Read T is for Temptation Online
Authors: Jianne Carlo
She left them, heading for the bedroom Jake had picked out earlier. Movements slowed by unfettered exhaustion, she shrugged off her clothes, letting them drop onto the carpet, and stumbled onto the mattress. The minute her head hit the pillow, a languid torpor claimed her brain.
A swell of nausea rising woke Tee. She opened her eyes and willed it away. Faint morning sunlight filtered through the curtain’s undersides. Next to her, Jake’s chest rose and fell evenly, and one heavy male leg lay across her thighs.
Unbidden and unwanted bile swarmed up her throat. Tee swallowed, a cup of tea would settle her stomach, she decided. She edged out of bed, performed her morning ablutions, and slipped out to the kitchen.
While waiting for the kettle to boil, Tee switched on the TV and watched the
news.
Jake appeared, bleary-eyed and tousled. “Are you okay?” he asked and draped an arm over Tee’s shoulders.
“Fine. Looks like it’s going to be a nice day. Not a cloud in the sky. What did Arthur have to say last night? Anything new?” She realized she was babbling and clamped her lips together.
“Some emergency came up, and he had to leave. He’s due to come over today.”
Henry ventured into the room, tying an apron advertising Guinness Stout around his waist. “Anyone for breakfast? How about eggs sunny-side up, mushrooms, tomatoes, and toast? Kippers for you, of course, honey.”
Tee’s stomach heaved. She covered her mouth with her hand and dashed to the bathroom, passing Alex on the way. Leaning over the bowl, she retched, but nothing came up.
“Are you okay?” Alex had followed her in, and he knelt beside her. “Stupid question, of course you’re not. Don’t worry, sweetheart. It’s a normal reaction to stress. Let me get you some cold water.”
Tee wiped her mouth with the towel Alex gave to her.
“I think it may actually be something else.” She flashed him a wan smile. “A normal symptom of a normal condition.”
Alex wet another towel and handed it to her. “At least you don’t have to worry about being pregnant.”
Tee stared at him, certain she hadn’t heard correctly.
Alex wiped the edge of her mouth with a folded triangle of Kleenex. “When Jake decided to have a vasectomy, he tried to talk me into to it too.” He shuddered. “Couldn’t bear the thought of the snip, snip.” He made a scissoring motion with two fingers. “We all thought he was nuts.”
Tee leaned against the wall for support. She stared at Alex’s mouth, numbed by his words.
“Yeah, he was determined not to bring any unwanted children into the world.” Alex pressed the damp towel on her forehead. “Didn’t want to chance it.”
“Vasectomy?” Tee repeated the word. The ringing in her ears threatened to take her down into oblivion.
Jake arrived in time to hear Tee say the word and see the blood drain from her face. His palms went cold and clammy, and a band of sweat peppered his forehead.
Betrayal and pain dilated her pupils, and Tee’s eyes widened to fallow saucers. His gut contracted, somehow sucking all the breath out of his lungs.
“Get out,” he growled.
Alex slithered around Jake and hovered behind him, observing the two of them.
“Why?” she asked, three lines etched between her taupe eyebrows. “All that stuff about using a condom? You lied to me. You said you’d never lie to me. I’m not pregnant?” Her hand circled over her stomach. “Elaine’s wrong? I don’t understand.”
“Tee, babe, please listen.” Each word stabbed his throat. “Give me a chance to explain.”
“Did you do it on purpose?” Tee pressed her knuckles against her mouth. “You were the one who brought up the pill—why?
“Hell, I don’t know. I was afraid you’d refuse to see me again. It was the first thing I latched on to. Then,” he said and raked his hair as sweat dripped down his back, “then I was afraid to tell you. A vasectomy is reversible, Tee, almost always. I planned to have it done before we got married. Hell, please don’t cry.”
The lone tear sliding down one cheek undid him. He sank to the floor and reached for her. When she flinched and pulled away from his arms, he scooped her into his lap and tightened his hold on her. “I’m sorry. I am so sorry, witchy woman. Forgive me?”
All the stiffness went out of her and she burst into loud, wracking sobs. She curled into a huddled ball and cried her heart out. It broke his, the ache in his chest a burning sensation.
“Shssh,” he crooned, rocking them back and forth in a futile attempt at comfort. “We’ll adopt. Or, or try artificial insemination. We’ll do whatever you want.”
Jake kept up a steady stream of feverish whispers, promising everything under the sun. When Tee’s crying melded into quiet, defeated hiccups, dread set in. And fear. Fear that clogged his throat and held him paralyzed. Each second ticking by multiplied his anxiety, and when he felt he would explode, he braved a glance at her. She had cried herself to sleep. He didn’t know what to think, what to do next. Only one certainty surfaced. He couldn’t let her go.
Somehow, Jake made it to their bedroom and sat against the headboard, still holding her in his lap. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen. He’d already asked Arthur, in confidence, to arrange a doctor’s appointment for today.
What if it couldn’t be reversed? What next? Would Tee still marry him? Surely, love couldn’t vanish because of this.
His eyes squeezed shut, and he let the thought finish. No, love died because of deception. His lie of omission and his cowardice could cost him Tee. What had she said? - I know how you tell the truth you take a grain and weave it into what you want – except in this instance, not even an atom of truth existed.
