A Baby by Chance Read online

  Oblivious to his thoughts, Madison continued with her usual practical take on things. “We won’t be married, of course—”

  “Of course not,” Chance cut in dryly, glad to see he and Madison were on the same page, after all.

  “But if we’re raising a child together, it will sort of seem like it to our child. And the older our child gets, the more he or she is going to be aware of our relationship.” She knotted her hands together in frustration. “I don’t want our child to see us get involved with person after person after person. It would be...confusing.”

  “And then some,” Chance agreed with mock solemnness, wondering where in heck Madison was going with this. Clearly, she had some objective in mind. “So what are you suggesting we do?” Chance squinted at her, trying to read her mind, not to mention what was in her heart. “That we both swear off sex until our kid is grown up?” That was ludicrous!

  “Of course not.” As Madison faced him, bright color stained her cheeks. She laid a hand against her breasts. “I would never ask you to deny your...your needs in that respect any more than I would want to deny mine for the rest of my life!”

  “Then...” Chance left the question hanging.

  “I was wondering. As long as you’re not emotionally involved with anyone else, and neither am I—” Madison hesitated, her lower lip trembling. “Maybe we could agree to sleep just with each other.”

  * * *

  A RIVETING SILENCE fell between them that had Madison’s heart doing flip-flops in her chest and all her nerves jangling. She could see his shock doing battle with his interest. No doubt about it, she thought as his sexy smile widened, he loved her proposed arrangement. “Hmm. Steady sex without the wedding rings or any of the other attendant hassles,” Chance declared finally with a long sigh of anticipation.

  Madison shrugged, aware the idea wasn’t as ludicrous as he was making it sound, even if saying it out loud had made her feel all hot and flustered. She and Chance were both very passionate people who currently had no outlet for their passion. “We made love before without being in love.”

  “Which is how we ended up in this situation,” Chance pointed out, obviously not nearly as anxious to jump into bed with her again as she was to jump into bed with him.

  Desperate to restore some normalcy to the situation, Madison ignored the heat washing over her breasts and thighs and gave him a carefully friendly smile. “I just thought it would make things simpler.” Chance wouldn’t be deprived of something he might otherwise feel driven to get. She wouldn’t have to feel jealous. Neither of them would have to be frustrated or lonely. Plus, pregnancy had left her feeling sexier than she had expected. She went to bed every night remembering what it had been like to lie in his arms and woke up every morning desperate to do so again. Only her stubborn wish to keep their relationship simple and uncomplicated had kept her from giving in to that desire thus far. But now that she knew there was nothing simple about sharing a child, anyway...

  “What about the business aspect of all this?” Chance folded his arms across his chest and lounged in front of the huge fieldstone fireplace. “I thought you were concerned about mixing business and pleasure,” he reminded her, looking determined to break down every barrier she’d put up around her heart.

  “I still am,” Madison said, as she fought to control the situation the only way she could—with a bunch of new rules and an entirely new contract. But she could see he wasn’t concerned. Never had been. Never would be. Maybe because sex with her and their business together always remained totally separate in his mind. But then he was self-employed, Madison reminded herself hotly, even as she yearned for the freedom he already enjoyed. If she alone could decide what was proper and what was not, she’d already be sleeping with him. And why not? She’d proved she was capable of successfully doing business that involved him, regardless of the fact they’d tumbled recklessly into bed and were now having a child because of it.

  “So?” Chance prodded, lifting a brow.

  But there were still ad agency rules to follow, Madison realized, disappointed. “So we’d wait until after the ads were finished, my business here at the ranch over, and then pick up where we left off, so to speak.”

  Something sexy and dangerous glimmered in his eyes. “Sort of an ongoing hit-and-run proposition, so to speak,” he mocked dryly.

  She could see, even though he didn’t want to be, he was interested in her matter-of-fact proposition.

  Unable to help herself, Madison flushed. “It’s only going to be another month or so, Chance.” One that would seem an eternity to her, but would pass nevertheless.

  “Even so—” Chance paused and shook his head. And Madison knew with a surge of disappointment what he was going to say even before he spoke.

  “Sleeping with each other whenever the spirit moved us would only make things more complicated,” Chance said abruptly, the muscles in his jaw tightening in a way that let Madison know she’d struck a nerve with her unexpected proposition.

  In for a penny, in for a pound. She was not going to give up yet. “How do you figure that?”

  “Suppose we’re sleeping together, and then one of us does meet the love of our lives, then what?” Chance asked, carefully studying her face for her reaction.

  Maybe I already have met the love of my life, Madison thought. Shocked at the possibility, she pushed the unwanted thought away. Cooler heads prevailed, she reminded herself. And with so much at stake, she couldn’t afford to go around falling in love with anyone, not even Chance Cartwright. “First of all, that’s not going to happen.” Chance was not going to fall in love with someone else.

  “But if it did,” Chance persisted, beginning to smile, as if he were seeing things she didn’t want him to see.

  Madison flushed self-consciously.

  “Then what?” Chance persisted.

  Still holding Chance’s gaze, she lifted her shoulders carelessly, let them fall. She was not going to let him goad her into blurting out anything foolish, like the fact that she might just might be starting to fall in love with him a tiny little bit.

