IT WAS just as well that they’d gone to Las Vegas and gotten married that day after a quick trip to Logan’s attorney to sign the prenup. At least it was over with, and she wouldn’t be tortured by the hope of somehow finding a way to avoid it. The marriage itself promised to be torture enough.
Ann had kept Cody for the day and everything had gone smoothly on their flights. Their quick trip to a Vegas mall for a proper dress went fine until Logan ushered her into a jewelers for a ring.
Though he hadn’t been as particular about the white linen dress, white heels and handbag she’d chosen for the ceremony, he’d been adamant about the kind of rings he wanted her to have. His generosity in buying the elegant rings was surpassed only by his determination for her to submit to his selection of a set that fairly shouted her marital status.
The rings were indeed some of the most beautiful she’d ever seen, but the fact that they represented a marriage for Logan’s convenience and one she saw as blackmail, rather than symbols of an eternal love pledge, made her feel guilty and pretentious. She’d be lucky if a thief didn’t knock her on the head to steal them. Never having owned or worn anything this valuable would make wearing the costly rings an adjustment.
The requisite ceremony took place quickly at one of the many chapels in Vegas, but Claire was relieved that the one Logan picked was very nice. It bothered her that they hadn’t been married by a minister, and since she was becoming more and more convinced that this was a marriage she might never be able to get out of without hurting Cody, she felt a deep need to have it blessed by clergy.
A marriage to Logan Pierce would need every bit of blessing it could get, particularly since it was already far more desperately in need of a miracle than the wedding at Cana had been.
Logan had worn a severe black suit that he’d taken along, then changed into in Vegas and worn for the trip back. He looked as handsome as sin in it, and with her white linen dress that matched the snowy white of his shirt, they were a startling visual depiction of purity and male menace.
Ann had been shocked by Claire’s sudden plan to marry, but once they arrived back at her house late that afternoon to pick up Cody, Claire could tell that even Ann had fallen a little under the power of Logan’s masculine appeal. And of course Logan’s gallant manners and sincere invitation for Ann and her husband to bring little Tommy with them to the ranch for a weekend visit had delighted Ann.
As she and Claire gathered Cody’s things from the playroom while Logan waited in the living room, Ann’s slightly breathless, “Oh my, you are so lucky, Claire,” left Claire feeling blindsided by her friend’s defection.
She didn’t bother to set Ann straight, but she was aggravated. The rude autocrat Logan had been with her had managed in a mere few minutes that day to win over her friend with a polished manner and charm she’d never seen from him, much less suspected. The rat.
He had to know Ann would make a full report to their other friends, and the single ones were sure to be green with envy rather than concerned. And they were all too good-hearted and kind themselves to suspect they’d been taken in by a manipulator.
Claire endured Logan’s gentlemanly shenanigans in front of Ann and promised herself that she’d hold him to his polished manners from here on. At least the ceremony had given her some sense of security. The more people who found out about it, the more difficult it would be for Logan to toss her out if he was unhappy with her attitude.
She’d already gotten the message loud and clear that appearances were very important to him, so two could play the charm game with outsiders.
Outsiders. The word caught her a little off guard, and she was surprised at the sense of privacy and exclusivity she felt between her and Logan. They were husband and wife, and with Cody, they were a family, if only on paper. It was a little stunning to realize that everyone else had suddenly become outsiders.
On the other hand, the fact that she’d been blackmailed into this wasn’t exactly something she wanted people to find out about, so that put her in the same fix regarding appearances as Logan was.
Thanks to Cody playing quietly with his cars in his car seat, the ride home was as quiet as it was long. Logan had draped his suit jacket over the back seat next to Cody, and discarded his tie. He seemed relaxed and satisfied, but that only served to make Claire even more aware of her growing tension.
It didn’t help that when they arrived at the house and got out with Cody that Logan swept her up in his arms to carry her up the front walk to the door. The casual power of his big body gave her a feminine shiver that reminded her of the light kiss he’d given her in the chapel. It had been cool and chaste, but she’d sensed the dammed up sexual energy behind it.
She felt it in him now as the heat of his big body penetrated their clothes, and Claire was suddenly desperate to distract them both.
“This is so uncalled for,” she said, trying to inject a ho-hum tone into her voice that was pure pretense. “There’s absolutely no one around to see this little act except Cody.”
As if he’d been cued, Cody piped up with a giggling, “Mommy gets to be the baby!”
Logan chuckled at that, and the moment Claire felt the soft rumble in his chest, something very deep and feminine in her quaked with reaction. He gave her a sparkling look.
“Mommy wouldn’t look like a baby if she’d put her arms around my neck like a grown-up woman.”
Reluctantly, oh so reluctantly, Claire shifted and put her arms around his neck. The little earthquake surged.
