The Ransomes: Matt, Nick and Katherine

She sipped her water and prayed she looked cool and collected and that he didn’t have a clue what a tempest he stirred in her. “Be warned now—no love on your part will guarantee no love on my part.”

“Do you really want to fall in love with me?” he asked, leaning forward and if she hadn’t known better, she would have thought that there was a trace of honesty and vulnerability in his voice.

“At this point, no, indeed not! No more than you want right now—or could—fall in love with me.” She raised her glass of water. “Here’s to great sex, Matthew Ransome. And a marriage made at the bargaining table.”

One corner of his mouth quirked, and one dark eyebrow lifted wickedly. “You tempt me,” he said, leaning even closer, “to go after your heart that you’ve sealed away. And I would if I didn’t want to keep my own heart protected. Risk your heart and you risk heartbreak.”

“So we’ll both be locked in to living together and trying to resist falling in love. And you think it’ll be an easy task.”

“I know myself and know what heartbreak is,” he said gruffly. He reached the short distance between then and drew his fingers along her cheek, sending flames of desire to a scalding temperature. “So you’re willing to marry me and have sex to get what you want. You’re willing to risk your future.”

“I’m securing my future. Not risking it,” she said, correcting him and failing to keep the breathlessness out of her voice. “The whole point of this is to take care of my baby,” she added, unable to look away from his intense gaze that held her now. Her heart pounded and she suspected if there had been no table between them and they hadn’t been in public, he would kiss her. And she wanted him to. Unable to resist, she reached up to stroke his cheek just as he had hers. His jaw was clean-shaven and smooth. The moment she touched him, desire enveloped her with the heat of a furnace.

“You’re taking risks, too, to get what you want,” she whispered. “Your heart may belong to me someday, Matt Ransome.” The clash of wills between them was covered with an icing of desire, creating an emotional dessert that held the potential for spicy, red-hot sex. Goaded by his announced intention to resist falling in love when he planned to seduce her, she leaned the last bit of space and placed her lips on his. Before she closed her eyes, she saw the flash of surprise in his.

Then she was lost. His hand went behind her head and her kiss became his kiss. His tongue thrust deeply into her mouth with possessive, demanding strokes that caused her heart to pound. Her body responded fully to him, aching, on fire with wanting him. They were in public, restrained by their surroundings and with an effort she leaned away. Trying to get her breath, she opened her eyes to find him watching her.

“Sex is going to be great,” he whispered.

“I’m going to make you open that vault to your heart,” she flung back at him, realizing right now that if they had sex, she would want his love that he kept locked and guarded.

“No, you’re not,” he answered firmly, but she noticed with satisfaction the perspiration that dotted his forehead and his flushed face.

She leaned closer again. “Let’s see how long you can resist me, Matt,” she challenged, and he inhaled.

“Don’t try to work your magic on me.”

“I don’t have any magic,” she rejoined and his eyebrows arched.

“The hell you don’t,” he said, tracing her jaw with his finger. “No woman should have the effect on men that you do.”

“Do I really now?” she asked, surprised that she had any remarkable impact on Matt.

“You know damn well you do! At least this marriage is going to have some real pluses and some challenges.”

“And you like a challenge?”

“Of sorts. I’m not happy about being pushed into marriage.”

“You’re not being pushed. You can say no. You pointed that out to me on your offer.”

“Dammit,” he said quietly while he glared at her, and she knew even though he had accepted her proposal, he wished he didn’t have to marry her. “We might as well get the questions answered and settled.”

He sipped his coffee and looked at the notepad he had placed on the table beside his plate. While she ate a delicious bowl of peaches, she watched him scribble notes. The waiter brought golden omelets, but Olivia’s appetite had vanished. So had Matt’s because he didn’t even attempt to eat, merely reading and writing notes and sipping his coffee.

Determined to avoid letting him know what butterflies she had and how uptight she was, she forced herself to take bites of her breakfast and try to get it down.

“It won’t go in the prenup, but once we’re married, I expect you to stay faithful. I’ll do the same.”

