Книга - The Bride Said, ‘I Did?’

The Bride Said, 'I Did?'
Cathy Gillen Thacker


Dani Lockhart had always fantasized about her wedding day…walking down the aisle and giving her hand in marriage to the man of her dreams–just not to her enemy, Beau Chamberlain! But apparently that's exactly what she did…and couldn't remember.Sure Beau was movie-star handsome and lived by a value system that would stand the test of time. From work to lovemaking and everything in between, he followed the all-or-nothing rule. And he intended to find out exactly how his name and Dani's ended up on a marriage license–and just how Dani could be expecting his child!







“What a night.”

Beau took Dani’s hand in his and led her toward the kitchen. “Do you think we’re going to remember?”

The idea that she might never be able to recall not just her wedding but the conception of her first—maybe her only—child was more dismaying than Dani wanted to let on. She might not want to remember anything embarrassing, but she certainly wanted to recall the parts that weren’t!

“I don’t know.” Dani leaned against the refrigerator door, and looked up into eyes that had never seemed so blue. “I want to—”

“I do, too.” Beau’s dark brows drew together as he looked down at her in mock seriousness. “So I guess there’s only one thing to do.”

“And what’s that?” Dani prodded. Reading the sudden mischief on his face it was all she could do not to smile as well.

Beau’s sexy grin widened alarmingly as he looked deep into her eyes. “We try to reenact the conception, of course.”


Dear Reader,

Come join us for another dream-fulfilling month of Mills & Boon American Romance! We’re proud to have this chance to bring you our four special new stories.

In her brand-new miniseries, beloved author Cathy Gillen Thacker will sweep you away to Laramie, Texas, hometown of matchmaking madness for THE LOCKHARTS OF TEXAS. Trouble brews when arch rivals Beau and Dani discover a marriage license—with their names on it! Don’t miss The Bride Said, “I Did?”!

What better way to turn a bachelor’s mind to matrimony than sending him a woman who desperately needs to have a baby? Mindy Neff continues her legendary BACHELORS OF SHOTGUN RIDGE miniseries this month with The Horseman’s Convenient Wife—watch Eden and Stony discover that love is anything but convenient!

Imagine waking up to see your own wedding announcement in the paper—to someone you hardly know! Melinda has some explaining to do to Ben in Mollie Molay’s The Groom Came C.O.D., the first book in our HAPPILY WEDDED AFTER promotion. And in Kara Lennox’s Virgin Promise, a bad boy is shocked to discover he’s seduced a virgin. Will promising to court her from afar convince her he wants more than one night of passion?

Find out this month, only from Mills & Boon American Romance!

Best wishes,

Melissa Jeglinski

Associate Senior Editor


The Bride Said, ‘I Did?’

Cathy Gillen Thacker






www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




ABOUT THE AUTHOR


CATHY GILLEN THACKER is a full-time wife/mother/author who began typing stories for her own amusement during “nap time” when her children were toddlers. Twenty years and more than fifty published novels later, Cathy is almost as well-known for her witty romantic comedies and warm, family stories as she is for her ability to get grass stains and red clay out of almost anything, her triple-layer brownies and her knack for knowing what her three grown and nearly grown children are up to almost before they do! Her books have made numerous appearances on bestseller lists and are now published in seventeen languages and thirty-five countries around the world.


Books by Cathy Gillen Thacker

MILLS & BOON AMERICAN ROMANCE

102—HEART’S JOURNEY

134—REACH FOR THE STARS

143—A FAMILY TO CHERISH

156—HEAVEN SHARED

166—THE DEVLIN DARE

187—ROGUE’S BARGAIN

233—GUARDIAN ANGEL

247—FAMILY AFFAIR

262—NATURAL TOUCH

277—PERFECT MATCH

307—ONE MAN’S FOLLY

318—LIFETIME GUARANTEE

334—MEANT TO BE

367—IT’S ONLY TEMPORARY

388—FATHER OF THE BRIDE

407—AN UNEXPECTED FAMILY

423—TANGLED WEB

445—HOME FREE

452—ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE

456—THE COWBOY’S MISTRESS

472—HONEYMOON FOR HIRE

483—BEGUILED AGAIN

494—FIANCÉ FOR SALE

506—KIDNAPPING NICK

521—BABY ON THE DOORSTEP

526—DADDY TO THE RESCUE

529—TOO MANY MOMS

540—JENNY AND THE FORTUNE HUNTER

556—LOVE POTION #5

568—MISS CHARLOTTE SURRENDERS

587—A SHOTGUN WEDDING

607—DADDY CHRISTMAS

613—MATCHMAKING BABY

625—THE COWBOY’S BRIDE

629—THE RANCH STUD

633—THE MAVERICK MARRIAGE

673—ONE HOT COWBOY

697—SPUR-OF-THE-MOMENT MARRIAGE

713—SNOWBOUND BRIDE* (#litres_trial_promo)

717—HOT CHOCOLATE HONEYMOON* (#litres_trial_promo)

721—SNOW BABY* (#litres_trial_promo)

747—MAKE ROOM FOR BABY

754—BABY’S FIRST CHRISTMAS

789—DR. COWBOY** (#litres_trial_promo)

793—WILDCAT COWBOY** (#litres_trial_promo)

797—A COWBOY’S WOMAN** (#litres_trial_promo)

801—A COWBOY KIND OF DADDY** (#litres_trial_promo)

837—THE BRIDE SAID, “I DID?”† (#litres_trial_promo)










Contents


Chapter One (#u1bbe8459-d0e4-5bac-973a-a7fe8d1feecb)

Chapter Two (#ub6e7f757-96fe-5f01-98e0-1200f00f9190)

Chapter Three (#uf8ff4a5b-b6a5-5992-837f-0e4140509e72)

Chapter Four (#u8809748d-9047-5f29-8d55-7c6ae5a7eebe)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)




Chapter One


“What you need is a man,” Jenna Lockhart teased.

“According to John and Lilah McCabe, we all need a man,” Dani Lockhart spouted back as she plucked the Sold sign off the front lawn and marched up the sidewalk leading to her century-old Victorian home.

Thanks to all four of the McCabe sons, who had finally found the loves of their lives and gotten married, wedding fever had swept the town of Laramie, Texas. Old family friends John and Lilah McCabe had swiftly decided that the four Lockhart girls should do the same. And, having more or less become surrogate parents to the girls since their own parents’ death, had taken it upon themselves to lead the cheering campaign. Hence, Laramie residents were now looking to the four Lockhart daughters to pony up to the hitching post.

Unfortunately, Dani thought irritably as she watched the moving van drive away from the curb, it wasn’t that simple. She and her three sisters had all returned to Laramie so they could once again be closer to each other, but none of them was intent on bringing a man into her life. All had been badly burned in the game of love. All were now determinedly, and she did mean determinedly, single.

“But that is not going to happen,” Dani continued after a moment, speaking to all three of her sisters as they sat on the comfortable wicker furniture on the front porch. The furniture had been sold with the house, and it fitted the spacious veranda perfectly.

Jenna capped her pen, shut her sketchbook of dress designs and stood. “You know what I mean. Someone to help discourage Billy Carter once and for all.” Jenna walked across the shady deck. “If you had a man around, showering you with attention, well, surely Billy would understand that at eighteen he’s far too young for you. And then find someone closer to his own age to date.”

Refusing to touch that suggestion with a ten-foot pole, Dani ran a hand through her cap of copper hair and sighed. She knew that part of this untoward situation was her fault. Billy Carter had gotten in touch with her three years ago when he’d interviewed her for his school newspaper. Since, Dani had mentored him via e-mail, answering his questions about what it was like to work in the industry and encouraging his own interest in a film career. She’d known he looked up to her, but she’d had no idea he had a crush on her until the day they finally met in person, and by then, it was too late. She’d already hired him for the summer.

Dani sighed and set the Sold sign in a corner of the front porch, so the realtor could pick it up at her convenience. “I’ve tried to get Billy interested in girls his own age,” Dani confessed. In the few weeks she’d been back, shopping for a house and settling in, she’d tried to fix him up several times.

“And?” Jenna asked with bated breath.

Dani frowned, remembering how her young protégé had turned up his nose at each and every one of them. “No go.” Dani frowned and shook her head as she admitted reluctantly, “Billy has eyes only for me.”

The four Lockhart sisters exchanged troubled glances.

“Maybe if he wasn’t going to be working for you the rest of the summer,” Meg suggested gently as Dani held the door and she carried in the straw basket of housewarming goodies she’d brought, “your problem would be easier to resolve.”

Threading her way through the dozens of moving boxes, Dani led her sisters to the spacious country kitchen at the rear of the house. She took the basket of goodies from Meg and slid it into the refrigerator. “I can’t fire him now, not after just one day, especially when he did such a super job this morning making sure the movers put all my work boxes in the library. And with over two thousand videos to unpack, sort, catalog and put away, and several thousand more coming in the next few weeks…well, you can see where I’m in a bind.”

Like her, Billy had a passion for movies. The kind of passion that was just not going to go away. The kind of passion the industry needed in this day and age if it was ever going to get back to the glory days of old, where the story—not the special effects—was the focus of the film.

“Billy is an excellent student, an incredible worker. He’s just young and overly romantic. I don’t think I should hold that against him,” Dani continued. Surely his crush on her would fade with time, she told herself.

“Then maybe you should hire someone else, too. A third party to make things less intimate,” Kelsey suggested practically as the four sisters headed back out to the much-cooler veranda, glasses of lemonade in hand, to enjoy what was left of the sultry summer afternoon.

