A Baby by Chance (25 page)

“Don’t bet on that.” Chance favored her with a sexy grin. “It’s you I’m attracted to, Madison, not your job title. You’re more than the sum of your work and you always will be.”

Madison let out a short, bleak laugh. “I wish I could believe that,” she said bitterly, shaking her head, “but I grew up seeing for myself that, when put to the test, men react otherwise.”

Chance used his leverage on her hand to tug her into the open V of his legs so she was settled on his thigh. Madison tried not to think how good—how warm and strong and solid—his leg felt beneath her hips.

“My mother stopped working soon after my parents married, to have me.” Madison’s lips took a downward curve. “Their marriage was never the same after that.” She had seen the same phenomenon in other marriages, too. The wife became less glamorous and interesting. The husband either strayed or turned to his guy friends for company.

Chance studied her from beneath the brim of his hat. “You blame yourself, too, don’t you?”

Madison shrugged and turned her eyes toward the shadowy mountains in the distance. Once again, Chance saw what few others did. “Maybe if I hadn’t been there, my mother would have been able to keep working and have a career.” Madison swallowed hard around the growing knot of emotion in her throat. “Maybe then my father would have remained in love with her.”

“And maybe if your mother had built some fabulous career for herself, their relationship still would have lost its luster,” Chance countered practically.

If only I could believe that,
Madison thought.
If only I could believe in the happily ever after.

He studied her, his expression tender. “You don’t believe that?”

“I don’t know.” Madison shrugged, all her troubled thoughts coming to the fore. “Maybe I would if my father hadn’t always cheated on my mother with other career women. Don’t you see? He never became involved with any housewives—no matter how sexy or witty or wonderful they were. He always went after colleagues, women he worked with.”

Laying his hand on her wrist for emphasis, Chance grimaced and said, “Did you ever think that was probably just due to proximity?”

Madison drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That plus excitement. I heard him tell my mother once that these women had minds. Lives apart from him and from me.”

“Madison, the one thing you could never be is dull,” Chance said firmly as he wrapped his arms around her. He bent to kiss her forehead. “Work or no work, you are the most exciting, most unpredictable, most headstrong and determined woman I have ever met.”

Madison felt the tingle of his lips on her skin from the point of contact to her toes. She looked at him, her heart already beginning to race. “And you like that?”

“Oh, yeah,” Chance said softly, sexily. “I like that a lot.”

Just when she thought he was going to kiss her, he pulled back. “But we’ve got a problem here.”

Madison went very still.

“Look at me.” He brushed his hand down his dusty sweat-stained form. “And look at you.” He gestured at her impeccably pulled-together appearance. “Looking at the two of us, I’m reminded of a soap commercial you put together. You know, the one where the guy comes in like this, and his woman takes him in hand.”

His woman.
Madison liked the sound of that.

“You’re suggesting?”

Chance grinned. “That you lead me to the shower. And help me wash all this grit off. You bet.”

Madison’s heart was racing. Her body humming with anticipation, she stood up. “I think I can do that,” she teased.

Chance tossed his hat. It landed on the swing. “It’d certainly make my fantasy come true.”

Short minutes later, the two of them were in the shower, stripped to the skin, standing under the warm, invigorating spray. He held her fast against him, making her feel the heat, the need. His hands slid down the curve of her back to her buttocks. Murmuring her name, he kissed her. Hot, openmouthed kisses. Nuzzling kisses. Sexy kisses. Tender kisses. Again and again and again. And taking him by the shoulders, she kissed him back, kissed him until they were breathless. Wanting—even if it wasn’t exactly in their bargain—some guarantee that what they had was strong enough to last a lifetime. Wanting some kind of a commitment, if not in any legal sense, then one in body and soul.

And as he backed her against the cool tile wall, kissing her thoroughly all the while, Madison noted that Chance seemed to want the same from her, even if he didn’t come right out and say it, either. Knowing what it was to want, to need, to feel so damn lonely inside you could cry, she indulged him in turn—making no secret of the fact that blood rushed hot and needy through her veins or that she enjoyed soaping him as much as he enjoyed soaping her. Making no secret of the fact that they’d barely started and already her body was treacherously ready for him, treacherously wet and waiting.

