The meeting with the Bakersville alderman had been uneventful. Now Catie was loading her clothes into the closet in the guestroom where she had spent the night in Chad’s house.

She had no idea where Chad was, and she didn’t righteously care.

What a big ol’ lie. She cared. She’d cared for seventeen years, and she wasn’t about to stop caring now. She sighed, sat down on the bed, and touched her tummy.

“It’ll be okay, little one,” she said. “You’ll have a mommy and daddy who love you. And a mommy who loves your daddy, even if he’ll never love her back. I promise.”

The phone rang. A football phone. This was her room now and that would be the first thing to go. She picked it up. Chad’s home phone. Heck, her home phone now.

“Hello. McCray residence.”

“Yes, hello. I need to speak to Chad McCray please.”

“I’m sorry. He’s out right now. May I take a message?”

“Who’s this?”

The woman’s tone was a bit on the snotty side. Well, Catie could give it right back.

“This is Chad’s wife. Who’s this?”

“Wife?”

“Yes. I’m Caitlyn McCray. And you are?”

Click.

Stupid football phone didn’t have caller ID. Catie raced to the kitchen where she hit the history button. Rhine, L.

Well, Rhine, L., whatever you wanted Chad for, forget it. He’s mine now.

---

Catie sighed as she drove out to the nearest stable, where Ladybird had been housed.

“Hi there, ma’am.” A dark and handsome man tipped his Stetson to her. “Can I help you?”

“I’m just going to visit my horse.”

“I’m Rafe Grayhawk, ma’am, foreman in charge of this particular stable. You the owner of that pretty new mare brought in this morning?”

“If you mean the dark chestnut, yes, that’s Ladybird.”

“That’s some mighty fine horseflesh, ma’am.”

“Please,” Catie said, “you don’t have to call me ma’am.”

Rafe’s black eyes burned into her. His skin was a light bronze color, and when he took off his Stetson, she saw that his pitch-black hair was pulled back into an untidy low ponytail behind his neck. Strands of ebony silk flitted about his chiseled face in the summer breeze, gleaming with sapphire highlights in the afternoon sun.

“Then it would help if I knew your name, honey.”

He smiled, and she could almost see him wearing a Native American headdress, and…not much else. He was a beautiful man.

Catie swallowed, but didn’t answer.

“If we’re boarding your horse here, you and I’ll get to know each other quite a bit better.” Rafe said. “I’ll be the one making sure she gets what she needs. What’s her name?”

“Ladybird.”

“Well, she’s sure a beaut.”

“Yeah.” Catie nodded. “That she is.”

“So, sweetheart…”

Despite her love for Chad, Catie’s heart lurched at the endearment. Nice to know there might be a man around here who wanted her. One who wasn’t stuck with her out of some misguided obligation.

“Yeah?”

He chuckled. “You still haven’t told me your name.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. It’s Catie.”

Rafe moved closer and pushed a strand of dark hair out of Catie’s eye. His touch was warm and pleasant. Not hot and passionate, like Chad’s.

“It’s this wind,” she said. “My hair won’t stay in one place. It’s a real pain.”

“Not so much a pain,” Rafe said. “You look real pretty, Catie. All rosy-cheeked and windblown. I bet you want to take your horse on a ride, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I’d like that.” A ride with Ladybird would be the perfect salve for her ailing heart, to take her mind off of Chad and Rhine, L. and this farce of a marriage she had agreed to.

“Well, then, Miss Catie,” Rafe said, holding out his hand to her, “I’ll be right glad to take you into the stables and get her saddled up, for a small price.”

Price?

“Uh, what do you want?”

“Your name, honey.”

“I told you my name. It’s Catie.”

“The last name, pretty lady. Catie what?”

The husky voice that came out of nowhere surprised her.

“Catie McCray.”

“Hey, Chad,” Rafe said. “Where’d you come from?”

“I get around, Grayhawk.” He draped his arm possessively around Catie’s shoulders and pulled her close, jostling her so hard that she winced. “From now on, keep your paws off my wife.”

“Your wife? Hell, I didn’t know, Chad. Since when do you have a wife?”

