But maybe not the littlest one. Seth paused in spinning what Kate assumed was another cousin just long enough for the girl to grin at Kate and say, “Your skirt is pretty. Does it twirl?”
“I’m not sure,” Kate answered honestly. “Twirling makes me dizzy.” And God knew her sense of balance wasn’t what it had once been.
“But that’s the best part!” The girl giggled and then she and Seth were off again, making big, dizzying circles.
“Real estate?” Jenny’s eyes narrowed as she took in everything about Kate. The woman looked too much like Seth not to be his mother. The woman to Jenny’s right was taller, more statuesque, perhaps a little lighter in coloring, but she bore a strong resemblance to Jenny. The woman to Jenny’s left, however, had vivid blue eyes and an almost icy demeanor. To a woman, however, they were wearing stunning tops underneath their coats. Kate looked longingly at Jenny Bolton’s soft peach sweater. She had a feeling that no matter how much her commission was, she wouldn’t be able to afford a sweater like that. The same went for the diamonds in Jenny’s ears and around her neck. And that had nothing on what the woman with blue eyes was wearing.
Kate refused to be intimidated by the unified wall of womanhood that was currently looking her up and down. Crap—could these experienced wives and mothers tell she was pregnant? Or were they just judging her by regular feminine standards?
“We were looking at an industrial property not far from here and had time to check in on the game before we signed papers on Mr. Bolton’s house this afternoon.” All of which was 100 percent the truth and had nothing to do with how good Seth was in bed.
After a moment’s hesitation that spoke louder than any niceties could, Jenny said, “I see,” in a tone that made it clear that she did—far too well.
Kate swallowed. This was not going well. Feeling desperate, she turned her attention to the rest of the group. “No need to get up,” she said when it was obvious no one would, anyway. She gave a little wave. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I enjoyed your show.” Bobby Bolton, still as handsome as ever, grinned—but his brothers both groaned. Kate pressed on. “And I’m excited to help your company move forward into its next venture.” There. That was a perfectly professional thing to say.
No one reacted. “Kate’s done an amazing job finding the right properties,” Seth announced into the awkward silence.
She could feel her face heating up. Somehow, turning tomato red didn’t seem to be the reasonable reaction here.
Then it only got worse because in the middle of that quiet lull, her stomach growled so loudly that it briefly drowned out the sounds of the game. “My apologies,” Kate said hastily, wondering if a woman could actually die of embarrassment at a soccer game. “We haven’t had time to grab lunch. We should go...”
But the words had no more gotten out of her mouth than the Bolton women descended upon her. “We have food,” the paler one said in a surprising British accent. “I’m Stella—Bobby’s wife. Clara’s mother.”
“Besides,” the other added, “Connie won’t turn loose of Seth for a good twenty minutes and Davey has to talk to someone about Pokémon—all the better if it isn’t me. I’m Josey—Ben’s wife. The rest of this brood is mine.”
“You should sit,” Jenny said, moving forward to put a hand on Kate’s arm and leading her to a folding chair. “We have chicken or burgers.”
And just like that, Kate wasn’t on the outside anymore.
She had no idea if that was a good thing or not.
Thirteen
Dimly, Seth was aware that there was still a soccer match going on. But that wasn’t the game he was playing right now.
“She’s pretty,” Bruce Bolton, Seth’s grandpa, said. He turned his flinty eyes back to Seth. “What’s she doing here with the likes of you?”
Seth tried to laugh that off. Over the years, he had learned to hold his own against the Bolton men. But that usually worked best when they’d chosen sides. The Boltons united was a fearsome sight to behold.
Like right now. The three brothers and their father were all staring at Seth, expecting a reasonable answer. It was at that moment that Seth realized he might have overplayed his hand. Time for some damage control. “Like I said, she’s my real estate agent. I’m closing on my house this afternoon.” They stared at him like he had lost his ever-loving mind.
“I wouldn’t waste my time with a lovely lady like that on real estate,” Bruce grumbled. Then he winked at Seth.
“The second site we looked at this morning seems like a good fit for the museum,” Seth went on, desperate to keep the conversation away from how pretty Kate was. “It’s halfway between the highway and the factory. It costs a little more up front, but the site’s already been cleared.”
If Seth had had any hope at all that talking shop would distract the Bolton men from the pretty real estate agent currently being coddled by the Bolton women, that hope died on the vine. “You be careful with her,” his uncle Ben said.
“I am. I mean,” Seth quickly corrected, “it’s not like that. We’re just working together.”
His dad’s glare hardened, and Bobby rolled his eyes in disbelief. Even Bruce looked like he wasn’t going to buy that line. Seth wasn’t a little kid anymore, but he began to sweat it. What if he couldn’t convince them there was nothing unbecoming between him and Kate?
The Boltons were family men, and if they thought Seth was leading Kate along under false pretenses, Seth didn’t want to even think what they might do. He wouldn’t put a shotgun and a preacher past them, though.
But the moment the thought drifted through his brain, something weird happened. Instead of shuddering in horror at the thought, he could see Kate walking toward him, her belly rounded under a simple white dress—not that cupcake confection she’d been wearing the day he’d met her. A smile on her face as she came toward him...
