The Unclaimed Baby (18 page)

She was just terrified of admitting it. She had loved Kyle and he had died. She loved Ashley and the baby could be ripped away from her at any second. How could she admit to loving Cord, when loss always seemed to follow such an admission?

 

Cord was absolutely certain that Sharon Lynn loved him. It was in every heated glance, in every lingering caress. Until she could recognize the emotion for something more than gratitude, though, their marriage was tied totally to Ashley's fate. It was a terrible burden to put on a tiny baby, who, in the end, had no control over her own destiny, much less theirs.

Somehow he had to get Sharon Lynn to acknowledge her feelings, to accept their marriage as a real
one before July, before a judge's ruling either cemented their relationship or tore it apart.

Being with Sharon Lynn day in and day out, living with her, sharing everything except her bed was the sweetest kind of torment imaginable. Every time her hand brushed his, every time he dared to steal a kiss, his blood sizzled. He'd used so little hot water in his showers, the water heater could have gone on the fritz and he wouldn't have known it.

But icy showers weren't cutting it. He wanted her, wanted to make her his wife in every sense of the word. But how? They had established the ground rules on the day she'd agreed to marry him. What would she do if he tried to change them now? What would she do, if he swept her into his arms, carried her into the bedroom, kicked the door shut and tried to seduce her? Would she give in, but hate him afterward? Or would she finally be able to admit that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her?

His whole life he'd been a man of action. He made quick, impetuous decisions and lived with the consequences. Now he was suddenly questioning his own instincts, twisting and turning every plan this way and that until he was dizzy with all the thinking and frustrated by the lack of action.

He'd spent the entire day at White Pines riding hard and doing every backbreaking task Cody could come up with just to keep from thinking, but it hadn't worked. He was exhausted, but his mind was still going a mile a minute and his pulse kicked up every single time an image of Sharon Lynn came to mind.

What this marriage needed, he concluded, what it had suffered from from the outset was the lack of a honeymoon. There'd been plenty of logical reasons not to suggest one at the outset. There were probably a million more reasons why it was a bad idea now. She might panic at the very mention of the word.

But, he thought with growing enthusiasm, she couldn't possibly say no to the notion of a little vacation. A trip all three of them could take, somewhere far from Los Piños, where lazy days on a beach would turn into romantic nights under the stars. A trip away from their cares, away from the threat of impromptu visits from Hazel Murdock. He grinned just thinking about the potential.

When he got back to the ranch office, it was already dusk. Even so, Cody was still in the office, doing whatever it was he did on that fancy computer of his that Harlan was always making a fuss about.

“I'm surprised to see you still here,” Cody said.

“Lately you seem to take off the minute your work is done.”

“Newlywed syndrome,” Cord said. He drew in a deep breath. “Mind if I ask a favor?”

Cody regarded him uneasily. “I don't mind you asking, as long as you don't mind if I say no.”

“I think when you hear what I have to say, you'll agree it's important.”

Cody gestured for him to go ahead.

“I want to take Sharon Lynn and the baby on a trip, not a long one, just a few days to get away from all the pressures around her. I think she deserves it.”

Cody grinned. “Right button to push with a concerned father. I couldn't agree more. And the two of you never did get a proper honeymoon. What did you have in mind?”

“Maybe a weekend at the beach,” he suggested, not wanting to ask for too much when Cody had already been more than generous about his work schedule.

“Son, let me give you a piece of advice. If you're hoping to put the sparkle back in Sharon Lynn's eyes, you're going to have to do better than that. Now, here's the plan I'd suggest. You call up a travel agent, get yourselves booked at a fancy hotel on a Caribbean island and don't even think about Los Piños or anything else for at least a week.”

His grin broadened. “Now I'm not suggesting you take him along, but I've seen Harlan Patrick moping around here for the past few weeks. Seems to me he could use a break, too. He could take Jordan's plane, fly you all wherever you want to go, spend a few days on the beach and bring you all back.”

Cord chuckled at Cody's suggestion. He was acting far more like an indulgent daddy than a boss. And the idea itself was perfect. “You wouldn't mind?”

“Hell, no, not if it means I could get some real work out of the two of you when you get back. You're both so distracted I'm surprised we have any cattle left. I've got half the men in the crew chasing around behind you to make sure the gates are closed.”

