A Hard Man to Love Read online

  ****

  “So what are you going to do?”

  Back at her apartment, Eva sat in the cushiony armchair positioned across from the sofa where her best friend and roommate sat. Kallie tucked a lock of brunette hair behind her ear and screwed up her face into a concerned frown. Kallie’s first roommate had moved in with her boyfriend, paving the way for her and Eva to move in together to save money after Eva lost her full-time job.

  After Derrick left, Eva worked a six-hour shift with Ms. Elsie, automatically performing her duties of putting up the sales displays, ringing up customers, and folding and refolding clothes on the tables. The monotony of the tasks provided the type of familiarity she needed to get her through the day, but she had left the store in a semi-dazed state.

  “I don’t know,” Eva said wearily. “I can’t believe I got myself into such a mess.”

  Kallie folded her feet under her on the sofa. “You didn’t get pregnant on your own. It takes two.”

  “I know, but still . . .”

  “It could be worse.”

  She looked at her roommate. “How could it possibly be worse?”

  “He could be completely uninterested in your child, which is what you originally thought. Now we know the truth. Or, he could be some loser who has nothing to offer. Derrick has money, and he wants to take care of this baby.” She shrugged.

  “He doesn’t just want to take care of her, Kal. He wants to take her from me if I don’t agree to marry him.” She rubbed her hand across her brow. “I didn’t see this coming. He’s not going to budge, either. You should have seen him.”

  Kallie leaned forward. “Before you ended the relationship, you said you had fallen in love with him. What if you could make a go of it? You know, have a real marriage.”

  Eva laughed shortly. “Yeah, right. I romanticized the situation, trying to make our . . . relationship . . . into something it wasn’t.”

  She’d willingly accepted the terms of an open relationship even though she had reservations about it. She didn’t see the harm, especially when they first started seeing each other. Too late, she learned she wasn’t the type of woman who could handle it. In fact, she should have known right from the start, because she fell for him almost immediately, and the night they met remained burned in her memory . . .

  ****

  Eva and her three girlfriends were having their annual New Year’s Day dinner at their favorite restaurant on the waterfront. Every year they met and shared their goals for the new year and talked each other out of feeling sad about bad decisions from the year before.

  Halfway through the meal, the waitress came over and said, “Ladies, the gentleman over there sent you this bottle of champagne with a wish for you to have a happy new year.”

  They all turned toward the bar, to the man sitting smoking a cigar. He smiled in their general direction, but Eva noticed his eyes lingered on her a fraction longer than the others. Feeling her cheeks get hot, she quickly looked away.

  The waitress started pouring the expensive sparkling wine into glasses. “Let him know we said thank you,” cooed one of her friends, Bev.

  “He’s hot,” Kallie murmured. “Maybe we should invite him over.”

  Their animated conversation changed to whispered speculation about the man at the bar. A few minutes later, the waitress returned.

  “He said he would love it if you come thank him yourself.”

  “Really?” Bev smoothed her fingers over her hair while her girlfriends gasped and whispered in excitement.

  A pang of jealousy worked its way through Eva’s stomach at the thought her friend would get to meet him. His cool stare had intrigued her, and his handsome face had made her heart thump a faster beat.

  “Not you,” the waitress said. “You.”

  It took a minute for Eva to realize she had spoken to her. She’d been focused on her plate. “Me?” she asked in shock. “I didn’t say anything.”

  The waitress shrugged. “He asked specifically for you, honey.”

  He’d asked for her. Her belly flipped over itself.

  She cast a glance over at the bar again, but he wasn’t looking in their direction. He and the man next to him were engrossed in conversation. He nodded, and then tipped a tumbler toward his mouth. Even from this distance she could tell he had nice lips.

  Kallie’s excited voice broke through her shock. “Eva, go!”

  “All right. Shush.”

  At the urging of her friends, Eva walked over to where he sat, wiping her sweaty palms on the skirt of her dress. “Hi.”

  His eyes drew her in. Blue, but not blue, gray, but not gray—an interesting combination of the two. His skin, the color of sand, had golden undertones, and the thick, wavy hair on his head made her fingers tingle with the desire to play in the strands. Like she’d noticed from afar, he had inviting lips that curved upward in a most seductive way when he smiled. She could tell he had money, despite being casually sexy in a black turtleneck and black jeans. He had an air about him.

  “Hi yourself.” His warm voice sent a shiver down her spine.

  “Thank you for the champagne. That was very nice of you.” She groaned inwardly at the sound of her voice. She sounded nervous, and her stomach muscles trembled in response to her heightened awareness of him.

  He lifted one shoulder as if it were no big deal. “I saw a beautiful woman having dinner with her friends and wanted to impress her.”

  His open flirtation made her feel out of her depth. He reeked of confidence, and she found it both sexy and unnerving. “Mission accomplished.”

  He smiled. “Good to know. By the way, I’m Derrick Hoffman. What’s your name?”

  “I’m Eva. Eva Jacob.”

