And she loved him. The flatware slipped from her fingers and she braced her palms on the counter. She loved him.
* * *
She was in the office waiting when he came down from putting Beth Ann to bed that night. Her stomach was in knots. She hadn’t felt this sick at heart since the day she’d walked away from the adoption office and left her child to be comforted by strangers. Dully, she wondered how much more she would be expected to give up in this lifetime.
Day cleared his throat and she looked up to see him standing in the doorway. “Thank you for coming,” he said formally.
He looked handsome with his dark hair freshly washed and a leather vest worn over his dark shirt, but his eyes kept darting around the room every time she looked his way.
She knew just how he felt. Having a civilized conversation was difficult enough without recalling the way they’d been rolling around in the truck last night, the way she’d let him do anything he pleased without even a token protest. He was probably worried that she had read too much into it, that she was going to start making demands and claims that he’d have to fend off. She felt the sting of mortification flushing her cheeks and she rushed into speech to cover it. “I have something I want to tell you, too,” she said.
If he’d heard her, he gave no indication. “You know about the threat my ex-wife made, and this social worker she’s sicced on me, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“Well, my lawyer has figured out a way to outfox her.”
That caught her attention. “How?”
He grinned at her, a slow, easy shift of facial muscles that shouldn’t make her knees weak or her heart beat faster. It shouldn’t, but it did. “I’m going to get married.”
Married. She felt as if someone had punched a fist right into her stomach. Though a giant hand was squeezing her rib cage and she couldn’t get enough air, she murmured, “Congratulations.”
As he was about to speak again she held up a hand before the tears could fall. “I know what you’re trying to find a way to tell me and you’re right. My presence would be incredibly awkward to explain to your...your fiancée. If you can give me a day or two to pack and make travel arrangements, I’ll be gone as soon as I can.”
“Can I finish?” He was still grinning, though his eyes were searching, looking for something...what?
It hurt her to look at him, knowing she was leaving and she wondered why he was so insistent. “I don’t think we need to dissect last night,” she whispered, looking away so he wouldn’t see her falling apart. “It happened, it’s over—”
“Dammit, woman! Will you quit yammering for two minutes?” Day put his hands on his hips and glared at her. “I’m trying to ask you to be my wife.”
“Ask me...?” She was so shocked she couldn’t finish the sentence.
He smiled grimly. “Yeah. You. Who else in this neck of the country would agree to marry me for a few months? The local women would expect it to be permanent and I don’t want to be saddled with a wife for the rest of my life.”
The words stung, even as she glimpsed heaven waiting. He wanted her—but only for a limited time. Could she live with that? Then another thought struck her. “But you read the tabloids. You even believed them. What if my supposed reputation causes trouble with your bid for custody?”
He snorted. “Compared to Jada Barrington’s exploits, which I can prove are true, you’re lily-white. Besides—” He shrugged. “How’s she going to know my Angel is Angelique Sumner?”
She hesitated. He made it sound so easy. And she desperately wanted to leap up and shout yes. But logic held her back. This would never work.
“You’re an actress,” he said, apparently reading her hesitation as refusal. “Just consider it another role. Wife and mother.”
Slowly, she said, “I suppose it would give me more time...” Time with you. Time for my heart to well and truly break.
“You’d have plenty of time to think about where you want to go from here.” He was beginning to sound desperate, and she found she liked it. “Please think about it, Angel. I need you. And you need me. You’ve been safe here. I’ve seen you relax a little more each day. No one can find you. If you become Mrs. David Kincaid, it will be that much easier to stay out of sight. And when the marriage ends, you’ll have a new name—my name. You can start over anywhere you like without being tracked down.”
Everything he’d said was true. But still she hesitated. Only moments ago she’d been prepared to make a clean break. Wouldn’t it be better for her to get the break over and done with so she could begin learning to live without him?
