Mail-Order Cinderella

Now he looked intrigued, challenged. And that was far worse. That was dangerous. “Really,” he drawled. “And you’ve made an in-depth study of the topic, Miss Parker?”

Julie shifted from one foot to the other then back to the first. She looked away from him, unable to meet his wolfish gray eyes. “I—I don’t know how we got on to this subject,” she stammered, hoping none of his crew was close enough to hear their words.

“Forgive me, but I tend to connect the two—marriage and intimate relations. If we’re going to live together it’s only right that I give up dating other women. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well, I—”

“In which case, I’d say that you, as my legal wife, will have an obligation—” He lifted one dark brow heavy with meaning “—to satisfy me.”

Her throat was suddenly so parched she couldn’t get a word out for several seconds.

“I, um…I thought we agreed that intimacy would be necessary to create our family, but we wouldn’t sleep together otherwise.”

“I don’t believe I agreed to any such thing,” he said calmly, watching her with an intensity that unnerved her even more.

“And I don’t believe I mentioned at any time playing the role of your…your love slave!” she exclaimed.

He laughed gustily and long, and kept on laughing until he had to wipe tears from his eyes. Several burly men nearby turned to watch them. Julie felt her cheeks flush with heat. “Well, it sounds as if that’s what you expect,” she hissed at him, and spun toward the trailer.

“Slave. Love slave…” He couldn’t stop the aftershocks of chuckles as he followed her. “Is that how you view your role in a relationship with a man? You’d be expected to do unpleasant things to please him as a price for being given children?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, still walking. “Please don’t make a scene.”

“Make a scene?”

Julie felt close to tears. Her head felt so clogged with confusing emotions, she couldn’t think straight. All she knew was that she wanted to escape from Tyler Fortune and the feelings he churned up inside her.

“I think,” Tyler said in a firm voice, “we had better get a few things straight before either of us makes a decision about this arrangement.” He took her firmly by the arm and pulled her the rest of the way across the raw stretch of ground and up the metal steps.

Tyler had no clue what he’d do or say once he got Julie out of sight of his obviously amused crew. Did this woman expect him to marry her but live the life of a celibate? On the one hand he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her, as naive as she was. On the other, he didn’t feel sorry enough to let her dictate a passionless future for him.

“The only way this might…just might work,” he said, and forced himself to release her, “is if we’re honest with each other. Completely honest. Can you agree to that much?”

She nodded meekly.

“Good, that’s a beginning.” Tyler paced the narrow office while she stood trembling near the door, her eyes darting wistfully toward it as he spoke.

“I’ll start,” he said, then took a long breath. “My personal choice would be to remain single. Seeing as that’s not possible, I’m dealing with the situation. The problem is, I take marriage seriously. If I didn’t, I could marry anyone, work my twelve-hour days, sleep with other women and hardly ever have to see Mrs. Tyler Fortune.”

“I see,” she murmured, her eyes enormous.

“But that’s not me, Julie. I know I’ll have to make some sacrifices—spend a little less time on the job to be with my kids and treat the woman I marry honorably. I couldn’t do otherwise. Understand so far?”

She nodded, allowing him a faint smile.

Now came the hard part, the part that might send her scurrying out the door and out of his life. The part he hadn’t intended to tell her. “I didn’t choose you randomly from Soulmate’s videotapes. I saw something in you I felt I could live with, a quality of womanhood that appealed to me.”