Baby's First Christmas. Laura Marie Altom

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      Who said you couldn’t find a city girl worth wasting country on, anyway?

      He examined the blanket he’d found in the back seat. The label read Saks Fifth Avenue. “So I’m guessing you’re on the pill,” he said idly, wondering if he could talk the beautiful stranger into staying at his ranch for about another day. Only his sister, Pepper, was ever around the ranch anymore, and she pretty much kept to herself. “Ow!”

      He rubbed the spot on his cheek where City had slapped him. It had actually been a light tap, but it was enough to get his attention.

      She stared at him, angry again, reminding him that her spirit was one of the many things he liked about her. “So are you?” he asked, thinking with some trepidation about Liberty and Duke and their unplanned pregnancy.

      “You are not a gentleman!” Jessie exclaimed. He nodded, and said, “We already established that. Let’s get to the answer.”

      Her cheeks pinked. “I use a method of control.”

      He glared. “Don’t they discuss birth control where you’re from?” He glanced at the blanket label again. “Saks Fifth Avenue?”

      She ignored him.

      Okay. She obviously didn’t want to talk about it. A faint trickle of unease slithered through him.

      “I have to go,” she said abruptly. “Please get the hell out of my car.”

      He frowned. “Not until you tell me about your ‘method.’”

      “You should have asked before,” she said. “No matter what my method is, if it’s not any good, it’s too late.”

      He digested that, realizing she was right. Had he lost his mind? His gaze ran over her tight, smooth skin. The luscious curves had bewitched him, and all of her attitude set off raging emotions inside him.

      Duke must have felt just this way about Liberty.

      He had never wanted to be like Duke, despite the fact that, to him, his sheriff brother was pretty much a hero in all ways. If not a hero, then a major example of what a good man should be.

      But he’d never wanted to be out-of-his-mind wild over a woman, and he sure as hell had never wanted to get one pregnant out of wedlock.

      That would spell commitment for certain, and he hated everything about the sound of that particular word.

      “I’ve been seeing twins,” he murmured, going for jackass and making it pretty well, he thought. That should run her off quicker than wildfire, which he needed her to do if he was going to escape this growing dilemma and the future his brain was imagining.

      “I don’t care,” she said, laughing, “if you’re dating triplets. Or quadruplets.”

      He scratched his chin, noticing she wasn’t leaping out of the back seat. In fact, they felt rather companionable together, their legs stretched out along the soft leather. She fit him very well. “Got a sister?” he asked, trying to save himself.

      She gave him a thorough eyeing. “Really working those issues, aren’t you?”

      She wasn’t falling for it. Women always fell for his routine! Jessie got out of the car, fixed her skirt and hair and pulled a huge carpetbag-sized purse from the front seat. She rummaged around in it, fishing out a pair of red panties. “Close your eyes.”

      “I can’t,” he said. “Watching you is the most fun I’ve had lately.”

      She shrugged, reaching under her skirt to shimmy her lacy panties into place. He felt himself wanting her again. She had impossibly long legs and nothing he didn’t want to see. She was an intriguing beauty, tempting his eyes. Silently, he handed her the panties he’d previously removed and tossed to the floor. She snatched them from him, stuffing them into the carpetbag.

      The panties went into the carpetbag. He realized with a pang and a worrisome erection that she was used to traveling or undressing because most women didn’t carry a change of underwear in their purse. “Don’t suppose you’re going to change your bra, too?”

      She shook her head at his hopeful tone. “Hand me the one you took off.”

      It was soft and silky, like her. He wanted her where he could enjoy her for hours, without the top and skirt, which had been left on out of necessity. He’d been lucky to discard her bra and panties, actually, because he’d discovered she had a cute shy side despite her projected carefree attitude. “You’re beautiful,” he said, knowing she was that way without trying to be.

      “It’s my business,” she said. “It’s all a mirage.”

      There, he thought, that’s an answer to scare the hell out of even the baddest, bootwearing hardass around.

      Jessie was thinking through the birth control issue, more concerned than she was letting on. The truth was, she’d been fitted with a vaginal ring when she and her boyfriend had gotten serious enough to discuss marriage. But they hadn’t had sex in the past couple of months, as he’d claimed to be working late—an excuse she was to learn was code for: Your chief business rival and I aren’t just discussing the latest spring palette after-hours. So she hadn’t been wearing the ring when she’d left the city and the man behind.

      Babies had been the first thing on her agenda, following a wedding. But there was no reason to tell that to Zach. He seemed like the worrying type. Any other man would have simply let her drive off into the sunset. Then again, he had issues, as he’d calmly and proudly admitted. She decided to keep her desire for a baby a secret. “I’ve got to go, cowboy,” she said.

      “My name is Zach,” he said, sounding a bit cross about it.

      She nodded. “I know.”

      “No, you didn’t,” he said. “Jessie T., you’re not a good liar. You forgot my name.”

      She looked at him.

      “You’re not even on birth control, are you?”

      He was going to be difficult. “Are you?” she asked, stalling for time. “Maybe you were wearing a condom and I didn’t notice.” She would have noticed, definitely, because it had been skin-on-skin passion, nothing between her and him in the most wonderful connection a man and woman could share.

      His jaw set. “Great. This is my worst nightmare.”

      She didn’t usually have a temper but irritation crept into her. More like raging than creeping. “It’s none of your affair.”

      “Well, now,” he said, his voice a stony drawl, “that’s where you’re wrong, Miss Jessica. One thing about us Forresters is that we make everything our business. After you’ve been in Tulips for a while, you’ll know this to be true.” He snagged her car keys from the ignition. “Come on, city girl. No doubt you’re going to make me crazy for the next month, but there’s always a little hell to pay for a little pleasure.”

      She grabbed for the keys but he held them above her head. “You can’t keep me here.”

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