Twice the Temptation--A twin pregnancy romance

by Silver James

  A strangled noise erupted from the shower stall. It sort of sounded like argh, but far more growly. He backed out of the room, realizing he’d pushed his luck way too far. He’d give her time and space, though not too much of either. He wanted to marry her before their babies made their way into the world. He was old-fashioned that way. His parents had been married when his oldest brother Hunter was born. No one believed the family story that Katherine Tate got pregnant on her honeymoon with Denver and that Hunter was born prematurely. It had been the ’70s. And condoms did break. He had personal experience with that particular mishap.

  When he first found out Britt was pregnant and he was probably the father, he’d been royally pissed off. That Susie Maddox was alleging the same thing when he knew damn well it wasn’t true, just made matters worse. Still, something inside him just...knew. Britt was the one he wanted. Stupid Tate curse.

  Now, as Cooper drove down the long drive and waited for the electric gate to open, he glanced in the rearview mirror and wondered if Britt would be waiting when he returned.

  * * *

  Britt considered staying in the shower until the hot water ran out. Then she remembered the house had a tankless water heater. She could be in there all day. Glancing at her Swiss Army watch, she figured twenty minutes was long enough. That call had sounded urgent. For Cooper to back out of an argument, it had to be. She turned off the water and listened intently. Silence. Snaking out a hand, she clutched the huge cotton bath sheet hanging next to the shower and wrapped up in it.

  She stood alone in the bathroom. So far, so good. On tiptoes, she headed to the bedroom and peeked around the doorjamb. No Cooper. Letting out a relieved sigh, she dried off, brushed her wet hair into a ponytail and dressed. These days, her outfits mostly consisted of stretchy yoga pants and an oversized T-shirt. In the closet, Britt had a large roller bag open and partially packed before she realized that not only did the T-shirt she wore but over half of those she’d packed belonged to Cooper. If she could have bent over, she would have banged her forehead on the top of the built-in dresser.

  “Tough,” she muttered. She liked his T-shirts. That’s why they’d migrated from his drawers into hers. She wouldn’t think about the possessive—and totally disarming—grin Cooper wore whenever he caught her wearing his clothes.

  She called him a few names in her head. Definitely time for her to get out of here and reclaim her life. Bossy man. Trying to tell her what to do, and when and how she could do it.

  Pregnancy did not affect her ability to work. Everyone comprehended that except Cooper. Old-fashioned jerk. Speaking of which, they didn’t have to be married to parent the twins. That was the other thing they argued about. A lot. She could manage as a single mother. Even with twins. He’d pay her child support. Heck, he’d already put her on his insurance, much to the happiness of Channel 2’s human resources lady. He’d also paid all her deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. He’d pay for day care, whether he liked it or not. He was such a chauvinist that he probably expected her to stay home and take care of his house and kids.

  That thought brought her up short. No, she had to be honest. He had never once said that. He also didn’t oppose her working as long as it was at the station. Indoors. Where it was safe. And he’d never said anything about her stopping storm chasing after the twins arrived and her maternity leave was over.

  She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands because they were stinging all of a sudden. Cooper didn’t object to her storm chasing. He just didn’t want her to do it while she was pregnant. They’d never discussed her staying home or going back to work after the twins were born. He’d suggested she take some time to finish her doctoral dissertation, submit it, and finally get her PhD. She realized in that moment that, in his way, he supported what she did. And she did want those initials before and after her name. Dr. Brittney Owens, PhD, Meteorology.

  Something soft brushed against her calf and she jumped. “Dang, Lucifer,” she growled. “Don’t do that.”

  The scruffy cat stared up at her, his gaze reproving. Why couldn’t Cooper be a dog person? Something big and goofy. A Bloodhound maybe. Or a Newfoundland like Harley. Harley was a cool dog. Lucifer? He just had a bad attitude, sharp teeth and claws, and didn’t like anybody but Cooper. And she wasn’t totally sure the cat actually liked Cooper.

