“We should talk about what you said.” Jason kissed the top of my head as he ran his fingers up and down my arm.

I lifted my head up from his chest. “Dirty talk? You don’t like it?” I asked him, confused because he seemed to enjoy any sexy talk that came out of my mouth.

He laughed, his chest moving up and down. “We can definitely discuss that later,” he said, one hand behind my head, dragging me toward him for a kiss. His lips touched mine in between his laughter. “I meant what you said about falling in love with me.”

Oh shit. Embarrassment seized my brain, my body. I dropped my head to his chest, hoping for the world to disappear. “You weren’t supposed to hear that. I was pissed and I forgot you were in the room for a second, and…”

“Vivienne, chill out. I liked what you said.” His warm, comforting hand grazed my back, traveling down to my ass.

“You did?” My voice muffled from speaking into his body. He started laughing again, causing me to sink lower onto him in mortification.

“Would you look at me?”

“No.” I shook my head, still unwilling to face the music of what he’d overheard.

“Vivienne, come on,” he said, lifting my head until we were eye to eye. He really was beautiful to look at. The man should be in movies. The heat from my face soon spread down my body.

“I feel the same way. Fuck, I felt the same way the first night we spent together. Before you kicked my ass to the curb, that is.”

My lungs filled back up with air. “What?”

His fingers caressed the side of my face, putting the fallen hair behind my ear. “Yeah. I felt a connection between us immediately. Obviously, you didn’t. There’s something between us that I’d like to explore. I’ve never felt this way about someone I just met.” Relief flooded my entire being at his words. “I’m falling in love with you, too.”

My heart nearly burst. Thank God he felt the same way. “You are?” I asked, barely able to mumble out those two words.

“Yeah. Definitely,” he said, searching my face continually with his sparkling blue eyes. Both hands on my head, he pulled me in for a deep, wet kiss. His tongue slid in, showing me exactly how true his words were. Desire surged to my lower abdomen, arousing the burn all over again.

As comfortable as I was in his arms, a nagging pang of guilt wouldn’t let go. My stomach churned, thinking about the conversation I knew we needed to have. Now.

Was it too early? Yeah. Was it absolutely the most important thing in my life that I had to tell him? Yeah.

Jason deserved the truth. I just didn’t want to give it to him.

“We need to talk,” I said, breaking our kiss. His eyes shone back with happiness. Guilt crashed down on me for what I was about to say. One sentence and this could all be ruined.

“How about we talk later and kiss more now?” A sexy grin spread over his face, then he leaned in to take my mouth again.

Regrettably, I moved back. “I’m serious.”

He sighed, falling on his pillow. “Shoot,” he said, trailing his fingers down my arm.

I sat up, wrapping the bed sheet around me, steadying myself with as much gumption as I could possibly muster. “I’m going to have a baby.”

His eyes wide as saucers, he bolted up. “What? When?” he asked, breathless, obviously thinking the wrong thing.

The look on his face was so funny, I burst out laughing. “I don’t know yet. But I’m going to have one. The doctors aren’t exactly optimistic, but I’m determined,” I answered him, shaking my head.

He reached out, holding onto my arm with a death grip. “Are you pregnant or not?”

“Not.”

A loud, roaring exhale came out as he flopped back on the bed, covering his eyes. “Fuck, you scared the shit out of me.”

“I’m going to have a baby. I need to have a baby.”

Underneath his arm, he peered at me. “What are you talking about?”

“My boss Dean said I should tell you right away. I thought I’d wait a bit. Then Jared messed everything up. Well, I guess that was mostly my fault—”

“Vivienne, cut the rambling,” he said, sitting back up, staring at me.

“I’m thirty-seven.”

“Okay,” he replied, frowning at me like I was an idiot.

“I want to have a baby. There’s not much time left before I’m out of eggs.”

“Jesus.”

