Working on a Full House (11 page)

Valerie blinked a few times. "Excuse me?"

Roy waved a hand in the air. "Poker friends of mine. We need a witness. One of them ought to do."

"Witnesses?" Valerie's cool and assured voice had gone hoarse and wavery.
The minister
? "I, uh. What are you talking about?" But she knew.

Roy seemed to think she did, too. "We've decided. There's no point in delaying. So I arranged the wedding for this morning. The minister is squeezing us in between other ceremonies, so we have to be on time."

The wedding. She'd known he was going to say that, but Valerie had to put one hand up to her chest and make sure her heart was still beating. She'd agreed to this marriage,
in principle
. The idea of actually
doing it
was something else. "Uh, now wait a minute. I don't know... That is, how did you — ?"

"I arranged everything last night." He appeared, briefly, hunted. "Ahem, just in case. Like I said, now that we've decided it's what we want to do, there's no sense delaying."

No sense, except in truly thinking it through and making sure she wasn't out of her mind. "Well, uh, Roy, let's take a time-out here."

His head tilted. "I thought you agreed to marry me."

"Well, yes. Yes, I did."

His eyes narrowed. "Are you changing your mind? Is that what you're saying?"

"No! No, I'm not saying that at all." Although, maybe she was. If she had more time, maybe she could come up with another way to handle the situation.

Roy's look turned challenging.

Valerie raised her hands. "I intend to marry you." She made this definite. Indeed, hadn't she spent most of the night trying to come up with another solution, to no avail? "It's just...
Today
?"

His chin lifted. "What other day did you have in mind?"

Her hands lowered. Good question. If they were going to go through with this, why not right now? And yet...

Roy's brows rose. He was waiting for an answer. If not today, then when?

When it would mean something
.

The answer came to Valerie like a blow, painful and unexpected. She found herself staring at Roy, with his rough, handsome features and his deep-in-the-bones masculinity. A man she craved in a variety of ways — but didn't really know at all.

Surely she didn't expect this legal maneuver marriage to mean anything. Ever.
Surely
not.

They'd enjoyed a
one-night stand
together. Sex. Not love. And temporary sex at that. Please. For a lot of reasons, she couldn't afford to wait around hoping a wedding ceremony between them was ever going to mean something.

She cleared her throat. "You're right. Again, you're right. There is no reason to delay."

His brows lowered. "I want you to be sure about this, Valerie."

She smiled. "I'm sure." The wedding was a pure formality. Taking care of it was something she felt perfectly ready to do. Heck, she didn't even need to change her clothes. The black slacks and wool sweater she had on would do.

Roy kept frowning. "You're doing the right thing, Valerie. We both are."

"I know that. So let's do it."

He hesitated, then stepped forward to take her arm. It was a firm touch, a very nearly possessive one.

