Page 12 of A Baby to Make Her His Bride

“Not by choice. The first few days I was in the bush, avoiding arrest, but I gave everything I had to Saqui’s sister. She took it to the papers, but REM-Ex quashed it, saying it was a hoax. They said I couldn’t have written it because I was dead. That was a genius move because it allowed them to cancel my documents and flag my passport if I tried to cross a border or fly. I hated that Dad and Amelia believed I was dead, but given REM-Ex had already killed Saqui, I thought it was safer for them. I didn’t think this would drag on for ayear.”

Vienna had been denigrated in many ways, but never accused of a crime. She couldn’t imagine how he’d felt at that level of persecution.

“What did you do? Where did you go?”

“Saqui’s family want justice for his death as much as I do. I stayed with some of his relatives, helping on their farm while we tried to get the police to investigate, but REM-Ex has deep pockets. They papered the country in a smear campaign, even pinning their environmental crimes on me, things that happened before I had ever set foot in that country! Thanks to being dead, I was locked out of my accounts and I was afraid to use them anyway. What if someone traced me? I didn’t want to put Saqui’s family at risk. Or Dad and Amelia. I couldn’t afford to underestimate what REM-Ex would do because, even if Saqui’s death was an accident, they obviously don’t want it coming to light that they caused it. I make a far tidier scapegoat.”

“But now you can finally get Orlin What’s-his-name arrested? How?”

“The rest of my plans are classified,” he said grimly. “No offense, Vienna, but I don’t want you screwing up my one chance to catch the bastard who’s trying to frame me.”

“None taken,” she lied, and dropped her gaze to Bowser’s red collar.

Jasper woke at 2 a.m. Hard.

It was basic biology that celibacy and a nearby woman would put him in this state, so he ignored it. It wasn’t as if she’d done anything to encourage it. Over dinner, they’d talked about incidentals—the climate in Chile and the latest season of a series they had both binged.

He’d been trying to mentally step back after talking about Saqui. Vienna’s earnest sympathy had unsealed the door on his anger and grief and he couldn’t help feeling she had slipped through in the same breach. It was disturbing enough he’d sought distance after dinner, plugging in his earbuds and checking on his ghost purchases of REM-Ex shares.

Perhaps she’d felt the same need to shore up because she’d gone upstairs and only come down once for a cup of tea before bed.

Not seeing her hadn’t meant he wasn’t aware of her. She had stayed in his thoughts when he went to bed. It should have been a welcome change from replaying old conversations with Saqui, trying to rewrite history, but he’d only tossed and turned with restless arousal.

When he did drift off, she was right there in his dreams, stepping into his arms instead of running away.

What was it about this woman? He went long stretches without female company. Hell, he had lived alone—often in the wilderness—for weeks at a time. He preferred it that way. Coming from a close-knit family didn’t mean he was a pack animal. At heart, he was a lone wolf.

Which wasn’t to say he didn’t have relationships. They just died on the vine because of the work he’d chosen. Most people who married did so because they wanted to spend time with that person, not live alone, waiting for them to come home.

Besides, he wasn’t ready to let anyone in. Saqui had been the first close friendship he’d had in a long time and Jasper hadn’t really had a choice. It had been Saqui’s nature to draw people out and make jokes and bring them home to eat with his family.

He’d been young and ambitious and eager to learn everything Jasper could teach him. Jasper had seen himself in Saqui and couldn’t stop hating himself for hiring him, inadvertently pulling him into something that had wound up costing him his life. The guilt at not seeing the danger, and not insisting Saqui come to town with him that last, dark day, was unrelenting.

But of all the unique minerals he’d picked up over the years, none had been a crystal ball.

Logically, he knew he hadn’t caused Saqui’s death, but his self-blame had gone off the scale as REM-Ex had tied his hands against revealing what had really happened. Saqui’s family hadn’t had any resources to seek justice on their own. They were humble farmers who’d been kept afloat with Saqui’s financial help. The best that Jasper could do for them was help them navigate getting a life insurance payment—which had taken forever because it had been bought through Jasper’s company and he was “dead.”

The Melillas hadn’t wanted money anyway. They wanted their son back. Seeing how devastated they were, and how much they missed him, ate holes in Jasper’s soul.

This was the real reason he pursued a solitary life. Grief was horrific. Better to hold himself back from risking such crippling pain.

A creak in a floorboard had him lifting his head to see a faint bar of light appear beneath his door. Was that a quiet knock?

He threw back the covers and pulled his shorts over his briefs.

When he opened the door, the hallway was empty. He glanced to where the lamp glowed in the reading nook.

Vienna looked up from where she knelt before the low bookshelf. She stilled and so did he. Neither of them seemed to breathe.

The yellow light and her buttercup nightgown wrapped her in gold. He dragged his gaze from the lace that plunged between her breasts and the gathered silk that cradled the swells so lovingly.

“What are you doing?” He had to clear a thickness from his throat.

“I couldn’t sleep and saw these earlier.” She held up one of the historical romances.

Goodness, what could be the cause of both of them suffering sleeplessness, he wondered facetiously, even as he imagined dropping one of those strings off her shoulder and pressing his mouth to her luminous skin.

“I knew I wasn’t going to turn on my phone while I was away, but I forgot to bring any books.” She absently tucked her hair behind her ear as she dipped her head to read the back.

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