“Your wish is apparently my command,” she told him.
The sparkling look flared. “Then try a smile, Mrs. Pierce,” he said gruffly, reminding her of what she’d said to him yesterday in Cody’s room. He looked so smug as he parroted back her line to him. “They look like this.”
His faint curve of lips widened arrogantly, and Claire was persuaded to smile in spite of herself. Logan was actually a little likable. And he must have decided to apply a bit of that masculine charm he’d worked on Ann. Claire tried mightily to keep him from guessing how much he affected her, but he did. Suddenly everything about Logan was affecting her and Claire was shocked at herself.
When they reached the door, he easily turned the knob and gave it a shove to make it swing open. He carried her over the threshold then on into the foyer where he set her on her feet. The world tipped a little and Claire stepped back.
“We forgot our things,” she said, feeling oddly shy with him after all that. And the sun seemed to be accelerating toward sunset. Now that they were home, all she could think about was the fact that her new husband expected her to sleep in the same bed as he did tonight.
And her body was fairly humming in the aftermath of being carried into the house. Cody’s high voice was a welcome bit of normalcy.
“Carry me! Carry me!”
The big man turned toward him, and Claire saw Cody’s eyes widen a little, as if his excitement had gotten ahead of his bashfulness. Logan chuckled and picked him up.
“How ’bout you and I bring in our things?”
Cody stuck a finger in his mouth and nodded, grinning as Logan carried him out. Claire watched the two of them, and some of her resentment toward Logan eased.
Cody indeed needed a man’s influence, and for better or worse, Logan was that man. At least he’d wanted the boy badly enough to not only go through what he had with the courts, but also to marry the woman he considered important to his nephew. Now that he wasn’t behaving as cold-bloodedly and heartlessly as before, Logan Pierce wasn’t without potential, though Claire wished he’d gone about all this differently.
What would it have been like if he’d offered her a shared custody arrangement? What if he’d used those times to charm her as he had Ann that day? Claire was suddenly certain that if Logan had approached her differently, she might have been at least marginally attracted to him.
She’d planned to marry for love. It had never entered her mind to marry for any other reason. And yet here she was, married to an overbearing man she didn’t love, who’d virtually taken over and run rough-shod over her quiet, calmly ordered life.
Logan slung his suit jacket and his lightweight garment bag over his arm and gripped the handle of her small case in the same hand. Claire watched as he handed Cody the cloth bag, and felt a stirring in her heart. Side by side, man and boy came up the front walk and as they did, Logan leaned down enough to place his big hand on top of Cody’s head.
Cody grinned and looked up at Logan, giggling. The very tall man looked down fondly. Claire saw the family resemblance between the two, and felt her heart warm a little more. Logan could be so good for Cody. If…
That “if” was the prelude to a long list of “if only he would’s” that Claire couldn’t let herself dwell on. It was too soon. Too soon to hope, too soon for marriage. Too soon to sleep together…
Her brain was stuck on that, and her thoughts were filled with schemes to avoid it. Since Logan would never allow her to do anything that would cause gossip about who slept where, she’d have to come up with something that would protect Logan’s macho pride.
Which was ridiculous. It wasn’t as if Elsa would be conducting surprise bed checks. Did Elsa know that Claire had essentially been a stranger to Logan until yesterday, and still was despite the mad trip to Vegas for the ceremony? If she did, what would the woman think of her for sleeping with Logan only a bit over twenty-four hours after her arrival at Pierce Ranch?
It was bad enough that she’d married a stranger for a reason she wouldn’t disclose to others. Logan’s wealth was more obvious than the fact that he had a nephew to raise. Because Claire was anything but a sleep around sort, she had no wish to be seen as easy or without scruples. Or mercenary enough to sleep with a man right away. The fact that she’d married that man wouldn’t make anything but a token difference to gossips.
“I wanna ride the pony, Unco.”
Logan had barely closed the door before Cody came up with that one. Since it was evening, the little boy probably associated the time of day with the pony. It was a reminder that he’d loved the experience last night. It was also a reminder that the pony was a big attraction that Claire would have to monitor closely, whether Logan wanted her to or not.
“After supper,” Logan said. “You’ll need to wear long pants.”
Claire knew Cody didn’t quite understand what long pants were though he wore them most of the time. Claire referred to his clothes in more precise terms, such as jeans or overalls or slacks. All the little boy had paid attention to was the “after supper” part, but it was time for them all to change their clothes anyway, so she took over.
“Let’s get your things put away.”
Logan followed them as Claire led the way through the house to Cody’s room. Logan took her bag on to his room with his things, so she quickly got Cody dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt before she stepped across the hall to the guest room to change into jeans of her own and a cotton shirt.
It had been obvious that Logan expected her to come to his room, since he’d taken her bag in there. Fortunately, she didn’t need anything from it. She’d just finished and was in her bathroom brushing her hair when she heard Logan knock.
