The Marriage Command Read online

  Perhaps it was because she loved Cody so much and had taken such pains to see to the careful development of his character that she was suddenly reminded that not every child had been raised with that kind of care and loving attention.

  Though the last thing she wanted to do was to feel compassion or pity for Logan Piece, she couldn’t help but wonder what had made him the cold-blooded autocrat he was now.

  It was probably nothing she’d ever know the reason for, and it wouldn’t be prudent to indulge in that kind of speculation. Logan was old enough to realize he was a jerk and to have done something to improve himself. The fact that he hadn’t was all she needed to know. In the long run, she didn’t expect to be married to him long enough for it to matter.

  Her soft, “Good night,” was at least polite, and she turned to walk from the room, glad beyond words that the wild kiss between them now seemed as if it had happened hours ago.

  When she got to her room, she quickly readied herself for bed. Because she had a craving to be close to Cody, she found a soft blanket in the closet, then took it to slip into the boy’s room and quietly closed the door. She’d sleep on top of the coverlet on the single bed. If Cody had a restless night, she’d be near enough to know it.

  And, truth to tell, she was still so shell-shocked from the events of that day that she wanted the comfort of sleeping close to the boy.

  Troubled, Claire laid in the small bed a long time thinking as she stared at the baby animals on the wallpaper by the glow of the nightlight.

  And, despite her every effort to block it out, she remembered that kiss.

  CHAPTER SIX

  THAT soul-rocking, toe-curling, pride-pummeling kiss!

  Heavens, it wasn’t as if she’d never been kissed before. She had, and a couple of times the young man had been quite expert at it. Her problem now was that Logan’s kiss last night had been peerless.

  As Claire slipped into the guest room to dress just before six that next morning and thought about the day ahead, it wasn’t difficult to remember that she objected to almost everything else about the man. Although he’d shown a bit of gentle potential where Cody was concerned, he was pretty much a zero in other areas.

  Claire left her room to tiptoe back across the hall to check on Cody. He was usually up by 6:00 a.m., but he was still asleep and didn’t look as if he meant to wake up in the next few minutes. Claire was just about to retreat back into the hall to go back to her room, when she heard another door open.

  It could only be Logan coming out of his bedroom. She didn’t have long to wait before those heavy bootsteps thudded down the hall then on into Cody’s room. The boy must have heard them in his sleep because he jerked awake.

  “Mommy?” Cody was suddenly sitting up, looking curiously at the bars of the baby bed before he grabbed them and got to his feet. “Mommy!”

  “Mommy’s here,” she said and walked to the bedside to lower the rails.

  “I don’t wanna bed for babies,” Cody said as he fastened his arms around her neck and gave her a kiss.

  Claire hugged him a moment, then eased him away. “We’ll talk about that later. Why don’t we get you changed and dressed? Say hello to your uncle Logan while I get your things.”

  One look at Logan made Cody grab her and cuddle close to hide his face.

  Well, good. Logan was back to square one with Cody, and Claire felt resentful enough toward him to be glad. It wouldn’t hurt his Hellacious Highness to suffer a small setback or two. At least there was someone he’d have to work to win over.

  Claire exempted herself from that. Logan had already “won” her over via blackmail, so he’d never bother to make any honest effort for her now. No doubt he had a history of blackmailing people he didn’t pay a salary to. And anyway, how would he go about winning her over? He’d already declared that he wasn’t interested in love, and without love, any attempt to win her over would amount to nothing more than manipulation, and she’d already had enough of that.

  Claire again eased away from Cody, successfully this time, to reach for the clothes and fresh diaper she’d set out for him the night before. Once he was dressed and she’d taken him into the bathroom to wash his face and hands for breakfast, they rejoined Logan to go to the dining room.

  Elsa had no sooner brought in their food and gone out than Logan spoke.

  “Elsa’ll keep an eye on the boy until the sitter gets here. We’ll drive to San Antonio to pick up any clothes you need, then catch a flight for Vegas. We can be back by late afternoon.”

  The man was truly bullheaded on the subject of a quickie marriage, but it was too early in the morning for decrees.

  He’d already picked up a serving dish to hand to her, and it gave her some small satisfaction to lace her fingers together and bow her head. Beside her, Cody followed suit.

  Eyes closed, she suppressed a smile when she heard the dish thud lightly to the table, and she began to calmly recite the little prayer. Oblivious to the dark currents that swirled silently between the two adults, Cody echoed the words and again finished with a cheery and eager “Amen!” at the end.

  Claire opened her eyes and lifted her head. The solemn surprise on Logan’s harsh face was a priceless depiction of a man who’d been blindsided by a toddler’s prayer. And it was also a picture of a man who was fully aware that his decree had just been challenged by her refusal to acknowledge it. Now his dark brows lowered and he again reached for the plate to pass it to her. His voice was gruff.

  “If you didn’t bring something nice enough for the ceremony, you can get something when we get there.”

  Claire served Cody some of the eggs and then herself. “Did we or did we not, race to town yesterday to get a marriage license?”

  “No reason to wait.”

  The words were intended to be a veiled reminder of his “multilingual” crack the night before. She didn’t have much to retaliate with.

