The Wedding Wager: Dakota Daddy

And he still expected to buy her ranch. It would be ridiculous to refuse to sell to him because of old hurts. He didn’t see how she could possibly mean no.

He climbed into his pickup to cross the river and drive back to the house, lost in thoughts about Megan, about making love to her when she’d been eighteen, naked and passionate. He stirred uncomfortably. He wanted her in his arms in his bed. With a groan he tried to get the erotic images out of mind.

If he could get past her smoldering anger, she could be seduced. Even as she burned with indignation, she hadn’t rejected his touch and his kisses. Attraction was still alive between them. It was only a matter of time, he felt certain, until seduction. Everything in her cried out to him.

The future didn’t hinge on Megan selling the ranch to him. He could move on to the next lucrative deal. This had looked like an easy one that could have been handled quickly, made him some easy money and cinched the bet.

A jingle interrupted his thoughts. He answered his cell phone again, to hear his cousin’s voice.

“Hey, Matt here. Chase said you’re in South Dakota. I wanted to see if you’ve been washed away. The rain is making national news.”

“Thanks for call,” Jared replied. “I’m fine. Bridge was underwater last night, but we have sunshine today and the water’s receded.”

“That’s good news. I hear you’re buying the Sorenson place—that’s sweet payback!”

“The old man died, but it’s still sweet payback with Megan,” Jared said, thinking about her refusal and feeling certain he’d get his way eventually.

“Good luck with it. It doesn’t matter, though, I still intend to win our bet.”

“Wishful thinking. Thanks for your call,” Jared said, smiling and remembering a pugnacious look Matt often had when he wanted something that was difficult to acquire. Beneath the curly black hair was a brain that clicked constantly.

“Go back to work. You’ll need to do all you can,” Matt teased, and was gone. Jared chuckled over the good-natured teasing and the competitiveness that had been present since as far back as he could remember. He glanced at his calendar, Matt’s call fading from his attention.

Monday morning, he was scheduled to see his attorney in Sioux Falls before he headed home to Dallas and now he had a lunch appointment with his real estate agent. As Megan invaded his thoughts again, he forgot about a schedule.

Monday, the eighth of June, he dressed in a charcoal suit and tie and drove himself, leaving behind his bodyguard and chauffeur, feeling secure in South Dakota.

In Sioux Falls, he drove downtown to his attorney’s office. It was another sunny June day.

As soon as lunch was finished, he parted with the real estate agent and headed to his car, his thoughts already turning from South Dakota, as he mentally ran through projects for the week. He paused to call his pilot to be certain his plane would be ready. As he talked, he glanced up the wide main street and saw an unmistakable dark head of hair.

His pulse speeded—it had to be Megan. She stood in front of a restaurant talking to two people with a boy beside her. He had his back to Jared and wore a ball cap.

Jared recognized her aunt and uncle and guessed that Megan had her son with her.

Impulsively, he crossed the street in long strides. Megan was dressed in red slacks and a red, short-sleeved cotton shirt and her back was to him. Her hair was caught up in a clip high on her head.

It had been years since he had seen Olga or Thomas Sorenson, the older half-brother of Megan’s father, Edlund.

“Hello, there, Megan,” he said cheerfully. They all turned to face him, and once again Megan’s face drained of color.

“It’s been years,” he said, extending a hand to Thomas Sorenson, who hesitated a few seconds and then reached out. In that first moment, her uncle and aunt had looked as shaken as Megan.

Under Thomas’s solemn, half-angry gaze, Jared realized something was amiss. Tall and graying, Thomas Sorenson gave him the barest possible handshake. Jared smiled at Olga Sorenson, Thomas’s diminutive blond wife, who merely nodded with tight lips. His sudden departure seven years ago resonated badly with all three adults even today. Jared turned to Megan who was frowning at him.

“Sorry, if I interrupted you folks, but I saw you and thought I’d say hello. I didn’t intend to intrude,” he said.

When his pleasant comment was met by awkward silence, his curiosity grew. He glanced at the boy, who was looking at a bright red toy rocket he held in his hands. “This must be your son, Ethan,” Jared said, holding out his hand in greeting. “Ethan, I’m Jared Dalton.”

The boy looked up and shook hands with Jared.

“I’m glad to—” Jared’s words died, as if he had been punched in the stomach. With midnight eyes, a cleft in his chin and black curls escaping from his cap, the boy staring back at him was his own image, a face that would match childhood pictures of Jared himself.

His own son!

Four (#ulink_78aa78d9-030b-5641-97cb-13e2c0d2f16a)

Jared glanced at Megan and her expression confirmed that Ethan Sorenson was his son. For an instant, he forgot the others as Megan’s terrified gaze captured his. Her wide-eyed mixture of fear and anger put all the reactions this past weekend in place for him.

The moment would become permanently etched in Jared’s memory—sun shining brightly, the three adults facing him with a mixture of unfriendliness and guilt in their expressions. And Ethan, who was looking at his rocket once more and unaware of the undercurrents.

The boy seemed not to have recognized Jared. All these years, Jared had had a son. The enormity of it overwhelmed him and for a moment he was at a loss. Megan had never told him. By all indications, she wasn’t going to tell him now, either. She had been planning to let him go back to Texas without ever knowing about his son.

Astounded over his discovery and her duplicity, his gaze shifted from Ethan to her.

“I need to see you,” he said to Megan. “We have to talk now.”

She nodded and turned to tell Ethan good-bye and hug him.

“It was nice to see you,” he said to the Sorensons. “Ethan, I’m glad to meet you,” he said.

His son! When would he grow accustomed to that? He longed to pull the child into his arms and just hold him for a minute. Instead, he smiled.

“How old are you, Ethan?” he asked.

“Six, sir,” Ethan answered politely, an unnecessary confirmation. Jared had left seven years ago and Ethan must have been born nine months later.

The Sorensons bade Ethan come with them and they strolled away.

Jared thought about where they could get some privacy as quickly as possible. He wasn’t waiting to drive out to her ranch or his own to talk. Questions spun, anger was like wildfire consuming him.

Why hadn’t his staff unearthed the parentage of her child? The marriage. A marriage on the rebound—or to give an excuse for the pregnancy?

“They know the truth, don’t they?” he asked Megan.

“Yes, they do. I’m close to them, closer than I was to my dad,” she said.

Jared placed his hand on her arm. “We can’t discuss this on the street. Let’s go to the hotel and I’ll get us a room where we can have privacy.”

“Hotel? We can go to the ranch.”

“No,” he said flatly. “I’m not waiting through a long drive. I have questions, Megan, and I want answers now.” In the taut silence, she gave him a stormy look; the clash of wills crackled between them.

As she clamped her mouth closed, he escorted to the tall, remodeled hotel.

She slanted him a look. “I thought you were leaving town today.”

“I had planned to fly out at one,” he said, and she turned away while he left her to step to the desk to get them a suite.