“Since yesterday. If I see you sniffing around her again, you can find yourself another job.”

“Chad,” Catie said, “he was just going to help me saddle Ladybird for a ride.”

“I know how these hands are, Catie. They can’t keep their hands to themselves around a beautiful woman. You stay clear of them.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I grew up around ranch hands. They’re fine.”

“Look, Chad. She’s your wife, I get it. I was just gettin’ to know her, that’s all.”

“Go on and do your job, Grayhawk. I’ll saddle Catie’s horse.”

“As you say, boss.”

Once Rafe had left, Chad dragged Catie into the stable and pushed her against the wall. The faint smell of horse manure mixed with the fresh scent of hay assaulted Catie’s nose. Until Chad’s face came within an inch of hers, and then all she could smell was him. Spicy Chad. Musky Chad. Manly Chad. Her husband. She inhaled deeply.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

His cheeks reddened and his nostrils flared. Catie flinched. He was angry. Really angry. Possibly more angry than when she’d told him she was pregnant.

“I… I was going to take a ride. I’m…a little stressed Chad. I—”

He silenced her with a punishing kiss. His lips clamped onto hers, forcing her mouth open, his tongue thrusting inside. She gasped, trying to breathe through her nose, but he was holding her so close, so tight. She pushed at his chest and tried to free herself, but it was no use. He held her against the wall, against his body. She was trapped.

Chad finally ripped his mouth away, and they both took deep breaths.

“What…is wrong…with you?” Catie’s words came out between gasps. “I just wanted to see Lady—”

“Shut up!” He crushed his mouth to hers again.

The kiss was gentler this time, though not by much. He swept into her mouth like a tidal wave, thrusting with his tongue and then retreating, while he simultaneously thrust his hips and ground them into hers, mimicking what he was doing to her mouth with his tongue. What she instinctively knew he wanted to do with his cock.

Would do with his cock. He was already unsnapping her jeans.

She tried to escape his kiss, but to no avail. He held her fast. Her slim form was no match for his musculature. He held her fast against his broad hard chest as he unzipped her jeans and plunged his long, thick fingers inside. She gasped into his mouth, and he groaned. She felt, more than heard it, a faint rumble in her mouth, against her breasts. She began to writhe as he touched her, grinding into his hand.

He broke their kiss with a loud smack.

“God, you’re so fucking wet.” He shuddered against her. “You like it when I touch you there, don’t you, sugar?”

Catie’s breath puffed against Chad’s cheek. His words were a husky whisper against her sweaty neck.

“Don’t you?” he said again.

“Y-Yes. You know I do.”

“Why’d you leave my bed this morning?” He nibbled on her neck. Tiny little nips that turned into bites. They stung. A little bit pleasure, a little bit pain.

“I…”

“I woke up and you were gone.” He bit her earlobe. “I wanted you next to me.”

“But this isn’t…”

She lost her train of thought for few seconds as he sucked on the spot below her ear that made her crazy. She sighed, and then gasped as he bit her neck again. Still his fingers worked her. She squirmed as tiny sparks erupted on her skin.

She inhaled, and then answered his question. “It’s not a real marriage.”

He backed off a little at that. He looked straight at her, his dark eyes scalding hot. He grabbed her hand, led it to his crotch, and rubbed it over his denim-clad arousal. “Does this feel real to you, sugar?”

“It… It was never a question of that.” She closed her eyes he slid his fingers through her folds and pushed one inside her. She gasped. The invasion was so sweet, so right.

“Tell me, sugar. How does that feel?”

“Good, Chad. So good.”

He pushed his finger farther into her. “That?”

“Heaven.” She rasped against his cheek, kissing it, letting the day’s growth of his beard prickle her lips.

“Let me tell you something, Catie McCray.”

He helped her unbuckle and unsnap his jeans. Nibbling on her ear, he pushed her jeans down, and then his own. When the hard head of his cock pressed against her wet flesh, she shuddered.

“You’re mine. All mine.” He pushed his cock into her wet channel. “You’re not for Grayhawk or anyone else around here, you got that?”

She gasped as he withdrew and pushed into her again.