And still he made her wait. Eyes dark with yearning, he bent his head and kissed her again, kissed her hard. She wrapped her arms around him, urging him on, engulfing him with tenderness, giving her all. The insides of her thighs clasped the outsides of his, and as his hands swept between them, exploring and caressing, she let him have his way. She loved the feel of him, the scent of him, the way he strove—almost continually—to possess her and stamp her as his. She loved the way he anchored his hands around her hips and lifted her against the wall. And then he was inside her, slowly, inexorably taking her, claiming her as his and his alone. Even if he didn’t say the words, she felt them in the way he loved her, the way he gave her pleasure even as he sought his own. So what if they weren’t exactly in love with each other, Madison thought defiantly as a tidal wave of pleasure swept through her, overwhelming her. They had this. And each other. And a child on the way. For now, maybe forever, it was enough, she told herself firmly. It had to be.

* * *

U
RSULA
, E
D AND
M
ADISON
stood beneath the tent, watching Chance barrel out of the cab of a mud-splattered Ranchero pickup truck and into the pouring rain, where he stood grimly sizing up a section of downed fence and several trees that looked to have been blown over by a fierce storm. He was clad in a yellow slicker that covered him from shoulders to mid-calf, Stetson, boots, jeans and plain white shirt. As scripted, Chance jumped into his Ranchero with the agility of a professional stuntman. Turning it swiftly, he raced across a bumpy pasture to a nearby stream. Braking, he parked and jumped out again. Working with the speed of a rodeo cowboy, he tied a rope to the trailer hitch and fastened it around his waist, then waded knee-deep into a rushing stream.

“Cut!” Vince yelled.

“That was great, Chance!” Ed called. Ursula nodded.

“Think you can do it one more time?” Vince shouted.

Chance turned, gave the thumbs-up sign and headed to the Ranchero while the rest of them huddled beneath the tent, protected from the pouring rain.

“Explain to me again how all this is going to work,” Ursula said.

Madison smiled, happy to comply. “The scenes we shot with the digital camera earlier today—of Chance leading one of his mares and her colts in out of the rain—are going to be edited in, via computer, to this footage in the finished commercial. It will look as if Chance is actually rescuing the mare and the colt from the stream.”

“Just like in a movie,” Ursula murmured, pleased.

“Just like in a four-star movie,” Madison agreed, knowing this commercial was going to be as exciting as any action-adventure movie when it was finished. Ranchero truck sales would probably explode.

“Chance is outdoing himself today,” Ed murmured, pleased.

“He has been a really good sport,” Madison agreed. They’d done this take alone sixteen times. Yet Chance approached it tirelessly and in good humor.

She had to admire him for that even as she wondered if his happiness—and hers—had anything to do with their tender, passionate lovemaking the night before. She hoped so. She wanted their relationship to be as good for him as it was for her and their baby, because only then would they stand a chance for real, lifelong happiness.

By the time they wrapped for the day and the crew were on their way to town, Chance was drenched to the skin and shivering. It was still pouring rain. A definite chill had descended in the mountain air.

“I’m going to go up and get a shower,” Chance told Madison. He peeled off his slicker, hat and muddy boots on the porch.

“I’ll make you some coffee,” Madison said, kissing his cheek.

As it turned out, she did better than that. No sooner had Chance emerged from the shower and toweled off some fifteen minutes later than she was upstairs with dryer-warmed clothes and a cup of coffee laced liberally with bourbon. “Thought it might help warm you up a bit,” she said, looking, acting and sounding like a wife.

Chance could only stare at her in wonderment. “Thanks.” He was about to ask her to slip into the shower with him when she stepped out of reach.

“I’ll be downstairs,” she told him, her green eyes dancing with a mixture of mystery and anticipation. “Promise you won’t keep me waiting?”

Wondering how he had ever managed without her, wondering how he ever would again, Chance nodded. “I promise.”

* * *

C
HANCE CAME DOWN
to find Madison in the living room. She’d built a fire in the grate and set up a table for two in front of it. “Hungry?” she asked cheerfully.

