SIGHING contentedly, Eden stretched in her bed, turned to her side, and let the morning sunshine filtering through the window gradually awaken her. The sounds of someone clattering around in the kitchen reached her, as did the tantalizing aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingled with the scent of bacon.
Her stomach growled hungrily, and after another languorous moment, she blinked her eyes slowly open, intending to investigate those delicious fragrances, and was startled to find another person in bed with her, occupying the opposite side of her mattress.
Her daughter lay on her stomach fully dressed for the day, her chin propped in her hands, and a perplexed expression on her face as she stared at Eden. A week had passed since Eden’s marriage to Luke, and while it wasn’t unusual for Phoebe to crawl into bed with her mother and snuggle with her on a Sunday morning, which was the only day they slept in past seven, it was obvious that her daughter wasn’t here to enjoy their lazy ritual.
Phoebe had something on her mind, and didn’t waste time expressing her thoughts. “How come Luke doesn’t sleep in your bedroom like Daddy used to?”
An alarming sense of foreboding slithered down Eden’s spine and settled in her belly like a leaded rock. She hadn’t thought about how her “separate beds” agreement with Luke might look to Phoebe, hadn’t prepared herself to handle her daughter’s very inquisitive nature. She’d just assumed her daughter would accept the situation as normal.
Phoebe obviously knew better, and remembered too much.
Eden’s first week being married to Luke had gone smoothly, without any problems or that awkward adjustment period most couples encountered—probably because Luke woke early in the mornings, and was out of the house before Eden made it into the kitchen or Phoebe’s alarm went off for her to get ready for school. Luke spent the long days making himself scarce on the Double L, came up to the main house to join them for supper, then disappeared again until Phoebe and Eden retired for the night.
When Eden did come into contact with Luke during the day, their conversation was always friendly, and usually pertained to business. Their weekly routine was a monotonous one, but enabled them to maintain that emotional distance they both seemed to need after the way their wedding night ended.
Today was the first day they would spend together, with no excuses or pretenses of avoiding one another.
Unsure how to answer her daughter’s legitimate question about their sleeping arrangements, Eden treaded cautiously. “What makes you ask that, Phoebs?”
Phoebe shrugged her slender shoulders. “I thought all moms and dads slept in the same bedroom, like you and Daddy used to, and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ray do. All Luke’s clothes and stuff are in the guest room, and he even uses the bathroom down the hall.”
Her daughter was too perceptive, and too persistent when she found herself puzzled by an issue she wanted answers to. Unfortunately, a suitable, believable reply eluded Eden.
Phoebe chewed on her lower lip, and worry filled her hazel eyes. “Are you and Luke mad at each other?”
Eden came up on her elbow and smoothed away the concerned frown marring Phoebe’s brow. The last thing she wanted her daughter to think was that she and Luke were fighting. Sleeping in separate beds had nothing to do with being adversaries, and too much to do with desiring one another and maintaining their sanity for the next year.
She struggled to get out of what was quickly becoming a very awkward conversation. “No, honey…it’s just that…well, we’re still trying to get used to each other, and being married.”
“Oh.” Phoebe wrinkled her freckled nose as she contemplated that for a moment. Then she smiled happily. “So then he’ll eventually start sleeping in here with you like all moms and dads do?”
Dragging a hand through her disheveled hair to buy herself extra thinking time, Eden drew a deep breath that did nothing to ease the sudden pressure in her chest. If she told Phoebe yes, she’d be making a promise that went against the deal she and Luke had agreed upon. It would also put them both in a very reckless situation neither wanted. If she replied no, trouble, complications, and unsettling questions would undoubtedly arise should Phoebe happen to inadvertently mention to her aunt Sarah, or her uncle Allen, that her mom and Luke didn’t sleep in the same bed. Her relationship with Luke would be under scrutiny, as well as their marriage.
And if Allen suspected their union was all a sham, it would give him the perfect excuse to tie up the ranch’s finances for the next six months, or longer.
The web of deception she’d woven was becoming a tangled mess! Yes or no, Eden had to choose, and either answer put her in a precarious position—to either deal with the undeniable chemistry simmering between her and Luke, or risk her brother-in-law’s suspicions, and her own credibility.
She thought of her and Phoebe’s future, of putting the ranch in jeopardy, and decided that Luke would just have to understand, and abide by her choice. A little amendment to their deal.
Eden smiled reassuringly at Phoebe. “Yeah,” she said, sealing Luke’s fate. “Eventually Luke will move his things into my bedroom.” In this case, the sooner, the better, to squash any possible gossip before it started. “Now what do you say you go down to the kitchen to see what Luke is up to, and I’ll take a quick shower and change and join you two in about fifteen minutes?”