  She extended her hand for a handshake, but instead of shaking it, he lifted her fingers to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand. Tremors shot through her body, and she suddenly had the burning desire to remove all her clothing so he’d have the opportunity to place the same type of kiss on every inch of her skin.

  Once he’d lowered her hand, he didn’t let go. He rubbed his thumb across the back of her knuckles, which caused heat to suffuse her skin. Her instantaneous attraction to him overwhelmed and excited her. With her heart racing, she felt on the verge of a new adventure, unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

  “Eva, I’m about to leave, but before I go, I’m going to give you my number. I hope you use it.”

  He released her hand to pull out a card containing his name and phone number, then handed it to her.

  He stubbed out his cigar and rose from the barstool. Even though she wore heels, his broad-shouldered body towered over her. “It was nice meeting you, Derrick.”

  “Hopefully, it won’t be our last meeting. I want to see you again.”

  He soon left, leaving the ball in her court. If he’d tried, she would have willingly gone to bed with him the same night, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d handed her his card, and she and her girlfriends found out later he’d picked up the tab for the entire table.

  She didn’t last one day before she called him.

  ****

  Eva couldn’t blame Derrick for his attitude about their relationship because he’d been up front with her from the beginning. They had an understanding. Whenever he came into town, she would be available to him. It was her fault for developing feelings for him. He had every right to see other women, as she did to see other men. Except she’d fallen for him and didn’t exercise her rights, and it killed her to think he might be exercising his.

  “He came down here all the time to see you. Maybe . . .”

  “Kal, I know what you’re trying to do.” Eva turned grateful eyes on her friend. “But the truth is it was never serious between us. I was never his girlfriend.” Fresh pain seized up her vocal cords. She should be past this by now, but the longing for more still hurt. “He didn’t ask me to marry him because he’s madly in love with me. He asked me because I’m pregnant. No matter what I may think about him, he
definitely wants to be a father to this baby.”

  “Do you think you could buy more time?”

  Eva shook her head in resignation. “You don’t know Derrick. He won’t budge, which means the noon deadline is final.”

  Once, she’d heard him on the phone using a commanding tone of voice to express his displeasure at something or the other someone had done. The way he spoke, the inflection in his voice, had made her climb on top of him the minute he hung up the phone. That tone of voice wasn’t quite as sexy with the anger and the commands directed at her.

  “Sounds like you know what you have to do.”

  In a few months, she would be twenty-nine, and like many women her age, she had envisioned her wedding day a certain way, after meeting and falling in love with a modern-day Prince Charming. Only she had met a prince in the financial sense, minus the charming part.

  “I’ll make my final decision in the morning. Maybe there’s some way out I haven’t thought about yet.”

  Even though she said those words to her roommate, inside, Eva resigned herself to the inevitable. She would never forgive herself if she didn’t do everything possible to secure a safe birth and good future for her child—their child. Derrick could ensure that happened.

  She shouldn’t have gotten pregnant, or so doctors had led her to believe. Scarring left over from an appendectomy she had as a teenager blocked her reproductive system. For years she thought she would never become a mother, but they had been wrong. She looked forward to all the changes her body would take on because it meant her child was growing safely just under her heart. Her baby was a miracle, and for that reason alone, she could never give her up.

  She knew what she needed to do, but she didn’t look forward to it.

  Chapter Four

  The following morning, Derrick dined on a late breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and a side of cheese grits in the resort’s restaurant. The floor-to-ceiling windows offered a stunning view of the ocean. Outside, the waves rolled up and spattered into white foam against the rocks that created a natural boundary between the resort and the thin strip of sand at this end of the beach.

  To keep his mind off the pending noon deadline, he perused the financial section of the paper while he ate. Sleep had evaded him for much of the night, making way for plans and strategies he imagined implementing at HLC. In the early morning, he’d finally fallen asleep, only to awaken with a stiff erection, which further mocked his decision to stay at the villa. An erotic dream about Eva had been the culprit.

  Once he’d eaten and had a couple cups of strong coffee, he should be able to tackle anything that came his way, including Eva’s decision. She still had time to make the right one.

  A motion beside the table made him look up. When he did, he saw Eva standing there. For a split second, his fingers tightened around the fork to counteract the involuntary jolt seeing her caused to his body.

  “I went by the villa, but you weren’t there, so I came here to look for you.” She spoke quietly and looked as if she wasn’t sure she’d be welcomed.

  This morning her appearance had improved. Her hair brushed her shoulders in a neat style around her face. The makeup was no substitute for the glow he was accustomed to seeing on her chestnut-colored skin, but compared to her drawn appearance yesterday, it was an improvement. It added an attractive color to her cheeks and lips and emphasized her long lashes.

  “May I sit down?”

  “Of course.”

  Right away he stood and went over to her. As he reached out to help her into the chair, she withdrew from him and seated herself across the table from where he’d been sitting. The small act of rejection created a twinge in his chest.

  In the past, she would have pressed her soft body against his with a warm smile on her face. She loved to tease him in public, flirting and batting those incredibly long lashes at him. He remembered several times rushing through a meal so he could get her alone to make love. On her back, on her stomach, it didn’t matter the position—

  Derrick slammed the brakes on his out-of-control thoughts and dropped into the chair across from her.