  “The license won’t be legal for seventy-two hours,” she said, then passed the serving dish back to him. He took it and virtually dumped the rest of the eggs onto his plate.

  “There’s no wait in Vegas. Which is why we’ll get it over with today.”

  “I won’t leave Cody with people he doesn’t know. Not for a whole day.”

  Logan braced a forearm on the table and gave her a stern look. “That decision won’t be yours to make until after the ceremony.”

  Stung, Claire turned her attention to serving herself and Cody. Logan’s remark hung heavily in the air and the tension between them soared.

  How could she even think about marrying a despot like him? She’d never be the kind of woman who’d allow a man to walk all over her, and it was only a matter of time—perhaps mere seconds—before her temper went cosmic.

  Claire couldn’t resist sneaking a peek at Logan, and she caught him staring at her. She also caught a shadow of guilt in his eyes before they shifted to Cody.

  The fiery burn of anger and resentment cooled significantly as she sensed his regret. Whatever was going on in his chauvinist brain, that hint of guilt and regret was at least a chink in the wall.

  If she was reading him right, then perhaps he wasn’t quite the bully his dictates made him appear to be. Was there any way to persuade him to be at least a little more reasonable?

  Claire knew exactly how Cody would react to the prospect of being left in a stranger’s care for the day, and everything maternal in her was ready to go to war.

  But that hint of humanness she’d just glimpsed in Logan kept her from becoming too militant. Yet. Her appetite was gone, and she did little more than push her food around on her plate. There was no conversation, which was fine by her, but it was a relief when Cody pulled off his bib and made a move to signal that he wanted out of his high chair.

  Claire immediately eased her chair back and stood to help him. Seeing no reason for either her or Cody to loiter in the dining room while Logan finished his meal, she led the boy out of the dining room to the hall then on to his ro
om.

  She supervised Cody washing his hands, then dithered over what to do as he scampered back out into his room. Watching his excitement as he went directly to the big rocking horse, she wondered how she might spare him the upset of a strange babysitter. And just the thought of leaving him here for most of the day in a strange house with people he didn’t yet know, was excruciating.

  Claire didn’t have any real hope of escaping Logan’s plan to marry her in Vegas today, but perhaps she could still reason with him about Cody. She could call her friend, Ann, in San Antonio. Ann’s little boy was a frequent playmate of Cody’s, so she might be willing to watch him for the day.

  Meanwhile, there had to be a way to put a stop to Logan’s dictates. She was willing to do whatever it took to get legal rights over Cody, but if things went on as they had so far, she could be looking at months of anger and frustration.

  Cody started to climb onto the rocking horse, so she walked over to be close at hand as he tried it out. If she’d been an obedient little bride-to-be, she would have been in her room, putting a few things into her overnight bag for the trip to Vegas. The fact that she had at least a faint hope of slowing Logan down kept her where she was.

  It wasn’t long before she heard Logan’s heavy boots coming down the hall from the main part of the house. His pace was relaxed but relentless, and she braced herself for an immediate dictate.

  It was at least a small surprise when he merely walked in and stood watching as Cody happily rocked back and forth on the big rocking horse.

  Logan said a pleasant, “Looks like that old horse’s gonna ride a few more miles,” and he looked content enough to continue watching.

  Claire didn’t reply to that. Instead, she went about straightening the sheet on the baby bed before she spread up the little coverlet and walked over to one of the bookshelves to select a couple of Cody’s stuffed animals to place in the bed.

  The rhythmic sound of the rocking horse rails marked off the silence. Claire finished with the small tasks, then turned to watch Cody rock, her arms crossed over her chest in a way that suggested she’d be happy to stand there and watch him the entire day. As she suspected, Logan didn’t put up with that indefinitely.

  “For a female who said she doesn’t like the silent treatment, you sure know how to dish it out.”

  She looked his way and gave her head a small shake. “Not at all.”

  Logan smiled a little, and that softened him immeasurably. There was a sudden ease between them, one that invited closeness, and that caught her off guard. His next words were almost fondly spoken in a low, rough voice.

  “You’re a hypocrite, Claire.”

  Claire studied his harsh face a moment. She could tell that the idea of her being a hypocrite amused him. It didn’t amuse her though, and she was compelled to set him straight.

  “It’s hardly the same.”

  Now his dark gaze glittered with interest. “What’s the difference?”

  She couldn’t have arranged a more perfect setup if she’d thought one up and written it out for him to recite.

  “I’m dealing with a man who’s made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t care what I think or what I want. His agenda is apparently the be all and end all, so conversation between us will naturally be sparse.”

  A bit of his amusement flattened, though it was still there. “There’ll be things we need to discuss.”

  “Such as?” she challenged, then shrugged. “‘Do this,’ or, ‘Do that, or else,’ don’t require much more than a ‘Yes, sir, right away, sir,’ do they?”

  She saw the flash of vexation, but she also sensed guilt—again—in the way Logan’s dark gaze shifted slightly from hers before it came back. Now he was all arrogance again, which let her know she’d nicked his pride. And possibly shamed him into at least going through the motions.

  “If you want to make a case for waiting, go ahead.”