  Conceding the staring contest to the cat, she glanced around the closet. How had so many of her clothes ended up here? It wasn’t like she’d officially moved in with him or anything. Was she the only one denying that’s what it really was?

  He’d tried to convince her. And it was easy to let the charm of the place win her over. Though the house was surrounded by city—the view of downtown Oklahoma City was spectacular at night as they sat on the covered deck—the place was insulated by several acres of pasture and trees. A historic home, the inside was updated and while mostly masculine, it felt homey and comfortable. Too comfortable. Yes, definitely time to go home. To stay. She’d make arrangements to get the rest of her clothes later.

  She hoisted the suitcase onto the floor and froze as her lower back twinged. Lucifer’s expression implied a very feline, “I told you so.” She curled her lip in an answering snarl. “I’m fine.” But she did make a note to self to not lift the suitcase. Which meant getting it into and out of her truck would be problematic.

  The cat trailed her to the front door. Britt set the alarm, let herself out, and locked the door using the electronic keypad. In the short time she’d been with Cooper—

  “No!” she corrected herself. “We aren’t together. Not together. Just...together. I’m not living here.” Except she’d left a boatload of clothes behind. She’d come back to get them later. Because she was so done with this. He didn’t trust her to be smart when it came to the twins and there was no way she could be with a man who dismissed her like that.

  “We aren’t a couple,” she reminded herself. “We aren’t even friends.”

  Nope, definitely not friends. They fought too much, but there were amazing benefits. The sexual chemistry between them was freaking amazing. And he didn’t mind that she basically had a beach ball strapped to her middle. Cooper found inventive ways to get both of them off.

  Nope, definitely couldn’t think about that. If Cooper got his way, he’d walk all over her. She had a life to live and she was better off without him. That was her story and she was sticking to it.

  Seventeen

  Two weeks. It had been two weeks since Britt had left. She wouldn’t accept his calls. Blocked his texts. Stubborn woman. Half her clothes remained in his closet. He had been petty enough to have Bridger set up codes in the alarm system so he’d get an alert if she sneaked into the house to retrieve the rest of her stuff. He could be just as stubborn as her.

  He was almost desperate enough to do something drastic—like have Chance file the court papers to ensure he got joint custody when the twins arrived. And he was doing everything he could to keep his temper in check.

  But this morning, when Bridger walked through his office door, his brother’s announcement blew the lid off.

  “We need to talk about Britt, Coop.”

  His fist slammed the wall two inches from Bridger’s face. “I’m not falling into that trap.”

  “Dude, you aren’t falling, you’re running full steam ahead into it. It’s not a matter of the family interfering, it’s a matter of you recognizing how messed up this is.”

  Cooper rubbed the back of his neck with the hand free of bleeding knuckles, breathing around the knot of anger cinching his chest. Bridger was right. This whole thing was out of control and his brain was right there circling the drain of chaos.

  “She is the mother of my babies,” he argued. “I have a duty to her.”

  “What about a duty to yourself? Do you really want to tie yourself down to a woman who wants nothing to do with you? A woman who could be using you, and is pr
obably lying to you?”

  “She has no reason to lie. She didn’t even know the condom broke. And the timing is exactly right. I’m the only man she’s been with.”

  “Be honest with yourself, Coop. You’re not worried about falling for a lie when the real problem is that you’re falling in love with a woman you can’t trust.” Sympathy suffused Bridger’s face. “Let the past be a lesson, big bro. Just look at Hunter.”

  The reminder of their oldest brother’s experience was a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. Hunter had fallen for the wrong woman and when she betrayed him, he’d shut down emotionally. The whole family still lived with the fallout and it had been years.

  He continued staring at his feet, thinking. He didn’t owe Britt anything, especially since she refused to have anything to do with him. But Bridger was right. He had fallen for her. His anger ebbed slightly. “When did you get to be so smart, little bro?”

