Expecting the Rancher's Heir / Taming Her Billionaire Boss: Expecting the Rancher's Heir

Shane shook his head as he looked around to see if anyone was watching, then took the hidden shortcut back toward the luxury lodges. He had been jumping through hoops for the past couple of months just to please her, and it was beginning to get old.

Instead of going directly to the lodge where she was staying, it had become a ritual for him to head toward the stables, then cut back through a small patch of woods. She had insisted that no one would think anything of him going to check on the herd of horses he had sold the resort, and he supposed she was right. But he couldn’t control other people’s opinions of him and didn’t give a damn what they thought anyway. Lissa, on the other hand, was a very private person and he respected her need for discretion even if he didn’t completely understand it.

Slipping through the stand of pine trees behind Willow Lodge, he took the porch steps two at a time. Just as he raised his hand to knock, Lissa opened the door.

“What took you so long?” she asked, taking him by the hand to pull him inside.

As soon as they cleared the doorway, he took her into his arms and used his boot to shove the door shut behind them. “I don’t know a man alive who doesn’t want to hear a woman ask that question, angel.”

She looked as if she had something more on her mind, but it would just have to wait. It had been almost three days since he had held her, kissed her, and he had every intention of immediately remedying that particular problem.

His mouth came down on hers, and she let out a startled little squeak, but to his satisfaction, she didn’t protest or try to push him away. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed herself against him.

Her response to him never failed to send a flash fire rushing from the top of his head straight to the region south of his belt buckle. Today was no different. In the blink of an eye, he was hotter than a two-dollar pistol on a Saturday night.

Shifting to pull her more fully into him, Shane deepened the kiss. As he stroked and teased, her sweet taste, the floral scent of her silky blond hair and the feel of her soft body pressed to his much harder one had him feeling as if his jeans had shrunk at least two sizes in the stride. He quickly decided that he would do well to end the kiss or there was a good chance he’d end up emasculating himself.

“I’ve been wanting to do that ever since I saw you at the resort this morning,” he said, leaning back to smile down at her.

The dazed look in her vibrant blue eyes and the heat of passion coloring her creamy cheeks was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever been privileged to see. Soft and feminine, Lissa looked the way a woman was meant to look when a man kissed her.

She shook her head as if to clear it. “Shane, before this goes any further. We need to talk.”

“Yes, we do,” he agreed.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Me first,” he insisted.

He took her by the hand and led her into the great room. Settling himself into one of the oversize leather chairs in front of the stone fireplace, he pulled her down to sit on his lap.

“This is really important, Shane. There’s been an unexpected development that—”

He placed his index finger to her soft lips. “It’ll have to wait.”

“This is something that can’t wait.”

He gave her a quick kiss to divert her. “I have something I want you to do with me this weekend.”

The kiss distracted her just as he had intended. “W-what?”

“I want you to spend the next few days at my ranch with me.” When it looked as if she was about to protest, he shook his head. “Hear me out, angel. Most of my ranch hands are off for the holiday weekend and the ones who aren’t couldn’t care less who I have staying with me. Cactus, my housekeeper, has already left to visit his sister in Denver for the next few days, and we’ll have the entire house to ourselves. Unless you tell them, no one who cares will ever be the wiser that you stayed with me.”

She looked thoughtful for several long moments before she finally nodded. “We need to discuss something at length and I think it would be a very good idea to have the privacy of your ranch to do it.”

Surprised and more than a little pleased by how easily she had agreed, he hugged her close. “Talking wasn’t what I had in mind when I asked you to go with me. But I guess we can hash over whatever you think is so important while we rest up from more pleasurable pursuits.”

She gave him a warning look. “Will you be serious?”

“Angel, I thought you’d have figured out by now that when it comes to making love, I’m always serious,” he murmured as he kissed the side of her slender neck. “But if you think it’s necessary, I’ll be more than happy to take a few minutes to refresh your memory.”

