Lena wanted proof. She didn’t believe my words or my intentions and I didn’t blamer her, especially after the runner I did after the most amazing sex of my life. I could give her proof, all the proof she needed. I was self-employed and independently wealthy which meant I could make a lot of time in my schedule to prove to her that I was serious. I wanted the baby, but I wanted Lena too. Once I’d figured that out, I knew I would do whatever it took.

So, I did.

I showed up at her cabin every morning with breakfast, healthy with enough grease to pull her out of her early morning grouchiness. It usually worked. A smile would begin to spread as she finished, and she would offer up a word of gratitude before rushing off to get breakfast started for whatever group of adrenaline junkies my brother had booked for the day. Or the week. Day after day, we ate breakfast together—sort of—and I went back up the mountain while she worked, sending lunch from the diner so she wouldn’t have to cook. She pretended not to like it, but every time I came over her expression went all soft and her breath became husky as she offered up words of thanks.

Every night over dinner, we talked. We got to know each other and I was happy to see the walls she’d put up were slowly coming down. She laughed easily and talked freely about her time in culinary school, the friends she made and the places she’d visited while she was away from Wyoming. I was honored to learn these details, especially when they were given so freely. She wasn’t quite as sheltered as I believed, and that made me feel like a bigger asshole.

Something I was doing my best to remedy. “I guess that means you approve?”

She looked at me, green eyes sparkling with amazement. Then she snorted and it was fucking adorable. “You’re kidding, right? This is completely insane. Totally outrageous, especially for a guy who sleeps in flannel.”

“I sleep naked, thank you very much.” She blushed adorably and pressed forward.

“You are out of your mind, but I love it. And I’m impressed.” She gave me another of those appreciative onceovers and licked her lips in a move that went straight to my dick. “Is this your normal first date thing? Charter a baby jet to take a girl to Bozeman?”

I knew I couldn’t let it get to me. I earned her opinion of me which is why I was working hard to show her it was wrong. “Quick lays don’t warrant all this, do they?”

She shrugged, her brow crinkled adorably in confusion. “How would I know? The little bit of dating I did, took place in tiny apartments and everyone was an aspiring chef so the food was always good, we just kind of improvised the rest. The company wasn’t as good though,” she said, smiling across the table at me as we browsed big leather bound menus.

I blinked and smiled until she blushed, because sick bastard that I was, it gave me a chub every fucking time. “Was that a compliment, Lena?”

“Nope,” she said, making sure to pop the ‘p’. “It’s a fact. I figured you must spend your time not using your stoic charm to bed women, cutting down trees and reading dead Russian philosophers, but you watch TV and listen to music. Color me surprised.”

“I think the color pink would be perfect. We’d have to find a shade that matched those pretty pink nipples. A cross between a raspberry and a peach, I think.” I kept a friendly smile on my face when she sucked in air and bit down on her bottom lip.

“Rex,” she said around a strangled moan, but whatever else she had to say was cut off when a bouncy young waitress came to take our orders. Face red as a beet, Lena placed her order and then me.

“And can you bring a Manhattan, thanks.” When the waitress bounced away she shot me a glare that was more heat than anger. “You, Rex McGregor, are a bad boy.”

It was my turn to choke, and adjust the snake trying to break out of my pants. “You bring it out of me, sweetheart.”

She laughed, a deep and husky laughed filled with humor. “I highly doubt that.”

“It’s true. You’re so…sexy but also innocent. The first time you sucked me off, it was hot and clumsy and passionate. Knowing that it was turning you on, made me want to pump into your mouth hard and deep.”

She let out another little gasp and licked her lips and my jeans grew tighter at the racing pulse at the base of her neck. “As I recall, you did. And I did like it. A lot.”

“I know.”

She grinned and took a sip of water before licking that one stray droplet from that extra plump, red bottom lip. “Tell me about what you’re working on.”

I blinked, at first confused because she hardly asked about work and it had me wondering if she was ashamed that I worked with my hands. “I’m making a royal table and chairs for some movie filming in Canada this summer. You know starting with the king and queen in the center and then fanning out according to rank and shit?”

She grinned. “And shit, especially.” A laugh bubbled up out of her and she shook her head. “Seriously though, that sounds pretty damn cool. Do you have an agent or something?”

“I do. A tiny woman with a foot-high bouffant but she keeps me flush.” Normally I didn’t talk so openly about my wealth but I needed her to know I could more than take care of her and a baby.

“That is so cool! How do you even find such a person?”

