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,