Dejected, but determined to find a way to resolve the situation, he settled her under the covers, closed the curtains, and silently exited the room, shutting the door behind him.
“She didn’t know,” Alex stated as he unfolded his long limbs from the couch in the living area. “Sorry, Jake. I thought you’d told her.”
“I should have,” he muttered, slicing his hand through tangled curls. “I asked her to marry me, and we went through a handfasting in Brodick.”
“Crap. I screwed things up royally. Tell me how to help.”
He met Alex’s concerned cobalt eyes. “I need to find out if it’s as reversible as that doctor claimed. Where are the others?”
“Henry’s cooking breakfast. Tiny fell asleep at dawn. He watched TV all night long and seems to have developed an obsession with John Wayne westerns. Turned up the volume at every gunfight. I couldn’t have slept more than twenty minutes at a time. This couch is mine tonight.”
Jake glowered at him.
“My bad.” Alex grimaced. “Back to the heart of the matter, Tee. What are you going to do, and how can I help?”
“What time is it?”
“Should be near nine. Hang on, and I’ll check.”
While Alex went to find a clock, Jake called Sir Arthur and arranged to see the Yard’s doctor as soon as the office opened.
“Hey, my Rolex was in my carry-on. I thought I’d lost it when we went to Brodick, I know I was wearing it at Tee’s nanna’s house.” Alex slipped the prized possession onto his wrist as he entered the room. “It’s almost nine.”
“I have an appointment with a doctor right around now. Keep an eye on Tee, will you? She’s sleeping, and I don’t want to wake her. Can I borrow your cell?” He held out his palm. “Mine’s in the bedroom somewhere.”
“Sure. Here. I take it Tee said yes when you popped the question?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if that still stands.”
“You don’t see the way she looks at you. The woman’s in love, Jake. It’ll all work out. I’m sure of it.”
“Thanks. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Don’t tell Henry anything, okay? No sense getting him involved until I know the details.”
“Sure. Good luck,” Alex said and chucked him on the shoulder.
“Call me the minute Tee wakes up.” With those words, he left the suite, flanked by two dark suited armed guards and hurried to the Met building.
The sun hung low in a powder blue sky, a golden ornament radiating a blinding brilliance. The wonderful weather only served to exacerbate his foul mood and plummet his trepidation into a powerless depression. He concentrated on the vision of Tee and him on the bed with the baby girl. The first time he’d had it was the first time he’d met her, and his visions always had a grain of truth in them, even if they were tangled and blurred.
A grain of truth
, he stifled a groan.
Over the last few days, he’d felt as if he belonged, could become part of society instead of hovering at the boundaries observing, never being invited in. Desperation crawled into his veins, the thought of losing Tee unbearable. He felt raw, grated, as if someone had dragged him over a bed of crystal shards.
Two hours and umpteen embarrassing moments later, Jake shifted in his chair and waited for the doctor to finish reading the lab report on his desk. He drummed his fingers on the chair’s narrow arm, anxiety growing as the second hand on the clock advanced notch by notch.
Sunlight reflected through the large window behind the desk made the man’s baldpate shimmer, and the sad few dark hairs clinging to his scalp held an obscene fascination for Jake. Unable to resist the temptation, he counted seven before the doctor’s head swung up.
“According to this report, all of your results fall in the normal range: sperm count, motility, morphology, pH, fructose levels. I find no indication of a vasectomy. We can perform other tests, an
“I don’t understand. I had a vasectomy when I was eighteen.”
“After the procedure, was your sperm count tested?”
“I had a follow-up visit, and they did the normal things, blood pressure, stuff like that.”
“Were you asked to provide an ejaculate sample at any point in time either before or after the procedure?”
“No.”
The man shook his head. “Ethically, I cannot comment on another doctor’s work without seeing your medical records. However, if a lawsuit’s what you’re after, off the record, I’d advise you to pursue it. In my opinion, based upon these lab results, there is no indication of you having a successful vasectomy at any point in time.”
“Doctor, while my memory is hazy, after all, it was sixteen years ago, I do remember being poked and prodded down there and being sore for a couple of days afterwards.”
“Mr. Mathews, you’re free to seek a second opinion or to have further tests, but as far as I’m concerned, you can father a child just as easily as any other normal man. There is nothing wrong with you physiologically.”
The cell phone in Jake’s pocket vibrated, but he ignored it, too stunned by the doctor’s words to really absorb them. He shifted to accommodate the glare of the morning sun and concentrated on the doctor’s dour face.
“Unless there’s something else you require?”
Shock kept him glued to the chair even after the doctor stood, hand outstretched.
Forcing movement, he rose and shook the man’s hand. “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
Dazed, Jake left the man’s office and ended up on the sidewalk in front of the building before his brain kicked in. Still operating somewhat on autopilot, he hailed a cab and gave the embassy’s address.
Possibilities raced circles around his mind. Tee could be pregnant. Hell, he could be a father. His hammering pulse drowned traffic noises and all others. Frenetic, jumbled thoughts crammed his brain so full he felt he would implode.