An Irresistible Bachelor(56)

He'd planned on going down to New York to come clean with Blair and reestablish his commitment to her. To their future.

But after tonight, he knew he couldn't. Not after the way dinner had gone with Callie and Gray. Watching her smile at his friend had been torture and Jack had had to repeatedly restrain himself from competing for her attention. With every charming thing Gray had said, with every gentlemanly gesture Gray had made, Jack had wanted to cut his friend off. At the knees.

She was dead on with what she'd said. He was being territorial as hell.

And he needed to face facts. Callie wasn't just another chase. It went much deeper than that for him. For one thing, he thought about her a lot and not just sexually. He'd remember something she'd said that struck him as insightful or funny and mull it over, picturing just how she'd looked as she'd spoken. Or he'd read something or hear a bit of news and Want to share it with her, just to find out what she thought. And he'd smile for no other reason than he was stuck in traffic, trying to get home to have dinner with her.


But the real telltale sign was somewhere south of his head and north of his hips. Recently, he'd been getting some kind of strange feeling in his chest whenever he thought of her and that odd weight was something he'd never experienced before. He had the sneaking suspicion that it meant he was somehow becoming emotionally involved.



Entangled was probably a better word.

He was kidding himself if he thought he could just will away his feelings and carry on. He might have been able to go forward with marrying Blair if he'd just become distracted by some other woman. But Callie was no distraction.

Far from it.

Hell, for a man with a past like his, she was nothing short of a revelation. She was proof positive that even the most jaded, cynical SOB could find—

Jack shook his head, unable to believe he was actually going to use the word love.

He tossed back the bourbon and dialed Blair's suite at the Cosgrove. When the voice mail kicked on, he left her a message saying he'd be in New York in the morning and had to see her immediately. And then he called Gray.

His friend answered on the second ring. "This has to be you, Jack."

"How'd you know?"

"Because I figured you'd call for details. Yes, I think she's beautiful. Yes, I asked her out. And yes, I'll take good care of her. Anything else?"

Shit.

"You sure you like her?"

"Ah, yeah. What's not to like?" There was a pause. "You got a problem with that? I thought it was your idea to introduce us?"

Yes, he had a problem with it, but then Callie had just told him she was going out with Gray. What right did Jack have to dictate who she dated? Even if he was going to break his engagement, he was quite sure she wouldn't appreciate him warning men off of her.

"No, it's fine." Jack took a deep drink. "listen, what are the ramifications if I run as an unmarried man?"

There was a pause, as if the question was a surprise. "I don't think it's necessarily a problem. Having a family is an asset, of course, especially considering the stunts you've pulled. Voters like candidates with wives and children; it's that whole illusion of stability thing. And having a family also gives you more credibility when it comes to issues like education and health care. But it's moot because you've got Blair." There was another hesitation. "Right?"

"I'll call you tomorrow."

"What's going on, Jack?"

"Tomorrow." He hung up the phone.

He thought about telling Callie he was having feelings for her when he got back from New York. Would she give him a chance if he explained himself? It sure wasn't a slam dunk; his past and his present spoke all too well for themselves. After the way he'd behaved, he wasn't sure she'd want to hear anything he had to say.

And she was also going out with Gray.

Jack picked up his glass and a feeling of uneasily settled into his bones. He wondered what exactly he had to offer someone like her anyway. All the other women he'd been with had been content with jewels and clothes and trips and parties, things he could supply in spades. Callie wouldn't care about all that.

Except if he stripped away the trimmings, what would she be left with? Just him. A man ruled by his ambitions.. Someone who had worked himself into a stupor night after night for the past decade and showed no signs of slowing down. A guy who'd demonstrated a total lack of regard for women's feelings in his twenties and early thirties and was now breaking up with his fiancée of three weeks.