Caught Between an Oops and a Hard Body (Caught Between series Book 2)

by Seabrook, Sheila

She swept her skirt out of the way, as though she couldn’t bear the thought of him touching her, and lifted her chin into the air. “It was cute when Dane called me Mrs. G. It was even cute the first few times you did too. But now that I know the truth about you—”

  Stone halted, a frown creasing his forehead. “Excuse me?”

  “A divorce lawyer. For shame.” Her mom swept past him, yanking the edge of her skirt aside as though she couldn’t bear for him to touch her, or as though he’d suddenly developed the cooties. “I suppose you’re against marriage too. You know Stephanie is a wedding planner. She’s devoted to her career, and she’s single because she never has time to date. And when she does, she has horrible taste in men.”

  Success. Finally, her mom would get off her back.

  Stephanie wanted to pump her fist in the air, but as she lifted her gaze from her mom’s departing figure, and focused on Stone, she noticed the stunned expression on his face.

  He turned to her, hurt lingering in his gaze. “What was that all about?”

  She swallowed a bubble of guilt and reminded herself that he didn’t feel anything. He was a destroyer of relationships. What did it matter if Dora hated him? He wasn’t in her life for the long term.

  Except that he was the father of her baby and she was only beginning to understand that he wasn’t one of those guys who would eventually fade out of their lives.

  “I—uh—just told Mom that you were a divorce lawyer.” As the front door closed with a bang and understanding lit Stone’s gaze, the bubble of guilt grew larger. Now she felt awful. She closed her hands into fists and forced an apology between her stiff lips. “I’m sorry. I was tired of her poking me about marriage and you were the one who told me to do it. You said just tell her I’m a divorce lawyer.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “I did, didn’t I.”

  She shuffled her feet and clutched her hands together over her heart where it ached. “I’m sorry. I snapped, okay? I told her the one thing that I knew would get her off my back.”

  The hurt vanished from his gaze and a smile lit his eyes. He closed the distance between them, splayed one hand across her abdomen, and peered deep into her eyes. “Never mind. She’s not the first marriage minded mama who’s been put off by my profession. And if it means the mother of my child is happier, then I can handle your mom disliking me. Hey, I’m already used to it from your dad.”

  At the gentleness of his touch, Stephanie’s guilt doubled.

  Because she suddenly realized that she liked this man.

  A lot.

  Now, all she had to do was figure out a way to make up for her bad judgement and selfishness.

  And as she raised her gaze to his handsome face, and remembered how they connected in bed, she followed her instincts and wound her arms around his neck.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Stone recognized the wicked glint in Stephanie’s eyes a split second before she slid her hand up his shirtfront and around to the back of his neck. Before she sidetracked him with sex—which unfortunately would be far too easy—he decided it was time to figure out what made the mother of his child so wary of marriage.

  Because he wasn’t done with popping the question. For as long as it took, he’d keep finding new ways to convince her to marry him, until she finally said yes.

  All for their child, of course. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he liked her so much. Hell, that he found himself obsessed with this woman who’d wormed her way into his heart and his future.

  He caught her wrist, pulled her arm from around his neck, and pressed her hands against his chest. “Tell me your story.”

  Confusion tumbled through her liquid gaze, and as she slid her hands free of his hold, he sensed her withdrawal. “My story?”

  “Yeah. I want to know why you’re a wedding planner who’s soured against marriage.”

  One delicate eyebrow quirked up, and an impish grin turned up the corners of her delectable mouth. “If I show you mine, will you show me yours?”

  He couldn’t help himself, he laughed. “You’re naughty.”

  Now she waggled both eyebrows at him, and as the heat of her palms pressing against his shirtfront filtered through the material to his chest, she made another attempt to slide her arms around his neck. “Maybe I need to be spanked.”

  With another laugh, he dragged her arms from around his neck and stepped back to put some space between them. “We’ll get to your fantasies later. I promise.”

  She inched one foot closer. “How much later? Because my mom will be back. That’s a one-hundred percent guarantee. And when she comes back—”

  “When she comes back, she’ll find you sitting over there.” He pointed to the armchair near the front window. “And I’ll be a respectable distance away.”

  Her bottom lip protruded and she swept a glance down his body. “I liked you better when you were bad. Respectable is so…boring.”

  “Had I been respectable in the first place, neither of us would be in this situation,” he reminded her.

  “Fine.” She threw herself down on the armchair, her hands between her knees, her lower legs in a knock-kneed position. She looked so much like a sulking teenager, he wanted to laugh some more. “What do you want to know?”

  “Let’s start with why you don’t want to get married.”

  “If you’re hoping to find something that changes my mind, you’re going to be disappointed.”

  Biting back a smile, he sat on the armchair across from her. “I’ll take my chances.”

  With another baleful look in his direction, she slumped against the back of the chair. “I’m adopted. Mandy and I both are.”

  He stayed silent, giving her a chance to speak without interruption. But there was a well of hurt in her beautiful eyes, hurt that she’d covered well till now.

  “Our mother—” Her gaze slid from his face to her fingernails and she started picking at a cuticle. “Do we have to talk about this now?”

