Concealed Consequences Bk5 TPBS - Slow Updates

-8-

Not edited.

Why did she feel like she was doing something wrong? She was just talking with her cousin for heavens sake!

"George is my cousin."

Donovan felt some of the anger leave his body and as his fingers uncurled he realised he'd curled his hands into fists.... oh hell!

"Your cousin?"

Karen nodded "Yes, my cousin Georgia. We all call her George occasionally."

"A girl?"

Karen looked at him and wondered of maybe he'd had a touch too much sun.

"Yes, a girl. My cousin. Two years younger than me. She's holidaying in Bali right now. Anything else you'd like to know?"

Donavan looked sheepish as he watched Karen's hands rest on her hips.

"Uh... no."

God he felt like an idiot! Apart from the fact that he'd got the whole situation wrong, he was now absolutely and totally captivated by the woman before him. Her breaths causing her chest to rise and torment him into staring at the soft flesh that teased and promised more as it peaked out from the top of her shirt. He itched to undo the buttons below it while wishing, with a gulp, that the fastenings were closed all the way to her throat.

Her throat!

Oh God! What he wouldn't give to be trailing kisses down that sweet flesh as she arched her body to him while he held those lucsious hips and...

"Van?"

Oh shit!

"I..." he exhaled "Ok. I heard the name George and I thought, well, that you..."

Karen giggled and he stopped talking abruptly. Within seconds the pair were both laughing. Neither knowing if it was only for one reason or for a multitude.

Donovan felt the relief flow into his body as he laughed. Relief that Karen hadn't been talking with a man and with George being female his relief was even greater. Karen was his wife and whether it was a macho alpha thing or not there was no way in hell he was prepared to share her... with anyone!

Karen's laughs slowly died down until she found herself inhaling deeply. Her eyes still sparkled with amusement and she was left wishing she could call George straight back and ask her if she was a man.

"Well after that I'll..."

"Can we talk?" Karen blurted out with a now nervous disposition. Her hands found one another and with a quick movement she placed her phone, which she'd been clinging onto for dear life, onto the small table beside the lounge.

Donovan nodded and walked into the room towards her. He nodded to the lounge and together they sat down. Karen at one end with her body tense and him at the other with his arm resting over the back and one leg across the other.

"What do you want to talk about?"

Karen shifted to the edge of the lounge, her hands once again gripping each other as, with her head bowed, she spoke.

"Children."

Donovan sat up straight and watched her as a hawk would its prey.

"Children?" he prompted.

"I told you that I couldn't have children. Well that's not the truth, ok it may be, but I don't know for sure. There" she inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly "there are some treatments that can be tried and..."

"I know" Donovan spoke quietly.

Her head snapped and she looked at him, completely bewildered at what he said.

"Yes. I know about the medications like clomid and how some are having success with metformin. I did a bit of research on it. I wanted to understand what you were telling me."

"You did?" she whispered as her eyes teared up just at the thought of him wanting to understand.

His warm smile combined with his nod was her undoing. The rivers of tears that she'd held back for so long came to the surface. For so long she'd tried to be brave and act like it didn't matter. To act like she was quite ok with it.

But she wasn't.

She wanted children... a child... more than anything in this world but how could she explain that to a man who, although he was her husband, was still a virtual stranger? How could she confide her inner most secret of feeling a failure because she couldn't do what women did naturally for thousands of years? How could she explain the ache in her heart everytime a family member nervously tells her they're having a baby... as if she may fall to pieces? How could she explain any of that?

His hand reached to her face and she realised that he was now sitting right next to her. His hands now cupping her face while his thumbs moved gently over her cheeks to wipe her tears away. He shhh'd as if she herself were a child. He whispered words of 'ok' and all right' and she felt herself melting into him. Her hands clenching his shirt as her face became buried in his chest and his long, muscular arms wrapped around her.

Safe. For the first time in years, she felt truly safe.

"If you want to try the treatments then I'll be right beside you at every doctors appointment. At every moment you feel sad. At every hope and if needed...at every disappointment. I want children Karen but if we can't then we can look into other options like adoption. We will be parents sweetheart. It's just the how we don't know right now."

She pulled back to look at him unaware that her eyes resembled a pandas as she'd forgotten she'd been wearing mascara.

"Don't you want your own flesh and blood though? Isn't that what all men want?"

Donovan laughed a dark laugh and shook his head.

"No. If it happens, it happens but with my family history I'm more than ok with adoption."

She pulled away from him and stood up quickly. Swiping the backs of her hands across her face she scowled at him.

"Only someone with a choice could say something like that!"

His brows furrowed in the middle as he gazed back at her.

"Don't say anything Van. You have no idea what the hell you're talking about. I don't know if I want to try. Hell I have no idea what I want apart from a baby of my own. But you!" She pointed at him with precision sharpness. "You have a choice so don't play this down as a joke!"

His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened as Karen turned suddenly and all but ran from the room.

What the hell did he do?