A SECRET BABY BARGAIN?

Small Texas towns always have their secrets. Fortunately, no one in Laramie knows about Sage Lockhart’s friends-with-benefits arrangement with hunky cowboy Nick Monroe. And now Sage wants something more from Nick—something that could change the very nature of their relationship. She wants to have his baby.

Nick’s always wanted to take things with Sage to the next level. Maybe this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but having a child with Sage is an adventure Nick can’t refuse. Of course, neither of them knew just how complicated things could get. With a baby on the way and all their careful plans unraveling, Sage and Nick must face the one secret they’ve been hiding from themselves...and from each other.

“You have a hankering for my DNA?”

Nick paused, undecipherable emotion in his eyes. “You’re serious.”

More than Sage wanted to admit. She’d been trying to work up the nerve to approach him since the first time they’d hit the sheets. And it was no wonder. It wasn’t just his mesmerizing sky blue eyes, thick, dark hair or masculine good looks. But intelligence and kindness, practicality and innovation, compassion and heart...

And that something special that was all his own. But she couldn’t tell him that. Not without sounding like she’d really gone round the bend.

“You are everything I’d ever want in a baby daddy.”

His sexy grin encouraged her to go on.

“Big. Strong. Handsome.”

He tilted his head, edges of his lips curving seductively. “And here I thought you liked me for my brain.”

“I do.” She batted her lashes flirtatiously. “Your sense of humor, too.”

He grinned. “We do know how to make each other laugh.”

Which was the way they both liked it. Nice. Easy. Uncomplicated.

This could be, too. If only she could make him see...

Wanted: Texas Daddy

Cathy Gillen Thacker

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CATHY GILLEN THACKER is married and a mother of three. She and her husband spent eighteen years in Texas and now reside in North Carolina. Her mysteries, romantic comedies and heartwarming family stories have made numerous appearances on bestseller lists, but her best reward, she says, is knowing one of her books made someone’s day a little brighter. A popular Mills & Boon author for many years, she loves telling passionate stories with happy endings and thinks nothing beats a good romance and a hot cup of tea! You can visit Cathy’s website, www.cathygillenthacker.com, for more information on her upcoming and previously published books, recipes and a list of her favorite things.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

“You want to have my baby,” Nick Monroe repeated slowly, leading the two horses out of the stables.

Sage Lockhart slid a booted foot into the stirrup and swung herself up into the saddle. She’d figured the Monroe Ranch was the perfect place to have this discussion. Not only was it Nick’s ancestral home, but with Nick the only one living there now, it was completely private.

She drew her flat-brimmed hat straight across her brow. “An unexpected request, I know.”

Yet, she realized as she studied him, noting that the color of his eyes was the same deep blue as the big Texas sky above, he didn’t look all that shocked.

For he better than anyone knew how much she wanted a child. They’d grown quite close ever since she returned to Texas, to claim her inheritance from her late father and help her mother weather a scandal that had rocked the Lockhart family to the core.

So close, in fact, the two of them had been “friends with benefits” for several months now.

Nick’s gaze drifted over her, creating small wildfires in its wake.

With a click of his reins, he turned his horse in the direction of the wide-open pastures behind the Triple Canyon ranch house. He slowed his mount slightly, while waiting for Sage to catch up. “You’re still having second thoughts about using an anonymous donor from the fertility clinic?”

She nodded, enjoying the warm autumn breeze blowing over them. It was a perfect Indian summer afternoon.

Swallowing around the knot of emotion in her throat, Sage admitted, “On the one hand, picking out a potential daddy for my baby via a set of statistics and characteristics seems easy enough.”

Squinting at her, he settled his hat on his head. “Kind of like reading a menu of options.”

“Right.” If only it were that simple, she thought wistfully. Because her mom had been right. Having a baby was an emotional—not a scientific—proposition.

“But?” He kept the pace slow and steady as they threaded their way along a path that took them down a steep ravine, across a wildflower-strewn canyon and up the other side.

“It’s a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.” Mostly, because the only person she could see fathering her baby was the ruggedly handsome rancher-businessman beside her.

She drew a deep, bolstering breath. “The idea of a complete stranger fathering my child is becoming increasingly unappealing.” When they reached their favorite picnic spot, she swung herself out of the saddle, watching as Nick tied their horses to a tree.

Together, they moved into the warm early September sunshine. Spread a blanket out on the ground. “What if the donor profiles aren’t exactly accurate?”

Nick set down the rucksack containing their meal. “I thought the clinic had everyone go through extensive background checks.”

Sage settled cross-legged on the blanket. watching as he did the same. “They do.”

He opened up the bag, brought out the containers from her café-bistro. Two individual thermoses of chicken tortilla soup. Luscious squares of jalapeño-cheese cornbread. And for dessert, triple-berry tarts that she’d gotten up at the crack of dawn to make especially for him.

“Then...?”

Sage shrugged. Aware that Nick was carefully weighing his options—the way he always did when the talk turned to anything personal—Sage forced herself to abandon the hopelessly idyllic notions that had dictated her actions for years, and speak what was on her mind, rather than what was in her heart.

“The more I think about it, the more I have to wonder. Do I really want some stranger’s DNA swimming around inside me?”

Nick grinned, as if pleased to hear she was a one-man woman, at least in this respect.

He looked at her from beneath the brim of his hat. “Which is why you’re asking me?” he countered in the rough, sexy tone she’d fallen in love with the first second she had heard it. “Because you know me?”

Sage locked eyes with him, not sure whether he was teasing her or not. One thing she knew for sure: there hadn’t been a time since they’d first met that she hadn’t wanted him.

And that, too, was unusual. Prior to meeting Nick, she hadn’t considered herself a particularly sexual person.

He’d changed all that. Fast. Thanks to the times they’d spent in bed, she now knew how much she loved the physical side of affection.

Even without the heretofore requisite falling in love.

“Or because,” he continued flirtatiously as he unscrewed the lid on his thermos, “you have a hankering for my DNA?”

Aware the only appetite she had now was not for food, she quipped, “How about both?”

He paused, spoon halfway to his lips, undecipherable emotion in his eyes. “You’re serious.”

More than she wanted to admit. She’d been trying to work up the nerve to approach him since the first time they’d hit the sheets. And it was no wonder she felt he was the perfect man for the job. It wasn’t just his mesmerizing sky blue eyes, thick, dark hair or masculine good looks. Or the way he made her feel in bed, all woman to his man. At six foot four inches tall, with broad shoulders and a fit, muscular body, he was the quintessential Texas cowboy. A man who was as much at ease running his family’s business as he was this ranch. He radiated not just boundless energy and good health, but intelligence and kindness, practicality and innovation, compassion and heart...

But she couldn’t tell him any of that. Not without sounding like she’d really gone round the bend. “Well...” With a wistful sigh, she flashed him a teasing look. “You are everything I’d ever want in a baby daddy.”

His sexy grin encouraged her to go on.

“Big. Strong. Handsome.”

He tilted his head, edges of his lips curving seductively. “And here I thought you liked me for my brain.”

“I do.” She batted her lashes flirtatiously. “Your sense of humor, too.”

He grinned. “We do know how to make each other laugh.”

Which was the way they both liked it. Nice. Easy. Uncomplicated. This could be, too. If only she could make him see so...

She covered his big hand with her own. Gave it a squeeze. “And since we’re already friends, with benefits, conceiving wouldn’t require us to do anything we’re not already doing. Except,” she added, unable to prevent a self-conscious flush, “forgetting to use protection.”

Clearing his throat, he looked her in the eye. “Nice as that sounds...”

Her heart took on a rapid, uneven beat.

Fearing rejection, she persuaded swiftly, “You want kids, too.” She removed her hand from his, sat back. “You’ve said so, at least half a dozen times.”

He nodded, his beautiful mouth set in a sober line. “When the time is right. Yeah, Sage, I do.”

