The Md She Had To Marry Part 2

"It doesn't matter. I'm perfectly safe here."

"Not in your condition. You know you shouldn't be alone."

He was starting to sound way too much like her cousin. Zach-and Tess, too-had been nagging her

constantly of late, trying to get her to move to the main house now that her due date was so close. She

kept putting them off. She did plan on moving, as soon as the baby came. Tess already had a room ready for the two of them, with a nice big bed for her, and a ba.s.sinet and a changing table and everything else that the baby would need.

But right now, Lacey felt she was managing well enough. And the cabin did please her. She had music-a boom box and a pile of CDs in the sleeping nook. She read a lot and she sketched all the time. Lately, since just before she'd come to Wyoming, she'd discovered that she no longer had the kind of total concentration it took to work seriously on a painting. But that was all right. She sensed that it would come back to her, after the baby arrived-no matter what XavierHockland , her former teacher and mentor, chose to believe.

And certainly she could manage to make it to the main house when her labor began. Tess could take her to the hospital from there. Loganbegan prowling around the room. He stopped by the big stove. "What do you use to heat this place?"

"Wood. Lately, the weather's so mild, I hardly need heat, though. And if I do, I only have to build one fire, in the morning. By the time it burns down, it's warm outside." "How do you cook?" "Same thing. I build a fire." "You're chopping wood in your condition?" She made a face at him. "No. Zach takes care of it. He keeps the wood bin out in back nice and full." "But you have to haul it in here and build the fire yourself?" "It's not that difficult,Logan." "Heavy lifting is a bad idea at this point. Your doctor should have told you that."

"Logan. Come on. Stop picking on sweet old Doc Pruitt. I only carry in a few pieces of wood at a time. There honestly is no heavy lifting involved."

He marched over to her again. "You need help around here. And even if you won't marry me, I think I have a right to be here when my baby is born."

She opened her mouth to rebut that-and then shut it without making a sound. He was right. If he wanted to be here for the birth of their child, who was she to deny him?

"Who knows?" he added. "You might even need a doctor in a hurry. Then you'd be doubly glad that I stuck around."

Score one more for his side. She could go into labor any time now. If, G.o.d forbid, anything should go wrong before she reached the hospital inBuffalo, it wouldn't hurt to have a doctor at her side.

And who was she kidding, anyway?

Beyond the issues of her isolation in the cabin, of a father's rights andLogan's skills as a physician, there was her foolish heart, beating too hard under her breastbone, just waiting for any excuse to keep him near for a while.

It astonished her now, to look back on all those years growing up, when the name Logan Severance had inspired in her a feeling of profound irritation at best. Logan Severance, her sister'sperfect , straight-A boyfriend, who played halfback on the high school football team, took honors in debate and went to UniversityofCaliforniainDavison full scholars.h.i.+p. Logan Severance, who seemed to think it was his duty to whip his sweetheart's messed-up little sister into shape. He was always after her to stand up straight, carping at her about her grades, lecturing her when she ran away or got caught stealing bubble gum from Mr.Kretchmeir's corner store.

Sometimes, she had actually thought that she hated him.

But not anymore.

Now she knew that she loved him. She had figured that out last September, on the fifth glorious day of their crazy, impossible affair. It turned out to be the last day. As soon as she admitted the grim truth to herself, she had seen the self-defeating hopelessness of what she was doing. She had told him she couldn't see him anymore.

He had called her three times after she returned toL.A.She'd found his messages on her answering machine and played each of them back over and over, until they had burned themselves a permanent place in her brain. She had memorized each word, each breath,each nuance of sound...

"h.e.l.lo, Lacey. It'sLogan. I was just-listen. Why don't you give me a call?"

"Lacey.Logan. I left a message a month ago. Did you get it? Are you all right? Sometimes I... Never mind. I suppose I should just leave you alone."

"Lace. It'sLogan. If you don't call me back this time, I won't try again."

She had started to call him a hundred times. And she had always put the phone down before she went through with it, though she had known by his second call that she was carrying his baby, known that eventually she would make herself tell him. Known he would come to her as soon as she did. And that once he came, it would be harder than ever to send him away.

He smoothed a coil of hair back from her cheek. She savored the lovely, light caress.

