To Take a Chance

by Rochelle Alers

  “Call him, Tricia. Now.” Sheldon could barely control his annoyance. The farm’s on-call physician was paid a generous retainer to come at a moment’s notice.

  Jeremy was more than familiar with his father’s explosive temper. He had challenged him countless times as an adolescent, and had always come up the loser.

  “I’ll call the doctor, Pop.” Turning on his heels, Jeremy walked out of Renee’s bedroom.

  Tricia, more than anxious to follow her husband, said, “Make certain she drinks lots of water to avoid dehydration. I’ll wait downstairs for Dr. Gibson.”

  * * *

  Renee lost track of time, but she remembered hearing the doctor tell Sheldon she had contracted a virus, and with bed rest, a light diet and plenty of fluids she should feel better in three to five days.

  She slept for hours, waking to find Sheldon hovering over her while urging her to drink from the glass he held to her lips. Milk and blended fruity concoctions were added; these she sipped through a straw. What she did not remember was Sheldon washing her body as if she were a small, helpless child. Early one morning she woke up to find him asleep on the chair in the sitting room.

  * * *

  Renee sat up in bed Tuesday afternoon alert and ravenous. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn’t wearing a nightgown, but a man’s T-shirt; the second was the woman coming out of the bathroom with a pail filled with cleaning supplies. Even though she’d met Claire Garrett at the pre-race party, she’d only seen the housekeeper once before. She heard the hum of her vacuum cleaner, but failed to catch a glimpse of the tall elusive woman.

  The third thing she noticed was the most shocking: her stomach. She’d lost her waistline the month before, leaving her belly slightly rounded; however, now it protruded above her pelvis.

  Claire smiled, her bright green eyes sparkling like emeralds. “I’ll let Sheldon know you’re up.”

  “Thank you.” The two words came out in a low husky tone. Her throat no longer hurt, but whatever she’d picked up had affected her vocal cords.

  Renee returned Claire’s smile as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her feet touched the cool bare floor and she shivered. It wasn’t even winter and she felt cold. It probably would take her some time to get used to the change of seasons.

  Walking into the bathroom, she filled the tub with water, added a capful of bath salts, the scent of vanilla wafting in the air. She brushed her teeth, rinsed her mouth with a mint-flavored mouthwash and washed her face, then stepped into the tub. Sighing, she rested her head on a bath pillow and closed her eyes.

  “Do you need me to wash your back?”

  Sitting up and splashing water over the sides of tub, Renee spied Sheldon lounging in the doorway, smiling broadly. A swath of heat cut a path from her face to her toes.

  “No…no thank you.”

  Sheldon could not move, not even to breathe. The sight of her full breasts and the timbre of her husky voice rendered him temporarily paralyzed. The increasing heaviness between his thighs was akin to pain, a pain he did not want to go away.

  “Does your throat still hurt?”

  Sinking lower in the water, she shook her head. “No. But I sound like a foghorn.”

  He fixed his stare on her dewy face, smiling. “All foghorns should sound so sexy.”

  Sheldon knew he had to leave the bathroom now, or he would strip off his clothes and join Renee in the bathtub. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

  He knew his feelings for the woman living under his roof were intensifying with every minute he remained in her presence. Sitting and watching Renee sleep while he waited for her body to heal had taken him back twenty years. Then he’d sat by another woman’s bedside, waiting and watching her die. While the events in his life had changed in two decades, he hadn’t—not until now.

  In the past, he’d slept with other women because of sexual frustration. However, it was different with Renee because he did not need her as much as he wanted her. A wry smile tilted the corners of his mouth. It was time he opened himself to accept whatever life offered.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Is this your first one?”

  Sheldon pulled his gaze away from The Washington Post and looked at the red-haired man sitting on his right. A slight frown furrowed his smooth forehead. “First what?”

  “Baby?”

  His frown vanished. “No.”

  “Which one is it?”

