Page 10 of Accidentally Kidnapping the Cowboy

The silence in the motel room is deafening after Zane closes the door, locking us in. “Here’s the deal, wife.”

The mocking nickname rolls off his tongue with ease. “I’m not your wife.”

“You will be. And more importantly, you’re already my responsibility.”

“I didn’t ask you for that.” I can take care of myself. Mostly. Sometimes.

He looks at me incredulously. “You didn’t ask me for anything, including permission to involve me in this!”

“I’m sorry.”

He sighs heavily. “Save it. We’re in it now, so I’m taking charge.”

“What does that mean?”

“What do you think it means?” He rummages through the bag of essentials the lawyer provided to him. I don’t know who he called, or how he managed all of this, but that doesn’t feel like basic public defender service.

“You want… you want…” I stammer to get it out.

“I want… I want…” He peels off his shirt, giving me a shocking glimpse of hard muscles and a trail of dark hair downthe center of his torso before he yanks on a new t-shirt, this one generic gray.

I glare at him, furious that he distracted me with bare skin while he was mocking me again. “Don’t make fun of me!”

He grins. “Don’t make it so damn easy, wife. What do you think I want from you?”

“Retribution.”

His eyebrows curve up. “Really.”

I nod.

He rocks back on his heels and lifts his jaw. “Is that because your parents exact a price from you whenever you do something wrong?”

A lump forms in my throat, preventing me from answering.

“I know what that’s like.”

Shocked, I blink at him. “You do?”

“I have four brothers. We all have different mothers. And by the time we were teenagers, we only had each other. Not everyone is meant to be a parent, but biology lets them breed, anyway.” His mouth tightens to a hard line. “Do you want children?”

I shrug weakly. “If everything in my life were different…yes. Of course.”

“What kind of parent would you be?”

“Not like my mother. I would never put my husband first before my children.”

“Good. I hope you never do. I would never ask you to. I would want you to protect our children like a fierce mama bear.”

Ourchildren? “Against who, in this scenario? Against you?”

“I hope I never give you reason to, but sure. My father was a neglectful asshole. If that’s genetic…” He exhales roughly. “I never thought I would have children. Planned to ranch with my brothers until the day I die. But now…”

My pulse pounds in my ears. “Now?”

“You were wrong about me, angel. I don’t want retribution. But I do want something from you. I want a proper wedding. None of this eloping bullshit. I want a family, with someone who will love my babies fiercely.” His gaze drags over me. “I want you to be my wife. I want the story we tell the judge to be true. Maybe I was dropped onto the hood of that truck for a reason. You saved me, and without even knowing a thing about me, knew I’d be a better family to you than the ones who hunted you down. That’s as good a proposal as I could ever make.”

“It wasn’t real!”

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