with a man meant marriage was in their future. That was one of the reasons she hadn’t slept with Craig. In addition to him being the suspicious and jealous type, she hadn’t loved him.
Was Garth letting her know any seduction on his part would be nothing more than casual sex? If that was true, had he planned to spend two weeks with a woman he wasn’t serious about? Would his affair with that other woman have been nothing more than sex?
“Are you saying you’re not interested in getting married ever, Garth?”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. In fact, I’ve been thinking about marriage a lot lately.”
Hope sprang up inside of Regan. “You have?”
“Yes. In fact, that’s the reason I came to Santa Cruz. I was to meet a woman I was contemplating marrying one day.”
Regan’s hope was replaced by disappointment and confusion. “Let me get this straight. The woman you were to meet here, the one who eventually was a no-show—you were thinking about marrying her?”
“Yes.”
“But now you want me?”
“Yes.”
She frowned. That didn’t make sense. For him to think about marrying a woman meant that he and the woman were in love and sharing a serious relationship. If that was the case, then how could he tell Regan that he wanted her? Did he not think that was betraying the woman he planned to marry? Did he assume Regan would just step right in and take the woman’s place in his bed? She expected better of him.
“Sorry to disappoint you, Garth,” she said in a curt tone, standing to her feet. “There are some substitutions I will not do.”
He reached out and took her hand. When she tried pulling it back, he tightened his grip. “I think you might have misunderstood me, Regan. Please sit back down so I can explain.”
Regan wasn’t sure what he could explain, but the feel of his hand touching hers caused all kinds of sensations to curl around in her stomach. She sat back down. Not because he’d requested it, but because she felt weak in the knees from his touch.
She lifted her chin. “You kissed me and said you wanted me. Yet, now you’re telling me the woman you were to spend two weeks with here was someone you might marry. So, what did I misunderstand, Garth?”
Garth had made a mess of things, when all he’d been trying to do was have a totally honest discussion with Regan. But her assumption was pretty damn damaging. There was a lot she needed to understand.
“First of all, I don’t expect you to take anybody’s place in my bed, Regan. To be honest, the woman who was supposed to meet me here would have been taking your place. It was you who I originally wanted in my bed.”
“What? You definitely need to explain that, Garth.”
A part of Garth wished he hadn’t been so blunt. But he had, and now he owed her an explanation. “My reaction to you that night in Denver, at the ball, bothered me. Like I said, it was the first time in nearly ten years I had felt such strong attraction to a woman. It also made me realize something else.”
“What?”
“That you weren’t Franklin’s little girl anymore or Charm’s teenage bestie. You had grown up to become a very beautiful woman.”
She shrugged. “Not sure about the beautiful part, Garth, but I’ve been a woman for quite a while now.”
“I honestly hadn’t noticed you that way. But that night...your dress, the hair, the makeup, the total package...” He paused a moment. “Especially that dress. You were wearing the hell out of it.”
“Thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment, but it still doesn’t explain things.”
He nodded. “After we returned to Alaska we picked up our normal routine. I figured my attraction to you that night was one and done. But that wasn’t the case. My desire for you grew stronger, taking over my mind and senses, interfering with the way I handled business matters. I knew I had to do something. That’s when I came up with a plan.”
“And what was this plan?”
“To turn my attention elsewhere. That meant meeting someone I could get serious about since I considered you off-limits.”
She took a sip of her coffee before asking, “So how did you meet this ‘someone else’?”
He shifted in his seat, deciding he might as well tell her everything. “Through a very private dating service. And for the record, we never officially met. Santa Cruz was to be our first meeting.”
Garth