  He leaned back in the armchair and forced the tension from his shoulders. “I have nothing better to do.”

  “Well I do,” she muttered. “There’s still a hundred tiny details to sort out before tomorrow night’s party and Liz’s wedding.”

  Calmly, he said, “Start talking.”

  Her bottom lip curled into a cute pout. “I’d rather talk about your family.”

  “No you wouldn’t.”

  “Yes, I would.” She gave him a baleful look. “Fine. My mother is Diana Goodwin-Vaughan-Abercrombie-Style-Vail-Peterson-Miller-Voss.” After a moment of silence, she said in the driest voice possible, “Need I go on?”

  Stone blinked, confused and absolutely speechless.

  She crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her full breasts up so they almost overflowed the rounded edge of her sweater, distracting him momentarily from their conversation. But when she slouched down on the armchair like a discarded rag doll, desire morphed into pity.

  She sighed. “Diana is Tom’s younger sister. She tried to take care of Mandy and me, but she was young, unmarried, and clueless about children. One day, she dropped us off for a visit with Tom and Dora, and she never came back. I suppose they eventually tracked her down, and since they couldn’t have children of their own, they adopted us and made us theirs.”

  He stroked his chin and watched her. “That must have been rough.”

  “Not really.” She stared back at him. “Tom and Dora made the transition easy. They both have so much love in their hearts, and Mandy and I were very young. It didn’t take long for us to forget that they weren’t our biological parents.”

  “So what happened to sour you against marriage?”

  “When I was thirteen, Diana reappeared.” Her gaze shifted to the wall behind him, a faraway look in her eyes. “I’m not sure how many times she’d been married and divorced by then, but this time she needed children to convince the man she wanted to marry that she was maternal.”

  There was a heartbeat of silen
ce before the distant light in her eyes grew hard and she met his gaze. “Thirteen is such an impressionable age. I was fascinated by her. She was beautiful and elegant, and full of light and life. I stayed with her that summer. Poor Dora was beside herself with worry. When Diana asked me to help her plan her wedding, I said yes.”

  “That’s how you became a wedding planner?”

  “Dora always tells people that I inherited my organizational skills from her, but since we don’t share the same blood, I’m afraid she’s delusional.” She released a heavy sigh. “I’d grown up watching the Eternally Yours show with Mom—I mean, Dora. Every day after school, we’d sit on the couch and ooh and ah over the gorgeous princess gowns.” She shrugged. “It turns out I was so good at planning Diana’s wedding, I got the joy of planning each one after that. And then, because she treated me like a best friend instead of her impressionable daughter, I got to listen to her cry every time one of her marriages crumbled.”

  He had this vivid image of the young girl she must have been, trying so hard to be the grownup, while the woman who should have cared for her fell apart in front of her. “I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged and forced a smile, withdrawing her hand from his. “Well, enough of that already. In a nutshell, my experience with Diana taught me that I’m more in love with the wedding preparations than I am with the thought of being tied to one guy forever. Which of course pisses Dora off. Now I give the bride a day she can cherish forever, or at least till the honeymoon is over.”

  As she pushed to her feet, he followed her up. “Not every marriage ends in divorce.”

  “No, it doesn’t, but why take the chance of all that disappointment and heartbreak?” Her smile faded. “Tom, of course, always says there are a thousand-and-one men out there who are right for me, and I need to keep looking until I find the one.”

  He chuckled. “No wonder he doesn’t like me. He’s still looking for the perfect man to give his daughter to…which of course we both know there will never be a perfect man. Continue.”

  She starred at him, her gaze thoughtful. “See, that’s the part I could never figure out. How do you know when someone is the one?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve seen enough heartbreak to last me a lifetime, and yet there are couples out there who have found the right fit. Like your mom and dad, Mandy and Dane.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, which pushed up her breasts and momentarily distracted him from her expressive features. Then he felt a tap on his chin.

  “Eyes up here, buster.”

  “Sorry. You have some irresistible qualities.”

  She got this far away look in her eyes and he wondered who she was thinking of. “I almost got married once. I was twenty-two, old enough to know better, but still too stupid to care. I was in love with the wedding preparations and ceremony, and the Cinderella promise of happily ever after. And so I fell in lust, head over heels in passion, and mistook it for love.” She sighed and met his gaze. “Kind of like with you. By the time the glow had worn off and I realized I couldn’t spend the rest of my life with him, it was too late. The wedding guests were gathering in the church, and my dad was waiting to walk me up the aisle.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Run.”

  He smiled down at her and took her hands in his. “Maybe he wasn’t the right guy.”

  She raised her gaze to his face. “And you think you might be?”

  “Maybe.” He shrugged his shoulders. “How long have your mom and dad been married?”

  “Almost forty years. I think they’ve stayed together out of sheer stubbornness. Although it appears the stubbornness might be wearing thin.”

  “I noticed they’ve been a little snippy with each other, but I’m sure they’ll work it out.”

  Her voice softened and as she sighed, the sound that went straight to the core of him. “The bottom line is that I’m too selfish for a couple.”

  He’d watched her sacrifice everything for her family. “I don’t think that’s true. I think you’re one of the least selfish people I know.”

