The Texan's Contract Marriage - By Sara Orwig Page 0,25
I can bring him to see you or we can try to work something else out.”
He loosened his tie and pulled it off, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. Her mouth went dry watching him. He was way too appealing. She looked away, reminding herself to guard her heart carefully. There was no room in her life for love right now, and Marek was definitely not the man to be the object of her affections. Not until he could love again—if that time ever came.
“We need to pay off your lease and move you to my Dallas home before the wedding. You, Noah, your sisters, everything. I want you to look tomorrow at my house and begin to decide which rooms to make over for you and your family, a nursery, a music room—the whole thing.”
“That’s monumental.”
“Not at all. We’ll get it done,” he said with supreme confidence. “If the redecorating isn’t finished when you move in, it won’t matter.”
“I feel as if I’m caught in a whirlwind.”
He smiled. “You’re caught in a marriage of convenience that I think will make us both happy. I’ve been sort of caught in a whirlwind since you entered my life,” he said, and she laughed.
“No way. You’re insulated.”
“You’re beginning to bring me back to life, whether I want it or not.” He picked up the calendar to hand it to her. “I’d like to marry as soon as you feel you can. We can have a big church wedding or something small or something somewhere in between. I want the wedding to be whatever you would like and make it as much a real wedding as possible because we might stay together.”
“We might stay together,” she repeated, shaking her head. “This is a dream and I think I’ll wake up from it. I can’t imagine so much of this. Staying together? That seems totally impossible. I think one of us will fall in love with someone else and that will be that.”
“No matter what we plan, you can’t foresee the future. You never expected this to happen, and neither did I. That first day I was in total shock. That morning I had a list of other things I had planned for my day, my week and my month. When you left my office, my life had changed forever.”
“Actually, there we had the same experience. My life changed just as drastically. For me, though, it was for the second time. The first big change was when I met your brother.”
“Kern and I were so damn close. I still miss him every day,” Marek said, looking away, his voice changing, becoming harsh and cold. He spoke as if talking to himself, and she wondered if he had forgotten her presence and withdrawn into his shell again.
He turned to her. “Let’s get back to thinking about a wedding.”
“I haven’t given any thought to a wedding. I’ve been so busy thinking about Noah.” She studied the calendar. “Under the circumstances, I prefer a small wedding with our families and very closest friends.”
“Whatever you want,” he replied. “Big or small, I’ll pay all the expenses and we can pull the event together quickly. I’d like it as soon as possible because it would be better if we can get settled somewhat before you take off for New Mexico. I’ll lease or buy a place in Santa Fe this summer. You can select it and then I can come when I want to.”
For the first time, she realized he might be in her life far more than she had expected. “You don’t mind leaving your ranch?”
“I’d rather be on the ranch, but I do have others who’ll keep it running smoothly. I can rely on Jess as much as I can on myself.” Marek sipped his drink and set down his glass.
“Do you care for more wine?”
“No, thank you. My head is spinning enough over all the changes from your proposal.”
He sat back and studied her. “We’re going too fast for you. Want to stop and think about what we’ve said for a couple of days and then go back to planning?”
“I’m tempted,” she said, relieved he wasn’t pushing this on her too much. “We might as well go ahead. If the plans get to be too much for me, I’ll tell you. These are monumental changes coming one right after another, like a series of wrecks all in one day.”
His eyes narrowed. “I hope it isn’t as harsh as a series of wrecks. I hope you