  As promised, Sheldon had accompanied Renee to her obstetrician the following week.

  “This one will be the tenth,” Sheldon replied, deadpan.

  The man’s face paled, leaving a sprinkling of freckles over his nose and cheeks before a bright pink flush eased its way up from his neck to forehead. “You’re kiddin’, dude?”

  Nodding and hoping not to burst into laughter, Sheldon continued the charade. “Nope. I have nine sons. We keep trying because we’re hoping for a girl.”

  “Holy…” The redhead’s words trailed off.

  Sheldon went back to reading his newspaper.

  Renee walked into the waiting room at the same time he finished reading the business section. He placed the newspaper on a coffee table and rose to his feet. Her dimpled smile was as bright as a spotlight.

  When she had come to Blackstone Farms he never would have suspected she was carrying a baby. Now three weeks later, a hint of a belly was apparent under her khaki-colored tunic.

  He closed the distance between them, putting an arm around her waist. “How are you?”

  She snuggled closer to his side, her arms circling his waist. “Wonderful. It’s a girl!”

  Lowering his head, Sheldon pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Congratulations.”

  The moment she had informed him she was pregnant and intended to raise her child alone he’d hoped for a girl. He’d been a single father, and there were times when his teenage sons tested the limits of his patience and sanity.

  He’d found girls quieter, less aggressive than boys. The difference between his three-month-old grand-daughter Vivienne and Sean at the same age was like night and day. Vivienne was content to coo and play with her fingers and toes, while Sean had demanded to be picked up whenever he wasn’t sleeping.

  “When’s your next appointment?”

  “A month from now.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “I’m fine, Sheldon. Let’s get out of here,” Renee said quietly. Seeing some of the women in their last days of confinement was a blatant indicator of what awaited her.

  Sheldon escorted Renee through the waiting area, stopping only to tap the inquisitive man on his shoulder. “We can stop now. It’s a girl.”

  He glared up at Sheldon. “What if it was going to be another boy?”

  Leaning closer, his gray eyes giving off sparks like streaks of lightning, Sheldon bared his straight white teeth. “Then I’d keep trying, dude.”

  Waiting until they were out in the parking lot, Renee placed a hand on Sheldon’s arm. “Did I miss something back in the doctor’s office?”

  Sheldon opened the pickup’s passenger-side door. “He asked me how many children I had and I told him nine.” He bit back a smile when Renee’s delicate jaw dropped. “I said we were going to keep trying until we got a girl.”

  Resting her hands on his chest, Renee shook her head. “You’re bad, Sheldon Blackstone.”

  He moved closer, trapping her between his body and the truck’s door. “How bad, princess?”

  Tilting her chin, she stared up at him through her lashes. “Very, very bad, your highness.”

  Sheldon dipped his head. “Is that a good bad or a bad bad?”

  Closing her eyes against his intense stare, she shook her head. “I don’t know.” The sultry hoarseness in her voice floated around them like a low, lingering fog.

  “What would I have to do to help you make up your mind?”

  Renee opened her eyes. “I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

  Without warning, she
found herself swept up in a strong embrace and seated in the truck. She did not have time to catch her breath when Sheldon got in beside her, put the vehicle in gear and drove out of the parking lot.

  “Where are you going?” Renee asked as Sheldon parked the truck behind a gourmet shop.

  Leaning over, he kissed her cheek. “How would you like to share a late afternoon picnic dinner with me?”

  She ran the tip of her tongue over her lower lip, drawing his gaze to linger there. “Where?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Front porch, back porch, your bedroom or mine. It’s your call.”

  Renee thought of his choices, then said, “How about outdoors?” The early frost had come and gone, and the Indian summer temperatures topped out in the low seventies during the daytime hours.

  Sheldon regarded Renee for a minute. She was totally unpredictable, a trait he liked because he knew she would never bore him. “Outdoors it is.”

