The Wedding Wager

She was clearly combating the physical attraction with all her being, a battle he felt she would eventually lose. He knew how to be patient, and the bet had been the most exciting thing he had going. Until she came along.

“I’ll go first, Megan,” he said as they walked to the door. He took a wide-brimmed, black Stetson off a hat rack and put it on. They stepped out into warm sunshine and a day that was crisp and clear, with a deep blue sky. A vast difference from the stormy night.

At her SUV door, he paused. “Wait and let me go ahead. I’ll cross the bridge to make sure it’ll hold. After I get to the other side, you can cross.”

“I know I’m wasting my breath when I say you don’t have to accompany me.”

“Stop cutting off your nose to spite your pretty face, Megan.”

“I’ll try, Jared,” she said with sarcasm lacing her voice.

“Keep your SUV doors unlocked so you can get out or I can get in to help you. Let me clear the bridge before you follow. If it shifts or anything indicates it’s weakened, I won’t motion to you to proceed. Okay?”

“Yes, thanks. I’ll follow you.”

“Megan,” he said in a deep voice, “I’m glad you were here last night. It’s good to see you and be with you again. Better than ever,” he said, thinking about their kisses and her eager response. If she reacted that much in anger, what would it be like if he could melt those hurdles she kept between them?

“It was meaningless, Jared. The result of my not dating enough and a turbulent night. And you know you hold a certain charm for me, whether I like it or not.”

“I think there may have been a left-handed compliment somewhere in there. I certainly hope so,” he said.

She shook her head and he held the door, assessing her long, shapely legs as she climbed into the SUV. He closed her door and hurried to his pickup. As he got in he caught her watching him. Once again, he had the feeling that he was missing something with her and he couldn’t fathom what.

Passing her, he worried about the safety of the bridge.

He topped the rise and looked at the muddy, rushing water that was tumbling and flowing as rapidly as the night before, sending rivulets over the bridge. It was standing, but the force of the water could have taken a big toll on it. He slowed and saw she was only a short distance behind him. Stopping, she waited while he proceeded.

As soon as they had crossed, he stopped and walked over to talk to her through her open window. Leaning closer, he pushed his hat to the back of his head. “Would you like to go to dinner tonight?”

She shook her head. “No, Jared. Business between us is finished. There’s no reason for us to get together again. I meant no sale. And it’s good-bye.”

He slid his hand behind her head, leaned down and kissed her hard, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, aware of her soft hair tangled in his fingers and spilling over his hand.

He’d caught her by surprise, but she kissed him back, arousing him instantly. He was tempted to open the SUV door, slide inside and take things further, but he knew that would end the kiss.

She pulled away. She was breathless, her eyes filled with longing, her mouth red from his kiss. “Good-bye, Jared,” she whispered, but her inviting expression contradicted the farewell.

He stepped back. “Call if you change your mind. Otherwise, I’ll see you soon,” he said, knowing he was annoying her.

Without a word she drove away and he watched, standing in the road with his hands on his hips, until her beige SUV disappeared from sight.

She was more beautiful than when she’d been eighteen. More poised, infinitely more sexy. He wanted her and didn’t intend for her to go out of his life until he had seduced her.

He suspected that might take awhile, but he wasn’t a marrying man and he wasn’t the green twenty-four-year-old that he had been.

And he still expected to buy her ranch. It would be ridiculous to refuse to sell to him because of old hurts. He didn’t see how she could possibly mean no.

He climbed into his pickup to cross the river and drive back to the house, lost in thoughts about Megan, about making love to her when she’d been eighteen, naked and passionate. He stirred uncomfortably. He wanted her in his arms in his bed. With a groan he tried to get the erotic images out of mind.

If he could get past her smoldering anger, she could be seduced. Even as she burned with indignation, she hadn’t rejected his touch and his kisses. Attraction was still alive between them. It was only a matter of time, he felt certain, until seduction. Everything in her cried out to him.

The future didn’t hinge on Megan selling the ranch to him. He could move on to the next lucrative deal. This had looked like an easy one that could have been handled quickly, made him some easy money and cinched the bet.

