Awaken to Pleasure by Nalini Singh Page A

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, Jackson Santorini, or I’ll show you 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 Jackson Santorini 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 hardnosed. 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 upat 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.”
    Taylor 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 Jackson.
    At that moment, Jackson felt dark, nameless emotions rock his soul. Taylor was asking him to make a choice—her or a child. It was a choice that he’d made easily standing over Bonnie’s grave, but applied to this honest blue-eyed woman, it seemed terribly wrong. “You areright, 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. But he’d buried one child who’d never had a chance to be born. He needed to replace that memory with one of a healthy bambino. The