  “Then we renegotiate our contract with each other, I guess,” Madison told him carelessly, as even more warmth crept into her cheeks.

  Chance tilted his head to the side. His gaze lazily tracked the shape of her lips, her breasts, before returning to her eyes. “You don’t think that will be messy?”

  Madison tingled everywhere his eyes had touched and everywhere they hadn’t. “I think we’re both very good businesspeople, Chance. I think we can handle anything we set our minds to handle.” Including and especially each other.

  Chance frowned, and for a second she could have sworn he was teasing her. “I don’t know, Madison. My understanding of these things is they just happen. It isn’t like you can pick a date or place and say, ‘Hmm, I think I’ll meet someone and fall in love today.’ When something like that hits you—and it doesn’t hit often—it hits with the swiftness of a lightning bolt. You’re powerless under the spell.”

  Madison studied him even as she listened to the reverence in his voice and the mingled emotions of awe and yearning in his deep blue eyes. She had to hand it to him—he really sounded like he knew what he was talking about. “That’s just it, Chance. I don’t want to be powerless.”

  Maybe if she took these feelings she had for Chance and dealt with them openly and honestly, she wouldn’t be caught unaware by the desire. Or blindsided by it. The reality was, it was going to be very hard to share a baby with him and not eventually make love with him again. That being the case, why not accept the inevitability of the situation and work out the ground rules for any further lovemaking in advance? Heck, maybe if they made love a few more times, she would eventually get him—and their passion—out of her system. Because passion alone could not last forever. Her father and mother and darn near every other married couple she knew had told her that.

  Chance regarded her. “I can’t say I’m not tempted to haul you into my arm
s right now and make love to you all over again.”

  Madison heard the but in his voice and tensed, unable to contain her hurt. He wanted her, but only on his terms. Not hers.

  “Nor am I ruling it out permanently,” he continued, “’Cause heaven knows I still want you.” He gently rubbed her cheek with the pad of his thumb, then dropped his head to hers and kissed her gently, evocatively. “More than I would ever have believed possible.”

  Then we have something in common, Madison thought determinedly as she wreathed her arms about him and responded to the sweet and tender kiss, because I want you, too, more than I ever would have thought possible. Just thinking about being with him again made her feel all hot and bothered inside. And she’d been thinking about it a lot, alone in her bed at night.

  Regret colored his low tone as he lifted his lips from hers and dropped his hand from her face. “But we shouldn’t jump into bed again without at least establishing friendship first.”

  Sensing the hot-blooded argument on the tip of her tongue, he cut her off firmly. “I’ve been this route before, Madison. I’ve learned the hard way that sex without love eventually leads you down a road you don’t want to be on.”

  Like this one? Madison thought bitterly, her insides still tingling from the tantalizingly brief contact. What was he trying to do to her? Show her how hard it would be to leave him when her time in Wyoming was up? Because if so, it was working.

  “That might not be a problem if it weren’t for the baby you’re carrying,” Chance continued soberly, “but we have to do what’s right in the long run for all three of us. And that means getting to know each other a lot better before we decide we want to pick up where we left off.”

  His words made sense. They were even chivalrous to a fault. They just weren’t what she wanted to hear.

  “You’re right, of course,” Madison said stiffly, unable to help but feel rejected by his considerate concern for her well-being and that of their baby. “We should be friends,” she said hoarsely. A wave of despair crashed through her as she realized how completely her efforts to protect herself and their baby had failed. “Making love again would just get in the way of that,” she agreed numbly. No matter how pleasurable it was. How comforting.

  Chance touched her shoulder. His restraint didn’t seem to be costing him as much as it was costing her. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings—”

  “You haven’t.” Madison forced a bright smile completely at odds with her inner turmoil. She’d put her pride on the line, her entire heart, by unburdening herself to him, and he hadn’t understood a thing! He’d thought—erroneously—that her proposal was all about sex, from beginning to end, when it was really about so much more. It had been about hope and their future and finding a way to build something that would last by first and foremost using what they already had going for them—a mutual concern for their baby and physical passion. She’d been hoping the rest would follow as long as they promised to keep other potential sexual partners or romantic rivals out of their lives and were faithful to each other. But Chance hadn’t gotten it. Nor had he understood what it had done to her pride just making such an offer! She wasn’t sure he ever would, she realized miserably, given the fact she was the only one in the room who secretly suspected she had already been hit with the lightning bolt called love.

  “Madison—”

  At the entreaty in his low voice, it was all Madison could do not to groan. Now he was going to be polite. She couldn’t bear it if he was polite and chivalrous, too. It would have been a lot easier on her if he had been mean or rude as he turned her down. Her heart aching, Madison shook her head at Chance and turned away. They’d discussed enough for one day. Much more and she’d be totally destroyed.

  Giving him no chance to stop her, she grabbed her cell phone and headed for the stairs. “If you’ll excuse me,” she said, mocking his politeness to a T, “I’ve got some phone calls to make.”

  This relationship b.s. was for the birds.

  Business, she could handle.

