Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Gideon
Autumn exited the bathroom, her hands behind her, smoothing her dress over her leggings.
She looked odd in my bedroom. Her reddish-brown leggings ended where her thin socks started and were stark against the pale room.
A single flame that warmed up every square inch.
The woman didn’t bare more than her hands and neck, but she exuded sex appeal that only dunces would miss.
I’d have to be careful. I hadn’t married her for physical reasons, and I couldn’t let my interest in her body sway my motivations. I pulled the covers back. This was the side of the bed I usually slept on, but she looked ready to bolt as she shifted from foot to foot.
“Go ahead. Crawl in.” I knew what she expected. The trepidation and excitement mixed in her eyes.
I had to admit I’d never been with a person so skittish around me.
She tiptoed toward the bed, her gaze flitting from my face to the covers.
She might not be revealing much skin, but her pulse fluttered erratically at the base of her throat.
Despite my earlier mental warning, I eyed her ass and the way it rounded when she got between the sheets.
When she was settled, I leaned over her and kissed her forehead.
Completely unnecessary. She’d already been seduced, and I had the marriage to show for it.
“I set a shirt and shorts on the end table to change into if you’d like. Get some rest.”
In the ambient light from the window, I could see her pink lips pull down in a frown. Was she afraid she couldn’t fall asleep without shades? She’d been practically aghast over the view when my few other guests had gushed about it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, more concerned than curious.
“We aren’t— Um . . . You don’t want to . . .” Her furious blush was adorable. How could she be so innocent when she didn’t mind her family conning land away from an old drunk?
“No, wife.” I said it more to remind myself and ignored how easily the word slipped off my tongue. I was a married man. My gut clenched as much as it twisted. “You’ve had too much to drink. You need sleep.”
She blinked slowly, her eyes owlish. Then she sat up, clutching the blankets to her chest like she was nude instead of fully dressed. I’d have offered her the change of clothes first, but I didn’t care to risk seeing another inch of creamy flesh.
She pushed her thick hair off her face. “How are we going to convince my brothers not to buy your family’s land if we aren’t married married?”
Cold washed through my insides. I’d underestimated this woman. A mistake I hadn’t made . . . ever.
“What?” My voice could’ve cut glass.
She looked at me like duh. “I mean, I want a family. You want your land.” She rolled her eyes—rolled her goddamn eyes—at me. “Did you think there was nothing I wanted out of the deal?”
“What deal?” I bit out. Family? The thought almost made me heave. Kids?
She finally had the grace to look embarrassed. “I guess I never said it, but then neither did you.”
Ice continued to crystallize in my veins. I could lie. Tell her I’d fallen madly in love with her as soon as I’d seen her, but she wouldn’t believe it. Not if she didn’t buy that I’d swept her off her feet and into Silver Linings Chapel because I couldn’t stand the thought of living without her.
Fuck. “How’d you know?”
She chortled, another adorable reaction I didn’t expect.
“You? Instantly smitten with me? Come on. I couldn’t even get into the club, yet Gideon James was so taken with a schoolteacher he whisked her off to say vows after a few drinks together?
A few drinks that were not made with Copper Summit bourbon.
Because Copper Summit isn’t served anywhere on the premises. ”
Irritation flared bright behind my sternum and not because she’d called me on my pettiness. “For such an innately sexy woman, you don’t think very highly of yourself.”
A furrow formed between her brows. “I think just fine about myself, but I’m also realistic.
I can’t be bothered to dress sexy anymore.
That’s what my twenties were for—uncomfortable clothes and even worse shoes.
All I caught with that look were mommy-dependent man-children.
” She wrinkled her nose. “Come to think of it, this look attracts the ones who want to be mothered too.”
I almost smiled. This conversation was absurd. “Speaking of mothering—what the hell do you mean family?” The edge was back in my voice.
She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “I want a family. If I can’t have the loving husband and kids, I’d rather have the kids from a guy who’s proved able to look after himself.”
I didn’t know if I should thank her for the odd compliment or throttle her. “I don’t want kids.”
Her lips puffed out. “Oh.” She looked down at her hands.
“Damn.” She spread her fingers and inspected the flawless one-carat diamond on her finger.
I’d been going to buy her a five-carat ring, but she’d practically gagged.
I’d selected a two-carat ring and she’d almost panicked.
She’d even insisted one carat was too big, but a guy had his pride.
