by Jeanne Allan
They stood in a hallway. So busy telling him off, she’d missed that he’d waltzed her out of the ballroom. Muted strains of music came through the open doorway. The music did nothing to charm her savage breast. “Aren’t you afraid someone will see us and get the wrong idea? They might think we’re sneaking up to one of the rooms. This time I’d make sure you took off your clothes. I wouldn’t want you wiggling out of marriage through a technicality. I’m not wearing a watch today, but one of my earrings is a beeper. To make sure we’re caught with both of us stark naked in bed. Just another example of my devious plan to snare you for my husband.”
“Maybe I was wrong,” he said mildly, backing her up against the nearest wall.
“Worth Lassiter, wrong? I don’t think so. The world would come to an end at such a revolutionary idea. No, no, no, Worth Lassiter could never be wrong.”
“I didn’t force you to agree to marry me. Even you have to admit the situation looked bad.”
“It doesn’t look bad to me. I got what I wanted. You. Am I ever excited. I can hardly wait to call up my mother and tell her I’m getting married again, which is something I’ve been desperate to do ever since my last husband ripped out my heart—oops, that’s right, he didn’t. You know how it is, you work so hard to take on a role, sometimes you forget to let it go. Naturally, he’s not even dead. He’s just pretending so he can get his cut of all your money. And don’t forget the ranch. We really want part of your ranch.”
Elizabeth flattened her palms against the wall behind her. To support her. “And Jamie, he’s been great, hasn’t he? I’ll bet you thought he was a baby. Actually, he’s a midget. My lover, in fact. I have tons of lovers. Too bad you didn’t know that before you made your excruciatingly funny noble gesture. If I had any integrity whatsoever, I’d free you from your obligation, but I could have done that this morning, couldn’t I? And since I didn’t, well, if I were you, I wouldn’t count on me doing it now.”
“You’re not planning to marry me.”
“You haven’t been listening. Marrying you is my life’s ambition.”
“It would have been interesting.” He braced himself with a hand on the wall near her head. The anger had faded from his eyes. An amused smile played over his mouth.
Elizabeth failed to find any amusement whatsoever in the situation. Rubbing her palms up and down the wall, she felt every nub and weave in the textured wallpaper. “Would have? Be careful or I’ll have to sue you for breach of promise. There were two witnesses to your grand announcement.”
“Three.” He grinned. “You forgot Jimbo.”
She ignored that. “You don’t think Russ is going to let a prize like you get away, do you?”
“I know Russ will be disappointed. He wants you near.”
Elizabeth stared past Worth’s shoulder. On the opposite wall painted stylized lilies in shades of rose and green stretched elegantly from the ceiling. She couldn’t believe how easily her father had accepted Worth’s lie. As for Mary… “Your mother won’t be disappointed. She thinks like you do. That I trapped her precious son into marriage.”
“Elizabeth, I believe I owe you an apology. I should have known you were as much a victim of unfortunate circumstances as I was. I saw myself chain…that is, I panicked. I’m sorry.”
The man had no end of ways to hurt her. “Think nothing of it. I’m used to men thinking being married to me is a fate worse than death.” Her attempt at a laugh came out closer to a sob. “Come to think of it, apparently, Lawrence preferred death.”
“Lawrence’s death had nothing to do with you.”
Her fingers curled against the wallpaper. “Let’s not go down that path again. Look what happened last time. You’d better be careful. If Russ comes out here and sees you breathing down my chest, he’s liable to forget his promise and tell the whole world we’re getting married.” When Worth stepped back, she swept regally past him, haughtily drawing aside the skirt of her dress so that not so much as a thread touched him.
His voice stopped her in the doorway to the ballroom. “You didn’t accept my apology, Red.”
“No, I didn’t, did I?”
“One other thing.” He paused.
She waited, her back to him, poised to flee.
“I accept my share of the blame for what happened.”
She whirled around, infuriated by his incredible interpretation of events. “Your share? The entire blame belongs to you.”
He wore a determined look. The look of a man bent on doing the honorable thing. “What I told your father this morning. You have every right to hold me to it.”