A jingle interrupted his thoughts. He answered his cell phone again, to hear his cousin’s voice.

“Hey, Matt here. Chase said you’re in South Dakota. I wanted to see if you’ve been washed away. The rain is making national news.”

“Thanks for call,” Jared replied. “I’m fine. Bridge was underwater last night, but we have sunshine today and the water’s receded.”

“That’s good news. I hear you’re buying the Sorenson place—that’s sweet payback!”

“The old man died, but it’s still sweet payback with Megan,” Jared said, thinking about her refusal and feeling certain he’d get his way eventually.

“Good luck with it. It doesn’t matter, though, I still intend to win our bet.”

“Wishful thinking. Thanks for your call,” Jared said, smiling and remembering a pugnacious look Matt often had when he wanted something that was difficult to acquire. Beneath the curly black hair was a brain that clicked constantly.

“Go back to work. You’ll need to do all you can,” Matt teased, and was gone. Jared chuckled over the good-natured teasing and the competitiveness that had been present since as far back as he could remember. He glanced at his calendar, Matt’s call fading from his attention.

Monday morning, he was scheduled to see his attorney in Sioux Falls before he headed home to Dallas and now he had a lunch appointment with his real estate agent. As Megan invaded his thoughts again, he forgot about a schedule.

Monday, the eighth of June, he dressed in a charcoal suit and tie and drove himself, leaving behind his bodyguard and chauffeur, feeling secure in South Dakota.

In Sioux Falls, he drove downtown to his attorney’s office. It was another sunny June day.

As soon as lunch was finished, he parted with the real estate agent and headed to his car, his thoughts already turning from South Dakota, as he mentally ran through projects for the week. He paused to call his pilot to be certain his plane would be ready. As he talked, he glanced up the wide main street and saw an unmistakable dark head of hair.

His pulse speeded—it had to be Megan. She stood in front of a restaurant talking to two people with a boy beside her. He had his back to Jared and wore a ball cap.

Jared recognized her aunt and uncle and guessed that Megan had her son with her.

Impulsively, he crossed the street in long strides. Megan was dressed in red slacks and a red, short-sleeved cotton shirt and her back was to him. Her hair was caught up in a clip high on her head.

It had been years since he had seen Olga or Thomas Sorenson, the older half-brother of Megan’s father, Edlund.

“Hello, there, Megan,” he said cheerfully. They all turned to face him, and once again Megan’s face drained of color.

“It’s been years,” he said, extending a hand to Thomas Sorenson, who hesitated a few seconds and then reached out. In that first moment, her uncle and aunt had looked as shaken as Megan.

Under Thomas’s solemn, half-angry gaze, Jared realized something was amiss. Tall and graying, Thomas Sorenson gave him the barest possible handshake. Jared smiled at Olga Sorenson, Thomas’s diminutive blond wife, who merely nodded with tight lips. His sudden departure seven years ago resonated badly with all three adults even today. Jared turned to Megan who was frowning at him.

“Sorry, if I interrupted you folks, but I saw you and thought I’d say hello. I didn’t intend to intrude,” he said.

When his pleasant comment was met by awkward silence, his curiosity grew. He glanced at the boy, who was looking at a bright red toy rocket he held in his hands. “This must be your son, Ethan,” Jared said, holding out his hand in greeting. “Ethan, I’m Jared Dalton.”

The boy looked up and shook hands with Jared.

“I’m glad to—” Jared’s words died, as if he had been punched in the stomach. With midnight eyes, a cleft in his chin and black curls escaping from his cap, the boy staring back at him was his own image, a face that would match childhood pictures of Jared himself.

His own son!

Four

Jared glanced at Megan and her expression confirmed that Ethan Sorenson was his son. For an instant, he forgot the others as Megan’s terrified gaze captured his. Her wide-eyed mixture of fear and anger put all the reactions this past weekend in place for him.

The moment would become permanently etched in Jared’s memory—sun shining brightly, the three adults facing him with a mixture of unfriendliness and guilt in their expressions. And Ethan, who was looking at his rocket once more and unaware of the undercurrents.

