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They saw each other several times before she finally let him kiss her, and held out for an excruciating three months before she would sleep with him. He wouldn’t say that first time had been a disappointment, exactly. It had just taken a while to get everything working smoothly. Their sex life had never been what he would call smoking hot anyway. It was more…comfortable. Besides, their relationship had been based more on respect than sex. And he preferred it that way.
They were seeing each other almost six months before she admitted her humble background—not that it had made a difference to him—and it wasn’t until they became engaged a year later that she finally introduced him to her family.
After months of hearing complaints about her family, and how backward and primitive ranch life was, he’d half expected to meet the modern equivalent of the Beverly Hillbillies, but her parents were both educated, intelligent people. He never really understood why she resented them so. Her family seemed to adore her, yet she always made excuses why they shouldn’t visit, and the longer she stayed away, the more her resentment seemed to grow. He had tried to talk to her about it, tried to reason with her, but she would always change the subject.
Elvie appeared in the kitchen doorway holding a glass of lemonade. Eyes wary, she stepped into the room and walked toward the sofa. He took a step in her direction to take the glass from her, and she reacted as if he’d raised a hand to strike her. She set the drink down on the coffee table with a loud clunk then scurried back across the room and through the kitchen door.
“Thank you,” he said to her retreating form. He hoped she was a better housekeeper than a conversationalist. He picked up the icy glass and raised it to his lips, but some of the lemonade had splashed over and it dripped onto the lapel of his suit jacket.
Damn it. There was nothing he hated more than stains on his clothes. He looked around for something to blot it up, so it didn’t leave a permanent mark. He moved toward the kitchen, to ask Elvie for a cloth or towel, but given her reaction to him, he might scare her half to death if he so much as stepped through the door. He opted for the second floor bathroom instead, which he vaguely recalled to be somewhere along the upstairs hallway.
He headed up the stairs and when he reached the top step a grayish-brown ball of fur appeared from nowhere and wrapped itself around his ankles, nearly tripping him. He caught the banister to keep from tumbling backward.
Timid housekeepers and homicidal cats. What could he possibly encounter next?
He gave the feline a gentle shove with the toe of his Italian-leather shoe, which he noticed was dotted with mud, and shooed it away. It meowed in protest and darted to one of the closed doors, using its weight to shove it open. Wondering if that could be the bathroom he was searching for, he crossed the hall and peered inside. But it wasn’t the bathroom. It was Katy’s room. She stood beside the bed, wearing nothing but a bath towel, her hair damp and hanging down her back.
Damn.
She didn’t seem to notice him there so he opened his mouth to say something, to warn her of his presence, but it was too late. Before he could utter a sound, she tugged the towel loose and dropped it to the wood floor.
And his jaw nearly went with it. He tried to look away, knew he should look away, but the message wasn’t making it to his brain.
Her breasts were high and plump, the kind made just for cupping, with small, pale pink nipples any man would love to get his lips around. Her hips were the perfect fullness for her height. In fact, she was perfectly proportioned. Becca had been rail thin and petite. Almost nymph-like. Katy was built like a woman.
Then his eyes slipped lower and he saw that she clearly was a natural blonde.
It had been a long time since he’d seen a woman naked, so the sudden caveman urge he was feeling to put his hands on her was understandable. But this was Katy. His wife’s baby sister.
The thing is, she was no baby.
A droplet of water leaked from her hair and rolled down the generous swell of her breast. He watched, mesmerized as it caught on the crest of her nipple, wondering if it felt even half as erotic as it looked.
Katy cleared her throat, and Adam realized that at some point during his gawking she had realized he was there. He lifted his eyes to hers and saw that she was watching him watch her.
Rather than berate him or try to cover herself—or both, since neither would be unexpected at this point—she just stood there wearing a look that asked what the heck he thought he was doing.
Why the hell wasn’t she covering herself? Was she an exhibitionist or something? Or maybe the more appropriate question was, why was he still looking?
She planted her hands on her hips, casual as can be, and asked. “Was there something you needed?”
He had to struggle to keep his eyes on hers, when they naturally wanted to stray back down to her breasts. “I was looking for the bathroom, then there was this cat, and it opened your door.”
“Right.”
“This was an accident.” A very unfortunate, wonderful accident.
“If that’s true, then I think at this point the gentlemanly thing to do would be to turn around. Don’t you?”
“Of course. Sorry.” He swiftly turned his back to her. What the hell was wrong with him? He never got flustered, but right now he was acting like a sex-starved adolescent. She must have thought he was either a pervert, or a complete moron. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn’t thinking. I was…surprised. I apologize.”
“Try two doors down on the right,” she said from behind him, closer now. So close he was sure that if he turned, he could reach out and touch her. He pictured himself doing just that. He imagined the weight of her breast in his palm, the taste of her lips as he pressed his mouth to hers.…
He nearly groaned, the sudden ache in his crotch was so intense. What the hell was the matter with him? “Two doors down?”
“The bathroom. You were looking for it, right?”
“Right,” he said, barely getting the word out without his voice cracking. He forced his feet forward.