  * * *

  Renee lay on a blanket in the same spot where she’d lain with Sheldon on Halloween. They sampled the most delectable foods, emptied a bottle of sparkling water, then fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  The sun had begun its descent and the air had cooled considerably when she stirred, her face pressed to Sheldon’s solid chest, one leg sandwiched between his.

  “Sheldon?”

  He opened his eyes at her sultry query. “Yes, baby?”

  “I want you to be bad.”

  There was a pulse beat of silence. “How bad?”

  There came another pause. “Naughty.”

  Cradling her body with one arm, Sheldon rolled Renee over on her back. “Here?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “I can’t protect you, because I didn’t bring any condoms with me.”

  Renee giggled like a little girl. “It’s too late for that, Sheldon. Remember, I’m already pregnant.”

  She was pregnant and he was disease-free. He had used a condom with her the first time because he didn’t want Renee to think he was cavalier when it came to sleeping with women.

  Sitting back on his heels, he reached down and pulled off his waffle-knit pullover. His gaze fused and locked with Renee’s as he removed boots, jeans and boxers. He followed her gaze as it moved downward.

  The first time they’d made love it had been in the silvered glow of a full moon, and now it was in the fading shadows of the setting sun. He had tasted and touched her like a sightless man, but this time everything she claimed would be presented for his viewing.

  A cool breeze rustled the leaves on an overhead tree, leaves falling and littering the blanket like colorful confetti. Shifting, Sheldon removed Renee’s shoes and striped trouser socks. He unbuttoned her tunic, his breath catching in his chest. Leaning over, he pressed a kiss to her distended belly.

  “You’re beautiful, princess.”

  Renee closed her eyes. “I’m fat, Sheldon.”

  Reaching for her hand, he placed it over her stomach. “You’re filled with life, darling. Don’t you realize how special that is?”

  She opened her eyes, seeing unspoken pain glowing in his eyes and recalling the loved ones he’d buried. “Yes.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “This baby is special.”

  He removed her tunic, bra and panties with a skill and familiarity indicating he had performed the action innumerable times.

  Renee did not have time to ponder his statement when she found herself naked to his penetrating gaze. Extending her arms, she welcomed Sheldon into her embrace. She did not feel the full effect of his comforting weight because he’d supported it on his arms.

  Under a darkening autumn sky with all of nature as their audience, they began a dance of desire that needed no dress rehearsal.

  His eyes smoldering with liquid fire, Sheldon feasted on the woman who made him look forward to the next day, the woman who made him laugh without trying to be funny and the woman who made him want to be inside her every day, hour, minute, second.

  He brushed featherlike kisses around her mouth. Her lips parted of their own volition, and his tongue entwined with hers like pieces of molten steel. He did not kiss her mouth, but devoured it before moving down to the scented column of her neck, lingering at the base of her throat.

  Traveling southward, he tasted one breast, then the other. She gasped as if in pain and rose off the blanket when his teeth closed on a nipple, worrying it gently before giving the other equal attention.

  Renee was mindless with the divine ecstasy wrung from her. The pulsing between her legs thrummed faster, harder, and she was afraid it would be over before he claimed her body. She reached for his hair, fingers tightening in the heavy strands.

  “Please do it, Sheldon,” she begged hoarsely. “Take me, now!”

  He complied, easing his sex into her warm, pulsing flesh. The turbulence of her passion swept Sheldon up in a flood tide of the hottest fire, clouding his brain. He was lost in the flames threatening to devour not just a part of him, but all that he was and he had hoped to become.

  Then it came upon him like the whispered feet of a cat out of the darkness of the night. Feelings, emotions, sensations he had locked away when he’d buried Julia surfaced. The love he’d had for one woman, the love he was unable to offer another, trickled through the chasm in his heart, bursting forth, rushing and sweeping him up in its turbulent wake of realization as he surrendered all to the woman in his arms.