“I only wish I could. But my budget has been sorely strained as it is,” Dani said. She had moved from Los Angeles, bought one of the most expensive old houses in town: a charming Victorian on Spring Street—and then set about furnishing it. She’d depleted her savings, and until she received her book advance, in approximately another month, she was counting every penny. Her sisters, all having incurred similar expenses, were also strapped for cash.

“I need someone who knows movies as well as I do. And aside from Billy—” a film buff if ever there was one, Dani thought “—I don’t know a single person in Laramie who would have the patience, never mind the know-how, for the job. I mean, I can just rattle off a title and Billy instantly knows whether it was a western or a comedy. Who’s in it, who directed it, how it was received by moviegoers.”

“Well, then, I guess you could try dressing badly,” Jenna, a clothing designer and fashion plate in her own right, teased.

“Or smelling awful,” Kelsey, a cowgirl and budding rancher who knew what it was to smell to high heaven after a day in the saddle, suggested with the same mirth as Jenna.

“Or just stop bathing,” Meg, who’d just landed a job as nursing supervisor at Laramie Community Hospital, said. “That’ll do it.”

“You all are lots of help.” Dani rolled her eyes at the good-natured ribbing.

Silence fell as Meg stood, stretched and peered around the crepe-myrtle bush at the corner of the house. Dani noted the stunned look on Meg’s face.

“What?” Dani demanded.

Meg blinked, blinked again. “Uh…are you expecting company this afternoon?” she asked nervously. Which was odd, Dani thought. Meg was never nervous.

“No,” Dani said slowly, almost afraid to find out what suddenly had her oldest sister on edge. “Why?”

Jenna joined Meg at the veranda railing. She, too, peered around the brilliant flowers on the leafy green bush. “Oh, boy,” she said. “And we thought Billy was going to be trouble.”

Kelsey leaped up to see what the fuss was about. “You aren’t kidding,” she muttered, looking even more amused and skeptical.

Dani, who felt she’d already endured enough joking for the day, stayed where she was, remaining cool, calm and collected. And curious. “Is Billy back?” Dani demanded when her three sisters continued to gape at whatever—whoever—was coming down the walk. She’d just sent the kid home for the day half an hour ago.

“You wish,” Meg said.

“Billy, you can handle,” Kelsey agreed.

“But this one…” Jenna shook her head in silent commiseration.

Surely her sisters were pulling her leg with their dramatics. Dani walked over to the corner of the porch where all three were congregated, fighting for a view.

She peered around them. Seeing who was coming up the walk, all the air left her lungs in one big whoosh. She would have known that tall broad-shouldered silhouette and ruggedly handsome face anywhere, even if he hadn’t graced the romantic daydreams of millions of women the world over.

As usual, Beau Chamberlain was wearing snug worn jeans, custom leather boots, a bone-colored Stetson hat and a snowy white western shirt that had become his trademark both on and off the set. The only thing that alluded to his star status—aside from the knowing curl of his sensually carved lips and the exceedingly confident way he carried himself—was the movie-star sunglasses that shaded his bedroom eyes.

Already picking up her sketchbook of designs, Jenna turned back to Dani. “Should we stay or go?” Jenna asked, looking ready to bolt if so desired.

Dani frowned as Beau made a hard right and strode resolutely up the walk to her house. To her mounting dismay, he looked ready to kick some Texas butt. Namely, Dani realized on a beleaguered sigh, hers.

But that was not going to happen.

“Stay,” Dani told her sisters firmly. Her heart beat slowly and heavily as she surveyed the straight black hair peeking out from beneath the brim of Beau’s hat, and remembered the way it had felt beneath her fingertips. Another shimmer of awareness sifted through her, weakening her knees. “It won’t take me long to get rid of him,” Dani promised. All she had to do was remind Beau of the acrimonious nature of their relationship for the past two years, and he’d be gone in a flash.

Ignoring the take-no-prisoners set of his broad shoulders and the determined flare of his nostrils, Dani crossed to the top of the porch steps. She folded her arms in front of her and glared down at him, determined not to forgive him for what had happened between them in Mexico. “I thought I’d seen the last of you,” she said coolly, amazed he had the audacity to show up on her doorstep after the unforgivable stunt he’d pulled on her south of the border. Never mind stand in front of her so contentiously, his legs braced apart, every inch of him taut and ready for action.

“Dream on,” Beau Chamberlain replied with a grim smile. He yanked off his sunglasses to reveal thick-lashed, midnight-blue eyes that lasered into her very soul. “Wife.”

DANI LAUGHED UNEASILY as she recalled all too well where and how they had last parted company. And she, at least, hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring. That she knew for sure. The gauzy white dress, flowers and lacy white mantilla were another matter. But she was sure they could easily be explained. Just not by her. Not yet, anyway.

“What are you talking about?” she demanded incredulously, not sure what he was trying to pull on her now, just knowing she didn’t like this practical joke any more than she had liked the first one.

Beau propped one boot on the bottom step. Leaning forward, he rested an elbow on his thigh. His sunglasses dangled from his hand.

“I am talking,” he enunciated clearly, looking deep into her eyes, “about waking up in Mexico three weeks ago with you in my bed.”

Dani recalled waking up alone in a hotel room and being naked beneath the sheets. And very little before that. Embarrassed to the hilt—as he had no doubt intended her to be, Dani thought angrily—she felt all the color leave her face. Her sisters looked similarly distressed. Darn it all, anyway. She hadn’t wanted them, or anyone else for that matter, to know about this!

“Oh, dear.” Meg consulted her watch with customary tact. “I think I better go pick up Jeremy. That birthday party he’s attending is supposed to be over at four and it’s three-thirty now.”

Jenna cleared her throat and patted her chest with the flat of her hand. “That reminds me. I think I have a customer coming in for a fitting.”

Kelsey dug in the pocket of her blue jeans for the keys to her pickup truck. “You know cattle and horses—they wait for no one. And I’ve already taken off enough time today.” That quickly, all three of her sisters scattered, leaving Dani to work out what was obviously a difficult situation with as much dignity and privacy as possible.

“Way to clear out a front porch,” Dani told Beau sarcastically, not sure when she had wanted to deck a cowboy more. And Beau Chamberlain was one heck of a cowboy, both on-screen and off. There hadn’t been one with as much charisma and raw sex appeal since John Wayne. Worse, the man practically exuded courage, integrity and the determination to do right, no matter what the cost.

Men liked and respected him.

Women adored him and lusted after him.

Children found him irresistible.

And animals instantly trusted him.

Only Dani, it seemed, found him lacking in any way.

A fact, she knew, that had gotten to him like a spur in the side.

She regarded him in a devil-may-care way as he shrugged his broad shoulders. “You could have asked them to stay,” he said. Clearly aware he was annoying her terribly, he looked her over from head to toe, taking in the delicate U of her collarbone and the shadowy hint of cleavage in the open V of her marine-blue blouse. His glance moved still lower, checking out the fit of her tailored white linen slacks before returning to her eyes. “I’m sure they’d like to know all about our marriage,” he taunted softly.

“Stop saying that.” Dani felt herself flush with embarrassment. She didn’t know what he was up to now, but she didn’t like it one bit.

“Why?” He tipped the brim of his hat back with his index finger and looked up at her with a taunting smile. “It’s true.”

Dani’s eyebrows climbed higher. “It can’t be,” she countered just as emphatically, even as her knees grew weaker still.

“Really,” he said, still holding her gaze. “And how do you figure that?”

“Because—” Dani marched down the steps until they stood at eye level, and poked a finger in his chest—“we’ve been sworn enemies for two years. I would never marry someone and not remember it! Never mind my sworn enemy,” she contended hotly.

Beau moved up two steps, so they were standing on the same one and he was once again towering over her. “But you do recall waking up in that little inn in Mexico with a raging headache,” he said, glaring down at her.

Dani’s shoulders stiffened. Insensitive cretin. He would have to bring that up! She lifted her chin, drew a deep breath. “I was also alone.”

“Only because I left to find out what the devil had been going on,” he pointed out.

The way he’d looked at her then—as if he’d known what it was like to make love with her—sent shivers of awareness sliding willy-nilly down her spine. “What do you mean?” Dani demanded, hanging on to her composure by a thread.

Beau angled a telltale thumb at his chest. “I woke up with one helluva headache, too. I also wondered what in the heck had been going on that would have landed us both in bed and naked as jaybirds, to boot.”

Dani winced at the potent fantasy his words evoked. Beau’s beautifully muscled body, covered with light whorls of hair, stretched alongside her own. Everywhere she was soft, he’d be hard. Everywhere he was male, she’d be female. And surely no good could come of that! “Must you be so graphic in your descriptions?” Dani said, frowning all the more. She did not want to think about making love with him! Because that was never going to happen. It never had happened, no matter what things looked like. If it had, she certainly would remember it. Wouldn’t she?

“As I had no memory of having gotten there with you, not to mention having shucked our clothes,” he said softly, his low sexy voice doing strange things to her insides, “I decided to get up to investigate.”

“Of course.” Determined to irritate him as much as he was irritating her, Dani blinked her eyes at him coquettishly. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Steadfastly ignoring her goading manner, Beau continued with daunting seriousness. “Only, there was a marriage certificate on the bedside table. It had both our names on it.”

If he was pulling her leg, he was doing a damn-fine job of it, Dani thought. “Let me guess. And you didn’t remember getting married, either.”

Beau exhaled. “Not initially, no,” he told her grimly.

Despite her desire to stay cool, calm and collected, Dani’s heart took on a quicker beat. She rolled her eyes, not believing a word of it. “But you do now, of course.”

