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He blinked, hearing the thing he’d been sensing, the trouble at the end of the supposedly peaceful road. “Like, as soon as the ‘I do’ leaves your mouth?”
“Well, not until we’ve cut the cake.” She looked at him, puzzled. “Of course I plan to stay for the cake your sister ordered. It would be rude to leave!”
Great. Nothing said love like worrying about the sister’s cake purchase. “I was thinking we’d live together.”
“This morning, you didn’t even know you were a father. So we don’t have plans,” Sawyer pointed out. “Spur-of-the-moment decisions are rarely a good idea.”
“As in getting married in Vegas?”
“As in getting married in Vegas.” She nodded. “I liked our relationship just the way it was.”
He shook his head. “We didn’t have a relationship. We had sex, but not a relationship.”
She met his gaze. “Was there a problem?”
The problem had come when she’d left, and he realized he’d been parked at the gates of heaven for too long. Now he was hoping to crash through those gates and land in the paradise waiting for him—if he could just figure out how to explain that to Sawyer. How could a man tell his woman that, while frequent, horny sex had been fun, and fired by the forbidden, he sensed the next phase of their relationship could be that much sweeter?
Especially since she didn’t seem inclined to recognize the possibility for an ongoing, more meaningful relationship between them.
“Not a problem, exactly,” he said carefully. “But it seems that we should be open to the idea of a new phase in our friendship.”
She didn’t reply. “I know this pregnancy changes your life significantly,” he added.
“Yes. It does.” Sawyer turned her head to gaze out the window.
He had one reluctant little mama on his hands.
“Yours, too,” she said. “I know the Callahans have a pattern. You find out you’re expecting, and immediately want to get married. Then the wife gets shuttled off to a safe location.” Sawyer finally looked his way. “I’ll expect you to treat our pregnancy differently.”
“How differently?”
“By not trying to send me off to your family in Hell’s Colony, or Tempest.”
He swallowed. That had been the next plan. “The reason my brothers have been so determined for their wives and children to be in another location is because Rancho Diablo isn’t safe. You know as well as anyone that my uncle Wolf has made things very difficult at the ranch. It’s even worse now. Which is why your uncle Storm sold us his ranch and moved into town with Lulu Feinstrom.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve already rented out a room from Fiona. Didn’t she tell you? I called and asked her about renting a room before I came back to Rancho Diablo for our date. I do need a place to live now that my job in Tempest is completed.”
“You rented a room?”
Sawyer nodded. “A marriage license won’t mean I want to be a wife in anything other than name.”
Well, there was nothing he could say to that. She’d ridden all over his poor flailing heart. It beat wildly in his chest, stressed and unhappy with his current circumstances.
There was only one thing to do.
He pulled over at the next rest stop and parked the truck. Then he pulled Sawyer close and laid a kiss to end all kisses on her. He didn’t let her go, either, making certain she knew how much he desired her, kissing her long and thoroughly, communicating in a different way what he couldn’t say out loud. And searching for that answer he wanted so badly: that she did, in fact, still want him.
It was a risky move, but when he felt her lips mold against his, Jace knew his belief in high risk, high reward had paid off.
His little darling still had the hots for him big-time—no matter how tightly she was trying to close those sweet, pearly gates.
* * *
SAWYER WAS SO annoyed with herself for giving in to Jace’s charm that she sat stiffly staring out at the landscape rushing past. He’d caught her off guard, that was all. If she’d had a second’s notice of his intention, she could have controlled her reaction better.
Jace drove down the road with a sexy, confident, “I win” curve to his lips, a true cat that ate the canary. Sharing that kiss was a huge setback to her plan, and devastating to her heart.
I promised myself that wouldn’t happen. No more falling under his spell. Not one woman who married a Callahan kept her independence. It was as if they got their wedding ring and poof! instant Callahan copy. Babies and bliss.
Babies and bliss in every corner.
“I’m renting a room from Fiona because I’ll be in Diablo only until the babies are born. Four months after that I’ll be living in New York,” Sawyer said.
That wiped the smirk off his face. “New York?”
“Yes. I’ve taken a job with a firm that provides security for high-profile clients.”
“You’re going to be a bodyguard while you should be staying at home with my children?” Jace shook his head. “I can see two big problems with your plan, doll face. One, my children aren’t going anywhere without me. Two, it’s going to be terribly hard for you to be a homeroom mother and a bake sale coordinator while you’re working. My children need you more than high-profile clients do.”
She stiffened. “I’m sure you’re hoping I’ll thank you for your opinion. However, I’m fully capable of making my own decisions.”
“Yes, you are. And I trust you’ll make decisions that are in the best interest of our family, not harebrained ones that are purely designed to keep you and me from sharing a bed.”
He’d gotten pretty close to the truth. “That’s not the reason I took the job, Jace. I’m a very good bodyguard, and there’s still a lot I want to do and learn.”
“Yes, but your days of living on the edge are over. You can get your fill of that at Rancho Diablo.”
“So you’d be all right with me and the children living at Rancho Diablo?”
He hesitated. “I didn’t exactly say that.”
“Then we have nothing to discuss.”
“We have plenty to discuss. And now that we’ve just passed the Nevada state line, we’re getting closer to our destination, so I won’t hesitate to mention that this is the happiest day of my life.”
She gave him a curious glance. “Why?”
“It’s not every day a man finds out he’s going to be married and a father.” He glanced at her. “Even better, that the woman who’s providing all this excitement wanted him badly enough to pay five grand for him, thereby scuttling all other females’ chances. Just so very cute of you.” He laughed out loud, pleased with himself. “You put up stop signs, but there’s lots of green lights flashing all over you, Sawyer Cash.”
He was angling for a good hard takedown to his ego. Sawyer told herself Jace had always been a goofball, and ignored him.
“Have you asked Galen to hire you on again at Rancho Diablo?” Jace asked, stunning her.
“No.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him shrug.
“We’re always looking for staff we can trust.”
“Are you saying you trust me?” Sawyer asked.
“Are you insinuating I can’t? Or shouldn’t?”
His gaze met hers, and she found herself