The Ruthless Caleb Wilde

“What are you saying, Caleb?”

“Sage.” He took a steadying breath. “Marry me. Be my wife.”

“No,” she said, “no, that’s crazy—”

“Listen to me, honey. We get along fine.”

“Except when we’re shouting at each other.”

“Except then,” he admitted, “but it’s only because you’re as stubborn as I am.”

Was that a smile? A hint of one?

“We respect each other,” Caleb continued. “We’re good together, in bed and out.” He put his hand over her belly. “And we’re having a child,” he added softly. “Seems to me those are decent, solid things to build a marriage on.”

Sage stared into her lover’s eyes. He was right; those were solid things to build a marriage on. The world was filled with people who married for far less.

Except, she wanted more.

Tears rolled down her face.

She wanted his love.

His heart.

She wanted the joy of knowing Caleb would bring her into his life even if she weren’t carrying his child …

Because she loved him.

She loved this honorable, kind, decent, arrogant, impossible man—

“Sage.” He wiped her tears away with his thumbs. “I’ll make you happy. I swear it.”

She made a sound that might have been a laugh, but Caleb figured that wasn’t possible because her tears were coming even faster—

Which only proved how right he was about men not understanding women because even as he figured she was going to turn him down, she smiled through that teary deluge, rose on her toes, touched his lips with hers and said, “Yes.”

CHAPTER TEN

SAGE had been born in a small town in Indiana.

The press called that part of the States the American heartland. Meteorologists called it Tornado Alley, but she’d been lucky.

Though tornadoes had touched down only miles from the small frame house she’d grown up in, none had come close enough to sweep her away.

Now, one had. Except, this force of nature wasn’t a storm.

It was a man named Caleb Wilde.

What happened after a woman accepted a proposal of marriage? Sage had seen enough movies to hazard a guess.

Kisses. Laughter. Incandescent joy.

Okay. She hadn’t actually expected that. Caleb’s proposal, while tender, had been based on honor. On principle. On doing the right thing.

Still, it would have been nice if the moment of tenderness had lasted just a little longer, if he hadn’t gone from concentrating on her to concentrating on his phone.

A quick kiss. A smile. Then he’d stepped back, pulled the phone from his pocket and turned into someone she didn’t know …