He shook the thought from his head and glanced back over to where his mom and his aunts had surrounded Kate. Jenny had taken a seat next to Kate and appeared to be asking her a series of rapid-fire questions—about what, Seth was afraid to ask. Josey was piling a plate with food and Stella stood back a little ways, watching it all unfold. Kate glanced up and caught his eye. Her cheeks blushed a soft pink before she looked away.
“Yeah,” Bobby said, chuckling. “Just working together. What did you say her name was?”
“Kate Burroughs.”
“And she sells real estate?”
Seth nodded, feeling like he was sixteen and getting busted for staying out past curfew—again.
Bobby’s grin turned sharp. “Wasn’t there a wedding...?”
Of course Seth should’ve known that Bobby had his finger on the pulse of Rapid City gossip. “Yeah. I told you guys about that—I found the bride by the side of the road? That’s her.” He hadn’t necessarily wanted to share that particular tidbit of information, but it was better to get out in front of this sort of thing.
Of course, being in front of anything with this crowd only guaranteed that he’d be run over. “You don’t say,” Ben said. “Business.”
Honestly, Seth wasn’t sure what this thing with Kate was anymore. It was, in fact, business. But it was also something casual and fun, a rebound to help Kate get back on her feet. And yet...
“Nothing but,” he lied.
Not a single one of his male relatives bought that lie. Maybe because Seth didn’t buy it himself.
Thankfully, something happened on the playing field and for a moment, everyone’s attention focused on the game. The Mustangs were up by three now, with fifteen minutes left in the game. The championship match seemed within their grasp.
He glanced at Kate again. Connie was practically in Kate’s lap now, completely enamored of this fancy new person who wore pretty skirts. Kate leaned over, putting her at eye level with Conn
ie. She had a big smile on her face and she clapped when Connie spun for her.
Something in his chest tightened. Kate was going to be an amazing mother. But he knew how hard it was to be a single parent. He didn’t want that for her, damn it all. But aside from throwing two commissions her way, he didn’t know how to help.
Kate caught his eye and gave Seth a tight smile. Then, as if by mutual agreement, they both looked away.
When Seth turned his attention back to his family, he found himself squarely in the crosshairs of his father. Billy threw an arm around Seth’s shoulders and hauled him off to the side. “You’re telling me,” Billy began with no other introduction, “that you hired the runaway bride to be your real estate agent on purpose?”
Seth had had his disagreements with his adoptive father over the years. Billy was a hard man who did things his way. He wasn’t afraid of a fight, either.
But for all that, he was a remarkably fair man. From the very beginning, he had treated Seth as if he were an equal. Seth wouldn’t be half the man he was today if it weren’t for his father. And he hated disappointing his father.
But he could tell that Billy was disappointed in him.
“She jilted her fiancé and he kept the house they had together. Her family didn’t back her up and she had to quit their real estate office. I’m just helping her out. She needs the commissions.”
All of which was true. Or at least, it had been a month ago. Now?
Billy gave him a hard look, one that had Seth standing up straighter. “Women are not to be trifled with, son.”
“I am not trifling with her,” he defended quickly. He’d made no promises to Kate beyond the next month or so. He was not leading her on with talks of love and marriage. There was no discussion of forever or happily-ever-after. No allusions to a future that existed past the new year. Ergo, it was not trifling.
“We’re sending you to Shanghai,” his father said in the kind of voice that Seth had seen make grown men damn near wet their pants with terror. “In the new year. Bobby thinks it could be six, eight months there, with a possibility of Mumbai afterward.”
So it’d been decided? Good. Great. He loved it when a plan came together. So why was he filled with a crushing sort of disappointment? “And I’ll be ready.”
“Does she know that?”
“Of course she does. She knows my job is everything.”
His father gave him a long look. “And yet you brought her to your sister’s soccer game.”
It was not a question. “I don’t know how many times I have to say this,” Seth ground out, pulling away from his father’s embrace. “I’m not leading her on. We have a business relationship. We understand each other perfectly, damn it. And we were in the neighborhood.”
Billy was not buying any of this. “If you get her pregnant,” he said, as if he were Kate’s father instead of Seth’s, “your mother and I will expect you to do the right thing.”
“I am not going to get her pregnant,” Seth retorted. It was impossible to get her pregnant again. “Even if there was something going on between us—which there is not—I would never casually risk her health and well-being and you, of all men, should know that.” For a moment, his dad looked almost chastised. Seth forced his shoulders to relax. “Now. Are you done threatening me so we can watch Julie play?”
He expected his father to glower or maybe even yell. So when Billy Bolton cracked a rare smile, Seth was completely caught off guard. “Make sure you’re doing the right thing, son,” he said, giving Seth a slap on the back that was hard enough to send Seth stumbling. Billy stepped around Seth and went to watch his daughter outplay the other team.
Seth glowered at his father’s back. Of course he was doing the right thing. He was helping out a single soon-to-be mother. He was ensuring that she would have enough money to live on for the next year, if she wanted to. And he was helping her get over Roger. By the time Seth left for Shanghai, Kate would be financially secure and ready to move on with her life. Without him.
