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“Holding hands is the easiest way to immediately clue them in that we’re more than friends.”
When Tia’s tongue came out to moisten her lips and she gazed into his eyes for a few seconds too long, Drew almost groaned. Not because the sexy gesture reminded him of just how difficult ignoring her was going to be, but because the lip-moistening demonstrated that she wasn’t nearly as unaffected as he had thought.
Well, whatever. He hadn’t met a woman he couldn’t cause to dislike him. Even Tia had kicked him out of her house the night they’d made love. In a few weeks he could have her absolutely hating him. And he would. Right after they convinced her parents they were crazy in love and getting married.
“Don’t take anything I say in here personally,” he said, then turned and opened the front door, leading her into her parents’ house.
When they entered the foyer, Tia called, “Mom? Dad?”
“In the den, honey,” her mother answered. “Come on back.”
“Okay,” Tia said casually, but Drew’s stomach plummeted. He considered giving himself a minute to calm down, but knew things weren’t going to get any better with the passage of time, so they might as well get this over with.
“Let’s go.”
With a slight tug on Tia’s hand, he led her into her father’s den. Her parents were seated together on the old tan leather sofa, reviewing the records for the farm.
As they entered the den, her mother glanced up. Drew knew Tia had gotten her size and shape from her mother, an average-height brunette with pretty green eyes. But her dark brown hair and blue eyes came from her dad.
“Drew?” Elizabeth Capriotti’s gaze skittered over to Tia, then unerringly honed in on their joined hands. “Tia?”
“Hi, Mom,” Tia said, then—probably because she was as nervous as he was—she unexpectedly blurted, “Drew and I are getting married.”
Her dad put down the computer printout he was holding. Looking totally baffled, he rose. “What did you say?”
“We’re getting married,” Drew said, squeezing Tia’s hand and hoping she got the message to let him handle this. “Tia wasn’t supposed to just drop that bomb on you like that.”
Her dad took two steps toward them. “How exactly would you suggest my daughter…my only daughter…my baby daughter…tell me that she’s about to marry a man who is ten…no, twelve…years older than she is?”
“I know this looks bad,” Tia began, but Drew lightly squeezed her hand again, reminding her to let him be the one to speak. Their whole purpose in getting married was to downplay the problem, and Drew was an expert at that.
“Ben, the news Tia and I have gets worse before it gets better. Since she started the ball rolling by blurting out that we’re getting married, I’m going to put all our cards on the table and tell you she’s pregnant.”
Tia’s dad gasped, stumbled then clutched his chest. Tia cried, “Dad!” snatched her hand back from Drew and rushed to her father.
“Ben!” Elizabeth shouted, jumping from her seat and running to the big mahogany desk to grab her husband’s pills.
But Ben waved Tia away as he turned to call his wife back. “Don’t, Elizabeth. I’m fine. But you two really are getting married,” he said, turning back to Drew and Tia. “And this pregnancy stays a secret until after the election. I’m contending with enough right now without adding the gossip of your shenanigans to the mix. Understood?”
Drew said, “Understood,” as Tia simultaneously said, “I understand.”
Ben shook his head. “No, you don’t understand, Tia. You live in Pittsburgh. You haven’t been reading the paper, seeing how Mark Fegan’s keeping conversation focused on my damn heart condition so Auggie Malloy doesn’t have to deal with real issues—” He waved his hand. “Hell. Forget it. The campaign’s my problem. I’ll handle it.” He pointed a stern finger at Tia and Drew. “But you two get married, and I mean right now.”
With that he returned to the sofa, sat and began going through the bills on the coffee table, dismissing Tia and Drew. Elizabeth hurriedly motioned for Tia and Drew to follow her out of the room.
As she closed the den door she said, “We didn’t even know you were dating.”
“We didn’t date long,” Drew said, silently congratulating himself for his cleverness. He hadn’t lied, but he also hadn’t admitted that they’d had a one-night stand.
“And we are happy,” Tia said.