Restless, she leaped to her feet. Hands knotted at her sides, she began to pace. “What if it’s never right?” She whirled back to face him then watched as he rose, too. “What if, like me—” her tone grew as strangled as the hopes inside her “—you don’t find someone and fall madly in love? What if we wait too long and then something happens and we find we’re no longer as fertile as we once were and we suddenly can’t have children? I don’t want to live with that kind of regret, Nick. Especially since I’ve already wasted so much time.”

“Chasing after Timothy Wellington.”

“Terrence Whittier,” she corrected, aware that was the one thing he could never get right, her ex’s name. “And you’re right, I don’t want to do that again. Live so far in the future that I don’t appreciate the here and now. I don’t want that for you, either, Nick.” She trod closer, hands raised beseechingly. “And since...”

She stopped, aware in her eagerness to convince him, she may have spoken a bit too bluntly.

“I’ve already had two broken engagements?”

Knowing she had no room to talk, given her own relationship failure, she wrapped her hand around his bicep. Felt it swell beneath her touch.

“My point is,” she continued, her fingers curving intimately around the hard-packed muscle, through the soft chambray of his shirt, “you’ve been no more successful at finding the perfect match than I have.” She stepped back, jerked in a breath, gave it one last shot. “So why not accept that the odds are against us? And simply make it happen, on our own terms.”

* * *

SAGE HAD A POINT, Nick knew.

Waiting might bring them everything they wanted. The kind of fantastic, enduring love he knew Sage still dreamed about—even if she wouldn’t admit it. And it might bring them nothing. Hadn’t he put off pursuing his long-held dreams for too long? An orphan since age ten, he knew better than anyone how short life could be. Still, there were problems with her proposition. The least of which were his growing feelings for her. Compared with the way she still felt—might always feel—about him. As a friend. A bed buddy. Nothing more.

And although their casual arrangement was fine for now—more than fine actually, since he had so much else going on, work-wise—he wasn’t sure that would always be the case.

Because like most deeply ambitious souls, he knew this about himself. He always wanted more.

And that was never more true than when it came to Sage Lockhart. She was five feet nine inches of nonstop energy and enthusiasm, her slender body as feminine as it was curvaceous. With a breathtakingly beautiful face, mesmerizing golden-brown eyes, soft pink bow-shaped lips and a thick mane of wheat-colored hair that fell in soft waves to her shoulders, she drove him wild with lust. It didn’t matter if she was dressed in fancy cowgirl attire, like she sported now, or the white chef’s coat she wore to work, he was constantly wanting to pull her into his arms and make love to her.

Unfortunately, making her physically his wouldn’t solve this dilemma.

Sobering, Nick put on the brakes. “As much as I want a family of my own, too, you know I’m married to the Monroe family business right now.”

As always, at the first hint of conflict, a wall went up. “That’s just it, Nick. I’m not asking that marriage be part of this equation. Not now. Not ever.”

“Even when you become pregnant and/or the baby is born.”

“Even then.”

She said that, but did she actually mean it? Nick studied Sage skeptically. “Yet, to hear your family talk, you’re one of the most hopelessly romantic women ever born.”

“I used to be. Before I met you.”

Ouch.

She waved an airy hand. “You made me realize that reality is better than romance any day,” she confided in a sweet, matter-of-fact voice.

He tamped down his disappointment. Faced her with his legs braced apart, arms folded in front of him. “How so?”

“You and I started out as just friends.”

Only, he thought, because she would have refused to date him in the tumult of the family scandal that had brought her back to Texas in early June. Then, she had wanted to concentrate on helping her shell-shocked mother clear the Lockhart name of any wrongdoing, while also figuring out what to do with her own inheritance from her late father—a commercial building, complete with a personal residence, on Laramie, Texas’s historic Main Street.

Over the course of the summer, Sage had accomplished both, while her “friendship” with him had morphed into a no-strings-attached affair.

She had opened a thriving café-bistro, The Cowgirl Chef, which was just down the street from his own family venue, Monroe’s Western Wear. She’d also moved off her mother’s Circle H Ranch and into the apartment above her coffee shop.

“And because we got to know each other platonically first before we fell into bed, we never viewed each other through rose-colored glasses.” She stepped close enough he caught the intoxicating scent of her perfume. “The point is, Nick, we were honest with each other. About everything from Day One.”

Except for one thing, he thought.

How much I wanted to be with you.

Sage might have fallen into a sexual relationship with him, but he had known all along that he wanted to make her his woman. Luckily, she had felt the chemistry between them, too. Sighing, she looked up at him from beneath her lashes and went on, “I’ve never had to pretend to want things I didn’t want, just to be with you. The way I did with Terrence.”

Instead, he realized ironically, it was him, pretending he didn’t want the things he did. Not that this current roadblock was going to stop him. He would win her heart, no matter how long it took.

“Like marriage,” he guessed, keeping his attitude as ultracasual as hers.

The soft swell of her breasts rose and fell. “It’s not for me.” She gripped his forearms beseechingly. “And since you’re as wedded to your family business as I am to my new café-bistro, we make a perfect pair.”

That much he could agree on. He’d never met a woman who fascinated him the way Sage did.

That being the case, maybe he should be a gentleman, try it her way. “So how would this work?” he asked curiously. If there was anything his own joke-of-a-love-life had taught him, it was never to crowd a woman. Never jump the gun. It was slow and steady patience that would win out in the end. A tact that had moved them from friends, to lovers and possibly parents, thus far. He took her all the way into his arms. “Us having a baby together?”

Sage splayed her hands across his chest. “As you might imagine...”

Oh, he could imagine, all right, he thought, body already hardening.

“...first, we get me pregnant,” she teased, her golden-brown eyes gleaming with excitement.

Nick savored the feel of her soft body pressed up against his. “Can’t say I mind working on that part...” he admitted huskily, kissing her temple. It would give him ample opportunity to make love with her again and again.

And every time he made love to her, he felt her stubborn resistance to real, enduring commitment slip, just a little bit.

Sage shrugged. “Then we have the baby and parent him or her together.”

“Under one roof?”

She stepped back, clamping her arms in front of her. “Well, I don’t think we have to go that far...”

What if I want to go that far?

She lifted her hand before he could interject. “I think it would be smart to maintain separate residences. You can live at your family ranch, I’ll keep my apartment in town. And we can care for the baby at both places. Be together as much or as little as we want.”

That sounded okay, since he knew better than anyone how one thing could easily lead to another, with Sage.

Soberly, he warned, “You know, if my quest for venture capital comes through, and I can expand into half a dozen new stores in different locations the way I’d like, I’ll be traveling some.”

Sage smiled, unperturbed. “That’s the beauty of my being here in Laramie. I have my whole family, you have yours. Between the Monroes and the Lockharts, we’ll have more backup with this baby than we know what to do with whether you’re in town or not.”

That was true.

Was it possible they could both have everything they wanted?

Especially since marriage per se didn’t mean all that much to him, either. What he really wanted was to be with Sage. Having a baby with her, well...that was the stuff of dreams, too.

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” he drawled.

“We can have it all, Nick. Friendship. Sex. Family. Plus, the freedom to live our lives exactly as we want and pursue our careers without constraint.” She toyed with the top button of his shirt. “So what do you say?”

The only thing he could if he wanted to make Sage his. He lowered his head and took possession of her lips. “Darlin’?” He kissed her again, more tenderly and persuasively now. “Consider me ‘all in’...”

Chapter Two

Four months later

Nick put the closed sign on the door of Monroe’s Western Wear and turned back to Sage.

Wheat-gold hair swept up into an untidy knot on the back of her head, her face glowing with the unmistakable light of happiness and maternal good health, she looked more gorgeous than he had ever seen her.

But the time for avoiding this conversation was over.

He walked through the rustic interior of the store, his attitude as stern as hers was stubborn. “Enough of this evading, Sage. We have to tell people.” The sooner the better, as far as he was concerned.

