LITMIR.BIZ

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her arm. Like the time all those years ago the thrill of his touch rendered her senseless. She couldn’t think. Her head started chanting Colt’s name.

      “Anything, Kati,” Colt begged. “Name it, and it’s yours.”

      She was mesmerized. A moth over the flame. A deer in the headlights.

      “Anything at all,” he said softly, seductively.

      Her heart thundered. Her ears rang. She couldn’t think straight. Why had she come here, anyway? Oh, yes. Because of Colt. To marry Colt. That was it.

      “Marry me,” she blurted.

      He stared at her as though she’d grown horns. She wondered if she had. This wasn’t the way she’d planned to say it. She’d wanted to remain rational and logical while they hammered out a business deal. Instead she’d become the blathering idiot of her nightmares.

      Slowly, Colt withdrew his hand and took one step backward. His horrified gaze remained riveted on her face.

      As her good sense returned, Kati squirmed beneath his appraisal, equally as horrified. This was her one chance. If she blew it now, there would never be a Kati’s Angels Child Care.

      Having already crossed the line, she straightened her shoulders and plunged in. With every bit of enthusiasm, logic and rationale she could muster while shaking in her shoes, Kati tried to convince him that the plan was simple, easy, and helpful to all concerned. The bankers of Rattlesnake wouldn’t loan her the money to build a child-care center unless she had collateral.

      Collateral? What a laugh! To build her dream childcare facility she’d have to borrow the money for everything from the land to the building and even for the first few payments until the center began to turn a profit. And she could only think of one way for a single, jobless orphan to acquire that much collateral. According to the bankers of Rattlesnake, a husband’s collateral would be just fine. But did she have a husband? Not even a boyfriend. And then she’d seen Colt’s ad, and like a gift from heaven the idea came to her.

      “So, if you’ll marry me,” she concluded, “I’ll have the collateral I need to get a loan, the children of Rattlesnake will have someone to love and care for them, and you’ll have a nanny, free of charge, for Evan until his mother returns.”

      In the course of her monologue, Colt’s horror had turned first to bewilderment and then to incredulity.

      “Even if this idea of yours made any sense at all—which it doesn’t—it wouldn’t work.” Colt gave his head a stubborn shake. “I don’t want to get married. Never have, never will. Marriage sucks all the life out of people.”

      “I’m not talking about a real marriage.” She hoped she sounded calmer than she felt. “It’s a business arrangement, a marriage in name only as a means to acquire collateral for my loan.”

      He shook his head, jostling the bundle in his arms. “Your reasoning makes no sense.”

      “It does to me. A fifty-fifty proposition. You get a nanny. I get collateral.” Couldn’t he understand? As long as they made a deal in which each party benefited, she was a businesswoman, not a charity case. She’d had enough of that in her life.

      Shoulders sagging wearily, Colt pressed a thumb and forefinger into his eye sockets. Little Evan’s whimper brought the big cowboy’s head upright. Panic filled his dark eyes.

      “Just a business arrangement, right?” He patted the baby’s wiggling back in awkward desperation. “None of that till-death-do-us-part stuff?”

      “Of course not. After I have my loan and Evan’s mother is found, you can go somewhere for one of those quickie divorces. No strings attached.” While her belly shook in trepidation, she spoke lightly, airily, as if she proposed a marriage of convenience to a strange man every day of the week.

      Surely he could see the logic in her win-win idea. He needed her almost as much as she needed him. As tired as he was, he couldn’t hold up much longer. He was about to fall over now. And so was she. If Colt didn’t say something soon, Kati would collapse in a heap on the scuffed toes of his black boots.

      Still eyeing her with deep suspicion, Colt rubbed at the back of his neck. “Quickie divorce? Where do they do that?”

      Kati blinked, uncertain. “I—Reno maybe?” She didn’t have a clue.

      “I don’t know, either. My attorney would know.”

      Her pulse rate shot up. He was weakening.

      He blew out a long, gusty sigh. “Would you be willing to sign papers agreeing to everything? The divorce and all, I mean?”

      She really wanted to feel sorry for him, but she couldn’t allow it. For once in her life, she had to be utterly, completely ruthless. Kati’s Angels depended upon it. This precious little boy depended upon it. And the lonely, neglected children of Rattlesnake depended upon it—and her. The vision of Kati Winslow, guardian angel of needy children, bloomed in her imagination.

      “Certainly I’ll sign papers. This is a business arrangement.” Nerves rattling like marbles in a tin can, she offered one last piece of bait. “I’ll also sign a prenuptial agreement to the effect that I have no right to any of your financial assets.”

      “You’re nuts, you know that?”

      Gripping the smooth back of the leather sofa, she willed herself to hang in there. She could do this. She had to. This was her one and only chance to fulfill the dream of a lifetime.

      “I am not crazy. Just desperate like you. Each of us needs something from the other. This is the perfect solution.”

      His lips twisted wryly. “ Perfect isn’t the word I’d use to describe it.”

      She shrugged, hoping for nonchalance. “Well, perhaps you can find some other nanny for the child.”

      Gathering her purse, she battled her conscience and looked toward the door as if to leave.

      The baby’s whimper grew louder.

      “No!” Colt shouted. His hand snaked out and snagged her arm. Colt thrust the fussing child toward her. “Please. Three weeks is all I can take. You’re the only human being that’s agreed to accept the job under any circumstances.”

      Carefully extracting her arm from his strong, warm grip, Kati stepped back, refusing to take the baby. It wasn’t an easy thing to do considering how much the baby needed her, and how pathetically Colt begged, but he was almost hers. She couldn’t fold now. “Well, then?”

      “I can’t just up and marry a woman I don’t know. What if I don’t like the job you do with Evan?” His gaze fell to the fidgeting baby in his arms. “What if you’re a lousy baby-sitter?”

      “We aren’t called baby-sitters anymore. We’re nannies.”

      “Will you consider a trial run?”

      “What exactly do you mean by that?”

      “Move in with us for a few weeks until we see how things go. If your work is satisfactory and Evan is still with me, I’ll—” He seemed to strangle on the words.

      “Marry me?”

      “Yeah. That.”

      “Will you sign a paper to that effect?”

      In spite of himself, Colt grinned. She’d used his own words against him. She might be nuttier than a pecan pie, but she was smart. Not as smart as he was, though. He’d had plenty of experience dodging wedding bells.

      He only needed her for a few weeks tops. By then, Natosha Parker would be found, and Miss Kati Winslow would be out on her conniving little—ear. Meanwhile, he could resume his work and get a decent night’s rest. Evan would have the good, motherly care he deserved instead of the fumbling efforts of an exhausted cowboy and an old sailor. The little nutcase was right. She had the perfect solution.

      “Yes,

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