“Can you think of a better way to bring it all back to both of us?” Beau asked silkily as they continued their silent two-step around the kitchen until her back was to the wall and he was directly in front of her. He sure couldn’t!
Dani blushed and drew in a quavery breath as he braced a hand on the wall on either side of her. Their bodies weren’t quite touching, but he could already see her trembling with desire. Her palms flattened against his chest, holding him at bay. Even as the full brunt of her temper shone in her eyes, her body shuddered and softened toward his. “I’m sure this isn’t it!” she shot back breathlessly, tilting up her chin.
Beau smiled as he read the desire in her eyes. He tunneled his hands through the coppery softness of her hair. “We’ll never know for sure,” he murmured softly, smiling down at her, “unless we give it the ol’ Texas try.”
“I don’t want to give it the ol’ Texas try,” she said stubbornly.
“Sure about that now, Dani?” he taunted, noting her eyelashes already beginning to close. “’Cause you look to me like you’re just dying to be kissed.” And then, waiting be damned, his lips were on hers. He knew she didn’t mean to kiss him back, any more than he could help kissing her, and somehow that made the culmination of their desire all the sweeter. Groaning, he deepened the kiss, exploring her mouth with his tongue, leaving not a millimeter untouched. He knew, married or not, they were different as night and day. It didn’t matter. She made him aware of needs that until now he had been unaware of. She made him feel like half of a whole. She made him feel married. Not just for now, but forever. And heaven knew he had never felt anything like this in his life. Never wanted a woman so much. Never wanted to possess her so thoroughly and so quickly. Never wanted to give her his heart and his soul. But with Dani, he did.
Dani struggled to keep her feelings in check, but it was an impossible task when his body was flush against hers and his arms were wrapped around her. Over and over, his tongue plunged into her mouth, stroking and exciting. No one had ever asked her to give so much, and a few more kisses robbed her of the ability to protest at all. When his hand slipped beneath her blouse and cupped her breast through the lace of her bra, she arched her back and trembled with helpless pleasure. So this was what had happened, she thought. This was why and how they had made love. She was drowning in the pleasurable sensations sweeping through her. He’d made her want him to the point of madness. And he, too, had wanted her in exactly the same way.
Warm ribbons of pleasure flooded her as he caressed the taut aching tip of her breast and covered her mouth in a searing kiss. And it was then that Dani began to remember. Then that she had a brief potent mental image of the two of them in bed together, intimately entwined. Beau’s hands on her breasts, kneading and caressing…then his lips…his thighs spreading hers even as she ached and writhed…her whole body surrendering, straining, wanting, needing…his hands beneath her hips, lifting her…as if to possess…
Startled by the vividness of the imagery, the knowledge of her own unprecedented wanton behavior she pushed him away, her breath coming raggedly. She couldn’t believe he’d made her feel so vulnerable so fast. Any more than she could believe she’d responded as passionately as she had. “I can’t believe you just did that,” she fumed, as angry at herself for the thoughts running through her mind as she was at him for his actions. She knew the difference between sex and love. And she wanted love. Until she knew he loved her as a husband should, there would be no more making love. Making love too soon was one of the things that had gotten them into this mess.
“I can’t believe we stopped.” Clearly he wanted to take their lovemaking to the limit and beyond.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” Dani insisted stubbornly.
His glance dropped to the nipples visibly protruding against the material of her blouse. “We are married.”
Dani glowered at him. “Legally—temporarily—maybe,” she allowed.
Beau’s eyes clashed with hers as he corrected softly, reasonably, “At least for the next nine months.”
“You can’t—we—”
He stepped closer and, before she could run, cupped her shoulders warmly. “We may not know exactly how we went from fighting to loving in such a short period of time, or even why we acted like lovestruck lunatics, rushing off to get married, but that no longer matters.”
Dani was still as a statue as she studied his face. “It doesn’t?”
“No,” Beau replied. “And you know why not?” He looked deep into her eyes. “’Cause we are having a baby together, and that baby is coming into the world the best way possible, with two parents who love him or her enough to put their own needs aside and concentrate on their child. Our baby is going to be born legitimate, Dani.”
As much as Dani wanted to, she couldn’t argue the wisdom of that. They did owe it to their baby to give it the best possible start in life, and that meant having two parents who were married at the time of his or her birth. The real problem was what followed. She didn’t want to let herself fall in love with Beau or grow to depend on him, only to have him walk out on her. She’d endured the loss of her parents. She couldn’t endure another loss of that magnitude. And if he kept kissing her that way, kept looking at her that way, kept hanging around that way, acting like a husband and calling her his wife, Dani knew odds were good she would fall head over heels in love with him.
Marshaling her defenses, she stepped away from him. “And after the baby’s born, then what?” Dani pressed, looking Beau straight in the eye.
He shrugged and flashed her an unapologetic grin. “It’ll all depend on how we get along in the meantime, I guess.” He seemed to think they were going to get along just fine.