Knowing that wasn’t at all true, Drew could only guess Tia had said that because it was the one thing her mother wouldn’t argue about. Elizabeth might be upset about her daughter marrying someone older, but she wouldn’t argue with her little girl’s happiness. He gave Tia points for recognizing that and decided that maybe, between the two of them, this wouldn’t be too godawful difficult to pull off, after all.
“Do you think Daddy’s okay?” Tia asked softly.
Elizabeth nodded. “He’s fine. Parents deal with unexpected babies and weddings every day of the week.” She blew her breath out on a long sigh. “It’s the election that’s making him nuts.”
“We’re sorry that this comes at such a bad time,” Tia said.
“When do you plan to get married?”
Drew said, “I thought we’d just get a license and go see a judge…”
Elizabeth’s eyes rounded with sorrow. “No wedding?”
“Sorry, Elizabeth,” Drew said, “but we’re a little pressed for time. As Ben said, we won’t announce that Tia’s pregnant for a few months, but the quicker we get married, the better.”
“I could put something together in two weeks,” Elizabeth insisted. “That would be the first of July. You could get married in the gazebo in the backyard and we could have a small reception under a tent.” She gazed at Drew imploringly. “It wouldn’t be any trouble.”
“Elizabeth—” Drew began.
But Tia interrupted him. “I think that’s a great idea, Mom. A wedding will be something fun for all of us. Maybe give Dad a break from the election for a day. As long as we keep it to a little wedding in the backyard.”
“That’s perfect,” Elizabeth said. “Nothing fancy. Just something small.”
Tia turned to Drew. “Unless you want to help Mom and me make wedding plans, you can go now.”
It took a second before Drew understood she was telling him his work here was done. When he got it, everything inside him melted with relief and he said, “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Elizabeth echoed. “You’re leaving?”
“I’m not much on girlie stuff, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth looked at Tia. “But you’re staying?”
“To help you plan—”
“All night?” Elizabeth said, but as she spoke her puzzled expression changed to a shrewd-mother smile. “Tia? What’s going on here?”
Chapter Two
“Nothing’s going on!” Drew said, grabbing Tia by the shoulders and turning her in the direction of the foyer. Tia struggled against his hold, but he gripped her tighter.
“Tia forgot how late it was when she volunteered to help plan tonight. You go back to the den and check on Ben. You can call us tomorrow morning and we’ll come over and talk about wedding plans then. Or Tia can come over by herself…whatever you and Ben want.”
With that, Drew pushed Tia up the hall and she gave up fighting him because it wasn’t good for her mother to see them argue or question each other.
But when they were on the front porch, out of range of both of her parents, she glared at him. “Drew—”
“Shhh,” he said, pulling her down the steps and all but dragging her to her car. “If we don’t make too much of a ruckus, maybe nobody will notice we brought two vehicles.”
He tucked her inside her little red sports car, then raced over to his truck. Tia followed him back to his house. Not at all happy with his high-handedness, she parked her car beside his in front of the two-car garage, walked into the foyer and tossed her car keys onto the curio cabinet.
“If you’d given me two minutes I could have talked my mother into planning tonight and I wouldn’t have had to come back here!”
“That was exactly the problem,” Drew said as he ambled off to the left into his living room. “It was obvious that you were trying to get rid of me when we’re supposed to be madly in love and you’re supposed to want to spend the night with me.”
Still in the foyer, Tia froze by the stairway. She barely had time to register a grateful reaction for his saving their charade. The words spend the night with me caused her chest to tighten and her pulse to scramble. She sure as heck hoped he didn’t think they should be sharing the same bed, but even as the idea entered her brain she knew that’s exactly what he thought. She was already pregnant. He knew she found him attractive. They had been magnificent together sexually. Plus, they were getting married. They would be each other’s opposite-sex companion for the next eight months. She couldn’t envision him going without sex for eight months.
She leaned against the newel post to steady herself. This situation just kept getting worse.
Well, she’d already faced two awkward conversations this evening. Time for number three.
Straightening her shoulders, she headed for his living room.
Seated on a white brocade sofa, with his arms stretched across its back and his boots on the coffee table, Drew looked disreputable and self-assured and so handsome that Tia had a sudden case of second thoughts. They might not be right for each other as a real husband and wife, but would sleeping together for the next eight months really be that bad?
