Married To The Mum-To-Be

“So I know that you’re okay, text me when you get back to the apartment this afternoon.”

The apartment. Not her apartment. Liam had his mind set on her spending every night at the house by the river. But she wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. Not until her parents knew about their relationship. Sure, she was stalling. But she had her reasons and they were valid. Even if Liam did struggle to understand, Kayla knew she had to do what she thought was right. As she always had.

“I really am fine,” she lied. “I mean, despite the fact that I’m probably pregnant and the baby is going to be caught in the middle of two families who hate one another.”

His jaw tightened. “Kayla, you know that I will never allow that to happen. If you are pregnant, then our child will come first, before any old squabbles, before any decades-old resentment, before anything.”

She shivered, because again she knew she should have been reassured. She knew Liam, she knew he could be ruthless when he needed to be. And she knew their relationship would be blown out of the water the moment her pregnancy was confirmed...and that Liam would be the one to do so.

“Of course I know that,” she said quietly. “My month is nearly up, remember?”

Three and half weeks earlier they’d agreed she would tell her parents about their relationship. It wasn’t an ultimatum. It was the next step. The obvious step. Exactly what needed to happen if they were to make their relationship work. But she still hadn’t told them. Not because she was a coward, although sometimes she wondered if Liam thought that of her...but because her parents loved her so dearly and upsetting them was such an alien concept to her. Liam didn’t appreciate that... Oh, he was considerate and caring, but he didn’t truly understand her motives.

“I didn’t suggest a month to hurt you,” he said quietly. “Or push you. I just thought it would be long enough for you to broach the subject and maybe ease them into the idea.”

“I know,” she flipped back. “And I get that you don’t understand the relationship I have with my parents. I get that you believe they smother me and think the world revolves around me...and you’re right...they do. That still doesn’t mean I want to upset them.”

“I know you don’t,” he said. “I don’t think anyone chooses to hurt the people they love.”

Her throat thickened. It was a direct hit. He loved her. She loved him. It shouldn’t be so messy. But it was.

“I’ll talk to you later,” she said and left the room before he had a chance to respond.

By the time she got back to the museum her head was throbbing. She turned the shingle over to say the place was open, unlocked the door and headed inside. As always, she experienced a sense of calm as she crossed the threshold. It always did that to her. The museum was her safe place. Her harbor. The balm she needed to soothe her soul. Split into two areas, it was a museum and art gallery, showcasing not only the incredible history of the town, but both the local and indigenous artists. There was a small gift shop that Shirley managed for a few hours each day, but mostly Kayla worked alone. And she liked it that way. Oh, she loved her family and friends, but the museum and gallery was her place, her calm center away from the world where she could think and read and find peace.

Liam understood that about her...perhaps more than anyone else ever had.

After she’d broken up with Will, Liam had pursued her again. Not obviously. In fact, at times he seemed to be ignoring her. But she knew what he was doing. The way he said her name whenever they met, the way his glittering blue eyes always seemed to linger on her mouth... Kayla was switched on enough to know she was being pursued. There was no ego in her realization, just instinct. An O’Sullivan had always been on the board of the museum, but suddenly he started turning up for the monthly meetings instead of his mother. And then he began regularly bringing his young nieces to the gallery. Subtle, for sure...but effective. Seeing him with the girls did something to her. It touched her heart, breaking down her defenses, making Kayla want him in ways that went beyond physical attraction.

It took a couple of months for Kayla to admit the truth to herself. That she liked him. That she more than liked him. And then one afternoon, when she could stand it no more, when he’d arrived early for a committee meeting to discuss the planned extension for the museum and they were alone in her office, she’d grabbed him by the lapel of his jacket and kissed him...forgetting everything...forgetting the three-decade-old feud, forgetting that her family would be devastated if they found out. All she knew was that in that moment, she had to feel his kiss, his touch.

It was also the moment she realized she was really falling for the son of the man her father hated most in the world.