In her addled brain only, Valerie told herself. Jeez, she had to get a grip here. The man wasn't interested in her, but in his baby. That was it: the baby.

~~~

"I hope this is all right." Roy let go of Valerie's arm to open the door of a room off the wide, carpeted hall of the hotel's mezzanine level. "I couldn't get either of the chapels on such short notice."

Valerie shot him a questioning look. Why would he want one of the chapels for the kind of wedding they were having? She was in her work slacks, for goodness' sake. "I'm sure anything will be all right," she murmured as she walked through the door.

"Ah!" A man of healthy, outdoor looks stepped forward from the center of the room. "So here's the famous bride." He was smiling widely. Next to him stood a thin older man wearing glasses.

Valerie's attention was half caught by the two men, and half caught by the twin flower arrangements on either side of a podium artfully draped with peach-colored linen.

"Uh, how do you do?" she mumbled, while taking in the rest of the elegant meeting room. There was a table set with a peach-colored tablecloth, upon which rested another arrangement of flowers. Decorated. The room was decorated.

"This is Kenny Doubletree," Roy told Valerie. "Like I said before, a poker friend. And this is Isaac Franck, a professor at the university." He smiled widely. "Believe it or not, another poker friend."

"How do you do?" Valerie was doing her best to hold onto her composure while she took in the suits the men were wearing, as if they were attending a real wedding. And the flowers...

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Kenny, the healthy, outdoors one. He shook her hand vigorously.

The other man, the one Roy had called a professor, was far less ebullient. Valerie felt her anxiety ease beneath his calm, accepting smile.

"How do you do — uh...?" He paused with a polite question in his eyes.

"Oh. I'm Valerie."

"Pleased to meet you, Valerie." The professor smiled again in a soothing, slightly weary way.

Friends, Valerie thought. These weren't merely handy witnesses. Roy had invited his friends.

The Kenny Doubletree fellow stuck his hands in his trouser pockets and rocked forward on the balls of his feet. "And I am
extremely
pleased to meet you. The first and only woman to bring Roy to holy matrimony." He grinned. "Not to mention you prevented Roy from blowing town today."

Startled, Valerie shot her gaze toward Roy. He'd been about to leave town?

Roy threw a scowl at his friend before turning smoothly back to Valerie. "A whim. That's all. I was going to enter a poker tournament in Atlantic City, but it doesn't matter now."

"Ah, that's not how you put it to me last night," Kenny said. "It was going to be the first step in your training for the World Series of Poker."

"A whim," Roy repeated firmly. "Nothing to bother Valerie about."

"Mm hm." Kenny looked like he was holding back laughter with difficulty. "Does that mean you've given up on the World Series idea?"

Roy took a lofty tone. "Looks like I'll have other things on my mind for the next few months."

Kenny laughed, while Valerie felt herself pale.

"Oh no," she stammered. "I don't think — That is, you'll have time, all the time in the world." It was only after the baby was born he might be busy, should he still want to be involved. For the next eight months he'd be free as a breeze.

Roy gave her a narrow-eyed look, but whatever he might have said was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Ah." His expression eased back into a smile. "That'll be the minister."

Valerie felt her stomach somersault. Already?

At the door, Roy greeted a white-haired man in a navy blue suit. After shaking the man's hand, Roy turned back to meet Valerie's eyes with a wink.

A wink? How was she supposed to take a wink?

"Meet Mr. Burton," Roy told Valerie.

Mr. Burton immediately began to apologize. "I usually have time for at least a phone call to the bride and groom. So please tell me, any particular requests regarding the ceremony? I can do Traditional, Jewish, Catholic, or New Age." He gazed earnestly toward Valerie.

"Oh, um...simple," Valerie told him. "Please, just keep it simple."

But 'simple' hadn't been one of the choices. Mr. Burton threw Roy an anxious look.

"Traditional will be fine." Roy patted him on the shoulder, then looked straight at Valerie. He was nearly vibrating with eagerness. "Shall we get started?"

Valerie felt a pulse pound fast and hard in her forehead. The way Roy was looking at her, earnest and sincere, was unfortunately reminding her of the way he'd looked at her that night on the pool deck of the Paris Hotel — and that's how she'd gotten into this mess in the first place.

Add to that the big flower arrangements, the friends in suits, and the bucket she'd just noticed with a bottle that looked suspiciously like champagne sticking out of it. If she wasn't careful, she might read more into all this than there was. She might imagine Roy was acting...romantic, or something stupid like that.

"Um," Valerie said and couldn't prevent a step backward, away from that sincere, gray-eyed gaze of his. She was determined to stay grounded here. Roy did things with a definite flair, that was clear. And that was
all
. None of this meant he was excited about marrying her for her own sake. She wasn't going to make the same mistake with him that she'd made with Peter, and read anything significant into minor details. In fact —