Cord winced. “It's that bad?”

“Well, I've got to say you're better than my son. Since Laurie took off, his head's in Nashville whether he'll admit to it or not. Might's well go on up there, for all the good he's doing me.” He regarded Cord intently. “So, is it a deal? Should I talk to Jordan about the plane and get Harlan Patrick ready to take off, say, tomorrow?”

“Make it the day after and we're on.” He figured it was going to take him at least that long to convince Sharon Lynn to go along with this and to pick a destination she'd always dreamed of visiting. He met Cody's gaze. “Just one thing.”

“What's that?”

“You're not expecting Harlan Patrick to move into the same hotel we do, are you?”

Cody chuckled. “No, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably insist her baby brother go on to another island.”

“Another hotel would probably do,” Cord said, then grinned. “That way he'll be close enough to baby-sit.”

“You know something, son? This could turn out to be the damnedest honeymoon anyone in the family's ever taken,” Cody said approvingly. “Daddy's going to be real disappointed he's not the one who thought of it.”

“Y
ou want to go where?” Sharon Lynn demanded, staring at Cord incredulously.

“To the Caribbean,” Cord explained patiently.

“Now?”

“Why
not
now?”

“You have a job. I have Dolan's. There's the custody battle. How can you possibly suggest going away?”

“Because we need a break. We need time alone with the baby to catch our breath, to just be a family.”

Her gaze narrowed. “A family?” she repeated, regarding him warily. “Cord, we're not a family, not really.”

“Who says we're not?” he retorted heatedly. “In the eyes of the law, we are. In the eyes of your fam
ily, we are. It's only the two of us who set down a bunch of silly ground rules we don't know how to change.”

Those silly ground rules were the only reason she'd been able to accept the idea of this marriage in the first place and now he wanted to change them? She should have seen this coming, should have known he'd want more from her than she could give, that his patience would wear thin. Her grandfather had warned her of that.

Before she could refuse this idiotic offer of an expensive vacation, he reached for her hand. He seemed to know that she couldn't think straight when he was touching her.

“Cord,” she protested, but not nearly vehemently enough.

He met her gaze evenly. “We need this, darlin'. We surely do. What could be so terrible about taking a trip? We'll spend a few days sitting by a pool or swimming in the warm Caribbean waters. Maybe go out dancing. Eat some exotic food. Take a moonlit walk on the beach.”

He painted an idyllic picture. “It does sound tempting,” she admitted. So tempting that her already weakening resolve to keep Cord at arm's length was likely to fly out the window by the end of the first romantic day. Though he'd never once mentioned the word, it sounded an awful lot like a honeymoon. The very idea made her tremble.

“Then let's do it,” Cord urged. “Harlan Patrick's agreed to fly us down, hang out nearby to serve as
doting uncle and baby-sitter. If you don't want to do it for yourself, just think what this will do for him. He's pining for Laurie. He needs a change of scenery to think things through.”

Her brother would be with them? She was supposed to think of this as something they were doing for his benefit? That didn't sound much like a honeymoon. She should have found that reassuring. Instead she found it irritating. As much as she adored Harlan Patrick, she wasn't sure she wanted him along on her honey… Whoops, she'd almost done it herself. She didn't want him along on their vacation.

Then, again, she reasoned, he could prove valuable. He could take Ashley while she and Cord spent time alone. She owed Cord that much, if only to thank him for all he'd done for her. Maybe she even owed herself a chance to discover if these feelings she'd been trampling on out of fear would blossom into the real thing, something strong enough to withstand whatever curves life tossed them. Was she brave enough to take that final, giant leap of faith?

She met Cord's gaze, caught the hopeful expression on his face and her heart flipped over. This trip could be a turning point for the two of them.

Suddenly she realized that she desperately wanted it to be. She wanted to stop living in lonely isolation. Even with Cord in the house, that was what she'd been doing, holding him at bay, shrouding her heart in ice so it couldn't be broken again. Maybe it was time to find out if Cord's touches and a fiery tropical
sun could melt away the ice and leave her whole again.

“I'll go,” she said softly, even as her pulse ricocheted wildly.

Cord scooped her up and whirled around. “Thank you, darlin'. You won't regret it.”