It was reassuring to know that he didn’t feel entitled to just walk into her closed bedroom, so she hurried to the door as a sort of reward for that. Perhaps he’d rethought the whole idea of sharing a bed and he’d let her keep this room.
The moment she opened the door, she was faced with his stern, “Should I have Elsa move your things to my room?”
The man was dogged on the subject, but there was no sense triggering a showdown that might be overheard. “We’ll discuss that after she’s gone for the evening,” Claire returned airily, and she glanced past him across the hall into Cody’s room. “Where’s Cody?”
Logan stared down watchfully at her a moment as if debating whether to press her or not, then said, “I told him to wash up for supper.”
Now Claire noticed the sound of running water and winced. “He’s good at turning on the faucet, but not at getting it turned off.”
She stepped past Logan to walk across the hall and on into Cody’s bedroom. The bathroom door was open, and she could already see a sheen of water on the tile floor. Now that she was closer, she could hear that the water was on full force.
Claire stepped gingerly into the bathroom and saw Cody standing on the stepstool, playing in the water with the soap. He’d put a washcloth in the sink, which slowed the drain only a bit less well than a plug.
The sink was now brim full of water that Cody splashed cheerfully in. Claire reached past him to turn off the faucet.
“The soap floats, Mommy,” Cody reported guilelessly, demonstrating that by shoving the bar deep in the water then yanking his hand out of the way. The slosh he caused sent another wide ripple of water onto the counter that skated to the edge then over onto the floor. To Cody’s delight, the soap popped up and bobbed jauntily on the surface.
Claire glanced into the mirror over the sink and caught Logan’s look. His expression was a cross between surprise and horror, and she couldn’t help but smile.
“Don’t tell me. You only told him to wash his hands, and you’re surprised because it seems like you only just now turned your back to walk across the hall.”
Logan’s startled gaze came up to meet hers in the glass and Claire almost laughed at his dumbfounded expression. “Weren’t you a little boy once? Full of curiosity and mischief, and a tendency to try things out when Mommy was busy or looking the other way?”
It was a shock when Logan’s dark gaze chilled and went flat, and his expression turned stony. His low voice was a gravelly rasp.
“Dry him off and come to supper.”
Stunned, Claire stared into the mirror, then glanced over to watch him go as Logan turned away and walked out of sight.
What had she said? Had she insulted him by asking “Weren’t you a little boy once?” She hadn’t meant to insult him at all!
If that wasn’t it, then it must have been the mention of his “mommy” that had done it, because Logan had been anything but angry with Cody for playing in the sink and making a small mess.
As Claire dried Cody off then sopped up water from the counter, stepstool and floor, she decided it had been the mention of Logan’s “mommy” that had caused his odd reaction. Perhaps she’d recently passed away and he was still grieving.
Though Logan was probably too macho to own up to feeling grief, she felt compelled to express some kind of condolence if the subject came up again.
Claire did her best to finish wringing out the towel she’d used before she draped it over the edge of the tub to dry awhile before she put it in the hamper. Cody had skipped off into his room, but from the sound of it, wasn’t up to much except rocking on the rocking horse.
By the time the two of them reached the dining room, Elsa was just carrying in the food.
“Best wishes on your marriage, Mrs. Pierce,” Elsa said pleasantly.
Claire smiled. “Thank you, Elsa. But please call me Claire. I’m not much for that kind of formality.”
Elsa smiled back. “Sure thing.”
“And by the way,” Claire added as she helped Cody with his bib, “you’re a fabulous cook, but if you ever need some help in the kitchen or around the house, I’ll be more than happy to give you a hand. Though you might not notice it when I’m around Mr. Pierce, I can take orders.”
Elsa lifted her dark brows and gave Claire a conspiratorial grin, though she didn’t remark on that before she left the room.
When Claire turned back to the table, Logan was already towering nearby to seat her. The look on his grim face hadn’t changed, but she saw the telling gleam in his eyes.
There, no doubt, because of what she’d just said to Elsa about taking orders from him. Because Claire recognized that gleam as amusement, she realized that she was suddenly able to read his stony face a little better and note more of the subtleties of his mood. She’d need every bit of advantage she could get if she was going to make this marriage a tolerable one for Cody’s sake.
For the first time, Logan left the serving platter where it was to wait for grace to be said, but Claire could tell when they finished that he’d merely watched Cody and hadn’t participated.
Claire made eye contact with him as he passed her the steak platter. “Eventually someone will notice that his closest male role model doesn’t p-r-a-y before meals.”
She knew Logan had caught her meaning, but she couldn’t miss the fact that he didn’t make any reassuring remark to let her know he meant to change that situation. Claire kept silent as she filled both her plate and Cody’s.
