Marrying for King's Millions

by Maureen Child

  He winced a little at that, because he recognized it as pure truth. He hadn’t been willing to listen. Too intent on his own will, his own way, he hadn’t wanted to hear from her unless she’d been agreeing with him.

  “But this is…different,” she said quietly. “Bigger. The fact that you believe me about this makes up for the rest. Besides, it’s been a weird couple of months.”

  “True.” The last couple of months with Julie had seemed like one long roller-coaster ride. Every time he thought they were through the confusion and mess, something new had cropped up. He’d mistrusted her, and wanted her. Suspected her, and desired her.

  Now, he realized, the suspicion was gone, leaving only the passion and something else…something warm and deep and…He frowned to himself and shut down that particular train of thought.

  “Travis,” she said, narrowing her eyes on him. “Are you okay?”

  He laughed shortly. He was far from okay. But he wasn’t going to admit that to her.

  “I honestly don’t know.” Walking slowly toward her, he said, “This isn’t about me, anyway. Are you all right?” he asked quietly, giving himself points for holding back the rush of protectiveness that was nearly strangling him.

  “I’m fine. A little queasy. A little shocked.” She rubbed the flat of her hand across her abdomen and Travis wondered if she was even aware of her actions. “But I’m fine—especially since you’re taking this so unexpectedly well.”

  Didn’t make him feel any better that she’d clearly expected him to both doubt her and be upset by this news. Although, now that he thought about it, why wasn’t he upset by the news of a surprise pregnancy? Yet another thought to avoid.

  “You need to see a doctor.”

  “I was planning to.”

  “Good.” He nodded, his mind already skipping ahead. “I’ll want to be there for it.”

  “Of course.”

  He inhaled sharply and took in the scent of lemons and vanilla. “I don’t want you to worry about anything,” he said. “I just want you to take care of yourself. That’s the only important thing now.”

  She smiled as she looked up to meet his gaze. Something inside Travis turned over and tightened. His heart?

  He whipped past that thought at breakneck speed. Instead, he started thinking aloud, making plans, working things out in his mind.

  “We’ll have to set up a nursery, but I don’t want you doing any of the work.” Nodding to himself, he added, “We’ll hire a designer. Architect if you’d rather build a room off of ours instead of using one of the guest rooms. Maybe that would be better. The baby would be closer to us in those first few months. We’d both probably sleep easier that way.” It was all coming together for him.

  Images drifted into his mind. He and Julie standing alongside their child’s crib, looking down at a sleeping infant. Boy? Girl? That thread of panic wormed its way back through him and Travis started speaking again in an effort to squash it. “We could talk to the muralist who did the walls in Gina and Adam’s nursery. She did a whole magical kingdom kind of thing in there and it looks pretty great—”

  “Travis…”

  “And I don’t want you doing the cooking for the tastings anymore,” he blurted. Taking her arm, he steered her toward one of the chairs at the small, round breakfast table at the far end of the kitchen. “You shouldn’t be on your feet so much.”

  “Travis, I don’t want to sit down,” she said.

  He hardly heard her as he gently shoved her down onto a chair. “When our cook gets back from her vacation, you can go over the menus with her. I’m sure Margaret can handle what you’ve been doing for the winery—”

  “Travis!”

  “What?”

  She stood up to face him and he only just managed to refrain from pushing her back down onto the chair. “What’re you doing?” she asked.

  Baffled, he said, “Making plans.”

  “I can see that.” She shook her head. “The question is, why? ”

  “Why? Because we’re going to have a baby. We need to start thinking about these things.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  Something cold and hard settled in his chest, making him feel as if a boulder had been rolled onto his rib cage. “What’re you saying? You don’t want the baby?”

  She jerked back and stared at him as if he’d suggested she pop her head off her shoulders and set it onto the counter. “Of course I want the baby. How could you even think—”

  “Then what’s this about?”

  “Travis, we don’t have a real marriage. Remember?” Her voice was soft, but her words slapped at him. “This was a temporary business deal. We’re only going to be together for a year.”

  That had been the deal.

  But things had changed.

  As if she heard him, she said, “The baby doesn’t change that. We’re not your usual expectant couple. I know we didn’t plan on this,” she said, her eyes shining up at him. “But I want you to know that even after our year together is up, you’ll always have access to your child. I would never keep it from you.”

  Travis scowled as her words sunk in and rattled around his mind. Did she really think he’d let her go now? Didn’t she know that their “bargain” had just changed? There was no “temporary” to this marriage anymore.

  Access? To his child? Visits on weekends? Oh, no. That wasn’t going to happen.

  He dropped both hands onto her shoulders and held on tightly. Looking deeply into her eyes, he said, “You’re wrong, Julie. Our marriage just became permanent. Think ‘until death us do part.’ We won’t be splitting up in a year.”

