The Cowboy Earns a Bride (Cowboys of Chance Creek Book 8) (7 page)

“I…it’s—” But what could she say to deflect Linette’s words? She didn’t want it known that Ellis was the father of this child. He was gone and good riddance. But she had to say something, fast. Maybe Ellis was right—she should say it was a one-night stand. Just a guy she’d met at the Dancing Boot. Someone she’d never seen again.

But when she opened her mouth to repeat the lie, she spotted Luke watching her. He stood just ten feet away and his face showed his feelings. Anger. Disgust. A sob caught in her throat. She needed to leave, now. Before she sank to the ground in a puddle of humiliation.

“Mia Start, you tell me if it’s true!” Her mother’s voice rang out, the finger she pointed at Mia shaking.

“It’s true.”

Mia jerked. She hadn’t spoken.

But Luke had, and every head in the room swiveled toward them at his authoritative tone. Luke stepped to her side with all the calm confidence of a lion strolling through the savannah, and Mia bit back a cry of pain. Why had she told him about her affair with Ellis? Luke was going to expose her. She’d never live it down.

“Mia is pregnant with my baby,” Luke announced to the crowd at large. “We’re getting married. We planned to make the announcement tomorrow.” He clamped an arm around her, which was a good thing, Mia thought.

Because she was going to faint.

Luke caught Mia
when she began to sag and ushered her into the kitchen quickly, pursued by Mia’s mother. So much for finding Ellis and warning him off. So much for talking things through with Mia after the wedding. He’d started down a road from which there’d be no turning back.

“Luke? Oh, my goodness—what’s happened?” Lisa bustled over to meet them, a spatula still in her hand. Luke helped Mia to a seat at the rustic kitchen table and faced her.

“Linette Wilcox just forced our hand. We had to announce our engagement.”

Mia gaped at him, but he ignored her. As chaotic as this turn of events was, he felt in his element. He was a man of action, not words, and this situation called for action. He refused to let the woman he loved bear the brunt of other people’s wrongdoing.

“Your…engagement?” Lisa’s voice rose to an excited squeal. “You and Mia are engaged?”

“And pregnant,” Enid said, bustling into the room behind them, her face still red with the shock of her recent encounter with Linette. “Don’t forget pregnant, too. Enough to show!”

“Pregnant!” Lisa’s face lit up even more, and it felt like a kick in the gut to Luke. What would she say when she found out the baby wasn’t his? She’d better not say a damned thing.

No one had.

Then he remembered his mother’s words from this morning when he’d said he didn’t see any reason for rushing into matrimony.
I’m afraid you will soon
.

Had she known?

“When?” Lisa cried. Luke didn’t know if she referred to the wedding or the birth. He squared his shoulders. “The wedding is the first weekend in March. Two weeks from today.”

“Two weeks!” both mothers chimed.

“That doesn’t give us any time to plan,” Lisa said.

“You’ll figure it out.” He clamped a hand down on Mia’s wrist and hoped she understood his message. She was his now. She needed a man and he’d be that man. He wasn’t asking her—he was telling her, the way he should have months ago. And he didn’t care what anybody said.

“Mia? Have you chosen a location for the wedding?” Lisa asked.

Mia’s face paled even further—something Luke wouldn’t have thought was possible.

“I… I’d like to have it right here,” she said in a tiny voice. Luke’s chin came up in satisfaction. She’d gotten the message.

She was a Matheson now.

‡
Chapter Five

M
ia was beginning
to think she might pass out if her head didn’t stop spinning. All around her, friends offered their congratulations as they moved in and out of the kitchen helping Lisa and Camila with the food for the wedding guests. Even after the wedding party took their seats at the head table and the rest of the guests found their spots, Mia couldn’t move. She wasn’t sure what was real anymore. Had she actually delivered a baby today?

Was she getting married to Luke?

