Chapter 1 #3
“Well?” she asked, and surprised herself by not flinching when he reached out and brushed at a wild strand of hair that had been stuck to her cheek.
Ryder Justice was surprised by the vehemence in her voice.
He’d been around long enough to know when someone was afraid.
From the moment she’d walked into the room, her fear had been palpable, yet just now when he’d touched her, she hadn’t blinked.
And the power in her voice told him there was more to her backbone than the soft, silky skin obviously covering it.
He also knew what it felt like to be backed into a corner, and for some reason this woman was as far in a hole as a person could get and not be buried.
And, he was tired of running. So damned tired he couldn’t think.
“Well, what?” he asked.
Casey’s breath caught on a gasp. His voice was low and deep and an image of him whispering in her ear shattered what was left of her composure. Hang in there, she warned herself, then lifted her chin.
“I asked a question. Do you have an answer?”
Ryder touched the side of her cheek and felt an odd sense of pride when, once again, she stood without flinching.
“About the only thing I have to my name is guts. If that’s all you need, then I’m your man.”
“Hey, man, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into,” the bartender warned.
Ryder’s gaze never wavered from Casey Ruban’s face. Once again, his voice broke the quiet, wrapping around Casey’s senses and making her shake from within.
“I know enough,” he said.
“My name is Casey Ruban,” she said. “What’s yours?”
“Ryder Justice.”
Justice! Casey took it as a sign. Justice was exactly what she’d been searching for.
“You swear you are free to marry?”
He nodded.
“My grandfather always said his handshake was as good as his word,” Casey said, and offered her hand.
Without pause, Ryder enfolded it within the breadth of his own and once again, Casey felt herself being swallowed whole.
Her gaze centered on their hands entwined and she had a sudden image of their bodies in similar positions.
She bit her lip and stifled a shudder. Now was not the time to get queasy. She had an empire to save.
“Come with me,” she said shortly. “We have a little over twenty-four hours to get blood tests, apply for a license, and find a justice of the peace.”
At the mention of haste, his gaze instinctively drifted toward her belly partially concealed beneath the loose-fitting dress.
Once, being an unwed mother might have horrified Casey. Now she wished that was all she was facing.
“Wrong guess, Mr. Justice. It’s just that I’ve got myself in a race with the devil, and I don’t like to lose.”
Ryder followed without comment. He’d been on a first-name basis with the old hound himself for some time now. He never thought to consider the fact that the devil was giving someone else a hard time as well.
The room erupted into a roar as they stepped outside, and Casey found herself all but running toward her car. Only after she slid behind the wheel and locked them in did she feel safe. And then she glanced toward the man beside her and knew she was fooling herself.
His presence dwarfed the sports car’s interior.
He scooted the seat as far back as it would go and still his knees were up against the dash.
The duffel bag he’d had on his shoulders was now between his feet, and Casey imagined she could hear the rhythmic thud of his heartbeat as he turned a cool, calculating gaze her way.
“Buckle up, Mr. Justice.”
He reached for the seat belt out of reflex, then gave Casey another longer, calculating look.
“I have a question,” he said.
Casey’s heart dropped. Please stranger, don’t back out on me now.
“I have one for you, too,” she said quickly.
“Ladies first.”
She almost smiled. “Do you have a home? Do you have a job?”
His expression blanked, and Casey would have sworn she saw pain on his face before he answered.
“I don’t have an address or a job. Does it matter?”
She thought fast, remembering the conditions of the will. She had to live in her husband’s residence and under his protection. This was good news. It was something she could control.
“Do you have a driver’s license?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Good, then you’re hired.”
He cocked an eyebrow as Casey started the car.
“Exactly what have I been hired to do?”
“You’re going to be the new chauffeur for the Ruban family. You… I mean… we… will live in the apartment over the garage on Delaney’s…I mean, on my estate.”
Ryder frowned. “Lady, I have to ask. Why marry a stranger?”
She backed out of the parking lot, the tires spinning on loose gravel as she drove onto the road, heading back the same way she’d come.
“Because I will be damned before I let myself be forced into marriage with a man I can’t abide.”
He wondered about the man she’d obviously left behind. “You don’t know me. What if you can’t abide me, either?”
Her gaze was fixed on the patch of road visible in the twin beams of her headlights.
“Living a year with a total stranger is better than living one night under Lash Marlow’s roof. Besides, I don’t like to be told what to do.”
So, his name is Lash Marlow. This time Ryder did smile, but only a little.
“Casey.”
Startled by the sound of her name on his lips, she turned her gaze from the road to his face.
“What?”
“I think you should try calling me Ryder. I’ve never gone to bed with a woman who called me Mister, and I don’t intend to start now.”
Gone to bed with…!
Almost too late she remembered what she was doing and swerved to avoid the ditch at which she was heading. By the time she had the car and herself under control, she was too desperate to argue the point.
First things first. Marriage. Then rules. After that, take it one day at a time. It was the only way she knew.