“Answer me, damn it.” His voice was raw. Untamed.

“Wh-What?”

“Who do you belong to, Catie?”

“You, Chad.”

“Whose bed are you going to sleep in from now on?” His thrusts became faster, more urgent.

“Y-Yours. Only yours.”

He plunged into her again, at the same time as his mouth came down on hers and assaulted her. They kissed in a frenzy of tongues and teeth, devouring each other, as though they’d been starved for years, centuries.

When he broke the kiss, Catie drew a deep breath, her passions rising, her skin tingling.

“That’s right, sugar. Come for me.” Chad’s fingers touched her swollen flesh as he continued to pound into her. “For me. Only for me.”

At his command, she shattered, her body quaking as the rapture took her through a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. From somewhere outside her body, she heard her own voice—or a husky, low imitation of it—echoing Chad’s name.

As she started her descent, Chad pushed harder, stronger, flooding her with new and vibrant sensations.

“Damn, you’re even tighter after you come, baby. Give me one…more…ah!”

He thrust into her so deep, that for a moment she thought they’d become one being. His whole body trembled against her, perspiration trickling down his cheeks and neck, dripping onto her neck, trailing down between her breasts. He stayed there for a precious moment, holding her, leaning into her, before he pulled away and pulled up his boxers and jeans.

He pulled a blue bandana out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here,” he said. “Clean yourself up.”

Then he left the stable.

What? Catie stood dumbfounded, her jeans and panties still around her ankles, Chad’s hanky hanging limply from her fist.

This was really it?

Her cheeks heating, she wiped the evidence of their lovemaking from herself with a few quick swipes, pulled up her jeans, and fastened them.

Again, he’d taken her to the stars.

He’d made love to her with a passion so fierce, she wasn’t sure it was real. In her inexperience, she had nothing to compare it to. Was it always like this?

He’d said she was his.

His.

But he hadn’t said the three words she so desperately needed to hear. Instead, he’d left her, like always.

She slid down the wall, the splintery wood scraping her back through her cotton shirt, into a sitting position. Pulling her knees up, she wrapped her arms around them and fell to the side, onto the hay-covered floor. She lay there, in a fetal position, waiting for the tears to come.

They didn’t. Was she truly all cried out over Chad?

She didn’t know how long she stayed in that position. Eventually she felt a nudge on her arm. “Hey there, Ms. McCray.”

She opened her eyes and stared into the black orbs of Rafe Grayhawk.

“You need any help with anything?”

Catie bolted upward, sniffing. Thank God, the tears hadn’t come, or her face would be pink and splotchy.

“I think your husband can afford a better place for you to nap, sweetheart,” Rafe said, extending his hand.

Catie took his hand gratefully and stood up. “I must have fallen asleep. Chad and I… We had a long day yesterday.”

“Thought you were gonna take that pretty mare on a ride?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I am.”

“I’ll saddle her up.”

“Chad said—”

“I know what Chad said, Ms. McCray.”

He winked, and she couldn’t help smiling at the handsome ranch hand.

“I’ll mind my Ps and Qs, don’t you worry.”

“Please.”

“Okay, I’ll leave. No harm done.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I meant, please call me Catie.”

“Not sure the boss would approve.”

“I don’t care. I didn’t ask for his opinion on the matter.”

Catie brushed the dirt and hay off her thighs. To hell with what Chad said. She and Rafe weren’t doing anything wrong. He was helping her, that’s all. She touched his forearm—as hard and sinewy as Chad’s, though it didn’t induce the sparks on her skin the way Chad’s did.

“I’d love your help saddling Ladybird, if you don’t mind. After all, you need to get to know her now.”

“True enough,” Rafe said with a cocky grin and walked toward Ladybird’s stall. “If I had an hour or two free, I’d saddle up my bronc and go along with you. Course we know the boss’d frown on that.”

Catie smiled. This young man was kind and easy to talk to. So much easier to talk to than her distant husband, who wanted to love her body, but not the rest of her.

“No doubt he would,” Catie agreed, “but I’ll tell you what.”

Rafe turned back around and met her gaze. “What?”

She winked. “We’ll just keep it between us, okay?”