The boy seemed not to have recognized Jared. All these years, Jared had had a son. The enormity of it overwhelmed him and for a moment he was at a loss. Megan had never told him. By all indications, she wasn’t going to tell him now, either. She had been planning to let him go back to Texas without ever knowing about his son.

Astounded over his discovery and her duplicity, his gaze shifted from Ethan to her.

“I need to see you,” he said to Megan. “We have to talk now.”

She nodded and turned to tell Ethan good-bye and hug him.

“It was nice to see you,” he said to the Sorensons. “Ethan, I’m glad to meet you,” he said.

His son! When would he grow accustomed to that? He longed to pull the child into his arms and just hold him for a minute. Instead, he smiled.

“How old are you, Ethan?” he asked.

“Six, sir,” Ethan answered politely, an unnecessary confirmation. Jared had left seven years ago and Ethan must have been born nine months later.

The Sorensons bade Ethan come with them and they strolled away.

Jared thought about where they could get some privacy as quickly as possible. He wasn’t waiting to drive out to her ranch or his own to talk. Questions spun, anger was like wildfire consuming him.

Why hadn’t his staff unearthed the parentage of her child? The marriage. A marriage on the rebound—or to give an excuse for the pregnancy?

“They know the truth, don’t they?” he asked Megan.

“Yes, they do. I’m close to them, closer than I was to my dad,” she said.

Jared placed his hand on her arm. “We can’t discuss this on the street. Let’s go to the hotel and I’ll get us a room where we can have privacy.”

“Hotel? We can go to the ranch.”

“No,” he said flatly. “I’m not waiting through a long drive. I have questions, Megan, and I want answers now.” In the taut silence, she gave him a stormy look; the clash of wills crackled between them.

As she clamped her mouth closed, he escorted to the tall, remodeled hotel.

She slanted him a look. “I thought you were leaving town today.”

“I had planned to fly out at one,” he said, and she turned away while he left her to step to the desk to get them a suite.

In silence they rode the elevator to the fifth floor, where they entered a large suite decorated in muted earth tones of umber and green and deep red. Sunshine poured through floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors, giving a sunny glow to the room and sharply contrasting Jared’s icy rage.

She crossed the sitting room, putting distance between them before she turned to glare at him defiantly. “You walked out, Jared. You have no claim. Absolutely none.”

“The hell I don’t!” he snapped, shedding his coat to drop it on a chair. “That’s my son. Why didn’t you call me?”

“Call you?” she raised her voice, her cheeks flushing a deep pink, shaking with anger. She leaned forward. “Why would I call you when it was obvious that you never wanted to see me again?”

He crossed the room to clasp her shoulders. “You should’ve let me know that I was going to be a father. You damn well know it,” he said, grinding out the words, shaking himself.

“Get your hands off me!” she ordered, jerking away from him. “You asked for whatever happened.”

“Is that why you married, or did you have some kind of rebound relationship?”

She looked away and bit her lip before turning back to him. “The marriage was solely because I was pregnant.”

“You were never in love?” he asked in surprise, feeling glad even through his rage. “You didn’t marry to get even? Wasn’t that guy furious when he discovered what you’d—”

“No, he wasn’t, because our marriage was a business arrangement. My father negotiated it to cover up the paternity of my baby!” She flung the words at him.

“Negotiated?” Jared asked in disbelief. “You went along with that?”

“Damn you, Jared! You crushed me and left me and I was pregnant. My control freak father was enraged. He said horrible things. Then he contracted for the marriage and it was all settled beforehand.”

His anger toward her father returned full force. How the bastard tried to govern everything. “Your meddling father—what did he do exactly?” Jared asked, unable to stop prying, yet knowing he was going to hate what he would hear.

“He arranged or, rather, bought my marriage,” she said, pronouncing the words slowly and distinctly as if Jared were unfamiliar with English.

“Where did he find the guy?” Jared asked while his hurt multiplied.

“Mike was the son of a Montana rancher. By then, he was an engineer, living in Phoenix. My father paid him to marry me.”

“And you went along with that?”

“What was I supposed to do? It was a paper marriage, a business arrangement to give the baby a father.”

“He wasn’t our baby’s father. Did you even live under the same roof?”