I told her all about the wood carvings I used to sale at fairs and conventions all over the country and she listened, completely captivated by the story of how I went from a surly fucker with a knack for woodworking to a wealthy and highly sought after carver. The waitress had come and gone and sizzling plates sat before us. We were oblivious. “Some guy bought this ceiling fan I made as a gag, hoping to sucker a gamer into paying a lot for it.”

“A ceiling fan? You’re kidding!”

I almost wished I was just because of her outrage. “A ceiling fan with scimitar blades.” Her eyes went wide, pulling a laugh from me. “Exactly. He asked for another for his buddy who happened to be Myra’s son. She called me up and told me anybody who could sell that for the price I did probably didn’t need an agent. But you’re getting one anyway and your hands are going to make us both rich. She was right.”

“Wow. It is so cool that you could find something you clearly love and make a boatload of money in the process. Very good, Mr. McGregor.”

“Mmmm,” she moaned around the steak, eyes closed and conjuring up another set of circumstances. “So good.”

The sounds Lena made when she ate should be illegal. The sounds she made combined with her own good cooking was enough to keep me hard and ready to slide into her at a moment’s notice. “Damn I love the sounds you make when you eat.”

She froze and those big green eyes landed on me. “What?” Her fingers were shiny from the butter she dipped the lobster tail in. And the steak.

“I think I’ll ask for some of that butter to go. It is my personal mission to see if I can make you moan the same way when I lick it off you.”

Her pulse raced and she took a deep breath to slow it down. Then an uncontrollable shiver zipped through her. “Dammit.”

“It’s okay, Lena. I feel it too.”

She went back to her food and I knew I’d fucked it all up. Again. Moving too fast, but what she didn’t realize was that I wouldn’t give up. “You’re not what I thought you were, that’s for sure.”

I smiled but I didn’t make a big deal out of it, knowing it cost her to say that if the blush staining her cheeks was any indication. “I’m glad to hear that. Dessert?”

“To go?”

My mind already raced with the possibilities. “Definitely. I’ll be right back,” I told her and went in search of our waitress to place the order and pay the bill.

“You’re up to something,” she said when I returned.

“Just ordering dessert.” I laughed at the suspicious look she shot me, helping her into her jacket just as the waitress returned with our to go bag.

“Here you folks are and here is your receipt sir. Have a great evenin’!”

We walked out of the restaurant and into the night air, hand in hand, doing the two block walk on foot since the air was cool but not unbearable. “This is nice.”

“It is,” she agreed, offering up a affectionate smile that gave me hope. “Thank you, Rex.”

“My pleasure, Lena.” In almost no time, we were back at the hotel and going up the overdone elevator that made me feel like I was in a tomb. “This elevator is creepy isn’t it?”

“I don’t know, Rex. All this gold is tacky but it makes me think of raunchy sex parties from the seventies. Too many couples and not enough beds.” She laughed at the look on my face as the elevator opened. “Okay maybe not all that, but very seventies. Upscale seventies.”

She reached for my hand as we walked the hall to our room, shocking the hell out of me, but I went with it. “Is this where I get my goodnight kiss?”

“I was hoping to kiss you someplace else, but this works too.” I couldn’t take it another minute and took her sassy mouth in a hot kiss that burned me up, that…ended way too fucking soon. I looked down at Lena, who suddenly looked a little gray as she smacked a hand over her mouth and darted inside the room.

So much for a night of romance.

When she emerged from the bathroom fifteen minutes later, she was freshly showered and wrapped in a robe. “Sorry about that, it wasn’t you. The baby hates coffee, much to my own chagrin.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, Lena. I had no clue.” And I should have because I should have asked how she was feeling. Morning sickness happened to all women, didn’t it? “What can I do?”

She moved to the bed and curled up in the middle. “First you can stop beating yourself up about it, I didn’t even realize you had coffee. I was having a good time and didn’t even thinking about it.”

She was incredible and too damn good for me. But she was mine. “Anything else?”

A soft smile curved her lush mouth. “Fizzy water and a hug?”

Damn but she got to me. “Anything for you, babe.” I meant it too, I realized as I took a cold water from the minibar and poured it into a glass tumbler for her. “Here you go.” She took the glass and curled up beside me, practically in my lap, moaning her contentment before she eventually fell asleep. She slept soundly, so soft and trusting and so beautiful my chest ached with the thought of losing her.

I don’t know how long I sat with her curled up on me, but eventually I fell asleep and we woke up in a tangle of overheated limbs.

And I had something I hadn’t had in a long time where a woman was concerned.

Hope.