His lazy grin lit up his handsome features. “Darlin’, that’s about the best idea I’ve heard this year.” He turned and continued saddling Ladybird.

---

Catie rode Ladybird to Annie and Dallas’s house. Later, sitting with Annie over herb tea, Catie spilled her guts.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said, after pouring out the story of her and Chad, the baby, and the bedroom situation. “He seems to want me, but yet he doesn’t. This whole baby thing—” She patted her belly. “I want this child. More than anything. But as much as I love Chad, I never wanted it to be like this. It really was an accident, Annie.”

“I know it was,” Annie said, consoling. “And so does Chad.”

“Does he really?”

“Yeah. He does. Don’t you worry about that.” Annie freshened Catie’s tea.

“This isn’t the kind of marriage I wanted.”

“I know, hon.”

Catie sighed. “But it’s what I got. Do you think he might ever love me?”

“Oh, Catie.” Annie reached out and touched Catie’s forearm. “I think he already does. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

Catie jerked backward. “You can’t be serious.”

“I sure am. Do you think, for one minute, that Chad McCray is the kind of guy to do anything he doesn’t want to do?”

“Well…no.”

“So you think he married you when he didn’t want to, out of sole obligation?”

“Well, I think he’s concerned about his child. He wanted him or her to have his name. And the advantage of being a McCray.”

Annie shook her head and chuckled. “You’ve known Chad lots longer than I have, Catie, but you sure can be blind when it comes to him.”

“Love is blind, as they say,” Catie said.

“Blind, yes. But deaf and dumb, too? Do you really think Chad would have dragged you down the aisle just to give his kid a name? I’m not sure you know him at all.”

“Of course I know him.”

“I didn’t mean that as an insult, hon. That’s just the truth of it. You had him on a pedestal all those star-crossed teen years, and then you left for four years. Things change, Catie. People change. But Chad didn’t change. You did.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Chad was always a womanizer. You know that. Never serious. Do you think you’re the first woman to ever claim she was having his child?”

“But—”

“But nothing. He’s gorgeous, he’s rich, and women have been falling all over him for damn near fifteen years. A few have come out of the woodwork, claiming to be pregnant.”

“They have?”

“Only a few, but yeah. And you’re his first wife. What do you think of that?”

“What about the others?”

“None of them were telling the truth.”

“But I am.”

“I know you are. And so does Chad.”

“How did he know the rest of them weren’t?”

“He hired his PI friend, Larry something or other, to track down the truth on them.”

“Why didn’t he have me checked out?”

Annie smiled, rubbing Catie’s forearm in a motherly manner. “Why don’t you tell me?”

---

Later, Catie continued to fold her clothes and put them away in the guestroom where she had spent her first night as Mrs. Chad McCray. If he wanted her in his bed, he was going to have to love her first. She only intended to share a bed with a husband who loved her. She may not be able to resist his lovemaking, but she sure as hell didn’t have to kowtow to his demands. She’d be friends with Rafe Grayhawk, too, if she wanted, and any of the other hands.

Once she finished filling up the guestroom closet, she dragged her computer in from the car and decided to set it up in Chad’s office. She walked in his nicely decorated den and sat down at his desk.

An instant message came up on his computer. From Lindabelle.

Lindabelle. Rhine, L. Could it be?

She touched the keyboard.

Is that something Chad would have said? Catie wasn’t sure. She hardly knew her husband.

Good answer, Catie.

Catie gasped. What arrangement? She started shuffling papers around on Chad’s desk. Rhine, L. Rhine, L. Chad’s filing cabinet. She’d have to look there.

What?

She took a shot. Assumed this was Rhine, L. Rhine. Her name was probably Linda from her IM ID Lindabelle.

Catie stopped reading. Jack? Her pulse raced. Her afternoon conversation with Annie raced through her mind. Several women had come around claiming to be pregnant, trying to trap Chad.

Rhine, L.

Jack.

She got up and yanked open Chad’s filing cabinet looking for anything. Any type of clue.

Finally, it appeared. A file folder. Rhine, Linda. Inside was only one paper. The results of a DNA test naming Chad McCray as the father of Linda Rhine’s son, Jack. According to the birth date, the child was over four years old.

