The Bride Said, 'I Did?'. Cathy Thacker Gillen
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that’s what this is all about,” Dani pronounced grimly as she found another box labeled lamp. “The fact that you, cowboy, have a movie opening next week. So what’s the deal?” she asked stormily as Beau ripped open the box. Her chin angled up. “I write something nice about Bravo Canyon and no one ever sees the film of me acting like a blooming idiot, believing we got married and are expecting a baby?” Temper flashing in her amber eyes, turning them a darker prettier hue, she pulled both shade and base from the box. She shook her head, silky copper strands flying in all directions. Then proceeded to rip the protective wrapping from the lamp base and shade with quick angry motions. “Blackmail will not get a good review from me, Beau.”
Once again, Beau took the parts and fastened them together. He set the reassembled lamp aside. “I don’t want a good review from you.”
Dani paused, disbelief evident on her face. Her soft sexy lips compressing stubbornly, she bent over to get the lightbulb from the box.
“What I’d really like is no review of Bravo Canyon from you at all.”
Dani whirled to face him. “And you know I can’t do that,” she replied stonily, looking him straight in the eye. “Bravo Canyon is one of the summer blockbusters. I have to review it. Everyone does.”
That, Beau thought, taking in the flushed features of her face, was a matter of opinion. The seconds strung out tensely as another silence fell.
Dani clamped her arms in front of her like a shield. “Joke’s over now, Chamberlain. Go home now.”
Beau shook his head solemnly, every protective instinct coming to the fore. It might be old-fashioned, but she was his woman—at least according to the marriage certificate. And she was carrying their baby. His personal code of honor dictated he not let anything happen to either of them. “Afraid not,” he told her, determined to see this through. “I can’t let you lift anything. Not in your condition.”
Dani sighed, rolled her eyes. She swept both hands through her halo of copper hair, pushing it off her face. “You don’t have anything to say about this, even if I am pregnant.”
He had only to glance at her tummy and think about their future to know differently. “Afraid I do,” he said.
Dani swallowed. If she didn’t know better, she’d think—by the way he was looking at her—that the two of them really were meant to be together. But that wasn’t true, she reassured herself. It couldn’t be. And if Beau seemed to think it was…well, that was easily explained. He was a heroically responsible man. He didn’t want to think they’d had a meaningless fling that had resulted in a marriage and a pregnancy. How would such reckless behavior make them look? Far better to assume something incredibly romantic and impulsive. Just because he felt that way, however, did not mean she had to.
“Fine.” Recognizing he wasn’t likely to leave anytime soon of his own volition, she threw up her hands in defeat and treated him to a careless smile. “You want to sign on as unpaid labor around here? Who am I to stop you? We’ll get started now. Roll up your sleeves, cowboy, and get to work.”
Dani expected him to bolt as soon as he saw she was serious about getting started on the unpacking. Instead, he worked diligently by her side, finding and then unpacking linens for the upstairs hall closet, bath items for the shower, sheets and blankets and pillows for her bed. He hooked up her TV, stereo and VCR, and placed them all where she wanted them—in her bedroom. When six o’clock came and their stomachs growled, he called Greta Wilson McCabe’s Lone Star Dinner and Dance Hall downtown and had a nutritious dinner for two, complete with milk, delivered for them both.
During it all, Dani was as quiet and uncommunicative as could be. To her chagrin, this didn’t seem to bother him, either. He continued to be as gallant and attentive as could be. And as she looked at him and saw the tenderness in his eyes, recalled the magic of Beau on screen, the one she and every woman in America had fallen in love with, she knew it would be so easy to forget everything and fall head over heels for him. It would be so easy to let herself get drawn into the fantasy of what could be. Not what was. She couldn’t let that happen. Any more than she could dwell on the fleeting, but very distinct, memory of him in bed, above her.
As they slid off their stools at the kitchen counter and cleared away the empty food containers, Dani glanced at her watch and saw it was nearly 7 p.m. Bedtime was hours away, but her body felt the fatigue of moving in. Yet the last thing she wanted to do was lie in her bed alone, remembering the shattering sensuality of Beau’s kiss earlier this afternoon, worrying about the foolhardy way she’d kissed him back. No, that wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all.
Dani glanced back at the twenty-some boxes scattered around her kitchen. She hadn’t touched one of them.
“Whoa now.” Beau held up a staying palm before she could spring into action once again. “I think you’ve done enough for one day,” he said sternly, reading her mind.
Actually they both had, Dani thought. “Not that I want to make a habit of agreeing with you, but I think I have had enough for one day.” Dani smiled. Hand against his spine, she propelled him toward the closest exit.
Beau dug in his heels and slowed their progress considerably. As they reached the back door, he wrapped an arm around her waist and looked at her curiously. “We’re not staying here tonight?” The low sexy timbre of his voice sent a new thrill shooting down her spine.
“We’re not staying anywhere together, cowboy,” Dani corrected archly. She splayed a staying hand across his chest. “Not now or any other night.”
Tugging her close, Beau leaned down, kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, “That’s what you think.”
Chapter Three
Dani stared at Beau in a mixture of astonishment and disbelief. “You really can’t think we’re going to spend the night together.”
His smile flashed, wicked and mesmerizing. “As your husband and the father of your baby, where else would I be?”
That again. Scowling, Dani folded her arms in front of her. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to deck him or kiss him. She just knew she had an overwhelming desire to do something physical where he was concerned. Deciding in the end it would be best just to keep as much distance from him as possible, she looked down her nose at him. “You’re carrying this practical joke too far, Chamberlain.”
She wasn’t all that surprised to find he didn’t think so. “If you really think I’m pulling your leg, or worse, that the lab work Lacey ran at the hospital was inaccurate, then put it to the test yourself,” he dared with a complacent smile. “Go to the pharmacy and pick up a home pregnancy kit. Run the test yourself.”
Dani regarded Beau uneasily. Why would he even suggest this, she wondered, restlessly shifting her weight from one bare foot to the other, unless it was true? Once again, Dani searched for hidden cameras, saw none. Still clinging to the hope this was all a bad dream she’d soon wake up from, Dani regarded Beau calmly. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” he volleyed back, in a low rich voice that practically oozed testosterone.
With effort Dani ignored the tremors of sexual awareness gathering deep inside her. This evening was beginning to feel too much like a date, with a kiss or two or three in the making. And it wasn’t. She would do well to remember that.
Dani went over to get his hat, which he’d left on a shelf next to the back door. Marching to his side, she pressed it into his hands. “Laramie is a small town. If I went in and purchased one, the news would be all over town in an instant.”
To her dismay, he merely put his hat aside, grabbed one of her hands, then leaned a shoulder against the door frame and made himself all the more at home. She tried without success to unobtrusively wrest her fingers from the strong warm tantalizing grip of his.
Beau lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, sending another tingle