“I’ve got some…lady issues. Endometriosis. My doctors have been putting me through a bunch of tests the last six months. They said it’s ‘highly unlikely’ I can get pregnant naturally, so they gave me some options to choose from.”

“Options,” he repeated, seemingly unable to utter more than one word at a time.

“Artificial insemination is the first one.”

“Jesus.”

“They take the sperm and then—” I began, but he cut me off.

“I know what it is.”

“That’s first on the agenda. Then they said—”

“Stop,” he urged, shaking my arm. “What exactly are you trying to tell me? You’re going to do this while I sit back and watch them inseminate you with some other guy’s sperm? Fuck. That’s messed up.”

“I don’t know what I’m trying to tell you, except the truth. I’m out of time. More than likely, I was out of time a few years ago. Nothing in this world would make me happier than starting a family. There’s this obsessive voice inside that constantly thinks about babies.

“That’s why I bought my house, you know? To find a husband and fill it up with kids. It seemed like the perfect place to raise a big family.”

“So, you’re breaking up with me to go have babies with some sperm donor?”

“I’m not breaking up with you. That’s something you need to decide. I’m just telling you what I’m doing.”

“And I have no say in this?”

I sighed out of frustration. Guess I wasn’t getting my point across. “You don’t get it. I’ve made my decision. I’m doing this. What I need to know from you is, are you interested in sticking around?”

“We’ve been on two dates. Actually, I’m not sure they even qualify as dates now that I think about it.”

“I’m out of time.” My teary eyes locked onto his, sadness gripping my soul. I’d scared him away. He looked stunned, like a deer caught in headlights.

“I’ve known you for like five minutes. How can you even ask me something like that?”

“Don’t you think I wish I’d met you earlier?”

“This is crazy.” He looked down at the covers for a long moment. “Even if we did know each other better, I make crap money. If I had a family now, I’d have to go back to a job I hate in order to support them. My writing is what I’m focused on right now. Not having babies. Christ, I’m only twenty-five.”

Whoosh went whatever breath I had in my lungs. A sharp spike drove through my heart, causing insufferable pain.

One thing sales taught me—never let them see you sweat. “I have money. Quite a bit of it, actually. I have a great job with benefits.” My eyes found his. “What I don’t have is someone to have a baby with.”

“We hardly know each other. If I’m reading you right, I can’t possibly do what you’re suggesting. Who would after only knowing someone for so short a time?” He got out of bed, grabbing his jeans, furiously yanking them on. “This is fucking crazy.”

I wanted to run out of here so I could go home and cry. A profound regret consumed me. Damn my age and this unstoppable biological clock. A few tears fell down my face. I refused to give up, so I wiped my eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

Think, Vivienne. Use your superpowers to make this sexy man settle down enough to listen. While I tossed around ideas in my head, I decided to get dressed as well. Although, negotiating in the nude probably had more benefits in the long run.

After I was decent, I moseyed into the kitchen. Jason had his back to me as he stood at the sink. “I don’t want to lose you. I just found you.”

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Me either. I just don’t see a way this works out for both of us.”

“We negotiate.”

Turning around, he raked his eyes over me like he was trying to figure me out. “We negotiate?”

“Yeah, I do this all day. I bring my stuff to the table. You bring yours.”

“I’m so fucking poor, I don’t have a table.”

“Figuratively speaking then,” I said, clearing my throat. “I want to start a family.”

“Yeah, I got that,” he said, leaning back against the counter.

“What do you want?”

“You.”

“For how long?”

“For—long.” He sighed, shifting his weight.

“How long? How long until you’d feel you could reasonably decide if you wanted a baby with me?”

“Exactly how do I answer that? I’ve never wanted a baby. Who knows if I’ll ever want a baby?”

The knife dug a little deeper.

“A week?”

He let out an angry, forced laugh. “That’s definitely too soon.”

“A month?”

“This is ridiculous,” he announced, pushing away from the counter.