“Your mother is suspicious,” Drew said, “because our story is weak. Not only do we have to come up with a more detailed story than what we told your parents, but we should also have a prenup.”
Tia’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open slightly. “You don’t have to protect your money from me!”
“How do you know I wasn’t trying to protect your money from me?”
Taken aback by that possibility, she thought about it, then remembered she didn’t have any money to protect. She’d only been working two years. Not enough time to accumulate a nest egg. Any money she had saved had gone into the down payment for her house.
“I don’t have any money.”
“Okay, then we’re back to protecting mine. But for a few seconds there, when you thought you might have money, you have to admit you wanted a prenup, too.”
This was why she wouldn’t sleep with him. He was nothing like the guy of her childhood fantasies. He wasn’t a sweet, considerate, smitten Prince Charming. He was a grouch who perpetually watched out for himself. “You’re insane.”
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t care what you think of me.” He pushed himself off the sofa and poured two fingers of Scotch. “Can I get you something? Soda? Iced tea? Glass of milk?”
“I’m fine,” she said, but she wasn’t. This morning she had been a happy-go-lucky employee at an advertising firm. She had a job secure enough that she was ready, even happy, to become a mom. In her generosity of spirit and fairness of heart, she’d decided to tell her baby’s father he was about to be a dad. She’d agreed to marry him to protect her father from the potential stress that telling the real story might generate. Now, her father was okay, but she was stuck spending too much time with a man who always looked on the dark side of things. She wished she had realized Drew wasn’t the nice guy she had created in her fantasies before she’d made love with him, but she’d been so caught up in her childhood crush that she’d let herself believe he was the man in her dreams.
He wasn’t. She didn’t know exactly who he was, but he most certainly wasn’t Prince Charming.
“I’m not sleeping with you.”
He peered at her over his Scotch glass. His gaze went from her short cap of dark hair, along her face, down her shoulders, pausing at her breasts, and then tumbled to her toes. For a few seconds he appeared to be considering his answer. Finally, he smiled and said, “I don’t remember asking.”
Embarrassment shot through her, but she ignored it. She didn’t believe for one second that he didn’t want to sleep with her. Still, she wasn’t arguing with good fortune.
“Let’s just say that was another one of those things we had to get out of the way.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
He strolled back to the white sofa and settled again on the plump cushion. “Let’s get back to the prenup.”
“I don’t have any money. I don’t want yours. I think your lawyer should be able to handle that.”
“You don’t want your lawyer to draw it up?”
“I don’t have a lawyer.”
“Then we’ll use mine. But you should get one to look it over before you sign it.”
“Why? Planning to cheat me?”
“No, just teaching you to watch your back. Marriage is as much a business proposition as anything else. It pays not to forget that.”
She would have had a snappy comeback, but as he spoke the room began to spin. She swayed slightly and groped for the back of a nearby club chair with cognac-colored pillows that matched the silk printed drapes.
Before she had a solid hold, Drew was at her side. “Whoa. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. But it’s been a long day.” Really long. All she had wanted was to do the right thing. For her trouble, she was stuck with a lunatic arguing about prenups. “I’m exhausted.”
“Then we’ll talk in the morning. We have the whole house to ourselves for at least two weeks because my housekeeper is taking care of her sister in Minneapolis after surgery. We don’t have to figure everything out tonight.”
Tia shifted out from under his hold. “Great. I’ll get my overnight bag from my car, then you can show me where to sleep.”
“I’ll get your overnight bag,” Drew said as he caught her by the shoulders, turned her around and led her into the foyer. He pointed up the steps. “Pick any room you want. Just don’t take the room at the end of the hall. That’s mine. I’d give it to you if you insist, but since Mrs. Hernandez has been gone, it’s a mess. The others are all clean. Take one of them.” With that, he turned and walked out the front door.
Tia climbed the steps. At the top she gazed down the long, quiet corridor of the second floor of his brand-new house and counted six bedroom doors. She would have taken the first, but curiosity got the better of her and she sneaked down the hall, peeking into each room, gasping every time she opened a door because all six were beautifully appointed. Probably professionally decorated.
