Rising Stars. Maisey Yates

winter wind whipping across the empty, frozen prairie. “To me.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      CALLIE gasped. Marry Eduardo? The father of her baby? Her ex-boss? The man she despised more than anyone on earth?

      Shocked, she stared at him as she waited for the punch line. Licking her lips nervously, she finally said, “I don’t get the joke.”

      Eduardo’s lips curved humorlessly. “It’s not a joke.”

      She spread her arms wide in the backseat of the car. “Of course it is!”

      Eduardo grabbed her left hand, looking down at her cheap engagement ring with its microscopic diamond. “No, Callie, that is a joke.”

      Trying to rip her hand from his grasp, she glared at him. “A ring is a symbol of fidelity, no wonder you hate it!”

      “You’ll have a real one.”

      “I’m not going to marry you!”

      “Oh, right. I forgot you’re a romantic. I should ask you properly,” he said sardonically. His dark eyes gleamed as he wrapped her hand in his own and pressed it against his chest. Before her horrified eyes, he went down on one knee in the back of the car. “Querida, my darling, my dear, will you do me the deep, deep honor of becoming my wife?”

      She felt the heat of his hard chest through his suit, and her heart fluttered—even as her cheeks burned at the mockery in his voice. Anger gave her strength, and she jerked her hand from his grasp. “Go to hell!”

      He moved back to his seat. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

      Rain pattered against the roof of the car, horns honking around them as the car moved through traffic. The rain-splattered streets passed in a gray blur.

      Callie realized Eduardo meant it.

      He actually wanted her to be his wife.

      “But you—you don’t want to get married!” she stammered. “You’ve said as much to every woman you’ve dated. You practically had it tattooed on your chest!”

      “I always planned to marry the mother of my children.”

      “Yes—but you wanted to marry some ritzy Spanish duchess!”

      The edges of his lips lifted. “The best laid plans,” he said. “You are having my child. We must wed.”

      He made it sound like a punishment—for him. She lifted her chin. “Gee, thanks,” she said sarcastically. “I’m touched. Five minutes ago, you didn’t even believe you were the father. You said you wouldn’t believe a word I said. Now you want to marry me?”

      “I’ve decided that not even you, Callie, would lie to me about our baby’s paternity. Not when the truth is so clearly unpleasant to you.”

      She folded her arms, glaring at him. “I’m having your baby, all right, but nothing on earth could make me be your wife.”

      “Strange. You were keen to get married a few minutes ago.”

      “To Brandon!” she cried. “I adore him. I’d trust him with my life!”

      “Spare me his list of virtues,” Eduardo said, sounding bored. “Your love makes you blind.”

      “He might not be rich and heartless like you, but that’s exactly why he’ll make a wonderful father. Far better than—”

      She cut herself off as a painful contraction arced through her body.

      “Far better than me?” Eduardo said with dangerous softness. “Because I am not good enough to be her father. And that was your excuse for lying to me and marrying your lover.”

      “He’s not my lover—”

      “Perhaps not physically. But you love him. So you were going to steal my child. And you accuse me of being heartless,” he said contemptuously. “You are breathtaking.”

      The words were not a compliment.

      Callie held her breath as new pain assailed her. Her baby wasn’t due for two and a half weeks, but this was starting to feel very different from the Braxton-Hicks contractions she’d had last week. Very different.

      Was it possible …?

      Could it be …?

      No! She forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. It couldn’t be real labor. It was sixteen days too soon. Stress was causing her body to react, that was all. She had to calm down, for the baby’s sake!

      She shifted in the backseat of the car, trying to alleviate the stabbing pain in her lower back. “You don’t want to raise a baby and you certainly don’t want me as your wife. It’s only your masculine pride that makes you—”

      “My masculine pride.” Eduardo bared his teeth into a smile. “Is that what you call it?”

      “You don’t want to marry me, I know you don’t. You’re just in shock. You haven’t had time to think what it would mean for you to raise a child. To have a family.”

      “You think I’ve had no time to consider what it means for a child to feel abandoned by his parents? To feel alone? To have no real home?”

      Callie closed her mouth with a snap. Of course he knew. Licking her lips, she tried helplessly. “I could give our baby a wonderful home—”

      “I know you will.” His eyes were fathomless and stark. “Because I will provide that home. As her father.”

      There was no winning this war. Now that Eduardo knew about her pregnancy, he would never give up his rights as a father.

      “So what do we do?” Callie said miserably.

      “I told you. Marry.”

      “But I can’t be your wife.”

      “Why?”

      “I—I don’t love you.”

      “Good,” he bit out. “Your sainted McLinn can keep your love. Just your body and your vow of fidelity are enough.”

      Her heart was pounding in her throat. “You really want to marry me?” she whispered. The thought made her tremble. In spite of everything, she couldn’t forget the romantic dreams she’d once had of Eduardo taking her in his arms and saying, I made the worst mistake of my life when I let you go, Callie. I love you. Come back to me. Be mine—forever. “As in forever?”

      Eduardo gave an ugly laugh. “Be married to you forever? No. I have no desire to live the rest of my life in hell, chained to a woman I’ll never be able to trust. Our marriage will last just long enough to give our child a name.”

      “Oh.” She shifted in her seat then frowned. That changed things a bit. “Like—like a marriage of convenience?”

      “Call it what you like.”

      “For a week or two?”

      “Let us say three months. Long enough for it to actually look like a real marriage. And for our baby’s first months to be the best possible, with us both in the same home.”

      “But—where would we live? My lease is gone. You sold your brownstone in the Village.”

      “I just bought a place on the Upper West Side.”

      She blinked. “You were moving back to New York, because you thought I’d be gone.”

      His lips twisted. “I bought it as an investment. But you are correct.”

      Callie stared up at him, her heart pounding. “This is never going to work.”

      “It will.”

      She took a deep breath. Marriage. Would it be good for their baby, as Eduardo believed?