Strictly Business [Stud Service 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (20 page)

“I understand, but I didn’t want to force you into anything like this.”

“Marry me, Susannah.”

There was an intense look in his eyes, and she wasn’t sure she should take that marriage proposal seriously. It was impulsive. It was stupid, and at the same time it tugged at her heart strings. She wanted to say yes. “What? You’re insane! We barely know each other.” She suddenly pulled away.

“We knew each other well enough to make a baby together.”

“That’s different. It was strictly…business.”

“I want the baby to grow up with me in my home, Susannah. If you won’t agree to marry me, then you are going to have a hard time finding someone else willing to do it. Not after the news hits the national gossip newspapers. No guy is going to put up with being a baby-maker.”

“You might be surprised.” She sighed. She knew enough fortune hunters to know they would love to get her pregnant and attached to them for a lifetime, but she really didn’t want that to happen.

“Why not? It won’t take long to get pregnant. You get to keep your inheritance—if you don’t like it you can let me raise the baby and you still get to keep your money.”

“It’s not about the money, Colt.” She shouldn’t have to tell him about the personal details of her agreement with her parents. They wanted a relationship with their grandchildren, and if they didn’t get that, then they would find another way to control and manipulate her.

She could never sign away her rights to a child even if they didn’t care. He wouldn’t want to give up a child anymore than she did. “I see your point now.”

“Do you?”

“This is just so sudden. I haven’t seen you for six months. How do we know we have something that is going to last? How do we know we even have the same chemistry we did?”

He captured her face between his forefinger and thumb and tilted her chin up to meet his kiss. “This is how we know.”

An electric charge stirred her blood. Her desire for him never left despite how much she wanted to bury her feelings.

His lips were soft, and his kiss was not demanding but promised more. When they broke from the kiss, his words were endearing. “I lost you once. I don’t think I can go through that again. It could have been a minute or four days, but I knew the moment I saw you that there was something special about you. I love you, Susannah.”

Those were the magic words she needed to hear. She desperately wanted to believe because she felt this unexplainable pull to him as well. Love was the only explanation. She choked on her laughter, and the odd way they managed to find each other again after six months apart. She rested her head against his and breathed a sigh of relief. This just felt right, being in his arms again. She felt like she belonged here, and she knew what the right answer was without having to think it through. “I love you, too, and I will be happy to marry you, Mr. Vance.”
 

After a minor pit stop at the hotel to get some bags for Colt and to say good-bye to his assistant, they were sitting next to each other in plush seats on Colt’s private jet.

Sam was so happy to hear of the good news she hugged Susannah as if they were best friends. Her enthusiasm was contagious. It helped to ease Susannah’s fears about her introducing Colt and announcing their wedding plans to the family.

Colt had admitted to contacting them already, but she had no clue how well her family knew him or liked them.

Once on the plane her old fears returned.

“I hate flying,” she grumbled when she felt the jet engines roar to life and the plane began to taxi down the runway. Her stomach felt as if hundreds of butterflies just took flight inside.

He reached over and held her hand, stroking it with his thumb. “I know, but it’s okay because you are with me.”

She felt some of her fears leave with his words, but she still joked about how she used to handle her fears before she met him. “It’s okay when I start drinking.”

He lifted the back of her hand to meet his lips and kissed the skin. “I know how to distract you.”

She felt giddy with her newfound love for him. “Yes, Colt. You are very good at distractions.”

“I remember this is how we met. Do you remember what we did?”

Her cheeks flushed with heat when she remembered a lot more than that. “You are naughty, Mr. Vance.”

“Is that an invitation?” His eyebrow quirked high in question.

“It is if you want it to be.” She giggled before he kissed her. She barely even noticed the jet leaving the ground, but she did note all her fears had suddenly vanished.
 

Colt watched his fiancée switch her weight nervously from foot to foot after knocking on the door of her parents’ home.

He wasn’t nearly as nervous after having met with them to find out her whereabouts. Of course, to get that valuable information, he had to promise her father his intentions were honorable and he meant to repair her reputation by marrying her.

Susannah’s mother only made him promise to give her lots and lots of grandchildren.

He reached down to hold her hand, and she clutched his hand with white knuckles.

The door opened, and Maria and William greeted them at the entrance.

Maria’s face lit up instantly and she held out her hands for an embrace. “Darling! You are home!”

“Hi, Mom.” She hugged her mother and father in turn. She seemed pleased when they hugged him as well and welcomed him into their home, but what she didn’t know was he had asked her father for her hand in marriage before he asked her. She could consider him old fashioned, but he didn’t want to get on anybody’s bad side this early in their relationship together.

He only wanted to do this marriage thing once.

“Honey, we’re so happy to have you home! Come in! Come in!” William ushered them both inside and closed the door. He led them to the living room where an expansive leather couch dominated the room. It was decorated in a modern style with a cowboy twist. Longhorns hung above the doorway as a reminder of their roots and what the ranch began as. Her father, William, never stopped using the ranch as a working cattle ranch even after the oil money made enough to quit the business altogether.

“So good to see you again, Colt. Well, it looks like you found her and made up.” Maria looked pointedly at their hands locked together.

Susannah’s cheeks flushed crimson as she announced their wedding plans. “I’m glad you approve, because Colt and I have decided to get married.”

“Really? This comes as a surprise.” Maria looked between the happy couple, her thin eyebrows pulled down over her beautiful brown eyes.

“Not really, since Colt asked for your hand in marriage when he came down here last month.” William shrugged.