  She stared at him for a moment, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. “And I—uh—in case you didn’t notice, I take after my birth mother. I don’t have a maternal bone in my body. You should be really worried that I’m going to be the mother of your child.”

  “I would be, except that I’ve seen the way you dealt with my sister and mother. If you can do that without losing your cool, a baby will be a piece of cake.”

  Something else flashed through her gaze, and for a moment he thought she was going to deny his statement. But then she waggled her brows and grinned. “Now that I’ve spilled my guts and my past, you owe me a little naughty. Or we can keep talking. Your choice.”

  He had her in his arms and his mouth on hers in less time that it took to draw his next breath.

  Unfortunately, her cell phone buzzed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The tap of Stephanie’s heels echoed along the otherwise silent hallway leading to the fitting room. She smothered a yawn and wished for a nap instead of the fitting that should have been finished yesterday. Maybe she’d have a nap during the fitting.

  Okay, so pregnancy didn’t exactly agree with her…and neither did a one way trip to heartbreak hotel.

  What was she going to do about Stone? Every time she thought she’d erected enough barricades to keep him at a distance, he somehow weaseled his way through. Heck, if her phone hadn’t buzzed, she would have been naked in bed with the father of her child right now.

  Which maybe wouldn’t be such a bad thing, especially if she could have a nap afterward.

  Except she knew he wasn’t done with the marriage idea. He was just biding his time, trying to figure her out, but she was determined to keep him at arms’s length.

  Only she was doing a really horrible job of it.

  As she turned the corner and entered the fitting room, she cleared her thoughts of the troublesome male who haunted her every other waking moment, and looked around. The seamstress had her back to her and was packing up her case. Liz was nowhere in sight. “Did I miss the fitting?”

  The seamstress whirled around, her face pinched and angry. “You and Liz both. My time is valuable. I refuse to stand around and wait for the prima donna bride to appear. I have another appointment in town.”

  Shocked by the attack, Stephanie stepped back out of reach and stared. “What do you mean Liz didn’t show? Where is she?”

  With a shrug, the other woman turned her back on her again and continued to pack her things. “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

  The blood red gown with the entrails sewn into the lace was nowhere in sight. Instead a gorgeous white wedding gown fit for a princess hung on the rack. “Where is Liz’s gown.”

  With a jut of her chin, the seamstress indicated the gown. “Liz called me last night. Said she’d changed her mind. Asked me to bring by the original dress she’d tried on.”

  Stephanie fingered the lace. “It’s gorgeous.”

  “And yet, the bride didn’t show up for her fitting. Well, she’ll have to make do with her original choice. Ugly as it is, it won’t matter that it doesn’t fit properly.”

  “Wait.” Stephanie whirled around and grabbed the seamstress’s arm. “The wedding is in two days. If that’s the gown Liz wants, then she needs to have it altered. Please. I’ll find Liz right now and get her down here.”

  “You have five minutes.” She glared down at the hand on her arm until Stephanie clued in and released her. Then the other woman tapped the face of her watch. “The clock is ticking.”

  Stephanie pulled her cell out of her pocket and made tracks for the entryway. She was thankful now that Stone had put his number into her cell. Except when he heard about Liz’s absence, he was so going to gloat and point out that his younger sister was irresponsible, impulsive, and not ready to get married.

  And whether or not she agreed with him—and just for the record, she
totally did, which was beginning to make her feel bad for plowing full steam ahead—she had a wedding to plan and a bride to find.

  A moment later, Stone's smooth voice came through the connection. “Miss me already?”

  She heard the smile in his voice and ignored it along with the pleasure unfolding in her chest. “We have a problem.”

  “You’ve fallen deeply, madly in love with me, and now you regret turning down my marriage proposal.”

  Okay, that stopped her, because on some level, he might be right.

  As panic set in, she shook away the thought. “Liz is missing.”

  “Missing? As in you found a letter from a kidnapper?”

  “No, missing as in she didn’t show up for the fitting.” Before he could gloat and say I told you so, she rushed on. “Liz decided to go with a different gown, so it has to be fitted. The seamstress is high strung, very temperamental. She doesn’t like to be kept waiting so you have to find your sister or there won’t be any dress alterations. And then she’ll have to wear that horrible red zombie dress.”

  “Okay, okay, take it easy, sweetheart.” Stone's soothing voice came across the connection. “The stress is no good for you or my son.”

  “Son?” She straightened up, startled, and looked around to make sure no one could overhear. “What if it’s a girl?”

  “I don’t care what our baby is, as long as both him—”

  “Her.”

  “—and his mother are happy and healthy. Speaking of which, come back here and we’ll have a nap together.”

  “Right, if I lie down with you, there won’t be any napping.” Sorely tempted, she huffed out a sigh and refocused. “So you’ll find your sister?”

  “Yes, because you asked so sweetly.”

  “You have five minutes. Call me the moment you find her.”

  Before he could say another word, she clicked off the phone and raced back into the room, nearly tripping over a loose rug in her haste to make tracks. She caught her balance at the last moment and forced herself to slow down. Way slow, because she didn’t want to hurt the baby.