  His brother walked away, getting in the last word as he often did. “I’ll get some ice for that hand.”

  When Bridger returned with a chemical ice pack, he got the first word in too. “I’m the smart one. I learned from all the screw-ups my older brothers made. Being next to the youngest helps. Y’all made the mistakes. I took notes.”

  Cooper would have wiped the smirk off Bridge’s face but his right hand still throbbed from almost putting his fist through the wall earlier. He leaned his head back against the couch, eyes closed, hand throbbing. He’d probably broken something. He hoped the ice pack helped.

  “Can I be honest?”

  He opened one eye to look at his little brother. “If I tell you to shut up, will you?”

  “Nope.”

  He closed his eye. “Fine. Go for it.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You barely know this woman, Coop.” Bridge held up a hand. “Yes, she’s been staying at your house but it’s not like y’all have anything in common. At least consider a prenuptial if you ever get her to marry you. Otherwise, your life might end up in the toilet.”

  That got him up and moving, both eyes open, a scowl on his face. “I don’t need a prenup. And it’s my life, Bridger.”

  “She doesn’t want you.”

  “She’s having my twins.”

  “So what? She’s done everything possible to keep you out of her life. Why are you so stubborn?”

  “What part of she’s having my twins do you not understand?”

  “Has it occurred to you that this might be part of some plan to trap you? That she’s figured out if she runs fast enough, you’ll chase her until she catches you?”

  “She’s not like that.”

  “Says the man so desperate to marry the woman he’s lost all common sense.”

  “It matters, Bridger. That’s all there is to it.”

  His cell phone rang. He ignored it. A minute after it stopped ringing, the intercom on his desk buzzed. He ignored it too. Two minutes later, Nikki knocked twice and stuck her head through the door before he could tell her to go away.

  “You need to answer your phone, boss. Your little brother is slightly hysterical.”

  Coop exchanged a look with Bridger. “Little brother? Which one?”

  “Tucker. Something to do with Zoe and Britt.”

  His cell rang again and he snagged it. “Tuck?”

  “What the hell, Coop? Your idiot girlfriend has dragged Zoe out in that monster truck of hers.”

  “Wait. What?”

  “Storm chasing, Cooper. I got home and found a note from Zoe. She’s with Britt and they’ve gone storm chasing!”

  * * *

  Britt pulled off to the side of the road to check her computer. Zoe was wide-eyed and all but bouncing up and down in the back seat. Leo rolled his eyes though Britt figured he was a little awed by their VIP passenger. The big teddy bear was a fan. She looked out through the windshield. A massive shelf cloud swirled around the bottom of a classic anvil formation. It was just a matter of time before a supercell storm formed.

  Leo was on the phone with the station. Dave was periodically going live with updates and the station would be taking her shot soon. Everything was ready.

  Zoe leaned up between the bucket seats. “I promise to be quiet when you go on the air. I’m just so excited that you called me and that Tucker and I were in town so I could come out and play with you. I’ve been tellin’ everyone in Nashville that I was gonna get to go storm chasin’ with you. They’re all jealous.”

  Laughing, Britt said, “If this storm turns into a supercell, and it’s showing every indication that it will, you’ll definitely have something to talk about.”

  The next few hours were a whirlwind of driving, heavy rain, gusty winds, back roads and that big storm building to gigantic proportions. The Gentner crackled with communications among the various chase teams. Britt and Leo were both on their cell phones and Zoe was taking pictures with her smartphone and posting them on Instagram. Britt watched the storm front; Leo watched the GPS mapping system installed in the truck.

  “Britt, we’re getting into ranch country. That means closed sections and maybe running out of road.”

  “We’ll be fine. I have a feeling this sucker is going to drop a big one, Leo. We need to be right there when it does.”

  Something pinged on the roof of the truck. More pings. Britt kept driving while talking to Dave on the air.