So, from day one their relationship became a secret. No one could know. Her parents were good people, honest and hardworking, and they had always put her first. Always. And she wasn’t eager to disrespect the love and devotion they had shown her all their lives.

Only...

If she was carrying Liam’s child, hurting them was inevitable.

Her cell beeped with a text message as she walked into her office. She checked the number and saw that it was Ash saying she’d be at her apartment that afternoon. Kayla texted back, saying she’d see her later and then called her mother and rescheduled her visit. Then she called Shirley and asked her to cover her shift. Her cell rang again a few minutes later, and thinking it might be Shirley again and that something could be wrong, she snatched the phone up quickly.

“Hello,” she said breathlessly.

“Hey, it’s me. Liam.” His deep voice wound through her system like silk.

Kayla managed to take a steadying breath. “What do you want?” She knew she sounded terse and unfriendly, but her patience was frayed.

“Just to see how you are.”

“You saw me half an hour ago,” she reminded him. “Not much has changed since then.”

He was silent for a moment. “I am allowed to be concerned about you.”

“I know that,” she said, quickly hating how mean and short-tempered she must sound to him. “I’m sorry,” she said and sighed. “I’m just tired. I’ll feel better tomorrow.”

He took a moment before he spoke again. “Thank you for telling me. I know you could have kept this to yourself until you got confirmation.”

“If I’m pregnant then it’s your baby, too, Liam,” she said softly, feeling a heady warmth spread through her limbs as the words left her mouth. “I’m not about to exclude you from anything. We’re in this together.”

“Are we?” he asked and her insides constricted.

“Yes,” she replied. “We are.”

He sighed heavily. “Kayla, you do know what this will mean, don’t you?”

Tension filled her chest. “I don’t want to think about it. Before I start thinking about what any of this means, I need to make sure. We both need to be sure.”

“Of course,” he said. “But if you are pregnant then we’ll have to make some changes.”

Oh, she knew. Reveal their relationship to the world. And hurt her parents in the process.

“I know that,” she replied hotly. “You don’t need to keep reminding me.”

“I didn’t call to upset you,” he said quietly. “That’s the last thing I want.”

“I know that, too,” she acknowledged and sighed. “But I’m not accustomed to hurting my parents. I don’t like how the idea makes me feel. I don’t like knowing that they are going to think that I’ve betrayed them.” She sighed heavily. “And in a way, they’ll be right. I knew how my dad felt about your father...about your family. I mean, I’ve known it practically all my life. I was raised on it. But it still didn’t stop me from falling in love with you.”

Silence stretched out between them, filled with thick, relentless tension. When he spoke again his voice was unusually raspy. “I haven’t heard you admit that for a while.”

“Admit what?” she queried, but knew exactly what he meant.

And he was right. She hadn’t said it for weeks. Not even when she was in his arms, making love with him, and he’d whisper the words to her with heart-melting passion.

“I love you, too, Kayla,” he said so softly that the sound of his voice hit her directly in the center of her chest. “But, you know, perhaps you’re thinking about this the wrong way. You might be imagining the worst for no reason. This situation may do exactly the opposite. It could bring everyone together.”

It was a nice idea. But a fantasy. Derek Rickard was not the forgiving type. And J.D. O’Sullivan was no better. There was way too much bad blood between the two families to imagine that there could be any kind of truce.

“I know my father. And yours,” she added. “He won’t be any more pleased about this than my folks.”

“Frankly, I don’t care about that,” he said bluntly. “I care about you. And if you’re pregnant, then I’ll care about our child. And I’ll protect you both...always.”

Heat rushed behind her eyes. Whatever Liam’s faults, he was undeniably loyal and fiercely protective of their relationship. It made her love him even more. And it also made the situation much harder.

“I know you will...and I know you don’t agree with the way I’ve handled things.”

“Handled things?”

She heard the query in his voice. “Okay,” she admitted. “The way I haven’t handled things with my parents. If I’m pregnant, we both know they’re going to be hurt and stunned by the news.”

“You think that’s going to shock them?” He drew in a long breath. “Wait until they find out that we’re married.”