“For a little over a month. The marriage was never consummated. We had separate bedrooms and each of us went our own way. Mike had no interest in me. He only wanted the money to open his own firm. But under that guise of respectability, my father would pay for the baby and my care.”

“That bastard!” Jared exclaimed, rage eating at him. He had thought when he’d left South Dakota that the Sorensons could never hurt him again. How wrong he’d been! To discover she’d hidden the most important thing in his life from him—his son—cut to his soul.

“Who are you to say that?” she answered. “You walked out and left me pregnant! Damn you, Jared! I was uneducated, young and dependent on my dad.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to reveal her father’s duplicity, but he wasn’t going to get into that now, or hurling accusations would be all they would do. He wanted to know about Ethan.

“So go on—tell me what you did. You married Mike and moved to Arizona.”

“That’s right. Under the circumstances, I was less than pleasant. Mike was interested in his career and I think there was someone in his life, but he was kind enough to keep her out of our lives. We got a quiet divorce after seven weeks and I left.”

“You came home once for a reception, I heard.”

“Yes, so Dad could convince people that Ethan was Mike’s son.”

“How could anybody believe that lie after Ethan was born?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what gossip flew, nor did I care by then.”

“I got a degree of revenge on your father in Ethan, since he looks exactly like me. Your father had to be constantly reminded of me,” Jared said. No one who knew both him and Ethan could mistake the connection. “Do you ever see Mike?”

“No. We went our separate ways and I haven’t talked to him since,” she said, and Jared was surprised by the relief he experienced over her answer. “My dad used to tell me about him occasionally. I think he’d even hoped we’d stay married. Mike established his own firm and married. That’s the last I heard about him.”

“Damn it,” Jared said. All they had both gone through because of her father. “And in all that time, it didn’t occur to you to let the father of your baby know about his son’s existence?”

“Don’t, Jared! Don’t accuse me—”

He grasped her shoulders again, fighting the urge to shake her. “I’m the father, and in this day and age I have rights. Yes, I accuse you. You know damned well you should’ve let me know we were having a baby.”

“I never once when I was pregnant thought I should let you know,” she said, the words tumbling out in a rage.

“When I first spoke to you last Saturday, you went white as a sheet and looked as if you might faint.” His voice was low, and he leaned closer with anger white hot. “You were filled with guilt for keeping silent. Admit it, Megan! Admit that you know you should’ve told me about Ethan.”

Her eyes were wide and green with anger as she shook her head, adding to his fury. “No. You gave that right up when you walked out without a word. You cut all ties with me in the cruelest possible way.”

When he flinched because what she accused him of was true, he still couldn’t bring himself to reveal to her that it was her father, because it would sound weak, as if he were making excuses. “Maybe I deserved for you to keep me out of your life, but when Ethan was born, you know you should have informed me. If you’d told me you were expecting a baby, I would’ve come back here.”

“Oh, please, Jared! Don’t stretch credulity to that point! You know you wouldn’t have. You would have run all the more, if I’d called you and said you were about to become a father. Or you would’ve asked if I was sure it was your child.”

“That’s not true,” he said in a voice that was low and vehement. “I damn well would’ve come back.”

“You’ll never, ever convince me of that. It’s a moot point now,” she said, glaring at him and he noticed she was breathing as rapidly as he was.

“Even so, I can’t believe that in all these years you haven’t told me. I can’t understand why my own parents didn’t tell me, but they moved from here two years later.”

“I didn’t see your parents. I didn’t come home to live for a year and a half. People here met Mike at the reception, so they accepted the story that he was the father. Your parents moved shortly after I returned.”

“I still say you should have told me. You know you should have. When you moved back here, you could have faced dealing with letting me know. We’d put enough time between us—”

“Enough time between us that I no longer hurt from what you did?” she flung the words at him as he clamped his jaw closed while he clenched his fists.

“Even so—”

“All right,” she said, her voice suddenly sounding restrained. “When Ethan was one, I should’ve informed you. But I always thought I would when he got a little older, or if you came home and we crossed paths. Or if you tried to contact me, which of course, you didn’t until you wanted something I have. Whenever a year rolled by, I put off telling you again.” His anger was mirrored in the depths of her eyes. “What was I to do? Pick up the phone and call the man who walked out on me and say, ‘Oh, by the way, we had a baby’? You left without a word—that means you wanted to sever all ties with me. Why on earth would I call you?” she cried. “Can’t you get it?”