She nodded. “Our vows will cover that one.”

“You said we’d dissolve our marriage after you get your law degree. As far as I’m concerned, this marriage, if we do enter into it, might as well be permanent.”

“Permanent! And what do you mean—if we enter into it? I thought we agreed this is what we’re doing.”

“We did, but a lot of things can happen between now and weeks or months from now.”

She wondered what he had in mind and was there something he was going to do to try to get her to back out of the marriage agreement. And permanent was mind-boggling. “I never planned on permanent!”

“If we’re getting married, then a lasting marriage is a good business arrangement. I’ll get to raise Jeff’s baby, and you’ll be educated and provided for and have a family for your baby. Neither of us wants an emotional entanglement, yet we’ll have sex in our lives. Who knows—by then, we might be in love.”

Setting down her fork with her omelet only barely touched, she drew a deep breath, suddenly feeling as if walls were closing in on her. “I can’t envision being married to you for the rest of my life.”

“You can always file for divorce if you want out. You know that.”

“Yes, but I had no intention of going into this with permanency in mind.”

“Can’t you see where that would be best for your baby?”

She stared at him. Marriage to Matt Ransome. Permanent as in forever. Endless with no emotional entanglement, according to him. Impossible to her.

“You can’t do forever?” he asked quietly, and she suspected he was pushing this condition to get her to back off from the whole marriage concept, which she had no intention of doing.

“Yes, I can do ‘as long as we both shall live’,” she answered, stiffening her resolve to see these nuptials through, “if everlasting is what you want.” She would deal with that one as time went by.

“I would like to adopt the baby so it’s mine and there’s none of this stepdad stuff,” Matt declared.

Joy bubbled in her over the adoption suggestion that she hadn’t dreamed he would make. She nodded. “Great! That’s gratifying to hear.”

“I think we said the sum I’ll settle on you will be one hundred thousand.”

“I told you that you can cut it in half if we marry.”

He shook his head. “No. We’ll leave it at one hundred.” His blue eyes got that piercing look that drove into her like knives. He leaned closer over the table. “One hundred thousand is enough money for you to marry, get the Ransome name and then take the money and run. You could disappear.”

“I won’t do that.”

“Damn straight, you won’t! I’ll find you,” he said with steel back in his voice. She had no doubt that he would do exactly as he said, but she had no intention of running out on the deal he was offering. “Part of our bargain is that you don’t run out on me. My mother did that to her family. My first wife all but did that with me.”

“If I repeat vows, I’ll live up to my promises,” she said and gazed back at him unflinchingly. He gave her a long, hard look with icy blue eyes, but instead of chilling her, she faced him and noticed his long, thick eyelashes, bedroom eyes. A lock of black hair fell on his forehead. He had thick hair that held a slight wave and a firm jaw that gave him a rugged appearance, yet at the same time, he was handsome with his straight nose and prominent cheekbones.

She wondered if she was sinking herself in a quicksand of heartbreak. How easy it was going to be to fall in love with him! For all his gruffness and reined-in anger, there had been flashes of charm when they had been out on the town last night, as well as a few minutes ago when he was flirting with her. She had vowed she would never again trust a Ransome or get involved with one, yet here she was committing to the closest possible relationship with a Ransome who had his heart locked away.

“I’ll draw up a will. I own the ranches with my father, brother and sister and we want them to stay in the family. If something happens to me, my share will go directly to the baby when he or she reaches twenty-one. The money I have will be divided between you and to the baby. Fair enough?”

She nodded. “For a man not in love with me, you’re making another generous offer.”

As he inhaled deeply, she wondered what was running through his mind because she couldn’t possibly guess. Somehow she suspected he was wishing he could have the baby and get rid of her, but then she might be wrong.

He shifted and his knee bumped hers. His eyes narrowed while she felt a tingle from the contact.

“I need to meet your family,” she said.

“I know. I’ll get them together.”

“You’re not touching your breakfast,” she said quietly.