Suddenly, she became aware that he was standing right in front of her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and the sweet shock of his touch seared her through her clothing. “If we marry,” he said, looking at her mouth, “it will be a real marriage in every way there is.”
She shuddered, trying not to let his touch eradicate her common sense. “But you don’t trust me. You don’t even particularly like me.”
He moved his hands down to her hips and pulled her purposefully against him. “Does this feel like I don’t like you?” The action made no secret of his arousal thrusting against her soft stomach. As always, she found it impossible to think when he was touching her. She dropped her forehead against his chest. He bent his head, pressing his mouth to the side of her neck. His lips were warm and wet as if he’d just licked them. “I trust you to be a good mother to Beth Ann,” he whispered.
Well, that was something. I need you, he’d said. But he hadn’t meant that he needed her in any deep personal sense. He needed her to help him save his daughter.
Then he touched his lips to hers and it ceased to matter. If she could be here with him—for him—she was going to stay.
The kiss had begun gently, but when she sighed and pressed herself against him, it was as if he threw off the restraints he’d imposed on himself. His mouth hardened, parting her lips. She raised her arms to circle his neck, spreading her fingers and combing through his damp curls with urgent pleasure. She was shameless, arching her body against his, thrilling to the feel of his hard loins. He made a low, rough noise deep in his throat as he slid his arms around her and held her fast to him, smoothing one big hand down her back and over the swell of her bottom to cup and mold the soft flesh there.
Then, holding her tight against him like that, as if he wanted to absorb her right into himself, he said, “This is what our marriage will be. It won’t be platonic, and it can’t be permanent, but it sure as hell can be great while it lasts.” He leaned his forehead against hers, and she had to close her eyes at the intense communication he demanded. “Say yes.”
“Yes.” She breathed the word against his lips.
“I’ll give you twenty-four hours to decide.”
“Yes.”
“We can put a time limit on it if that would make you feel—”
She kissed him, hard. “Yes.”
Silence. Then, “You’ll marry me?”
“Yes!” She blushed at how easy a mark she’d been, but he finally reacted.
“Well, hot damn!” His mouth rocked onto hers with all the finesse of a rutting bull for one glorious, grinding kiss, then he drew away again. “You won’t be sorry.” Keeping one arm around her, he urged her over to the calendar on the desk. “If I can get it all organized, we can get married on Friday,” he said, tapping a finger on the day in question.
“Friday? That’s too soon.” Nerves tightened her throat and she swallowed. She’d expected to have plenty of time to reconcile herself to this decision.
“Considering the show we put on for the hands last night, I think we should marry as soon as possible. I don’t want anybody snickering behind your back.” His tone was sober, but he was smirking.
“It wasn’t funny,” she said. “Another few minutes and we’d have been...they’d have caught us...” There was no polite way to say it.
“Yeah.” His drawn-out agreement barely suppressed h
is amusement. “Bare naked in the moonlight.”
Her mouth twitched as he settled himself on the edge of the desk and drew her around to stand between his spread thighs. How could she be so embarrassed and still want to laugh? “I’ll never be able to look those guys in the eye again,” she said mournfully.
“Who cares?” He ran his hands up her back in a smooth caress. A second later, she felt a slight tug, and she realized that somehow he’d managed to open the clasp on her bra! Did he know it? A swift glance up through her lashes told her immediately that he did indeed know it.
She reached her arms behind her, fumbling to reclasp it through the material of her shirt. “Great party trick,” she said dryly. “How many girls did you go through perfecting that?”
He grinned. “Dozens. Only trouble is, it always breaks the mood, just like this. Then again—” he surveyed her as she stood with her arms back, breasts thrust against the thin fabric as she arched her back “—maybe it’s worth it.”
Her cheeks felt like they were on fire. She made a face at him before she turned her back, but he stepped up behind her.
“Don’t be shy,” he said, linking his arms around her waist and pulling her back against him. “You have a beautiful body.” His mouth sought the sensitive flesh beneath her ear and she automatically tilted her head to give him better access, leaning back against him.
