Matt handed her a cup of steaming chocolate.
“It’s too hot to drink right now,” she said, placing it on a coffee table and then leaning back.
When he sat nearby and gave her a long look, she drew a deep breath. “I feel like the proverbial bug under a microscope,” she said.
“An absolutely stunning butterfly, maybe. A bug—no,” he answered quietly, his gaze drifting lazily over her while she couldn’t avoid being pleased by his compliment. “Are you ready to discuss the terms of my offer?”
She shrugged. “It’s not essential because I really do not intend to accept it. I prefer that you accept my proposal.”
“Let’s just say, ‘What if?’ and talk about my offer for a while. All right?”
“I suppose, as long as you don’t abandon me here in Houston if we don’t come to an agreement. I do want to return to Rincon.”
“I promise to get you home and I don’t intend to reach a decision tonight. I only want to talk things over. When I first approached you, we were complete strangers.”
“And the brief time we’ve been together has made a difference?” she asked in surprise because it hadn’t changed her opinions.
He set the bottle on a table. “We’ll live in my house, but what happens if you want to go out with someone or start seeing someone regularly?”
She shook her head. “You’re assuming we will go with your offer.”
“Let’s discuss it.”
“It’s pointless to, but if it makes you happy, all right,” she said. “For now, I don’t want any man in my life. Not at all. You’re still going on the assumption that I’ll accept your offer and we won’t marry. Or do you intend the same agreement if we marry?”
His eyes narrowed and her heart began to thump faster at the determined expression on his face. “No. If we marry, I don’t want sordid gossip floating around Cedar County about this baby’s mother or stepfather.”
“So what do you propose? A celibate life?” she asked, unable to imagine that he would agree.
“Hardly. If I agree to your marriage proposal, I want sex.”
Heat blazed in her, and she could feel the perspiration break out on her forehead. While her emotions boiled, they stared at each other. “That isn’t what I intended.”
“That’s what it would have to be.”
“How often?” she shot back, trying to catch her breath and wondering if she could handle sex with Matt Ransome without falling head over heels in love with him—a love that she was certain he would never return. Could there be great sex and no love with a handsome man who was helping her raise her child? Hardly.
Fear curled in her, thick and as palpable as smoke from a fire. Jeff had broken her trust and trampled her feelings. Could she expect anything better from his older brother?
“Let’s say after your pregnancy is over, twice a week and then we can go from there.”
“And until my pregnancy is over?”
“I don’t see any need to be definite except if I marry you, then I want a wedding night with sex.”
She was certain he could hear her heart thudding. His demands were making both propositions, his and hers, real to her.
“You know what you want, don’t you?” Agitated, she stood and moved to the floor-to-ceiling window to gaze down below at the lights on a sparkling pool. Was she ready for sex with him? Her body was more than ready. His words had set her ablaze, but sex was a fast track to heartbreak. Remembering his spectacular, sizzling kisses that had stormed her senses and had been the beginning of seduction, she knew he would be a fabulous lover. And that was what worried her because Matt Ransome seemed as hardhearted as they came.
“There’s always my offer,” he said quietly, standing close behind her. She hadn’t heard him get up or move across the room. She turned to face him. He stood only a foot away. He had rolled back his sleeves and unfastened one more button on his shirt. All she could think of was sex with him—a wedding night.
“If I increased the amount of money, would you accept my offer? If I changed the hundred thousand dollars to a hundred and fifty thousand, how’s that?”
Again, he shocked her and she stared at him while the amount spun in her thoughts. “If you’re that willing to raise what you’ll pay me, then marriage must be binding enough that you want to avoid it at all costs,” she whispered.
Matt stood waiting quietly, letting her think about the money. He could afford what he had offered and he did not want marriage, yet standing so close to her, gazing into her wide green eyes, his pulse raced and he was hot with desire. She was stunning with her new hairdo and clothes. She had been a looker before, but now she was breathtaking. Men had watched her all evening in a restaurant where people would be far more restrained than the honky-tonk at home.
No matter how enticing she was, he didn’t want a permanent entanglement. Even with the increase in his offer, he felt to his soul that she was going to hold out for marriage.
He inhaled deeply, his gaze sweeping over her slender bare shoulders and long, graceful throat, the soft curves that the dress hugged and her tiny waist. Her long legs were spectacular. He already knew that from seeing her in the towel and cutoffs. Could he take her to bed, live under the same roof, share a baby with her and still keep his heart locked away?
He had no doubt that once she got her law degree, she would be gone. He hoped by that time, she would feel that her child was part of the Ransome family. In the meantime he better worry about the present. What would he do if she turned down his offer?
“I’ve made you a damned handsome offer,” he said aloud, half to her and half to himself.
“I know you have. It was generous before you raised the amount. It’s the long-term commitment I want.”
“I’ll never love again,” he said. “You better believe me because I do what I say.”
“I imagine you do,” she replied, looking up at him. “Jeff told me about how your father got lost one time when his small plane crashed in the Rocky Mountains and after the searchers gave up hunting for him, you flew up there, trekked into the mountains on your own and found him and brought him out of there on a stretcher you improvised. Jeff said you do what you say and you don’t give up. Actually, he said you’re stubborn as a mule.”
“As if he wasn’t. I knew my dad was there and I wasn’t going to leave him. He had broken one leg and he couldn’t get out on his own and no one else survived the crash. My dad is a tough old codger.”
“I suspect you’re rather tough yourself.”
“If so, I’ve had to be sometimes,” he replied, fighting an urge to reach out and touch her. In spite of the conflict between them and his anger, he wanted her. Desire was a throbbing, hot flame tormenting him. She was beautiful and he couldn’t stop wanting to hold and kiss her.
“And stubborn?”
“I