Sage ducked her head to avoid meeting his gaze, and continued sorting through the stack of women’s jeans. “In a couple of weeks,” she murmured, zeroing in on another size up from her normal.

He resisted the urge to direct her over to the small but well-outfitted area containing denim maternity wear. Settling with his back against the heavy wood display rack, so she would have no choice but to look at him, he asked, “You really think you can keep hiding this?”

Her lower lip thrust out into a kissable pout. “The chef’s coat and colorful aprons have worked so far.”

Actually, Nick thought, his gaze sliding down her newly voluptuous body, they hadn’t. It wasn’t just the waist and hips of the garment that were snug—the double row of buttons over her newly luscious breasts were so tight, they threatened to pop off.

Deciding, however, that might not be the best thing for him to point out, he merely inclined his head. “Your family has been giving me looks.”

“So?” She shrugged again. “They give everyone they think has designs on me looks.”

Not, he thought, the kind of looks they’d been giving him. He cleared his throat, regarded her severely, tried again. “Sage...”

She started to dart past him, then stopped, spying a Bullhaven Ranch pickup truck parking in one of the slanted spaces in front of the store. Her pretty mouth dropped into an O of surprise.

“Oh, heck!” she swore, darting off in the opposite direction toward the back of the store. “There’s Chance!” She ducked through the curtain that led to the storeroom, calling over her shoulder. “If he asks, I’m not here!”

Well, this ought to be fun, Nick thought wryly, as a second, then third pickup pulled up next to the first. Three tall men emerged from the driver’s seats. Headed toward the front of the store.

Chance Lockhart peered around the closed sign. Gestured. He wanted in. So did his two brothers.

Figuring they may as well get this over with, Nick obliged. Garrett, Wyatt and Chance Lockhart stalked in. Not surprisingly, all three of Sage’s older brothers looked loaded for bear. The only sibling not there was her Special Forces brother, Zane, who was as usual off on assignment. Garrett nodded perfunctorily at Nick. “Monroe.”

This was not looking good. “What can I do for you?” Nick asked.

Wyatt jumped in with a suspicious glare. “For starters, tell us what in blazes is going on between you and Sage.”

“Not sure what you mean.”

Chance squinted. “Are the two of you a couple? Or what?”

It took everything Nick had to suppress a groan. “I imagine Sage would classify us in the ‘or what’ category.”

Garrett’s frown deepened. “Not funny, Monroe.”

“Mom is worried sick,” Chance added.

Lucille Lockhart was a wonderful woman. Kind and generous to a fault. Nick did not want to cause her grief.

“She needn’t be.” He would care for and protect Lucille’s only female child with every fiber of his being.

“Really?” Wyatt demanded, slamming his hands on his waist. “Because from where we’re standing, it looks as if Sage has some pretty big news to share.”

So they did suspect, just as Nick had figured. Pushing aside his irritation that Sage had let it come to this, he said, “Then maybe you should be asking her.”

The brothers’ expressions turned even grimmer. “We have,” Wyatt groused. “She won’t tell us anything.”

Sounded familiar.

Suddenly, he felt sympathy for her family, even as he remained boxed in by his first obligation, which was to Sage. “What do you want me to do?” he demanded impatiently. It wasn’t like he could control Sage. No one could.

“Cowboy up,” Chance said.

Garrett nodded. “Show some responsibility.”

The intimation that he hadn’t stung.

Nick thought about all the times he’d held Sage while she cried—uncharacteristically—over the silliest things. How he’d taken it in stride when she’d fallen asleep, mid-just-about-anything, and/or asked him not to touch her breasts because her nipples were just too sensitive. Surpassed what he really wanted—like sizzling fajitas or a big juicy rare steak—and instead dined on what she was having, even if it was ginger ale and crackers.

Resentment knotted his gut. “How do you know I haven’t been?”

A skeptical silence fell.

Finally, Garrett said, “Have you asked her to marry you?”

Without warning, the curtain behind them was ripped aside. Sage stormed out, temper flaring.

This, too, was par for the course. Since conceiving, her emotions had frequently skyrocketed out of control.

“Whoa, Nellie!” Hormones raging, she marched toward her brothers, shooing them away with both arms. “You guys need to back the heck off!”

Her brothers remained where they were.

And suddenly, Nick knew what had to be done. Whether Sage liked it or not.

“They’re right.” He pivoted back toward her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “The time for pretending there’s nothing going on with us has passed, darlin’.”

Giving her no chance to protest, he swung back to her three brothers. “Sage is pregnant.” He paused to let the words sink in. Aware in that moment he had never been prouder, or happier. “And the baby is mine.”

* * *

“WELL, THAT WENT BADLY,” Nick admitted, the moment Sage’s brothers had left, more than a little disappointed to find out the two of them had no plans to marry.

“You think?” Sage paced back and forth between the aisles. She’d thought Nick was on her side in this! Fuming, she gave him a sharp look. “Now it’s only a matter of time before they tell Mom I’m pregnant with your child.”

His eyes lit up the way they always did when he knew he’d gotten under her skin. “First of all—” Nick shrugged, as if not sure what the big deal was “—you are pregnant. And your brothers are right—you can’t hide it much longer. So unless you cowgirl up and have that talk with your mother—and soon—they’ll be forced to spill.”

As always, his ultramasculine presence, the sun-warmed leather scent of him, made her feel protected and intensely aware. In an attempt to keep her equilibrium, she kept her distance from him. “That’s not really a comfort to me, Nick.”

He rubbed his hand across his closely shaven jaw, then lazily dropped it again, his eyes never leaving hers. “Hey, I call it like I see it. And for the record, Sage? I’d like to tell my family you’re carrying my baby, too!”

The bell above the door dinged.

Sage moaned, thinking it was probably her brothers, back for Round Two of Convince Sage To Do The Traditional Thing. Instead, the interloper was a gorgeous, elegantly dressed young woman Sage had never seen before.

Nick looked surprised but pleased as he moved to shake the lady’s hand. “MR! What are you doing here? I thought our meeting wasn’t until tomorrow.”

This was the lauded MR? Sage thought in shock. From the way Nick had talked about the venture capital executive, she had imagined someone older and stodgier. Not some auburn-haired beauty sporting stylish black eyeglasses who could double as a Hollywood starlet.

Not that Nick had indicated he had noticed MR’s stunning good looks.

He turned back to Sage, backtracking long enough to make introductions. “Sage, this is MR Rhodes, from Metro Equity Partners. She’s the venture capital exec I’ve been working with. MR, this is—”

“Your fiancée?” the exec guessed tartly.

So she was stodgy after all, considering her disapproving tone as her gaze moved knowingly to Sage’s tummy.

“Ah—” For the first time since the other woman had entered the store, Nick looked flummoxed.

“Baby mama?” MR guessed again, with a candid smile that did not reach her eyes.

The set of Nick’s mouth was suddenly as tense as his shoulders. “Did you want to talk business this evening?” he asked brusquely.

MR got the hint. “Briefly, I do. We’re very close to getting approval from the other partners for the deal you and I have been negotiating.”

A long, slow back and forth of ideas that had been going on as long as Sage had known Nick. “That’s great news!” he said.

MR scowled, suddenly seeming as reluctant and unhappy as Nick had a second ago. “It would be, if you weren’t in the midst of a situation.”

Oh, dear. “Maybe I should leave,” Sage said.

“No.” Nick clapped a possessive hand on her shoulder. He gave her a look that said they had nothing to hide. “You stay.”

Okay, then.

He turned back to MR. “What do you mean by situation?”

MR huffed and looked at Sage as if she were a spoiler. “The plan is to make Nick the public face of the new Western-wear stores. Have him featured prominently in every ad, with personal appearances at every location. But we can’t do that if he’s a deadbeat dad.”

Deadbeat dad? “Nick is not shirking his responsibility,” Sage said hotly.

“I know my partners. They are old-school, family men. There is no way they’re going to go for the new company spokesperson—the brand representative, if you will—having a kid out of wedlock. It’s just not going to happen.” MR looked Nick in the eye. “So unless you want to be trapped here in this one-horse town, in this one-horse store, in perpetuity, the two of you need to get hitched. Pronto.”