Chance nodded, aware something smelled awfully good. “Want some help in there?” Feeling surprised and pleased at all the trouble she’d gone to, he nodded at the kitchen.

The model of efficiency, Madison shook her head. “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.” She returned with two steaming bowls of cream of potato soup, garnished with crispy bits of bacon and grated cheddar cheese, and two garden salads. Then went back and came in with two hamburgers broiled to perfection.

Was this what it would be like, Chance wondered, if Madison were his wife? There was no denying he could get used to this. He eyed her warily. “You don’t have any more bad news for me, do you?”

Madison tensed and straightened. “No.” She looked at him curiously as she set down their plates. “Why?”

Chance shrugged as he held her chair for her. He wondered what kind of honeymoon a woman like Madison would want. Something lively and exotic or quiet and private? Maybe a little bit of both? “I’m not used to being treated like royalty,” he said.

Madison slipped into her seat. She sent him a sexy, beguiling smile that made him feel as if he wasn’t moving too fast in hoping for a more traditional future.

“All I did was make you dinner,” she protested.

Chance thought about how pretty she looked in a loose cotton shirt and jeans. “And put my clothes in the dryer to warm, and made me coffee with bourbon in it,” he said, letting her know with a glance how much he appreciated it all. Madison was more suited to marriage than she knew. Maybe he was, too.

Madison lifted a brow as her bare feet came over to mingle with his. “No one’s done these things for you before?”

No one had made him feel this cared for, this loved. He shook his head and took a spoonful of the hot, delicious soup. “I’m used to fending for myself.”

Madison’s lips took on a rueful curve as she crumbled saltine crackers in her soup. “Me, too.”

Chance slathered mustard on his bun. “Speaking of fending for ourselves...”

“Hmm?”

Now was as good a time as any to start talking about the baby. And all the time between takes the last couple of weeks had given Chance plenty of opportunity to think about the things they had yet to discuss—things that shouldn’t be put off indefinitely. “We haven’t talked about how we’re going to manage a baby,” Chance said, and saw Madison tense slightly.

“I know they need clothes and diapers and a crib to sleep in,” he continued. “But beyond that—”

“I’m sure there are lists in the baby departments of stores,” Madison said. “But we’ve got plenty of time for that.”

Did they? She was only going to be here a short while longer. Then, unless he could do something to get her to change her mind, or somehow include him in her life, he’d barely see her. The thought upset Chance more than he wanted to admit. He hadn’t had enough time with Madison. Not nearly enough.

Madison added a triple layer of dill pickles to her burger. When the silence continued, she flashed him a curious look and cut straight to the chase. “What’s on your mind, Chance?”

“I want to know if I should set up a nursery here.”

Madison gave him a slow, measured look. “If you want me and the baby to visit—”

I want you to live here,
Chance thought. But he knew it was too soon for him to say that.

Madison remained quiet, thinking, then sat back in her chair, looked him straight in the eye, and said, “Maybe we should actually get two sets of everything. One for my Dallas apartment and one for your ranch house here, since the baby will be in both places.”

Disappointment knotted inside Chance. Maybe it was foolish of him, but he had hoped that Madison would have started to at least think about them living closer to each other. “That’s practical,” he agreed reluctantly. “And no doubt about it, I want our baby to have everything he or she needs.”

“So do I,” Madison agreed wholeheartedly. She sent Chance a level look. “That’s only part of it, isn’t it?”

Chance nodded. “I want our child to know he or she is loved by both of us. Not just be told it,” he said quietly, “but to feel it. In here.” He laid his hand over his heart. The way he hadn’t since his mother died.

A troubled light came into Madison’s eyes. “You don’t think I can do that alone?”

“I don’t think either of us can,” he said flatly. “Not as a single parent.” There wouldn’t be enough hours in the day.

Madison pushed away her dinner abruptly. She had a panicked expression on her face. “I thought we had an agreement, Chance.”

“No, Madison.” Chance held his ground under her accusing glance. “You had an agreement. I just didn’t argue with you at the time.” And now that he and Madison were together as a couple, it was time they started dealing with reality. Time he convinced her to take a job in Wyoming, instead of remaining in Dallas once her ad campaign wrapped up.