He murmured so tenderly, "Say I can stay."

She put off giving in. "I don't want to hear any more talk about marriage. It's out of the question,Logan.

Do you understand?"

His eyes gleamed in satisfaction. "That's a yes, right?"

"Not to marriage."

"But you'll let me stay here with you."

"Just until the baby's born. After that, you have to go. We can make arrangements for you to see the baby on a regular basis, and we can-"

He put a finger against her lips. "Shh. There's no need to worry about all that now."

She pulled her head back, away from the touch of that finger of his. It was too tempting by half, that finger. She might just get foolish and suck it right inside her mouth.

His grin seemed terribly smug.

She told him so. "I do not like the look on your face."

"What look?" He reached for one of the grocery bags. "Come on. I'll help you put this stuff away."

Chapter 3.

As soon as the shopping bags were emptied,Loganwent out and got his things from the car. There was only one bureau in the dark little cabin. A scarred mahogany monstrosity with a streaked minor on top. It loomed against the wall by the rear door, sandwiched between a pair of crammed-full pine bookcases. Lacey gave him three of the eight drawers. He'd traveled light, so everything fit in the s.p.a.ce she a.s.signed him.

As he unpacked, Lacey sat in the old rocker in the corner, watching him, rocking slowly, her abdomen a hard mound taking up most of her lap, her head resting back, those blue eyes drooping a little.

When he finished, he shoved his empty bag and extra shoes under the daybed. Then he dropped onto the mattress, which was covered with a patchwork quilt. "That's that."

"Umm," she said softly. The rocker creaked as she idly moved it back and forth.

He leaned an elbow on the ironwork bedstead and allowed himself the luxury of just looking at her.

She looked good. Her skin glowed with health and her golden hair still possessed the glossy sheen he remembered. Pregnancy seemed to agree with her. That pleased him. He wanted more children, after this one. A whole house full. It wouldn't be the way it had been when he was a boy, just him and his father and the endless string of housekeepers who had never managed to take the place that should have been filled by a wife and mother.

His kids would have more than that. His kids would have brothers and sisters-and both of their parents. There would be noise and laughter and a feeling of belonging.

Lacey went on rocking-and she smiled.

He wanted to touch her, to put his hand on the fine, smooth skin of her cheek, to run it down over her throat and then over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which looked sweet and firm and full, even beneath the shapeless denim dress she wore. He wanted to spread both hands on her belly, test the hardness of it now, when she was so close to term, maybe even get lucky and feel his baby kick.

But he knew she wouldn't allow such intimate explorations of her body. Not now. Not so soon after he'd forcedhimself back into her life.

He was going to have to wait to have his hands on her. Probably until after he had managed to convince her to marry him.

Well, fair enough. He'd waited nine months, telling himself most of the time that this physical yearning he felt for Jenna's little sister would eventually pa.s.s.

It hadn't. And recently he'd allowed himself to accept the fact that it was only Mother Nature playing at irony.

Lacey Bravo, of all people, was his s.e.xual ideal.

Explain it? He couldn't, didn't really even care to. Human beings were primates, after all, aroused by things they didn't consciously understand. By certain scents and secretions. Desire had nothing at all to do with logic. It was a chemical reaction, the natural attraction of one healthy specimen for another, designed to perpetuate the species.

Now that Lacey was having his baby and he meant to marry her, he found it a real bonus that he wanted her so much. They might have their problems in a lot of different areas, but he didn't think s.e.x was going to be one of them.

She stopped rocking and lifted her head off the backrest. "Are you tired?"

He almost said no. But then he reconsidered. He could use a nap, as a matter of fact. He'd been up well before dawn. And he hadn't been getting much sleep in the last week anyway, not since her letter had arrived.

"A little," he said. "I'll lie down for a while if you will, too." He wanted to make certain she got plenty of rest.

"It's a deal." She put both hands on the rocker arms and levered herself to a standing position.

He asked, in a tone as offhand as he could make it, "Is there a double bed behind that curtain?"

She gave him a lazy grin. "Nice try. You get the daybed." She shuffled out the back door. After a few minutes, he heard the toilet flush. She came back in, only to disappear behind the curtain in the corner.

