a longing glance at her body in her hot pink dress. “I prefer spicier fare.”
“I’ll try not to feed you too big of a bite, then.” She went back to texting, and he wondered if it was too late to text his family and explain that, while he loved them, he really wanted to handle this momentous occasion alone, because he was going to have a devil of a challenge getting his wife into a bed with him. He didn’t have time for celebrating and family hijinks. Every second of his life until these babies were born had to be spent romancing his wife. After they arrived, he’d have precious little time alone with her, and he hadn’t yet enjoyed his woman the way he wanted to.
He felt like a man who’d starved a long while in plain view of the most delicious meal he’d ever seen.
“It was nice of you to invite my relatives,” he said, even though family was the last thing he wanted around.
“And mine,” she said, her voice bright. “No bride wants to be married without someone to give her away.”
There was the problem. His family and hers didn’t get along, making the situation ripe for discomfort and fireworks.
“Anyway, I knew your family wouldn’t want to miss the last Callahan bachelor getting married.” Sawyer smiled at him, her big blue eyes completely innocent, when he knew that she was trying to put as much distance between them as possible.
“If we’re going to marry, I want us to start out on the right foot with the in-laws and the outlaws,” Sawyer said. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving them out.”
“Where are they booking rooms?” Jace asked.
“I don’t know. But I’m booking us rooms at a bed-and-breakfast nearby.”
He swallowed. “Rooms?”
She glanced up from the sudden storm of texts she was sending. “I meant room.”
No, she hadn’t. Jace could tell he was going to have to keep a very close eye on his little woman. No drinking too much and finding out she’d shuttled him into a room with his family. No visiting too much, or he’d probably find her headed back to Diablo without him. “Sex is what got us into this, darling.”
“That’s how it works,” Sawyer said.
“Yet I have the strangest feeling you don’t want to be alone with me.”
“Callahans are known to have a lot of strange qualities. I wouldn’t let it bother me now, if I were you.”
“We’ll stop and get you a ring,” he said, giving up on sex for the moment.
“I don’t need a ring. The vows are more than I want.”
He grunted. “The ring is part of the ceremony. You’ll have a ring.”
“Are you going to wear one?”
He hadn’t planned on it, but he sensed this was treacherous water. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know.” She ran a considering eye over him. “But if you are, I will.”
“Back to our discussion of our domicile,” he said.
“I’m planning on going to Rancho Diablo,” Sawyer stated.
He blinked, hearing the thing he’d been sensing, the trouble at the end of the supposedly peaceful road. “Like, as soon as the ‘I do’ leaves your mouth?”
“Well, not until we’ve cut the cake.” She looked at him, puzzled. “Of course I plan to stay for the cake your sister ordered. It would be rude to leave!”
Great. Nothing said love like worrying about the sister’s cake purchase. “I was thinking we’d live together.”
“This morning, you didn’t even know you were a father. So we don’t have plans,” Sawyer pointed out. “Spur-of-the-moment decisions are rarely a good idea.”
“As in getting married in Vegas?”
“As in getting married in Vegas.” She nodded. “I liked our relationship just the way it was.”
He shook his head. “We didn’t have a relationship. We had sex, but not a relationship.”
She met his gaze. “Was there a problem?”
The problem had come when she’d left, and he realized he’d been parked at the gates of heaven for too long. Now he was hoping to crash through those gates and land in the paradise waiting for him—if he could just figure out how to explain that to Sawyer. How could a man tell his woman that, while frequent, horny sex had been fun, and fired by the forbidden, he sensed the next phase of their relationship could be that much sweeter?
Especially since she didn’t seem inclined to recognize the possibility for an ongoing, more meaningful relationship between them.
“Not a problem, exactly,” he said carefully. “But it seems that we should be open to the idea of a new phase in our friendship.”
She didn’t reply. “I know this pregnancy changes your life significantly,” he added.
“Yes. It does.” Sawyer turned her head to gaze out the window.
He had one reluctant little mama on his hands.
“Yours, too,” she said. “I know the Callahans have a pattern. You find out you’re expecting, and immediately want to get married. Then the wife gets shuttled off to a safe location.” Sawyer finally looked his way. “I’ll expect you to treat our pregnancy differently.”
“How differently?”
“By not trying to send me off to your family in Hell’s Colony, or Tempest.”
He swallowed. That had been the next plan. “The reason my brothers have been so determined for their wives and children to be in another location is because Rancho Diablo isn’t safe. You know as well as anyone that my uncle Wolf has made things very difficult at the ranch. It’s even worse now. Which is why your uncle Storm sold us his ranch and moved into town with Lulu Feinstrom.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve already rented out a room from Fiona. Didn’t she tell you? I called and asked her about renting a room before I came back to Rancho Diablo for our date. I do need a place to live now that my job in Tempest is completed.”
“You rented a room?”
Sawyer nodded. “A marriage license won’t mean I want to be a wife in anything other than name.”
Well, there was nothing he could say to that. She’d ridden all over his poor flailing heart. It beat wildly in his chest, stressed and unhappy with his current circumstances.
There was only one thing to do.
He pulled over at the next rest stop and parked the truck. Then he pulled Sawyer close and laid a kiss to end all kisses on her. He didn’t let her go, either, making certain she knew how much he desired her, kissing her long and thoroughly, communicating in a different way what he couldn’t say out
