Contract Bride

Reece didn’t answer right away, and his silence felt ominous. She set down her coffee cup and glanced at him the tiniest second to find her gaze trapped by the laser intensity of his. As if he’d been waiting for her full attention, he gave her his answer.

“I won’t tell my boy that I divorced his mama because I couldn’t live up to my end of a commitment. There’ll be no divorce.”

The growling words were a complete and utter shock. If she hadn’t been sitting, her knees would have given out. In the next second she experienced such a stab of panic that it was all she could do to not jump up and flee.

Reece’s grim expression was intimidating, and she weathered another wave of panic. The only thing worse than divorce would be for Reece to tough it out and stay married to her. But how long would it be before he regretted—and then bitterly resented—giving up the chance to divorce her early on so he’d be free to find a woman more compatible with his idea of marital satisfaction?

Or would Reece make an effort for a while, but then realize he simply couldn’t tolerate going through the motions with a woman he couldn’t truly care for? By then, either her hope would be soaring at an all-time high only to be cruelly disappointed, or she’d suffer through all his efforts knowing every moment that it was only because of his iron-willed determination that he stuck it out with her.

Worst of all, how long before Bobby would be old enough to realize his parents didn’t love each other? And when he figured out the depth of the personal sacrifice Reece had made for his sake, would he feel gratitude or would he feel guilt? Would he blame Leah for his father’s unhappiness? Or would he figure out what Reece seemed oblivious to so far: that Leah had taken advantage of his father at a vulnerable time?

There was literally no way for the three of them to be happy for any length of time, if ever, under any of those circumstances. Because Leah believed so absolutely that Reece would never come to love her, she ignored that possibility altogether. And without even the possibility of love, could there ever be anything certain ahead except a new level of misery for them all?

Leah’s gaze shifted from Reece’s. She knew she must have telegraphed her distress to Reece when he spoke.

“Wasn’t that the answer you wanted to hear?”

Leah dropped her hand to her lap and gripped her napkin. She felt sick suddenly, so any further attempt to eat would be futile. She tried to come up with the right thing to say.

“You’re a very good man, Reece. And an honorable one.” She made herself look over at him so he could see that she meant those words completely. The hard glitter in his dark eyes didn’t make it easy to go on. “I think you’ll work very hard to make something of this marriage. I should have expected you to react this way…” She let her voice trail off the moment she saw the spark of temper as he sensed what she would say next. She went determinedly on.

“But I’m certain once you’ve truly had time to consider it, you’ll see things the other way.” She gripped her hands together in her lap as she struggled to present a neutral expression. “I won’t hold you to anything but shared custody of Bobby when the time comes.”

Reece’s face went flinty. “Bobby stays on Waverly Ranch, under this roof where he belongs.”

It was a declaration of war. Leah knew it and went cold. Though she should have expected this too, it was chilling to hear Reece bluntly state it. Now they’d not only be emotionally and physically aloof from each other, they’d be adversaries, which made the precarious situation between them even more perilous and destined to end badly.

Leah lifted her napkin to the table and calmly eased back her chair to stand. She couldn’t keep her composure and stay in the room another moment, but she couldn’t allow Reece to get away with his declaration. He’d run over her from here on if she didn’t.

“I won’t take offense this time, Reece,” she managed shakily. She wouldn’t remind him of their legal agreement regarding custody of Bobby, but she’d use it if she had to. It was just more prudent to stand up to him without it. This time. “But if you mean to persuade me that this marriage has a chance, declarations like that aren’t very convincing.”

Leah maintained eye contact with him, though his dark gaze was fiery now. She eased to the side to push her chair closer to the table.

“You didn’t finish your food,” he growled, and she got the impression that he might have preferred to simply order her to sit down, but was wary of how she’d take that. It was a relief to have fresh proof that he wouldn’t bully or boss her, no matter how angry he was.

“I probably nibbled too much while I was cooking and spoiled my appetite,” she said quietly. The gleam of perception in his gaze told her he knew she’d stretched the truth to avoid officially pinning the blame for her sudden loss of appetite on him. “Could you look after Bobby while I take care of some laundry?”

Reece’s gruff, “Sure thing,” was a thin cover for his displeasure and frustration, and they both knew that too.

Leah calmly crossed the kitchen to the short hall to the laundry room though her knees were shaking. Had she just made things worse or better?

The truth was, she no longer knew what to think. She certainly didn’t know much about the Reece Waverly she’d actually married. Whatever she’d known about him before, mostly by observation then later from Rachel, didn’t seem to quite fit the man she had to deal with now.

At least she’d set some sort of limit and had drawn a line on the kind of verbal exchanges she wanted to avoid, and Reece had essentially backed down. But for a man as naturally dominant as he was, how long would that last?

