Until they’d accidentally gotten married.

  “You’re quiet,” Owen said. “You’ve been quiet.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “So have you.”

  “I’ve been thinking.”

  “Me, too.” She would not tell him all the things she’d been thinking about—a lot about him. A lot of sex thoughts.

  “I guess we should talk about it. The whole ‘we’re married’ thing.”

  “I guess we should.”

  He unscrewed the cap off the bottle of water and took a long swallow. Honor wondered what he was preparing to say.

  “I think we shouldn’t jump into making any rash decisions right away.”

  She frowned. “What? Rash decisions about what?”

  “An annulment. I mean, we don’t even know if we had sex. And if we did, what if we didn’t use protection? You could be pregnant.”

  That thought had never occurred to her. “Oh. You know what? You could be right about that. I have an IUD—or I did. I had it removed recently and I was going to wait a few months to let things settle and get back to normal before I had another put in.”

  He cocked his head to the side and just looked at her.

  “I wasn’t intending to have sex without protection, Owen.”

  “Yeah. I get that.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Shit. I always take precautions. And I haven’t been with anyone else for . . . a while.”

  “Neither have I.”

  “But last night? I can’t say for sure since I’m a little fuzzy on what happened between us. And if we did do it, then we should wait to see what happens. But there’s also the chemo that I had for my cancer. It can affect my sperm viability, so there’s a chance I couldn’t get you pregnant anyway.”

  “What? Really?”

  “Yeah. It could take a few years for my sperm to get back to normal, if ever.”

  She laid her hand on his arm. “Oh, Owen. I didn’t know that.”

  “That’s okay. I knew that before going in for treatment, and I left a healthy deposit at a sperm storage place. And this is a really weird conversation to be having with you.”

  “I know. But still, I’m glad you shared it with me. There’s no way of knowing if your swimmers are viable or not, is there?”

  “No. I mean, I guess I could do some kind of test or something, if you think that’s important.”

  “No, it’s not. Of course it isn’t.”

  She blew out a breath and took a long drink of water, because her throat had suddenly gone as dry as the desert. As if the unexpected marriage wasn’t enough, now there was the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy.

  She highly doubted she was pregnant since she’d just finished her period. But she wasn’t all that regular to begin with. And if she was pregnant, did she even want to have a baby right now? Or ever?

  “And what if I was?” she asked.

  “Pregnant?” He smiled. “Then I guess we’d have a baby together. If that’s what you wanted, of course, since the choice would be yours.”

  He made it sound so simple, when it was anything but. The kinds of complications having a baby would bring could be endless.

  “Do you even want kids?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “Eventually, sure. Yes. I guess. You?”

  “Eventually, sure. Maybe. I don’t know. It’s not the top priority in my life right now.”

  “Mine, either. But if it turns out you are pregnant, and you decide you want to have the baby, I’m in.”

  “And we’d stay married? You don’t even love me, Owen. Having a child together is no reason for a marriage.”

  “Probably not, but how about we cross that bridge if and when we come to it? In the meantime, we stay married.”

  “And, what? Hide it from our families?” She hated lying. She was, in fact, terrible at keeping secrets—especially from her sisters.

  “You said you didn’t want them to know.”

  “I absolutely don’t want them to know.”

  “Then we don’t tell them. And if you’re not pregnant in a month or so or whenever it is that you find out, we get the marriage annulled. Easy, right?”

  “Right. Totally easy.” Except somehow, she didn’t think any of this was going to be easy. “Although I think—and I’m not sure about the legalities of all of this—but if we want to get an annulment, wouldn’t we have to start the proceedings for that right away?”

  “Shit.” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “You might be right about that.”

  They both went silent, but then Owen said, “We could start the annulment process. Nothing in the legal world turns on a dime. By the time you find out whether you’re pregnant or not, we’ll at least be in the process. If it turns out you are and we want to stop the annulment, we can.”

  “Okay, that makes sense. We’ll start there and see how things go.”

  It would be like walking a tightrope, but she could handle it. Maybe.

  He leaned forward and took her hand. She felt the spark of his touch all the way to her toes.

  “It’s going to be okay, Honor. It’s not like we did anything that can’t be undone.”

  Right. Unless she was pregnant. “I know. It’s just hard for me not to talk to my sisters about everything.”

  “I get that. But you can talk to me about how you feel.”

  She laughed. “I think that’s a little different, since you’re the topic of conversation.”

  He leaned back and gave her a lopsided grin that was so sexy she almost self-combusted on the spot. “You want to talk to your sisters about me?”

  In ways she couldn’t begin to tell him. Her emotions and feelings were so twisted up right now. And he still held her hand, his thumb sweeping back and forth over her skin, making her heart beat faster, making her want to touch him, to kiss him, to see if anything felt familiar so she could test her memories from last night. Then maybe she’d know if she had anything to worry about.