“Okay,” Phoebe said cheerfully, clearly pacified with the information she’d gleaned from her mother. “I’ll go help him.” Sliding off the bed, Phoebe skipped from the room.
Groaning at the turn of events, and the upheaval it would produce, Eden tossed off the covers and headed into the adjoining bathroom. She took a quick, hot shower, braided her damp hair, and changed into shorts, blouse and sneakers. Then she followed the appetizing aroma of breakfast to the kitchen.
She walked into the room and found Luke standing at the stove flipping pancakes, and Phoebe setting the table. The scene was cozy, like any normal family on a Sunday morning. Heading straight for the coffee-maker, Eden poured herself a cup of the steaming brew.
“Good morning, Luke,” she greeted, adding cream to her coffee.
He glanced at her, a warm smile canting his mouth. “’Morning,” he drawled in that lazy, husky way that tickled Eden’s tummy and was more effective than a shot of caffeine to start her blood humming.
Ignoring the nerve-wracking sensation, she leaned a hip against the counter, took a sip of her coffee, and cast a glance toward the platter of crisp bacon and fluffy pancakes he’d made. “You didn’t have to make breakfast. I would have done it for us.”
“Just trying to pull my weight around here.” He expertly flipped the last pancake onto the plate.
“I’m impressed.” She was also a woman who appreciated a man who knew his way around the kitchen. “I didn’t know you could cook.”
“I’m a better cook than most men, I suppose,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve been making my own meals for a long time.” Picking up the platter, he carried it to the table and sat down with Phoebe.
Eden slid into the chair next to Luke, and they ate his delicious breakfast around easy, amicable conversation. When Phoebe asked about their plans for the day, Eden took advantage of the opening.
Finished with her meal, Eden set her fork and napkin on her plate, then addressed her daughter. “I was thinking, Phoebe, maybe we could go over to Billy Thompson’s and see if he has any of those fox terrier pups still for sale.”
Phoebe perked up, her eyes growing round with excitement. “Really?”
Eden smiled and stood, stacking plates to clear from the table. “Yep, just as soon as your outside chores are done, and you check on Mouser and her kittens and make sure she has fresh food and water.”
At record speed, Phoebe helped Eden clear the dirty dishes from the table then headed out the back door to complete her tasks. Knowing her time alone with Luke was limited, Eden didn’t waste any time beating around the bush.
“We need to talk,” she said, refilling his mug with coffee, then her own. Knowing she was too restless to sit, she picked up her cup and carried it to the counter and faced him.
He watched her, wariness glimmering in his eyes. “This must be serious for you to bribe Phoebe with a dog so soon.”
She cringed inwardly, unable to refute his claim. “I did promise her a dog.”
The corner of his mouth quirked. “In lieu of a baby sister or brother.”
“She needs the distraction.” That much was true. Hopefully a puppy would keep Phoebe occupied, and her mind off the more intimate details of her mother’s marriage.
Luke took a long drink of his coffee, then asked slowly, “Is she asking about babies again?”
“No, not exactly.” Eden reached deep for fortitude. “She’s asking why you don’t sleep in my bed like her dad used to.”
He chuckled and shook his head, obviously not understanding the implications of Phoebe’s question. “That kid is something else.”
She waited until his laughter subsided, enjoying the deep, resonant sound. “I’m glad you find this amusing, but it creates a problem.”
He looked completely unconcerned. “In what way?”
“If she’s asking me why you don’t sleep in my bedroom, then there’s a big chance of her mentioning this to Sarah, or Allen, or a kid at school, which would start unfavorable gossip about our relationship and marriage.”
Sobering, he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “I see your point.”
“Good.” Turning abruptly, she dumped her coffee in the sink and decided she’d handle the next phase of their conversation with more confidence and composure if she wasn’t looking at him. “Then you’ll understand when I tell you that you need to move your things into my bedroom and sleep there.”
“Excuse me?”
She faced him again, and found him gaping at her in blatant disbelief. “What other choice do I have?” she asked defensively.
He opened his mouth to speak, snapped it shut, then frowned fiercely. A long, taut silence stretched between them. Eden crossed her arms over her chest and waited for the shock to pass.
Luke eased out a harsh breath. “Eden, what you’re suggesting is crazy,” he finally said. Picking up his empty mug, he stalked over to her and placed it in the sink. His eyes met hers, filled with determination and moral strength. “I can’t sleep in the same bed with you.”