"Wait a minute. Isn't there some paperwork we have to take care of first?" Her eyes widened. "Oh, God — we ought to have a prenup."

Roy went still. The whole room went quiet. But Valerie was applauding her own clear-headedness. Despite the show Roy was putting on here, she'd thought of a prenup. Good God, she was about to marry a
gambler
, a man whose income fluctuated from one night to the next. She had assets, a house. Oh, was she grounded or wasn't she?

Kenny was the first to speak again, animated. "She's absolutely right, Roy. I shoulda thought of that, myself. You need a prenuptial agreement."

"No." Roy made an impatient movement with one hand. "It'll only delay things."

"You need it," said Kenny, vehement.

"Yes, we do," said Valerie, just as vehement.

"Hey, it's Sunday, guys. I can't get a lawyer today." Roy looked toward Valerie. "And this
has
to happen today."

"Why?" asked Kenny.

Yes, why
? Valerie caught Roy's gaze. Why did their marriage have to take place today?

The look in Roy's eyes was intense. A girl could get the wrong idea about a gaze like that. She might start to believe the man was anxious to claim her or something. Like he
cared
. For a moment Valerie lifted dangerously from her grounded position.

But only for a moment. Then she remembered why they were getting married. She remembered how Roy would never have bothered trying to see her again if one little thing hadn't happened: a baby.

"Look, I agree marrying is the right thing," she argued, determined to keep her feet on earth. "But there's no reason to rush into this half-cocked. Let's put all the details in order."

"Listen to her," Kenny put in. "Unlike you, she's making sense."

Scowling, Roy swiveled toward Kenny, but his gaze caught on the professor instead. "Wait a minute." His frown turned into a brilliant smile. "Isaac, you were a lawyer for what? Ten years? You can scratch something up, can't you?"

Isaac appeared unsurprised, as if he'd expected Roy to arrive at this question. "As a matter of fact, I could."

Roy's smile widened ferociously. "Well, then..."

"However," Isaac went on, and turned to Valerie with his gentle smile. "I'm not sure if the lack of a prenup is the only objection the lady has."

Valerie's mouth opened. This man saw way too much.

"I could write up an informal agreement right now, something that would protect your assets. It would stand up in a court of law, if it ever became necessary." The professor paused to eye Valerie curiously. "I can do that, if you want me to."

"Well, I..." Valerie's voice trailed off. He could draw up a prenuptial agreement. Was that her only objection to getting married right now, this minute?

"Of course she wants you to," Roy urged, and shifted his gaze to Valerie, "Right, Val?"

Oh, boy
. There it was again, the masculine ferociousness, the to-the-max manliness of him that appealed to her so much — and that had nothing to do with her. His insistence, the hot possessiveness in his eyes, the flowers and his waiting friends — they were all because of the baby.

Would delaying the marriage change that situation? Would it change the fact that, basically, they were strangers and this was nothing more than a business contract? It was never going to
mean
anything.

Valerie drew in a deep breath. "You're right. There's no reason to delay. The informal agreement will work."

Everything moved very quickly after that. Roy, in a surge of triumph, arranged the professor and the minister to get things ready, directed Valerie and the witnesses to sign in all the proper places — he even came up with a county clerk who looked at her identification and produced a marriage license. Finally, Roy positioned himself next to Valerie in front of the minister.

Viewing everything through the lens of practicality, the ceremony was no more than a necessary exercise to provide a father for the child growing in her womb. Everything special, the timbre of the minister's voice as he began to recite the sacred words, or the sensation that crept over Valerie that she was doing something vastly significant, was just an illusion. They were making themselves legally bound parents. That was all.

Yes, a chill ran through her when she heard Roy vow to love her and to forsake all others for her. Yes, her voice went hoarse as she pronounced the same vow. And yes, it was hell trying to get a gold band on Roy's finger, what with her own hands shaking so much. She'd never dreamed he'd produce a pair of wedding rings! But that was only silliness. This ceremony merely cemented their bound parenthood; it wasn't about love or sacred union or even attraction.

Before she knew it, Mr. Burton was delivering his final speech. "Now that Roy and Valerie have given themselves to each other by solemn vows, I pronounce that they are husband and wife." He closed the book and beamed at them, triumphant.

Roy looked just the same. Hugely triumphant. He was apparently so pleased with the changed state of affairs that, smiling widely, he took Valerie's chin in one hand, lowered his mouth, and kissed her.

Unfortunately, this was no chaste, wimpy little kiss. Oh, no, this was a determined kiss, a powerful one, a kiss that made Valerie close her eyes before anyone could see the dark lightning that zigzagged through her.