“After I tell you what I discovered this morning, I think you’ll agree that there should be less emphasis on teasing and making love this weekend and more concentration on making some very serious decisions about what we’re going to do,” she said, pulling from his arms to stand up. He watched her shoulders rise and fall as she took several deep breaths. “Shane, there’s no easy way to put this and I doubt you’ll be happy to hear about it.”

His smile slowly faded. Her body language and the seriousness of her tone warned him that whatever was on her mind was most likely something unpleasant. But he had never been one to avoid an obvious problem. He preferred to hit the difficulty head-on, deal with it and move forward.

“Why don’t you just tell me outright and get it over with, Lissa?”

“A-all right.”

The slight tremor in her voice and the lone tear slowly slipping down her cheek when she turned to face him caused his heart to stutter and had him moving to get to his feet in the blink of an eye. But her next words stopped him stone cold.

“Shane, I’m … pregnant.”

Two

Feeling as if he had taken a sucker punch to the gut, Shane stared at her as he sank back down into the plush chair. Rarely at a loss for words, he suddenly couldn’t have strung two words together if his life depended on it.

Pregnant. Lissa was pregnant. That meant he was going to be a … he swallowed hard against the knot forming in his stomach … a daddy.

Un-freaking-believable.

He shook his head in an effort to make some sense of his tangled thoughts. He wasn’t sure what he had expected her to tell him, but the fact that she was having a baby—his baby—certainly hadn’t been it. Hell, he had never expected any woman to announce that he had made her pregnant.

“The baby belongs to you,” Lissa said, sounding a little defensive.

He shook his head. “There wasn’t a doubt in my mind about that, angel. When did you see the doctor?”

“I haven’t.” She bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling and he knew she was thoroughly stressed. “I just took the home test this morning.”

“Maybe it was wrong.”

“I don’t think so. I’ve missed one period and getting close to missing the second.” Her shoulders slumped. “Besides, the test boasts the highest accuracy rate of all the in-home brands.”

Suddenly needing a good dose of fresh air and a little time to come to grips with her news, Shane rose to his feet. Walking over to her, he used the pad of his thumb to wipe the tear from her cheek.

“Why don’t you pack a bag for the weekend while I go get my truck?”

“But what if someone sees us leaving town together?” she asked, looking uncertain.

“We’ve got bigger things to worry about than what some busybody with nothing better to do than spread gossip is going to say about seeing the two of us together,” he interrupted, anticipating her argument. Taking her into his arms, he pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. “Once we get to Rainbow Bend, we can discuss things, sort it all out and decide what we’re going to do. For now, get your things together and be ready to go when I get back.” Without waiting for her to change her mind or find an excuse to stay at the resort, he quickly released her and walked outside.

Pulling the door closed behind him, Shane stood on the deck for several mind-numbing moments and gazed at the panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains against the bright blue September sky. Splashes of gold from the aspen trees making their annual autumn transformation painted the slopes and quavered delicately in the slight breeze. He saw none of it.

He was too focused on the fact that he had done the one thing he had sworn he would never do. Hell, he had never even considered fathering a child as part of his life plan.

But he had just learned that particular horse had left the barn and there was no sense in closing the gate now. As he saw it, all there was left to do was man up, accept his responsibilities and do the right thing. It was what his morals demanded and his father would have expected of him.

Filling his lungs with the crisp mountain air, Shane straightened his shoulders and descended the steps. Walking toward the main part of the resort, he knew exactly what he had to do.

He had made Melissa Jarrod pregnant. Now, it was time for him to make her his wife.

The drive to Shane’s ranch was mostly spent in quiet reflection as they both contemplated the ramifications of the unexpected turn in their no-strings affair. By the time they reached Rainbow Valley, Melissa felt as if her nerves were stretched to the breaking point. Grappling for something—anything—to keep from thinking about their dilemma, she glanced around.

