm, comfortable feeling spread out from beneath her hand. “Not yet,” she whispered. Leaning her head back, she brushed a kiss against his lips. Her eyes met his in an unspoken promise of the night ahead. “Let me just go and check on Johnny.”
He nodded, stepping back, getting out of her way.
Sherry rushed up the stairs.
The baby was sleeping peacefully. She lightly tucked his blanket around him, then kissed the tips of her fingers and just barely passed them along his cheek.
She had a baby she adored, a family who cared about her and a man she was falling in love with waiting downstairs. No matter what was waiting for her on the horizon, tonight she considered herself to be the luckiest woman on the face of the earth.
Walking out of the baby’s room, Sherry stifled a squeal as she felt her waist caught up from behind. Sin-Jin spun her around, and before she could say anything he had her against the wall, sealing his mouth to hers. Blotting out her words, her thoughts, the very world around her.
Nothing existed but him and the fire that was instantly ignited in her belly.
The kiss, powerful and demanding, drained her and somehow energized her at the same time. She didn’t bother questioning it, she just went with the feeling.
Sherry wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her eager body against the hard contours of his. He kissed her over and over again, raising her up off the floor. She wrapped her legs around his torso, demands running rampant through her, throbbing wildly.
She wanted him, wanted him badly. And he wanted her. She felt her blood sing as it pumped madly through her veins.
And then they were in her room, clothing flying everywhere, inert casualties to their mutual desires. Her body was on fire. And only Sin-Jin could put it out. But with each pass of his hands, each kiss pressed along her skin, the flames only rose higher.
He’d been downstairs waiting for her, debating whether or not he should just quietly withdraw and go home. He was in over his head and he knew it, was growing unnerved by it. She was changing him, taking him in directions he didn’t want to go.
He’d made it all the way to the front door and then he’d thought of today, of being in the church and holding that small life in his arms, a life he’d helped bring into the world. He’d thought of the woman who had become such a huge part of his world in such an incredibly short amount of time, and suddenly desire had risen up and seized him by the throat, making it impossible for him to leave. Making even a minute longer without her incredibly hard to endure.
Acting on impulse, he’d raced up the stairs to be with her.
He knew he should go slower, savor the moment. He didn’t want to frighten her. But the feelings that were ricocheting through his soul frightened him. Frighten was too genteel a word. They downright scared the hell right out of him.
The last time he’d been vulnerable was when he was a very young boy, watching his father leave home, a curvaceous woman on his arm who wasn’t his mother. He remembered feeling lost and alone. Abandoned. To be vulnerable, to lay yourself bare to feelings, meant not being in control, not being able to save himself.
He’d vowed then never to be vulnerable again. Yet here he was, being vulnerable. Placing his soul into the small palm of a woman whose motives were not entirely certain.
It was insane, and yet, he just couldn’t help himself. The ache in his belly, in his loins, in his heart, wouldn’t let him help himself. He wanted her, this moment, here and now, he wanted her.
Pressing Sherry down against the bed, he held her captive as his lips raced along her body, anointing her flesh with hot, moist kisses that had her panting and twisting beneath him. With every movement she made, she excited him more, captivating him until he was utterly and completely her prisoner.
Unable to hold back any longer, Sin-Jin drove himself into her.
Her muffled cry of ecstasy against his lips began as the heated rhythm fused their hips together. Like a man possessed, he went faster and faster. Her arms wrapped around him, she kept pace.
When the final moment came, he felt as if an explosion had racked his body and yet, it wasn’t enough.
He wanted more.
Exhausted, spent, he wanted more.
Was he completely crazy?
Dragging air into his lungs, Sin-Jin slid off her. He barely had enough energy to gather her body to him. Contentment blanketed him but didn’t quite manage to cover his concerns.
Her heart was beating so hard Sherry was sure it was going to leap right out of her chest at any second. No matter, this was the best way to go, being made love to by a man she loved.
Passing a hand over her eyes, as if to help them focus, she could only lie there for a moment, doing her best to regulate her breathing. When she could finally manage to form words, she turned her face toward him. “Wow, what was that?”
He laughed shortly. It momentarily depleted his growing energy supply. “I’m not su
re.”
She smiled to herself. It was nice to know that he was as affected as she was. “Does the government know you have this secret weapon?”
He dragged another breath into his lungs. What was it that she did to him? How was it that making love with her turned into an Olympic event? “I didn’t even know I had it.”
Gathering as much strength as she could, she rose up on one elbow and propped her head up, looking at him. Who would have ever thunk it? Sin-Jin Adair in her bed.
“If you ever tire of being a captain of industry, I promise you that you can make an incredible living as a gigolo.” She spread her hand out, forming a horizon. “Women will be lining up for miles for just a sample of that.”
He arched a brow. “I won’t want women lining up for miles.”
Her expression was the epitome of innocence. “Oh?”
He wanted to say that all he wanted was her, but that would place him at her mercy, and he couldn’t allow that to happen, couldn’t make himself that vulnerable.
The moment begged for something, for a revelation of some kind.
In a moment of weakness, when most of his guard was down, he told her, “That was my father’s way.” Tucking one hand under his head against his pillow, Sin-Jin pulled her closer with the other. He stared at the ceiling. “And my mother’s.”
Her heart began to hammer hard again. It took effort for her to make light of the moment, hoping that it would somehow encourage him to say more. Not because of any article she needed to write, but because she wanted him to trust her. “Your mother liked to have women line up for her?”
“No,” he laughed, kissing the top of her head. And then the laughter died away as he remembered things he didn’t want to. “They both liked to play change partners, though. A lot.” She was quiet. Sin-Jin found her reaction unusual. And because she didn’t ask, he heard himself telling her things he never meant to say. “My father was married five times before I lost count and interest. My mother, three.” And he had disliked every one of the various spouses, because none of them had any use for him, making him feel more and more of an outsider in his own life.
A Billionaire and a Baby Page 17