Sage turned to Nick in a panic. She didn’t want him to lose everything he had been working so hard to achieve, any more than she wanted to be backed into a corner herself. To her relief, he reached over and gave her hand an understanding squeeze.

“What if we had the rest of my family—my three sisters and brother, and all my nephews and nieces—in the ads?” Nick proposed. “Maybe even use photos of the rest of the Monroe clan. We could go back as far as the store’s beginnings, which is four generations.”

“No. You are the one they want to see in all the ads. And you can see why, right?” MR turned to Sage in full business mode. “He’s like a younger, hotter, tall-dark-and-handsome Ralph Lauren. Our vision and the success of the new venture hinges on Nick’s sex appeal, his image as an upstanding cowboy and devoted family man. And with you pregnant, Sage, regardless of how either of you feel about it, that means marriage. ASAP.”

“We can’t make a decision like that on the fly,” Nick countered.

“Understandable. You all need to talk about it. In the meantime, my assistant, Everett Keller, is checking into the Laramie Inn. We’d like to have dinner locally. So if you could recommend a place with fresh fish. Shrimp. Scallops. Salmon.” MR picked up on Sage’s distaste. “Something wrong?”

Sage shook her head. Nope. Nothing to see here.

But the ever-probing venture capitalist wouldn’t let it go, so Nick placed a comforting hand on Sage’s spine. “Sage got sick on shrimp early in her pregnancy. Just thinking about it makes her ill.”

An understatement if there ever was one. She couldn’t even look at recipes. Never mind photos of the cooked food. And she was a chef! Hopefully, the malady would pass. But for now, a simple whiff made her toss her cookies. Pronto.

“I see,” MR said.

When clearly she didn’t.

Eager to discuss something other than her continuing battle with morning—or in some cases, evening—sickness, Sage wrote down the name of a bed-and-breakfast located a short distance away. “They have an executive chef that’s on par with the best in Dallas, and the menu and wine list to go with. You’ll need reservations. But if you tell them you’re here to do business with Nick and he recommended it, I’m sure they’ll find a way to fit you in this evening.”

“Thanks.” MR looked grateful.

“No problem,” Sage said.

She’d do whatever she could to help Nick.

Short of ruining everything and marrying him, of course.

* * *

“MR IS RIGHT,” Hope Lockhart said, a short time later, when Sage and Nick went over to her brother and sister-in-law’s home. The four of them gathered in the kitchen of the Victorian, while one-year-old Max sat in his high chair and ate his dinner of green beans and diced meatballs.

A crisis manager and public relations expert, Hope had guided the family through several calamities since first meeting them the previous summer. “While there are many customers who won’t care whether you or Nick ever tie the knot, there are others who will be up in arms over it,” Hope told them gently. “You don’t want to lose any potential business right out of the gate. Not if you want this venture to be a success.”

“Think of the plus side,” Garrett added, from his place at the stove. Winking, he gave the boiling pasta and spaghetti sauce another stir. “Mom will be delighted.”

It was all Sage could do not to groan. “Did you all tell her yet?”

Garrett shook his head. “Like we said a while ago at the store, that news is yours to deliver, sis. I just wouldn’t wait too long.”

“Want to do it now?” Nick asked, as he and Sage turned down an invitation to stay for dinner and left.

The sun had set, leaving the quiet residential street bathed in the yellow glow of the streetlamps. Stars shone overhead.

Feeling the need for some support, Sage tucked her hand in Nick’s and rested her chin on the solid warmth of his upper arm. “First, we need to talk about what we’re going to do.”

He caught her other hand and turned her to face him. “I don’t expect you to marry me, Sage.”

But clearly, she thought, it was what he wanted. A simple solution to a very thorny problem. “You heard what MR said. If we don’t, your deal with her firm is likely off.”

Nick shrugged, a distant look coming into his eyes. Sage felt about a million miles away from him. She didn’t like it. In an effort to understand what was going on with him, she asked, “Did you ever tell MR you felt trapped here in Laramie?”

His broad shoulders tensed. “Not in so many words.”

“So she inferred it?”

He nodded curtly.

Which had to mean, she knew Nick pretty well. Pushing aside a surge of unexpected jealousy, Sage gently pushed for more information. “Why would she do that? What did you tell her?” That you haven’t told me?

“When I first approached Metro Equity Partners we talked a lot about the fact that the store, the custom boot-making operation and the ranch have been in my family for four generations. The fact that the women have always run the mercantile operation, the men the ranch.”

“But at some point all that changed.”

“When my mom and dad died in the accident when I was ten, my oldest sister, Erin, took over everything. She sold off all the cattle, but she ran the store.”

“She also raised you and your three older siblings, right?”

Nick nodded gratefully. “Along with her own kids, yeah. But when she married Mac Wheeler and they added a set of twins and another baby to the three they were already raising, Erin needed to take a break from running Monroe’s for a while, and just concentrate on her family life and custom boot-making—which she really loves.” He released a breath. “So at my suggestion, she spun her custom boot-making operation off into a separate business entity, while I took over at Monroe’s. And when she and Mac moved to Amarillo for his work, I put aside my own plans to work for a big corporation in Dallas or Houston, and stepped in permanently to run things here.”

“No one else could do it?”

“It wouldn’t have made sense. I was the business major in the family. My brother, Gavin, studied medicine. My twin sisters, Bess and Bridgett, are both nurses. Plus, the three of them all needed to be closer to the hospital and their patients, so while they got places in town, I moved back to the ranch to take care of the horses, too.”

This was something he rarely talked about. “Doesn’t sound like you had a lot of choice,” Sage said.

He shrugged. “I’m the youngest. It’s my turn. And the way I figure it, a business is a business. And since my goal is to build Monroe’s Western Wear into what it could be—not just what it is—I’m okay with it.”

She understood concessions, because she had made more than a few of her own. Often unhappily. Knowing the kind of resentment that could fester, long-term, she asked, “Would you be okay with losing this venture capital deal because of conditions I put on our arrangement?”

His expression inscrutable, he worked his jaw back and forth. “I’ll find other investors.”

It wasn’t that easy. If it had been, she sensed he would have done this five years ago, when he first took over the family business.

She ignored the quiver, low in her belly, her need to comfort him in a very elemental way. “How long did it take you to interest Metro Equity Partners?”

“Eighteen months or so.”

Which, Sage knew, could feel like a lifetime when you weren’t getting what you wanted. She couldn’t bear to see him disappointed. Not when she was getting everything she wanted—primarily, his baby. “It’s unacceptable for you to have to go back to square one,” she told him firmly.

“It’s just the way it is.” Shouldering the burden stoically, he exhaled. “After all, we’re not talking pennies here.”

She recalled what he had shared with her of the proposal, thus far. “We’re talking six additional stores, opened two months apart, over the course of a year. We’re talking about the many years of work you’ve already put in on this business plan, which is...”

“Four, give or take.”

“Four years.” Sage shook her head in silent remonstration, more determined than ever to make him as happy as he’d made her. “You’re not giving that up. And you’re especially not giving that up on account of me. Got it?”

She tapped his sternum with her index finger.

Vowing softly, “They want you married? We’ll get married. ASAP. And it doesn’t have to change a thing.”

* * *

BUT, OF COURSE, Sage quickly learned, matrimony changed everything, in the blink of an eye. Not only was her mother—who’d been frankly disapproving about Sage’s initial plans to have a baby on her own via artificial insemination—delighted to hear that Sage was carrying Nick’s child, she was even happier when she learned that her daughter was planning to marry him right away.

“That’s wonderful news!” Lucille said, tears shimmering in her eyes as she hugged them both. “But, pregnant or not, you need to do this right—”

Meaning have a big fancy wedding, Sage thought in consternation.

“—and make this a special day reflective of your enduring love for each other,” Lucille finished firmly.