She had only been to the Rainbow Bend Ranch once before and that had been several years ago when her father had coerced her into accompanying him on a horse-buying trip for the resort. It had been a lame attempt on his part to bridge the ever-widening gap between them. She hadn’t wanted to be there and spent the time wishing she was anywhere else, instead of taking in the gorgeous scenery.

But as Shane drove the truck over the ridge and down the winding road leading into the picturesque valley, she couldn’t get over the breathtaking view. “This is beautiful, Shane. You’re so lucky that you got to grow up here.”

“I like it,” he said, stopping the truck beside a rustic two-story log ranch house. “But not everyone appreciates the isolation.”

Melissa frowned. “You make it sound as if it’s stuck out in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn’t consider ten miles outside of Aspen all that far from civilization.”

“That’s because you haven’t been here in the winter,” he answered, shrugging one shoulder. “When we get a heavy snow, the road up on the ridge can be closed off for weeks at a time, making trips into town few and far between.”

“How did you get back and forth to go to school when you were a child?” she asked, remembering that he had graduated with honors.

“When I was younger and winter hit, I stayed in Aspen with my dad’s sister and her family until they moved to New Mexico.” He got out of the truck and walked around to open the passenger door for her. “By the time they left Colorado, I was almost out of school and old enough to stay on my own.”

“That’s when you stayed at Jarrod Ridge, wasn’t it?” she guessed. Required by her father to work at the resort after school and on weekends, she vaguely remembered seeing Shane working with the horses the few times she had escorted guests to the stables.

Nodding, he reached into the bed of the truck for her overnight case, then placed his hand on the small of her back as he guided her toward the house. “My dad and yours had an agreement that I could stay at Jarrod Ridge the winter of my senior year, in exchange for me wrangling on the weekends and acting as a guide on some of the trail rides.”

“Considering how much you’ve always loved horses, you probably didn’t have much of a problem with that,” she said, smiling as they climbed the steps to the wraparound porch.

He shook his head, then reached around her to open the front door. “Since the resort buys all of its stock exclusively from Rainbow Bend, it was like taking care of my own horses.”

When they entered the house, Melissa got her first glimpse of Shane’s home and it came as no surprise that everything from the pieces of antique harness and tack decorating the walls to the foyer’s chandelier made of elk antlers was rugged and thoroughly masculine. Just like the owner. There wasn’t so much as a hint that a woman had ever lived there and she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to his mother.

Melissa tried to think if she had heard anything about the woman. Nothing came to mind. Had his mother passed away when Shane was a child like her mother had?

“Cactus left this morning for Denver, so we’ll be on our own for meals,” Shane said, interrupting her thoughts. He hung his wide-brimmed hat on a peg beside the door, set her small bag on the floor and reached to help her out of her jacket. “Just let me know when you get hungry and I’ll throw a couple of steaks on the grill.”

She frowned. “For the past couple of weeks, it seems that I’m hungry all of the time.”

“Is that because of the pregnancy?” She watched his gaze zero in on her midsection as if he was looking for a significant change to have taken place in the past few days. Apparently finding none, he raised his gaze to meet hers. “I remember one of my hired men joking about his wife eating like a field hand when she was pregnant with their little boy.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m that bad yet, but I do think the pregnancy could be the cause for the increase in my appetite.” She nibbled on her lower lip as she tried to remember what some of her friends had mentioned about the early stages of their pregnancies. Nothing came to mind about constantly being hungry. “Since I’ve never been pregnant before, I’m not really sure,” she said, shrugging.

He stared at her for several long seconds before nodding. “We’ll have to check with your doctor about that when you go for your first visit.” Looking thoughtful, he added, “In fact, it would probably be a good idea to start making a list of the things we need to ask him.”

“Whoa, there, Cowboy. What do you mean by ‘we’?” She shook her head. “I don’t remember inviting you to go along with me.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m going,” he stated, as if it were a foregone conclusion.

