The Heiress. Cathy Thacker Gillen

Jack flattened his hands on his chest and gave her a look of mock innocence. “That’s what a person is who refuses to face the consequences of their actions.”

      Daisy thrust her chin out as she slapped both hands on her hips and stomped nearer. “I’ve never been afraid of anything or anyone in my life,” she swore, glaring up at him.

      “Then prove it,” Jack threw down the gauntlet, knowing damn well a woman like Daisy would pick it right up and brandish him with it in return. “Marry me. Come home with me. Help me show everyone that we know that we don’t care what they think.”

      “There’d have to be a few conditions,” Daisy warned after a moment.

      At last, a chink in her emotional armor, Jack noted solemnly. He couldn’t wait to hear those.

      The taunting look was back in her Deveraux-blue eyes. “You’ll give my baby a name and we’ll have a physical relationship—that’s it!”

      Jack didn’t mind the prospect of hitting the sheets again with Daisy, he also knew they had some very important boundaries to set. “Fine. I also don’t want to be jerked around.”

      “Fine.” Daisy glared right back at him.

      They seemed to be circling each other like two wary animals—neither willing to make the first move. Maybe the thing to do was to make it real and go from there. They could worry about the details later.

      He regarded her sternly, chastening, “And one more thing. No one’s bed but mine, got it?”

      A slow, sexy, victor’s grin spread across her face. Looking as if she was the one in the driver’s seat, Daisy shrugged and said, “Whatever.”

      DAISY HAD TO ADMIT that like Jack, she didn’t appreciate being manipulated, either. To the point she tended to behave perversely and illogically if she felt she was being used. Nevertheless, Daisy thought as she rummaged through the clothes in her closet, looking for something to don for a quickie wedding, she was very relieved Jack had not only shown up so swiftly, but offered to help her muddle her way through this dilemma she found herself in. Because she had the feeling that the next eight months or so were going to be rough in a lot of ways. And she and the baby needed a man like Jack, who was known for his steady presence and selflessness to help her through all the life changes she was going to have to make if she wanted to be a good mother, and she did.

      “How soon can you be ready to go?” Jack asked.

      Daisy shrugged as she took several things on hangers into the bathroom and hung them over the shower rod for trying on. “I don’t know. Ten or fifteen minutes.”

      It ended up taking her thirty, but that was okay, Daisy thought as she examined herself in the mirror, because with her hair put up in a neat twist on the back of her head and some makeup and dangly earrings on, she looked pretty darn good. Smiling, she spritzed herself with perfume and walked out into the studio in her stocking feet.

      Jack had changed clothes too in her absence. The sport shirt he had been wearing when he arrived was now in a carry-on garment bag. He was wearing a navy blazer with his khaki slacks, white shirt and dark-olive tie.

      Jack finished zipping up his garment bag and turned to face her. “That’s what you’re going to wear?” His eyebrow lifted in surprise.

      Unable to help but note how good Jack looked, not to mention to feel a little hurt he disapproved of her choice, when she had so little to choose from, Daisy shrugged. “What’s wrong with it?”

      Jack made a face. “It’s black, for starters.”

      Daisy looked down at her long sleeveless dress. It was woven out of a linen-cotton blend that fell just above her ankles. It was cool and summery and yes—with its sensual drape and cutaway armholes, sexy as all get-out. But if he didn’t like it… “I’ve got some pink capri pants,” she said, deliberately suggesting something even more outrageous. “Or a yellow floral mini.”

      “Never mind.” Jack picked up Daisy’s computer, printer and camera—which had all been put in their cases while she was changing—and set them in a pile next to the door. “Let’s just load this stuff in my SUV and get going.”

      Knowing he had also been on the phone making arrangements while she got ready for the momentous event, Daisy threw the rest of her belongings into a suitcase as quickly as she could. “Which wedding chapel did you pick?”

      Jack helped her get the rest of her things together, which admittedly weren’t much, as he told her matter-of-factly, “We’re getting married on the upper deck of a paddlewheel boat on Lake Tahoe.”

      Daisy’s eyes widened with surprise. “That’s a little extravagant, isn’t it?”

      Jack gave her a look that indicated he didn’t think so. “We’re only going to do this once. It might as well be memorable.”

      Daisy wondered if he would have the same view of the wedding night then quickly pushed the thought from her mind. She couldn’t risk making this a romantic occasion, even in her mind, because it simply wasn’t. Methodically, she collected the tourist photos she had to deliver to Tahoe Mountain Tours en route to the ceremony. “What about rings and a license and blood tests?” she asked, mentally making a note to give her notice while she was there so they could find another photographer to take her place.

      Jack picked up several of the heavier items, then held the door. “They’ll have everything we need there, including the paddleboat captain who is going to marry us, the marriage certificate, license and two plain solid-gold wedding rings. There’s no waiting period. And no blood tests are required. All we have to do is show up.”

      Somehow, Daisy didn’t find that at all encouraging. But refusing to be the first to back out, Daisy merely smiled and said, “Right.” As they loaded Jack’s truck with all her gear and his small travel bag, Daisy kept expecting Jack to renege, demand to go over to the clinic, wait until paternity tests could be completed, and otherwise put off such a risky, impulsive decision. But he didn’t. Instead, she was the one with cold feet about joining their lives on any level—and they both knew it. But every time she faltered, he was right there, giving her that goading look that sent her temper flaming and made her feel all the more reckless and determined not to bow out or back down.

      Not that she was going to allow Jack to have the upper hand with her. No one got that. She wasn’t like her older sister slash birth mother Iris, who had married a man twice her age to please her parents. Or her brother, Connor, who prided himself on being able to mediate his way out of every and any situation. She was strong and independent and she did whatever she needed to do to ignore the constant criticism and disapproval coming her way. She knew how to look out for herself because she had learned very early that no one else, either within or outside the family, was going to do it for her.

      Jack, of course, didn’t know how impossible Richard and Charlotte Templeton could be, or how much they could—and often did—upset her. But soon he would be subject to the same kind of familial pressure. And would be right there beside her to either deflect it or help her deal with it, Daisy reassured herself seriously as she was handed a bouquet of flowers and she and Jack climbed the metal stairs to the upper deck of the boat. And perhaps in that sense, because she would no longer have to fight every battle alone, Daisy thought as Jack took her hand in his, her life would get better.

      Daisy and Jack said their vows at sunset, as the wedding package touted, with the granite mountains towering in the background, above the beautiful blue surface of the mountain lake, and two marina employees serving as their witnesses. To the two of them, it was a solemn, not romantic, occasion, and Daisy couldn’t help but wonder, even as she said their highly personalized vows, how—and if—they could ever be true.

      Would she be able to respect, honor and cherish Jack for as long as they both shall live? Or even the rest of the month, once they got back to Charleston and the complications they faced there?

      And what about Jack? Would he be able to care for her, in sickness and