Beau nodded and eyed her seriously. “The more I looked at the marriage certificate that morning, the more I had a fuzzy memory—sort of a single freeze-frame image of the two of us standing in front of a priest, with candles all around us and guitar music playing softly in the background. At first I thought it was a dream, but then when I checked out the church where the marriage had supposedly taken place and spoke to the village priest, who confirmed he had indeed married us the night before, I knew it was true. Why or how I remember that and nothing else leading up to it, or following it, I don’t know,” he said. “But I do remember that. Just a millisecond of it, anyway.”

Dani had to admit, he spun a convincing yarn. He looked sincere, too. But that was also his stock-in-trade as an actor, making the unbelievable believable, she schooled herself firmly. “You need a better script.” She gave him an arch look and started to turn away. “So tell the writers you hired to come up with this preposterously lame joke to go back to their computers and write you a better exit scene.”

With maddening nonchalance, Beau clamped a hand on her shoulder and turned her back to face him. His strong capable fingers radiating warmth through her blouse to her skin, he reached into his hip pocket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment paper. “Perhaps this will refresh your memory,” he said, pushing it into her resisting fingers.

Dani stared up at him, her throat dry. She had to hand it to him. He was playing out this prank to the end. The only way she could end it was by playing out her part, too. “Fine,” she said tartly. She unfolded the finely crafted sheet with stiff fingers, determined to get this farce over with once and for all. She stared down at the certificate of marriage. It was a convincing fake, she had to give him that. Even the signature of the bride—her signature—looked suspiciously real.

Her fingers began to tremble.

“Now do you remember?” Beau prodded impatiently. Sweeping off his hat, he raked his fingers through his hair.

Dani pushed the memory of a hauntingly beautiful Spanish love song from her head. “No,” she retorted more stubbornly than ever, handing him the certificate right back. Her pulse picking up for no good reason, she angled her head at him. “I don’t remember that,” she said just as firmly. “So it can’t be valid.”

“That’s what you’d like to think, sweetheart, but I’m here to tell you it just ain’t so. I checked it out, both in Mexico and with my attorney in Los Angeles. Like it or not, legally we are as married as two people can be.”

Panic surged deep inside Dani, instantly giving way to incredibly warm and sexy and totally out-of-the-question romantic fantasies. “Then we’ll have it annulled,” she insisted, stepping back and away, telling herself she was not going to get roped into any wildly exciting or potentially devastating romantic drama with him.

“With the possibility of a baby on the way?” Beau advanced on her, becoming once again the same kick-butt take-charge cowboy America had fallen in love with on-screen. He looked down at her and shook his head. “Forget it. There is not going to be—now or ever—an annulment.”

“JUST TELL ME it’s not true,” Dani said half an hour later as she sat on the examining table in the Laramie Community Hospital family clinic, nervously awaiting the verdict from her physician friend, Lacey Buchanon McCabe, who’d been drafted to do her this enormous favor right away. Dani had only agreed to this test to quickly and efficiently and as scientifically as possible put an end to Beau’s claims of possible parenthood once and for all. As far as she was concerned, Dani thought, the sooner Beau Chamberlain was out of her life the better. She knew they couldn’t possibly have made love, no matter how married—or naked—they had been. The sooner Beau knew it, too, the better.

Lacey pulled up a stool and scooted closer. A newlywed herself, she had never been happier, now that she was married to staff surgeon Jackson McCabe, and she looked it. “Can’t,” Lacey said gently. She regarded Dani solemnly. “You are.”

Dani gulped as her heart began to gallop. Pleating the soft linen hospital gown between her fingers, she protested emotionally, “But—”

“The test I just ran is very accurate,” Lacey interrupted in a firm tone. “If it says you are, you are.”

Lacey paused. In full physician mode, she studied Dani’s face, then eventually patted her knee. “Do you want me to call in Beau?” she asked gently.

Normally, Dani knew, that was the next step. “No. Yes.” Dani ran her hands through her hair, shoving it off her face. “I don’t know.” This had to be a dream. It couldn’t possibly be real, could it? But if it was a dream, why couldn’t she wake up? And why couldn’t she shake the sudden sharp image of herself holding Beau Chamberlain’s baby in her arms, with Beau standing right beside her? Why couldn’t she shake the image of her and Beau and their baby becoming an incredibly happy and contented family?

What was happening to her? She wasn’t romantic! She was anything but. Their public feuding had shown her that Beau was not the man for her. From the first moment they’d met at a party two years ago, he had tried to tell her that real life could be every bit as good as in the movies. While she had tried to tell him that real life was rarely as fair or kind or predictable over the long haul, as he made it out to be. Worse, he was doing the moviegoing public a disservice by making films that led people to believe that right always prevailed over wrong, because bitter experience had taught Dani that just wasn’t so. Sometimes the worst happened for no reason at all.

“Maybe you need a minute?” Lacey asked as Dani put a hand to her tummy and let it hover there, contemplating the unexpected miracle within. She didn’t feel any different. She didn’t look any different. And yet, deep inside her was a tiny baby that was part Beau and part her, growing, thriving and in need of a tremendous amount of tender loving care from both of them. If that wasn’t a miracle of life and love, what was?

“I definitely need a minute,” Dani said firmly as she pushed the happiness and wonder from her heart. She had always wanted a baby. But not like this. And definitely not with the man who had never even been her friend!

“Jackson and I are both going to be here at the hospital all evening. We’re heading up the search committee for the new family practitioner to take his dad’s place as chief of Family Medicine. And we’ve got a hundred résumés to read through. So if you want to talk or you think of any questions, just call me or come by. In the meantime, you need to set up an appointment with an obstetrician on staff. And start taking these prenatal vitamins.” Lacey sifted through the supply cupboard, pulling out samples of vitamins and several pamphlets. “Also, read these. They cover the basic dos and don’ts of pregnancy. Okay?”

“Okay.” Still in shock, Dani stared at everything Lacey put in her hands.

Lacey touched her shoulder gently. “Are you going to be okay?”

Dani drew a deep breath and tried not to think about how irked Beau had been with her because she had never seen things his way and probably never would. “Sure,” she fibbed. “It’s just a lot to take in.”

“I know, but like I said, Jackson and I are here for you, so don’t hesitate to call.”

Lacey slipped out. Seconds later the door opened. His expression both hopeful and wary, Beau stepped in. He looked at her. “Guess I don’t need to ask the results.”

Dani slid off the end of the examining table. Her legs were trembling as she put the pamphlets and prenatal vitamins aside and reached for her clothing. “I do not understand how this could have happened,” Dani muttered. Under the cover of her hospital gown, she slipped on her panties, and then her white linen slacks. Her fingers were shaking so badly she could barely manage the zipper and button clasp.

Arms folded in front of him, Beau leaned against the corner of the examining table. “Make that two of us,” he muttered, for a moment looking as taken aback as she felt.

Silence fell as she pulled on her bra beneath her gown.

“Well, it could be worse,” he said eventually as she turned her back, removed her gown and slipped on her blouse.

“How?” Dani demanded, distressed. Turning back to him, she found her sandals. She hated that he was now trying to make the best of this! She wanted him to be as upset—as simultaneously ecstatic and upset about her unexpected pregnancy—as she was. But now that his shock had faded, Beau Chamberlain was looking downright happy about it all! As if it was yet another example of life always working out for the best, instead of the unmitigated disaster it could very well turn out to be.

Beau grinned and shrugged. “You could be pregnant and unmarried.”

Straightening, Dani glared at him. She did not appreciate his quip and she let him know it with a look. “That’s not funny.” She pushed the words through tightly clenched teeth.

He sighed, then grimaced. “Okay.” He shoved a hand through his hair again. “Obviously this has caught us both off guard and we have a lot to figure out.”

“You’re not kidding there.” Dani grabbed a brush from her purse and, stepping over to the mirror, ran it through her hair. Tucking the curving ends behind her ears, she looked steadily at Beau, who was standing just left and behind her, in the mirror. “Like when, where and how we are going to get an annulment without anyone—other than my sisters, thanks to your blurting it out the way you did—ever finding out we were married.”

Instead of agreeing with her, as Dani had hoped and expected he would, Beau Chamberlain merely shook his head. He gave her a look stony with resolve. “I meant what I said, Dani. No annulment. And no divorce. I don’t know exactly how or why we entered into this marriage, but I’m not about to let us look any more foolish than we already do,” he warned flatly. “The two of us are staying married.”

Dani whirled to face him. A pulse pounding in her throat, she tipped her head up to his. “But we don’t love each other!” And as far as Dani was concerned, love was the only reason to get—or stay—married.

Beau clamped his hands on her arms, his expression no less confident. “Then maybe we’ll grow to love each other,” he suggested with customary optimism. His glance narrowing, he continued to hold her gently but firmly, “Meanwhile, you’re having our baby. And our baby is not going to be born illegitimate.”

Beau waited for Dani’s reaction. It wasn’t long in coming.

“This is ridiculous,” she stormed, pulling herself free of him yet again. She stomped away, her slender hips swaying provocatively beneath her tailored linen slacks. “We don’t even like each other!”

Content to go ahead and have it out with her right there in the Laramie Community Hospital family clinic, if that was what she wanted, Beau braced himself for a battle. After all, he’d known getting things worked out between them wouldn’t be easy. That was why he’d taken the time to make sure he’d figured out all of the angles before he showed up on her doorstep.

Now that he was here, he found it was worth the wait. Well worth it. For she had never looked more beautiful to him, nor feistier, than she did at that moment. Soft silky hair, the color of copper gleaming in the Texas sun, framed her delicate oval face. But it was more than the soft swell of her breasts, the slender indentation of her waist, curvaceous hips and long sexy legs that put his hormones into overdrive whenever he was around her. It was the sassy tilt of her chin, the intelligence and wit that sparkled in her eyes. Without even trying, Dani challenged him in a way no other woman ever had or ever would.