“Why?”

“We’ll discuss my reasoning later, as well as make a few important decisions,” he said, giving her the same charming grin that never failed to make her pulse race. He picked up her bag and ushered her toward the stairs. “Right now, I’ll show you to the bedroom and let you freshen up while I put the steaks on to cook.”

When he guided her up the steps and down the hall, she was a bit surprised that he opened a door and showed her into one of the guest rooms. They’d never spent an entire night together and she had assumed when he asked her to spend the weekend with him, he had intended for her to sleep in his room. But after hearing the news of her pregnancy, she had no doubt that his previous insatiable desire for her had cooled considerably.

He set her bag on the bed, then turning to go, took her into his arms. “When you get ready, come down to the kitchen. I should have supper ready in about twenty minutes.” Then, before she could react, he softly kissed her cheek and left the room.

As she unzipped her case and started to put her clothes away, a sadness she couldn’t quite understand filled her. Why did Shane’s diminishing interest in her bother her so much?

It wasn’t as if they were in love. They had both agreed before beginning their affair that the time they spent together would be relaxed and casual with no emotional involvement getting in the way of their respective careers.

Now that she had been given the responsibilities of running the resort’s world-class spa, she had her hands full. She would love to have a husband and family of her own one day, but now just wasn’t a good time to do it. Besides, Shane wasn’t the right man to make that dream come true. His reputation for moving from one woman to another was only slightly better than her brother Trevor’s.

Along with raising championship quarter horses, Shane was a highly successful architect specializing in the design of exclusive stables. His client list included some of the richest, most famous people in the equine world and he simply didn’t have time for more than a casual relationship, anyway.

Melissa bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. It was times like this that she missed having a mother the most. She would love to be able to turn to her mother and ask for her advice. Unfortunately, Margaret Jarrod had died of cancer when Melissa was two and she had grown up without the love and nurturing guidance of a mother.

Shaking off her uncharacteristic gloominess, she finished unpacking, then took a deep breath and stepped out into the hallway as she headed for the stairs. She had known her time with Shane would end at some point. She just hadn’t realized it would be so soon. Nor could she have anticipated that she would be pregnant with his baby when it happened.

“When do you intend to call the doctor’s office for your first appointment?” Shane asked, reaching for his glass of iced tea. Lissa had been extremely quiet for most of the meal and it was past time they addressed the issue that had been on both of their minds since she made her announcement that afternoon.

When she looked up from the bite of steak she had been pushing around the plate with her fork, she shook her head. “I really haven’t thought that far ahead. I only took the test this morning. Then, before I had the chance to recover from the shock of the results, I was called to take over the yoga class at the spa and later met Avery for lunch.”

“Shortly after you finished that, I showed up at your door and here we are,” he guessed.

She nodded. “I still haven’t had time to fully comprehend the fact that I’m actually going to have a baby.”

“It is pretty unreal, isn’t it?” He was having a hard time wrapping his mind around that fact himself.

Her vivid blue gaze reflected some barely contained panic and he was fairly certain he had that deer-in-the-headlights look about him, as well.

“I knew it was possible,” she said, finally laying her fork down. “But seriously, only one time unprotected and I get pregnant? The odds against that happening have to be pretty high.”

“Looks like that’s all it took for us.” He reached across the table to cover her hand with his. “But I want you to know, you aren’t going to have to go through this alone. We’re in this together. I’ll be there to support you every step of the way, Lissa.”

“I appreciate that.” She stared at him for several long moments before she finally sat back from the table. “But if you mean monetarily, I think we both know that isn’t necessary. I’m financially independent and have more than enough to handle whatever expenses there are before and after the birth.”

Given their initial agreement to keep things casual, he could understand her misinterpretation of his promise, as well as her reluctance to believe he would commit himself to anything more than monetary assistance. But the idea that she considered him so shallow and irresponsible that he would just walk away from her and the child they created still didn’t sit well.