  Don’t go there.

  Eyeing her across the table, he noticed how the green top accentuated her dark coloring, just as he couldn’t help but notice how good she smelled. Because of mild allergies, she was very picky about fragrances and seldom wore perfume. She used organic soaps with ingredients like carrot and honey or peppermint and oatmeal. Today was a carrot-and-honey day. She smelled so good he wanted to lick her.

  A sip of the black, bitter coffee redirected the path of his thoughts.

  “I thought about our conversation yesterday, and I brought something for you,” she said. She offered him a large manila envelope. He reached for it and pulled out the contents: a few grainy, yellow-toned photos. “Those are the pictures of an ultrasound I had this week.” He didn’t need an explanation to understand what he looked at. “That’s your daughter.”

  Daughter. His gut tightened into a knot at the word. His daughter. His flesh and blood.

  He flipped from one image to the next in silence. The detail was remarkable. Though slightly distorted, there were distinguishable features in the ghostly-looking photos. “Is she healthy?” he asked.

  “They haven’t detected any problems,” Eva answered. “So far, so good.”

  Derrick let his finger trace the outline of the figure’s body in the 3-D image, over the closed eyes and the tiny hands, amazed he had been a part of creating another life. While being a father had always been a distant thought in his mind, the pending birth of his child became a reality he looked forward to with surprising anticipation.

  “I shared these with you for two reasons.”

  He lifted his gaze to hers.

  “I wanted you to understand what you were asking me to give up. But it also made me realize what I was asking you to give up, too. I know you feel strongly about being a good father. I don’t want to keep you from doing that.”

  He anxiously awaited her next words, not daring to believe she would say what he wanted.

  She swallowed. “I’ll marry you.”

  He couldn’t move for several seconds, stunned into disbelief and an overwhelming sense of relief. Remaining motionless, he withheld the true extent of his feelings.

  With the icy calm he hadn’t inherited, but had learned from his father, he carefully replaced the sonograms in the envelope and set them on the table. “It’s the best decision for the three of us.”

  She averted her dark brown eyes to the scenery outside the window, but not before he saw the despair in them. He gritted his teeth as anger filled him. Did she have to act like a lamb being led to the slaughter? She wasn’t the only one making a sacrifice.

  “I know this isn’t what either of us planned for our future, but we’ll have to make adjustments,” he said, his tone harsh. “It’s not an ideal situation, but we’re stuck with each other.”

  Her eyes held surprise at his tone as she landed her gaze back on his side of the table. “I guess so,” she said carefully. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

  “Are you?”

  A wry twist lifted the corner of her lips. “I don’t have a choice.”

  “Actually, I gave you a couple of options.”

  “Your generosity is unparalleled.” She plucked at the cloth napkin on the table. “What now?”

  Moving quickly was the only option. “I’ll get my lawyers to draw up a prenup.” Including a clause that if he found out after the child was born she wasn’t his, he could divorce Eva without concern she would have rights to his millions. “It’s a precautionary measure.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

  Her caustic tone wasn’t lost on Derrick, but he chose to ignore it. He scrolled through his phone. “Let’s plan to do this two weeks from today.”

  Eva fixed her eyes on his bent head. “T-Two weeks? So soon? I can’t leave Kallie in the lurch without a roommate. And we can’t
possibly plan a wedding on such short notice. After all, I’d like to have my family and friends there.”

  “Two weeks is plenty of time,” he said, still not looking at her. “I’ll cover your portion of the lease until Kallie can find someone else to move in, and we’ll get a couple of wedding coordinators to help you.” He started typing into the phone.

  It was all happening so fast, and she felt like someone being submerged underwater. “Can we please slow down? What’s the rush? I’m only a few weeks into my second trimester. We have plenty of time.”

  “Time is relative.” He set the phone on the table in a decisive manner. “I have a lot of responsibilities. The sooner we get this over with, the better.”

  The sting of his words inflamed her temper. “Let’s do this. Let’s get this over with. You’re so romantic.”

  Pausing, he narrowed his eyes on her. “Okay, out with it. What’s really bothering you? Because it’s obvious something is bothering you. The sooner we get it out in the open, the better, because I don’t have time to entertain your dramatic outbursts. I’m a busy man.”

  “Nothing’s bothering me.”

  “Something’s bothering you.” He tapped his forefinger on the tabletop. “Let me guess, this is one of those games women like to play, where I have to figure it out?”

  Eva crossed her arms and stared out at the roaring waves.

  “Even better,” he said, a mocking pitch to his voice. “The silent treatment. I love the silent treatment.”

  She glared at him. “You want to know what’s bothering me? We’re getting married. It’s a big deal, and you’re acting as if it’s nothing. A wedding ceremony shouldn’t be an event you squeeze in between a meeting and a presentation on your calendar.”

  The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted them. She didn’t want him to think she placed any more importance on their future marriage than he did.