The Virgin Bride Said, 'Wow!'. Cathy Thacker Gillen

they want me to marry,” she continued hotly.

      “But you’ve told everyone under the sun you are never getting married, ever, no matter what.” As far as Brady was concerned, that should settle it. But it didn’t. Not for the Lockhart sisters, the McCabes, or even, it seemed, Kelsey herself, who had seemed to get more and more antsy about the subject as time went by, Brady noted.

      Kelsey bent her knee and propped the sole of one boot against the side of the pickup. “So?” she shot back mischievously. “I’m notoriously fickle, remember? I change my mind all the time. I’ve had several dozen different jobs in the past six years, and many, many more boyfriends. This will be just another indication of my flightiness.”

      Brady regarded her in exasperation. He couldn’t deny being involved with Kelsey—even as merely business partners—brought an endless array of surprises. But there was a limit as to what he was willing to do, even to achieve his dreams of being a successful rancher and self-made man. With a great deal more patience than he felt, he explained, “Kelse, we can’t just say ‘I do’ and then move in together and live under the same roof and have everything magically work out.”

      Kelsey looked shocked. Abruptly, she moved away from him. “Who said anything about living under the same roof?” she spouted, looking abruptly as irritated with him as he was with her. She poked a finger against his chest. “I’m talking about a marriage of convenience here, a business arrangement, Brady. I just want to get hitched long enough to get our money.”

      Brady released his breath in a whoosh of frustration. “Doing something purely for the sake of money is always a bad thing, Kelse.” He knew, having already done so himself. In fact, it was the agreement he’d made two years ago that was likely to be the end of life as he wanted it, yet.

      “But building up our business isn’t.” Kelsey turned pleading eyes to his. She grabbed both his hands and squeezed them in hers. “Please, Brady.” She looked up at him in a way he was hard-pressed to deny. “Let’s get hitched. Now. Today.”

      “YOU DID WHAT?” Wade McCabe asked two hours later.

      “We got married at city hall,” Kelsey announced, still carrying the bouquet of Texas wildflowers Brady’d gotten her before they’d gone into the courthouse.

      “This isn’t funny,” Wade said, after studying the marriage certificate they’d handed him, for proof. Wade glared at Brady.

      “Believe me, it’s no joke to us, either,” Brady replied. He was pretty sure it was the overbearing, intensely protective nature of all those around her that had pushed Kelsey to be the wildly reckless woman she was.

      “So let’s talk money,” Kelsey said, grabbing Brady’s hand and plopping herself down in a chair in front of Wade’s desk. “Brady and I were thinking prime plus one, in terms of interest rates.”

      “Payable in six months, max,” Brady added firmly, as he took the chair next to Kelsey’s. He didn’t want them beholden to Wade any longer than possible.

      “There’s no way you can do that,” Wade argued.

      Actually, Brady thought silently, there was. Although even Kelsey didn’t know about the way he was going to do that….

      “By then, we figure we’ll have established enough of a history and a business to be able to get another loan, from either a venture capitalist or a bank,” Kelsey said seriously, looking and acting like the top-notch business-woman she was.

      “Okay. I’ll give you the money you want,” Wade said, “but I’ve got some conditions, too.”

      Although he wasn’t anxious to learn what they were, Brady had expected as much.

      “Such as…?” Kelsey prodded.

      “If this marriage of yours proves to be a fraud, I get the deed to your ranch, free and clear.” Wade gave that a moment to sink in, then continued, even more seriously, “It’s not too late to back out. Because unless I miss my guess,” Wade continued, looking from one of them to the other, “this is still at the stage where it can all quietly be undone, maybe without even an annulment if you’re lucky enough. People will know what happened, of course—since you went to city hall—but the mistake won’t be a permanent or long-lasting kind of thing, and you’ll still have your ranch.”

      “Just not the loan money from you,” Brady guessed quietly.

      Wade nodded. He looked at Brady as if he thought Brady should have known better than to get sucked into one of Kelsey’s wild ideas. Unfortunately, Brady knew that was true.

      “Fine. Draw up the papers,” Kelsey said heatedly.

      “I mean it, Kelsey.” Wade frowned all the more. “If you insist on doing this…on trying to pull something over on me and everyone else, I’ll take your ranch,” Wade warned.

      Brady had only to look at Wade to believe him. This was the only way Wade thought he could protect Kelsey from herself. Not surprisingly, Kelsey kept her hold on Brady’s hand. “I married this man. I’m staying married to him,” she announced boldly. “Now, draw up the papers, Wade. ’Cause as soon as you do, we’re signing on the dotted line.”

      KELSEY AND BRADY WENT straight to the bank, then headed back to the ranch. They were still wearing the boots, jeans, denim work shirts and hats they’d had on earlier in the day. The only difference were the matching dime-store wedding rings on their left ring fingers. “See,” Kelsey said after a while, trying not to worry about what she’d recklessly insisted they get themselves into, “I told you it’d be fine.”

      Brady’s black brows drew together. To Kelsey’s consternation, he didn’t exactly look as if he agreed with her.

      “Absolutely nothing has changed,” Kelsey continued, as she studied Brady’s strong, six-foot frame. Although he tended to be a little mysterious—he never talked to anyone about the life he’d had before he had landed in Laramie, Texas—there wasn’t a finer-looking cowboy or more capable cattleman around, as far as she was concerned. He was solidly muscled from head to toe and had shoulders that were broad enough to lean on. Not that she’d ever really done so. A suntanned face, and a smile that was sexy and reckless enough to make her heart skip a beat. And he made a good partner, too.

      Brady turned his pickup truck into the lane, the fading afternoon sunlight casting shadows along their path. “Well, I wouldn’t say that, exactly,” he said, nodding at the proliferation of cars and trucks in their drive. As she turned her gaze in the direction of his, it was all Kelsey could do not to groan out loud. It looked like a convention of the Lockharts and the McCabes. He turned to Kelsey expectantly. “Are we having a party I didn’t know about?” he asked.

      Kelsey frowned, then allowed hesitantly, “Maybe a wedding reception.”

      Brady’s lips came together firmly. He slanted her a glance. “What?”

      “Well, you know my sisters.” Kelsey shrugged off the concern in Brady’s midnight-blue eyes. “And now that the word is out, they probably want to throw us a party or something to welcome you to the family.” As well as chew her out, big time, for not inviting them to witness the ceremony when they were all right there in town and could easily have attended and or tried to talk her out of doing such a reckless and impulsive thing in the first place.

      Brady cut the motor on the pickup. “Sounds like fun,” he said unenthusiastically.

      Judging by the surly look on his face, Kelsey guessed, the duplicity of what they had done was beginning to get to Brady, too. But knowing there was no going back and undoing anything, especially now that they had the money they needed sitting in the bank, Kelsey pushed open her door and jumped down from the truck. “I just hope they don’t have our family minister in there,” Kelsey said. If she had to say her vows in front of clergy, she’d really feel married. And she didn’t want to feel linked to Brady in that way. It was going to be hard enough as it was, pretending to one and all they were truly head over heels in love when