  “There’s a massive hail core with this storm, Britt,” Dave said. “And it looks like you are right on the edge of it.”

  “We are, Dave. It started off with pea-sized hail and now we’re experiencing quarter size. No, wait. Do you have Leo’s shot up? That’s golf-ball size and it’s really pounding the truck.”

  A voice buzzed in her ear. Ria. “Britt, there’s some serious rotation cranking up to your southwest. Can you move that way? It will get you out of the hail core and radar is showing winds gusting up to sixty in the area of rotation. If there’s an updraft—”

  Britt cut her off. “We’re on it.”

  She didn’t bother trying to turn around. They were the only vehicle on this section line road so she just threw the transmission into Reverse and backed up until they hit the next crossroad. Turning around, she headed south until they could get a road headed to the west. That’s when she got her first good look at the storm’s presentation. A massive supercell complex of clouds looking for all the world like a gigantic spaceship hovered over the plains of western Oklahoma. The entire base was rotating and rain fell in cascades at its center. The inflow and updraft were apparent.

  “Holy cow, Leo. Please tell me this is streaming live.”

  Dave’s voice came over the Gentner. “You’re live on the station’s app as well as live here in the studio, Britt. This storm is every bit as dangerous as both the EF-4 and EF-5 Moore tornadoes. People need to take their tornado precautions immediately. Get underground. If you live in—” Dave named off all the towns in the storm’s path, but Britt was too busy to pay attention. She had radar up on her laptop, with one eye on the screen and the other on the storm. She’d studied the long-track storms that often hit Oklahoma and this monster looked just like them.

  Excitement built, fueled by adrenaline. She’d stopped on a hill and could see all the way from the Wichita Mountains down by Lawton to almost the Oklahoma City metro area. There was a lot of territory to cover before this storm hit the city but she’d bet money that it would track close.

  A wind gust rocked the truck and she checked her instruments. “Ria,” she said into the Bluetooth receiver pinned to her shirt. “We just got hit with eighty-mile-per-hour outflow. I can feel it. This supercell is going to start dropping tornadoes any minute now.” And then Zoe was squealing, Leo adjusting the cameras, and Britt was yelling into the microphone. “Tornadoes on the ground, Dave. We have multi
ple tornadoes on the ground.”

  Eighteen

  Cooper stood on the brakes and his big truck skidded to a stop in the travel center’s parking lot. His heart pounded in his chest like a jackhammer and he could barely breathe. It took effort to peel his fingers off the steering wheel. Tucker was already out of the passenger door and sprinting toward Britt’s chase vehicle. When he jumped down, he slammed the door so hard the truck rocked.

  By the time he arrived, Britt and Zoe were chattering excitedly. His brother glared at Britt while his hands checked his wife. Tuck visibly relaxed as Zoe’s words penetrated.

  “Lordy be! That was the most excitement I’ve had in ages. I mean, I haven’t been in a car goin’ that fast since that time in Knoxville when the Smithees came after us.” Zoe turned her face to her husband, eyes dancing and face beaming. “You remember that time, darlin’, right? I almost ran you down in the Volunteermobile.”

  Coop had heard that story and it had nothing to do with now. Britt looked every bit as excited as Zoe. Emotions so intense he could neither name them nor have any chance of controlling them surged up. Before he could stop to think, he grabbed Britt’s shoulder and spun her around. His hands reached for her and he gripped her biceps. As much as he wanted to shake her, he held her carefully. Too bad he couldn’t control his voice with the same care. His question came out as a shout. “What is wrong with you?”

  She flinched and he clamped an iron fist on his roiling anger. No, not anger. At least not completely. No. This was beyond anger. Fear. It was unadulterated terror that took his heart and lungs captive so that he couldn’t breathe, could barely think. He had his hands on her, could see she was alive and standing here, acting for all the world like she’d been on some wildly fun carnival ride. He didn’t know whether to kiss her or kill her, because she’d come far too close to death as it was.