Sharon Lynn doubted she would regret the trip. How could she when she was finally going to steal a few days of romance with a man who had proven time and again just how deeply he loved her? It was the heartache that could come after that terrified her.

 

The breezes in their tropical paradise were sultry and scented with jasmine. The air shimmered with the sound of reggae, a beat that invited the listener to throw away cares and indulge in all life's passions.

Sharon Lynn felt as if she had stepped into another world. She had even put aside her aversion to alcohol and accepted a frothy, icy tropical drink with a sweet taste and an astounding kick. She was pretty sure her inhibitions had vanished a couple of hours ago, right after Harlan Patrick had taken off with Ashley. She hadn't even mounted much of a protest when they'd gone.

When Cord beckoned her onto the tiny, seaside dance floor, she floated into his arms. He smiled down at her.

“Having a good time?”

“I feel like some other person, as if I've fallen into an enchanted fairy tale. How is it possible to step off a plane and turn into somebody else?”

“No one knows you here. You can be anyone you want to be. Back home that's not possible. In Los Piños, there's history and family and a ton of emotional baggage. Here there's just the heat of the sun, the brilliance of the moon, a sky studded with stars.” He winked. “And me.”

She gazed into his eyes, which were regarding her with amusement. “Do you feel different here?”

“Not so different,” he confessed. “I still want you.”

Though the words were lightly spoken, the heat in his eyes commanded her to take the statement seriously.

She tightened her arms around his neck and snuggled in closer. The sensations shimmering through her were lazy and seductive. “I think you're a very sneaky man, Cord Branson.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you knew I wouldn't be able to resist you here,” she murmured, her breath fanning over his chest.

His breath hitched at that. “Is that so?”

“Mm-hmm.”

He tucked a finger under her chin and tilted her face up. “This will only go so far, unless it's what you want,” he assured her. “You'll have to set the pace.”

She took that as an out-and-out invitation to tease. How far could she push him? she wondered.

Could she indulge in an intimate caress? She tried
one and heard his gasp. That was enough to embolden her.

Maybe she could sneak a few of those breath-stealing kisses. She tried one and this time she was the one gasping for air when it was over. Still, she was tempted to go on.

Could she slide his shirt off and circle his masculine nipples with her tongue? She wisely held off on that one.

All of these were things she'd been imagining herself doing during the lonely nights when she'd been alone in her own bed while Cord slept just down the hall on the sofa. Was this her chance to experiment with her most wicked fantasies without risking her heart?

She sighed and rested her cheek against his chest, listened to the steady rhythm of his heart. His arms circled her waist. His hands rested low on her backside, tucking her body into intimate contact with his. There was no mistaking the hard length of his arousal beneath his jeans. She found that even more wildly intoxicating than that very dangerous drink she'd had.

This was Cord, she reminded herself. No man on earth was more blatantly masculine. No man she'd ever known could make her knees weak with a glance. No man had ever proved himself as capable of unselfish, generous love.

She felt her skin grow hot, felt the rush of moisture at the apex of her thighs, the pull low in her belly. Surrounded by the heat and the scent of him, she was
lost, drawn to become the new woman who had walked off the plane eager for new experiences.

She looked up and met Cord's hooded gaze “Take me back to the room,” she whispered. “Now.”

He went utterly still. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I've never been more sure of anything in my life.”

To her amusement, after he'd paid the bill, Cord took her the long way back to the room, along a winding path through scented flowers and twinkling white lights. She supposed he'd done it to give her time to reconsider, but instead the path he'd chosen only added to the magic. She felt as if they were walking through a fairy-tale world, where nothing could ever, ever go wrong.

He cast one last questioning look at her when they stepped inside the room, but at her nod, he moved in close and brushed a kiss across her lips. No butterfly's touch could have been lighter, yet Sharon Lynn felt the impact of that kiss all the way to her toes. It sent her reeling. If he intended to go about this so slowly, so reverently, she was going to shatter into a zillion pieces.

She wanted fast. She wanted mindless. She wanted to be caught up in all-consuming passion. And the only way to make sure of that was to reach for Cord, to strip off his shirt with a scattering of buttons, to startle him with an eager reach for the zipper of his jeans.

