Heiress for Hire (29 page)

"Amanda," he whispered in a ragged voice. Then he exploded in her with a deep moan, hand convulsing on her thigh.

His eyes were locked on hers and as he pounded himself into her, Amanda knew that he was with her, he was one hundred percent focused on her and not anyone or anything else.

As he slowed down, she gave a soft laugh. "No wonder there's so much sex on a farm. It's really great sex."

He drew in a shuddery breath and brushed her hair off her cheek. "Never that great before."

Excuse her while she went and purred. She felt relaxed, sluggish, exhilarated. Wiggling a little, she scooted closer to him.

"I'm sweaty," he warned.

"I don't care." She wanted to feel him up against all of her, shoulder to toes, while he was still imbedded inside her.

"Good. And you know, I think the thing about great sex is that, it's even better when you do it with the right person."

His arms closed around her back, making her feel feminine and cherished. "That's true."

When he kissed the top of her head, she tried to remember why she wasn't going to trust another man with her heart. Why she wasn't going to let a man control her future ever again. She couldn't even seem to remember why it was important to leave Cuttersville behind at the end of the summer and return to her regularly scheduled life.

All she could seem to think about was that it would be really simple to fall in love with Danny Tucker. One green light from her brain to her heart, and she'd be there.

The only thing that stopped her was the knowledge that she was more liability than asset to a man like Danny. She came with a heap of insecurities and a host of selfish issues, and had little or no practical skills.

But that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy this with him while she was here. He was willing, they both understood there was no fu-ture, and he was giving her back something she had forgotten to give herself—respect.

Danny liked her for who she was, and so did she.

"You know you have a farmer's tan." She ran her hands over his hip. He was golden bronze from the waist up. Below that, he was like bleached cotton.

"Well, what an amazing coincidence, since I'm a farmer." He gave her a wry grin as he shifted a little and pulled out of her.

She sighed a little at the loss. "I could fix that for you."

"I don't want it fixed." Danny rolled over, reaching for his boxer shorts. "I don't really care."

"You don't care that your butt is white?" she teased, as he flashed same said butt when he stood.

"No. I really don't. It's not like I have to look at it." He stepped into his boxers and gave the waistband a snap to get it in place.

Amanda laughed. "You're so practical. I love that about you."

Then she almost choked, realizing she had said the "L" word without thinking. His eyes widened, and she was sure hers did too. They could probably pass for a couple of bullfrogs staring at each other.

She really didn't want him to get the wrong idea. To think that she was dangling after him. That she was going to expect something from him beyond friendship and some incredible sex.

Sitting up, she let her hair fall over her face to hide any tell-tale redness that might be clashing with her tan. His T-shirt was the only piece of clothing within range, so she swiped it and pulled it on. "We should get dressed. Piper could be back any minute."

Danny picked his jeans up and stuck a foot in one leg. "You know what I love about you, Amanda?"

"Oh, God, I can't even imagine." Still a little embarrassed, she swung her legs toward him and scooted off the edge of the bed.

"Everything."

His callused hand fell on her cheek, and Amanda gave a little involuntary gasp, touched to the point of near tears. Her brain tripped the stop light from red to green, and her heart sped ahead right straight into love.

Then he grinned, his hand falling away. "Except for your dusting. You can't dust for shit."

She gave a watery laugh. "Watch it, White Butt."

But it was too late. She had fallen in love with Danny. She couldn't go backward now, and she wasn't sure how to go forward. So for now, she'd just stand still and see what happened.

Danny licked his ice-cream cone and relaxed as much as he could in a plastic chair too small for him. Piper had chocolate from her nose to her waist, specks and dribbles and smears. He wasn't sure if she was actually eating her ice cream or just throwing it all over herself.

He would have thought a kid at eight could be a little neater, but he had soon learned he didn't remember a whole lot about being eight. In all fairness to Piper, it was near ninety degrees and her cone was melting faster than she could lick. Amanda was in line getting another ice cream since she had dropped hers leaning over to wipe off the bench with a napkin before she sat down.

They were in town to collect Brady, the maestro who supposedly was going to turn the splotchy walls of Piper's bedroom into a butterfly garden. Danny had his doubts as he took a gander at

Brady, sitting with his broken leg out in front of him, sucking industriously on a shake.

He'd done something different with his hair. It was short all over, except for the front, where it cascaded straight down in individual spokes of hair. It looked like an art experiment gone wrong. A red waterfall. Weird. It was weird. And he wasn't sure how the hell Brady could see around that hair enough not to walk into walls, let alone paint them.

