She inhaled sharply and adjusted her stance at the unexpected contact but determinedly held her ground. His hand slid from her face to cup the back of her neck and, applying the slightest pressure, drew her even closer to him. She watched his gaze roam over each detail of her face before coming to rest on her mouth. She noted the faint shadow that darkened his face as he bent his head toward her. His lips, wide and defined, parted slightly as if intending to kiss her, but stopped a mere breath away, and only his thumb touched her mouth, tracing the curving fullness in an incredibly intimate gesture.
Time stood still. The close physical contact brought her challenge into clear focus. The pulse hammered in her throat. She swallowed back the overwhelming sensation of panic that rose within her and tried to look away.
Alec gently tilted her chin upward, forcing her to look into the golden depths of his eyes. The bittersweet fragrance of his cologne teased her senses. She could sense the disciplined power and virility of his body as he stood mere inches away from her. There was no doubt he was all male. Her stomach muscles involuntarily contracted as a shaft of sexual awareness shot through her. An intense heat seemed to envelop her as her breath became shallow, almost nonexistent. A little voice inside screamed to run while she could.
Three
“All right, Ms. Hardin.” His throaty voice penetrated the silence of the room. “We’ll play this one your way and see what happens. I’ll honor the conditions as set forth by our ancestors and we will be married. And there will be no development on any of the land as long as the marriage continues or if this...union ...should exceed one year.”
He paused, tilting his head slightly as though studying her reaction. “But know this—” the tone of his voice reflected the seriousness of his words “—you will be my wife as stipulated in the original lease. Legally and spiritually, body and soul. You’ll share my life, as well as my bed, for the duration. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
It was time to bail out. She knew it but couldn’t seem to move. He was telling her exactly what she would have to agree to, up front. He was giving her every opportunity to walk away. She took a deep breath and hoped her strength was as unfailing as her stubbornness.
“I understand.” Her voice was firm although barely above a whisper.
“Do you?” A sparkle glistened in Alec Morreston’s amber eyes. “I guess we’ll find out tonight, won’t we?”
He released her and stepped toward the door but hesitated before pulling it open. “One more thing. I’ll require a prenuptial agreement. Thomas should have time to fax one to your attorney’s office before—”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed, pinning her to the spot. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I said no.”
“Ms. Hardin, do you really expect me to marry a woman I don’t know and risk losing half of everything I have?”
“I’d say, after your earlier statement, you expect me to give up more than that. No prenup, Mr. Morreston. I want no part of anything you own, other than my ranch. You can trust me on that—” Shea eyed him coolly “—or you can book your flight home.”
She could see the muscles in his jaw working overtime as he apparently strove to keep his temper from exploding.
“My personal holdings have nothing to do with this land issue. If, as you say, you want nothing but the land, then signing a prenup should not be asking too much.”
“Neither is wanting to keep my home,” she countered. “Nothing in the contract said anything about a prenuptial agreement. I refuse to sign one. If you refuse to marry me because of that, then I guess the land is mine. Your call.”
Her heart beat so solidly against the wall of her chest she felt sure he could hear it from three feet away. She hoped she looked calmer on the outside than she felt on the inside.
Silence dominated the room. A barely perceivable change in his stance, from tense to an almost exaggerated casualness, conveyed the control he maintained on his emotions. His tawny eyes drifted over her as if trying to discover how much determination lay underneath. The burning strength of his gaze wandered insolently from her face to her breasts, down to her belly, to her hands—held tightly clenched at her sides—then down the legs of her jeans all the way to her feet. Shea could feel the blush spread across her face as he rudely inspected and silently weighed the feminine merchandise standing in front of him.
“All right, Ms. Hardin,” he said finally, his tone suddenly menacing. “We’ll play hardball if that’s what you want. You just upped the stakes and I’d be a fool not to call your bluff. Be ready tonight, honey. Be ready for me.”
He stepped back and opened the door. Shea shakily, but resolutely, walked through it. While temporarily disconcerted by his unexpected and candid proclamation, she knew the marriage would never be consummated. He was trying to intimidate her. That’s all it was. He would do well to remember that two could play this game.
She had no intention of letting herself become physically ensnared and used by an egotistical maniac. She may have been forced into making a pact with the devil, but he would quickly find she was anything but a sacrificial lamb. Alec Morreston was city bred and raised. He had no concept of the sometimes harsh realities of ranch life, and she’d bet he wouldn’t last a month.
In fact, she had just bet the ranch on it.
“Alec...” The heavy concern in Thomas’s voice was clearly evident through the telephone line. Alec could picture him gripping the receiver so tightly his knuckles were turning white. He was almost sorry he couldn’t be there in person to deliver the news of the pending wedding. “Are you certain you know what you’re doing?”
Because their client-attorney relationship had grown into a solid friendship over the years, Alec wasn’t insulted when Thomas questioned his sanity. Hell, in the past five hours, he’d begun to question it himself.
“I mean, what do we really know about this woman?”
“I think she’s okay, Thomas.”
“But what if she’s not? What if this is all a setup? Do you have to marry her, for God’s sake?” His tone was incredulous. “Maybe if you offered her more money?”
“She wouldn’t take two million.”
“She—” Alec heard Thomas Long swallow hard on that one. “My God! How much more does she want?”
“She says she doesn’t want money. She wants the land. I believe, in her mind, she’s telling the truth. She honestly thinks she can pull this off and make me back down. Unfortunately for her, I’ve committed to building this entertainment complex. The investors are already on board. I’m down several million and we haven’t yet poured the first foundation. There is no turning back at this point.”
“How about we try to find other land alternatives. I could put out some feelers...”
“A friend who specializes in real estate spent almost a year doing just that. I originally wanted to build in the East. He checked land possibilities within a hundred-mile radius of every major city near a natural waterway from New York to Florida. We encountered zoning restrictions, municipal politics, arbitrary city codes, small town gluttony. He found a two-thousand-acre tract just outside Cincinnati, but the deed was in probate. There was a five-thousand-acre tract in Virginia, but it was so far removed from civilization I didn’t want to take the chance it might be too far.
“This location is perfect. A little farther west than I initially wanted, but it’s actually working out even better than the original plan. It’s centrally located in the US, only fifty miles from the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport and it borders the Red River.”
Alec had already purchased land directly across the state line in Oklahoma and had most of the permits for that side of the river. “I’ve spent weeks restructuring blueprints to meet local building codes, obtaining land surveys for two states and finally have received a clearance from the EPA over some near-extinct bird they thought nested nearby. I refuse to spend any more time or money trying to find equivalent land just so Ms. Hardin can continue to raise her cows. Give me a few days, a couple of weeks at best, and I’ll have her out of here.”
“Okay.” There was a moment of silence while Thomas, no doubt, regrouped. “What about a prenup? You’re potentially handing this woman a key to a very large door. Your bank accounts alone...” Thomas paused. “I’ll have a basic agreement drawn up and sent to you in—”
“No thanks, Thomas.”
“No? Alec—”
“We’ve already had this discussion. She refused.”
Another stunned silence. “Then don’t marry her. Let her have the damn land. Even considering how much you’ve sunk into the project, it isn’t worth a fraction of your other holdings. Alec—”
“Thomas, look, I appreciate your concern. But I honestly feel if it should come down to a divorce petition for any of my current assets, the bizarre reason for the marriage—my being forced to take this route in order to regain the use of my own land—would supersede any claim.”
“But we can’t know that for sure.”