Shotgun Bride. Leann Harris
as she walked into the dining area and placed her purse on the table.
“I’d rather be too cautious than give someone another opportunity to hurt you,” he informed her. “And until we know something different, I’m going to assume the worst, that you’re in danger.”
Color drained from her face.
He cursed under his breath for stating the situation so starkly, but it needed to be done. She needed to be aware of the danger to her and the baby. He could deal with her feelings later.
Scanning the room, Hawk remembered in exquisite detail the time they made love on the couch, then the floor. He held up his garment bag. “I’ll hang this.” He walked into her bedroom, where the only closet in the apartment was located.
Ignoring the bed and the memories of the last time he’d been in this room, he hung his suit bag in the closet. His eyes were drawn to the neatly made bed. The stuffed gorilla he’d given her after a trip to Astroworld sat in the center of the bed. He remembered how touched she was by the simple gift and the way she showed him her appreciation.
Visions of their lovemaking swamped him. The memories of what they’d shared in that bed were both bittersweet and tantalizing. When his gaze left the bed, it collided with Renee’s. Her eyes were dark with memories.
The charged silence made his blood pound through his head.
She looked so troubled and lost when you weren’t here. Cora’s words rang through his head and he shoved away the hope.
But I assured her that any man who looked at a woman the way you looked at her would be back. All she had to do was wait.
Those words had nailed Hawk hard. Surely the old woman was wrong. His heart wasn’t involved. But how could Cora be right on the mark with Renee’s reaction and not his? He didn’t like the directions of his thoughts.
“You hungry?” Renee asked.
Hawk grasped for the lifeline. “I am, but why don’t we go out? You look as though you could use a nice dinner.” The memories of this place pressed in on him. The smell of the honeysuckle under Renee’s window after they made love, the feel of her hands on his body, the taste and smoothness of her skin.
She nodded. “There’s that little Mexican food place, La Loma, off the loop, that serves wonderful spinach enchiladas.”
He remembered the place. Their first date had been there. “Let’s go.”
As he locked the apartment door, he was grateful for the reprieve.
Hawk’s arm rested over his eyes as he lay on Renee’s couch and tried to think of the legal case he was working on for the Houston PD. Maybe if he concentrated on something tedious, he could go to sleep. The couch wasn’t made for his six-foot, four-inch frame. As a matter of fact, her apartment was too small to allow them any personal space. They’d been in each other’s way all night.
The world had taken on a surreal quality this last week. Renee was Emory’s daughter. She was pregnant with his child, and they were to marry.
At first Hawk had thought Emory was teasing him about Renee. He always suspected Emory had wanted something to develop between Renee and him. When Emory assured Hawk he wasn’t joking and explained why he wanted Hawk to marry her, things began to spin out of control.
He still didn’t want to deal with the passion Renee generated inside him. His mother, then his ex-wife, taught him not to give in to his feelings. Emotions only generated problems.
But there was another problem that had cropped up since Renee had agreed to marry him. When they had originally made their agreement to marry, he hadn’t known about her pregnancy. He had hoped that maybe after the danger to her life passed, they might go their separate ways. Now, with a child between them, he couldn’t walk away. So if he was going to stay, what about the sexual relationship between them? He didn’t intend to become a monk. With the level of attraction that existed between them, there wasn’t a chance in hell that they’d keep their hands off each other.
The sound of footsteps going to the kitchen pierced his concentration. Obviously Renee couldn’t sleep, either.
He sat up, slipped on his jeans and joined her. Renee held a glass of iced tea in one hand and a homemade chocolate-chip cookie in the other. She looked rumpled and tempting, wrapped in an old robe, her hair hanging loose around her shoulders, and barefoot. Something he didn’t need.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she explained unnecessarily.
Hawk couldn’t, either. “Looks good.” He nodded to the cookie. “Got another one?”
She pushed the tin toward him. “Help yourself.”
After he took a healthy bite, he said, “Nervous about the wedding on Saturday?”
“I feel like a deer the first day of hunting season, in the crosshairs of someone’s rifle.”
He took another bite of the cookie. “Who baked these?”
“I did.”
His brow arched. “I didn’t know you could bake like this.”
“There’s a lot about me you don’t know.”
From the first time he met her, Hawk had tried very hard not to want to know anything personal about her, because he was afraid of where it would lead.
He’d managed to keep his distance from her for a couple of years. But last St. Patrick’s Day, he asked her to accompany him to the Green Gala the police department put on at one of the downtown hotels. That night he gave in to temptation and kissed her. It was the beginning of their fiery relationship. Once they had gotten involved, the fire that had consumed him didn’t give him a chance to think about mundane things like whether or not Renee could cook. He remembered the picnic they had together and the coconut cake she brought. He’d licked icing off her lovely—
Don’t go there.
He’d never wondered if she had baked the cake herself. Now what were they talking about? The wedding in a couple of days. “What about the wedding is making you nervous?” he asked as he picked up another cookie.
A bitter laugh escaped her mouth. “Everything. The family’s reaction, people at work…their reaction, the social elite in this city. I didn’t think it would be a problem, but after what happened the other night—” She swallowed the rest of her comment and touched the bandage on her head. She turned away from him and her shoulders slumped.
He heard her try to choke back tears. Unable to stop himself, he placed his hand on her back.
“It’s going to be okay, Renee.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “I wish I could be as sure as you are.”
Unable to help himself, he brushed off the tear that ran down her cheek. Her skin was so smooth. “That’s why Emory wanted us to marry. He trusts me to care for you.”
She turned around and leaned back against the counter. “So your distaste for marriage only happens when the woman wants a commitment? It’s okay as long as it’s a favor to Emory?”
He deserved that shot.
“Why did you agree to do this?” Renee pressed.
“I’ve already answered that.”
“I guess I need to hear it again.” Questions filled her eyes. “I mean, it seems a rather big sacrifice to marry a woman you don’t love and had refused to do so earlier.”
The lady was asking questions of him that he’d wrestled with. Why was he doing this? “Aside from the baby, I owe Emory.” That was the argument he’d used with himself. He didn’t want to examine his motives too closely.
“Why do you owe him?”
He didn’t want to give her this part of him.
“Look