“I don’t have any appetite,” he replied, biting off the words abruptly. He fluctuated between flirting with her and then giving way to his suppressed fury over having to acquiesce to her wishes. In the moments when his charm and appeal surfaced, she found him irresistible.

She suspected after marriage he would accept their bargain and then she would have his charm and sex appeal to deal with daily, a possibility that gave her a tingly anticipation and at the same time, sent warnings of heartbreak pounding in her mind.

Where Matt’s brother had been an engaging fun-filled boy, Matt was a devastating man with charm and sex appeal that overwhelmed her.

“I don’t think we’ll have an issue about the baby’s education since you fought so hard to get one,” Matt said, scribbling more notes while she nodded.

“I’ll still open an account for you with the one hundred thousand in it. That is your money. I’ll pay the ranch expenses, etc. and open a joint account for us.”

“You continue to surprise me,” she said, again amazed by his magnanimity when she knew he was unhappy with her.

“We might as well work together. We’re binding our lives together forever,” he added and she wondered about her future with him. “Hopefully,” he continued, “we’ll stop fighting each other.”

She laughed. “I wouldn’t count on that one,” she exclaimed, leaning closer. “You intend to seduce me. You want my body.” She placed her hand over his on the table. “If you do, I’ll warn you now—I’ll seduce you because I’ll want your heart.”

“I thought you were going to try to avoid another heartbreak.”

She shook her head. “We’re on a different course since I made that declaration. We’re marrying, and you’re making it permanent. If that’s the case, and we’ll be intimate, then I want more than lust and a purely physical relationship for the rest of my life. I want love.”

“Once again, you want more,” he repeated, smiling at her. “Where have I heard that before? Only this time, you won’t have the leverage you did about marriage.” He turned his hand to take hers and rub his thumb across her knuckles, stirring tingles. “You’re flirting with me, Olivia.”

“So I am. Don’t deny that you like it.”

“Of course, I like for you to flirt and to kiss. As you said, we’re stuck with each other now, so we should make—” he paused and desire heated his gaze “—love, as well as the best of it,” he finished in a velvety drawl that held its own caress. “I’ll have to say that you’re damn cooperative now that you’ve got what you want.”

“I try,” she said, bestowing a smile.

He laughed and straightened up, releasing her hand. “I’ll get you a wedding ring. We need to make some decisions about the wedding first. How about a small wedding?”

She tingled at the prospect and wondered if she could go through with this loveless marriage of convenience—even with Prince Charming, which Matt had been on occasion. “That’s fine,” she said, but her words were breathless and her head spun. Marriage—and then she would be in Matt’s bed. Sex with Matt Ransome! Again she thought about sex with him—over and over she thought of it. Her palms felt sweaty, and she watched him writing in his notebook. If he was disturbed or gave the notion of sex with her any of his attention, he was hiding it well.

“I’ll pay the wedding bills, of course,” he continued. “If you don’t have a particular church, we can be married at the ranch. The only people I want to invite will be our cowboys and my family.”

Trying to get back to thinking about what she was doing instead of sex with Matt, she mulled over his suggestions and shook her head. “You’re so concerned about my baby—which will soon be our baby. Maybe you should think about inviting a lot of your friends, too. Otherwise, I’m not too likely to be accepted by some people because of my background and where I’ve worked,” she said, and he nodded.

“You’re right. Good decision.”

“Why do I get the feeling that from the first, you’ve expected the worst from me?” she asked.

“Maybe I misjudged you. You constantly surprise me. But it’s for the good, so that should be all right,” he admitted. “We’ll have the whole deal, a big wedding and reception.”

“Why not a small, private wedding and then the big reception?”

He shook his head. “I’d say the big wedding because I want people to accept you as much as any other member of my family and there will be a reluctance by some locals for the reasons you said and because you were close to my brother who had a reputation for being the wild man of the county.”

“I’m three months pregnant.”

“Won’t matter. You don’t look it anyway. I’ll hire someone to work with you to plan this wedding.”

“If we have a big wedding, it will take time to plan.”