Since Becca’s death he’d barely thought about sex, but now it would seem that his libido had lurched into overdrive.
“And, Adam?” she added.
He paused, but didn’t dare turn back around. “Yes?”
“For the record, if you wanted to see me naked, all you had to do was ask.”
Four
Oh, good Lord in heaven.
Katy closed her bedroom door and leaned against it, heart throbbing in her chest, legs as weak as a newborn calf’s. The sudden and unexpected heat at the apex of her thighs…heaven help her, she might actually self-combust. It was as unexpected as it was mortifying.
The way Adam had looked at her, the fire in his eyes…she couldn’t even recall the last time a man had looked at her that way. Hell, she wasn’t sure if anyone ever had.
She pinched her eyes shut and squeezed her legs together, willing it away, but that only made it worse. An adolescent crush was one thing, but this? It couldn’t be more wrong. Or inappropriate. He was her brother-in-law. Her sister’s husband. The father of the child she would eventually be carrying.
Not to mention that she didn’t even like him. He was overbearing and arrogant, and generally not a very nice person.
At least she knew that he wasn’t lying about seeing her being an accident. Her bedroom door didn’t latch correctly and her cat, Sylvester, was always letting himself in. If she had known Adam was going to be wandering around upstairs she would have been more careful. And maybe making that crack about Adam only having to ask wasn’t her smartest move, but she refused to let him know how rattled she was.
Not that she was ashamed of the way she looked. As bodies went, hers wasn’t half-bad. She just never planned on Adam ever seeing it. Not outside of the delivery room anyway.
She just hoped he never took her up on her offer.
Of course he wouldn’t! He was no more interested in her than she was in him. Not only were they ex in-laws, but they were polar opposites. They didn’t share a single thing in common as far as she could tell. Except maybe sexual attraction. But that was fleeting, and superficial. Like her on-again off-again relationship with Willy Jenkins used to be. He was a pretty good kisser, and fun under the covers, but he wasn’t known for his stimulating conversation. As her best friend Missy would say, he was nice to visit, but she wouldn’t want to live there.
Not that Katy would be “visiting” Adam. She would have to be pretty hard up to sleep with a man she had no affection for. She couldn’t imagine ever being that desperate.
She heard a vehicle out front and peered through the curtains to see her parents’ truck pull up in front of the barn. Well, shoot! Now she had to go out there and act like nothing happened. Which technically it hadn’t.
She yanked on clean jeans and a T-shirt and pulled her damp hair back in a ponytail. As she tugged on her cowboy boots she heard the side kitchen door slam, then the muffled sound of voices from the great room below. She had talked Adam into this visit, so it didn’t seem fair making him face her parents alone. And at the same time, she was dreading this. She didn’t like to play the role of the mediator. That had always been her mother’s thing.
In the week since she had talked Adam into letting her be the surrogate, Katy had been working on convincing her parents that she was doing the right thing, and that they were going to have to trust Adam. She just hoped that seeing him face-to-face didn’t bring back a flood of the old resentment.
At first, when they learned that Becca was engaged, besides being stunned that she’d never mentioned a steady man in her life, her parents had been truly excited about having a son-in-law. But from the minute they met Adam it was obvious he came from a different world. And as hard as they tried to be accepting, to welcome him to the family, it seemed he always held something back. Her parents interpreted it as Adam thinking he was better than them, even though he had always been gracious enough not to condescend, or treat them with anything but respect.
At first Katy had given him the benefit of the doubt. She wanted to believe that he was as amazing as her sister described. But when he and Becca visited less and less, and Katy realized just how hard Becca had to work to keep him happy, she’d had to face the truth. Adam was an arrogant, controlling and critical husband.
But Katy wasn’t doing this for him. She was doing it for Becca, and her parents, and most of all the baby. Which made what just happened between them seem wholly insignificant. It was a fluke, that’s all. One that would never happen again.
She headed down the stairs to the great room. Her parents sat stiffly on the sofa and Adam looked just as uncomfortable on the love seat opposite them. When she entered the room everyone turned, looking relieved to see her.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she told Adam, and his expression gave away no hint of their earlier…confrontation. Although he might have snuck a quick look at her breasts.
“Your parents and I have had a chance to get reacquainted,” he said, and from the vibe in the room, Katy could guess it hadn’t exactly gone well.
So as not to be antagonistic and give anyone the impression she was taking sides, she sat by neither her parents nor Adam, but instead on the hearth between them.
The contrast was staggering. Adam looked cool and confident in his suit, like he was ready to negotiate a million-dollar deal, while her parents looked like…well, like they always had. Her father had gotten a little paunchy over the past few years, and his salt-and-pepper hair was thinning at his temples, but he still looked pretty good for a man of sixty-two. And as far as Katy was concerned, her mother, fifty-nine on her next birthday, was as beautiful as she’d been at sixteen. She was still tall, slender and graceful with the face of an angel. She wore her gray-streaked, pale blond hair in loose waves that hung to just above her waist, or at times pulled back in a braid.