  It was probably the only chance he’d give her to reason with him, and it was probably also obligatory. She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d relent, or if he did, that he’d relent much, but she had to give this a try.

  “I have a life, a modest business, an apartment, and belongings. It will take time to get everything sorted out and dealt with. This ranch is a long way from San Antonio, and I don’t like jumping into a new life without properly settling things in the old one.”

  “I’ll give you a hand once the ceremony’s over.”

  Her frustration soared again, and she unfolded her arms. “Surely you understand how sudden this is? You and I could so easily come up with a shared custody agreement to raise Cody, without condemning us both to a—pardon me for being blunt, as well as accurate—a potentially hellish marriage. Marriage is a difficult prospect even when it’s based on love and mutual respect.”

  Claire hesitated a moment, truly surprised that he’d kept silent through all that and appeared attentive and thoughtful. In fact, Logan seemed amazingly mellow somehow, and she sensed some sort of agreement with the way she’d described their future. That encouraged her to continue on to make her full point.

  “We aren’t truly suited to each other anyway. I’m sure you realize by now that I’ll be far more high maintenance and difficult to live with than a man like you might prefer.”

  His dark brows went up in a wordless Don’t I know it look. She tried not to take offense, though her next words were at least a tiny retaliation.

  “And, if I might again be frank, you don’t have quite the lifestyle and temperament of the kind of husband I had in mind. A shared custody arrangement could be ideal.”

  Though Logan smiled faintly at that, she knew before he spoke that her reasoning hadn’t made so much as a scratch on his determination to have his way.

  “No dice.”

  No dice! The man didn’t waste any more time on tact and compromise than he did on basic good manners.

  “And think about my friends,” she went on doggedly. “They’ll think I’ve either lost my mind or that I’ve been kidnapped. The first they’d never believe, so the second would cause them to involve the authorities.”

  An exaggeration, but certainly in keeping with her growing apprehension. The man was a brick wall, and the more she pushed against him, the more formidable he became.

  He tilted his head back slightly in a way that was becoming familiar to her. But it wasn’t done as if to look down at her from a slightly different perspective as she’d thought before, because it suddenly seemed as if he was looking down his nose at her. As if she was some lowly upstart that he looked down at that way to demonstrate not only his superiority, but also to signal his skepticism.

  “We’ll pay a visit to your friends while we pack up your things in San Antonio.”

  Claire felt her heart jump a little at that. Was this a reprieve? Her soft, “When?” sounded a little too eager and she regretted that the moment she heard it.

  “After the ceremony.”

  She made herself give a faint smile, though she didn’t feel like smiling at all. “You just made my point about discussions, so there’s only one thing more I’d like you to consider before I give up completely.”

  He stared down at her the longest moment, his expression stony though his dark eyes were alight with an amalgam of emotions: frustration, amusement, interest and possibly anger, though no one of those stood out more than the others.

  Her overwhelming sense was that although she’d been almost too mouthy and challenging, she’d not crossed the line that would make him take back his marriage demand and banish her from Cody’s life. But then, her very boldness with him just now was because she’d sensed that the only thing that would make him take back his proposal was if she walked out on Cody.

  Why she suddenly knew that was more a mix of subtle hints he’d given, rather than female intuition.

  “What’s that?”

  She kept her voice low enough so Cody wouldn’t hear specifics. “If you’re determined to do this today, then
please reconsider taking Cody along. If you don’t want him to go to Vegas, that might be okay. I could give my good friend a call and see if she could watch him for the day. Cody and her son are regular playmates, and we often baby-sit for each other. She owes me a couple of Saturday nights, so she might watch him today if she has no other plans.”

  Claire felt some small release in the tension between them. As if her suggestion had provided Logan with the one compromise he might make.

  “Call her.”

  Claire resisted the urge to shake her head at yet another little dictate. At least it was a dictate she wholeheartedly agreed on, and it didn’t escape her notice that because that idea would be better for Cody, he’d immediately agreed.

  “I’d rather not call her before eight o’clock, if that’s all right.”

  His solemn nod was not only permission, but probably meant that he’d already used up his quota of conversation for the day, although there was still plenty of time for him to work up at least enough “I do’s” to get through the ceremony in Vegas.

  That was the moment that Claire realized it would really happen. Today, at whatever time they arrived there and went through the formalities, she’d be married. This giant despot would be her husband.

  “There’s something I want clear,” he said then. He moved to block her view of Cody, and his eyes were suddenly as cold as black ice. Claire read the warning in their depths and held her breath. His voice was a low rumble that was too indistinct for Cody to hear, but she caught every harsh nuance of his words.

  “Don’t ever try to come between me and the boy, or spoil him against this ranch.”

  The utter grimness about him was so intimidating that Claire felt the shock wave of this dictate like a body slam.

  Logan Pierce was such a strange, strange man, and there was a complexity to him that was as maddeningly impenetrable as it was suddenly intriguing.

  Claire was certain then that for all Logan’s awkwardness with Cody, the boy was of paramount importance to him. Perhaps the reason her insubordination hadn’t seriously put him off was because he was willing to put up with it as long as it didn’t interfere with his relationship with Cody.