Physically they were a match. Emotionally…well, emotionally was another matter. From the first moment they’d met at that party, Dani’d had her dander up. Probably because her previous romance with another actor had ended badly. But that was no reason for her to mistrust him. Especially now that a damn miracle had occurred and they were having a baby that, like it or not, would bind them together for life.

“We could like each other, given half a chance,” Beau said finally. That was, if Dani would put her usual cynicism aside and let them get to know each other the way he had wanted to from the very start. But to his dismay, once again Dani wasn’t about to let that happen.

“That’s not very likely,” Dani shot back, her amber eyes darkening defensively, “given that we have completely different views on just about everything that matters.”

That was true, Beau thought resting one hip against the edge of the examining table. But once again, it wasn’t something insurmountable. “Nevertheless, we need to stay married.”

“Until the baby is born,” Dani wearily guessed.

Beau shook his head. “Until we figure out what happened to make us go off and do such a foolish thing as get married.”

Dani stared at Beau. “I already told you,” she repeated impatiently. “I can’t remember anything.”

Beau lifted a skeptical brow, figuring if he had some fuzzy memories, she surely had some, too. “Not even why we ended up in Mexico?”

“Well, of course I remember that!” Dani retorted, incensed.

WEARY OF THE PUBLIC SNIPING that had been going on almost from the moment they’d met, the two of them had decided to try to work things out. Dani had wanted to stay in Laramie to talk. But in desperate need of some real rest and recreation after completing work on Bravo Canyon, Beau had insisted they take his private jet and go to his villa in Mexico. Dani had agreed for three reasons. One, she had known that getting Beau to understand her view of what movies should be and not his was going to be a long slow process. Two, she had seen how genuinely tired he was after the long arduous shoot in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas. And three, because she had wanted to try to end the fighting with Beau out from under the watchful eyes of her sisters and John and Lilah McCabe, who were likely to see any personal conversations between Beau and Dani as reason for romantic speculation or matchmaking. And, Dani was reluctant to admit, they wouldn’t have been far off.

The truth was, she had been secretly attracted to Beau Chamberlain from the very first. So attracted, in fact, that she’d had to use every ounce of attitude she possessed to keep him at arm’s length. At first he had been amused. But as time wore on, he’d become increasingly irritated by her standoffish behavior. To the point he had begun sniping back, annoying her and getting under her skin every chance he got in much the same way the boys had used to tease her at recess. Dani—and everyone else in Hollywood, it seemed—had sensed that a mutual attraction was behind Beau’s verbal sparring and increasingly public attention to her. To stop it, all she had to do was let her defenses down, talk to him with the same openness and vulnerability she showed her other friends.

But that hadn’t been an option for Dani two years ago, not in the film industry. She had mixed business and pleasure once before, and been stung when she gave the movie that her boyfriend, Chris Avery, was in one star and then been dubbed the Lady with the Poison Pen. It was a moniker everyone in Hollywood, including Beau, had repeated at one time or another either in anger or in jest. Dani had no intention of letting that happen again. So she had kept her attraction to Beau to herself. And she hadn’t let any of what went on between them color her reviews of Beau’s movies. She had made sure she was just as tough on him as she was with everyone else.

And she had known, even if the impossible happened and they did manage to become friends when they went off to Mexico together, that would continue. Dani did not do favors for people she knew in the business; her professional reputation was much too important to her.

Which made what had eventually happened—the two of them ending up married and in bed together—even more puzzling. Not just for her, but for him.

“And what else do you remember?” Beau prodded.

Dani spread her palms helplessly on either side of her. “I remember arguing with you in sort of a flirtatious way all afternoon and into the night, and that’s it.” Dani paused, aware they hadn’t actually gotten married until the next day if the date on the marriage certificate he had shown her was correct. That left a very big blank in her memory. A thirty-some-hour blank she found very dismaying, especially after all the bantering and teasing that had been going on prior to that. Like it or not, from the moment they stepped on that plane, her defenses had been going down. And apparently so had his.

Reminding herself not to be too trusting, Dani asked cautiously, “What about you?” Up until this afternoon, she had assumed he was the mastermind of this whole folly. That he had designed the whole thing as payback to embarrass her and throw her for a loop for the not-so-glowing reviews she had given his movies and the way she had deliberately held him at arm’s length, refusing to let him work his movie-star charm on her. But now, given the stunned and curious way he kept looking at her, she couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t as much an innocent victim of whatever had happened to them as she was. And if that was the case, she had no reason at all to be mad at him. And that was a notion she found even more unnerving. Because it was her anger, their mutual resentment, that she had been counting on to keep them apart and prevent them from doing whatever it was they’d done down in Mexico again.

Beau frowned, stroked his jaw and continued filling her in matter-of-factly. “When it comes to that night, I draw a complete blank. I’d like to think it’s because the whole evening was so traumatic,” he teased, beating her to the punch with a wink.

“Har-de-har-har, cowboy,” Dani responded, determined not to let him joke his way out of anything when it came to the two of them. “And if that evening was traumatic,” she asserted stubbornly, “it was traumatic for both of us.”

“True.” Beau paused, stroked his jaw again. As the thoughtful moment drew out, his eyes sparkled wickedly. He rolled his weight onto his toes and leaned toward her conspiratorially. “And yet there must be some reason we got married that night and made a baby,” he said.

“Complete utter insanity?” Dani quipped drolly. The only reason she would ever have gotten married—knowingly anyway—was for love. Her heart quickened its pace as she feared where this line of questioning was leading. Deftly she stepped back.

He stepped toward her. “That, sweetheart, goes without saying.” He laced his hands around her waist and tugged her against him until they were touching breast to chest, tummy to tummy, thigh to thigh. “The truth is,” Beau continued resolutely, looking down at her with soft serious eyes, “whatever happened that night had nothing to do with where we were or what we were doing at the time or even what we were arguing about. Instead—” his velvety voice dropped another compelling notch “—it had everything to do with what has been going on with us since the first day we met.”

He sounded so sure. So smugly certain! “And that is what exactly?” Dani prodded, afraid from the amorous gleam in his eyes she already knew precisely what he was going to assert.

“Desire,” Beau whispered softly, sifting a hand through her hair, watching it as it fell in silky copper strands across her cheek. “Pure unadulterated desire.”

Dani laughed uneasily and tried, unsuccessfully, to step out of the warm confining hopelessly erotic circle of his arms. “Now I know you’re insane,” she claimed as she splayed both hands across his chest and felt the strong heavy thudding of his heart, so like her own. “I have never, not for one day, not for even one second, desired you!” Dani fibbed as his gaze traced the parted contours of her lips.

Beau’s sexy smile widened. He slid a hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. “Sure about that now?” he asked as his head slowly lowered.

“I’m positive,” Dani whispered. Trembling at his nearness, she drew in a jerky breath. This was not going to happen. He was not going to kiss her.

Beau touched his lips lightly to hers once, and then again. “Okay, let’s see,” he murmured seductively. The next thing Dani knew her eyes were closed and his lips were on hers, nudging them apart. It was the kind of kiss you saw in the movies. Tender, evocative, erotic. Sensitive, searching. It was the kind of kiss you never really expected—in real life—to get. But getting it she was, and she had to admit that, even as she stood on tiptoe and let herself be drawn into the seamlessly sexy kiss, it was rocking her to her very soul. Making her tingle all over. Making her want. Need. Desire. Oh, heavens, she had never felt such desire. Or experienced anything so wonderful and dangerous and right. And it was then, just as she should have suspected, that Beau let the soft kiss come to a slow effortless conclusion.

Still holding her in his arms, Beau searched her eyes. “Now do you remember?”




Chapter Two


Suddenly Dani knew what was happening and why. She couldn’t believe she had been such a fool. Worse, she had almost—almost—bought the I’m-head-over-heels-in-love-with-you look in his eyes! Only her common sense had saved her from admitting something equally foolish to him. But thank heaven she was one woman who was firmly rooted in reality. She knew—better than most—that this life did not come with happily-ever-afters. Especially ever-afters that good. She might wish one of the most famous movie stars in the world was totally enthralled with her, but it wasn’t happening. No matter how hard the Texas lothario was currently pushing to convince her otherwise.

“Now I get it,” Dani said as she shoved away from him.

“Get what?” Beau studied her with highly exaggerated confusion.

Dani scowled and planted her hands on her hips. No way was this handsome cowboy running a scam on her. “So where is it?”

Beau quirked an eyebrow and continued to regard her with confusion. “Where’s what?”

“The hidden camera.”

“Camera?” Beau repeated, doing, Dani thought, a fine job of acting perplexed.

But she wasn’t buying it. Not for one red-hot instant. She waved her hands excitedly. “We’re on the Celebrity Hoaxes TV show, aren’t we?” Stepping forward, she pointed an accusing finger at his chest. “This is all a practical joke. On me. And everyone in Laramie is probably in on it. My sisters, Lacey McCabe and the people right here at the hospital.” Which meant, of course, she wasn’t really pregnant, either, since they hadn’t really made love or gotten married in Mexico. So she could stop worrying about that right now, Dani concluded with relief. Since this was all part of a giant joke on her.

“Come on, where are the cameras?” Dani began to search the examining room.

Beau followed her, looking even more nonplussed as she searched behind the cabinets, beneath the sink. “What cameras?”

Dani whirled to face him. “The ones that are taping us for the TV show, of course.”

Beau placed his hands on her shoulders, then said very quietly and very calmly, “Dani, there are no cameras.”

She smiled thinly, aware that she had never wanted to haul off and slug him more than she did at that minute. “Of course you would say that.” He wanted her to make a fool of herself in the worst way!

