Hired Bride

by Jackie Merritt

  Before she got home, her mood turned sad and melancholy. She could not see Zane again, not in any capacity. He was a dangerous man for a woman like her to be fooling around with. It would probably be best if she broke all ties with him by phoning Heather and telling her that Help-Mate was cutting back on clients, or some such story. Any lie would do, as long as it completely eliminated further contact with Zane.

  Tears began seeping down her cheeks, and she angrily dashed them away. Dammit, she was not going to cry over Zane Fortune, she wasn’t! Surely she wasn’t that big a fool.

  At her house she paid the cab driver and went inside. Mrs. Blake looked surprised. “You’re home early.”

  Gwen dug into her purse for money. “A little,” she murmured.

  “Your mother called,” Mrs. Blake said as she accepted her pay.

  “Did she want me to call her back when I got home?”

  “No, she said she would phone again tomorrow.” Mrs. Blake smiled. “She seemed very pleased to hear you had a date.”

  Gwen’s heart sank. “She didn’t happen to ask who I went out with, did she?”

  “As a matter of fact, she did.”

  “And you told her?”

  Mrs. Blake instantly looked worried. “Shouldn’t I have? Oh, Gwen, I’m sorry if I spoke out of turn.”

  “It’s all right,” Gwen said to reassure the older woman, even though she wished with all her heart that Zane’s name had not come up. Her parents were wonderful people, but they had been extremely protective of her and their grandchildren since Paul’s death. They were not apt to approve of her dating a man with Zane’s reputation.

  Sighing, she walked the woman to the front door and let her out. “Good night, Mrs. Blake. Thanks for baby-sitting.”

  “Just let me know if you ever need me again, Gwen.”

  “Thank you, I will.”

  After Mrs. Blake had gone, Gwen turned out all the lights and sat in her dark living room. She knew that she should never think of that incident in the theater again, never recall how warm and womanly Zane had made her feel. Regardless of her sensual urges, she and Zane didn’t match, they were not a fit. And not once had he referred to her kids, not by question, not by innuendo, not by so much as a hint that he even recognized she had children.

  Bitterness rose in her throat. He was a self-centered jerk, and if her heart was just a little bit broken because of Zane Fortune, she had no one to blame but herself.

  Eight

  “Zane? Lily here. We’re having a family barbecue on Saturday, hoping, of course, that it’s not too short notice and everyone will come. How are you set for Saturday?”

  “You’re planning on strictly family, Lily?”

  Lily laughed. “That was my original plan, but your father has already invited a few friends, so I suppose I should stop calling it a family barbecue. It will be mostly family…I think. You know how these things can grow. Oh, by the way, we would love to see Gwen again, so please bring her with you. If you can make it yourself, of course.”

  I’d love to see Gwen again too, but that doesn’t look very promising. Frowning, Zane leaned back in his chair, put his feet up on a corner of his desk and, without really seeing, stared out a window of his office while he took a second to mull over the invitation.

  Of all the social activities that took place on the ranch, he liked the barbecues best. Everyone brought their kids and wore jeans and boots, the food was always terrific, and horses were provided for anyone wanting to take a ride. Yes, this was one affair he would love to attend.

  “Lily, I can’t speak for Gwen at the moment, but count me in,” he said.

  “Wonderful. Zane, you know I’m not ordinarily a nosy person, but I am curious about Gwen. Let me bring my inquisitiveness down to one question. Are you planning to ask her to come with you?”

  “Uh, let’s just say that I’d like her to go but there are no guarantees.”

  “Fair enough. I’ll count you as two, just in case you bring Gwen or someone else.”

  “Thanks, Lily. See you on Saturday.”

  “Yes, on Saturday. And pray this incredible weather holds,” Lily said. “’Bye for now.”

  Zane hung up and continued to stare out the window as he wondered how best to approach Gwen. Since their movie date, he hadn’t tried to contact her, but she was just about all he could think of. He could not remember ever wanting a woman more, and while he wasn’t sure that he liked being so strung out over one particular woman, there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it. She was in his blood; it was as simple as that.