“I deserved to know, Megan, simply because I’m his father,” Jared said. “I guess you don’t know a parent’s rights, but I do have rights. Where was Ethan born?”

“In Chicago, where we had gone to college. It’s a large city and far from here.”

Jared’s pain over the past intensified. “You were alone in Chicago? Did you have any friends?”

“I’m sure you care!” she exclaimed bitterly. “Jared, this is all past.”

“I want to know what happened. Answer my damn questions.”

“If you must know, my aunt came to stay with me the last two weeks. My dad never came. After Ethan was six months old, he told me to come back home.”

“Well, I got some damned revenge there. Ethan looks like me. What a blow that must have been.”

“It was to all of us. I prayed he wouldn’t look like you—and that you’d never know,” she said, the coldness and anger clear in her voice.

“Damn it, Megan!”

“Damn it is right! I prayed my baby wouldn’t resemble you in any way and that you’d never know as long as you lived. How can you act like you care now?”

“It’s a shock to discover I have a child. I have questions. And frankly, Megan, I want to know my son.”

She looked as if he’d hit her. And then he could see her pull herself together in that manner she had. She stood taller, a coolness coming to her features.

“Was it difficult for you when you came back home? With one look at Ethan, I’d think anyone would’ve known who his father was.”

“How much gossip there was, I don’t know,” she admitted. “In the course of months, other scandalous things happened around this area, so interest shifted. It didn’t matter after we moved to Santa Fe and it never has again, I’m sure you and I were a major source of gossip until I married Mike. You couldn’t tell who Ethan’s dad was by looking, until after the boy got a full head of hair. While he was a baby, people thought that he was Mike’s child. Dad was smart enough to find a guy who bore a physical resemblance to you—black hair, dark brown eyes, tall. It was inevitable that Ethan would have black hair. No one would give that a thought.”

“I’ll bet my folks never laid eyes on him. One look at him, hair or no hair, and my mom would’ve known.”

“As a matter of fact, they didn’t.”

“Damn it, even if I did walk without telling you good-bye, you should’ve let me know about our baby. I know now, though,” he said coldly. “We’re going to have to work something out,” he said.

She walked away to stand by the floor-to-ceiling glass door before she turned back to face him. “You keep your distance. You forfeited all rights to Ethan when you walked out on me. You’re not coming into our lives now, Jared. Forget that one. I don’t see that you have any rights in the matter.”

“I damn well do. You’re not going to pack and go and take him away from me.”

“I’m going home. You know what happened after you left me, and this is getting us nowhere.”

“How the hell can you walk out of here and try and say good-bye? Understand me, Megan, I intend to get to know my son,” he declared, his temper rising. He clenched his fists and inhaled deeply.

He stood with his hands on his hips and they glared at each other, the clash fierce between them. In spite of all his fury, he wanted her. She was as beautiful and enticing as she was infuriating. Long strands of her black hair had come loose from the clip and fell around her face. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes wide, and she was enticing in spite of the struggle between them. He desired her and he wished she would cooperate with him—both impossibilities.

“All right, we’ll go back to the ranch and discuss it,” he said. “You come to my place or I’ll go to yours. The sun is shining, no rain is predicted and the river has lowered enough that the bridge is definitely above water.”

“I see no point in arguing further,” she said.

“Megan, I will get to know Ethan. That’s a fact, not a wish,” he stated, trying to control his temper, pushed to his limit. “We can discuss what we’re going to do in the future. Your ranch or mine will be more comfortable for both of us and this may take a while.”

She clamped her lips closed for a moment. “I know you’ve had a shock. The drive to the ranch will give you some time to adjust to your new status and to think about all that’s happened. Don’t tear up Ethan’s life. You think about it when you drive home. You’re being selfish again. I know you’re accustomed to thinking only of yourself, but you’ll hurt him if you come into his life. And you’ll raise a hundred questions.”