Irresistible Desire

I need a baby

"No, you just go icy," she whispered. He'd yelled at her in the office but that had been over little things.

When it really mattered, he simply shut down. She wondered if he felt too much and had to feel nothing at all to survive. Her heart hurt for him. "Well, guess what?"

He raised a brow at her snappish tone.

"If you marry me, you have to live with a temper."

"I face tantrums all the time in my line of work."

"Tantrums?" Leaning across, she put her other hand in his hair. She trusted him to not let her fall from her precarious position. He didn't let her down. Big, warm male hands clasped her waist tight. "Don't you ever say I have tantrums, Jacob Wolfe, or I'll show you how to be angry. "

"You wanted to know if I could handle temper." Despite her deliberate provocation, his tone remained even.

"Okay." Until this moment, she hadn't realized the depth of his pain. Just who was Jacob Wolfe behind his guise of powerful producer? "How do you deal with the tempers in the business?"

He gave her a humorless smile. "You know we talk money and if the demands are unreasonable, we get hard-nosed. Or, we send in people to soothe their famous nerves."

She stifled a laugh. "So, how's that going to work for me, Mr. Big Shot Producer-Guy?"

For a second, he looked dumbstruck. Then he said, "Guess I'll have to learn to soothe your nerves."

"Nerves!" she cried, before glimpsing the tiny spark of humor in his eyes. Relief at finally getting through to him made her giddy. "Ooooh. You make me so mad."

The hands on her waist tightened. He lifted her up without visible effort and set her on her feet in front of him. "How mad?"

"Sooooo mad." She had to tilt her head back to look up at him. The position made her vividly aware of his size and power. He was so hot and alive. So male that it made the woman in her whimper for things she knew nothing about.

The moment stretched and she saw desire begin to warm those Italian-dark eyes. Involuntarily, fear shivered through her. His tenderness last night hadn't been enough to destroy scars she'd carried since childhood. He removed his hands, his face tensing, all angles and harsh shadows.

"If we marry, I won't force anything on you." He paused, as if making a decision. "But, I do wish for something from this marriage."

"What?" At last, she thought, a reason behind this improbable proposal.

"A baby." His eyes were fathomless. "If we can beat your fear and have sex, I don't want you using protection."

Grace was momentarily silenced, stunned by the request. Despite the newly awakened desire between them, why would he ask this of her, a woman who could barely allow him a kiss? Maybe he didn't understand the extent of her fear. She would marry him to keep Nick but she wouldn't trick him. He had to know that her problems ran deep.

"I may never be able to give you what you want. Are you willing to never father a child?" She had to make him understand that this wasn't something that would pass easily. It might never pass. Even if they managed to overcome her fear of intimacy, having children terrified her for a much more painful reason.

After witnessing her mother's despair, she wasn't sure if she could ever make herself that vulnerable to a man. Even a man like Jacob.

At that moment,Jacob felt dark, nameless emotions rock his soul.Taylorwas asking him to make a choice  -  her or a child.And  applied to this honest blue-eyed woman, it seemed terribly wrong. "You are right, I am not." The words were torn out of him. "How about we give ourselves a year? If there is no child, then we will part."

It hurt him to say that, going against all of his vows that he would not have marriage after short marriage like the rest of his family. He needed to replace that memory with one of a healthy bambino . The problem was, in his imagination, all his children had Grace's blue eyes. How could he possibly walk away from her if she didn't allow him to touch her?

He couldn't risk it; he simply wouldn't dare.
Grace's heart constricted in her chest and tears filled her eyes. No, this couldn't be happening. Not again. This couldn't be the first time that she'd gotten involved with a man and then lost him because she couldn' t let him leave. Why did it have to happen now when she needed him the most? He was her lifeblood. Without him, she wasn't sure how she'd get through another day.
"All right. We give ourselves a year." She turned around, unable to hold back her tears.

Grace's next question was subdued, as if she hadn't expected the time limit. "And Simon?"

"I think we can fix things so that Kenny has no chance, even if we're not together." He looked at her and said bluntly, "Tell me the reason behind your fear of sex."

Grace took several steps toward the couch, needing to sit down. After several moments of silence, she finally spoke. "I don't even know where to start."
"Start from the beginning," he coaxed her gently when she refused to look at him.
"The beginning. All that happened when I was fourteen years old is still fresh in my mind. "

His scowl made him look more like a mobster than ever. "Was it someone your mother brought home?"

He put his hands around her waist again, and this time the warmth and weight of them calmed her.

She swallowed. "It was a maintenance man." Her voice shook as she revealed something she'd never told any one. There was more, much more, but she didn't have the courage to tell him the whole truth at once.

"What did he do?"Jacob's voice rasped and the hands on her hips pulled her closer, as if he couldn't stop the protective movement. She went, glad to be near his warmth.

"He followed me to the laundry room. I thought he was going to fix a broken machine." Even now, she could feel her fear when she'd finally realized that he was just standing there in the corner, watching her, eyes slimy.

"When I tried to go up the stairs after I loaded the machine ... he stalked me until I starting backing up. I dropped the basket and tried to get away but he  -  he grabbed me and pushed me hard against a linen closet down there." Tears streaked down her face and she was that terrified young girl again. "I was so scared. He said he could understand my fear. He'd teach me not to be afraid. He'd make me like it. And you know what made it worse?"

"It was my first kiss. He split the inside of my lip. The bruises on my arms and back didn't fade for weeks."

"Grace."Jacob's voice was gruff, giving her permission to end this if it hurt too much.

She couldn't stop now. "He was pressed up against me and I could feel him ... being aroused. I fought but he was too strong. I thought he'd keep hurting me but then someone came down the stairs. He'd forgotten to lock the door."

"You had a chance to escape?"

"Yes." She'd thanked God over and over while she'd thrown up in the bathroom.

"Did he touch you again?" The quiet rage in Jacob's voice somehow soothed her.