Except, she thought with a wince, that would make the nuptials feel real, and she and Nick knew they weren’t.

At least not the way her mother was assuming, since she hadn’t told Lucille why they were suddenly heading to the altar. And she had made Hope and Garrett promise they wouldn’t, either.

“If you want me to call my event planner,” Lucille continued, already reaching for her phone, “I’ll get right on it.”

Sage gently touched Lucille’s forearm. “Actually, Mom, I think Nick and I want to make all the decisions ourselves.”

“All right,” her mother conceded, smiling at Sage’s rounded tummy. “But if you, or Nick, or the baby need me—”

“We know where to find you,” she promised.

“Well, that went okay,” Nick said, when they left the Circle H Ranch.

Sage savored the intimacy of being alone with Nick. She loved the steadfast way he always backed her up. “Mom’s always up for more grandchildren.” There were four now, and with two of her four siblings married, another engaged, hints of more to soon be on the way.

Looking as if he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Nick drove the country roads with the same masculine ease he did everything else. “This is going to work out,” he told her reassuringly, then took her hand and kissed the back of it.

Tingling all over for no reason she could figure, Sage looked over at him. “Are you sure you don’t feel trapped?”

He dropped his hold on her hand. “No.” Steering the car over to the berm, he put it in Park and turned to look at her. His glance sifted slowly over her face, lingering on the flush in her cheeks and her bare lips, before returning slowly to her eyes. Sage caught her breath. As their gazes locked, he rubbed a strand of her hair between his fingers. The corners of his lips curved upward. “Do you?”

Insides quivering, Sage took a moment to consider. At times like this, all she wanted to do was make love with him. Maybe because that was the one place where they felt the closest.

“Yes. No. I don’t know?” she said honestly at last, meeting his playful smile with one of her own. Taking off her seat belt, she moved to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders and kiss him. “But if this will help you make all your business dreams come true,” she promised tenderly, wanting to give him as much as he had given her, “I’m all for it...”

“Good to know,” Nick replied, a sexy rumble emanating from his broad chest. Taking her all the way into his arms, he covered her mouth with his own. And though she had promised herself she would keep their relationship in the friends-with-benefits category, it was darn near impossible to hold back the rush of feelings inside her as she melted into his embrace. He kissed her like there was no tomorrow. Only today. Like the future would always belong to them if only she had the courage to see where the relationship between them led.

And for the moment that was enough.

More than enough, she thought wistfully. Their plans to keep their nuptials simple, and under their control, quickly went out the window, however, when they met with MR late the next morning.

“You need a big, splashy, over-the-top romantic wedding. With plenty of photos we can release to the press later, if need be. And we need to get it done in three days,” the venture capital exec said.

To help with that, MR had summoned her assistant, Everett Keller, a nerdy-looking young man who was clad in spit-shined wing tips, neatly pressed slacks with suspenders and a starched purple shirt with a wildly patterned bow tie. He hovered nearby, taking notes on an electronic tablet.

Sage’s eyes widened in shock. “There’s no way we can pull together a wedding in that time frame!”

Nor would she want to do so.

MR arched a perfectly plucked brow. “There is if I call in every favor I’m owed, and you all and your families do the same and we have it at Nick’s ranch.” She paused to let her words sink in while Everett typed furiously. “Saturday evening is perfect.”

Sage and Nick exchanged exasperated looks.

Neither of them liked being railroaded into anything, and MR was being awfully pushy about what was, in the end, a very personal matter.

“Let me put it another way,” the elegant redhead stated bluntly. “The partners meet on Monday to hear the presentation and vote on whether or not to fund the initial phase of Nick’s proposal. I can’t delay the vote on this project without explaining to them why. If I do that, and you’re still not married, it’s over. Done. On the other hand, if you’re married, and wildly in love and expecting a baby, it’s not really going to matter. So you decide. You want it done by Saturday evening? Or not?”

Sage looked at Nick.

Once again he wore that poker face. But just for a second, she had seen that flash of disappointment in his eyes. The look he evidenced every time he hit a roadblock in his plans to expand Monroe’s Western Wear. It was the same look she’d had whenever her own dreams of having a baby incurred another snafu. The one her ex had worn whenever she talked about getting engaged, when Terrence was perfectly content with things the way they were. She was not going to be the reason for Nick’s unhappiness the way she had been with her ex’s.

“We’ll do it,” she said, forcing herself to match MR’s enthusiasm. She turned to Nick, took both his hands in hers and squeezed fiercely. “Just promise me one thing.” She looked deep into his eyes. “All of this won’t damage our friendship.” Because she didn’t think she could live without that.

“Come on now, darlin’.” He gave her a long, searing look, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned forward to buss the tip of her nose. “You and I both know I would never let that happen.”

She heaved a sigh of relief.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Everett Keller pause in bemusement. Like he couldn’t believe he had to stand around and witness this. MR had an intense, watchful expression on her face, too. Almost as if she were waiting for a time bomb to go off.

Sage hoped it wasn’t Nick.

Splaying both her hands across his broad chest, she relaxed into his easy embrace. Met his eyes. He seemed to be taking this all in stride. But was he really? She drew a deep breath, warned, “Preparing for a wedding, even in a normal amount of time, can be really stressful.”

She only had to recall Terrence’s reaction to their brief engagement to know that.

Nick nodded. Still appearing confident, unperturbed.

So, why, Sage wondered, was she suddenly completely on edge?

Again, MR observed the emotion simmering just beneath the surface and stepped in to assist. “That’s why Everett and I are here,” she soothed. “Not just to help but to make sure that absolutely everything goes according to plan. I promise you both...this is one wedding that will go off without a hitch.”

Chapter Three

Sage snuggled against Nick, luxuriating in the safe, warm feel of his big strong body. “It’s a good thing we’re not getting married today for real, otherwise seeing each other like this would be bad luck.”

“How can seeing each other ever be bad luck?” Nick regarded her with a devilish glint in his blue eyes.

Sage inhaled the unique masculine scent of him. On impulse, she kissed his cheek, found her way to his mouth. “You know what I mean.”

“I do.” He studied her as if he found her as endlessly fascinating as she found him. Stroking a lazy hand down her spine, he confessed huskily, “It’s been a crazy three days.”

“No kidding.” She sighed, her cheek brushing delectably against the sandpapery roughness of his morning beard. She so loved having him in her bed, even though his six-foot-four frame took up so much room they barely fit on the queen-sized mattress.

A problem that, now that she’d entered her second trimester, sometimes left her with a tiny backache. “So many decisions...”

He turned toward her so they had full body contact. Lower still, his hardness pressed against her. “So little time.”

A spark of arousal unfurled deep inside her. “We saved some headaches by delegating a lot of them out.”

MR had arranged for a justice of the peace friend to preside over the civil ceremony. She’d also provided the caterer, tent and chair setup crew—all within the budget Nick and Sage had set. Assembling the guest list and sending out last minute e-invites had gone to the sisters-in-law, Hope and Adelaide, and the seating chart delegated to Chance’s fiancée, Molly. Lucille had been in charge of the flowers and the menu for the reception. While Nick and Sage had selected the DJ and the songs.

This morning, she was going to have the final fitting for her dress—a gown from her cousin Jenna Lockhart’s bridal salon—at her mother’s ranch while Nick picked up his tuxedo. Her brother Wyatt’s wife, Adelaide, was her maid of honor. Nick’s brother, Gavin, was best man.

Nick reached for Sage playfully as the first light of dawn fell through the window blinds of her second-floor apartment. “I think we have time to make love one more time...” He kissed her shoulder.

Sage wished. She eased away and went to find a thick fluffy robe to ward off the chill of the late-January morning. “Actually, we don’t.” Computer tablet in hand, she climbed back into bed. “We haven’t written our vows yet.”

Reluctant, Nick scowled. “Sure you want to do that?” he asked, practical as ever. “Instead of going with the tried and true?”

