And the word ejaculate in relation to Crystal was kind of grossing him out.
“There it is.” Tamara pointed to the TV.
There was a caption that said “Baby Daddy News from Daytona.”
Baby Daddy? Yeah, he was going to throw up.
The reporter was talking and Elec tried to focus on what she was saying.
“A lingerie model has stepped forward today to say she is suing rookie race car driver, Elec Monroe, for paternity and child support of her unborn baby. She claims the driver is refusing to pay for her medical care and is denying the child is his. Crystal Collins has been diagnosed with an incompetent cervix and needs thousands of dollars in medical care in order for her baby to come as close to term as possible. In a sport that strives for a family image, this calls into question the possibility of retaining major sponsor-ships for the driver.”
“Oh, Lord,” Tamara whispered.
Elec prided himself on being calm and rational, but he exploded. “There was not one goddamn word of that that was true! Incompetent cervix, my ass. She’s not even a lingerie model! She’s a bartender. Why would she do this? All of this can be proved a lie, including that she’s not suing me, nor is that alleged baby mine. She’s probably not even pregnant!”
“I’m sure she’s doing it for attention. And to punish you for rejecting her.”
“Just because I wasn’t interested in her, she’s going to drag my name through the mud?”
“It gives her the fifteen minutes of fame she’s looking for. People make careers out of scandal.” Tamara tucked her hair back. “And I might have contributed to the problem. I actually ran into her last week and I, uh, made it known that you were with me now.”
“You did?” That surprised him for some reason.
“Yes. She was just so nasty and not only did she claim you’re her boyfriend, she said she slept with Ryder, and implied it was while he was still married to Suz. I saw red, Elec, and I stooped to showing her text messages from you. I’m sorry.”
“You got jealous, didn’t you?” He grinned, despite the gravity of the situation.
“Yes. She pissed me off, acting like you were with her, when I happen to know that you spend all your spare time with me.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Yes, I do.”
“Can they do paternity tests before babies are born?”
“I don’t know. But I guess our lawyer needs to look into it. And shouldn’t she have to prove she is even pregnant?”
“Yes, I’m sure, but it will take a few days to sort through and report all that information. In the meantime, she gets to say whatever she wants.”
Elec didn’t like the timing, but he wanted Tamara to know, even before proof of a paternity test, that he was absolutely convinced this couldn’t be his child. That Crystal couldn’t have even somehow stolen his sperm, because he didn’t have any.
“I need to tell you something,” he said.
“You did sleep with her?” Tamara asked.
“No! I really didn’t. But even if for some reason I had lost my mind and slept with her, that baby still couldn’t be mine.” Elec swallowed and dropped his eyes to her lap, where the sheet was bunched up in her fingers. He forced himself to look back up and meet her gaze.
“Tamara, I can’t have children. I’m sterile.”
“What? How do you know that?”
“I got tested at nineteen. I’m shooting blanks, babe.”
“Oh.” She blinked a few times, then she reached out for his hand. “Oh, Elec, I’m sorry.
That really bothers you, doesn’t it?”
He nodded, a lump in his throat. “Yeah. I thought I could be okay with it, but it’s hard. I like kids,” he said simply.
“I know you do,” she said softly, tears in her eyes. “You are amazing with mine.”
“That’s why I dated the women I did, you know? Because they were not the settling-down kind. I figured why fall in love with a woman who wants to have kids, then have her dump me when I can’t give them to her?”
Tamara saw the pain on Elec’s face that he was trying valiantly to shrug off and she wanted to weep for him. She could see the logic, the horrible, empty logic to what he was saying.
But to deny himself love? And what kind of woman would give up a man like Elec simply because he couldn’t give her biological children? Hadn’t anyone ever heard of adoption?
But then, that was easy for her to say. She had her own birth children already.
Which was why she and Elec were even more perfect for each other than she had realized the day before. She touched his cheek, loving the rough morning stubble there. “If you loved a woman, she would be a total idiot if she let you go.”
“Yeah?” he said, and he looked so hopeful, so earnest, that Tamara kissed him.
“Yeah. And you love me, and I’m not an idiot. I’m not letting you go. Ever.”
“No?”
“No.”
Elec dug his hand into her hair and pressed his lips to her forehead, hard. “Tamara, would it be crazy if I asked you to marry me right this minute?”
Her heart just about stopped. “Why don’t you ask me and see what happens?”
He pulled back and stared at her with those rich brown eyes she could get lost in. Hell, she had gotten lost in them, the very first night she’d met him.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said simply, without thinking it through, without questioning it, without worrying. It was what she wanted, and that was all that mattered.
“Corny as it sounds, you’ve just made me the happiest man alive,” he said, and he kissed her.
Tamara loved his kisses, loved the way his mouth covered hers so confidently, so tenderly.
Neither of them had bothered to dress after sex, and his bare arms wrapped around her, strong and masculine. Tamara stroked his chest and sighed.
Damn, she did love him. And now she was going to be his wife.
Just the thought had her toes curling.
But they had a problem to deal with, the sooner the better.
“Okay,” she said, pulling away and touching his lips. “Reality rears its ugly head. We have to deal with Crystal’s little announcement.”
“How do we do that?”
“This is what I think we should do,” Tamara said. She just absolutely refused to let Crystal have even one more day to malign Elec, nor one more day to interfere with their happiness.