“And love? Don’t you even believe in love, Jack?”
“There are all kinds of love. Love of family, love of a parent and child, love of a friend.”
“What about love between a man and a woman, a husband and wife? Don’t you believe in that?” she asked. “Don’t you want that?”
“I believe that there are some people, like my parents, who find that kind of connection. I don’t know if it starts out that way or if it’s something that grows over time out of respect and caring for one another. What I do believe in is the power of hormones between a man and a woman,” he told her. He drew his fingertip down her cheek and Lily could feel her already nervous stomach flutter at his touch. “I still want you, Lily. And I think you want me.”
She swallowed past the knot that seemed to have lodged in her throat. “You’re talking about meaningless sex.”
“I’m talking about desire, passion. It’s still there between us. Just like it was that night.”
It was true, Lily admitted silently. The pull between them that had drawn her to him that night and that had led her to breaking all her personal rules by sleeping with him was still there. In fact, it was even stronger now that she’d gotten to know him better. “What if desire isn’t enough to make it work?”
“It’s more than a lot of people have,” he said. “I think we owe it to our baby to at least try.”
Once again he made the whole thing sound so simple, so logical. Jack was a good man, an honest man and she had no doubt that he would be a good father to their child. Yet, it felt wrong to start any marriage this way.
“It’s your call, Lily. You know how I feel, that I think the two of us marrying is the right thing to do for our baby’s sake. So what’s it going to be? Should I go out there and tell everyone that the bride has changed her mind and there isn’t going to be a wedding after all? Or do I go out there and tell the minister to get the show on the road before the ice sculptures melt?”
She took a deep breath and met his gaze. “Tell the minister to get the show on the road,” she told him.
“You won’t be sorry, Lily. I promise.”
She certainly hoped Jack was right, she thought as he disappeared out the door. When she heard the bridal march start once again, Lily picked up her bouquet. As she exited the powder room and started toward the garden where she would pledge to become Jack Cartwright’s wife, she prayed she wasn’t making a mistake that both of them would live to regret.
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