Ding. The IM again. Catie didn’t bother reading it. She couldn’t. Her vision was clouded with tears. She typed in a message quickly.

Then she turned away from the computer and looked down at her belly.

“Well, sweetheart,” she said aloud, gulping through sobs, “it looks like you already have a big brother.”

She needed some answers. She looked into the file folder again and found Linda Rhine’s address in Utah. About a day’s drive. Well, she had nothing better to do. No rodeo queen duties.

Nice day for a road trip.

Or night, rather. The sun was already setting.

She threw some clothes into a duffle and plugged the address into the GPS on her phone.

She’d planned to meet Harper later and talk about getting her other stock over to one of Chad’s barns this evening. That could wait a few days. Right now, she had a rival to face.

At four in the morning, Catie arrived in Podunk, Utah. Actually, Applewood, Utah, but it made Bakersville look like a thriving metropolis. Of course, it was the middle of the night. Perhaps it would look like civilization in the morning. There was only one motel in town, and they luckily had a vacancy, though she had to ring the bell ten times before someone came to help her. Finally, an older man, rubbing his sleep-filled eyes, came to the counter and booked her into a room. Sleep came as soon as her head hit the pillow, her eyes swollen from crying.

---

Where the hell was Catie?

Chad lay awake, Marnie snuggled by his feet. The minutes crept by on his digital clock. He’d watched two o’clock come and go, and then three, and now four. Damn. Anxiety gnawed at him. She wasn’t at home. He’d called the Bays earlier. He couldn’t call them again. He’d just worry them. She wasn’t with Dallas and Annie, and Zach and Dusty were out of town.

He got up, paced, and went down to his office. He couldn’t sleep anyway. Might as well get some work done. He took out his business account, wrote out some invoices, paid some bills, and went to settle some of his personal accounts. The grocery bill, the gas for the giant propane tank that fed his house, water, electric, septic system.

And Linda and Jack needed to be paid.

He had no legal obligation to the woman and her son, but he wanted to help them, especially after hearing what she’d gone through with her parents. He’d have to tell Catie. Where the hell was she?

He’d felt a loss when he woke up the previous morning and she wasn’t next to him. He’d pattered down the hallway and found her sleeping soundly in one of his guest rooms. That told him how she felt about him. So much for her schoolgirl crush.

Yet she responded to him today in the stable, when he’d taken her roughly like a selfish bastard. He was sorry for it. But when he’d seen Grayhawk with his hands on his woman…

His woman.

His wife.

Tonight she hadn’t come to his bed like he’d asked. Aw hell, like he’d demanded. What had he become? What was it about this one little woman that turned him into a feral beast? Well, he hadn’t exactly been nice to her about the whole baby thing. He knew she wasn’t pulling a stunt on him. Warmth crept up his skin, making it tingle. Truth be told, he wanted Catie’s baby. A little person who was part Catie and part Chad.

He cared for Catie. Maybe he didn’t love her yet, but he sure as hell felt a lot more for her than he had for any other woman.

An urge to barge into the guest room and force her back into his bed overwhelmed him, but he resisted. He scribbled out a note to leave on the counter in the kitchen. He had to go out of town on business and would be in Denver overnight. He’d leave before she was up in the morning. He checked the coffee machine to make sure Brenda had set it for six a.m. Yep, good. He left the note for Catie and then made his way to his bedroom and flopped onto his big empty bed. He inhaled Catie’s scent on the pillow. Mmm, raspberries and lime. His wife. His wife who should be in his bed. Though he was hard as granite, he was determined to leave her alone. He hadn’t been easy on her.

One thing was for sure, though. When he got back from Denver, they’d have a serious discussion about their marriage. This was going to work, damn it.

---

Catie took a deep breath before she knocked on the door of the modest house on Cherrytree Street in the small town of Applewood, Utah.

It was Saturday, and she hoped Rhine, L would be home. Sure enough, a pretty blond woman answered, smiling.

“Yes, may I help you?”

“Are you Linda Rhine?”

“I suppose that depends on who wants to know.”