Beau’s eyes darkened. “I mean it, Dani. There are no cameras,” he repeated firmly. Hands slipping back to her waist, he lifted her up and onto the examining table. Trapping her with his body, bracing a hand on either side of her, he leaned in close, “We are not being filmed.”

Dani ignored him as another flare of mistrust swept through her. “If you say so, but for the record—” she looked straight into his midnight-blue eyes “—this is all a colossal waste of time. Since I will never in a million years give you permission to air what is taking place right here and right now.” That said, she leaned back and neatly folded her hands on her lap.

“That’s good.” Beau looked pleased as he stepped between her knees and pulled her close. “Because I don’t think I’d want what is taking place right now aired anywhere.” He angled his thumb at his chest, winked facetiously. “I don’t want to be made a fool of, either. I have a reputation to maintain, you know.”

Speaking of reputations, they had been in here—alone—an awfully long time, Dani thought. Enough to get the local gossip mill going, big time. “Too bad you didn’t think of that before you convinced me to go off to Mexico with you.” Dani pushed him away with both hands, hopped off the table and exited the examining room. Dashing to the front desk, she paid her bill, then headed out the doors into the shimmering late-afternoon heat.

Beau caught up with her just past the entrance and steered her toward his vintage pickup. Made in 1960, the cherry-red truck was in mint condition inside and out, the only change to it modern safety belts and a topnotch stereo system. It was not exactly the kind of vehicle Dani would ever have expected a Hollywood star to drive. She figured he’d drive something expensive and strictly for status. But the cherished old pickup, so sturdy and reliable and masculine, suited him just the same. Maybe because it was the kind of truck a real cowboy would drive.

“Too bad we didn’t think of a lot of things before we flew off to Mexico together.” Beau opened the door and, still holding her elbow, gallantly helped her inside.

A prickle of uneasiness moved through Dani as the next thought hit. She watched as he circled the truck and slid behind the steering wheel. “Were there cameras in Mexico, too?” she asked, aghast, noticing without wanting to the way his white cotton shirt delineated the sexy contours of his shoulders, chest and abs. Was it her imagination or could she actually remember the way it had felt to be held against that rock-solid chest, with nothing between them but heat and bare skin?

Beau turned the key in the ignition and shot her an astonished look. “I sincerely hope not!” he said, thrusting the truck into reverse. Sliding one arm along the back of the seat behind her, he pulled out of the space, then put the truck into first. His large capable hands on the wheel, he guided the truck toward the exit and onto the street.

“I don’t know why I didn’t see it earlier,” Dani said, incensed she had been such an idiot. She shook her head as Beau stopped at the light at the corner of Johnson Drive and Main Street and turned her eyes to the people coming in and out of the businesses in the center of town. A group had gathered in front of the courthouse and were talking animatedly. A mother and two children were carrying a cake out of Isabel Buchanon’s bakeshop. Men were lined up in Tom’s barber shop, awaiting haircuts and shaves. The afternoon edition of the Laramie Press was being loaded into trucks for delivery. Comforted by the homespun familiarity of the scene, Dani turned back to Beau and continued matter-of-factly, “This is all payback for our feud.”

Beau’s jaw set as he drove down Main Street and then onto the street where she lived. He turned into her driveway and parked behind Dani’s car. He cut the engine with a snap. Released his seat belt and faced her. “For the last time,” he said quietly, “I am not playing a prank on you.”

Dani wished she could believe him. Her feelings in turmoil, she glared at him emotionally. “I want to call a halt to this, Beau. Right now.” She wanted not to be pregnant and not to be married.

“I just bet you do,” Beau said sarcastically as he reached over and released the catch of her safety belt. “Unfortunately, my darling wife—” the words were pushed through gritted teeth, and his hot gaze glided over her from head to toe, before returning with heart-stopping accuracy to her face “—it’s not that simple.”

Wasn’t it? Dani wondered. And darn it all, anyway, why did he keep insisting on calling her his wife, never mind his darling wife? Couldn’t he see she hated that? How uncomfortable it made her? Of course he could! That, she supposed, as the word continued to echo in her head like a mantra, was precisely the point.

She knew what the evidence said, but the two of them couldn’t be married. They just couldn’t be! She wouldn’t—couldn’t—have been that foolish. No matter how secretly attracted to him she was or what movie-star moves he’d put on her! No, this was all a bad joke or a bad dream. And it would be over soon enough. All she had to do was take a page from the exasperating cowboy’s book and kick a little butt. His.

“Okay,” Dani retorted slowly and succinctly, letting him know with a glance this…whatever it was could not and would not go on. “If you won’t call a halt to this lunacy now, then when exactly will you?”

BEAU KNEW DANI would never believe it, the way she was feeling now, but he wished this lunacy was a practical joke every bit as fervently as she did. Heaven knew he’d initially had the same suspicions she was harboring.

Never before had he blacked out anything, let alone awakened in a bed with a beautiful woman having no idea how he’d gotten there, or when or why. But that it had happened was indisputable, Beau reminded himself sternly.

Making matters worse, kissing her at the hospital had brought back a snippet of lovemaking with her that was so incredibly spectacular it might have been a dream. And yet he knew instantly from the startling clarity of this snippet—the image of Dani naked and in bed beneath him—that it was no fantasy he was having, but a memory. Otherwise, how would he know she had a beauty mark on her left breast, right next to the nipple? How would he have such a clear image of the creaminess of her breasts, the lissome lines of her spread thighs and the sweet triangle of coppery curls the exact shade of her hair? How would he know, even as he took her in his arms tonight, that the sassy cynical-to-the-max Dani kissed with a mixture of innocence and enthusiasm that was daunting in the extreme? How would he know about the soft sexy sounds she made in the back of her throat when they made love, or how much she liked making love in the missionary position? But he did know all that. Just as he knew when he took her in his arms tonight that when they started kissing, that when they were together like that, it was all either of them could do to stop.

As for the rest, the marriage and baby part, he just couldn’t imagine it. Yes, she had been a burr in his side for years now, and for one reason or another constantly on his mind, but they’d never been lovers or even close to romantically involved. Maybe they should have been, though, Beau reasoned as Dani jumped out of the truck and walked toward the house, leaving him to follow at will. Maybe if they had kissed back then, before all the trouble started, the way they had today, maybe Dani and he never would have feuded at all.

Dani paused at the top of the steps and rummaged around in her purse for her keys. Finally finding them, she unlocked the door and led the way into her house, full of moving boxes and extremely disorganized furniture. She switched on the overhead light in the foyer and whirled to face him. “You didn’t answer my question, Beau,” she snapped impatiently. “How long do you plan to let this scam continue?”

Beau shrugged. “As long as it takes.” He didn’t want to be saddled with a marriage he couldn’t even remember entering into, but he was. And so was she. Like it or not, until he and Dani figured out exactly what had happened in Mexico, they were in this together.

“As long as it takes for what?”

For us to really get to know each other, he thought. For us to be, if not loving partners, at least friends. Because he had much preferred the idea of being Dani’s friend to being her enemy. Certainly it would be much easier to bring up a baby that way.

Unable to take his eyes off Dani and the delectable picture she made in her trim linen slacks and sleeveless blouse, her bare feet peeking out beneath the strappy sandals, he edged nearer and replied, “For me to put an end to this feud between us once and for all.”

“I’ve got news for you, Beau Chamberlain,” she informed him in a soft sweet voice that set his teeth on edge. “This is not the way to do it!”

“Then what is?” Beau countered as Dani swept past him into the shadowy living room. “Reason didn’t do it.”

Stepping around the sofa and two club chairs, Dani began reading what was written on the tops of the moving cartons, which were stacked, one on top of the other, all over the place. Finally finding one that said “lamp,” she made a soft aha sound and attempted to lift it down. Beau strode over to help her before she could pick it up. He set it on the floor beside her.

“There’s been nothing reasonable about anything you’ve said to me for the past two years,” Dani said. She slammed her hands on her hips, looking peeved rather than pleased by his help.

Guessing what she wanted, which was to get lamps set up around the house before darkness fell, Beau ripped open the top of the box, removed the lamp and began assembling base to shade. “There was nothing reasonable about your reviews, either!” Beau shot right back. It bugged him she hadn’t liked his work. Not because he thought her reviews were inaccurate, but because they had been accurate. He’d known he wasn’t doing his best work in the two-year period after his nasty divorce from Sharon. It annoyed the heck out of him that Dani had easily recognized what other reviewers had failed to see—that a part of him had lost heart. Dani’s fair but kick-butt reviews of his work had been a wake-up call to him to put the past behind him. Now he was back at the top of his craft again. And soon Dani would know it, too.

“So that’s what this is all about,” Dani pronounced grimly as she found another box labeled lamp. “The fact that you, cowboy, have a movie opening next week. So what’s the deal?” she asked stormily as Beau ripped open the box. Her chin angled up. “I write something nice about Bravo Canyon and no one ever sees the film of me acting like a blooming idiot, believing we got married and are expecting a baby?” Temper flashing in her amber eyes, turning them a darker prettier hue, she pulled both shade and base from the box. She shook her head, silky copper strands flying in all directions. Then proceeded to rip the protective wrapping from the lamp base and shade with quick angry motions. “Blackmail will not get a good review from me, Beau.”

Once again, Beau took the parts and fastened them together. He set the reassembled lamp aside. “I don’t want a good review from you.”

Dani paused, disbelief evident on her face. Her soft sexy lips compressing stubbornly, she bent over to get the lightbulb from the box.

“What I’d really like is no review of Bravo Canyon from you at all.”

Dani whirled to face him. “And you know I can’t do that,” she replied stonily, looking him straight in the eye. “Bravo Canyon is one of the summer blockbusters. I have to review it. Everyone does.”