The thought of promising to love him until death do them part seemed like tempting fate. Sage swallowed. “Given the fact that we’re not...” Her voice trailed off. She didn’t know how to finish without insulting him. Or the connection they shared, which she had to admit pretty much defied description.

He studied her, as determined to understand her as she was him. “In love?”

Sage caught his hand in hers, and pressed it against the center of her chest. “Maybe not in the traditional way, but I do love you, Nick. As a friend. A best friend.”

His expression was as veiled as hers was open. “I adore you, too,” he said softly.

She sensed there was more. Unsure, however, as to whether or not she wanted to hear it, she murmured, “Okay, then, that’s what we need to say.” She settled a pillow across her lap, to use as a desk. Opened up the leather computer tablet case, turned on the attached mini keyboard and logged on.

While she got comfortable, Nick folded his arms behind his head. He lounged against the pillows, his gaze drifting over her lazily. “There’s no way I can memorize anything this late in the game. I mean, I’m the kid who always flunked the English class assignments where we had to get up and recite a poem.”

Although she was wearing an old-fashioned button-front nightshirt that concealed her baby bump, he was clad only in his boxer briefs. Hence, with the sheet draped low across his abdomen, she had a very nice view of his broad, masculine chest.

Too nice, if she were to remain on task.

“Public speaking pressure?” she teased, turning her gaze away from the sinewy muscle and crisp dark hair that arrowed across his pecs, and narrowed, on the way to the goody trail...

“Procrastinating, and making up excuses, are we?” she taunted.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Not going to cut it, cowboy,” she retorted sternly. “We have to get this done. Right now.”

His sensual lips compressed as he ran a hand through the tousled layers of his dark hair. “Maybe you should tell me yours.”

“I would. Except I haven’t written mine yet, either.”

His low laughter filled the bedroom. He rubbed a hand beneath the sexy-rough stubble on his jaw. “Aha.”

“But I will now.” Cuddled up in bed, beside him, sitting against the headboard.

He rested his chin on her shoulder. “This should be interesting.”

“I take thee, Nick, for my parent-in-arms?”

He shook his head. “Sounds like we’re forming a club.”

Sage used the mini keyboard to type in some more. “May the joy that brought us together hold us in good stead through the days ahead.”

Nick wrinkled his brow, sexy as ever. “That’s going to have people scratching their heads and saying huh.”

Sage opened a new document window on the screen. “Okay, Smarty-pants. You try.”

He thought a moment. “I don’t know what I did to get you to look my way,” he drawled finally, “but I’m sure grateful you did.”

Sage snickered. “Aren’t those song lyrics?”

He grinned back, allowing, “Maybe.”

Only able to imagine the grief she’d get from her brothers if they went that route, Sage decreed, “I think we should be a little more original.”

Nick’s brow rose in annoyance. “Then we should have started this weeks ago.”

“Okay,” Sage said hastily. “There’s no need to get testy. How about I say, ‘There are no words to describe how I feel about you. I just know this feels right, and I want to be with you,’ or something like that.”

Nick tilted his head. “Pretty good. Vague. But truthful.”

Sage grinned, glad an argument—which would have been their first—had been averted. “Now all we have to do is add to it. Refine it a little. And then come up with something equally reassuring for you to say, too.”

* * *

NICK WASN’T SURE who Sage was trying to pacify with this whole writing-their-own-vows stuff, but if it made her feel better, then he was all for it. The hectic nature of the last three days had been hard on her. She looked weary. And that couldn’t be good for her or the baby.

So when she declared them done, a short while later, hit the print command and then ran over to her printer to pull out two sheets of paper, one for her and one for him, he celebrated by kissing her again.

One thing led to another.

The next thing they knew she really was late, and so was he. They split up, heading their separate ways. He did not see her again until she walked down the aisle on her eldest brother Garrett’s arm.

As she glided toward him, looking like a princess out of some Disney movie, his heart caught in his chest. She was so damn gorgeous in that ball gown–style wedding dress. So sweet and innocent and glowing. He felt like the luckiest man in the world. And would have even if she hadn’t been carrying his child and on the verge of giving him the family of his own he had always wanted.

“Who giveth the bride away?” the JP asked.

Garrett lifted Sage’s veil, kissed her cheek and answered, “Her family and I do.”

Sage’s lower lip quivered.

In that second, Nick realized what a disservice he had done. This was hard enough without his deceased parents and her late father here to see this. But to secretly be doing it all for a business deal... He swore silently to himself as he took her hand, vowing he would make it up to her. Some way. Somehow.

The distinguished-looking sixtysomething justice of the peace welcomed everyone to their nuptials. He spoke briefly about the grave responsibility entailed in entering into a marriage.

A speech that only made Nick feel all the guiltier.

“And now we will turn it over to Nick and Sage, who have written their own vows. Sage, would you like to go first?”

She nodded, hands trembling as she unfolded the page. Looking down, she began reading nervously, “Nick. There are no watercress...”

A few smothered chuckles.

The justice of the peace gave everyone a sharp look.

Aware of the solemnity of the occasion, everyone fell silent once again.

Sage shook her head, her brow pleating worrisomely as she squinted. “Sorry. There are no words that would adequately describe how I feel about you, Nick.” She looked up with a smile, then read confidently from the paper in her hand, “So, I’m just going to say, I think yeast...”

Another undercurrent of nervous giggles.

Sage blushed.

Nick slid a hand beneath her forearm to steady her, aware she wouldn’t be the first bride to wilt from a combination of nerves, and in their case, guilt. Resolved to help her through this, he encouraged under his breath, “Just calm down. You got this.”

Sage nodded. Jerking in a deep breath, tried again. “I think you are the most wonderful mango...” She looked up, clearly mortified. “I mean, man I’ve ever known. And...” She swiftly scanned the page, looking even more distressed. “I think I’m going to just say I’m really happy to be marrying you today. And stop right there.”

Radiating embarrassment, she gestured at him. “On to you.”

Nick had never known Sage to fall apart like this. But given how quickly everything had happened, he figured she was entitled to suffer the same kind of public speaking phobia that had haunted him as a kid, and cut her speech short.

With a grin, he removed the paper from the inner pocket of his tuxedo jacket and unfolded it. Still holding her eyes, wordlessly promising that he would make this okay for both of them with the best recitation he had ever given in his life, he looked down at his vows. And began. “Sage. You are the most brioche...” He stopped and shook his head while trying to quickly remember what should have been there.

If this is what “his bride” had been dealing with, no wonder she’d panicked!

Ignoring the faint titters in their audience, he tried again. “The most um...most...beautiful woman I’ve ever met, inside and out.”

Whew! High five on that one!

“And if there is one thing today is going to show us,” he continued determinedly, glad to be back on track, “it’s that we will otters have each other.”

Otters?

What the hell?

And then, amid the muffled rumble of new laughter, he realized what had happened. There was no need to go on reading from the pages Sage had printed out for them. Not unless they wanted this to turn into even more of a comedy skit.

He turned to face their guests and held up the page for everyone to see. “So much for writing our vows on an electronic device with autocorrect,” he announced, grinning from ear to ear. “Seriously, folks—” getting into the spirit of the hilarity he crumpled it up dramatically, and tossed it to one of his sisters in the front row “—proofread!”

With a mischievous grin, Sage crumpled up her vows, and tossed ’em to family, too.

Taking both his bride’s hands in his he made an executive decision and decided, “We’re just going to have to do this on the fly.”

Ignoring her prior worry about the results of any extemporaneous speech, he paused and looked deep into her eyes, then said what had been on his mind since the day they’d decided to risk this.

“I used to think that life had to be lived in stages. If I was going to have a family, I needed to find someone compatible and get married right out of college.” He paused ruefully, to let his prior idiocy sink in. “A plan that did not work for so many reasons...”

He hadn’t been anywhere mature enough. Hadn’t known the first thing about love. Might still not...at least when it came to the traditional variety.