“Of course I’m going to hold you to it. Weren’t you listening to me?” Turning on her heel, Elizabeth returned to the ballroom. Murdering Mary Lassiter’s only son on her wedding day might somewhat ruin the day for Mary.
Worth watched Elizabeth cross the ballroom to where Hannah sat on the floor with Jamie. Despite her stubborn insistence to the contrary, she obviously had no intention of marrying him. Sipping his champagne, he brooded over why he didn’t feel overjoyed at his escape. He didn’t have to look far for the answer.
Her father. Russ had been furious when he’d discovered Elizabeth in Worth’s bed. He wouldn’t exactly jump for joy when he learned she wasn’t marrying Worth. Yet another wedge would be driven between Russ and Elizabeth.
Courtesy of Worth. Elizabeth hadn’t knocked on his door asking for help with Jamie. She hadn’t asked him to carry her to his bed.
There was no escaping his responsibility. Beau had spent his life running away from responsibility, but Worth wasn’t Beau.
From the moment Elizabeth had rejected his help in the Denver airport, he’d played games with her. Forced her to play along. According to his rules. Because she irritated him.
Across the ballroom, Jamie sat on his mother’s hip and chewed the top of her shoulder. Elizabeth’s light green dress with pink and white flowers matched St. Chris’s ballroom. She might look frail, but she no longer had raccoon eyes from lack of sleep, and temper had lent color to her cheeks.
Watching her, he forced himself to face the truth. He’d deliberately set out to be a thorn in her side. Not to keep her from ruining the wedding. That was a lie he’d told himself to excuse his obnoxious behavior.
The pathetic truth was her rejection of his help had dented his fragile male ego. Even worse, she’d turned his body inside out and didn’t have a clue. He’d wanted her, didn’t want to want her, and she’d felt nothing for him.
He wondered if, subconsciously, her entire visit he’d been working his way toward something like what happened this morning. To punish her for not wanting to tear off his clothes.
Russ walked up and followed the direction of Worth’s gaze. “My grandson needs a father and she needs a husband to take care of her.” Russ’s cheeks reddened, and he said in a gruff, apologetic voice, “I should have known you wouldn’t be sleeping with her if you didn’t plan to marry her.”
Worth studied the contents of his stemmed glass. Russ’s words only reinforced what Worth’s conscience had already told him. By his own actions, he’d made himself responsible for Elizabeth and Jamie. He heard Russ ask him when the wedding was. “Elizabeth hasn’t said. Don’t push her, Russ. I don’t think she’ll react well to pressure.”
“You mean she’s darned stubborn. Gets it from her mother. Don’t worry. Mary already gave me the dickens for interfering. I’ll let you run your courtship the way you want. Just don’t take too long over it. It’s about time to get that grandson of mine on a horse if we’re going to make a cowboy out of him.”
Worth looked the older man straight in the eye. “Russ, let’s be very clear about one thing. When I marry Elizabeth, Jamie will be my son. His mother and I will decide what he does and when he does it, based on Jamie’s wants and needs. I don’t care if he’s a cowboy or a dishwasher, as long as he’s healthy and happy.”
Russ stared at him for a long moment before saying flatly, “That’s not coming fro
m you. It’s from Elizabeth because she thinks I’ve been a rotten father.”
Worth sighed inwardly. The first thing Elizabeth was going to do when they got married was settle things with her father. “It comes from me, Russ. I’m just saying, I’m adopting Jamie, and he’ll be my son in every sense of the word.”
Mary came up and dragged Russ away to talk to someone.
Worth leaned against the wall and sipped champagne.
Elizabeth was bent over, hanging on to Jamie’s hands as the little boy tottered unsteadily over to Hannah. His little legs were getting sturdier. He’d soon be walking on his own.
James Lassiter. Worth silently tested the name. And was surprised by how right it sounded. He smiled slightly as Jamie pulled one hand free of Elizabeth’s hold and kept toddling toward Hannah.
Worth switched his gaze to Jamie’s mother. Her silky dress molded her lovely shape in a way that made him hope she’d let him into her bed before they tied the knot.
