His Convenient Virgin Bride

coming to terms with the situation herself.

He shook his head and gave a scoff of disbelief. “You hadn’t thought about it? You’re unexpectedly pregnant, and it’s not on your mind twenty-four seven?”

“I just found out.”

“You told Amber a week ago.”

“And I saw the doctor this morning. I hadn’t even decided-”

“Decided what?” His voice went deadly low, and his gray eyes turned to black.

“What to do.” She had her riding career, her students, her business. Not to mention a baby, then a child. She’d never even known her own mother, how would she handle it all?

He wrapped his hand firmly around her upper arm. “Stephanie, if you even think about-”

She blinked up at him.

“-harming our baby.”

Harming? What was he talking…

Then her eyes went wide, and she jerked her arm from his grip. “What is the matter with you?”

“Me? You’re the one who hasn’t made up her mind-”

“How to raise the baby.” She smacked him on the front of his shoulder. “Not whether to keep the baby.”

He didn’t even react to the blow. “You can’t be happy about this.”

“Of course I’m not happy about this. I’m not ready to be a mother. I have a business to run. My jumping career is ruined. And my brothers know I slept with you.”

“Your brothers will get over it.”

Her brothers. She groaned inwardly.

Royce and Jared knew Alec had made her pregnant.

Wait a minute. She looked him up and down. “You’re still standing.”

“I am.”

She cocked her head. “How come you’re still standing?”

“You thought your brothers would kill me for sleeping with you?”

“I never thought my brothers would find out.”

“Yeah.” He glanced away. “I was kind of counting on the same thing.”

Then the fog lifted, and a picture came clear in her mind. Of course her brothers hadn’t harmed him. They needed him alive.

She didn’t know whether to be furious or mortified. “You’re here for a shotgun wedding.”

“Something like that,” he admitted.

She felt guilty on a whole new front now. Alec was a decent guy. He didn’t deserve this.

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Do I look worried?”

“You definitely look worried.”

“It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

“It doesn’t have to be anything at all.” Making up her mind, she turned decisively and started down the corridor.

Alec settled in beside her.

She finger-combed her hair and refastened her ponytail at the base of her neck. “Thanks for stopping by, Alec. You’re an honorable man. But your baby is safe in my hands. I’ll drop you a line once it’s born.”

He coughed out a laugh. “Yeah, right.”

“Your life is in Chicago. Leave this to me.” In this day and age, a reluctant husband was a complication not a benefit. What had her brothers been thinking?

“Not quite the way things are going to happen,” he said.

“They can’t make you marry me.”

“Now that part’s debatable.”

“Okay. Maybe they can make you. But they can’t make me.” She spotted a length of binder twine on the floor and reflexively stooped to pick it up.

“They want what’s best for you, Stephanie.”

She wrapped the orange twine neatly around her hand. “No, Alec. They want you to pay for your sins.”

“They want to protect you.”

She gave a dry chuckle. “From what? A scarlet letter?”

He didn’t respond.

“I’m a big girl, Alec. I made a mistake, and I’m going to pay. But it doesn’t mean you have to get dragged along for the ride.” She peeled the loop of twine from her hand and reached for the door latch.

His hand shot out, blocking the door shut. He stared down at her with an intense singularity of purpose. “Get this straight in your mind, Stephanie. You are marrying me.”

She squinted at him in the dim light. “That was a joke, right?”

“Am I laughing?”

“I don’t know what they threatened you with.”

“Nobody threatened me with anything.”

“Then why are you talking crazy?”

“I’m talking logic. It doesn’t have to be forever.”

“And what girl doesn’t want to hear that in a marriage proposal?”

“Stephanie.”

His words shouldn’t have the power to hurt her. She barely knew the man. And she needed to keep it that way.

She stuffed the twine in her pocket and crossed her arms over her chest. “Marriage would make a bad situation worse.”

He imitated her posture, crossing his own arms. “Marriage would make things right.”

Suddenly the entire conversation seemed absurd, and a cold laugh burst out of her. “How do you figure?”

His jaw clenched. “I’m the baby’s father.”

“Yes?”

“I have a responsibility.”

“To do what?”

“I don’t know,” he practically shouted. “Provide for it.”

“You can write a check without having a marriage license.”

“Is that what you want?”

“Yes.”

“And I have no say?”

“Not really.”

He glared at her for a long moment. Then he smacked the door open and marched out of the barn.

As she watched his retreating back, Stephanie realized she had won.

She tried to feel glad about that, but somehow the emotion wouldn’t come.

Five

“Well, what was I supposed to say?” Stephanie challenged. Sitting on a submerged ledge, water to her waist in the ranch swimming hole, she stared at Amber over the rippled surface of the water.

“Yes?” Amber suggested as she pulled the last couple of strokes across the small, cliff bordered pool and settled on the ledge next to Stephanie. Her forehead was completely healed, and the cut from the accident would barely leave a scar.