  But what bothered him so much was that his feelings for Gwen were not simple at all. He certainly knew women who were more beautiful. And women who would do almost anything to spend time with him; sex had never been a scarce commodity. But lately Gwen was the only woman who turned him on. It was damn disturbing.

  His most constant and perturbing thought was of his hand between her legs in the theater. She’d been so hot and wet, and whenever he thought of those intensely sexual minutes he wanted to make love to her so badly that he physically ached.

  He knew he wasn’t his normal self at all, and that his work was suffering right along with his body. But he couldn’t keep his mind in the office, where it belonged, for even eight hours a day. It was with Gwen, even though he could only imagine where she might be or what she might be doing.

  He wished he could get back to where he’d been before meeting her. In his soul, though, he knew it wasn’t going to happen. But why in heaven’s name was he pursuing a woman with her inhibitions, her seemingly endless problems, her peculiar attitudes?

  Gwen checked her message machines at three that afternoon. One call was from Heather. “Gwen, Mr. Fortune would like you to give Alamo a bath. He got into some mud somewhere, and I guess he’s an awful mess. Anyhow, please try to fit it into your schedule today. Thanks.”

  Gwen’s heart was suddenly in her throat. What if she ran into Zane again?

  But that was hardly likely to happen, and she shouldn’t worry about it. She hadn’t yet cut Zane from her client list, so she really must keep up on his requests. Besides, it would only take about thirty minutes to bathe the dog, and every bath meant another fifty dollars in her pocket. She could not afford to ignore Heather’s call, or to even pretend that she’d gotten her message too late to do the job today.

  Regardless, she drove into Zane’s driveway with a wary eye. But the elegant house and grounds looked as they always did when she went there, with no vehicles in sight and no sign of anyone being home. She relaxed some. Parking around back, as usual, she got out and unlocked a side door of the house with her key.

  Standing on the threshold with the door open, she called, “Alamo?”

  The shepherd came racing through the house, barking happily. Gwen knelt down and petted him, then frowned. “You’re not muddy. What in the world was Heather talking about?”

  “Hello, Gwen.”

  At the sound of Zane’s voice, she jumped up. “What’s going on?”

  “I had to see you. There’s something we have to discuss. Please come in.”

  Her eyes sparked angrily. “You had Heather phone with a lie to get me here? Isn’t having someone else do your dirty work a new low, even for you? Then again, maybe it’s not, since you’re so used to having everything your way—”

  Zane broke into her tirade. “I have another business proposition to present to you. Would you stop yelling at me long enough to hear what it is?”

  “I wasn’t yelling,” she snapped.

  Why did he want her so much? Zane asked himself. What man in his right mind kept aching for a woman who made it so plain that she would prefer him to vanish from the face of the earth? But even her anger and sarcasm excited him. Everything she did excited him. He felt breathless just looking at her.

  Gwen had finally tuned in to his “business proposition” remark, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously. She didn’t trust Zane. He worried her. He disturbed her.
In some ways her life had become more difficult than it had been before meeting him. Prior to his first kiss she’d had no trouble at all with her libido. Now she never knew when a flash of desire might hit her, which she didn’t appreciate. But then, laying all the blame on him would be unfair. She hadn’t had to kiss him back, after all, or, let him go so far in the theater.

  But not one second of intimacy would have occurred between them if she hadn’t gone along with his first business proposition. Why wouldn’t she be suspicious of whatever it was that he had in mind today?

  “What do you want me to help you do now, rob a bank?” she intoned sardonically.

  “Funny,” he retorted dryly. “Very funny.”

  Folding her arms across her chest, she leaned against the door frame. “If it’s so funny, why aren’t you laughing?” Though he’d shed his suit jacket, he was still wearing office garb, and he looked fabulous, as usual, which she couldn’t help noticing and resenting. He always looked great, and she always looked like the rag-collector’s child. It was probably an overly dramatic comparison, but it was pretty much how she felt in her worn jeans and old red shirt.