  “We should kiss,” she said, her eyes instantly widening as she realized she’d just verbalized her thoughts.

  His brows shot up. “What?”

  Now that it was out there, she might as well continue. “Kiss. Make out. I want to see if it’ll spark some memory of last night. If it doesn’t, and it turns out nothing happened between us, then we don’t have to worry about a possible pregnancy.”

  His lips curved, a slow, sensual smile that made her belly jump. Then he inched closer, curved his hand around the side of her neck and brought her face to his.

  “Yeah, we should definitely kiss.”

  Honor thought she’d prepared herself for this.

  She was so unprepared for the onslaught when Owen’s lips met hers. She’d expected something sweet. Maybe even tantalizing. Instead, what he gave her was wickedly hot. Incendiary. Knock-her-out-of-her-shoes inflammatory. His mouth moved over hers with purpose, with a deep, desirous need that made her breath catch, made her grab on to his arms and hold on for dear life as he plumbed the depths of her mouth, sucked on her tongue and made the spot at the nape of her neck tingle, a sure sign that she was utterly and unabashedly turned on.

  Wow.

  And then he laid her back onto the blanket and half covered her body with his, and all his delicious muscle was hers for exploration. She couldn’t help but wrap one leg around him and arch, feeling that hard ridge of his erection against her hip.

  He groaned. She moaned in response. And when his hand slid along her hip, she had a brief flash of memory.

  The two of them lying on a bed in a position just like this. Owen’s hand slipping under her dress, his fingers climbing higher. And that same sensation of utter bliss, of anticipation, of supreme desire.

  She breathed out, and Owen kissed her deeply, taking her under, where another zap of memory hit her. This time, the two of them were entwined, and most definitely naked. The slide of skin against skin, and all those glorious sensations of him moving against her, inside her. She lost herself in the memory, in what they were doing and in the taste of him now, smoothing her hand over his arm, grounding herself in the feel and warmth of his body.

  Until he lifted, and she heard the rustle of footsteps and the conversation of people approaching. He pulled her to a sitting position. She grabbed her drink and took a long swallow.

  She looked over at Owen, whose heated gaze seared her. She took a couple of deep breaths to center herself.

  “I remembered something from last night.”

  He gave her a curious look. “Yeah? What did you remember?”

  “Just flashes and bits and pieces. But we were on a bed. And definitely naked.”

  He didn’t look upset. Instead he offered up a knowing smile. “I guess the kiss worked.”

  On so many levels. “I guess it did.”

  “So we keep the secret for a while, then, huh?”

  “I suppose we do.”

  But keeping this secret was going to be the hardest thing she had ever done.

  And this long drive home, sitting next to him, breathing him in the whole way?

  Even harder.

  * * *

  • • •

  THEY’D DRIVEN AS far as Albuquerque before Owen yawned enough times that Honor insisted on stopping for the night.

  And, okay, he was tired. He had no idea how much—if any—sleep he’d gotten the night before. Not wanting to chance falling asleep at the wheel, he’d agreed. Honor had looked online and found them a decently priced but nice hotel just off the highway. They’d parked, checked in and gone straight up to their rooms.

  Or . . . room, as it turned out. She looked at him as she slipped the key in the door.

  “It seemed like a waste of money to get two rooms,” she said. “So I got us one room with two queen beds.”

  He was too tired to argue with her, but after spending the entire day with her gorgeous body twisting and turning in the seat next to him, not to mention breathing in her lemony scent, he was almost at a breaking point. And then there was that kiss earlier that nearly shattered him. Honor had been warm and pliant and she’d made moaning sounds that made his dick hard.

  And now she wanted to share a room with him?

  Either she hadn’t been affected by that kiss at all—which would be colossally disappointing—or, or . . .

  Hell, he had no idea. He was so damn tired he couldn’t think straight.

  “This room seems fine,” she said. “What do you think?”

  It was a basic room. Not high-dollar, which suited him just fine, but not a dump, either. “Yeah, it’s great. I’m gonna take a shower.”

  “Sure. How about I go get us some cold drinks?”

  “Sounds great.” He opened his suitcase and pulled out clean clothes, then went into the bathroom and closed the door. He stripped and looked in the mirror, studying his face. No wonder Honor hadn’t been turned on by the kiss. Look at him. His hair stuck up all over the place, he had dark circles under his eyes and his skin looked sallow and sunken.

  He turned away from the mirror and stepped into the shower, turning the heat up to full blast, hoping it might put some color in his face. Or, if nothing else, it might melt his skin off and he would die and wouldn’t have to face the repercussions of his epic fuckup.

  He scrubbed and rinsed, then turned the scalding water to a slightly more tolerable level before getting out, drying off and putting on a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt. He combed his hair, then opened the door to find that Honor had changed and was wearing pajama pants and a tank top. She’d pulled her hair into a bun on top of her head.