After one stunned instant while he assessed her reckless mood, he smiled. He had her out of her own
clothes in a matter of seconds, shredding some of them in his impatience.

At last,
she cried inwardly as his hands were everywhere, stirring her, arousing her, giving pleasure so intense that she wondered at the foolishness that had prevented her from seeking it before now. He took her to a climax that left her slick with sweat and shuddering with the force of it.

Then and only then did he kneel above her. Gazing into her eyes, he slowly entered her, filled her and took her on another incredible journey to a level of passion she'd only dreamed of.

Stunned by the sensations rippling through in its aftermath, she glanced across the bed to find Cord's steady gaze on her. He reached across and brushed a wayward tendril of damp hair back from her face.

“When you've caught your breath,” he suggested softly, “we'll try that again.”

Something in his voice hinted at censure. “Cord, what's wrong?”

“The next time I want to make love to you, darlin'. I don't want to be in a rush just to make sure you won't change your mind.”

A chill washed over her. Had he seen through her so clearly, had he guessed that the urgency was borne of panic, the fear that if she allowed herself to make love with him, to truly feel the wild sweep of emotions, she would never be able to let him go?

To her surprise, she must have been crying because Cord brushed away a tear with the pad of his thumb.

“Don't cry, darlin'. Please don't cry. That wasn't meant as a criticism. All I meant was that I've been looking forward to making love with you for what seems like forever. Next time I want to go slow. I want it to be memorable.”

“But it was,” she protested. That, of course, was the real irony. Even though she had deliberately escalated the pace, done exactly as he had accused and rushed things, she knew she would never forget a single moment of it, could never forget the passion.

“Come here,” he said, beckoning until she was resting against his chest. “I know you don't want me to keep on saying this, but I love you, Sharon Lynn. That's a fact. It's not going to go away. I'm not going to disappear on you. The only way you'll ever get rid of me is to end this marriage yourself and kick me out on my butt. Even then, I'll fight you to hold on to what we have.”

She blinked and looked into his fierce gaze and knew that he meant it. She wasn't going to shake him ever. And in the last few minutes she'd realized something else: she didn't want to. She wanted desperately to hold on tight to what they'd found, for however long it lasted.

She slid up his body until she could slant her mouth over his. At his look of surprise, she grinned. “Let's try it your way, cowboy, and see which way we like it best.”

He made love to her slowly, then, his work-roughened hands gentle on her body and wickedly inventive.

“Interesting,” she said, when he had her restless and panting beneath him.

He chuckled at the deliberate taunt. “Sweetheart, it's only going to get better.”

There were sly, unexpected kisses in spots she'd had no idea were so sensitive. He made love to her body in a hundred different ways without entering her, teasing her, tormenting her until she thought she'd splinter apart. She would have begged by then, but twinkling, knowing eyes met hers as he slid deeply inside her, then withdrew in a slow, exquisite rhythm that made nothing else in the world matter except Cord's body and hers and the here and now magic between them.

When she was at the edge, when Cord hesitated above her again, he captured her gaze and held it as if to assure himself that she knew precisely who was sparking this magic. His muscles were taut with the tension of holding himself still. His expression was fierce.

“I…love…you,” he whispered as he plunged deeply into her one last time, sending them both into spasms of ecstasy.

She felt it all then, not just the sensations of wickedly satisfying sex, but the love. His and, heaven help her, her own. Fresh tears tracked down her cheeks as she touched a finger to his lips, gasped as he drew it into his mouth and sucked gently.

She swallowed hard against a tide of emotions threatening to overwhelm her. “I love you,” she confessed in a whisper.

Cord looked as if the words had shattered him. “Again,” he pleaded. “Say it again.”

“I love you.” The words came out stronger the second time.

“Ah, darlin',” he said with a sigh, as he folded his arms around her and held her close. “Now we truly are indomitable.”

 

If Cord thought their idyllic time-out had solved all their problems, he was wrong. Back in Texas, back in the real world, doubts came back, along with renewed fears that they would lose their baby girl. With every day that passed, he could see Sharon Lynn slipping back into old ways, holding him at a distance as if she were once more protecting her heart. When they should have been closest, they were further apart than ever. He'd about run out of ways to change that.

Finally one night when he touched her, only to have her ease away from him, he lost patience.