And she suddenly realized why Drew wanted a prenup. In the same way that she’d grown up in the past six years, he’d become wealthy. Maybe even the object of women pursuing him for his money. And she’d shown up on his doorstep waving the oldest trick in the book. A pregnancy. After a case of mistaken identity.
Wow. No wonder Drew wanted a prenup. For all practical intents and purposes, it looked as if she’d tricked him.
“Do you have any rope?”
Drew glanced up from reading the morning paper. When he saw Tia standing in his kitchen doorway, he steeled himself against the slam of desire that hit him like a tsunami. He didn’t mind that she had the waistband of her too-big sweatpants bunched in her fist. What got to him was the enticing strip of belly flesh exposed because she had her white T-shirt tied at her midriff. It reminded him that he knew how soft she was. He knew how sweet she smelled. He knew just how good they had been together before he’d figured out she was Ben’s daughter.
Which was exactly why she was totally off-limits. She was Ben’s daughter. Not somebody he’d normally seduce. Not somebody he would sleep with again. Not only that, but their situation hadn’t really been settled. If she wouldn’t sign a prenup, he couldn’t marry her.
When she’d conveniently become sick before they could finish their discussion about the prenup, it had finally sunk into Drew’s thick skull that it was pretty darned odd that Tia had had absolutely no hesitation about making love the day they’d met at the party in Pittsburgh. They didn’t really know each other as adults, so Drew knew there was no emotional bond between them. Which meant the most logical conclusion to be drawn for why she’d fall into the arms of a man she hardly knew was that she had wanted something.
He didn’t have a clue what it was, but he did know that though he was duty-bound to raise his child and protect Ben, there was no way in hell he was losing half this farm. If she thought she was going to hoodwink him out of money, she was sadly mistaken. In fact, he’d decided not to push the issue of the prenup until he had a better handle on what game she was playing.
Gripping her too-big bottoms, Tia ambled to the table. “The first two weeks I was pregnant, I threw up every day and I lost ten pounds. Now all of my baggy clothes are way too baggy.”
“There’s plenty of rope for those pants in the stable,” he said, and turned his attention back to his newspaper. “If we were staying for breakfast I’d get you a bale. Since we’re going out, you might as well shower and put on something that fits.”
“We’re going out?”
“We need to be seen in public before your mother calls the preacher to arrange the ceremony or the local caterer to order two roasters of chicken for a buffet supper, and word of our marriage gets out.”
“You’re right.”
“So go change and I’ll see you at the truck.”
Though Tia cringed at the mention of his truck, much to Drew’s relief, she didn’t argue. She left the kitchen and twenty minutes later, dressed in comfortable-looking capri pants and a crisp white blouse, she joined him by his black truck where he was talking over the day’s chores with two hands.
“Jim, Pete,” he said when Tia joined them. He slid his arm across her shoulders. “You remember Tia Capriotti, Ben’s daughter.”
Jim grinned. Pete took off his hat.
“Sure.”
Tia extended her hand to shake both of theirs. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“We’re going for breakfast right now,” Drew said, not giving anybody a chance to really get to know each other. If her goal was to cheat him, he had to be very careful how chummy he let her get with the people close to him. He still had to marry her. He still wanted to be part of his child’s life. But he’d be darned if he’d let her insinuate herself into his world enough that she could get information to use against him to take half of the farm he’d worked for for the past ten years. “We should be back at about eleven. I’ll check on you then.”
Jim and Pete nodded and headed for the stable. Drew turned Tia in the direction of his truck.
“How about if we take my car?”
“No.”
“I no longer get morning sickness, but I still get motion sickness in any vehicle but my own car. We don’t want to show up at the diner first thing in the morning with me green and begging for crackers.”
He sighed. Unfortunately, she had a point. “Fine. But I’m driving.”
Tia rolledher eyes. “I’m pregnant. I’m not an invalid.”
“No, but I’ve seen the way you drive,” he said, taking the keys from her. “I want to get there in one piece.”
He opened the passenger’s-side door for her. She got in and he closed the door, then rounded the hood. He slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. It purred to life like the finely tuned piece of engineering that it was, and he smiled. He didn’t know a man in the world who wouldn’t have smiled.