Dani studied him in silence. His optimism was contagious, though some of her reservations remained. It had not been her experience that happiness landed on her doorstep very often. And yet, the more she looked at him, the more she wanted to believe this could all work out for the best, despite the odds against it. “You’re really serious about this,” she said slowly.
Beau raked his hands through the inky-black layers of his hair. “The more I think about it, the more I know we had to have done whatever we did for a reason, Dani.” He paused. “Because you and I both never do anything without a damn good reason.”
That was certainly true, Dani thought. His career and rise to fame had been one of the most well-orchestrated campaigns she had ever seen. Just as her own achievements had taken a lot of planning and determination. Both of them had guts and singularity of purpose in abundance.
Beau ran his palm across his jaw. Seemingly aware of just how ruggedly handsome he was to her with the hint of evening beard on his face, he flashed her a sexy grin. “Unfortunately I don’t happen to recall what that reason was.” He planted his hands on her shoulders encouragingly. “But ten to one, it’s there. In both our memories. And when we do remember everything, we’ll understand why we did what we did down in Mexico.”
Dani sighed. She hoped that was the case. She didn’t know how much more of this she could take.
TEN MINUTES LATER, Beau and Dani were squaring off again. This time over sleeping arrangements. “You honestly expect me to sleep on the sofa?”
Dani thrust the pillow and blanket she had culled from one of the moving boxes at him. “Be glad it’s not the floor.”
Beau cradled the blanket and pillow against his chest. He did not look inclined to use either. At least not alone. “I saw your bed,” he said, a mixture of mischief and desire glimmering in his eyes. He tossed the bedding onto the sofa and followed her to the L-shaped staircase leading up to the second floor. “It’s a double.”
“Actually,” Dani drawled as she halted on the bottom step with one hand resting on the banister, “it’s a queen.”
“See?” Beau shrugged, patiently waiting for her to stop blocking his path. “Plenty of room for two.”
He was doing it again, looking at her as if he was already making love
to her. She could feel the desire pouring from them both. Only this time she knew he wouldn’t be satisfied with a fleeting touch and a few kisses. If he joined her in her bed, he would want more. And she wasn’t ready for the next step.
“Think again, cowboy.” Dani stood firm, not sure what was more annoying—his persistence in pursuing her or his thoroughly male confidence that one day he would win this battle of wills. “There will never be enough room in my bed for you, Beau Chamberlain, no matter how married we are or what size mattress I sleep on,” she told him hotly, not about to forgive him for the kisses in the kitchen just now or the passion they had engendered. A passion that was bound to keep her up all night! She was still tingling from head to toe!
Want to bet? Beau’s look said. “Now, honey, don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he taunted playfully, sidestepping the moving boxes that were stacked at various places in the hall and stopping just outside her bedroom door. “If we made love once, we can—heck, we probably will,” he finished with a knowing wink, “do it again.”
Which was exactly what Dani was afraid of. She didn’t want to add any more memories to those that were already starting to come back, unbeknownst to Beau. But not about to let him see how vulnerable she felt when she was around him, or how much she was beginning to want him, too, she volleyed back, “You just keep telling yourself that, cowboy. Meanwhile,” she told him in her soft Texas drawl, “I’m going to bed.”
Beau grinned as happily as if she’d invited him into her bedroom. He stuck his thumbs through the belt loops on either side of his fly and retained his arrogant stance. He held her eyes with his mesmerizing gaze, making her feel all hot and bothered inside. “Try not to dream about me too much.”
Dani rolled her eyes and ignored the tidal wave of heat starting deep inside her. “Don’t you wish that was going to be the case?”
“I’M GLAD YOU CALLED,” Dani’s sister Meg said fifteen minutes later as Dani curled up in bed, newly installed telephone in hand. “I was going to check in with you in a few minutes.”
“Jeremy asleep?” Dani asked, referring to Meg’s son, who was almost six.
“Out like a light,” Meg replied happily. “That birthday party he went to this afternoon really tuckered him out. But we digress,” Meg said. “What we really need to be talking about here is Beau Chamberlain. What in the world was he talking about today when he called you his wife?”
“The truth, apparently,” Dani said dryly, then went on to explain about their apparent marriage and resulting pregnancy, as well as their mutual memory lapse.
Meg listened quietly to Dani’s entire recitation. Like Dani, Meg was happy about the baby. She knew Dani had always wanted to have a baby of her own someday. Meg was less certain about the baby’s daddy.
Meg was silent for a long moment on the other end of the phone connection. Finally she said, “You really think you can trust Beau to be there for you the way you and the baby are going to need him to be? I mean, the two of you have carried on quite a feud the past few years.”
“I know.” Dani sighed.
“But…?”
Dani paused, recalling the look in Beau’s eyes when he had finally confessed he had amnesia about almost everything that had happened in Mexico. She had only to think about his gotta-do-right-by-our-kid attitude when it came to the baby to know he was telling her the truth. They were really in a jam here. And like it or not, they were in it together. Dani swallowed. “All I know is that Beau is serious and responsible enough to want—no, demand—that we stay married until the baby is born and we can figure out what to do.”
