Daddy Christmas by Cathy Gillen Thacker

Author:Cathy Gillen Thacker [Thacker, Cathy Gillen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781459283275
Google: ozilUB4jQKoC
Amazon: 0373166079
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1995-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

TO BUY or not to buy, that was the question, Matt thought, standing before a Valentine’s Day display in the front of the grocery store. Discovering they were out of milk, he had volunteered to go, only to be reminded by the throngs of men waiting in the express lane, their arms full of last-minute gifts of flowers, balloons and heart-shaped satin candy boxes, that it was February 14.

Which put him in a quandary the likes of which he’d never experienced. If he forgot the holiday, Gretchen might be hurt by his insensitivity. Then she would be ticked off at him.

If he honored it by giving her a gift, she might think he was taking a lot—like the bedroom privileges he had not enjoyed since their wedding night—for granted. Or worse, that he thought he could buy her attentions.

The truth was, of course, that he wanted bedroom privileges back. But since his business trip Gretchen had not looked as if she wanted lovemaking reinstated in their lives. If she wasn’t studying, she was sleeping. One or the other activity took up almost all the time she spent at home. Neither was something he could interrupt.

Of course, he had only been back a couple of days now. Their one and only dinner out had been a start toward normalizing their relationship to that of a typical married couple expecting a child. And she might have a gift for him, too. So, there was only one thing left to do.

Unfortunately, what had seemed like a brilliant idea at the store did not seem nearly so bright when Matt saw the look on Gretchen’s face. He had expected her to like the gift he’d had specially made up for her. Instead, she appeared ready to burst into tears at any second.

“You needn’t read too much into this,” he said casually. “It’s just something I felt I ought to do, under the circumstances, you being the mother of my child and all.”

Gretchen froze. The tears sparkling in her misty blue eyes were fast replaced by a flash of fiery anger as she lifted her chin to confront him.

“Ought to do?” she echoed coolly.

Wincing inwardly, Matt amended cautiously, “Well, yes. We are husband and wife. At least for now. That being the case, Valentine’s Day gifts are...expected.”

“I see.”

Gretchen sauntered closer, in an intoxicating drift of perfume.

“Kind of like sex is expected between married couples on their wedding night, right?”

Matt recognized a dig when he heard one. Worse, he had no defense for his behavior. He’d said all along theirs was to be a marriage of convenience; yet at the first opportunity to hold her in his arms again, to make wild passionate tender love to her, he hadn’t been able to resist. Nor had she, and that, he felt, irritated her more than anything. He sensed she wasn’t used to being driven by her passion any more than he was.

Noting she was still furious with him, knowing hormones were at least partially responsible for her highly emotional state this evening, he attempted to calm her.

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