Did You Say Married?!

He shook his head. “The desk clerk called around. Every motel in town is filled up.”

“Then we’ll just keep driving,” she said. Her heart rate increased and her palms began to sweat. “I’m sure there’ll be something available farther down the road.”

“Look, I understand how you feel,” Chance said, his voice tight. “But we got a late start, we’re both tired, and the possibility of finding something between here and Albuquerque is slim to none.”

She looked miserable at the thought of spending the night with him. Why that bothered him, Chance wasn’t sure. But it did.

He plucked the sack from the top of the dash, got out of the truck and came around to open the passenger door. “We’ll just have to make the best of it.”

“Please tell me there are two beds,” she said, her voice not much more than a whisper.

She definitely wasn’t going to like his answer to that one. He cleared his throat. “Uh…well, now that you mention it, I’m not real sure.”

“You didn’t ask?”

When he shook his head, her eyes turned to a sparkling, stormy green. It fascinated the hell out of him. She was mad as a wet hen, and absolutely gorgeous. He suddenly remembered just how beautiful when the image of her nude body lying next to his flashed through his mind.

The thought of spending another night in the same bed with her—his body pressed to her softness, his hands cupping the weight of her perfect breasts—had his hormones racing around like a steel bearing in a pinball machine headed for full tilt. Trying to ease the increasing tightness of his jeans, he shifted from one foot to the other.

He helped her from the truck and bit back a groan. The feel of her soft hand in his sent a jolt of electricity up his arm. It quickly spread down to explode in his lower gut. Maybe driving on to Albuquerque wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

One look at the shadows beneath her eyes and he abandoned that notion immediately. She was exhausted. When she swayed, he put his arm around her waist and a tender, protective feeling surged through him.

“Steady there, sweetheart.”

“Turn me loose.”

She tried to pull away from him, but Chance held on to her as they walked to the motel room. He told himself he was just making sure she didn’t pass out and fall, but he knew better. She just felt too damned good to turn loose.

He slipped the key into the lock, swung the door open and flipped on the light. The room had one window, one lamp, one table with one chair.

And one bed.

“This isn’t going to work,” Kristen said flatly.

She turned to leave, but Chance put his hands on her shoulders to stop her. Staring down into her eyes, he decided a man could get caught up and drown in the emerald depths.

“Kristen, we’re both tired and you aren’t feeling well. We can handle this.” He tried to make sure his voice sounded convincing despite the serious reservations beginning to claw at his gut. “Nothing is going to happen.”

She stared up at him for several long seconds before determination replaced the shadows of doubt in her steady gaze. “You’re right. We can handle this situation. We’re both adults.”

Chance nodded. “You can have the bed. I’ll take the floor.” He wasn’t looking forward to the stiff back he’d wake up with the next morning, but maybe a little discomfort would help him control an even bigger discomfort in other regions of his body.

“We’ll make out just fine,” she agreed, looking around the room.

The top of the paper sack crackled from his hand tightening into a death grip around it. Apparently, the double entendre hadn’t occurred to her, but it wasn’t lost on Chance. When he felt in danger of drawing her to him and showing her just how fine he’d like to make it, he backed toward the door.

“At least the room’s clean,” she offered.

“Which suitcase will you need for tonight?” he asked suddenly. It seemed they were both trying to ignore the obvious.

“The small carry-on has everything I’ll need for now,” she replied, walking across to the vanity area of the room.

The gentle sway of her hips and the length of her slender legs made sweat bead on his forehead. He swallowed hard. Although certain details were still hazy, he remembered that less than twenty-four hours ago those same hips had cradled him, her long legs wrapped around him as she held him tightly to her. He muttered a curse. He was within an ace of picking her up, carrying her to the bed and making love to her until they both collapsed from exhaustion.

“Did you say something?” she asked, without turning to face him.

“I’ll…uh, just go out and get what you want, then see if I can rustle us up some sandwiches. I think I saw a burger joint about a block down from this place.”

Good Lord! I’ve got to get out of here.

He needed to get away from her in order to regain control of the fire building in places he’d rather not dwell on. If he didn’t, he figured he’d be setting off the smoke detector just about any minute.