That, Beau thought, taking in the flushed features of her face, was a matter of opinion. The seconds strung out tensely as another silence fell.

Dani clamped her arms in front of her like a shield. “Joke’s over now, Chamberlain. Go home now.”

Beau shook his head solemnly, every protective instinct coming to the fore. It might be old-fashioned, but she was his woman—at least according to the marriage certificate. And she was carrying their baby. His personal code of honor dictated he not let anything happen to either of them. “Afraid not,” he told her, determined to see this through. “I can’t let you lift anything. Not in your condition.”

Dani sighed, rolled her eyes. She swept both hands through her halo of copper hair, pushing it off her face. “You don’t have anything to say about this, even if I am pregnant.”

He had only to glance at her tummy and think about their future to know differently. “Afraid I do,” he said.

Dani swallowed. If she didn’t know better, she’d think—by the way he was looking at her—that the two of them really were meant to be together. But that wasn’t true, she reassured herself. It couldn’t be. And if Beau seemed to think it was…well, that was easily explained. He was a heroically responsible man. He didn’t want to think they’d had a meaningless fling that had resulted in a marriage and a pregnancy. How would such reckless behavior make them look? Far better to assume something incredibly romantic and impulsive. Just because he felt that way, however, did not mean she had to.

“Fine.” Recognizing he wasn’t likely to leave anytime soon of his own volition, she threw up her hands in defeat and treated him to a careless smile. “You want to sign on as unpaid labor around here? Who am I to stop you? We’ll get started now. Roll up your sleeves, cowboy, and get to work.”

Dani expected him to bolt as soon as he saw she was serious about getting started on the unpacking. Instead, he worked diligently by her side, finding and then unpacking linens for the upstairs hall closet, bath items for the shower, sheets and blankets and pillows for her bed. He hooked up her TV, stereo and VCR, and placed them all where she wanted them—in her bedroom. When six o’clock came and their stomachs growled, he called Greta Wilson McCabe’s Lone Star Dinner and Dance Hall downtown and had a nutritious dinner for two, complete with milk, delivered for them both.

During it all, Dani was as quiet and uncommunicative as could be. To her chagrin, this didn’t seem to bother him, either. He continued to be as gallant and attentive as could be. And as she looked at him and saw the tenderness in his eyes, recalled the magic of Beau on screen, the one she and every woman in America had fallen in love with, she knew it would be so easy to forget everything and fall head over heels for him. It would be so easy to let herself get drawn into the fantasy of what could be. Not what was. She couldn’t let that happen. Any more than she could dwell on the fleeting, but very distinct, memory of him in bed, above her.

As they slid off their stools at the kitchen counter and cleared away the empty food containers, Dani glanced at her watch and saw it was nearly 7 p.m. Bedtime was hours away, but her body felt the fatigue of moving in. Yet the last thing she wanted to do was lie in her bed alone, remembering the shattering sensuality of Beau’s kiss earlier this afternoon, worrying about the foolhardy way she’d kissed him back. No, that wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all.

Dani glanced back at the twenty-some boxes scattered around her kitchen. She hadn’t touched one of them.

“Whoa now.” Beau held up a staying palm before she could spring into action once again. “I think you’ve done enough for one day,” he said sternly, reading her mind.

Actually they both had, Dani thought. “Not that I want to make a habit of agreeing with you, but I think I have had enough for one day.” Dani smiled. Hand against his spine, she propelled him toward the closest exit.

Beau dug in his heels and slowed their progress considerably. As they reached the back door, he wrapped an arm around her waist and looked at her curiously. “We’re not staying here tonight?” The low sexy timbre of his voice sent a new thrill shooting down her spine.

“We’re not staying anywhere together, cowboy,” Dani corrected archly. She splayed a staying hand across his chest. “Not now or any other night.”

Tugging her close, Beau leaned down, kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, “That’s what you think.”




Chapter Three


Dani stared at Beau in a mixture of astonishment and disbelief. “You really can’t think we’re going to spend the night together.”

His smile flashed, wicked and mesmerizing. “As your husband and the father of your baby, where else would I be?”

That again. Scowling, Dani folded her arms in front of her. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to deck him or kiss him. She just knew she had an overwhelming desire to do something physical where he was concerned. Deciding in the end it would be best just to keep as much distance from him as possible, she looked down her nose at him. “You’re carrying this practical joke too far, Chamberlain.”

She wasn’t all that surprised to find he didn’t think so. “If you really think I’m pulling your leg, or worse, that the lab work Lacey ran at the hospital was inaccurate, then put it to the test yourself,” he dared with a complacent smile. “Go to the pharmacy and pick up a home pregnancy kit. Run the test yourself.”

Dani regarded Beau uneasily. Why would he even suggest this, she wondered, restlessly shifting her weight from one bare foot to the other, unless it was true? Once again, Dani searched for hidden cameras, saw none. Still clinging to the hope this was all a bad dream she’d soon wake up from, Dani regarded Beau calmly. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” he volleyed back, in a low rich voice that practically oozed testosterone.

With effort Dani ignored the tremors of sexual awareness gathering deep inside her. This evening was beginning to feel too much like a date, with a kiss or two or three in the making. And it wasn’t. She would do well to remember that.

Dani went over to get his hat, which he’d left on a shelf next to the back door. Marching to his side, she pressed it into his hands. “Laramie is a small town. If I went in and purchased one, the news would be all over town in an instant.”

To her dismay, he merely put his hat aside, grabbed one of her hands, then leaned a shoulder against the door frame and made himself all the more at home. She tried without success to unobtrusively wrest her fingers from the strong warm tantalizing grip of his.

Beau lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, sending another tingle of awareness arrowing through her. Still holding her eyes with provoking gallantry, he murmured, “Then I’ll buy it for you. Especially if it’ll make you feel better to run a second test—one you’ve supervised yourself.”

Dani swung away from him, not sure why he got under her skin this way, just knowing he did. “If you went into a store to purchase a pregnancy test, you’d definitely attract attention—even in a town like Laramie, which does a pretty good job of respecting your privacy. Then, before you know it, the story would be all over the tabloids.” Miserably Dani closed her eyes. “I can see the headlines now. Desperate for Child, Beau Chamberlain Buys Home Pregnancy Kit.” She opened her eyes and regarded Beau stoically. “No thanks.”

Beau rubbed his chin with his index finger and thumb and sent her a taunting grin. “You know, you seem to have a real talent for that.” He winked. “Maybe you should give up reviewing movies and consider writing for the tabloids.”

Dani rolled her eyes. “You’re killing me, cowboy.”

Beau lifted his hands in an amiable fashion. “I’m glad you have a sense of humor about this,” he drawled, still regarding her appreciatively. “The way things are going, we’re both going to need one.”

Dani glared at him and said nothing.

Beau pushed away from the door and straightened his tall broad-shouldered frame. “You still don’t believe we’re married and you’re pregnant, do you?” he said, closing the distance between them once again.

If she was only going on the possessive protective way he was behaving, she probably would believe it. But she knew better, she reminded herself firmly, backing up until she reached the counter. Things this crazy and romantic did not happen to her. “No reason I should,” she retorted.

The doorbell rang.

Beau seemed irritated by the interruption. He looked at her impatiently. “Expecting anyone?”

“No,” Dani said. “You?”

“No.”

The doorbell rang again, more insistently.

She locked eyes with him deliberately. “I suppose you want me to get it?” she asked drolly.

Beau made his way through the stacked boxes to the living room, where he plopped down on the sofa and stretched his long legs out in front of him, continuing to make himself completely at home. “It is your house.”

Shaking her head, Dani headed past him for the front door. She opened the door, half hoping to see a TV camera crew yelling “Surprise!” Or better yet, Dr. Lacey Buchanon McCabe, there to tell her the hospital lab had made a terrible mistake.

Instead, she found Billy Carter, the young man she’d been trying to gently discourage. His tall gangly frame was pitched forward with a determined eagerness that had Dani instantly on her guard. A liberal amount of styling gel tamed his rusty-brown hair. Round spectacles framed his intelligent brown eyes. Instead of his usual movie-slogan T-shirt and jeans, he was dressed in baggy khaki pants, a deep-purple dress shirt and vividly flowered tie, and clutched a fistful of flowers. The goatee he had grown to make him look older than eighteen was neatly trimmed, and he reeked of a seductive-smelling aftershave.

“I’m so glad you’re home,” Billy said breathlessly.

“You are,” Dani said dryly.

Billy nodded. “Can I speak to you inside?”

“Sure.” Dani let Billy into the front hallway.

“I was hoping we could go out tonight,” Billy continued hurriedly, transferring the flowers from his sweaty palm to hers.

“Out?” Dani repeated, not sure where this was going.

“Just the two of us,” Billy clarified seriously.

Dani decided if this pass was on the level, Beau did not need to hear it. Firmly she put the flowers back in Billy’s damp hands, took his arm and directed him back to the door. Naturally, Billy dug in his heels and refused to budge. “Not here in Laramie, of course,” he continued in a voice loud enough for Beau to hear every word.

Doing her best not to cringe, Dani tilted her head to the side and continued to regard her protégé warily. Behind Billy, Dani could see Beau watching with unveiled interest. Was it her imagination or did he suddenly look a little jealous, as well as disapproving? “Why not Laramie?” Dani asked Billy.

“Because.” Billy shrugged and leaned forward urgently, pushing the flowers back at her. “People would see us together. No offense.” He colored slightly. “I mean you seem really young to me, but—”

“I’m a decade older.”

“Right. And people would, well, you know—”

“Think it inappropriate?” Deciding they’d wrestled with the flowers enough, Dani put the bouquet aside.