Meg sucked in a breath. “Whoa now, little sis. Is that really what you want?”
Dani knew it wasn’t a choice Meg had made. She had decided to rear Jeremy alone, to this day never even revealing who her son’s father was.
And that had been a surprise, too. The oldest of the four Lockhart sisters, Meg had always been the responsible one. Looking after all her sisters, making sure everyone was okay. And that trait had intensified after they’d lost their parents. Maybe, Dani mused, because Meg had been away at college in Chicago when the tornado that had killed their parents had hit and unable to get back home to her sisters for a good twenty-four hours after the catastrophe.
Dani knew even if she never said so that Meg still felt guilty about that. But she also knew it wasn’t Meg’s fault. It wasn’t anyone’s. Thanks to the high winds and fierce storms that had accompanied the tornado, phone lines had been down all over Laramie County. They’d had trouble finding Meg—who hadn’t been listening to the news and had no idea anything was wrong.
Once they’d finally located her at the college medical library around midnight, they’d had to wait until early the next morning to get her on the first available flight home. Then they had to arrange for someone to go to the Dallas–Fort Worth airport to pick her up and bring her back to Laramie to console her sisters, make funeral arrangements and decide what to do next.
None of which had been easy tasks.
Afterward Meg had dropped out of college, where she’d been working toward a master’s degree in nursing, and returned home to Laramie to sell the Lockhart Ranch and care for her three younger sisters.
Her sacrifice had kept Dani, Jenna and Kelsey from being split up and put in foster care. And since then, Meg had done everything possible to protect, nurture and care for her three younger sisters. To the detriment of her own life and happiness, Dani sometimes thought. Because Dani couldn’t help but think, had it not been for them, Meg—who had also found herself unexpectedly pregnant shortly after returning to Laramie—might have married or built more of a life of her own.
“Do you want to stay married to Beau?” Meg continued, sounding quite frankly aghast.
Dani took a deep breath and clutched the phone even tighter. “I don’t know,” she said finally. The heck of it was, marriage to Beau wasn’t as unpalatable an option as it should have been. Not nearly.
But that wasn’t even the worst of it, Dani thought several minutes later as she snuggled under the covers and attempted to get comfy enough to sleep. The worst of it was, she had fibbed when she’d said she didn’t remember anything else about their time together in Mexico. She did. She just hadn’t been sure it was real until Beau had kissed her downstairs in the kitchen. But once he had taken her all the way in his arms and covered her lips with his, she had known those recollections that had seemed more dreamlike than real had been rooted, not in fantasy or imagination as she had first supposed, but in something that had actually happened.
And if she could remember how gently and intimately he kissed, how thoroughly and passionately he loved, what else, Dani wondered nervously, might she eventually remember?
BEAU STRETCHED OUT on the sofa that was a good foot short for his six-foot-plus frame. It had been a long time since he had been banished to the sofa for the night. Even longer since he’d had his life turned upside down by a woman. And never to this degree. He had never expected to get married again.
Never wanted to get married again.
And yet, at least part of being married to Dani, the physical part, didn’t seem all that bad. The kiss they had shared, not to mention the fuzzy recollection he had of their wedding night in Mexico, had let him know that their lovemaking was the kind of lovemaking that came along once in a lifetime, if you were lucky.
The problem was, the two of them were as different as night and day. Dani didn’t believe in happy endings or happily-ever-after anything. Beau not only believed such happy outcomes existed, he believed they were within everyone’s reach.
Which wasn’t to say he hadn’t gone through his jaded period, too. After his divorce from Sharon, there’d been a two-year period when he’d been so wary of being made a fool of again or getting involved with the wrong woman that he’d had trouble believing in anything or anyone. Two things had kept him going. His need to make movies. And his flirtatious feud with Dani Lockhart. She’d not only gotten to him
as no woman ever had, she’d also inspired him to do some of the best work of his life in Bravo Canyon.
Now it was Dani’s turn to face reality. He had to make her see that he was interested in her, not just the baby. He had to transform her inherent cynicism—the prevailing feeling that nothing wonderful or magical would ever happen to her—to the feeling that something wonderful surely would.
On the surface it was an impossible task.
Or would have been if his niche in life hadn’t been what it was. He knew what people thought—his job wasn’t just about pretending to be someone or playing a role. With every performance, every role he took, he was selling hope. He was selling dreams. The idea that it was worth whatever pain or grief a person endured to stand up and fight for what he or she believed in. The idea that if a person put his or her heart and soul into an endeavor, he or she would succeed. That, ultimately, right always prevailed over wrong, good over evil. That was why he’d always done westerns in the past and always would. Because he wanted to make movies that showed the measure of a man was more about his honor and integrity than his personal wealth. He’d given up his house in L.A. and returned to Texas because he needed to be partnered with a woman who shared his time-honored values and loved the Texas way of life, where home and family were everything, as much as he did. That woman was Dani. He knew it. And soon, with his help, she would know it, too.
The Bride Said, I Did? Page 7