A Win-Win Proposition (Case Brothers 2)

“How is it so different? In Las Vegas you resigned because you wanted a husband and children. You will soon have one. Why not the other?”

“Sure, but I never considered marrying you.”

“Really?” Doubt and laughter tangled in his voice.

“Really.” Her scowl told him she meant what she said.

“My dad thinks you’re in love with me.”

Her mouth popped open. Outrage brewed in her hazel eyes. “I won’t deny having certain feelings,” she said, her tone tart. “But even if I was madly in love with you, I’m not sure marriage between us is a good idea.”

“If you were madly in love with me?” he teased. “You mean you’re not?”

“It really doesn’t matter if I am or not.”

“It matters to me.”

“They’ll say I seduced you. That I got pregnant on purpose. I’m the one who’s going to be looked at as a gold digger.”

“No one will dare say anything to you.” He kissed her long and slow to soothe her worries, keeping up the gentle pressure until she sagged against him. Only then did he release her lips and begin nibbling down her neck.

“Maybe not, but they’ll be thinking it.” She tipped her head to offer him better access. “I won’t be accepted by anyone.”

He never dreamed he would have to convince a woman that marrying him was a good idea. “That’s nonsense.”

“Is it? Up until five weeks ago, I was your executive assistant. Face it, Sebastian, I’m the last woman in Houston you’d have picked to marry.”

Was she? If she’d said that before Las Vegas he might have agreed with her. Since then she’d become his obsession. “That’s not true. Stop telling me all the things you think I need.” His ex-wife had been shallow and showy. He’d sworn the next time he married it would be to a woman with depth and concern for more than herself. “You’re warm, sensitive and real.” He turned over her left hand and traced her lifeline the way she’d done earlier to him. “As much as I appreciate a glossy cover, what I can’t get enough of is what’s written on the pages between.”

She tried to take her hand back, but Sebastian tightened his grip. Her lashes fluttered as he plied her palm with a soothing massage until her shoulders relaxed.

“I don’t fit into your world.”

“Stop saying that. I’m not your high school boyfriend.”

“You accused me of seducing you to make you believe another man’s child was yours.”

“That was a stupid reaction to things that happened in my past. I’ve regretted it every second since it happened. I swear I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll never hurt you again.”

“I want to believe you.”

Her continued hesitation was scaring him. Sebastian knew it was time to pull out the big guns. “Maybe this will help.”

He scooped something out of his pocket and slid it onto her ring finger. Against her dirty palm, the enormous diamond sparkled like a miniature star.

Groaning, Missy closed her fist, hiding the ring. “It’s gorgeous.”

“It’s an Emma Case original,” Sebastian said. “I had her design it especially for you.”

“You had it designed for me?” Her resolve began to waver. Emma took weeks from design to execution. That meant that Sebastian had been thinking about proposing long before he found out she was pregnant. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“What?” His gray eyes were as dazzling as the diamond clutched in her palm. “Torturing you with expensive engagement rings and marriage proposals?”

“Yes, that.”

“Because I don’t want to live without you.”

Hope surged in her. “You don’t?”