He’d asked her to marry him—for a few months. If that was all she was going to have, she was going to grab every moment.
He slipped his hands up to cup her breasts through her clothing, brushing his thumbs back and forth over her nipples in a steady rhythm, sending shock waves of need washing through her. In her abdomen, muscles began to contract in an ever-tightening knot that urged her to shift back and forth seeking relief. When he nipped at her neck, the sharp sting of his teeth sent a jagged arrow of desire straight to the quivering center of her.
Gasping, she put her hands behind her to grasp his buttocks and pull him close against her body. He lifted his head, a deep groan escaping from down in his chest. “Let’s go upstairs,” he breathed against her neck.
“All right.” She laid her hands over his as he kneaded her breasts. Under her palms, his hands stilled. Then he turned her to him, catching her beneath the knees and sweeping her into his arms so quickly that she gave a startled squeak. Before she could protest, he strode out of the office toward the stairs. She remembered her resolve: Enjoy it while it lasts.
Relaxing, she laid her head against his shoulder, inhaling deeply. He’d showered just before supper as usual, and his skin exuded the clean, slightly soapy smell of healthy man. Pressing an experimental kiss against the side of the tanned column of flesh, she lingered, enjoying the firm, resilient give of his skin and the slight roughness of newly shaved beard.
Beneath her lips, his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “You little tease.”
Immediately her confidence vanished. Was he pleased or annoyed with her? As he surged up the steps and elbowed open the door of her room, she rested her head passively against him. She’d had so little practice at this—either during or since her brief marriage—that she was too unsure of herself to make another overture.
Moving directly to her bed without bothering to turn on a light, he laid her on the quilt, coming down beside her before she had time to worry about what to do next. His fingers made short work of the buttons on her shirt, then he was pulling handfuls of it free of her jeans. Smoothing the fabric away from her body, he pushed her still-unfastened bra out of the way and deliberately lowered his lips to one taut tip.
“Oh!” Her body tightened in automatic response. Without thinking, she put her hands up to cradle his head and draw him closer. He eased his weight over her; she arched upward in response to his urgent domination.
Dark shadows filled the room. Only the scant moonlight filtering through the two windows relieved the total blackness. It wrapped them in a hushed dance of passion that heightened every brush of sensation, every glide of skin over skin, every whisper of silky fabric falling away from flesh.
She floated in a world where only his touch mattered, her body tensing, twisting, driven onward to an inescapable conclusion. His hand slipped over the soft flesh of her bared belly, rubbing smooth, rhythmic circles that gradually inched lower and lower, combing through the crisp curls that protected vulnerable treasures....
“Wait.” She grabbed his wrist, holding his hand from its goal only because he allowed her to stop him. Reason rushed back in a cold deluge that left her gasping. How could she have forgotten? “We need...I’m not... protected.”
“Oh. I figured you were on the Pill.” He stared blankly at her for a moment, then dipped his head and pressed a brief kiss against her lips. Rolling aside, he lay back and crossed his hands behind his head. “Go ahead, honey. I’ll wait. But hurry back.”
She sat up, bewildered, staring at him stretched out on the bed. Then it began to dawn on her that he was expecting her to go and...and prepare herself. “But I don’t have—”
“Oh, hell.” He sat up, too. “You mean you don’t have any protection?”
He sounded shocked, and she suddenly realized that what she’d told him about her life-style hadn’t registered completely. Or maybe he just plain didn’t believe her. He clearly thought she would carry birth-control measures as a matter of course, because she needed them often enough to make it a given that she would protect herself. Anger began to rise as she said, “I told you those tabloid articles were out-and-out lies.”