She was a perpetually happy person, always preferring to see the glass not only as half full, but the ideal temperature, as well. But now creases of concern bracketed her eyes.
“I was just telling Adam how surprised we were when we heard of his plans,” her father said, and his tone clearly said he didn’t like it much.
Katy’s mom rested a hand on his knee then told Adam, “But we’re hoping you can convince us that you’ve thought this through, and taken our family into consideration.”
Katy bit her lip, praying that Adam’s first reaction wasn’t to get defensive. What had he told Katy that day in the coffee shop? That he wasn’t seeking anyone’s approval or permission? But he had to expect this, didn’t he? He had to know her parents would be wary. That was the whole point of his visit. To set their minds at ease.
Or maybe he didn’t see it that way. Maybe he truly didn’t give a damn what they thought.
“As I told Katy, I have no intention of keeping the child from you,” he assured them, in a tone that showed no hint of impatience, and Katy went limp with relief. “You’ll be his or her only grandparents. In fact, I think that spending time on the ranch will be an enriching experience.”
“I’m also not sure I like the idea of Katy being your surrogate,” her father added, and suddenly everyone looked at her.
“I have my concerns as well, Mr. Huntley. But she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“I think we all know how stubborn she can be,” her father said, talking about her as though she wasn’t sitting right there. “I’d like to see her concentrate on finding a husband, and having kids of her own.”
She was so sick of that tired old argument. Just because practically every other woman in her family married young and immediately started squeezing out babies, that didn’t mean it was right for her.
“I’m not ready for a husband or kids,” she told her father. Or more accurately, they weren’t ready for her. Every time she thought she’d found Mr. Right, he turned out to be Mr. Right Now, then inevitably became Mr. Last Week. She was beginning to suspect that these men who kept breaking her heart knew something she didn’t. Like maybe she just wasn’t marriage material.
“You might feel differently when you meet the right man,” he countered. “And besides, I don’t think you realize how hard this will be. And what if, God forbid, something happens, then you can’t have kids of your own? You could regret it the rest of your life.”
“What if I walk out the door and get hit by lightning?” she snapped. “Do you expect me to stop going outside?”
He cast her a stern look, and she bit her tongue.
“Gabe,” her mother said gently. “You know that my pregnancies were completely uneventful. And Katy has always been just like me. She’ll do fine. You have to admit it will be nice to have a grandbaby.” Moisture welled in the corners of her eyes. “To have a part of Rebecca with us.”
“I assure you that Katy will have the best prenatal care available,” Adam told them. “We won’t let anything happen to her.”
The way he hadn’t let anything happen to Becca?
The question hung between them unspoken. It was hard not to blame Adam for Becca’s death. Though he had done everything within his power to save her. She had seen the best doctors, received the most effective, groundbreaking treatment money could buy. Unfortunately it hadn’t been enough.
If she hadn’t insisted they harvest the damned eggs…
“What about multiples?” her father asked. “She’s not going to be like that octo-mom and have eight babies.”
“Absolutely not. The doctor has already made it clear that for a woman Katy’s age, with no prior fertility issues, he won’t implant more that two embryos at a time. And if Katy is uncomfortable with the idea of carrying twins, we’ll only implant one. It’s her call.”
“But the odds are better if they implant two?” Katy asked.
“Yes.”
“So we’ll do two.”
“You’re sure?” Adam asked. “Maybe you should take some more time to think about it.”
“I don’t need time. I’m sure.”
“Could you imagine that?” her mother said. “Two grandbabies!”
“I still don’t like it,” her father said, then he looked at his wife and his expression softened. “But it wouldn’t be the first time the women in this family have overruled me.”
“So it’s settled,” Katy said, before he could change his mind, with a finality that she hoped stuck this time.
“When will this happen?” Katy’s mom asked.
“We have an appointment with a fertility specialist next Wednesday,” Adam told her. “First he has to do a full exam and determine if she’s healthy enough to become pregnant. Then he’ll determine the optimal time for the implantation.”
“So if everything looks good, it could be soon,” Katy said, feeling excited. “I could be pregnant as soon as next month.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” her father asked.
“We try again,” Adam said. “If we do two embryos at a time, we can do three implantations.”
“It sounds so simple,” her mother said, but Katy knew things like this were never as simple as they sounded. That didn’t mean they weren’t worth doing.
“And if none of them take?” Katy asked.
“I’ll consider adoption.”
“We appreciate you coming all the way out here to talk to us,” her mother said. “I know it’s eased my mind.”
Adam looked at his watch. “But I should be going. I need to get back to El Paso.”
“But you just got here,” Katy said, surprised that after such a long drive he would want to get back on the road so soon. Was he really so uncomfortable there that he couldn’t stick around for a couple of hours? What would he do when the baby was born? Would they always be coming to him?
“The least we can do is feed you supper,” her mother said.
“I appreciate the offer, but I have an important meeting Monday that I need to prepare for. Maybe some other time.”
They all knew those were just polite words. There wouldn’t be another time. He wouldn’t be coming back if he could possibly avoid it.
Katy rose to her feet. “I’ll walk you out.”