Chapter Two

An impromptu Vegas wedding wasn’t something Liam had ever imagined for himself. Nonetheless, that was what he’d had just under a month earlier. Kayla had been at a conference in Nevada and he’d joined her there so they could spend the weekend together without worrying about being discovered. It had been a whim, fueled by three passionate and heady days of endless lovemaking and many bottles of champagne. They’d bought rings, found a chapel and a minister who looked way too much like Elvis to be taken seriously, and gotten hitched to the Blues Brothers’ soundtrack. It had been the happiest day of his life.

But it was followed by weeks of pretending they meant nothing to each other when they were around their friends, work colleagues and respective families.

And it was slowly breaking him.

He loved her and he wanted her in his life every day. Not just a couple of times a week, splitting time between her apartment and his house, snatching weekends together when they could. She wanted to wait to let everyone know they were married, and although he understood her motives, he didn’t agree with them. He knew she didn’t want to hurt her parents. But she was hurting their relationship with her silence. So when they’d come back from Vegas he’d pushed her a little, and finally got her to agree that they would both tell their parents by the end of the month. That was three and half weeks ago and they were no closer to a resolution.

And he had no idea if there ever would be.

All his life he’d been used to getting his own way...but not with Kayla. He stretched out his shoulders, so wound up he could barely stand being in his own skin. Only Kayla could make him feel that way. Only Kayla and her deep caramel eyes and perfectly proportioned features. She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever known. But it wasn’t just her looks that drew him in—everything about her affected him on a primal level. The night she’d crashed into his car everything had changed.

Gone was the lanky teenager he vaguely remembered was prom queen. Oh, she’d always been attractive, but maturity had given her poise and amplified her beauty.

Desire, raw and uncomplicated, as wild as a river, as untamed as the Black Hills, had coursed through every cell he possessed. So much so that Liam could barely recall what he’d said to her that night. All he could remember was Kayla, standing in the parking lot in her white dress and fringed, come-take-me cowgirl boots.

He wanted her. Despite his better judgment. Despite knowing that the long-running feud between their respective fathers would make it difficult.

Then he tried for two days to get her out of his system. And failed. He went on a date with another woman, thinking all he needed to do was get laid and that would end the constant images of Kayla bombarding his thoughts. But by eight o’clock he’d had enough and bailed, not feeling particularly proud of himself, but not prepared to sleep with one woman when he was thinking about another.

So, despite knowing it would be like walking a minefield, he’d called her up and asked her out. And got shot down like a duck in hunting season. He tried again three days later and when her answer was the same, decided he would forget all about her. When she started dating the cowboy he knew it was ridiculous to spend his nights thinking about her and for months he embarked on a series of meaningless one-night stands, but they did nothing to get his attraction for Kayla out of his system. Then she broke up with the cowboy and he had a clear playing field.

Still, she resisted him for months. And not having her, he discovered, made him want her even more.

And then one afternoon, when he arrived at the museum for a meeting, everything changed. She’d been flustered, out of sorts, not her usual calm and collected self. And then she’d turned, dragged him toward her by the collar and kissed him. Hotly. Frantically. As though it was the last thing in the world she wanted to do, but the one thing she had to do.

Within a week they were lovers, which had only intensified his desire to make her his own. And the more time they spent together and he got to know her, Liam’s desire for Kayla turned into something else, something more and something that went way beyond physical attraction. Liam hadn’t agreed with her insistence they remain secretive about their relationship, but he’d let her have her way at first, too crazy for her to deny her anything. But as the months slipped by he knew things had to change, particularly once they were married. He’d grown tired of sneaking around and pretending to their friends and family that they weren’t together. She was his. He loved her and he wanted the world to know it.

“Liam, do you have a minute?”