Aware the world had shrunk to just the two of them, he looked deep into her eyes and continued, “And then, and only then, would I focus on my career goals. Secure the future. And when that was all set, then I could have kids.”

Understanding lit her eyes. She’d had similar expectations. It was one of the things that had drawn them together.

“But despite my ambition, it didn’t work out that way. And I began to think that my work dreams and goals were all I was going to have.” His throat tightened unexpectedly. He forced himself to go on hoarsely. “Then I met you, Sage, and I realized things didn’t have to happen in any specific time frame or in any particular order. We could be friends. And then more than friends. And now parents-to-be of the no doubt most amazing child who will ever be born in Laramie County!”

Laughter rippled through the attendees as the world around them crowded in once again.

Happiness roaring through him with the force of a white-water river, he squeezed her hands and said, “In the seven months we’ve known each other, you’ve brought so much happiness to my life, I can imagine just how fantastic the rest of our time together will be. And darlin’, I can’t wait to experience it all with you,” he finished soberly, a lump rising in his throat.

* * *

BECAUSE SHE COULD see Nick meant every single word he said, Sage’s eyes misted over, too.

Grinning, she continued to hold on to him as fiercely as he was holding on to her. “Okay, cowboy.” She heaved a sigh of relief. “If you get a do over with our vows, so do I! So here goes...” Taking comfort in the encouragement his steady regard offered, she jerked in a bolstering breath. “I never thought after everything that happened to me leading up to this point that I would want to be involved again.” Or risk a relationship that could stomp my soul to pieces.

“But then I met you, and everything changed for me, too. I wanted friendship.” Deep, abiding, tell-each-other-almost-everything friendship that was eventually supplemented by deliciously sensual, mind-blowing passion. “And then, a baby, and now here we are getting married,” she exclaimed excitedly.

Her nerves calmed as she went on. “We’ve laid the right groundwork.”

The corners of his lips quirked up in a way that let her know he could not have agreed more with her assessment.

Their eyes still locked, Sage pushed on, promising Nick, “We’re going to have a happy life together. And when our baby gets here at some point close to Father’s Day—” an astonishing present in and of itself “—you’re right, we’re going to be even happier than either of us ever dreamed.”

Nick leaned in as if to kiss her.

Her heart fluttered.

The JP clamped a restraining hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Whoa, there, pardner. We’re not done yet. We’ve still got the rings and the official pronouncement to go.”

Nick grunted, his lips hovering just above hers, then reluctantly drew back.

“You’re right,” he said finally to one and all, as everyone smiled and laughed yet again. “We’ve definitely got to get this done right.”

No kidding, Sage thought.

This was beginning to feel like a whole lot more than the extension of their previous arrangement that they had privately agreed it would be.

Following their purposefully abbreviated next steps, Nick slid the wedding ring on Sage’s finger. “Sage, I take thee to be my lawful wedded wife.”

Sage followed suit and put a simple gold band on Nick’s left hand. “Nick, I take thee to be my lawful wedded husband,” she said.

“Then by the power vested in me,” the JP said finally, “I pronounce you husband and wife.”

Nick gathered her in his arms.

As he kissed her, a roar of approval went up, matched only by the relief and joy whisking through Sage.

* * *

SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Sage stared in the master suite bathroom mirror. “You really think my tiara is crooked?”

Lucille shook her head, tears abruptly misting her eyes. “No. I just wanted a moment alone with you before the evening ended.”

“Oh, Mom.” Sage turned and gave her mother a hug. This was a big day for both of them. All of it happening a little too fast for comfort.

On the other hand, had they had more time to consider, Sage wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to go through with it. Because, no matter how fond she and Nick were of each other, at the end of the day, it all felt a little dishonest.

Lucille perched on the edge of Nick’s bed and patted the place next to her.

Carefully arranging the poofy skirt of her wedding gown, Sage settled beside her mother. “What is it?” she asked softly.

“I just wanted to tell you how happy I am for you tonight.”

“You mean that?”

Lucille nodded. “I confess, I had my doubts when you told me you and Nick were going to get married. I thought it all might have been related to his business somehow. Especially when the venture capitalist he’s been working with—”

“MR Rhodes.”

“—and her assistant, Everett Keller, became so involved in the execution of the wedding plans.”

Sage tamped down her guilt. It was bad enough she and Nick were being disingenuous. They did not need to bring anyone else into it who wasn’t already. “We kind of needed everyone to pitch in to make this happen, Mom.”

“I know, and MR and Everett have both been wonderful, as has everyone.”

“But...?”

Lucille worried the diamond necklace around her neck. The one Sage’s father had given her mother for their fortieth wedding anniversary. “I’m just concerned you and Nick were going into this the same way you did having a baby together. Hastily and without forethought.”

Her mother’s elegant brow furrowed. “And that feeling was confirmed when the two of you started your wedding vows. But—” she paused, shaking her head “—then you started speaking what was in your hearts. The way you looked at each other—with such tenderness, faith and affection—I knew those feelings the two of you have worked so hard to keep private are genuine.”

Lucille took Sage’s hands in hers. “Bottom line...your dad would have been so proud of you tonight.”

But would he really have?

Sage was still worrying about that throughout her and Nick’s final dance of the evening.

Still wondering if she and Nick had done the right thing after all, when he pressed a kiss in her hair and then drew back to look down at her tenderly.

“Ready for one last surprise?” he asked huskily.

Chapter Four

Sage looked at Nick in much the same way he imagined he had looked, half an hour earlier, when he had received the news.

“A honeymoon?” she repeated as if she couldn’t possibly have heard him right.

He continued slow dancing with her. She felt so good in his arms, and he lamented the fact that their just-best-friends-slash-lovers rules had made this romantic activity off-limits, until now. “Three nights at The Mansion, in Dallas.”

Sage drew in a shuddering breath. “One of the most romantic hotels in the city.”

So he’d been informed. “It’s a gift from Metro Equity Partners. MR told me about it a few minutes ago. The limo is out in the drive. Your brothers are decorating it with the Just Married stuff now.”

Sage winced. “Not tin cans.”

“And the obligatory sign designating us as newlyweds,” he told her with barely checked amusement.

As the last song stopped, so did they. She covered her face with her hand, then peered at him through spread fingers. “We’re supposed to go tonight?” she asked, aghast.

There was no debating it. She looked dead on her feet.

Belatedly, he realized what a long few days it had been for her, in her pregnant state. They’d both been going since well before dawn. To expect her to endure another two-and-a-half-hour drive was probably way out of line. “We can wait until tomorrow,” he soothed. “Drive there ourselves. Check in then.”

Sage looked tempted, but remained careful of his feelings and commitments as always. “How is that going to be perceived?”

Hard to say, since he had yet to meet most of the partners who would be voting on his proposal.

“You know what, forget I even said that.” Sage squared her slender shoulders, as if she were going into battle. “It’s never a good idea to look a gift horse in the mouth. Particularly when you have the biggest business deal of your life pending.”

Bless her generous heart. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

She nodded, then said with her newfound practicality, “What’s the alternative, anyway? Go back to our original plan, spend the night in my apartment and forego any celebration of our nuptials?” She rose on tiptoe and whispered seductively in his ear, “If we go to Dallas, at least we’ll have our privacy.”

Given the scrutiny they’d been under all evening, there was definitely something to be said for that.

* * *

“WAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD,” Nick murmured in Sage’s ear, several hours later.

With effort, she opened her eyes. They were indeed at the luxury hotel. Apparently, she’d slept the entire journey. “What time is it?” she asked, blinking herself awake.

“Two thirty.”

He still looked good. More than good, actually, in that dark tuxedo.

She smothered a yawn and tore her eyes from the hard sinew of his chest beneath his snowy white shirt. “Sorry I was such bad company.”

He hugged her close, then kissed her temple and the top of her head. “I slept, too.”

She drew back slightly and tipped her head up to his. He was definitely wide-awake now. With plenty of energy. The kind that usually presaged incredible lovemaking.

