She backed out of the parking lot, the tires spinning on loose gravel as she drove onto the road, heading back the same way she’d come.
“Because I will be damned before I let myself be forced into marriage with a man I can’t abide.”
He wondered about the man she’d obviously left behind.“You don’t know me.What if you can’t abide me, either?”
Her gaze was fixed on the patch of road visible in the twin beams of her headlights.
“Living a year with a total stranger is better than living one night under Lash Marlow’s roof.Besides, I don’t like to be told what to do.”
So, his name is Lash Marlow.This time Ryder did smile, but only a little.
“Casey.”
Startled by the sound of her name on his lips, she turned her gaze from the road to his face.
“What?”
“I think you should try calling me Ryder.I’ve never gone to bed with a woman who called me Mister, and I don’t intend to start now.”
Gone to bed with…!
Almost too late she remembered what she was doing and swerved to avoid the ditch at which she was heading.By the time she had the car and herself under control, she was too desperate to argue the point.
First things first.Marriage.Then rules.After that, take it one day at a time.It was the only way she knew.
CHAPTER 2
There was something to be said for the power of the Ruban name.It had gotten Casey and Ryder through blood tests without an appointment, gotten a court clerk out of bed and down to the county courthouse in the middle of the night to issue a marriage license, then dragged an old family friend out of bed before sunrise to perform the impromptu ceremony.The waiting period most people would have experienced was waived for Delaney Ruban’s granddaughter.
“You all take yourselves a seat now,” Sudie Harris said, and pulled her housecoat a little tighter across her chest.“Judge will be here directly.”
Casey dropped into the nearest chair, well aware that Harmon Harris’s wife had taken one look at Ryder Justice and found him lacking in both worth and substance.When Ryder refused a seat and walked to the window instead, something about the way he was standing made her nervous.What if he was already sorry he’d gotten into this mess?What if he was thinking about leaving?Nervously, she got up.
“Mr.Justice, I—”
He turned and she choked on her words.He was so big.So menacing.So much a stranger.What in God’s name had she done?
“What did you call me?”he asked.
She swallowed and the lump in her throat seemed to be getting larger by the minute.Oh, Lord.“Ryder.I meant to say, Ryder.”
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.Casey Ruban was on the verge of a breakdown.She might not know it, but he recognized the signs.Her eyes were feverishly bright and the knuckles on her fingers had gone from red to white from the fists that she’d made.Add to that, a breathing pattern that was little more than a series of short, quick gasps, and he figured it wouldn’t take much for her to fall apart.
“That’s better,” he said shortly.“Now sit down before you fall down.”
Casey did as she was told and then tried not to look at his backside as he turned away.It was impossible.In a few short minutes she would be tied to this man as she’d never been bound before, not only by law, but in the closest of proximities.Wife!Dear God, she was going to be that man’s wife.
She watched as he shrugged his shoulders in a quiet, almost weary gesture, rubbing at his neck and massaging the muscles with long, brown fingers.She couldn’t quit staring at his hands.Out of nowhere a random thought came barreling into her sleep-starved mind.I wonder if he’s a gentle lover.
Startled, she shuddered and looked away, wishing Judge Harris would hurry.She doubted there was little about Ryder Justice that was gentle, and the tension between them was making her crazy.
Tom between the fear that she was jumping into a worse mess than the one she was already in, and fear that at the last minute he wouldn’t go through with the ceremony, she wanted to cry.Instead, she closed her eyes.All I want to do is go to bed and sleep for a month, then wake up and find out this was all a bad dream, she thought.
Somewhere in another part of the house a clock chimed five times.Startled, she glanced at her watch.Five o’clock!In a little over an hour the sun would be up.Footsteps sounded on the stairwell behind them.She stood and turned to face the man who was entering the room.
From Harmon Harris’s expression, he was none too pleased to see who awaited him.“Casey Dee, what on earth are you doin’ here in the middle of the night?”
“Getting married, and it’s not the middle of the night, it’s almost dawn.”
