At the sound of a soft chuckle, her eyes flew open and instantly she felt the heat of embarrassment wash over her as she saw it was Jabe. She sneaked a glance at Chase, only to find him watching her, looking amused.

  “What do you think of Hilda’s pancakes?” Jabe asked, still chuckling.

  Marni smiled and licked the sweet preserves from her upper lip. “Amazing. I’d love her recipe.” She’d make them Christmas morning for the whole family to celebrate Elise and Chase’s engagement—

  “You cook?” Felicia asked.

  “My mother insisted we all learn to cook and sew, even my brothers,” Marni said, warmed by the pancakes and a subject dear to her heart, her family.

  “How many brothers do you have?” Jabe asked.

  “Four. They’re all older than—” she felt the near slip on her lips “—me and my sister.”

  Both Hayes and Dayton glanced up. “There’s more at home like you?” Dayton asked, making what could have been a compliment sound just the opposite.

  “My sister is nothing like me,” Marni said quickly in Elise’s defense.

  “Your mother sounds like a smart woman,” Jabe commented.

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” Felicia announced, sliding her chair back from the table. She tossed down her napkin and rushed from the room.

  Dayton watched her leave with only mild concern.

  “’Morning sickness,” Vanessa said.

  “Did you suffer morning sickness?” Jabe asked Marni as he passed her more pancakes.

  “I was fortunate,” she said, busying herself with the pancakes, eyes averted. “I missed that part.”

  “Where were you raised?” Jabe asked.

  Yesterday his questions had been pointed and part of a test. Today they seemed kindled out of a sincere desire to know more about the woman who was about to give birth to his grandchild. Elise’s baby. His first grandchild, Marni reminded herself with growing apprehension.

  She told him about growing up in rural Montana, climbing trees, swimming in the creek, playing baseball, camping in the back pasture under the cottonwoods.

  She realized with a start that she’d been describing her own childhood’—not Elise’s. Elise had been more prissy, playing with dolls, holding elaborate tea parties on the front porch and refusing to bait her own hook when she did go along fishing. While Elise didn’t have the patience to sit and wait for a fish to bite, she could spend hours planning elaborate skits, which she directed after charming her siblings into participating.

  Marni shot a look at Chase, surprised that she seemed to have his full attention, although from the look on his face, he wasn’t enjoying her stories. He looked angry and upset. Had something she said made him remember one of El’s childhood stories? Was it possible he would remember everything before Christmas? Remember Elise and give her that happy ending El and the baby so deserved? And let Marni forget all that foolishness she’d felt in the barn?

  “Your childhood sounds idyllic,” Jabe said.

  “It was,” Marni said, her hand going to Sam without her realizing what she was doing. “I always thought if I ever had children, that’s what I’d want for them.”

  “You haven’t always planned to have children?” Chase asked.

  She met his gaze. “No,” she answered truthfully. “I always saw myself as a doting aunt.” She looked down at Sam again. “Sometimes I still have trouble seeing myself as a mother.”

  ‘I’m sure Chase is having the same problem seeing himself as a father,” Dayton commented wryly.

  “Fatherhood is something a man shouldn’t take lightly,” Chase said.

  Marni couldn’t tell whether that was meant for Jabe or Dayton. Both busied themselves with breakfast.

  “How was your phone call?” Dayton asked Chase.

  “Odd, but it seems the phone lines are still down,” Chase answered, not looking up from his plate.

  “Huh,” Dayton said. “Must have gone down about the time I came out to the barn to look for the two of you.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say.” Chase glanced up at Marni, concern in his gaze.

  Marni swallowed. Dayton had purposely gotten rid of Chase? What for? Just so he could insult her? Or had he had something else planned for her and changed his mind? She concentrated on her food, telling herself she’d never let Dayton get her alone again.

  “Dayton didn’t get to tell you last night at dinner,” Vanessa said, smiling at her husband. “But Felicia’s further along than we all thought. Almost seven months.”