  * * *

  AS PROMISED, RONA returned first thing the next morning. She had with her a certified check for Chance, her producer boyfriend and a groom, who would be helping transport her new horse to her California ranch. After the financial transaction was complete, the necessary papers signed, the two men went off with Chance to back the pickup truck to the barn and load the beautiful palomino into the trailer Rona had brought along.

  Madison was still stinging from Chance’s velvet-glove rejection but also felt bad about the way she had initially misjudged Rona. She stepped outside to talk to Rona, who was standing in the yard watching the men.

  “Chance showed us his new Ranchero,” Rona said, inclining her head at the truck Chance had received as a sweetener from AMV and had not yet bothered to drive, at least not that Madison had seen.

  “It’s a great pickup truck.” Rona sighed admiringly. “I’d like to have one.” She turned to Madison. “When will they be coming out?”

  “They’ll be at trade shows late this fall, and then introduced to the open market sometime early next year, probably during the football playoffs or on Super Bowl Sunday,” Madison said with a smile, more relaxed now that she’d decided to concentrate on business instead of Chance. To aid that endeavor she’d decided to look the part and had put on a smart linen pantsuit that morning instead of the jeans and cotton shirts she had been wearing since arriving at the ranch.

  Rona opened the driver’s door and slipped behind the wheel. “Does that mean the commercials Chance is going to be in will run during the big games?”

  Thinking the interior might be a little warm because the vehicle had been sitting in the sun, Madison went around and opened the door on the other side, too. “Most likely the commercials will run during the big football games since most pickups are bought by men.”

  Rona grinned as she smoothed her delicate-looking hands over the steering wheel. “That could change if and when women see someone like Chance behind the wheel, you know. They may want a little of the fantasy for themselves, if you get my drift.”

  Given how charismatically handsome Chance was, Madison knew that was true. Just as she knew she was no longer in the running for his mate on any level.

  “His sex appeal is precisely why we wanted him for the commercial,” Madison said, glad she could think about Chance as a commodity again, instead of a potential love interest. “If anyone can sell a new environmentally friendly pickup truck to the families of America, it’s a gotta-do-right guy like Chance.”

  Rona glanced down, checking the position of the accelerator and brake. “I’m surprised you were able to talk him into doing the ads even if his remuneration is going to charity.” Still gripping the wheel, Rona sat all the way back against the seat and sent Madison a knowing look. “He doesn’t even like having his picture taken for fun.”

  “So I’ve noticed,” Madison said dryly, watching as Rona checked out her own appearance—which was letter-perfect—in the rearview mirror. The only time Madison could photograph him well was when he didn’t know she was snapping his picture. “But I think he’ll live through it,” she predicted optimistically. “The actual filming of the commercial is only going to take a couple of weeks, depending on how much the weather cooperates and how long it takes our director to get what he wants when it comes to the cinematography. Unfortunately, Vince is very, um...”

  “Temperamental?” Rona guessed.

  Unable to help herself, Madison grimaced. Vince had already been a handful, and he hadn’t even arrived yet. She could only imagine how demanding he would be when he started the filming. Worse, Chance was not the kind of guy to put up with any prima donna antics from anyone.

  “I’m sure it will all work out fabulously in the end,” Rona predicted.

  “I hope so,” Madison murmured. She was beginning to get a little nervous about it, and the two very different men hadn’t even met.

  “Trust me.” Rona shut the glove comp
artment with a snap and turned her attention to the adjustable seat, moving it up, forward and back. “There isn’t an artist of any kind on this earth who isn’t just a little driven and protective of their work,” she continued knowledgeably. “And that goes for Chance and his horses, too. You just have to know how to meet them on their terms, understand what they want from you and then give it to them as best you can. It doesn’t mean you can’t have any input into the process—you just have to allow them theirs. I tried to explain all that to Chance yesterday when we were out riding and he was complaining about having to go through this.”

  “He’s looking forward to it that much, hmm?” Madison was happy for Rona’s input, but stung to discover Chance had confided his private frustrations and fears about the work ahead of them to Rona and not her. Rona wasn’t even involved in this!

  “Not to worry.” Rona reassured her brightly. Finally having the driver’s seat the way she wanted it, she smiled and looked forward, once again gripping the wheel. “I told him it’d all be over before he knew it. Now me,” Rona continued, pretending for a moment she was actually driving as she smoothly worked the conversation around to her favorite subject. “I love doing commercials....”

  * * *

  “SO WHAT’S GOING ON between you and Madison Burnes?” Lindsay Duncan asked Chance several days later. She had brought a couple of the younger boys from Lost Springs over to ride two of Chance’s premium horses. It was an honor bestowed on the younger boys only after lots of hard work and good behavior, and one the kids really looked forward to. She and Chance followed on the trail behind them.

  More interested in his supervisory duties than discussing his personal life, which appeared to be in one hell of a mess at the moment, Chance lifted one hand from the reins and cupped it around his mouth. “Tucker! Randy! Don’t get so far ahead! Not more than fifty yards. And stick to the trail!”

  The two boys swung around in the saddle and waved giddy acknowledgment at Chance, signaling they intended to follow his instructions.