  He hit her with a look of pure frustration. “Would you please come in so we can shut the door? I promise not to keep you for more than ten minutes.”

  “So you can present your business proposition,” she said with exaggerated sweetness. “If I remember correctly, ten minutes was what you asked for the first time you—”

  “Dammit, Gwen, I didn’t ask you to come here so we could argue!”

  “You didn’t ask me at all. Your secretary did.”

  “Would you have come if I’d asked?” he shouted.

  She had succeeded in angering him, and was surprised that it gave her no pleasure. Rather, she felt small and petty for having goaded him.

  “All right,” she said evenly, striving for an indifference she really didn’t feel. “Say your piece. I don’t have time to stand around here for the rest of the day.”

  “For your information, neither do I.” Apparently she wasn’t going to move away from the door, and he wondered if she thought she was going to have to run to protect her virtue.

  “Okay,” he continued. “Here’s the situation. Lily phoned me with an invitation to attend a barbecue at the ranch on Saturday. She mentioned you several times and would like you to go with me. Everyone still believes we’re an item, and I’d like to keep it that way. But that’s not the whole reason I’m asking you to go. I honestly think you’d enjoy the barbecue. It’s mostly a family gathering. Dad throws a barbecue party two or three times every year. Everyone brings their kids, dresses casually and has a great time. It will be much different from Hannah and Parker’s wedding, and—”

  Gwen held up her hand. “Back up a bit. There are going to be children at the barbecue?” An idea was forming in the back of her mind, one that would put an end to Zane’s interest in her for all time.

  “Yes,” Zane said. “There’ll probably be a dozen kids there, maybe more.”

  “Then I could bring my kids?”

  Zane blinked. “If you’d like, yes,” he said slowly, realizing that he hadn’t considered Gwen’s kids when plotting this opportunity to ask her to the affair.

  “Okay, fine, I’ll go,” she said.

  “You will?”

  “Yes, I will. What time do you want to pick us up on Saturday?”

  “Probably around, uh, ten in the morning. That would give us plenty of time for the drive.”

  She could see that she had discombobulated him. He probably hadn’t even thought of her kids, the cad. Fuming, she decided not to let him off the hook this easily. “So, what business proposition did you intend to offer me? Were you planning to pay me for attending the barbecue, like you did for the wedding?”

  Zane’s neck and face got red. “It crossed my mind, yes.”

  “I’m sure it did,” she drawled cynically.

  “But I’m much happier that you’ll be going because you want to,” Zane said quickly, speaking the truth.

  To his surprise she smiled. “Oh, I want to, believe me.”

  There was something wrong with the way she’d said that, and Zane suddenly wasn’t quite as happy about the date as he’d been a second before. It was as though she’d just gotten the upper hand on some point and was gloating about it.

  Gwen took a look at her watch. “I have to be going. I’ll be ready at ten on Saturday morning.”

  “Good,” Zane said uneasily. “I’ll be there.”

  He stood in the doorway and watched her walk to her van and get in. Perplexity gnawed at his stomach. Gwen was up to something, but what? He wished he could read her better.

  After she’d driven away, so did he, and all the way back to the office he tried to figure Gwen out. She had agreed to go to the barbecue with him much, much more easily than he’d thought she would.

  The question was, why?

  Zane liked kids and wasn’t at all concerned about Gwen bringing hers to Saturday’s barbecue. But something had definitely changed because of the impending event. Even though she’d told him about her having children, he’d never thought of her as anything but a desirable woman. Now he also thought of her as a mother, which added a respectful depth to his sensual feelings for her. Maybe because he’d lost his own mother at a young age, he had always put motherhood right up there with honor and loyalty to country.

  Even so, there was a nasty little fear in the back of his mind about actually seeing Gwen with her kids. Until that occurred, he couldn’t be sure that his feelings for her wouldn’t take a different turn, and that idea did concern him. He liked and wanted Gwen as he knew her now, and he could only guess at how the presence of her children might affect her.