  “But—”

  “Do you really think I’d let you go now? You’re having my baby, Julie.”

  “It will still be your baby after we’re divorced.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “Travis, I can’t stay married simply because of our child. It wouldn’t be right. Or good. For any of us.”

  “Divorce would be better?” His voice was steel. As was his resolve. There would be no divorce. Julie wouldn’t be leaving him and taking his child. They could work this out together. Find a way to be happy. The three of them.

  “Travis…”

  “We’re having a baby and we’re staying married,” he said, pulling her into his arms, ignoring the fact that she moved stiffly. “Get used to it.”

  “He won’t listen.” Julie sat at the kitchen table of the King ranch and watched as a hugely pregnant Gina King moved slowly across the room.

  “Big surprise there,” Gina muttered, reaching down four glasses from a cabinet over the kitchen counter and setting them on a tray beside a pitcher of iced tea. She shot a look at Julie. “Dealing with the King men can be cause for buying the economy-size bottle of aspirin.”

  Get used to it.

  Travis’s words echoed over and over again in her mind, as they’d been doing for the last few days. But how could she do that, Julie wondered. How could she ever settle for a marriage that was maintained simply for the sake of her child?

  How could she ever live with Travis knowing she loved him but that he would never return the feelings?

  “I can’t do it,” she whisp
ered. “I just can’t.”

  “It’s hard,” Gina said softly. “Being the one in love.”

  Julie’s gaze snapped to her sister in law. “You, too?”

  The overhead lights in the kitchen shone down on the other woman, illuminating her so brightly, she almost seemed to glow. She looked so content, so completely happy and at home, Julie felt a quick stab of envy.

  Gina rubbed one hand over the mound of her child and smiled to herself. “I’ve loved Adam all my life. I always thought it would be one of those tragic unrequited love stories.” Her smile blossomed into a grin. “But you know what? Sometimes the men we love can surprise us. Sometimes, they wake up and see what’s staring them in the face.”

  “Sometimes,” Julie admonished with shake of her head. “But Travis is much more stubborn than Adam or Jackson. He’s got a head like solid cement, I swear.”

  “Just don’t give up on him too soon,” Gina told her, lifting a jug of tea to pour into the glasses. “Oh.”

  Julie leaped up from her chair, hurried across the kitchen and took Gina’s arm. “Are you okay? You shouldn’t be on your feet like this. Let me do it, for heaven’s sake.” She stopped, sighed and said, “I sound like Travis talking to me.”

  “You think he’s bad now?” Gina asked. “Wait until the baby’s three days overdue. Adam practically carries me to the bathroom every morning.”

  “He loves you.”

  “He really does.” Gina looked into Julie’s eyes and said softly, “And here’s something to think about. If Travis is that worried about you, don’t you think he might love you, too?”

  Julie threw a glance at the door separating the kitchen from the dining room and the rest of the house beyond. God help her, she’d like to believe that Travis loved her. But even if he claimed to now, how would she ever know if he meant it—or if because of the baby, he was only saying the words she needed to hear?

  “Come on. Let’s get you into the study,” Julie said, putting her own worries and fears aside for the moment. “I’ll carry the tray.”

  “You know what? I think I’ll let you.”

  In the study, there was a fire in the hearth. Soft lighting from lamps scattered around the room added to the coziness created by the dancing shadows of the flames. The three King brothers were seated in the wide, maroon leather chairs and all three of them leaped to their feet when the women entered the room.

  “You shouldn’t be carrying heavy things,” Travis said as he scooped the serving tray out of Julie’s hands.

  “It’s not heavy,” she argued, but had already lost the battle.

  “You okay, honey?” Adam was asking as he steered Gina to a chair and lowered her down onto it with all the care of a man handling a live explosive.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “I’m just feeling a little tired and achy.”

  “Achy?” Adam’s voice went up a notch. “You’re in pain? Have you timed them? When did it start?”

  “Not that kind of pain.” Gina laughed and patted his hand. “It’s just a backache.”

  “Are you sure—”

  “Geez, Adam,” Jackson said from across the room. “Let her get some air. If she’s in labor, she’ll tell us.”

  Adam shot him a look that should have fried him on the spot, but Jackson only laughed and took a sip of his Irish whiskey.

  Travis frowned at his younger brother. Jackson just didn’t get it. The worry. The fear. Ever since finding out that Julie was pregnant, he hadn’t been able to think of anything else. And rather than laugh at his older brother’s barely restrained panic, Travis completely sympathized. One part of him was terrified of what he would face in another eight months…and another part of him couldn’t wait.