She tingled all over, just thinking about it.

His sexy grin widening, he teased, “Ready for the best part of the entire festivity?”

She placed a hand flirtatiously across her heart. She did not have to pretend to feel swept away. “Oh my.”

His low masculine laugh filled the interior of the limo. “Oh my is right.” He brought her close for a long lingering kiss, ended only by the intrusion of their driver opening the door. Nick emerged first, then assisted her in getting out, not an easy thing, given the fact that they were still in their wedding finery and the silk chiffon skirt of her dress was poufed enough to disguise her pregnancy. The driver followed them with the bags they had hastily packed before leaving Laramie County. Nick at his ranch house, she at her apartment on her way out of town.

They swept through the lobby, getting grins from everyone who saw them. “Congratulations!” more than one person called out as they signed in.

The bellhop escorted them to their suite and set their suitcases in the bedroom. He returned with a flourish, announcing, “Metro Equity Partners thought you might be in need of a late-night supper. So...” Another uniformed attendant rolled a room service table into the living room.

Silver-domed dishes were placed on an elegantly made-up table for two, next to an ice bucket containing a bottle of exquisite champagne, sparkling water and ginger ale.

Which was good, Sage thought.

Because now that she was awake, she was feeling a little nauseated. She wondered if there were any crackers in the minibar. If not, the elegant dinner rolls in the basket would probably take the edge off.

She smiled appreciatively as Nick tipped the attendants. “Seems like the partners have thought of everything.”

“Let us know if we can do anything else.” The attendants disappeared.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starved,” Nick said.

He took off the lids with a flourish.

The roasted filet mignon and butter poached lobster tail had her feeling a little iffy, but it was the garlic prawns with Cajun aioli that really sent Sage over the edge.

* * *

“SAGE, COME ON, open the door.”

She leaned over the toilet bowl, arms folded over the cool porcelain. “No.”

“I sent all the fish away.”

She closed her eyes against the husky rumble of his voice. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Ah, actually, Sage? I kind of think I did.”

How could he maintain his sense of humor when she had just ruined everything? She moaned again, in even more distress. “I’m sorry.”

The other door that opened up off the bedroom, the one she hadn’t time or foresight to lock, swung inward. Nick strolled in. “What do you have to be sorry about?” He knelt down beside her.

He cupped a hand beneath her chin, and regarded her tenderly. “You’re pregnant. I’m the one who should have thought to ask what was in there first, before lifting the room service domes and treating you to all those aromas.”

The memory of the sights and smells made her shudder with distaste.

“I’m guessing it was the shrimp.”

“Prawns,” she admitted with difficulty. “And yes.” My heavens, yes.

He stroked a hand through her hair—or tried—the elegantly upswept curls were still heavily lacquered into place. “I’ve seen people throw up before, you know.” He wet a washcloth with cool water, wrung it out and placed it on the back of her neck.

She wallowed in her misery. “You haven’t seen me.”

He gazed at her possessively. “If we’re living together, that is going to change.”

What was he talking about? Sage sat back on her haunches and stared at him. “Living together?” she repeated.

“Well—” he shrugged, pausing to get comfortable, too “—now that we’re married, I figured we’d spend the night together whenever I am in town, and then when the baby comes, and I don’t have to travel so much...”

As much as Sage wanted to lean on him then, the way she was now, she wasn’t sure it was a good idea. “You know this isn’t a real marriage.” More like a convenient arrangement. For business reasons.

“It can still be any kind of union we want it to be.”

Why did he have to look so sexy? Especially under these circumstances? He should be irritated. Repelled. Not ready to move in with her!

Proceeding cautiously, she asked, “What kind of union do you want it to be?”

Mischief twinkled in his deep blue eyes. “The kind where we have a lot of great sex.”

Sage rolled her eyes. “You would say that now.” When I’ve just finished throwing up and feel and look like death warmed over.

Chivalrously, Nick helped her to her feet. “And have long talks,” he said. “The kind that last all night.”

She could go with that. It was what brought them together in the first place.

Tilting her head to study him closely, she murmured, “Or times when we say nothing at all, and it’s still okay.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Shakily, she headed for her suitcase to get her toiletries bag. Nick stood by, ready to help if need be, as she removed her toothpaste and brush and then returned to the bathroom. Still fighting residual waves of nausea, Sage tried not to think how intimate this all was. “What else?”

He lounged a short distance away as she brushed her teeth, then handed her a towel. “I’d like to know we could be apart and still do our own thing and still be okay.”

Sage blotted her mouth. “We will be.”

He smoothed a stray curl from her cheek and admitted softly, “And I’d like to think that when the baby comes, we’ll also enjoy spending lots of time together as a family, as we adjust to those new roles.”

Strangely enough, she’d been able to picture that from the first, even before they’d made love or she asked him to father their child.

Sage glanced in the mirror, noting her tiara really was askew. She wondered for how long it had been. Perching on the cushioned stool, she began working the pins out of her upswept hair.

When she still couldn’t get the glittering headpiece free, he moved to help her. His fingers moving gently in her hair, he worked it out and then set it on the bathroom counter. “What about you?” he asked gruffly. “What kind of parameters do you think our marriage should have?”

“I guess I want pretty much what we had before. We’re only together when we want to be. We don’t owe each other phone calls. Or have to check in. Or feel in any other way constrained. What is yours is yours, what is mine is mine.”

The smile on his lips reached his eyes. “Except for this baby we’re having.”

“Which is ours,” Sage agreed wholeheartedly.

A comfortable silence fell.

“Feeling better now?” Nick asked.

Not exactly. But rather than dwell on the ever-present queasiness, Sage drew a deeply constrained breath and gestured at the formfitting bodice. “I will be as soon as I get out of this damn petticoat and dress.”

He laughed, low and deep. “I think I can help you with that.”

Unfortunately, no sooner had he started to ease the zipper down, than Sage felt that unmistakable urge to be sick. Again.

Hand to his chest, she shoved him back out of the bathroom, and slammed the door in his face.

And was sick, sick, sick...

Finally, the retching stopped.

Some honeymoon, Sage thought miserably, still hugging the porcelain.

This time Nick didn’t ask to come in.

As soon as the commode flushed, he opened the door and walked in. All big protective male. “Your stomach empty?”

Sage nodded weakly. “I think so.”

Once again, he assisted her to her feet. “You need to go to bed.”

“Nick...”

He rolled his eyes. “Not for that, sweetheart. For some much-needed sleep.” He turned her around. Eased the rest of the zipper down, and assisted her out of the skirt and petticoat.

His brows lifted appreciatively at her sexy wedding lingerie. Sage hadn’t thought it necessary at the time. Although what else she would have worn under such a romantic dress, she did not know.

Now, however, if they hadn’t been dealing with the catastrophe of evening sickness, she could see where it would have come in handy.

But certainly not now.

Once again, he rushed to her aid. He grabbed a thick and fluffy white spa robe from the hanger in the bathroom, eased her arms into it, then guided her to the bed.

Appreciating the warmth and softness of the garment, almost as much as she appreciated his kindness, Sage wrapped it around her. “Could you do me a favor and see if you can find me some saltines?”

“Sure thing.” He looked in the minibar, then slammed it shut. “Be right back.” He eased out of the hotel room.

She changed into her light-blue-and-white floral pajamas, then climbed beneath the bed covers.

* * *

IT TOOK FIFTEEN minutes and a personal visit with the manager to the room service kitchen, but Nick rushed back with a big bowl of crisp saltine crackers, and another bottle of chilled ginger ale in hand. Only to find Sage curled up in the big hotel bed, fast asleep.

Aware, despite everything, that this was one of the best days of his entire life, he got ready for bed and climbed in beside her, wrapping her in his arms.

She snuggled against him.

The next thing Nick knew the bedside phone was ringing. Loudly.

Sage moaned in distress. He felt the same.

He reached across her to answer it, thinking this better be good. “Yep?”

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