Bargaining for Baby(24)

When she shivered, he scooped her close and whispered in a deep sexy drawl, "Come back to bed."

After they moved inside, they made love again, and this time was even   better than the first. Then they talked. Talked until dawn. About school   days and old friendships. About far-reaching hopes and some of their   dreams. When she told him about her father and then her mother's   illness-how she wanted to be strong for her now-he brushed the hair from   her cheek and with the softest smile said he understood.



When she and Jack arrived at Leadeebrook at seven the next morning,   Maddy was bleary-eyed from lack of sleep. She was also pulsing with new   energy and heartsick about leaving the next day.

The time had gone too quickly. Even the dry heat and the dust were   somehow welcome today. A part of her was even glad to see Nell darting   out to greet them.

As they made their way up the front steps, the bold eastern sun warming   their backs, Maddy was gripped by an overwhelming need to have this day   stretch out like an endless piece of string. She couldn't think of   another way to put off the flight she'd booked for herself for Sydney.

Jack had offered to fly her but she'd declined. Saying goodbye here   would be tough enough. If he flew her home, she'd be tempted to ask him   to stay. Or to ask if she could fly back with him. Ridiculous.

She'd had one heck of a week at Leadeebrook Station and, to top it off,   an unbelievable time last night. The hopeless romantic inside her  wanted  to be swept up into that spell again. But the responsible woman  knew a  rerun wasn't possible.

Or was it?

The notion of spending more time here with Jack ribboned around her like   a bright new promise and Maddy's face flushed with hope and shame. The   basis of Jack's offer for her to return to Leadeebrook had been to  visit  Beau. She'd been so happy and relieved when he'd suggested it.  She'd  dreaded the thought of not knowing when she'd see the baby next.  After  the incredible hours spent in Jack's arms last night, was it  wrong to  speculate on other advantages?

But if she did come back, and she and Jack had another fling, how would   she define their relationship? They wouldn't be a couple. She wouldn't   be a friend. Maybe a "friend with benefits."                       
       
           



       

The less contemporary term was mistress.

They reached the top of the steps at the same time that Cait brought Beau out.

The bright-eyed housekeeper held the baby, his back to her front, so   that Beau could see all the action. His little legs in their Mickey   Mouse cotton PJs pumped with excitement when he saw them. They might've   been gone a week.

Cait laughed. "He must've heard the plane. He just woke this minute."

Maddy's arms, but more so her heart, reached out. She'd missed him-his   chubby cheeks, his soft curly top. Now she realized how much.

"Did he sleep through?" she asked, taking him from Cait, reveling in his   beautiful baby smell while he gazed up into her face and she smiled   lovingly down.

"Not a whimper, the little pet." Cait stepped aside to let Jack by with the bags. "How was the gala?"

Before Jack could answer, Maddy piped up, "It was wonderful."

Too late, she zipped her lip.

The sparkle in Cait's eyes confirmed what Maddy had feared. Her   abundance of enthusiasm at having spent the night alone with Jack had   come across loud and clear.

But she wasn't in love. People didn't fall in love after a week.

Did they?



Maddy wasn't sure if it was her imagination but when the hands of her   watch reached four and she hadn't seen Jack since scones and morning   tea, she was certain. He was either letting her have quality one-on-one   time with Beau or he was avoiding her.

In the kitchen, absently sealing the top on Beau's bottle, she wondered.   She didn't want to consider the possibility but … did he regret last   night?

She rotated toward baby Beau and kissed his tiny fist as he sat patiently in his reclined baby chair.

Jack's feelings couldn't have changed. What she'd felt and what he'd   given hadn't been a lie. There was a good explanation for his absence   today. Maybe Snow had got in trouble in some distant paddock. Perhaps   Jack had fallen off his horse. He could've broken a leg.

She set the bottle on the table, failing to swallow the prevailing sense   of doom rising in her throat. Today was her last here. After the   intimacies they'd enjoyed, the words they'd said, Jack must want to   share these remaining hours with her.

As much as she wanted to share them with him.

Maddy lifted Beau. Once nestled against her, with a happy mew he latched   onto the bottle and his perfect dimpled hand curled over it. Maddy   cradled the baby, drinking in his innocence and, at the same time,   holding her breath to stop the spiral of doubt from winding any higher.

She'd been in Beau's life from the moment he was born. She'd been there   with Dahlia when he'd come into the world. She'd rocked him and burped   him and played "little piggie" long before coming here. She loved this   little boy. She would give her life for him in an instant. And when   someone loved a child, that love didn't disappear. This kind of love was   forever; her heart of hearts told her that. She may not be Beau's   mother but that didn't change the way she felt. He was the most precious   person in the world to her.

And Jack?

Closing her eyes, Maddy sighed remembering his smile, his woodsy scent,   the thrilling rush that flooded her body whenever she saw him. Whenever   he held her. Had she fallen in love with this ruggedly handsome man  when  a week ago she wanted to throttle him? She hadn't understood a  thing  about him then. She hadn't wanted to.

But here she'd come to know a different side of Jack Prescott-a side   that was dedicated to his nephew, had cared deeply for his sister, had   been a loving husband and was a heartbroken widower.

In Clancy she'd learned more. They'd spent amazing hours, laughing,   talking, making the most blissful kind of love. His kisses sizzled with   soul-soaring passion and yet each caress was defined by the purest   strain of tenderness. The sensation of his hard, long body locking with   hers … the reality of just how effortlessly he brought out every hidden,   wanting part of her …

She'd been lifted to the clouds.

Would any woman feel differently, or did she and Jack share something truly special?

She opened her eyes and searched out the kitchen window.

Why wasn't he back?



Beau was still down for an afternoon nap when Jack rode in near sundown.   Through a sitting room window, Maddy tracked his rolling stride as he   led Herc to the stables. The horse's nostrils flared from exertion, and   his coat was glossy with sweat. Jack would be out there with him for   some time yet.

A startling urge leapt up inside of her and she gripped the window sill.

How would Jack react if she appeared at the stable door and asked what   had kept him? After these hours of waiting and worrying, she needed to   see for herself if the affection that had shone in his eyes last night   had dimmed. Could he block out, as easily as this, the way she'd   murmured his name?                       
       
           



       

Fifteen minutes later, she was chewing a thumbnail, pacing the hall,   waiting for Beau to wake. She was stir-crazy. An unraveling ball of   frazzled nerves. Over a man she'd known a few days and who hadn't chosen   to spend these last hours with her.

Clearly she needed to get back to her friends and throw herself back   into work. Remember who she was and where she belonged, which wasn't   here in this barren wilderness.

She stopped at the front door, hands bunched at her sides. She flicked a   glance at the still-quiet nursery, heard Cait's saucepans' distant   rattle in the kitchen. The sinking sun washed pails of luminous orange,   red and mauve across the hushed horizon. The night was fast  approaching.  Soon the morning would be here.

Maddy's hands bunched tighter.

Would he ever come in?

Her frayed patience snapped. She marched down the stairs and cut a bee-line to the stables.

Jack sat at a small table, dusty boots balanced on one end, ankles   crossed. He was rubbing down some leather strap or other, but now the   action stopped. His head turned and his wary gaze met hers.

Quivering inside, she stepped forward. In his stall, Herc shook his   mane. Her stomach jumping, she pulled up abruptly then scolded herself.