He looked toward the open door. His assistant, Connie Bedford, stood in the doorway, wearing the skirt and jacket that was a signature of the hotel. Connie had worked at the hotel since she’d left high school, first on the front desk, and for the past few years as his administrative assistant. She was a sweet-natured young woman in her midtwenties who was hardworking, loyal and a godsend, and he always took note when she told him he was taking her for granted. She was also the only person who knew he was involved with Kayla, although she was too polite to ever mention it.

He beckoned her into the office. “Sure, what’s up?”

Connie came into the room and dropped a few files on his desk. “I need some signatures,” she explained and smiled. “And the new sous chef wants to see you today.”

He groaned inwardly. Temperamental chefs were not on his radar when he was consumed with thoughts of his wife and the state of his marriage. But he still had a business to run and spent the next ten minutes with Connie, discussing a few issues regarding the hotel. By the time Connie left, his irritation had eased and he managed to get through the remainder of the afternoon without snapping the heads off any of the staff. The hotel ran 24/7, with twenty-two rooms over three floors, the restaurant and a bar, and two conference rooms that were regularly booked out. It employed over thirty-five locals on staff and was renowned for its comfort, ambience and service. Liam demanded nothing less and ran a tight ship.

There were several dude ranches just out of town that catered to big-city corporations wanting to use the experience as a bonding exercise for employees, or to city-dwellers longing for the typical cowboy experience. And since O’Sullivans was the best hotel within a hundred miles, it meant business was good. Better than good. The O’Sullivan coffers were compounding every day. He had wealth and success and a job that continued to be challenging, and the only thing missing from his life was a family of his own.

A wife. A child.

Kayla was his wife. And she might be carrying his child.

Longing, raw and intense, seeped through his blood. He’d never been in love before. He’d never experienced the heavy ache in his chest that he felt when he was away from her.

He’d lived an entitled life, one of wealth and of little struggle. The one painful point was his sister’s death... Before that it had been easy street. But loving Kayla was changing him completely. He didn’t want to upset her, hurt her or see her struggle with her divided loyalties...especially when he knew there was more pain to come. Despite their agreed-upon deadline for telling their parents their secret, ultimately he had no real idea what he would do when that time was up. Of course, he could tell his own parents first and then deal with the fallout, forcing Kayla into action. But he wasn’t sure how he could do that without hurting the woman he loved.

Liam got to his feet and stretched his shoulders again. His office was on the second floor and from the long window behind his desk he had a view of the entire length of Main Street. The town, with its population of a few thousand, had one set of traffic lights, shop fronts that were both old and new, and well-maintained sidewalks. Until six months ago there had been two towns, separated by a river and a bridge. But after ten years of negotiating, the towns had merged, unified by the need to pool resources and create a stronger, more viable economy, taking advantage of commuters passing through the town on their way toward the state line. Cedar River was an old copper and silver mining town and Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills were within driving distance, so the town had plenty to offer tourists. The O’Sullivan portfolio of land and commercial property was vast, and Liam was proud of everything his father and grandfather had done since settling in the area sixty years earlier. His father, John-Dexter—or J.D. as he was known—had retired several years ago, handing the reins to Liam full-time, but still liked to show his face around the hotel. Liam didn’t mind, since he got on well with his dad and hoped that one day he’d have a son or daughter who would follow in his own footsteps. That day suddenly seemed like a real possibility. And he was happy. Foolishly happy, despite the turmoil churning through his head.

His cell rang, cutting through his thoughts. It was his mother, reminding him that he’d agreed to meet with her to discuss several upcoming charitable events in town—including the hospital benefit that was being held at the art gallery in a couple of weeks. He’d been working on the project with Kayla, and not only would it raise much-needed funds for the hospital, but it would give several of the local artists an opportunity to showcase their work and he knew that it was important to her.

Liam shut down his laptop, grabbed his jacket and keys and headed downstairs to the foyer and reception desk. The restaurant and bar were off to the left and even though it was early, it looked like there was already a good crowd inside. There were other pubs in town, like Rusty’s or the newly opened Loose Moose tavern. But O’Sullivan’s was different—the modern decor was complemented by a traditional Irish feel and was accompanied by exemplary service and great food.