“No. I’ll hire a wedding planner who can get everything ready. I’ll call family and close friends. Word will get around before the invitations. You get your wedding dress right away,” he said, starting a new list, writing while he talked. She wondered exactly how much wealth the Ransome family had because Matt didn’t seem daunted by anything except her proposal.

She had butterflies dancing a ballet in her stomach at the thought of a big wedding with all his family and friends present. “Matt, I don’t have any family and only a few friends.”

“Doesn’t matter. Most of the county will come to the wedding and lots of people from other counties and from Fort Worth. Matter of fact, guests will come from everywhere because my brother and sister get around. By the way, you have carte blanche on this.”

“You already trust my judgment?” she asked.

His gaze drifted down over her as far as he could see with the table blocking his view and then back up in a leisurely, thorough study that curled her toes and made her forget business. “You have good taste. You look like a professional woman this morning—like the lawyer you will be someday. Last night you looked fabulous. I think I can trust you with the wedding decisions. I’ll help with the wedding at the ranch because we’ve had so many catered parties there. I already have a battery of people who can handle all aspects of the reception. We should open an account for you today.”

She nodded, growing more dazed with each of his quick decisions. It all seemed like a dream, magical, impossible, yet the man beside her was real enough. And the most fabulous, awesome aspect of all—her baby would officially be a Ransome. Matt would help raise him or her.

What was impossible to put out of mind and ran in an undercurrent of thought all the time they talked was the far more immediate prospect of sex with Matt—getting naked with each other. The thought stirred a burning low in her middle. And would there ever be more than lust and a baby between them?

He pulled out a small black book, flipped it open and scribbled in it, turning to hold it out to her. “How’s this date for our wedding?”

Stunned, she stared at the black circle he had drawn and then she looked up at him.

Six

“Icouldn’t possibly!” she exclaimed while she stared at the date circled—next Saturday. “This is Monday! This week—not even a full week to get ready for the biggest event in my life, a complete life change, an enormous wedding with your relatives and friends. Impossible!” she exclaimed, trying to ignore a feeling of panic that surged while she reminded herself this had been her idea and she was getting what she desired.

Part of her wanted to ask for a year to get ready. The other part would like the wedding as soon as possible, to lock her into the Ransome family before something happened that changed Matt’s mind or made the wedding impossible. Next weekend—it sounded the same as tomorrow.

His blue gaze settled on her. “You’re quiet. Getting cold feet?”

“Never,” she replied emphatically. “I want this with all my heart.”

While they looked solemnly at each other, she knew they each had different goals for their futures. And they each would fight for what he or she wanted. She knew that, too.

He glanced at his watch. “We should select invitations today. I’ll get a list of guests and get someone at the Ransome office to address the invitations and get them out at once.”

“Matt, we can’t do this in a few days. Give me another week at least.”

“All right. The date will be the following Saturday,” he said with assurance in his tone. “Let’s go. I have calls to make, and you can shop for your wedding dress. We can meet back at the hotel for a late lunch around one. When we fly home, we’ll go to Fort Worth and open a bank account for you. How’s that?” As he talked, he fished his billfold out of his pocket, withdrew a credit card and flipped it over on the table so it landed in front of her. “Buy whatever you want,” he said casually and she stared at him. “Or if you don’t find what you want, we can go to Fort Worth to shop. Or Dallas.”

“I’ll find something,” she said, quietly. “Thank you.”

“And you’re surprised again, aren’t you? You must think I’m a green-headed ogre.”

“No. I’m simply amazed you’re so generous when you’re angry with me. And I didn’t know your family had such wealth,” she said.

He gave her a dubious look. “C’mon. That’s common knowledge in the county. It runs back to the fortune my great-granddaddy made on cattle and land.”

She shook her head. “Your brother flashed money, but no more than a lot of other cowboys and until he left for the mountain trek, he didn’t do anything that made him look particularly prosperous except play poker. He never took me home with him, so yesterday was the first time I’ve ever seen the Ransome ranch.”

Matt shrugged and gave her a rueful smile. “You get your way on the future for both of us, so why should I stay angry or try to keep things from you when you’ll be my wife next week?”