“Listen, I want you, too. But I’ve got an expiration date. Well, my eggs do. You have youth on your side. I don’t. The longest I’d be willing to give this—us—is two months. After that, I’ll need an answer.” There. My final offer. The ball was in his court now. “Every month I wait makes things more difficult. Becoming a parent is a big deal. The biggest. If you’re not even willing to consider it, I understand. You’re young. You’d have no problem finding a younger woman in the future and starting a family. I don’t have the same luxury.”

“I agree to two months, or we’re done?”

It’s all in how you word it. This was the most important sale of my life. “You give me two months to prove to you that this can work. If after that time you don’t agree, you go on your way.” And I’d die a slow, painful death.

“You understand how crazy this sounds, right? It’s not just me?”

“I’m out of time, Jason. Do you know how much I’ve regretted kicking you out after our first night together all those months ago?”

A sneaky grin formed at the corner of his perfect mouth. Finally, I was getting through. “I knew you would.”

I crept closer to him, getting right in his space. He sighed, reaching to pull me into his warm body. His strong arms wrapped around me while I snuggled into him. “I don’t know what to do,” he said into my hair. The mixture of his woodsy scent and musk made me dig in closer. I kissed his neck, tasting salt from his exertions.

“You think I do?” I said, leaning back to look him in the eyes.

“I think you know exactly what you want and how to get it, yeah.”

How I’d managed to keep myself together this long was a miracle. Tears formed, falling on their own accord. “It…” I sniffed, “might not happen for me. I’ve wanted kids forever. It was always in the back of my mind as I worked and worked and fucking worked.” A sob tore out. “I spent so much time building up my career. Mr. Right never showed up. Not that I didn’t try, because I did.” He held me tighter while I cried into his chest, his arms holding me together as I broke apart.

“Get your stuff. I’ll take you home,” he whispered. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. My heart dropped to my stomach and my stomach fell to the cold, hard floor. You can’t make up someone’s mind for them. I laid it all out on the table. It was his choice to take it or leave it.

Guess he was leaving it. And me.

I shoved away from him, wiping my eyes with my fingertips, trying my absolute best to contain my horrible disappointment. “I’ll find my purse.”

The drive home was silent, except for the rap music on the radio. Ten minutes was about all I could stand. “Honestly, I don’t know how you stand this,” I said, realizing afterwards what an old bitty I must’ve sounded like. However, my finger still pushed the button to another station.

He glanced at me for a second before looking back to the road. His silence pissed me off even more. “Really, I…”

“I’m young, not stupid,” he replied in code.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re trying to pick a fight. I’m not biting. You want to change the station, change the fucking station.”

“I did.”

“I know.”

Oh, how quickly this descended into childlike behavior. Yikes. “I never said you were young,” I said in a low voice. “Or stupid. You’re incredibly smart.”

His hand pulled mine off my lap. “You want to do it with me? Or just anyone in general?”

The warmth of his skin seeped into mine, calming my nerves a bit for the moment. “What are you talking about?” I didn’t have any idea what he was asking about.

“A baby. Do you want to have one with me or just anyone?”

Honesty. That’s what Jason deserved. Dean was right. No sense in hiding anything now. I’d shown him all my cards already. One more thing wasn’t going to make a difference. “I really don’t know.”

He nodded, giving my hand one more squeeze before letting it go and placing his hand back on the steering wheel. Not a good sign. The rest of the way back to my place I spent observing his every breath, every movement, everything for a clue as to how he felt. What was he thinking?

The big jerk played it cool, acting like I hadn’t just rocked his world. He pulled up in front of my house, then turned to me. Before my face crumpled or I started another crying jag, I needed to get out of this car and away from this man.

“I’ll, umm, talk to you, soon,” I muttered, fiddling with the seat belt. My hands felt heavy with the overwhelming heartache flowing through my body. I’d lost him even though I’d just found him.

“Does this two months start tonight?”