  That brought everyone’s attention up from their breakfasts.

  “Seven months?” Jabe demanded, spearing the last piece of ham. “She doesn’t look that pregnant.”

  “She’s always watched her figure,” Vanessa said, and added pointedly, “Not all women blow up like a balloon when they’re pregnant.”

  Feeling her face burn red hot, Marni chewed her last bite of pancake in the thick, tense-filled silence that followed. When she dared sneak a look at Chase, she found him smiling in obvious amusement, not in the least sympathetic to her predicament.

  * * *

  AFTER BREAKFAST, Jabe announced that he’d picked up the weather report on the mobile radio. Bozeman Pass was closed and some parts of Interstate 90 were open only to emergency traffic because of blowing and drifting snow.

  “In other words, we’re snowed in,” Dayton said, not looking any more pleased by the news than Marni. The road down to Maudlow was impassable and would stay that way until the county plowed it. Or until the Calloways plowed themselves out.

  “No reason to start plowing until it quits snowing and blowing,” Jabe said. “It would just drift back in behind the plow.”

  Marni had the unpleasant thought that Jabe might be just trying to keep her here. But as powerful as Jabe Calloway was, he couldn’t control the weather, she told herself.

  She listened as he barked orders to his two youngest sons and realized that Dayton and Hayes were both involved in the family business with jobs that often took them away from the ranch. Not menial chores such as mucking out the barn since hired hands normally took care of the horses.

  But not today. The crew wouldn’t be able to get into the ranch to work because of the storm. That meant Dayton and Hayes would have to do all the chores, something that didn’t go over well with either of them, judging from the looks on their faces.

  But they didn’t argue and it became obvious who ran Calloway Ranches, and who took orders. Jabe could be a hard man, she decided. He was used to getting his way. And his sons seemed to dance to his tune. All except one.

  “Why don’t you stay off that leg and see that Elise doesn’t get bored,” Jabe ordered Chase irritably after everyone else had left the table.

  Chase gave his father a patient smile. “With her active imagination, boredom is the last thing she has to worry about.”

  Active imagination, huh? If he only knew.

  Chase got to his feet and, leaning on his crutches, smiled down at her. “But don’t worry, I’ll take care of her.”

  The threat in his voice sent a shiver through her. Just the thought of the two of them alone again together—Everything be damned, she couldn’t go on pretending to be Elise. She couldn’t let what almost happened in the barn happen again.

  “Chase, there’s something we need to talk about.”

  He smiled. “Whatever the lady wants.”

  Marni didn’t like the look in Chase’s eyes as Jabe got up from the table. “I’ll see that no one interrupts the two of you,” he said and closed the door behind him.

  Marni didn’t like the sound of that. “Look, I’m not the woman you think I am,” she said.

  “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that,” Chase said, coming around to her side of the table. “We’re completely alone again. That is what you wanted, right?”

  She got to her feet, backing away from him. “I didn’t want to get you alone to—”

  “But you did want to get me alone again,” he interrupted. “Or did you finally want to tell me that we’ve never been lovers, never spent four days together, let alone four “’magical’ nights and that there is no way you’re carrying my child?”

  Damn him. That’s exactly what she wanted to tell him. And a confession is exactly what he wanted. If she told him the truth now, he wouldn’t even listen. All he’d hear was that he’d been right all along: She wasn’t pregnant, wasn’t his lover and had never been. He’d laugh at the whole twin-sister routine and throw her out into the storm.

  “You’re going to feel pretty foolish when you remember everything,” she said, realizing immediately it wasn’t the catchy comeback she’d hoped for.

  “When I remember, I fear you’re going to regret it.” She didn’t doubt that for a moment.

  * * *

  CHASE FOUND HIMSELF backing her into a corner again and looking forward to it. He stopped himself, remembering only too well what had almost happened earlier in the barn. He had to get a grip. After all, he was trying to prove to her that they’d never been lovers. He’d start by trying to reason with the woman. Then if that didn’t work…well, there was always making love to her on the dining room table.