“I’m not talking about child support,” he stated, doing his best to keep his tone even.

“What are you talking about, Shane?” she asked, looking confused.

Rising to place their plates on the kitchen counter, he turned to face her. “I’m telling you that I’ll be with you for doctor appointments, the baby’s birth and raising him.”

“In other words, you’re telling me you’re going to want joint custody.” She nodded. “I can understand that and I don’t see a problem. I’m sure we can work something out.”

“Custody is going to be a nonissue,” he said, shaking his head. He walked over to squat down beside her chair, then reaching up to brush a strand of long blond hair from her cheek, he smiled. “I’m pretty sure that sharing the responsibility of a child is automatic when his parents are married.”

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed several times as she obviously tried to find her voice. “Married?” she finally gasped.

“Yes.”

Her expression stated louder than words ever could that she didn’t believe him. “Married as in the tiered cake, white dress and ‘I do’?”

“Yup.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

She closed her eyes, then opening them, shook her head as she pinned him with her crystalline gaze. “Have you lost your mind, Shane? You can’t possibly be serious.”

“Angel, marriage is one subject I never joke about,” he said, meaning it.

“We can’t get married, Shane,” she insisted. “Beyond the basics, we really don’t know that much about each other.”

“Sure we do.” He stood up and, lifting her into his arms, sat down in the chair to settle her on his lap. “I know you like when I do this.” Kissing the side of her neck, he was rewarded with her soft sigh. “And you really like this,” he added, slipping his hand beneath the tail of her aqua T-shirt. He used his fingertip to trace the satiny skin covering her ribs. As he slowly lowered his head, he moved his hand. “But you love this.”

His mouth covered hers at the same time his hand cupped her breast and to his immense satisfaction, Lissa didn’t so much as put up a token protest. Encouraged by her response, Shane deepened the kiss and once again marveled at her sweetness and the feeling of completion he always experienced when he held her.

He had kissed a lot of women in his time, but not one of them made him feel the way Melissa Jarrod did. Her slender body fit perfectly against his and her passion never failed to excite him in ways he could have never imagined.

His lower body tightened predictably and he decided he had better break the kiss before things got out of hand. At the moment, Lissa needed his comfort far more than she did his lust.

Drawing in some much-needed air, he smiled. “I told you I knew a lot about you.”

She shook her head as if to clear it. “I wasn’t talking about pleasing each other sexually and you know it.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that a huge part of marriage?” he asked, unable to keep from grinning.

“Maybe for a man, but a woman needs more from a relationship than just good sex,” she insisted. “I need more.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Would you care to enlighten me?”

Leaning back, she stared at him for a moment as if she thought he might be a little on the simple side. “Do you realize we’ve never spent more than a few hours together at any one time? I may know you intimately in bed, but I don’t know anything about you otherwise. I don’t know what you like to read, what kind of movies you prefer or even what your favorite color is.”

He frowned. “I don’t see how any of that would make or break a marriage.”

She pulled from his arms and stood up. “Don’t you see? Those are the kinds of things you know about the person you are committing to spend the rest of your life with.” Sighing heavily, she turned to face him. “I don’t even know what side of the bed you sleep on or if you snore.”

“So you’re telling me that knowing whether I snore or not is more important than a gratifying love life?” he asked, laughing.

If looks could kill, the one she sent his way would have him laid out in two shakes of a squirrel’s tail. “Will you be serious, Shane? I’m trying to explain what constitutes a committed relationship.”

Oh, he knew exactly what she was driving at. Lissa thought she needed to know what made him tick. But she was wanting more from him than he was comfortable giving. He had never been in the habit of sharing more than the surface details about himself with anyone and he wasn’t inclined to do so now.

Unfortunately, if he wanted her to go along with his plan, he was going to have to give her something she considered relevant. “Nonfiction, action-adventure, red and left.”

She looked confused.