In a pink haze, Catie became Mrs. Chad McCray.

No Papa giving her away. No Angie as her beautiful maid of honor. No white dress. No flowers. No Mama crying in the front row. No Mozart and no string quartet.

No passionate wedding kiss.

Just a quick signing of a marriage license and basic vows spoken in robotic tones.

She had married the man of her dreams.

In an event the opposite of what she had dreamed of for nearly her entire life.

He didn’t want her. Except maybe sexually. Not enough. Not what she’d dreamed of.

He didn’t love her.

But he felt responsible for her. For her and this child she was determined to bring into the world.

Had she been more herself, she might not have gone through with the wedding. But she had, and now she and Chad were driving back to Bakersville after dark.

“I… Where will I live?” The first words she’d spoken since “I do.”

“At my place. You can have your own room.”

“Oh.” So that’s how it would be. “I need to stop at my house, get some stuff.”

“In the morning.”

“But I need my… I need to tell my parents. About us. About the baby.”

“In the morning, Catie.”

“Now. Please.”

Chad pulled onto the side of the road and turned off the ignition. He turned to her, his eyes cold.

“Catie, this day has turned into something out of my nightmares. I will eventually have to tell your parents that I knocked up their baby girl. Out of wedlock.”

“But it was an accident. We used protection. They’ll understand.”

Chad scoffed. “Your daddy’ll understand? That I humped his daughter and got her with child? It sounds like a fucking lie, Catie, and I’m having a hard time believing it myself.”

“But—”

“No buts. Tomorrow we’ll deal with our families. Tonight I want to go home and go to bed.” He turned on the ignition, looked straight ahead, and continued driving.

Catie’s heart sank. Sadness welled within her. She wanted her mother. Her father. Her brother. Her own house. Her own bed. To be back in Paris. To be traveling. She longed to talk to Dominic, who had become her best friend. She wanted so much.

Most of all, she wanted Chad’s love.

And here she found herself married to him. The man she loved, had always loved.

The father of her child.

How had things gone so horribly wrong?

When they finally arrived at Chad’s house, he ushered her inside.

“The doctor said you can have sex.”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Then I, by God, want a wedding night. You’ll stay with me tonight. You can move into one of the guest rooms tomorrow.”

“No, Chad. I don’t want to be…intimate with you tonight.”

“I don’t recall asking your opinion on the matter.”

He grabbed her and kissed her. Hard. She gasped as his tongue plunged into her mouth. They had kissed before, but not like this. This was an angry kiss. A possessive kiss.

Despite herself, she enjoyed it. He held her so close she felt every inch of his muscle pressed against her. His masterful mouth devoured hers, and she felt, rather than heard, the moans from deep within his chest. She shivered as her passion grew. Though he was angry, she loved the warmth of his body pressed so close to hers. She tunneled her fingers through his silky hair, pulling him closer, and she caught his tongue between her lips and sucked it into her mouth, nursing on it like it contained the nectar of life. Like she couldn’t get enough.

She couldn’t.

He groaned again and ground his arousal into her belly. His body became more insistent. She bit his lip, his tongue, and then plunged her own into the firm drugging pressure of his mouth. The perfect kiss.

Without breaking the kiss, Chad lifted her and carried her to his bedroom.

---

He’d lost control.

Never had happened before, but he’d gone feral. This woman was carrying his child. He should show her the respect she deserved, but here he was acting like a caveman branding his woman.

Yet he couldn’t stop.

He wanted her. Wanted to brand her. Wanted to possess her.

Wife.

Mother of his child.

He nearly roared with triumph.

A wife he didn’t want. A child he wasn’t ready for.

But damn it, Catie was his now. His forever. And he’d have her tonight. She wasn’t resisting. Why shouldn’t he have her?

“Chad…” Her voice burrowed against his shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“I…nothing.”

“Look, Catie, we don’t have to do this.”

What the hell was he saying? She was his wife.

“It’s okay. I…want you. I’ve always wanted you. You know that. I’m just sorry.”

“Sorry about what? About getting pregnant? Why? It got you what you wanted.”

She whipped her head away from his body—he was still holding her—and said, “What I wanted?”

“Me. You’ve always wanted me.”

“Not like this.”

“Well, you got me. Now I want to make love to my wife.” He placed her on the bed as gently as he could and began to undress her. When her beautiful body had been bared to his view, he ripped his own clothes off and joined her on the bed. He forced his libido to calm. He’d take her, but he’d do it slowly, gently. She deserved that much.

Even though what he wanted at this very moment was to thrust into her and declare to the world that she was his.

A wife he didn’t want.

But she was his, damn it, and the world would know it.

He kissed her again. This time gently, but insistently, nibbling across her upper lip and then her lower, running his tongue along the seam of her lips, coaxing her open. When their tongues touched, his groin burst into flames.

Just a kiss from this woman turned him to jelly.

He sucked at her tongue, swirling, coaxing, and then she did it again. She sucked his tongue into her mouth, and he went crazy. He groaned. For a woman who was a virgin a mere few weeks ago, she sure knew how to kiss him into a frenzy.

Her sweet little moans fueled his passion, and he moved on top of her, grinding his erection against her soft curves.

It was going to be so amazing. Sex without a condom. Thirty-two years old, and he’d never experienced the sensation. He’d fuck her with no barrier.

But not yet. Not until she was so soaking wet that she begged him. Then he’d take her, and they’d both soar to the moon.

Chad deepened the kiss, tasting every crevice of her sweet raspberry mouth. He cupped a breast and thumbed one perfect nipple. She wriggled under him, moaning into his mouth. His arousal grew harder. Harder than he’d ever been.

Wife.

Catie was his wife. His. No other man’s.

Before he could think, he thrust his hard cock into her moist depth.

God. This is what he’d been missing the last seventeen years? Every ridge, every soft caress of her walls gloved his cock. She moaned beneath him, her voice a soft whisper in the sanctity of their bedroom.

Their bedroom.

He wanted this to be their bedroom.

He withdrew and then thrust again. Only four thrusts and he was coming, spilling inside her.

Inside his wife. Inside his wife where his seed already was being nurtured. Nurtured into a child. His child. His and Catie’s.

Would it be little girl who looked just like her beautiful mama?

Or would it be a little boy? A little cowboy who he could teach to rope and to bust broncs. Maybe even ride a bull.

He didn’t want to withdraw. He wanted to stay embedded in her—in his wife—forever.

He withdrew.

“Chad?”

“Yeah?”

“Um…which room should I sleep in?”

“Stay here for tonight,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist possessively. “We’ll worry about it in the morning.”

“But—”

“Just sleep, Catie.”

“Uh…well…okay. Good night, Chad.”

“Night, rodeo queen.”

---

When Chad’s breathing had gone steady and shallow, Catie knew he’d fallen asleep. She moved his arm as gently as she could and disengaged herself from his body. She crept silently along the hallway and found a guest room. She fell onto the bed and cried.

“Night, rodeo queen,” he’d said.

But she was married now. She was no longer the rodeo queen.