Rachel had never thought twice about standing up to Reece, and she’d done it as confidently as she’d done everything else in her life. Rachel had tamed a lot of Reece’s bluster and his natural tendency to autocratically run everything. But he would have expected that from Rachel. It would have seemed odd to him if Rachel hadn’t stood up to him.

But Leah wasn’t the woman he’d been so fervently in love with—was still in love with—so she had to watch her step. She was very aware that she’d have to depend completely on Reece’s sense of fairness as well as her own ability to tactfully and consistently hold her own, because it was imperative that Reece respect her.

She couldn’t afford to go to war with him, not when Bobby would be the one who’d suffer most. And though Reece couldn’t love her, the last thing she wanted was to somehow make him loathe her. It was hard enough to weather his indifference.

And it was more crucial than ever that Reece never guessed what she felt for him. Until now her feelings had been easy enough to conceal, because a man who barely paid attention missed a lot of things.

Reece would be paying attention now. To everything. He’d be looking for ways to keep their marriage together, at least for a while, and it would be natural for him to exploit any advantage.

Since his greatest advantage would be to discover how much she loved him, she’d have to take special care to keep him from somehow figuring it out.

CHAPTER THREE

WHO the hell was Leah Waverly?

His curiosity last night about what she wore to bed mocked him now. The soft-spoken, compliant woman who’d lived with him all these months had somehow turned prickly and assertive practically overnight.

He’d married her because of her devotion to Rachel and to Bobby, and because he knew she’d fight any claim Rachel’s parents might make on the boy if something happened to him. She’d always been meek about her own interests, but the child was another matter.

He’d seen the panic in her eyes and heard the faint tremor in her voice, but the lady had managed to look him straight in the eye and deliver her veiled little ultimatums. Though she’d used mild words, there was an inflexibility behind them that warned she’d meant what she’d said, however difficult it was for her to speak up for herself.

It was also a fresh reminder that where the boy was concerned, she was prepared to fight like a hellcat.

“Daddeee, mo’ juice.”

Bobby was leaning his way, twisting in his high chair as if to somehow put himself in his daddy’s line of sight to get his attention.

Reece felt the mild surprise of realizing the child might have asked him more than once. He covered it with an automatic, “What’s the magic word?”

Bobby straightened and reared back against his chair as he declared an eager, “Please!”

Reece reached for the pitcher of orange juice and poured a sensible half inch of liquid into the boy’s cup, just like Leah always did, before he handed it over. Bobby seized it with both hands and lifted it too suddenly to his mouth. Reece barely managed to grab the spare napkin to catch the overflow of juice as it spurted from both sides of the cup lip.

“Take it slower next time, pard,” he said gruffly, hastily adding his own napkin to catch and blot the rivulets that dribbled down on the bib. He patiently took the cup from Bobby’s hands and set it aside. “Ready to get down?”

“Yeah, down. Down.”

Reece stood, then belatedly reached for the damp washcloth Leah always had on the table to gently wipe away the stickiness from the baby’s face and hands. The bib went off next, then the loosening of the chair tray before he lifted Bobby out and set him on the floor.

By the time he turned back to his own breakfast, Reece realized he was no longer hungry either. As Bobby toddled over to the cabinet door where Leah kept a few toys, Reece cleared the table. Though he’d never done that before, it seemed important that he demonstrate some kind of usefulness to his wife.

He finished up a few minutes later, then set the dishwasher controls before he wondered what the hell was taking Leah so long in the laundry room.

Leah had folded a basket of clean towels and washcloths in record time, started a load of Reece’s work clothes, then stacked a second basket of Bobby’s things on top of the towel basket before she carried them through the house to put away.

She went to Bobby’s room first and efficiently put his things where they belonged. She’d just finished when she noticed that the small picture of Rachel that usually sat on the dresser top was gone. A quick glance around confirmed it was nowhere in the room.

After she carried the basket of towels to the linen closet and put them away, she took a moment to hurry into Reece’s room to make up the bed. She was just fluffing the pillows when she thought to glance toward the tall chest where a picture of Rachel normally sat.

The fact that it was gone was a confirmation that the absence of the one in Bobby’s room wasn’t a mistake. She wondered if the one in the den had also been put away. The pictures had been there yesterday, so Reece must have taken them away before he’d gone to bed last night or sometime this morning before he’d come to the kitchen for breakfast. He’d apparently taken the step before he’d told her his decision to stay married, so he’d already begun to act in good faith.

How hard had it been for him to put the photos away? She’d not begrudged the fact that they’d been displayed in the house. Even she had taken comfort from having them around because she’d been so close to Rachel.