“Why not? We’re grown adults.” She lifted her chin, trying desperately to maintain her poise. “Just because we sleep in the same bed doesn’t mean we’re going to…do anything.”
“Anything?” he repeated, a wicked gleam sparking to life in his sexy eyes. “Like touch and kiss and make love?”
“Yes.” When she realized how that sounded, she quickly amended, “I mean no!” The man had her completely flustered! “I tend to stick to one side of the bed, and if you do the same, then we’ll be fine.”
“And what if I’m an all-over-the-bed kind of sleeper?” he asked, provoking her with his suggestive words, his velvet-deep voice, his warm gaze. “Or what if I like to sleep in the nude?”
Smooth, muscled flesh. Entwined limbs. Body heat. She gulped at the images running rampant in her mind. “Are you? Do you?” She hadn’t considered his sleeping habits.
His shoulder lifted in a lazy shrug that rippled the muscles beneath his T-shirt. “I could, on both accounts.”
He was taunting her, trying to provoke her to change her mind. With so much at stake, she’d beg him if she had to! “I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I could think of an alternative,” she said reasonably. “We’re married, and we’re expected to sleep in the same room, and the same bed. If Sarah or Allen came over and saw your things in the guest room and bathroom they’d get suspicious and start asking questions that I don’t want to have to answer. Questions that could jeopardize the term of Bryce’s will. I don’t want to risk that.”
Her argument was solid, but Luke proved to be a stubborn opponent. “Sleeping with you wasn’t part of the deal.”
“The situation has changed.”
He jammed his hands on his hips and scowled at her. “You’re putting us in a compromising position.”
He was suddenly standing too close, less than a foot away, but she refused to let him, or the heat radiating off his body, intimidate her. “We’re married, so it’ll only be compromising to us. I can handle it if you can.”
He was a man who knew a challenge when he was issued one. Yet he remained uninfluenced, his jaw tight with resolve.
“And I trust you,” she said softly, simply.
His gaze flared with anger, and quicker than she could anticipate he closed the scant distance between them, trapping her against the counter with both arms banded on either side of her hips. She gasped, more in startled surprise, than fear. Instinctively she knew this man would never physically hurt her.
The ruthless light that shone in his eyes was pure defense, like an animal who’d been backed into a corner. “You’re putting too much faith in my ability to resist you,” he said gruffly. “You and I are already fighting the attraction between us. You’ve known from that night at The Silver Spur that I want you. I’ve managed, just barely, to keep my desire for you in check when I fantasize more often than you know about making love to you.”
He brushed his thighs against hers, his hips, his belly. She couldn’t stop the moan that escaped her lips, or the quiver in her legs, when she felt the evidence of just how much he desired her.
He continued relentlessly. “It’s been months since I’ve been with a woman, not that I’ve wanted anyone else since I came to work for you. I vowed to be faithful to you for a year. But I never expected to sleep with you for twelve months, and not be able to touch you. What if I don’t trust myself to just sleep in your bed?”
His doubts touched a chord deep inside Eden, made him seem human, and very vulnerable. She wondered how he’d feel if she told him that she wasn’t sure she trusted herself, either.
But of course she wouldn’t reveal her own weakness. “I guess I’m just going to have to take that chance,” she said, thinking of the financial accounts she wanted in her name. “My options are limited, Luke.”
“Fine. You win.” He pushed away from her, and stabbed his fingers through his short hair, his movements frustrated. “I’ll move into your bedroom and sleep in your bed.” He stalked toward the back door.
She sagged against the counter in relief, trying not to think about the fact that she’d had to rely on Luke yet again to help her get out of a sticky situation. “Thank you,” she whispered gratefully before he walked out on her.
One hand on the screen door, he whirled back around, his expression grim. “Don’t thank me, because the last thing I want from you is your gratitude.” His words hung between them, thick with sensual awareness. “The next year is going to be pure hell for the both of us.”
Heaven waited upstairs for him, in Eden’s bed. Heaven or hell, depending on how he analyzed the situation. The woman was the closest thing to heaven he’d ever held in his arms, and he was certain to burn in those eternal fires below for wanting her as badly as he did. And to sleep next to her platonically night after night was going to challenge every chivalrous bone he had in his body, especially when all he could think about was dragging her beneath him and giving in to the hunger that was his constant companion these days.
Thrusting his fingers into the front pocket of his jeans, Luke wandered around the front yard in an attempt to prompt Buddy, the ten-week-old fox terrier they’d purchased today, to empty his bladder. He’d promised Phoebe that evening while she’d helped to move his personal belongings into Eden’s room that he’d let Buddy out one last time before he locked up for the night…and retired to his wife’s bed.