Wariness sprang into his eyes as he read the irritation in her tone. “Now relax. I wasn’t insinuating—”
“Hah!” She sprang off the bed, twisting the tails of her shirt into a knot between her breasts that effectively covered everything vital. His Southwestern accent had thickened, as it always did in times of stress, slurring his words into lazy syllables, but this time she refused to be charmed. “You think I do this so much that I automatically take care of—”
“The problem is, I don’t have anything, either.”
Her eyebrows rose. She couldn’t resist the chance to pay him back in kind. “Now that is amazing.”
Reading her skepticism correctly, he said, “Not that amazing. I don’t have time for much fooling around.”
“Fooling around! Is that what you consider this?” Hurt provoked her into blurting out the question before she could stop it.
The tension in the room was heavy enough to smother them. A sob rose in her throat and she whirled away from the bed to stare out the window, choking back the sound.
He’d been sitting on the edge of the bed with one long leg dangling down, his shirt hanging open. Now she heard him get to his feet and come to stand behind her. When his hands cupped her shoulders, she reluctantly allowed him to turn her to face him.
He simply stared at her for a long moment, silver eyes probing her face in the dim light. Finally he said, “I’m not sure what I consider this. But you’re right. It isn’t just fooling around.”
“Day, I—”
“Shh.” He smiled a little, placing a finger across her lips. The contact stilled her instantly and he continued. “I wasn’t entirely truthful with you or myself when I decided no local woman would do for a wife. The real truth is that when I looked around at that dance, I couldn’t even see anybody else. Everywhere I looked, you got in the way.” His face hardened a little. “I want you. For a good long time. Nobody else will do. I don’t know exactly what’s happening here, but I’m willing to take a chance on finding out.” His hands slipped down her arms to enfold her fingers within his and his gaze was so piercing she could barely sustain the contact. “Are you willing to find out with me?”
Her heart beat a rapid tattoo of hope within her breast. He’d just offered her more than she’d allowed herself to believe in. With his admission came a springing joy, a prayer that desire could turn to love. She nodded.
He heaved a sigh and drew her into his arms, kissing her temple. She
felt his heavy arousal still full against her, and without thinking she lightly brushed her hips against him.
His loud groan startled her. “Woman, you’re going to kill me,” he said ruefully. A wry grin tilted up the corners of his strong mouth. “This is the first time I can’t do what I want because neither of us has any protection.” He sobered and eyed her consideringly. “You suppose any of the hands would let me have a few condoms?”
Her eyes flew wide. “You wouldn’t dare! Would you?”
He laughed at the sudden doubt in her tone. “No, I guess not. Friday is only two days away. I can wait until we get to town and we can buy what we want. Then we’ll have us a real wedding night.”
She blushed in the dark, glad he couldn’t see her face as he kissed her quick and hard, then set her away from him.
“I’m getting out of here while I can still let you go,” he said, and his voice went husky and low. “Friday can’t come fast enough for me.”
* * *
On Friday morning Angel donned a slim aqua suit, one of the few dressy items she’d brought to the ranch. Beth Ann was freshly bathed and dressed in a white eyelet float with tiny crinolines beneath it, and she fidgeted impatiently as Angel came into her bedroom and brushed her shining ebony curls.
“I’m glad you’re going to be my mommy,” she announced.
Angel smiled and knelt to hug the little girl. “I’m glad, too.”
“I bet nobody else has an angel for a mommy. That makes me lucky!” She frowned thoughtfully, then her brow cleared and she smiled back at Angel. “Now you can fix it so that I can always stay with Daddy.”
Angel’s hands froze in the middle of buckling tiny black patent leather Mary Jane shoes. She forced herself to react casually. “Honey, I’m not a real angel. It’s just my name.”
Beth Ann was silent for a moment. Then she curled her hand trustingly into Angel’s. “But if Daddy and me have you now, I don’t need any other mommy, do I?”
Angel felt her heart shrink into a small, hard ball. What kinds of things could a woman do to make her child wish she didn’t exist? Carefully she said, “Honey, you know you have another mommy. I’m sure she loves you very much.”
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