  “Drink’s on the nightstand,” she said. “I took the bed farthest from the door so you can defend me against anyone who might break in.”

  He laughed. “Good call.”

  “I’m going to go wash my face. I’ll be right back.”

  She grabbed a small zipped bag and went into the bathroom, leaving the door partially open.

  “Holy crap, Owen, it’s steamy in here. You must like really hot showers.”

  He took a long swallow of his soda. “I felt dirty.”

  She popped her head out the door. “Clearly. It’s like a hundred degrees in here.”

  Her skin was pink and clean. Even without makeup, she was beautiful.

  Honor was consistently gorgeous, no matter the situation. She always had been. Even as kids, when they’d been outside, playing in mud, she’d been pretty, her incredible eyes shining brighter than the spring grass.

  Dude. He sat up, heard her humming in the bathroom and wondered where this sudden attraction to Honor had come from.

  Or was it so sudden? Had it always been there, and he’d been so struck by Erin’s flashy smile and glitter that he’d bypassed Honor? If so, shame on him. Because he sure as hell saw it now.

  Honor came out of the bathroom and planted a look of concern on him.

  “You’re frowning. Is something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “No. Just tired.”

  “I was going to read for a bit on my tablet, but if that’ll bother you, we can just turn the lights off.”

  “Go ahead. It won’t bother me at all.” He turned over so his back faced her.

  “Okay. Good night, Owen.”

  “Night, Honor.”

  He closed his eyes, but of course now he was wide awake. He could smell her again. Lemony and sweet. He wanted to kiss her, to feel her soft lips moving under his, her body pressed against him.

  This was not gonna work.

  He rolled over and stared up at the ceiling.

  “Owen.”

  He looked over at Honor. “Yeah.”

  “Let’s talk.”

  “About?”

  “Whatever’s bothering you. You’re huffing out sighs and tossing around on the bed. You said you were tired. Clearly something’s upsetting you.”

  He shoved up against the headboard and propped the pillow behind his back. “I don’t know. I feel like I screwed this all up. First, I got you drunk, then I married you. Then I might have gotten you pregnant. It’s like I can’t leave the Bellini women alone. I’m always hurting one or another of you.”

  She laughed. “Do I look hurt?”

  “Well, no.”

  She pushed her covers away and came over, shocking the hell out of him by pulling his duvet aside and climbing in next to him.

  “If I were so disgusted by you, I wouldn’t have taken this road trip with you, would I?”

  “I guess not.”

  “And I definitely wouldn’t have suggested you kiss me today, would I?”

  “No.”

  Her gaze drifted to his mouth, then back up. “That kiss was incredible, by the way. We should do more of that.”

  “Kind of defeats the purpose of us getting an annulment, doesn’t it?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe. But our circumstances are a bit unusual, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Did you like kissing me today?” she asked.

  “Hell yeah.”

  “Would you like to kiss me some more?”

  “More than I’d care to admit.” And now he was getting hot and hard and she should get out of his bed because she smelled really good and he desperately wanted to touch her.

  Then again, she was technically his wife, and she was smiling at him, and leaning into him.

  “Kiss me, Owen.”

  He started to, but then for some reason he pulled back. “You know, I think we should wait.”

  “For what?”

  He had no idea. Why had he said that? Had he lost his mind? He wanted to kiss her. What was wrong with him? “For us to figure out what’s happening with our marriage. Or nonmarriage. You know, not complicate things further between us.”

  She sighed. “You’re probably right.” She eased out of his bed and went over to her own. “It’s a good thing one of us has some common sense.”

  Yeah, right. He could have her naked and underneath him right now, with his cock buried inside her, both of them feeling really damn good. Instead, he had to be the one with common sense?

  Fuck common sense. Common sense didn’t have any fun.

  He was going to regret this.

  Hell, he already did.

  CHAPTER

  six

  OWEN WAS WORKING in the back of the Screaming Hawk Brewery, checking on the tanks and the brewing process. Everything was going well. So well, in fact, that he was glad he’d decided on this oversized warehouse when he leased property for his brewery, because he was already thinking about expansion. Business was booming, something that surprised him every day.

  His craft brewery was his baby, his lifeblood, something he’d dreamed of doing ever since high school. Making this brewery a success had been a dream come true. Being waylaid by his cancer diagnosis had made him panic, hoping that his dream wouldn’t crash and burn. But his employees and friends had helped him keep the business afloat during the times he’d been too sick to deal with the day-to-day operations. He’d never be able to repay their kindness.

  Now that treatment was over, he had his strength back and he could actually look forward to the future, something he hadn’t hoped to think about when he’d been undergoing treatment.

  Casey, his brew manager, walked into the back room. “I think the new batch of pale ale will be ready by the end of the week.”

  Owen nodded. “Looks that way.”

  “I’d like to try a new Irish ale. I’ve written up the specs to go over in our meeting. What do you think?”