Platinum Grooms: Pregnant at the Wedding

“Good. I hope I can impress you a great deal more than this.” Candlelight flickered, highlighting his prominent cheekbones and causing his black lashes to cast shadows there. If only he hadn’t insisted on marriage, she thought, and then realized she was succumbing to the seductive trappings and to Ryan.

Their waiter brought menus, and after they had placed orders and were alone, Ryan stood and took her hand. “Let’s dance before dinner,” he suggested. Her immediate reaction was eagerness, swiftly tempered by caution as she placed her hand in his and went to the dance floor.

She walked into his arms and into memories of his lean, muscular body.

This was the second time she’d danced with him and it opened a Pandora’s box of devilish longing that taunted her. Yet she was as conscious of the present as the past. She was aware of the warmth of his body, the cottony smell of his freshly laundered shirt, the strong column of his neck where her hand rested. Their legs brushed and she looked up to meet his gaze, and then couldn’t look away, caught completely, enveloped in desire.

“Stop fighting me, Ashley,” he whispered. “We’re good together, and you know it. And this is the best of all possible solutions.”

“Solutions? There, that says it all,” she exclaimed. “Am I the problem? Is the baby a problem?”

“I’m going to try my damnedest to win you over, because I know it’ll be worth every minute and all my efforts.”

He pulled her closer, wrapping her in his arms and putting his head against hers. Dancing was marvelous, another irresistible temptation with him. She relished being in his embrace and swaying with him, and there was no way she could deny it. Recollections swirled like smoke as she recalled too clearly being held close in his embrace when they had been naked in bed. Steadily and slowly, bit by bit, he was taking chunks of her heart now.

When the song stopped, a faster number started and Ashley danced with him, sexual tension building as she watched him move around her. The devouring looks he gave her made her fluttery and conjured up more memories of seductive moments with him. She felt needed and knew he had turned on the charm to get what he wished, but underneath all that appeal was a man of steel who was going to get his way no matter what he had to do.

With a pounding heart, she gazed up at him and wanted him. In spite of all her anger, she thrilled to his kisses and enjoyed being with him.

When the dance ended, she turned abruptly for their table. He caught up with her and took her arm.

“Now maybe I’ve worked up some kind of appetite,” he said when they’d sat. In minutes, he had his red wine and her water poured. He raised his glass in a toast. “Here’s to a fabulous marriage,” he said, waiting while she glared at him.

“How can you toast a sham marriage when you’ve coerced me into accepting?”

“Make the best of it,” he said lightly, still waiting.

Exasperated, she picked up her glass, touched his and took a sip.

With deliberation he set down his glass and reached across the table. “Give me your hand.”

Mystified, she did as he asked, watching his warm fingers encircle hers. “Since when do you want to hold hands through dinner? But then, I don’t really know you.”

“You will. We’ll discover each other, and that’s an exciting prospect. It’ll be a fulfillment of dreams.” His strong, warm hand closed gently around hers while he gazed into her eyes. “Ashley, marry me.”

“You’re asking again? I told you this morning I would. I assume this request comes with the same conditions.”

He gave an almost imperceptible nod as he reached in a pocket and produced a box. Opening it, he slid a ring on her finger.

Five

How many times was he going to surprise her? Stunned again, she stared for a moment at the sparkling, enormous diamond on a wide gold band, surrounded by a spray of smaller diamonds.

“Great heavens!” she exclaimed. She pulled her hand away to look down at the ring, which dazzled her. “That’s magnificent!” she exclaimed, glancing up at him. “I don’t understand.”

“What can’t you understand?” he asked, momentarily frowning. “I want you to be my wife. I’ve given you an engagement ring to seal the promise.”

“It’s worth a fortune, and there’s not one shred of love between us.”

“Stop reminding me,” he said somberly, and grasped her hand once more. “Look, I’ll ask you again to give us a chance to let love flourish. I wouldn’t do this otherwise.”

She wished she could believe him, but she couldn’t. “Ryan, if I weren’t pregnant, you’d pull out of this engagement so fast I’d be in a spin.”

Something flickered in the depths of his eyes, a confirmation to her of what she’d just declared. “I don’t know what I’d do, because I like the idea of marriage to you,” he said. “But that’s beside the point. There’s a baby to consider. Now, let’s make some plans.”

Shaking her head, she looked down at the ring, which was beautiful beyond her wildest dreams, and yet what she longed for, what was a lot more important than diamonds or a ring was his love.

Their waiter came and placed crystal plates with tossed greens in front of them.

As soon as they were alone again, Ryan took her hand once more. “Even if we break it off later, this will give the baby my name and a heritage. It will give me more rights to my child,” he said quietly, and she heard a note of steel in his voice that chilled her.

“Are you going to try to take this baby from me?” she asked, wondering about his intentions. Now that she’d discovered he had a ruthless streak, she found him an enigma.

“Never. I couldn’t ever hurt a child by taking it from its mother. This is my baby, and I’ll love it. You should know that much about me by now.”

“I know very little about you!” she exclaimed, and realized she needed to keep her voice down. Yet in spite of the remark she had flung at him, his statement relieved her beyond measure. “We didn’t spend that weekend in chitchat.”

“You know plenty about me,” he reminded her, his tone changing immediately. His voice dropped and his words were slower, and she knew he was recalling their weekend together. “You’ve learned what excites me. You know how I look naked. You know—”

“Don’t remind me!” she interrupted, wanting to stop words that conveyed their own magic and shifted the way she viewed him. “I don’t have any idea what you truly care about. I don’t like what you do when you’re out of the bedroom. I don’t know about your life or your family. That’s more important.”

“The prospect of learning about each other, and living together, I find fabulous. We’ve already started this and we’ll build our relationship. That’s a lifetime project.”

“Ryan, does everything in your life go the way you want it to?” she asked. He reeked of success, and she wondered if failure was ever a concern for him.

“Of course not. Life doesn’t unfold that way for anyone. But I get a reasonable return on my expectations. Now, let’s set a date and make it soon. Before the wedding, you’ll want to meet my father and brothers, and I need to meet your family.”

She stared at him while her anger returned. She wanted to refuse and tell him to stop meddling. Instead, she looked down at the ring on her finger, which seemed like a shackle that bound her, heart and soul, to Ryan.

“I leave town tomorrow, but I’ll be back late Friday night. That will give us the weekend to meet each other’s family. When would you prefer to go see yours? Or would you rather have them come to Dallas?”

“We’ll go there. I want you to see the farm. I’ll call them first, of course. Saturday with my family would be a good time. It’s a long drive, and I know them, they’ll want us to stay the night,” she said, realizing Ryan was going to charge right into marriage.

“We can stay, or I can drive back. I don’t mind night driving. Do what you want.”

“I can’t believe you’re even letting me decide,” she said.

“I can yield on things.”

Ashley shook her head. “Not on anything that really matters. But I’ll probably want to return to Dallas. Let’s try to arrive in late afternoon, because they eat supper and go to bed early.”

As she talked, she watched couples circling on the dance floor, and others quietly eating. She felt caught in a dream that she couldn’t wake from, yet it wasn’t a dream. She glanced at Ryan, and when her attention shifted to his mouth, she realized she wanted to kiss him and feel his lips and tongue on her. She looked up again to see his knowing gaze.

“So what do you prefer to do?” he asked with a thicker voice, and she suspected that he had making love on his mind, too.

She tried to get back to his question and make a decision before Ryan did. “Let’s go see your family on Sunday.”

“Excellent,” he replied, as he finished his salad and set his fork on his plate.