“But it wouldn’t be,” Billy rushed to assure her.

Then why was he suggesting they hide whatever they wanted to do?

Dani wondered. She sighed, shoving a hand through her hair. “Billy—”

Billy took her hand eagerly in his. “I just want us to be friends, Dani. I mean, really good friends.”

As gently as possible, Dani extricated her fingers from his clammy palm. In the background she could see Beau unfolding himself from the sofa, frowning and coming toward them.

“We’re going to be working together, starting tomorrow,” she told Billy firmly, then spoke as if underlining every word, letting him know this couldn’t—wouldn’t—happen. “I’m not going to be just a mentor and a friend to you, Billy. I’m going to be your employer.”

“So?” Billy shrugged again, not the least bit upset or discouraged as, unbeknownst to him, Beau was coming up right behind him. “I know plenty of people who work together who also date,” Billy told her practically.

“Not Dani,” Beau said as he swaggered forward and deliberately inserted himself between them.

Billy blinked and pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. He stepped back, nearly tripping over his feet in the process. “I didn’t know you were here,” he stammered nervously.

What you need is a man, her sisters had said. Someone to discourage Billy. And clearly Billy needed to be discouraged. Big time, Dani thought. On the other hand, she didn’t want to encourage Beau in the process. “Beau’s here, all right, but he’s not supposed to be here,” Dani said sweetly, giving Beau a drop-dead look only he could see.

“But I am here,” Beau corrected with a debonair assurance that made Dani grit her teeth.

“Unfortunately,” Dani muttered. She did not like his possessive attitude one bit. Like everything else he’d done in the past few hours, it was a bit too convincing for her liking. Much more of his Academy Award-winning performance, she thought, willing her pounding heart to slow, and Beau’d have her believing he really was staking a permanent claim on her.

“Is he giving you any trouble?” Billy demanded, scowling and stepping between them. “Because if he is…” Billy continued, the threat in his low tone obvious.

The last thing Dani wanted was a fistfight taking place in her hallway. “No, no,” she told Billy hastily as she stepped between the two males. She pushed all romantic thoughts from her mind. “It’s okay.”

Beau, taking advantage of the moment, placed his hands on her shoulders. He tugged her against him, so her spine was against his chest. “Actually,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head with husbandly affection, “it’s very okay, isn’t it, Dani?”

Ignoring the sensual feeling of his palms on her bare skin, Dani turned to face him, intending to let him know to cool it with a look. As their eyes clashed, he smiled and touched her face with the callused roughness of his palm, cupping her chin in his hand, scoring his thumb across her lips. She had the sharp suspicion he was about to kiss her as thoroughly and expertly as he had before, and the even sharper suspicion she’d be lost if he did.

Watching, Billy became even more upset. “I didn’t know the two of you were friends.”

“We’re more than friends,” Beau confirmed, suddenly becoming even more possessive. Maybe because he knew such action was guaranteed to get under her skin. He closed in on her deliberately, not stopping until there was a scant two inches between them. “In fact, I’m her—”

Dani elbowed him. “Very good friend.” No way was she letting him say the word husband. She had enough explaining to do to her three sisters as it was. She was not adding Billy to the list. Beau merely smiled, looking more determined than ever to come out the winner in this battle of wills.

Billy, meanwhile, looked oddly relieved, now that he’d gotten over his disappointment. “So I guess you two have plans for tonight, huh?” he guessed.

Beau nodded. “Big ones. But we trust you to keep that under your hat.”

“Sure. No problem.” Billy looked past her at the clock that was now inching toward seven-thirty. “Look, I don’t have anything else to do this evening, so if you want me to go ahead and start unpacking the boxes of videos tonight, I could.”

“No. Tomorrow morning, nine o’clock, will be soon enough,” Dani said. She took his elbow and escorted Billy to the front door.

Beau swaggered forward and held the door for him. “We’ll see you then,” Beau said.

“I will see you then,” Dani corrected.

“You’re right,” Beau drawled. He gave her a self-assured faintly baiting look. “I’ll probably be sleeping in.” The implication being, Dani thought, that Beau planned to have a very long and tiring night. Doing what, she didn’t even want to imagine. This just gets worse with every second that passes.

“Good night, Billy. Thank you for the flowers.” Dani propelled him out the door. She shut it behind him, then turned and faced Beau. He looked very grim. Disapproving, almost. “What?” Dani demanded impatiently.

Beau pointed to the moving carton with the bouquet on top. “The flowers. You shouldn’t have accepted them. You should have given them back. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s got a giant crush on you,” Beau continued as Billy’s beat-up blue compact with the FILMBUF license plate pulled away from the curb and drove off.

Deciding Billy wasn’t the only one who needed to leave, Dani opened the front door again. She took Beau by the hand and stepped out onto the front porch into the soft breezy heat of early evening. “You think that’s news to me?”

“You should nip this thing with him in the bud,” Beau continued. Taking her by the hand, he led her to the cushioned wicker love seat at the far end of the porch and tugged her down to sit beside him.

For the life of her Dani couldn’t figure out why Beau was so concerned about this. Or why he seemed to think Billy could be a threat to either his or her happiness in any way. “I’ve tried.”

His eyes glimmered with a cynicism that stung. He cocked his head and gave her a thorough once-over. “I saw.”

If there was one thing Dani hated, it was being forced to defend herself when she’d done nothing wrong. And she’d done nothing to make Billy think he was ever going to be anything other than her friend. Or shortterm employee.

Her nerves jangling, Dani jumped up and, irritated, began to pace the length of the porch. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her linen slacks and balled her hands into fists. “I don’t want to hurt his feelings.” And despite Billy’s outward I’m-so-cool persona, he was just as vulnerable as she had been at that age.

Beau leaned back and clamped his arms over his rock-solid chest. “You don’t think leading him on will hurt his feelings?”

Pointedly ignoring that remark, Dani stopped to perch herself on the railing to examine the fragrant magnolia bushes and brilliant crepe myrtle planted all around the front porch. “The only reason Billy is gaga over me is because I work in the film business. Trust me. What he is really feeling—he just doesn’t realize it yet—is gratitude for the encouragement I’ve given him. I think his dreams of becoming the next Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas are possible. From what he’s told me, no one else in Laramie does.”

Briefly, compassion and empathy glimmered in Beau’s eyes. And Dani sensed why. An actor who had made it solely on his own, with no familial connections of any kind, Beau knew what it was like to overcome enormous odds and achieve the kind of success very few ever did. “It’s quite a leap from here to Hollywood,” he conceded thoughtfully after a moment, rubbing his jaw.

“Tell me about it,” Dani murmured. She’d had to work like crazy to get her movie reviews published. First in a single Los Angeles newspaper and now in a syndicated column that appeared in dozens of newspapers across the nation.

“But there are other people—filmmakers—who could mentor him,” Beau continued. “With your connections…”

She looked at Beau, letting him know with a glance that she was not passing Billy off like a piece of clothing she no longer wanted, even if he could be ridiculously naive at times about relationships between men and women, what was possible, what was clearly not. She would get through to Billy eventually, and she would do it without crushing his eighteen-year-old heart. “Not that it’s any of your business, Chamberlain, but I promised Billy a summer job and I intend to honor that promise. Plus, I really need his skills.”

Beau pushed to his feet and waited for her to continue.

“I signed a contract to do a book,” Dani explained as Beau sauntered closer. “One thousand and one reviews of ‘date night’ movie videos. Everything from the classics to the newest releases.”

Beau stopped just short of her perch and regarded her curiously. “How did you pick which ones to review?” And were there any of his movies in the group?

His unspoken question hung in the air.

“That’s just it.” Dani bit her lip as she answered his question, and tension flooded her anew. “I haven’t yet. And with every major film studio sending me several thousand films, I’ve got a ton to sort through. Just cataloging them is going to be a bear.”

“Which is where Billy comes in,” Beau guessed. He leaned forward, bracing a hand on the railing on either side of her.

Dani leaned back slightly. Her heart was pounding. She was tingling all over. She told herself it was the tension causing her body to go haywire and not his proximity. She glowered at Beau. She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks even as she sought to get a handle on her soaring emotions. “Billy’s knowledge of films, past and present, is incredible. He can help me sort through them.”

Beau leaned in closer. “When is your manuscript due?”

Dani swallowed, her adrenaline pumping for a completely different reason. “A year from now.” Dani tried not to feel too overwhelmed by the work still to be done or the enormous project she had taken on. “They want it in the stores by the following Christmas.”

She could practically see the wheels turning as Beau did some quick calculations. “Which means you’d have to watch and review three movies a day,” Beau surmised grimly after a moment. He folded his arms.

Dani studied Beau’s handsome face and tall muscled form. There was nothing soft or easy about him. She sensed there never would be. He was who he was, take it or leave it. Trying not to think how much they had in common that way, Dani nodded and replied, “Approximately, yeah. In addition to writing my weekly reviews for syndication. That’s why I need so much help this summer getting organized.”

Blue eyes narrowing, he continued to study her relentlessly. “Sounds like you’ve taken on a lot.”

Too much, he meant, Dani noted resentfully. “I think I know what I can and cannot handle,” Dani retorted stiffly, releasing a slow, ragged breath, not about to admit that recently she’d had the same concerns herself. “Not that it is any of your concern.”

Beau merely stood there.

“You were just leaving,” Dani reminded him.

Beau nodded. “I was.”

“But…?” Dani hopped down from her perch and tried to sidle past him to avoid any further discussion. Not about to let her go that easily, he put up a hand to stop her, and her ribs made contact with the flexed muscles of his forearm, instead. With a sigh of frustration, she moved back so they were no longer touching and tried not to imagine a life with a man so hell-bent on having his own way all the time.