  It was like being a split personality, he thought. He could literally stand back and watch himself be an ass. He kept a close watch on Julie at all times and worried like hell when she was out of his sight. He didn’t know how he was going to make it through the pregnancy intact.

  And beside the general worries was one he was sure Adam hadn’t had to contend with. The concern that his wife would pack up and move out at the end of their year together. Not that she’d get far. Travis would follow and bring her back where she belonged, of course. But at the same time, he didn’t want her to want to leave. He wanted her as committed as he now was to building their family.

  He frowned, then told himself that he still had plenty of time to make her see things his way. For now, he would simply take care of her. And as Jackson chuckled again, Travis sincerely hoped that one day, the youngest King brother got a hard dose of reality all for himself, and then they’d see who was doing the laughing.

  Travis got Julie into a chair, then poured iced tea for everyone but Jackson. When they were all settled, he looked to Adam. “Well? Everyone’s gathered. Let’s do this.”

  “What’s going on?” Julie asked.

  “You’re about to find out,” Travis said.

  Looking very pleased with himself, Adam walked to his massive desk on the far side of the room. He grabbed a tape recorder off the surface and walked back to the group. Looking from one to the other of them, Adam started with an explanation for the ladies.

  “Obviously, you two know that Travis, Jackson and I hired a P.I. to look into Jean Claude’s background.” The women nodded. “As you also know, we didn’t find anything that could be seen as illegal in the strictest sense.”

  Julie shifted uneasily, but Travis dropped one hand onto her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Quit telling them what they already know and get on to the rest of it, Adam,” he said, wanting Julie’s discomfort over as fast as possible.

  “Right.” The oldest King brother smiled at them all and said, “The P.I. had another idea that we all agreed was worth a try. We didn’t say anything to you two—” he nodded at Julie and Gina “—because we didn’t want to get your hopes up for a resolution if this idea failed. But it didn’t.”

  “What did you do?” Julie turned her face up to Travis and he smiled down at her. It hadn’t been easy not telling her this news. He’d known about it all day, but he and Adam had decided to spring it on everyone at once. Which was why the family meeting had been called so suddenly.

  “Our P.I. hired a woman to cozy up to Pierre,” Travis said, a tight, victorious smile curving his lips. “She was supposed to flirt, come on to him and get him drunk enough to spill his guts. I didn’t really believe your ex would be stupid enough to fall for it. But turns out, he’s not the freshest croissant in the bakery.”

  Jackson snorted.

  Adam bent down, and set the tape recorder on the coffee table. “It lasts for quite a while,” he said. “The poor woman sat with this jerk for over an hour, plying him with expensive booze until she hit pay dirt. I’ve cued the tape to the part we wanted you two to hear.” Then he hit the play button.

  “And her husband is going to pay you?” A throaty, female voice rolled out from the tape recorder.

  “Oh, he will pay me whatever I ask.” Jean Claude’s voice came next. The words were slurred, but perfectly audible. “He believes my lies about his little Julie. And he will continue to pay as long as I can keep him believing that she still loves only me.”

  Beneath his hand, Travis felt Julie stiffen slightly and he squeezed her shoulder again in solidarity. He knew how hard it must be for her to listen to this, because he wanted nothing more than to hunt Jean C
laude down and beat the crap out of him for all the trouble he’d caused.

  “But isn’t blackmail dangerous?”

  “And very lu-lur-lucrative,” Jean Claude said on a hiccup. “I will tell him Julie meets me for sex and he will pay me again. And again.”

  Travis scowled at the tape recorder as Julie gasped and said hotly, “He’s lying.”

  “Of course he’s lying,” Adam sneered. He bent to shut off the tape. “That’s enough. None of us should have to listen to more of that idiot. But believe me when I say the police were very interested in this tape. Soon, Jean Claude’s going to be too busy covering his own ass to cause us any more problems.”

  “But once the police have this evidence, it’ll go to court and all of this will be back in the news,” Julie said softly, covering her flat belly with her hand as if trying to keep the baby from hearing any of this.

  “No.” Travis waited until she looked up at him before he said, “I’m going to offer Jean Claude his last deal. If he leaves the country and keeps his mouth shut, I won’t press charges.”

  “What about the money you already paid him?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said.

  “So it’s over?” Julie asked.

  “Over,” Travis said. “He won’t bother you again, Julie. I swear it.”

  She smiled. “And your contract for your wines?”

  “Sewn up,” Travis said. “Struck a deal this afternoon.”

  “Well this is good news!” Jackson lifted his glass in salute. “Finally, the Kings can relax a little.”

  “Not so fast,” Gina muttered, as her water broke.

  Eleven

  H er name was Emma.

  Eight pounds five ounces of beautiful baby girl.