The Bride Said, 'I Did?'

“Good night, Billy. Thank you for the flowers.” Dani propelled him out the door. She shut it behind him, then turned and faced Beau. He looked very grim. Disapproving, almost. “What?” Dani demanded impatiently.

Beau pointed to the moving carton with the bouquet on top. “The flowers. You shouldn’t have accepted them. You should have given them back. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s got a giant crush on you,” Beau continued as Billy’s beat-up blue compact with the FILMBUF license plate pulled away from the curb and drove off.

Deciding Billy wasn’t the only one who needed to leave, Dani opened the front door again. She took Beau by the hand and stepped out onto the front porch into the soft breezy heat of early evening. “You think that’s news to me?”

“You should nip this thing with him in the bud,” Beau continued. Taking her by the hand, he led her to the cushioned wicker love seat at the far end of the porch and tugged her down to sit beside him.

For the life of her Dani couldn’t figure out why Beau was so concerned about this. Or why he seemed to think Billy could be a threat to either his or her happiness in any way. “I’ve tried.”

His eyes glimmered with a cynicism that stung. He cocked his head and gave her a thorough once-over. “I saw.”

If there was one thing Dani hated, it was being forced to defend herself when she’d done nothing wrong. And she’d done nothing to make Billy think he was ever going to be anything other than her friend. Or shortterm employee.

Her nerves jangling, Dani jumped up and, irritated, began to pace the length of the porch. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her linen slacks and balled her hands into fists. “I don’t want to hurt his feelings.” And despite Billy’s outward I’m-so-cool persona, he was just as vulnerable as she had been at that age.

Beau leaned back and clamped his arms over his rock-solid chest. “You don’t think leading him on will hurt his feelings?”

Pointedly ignoring that remark, Dani stopped to perch herself on the railing to examine the fragrant magnolia bushes and brilliant crepe myrtle planted all around the front porch. “The only reason Billy is gaga over me is because I work in the film business. Trust me. What he is really feeling—he just doesn’t realize it yet—is gratitude for the encouragement I’ve given him. I think his dreams of becoming the next Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas are possible. From what he’s told me, no one else in Laramie does.”

Briefly, compassion and empathy glimmered in Beau’s eyes. And Dani sensed why. An actor who had made it solely on his own, with no familial connections of any kind, Beau knew what it was like to overcome enormous odds and achieve the kind of success very few ever did. “It’s quite a leap from here to Hollywood,” he conceded thoughtfully after a moment, rubbing his jaw.

“Tell me about it,” Dani murmured. She’d had to work like crazy to get her movie reviews published. First in a single Los Angeles newspaper and now in a syndicated column that appeared in dozens of newspapers across the nation.

“But there are other people—filmmakers—who could mentor him,” Beau continued. “With your connections…”

She looked at Beau, letting him know with a glance that she was not passing Billy off like a piece of clothing she no longer wanted, even if he could be ridiculously naive at times about relationships between men and women, what was possible, what was clearly not. She would get through to Billy eventually, and she would do it without crushing his eighteen-year-old heart. “Not that it’s any of your business, Chamberlain, but I promised Billy a summer job and I intend to honor that promise. Plus, I really need his skills.”

Beau pushed to his feet and waited for her to continue.

“I signed a contract to do a book,” Dani explained as Beau sauntered closer. “One thousand and one reviews of ‘date night’ movie videos. Everything from the classics to the newest releases.”

Beau stopped just short of her perch and regarded her curiously. “How did you pick which ones to review?” And were there any of his movies in the group?

His unspoken question hung in the air.

“That’s just it.” Dani bit her lip as she answered his question, and tension flooded her anew. “I haven’t yet. And with every major film studio sending me several thousand films, I’ve got a ton to sort through. Just cataloging them is going to be a bear.”

“Which is where Billy comes in,” Beau guessed. He leaned forward, bracing a hand on the railing on either side of her.

Dani leaned back slightly. Her heart was pounding. She was tingling all over. She told herself it was the tension causing her body to go haywire and not his proximity. She glowered at Beau. She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks even as she sought to get a handle on her soaring emotions. “Billy’s knowledge of films, past and present, is incredible. He can help me sort through them.”