  He sat down and tried to see past her cute sweet face to the gold digger he knew her to be. Whoever this woman was, she had come here on false pretenses to pass off an-other man’s child as his own, hoping to capitalize on his misfortune and his father’s wealth and ego. Well, Chase wasn’t about to let that happen.

  After sitting through breakfast, listening to tales of her childhood, he was all the more convinced that nothing she could say or do could convince him he’d been her lover. She was the kind of woman he’d avoided since puberty. There was no way he’d have ever let himself get close to her. Miss McCumber and her perfect childhood were much too dangerous.

  “There are a lot of reasons you and I never had a four-day affair,” he said, trying to replace the emotions she stirred in him with something safe like good old familiar anger. He’d show up this charlatan for the liar she was. “Number one, you’re not my type.”

  She raised an eyebrow but took a chair a safe distance from him. “And what type is your type?”

  He didn’t want to admit what that had always been. Simple and safe. “Tall, leggy, busty…”

  “Shallow?” she offered.

  “Noncombative,” he said, not liking the way this was going. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  She shot him a wide-eyed innocent look. “What man would want a woman who might intellectually challenge him?”

  He growled. “Why do women think men want to be challenged? Maybe we just want peace and quiet.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Number two,” he said through gritted teeth. It amazed him how she could make him doubt himself, make him think against all his arguments that maybe somehow she had been part of his memory loss. He’d never thought of pregnant women as beautiful or intriguing or…sensual. But this one—If she had her way, she’d have him thinking he was falling for her. “Why would I ask you to lunch after you’d just run into my truck?”

  “I think we both know the answer to that one,” she said, giving him a dirty look. “You obviously thought I was your type.”

  He cursed himself for starting this. “Where did I take you for lunch?”

  “Guadalupe’s.”

  “That tiny, out-of-the-way Mexican-food place?” he asked in surprise.

  “I take it that isn’t where you usually wine and dine your…bustier dates?” Her innocent look had a sharp edge to it. “Maybe you didn’t want us to be seen.”

  He frowned, wondering if that was exactly what he’d been thinking, if he had indeed taken her there. Which, of course, he hadn’t “What did I order?”

  She gave him a blank look.

  “You don’t remember,” he accused. He always ordered the same thing at Mexican-food restaurants. If she’d said anything but chile rellenos, he would have known she was lying. For just a moment, he thought he had her.

  “I don’t remember, I was…nervous.”

  He definitely made her nervous, he knew that. “What did you have?” he asked, studying her.

  “Chile rellenos. My favorite.”

  He groaned inwardly. Her favorite was his favorite. Oh, brother. And on top of that, he liked her appetite as much as his father did. “You’re not exactly a light eater, are you?”

  She lifted her chin. “Do you have a problem with that?” she asked defiantly.

  He had to laugh. It seemed to surprise her. “No. I find it…refreshing.” Just like you find her refreshing? “Did I kiss you during dinner?”

  Marni shook her head and avoided his gaze. He couldn’t imagine how any man had impregnated this woman. She seemed so…chaste. He remembered the way she’d reacted to his kiss last night. The way she’d reacted to his touch in the barn. Just the memory stirred something inside him he didn’t want stirred.

  “We didn’t kiss until…later at the…motel,” she said.

  What? He stared at her. “You’re kidding?”

  She looked away. “You were…shy.”

  Right. “I would have kissed you at dinner. Just looking that face of yours—” He raked a hand through his hair and glared at the ceiling. “If I’d taken you to Guadalupe’s, I would have requested a private booth in the back, candleight even though it was lunch and chile rellenos for both of us. I would have kissed you the moment the waiter walked away.”

  “How can you be so sure?” she asked, seeming to fight for breath under his gaze.

  “Because that’s what I’d like to do with you now,” he said honestly.

