A Baby of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #1)(53)
Author: Brenda Novak

Evidently she wasn’t very excited about seeing him. Was she asleep? Or had she gone home for the night?

He set his bag in the living room and paused at the end of the hall instead of going immediately to bed. The house smelled of fresh-ground coffee and wood smoke, but there was a hint of Delaney here, too—her perfume, perhaps—and it caught him by the throat. He wanted to see her, he realized. He wanted to see her now.

Only because they had unfinished business, he told himself, but it was enough of an excuse to get him moving quietly down the hall toward her room. He stood on the other side of her door, listening for any sound, but he couldn’t hear anything. Dare he barge in? She hadn’t worried about changing his entire life that night in Boise. Why should he care about courtesy now?

He lifted a hand to knock, then hesitated and quietly opened the door. Delaney was sleeping in the middle of the bed. The blinds, only half-drawn, let in sufficient moonlight to reveal the fan of hair on her pillow, the delicate profile of her face, a bare arm thrown over the blankets.

The sight of her sleeping so peacefully soothed Conner’s anger, but it did nothing to make him feel like going to his room. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he slipped inside and stood by the edge of her bed, gazing down at her. She was beautiful. Regardless of what she’d done to him, regardless of what might happen between them, he had to give her that. When he imagined her growing big with his child, he felt an inexplicable sense of pride. And when he lay in his bed at night, he sometimes thought about the coming months and visualized her taking his hand and guiding it to her swollen abdomen to let him feel his baby kick.

From there, it wasn’t hard to fantasize about her taking his hands and guiding them someplace even more exciting. He remembered her hesitancy the first time he’d made love to her, the slow yet trusting way she’d eventually opened up to him, and wondered what it would be like to make love to her a second time. Here. Now.

Arousal swept through him as he imagined her waking up and pulling back the blankets in a silent invitation, pictured himself eliciting from her the same desire he felt, then taking her hard and fast until she cried his name. He wanted to hear her say she wasn’t content with being alone. That she wanted more than his baby. That she wanted him.

But he knew better. She already had what she wanted. She’d told him that, and her indifference at the Honky Tonk only confirmed it.

Raking a hand through his hair, he started to go, but her voice stopped him.

“Conner? Is that you?”

He turned, his heart in his throat. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“What are you doing here?”

What was he doing here? Why had he complicated his emotions by acknowledging the desire she evoked? He had no idea. “Just checking on you. I thought maybe you’d gone home for the night.”

She didn’t answer right away. “Do you need something?” she said at last.

“I need to talk to you, but we’ll do it in the morning.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Is your grandfather going to be okay?”

“I think so.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah, that’s good,” he said, but he wasn’t thinking about what he was saying, he was thinking about touching her again, and he knew that if he didn’t get out of her quiet, dark room, he’d try. “It’s late. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Conner?” she called as he left.

He didn’t dare stop. He forced his feet to carry him at a quick and decisive pace to his room.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CONNER DIDN’T COME to breakfast or go out on the range with the other cowboys. Delaney had assumed he was sleeping after getting in so late, but she found him in his office, looking as though he’d been up all night, judging by his rumpled clothes and the stubble on his chin.

“Are you hungry?” she asked, pausing in the doorway and wondering at the change in him. Something was different. She could sense it. She’d felt it last night when he came to her room, and she felt it now, the second his eyes flicked in her direction. He was rather morose, for one thing, which Delaney didn’t really understand. But it wasn’t just his dark mood. He was also more focused, more driven. Why? “I’ve brought you some bacon and eggs.”

“Set it here, please.” He shoved some papers to the side and went right back to his computer.

Delaney deposited the plate on his desk. She knew he expected her to leave, but she’d been waiting for more than a week to talk to him. She wanted to discuss what they could both expect in the months to come, and felt it was time they made some decisions. So she waited, clearing her throat when he didn’t immediately look up, and finally managed to capture his attention.

“Is there something else?” he asked.

“Last night you said you wanted to talk to me. And I’ve actually been wanting to talk to you, too. So I was hoping this might be a good time.”

He kept typing. “Why don’t you go first?”

“Okay.” She waited for him to turn toward her, but he didn’t. “Are you going to stop that?”

He checked his watch, then glanced reluctantly at his computer screen. “I can only spare a few minutes.”

“Then, maybe we should postpone this until—”

“No, go ahead.” He swiveled to face her. “We need to get it handled. That’ll put at least one hurdle behind me.”

Hurdle? Delaney rubbed her palms on her jeans. “I wanted to talk about what happened at the Honky Tonk before you left for California.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said.

“Why not?”

He shrugged. “Because it won’t happen again.”

“It won’t?”

“No.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because you won’t be going there in the future.”

The hairs on the back of Delaney’s neck stood on end, and she took a step closer, coming to the edge of his desk. “Excuse me?”

“The place is a singles hangout,” he said, as though that explained everything.

“Not really, but sort of, I guess. Anyway, I am single.”

“You’re also pregnant.”

“Which is why I’m willing to compromise. Maybe while I’m carrying the baby, we can agree to—”

“A compromise won’t be necessary,” he said.