What had made him cross that room and claim her for his bride in front of everyone? He could just as easily have walked out and left her to confess her guilt. That was what she’d expected him to do. Did he actually mean to go through with it? Or was this a ruse to get them through the day? Would he tell the truth to all and sundry tomorrow after the wedding was safely over?

She jumped when he dropped down in the chair across from her in the now quiet kitchen. Even Lisa and Camila had gone into the main room to listen to the groom toast the bride.

She raised her eyes to meet Luke’s steely gaze.

“I meant it,” he said without preamble. “We’ll get married in two weeks. We’ll pick up a ring tomorrow. You’ll be my wife.”

She couldn’t make her lips form a single word.

“And that baby will be mine. Do you understand?”

She searched his face. Did he really mean that? “People know,” she protested feebly. “You can’t keep a secret in a town like this.”

“I know that.” His tone was implacable. “I won’t deny who put that baby in your belly, but I’ll be its father. Understand?”

She wasn’t sure she did and it must have shown. Luke’s expression softened just a bit. “If I’m going to marry you, I don’t want to be on the outside looking in. That baby won’t call me Luke. He’ll call me Daddy, understood? I’ll raise him. I’ll provide for him. We’re not taking a dime from that man. Are we clear about that?”

Mia raised her chin. “I already have.” And she meant to keep that money, too.

Luke stilled. “What do you mean?”

“Ellis gave me a check. This morning. He’s clearing out of town. Never coming back. He said that’s all I’ll get from him and that he never wants to see the baby.”

“Well, good.” Luke leaned back in his chair, visibly relaxing. “Keep the check. Use it to buy something nice for the baby. But that’s the last I want to hear about Ellis Scranton. He’s not your husband. That’s my job. Agreed?”

Was that how he saw it? As a job? Was he marrying her out of pity, for heaven’s sake?

And did he mean to carry this take-charge tone into their marriage? Mia had never seen this side of him before except when he was directing chores on the ranch. And she didn’t like it aimed at her. She studied the man across the table. His short blond hair. His clear gaze and strong jaw. Luke Matheson was a force to be reckoned with—a proud man. Was that what this was all about? His need to know whether she’d allow him that pride?

“Yes.” The word was out of her mouth before she could stop it, because Luke wasn’t normally like this. She could count off a hundred instances of his kindness—times he’d been there when she needed him, times he’d gone out of his way to give her what he thought she wanted. This new stiffness had to be a result of his hurt feelings. He’d get over that, she hoped. Meanwhile, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, regardless of the impossibility of this situation.

Her only question was, when the excitement of the day was over would Luke still want to stake his claim on her?

Or now that he finally had her, would he turn and walk away just as Ellis had?

Luke let out
a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. She’d said yes. A smile tugged up the corner of his mouth. He hadn’t expected to become Mia’s fiancé today. He certainly hadn’t expected to become a father to another man’s child. But she’d said yes—she’d said
yes
—and that turned him on more than he could say. Mia was his. Forever. And that was all that mattered.

Mia stared at him. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah.” He touched her hand. Gathered it into his. “Hell, yeah.”

Something flashed in her eyes. Humor? Desire? “You’re going to be my husband,” she whispered.

He nearly laughed out loud with relief. The last few hours had slammed him with enough surprises to last a lifetime, but now they were over the worst. Now they had their whole lives ahead of them. Together.

“Mrs. Matheson,” he whispered back.

Mia ducked her head, her cheeks blazing pink.

He tugged her hand. “You’d better come here, Mrs. Matheson.”

She got to her feet and for the first time ever allowed him to pull her close. Let him settle her on his lap, tilt her chin up and kiss her.

It was a proper kiss, too—not like the one he’d stolen back in his kitchen in December when she’d first moved in. He took his time moving his mouth over hers, tasting her, then tucked a hand under the nape of her neck and deepened the kiss. He let all of the passion he’d been holding back flood through him and into her, hoping to set her feelings alight, too. It occurred to him that tonight when they went home they would share a bed for the first time. The idea revved him up more than he could say.