They wouldn’t have love, but they’d have passion.
A couple of wide-eyed tourists, guide book in hand, peeked into the ballroom, and Worth gestured to them to come in, pointing them toward the champagne. Thomas would have made sure there was plenty to serve the hotel guests and tourists who wandered in off the street. That was the price of having a wedding reception in St. Chris’s historic ballroom. The family was used to it. Even Elizabeth was smiling graciously at an uninvited male.
Recognizing that particular male, Worth’s tolerance vanished and he straightened fast.
“This must be Lawrence, Jr. He’s a fine-looking boy.”
Elizabeth’s head whipped around at the familiar voice. Professor Burns might be talking about her son, but his eyes went directly to her chest. She quickly lifted Jamie and stood up straight. “His name is James Lawrence. I call him Jamie.”
“You look more like your usual self than you did in that rather provocative dress you wore the other night, my dear.” Equal parts disapproval and disappointment filled his voice.
Elizabeth clamped her back teeth together.
Her silence failed to register on his self-absorbed ego. He waved a careless hand. “My friends insisted I postpone my leave-taking.” A sudden frown creased his head. “Here comes that…” His face cleared. “Give him your child, so we can take advantage of this lovely music, my dear.”
Jamie started bouncing excitedly in her arms, chattering at someone behind her. Elizabeth didn’t need to look to know who stood there.
Worth took Jamie from her. “Hey, Gus, what’s happening?”
Augustine Burns gave him an imperial nod before turning to Elizabeth. “I believe this is my dance, my dear.”
Elizabeth plastered her hand across Worth’s mouth as he opened it. “I’ll handle this.” She turned to the professor. “I am not your dear, Professor Burns, and I will never be your dear.”
“My d—that is, Elizabeth, I apologize if you think I’m being overly familiar. I’m merely trying to do what Lawrence would want me to do now that he has passed. He wouldn’t want you worrying your pretty little head when I am perfectly willing to do what I can to take care of all your little problems. You need a man to lean on with Lawrence gone, and I’m volunteering to be that man.”
His condescending remarks rendered her momentarily speechless.
She’d removed her hand from Worth’s mouth, and he took advantage of her stunned silence. “Elizabeth does not want or need your help. She has me to lean on and solve her problems.” Jamie had fallen asleep in his arms, and Worth slid his free hand possessively over her hips and then he actually had the audacity to squeeze her bottom.
She knew exactly what he was doing. Because he didn’t think she was capable of handling Professor Burns, Worth Lassiter once again had jumped on his white horse and galloped to her rescue. She was sick and tired of being his pet charity.
Augustine Burns’ eyes stared in amazement at Worth’s hand.
They were both imbeciles.
She started with Augustine Burns. “I’m going to say this just once, Professor Burns. I didn’t like you when Lawrence was alive, and I don’t like you any better now that he’s dead. I’m offended by the way you look at me, and I don’t like your sexist, patronizing remarks. If you so much as speak to me again, I’ll be forced to complain to the head of your department.”
The professor turned bright red and swelled up indignantly. His mouth flapped ineffectually for a second, then he turned on his heel and practically scuttled away.
Worth chuckled.
Elizabeth’s wrathful gaze swung around to him. On the brink of telling him to follow the professor right out of her life, she caught herself. Telling him to go away wasn’t punishment. What punished Worth Lassiter was the thought of marriage. To her. He deserved to sweat it out a little bit longer.
She pushed away his warm hand and told herself a sudden draft caused the chill on her hip. “When I first came here, remember how you threatened to blackmail me if I didn’t do what you wanted me to do?”
His face went very still. “I remember a discussion of some sort. I wouldn’t have said anything to your father. You told me yourself my sisters told you I’m a lousy blackmailer.”
“I, on the other hand, am a very good blackmailer.” She gave him an icy smile. “Now that the situation has reversed.” Playing with his tie, she batted her eyes at him. “Russ is kind of an old-fashioned daddy and I don’t think he’d like it if you backed out of marrying me after having had your way with me, do you?”