“Nice car.” And not the car of a woman who needed to cheat a man out of money. He frowned. That really was the truth. This wasn’t the car of a woman who needed to trick a man for money.
“Thanks. I bought it as a present to myself two years ago when I graduated.”
Ah. Graduation money. The car didn’t count. “What is it you do for a living, again?”
“I work for an ad firm.”
“You took all those brains your dad told me you had and decided they would best serve the world by selling panty hose?”
She laughed. “I’m pretty good with panty hose, breakfast cereal is the specialty of the company I work for.”
“You think hawking cereal is more important than science or medicine?”
“No, but I don’t have a science or medicine kind of brain. I’m analytical, but I’m more verbal. I could have probably made a lot more money at a drug company, but I like what I do.” She shrugged. “And I don’t do so bad in the money department, either. In fact, as I climb the corporate ladder, my salary will increase quite nicely.”
Drew frowned again. She sounded like a woman who had her future all planned out, not a woman who would marry a guy for money. But that only baffled him all the more. If she didn’t want his money, what the hell did she want badly enough to make love with him that night in Pittsburgh?
“So you have a good job?”
She nodded. “And a house.”
That’s right! He’d been to her house. “Which means you should want a prenup as much as I do.”
“Because of my house?” she laughed. “Every cent I had saved went into a down payment, and I mortgaged the rest. If you tried to take my house, I’d hand you the payment book.”
“So you need money?”
She shook her head as if disgusted with him. “How many times do I have to tell you that I have a job. A good job. A job where I can climb the ladder. I have as much of a chance of being an executive at my company as anybody. I’m fine.”
Drew shifted uncomfortably on the driver’s seat of her car. He got it. She was self-sufficient. She didn’t need him or his money. But that meant the only logical conclusion he could draw for why they’d ended up in bed was that she had been overwhelmingly attracted to him. So attracted to him she’d forgotten all about birth control. So attracted she’d fallen for stupid lines. Really fallen. She’d all but purred with happiness in his arms.
He swallowed, suddenly aware of how close they were in the confines of her tiny car. The attraction they’d felt the night they’d met at the party had not been onesided. He’d been overwhelmingly attracted to her, too. On top of that, the heavenly soft, incredibly sensual woman beside him would be spending the next eight months of weekends with him. If he didn’t get ahold of himself right now, all he would be thinking about for all eight of those months would be sex.
He parked her car in the lot beside the diner and guided her into the small restaurant. Filled with Saturday-morning patrons, the place was alive with conversation and brimming with the scents of fresh coffee, bacon and maple syrup.
“Good morning, Drew,” Elaine Johnston said. Tall and amply built, the wife of Bill Johnston, the diner’s owner, served as hostess normally, but also filled in as a waitress or cook. “And good morning to you, too, Isabella.”
“She goes by Tia now,” Drew interjected, and though Tia laughed, Drew was struck by what a smart move that had been. By telling Elaine that Tia no longed used Isabella but went by the name Tia, he subtly told the woman in contact with nearly everybody in Calhoun Corners that he knew personal things about Isabella Capriotti.
But though that was good for the charade, Drew felt an odd sensation in his gut. They were sexually attracted. She hadn’t tricked him. She didn’t need him. Hell, she didn’t want him—except sexually. Now that he’d waded through the situation and realized she’d found him as irresistible as he’d found her, he was also recognizing that if he played his cards right she could want him again. And again. And again.
As Elaine led them down the aisle between two rows of booths, Drew inhaled a sharp breath. He had to stop thinking like this.
When they were seated and Elaine was on her way to get their coffee, Tia said, “So what now?”
His answer was quick and automatic. “We continue to make people believe that we are madly in love.” But as the words came tumbling out of his mouth, he realized that if she wasn’t the problem—if she hadn’t tricked him and didn’t want anything from him—then, technically, he was the problem. He’d seduced her. He was forcing her to marry him. He was demanding a place in her baby’s life. And now he was thinking about seducing her again.
He was scum.
“We have to make people believe we’re madly in love immediately? Can’t we date?”