It was past midnight. He couldn’t avoid the inevitable much longer. Buddy was his last excuse for evading the temptation that had teased the back of his mind all day. Sleeping with Eden.
His gut tightened with a need that combined physical desires with emotional cravings. He’d been in Maddox for a little over two months, but in that short amount of time he’d gained more than he’d acquired in eight years. He wasn’t thinking of the land in Montana so much as the deep internal contentment that filled him. He’d spent his life drifting, and for once he felt as though he belonged somewhere. Truly belonged. Here. With Eden and Phoebe.
Yet he didn’t fool himself for a second into believing the situation could be anything more than a temporary one, no matter how he wished otherwise.
The wiry pup growled playfully at the tips of Luke’s boots, then pounced on them. A gentle push from him sent the whelp tumbling. Luke chuckled. “Go on, fella, and do your thing so we can both go to bed.”
While the terrier obeyed Luke’s gentle order and started sniffing the grass for suitable terrain, Luke glanced up at the house and automatically sought Eden’s bedroom window. The light was off, which he took as a good sign. She’d gone up to bed over an hour ago, and he hoped he’d given her ample time to fall asleep so they didn’t have to endure the awkward ordeal of their first night together. With luck, he’d slip into bed without disturbing her, and be out of her room before she woke in the morning.
It was the middle of the night that worried him the most, when his subconscious sent subliminal messages to his brain, and his body reacted on pure instinct and gravitated toward the warm, female body next to his….
Clenching his jaw, he banished those tantalizing thoughts from his head and headed toward the front porch. Sitting on the steps, he pulled off one boot, then the other, not wanting the sound of his footsteps up the stairs to awaken Eden. Barefooted, he set the boots just inside the front door and made a clucking noise with his tongue that Buddy found interesting enough to investigate. Scooping up the enthusiastic pup, who squirmed in Luke’s arms, he toted the rascal to the penned-in area in the kitchen where Buddy would sleep for the next few weeks, until he was housebroken. He put the dog in the bed Phoebe had made for him with old blankets, gave him one last stroke on the head, and ignored the puppy’s pathetic whimpers as Luke made his way quietly upstairs.
Thankfully, Eden’s door opened without a squeak, and he silently crossed the shadowed room to the empty side of the bed. He glanced at Eden and waited for movement, or a response to indicate she was awake. She remained still, curled on her side facing the opposite way, the blankets tucked beneath her arms, and her silky hair flowing across her pillow.
His gut clenched at the bewitching picture she made—pure, forbidden temptation that would never be his. Turning around, he peeled off his shirt and tossed it onto the chair in the corner, then worked on his belt buckle and the zipper of his jeans as quietly as possible.
He heard a rustling sound behind him, then, “Luke?”
Luke froze just as he’d hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his jeans. Her voice was as soft as a caress to his senses, and very intimate in the dark room, making every muscle in his body tense.
He glanced over his shoulder, and found that she’d turned his way. Though he couldn’t see her face clearly, it was obvious she was watching him. So much for his original plan to slip in and out of her bed undetected.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered gruffly. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” came her husky reply.
“You should have been,” he snapped irritably, then instantly regretted his attitude. He didn’t mean to take his frustration out on her, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. This arrangement was going to send him over the edge.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not thrilled about this, either,” she said with just as much bite in her tone.
“Yeah, well, misery loves company,” he muttered, and shucked off his jeans.
She gasped and immediately faced the other direction as he stepped out of his pants. “You don’t, um, really sleep in the nude, do you?”
A reluctant grin tugged at his mouth at her sudden prim demeanor. “Yeah, I do. Normally. But I’ll keep my briefs on.”
“Thank you.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re welcome.” Pulling back the covers, he sat on the bed, and frowned when he realized there were a barrier of pillows between him and Eden. “I thought you said you stayed to your side of the bed.”
“I do. Normally,” she said in a sweet tone. “The pillows are a safety precaution. Like your underwear.”
He groaned at her reasoning, and the ridiculousness of the situation. “And it leaves me all of two feet of sleeping space,” he argued. “Eden, I’m a big man, and I need the room or I might as well sleep on the floor.”
“Would you?” she asked hopefully.
The abrupt laughter that escaped him was strained. “No, not if you expect me to be a productive ranch hand in the morning.”
“Fine,” she said, sounding anything but agreeable. With terse movements, she removed all the pillows but the one that would keep their heads separated, then turned on her side facing away from him and settled in. “Good night.”
“I’m not counting on it,” he grumbled beneath his breath.