Montana Reunion (17 page)

“You know how hard you make it for
a guy to go slow?” he muttered.

She yanked her wrists out of his
hands and wriggled down lower, grabbing hold of his belt before he could stop
her, unzipping his pants.

“You ever consider that maybe I
don’t want to take it slow?”

He rose up to his knees, letting
her push down his pants and force his T-shirt up and over his head.

If
she didn’t want
slow
, then he wasn’t going to argue.

“Are we going to have a problem
over who wears the pants in this marriage?”

She
smiled,
a wicked glint in her eyes. “Honey, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m the
only one wearing pants right now.”

Her drawl made him pounce on her,
straddling her so he could pin her in place, holding her with his thighs and
leaning back to get
her
jeans
off.

“We’ll see about that.”

Jack kept hold of her as he kissed
down her neck, licked a path all the way to the top of her bra, flicking his
tongue down into the lace to connect with her nipple. Her moan told him she
didn’t want him to stop, and he loosened his hold so she could arch her back,
letting him reach around to unclasp her bra and cast it aside.

He looked down at her breasts, full
and luscious, before covering them with his hands. Cupping them then dipping
his head again, sucking on her nipple this time as his fingers claimed
ownership of her other.

“You’re wicked, Jack,” she
murmured, reaching for his head to yank him back up, to kiss him on the lips.
Her mouth was warm, moist.

He groaned as she tried to yank his
boxers off. “You don’t want to do that. Not if you want me to take it slow.”

“You’re the one talking about slow,
Jack,” she whispered as he slid them off.

Slow was most definitely out of the question
now.

Maddison
tucked her body closer to Jack’s. They’d been in bed all afternoon, and she was
feeling so relaxed her bones may as well have been melted.

“I can’t believe we’re getting
married.
For real.”

He had his eyes
shut,
she was watching him from her side as he lay back against the pillow.

“I can’t believe we’re going to be
parents.”

Part of her stiffened, knowing how
much he’d resisted the idea, but his sexy smile told her she had nothing to
worry about. That he’d come to terms with it on his own, knew what he was
getting himself in for.
This wasn’t
something she’d talked him into, it was a decision he’d made himself.

“All my life, I’ve been so
determined never to get married, never to have children. I know it seemed
stupid, but I don’t know if even you knew how bad it was.
With
dad.”

She dropped a kiss to his cheek
before placing her own cheek over his bare chest, listening to his heartbeat.
“You can’t let him stop you from living your life, Jack. I meant it when I said
you were nothing like him.
Nothing.”

“I just didn’t want to hurt anyone
like he’d hurt me. And I still don’t.” His chest rose then fell. “You’re the
only one who’s ever made me realize that because of him it would be impossible
for me to make the same mistake.”

She smiled. “Yeah, and the fact
that my family would kick your ass if you ever treated our child like your dad
treated you guys.”

“Yeah, there is that.”

Jack put his arms around her and
pulled her upright with him, moved her until she was sitting between his legs.
He held her tight, face to face,
nose
to nose. “I love
you,
Maddison
. You know that, right?”

For
the first time in her life, she did know. That the man telling her how he felt
meant every word of it.
“I love you too, Jack.”

She leaned a little so she could
kiss him, slow, never wanting her lips to leave his.

“And I love our little peanut,
too.” He pried his lips from hers as he murmured, placing one hand against her
still-flat belly. “I promise to love you, little peanut, every single day of
your life.”

Maddison
put her palm over Jack’s. “We’re
gonna
be fine, Jack.
The three of us.”

He kissed her again. “I’ve got you,
a baby on the way, and the ranch. Of course we’re
gonna
be fine.”

She grinned, lips connected to his
again.

“Oh, there is one thing though.”

He looked sheepish.
Maddison
groaned. “Something I should have known before I
said yes to
marrying
you?”

“Scott,” he said. “He’s coming back
to the ranch. But we can kick him out into the guest quarters.”

“And here I was thinking I only had
to contend with one Gregory for the rest of my life.”

He
lay
back, eyes shut. Like a lion after a massive feed, basking in the sun.

“But while we’re making
compromises,” she said, leaning over him, hair falling across his shoulder.

He groaned. “There’s worse than
just my brother to deal with? We’re not going to have
your
brother living here too, are we?”

She tried to keep a serious look on
her face and failed. “My job,”
Maddison
started.

“You need me to put a hit out on
your ex-boss?” he asked, eyes popping open.

“Jack, seriously,” she said, stroking
the side of his face. “I can’t just live here and do nothing. I mean, I want to
be a mom, but I need to work too. Even if it’s freelance event planning or
something else in the industry, online even, I need to do something.”

He leaned up to kiss her. “Baby,
I’ve known you all my life. I wasn’t expecting for a second than you’d be bare
foot and pregnant on the ranch full time.”

She grinned. “That’s why I love
you. You know that, right?”

“You love me?” Jack pretended to be
shocked.

“Yes, you idiot.
I love you.” She put her arms around him, nose-to-nose,
mouth
almost touching his. “I love you, I love you, I love you,”
Maddison
whispered.

“And I love you,
Maddison
. More than I’ll probably ever be able to tell you.
Always have.”

EPILOGUE

SUN shone into the bedroom,
creating pools of bright light across the carpet.
Maddison
couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she stared down from her old room at
all the people standing around talking on the lawn. It was still hot, the air
blowing through the window telling her how badly they all needed the chilled
champagne they were sipping.

She was looking for her sisters,
waiting for them to come back, to quell her nerves. To tell her that the
flutter in her belly was probably more from the baby she was carrying than
nerves.
Because she was marrying Jack,
which
meant there was nothing to worry about.