  Renee welcomed the powerful thrusts, meeting each one with her own. Her hands were everywhere: in his hair, trembling over his broad shoulders, tunneling through the thick mat of hair on his chest. She wanted to yield to the burning sweetness that held her prisoner, but knew it was only a matter of seconds before she was forced to surrender to the raging passion lifting her higher and higher until she floated beyond herself. Her breath came in long, surrendering moans, and she gave in to the ecstasy.

  The sounds escaping Renee’s parted lips became Sheldon’s undoing. Lowering his head, he growled in her ear as the explosions erupted in his lower body. The aftermath left him gasping and fighting for his next breath. It was a full two minutes before he was able to move, collapsing heavily to the blanket.

  Renee rolled over on her side and rested her head on his shoulder. He pulled her close, offering his body’s heat. “Don’t go to sleep on me, darling,” he whispered in her hair.

  “I can’t move.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  Renee lay motionless while Sheldon pulled on his clothes, then dressed her. During the short ride to the house, she managed to doze off. It wasn’t until hours later that she remembered sharing a shower with Sheldon and his request to share her bed.

  * * *

  Around three o’clock she woke up and made her way downstairs for a glass of milk. She returned to the bedroom, finding Sheldon sitting up and waiting for her. There was no mistaking the concern in his gaze.

  “Are you all right?”

  Renee got into bed, straddled his lap, wiggling until she found a comfortable position. “I just went down to get a glass of milk.”

  “You shouldn’t do that,” he crooned in her ear.

  “Do what?”

  “Sit on me.”

  A sensual smile touched her mouth. “And why not?”

  “Because you’ll find yourself on your back and me inside you…”

  Her explosive kiss cut off his words. It was her turn to gasp as Sheldon gathered the hem of her nightgown, pushing it above her waist. He lifted her with one arm and joined their bodies, making them one.

  Instinctively, her body arched toward him. The crisp chest hair teased and tantalized her sensitive nipples and she welcomed the erotic sensation. Writhing, she moved closer, rocking up and down, back and forth over his hardness. Why, she asked herself as she came down to meet Sheldon in a moment of uncontrolled passion, couldn’t she get enough of him? What spell had he cast over her that made her temporarily forget everything—even her name?

  Sated, she collapsed against
Sheldon, her lower lip trembling from the ebbing raw sensuality coursing through her. She did not know if the increase in her libido was from her being pregnant or from the realization that she was falling in love with Sheldon Blackstone.

  * * *

  In the six weeks Renee lived at Blackstone Farms, she had changed. The most apparent change was her body. Anyone who saw her knew she was carrying a child, and despite Sheldon’s reassurance that he found her more beautiful than when she’d first come to the farm, there were times when she felt clumsy and misshapen.

  Since they’d begun sleeping together it was always in her bed, because despite their intimacy she felt something was missing in their relationship. Each time she opened her arms to Sheldon the love she felt for him deepened. Each time he brought her to the pinnacle of desire she feared blurting out how much she had come to love him.

  She had asked Sheldon for friendship, a confidant; his proposition included companionship and a promise to protect her and her child. Falling in love was not a part of their agreement—that went beyond business.

  * * *

  Late the next afternoon Renee mounted the porch, opened the door and walked into the main house. Heat greeted her as she went through the entryway and up the staircase.

  The door to Sheldon’s bedroom was slightly ajar and she heard him singing loudly. A knowing smile softened Renee’s vermilion-colored lips as she walked to her bedroom. At first she’d found it odd that although she and Sheldon lived together, they rarely encountered each other during the day. It was only at night whenever Sean did not come for a sleepover with his grandfather that they slept together.

  A strapless periwinkle-blue silk gown with an empire waist and slip lay across the bed; the matching quilted jacket hung from a padded hanger in the armoire.

  Twenty minutes later Renee slipped her feet into a pair of sapphire-blue silk heels and walked over to the full-length mirror on the door of armoire. She did not recognize the woman staring back at her. Her hair had been pulled off her face and pinned into a chignon at the back of her head. The style was sophisticated without being too severe.