Barbara McCauley - Seduction Of The Reluctant Bride

He knew when he’d been dismissed. Damn if this foolish woman didn’t know how to test a man’s patience. His hands tightened around the arms of the chair, and he leaned closer to her. The flicker of fear in her eyes gave him tremendous satisfaction. “What will you do, Faith,” he murmured, “if you do go off into those mountains with the wrong man?”

“Well, Mr. McCants—” her breathing had deepened, but she didn’t budge or look away “—I guess I’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Jake Stone,” Savannah softly chided her husband, “our guest has been here at least two full minutes and she hasn’t a drink in her hand. Shame on you.”

Faith, still recovering from Jake’s bear hug greeting and Savannah’s warm welcome, barely had time to open her mouth and decline before Jessica, Jake’s younger sister, pressed a glass of white wine into her hand.

“The boy’s slow, but harmless,” Jessica said, referring to her brother. Then she handed her husband Dylan a bottle of beer. The baby boy in his arms leaned close, mouth open and ready to clamp onto the bottle. “You give our son a taste of that beer, Dylan Grant, and you’ll spend the next week sleeping in that shed you’re building behind the jail in Makeshift.”

Dylan and the baby both looked disappointed, until Jared walked in carrying a blond-curled toddler wearing a darling denim dress. Annie, who looked even more pregnant than the day before, waved off Jake and Jessica’s offer of assistance.

There were more greetings, more hugs, more kisses. No kiss-the-air, stiff-backed hellos that Faith was used to, but rib-crunching hugs and loud smacks on the cheeks that made her head spin.

She nearly had the names straight when a beautiful young girl around thirteen years old came into the living room with a pink-cheeked, dark-haired toddler perched on one slender hip. The teenager, with her dark hair and deep blue eyes, looked like Jessica’s clone.

“This is our sister Emma.” Jake kissed the youngest Stone sibling on the top of her head, then scooped up the toddler, who shrieked with delight as she was tossed up in the air. “And this is Madeline.”

Without warning, Jake pushed the laughing child into Faith’s free arm.

“Swift work, brother-in-law.” Annie fell into the couch with a sigh. “Throw your daughter up in the air, then hand her over to your guest whose gorgeous pantsuit is not only white, but also happens to be a Peter Nygard.”

From the blank expression on Jake’s face, Annie might as well have been speaking a foreign language. Faith suddenly felt out of place here again, wishing she’d worn something more casual. Which would have been impossible, since she hadn’t brought anything casual.

But her wardrobe seemed to be the least of her worries right now. Afraid to move, afraid to breathe, she stared at the baby in her arms. She’d never been around babies before. She’d never even held one. The cherub grinned at her and bounced up and down, wanting to be tossed in the air again. She smelled wonderful, Faith thought. Like baby shampoo and soap. Madeline pushed the end of Faith’s nose with one chubby finger.

“You’re supposed to honk,” Jared offered.

Honk? Self-conscious, she uttered a tiny squeak that sounded more like a pig. Madeline didn’t seem to mind, though. She giggled with delight and pushed Faith’s nose again. Warming to the toddler, Faith gave it another go, then laughed herself when Madeline squealed in pleasure.

That’s how Sam found Faith when he walked in. Standing in the middle of Jake’s living room, dressed like a goddess in white, holding a giggling baby in one arm, a glass of wine in the other, honking like a goose.

Damn, but the woman was beautiful.

“Don’t look now, Ms. Courtland.” Sam grinned and touched the brim of his black Stetson as Faith’s head snapped in his direction. “Jared’s got the video camera.”

Eyes wide, Faith glanced across the room. Her playful expression turned to one of alarm as she realized that Jared, indeed, was recording her ridiculous—but adorable, Sam thought—honking.

That’s when Madeline decided to throw up.

Everyone—everyone except Faith—moved quickly. Body rigid, she stood frozen while Jake gently removed his daughter—who seemed no worse for wear, just a little confused over what all the fuss was about—and Emma ran to get towels. Savannah, frowning at her husband, led Faith, who appeared to be in shock, into the other room, with Jessica clucking her tongue behind. Annie gave Jake an I-told-you-so look, and he hightailed it out of the room with his daughter. Laughing, Dylan followed, his own son in his arms.

Jared kept filming.

“You get that on tape?” Sam asked Jared, who nodded over his camera but, in light of his wife’s glare, knew better than to smile. “I’ll pay you a roundup’s take on my cattle for a copy of that.”

“You should both be horsewhipped,” Annie said irritably, shifting her heavy weight on the couch. “I’d do it myself, if I could move.”

“She gets a little more cranky every day as her due date gets closer,” Jared said good-humoredly. “The last two weeks she was pregnant with Tonya I’d have to wave a white flag before I came in the house at night.”

“Stop talking about me as if I’m not here.” She fluffed a pillow behind her back. “So I’m a little moody. It comes with the territory.”

Foreign territory, Sam thought. All this marriage and baby stuff was alien to him. He was a man much more interested in taking trips where he knew how to speak the language.

Faith Courtland, on the other hand, he thought, watching her as she came back into the room several minutes later, was a woman that could make a man forget how to speak at all.

Savannah had loaned Faith a faded denim shirt that accentuated the blue of her eyes. The jeans she wore were loose on her long legs, but snug on her hips and behind. Even the old black cowboy boots she had on looked as if she’d been born to wear them. She’d gone from goddessin-white to cowgirl-in-blue in a matter of minutes. Sam couldn’t decide which he thought was sexier.

“There’s Texas in this girl’s blood,” Jessica said with a toss of her long dark hair. “All she needs now is a hat.”

Sam stepped up to her and slipped his Stetson on her head. It was way too big, of course, but the oversized black hat, set against her light blond hair stirred his blood. He took a step back, not sure if it was for her protection or his.

Cheeks flushed, she smiled as she ran her hands over the brim of the hat. He’d seen that kind of pleasure in a woman’s eyes over a dozen red roses, but never a hat. He felt a swift stab of possessiveness, as if her wearing his Stetson was a form of ownership on his part. After a long moment, she lifted the hat off her head and handed it back to him. Their eyes held briefly and her blush deepened.

“I’m sorry to be such a bother,” she said to Savannah, who was looking strangely at Sam. “You’ve all been so kind.”

“It was my daughter who messed your beautiful jacket and my husband who caused it.” She threw a scolding glance at Jake, who’d come back sheepishly into the room, his daughter clean and fresh in a new pink jumper. “We’ll have your jacket cleaned and sent to your hotel. And you can keep the jeans and shirt. I could squeeze into them if I really wanted to, but since my babies I’m not into torture.”

“Oh, I couldn’t,” Faith said quickly, but Sam could see that she wanted to, very badly.

“I insist.” Savannah started for the kitchen, calling behind her, “Food’s on the table in five everyone. Round up the troops.”

Sunday dinner with the Stone family was an event to behold. Fried chicken piled high on a huge platter, bowls heaped with mashed potatoes, rich, thick gravy, biscuits so fluffy that Faith didn’t care if she broke every sense of propriety and asked for a second.