When his mother bustled back into the kitchen, they pulled apart.

“Don’t mind me,” she trilled. “I didn’t see a thing.”

Mia buried her face in Luke’s neck. “You won’t change your mind? You won’t leave me, will you?” she whispered.

Luke pulled back. Cupped her face in his hands. “Never. This is it, princess. You and me together, forever, okay?”

She searched his face. “Okay.”

Hours later they
climbed the steps to their own cabin. As soon as she took off her coat and boots, Mia collapsed on the couch with a sigh of exhaustion.

“Don’t stop there,” Luke said, coming in after her.

She pushed up on her elbows. “Why not?”

“You march your fine self right up those stairs, princess. Time for bed.”

Princess again. Apparently she had a new nickname. His words sent a thrill of anticipation through her body, but she didn’t know if they meant what she wanted them to mean. She’d always slept in the guest bedroom—her rental bedroom—while he slept in the slightly bigger one next door. Would that change tonight?

She hoped so.

“What’s with the princess thing?” Maybe that would spread some light on where they stood.

He sat down at the opposite end of the couch, lifted her feet onto his lap and began to knead them. Mia let out a loud groan of pleasure. A full day in heels had left them sore.

“You’ve always looked like a princess to me, the way you stand so straight and proud. I can see a crown sitting on top of that pretty head of yours.”

She sobered. There was a reason for her ramrod posture she didn’t like to be reminded of. All those endless beauty pageants. She brushed off his reference to a crown with a joke. “You want to know why my posture’s so good? I’m trying to look taller!”

His deep chuckle warmed her almost as much as his sensual touch on her feet. If his technique with the rest of her body was as good as this—she was a lucky woman indeed.

He tugged her ankle. “Come on, princess. Up to bed.”

She got up slowly and followed him upstairs, pausing in front of her bedroom door. He shook his head. “Uh-uh. Get what you need, but you’re sleeping with me tonight.”

A smile curved her mouth and he grinned back. “Sounds good, huh?”

“Yeah,” she admitted. “Sounds real good.”

Luke didn’t waste
any time once they were in his room. He unbuttoned his dress shirt, slid it off and cast it over his desk chair, then undid his belt buckle and the button at the waistband of his best jeans and shucked them off, too. He hesitated a moment when he got to his boxer briefs, but only for a moment.

“Wow.” Mia eyed him frankly and he wasn’t ashamed of the way his body let her know he was interested in seeing what she had under all of her clothes too. “Would you help me with my zipper?”

“Sure thing.” He undid the tiny clasp at her neck, then the long zipper that trailed down the back of her blue dress. Underneath she wore a pretty bra and panty set. He turned her around slowly, taking her all in, then reached behind her to unclasp her bra. She waited while he peeled it off, then looked up at him coyly through her eyelashes.

“Well?”

As if she had to ask. Her breasts were as magnificent as the rest of her. Full and round, with dark areolas that begged for him to kiss them. He couldn’t wait to give them the attention they deserved, but first he wanted to see the rest of her.

He hooked a finger through the strap of her panties at each hip and slipped them down, letting out a grunt of pleasure at the sight of her neatly groomed thatch of dark hair.

“Beautiful.” He led the way to his bed and drew her down beside him, the brush of her nipples against his skin enough to set every nerve ending ablaze. Mia entranced him. Always had. Probably always would.

He’d meant to be careful with her. Wanted to tease and delight her into such an ecstasy of longing that she’d beg him to give her more. But now that she was in his bed, instinct took over.

He gathered her in beneath him and surrounded her with his arms. Swooping down to kiss her senseless, he let his weight settle on top of her, wanting to feel her beneath him, wanting her to know exactly what she was going to get.

Mia sighed and kissed him back with as much ardor as he felt, and Luke’s blood jumped. She wanted him like he wanted her. Completely. Utterly. He nearly came undone right then.