The urge to just reach out with the scissors and snip was overwhelming.

The kid had always been a little rebellious, slamming Cut-tersville every chance he got and counting the days until he could leave, but walking around with hair in your eyes didn't seem rebellious, just stupid. And if Danny wasn't mistaken, Brady was wearing black eyeliner.

Yet Piper adored him. She giggled at everything he said, handed him his crutches every time he stood up, and generally flirted with him without knowing that's what she was doing.

It gave Danny indigestion. Having a girl was complicated. The thought of facing the teenage years struck terror in his heart, and he hoped like hell promiscuity was taught, not inherited. If some boy touched Piper at sixteen like he'd been touching her mother, Danny wasn't sure he could be held accountable for his actions.

It also made him wish Piper would have a stepmother to talk to. A blond one. With long legs.

"Butterflies like this?" Brady asked, showing Piper a sketch of a cartoony, smiling butterfly on a napkin.

She shook her head. "No… that looks babyish. But I don't want one like in magazines. I want a butterfly who looks like she's going to fly over the rainbow." And she capped this thought off with a shy smile.

Brady lifted an eyebrow. "Over the rainbow, huh?" He looked at Danny. "The kid's a tough sell."

Danny shrugged. "Just do to do something in between cartoons and National Geographic." He caught a drip from his cone before it landed on his hand. "And Piper, sweetie, maybe we should just let Brady do what he thinks is best. He'll make it look pretty, won't you, Brady?"

The sound of that almost made him laugh. Here he was, a twenty-six-year-old farmer with muddy boots, and Brady looking for a spot in the punk kid hall of fame, and they were supposed to know something about pretty?

Piper bit her lip, so Danny added, "I think it will be a fun surprise for you if he just goes in and paints a butterfly garden. Whattya think, baby girl? We'll let him do the worrying, and we'll just enjoy the picture when it's done."

"Good advice." Shelby strolled up to their table, a big smile on her face.

"Hey, Shel. What are you up to?"

"I've been to the doctor."

Danny took a long look at Shelby. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was grinning ear to ear. Couldn't be too serious then.

"Everything okay?"

"Come here," Shelby said, crooking her finger at him.

"What?" Danny stood up, his back wet with sweat from the plastic chair. "You're going to steal my ice cream, aren't you?"

She had a devilish look on her face, and he shifted his cone away from her. "I'll get you one of your own if you want, Shel."

But instead of grabbing his cone and licking it, she reached up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear. "I'm pregnant."

Danny snapped his head back and looked at her eyes shining with happy tears. "That was awful fast—you've only been married a month."

"Birth control isn't always foolproof." She squeezed his arms. "Are you happy for me?"

"Yeah. Of course, I am." He felt his own lips splitting in a grin. This was good. This was right. Maybe now that he had Piper and Shelby was having her own baby, they could both heal a little from the loss of their child, the loss of their family. "Congratulations, darlin', that's fantastic news."

He picked her up off the ground, ice-cream cone and all, and gave her a big smacking kiss on the lips. "You'll be the best mom around. Just make sure you take care of yourself, alright?"

"I will." She hugged him back, holding on tightly for a second before releasing him.

Amanda sat down in Danny's abandoned chair. "When you're done making out, here's your change." She threw a dollar and loose coins on the table in front of Piper.

Danny knew that tone of voice. It was Amanda being hurt and trying to act like she wasn't. It was her fake, sarcastic voice, and it told him clear as water that she was none too pleased with his attention to Shelby.

He didn't feel the least bit guilty for hugging his ex-wife when she was sharing such happy news with him. But what he wanted to do was snuggle right up to Amanda and reassure her. He wanted to pull her into his arms, plant his hands firmly on her butt, his lips right on hers, and show everyone that he cared about her. That he had seen her naked, been inside her body, and that she was his.

But she wasn't his. And they had agreed that in front of Piper there would be no butt-grabbing, kissing, or any other male-female relations that would only confuse her when Amanda left.

It was the right thing to do. He wouldn't hurt his daughter for anything in the world. Nor would he parade casual sex in front of her. Not that he felt casual about Amanda, but there was no other label for a couple who were having sex with no intention of creat-ing a future together. He couldn't explain mutual consent and living in the moment and enjoying what they had now to Piper. Bad enough some day he was going to be pinned to the mat by her for his relationship with her mother. He didn't need to open that discussion when she was eight years old.