  He hoped ardently that she wasn’t one of those women who let their kids run wild, and at the same time prayed that she wasn’t so protective of them that she followed them around and ruined their fun. There would be pony rides for the younger kids, he knew from past barbecues, and for the first time it occurred to him that he had no idea how old Gwen’s children were.

  In fact, he realized with a sinking sensation, he knew nothing at all about Gwen’s kids—not their names, their ages or even how many she had. Wasn’t it rather odd that she hadn’t whipped out wallet snapshots for him to look at? Didn’t a parent usually do that with even the most casual acquaintance?

  Theirs was a strange relationship, Zane had to admit, and then felt upset over the possibility that Gwen might feel that they really had no relationship at all. At least not a genuine one. After all, it had started out on a most peculiar note, with him hiring her to delude his matchmaking sisters.

  But he saw tremendous advancement after that because of their undeniable physical attraction for each other. He couldn’t deny it, at any rate. Could Gwen? he wondered uneasily. That could be the crux of the animosity she laid on him most of the time.

  And he didn’t understand why she was so adamantly opposed to dating either. He might as well face it, he thought grimly. He really didn’t understand Gwen. No man should become involved with a woman he didn’t understand. If that wasn’t asking for trouble, what was?

  Good Lord, he thought, disgusted with himself, there were dozens, hundreds of attractive, sexy, willing women right here in San Antonio. He sure didn’t have to beg crumbs from Gwen or any other woman to ensure female companionship. So why didn’t he just forget Gwen Hutton and get on with his life?

  Because you’ve never felt this way about a woman before. She was the first woman since Melanie Wilson that he could not get out of his system, no matter what he did or how hard he tried.

  Damn, he thought angrily, if he was stupid enough to want another woman who couldn’t love him, then he deserved to suffer.

  His spine stiffened. He would not suffer indefinitely. The barbecue was going to be it. If Gwen continued to shut him out on Saturday, then it was over for them.

  It was an oath he intended to keep.

  Around fi
ve that afternoon Gwen arrived at Ramona’s to pick up her kids. After a few moments of ordinary chitchat, Gwen said nonchalantly, “Could I borrow Tommy and Liselle on Saturday?”

  Ramona’s jaw dropped. “You want to borrow my kids?”

  Gwen grinned. “Yes, and they’ll probably have the time of their lives. You see, Zane asked me to attend a family barbecue at the Double Crown Ranch. He said that everyone will be bringing their children, so I’m taking my three and I know they’d be thrilled if Tommy and Liselle came with us. What do you say? I promise to watch them very closely.”

  “Tommy and Liselle would be in seventh heaven at an outing like that, and I know you would take very good care of them. But, goodness, five small children at one time just might scare Zane to death.”

  Gwen smiled again. “I’m sure it will.”

  Ramona’s eyes widened as understanding struck her. “That’s what you’d like to happen! For heaven’s sake, why?”

  Gwen was no longer smiling. Instead, resentment began burning in her eyes. “Because he’s a self-centered jerk and deserves a dose of reality more than anyone I’ve ever met. Not once has he mentioned my kids, even though I told him I’m a mother. He hasn’t asked their ages, or even how many children I have. Anyhow, you and I know there’s no more definitive reality than small kids—their noise, the demands they make on your time, the almost constant attention they require.”

  Even though Gwen seemed deadly serious, Ramona couldn’t help laughing. “Well, five little kids for a day would be one way of shocking the socks off the man, but are you sure you want to do that? Gwen, Zane Fortune is quite a catch, and he seems to like you.”

  Gwen sniffed derogatorily. “Zane likes women, period. I mean no more to him than any other woman, and he’d take me to bed in a minute if I let him, same as he’s done all his adult life with any available female. Ramona, for a person like me Zane is heartache waiting to happen. I’m simply not in the market for that kind of pain.”

  Ramona looked worried. “I know you’re not, but I still can’t help feeling that you might be missing the boat with Zane. Are you positive you’re not misjudging him? For example, why would he invite you to that barbecue? That sort of affair is hardly conducive to seduction, if that’s all he has in mind.”