Unless he didn’t turn up.

Maddison
took a deep breath, jumping when a knock echoed on the door.

“Come in,” she called out, catching
a glimpse of her reflection when she turned. It looked like her and yet it
didn’t. Her hair pinned back in a soft chignon at the base of her neck, ready
to pin her veil on, dress smooth and silky, clinging to her body and showing
off the gentle curve of her belly.

“Hey beautiful.”

The deep, husky note of Jack’s
voice sent shivers through her body.
She’d
expected it to be one of her sisters, or her mom.

“Jack!” she scolded. “You’re not
supposed to see me until the ceremony.”

He crossed the room in a few
strides, his long legs eating up the carpet. She didn’t have a hope of staying
out of his way, of telling him to go back downstairs and wait for, and she
didn’t want to anyway.

Jack took her hands in his, shaking
his head like he didn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Technically I shouldn’t be wearing
white,” she told him, drawing his hands closer to her bump, “but I figure it’s
the only wedding I’ll ever have, so why
not
wear the color I want to.
Right?”

“Damn right,” he muttered, pushing
back out slightly so he could hold one hand higher and spin her in a little
circle.

“You’re beautiful,
Maddie
.
Absolutely, insanely beautiful.”

She let him pull her back in, this
time landing firm against his chest. “You don’t scrub up so bad yourself,
cowboy.” He was wearing a tux, complete with crisp white shirt and classic
black bowtie. “Who tied this for you?”

He grinned.
“Your
mom.”

Maddison
laughed. “You seriously asked my mom to tie this for you?”

“No, I’m lying. I wear them so
often that I can tie them with my eyes shut,” he grumbled. “Come here.”

Maddison
didn’t need encouragement. She let him hold her, cheek to his jacket. “You know
I’m probably getting make-up all over you, right?
She could hear the laughter rumble in his chest. “You think that’s something
I’d care about?”

“Not usually, but maybe today.”

“Just gives me a good excuse to
take this jacket off. It’s seriously warm out there.”

Maddison
shut her eyes, listening to the music as the jazz band started to play.
This was it
. In a few minutes, she was
going to have to put on her veil and walk out that door, past all the people
gathered in her parents’ garden.

“Thank you for letting me do all
this,” she said, sighing as she gave him one last squeeze before stepping back.

“I have no idea what you’re talking
about.”

His face was serious, but she knew
he was making fun of her.

“Be honest, if you’d been in charge
all the guys would have been in jeans, the food would have been fried and you
definitely wouldn’t have written your own vows. Hell, we’d probably be eating
tater tots.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “I was
meant to write my own vows?”

She punched his arm, trying hard
not to laugh. “There is only one thing that could make me call this wedding
off, and that would be if you
didn’t
write vows.”

He grabbed hold of her again,
stealing a kiss. Jack had hold of her wrists, wasn’t going to let her away. His
lips were still hovering over hers.

“Does it matter if your sister
wrote them for me?”

“Jack!”

“Kidding,” he said, letting go of
her and holding up his hands. “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

She walked to the dresser and
touched up her lipstick, trying not to smile as he sidled up behind her, arms
looping around her waist.
Maddison
ignored him when
he winked at her in the mirror.

“I want you to have the wedding
you’ve always wanted,
Maddie
. So if that means a
fancy garden get-together, with me in a penguin suit and hanging candles
everywhere, then that’s what we’re having.”

His voice was deeper than usual,
husky, his eyes dark in the reflection.

“Don’t forget the paper lanterns,”
she teased.
“Or the jazz quartet.”

He shook his head. “Believe me, I
haven’t forgotten.”

“Jack Gregory, get out of there
right now!”

Maddison
was laughing so hard she couldn’t even help Jack as Amanda stormed into the
room and manhandled him to the door. She was her smallest sister, but she was
like a ball of fire once she set her mind to something, and Jack went like a
housetrained pet.

“See you down there,” he called
out, blowing her a kiss just before Amanda shut the door behind him.

“You didn’t have to be quite so
dramatic,”
Maddison
told her, fiddling with her veil.

Amanda took it from her and pushed
her by her shoulders down to the seat. “He’s got you for the rest of your life,
but until you’re standing down there across from him, you’re still mine.”

Maddison
placed her hand over her sister’s, staring at her in the mirror now.

“Thank you.”

Her sister smiled, but
Maddison
could tell from her furious blinking that she was
fighting back tears.

“Well, a guy like Jack Gregory goes
and gets you knocked
up,
it’s the least I can do to
make you beautiful for your big day.”

Maddison
touched the corner of her eye with a tissue, trying to blot the moisture away
without ruining her make-up.

“You know I’m kidding, right?”
Amanda had a hand on each of
Maddison’s
shoulders
again, her smile making it even harder not to cry.

“I know.”

“I can’t wait
to be an aunt, and let’s face it. You and Jack are going to make the most
beautiful babies.”

Jack was talking to the marriage
celebrant, holding up his jacket to try to cool down, when the crowd went
quiet. Before it had been laughter and chatter – now it was unusually silent.
He dropped his hands to his side and locked eyes with
Maddison
as she stood in the open doors leading from the house.

He’d
been with her less than fifteen minutes ago, and she’d still managed to take
his breath away.

Her veil hid part of her face, made
it more difficult for him to make eye contact with her, but he saw her smile.
Knew she was looking straight back at him. It made everything else disappear –
her sisters dressed in red on either side of her, her dad as he held out his
arm for her to clasp – everything else blurred as he watched
Maddison
walk down the flower-strewn walkway toward him.

“Jack.”

Her father said his name, breaking
the spell, waiting for him to take
Maddison’s
hand.