“I’m not going to back out.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “What are you planning to blackmail me about?”
“Well, it’s like this, cowboy. Now that I have you trapped, I don’t need to bait the trap anymore.” With a sudden move, she jammed the knot of his tie up against his throat. “Keep your nose out of my business and your hands off of me.”
She whirled around and ran smack into Thomas Steele. The amused look on his face suggested he’d heard at least part of their conversation. Knowing there was no way to explain it, Elizabeth fled.
Worth loosened his tie and contemplated causing mayhem at his mother’s wedding reception. Squeezing Elizabeth’s hip might have been a mistake. She defined the word flounce, he decided, watching her toss her hips in an unmistakable display of temper.
Thomas cleared his throat, drawing Worth’s attention. “You know what I’m reminded of?”
“No, and I don’t want to know,” Worth warned his brother-in-law.
“Something you said to me once.” Thomas didn’t bother to hide the laughter in his eyes. “You have certainly stepped in it this time.”
“Shut up,” Worth snarled. He was halfway across the ballroom before he realized Jamie still slept in his arms. Judging by the angry, defensive look on Jamie’s mother’s face as she zoomed back across the room, Worth wasn’t the only one who’d forgotten he held her son.
“Give him to me. I’m taking him up to bed.”
She’d insisted on staying at St. Chris’s tonight. More proof that she had no intention of marrying him.
“I’ll take him up.”
“I can manage on my own,” she snapped.
“I need the practice.”
“I doubt you need practice doing anything.”
He needed practice handling redheads, but he knew he’d get plenty of that during the next fifty years or so of marriage. The feeling of sick disappointment which had accompanied the thought of marriage earlier today seemed to have faded. Proving a man could adjust to anything if he had to.
Glaring at him, Elizabeth waited for him to hand Jamie to her. Holding the boy securely, he headed out of the ballroom.
She caught up with him at the elevator. “If you think I’m going to let you start in where you left off this morning, you have another think coming.”
He couldn’t help teasing her. “Ah, now I see why you think I don’t need any practice. You did give the impression that you were happy with my performance this mor
ning.”
Her cheeks immediately lit up with a fiery blush. “That is not what I meant. I meant you are so arrogant that you don’t think you need to practice anything.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” He pushed the button to call the elevator. “I need to practice putting my son to bed.”
If he’d questioned her intentions before, the white, stricken look on Elizabeth’s face told the truth. More than anything, she regretted Jamie had no father. She’d just realized that by refusing to marry Worth, she was depriving her son of a father.
Worth jabbed the elevator button again. “And then you can practice taking my clothes off.”
CHAPTER TEN
ELIZABETH stared fixedly at the inside of the wood-paneled elevator. She knew darned well her cheeks matched the red in the plaid golf slacks worn by the gentleman who’d joined them in time to hear Worth’s outrageous remark.
“Cute kid,” the man said to Worth. “Seems like only yesterday my son was that age and now he’s a doctor.”
Elizabeth heard the pride in the man’s voice and blocked out the rest of the conversation. It would be easy to accept Worth’s sacrifice. And not totally selfish. Not if she married him for Jamie’s sake. A boy needed a father. Her knowledge of football barely covered the basics, and she’d never memorized a baseball statistic in her life.
Worth had called Jamie his son.
He’d make a great father. He and Jamie went together like strawberries and shortcake.
She loved strawberries and shortcake.
The elevator stopped and the metal gate folded open. If she tried to wrest Jamie from Worth, he’d just embarrass her again.
Unlocking the door, Elizabeth stood back to let Worth enter. Silently she unpacked a sleeper for Jamie. Her son woke up as Worth changed him, sucked sleepily on his bottle, gave a loud burp as Worth patted his back, and was asleep again before his head touched the sheets in the baby bed.
Worth pulled a small blanket over Jamie and followed Elizabeth out to the sitting room of the suite Thomas had insisted on installing her in. Sprawling on the sofa, he undid his suit jacket and unfastened his tie, leaving the ends hanging down his shirt front. Like a man who planned to stay awhile.
