Marriage On Demand

“Rebecca?” he said.

The sound of her name on his lips made her toes curl inside her damp, muddy shoes. “Huh?” Eloquent to the last, she thought, fighting back a groan.

“Why are you here?”

She opened her mouth to speak. Nothing came out. She closed it and thought carefully, then tried again. “My car’s stuck.”

He frowned, his dark eyebrows drawing together. “Okay. Where is your car?”

He was speaking slowly, as if to a half-witted child. She wanted to get indignant and tell him she was perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation. Unfortunately she wasn’t. With him she’d never managed more than a sentence or two without some sort of disaster striking. She glanced around the open garage. At least there wasn’t anything to break or spill here.

“It’s in the driveway,” she said, moving out of the room and into the rain. The drenching downpour had slowed somewhat, settling into a steady sprinkle. She felt the drops on her head and shoulders.

He hesitated before stepping out into the open. “Do you want an umbrella?” he asked.

She glanced down at her floral-print dress. It hung loosely, albeit damply, around her body. The long, calf-length skirt was heavy and probably stretching. “I think it’s a little late for that, don’t you?”

His gaze slipped over her, heating her chilled flesh and sending electric bolts zooming through her blood. When their eyes met, he smiled slowly. “I guess so.”

He stepped past her, his worn black cowboy boots squishing in the mud. She stood rooted in place. It wasn’t the thick muck that held her so firmly. It was his smile. She’d never seen Austin smile before. Lines had collected by his gray eyes; his teeth had flashed white. The smile had made him look teasingly dangerous, like a wolf pretending to be a lapdog. It had reminded her she was completely out of her element. He was all black leather and five different kinds of sin. She was a babe in the woods, uncomfortable and unwilling to play in the fast lane. He would find her as interesting as flat beer.

She turned on her heel, almost losing her shoe in the process, and started after him. He stood next to her old station wagon. Most of the fake wood paneling had long since cracked and peeled. The side of the car was two-tone, from an accident several years before. The engine had been rebuilt twice, and the vehicle needed new tires.

“You drive this thing?” he asked, staring at it as if he’d never seen anything so pathetic in his life.

“The home owns it,” she said. “I don’t have a car of my own. There’s a bench seat in the back, allowing us to seat five more kids, six if they’re small. It’s practical.”

He glanced at her and raised one eyebrow. She’d never actually seen someone do that. She wanted to see him do it again, but she didn’t ask him to. He might not understand.

“Practical or not, it’s sure as hell stuck.” He walked around the wagon. Each footstep squished in the mud.

His property stood at the far end of Glenwood. He had about ten acres. There was a three-car garage, an oversize, two-story barn and a huge empty house. The house was the reason she’d come calling in the rain.

According to rumors, which she couldn’t help but overhear, he was richer than God, had never married and was determined to keep his private life private. Glenwood was too small for him to achieve that. His long-term affairs were well documented by most of the women in town. A stunning redhead driving a white sports car had made biweekly trips through town and down his dusty, unpaved driveway for almost six months. Several times Rebecca had seen her and felt a stab of jealousy. Austin’s collection of ladies made men envious and women dream. Rebecca had dreamed, too, even as she’d known it was useless. Austin’s women had two things in common: curves and attitude. She glanced down at the wet clothing clinging to her straight, girlish body. She had neither.

He bent over the hood and rocked the car. She watched the muscles bunch in his arms. His shirt was already soaked and clinging to his back and chest. Rain fell on her face and dripped off the end of her nose. In the distance, she heard the rumble of thunder.

“Where are your keys?” he asked.

“In the ignition.”

He opened the door and slid into the seat. Within seconds the car started. Dependable as always, she thought, realizing she had a lot in common with the old car. Not very exciting, but they both got the job done.

Austin put it in drive. The wagon rocked forward. He eased on the gas. The wheels spun wildly in the mud. Rebecca jumped back to avoid being sprayed. Her right shoe stuck. She waved her arms in the air to try to maintain her balance. The car engine shut off. She heard squishing footsteps moving toward her but she didn’t dare look. She didn’t want to see the disgusted or amused expression in his eyes.

She started to go down and was forced to lower her stocking-clad foot into the mud to save herself. The thick cold earth swallowed her up to her ankle.

“Perfect,” she muttered.