If Logan didn’t yet recall her specific requests yesterday about setting a good example in such things, she’d remind him later. Though it might seem trivial to others, Claire considered Logan’s example as a man crucial, since Cody would grow up imitating him. Cody’s development was all important to her and she’d proved that by obligating herself to a loveless marriage she’d probably have to live with the rest of her life. The least Logan could do was live up to the few things she’d specified.
It was certain Logan would insist on her living up to his specifications for a combination hostess/glamour girl/bronc rider, so the few things on her list hardly put any demands on him in exchange.
The silence during those first few minutes at the table felt anything but comfortable, so she introduced a natural topic.
“There are several things I’ll need to take care of at home. I might as well get started tomorrow.”
As she’d expected, that earned her Logan’s complete attention. “I’ll give you a hand. The sooner it’s done the better.”
Claire gave him a mild smile. “Cody and I can take care of it, though it’ll take a few days. And I’d rather not drag him to and from San Antonio every day, so we’ll stay over.”
“No.”
That one soft word carried the verbal power of a sledgehammer, which gave it an impact far out of proportion to her proposal.
Claire couldn’t help the swift rise of temper, but she mentally reviewed all Logan’s other dictates. So far, she’d gotten almost nowhere opposing them. If she was going to have any kind of a livable marriage with him, she’d have to solve these problems without creating a war zone. But how? Perhaps the first thing to do was get him to talk rather than dictate. She made a calm start.
“Will you elaborate a bit on your ‘no’ verdict?”
Logan stared at her a long moment. “I won’t have a wife who lives in town. Or one who wears out the road between this ranch and San Antonio.”
Claire was a little taken aback. What a radical conclusion to draw from so little! It struck her that there was a world of insecurity in what he’d said, and the perception was startling. Though she couldn’t deny she’d hoped to have time away from him to adjust to all this, she truly did need to settle things in San Antonio. She was well aware that he’d oppose any sign that she was drawing things out unnecessarily, so she’d not likely get away with more than one or two attempts to do so.
But she couldn’t allow him to be her jailer, whatever paranoia was afflicting him. Claire gave him a level look.
“I won’t deny that I enjoy living in the city. I might enjoy living here too, but I’m not sure yet.” Claire smiled stiffly. “However, I can guarantee that I’ll resent every moment here and look for any opportunity to escape if I’m not free to come and go whenever I please.”
Logan’s gaze sharpened and she sensed his frustration with that. “You’re anything but a prisoner.”
“I appreciate knowing that,” she said carefully, “but everything today and everything yesterday makes me feel…trapped.”
She saw the flush that bloomed dully beneath his tanned cheekbones and suddenly knew she’d scored some sort of victory. As if he hadn’t really thought too deeply about her feelings until that moment. The way his gaze flashed away from hers was a confirmation that she’d nicked his conscience.
The silence between them stretched and Claire wasn’t certain what to say. After several moments more she realized nothing else needed to be said. At least she shouldn’t say anything more. If there was any reason to hope Logan Pierce might turn out to be a halfway decent husband, he needed to provide her with a bit of solid proof.
“Wait till Monday,” was all he said then, but it was enough to give her a spark of hope.
Particularly when she sneaked a glance to see that he was frowning down at his plate as he selected a forkful of food. Was he troubled over this or merely angry?
Cody managed to ease into the tension with a quiet, “When do we see the pony, Momma?”
Claire smiled at the eager little boy, noting that he’d only half finished his food. This was a prime opportunity for her to demonstrate a little good faith to Logan.
“You might ask your uncle Logan.”
The boy looked Logan’s way and Claire did, too, only to see him doing another intent search of her face. His mistrust of her was palpable. Was he only secure when she was challenging him? He’d evidently taken her suggestion to Cody as deference to him, but he seemed suspicious of it.
Would he understand that it was meant to help facilitate his relationship with the boy? And would he realize she was willing to do that because it was better for Cody? Or would he think she was doing it in order to get her way with something else later?
When Cody hadn’t yet asked his uncle directly, she added a soft, “The pony belongs to your uncle.”
Cody looked over at Logan and said a bashful, “I wanna see the pony.”
Logan looked at the boy and his stony expression softened magically as he actually smiled. “Better finish that supper first,” he said, nodding toward Cody’s plate.
The boy reached eagerly for his small fork to comply, and Claire stared, touched by the gentle look that lingered in Logan’s gaze as he watched Cody.
Whatever his shortcomings, the big man obviously felt strong affection for his brother’s small son and the fact was, the man was too complex to either write off or fully accept.
Looking at him now, it was easy to believe Logan had enormous potential as a family man. And maybe even as a husband. Claire felt a small glow that smoothed away a significant number of her reservations, and she began to feel a bit more optimistic.