He paid a short visit to the bathroom himself, then took off his shoes and lay down. Like every other piece of furniture in the cabin, the bed appeared to be something salvaged from an earlier era. It had creaky springs and a lumpy mattress and it wasn't long enough to fully accommodate his six-foot-three-inch frame. But he stretched out as best he could, letting his stocking feet hang over the edge and pulling one of the long sausage-shaped bolster pillows under his head.

A strange kind of peace settled over him, a deep relaxation,a sense of well-being. It was a state he hadn't experienced in a long time. He dropped off to sleep like a rock falling down a well.

The next thing he knew, someone was knocking on the door.

Loganbolted to a sitting position, blinking and staring around him, wondering where the h.e.l.l he was.

Then it all fell into place. The long trip fromCalifornia. To this cabin. InWyoming. Lacey. Pregnant with his baby. She was resting now, on the other side of that curtain over there. He glanced at his Rolex. She'd been in there for less than an hour.

And whatever idiot had dropped in for a visit would probably wake her with the next knock.

He jumped to his feet and padded swiftly to the door. When he pulled it open, he found a cowboy on the other side. Behind the cowboy, hitched to one of the poles that held up the porch, a handsome horse with a reddish-brown coat let out a low snort and flicked his s.h.i.+ny tail at a couple of flies.

The cowboy lifted his hat in greeting, then settled it back on his head. "I'm Zach Bravo." His gaze s.h.i.+fted down, paused onLogan's stocking feet,then quickly s.h.i.+fted up again. "Just thought I'd stop by and check on things out here."

"Logan?" It was Lacey's voice, sounding slow and sleepy, from the other end of the room. "Who is it?" She stood just beyond the curtain in the corner, her feet bare, her face soft and her hair mussed from sleep.

"It's Zach," said the cowboy, craning to see aroundLogan, who had positioned himself squarely in the open doorway.

Lacey grinned and started toward them. "Come on in. I can probably scare up a beer if you want one."

Zach Bravo stayed where he was. "No. Got to get a move on. Never enough hours in a day around here. But Tess asked me to see if you wanted to come over to the house for dinner tonight. Around six?"

Loganstepped aside a little as Lacey came up next to him. "Zach, this is Dr. Logan Severance, a ... dear friend."Logandidn't miss her slight hesitation over what to call him. He'd bet his license to practice medicine that Zach Bravo didn't miss it either.

"Pleased to meet you." The rancher held out a tough brown hand.

Logantook it, gave it a firm shake. "The pleasure is mine." "You'll come for dinner then ... both of you?" Lacey lifted an eyebrow atLogan. He nodded and she smiled at her cousin. "We'll be there.Six o'clock." "So I'm your dear friend," Logan challenged the minute Zach Bravo had mounted his horse and trotted away down the dirt road that led to the cl.u.s.ter of ranch buildings just over the next rise.

Lacey made a noise in her throat. "What should I have said? Former lover? The father of my child?"

"How about husband?"

"But that wouldn't be true, now, would it?"

"We could make it true."

She looked at him for a long, cool moment, then announced defiantly, "Zach comes out to check on me

two or three times a day, which is just another reason why I'm perfectly safe on my own here." "I'd say he came to check onme this time." "Right. He's protective. More proof that I'm in no danger at all, as I've constantly tried to make you realize. You simply do not have to stay in this cabin with me. If you want to be here when the baby's

born, you could take a room in the motel in town and-"

"I'm not leaving, Lacey-and your cousin strikes me as a conservative man, the kind of man who would feel a lot better if youwere married to the father of your child."

She put her hands on her hips. "You are truly relentless. Now we should get married so as not to offend Zach's conservative sensibilities?"

"I'm only pointing out that-"

"Logan. You said you would drop it."

Lacey gave him her best unwavering stare. She was wondering, as she had more than once in the past nine months, how she could love such an obnoxious man.

He stared right back, which forced her to demand, "Are you dropping it,Logan?" He made a growling sound. "All right, all right. I'm dropping it." "Good." His handsome face had settled into a scowl. She watched him rearrange it to somethingmore gentle .

"We've got another hour and a half before we have to make our appearance at your cousin's house. Why