Beau leaned in closer. “When is your manuscript due?”

Dani swallowed, her adrenaline pumping for a completely different reason. “A year from now.” Dani tried not to feel too overwhelmed by the work still to be done or the enormous project she had taken on. “They want it in the stores by the following Christmas.”

She could practically see the wheels turning as Beau did some quick calculations. “Which means you’d have to watch and review three movies a day,” Beau surmised grimly after a moment. He folded his arms.

Dani studied Beau’s handsome face and tall muscled form. There was nothing soft or easy about him. She sensed there never would be. He was who he was, take it or leave it. Trying not to think how much they had in common that way, Dani nodded and replied, “Approximately, yeah. In addition to writing my weekly reviews for syndication. That’s why I need so much help this summer getting organized.”

Blue eyes narrowing, he continued to study her relentlessly. “Sounds like you’ve taken on a lot.”

Too much, he meant, Dani noted resentfully. “I think I know what I can and cannot handle,” Dani retorted stiffly, releasing a slow, ragged breath, not about to admit that recently she’d had the same concerns herself. “Not that it is any of your concern.”

Beau merely stood there.

“You were just leaving,” Dani reminded him.

Beau nodded. “I was.”

“But…?” Dani hopped down from her perch and tried to sidle past him to avoid any further discussion. Not about to let her go that easily, he put up a hand to stop her, and her ribs made contact with the flexed muscles of his forearm, instead. With a sigh of frustration, she moved back so they were no longer touching and tried not to imagine a life with a man so hell-bent on having his own way all the time.

“I changed my mind,” Beau said, a determined look on his face.

Dani’s temper kicked into full gear. “You’ve decided to end this lunacy of a marriage at long last?”

Beau shook his head. “I’ve decided,” he enunciated clearly, “to protect my turf.”

Dani flushed self-consciously. Without warning, she had an idea what it would be like to really be Beau’s wife, to wake up in his arms every morning, to lie in his arms every night. The thought was as tantalizing as it was disturbing. Being near him this way was like playing around a fire. Stay too far away, and you’ll never get warm. Come too close, and you’ll get burned. Deciding it was best just to keep a fair distance between them, she propped her hands on her hips and said, “I told you before. You can’t stay here. Laramie is a small town.”

“So small,” Beau agreed, looking very much like he wanted nothing more than to make love to her then and there, “that all the hotel rooms are booked.”

“So stay with Greta and Shane McCabe,” Dani suggested, knowing it would be a dangerous proposition to have Beau too close to her for too long. Because the truth was, she did desire him and always had. She swallowed, pushing those thoughts away. Then she continued firmly, “They’re close friends of yours.”

One corner of Beau’s mouth quirked in a smile. “They’re also newlyweds,” he answered, leaving no question about what he thought Shane and Greta would be doing most nights. Exactly what he probably wanted to be doing.

Dani turned away from him and walked to the other end of the porch. She reached down to touch the silky white petals of a magnolia blossom. Needing something to hang on to, she plucked it from its stem, turned back to Beau. He was still eyeing her with a depth of male speculation she found disturbing. “That didn’t stop you from practically brawling with Shane in the middle of the street a few weeks ago.”

Beau shifted so he was standing with his legs braced apart. He jammed his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. “That was a publicity stunt for Bravo Canyon.” He paused, still looking her up and down, from the breeze-mussed strands of her coppery hair to her bare toes and back again. “Or hadn’t you heard?”

“Could this be one, too, pray tell?” Dani asked sweetly, with a lofty wave of the fragrant white blossom in her hand. Abruptly she felt a little sick, realizing there could be yet another reason for these drawn-out shenanigans of his besides mere payback. Publicity.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Beau said with a smug smile. He strolled toward her. “Hang in there and see.”

He stopped just short of her, looking once again as if he wanted very much to kiss her. Pulse pounding, Dani backed away from him. Try as she might, she could not get Beau off her front porch without creating a scene. The best way to play it, she decided stubbornly, was to make her responses to his macho maneuvers so dull and uninteresting that there was no way he would want to continue to spend time with her.