“I’ll be back,” he said, tossing the pharmacy sack onto the table.

Chance closed the door, walked to his truck and leaned heavily against the side. How was he going to spend the night with Kristen and keep his hands to himself? Just the thought of sleeping in the same room with her had him hard as hell and throbbing with anticipation. He couldn’t recall a lot of what happened last night, but he did remember it had been the sweetest, most passionate loving he’d ever experienced.

He gritted his teeth against the fresh wave of heat coursing through him, jerked open the passenger door and reached into the back of the extended cab for the suitcase she’d requested. He wasn’t sure what a man was supposed to do with a woman who wasn’t going to be his wife for longer than it took to have their marriage annulled, but he knew for certain a roll in the hay wasn’t it.

When he returned to the motel, he deposited the carry-on bag just inside the motel room and told Kristen he was going to get them dinner.

Kristen watched Chance pull the door shut behind him. She was dying of curiosity, but she forced herself to wait until she heard his truck engine start before she grabbed the sack he’d tossed on the table. She had to find out why he’d stopped at the pharmacy.

With shaking fingers, she unfolded the top, then reached inside. The items she pulled from the bag stopped her cold. Chance hadn’t purchased condoms as she expected. She almost wished he had. It certainly would have made it easier to resist him if she’d found he was blatantly planning a repeat of the night before. But he wasn’t. He’d bought several books on pregnancy and prenatal care. She scanned the titles on the covers, and a couple of them shook her to the very foundation of her soul—A Father’s Guide from Conception to Birth and How to Ease Your Wife’s Labor and Delivery.

Placing the books back inside the sack, she sank into the chair beside the table. Just when she thought she had the man figured out, he went and did something like this. Never in a million years would she have guessed he’d take the possibility of fatherhood so seriously. It was almost as if he actually wanted her to be pregnant.

She shook her head, rose from the chair and crossed the room to stand in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. She didn’t look pregnant. Turning sideways, she pulled her blouse from her tailored slacks and flattened the blue silk to her stomach. How would she look if she were expecting?

No, that wasn’t going to work, she decided. Her stomach was way too flat. Walking over to the bed, she grabbed a pillow, stuffed it under her blouse, then waddled back to stand in front of the mirror. She turned from side to side, assessing the bulge beneath her breasts. What would it feel like to have Chance’s baby moving inside her?

A contented feeling began to warm the farthest corners of her soul. If she were pregnant—which she wasn’t—it would be the first time since her mother’s passing that she’d have someone to love and who loved her unconditionally in return.

So intent on the image of herself in the mirror and her thoughts of impending motherhood, it took Kristen a moment to realize she wasn’t alone. When she looked up, Chance stood right behind her, his eyes filled with a heat that took her breath away. Her heart pounded hard in her chest and her cheeks burned.

“I didn’t—” she jerked the pillow from beneath her blouse and sailed it toward the bed “—hear you come in.”

“I hope a hamburger and fries will be all right. They didn’t have a lot to choose from.” The passionate gleam in his eyes didn’t waver, but his words were as innocuous as hers.

Good. It appeared they were both going to ignore the humiliating situation.

“That’s fine. I think I’ll take a shower first, then eat.” She felt his gaze follow her across the room to where he’d set the overnight case. Gathering the few items she’d need, Kristen forced herself to walk calmly toward the bathroom when what she really wanted to do was find a hole, crawl into it and pull the opening in behind her. “But you go ahead before it gets cold.”

She closed the door, then leaned against it for support. The last thing she wanted to do was give Chance the impression she thought he might be right about her being pregnant. She’d just been curious, that’s all.

Chance watched Kristen take another bite of a french fry and thought he might explode right then and there. Her teeth nipped at the end of the crisp potato strip a moment before her tongue licked away the lingering traces of salt from her lips.

He mentally ran through every curse word he knew as he crossed the room, closed the bathroom door behind him, stripped off his clothes and reached into the shower to turn on the water. He wasn’t looking forward to stepping beneath the icy spray. It was going to chill him to the bone, make his teeth chatter and send certain parts of his anatomy into traumatic shock.