Page 11 of The Texan's Baby Proposal

Yes, she could keep from going to bed with him. She’d known him a year and hadn’t slept with him, hadn’t fallen in love with him. She didn’t want emotional hang-ups tangling up her life now that she could do so many things she’d planned on doing. She had to resist his appeal.

“After this marriage I have plans for my future and Marc Medina is no part of them. And Marc has plans for his future and I’m not part of his plans,” she told her reflection in the mirror. “Remember that. I have plans for my future and I can’t wait to start.”

She rushed to her closet to plan what she would wear to work.

It was past 2:00 a.m. when she fell asleep, and her dreams all included Marc Medina.

* * *

To her relief, the next day at work she was too busy to think about her new life or her dinner plans, and she barely saw Marc until after four when he postponed their talk and told her he would pick her up shortly before seven.

After work she rushed home to shower, change clothes and take down her hair, aware it was the first time that she’d have her hair down with him and be dressed in a flirty, flattering outfit. Was he even a fraction as excited as she? She suspected he merely viewed their dinner the same way he would one of his business dinners where he was about to close a deal.

She, on the other hand, could barely contain her excitement or stop thinking about the fantastic fortune he would give her. But along with her excitement came a constant nagging worry that she should guard her heart or risk getting badly hurt. She had to stay out of his bed, because sex would mean nothing to him except physical satisfaction. She had to be on constant guard against seduction that would be briefly satisfying and then could bring down all sorts of problems for her.

She needed to keep a wall between them, she reminded herself. Eventually, they would part and he would never look back. By then if she had her baby, she’d better have her life in order.

As she laid out clothes to wear, she looked at herself in the mirror, studying her stomach, which was still flat. She wasn’t far along in her pregnancy and she was tall and slender. Most people would think this baby was Marc’s and he was agreeable to that. Why was he being so generous with her? Was it because of the loss of his own baby and his wife? She knew he was relieved to find someone who would be happy to part when he ended their marriage—she could understand that one and how she was probably the only woman he knew who would walk away with a smile. And she’d better maintain that distance from him so she would be able to leave without any kind of hurt. She had worked for him for a year and she could say goodbye and be okay right now. She wanted to feel the same way when they ended their marriage.

When her doorbell rang, she took a deep breath, picked up her purse and went to answer. Her new husband-to-be and her new life stood waiting on the other side of her closed door.

Three

While he waited for Lara to come to the door, Marc looked at the neat flowerbeds bordering the porch of the small house where Lara lived. He wondered how much they would see each other once they wed. She could settle on the ranch because he knew that’s what his grandfather wanted. Other than that, he didn’t care what she did to get ready for her baby and to go back to school when their marriage ended.

The door swung open and he turned, momentarily startled. “Lara?” His gaze swept over her and his pulse jumped unexpectedly. His eyes narrowed as he stared at her. “You worked until your regular closing time, so you had just an hour to get ready.”

“That’s right,” she said, looking at him with wide, curious blue eyes.

“You look gorgeous.”

She smiled. “Thank you. Come in and see where I live.”

He walked into her place, not because he was interested in seeing where she lived. He merely wanted to look at her longer.

“You let your hair down. I never see you like this.”

“No, this isn’t how I want to look at the office. I stick to business there, as you know. We get things done, and that’s what I want. Tonight’s a little different and it’s not an office event. It’s a celebration, so I dressed for the occasion.”

“Did you ever,” he said. “You look absolutely wonderful. I’m happy all over again that I asked you and you accepted.” His gaze swept over her again. Her thick, long dark brown hair was brushed back from her face, caught and pinned on the sides of her head to fall freely with the ends in big, loose curls. He had the ridiculous impulse to tangle his fingers in the inviting mass.

“Come in and look around.” She turned and he followed her, his gaze slipping over her much more slowly, drifting down to her tiny waist. She had a slight, sexy sway to her hips as she walked. She wore a sleeveless black dress that ended above her knees. It was formfitting, beautiful and seductive with her figure. And she did have a figure, something she hadn’t shown to this extent before.

And he had never seen as much of her legs before. Now he discovered her legs were long, so long and shapely that he couldn’t stop admiring them. But this new discovery was disturbing. He didn’t want to find her highly appealing. He wanted the kind of impersonal relationship they’d had all year at the office. His heart was still locked away, numb after losing Kathy, and he didn’t want involvement with Lara, a night in bed with her because of lust and then all kinds of emotional complications. He wanted to stay out of her bed and keep this marriage in name only. But he’d just discovered that was going to be more difficult than he had imagined. He tried to reassure himself by thinking about their past year working closely together. There had never been even one second of flirting, much less anything more.

As he glanced again at her legs, he didn’t feel reassured.

Her home was filled with furniture that looked as if she had inherited it from her mother—a big comfortable-looking wooden rocking chair plus two wingback chairs in deep blue upholstery and a matching sofa. He gave his surroundings a cursory glance and returned to looking at her.

“You have a nice place.”

She smiled at him as she picked up her purse. “It’s plain and small, but adequate for me.”

“If you’re ready, shall we go?”

“I’m ready,” she said, and she locked up as she left.

He couldn’t keep from looking at her. “You’ve never looked like this at the office.”

---