“He did?” Susannah and Maria asked simultaneously.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Maria glared at her husband and then punched him in the shoulder.

“I didn’t want to break the surprise for Susannah before she accepted.” William laughed but rubbed his shoulder as if it hurt.

“If I didn’t love you, I would never put up with this kind of treatment.” Maria shook her head in disapproval. “So have you decided on a date or where you want to marry?”

Susannah rolled her eyes.

“We thought we would get married in the tropics and have it at the resort, this spring,” Susannah said. “The sooner the better.”

“Everyone can stay at the resort so finding hotels won’t be a problem, and if anybody has trouble getting there, they can use my private jet. We would like to keep it private and the reception small. Just family and friends.”

“That should still be a fair amount of people, maybe two or three hundred on both sides of the family,” Maria said. “I have a list of people I would like to see get invited.”

“Can we discuss this later? I really would like to show Colt around the ranch and let him meet Paddy.” Susannah wasn’t as enthusiastic as her mother was about the wedding. She knew the moment her mother heard she was marrying she would want to take over the details. This was one of the reasons she wanted it to be on the islands. It would be her future home, and she wanted to have control over as much of her life as she could.

“Oh, Susie. I am so sorry we didn’t tell you earlier.” Her mother sighed and looked to the floor.

“Tell me what?” Susannah had a worried feeling biting the insides of her stomach.

“Paducah had a hard labor. Honey, she died about three day after the delivery of the baby because she didn’t deliver the placenta and got an infection. Nobody realized what happened until it was too late.”

“She died?” Susannah pulled her hand out of his grasp, and it went to cover her mouth.

Colt could tell instantly his fiancée was shattered and completely devastated at the news of losing her favorite horse. She had spoken frequently and fondly of Paducah. He wrapped his arm over her shoulders and gave her a hug. She cuddled in and broke down to begin crying.

“Honey, I’m so sorry.” William looked at her sympathetically.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” She wiped at the tears on her cheeks.

“There was nothing we could do. The foal made it, but we knew if you were worried about her, you would not be able to focus, and we wanted you to be able to finish your research trip so you could come home. For good.”

“Oh, my God.”

“She was family, and we know you felt about her. We used the backhoe and buried her out back by the pasture. Danny even made a little wooden cross for her.”

“Thank you.” She sniffled. “Can we go see the baby?”

“Of course. She’s in the barn, and Joseph is still bottle feeding her,” William said. “She may be young, but she’s got a lot of spirit to her. I think she’ll make a good cutting horse one day once she’s trained up a little.”

“Thank you, Daddy.” Susannah got up and gave her father a quick hug and then pulled Colt by the hand outside to the big red barn.

Colt’s eyes adjusted to the light quickly. It was just a shade darker inside than out, and the barn had a sweet fragrance of fresh straw just put into the stalls.

A few of the horses neighed a welcome. Most were silent except for their movements.

“I can’t believe he still uses horses on the ranch. Don’t most ranchers use ATVs nowadays?”

“Yeah, well, my daddy is old-fashioned that way.” Susannah grinned but then pulled him to the far side of the aisle when she noticed he was close to the gates of a really thick looking bull. The big, black bull kicked at the gate about four feet up. One hoof went through the fencing. “Be careful of those bulls! They’re mean. Daddy breeds those guys for the rodeos, and they would love to kick a hole in your head.”

Colt cringed but put himself between her and the bulls. “Why would he keep something that dangerous in here?”

“Makes it easier to transport them if we can put them in a confined space. These guys are probably going out to work the rodeo soon.”

Colt didn’t like the way they were pacing like wild animals. He kept his eyes on them while Susannah looked from stall to stall until she found what she was looking for. “Dang.”

The colt was a little leggy but a deep-chestnut color with a jet-black mane and tail, and she looked at them with curious, dark-black eyes.

Susannah sighed as she stopped to look at the small creature. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

“She’s cute,” Colt said, and then after thinking about it, he asked, “What are you going to name her?”

“I don’t know yet, do you want to meet her?” Susannah opened the gate and stepped inside.

Colt followed, still a little nervous by the crazed look in the bull’s eyes he just saw. “Sure. You think she’s friendly?”

“She’s being bottle-fed. I am sure she’s getting used to getting handled every day.” Susannah stretched out her hand and smiled when the colt stuck her nose out and sniffed it.

“She’s beautiful,” Colt whispered in awe as the horse nuzzled his fingers. It had no fear and was exceptionally friendly.

“She looks just like Paducah, except this spot on her forehead was lower.” Susannah’s smile grew when she scratched her forehead.

“We’ll have to get her a friend so when we take her to the island so that she isn’t lonely.”

“Oh, Colt, you don’t have to do that.”

“Consider it my wedding gift. I don’t want to see you give up anything you love for me. Sam is already looking at plans for a barn on the property to hold the horses.”

“Oh, Colt, I love you so much.” She sniffed and then touched his face.

“I love you more.” He bent low and kissed her before she could protest. His only desire was to see her happy. For now and forever after.
 

Susannah hid the pregnancy test from her husband. They had been married for three months, but she hated to get his or her hopes up if it wasn’t the real deal.

She wanted to be pregnant, and there was nothing in their way stopping them. She was married now, and the baby would have a daddy. Still she felt fear of the unknown.

Her breasts were sore for the last few days and slightly uncomfortable, and she felt a little cramping in her belly, but how did she really know unless she took a test?