Wife next week. She was glad she was sitting down because her head spun at the thought of becoming Mrs. Matt Ransome so soon.

“We pick up and go on from here,” Matt continued. “I don’t want revenge because you and I are going to be a unit. From here on, it would be like fighting myself.”

“And you’re not?” she asked softly, unable to resist flirting with him now that their future together was sealed.

“Not what? Fighting myself?”

She smiled at him. “You don’t want to be attracted to me. It aggravates you that you want to kiss me.”

“Maybe so,” he said, leaning close enough again to start her heart pounding. “Sooner or later, we’ll work things out. I just usually manage to get my way and this is one time that I haven’t.”

“Maybe I can keep you from regretting your decision,” she said in a throaty voice. “If we both try, Matt, we can have a good marriage.”

He wrapped his fingers around her hand again. “I’d like that,” he said and leaned close. “Just remember, I warned you that I’m not going to love again. And remember the old saying: ‘All’s fair in love and war’. You’ve had all the forewarning that I need to give.”

“And so have you,” she said with a smile. With her free hand she stroked his nape lightly.

His eyes darkened, and she knew she was taunting a tiger that could bound to life and devour her heart so easily. “I’m beginning to look forward to this, Olivia,” he said softly. “And I look forward to our wedding night and having you in my arms.” While he talked he reached up to wind locks of her hair in his fingers, tugging so lightly, yet making her aware of his touch.

Her pulse raced and her mouth was dry. “Twelve days from now, I hope we know each other better.”

“You’ve learned a lot about me already and I know some about you. And I’ll answer any question you want.”

She tilted her head to think a moment. She was curious about him and had a multitude of questions, but she tried to choose the most urgent. “Are you still in love with your ex?” she asked, and a shake of his head gave her pleasure.

“Not even in the tiniest fraction. If she wanted to come back tomorrow, I wouldn’t want her to, but she won’t want to. She’s in love with her job. And then with herself. When we were married, I made a threesome.” He waited expectantly.

“When you were growing up, did you and your siblings get along with your father?”

“Well enough,” he answered easily. “Our father can be a dictator and a lot of people are cowed when they deal with him, but we’ve grown up with him and his fiery temper and determination.”

“Are any of you a lot like him?”

“I hope not,” Matt replied. “You can ask me more later. Right now, let’s go,” he said, gathering his papers and standing, coming around to hold her chair.

As soon as they separated, Olivia began shopping for a wedding dress.

When she slipped the cool silk of the first one over her head, her heart thudded at the sight of her image.

The white dress was a dream. Tendrils of her hair had tumbled free and fell around her face and she had to admit that she thought she looked pretty, but it was the wedding dress and what it symbolized that held her speechless. She was dressing for her wedding for a marriage of convenience that she was going to contract to for the rest of her life. With a man who was angry with her, accustomed to getting his own way, and determined to avoid ever falling in love with her.

Would her baby’s future be worth what she was willing to sacrifice, Olivia asked herself, because she suspected that no matter what she did or felt, Matt Ransome wasn’t going to fall in love with her. The image in the mirror that stared back at her was a wide-eyed woman in a wedding dress about to marry—in less than two weeks—in a loveless marriage.

If she had good sense, she would guard her heart, too, she thought, turning to look over her shoulder at the dress. She guessed it would take a long, long time for Matt to forgive her for pushing him into this marriage of convenience.

Would his family accept her?

She suspected that would be one of the least of her problems.

She removed the dress and tried one that was white satin with a full skirt and cathedral train. Every moment of the past two days had held a dreamlike quality, but seeing herself in wedding dresses was surreal. She was going to marry a week from Saturday!

She ignored the pang that tore at her heart. This wasn’t what she had planned for herself, but then nothing had gone as planned since she had met the first Ransome.

An hour later, she found the dress she wanted and knew she needed to look no further. She turned first one way and then another as she studied her reflection while she smoothed the skirt to a white sleeveless silk with a low-cut V-neck and straight, plain lines with a removable train. The simple elegance and flattering style made it the dress she wanted.