He spotted his mother the moment he stepped through the elevator. Gwen O’Sullivan was a tall, statuesque woman in her late fifties with short silvery hair and a timeless style she’d gained as a model in her youth. She was quiet and reserved, the total opposite of her blustery, well-meaning but often misunderstood husband. Liam knew he was more like his mother than his brothers. Sean, a movie producer in LA, was confident and brash and an admitted womanizer. Liam doubted his youngest brother would ever settle down and ditch his fast life. Kieran, who was a doctor at a hospital in Sioux Falls, was a well-balanced sort of man with a positive outlook on pretty much everything, despite a messy divorce a year earlier. As he looked at his mother he was reminded of Liz, his sister, who’d died three years ago.

Liz and his mom had been close and he knew his mother grieved deeply for the daughter she’d lost. At times there was a hollowness to his mother’s expression that seemed unable to be healed by anything, except perhaps the time she spent with her grandchildren, Liz’s three young daughters. But his sister’s husband, Grady, had recently remarried and he knew his mother worried that she wouldn’t see the girls as much. However, despite the fact that he’d never much liked Grady Parker and didn’t believe the horse rancher was good enough for Liz, Liam had to admit that the other man was a caring father and tried to ensure his daughters maintained a relationship with Liz’s family. It was complicated stuff. Made more so by the fact that Grady’s new wife had been Liz’s best friend since high school. Liam didn’t believe anything had been going on before Liz’s death, and he didn’t really hold a grudge that Grady had moved on. He just...he just missed his sister. Liz had shown little interest in the O’Sullivan fortune or business and had thrived on her ranching life, her husband and children. In a way, Liam had admired Liz for her steely determination to live her life exactly how she wanted.

“There you are,” his mother said and greeted him with a brief hug. “Shall we talk over a drink?”

Liam checked his watch. Four forty. Not too early in the day, pushing down the niggling thought that his mother used alcohol to numb her pain at times. “Sure.”

They headed into the bar and sat down at a booth. Liam ordered his mother a wine spritzer and a club soda with lime for himself. As much as he felt like getting wasted to get all thoughts of Kayla from his mind, the night manager didn’t clock on until five and he had a strict rule about alcohol consumption while on duty.

“So,” his mother said once their drinks arrived. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you?”

Liam frowned. “I thought you wanted to talk about the charity schedule?”

“No,” she said quietly. “That can wait. I want to talk about you. I’m worried about you.”

Liam groaned inwardly. He should have seen this coming. Gwen O’Sullivan seemed to have some kind of built-in radar when it came to her offspring. The fact that Sean and Kieran lived elsewhere meant her attention was generally focused on him. Most days he could laugh it off, but today he wasn’t in the mood for any kind of heart-to-heart with his well-meaning parent. “I’m fine.”

She shook her head. “No, you’re not. I know something’s been bothering you.”

“Stop smothering me, Mom,” he said gently, not wanting to hurt her feelings. “I assure you, I’m fine.”

She didn’t look convinced, but smiled and drank some wine. Then she met his gaze levelly. “There’s more to life than work, you know. More to life than this hotel.”

Liam raised a brow. “Tell that to Dad.”

“At least your father took the time to get married and raise a family,” she reminded him. “Unlike you and your brothers. When Kieran got married I thought that at least one of my boys had the good sense to settle down. But then there was that awful divorce and everything else. And Sean just moves from one flighty woman to the next. And then there’s you...my sensible son, who doesn’t let anyone in.”

It wasn’t true. He’d let Kayla in. Into his life and into his heart. Unfortunately, most days he felt as though she was walking all over it. Liam sat back in his seat and half smiled. “You know, I think we have this same conversation every six months or so.”

“Then it’s time you took notice,” she said, still frowning. “You’re nearly thirty-five years old. It’s time you settled down, got married and had children. We need grandchildren to carry on the family name, after all. And as much as I love them, your sister’s children are Parkers, not O’Sullivans. You’re not even dating anyone at the moment.”