“I’m Caitlyn Bay…I mean McCray. Caitlyn McCray.”

The woman’s smile faded. “Oh. You’re Chad’s wife.”

“Yes. May I come in?”

She sighed and her cheeks reddened. “Of course. Yes. What can I do for you?” She held the door open. “I’m sure this isn’t really what you’re used to.”

Catie forced her lips upward. No reason not to be pleasant. “Don’t be silly. It’s lovely.” Small and modest, the home was clean and decorated beautifully. Linda clearly loved plants. Greenery adorned every table and nook.

“Is—” Catie cleared her throat. “Is your son here?”

Linda fidgeted with her hands. “Yeah. He’s up in his room playing.”

“I’d love to meet him.”

“Of course. I’ll go get him. Please make yourself at home.”

Catie sat down in a hunter-green recliner. Tiny hooves danced in her tummy. She swallowed, forcing back nausea. So Chad had a son. No big deal, right? He wouldn’t be the first man to knock up a woman out of wedlock. Heck, he’d done it twice now.

Why hadn’t he told her? Why hadn’t Annie? Instead, she’d looked Catie straight in the eye and said Chad had checked out all the women who claimed to be pregnant with his child.

Linda returned with a pretty little blond boy who looked nothing like Chad. He was a dead ringer for Linda, though, so he could still be Chad’s kid. Heck, she herself didn’t resemble Wayne at all.

“He’s very handsome, Linda.”

“Thank you.”

“He’s about the same age as Chad’s nephew, Sean.”

“I don’t know about Chad’s nephew. But Jack’s four.”

Catie smiled at the little boy, and he smiled back.

“So Chad told you about us, huh? Last night, when I spoke to him, he said he hadn’t yet.”

“We don’t have any secrets,” Catie said, wishing to the stars that she spoke the truth. “I wanted to come up here to meet you and his—” The words stuck in her throat like peanut butter. “Jack.” She’d almost said son, but couldn’t.

“Oh. Can I offer you anything?”

“No. I won’t stay long.”

Fifteen minutes of small talk later, Catie left.

---

Catie hadn’t come home.

Chad’s stomach churned. Was she all right? Was the baby all right?

He’d called Wayne and Maria, and then the police. No one knew where she was. Her car was gone though, so she probably hadn’t been taken. Then again, someone could have held her at gunpoint.

Chad shuffled through her bedroom like a madman, looking for clues. Nothing. Hmm…she’d set up her computer recently. He ran down the stairwell and into his office. He opened each drawer of his desk, of his credenza. Nothing again. He flew to his file cabinet, his heart stampeding, and opened each drawer, searching for something, anything.

He found it.

The file on Linda Rhine had been replaced in the cabinet backwards.

Damn! Catie must have found out about Linda’s son. Would she have gone to see Linda?

Chad cursed to himself. Damn those conniving people!

He didn’t mind taking care of the kid. The poor boy didn’t have anyone else. But damned if he’d let this situation jeopardize his marriage.

He shook his head.

Did he want this marriage after all?

Catie’s image—her soft mahogany hair, her big brown eyes, her slender and shapely legs that went on forever—eased into his consciousness. Had her image always been there? Since she’d stumbled back into his life a few weeks ago, she hadn’t left his thoughts for more than a minute at a time. His mind whirled to that fateful night in the gazebo four years ago. God, he’d wanted her, would have given his fortune for one taste of her innocent sweetness. She’d said she hadn’t yet kissed a boy.

He’d reminded her he was no boy.

She’d been a kid then—just turned eighteen. A kid in a beautiful woman’s body. He’d summoned every speck of willpower he possessed to reject her.

Now Hurricane Catie had returned, wreaking havoc in his life.

Fuck.

He’d never been so happy.

Love.

How hadn’t he recognized it? Had he been so adamant about not making a commitment that he’d been ready to let her walk out of his life?

Her beauty, her intelligence, her love and knowledge of horses, her clumsiness—everything about her touched his soul. God bless that ripped condom. Without it, he’d have let her go.

Determination rose within him. He’d find her and he’d keep her. Somehow, he’d convince her that his love for her was real.