A warm, strong hand gripped her arm. “You okay?” Austin asked.

She looked up at him. Her dark hair was in the way, so she moved it off of her face. She stared at him, dumbfounded.

Water rolled off his face and onto his chest. Drops slipped down into the open V of his shirt. The cotton clung to him, hugging his tanned skin, outlining his muscles, leaving nothing to her imagination.

She swallowed hard. Where his fingers touched her, she felt individual jolts, as if she’d been hooked up to an electric current. Her breasts swelled inside her damp shirt.

“Rebecca?”

“What? Oh, I’m fine.” She glanced down at herself. One foot was in the mud, the other almost as dirty. Her wet and stretched dress flapped in the cold wind. The color from the fabric was bleeding into her white silk T-top. The damp material clung to her chest, outlining her rather pitiful curves. So much for swelling. No one would notice, much less be impressed, she thought, remembering the generous curves of Austin’s redhead.

“I think I lost my shoe,” she said, pointing to a lump in the mud.

In the distance there was a flash of lightning. “The storm is getting worse,” he said. “I can’t get the car loose. Kyle’s borrowed my truck, and I don’t think my car is going to have any better luck in this mud. Come on up to my place and we’ll call a tow truck.”

“I don’t want to be any trouble.”

He smiled again. Her heart beat faster inside her chest. “It’s a little too late for that.”

He released her and bent over to dig through the mud for her shoe. When he’d retrieved the ruined flat, he handed it to her. She took it and stared at the coated leather. It would never be the same again. The fitting end to a lousy week.

He started walking toward an enormous barnlike structure partially concealed by a grove of Chinese maple trees. He didn’t bother to look back to see if she followed. She limped along with one shoe on and one shoe off. Thank goodness they were flats. The rain increased its intensity, turning from a steady sprinkle into a downpour again. The temperature seemed to drop considerably, too.

When they reached the brick-bordered cement path, it was easier to keep up with his long-legged stride. Her lone shoe made a squishy noise with each step. Her wet hair flapped in her face. She pulled off her velvet headband and saw it was ruined along with everything else she was wearing. Why hadn’t she grabbed an umbrella before she left? No, she thought, shaking her head. That would have required a brain—something she didn’t seem to have when it came to Austin.

She glanced at the clipped grass stretching out on both sides of the path, then at the slabs of cement. At anything but the tall, dark and very appealing male specimen right in front of her. It didn’t work. Again and again her gaze was drawn back to him.

He walked with an easy loose-hipped grace. His arms swung with each stride. Despite her bedraggled appearance, she couldn’t help thinking that if she hurried and caught up with him, their arms might brush and then she—

Stop it! she commanded herself. This was insane. And embarrassing. She was here on a mission and she couldn’t forget that. Still, his scent drifted to her and made her think about tangled sheets and bare skin and—

“Oh, my,” she whispered, trying to ignore the heat suddenly blossoming in her belly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, stopping and turning toward her.

She almost plowed into him. As it was, she skidded to a stop, the big toe of her one bare foot jabbing painfully into the concrete. “Nothing,” she said through gritted teeth, fighting the urge to grab her toe and hop on one foot until the pain faded.

He glanced down at her. She stood five feet eight inches in her stockinged feet. The low shoe gave her a half inch more. She stood eye to eye with a lot of men. Austin topped her by a good seven inches.

“You are the most peculiar woman,” he said, then turned away and crossed the last few feet to the door of the barn.

Great, she thought, grumbling. Peculiar. That was romantic. Peculiar. When she wanted to be beautiful, witty, curvaceous, intoxicating. She shrugged. She was never going to be any of those things. Her destiny was to be ordinary. That was the reason Rod Dowell had never noticed her and Austin wouldn’t, either. She was the girl next door. Wholesome, innocent, ordinary. Like milk. People took it and her for granted. She wanted to be the dash of cognac at the end of a perfect evening. Instead, she was reserved for pouring over breakfast cereal. It wasn’t fair.

Austin cleared his throat. She looked up and saw he was holding open the door, obviously waiting for her to step inside. She ducked in, careful not to slap his legs with the hem of her soggy dress.

The foyer was a small room with no furniture. A big metal door with a window in the top half led to what looked like a large machine shop and laboratory. To the left, stairs curved up to the second floor.

“Up there,” he said, pointing to the stairs.