So she gave up trying to get Beau to leave, walked to the front door, leaving him to follow at will. She would begin to close down the house for the night, even though it was barely eight o’clock. “Fine, Beau. Have it your way,” she said in a low bored tone as she tossed aside the blossom and marched into the house, him hard on her heels. Discounting him completely, she shut and locked the front door behind them. “Bed down on my sofa for the night. See if I care. Just bear in mind—” she favored him with a sweet taunting smile “—that marriage or no marriage, nothing of a romantic nature is going to happen here.”

At the mention of their marriage, Beau’s black brows drew together like thunderclouds over his midnight-blue eyes. “Meaning what?” he asked sarcastically as Dani headed for the stairs. Sauntering closer, he crossed his arms and girded his thighs as if for battle. “You’ve already decided to give up on us?”

“There is no ‘us.”’ Feeling hot color flush her cheeks, Dani spoke as if underlining every word. Not about to let him get the better of her, now or at any other time, she held her ground, despite the fact they were now uncomfortably close. Close enough for her to inhale his alluring cologne. Close enough for her to see the speculation gleaming in his eyes.

Beau braced his legs a little farther apart, gaze skimming her deliberately, provocatively. “Careful. You don’t want to make a decision like that too soon.”

Heart pounding, Dani studied him. Unwilling to think what it would be like if someone as used to getting his own way as Beau decided he wanted to be a permanent part of her life, she drew an unsteady breath. “You really aren’t going to leave?” she asked rudely, knowing for Beau there were no real deterrents, only obstacles to be overcome.

“I am your husband,” he reminded her with a look of utter male supremacy. “And since husbands and wives generally stay under the same roof…”

Finding his low sexy voice a bit too determined, too full of sexual promise for comfort, Dani turned away uneasily. “Fine.” She put up both hands in surrender and kept walking. “Do whatever you want. But if you think you’re getting a blanket or a pillow,” she said over her shoulder as she headed up the stairs, “you’re dreaming, cowboy.”

“You’re going to bed already?” he queried, not bothering to hide his disappointment over that.

Dani smiled, aware she had just won a victory in this battle of wills, albeit a small one. “You bet I am.” She smiled sweetly and watched his disappointment deepen. Unable to help herself, she added, “Of course, if you get bored you can always change your mind and leave.”

BEAU WATCHED Dani’s slender body disappear into the master bedroom at the head of the stairs. Desire welled up inside him, but he knew for tonight anyway, it would go unsatiated. As much as he would like to wake up in bed with her again, sans clothing of any kind, he knew they had things to figure out first. Things they probably should have figured out before ending up in bed together initially.

He wasn’t sure they’d be able to wait until they had all the answers they needed, given the potency of that kiss they’d shared this afternoon and the memory of how it had felt to have her warm naked body draped over his. But he wanted at least some of those answers, some explanation for what had apparently happened between them. And he knew, whether she admitted it or not, that so did she.

Deciding he might as well get comfortable, given the long boring evening ahead, he kicked off his boots and stretched out on the red sofa in the living room. He knew what she thought—that he was sticking to her like glue and staying the night merely to annoy her and prove a point. But she was wrong. He was staying because being with her was the only way to remember what had happened during that thirty-six-hour period neither of them could quite recall.

If the two of them had made love and gotten married and inadvertently or purposefully made a baby—so quickly—there had to have been a reason. And a darn good one, Beau was betting. Either they’d both taken complete leave of their senses, something he was beginning to see was a distinct possibility; been hypnotized by aliens and chosen to propagate a new species; blackmailed, drugged, tricked or somehow forced into the nuptials—by whom or what he sure as heck couldn’t imagine as there was very little that could make either of them do anything they didn’t want to. Or she’d been so madly in love with him and he with her that they couldn’t bear to be apart one moment longer. Which seemed likely, given how physically attracted they were to each other, as their kiss this afternoon had proved. And seemed equally unlikely, given how quick they were to disagree on just about everything.

Heck, Beau thought as he folded his hands behind his head and sought to get more comfortable, maybe they’d just decided to have a baby together, despite their different views on life, and decided they needed to be married—temporarily—to do that. Whatever their motivation, they were in this predicament now up to their chins, and no crazy TV show or small-town pressures or mutual work demands were going to negate that.

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