Joanna Sims - The Maverick's Wedding Wager

“I have a proposal for you and I don’t want us to be overheard or disturbed.”

Her arms crossed in front of her body, Genevieve’s interest was piqued in spite of herself. Even though he had locked the door, Knox wasn’t giving off any creepy stalker vibes, so her defenses lowered ever so slightly. Knox had always been gentlemanly, kind, consistent and had never come on to her in all the months she had been working with him. It wasn’t beyond reasonable to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“What proposal is that?”

Knox took his hat off and tossed it on the nearby desk, his dark brown eyes so serious.

“Marriage.” He said it so plainly and simply she almost thought she had misunderstood.

Genevieve’s arms tightened around her body, and her heart, without her permission, began to beat rapidly in her chest. This wasn’t her first marriage proposal, but it certainly was the strangest.

“Gen.” Hands in his pockets he took a small step toward her. “I want to propose marriage. Let’s get married.”

Today was the first day he had ever called her by a nickname, and she had to admit it sounded kind of nice when he said it in his raspy baritone voice.

Genevieve stared up at Knox and he stared right back at her. The only sound was the ambient noise of the scraping and stomping of men’s feet as they moved bales of hay into the hayloft above them.

After a second or two, her arms fell away from her body as she laughed. “Very funny, Knox. Ha, ha. Yeah—let’s get married. That makes total sense.”

But Knox wasn’t laughing.

“You’re right. It does make perfect sense.”

“You’re serious?” She stopped laughing. “You want us to get married ?”

“Yes.”

Now she was frowning at him. They had started a friendship over the last several months and she liked him. But what in the world had possessed him to propose marriage out of the blue? He had never even so much as flirted with her!

“Are you going through some sort of mental crisis, Knox?” she asked seriously. “Because you can get help for that.”

“I’m perfectly sane.” He wasn’t smiling but there was now a conspiratorial gleam in his eye. “Just hear me out.”

“No.” She scooted around him, unlocked the door and swung it open. In the open doorway, she held out her hand. “I’ll take my check, please, and then I’ll be on my way.”

He didn’t move to the desk to write her a check. “What if I told you I had a way for us to help each other get exactly what we want?”

Now that the door was open and any passing ranch hand could overhear their conversation, Knox had lowered his voice. She had to lean in slightly to hear his next words.

“You want to move to California.” It was a statement of fact.

She nodded.

“How much does a move like that cost?”

His words touched a raw nerve in her body. From her calculations, to move her and her horse to California and get her business established it was going to take much deeper pockets than she currently had. In truth, as much as she hated admitting it, she was most likely years away from moving out of her parents’ garage apartment.

“A king’s ransom,” she admitted gloomily.

“I just happened to know a king.”

Everyone in town knew that the Texas Crawford cowboys were wealthy; if Knox wanted anything in his life, he just had to go out and buy it. It seemed to her, in this moment, that he was trying to buy himself a bride.

She wasn’t for sale.

“Hear me out, Gen. If you don’t like what I have to say—no harm, no foul.” When he used one of her favorite expressions, her eyes moved back to his face. “We’ll never speak of this again.”

In spite of herself, she just couldn’t say no to at least listening to a plan that could possibly shave off years of saving for her move to California. She would be crazy not to at least listen, wouldn’t she?

Genevieve stepped back inside the tack room and closed the door behind her. “You’ve got five minutes.”

“We elope,” he told her in a no-nonsense manner. “Now that Logan is married to Sarah and Xander is happily married to Lily, my father will think he’s three sons down with only three more to marry off. And when my other brothers get engaged, we’ll get the marriage annulled.”

“You really want to get back at your dad that much?”

She saw a shift in Knox’s eyes, a flash of anger that disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, like a quick flash of light in the darkness.

“Nobody controls me. He needs to learn that lesson, yes.” The rancher continued, “After the annulment, I’ll make sure you get to California. All expenses paid. In the meantime, as a bonus, you’ll be free to live your life without any hassle from your dad.”

“As your wife.” She scrunched up her face at the thought. She had never equated marriage with freedom .

“As my fake wife,” he said. “A marriage in name only. You do your thing and I’ll do mine.”

“You know what, Knox? This is absolutely the most extreme way a man has tried to lure me into his bed. And there have been some doozies, let me tell you.”

“I don’t want to sleep with you, Gen. I want to marry you.” He said it seriously, and then added as almost an unimportant aside, “Not that I don’t think you’re attractive.”

“Gee thanks, Crawford.” She rolled her eyes at the way he delivered the compliment. “You really know how to make a woman feel all girly inside. Am I blushing?”

As if the sarcasm didn’t register, he asked, “So, what do you think?”

“What do I think?”

He nodded.

“I think,” Genevieve said in a slow, thoughtful tone, “thank you, but no thank you.” She gripped the doorknob. “Do me a favor, would you? Please put that check in the mail. My next client awaits.”

Before she could open the door and walk out into the hall, she noted that Knox’s expression was cloudy. He had his head tilted downward and he was tapping his finger on the top of the desk, as if that action would help him find a way to change her mind. Logan had told her that Knox didn’t like to be wrong, he didn’t like to lose and he didn’t like to be told no. She and Knox had those three things in common.

He looked up and pinned her with eyes that looked more black than brown in the moment.

“I suppose all of those things I heard about you must’ve been a pretty big exaggeration then.” Knox’s words were laced with a challenge that made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I heard that Genevieve Lawrence never backs down from a challenge.”

Knox caught her off guard by skillfully tapping into one of her weaknesses.

“I don’t.”

“I also heard that Genevieve Lawrence has never lost a wager in the town.” This was said with a small challenging smile, as if he knew that he had just sunk the hook.

“You heard right.” She found herself still standing there, gripping the doorknob. “I haven’t.”

She had always been a tomboy who felt more comfortable hanging out with the boys than the girls. And, for the most part, the boys had accepted her as one of their own. But they thought, wrongly, that because she was a girl she would be easy to beat. She wasn’t. The boys in town had always made bets with her and they had always lost. When the boys grew into men, they still lost. What she lacked in strength, she more than made up for it with an innate desire to win. She had been competitive since she was a kid and that had never changed. Everyone knew Genevieve was the reigning champion for winning wagers in Rust Creek Falls; it was a title she wore with pride. And she planned on leaving this town undefeated.