a couple of gorgeous, green-eyed, black-haired babies. You know how vain I am. The fact that I would even contemplate the risk to my hard-won flat abs should tell you something.
But alas, it’s true. I’m afraid I haven’t been entirely truthful with you over these last few weeks. Remember the little stray hound who came begging so sweetly? He’s really a prince in disguise and he swept me off my feet…
Two hours later, eyes gritty and a little nauseated from lack of sleep, Kit sent the column to Tina and stumbled off to bed. She fell into bed, exhausted, smiling as Jake murmured in his sleep and spooned her from behind. As she drifted off she whispered a little prayer to the gods of newfound love, asking them to help Jake forgive her when she confessed the entire mess in the morning.
Jake was awakened by the harsh clanging of metal and the rumble of a truck engine that vibrated Kit’s entire apartment building. God, he hated garbage day. He squinted at the clock. Five forty-five.
Kit didn’t budge. Not surprising, since he’d felt her get up sometime around two. He’d promptly fallen back to sleep but had awakened briefly again when she’d slipped back into bed around four. Her bouts of insomnia had increased lately.
I’ll just have to do more to tire her out, he thought with a grin.
The grayish morning light caught the side of her face. He loved watching her sleep, the way her full lips parted slightly as she crushed the side of her face into the pillow. Sometimes, like now, a little furrow appeared between her dark brows, as though she had worries she couldn’t escape, even in sleep.
With a sigh of regret he slipped out of bed and left her undisturbed. As much as he wanted to roll her to her back and wake her by sinking between her legs, it was obvious she needed the rest.
He slipped on a pair of boxers, grinning to himself as he let himself out of the bedroom. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy, this…peaceful. Though he hadn’t really been conscious of it, the entire time he’d been in San Francisco, a subtle tension had weighed on his shoulders as he struggled to keep a balance between pushing Kit into a relationship without overwhelming her with the force of his emotions.
Last night had changed all that. She loved him, he was sure of it. She might not have been able to say it, but he felt it in every touch, every kiss, the way she wrapped her arms and legs around him in an almost desperate grip. The words would come eventually. What mattered was that they were going to be together. Bone-deep warmth surged through him as he imagined their life together. The words would come soon enough. All that mattered was Kit was finally his.
Steely morning light cast the living room in shadows, and he could hear the hum of Kit’s computer in the otherwise silent apartment. He quickly fixed himself coffee and sat down at her desk to check his e-mail. As he clicked open a browser window and logged into his remote e-mail client, he noticed Kit’s e-mail was still up. He glanced quickly at her in-box, then looked away.
Jake still had the nagging feeling that Kit was keeping something from him, but snooping was not the way to ease his mind. How could he keep her hard-won trust if he went searching through her correspondence?
He was working his way through his messages when a message for Kit flashed on the screen. Reflexively Jake glanced at it.
The message was from someone named Tina, the subject line “Your Latest C. Teaser Column.”
C. Teaser…something about that name bugged him. Now he remembered. That column Michael had sent him, where the funny, bitchy woman made fun of the majorly pussy-whipped guy she was dating.
A burning ache settled into the pit of his stomach. Why would someone e-mail Kit about C. Teaser?
Almost involuntarily, he read Tina’s message.
Kit, your latest column was genius! One of the funniest ever. I still haven’t read the one you wrote this morning (you
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