The Ransomes: Matt, Nick and Katherine. Sara Orwig

it won’t be great sex,” he replied, looking at her with blatant desire in his gaze. “Are you getting cold feet and wanting out of this marriage proposal?”

      She sipped her water and prayed she looked cool and collected and that he didn’t have a clue what a tempest he stirred in her. “Be warned now—no love on your part will guarantee no love on my part.”

      “Do you really want to fall in love with me?” he asked, leaning forward and if she hadn’t known better, she would have thought that there was a trace of honesty and vulnerability in his voice.

      “At this point, no, indeed not! No more than you want right now—or could—fall in love with me.” She raised her glass of water. “Here’s to great sex, Matthew Ransome. And a marriage made at the bargaining table.”

      One corner of his mouth quirked, and one dark eyebrow lifted wickedly. “You tempt me,” he said, leaning even closer, “to go after your heart that you’ve sealed away. And I would if I didn’t want to keep my own heart protected. Risk your heart and you risk heartbreak.”

      “So we’ll both be locked in to living together and trying to resist falling in love. And you think it’ll be an easy task.”

      “I know myself and know what heartbreak is,” he said gruffly. He reached the short distance between then and drew his fingers along her cheek, sending flames of desire to a scalding temperature. “So you’re willing to marry me and have sex to get what you want. You’re willing to risk your future.”

      “I’m securing my future. Not risking it,” she said, correcting him and failing to keep the breathlessness out of her voice. “The whole point of this is to take care of my baby,” she added, unable to look away from his intense gaze that held her now. Her heart pounded and she suspected if there had been no table between them and they hadn’t been in public, he would kiss her. And she wanted him to. Unable to resist, she reached up to stroke his cheek just as he had hers. His jaw was clean-shaven and smooth. The moment she touched him, desire enveloped her with the heat of a furnace.

      “You’re taking risks, too, to get what you want,” she whispered. “Your heart may belong to me someday, Matt Ransome.” The clash of wills between them was covered with an icing of desire, creating an emotional dessert that held the potential for spicy, red-hot sex. Goaded by his announced intention to resist falling in love when he planned to seduce her, she leaned the last bit of space and placed her lips on his. Before she closed her eyes, she saw the flash of surprise in his.

      Then she was lost. His hand went behind her head and her kiss became his kiss. His tongue thrust deeply into her mouth with possessive, demanding strokes that caused her heart to pound. Her body responded fully to him, aching, on fire with wanting him. They were in public, restrained by their surroundings and with an effort she leaned away. Trying to get her breath, she opened her eyes to find him watching her.

      “Sex is going to be great,” he whispered.

      “I’m going to make you open that vault to your heart,” she flung back at him, realizing right now that if they had sex, she would want his love that he kept locked and guarded.

      “No, you’re not,” he answered firmly, but she noticed with satisfaction the perspiration that dotted his forehead and his flushed face.

      She leaned closer again. “Let’s see how long you can resist me, Matt,” she challenged, and he inhaled.

      “Don’t try to work your magic on me.”

      “I don’t have any magic,” she rejoined and his eyebrows arched.

      “The hell you don’t,” he said, tracing her jaw with his finger. “No woman should have the effect on men that you do.”

      “Do I really now?” she asked, surprised that she had any remarkable impact on Matt.

      “You know damn well you do! At least this marriage is going to have some real pluses and some challenges.”

      “And you like a challenge?”

      “Of sorts. I’m not happy about being pushed into marriage.”

      “You’re not being pushed. You can say no. You pointed that out to me on your offer.”

      “Dammit,” he said quietly while he glared at her, and she knew even though he had accepted her proposal, he wished he didn’t have to marry her. “We might as well get the questions answered and settled.”

      He sipped his coffee and looked at the notepad he had placed on the table beside his plate. While she ate a delicious bowl of peaches, she watched him scribble notes. The waiter brought golden omelets, but Olivia’s appetite had vanished. So had Matt’s because he didn’t even attempt to eat, merely reading and writing notes and sipping his coffee.

      Determined to avoid letting him know what butterflies she had and how uptight she was, she forced herself to take bites of her breakfast and try to get it down.

      “It won’t go in the prenup, but once we’re married, I expect you to stay faithful. I’ll do the same.”

      She nodded. “Our vows will cover that one.”

      “You said we’d dissolve our marriage after you get your law degree. As far as I’m concerned, this marriage, if we do enter into it, might as well be permanent.”

      “Permanent! And what do you mean—if we enter into it? I thought we agreed this is what we’re doing.”

      “We did, but a lot of things can happen between now and weeks or months from now.”

      She wondered what he had in mind and was there something he was going to do to try to get her to back out of the marriage agreement. And permanent was mind-boggling. “I never planned on permanent!”

      “If we’re getting married, then a lasting marriage is a good business arrangement. I’ll get to raise Jeff’s baby, and you’ll be educated and provided for and have a family for your baby. Neither of us wants an emotional entanglement, yet we’ll have sex in our lives. Who knows—by then, we might be in love.”

      Setting down her fork with her omelet only barely touched, she drew a deep breath, suddenly feeling as if walls were closing in on her. “I can’t envision being married to you for the rest of my life.”

      “You can always file for divorce if you want out. You know that.”

      “Yes, but I had no intention of going into this with permanency in mind.”

      “Can’t you see where that would be best for your baby?”

      She stared at him. Marriage to Matt Ransome. Permanent as in forever. Endless with no emotional entanglement, according to him. Impossible to her.

      “You can’t do forever?” he asked quietly, and she suspected he was pushing this condition to get her to back off from the whole marriage concept, which she had no intention of doing.

      “Yes, I can do ‘as long as we both shall live’,” she answered, stiffening her resolve to see these nuptials through, “if everlasting is what you want.” She would deal with that one as time went by.

      “I would like to adopt the baby so it’s mine and there’s none of this stepdad stuff,” Matt declared.

      Joy bubbled in her over the adoption suggestion that she hadn’t dreamed he would make. She nodded. “Great! That’s gratifying to hear.”

      “I think we said the sum I’ll settle on you will be one hundred thousand.”

      “I told you that you can cut it in half if we marry.”

      He shook his head. “No. We’ll leave it at one hundred.” His blue eyes got that piercing look that drove into her like knives. He leaned closer over the table. “One hundred thousand is enough money for you to marry, get the Ransome name and then take the money and run. You could disappear.”

      “I won’t do that.”

      “Damn