“I changed my mind,” Beau said, a determined look on his face.

Dani’s temper kicked into full gear. “You’ve decided to end this lunacy of a marriage at long last?”

Beau shook his head. “I’ve decided,” he enunciated clearly, “to protect my turf.”

Dani flushed self-consciously. Without warning, she had an idea what it would be like to really be Beau’s wife, to wake up in his arms every morning, to lie in his arms every night. The thought was as tantalizing as it was disturbing. Being near him this way was like playing around a fire. Stay too far away, and you’ll never get warm. Come too close, and you’ll get burned. Deciding it was best just to keep a fair distance between them, she propped her hands on her hips and said, “I told you before. You can’t stay here. Laramie is a small town.”

“So small,” Beau agreed, looking very much like he wanted nothing more than to make love to her then and there, “that all the hotel rooms are booked.”

“So stay with Greta and Shane McCabe,” Dani suggested, knowing it would be a dangerous proposition to have Beau too close to her for too long. Because the truth was, she did desire him and always had. She swallowed, pushing those thoughts away. Then she continued firmly, “They’re close friends of yours.”

One corner of Beau’s mouth quirked in a smile. “They’re also newlyweds,” he answered, leaving no question about what he thought Shane and Greta would be doing most nights. Exactly what he probably wanted to be doing.

Dani turned away from him and walked to the other end of the porch. She reached down to touch the silky white petals of a magnolia blossom. Needing something to hang on to, she plucked it from its stem, turned back to Beau. He was still eyeing her with a depth of male speculation she found disturbing. “That didn’t stop you from practically brawling with Shane in the middle of the street a few weeks ago.”

Beau shifted so he was standing with his legs braced apart. He jammed his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. “That was a publicity stunt for Bravo Canyon.” He paused, still looking her up and down, from the breeze-mussed strands of her coppery hair to her bare toes and back again. “Or hadn’t you heard?”

“Could this be one, too, pray tell?” Dani asked sweetly, with a lofty wave of the fragrant white blossom in her hand. Abruptly she felt a little sick, realizing there could be yet another reason for these drawn-out shenanigans of his besides mere payback. Publicity.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Beau said with a smug smile. He strolled toward her. “Hang in there and see.”

He stopped just short of her, looking once again as if he wanted very much to kiss her. Pulse pounding, Dani backed away from him. Try as she might, she could not get Beau off her front porch without creating a scene. The best way to play it, she decided stubbornly, was to make her responses to his macho maneuvers so dull and uninteresting that there was no way he would want to continue to spend time with her.

So she gave up trying to get Beau to leave, walked to the front door, leaving him to follow at will. She would begin to close down the house for the night, even though it was barely eight o’clock. “Fine, Beau. Have it your way,” she said in a low bored tone as she tossed aside the blossom and marched into the house, him hard on her heels. Discounting him completely, she shut and locked the front door behind them. “Bed down on my sofa for the night. See if I care. Just bear in mind—” she favored him with a sweet taunting smile “—that marriage or no marriage, nothing of a romantic nature is going to happen here.”

At the mention of their marriage, Beau’s black brows drew together like thunderclouds over his midnight-blue eyes. “Meaning what?” he asked sarcastically as Dani headed for the stairs. Sauntering closer, he crossed his arms and girded his thighs as if for battle. “You’ve already decided to give up on us?”

“There is no ‘us.”’ Feeling hot color flush her cheeks, Dani spoke as if underlining every word. Not about to let him get the better of her, now or at any other time, she held her ground, despite the fact they were now uncomfortably close. Close enough for her to inhale his alluring cologne. Close enough for her to see the speculation gleaming in his eyes.

Beau braced his legs a little farther apart, gaze skimming her deliberately, provocatively. “Careful. You don’t want to make a decision like that too soon.”

Heart pounding, Dani studied him. Unwilling to think what it would be like if someone as used to getting his own way as Beau decided he wanted to be a permanent part of her life, she drew an unsteady breath. “You really aren’t going to leave?” she asked rudely, knowing for Beau there were no real deterrents, only obstacles to be overcome.

“I am your husband,” he reminded her with a look of utter male supremacy. “And since husbands and wives generally stay under the same roof…”

Finding his low sexy voice a bit too determined, too full of sexual promise for comfort, Dani turned away uneasily. “Fine.” She put up both hands in surrender and kept walking. “Do whatever you want. But if you think you’re getting a blanket or a pillow,” she said over her shoulder as she headed up the stairs, “you’re dreaming, cowboy.”

“You’re going to bed already?” he queried, not bothering to hide his disappointment over that.

Dani smiled, aware she had just won a victory in this battle of wills, albeit a small one. “You bet I am.” She smiled sweetly and watched his disappointment deepen. Unable to help herself, she added, “Of course, if you get bored you can always change your mind and leave.”

BEAU WATCHED Dani’s slender body disappear into the master bedroom at the head of the stairs. Desire welled up inside him, but he knew for tonight anyway, it would go unsatiated. As much as he would like to wake up in bed with her again, sans clothing of any kind, he knew they had things to figure out first. Things they probably should have figured out before ending up in bed together initially.

He wasn’t sure they’d be able to wait until they had all the answers they needed, given the potency of that kiss they’d shared this afternoon and the memory of how it had felt to have her warm naked body draped over his. But he wanted at least some of those answers, some explanation for what had apparently happened between them. And he knew, whether she admitted it or not, that so did she.

Deciding he might as well get comfortable, given the long boring evening ahead, he kicked off his boots and stretched out on the red sofa in the living room. He knew what she thought—that he was sticking to her like glue and staying the night merely to annoy her and prove a point. But she was wrong. He was staying because being with her was the only way to remember what had happened during that thirty-six-hour period neither of them could quite recall.

If the two of them had made love and gotten married and inadvertently or purposefully made a baby—so quickly—there had to have been a reason. And a darn good one, Beau was betting. Either they’d both taken complete leave of their senses, something he was beginning to see was a distinct possibility; been hypnotized by aliens and chosen to propagate a new species; blackmailed, drugged, tricked or somehow forced into the nuptials—by whom or what he sure as heck couldn’t imagine as there was very little that could make either of them do anything they didn’t want to. Or she’d been so madly in love with him and he with her that they couldn’t bear to be apart one moment longer. Which seemed likely, given how physically attracted they were to each other, as their kiss this afternoon had proved. And seemed equally unlikely, given how quick they were to disagree on just about everything.

Heck, Beau thought as he folded his hands behind his head and sought to get more comfortable, maybe they’d just decided to have a baby together, despite their different views on life, and decided they needed to be married—temporarily—to do that. Whatever their motivation, they were in this predicament now up to their chins, and no crazy TV show or small-town pressures or mutual work demands were going to negate that.




Chapter Four


Beau had barely settled in when he heard the soft pad of footsteps coming down the stairs. Seconds later Dani entered the living room. She was dressed just as she’d been when she’d gone upstairs. “Lonely already?” This was working out better than he’d hoped. She’d only been up there what—fifteen, twenty minutes?

“In need of answers.” Dani stopped just short of him. She looked pale, stressed out. And scared. As though the enormity of what had happened to them was finally hitting her, just as it had eventually hit him.

Beau sat up slowly. “Okay.” He was ready to deal with this, as directly as possible, if she was. “Shoot.” He’d tell her whatever she wanted to know.

For several tense seconds, Dani stared at Beau incredulously. Her chin tipped defiantly. Some of the color came back into her cheeks. “Enough of the playing around.” Her voice was quiet, subdued, as she searched his face for any hint of duplicity or deceit. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you have no idea what happened that night in Mexico, either.”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be here pressuring you for answers.” With effort Beau kept his voice as neutral as possible. Simmering with a frustration every bit as potent as hers, he frowned, shoved a hand through his hair and looked deep into her amber eyes. “Initially I thought you might have set me up. When I got here and realized pretty quickly that wasn’t the case—you were about as far from gloating as you can get—I hoped you’d at least know how we landed in this predicament. And then enlighten me, either through simple accusation or by just plain blurting it out. But since you don’t appear to remember anything…”

“I don’t,” Dani said, sighing, appearing dismayed to find he really didn’t know anything.

“…I’m hoping if we spend time together it’ll all start coming back to us.” Beau scooted over to make room for Dani on the sofa beside him. “’Cause Lord knows I’ve already tried about everything else I can think of to get my memory back. And thus far nothing’s worked.”

“I’ve racked my brain, too, and I can’t recall much of anything, either,” Dani said.

It was a peculiar feeling, finding they were both in the same boat. Beau was used to their being completely at odds with each other. To suddenly find they were facing the same dilemma, and such a personal one, to boot…He had a feeling this was about to get more complicated. A lot more complicated. Worse, he wanted to drag her into his arms and kiss her again, reason be damned. He wanted to take her upstairs to bed and make wild passionate love to her and see if that brought anything back. And then, only then, when they’d exhausted themselves, run the gamut of their feelings for each other, deal with this predicament they were in. But that was impossible when she was doing her best to keep her feelings about him and everything else under lock and key.

Dani clamped her arms in front of her like a shield. “Then I’m really not on an episode of Celebrity Hoaxes.”

“You really aren’t.” Beau exhaled slowly and continued to study her in the dusky light. “Although how you managed to even think that I’d do something like that to you, no matter how ticked off I was at you, I don’t know.”

Dani lifted one slender shoulder in a hapless shrug, turned her glance away and began to pace, the last of her denial fading fast. “It was more acceptable than the reality of the two of us being really married and expecting, I guess.” She finally sat down next to him on the sofa, being careful to maintain a good eight or nine inches between them.





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