How was that not the right damn thing?
* * *
The garage doors shut behind them, sealing her and Seth off from the rest of the world. The afternoon had passed in a blur of legal documents and signatures, but the end result was now official—the home on Bitter Root was Seth’s.
She wasn’t going to be sad about that. She was just going to be happy for him, and happy that he was willing to share this home with her, even for a little while.
He opened her car door and held out his hand, just like he always did. “I must say,” he said, as she slipped her palm against his and let him help her from the car, “this has been one of the stranger days of my life.”
“Buying a home is often very strange,” she agreed. But that’s not what made today strange for her.
The whole day had been a glimpse into a life she desperately wanted but would never get to have. This house was perfect for her and the family she was going to raise—but she couldn’t afford it, not in this life or the next.
Just like Seth’s family—aunts and uncles, grandparents and siblings, all coming together for something as mundane as a child’s soccer game because they cared. They put family first.
Of course she knew that there were kind, loving, supportive families in the world. And hers was certainly not the worst, by far. But seeing the way that Seth’s family had lined up to protect him from an outsider—her? And then there’d been that moment where, apparently by some unspoken agreement, she hadn’t been on the outside looking in. She’d been made welcome and fed and, okay, so maybe his mom’s questions about Seth’s new house had really been thinly veiled questions about Seth and Kate’s relationship. But there was no mistaking the fact that Seth’s family would do anything for him—for any member of the Bolton family.
She wanted that unconditional love and support for her child. She wanted that for herself, but she was used to doing without.
Holding her hand, Seth unlocked the garage door. He pulled her inside and then let go long enough to find a light switch. While he did so, she pushed aside her melancholy feelings. There was no point in moping over what she couldn’t have. She needed to focus on what she did have—a gorgeous, caring, wealthy man who, for reasons she still didn’t fully understand, was more than happy to give her almost everything she wanted.
“Welcome home, Mr. Bolton,” she said when he found the light switch. He really was too handsome, she thought when he turned back to her. She tried to strike a sultry pose.
Seth’s eyes darkened dangerously. “It’s good to be home, Ms. Burroughs.” He prowled toward her, the energy that made him so good in bed vibrating off him. “I feel like celebrating. How about you?” He paused, waiting for her answer.
“Yes.” Because this was as good as it got. She could make love to Seth in his home and hold on to these happy memories through the long, lonely nights ahead.
He flattened her against the door with his body, hard and hot against hers. But even when he covered her mouth with his, taking and demanding—there was still a gentleness to him.
“Now, Seth,” she whispered against his neck, grabbing the belt of his jeans. She didn’t want to wait. She didn’t want gentle. She just wanted this memory.
“Babe,” he growled, and then he picked her up. She squeaked in alarm—she wasn’t getting any lighter these days—but Seth cradled her to his chest as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Just like she had from the very beginning, she felt safe in his arms. She knew he wouldn’t drop her.
“I apologize for the lack of furniture,” he said as he carried her toward the kitchen.
“Don’t,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his jaw. Tucking every contour of his face, every muscle in his neck, away into her memory. “Don’t apologize for any of it.”
He sat her on the isla
nd counter and kissed her again, harder this time. She managed to get his buckle undone and then he was shoving her flowing skirt up, pulling her panties down. “I need you so much, Kate.”
“Yes,” she hissed, shoving his pants out of the way. When was the last time anyone had needed her? Roger certainly hadn’t. He’d barely even wanted her. Her parents had relied on her because she was cheap labor.
But who needed her because she was Kate?
No one. Just Seth.
They normally took their time with foreplay, but she didn’t have the patience for it today and neither did he. He set himself against her and then, with one delicious thrust, buried himself deep inside. Moaning with pleasure, she fell back on her elbows as he grabbed her hips and slammed into her again and again.
She loved being with Seth, but this rawness, this need—this was what had been missing. She had thought he’d been holding himself back out of deference to her being pregnant. But today?
Today, he was like a man possessed. Seth pounded into her again and again, his fingertips gripping her hips with brute strength. Kate sprawled on top of the island, surrendering to him completely. Already, she could feel the orgasm spiraling up and up. Pulling her along until her back was arching and she was grabbing at his forearms, desperate for anything to hold on to. When her climax broke, it broke hard, wrenching a guttural cry from her lips. She didn’t hold back, either.
She was Kate Burroughs and he needed her.
Seth flung back his head and made a sound that triggered another, smaller shock wave that left Kate completely boneless with satisfaction. He thrust one final time, the cords in his neck strained with the effort.
Then he fell forward, panting hard. She tangled her fingers in his hair and held him to her breast. They hadn’t even gotten undressed on the way. It had been the most intense sex of her life, and she was glad it had been with him.
Seth withdrew and pulled her up, crushing her against his chest. Kate could feel the tears running down her face, but this time, it wasn’t because the intensity of the orgasm had been overwhelming. She didn’t even think it was the hormones, although they weren’t helping.
Little Secrets--Claiming His Pregnant Bride Page 12