Nor could he describe the complexity of what he felt for Amanda to anyone without it seeming idiotic. Yes, he cared about her. Yes, he was falling in love with her. Yes, he could see settling in and loving her for a good long time. But no, they couldn't be together.

It seemed stupid even to him.

"Shelby has some good news, Amanda." Danny settled for putting his hand on the back of Amanda's shoulder and squeezing. No one would think anything of that. He touched people all the time.

Except Shelby was grinning at him, her eyebrows up under her hair, and Brady had a knowing little smirk on his face.

Amanda didn't toss his hand off, but she stiffened when he touched her. "That's wonderful, Shelby. Did your tour become part of a reality show or something?"

Shelby laughed. "No, I can't imagine the Haunted Cuttersville Tour hitting the airwaves. My news is more personal. I'm having a baby."

"Dude." Brady clapped Shelby on the back. "That's so cool."

"Congratulations."

Danny watched Amanda's reaction. She looked pleased for Shelby, but something else… wistful, maybe. Or maybe that was just him wishing it were wistful.

"Does Boston know?"

"I called him on his cell and told him." Shelby looked sheepish as she reached for Danny's ice-cream cone.

He let her have it without a fight. Eating for two and all that.

"I know it was kind of tacky to tell him over the phone, but I

didn't want to wait until tonight. Of course, first thing, he said he was leaving work, which I didn't think about."

Tires squealed as a car flew into the parking lot. "There he is now." Danny recognized that fancy car.

"Oh, Lord." Shelby winced as Boston pulled into the spot at full speed and hit the parking barrier. "Maybe I should have waited to tell him."

Danny had to agree, given the look of complete and utter shock on Boston's face as he fast-walked across the parking lot.

"Are you sure you're pregnant?" he demanded, taking his wife by the arms.

"Yes," Shelby said.

"How did this happen?" Boston asked.

Amanda snorted, and Danny knew they shouldn't be listening to this conversation. He was about to herd Piper off to the truck, when his daughter stopped licking her ice cream long enough to say, "You make babies by having sex."

Every face swung in her direction with varying degrees of disbelief and shock displayed. Danny felt a pain in his chest. So much for thinking he was keeping her innocent. That hurt—pricking little needles of guilt jabbing into his heart. He didn't even want to know how she had knowledge of sex and conception.

Amanda slung her arm around Piper. "Wow, you're pretty smart, kid. So tell me how it works."

Piper shrugged, obviously not giving this conversation the same importance he was. She sucked on her drippy chocolate cone. "The man and woman take their clothes off and go to bed. Then the sperm goes from the man into the woman's egg and it makes a baby. I read all about in a book my mom got me from the library when Marcus was born."

Danny relaxed his hold on Amanda's shoulder. He'd just about poked his thumb through her flesh in horror. But thanks to

Amanda's rational question, it turned out Piper just had standard birds-and-bees knowledge. It struck him that Amanda's manner with Piper wasn't always what one would think of as maternal, but her instincts were dead-on. She had a way with her, no question about that.

She had a way with him too. Listening to her, watching her, feeling her jealousy made him question why they couldn't just be together. For real. Like a family.

He loved her, quiet and steadfast. But with a passion that was hot enough to start a barn fire. He liked her. He respected her, admired her. Couldn't get enough of her. And she was going to leave him unless he convinced her not to.

"Didn't you know that about making babies?" Piper asked Amanda.

"Sure," Amanda said. "But I was just checking to see what you knew. Boston obviously had no idea. Maybe we should get him that book."

Boston was the only one not to laugh. Danny actually felt kind of sorry for the guy. Here he was finding his whole life was about to change standing in front of the Dippy Whip.

"Alright, Brady. Ladies. Let's head back to the farm and give the Macnamaras some privacy."

Everyone ignored him since Shelby was giving Boston an earnest look and asking, "Aren't you even the tiniest bit happy? I know it's sudden, but…"

Boston covered her mouth with his hand and collected himself. "Shhh. Of course I'm happy. I'm sorry, babe, I know I'm acting like an idiot. But I was just shocked, that's all. I'm very, very happy."

"Having a baby is a big responsibility," Piper said.

Danny wanted to laugh. When Piper ripped off comments like that and the whole baby-making information, Danny thought that he saw her mother's parenting at work. That maybe the reason Piper was such a great kid, and adjusting so well, was because Nina had been a good mother. Maybe she'd just had bad taste in husbands.

Fortunately, Boston smiled at Piper's comment as he pulled Shelby into his arms. "So you think I can handle it, Piper?"