Page 5 of A Baby to Make Her His Bride

All he heard waspaparazzi. “You’re bringing reporters to my doorstep?” His blood pressure shot up to pound behind his eyeballs.“Come on, lady.”

She jerked her head back, eyes brightening.

“It’s notyourdoorstep. It’smine,” she reminded snippily. “And no, I took precautions. No one knows I’m here. That SUV is leased by Wave-Com. I have a burner phone like some kind of drug lord and my PR team use a secure chatroom. I went to a lot of effort to insulate myself—and Hunter, and Amelia, and Peyton—from what will be a feeding frenzy. I refuse to stand in the pillory anyway, just because my presence here is inconvenient for you. This is my house. I’m staying right here.”

Fighting for control over your own life was terrifying. Jasper was a very intimidating man, crossing his arms so those mountains he called shoulders seemed to bunch even higher.

Hunter wouldn’t be helping him if he was dangerous, she reassured herself. In fact, Hunter had sworn this house wasn’t being used for anything criminal. Jasper wasn’t a fugitive evading justice, just a really imposing recluse who was annoyed because his privacy had been invaded.

“We’re adults,” she pointed out, trying for a more conciliatory tone, but she could feel the strain in her voice. “Family.”

She offered a welcoming smile, genuinely happy to meet Amelia’s brother, but for some reason their gazes clashed like steel on steel, sparking and hot. Her throat felt scorched.

His glower rejected her overture and his disapproval rolled toward her like a fugue, seeping into the heart of her insecurities.

Not you. You’re not wanted. Get lost.

She resisted giving in, refusing to run like a coward. It washerhouse.

She waved at the wide rooms around them.

“I’m sure we can make this work. We both seem to be motivated to keep our presence here quiet.” She certainly was. “It seems like a big enough place that we should be able to share it without getting in each other’s way. I brought my own groceries.”

One dark brow lifted, unimpressed.

“I’m only staying a week.” Once the initial shock wave passed, she would fly to Europe to attend a wedding. “I have to be seen in public at least once before Hunter and Amelia get back. I’ll surface in Toronto so they won’t be inundated at their home in Vancouver.” Hopefully. “I have aplan. This isn’t my first time in the goat rodeo of bad publicity.”

He snorted.

“I won’t even make noise! I brought my art things.” So she could finally work on her own projects, rather than curating finished pieces for others. “Are you really going to refuse to let me stay here?”

“I can’t, can I?” His voice dripped sarcasm.“Mi casa es tu casa.”

CHAPTER TWO

WHATAGRUMP.

Vienna walked outside to collect her bag and exhaled a huge sigh of bottled-up tension. Was she out of her mind to stay? His attitude was pretty much her worst nightmare, having grown up with her stepmother radiating that same pained tolerance.

It’s my house, she reminded herself.

But she really should start communicating more frankly with her brother. He’d been going through a lot with his new marriage and new baby, so she hadn’t wanted to be a bother. Sheneverwanted to be a bother, but nearly everyone treated her as though she was.

She needed to grow up and grow a pair. She knew that. She needed to stop worrying about what other people thought of her and go after what she wanted without shame or guilt.

She had come this far on that journey already, hadn’t she? This was not the time to let her courage fail her.

Yet, when she walked back in to face Jasper’s judgmental gaze, and the sensation that he saw all her flaws clear as day, it took everything in her to say, “I’ll take one of the guest rooms. Don’t worry about moving out of the big one.”

His snort as she sailed under his nose suggested he was not worried at all, but she held her head high as she took her suitcase up the stairs.

She set it down in a bedroom that was adjoined to another through a Jack and Jill bathroom. A brief exploration showed her a reading nook on the landing then she peeked into the primary suite where the blue-and-yellow decor was fresh and bright. The room was dominated by a pillow-topped king-size mattress in what looked to be a waterbed frame built of massive timbers. Light poured in through the glass doors to a balcony with a limitless view of the ocean.

Aside from a bookmarked spy thriller on the night table and a flannel shirt hanging over the back of a chair, the room looked unoccupied.

Amelia had always made Jasper sound so human. Her stories were always mixed with distress that he was missing, but now Vienna thought about it, Amelia’s mood had lightened recently. Vienna had thought it was more to do with how well she and Hunter had been getting along, and the honeymoon to the South Pacific that they had impulsively planned, but now she thought perhaps the switch had happened when Amelia had learned her brother was alive.

For Amelia’s sake, Vienna was thrilled that Jasper had survived his disappearance, but he certainly wasn’t anything like the doting brother Amelia had described. He seemed embittered and gruff. Hard.

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