Page 38 of The Texan's Baby Proposal

“Do you really?” he asked, pulling her down against his chest. He was warm, and his intense look made her heart miss beats. “I have a better idea. You come here, and in a few minutes we’ll both go shower. In the meantime, I want a morning kiss,” he said, shifting and turning on his side, pulling her closer and kissing her.

The minute his mouth touched hers, she forgot her protest. His arms tightened around her and she wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him, pressing against him, feeling the chest hairs against her bare breasts. She wanted him again, was ready to make love. She didn’t want to get out of bed and have the idyll end.

Last night she had felt really married, desired by him, loved by him, a part of his life. They’d had fun all evening, and then making love locked them into intimacy, shifted their relationship to something much more important, much deeper for her. It was an illusion that she didn’t want to end yet. Their marriage was real, but not based on love and it would not last. She had had her moment with him. Now she needed to step away before she made herself far more vulnerable to hurt. She had to say no to him after this. If she lived as his wife the rest of the time with him, the divorce would hurt terribly. It would break her heart.

This was a fling and it would end—right after this.

He kissed her, his tongue going deep, stroking her mouth, stirring and arousing her until she moaned softly and ran her hands over him, moving her hips against him.

He shifted, throwing aside the sheet to uncover both of them, getting on his knees and moving between her legs. She gazed into his eyes and saw desire blazing in their depths. He wanted her and he was ready to love again.

She wrapped her legs around him as he entered her slowly, making her gasp with pleasure as she arched beneath him and clung to him tightly. He withdrew, only to enter her again and again, filling her deeper each time until she went over the edge. She cried out, clutching his butt, pulling him to her as she thrashed beneath him and he began to pump faster.

She held him tightly while she climaxed, hearing his moan and knowing he reached a climax also.

Finally they were still, locked together, holding each other while she opened her eyes to look at him.

“Now I can’t move.”

“Good. I don’t want you to move anyway. I want you here in my arms. You know I can get this room for the day.”

She laughed. “Don’t you dare. We need to get back to the ranch. I have things to do.”

“You don’t have anything nearly as important as making me happy,” he said, and she laughed.

“That’s a hoot. There might be a thing or two that comes before you and your well-being.”

“Be careful or you’ll hurt my feelings,” he teased. He rose up on his arm to look down at her. “See, we can have a good time together in bed. We can have a really good time together naked in bed. Move into my suite when we get back to the ranch.”

“Marc, this has been fantastic, but I can’t move in with you knowing that this will end and that we don’t love each other. I don’t want a broken heart. I don’t want a temporary relationship and you don’t want a permanent marriage—which I understand. This is a business arrangement with papers. It’s a contract marriage of convenience. I can’t move in with you and I can’t sleep with you anymore. We did and it was wonderful. But we have to stop now while I can still say goodbye.”

“Think about it, Lara. You know you enjoy my company.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think you’re listening to me.”

“We’re married. Why can’t we live together?”

“You know there’s no love in this marriage. That is an enormous difference in everything we do with each other.”

“True, but we aren’t going to fall in love.”

“If I start sleeping in your bed with you, it’ll be a possibility for me, and you’ll still want a divorce.”

“But you won’t fall in love. You have all that cool control you exhibit all the time. You’ll be in charge of your feelings and just because you’re in my bed, you won’t necessarily be any wilder about me than you are now.”

“That I would seriously doubt.”

He hugged her and smiled at her, combing long strands of her hair away from her face with his fingers. “All joking aside, you’ve got me beyond that terrible grief. I’m so amazed because I’ve lived with that since I lost Kathy and I had sort of accepted it as a way of life. What’s funny—you didn’t consciously try to do that. It just happened. I’ve come back to life. It’s fun to be with you and it’s relaxed. You haven’t tried to make me fall in love with you. Far from it,” he added and she smiled.

“We went into this marriage knowing we would not fall in love with each other and we would divorce later this year. That makes a difference in how we deal with each other. And moving in with you definitely won’t work.”

“I don’t know that it made such a damn big difference last night.”

“Maybe not. Last night was an exception,” she said. “I think it would make it more painful to divorce if we’re together a lot and living and sleeping together and making love. That doesn’t seem the way to stay on track for a divorce. I have plans for my future and I don’t want to be in upheaval and turmoil because of a heartbreak.” She shook her head. “Besides, you think I’m driven and I put work first and you don’t like that. You didn’t like it with your mother. Frankly, I think you’re just as driven. I think that would cause all kinds of trouble between us. I think—”

He stopped her rant with a finger to her lips. “Don’t take life so seriously, Lara.”

She pushed his finger away. “I have to. I’m having a baby, Marc, remember?” She had to think of her child in addition to her own future. “And I don’t hear you denying it. I doubt if you like my determination to become a doctor.”

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