The Rancher's Christmas Baby. Cathy Thacker Gillen

this very posh bed-and-breakfast, where he’d told me he also had business, but he wasn’t in when I arrived. When I tried to check in as his fiancée, I was told that was impossible—his fiancée was already there. I thought it was a joke until I looked into the clerk’s eyes.”

      “So you waited for him.”

      “No.” Amy savored the flavor of spearmint melting on her tongue. “I told the woman at the front desk that it was all a terrible mistake, a last-ditch effort on my part to save a relationship that obviously could not be saved, and begged her not to mention it to Ken or his ‘fiancée.’ She seemed relieved—the last thing she wanted was some ugly domestic scene upsetting the other guests—and I left.”

      “Did she tell Ken after you left?”

      “Apparently not, because he showed up in Laramie two weekends later, as if nothing had ever happened. I acted like nothing was wrong, too, and sent him off on a fool’s errand. While he was gone, I checked out the travel logs on his laptop and read his e-mail.” The guilt Amy had felt about invading Ken’s privacy had been knocked out by her need to know the truth about the man she’d been planning to spend the rest of her life with. She sighed. “By the time Ken came back from town, I knew everything.”

      “What did he say?” Teddy demanded gruffly.

      “A bunch of bull. You know… It was really me he loved. He was going to break up with the other two fiancées. He just hadn’t figured out a way yet, because he didn’t want to hurt their feelings.”

      The gleam in Teddy’s eyes told Amy he knew damn well how that had gone over. “What did you say?”

      “Get out. Don’t call—and don’t ever come back. And then I picked up the phone and clued the other two women in. Turns out Ken wasn’t the guy any of us thought he was. And the worst part of it is, he’s probably out there with two or three fiancées right now, doing it all over again.”

      Teddy studied Amy. Finally he said, “I’m not like Ken.”

      “I know you’re not,” Amy huffed. “That’s why I married you.”

      Something inscrutable flickered in Teddy’s expression.

      “Because I’m the opposite of Ken?”

      “Yes.”

      “Not cover-of-GQ handsome and exciting?”

      Amy wrinkled her nose in exasperation, irked by his baiting tone. “You’re plenty handsome.”

      “But not exciting.”

      Amy opened her mouth to reply, but then didn’t know what to say about that.

      A determined glint in his eyes, Teddy shifted all the way toward her with a bad-boy smile that was enough to make her stomach drop. “Time we changed that, don’t you think?”

      The next thing Amy knew she was all the way in his arms. His mouth was lowering to hers. She barely had time to brace herself and then his lips were locked on hers in a hot, passionate kiss that took her breath away. He caught her head in his hands, and she melted against him, completely overwhelmed by the minty, masculine taste of his mouth, the unhurried pressure of his lips and the gentle stroking of his tongue. And then there was nothing but the feel of his mouth on hers. Seducing. Evoking. Commanding. Her lips parted and she sighed in contentment as he deepened the kiss even more, first sweetly and then erotically. She felt the sandpapery rub of his evening beard against her skin, inhaled the scent of man that was uniquely him, and sank deeper into the comforting warmth of his arms.

      Teddy hadn’t meant to kiss her this evening.

      Oh, he’d known it was coming.

      Living with her, being married to her, wanting a life and a child with her, had opened the door to all sorts of forbidden notions. At least in his mind. And he hadn’t been the only one rethinking their decision to try to remain platonic friends while settling into their new life together. He’d known, from the way she had been looking at him when she thought he didn’t see—and the way she had been avoiding being alone with him—that she was feeling the new tension between them, too.

      But that knowledge was nothing compared to the experience of having her in his arms, feeling her cling to him and return his kisses with such sweet, torturous need. Amy might not be ready to acknowledge it yet, but she needed the comfort and satisfaction a real marriage could bring. She needed him. And he wanted to be there for her, he realized, as he felt her surrender to his will and surge against him. He wanted to honor and cherish her, in a way she had never been honored before. He wanted to give her all the tenderness and love she had obviously been missing. And he wanted to extract the same kind of devotion from her.

      But that was going to take time, Teddy realized as her breasts flattened against his chest.

      And some old-fashioned pursuing…

      The kind he would have taken up had they ever actually dated.

      Knowing he had to slow down or face the consequences, Teddy reluctantly broke off the kiss.

      Amy looked at him with soft, misty eyes. He noted she made no move to pull away. “What was that for?” she whispered, seeming every bit as stunned as he was by the free-flowing passion between them.

      Teddy tightened his arms around her. “I’m not sure.” He loved the way she felt, snuggled against him. Savoring the way her heart pounded in cadence to his, wanting to make sure this passion they were feeling was real, he cupped her face between his hands. “We better try it again.”

      Her breath caught in her throat as his lips touched hers. “Teddy…”

      He caught her lower lip gently between his teeth. “One more time, Amy.” Gathering her close once again, he gave in to the feelings stirring inside him. He kissed her long and slow, soft and deep, until she was as caught up in the all-consuming passion as he. Not about to take her for the first time in the cab of a truck, he drew back once again.

      She splayed her hands across his chest, looking as if she wanted to continue making out every bit as much as he did, even while she held him deliberately at bay.

      Her breath hitched in her chest. “Seriously, now…”

      He grinned and stroked both his hands through the mussed strands of her hair. “Seriously,” he echoed, mimicking her low tone, not about to let her confusion derail them. “There’s no pretending you and I don’t have physical chemistry, because it’s clear we’ve got it in spades.” And that changed everything.

      Amy slumped back against the seat and covered her face with her hands. “Which maybe makes things worse than before,” she lamented out loud.

      Would he never understand women and what drove them? He’d felt her trembling. Knew she had been kissing him back. “I don’t get it.”

      Her delicate brows knit together. In a low, troubled voice, she informed him, “That kind of chemistry usually goes hand in hand with romantic feelings, which—we have both agreed—we don’t have for each other.”

      Didn’t have, Teddy corrected mentally. He wasn’t so certain what the situation was now. But not about to push Amy any more than he already had this evening, or go back on the word he had given her—which was that he would be satisfied with a friends-only arrangement and would never push her for anything more—he shrugged. “So maybe the only thing missing from our marriage will be romantic love,” he said casually.

      He’d meant to reassure Amy.

      She looked more dismayed than ever. “Oh, Teddy. What happens if—instead of being okay with that—we just end up feeling worse? What then?”

      Chapter Five

      “Heard you had a bit of trouble yesterday,” Teddy’s grandfather, John McCabe, said Wednesday, when Teddy arrived to help him and his grandmother put up the outdoor decorations. Married for sixty years, the seasoned couple set the gold standard for marital happiness