  She swallowed. “Take me to Guadalupe’s?”

  He found himself on his feet, balancing on his good leg. “Kiss you.”

  She shot up out of her chair. “We already tried that. It didn’t jog your memory.”

  “I don’t give a damn about my memory or what happened months ago,” he snapped, realizing how true that was. “All I care about is what’s happening right now.” He was on her before he knew what he was doing.

  She looked scared. “You’ve forgotten about the baby.”

  “Not likely,” he said, looking down at her protruding stomach, the only thing that was keeping them apart—other than the enormous lie she was telling. “That’s all I’ve thought about since yesterday when you walked through the door. You. And the baby.” He’d driven himself crazy, knowing she wasn’t locked somewhere in his faulty memory, torturing himself with the impossible thought that she was.

  “There’s only one way to prove that I’ve never made love to you.” He shoved aside the food and plates on the table in one swift noisy movement and lifted Marni up on the table, wondering how far he’d go, how far he’d have to go. He knew how far he wanted to go. “Trust me, I’ll be gentle.”

  Chapter Seven

  Oh, no, he plans to take me right here. Right on the dining-room table! “You wouldn’t!” Marni cried.

  “After those four days we spent together, surely you realize I would do more than make love to you on a dining-room table,” Chase said.

  No, she told herself. He wouldn’t dare.

  But she couldn’t forget the way he’d made her feel in the barn. She’d wanted to kiss him, wanted him to touch her, wanted him to—Oh yes, she’d wanted him to make love to her. Not that she would have let him. Not that she would ever betray her sister. But she wanted him.

  And what if the desire she’d thought she’d seen in his eyes had been real? What if he’d wanted her as badly as she’d wanted him? What if he wanted her now—at all costs?

  He swung her legs up and spun her around and back, until she lay lengthwise on the table in front of him. Panicked that he might not be bluffing after all, she struggled to get up, but he bent over her face, his breath tickling her cheek as his lips skimmed across her skin in search of her mouth.

  She turned her head away from his kiss, and realized that if he was just trying to scare her, he was doing a good job of it. “Chase, let me up. I don’t find this in the least bit humorous.”

  “Humorous?” He laughed softly as he trailed kisses down her throat to the V of her maternity blouse. “Honey, I’m not trying to be humorous.”

  With a shock, she felt him unbutton the top button on her maternity blouse and realized where his mouth was headed next. Oh no. “Chase, pleas—”

  His kiss cut her off before she got any further. Last night his lips had taken, demanding nothing in return. This kiss staked claim to her, demanding every ounce of her, warning her of his intentions in a way his words never could have done. This kiss brooked no argument and her traitorous body acquiesced without even a whimper.

  She closed her eyes. Tasting him. Savoring him. Letting his lips transmit alien, wonderful, tantalizing sensations to the rest of her body. Amazed to feel her breasts tingle, nipples harden to taut peaks, her aching center long for his touch, for his mouth, for his—Her eyes flew open and she let out a cry of pure agony.

  Chase jerked back, his heart a thunder in his ears He stared at her as he tried to catch his breath. She lay, breathing hard, her eyes wide, her body trembling slightly. He saw that he’d freed the first two buttons on her blouse, laying bare the fair freckled skin above her full breasts.

  He stepped back, realizing how close he’d come to taking her right there on the table. The realization frightened him more than he wanted to admit. She filled him with a need so powerful—

  She sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the table as she pulled down her skirt and then quickly buttoned her shirt, smoothing it over her swollen belly, tears in her eyes.

  He felt like a teenager, as embarrassed by what he’d done as she looked. The words I’m sorry came to his lips but he wouldn’t let himself say them. The effect this woman had on him scared the hell out of him. He called on the anger, reminding himself that the child she carried was some other man’s. He let the wave of jealousy that followed that thought fuel his anger.

  “I wondered just how far you would go with this charade of yours,” he said, grabbing his crutches as he backed toward the door. “Now I know.”