I’d duped her into marrying me—or so I had thought—and the least I could do was buy her a nice ring.
My ring matched hers. A simple platinum band with squared edges.
“Maybe I could do artificial insemination. People might assume it’s yours.”
My mouth curled into a sneer. I didn’t want kids, but the idea of another man’s baby in her belly ignited a feral response.
I was better than this, and I needed time to think. I wasn’t fooling her and the relief was immense. Had I been prepared to sell my soul for the family land?
Yes. I always did what I had to do—run the ranch when my drunk dad couldn’t, leave home so I could have a future, and marry a Bailey so I could save my legacy.
Turned out this Bailey was just as determined to create a legacy for herself. “We can discuss this when you’re sober. But since you know why I married you, tell me how you can help me stop your family from buying my land.”
“My brothers,” she said. “We’d have to talk to my brothers.”
“You can’t halt the sale?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe.”
Uncertainty was written through every feature. I gawked at her. “You do the books.”
“I do the bar’s books.” Guilt crossed her face.
I’d been had by a schoolteacher.
Panic expanded in my chest, squeezing my lungs. The last-ditch scramble to keep Percival in the James name was slipping through my fingers.
“Fuck.” I stuffed a hand through my hair and paced the bedroom. I’d married the girl who did the bar’s books, and her brothers would hate me. They’d close the sale faster just to spite me. “Fuck!”
“Hey,” she said in a calming voice that ought to upset me, but my tension notched down. “You don’t want kids and I don’t have as much power as you thought. That doesn’t mean we can’t help each other.”
I propped my hands on my hips and faced her. “How’s that? You’re going to ask them nicely after you show up with me as a husband?”
“You’re going to Bourbon Canyon?”
“I can’t do much from here,” I snapped. “We’ll change your flight so we can go together.”
She ignored my outburst and flicked a finger up. “Okay, one, asking nicely gets you pretty darn far. And two, I’m still part of the family. We act as a united front. If you’re part of the family, they’ll listen to you. Or maybe give you a role after the sale.”
Fury ramped up my blood pressure. “Golly gee, I can manage my land that someone else owns.”
“It’s not your land,” she said bluntly. “That’s the crux of the issue, or you wouldn’t have me in your bed.”
Damn. She cut to the heart faster than any high-level investor I’d met.
She lifted her hands, palms in the air. “Look, it’s not ideal, but you and I seem to be the only way we can each get what we want.
My brothers have no problem buying the place you think should be yours, but would they hesitate if they were buying it out from under your dad’s grandson or granddaughter?
Would your dad reconsider if he thought that? ”
Her meaning sank in. Her brothers didn’t give a shit about me. Even if they were sympathetic to my situation, they had long since decided it didn’t matter. We’d last parted ways yelling at each other. They thought they were supporting my delusional dad with his decision.
But if there was an innocent kid, a niece or nephew, who would lose their legacy? Would that make them pause long enough for me to get through to Dad that he was making a goddamn mistake? Would the thought of a grandkid make Dad reconsider?
Was it worth having a kid to find out?
I had ruled out kids to prevent them from going through what I had. But Autumn had a big family. If something happened to one of us, there’d be plenty of aunts and uncles for the kid to lean on.
A child.
A baby.
The image of my mom’s smile doused my anger and stabbed right into my heart. She would’ve loved to have a grandkid.
She was the reason why I’d been determined not to.
But the only slice of heaven Mom loved in the world was getting sold, and if that kid could help me save it?
“You have a deal, wife.”
Autumn
When I woke, I smacked my lips together and squeezed my eyes shut. I needed a gallon of water and some fresh fruit ASAP. Between the drinks and the salty food, I was dying of thirst.
I pried an eye open. God, it was bright in here.
The soft smell of laundry detergent mingled with the scent of cedar citrus. Gideon.
I was in his room. In his bed.
I sat up. “Holy crap.”
I was married.
Holding up my hand, I squinted at my ring.
Married. With a big dang rock on my finger.
He’d wanted to buy an obnoxiously large diamond. No, thanks. The size of even this ring gave me palpitations. What if I lost it in Play-Doh? I loved the platinum setting. I loved the sparkle.
It couldn’t be real.
I blinked out the floor-to-ceiling windows, then swept my gaze around the plush room with chests and dressers that probably cost more than my house.
The diamond was real.