WANTED by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online

marry me— today. ”

Chapter Five
    Wyatt had expected Lyla to be shocked. And to argue, of course. But what he hadn’t expected was to see the color drain from her face.
    Clamping her hand over her mouth, she motioned toward the side door. “Is that a bathroom?” she asked.
    He nodded, got up and opened it for her before Lyla ran inside. And she did run, fast, kicking the door shut behind her just seconds before he heard her throw up.
    Wyatt wasn’t sure if that was a major insult or if it was part of the pregnancy. Either way, it was a reaction he hadn’t counted on. He needed her tough, asking all the questions that needed to be asked so they could move on to the next step in what he hoped wasn’t a stupid plan.
    Too bad it was the only plan he had.
    “You okay?” he asked.
    “Morning sickness.” And he heard the toilet flush before she turned on the water in the sink. She splashed water for what seemed an eternity before she finally came back out. She was drying her face with a hand towel.
    “You’ve lost your mind,” she said, brushing past him and heading back for the sofa. She gulped down some of the bottled water.
    “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
    Her left eyebrow came up. “You make it a habit of proposing to strangers?”
    “Not generally. But I’ll make an exception in your case.”
    A burst of air left her mouth. A laugh, but not from humor. She shook her head, pushed away the strands of hair that’d slipped onto her face. “Men like you don’t even ask out women like me. So, needless to say, your proposal is more than a shock.”
    Wyatt frowned. “Men like me and women like you? ”
    She made a sound to indicate the answer was obvious. It wasn’t. Of course, maybe he’d missed something.
    “Men like you,” she repeated, waving her hand over his face. Then his body. She stopped waving when she got to his zipper area, probably because now that she was sitting down, it was sort of in her face.
    He stepped back.
    “Hot guys who know they’re hot don’t ask out bookworm tomboys like me,” she clarified.
    Wyatt was flattered. Then riled.
    Then confused.
    “Don’t you dare say you don’t know you’re hot,” she added.
    He had to shrug. Yeah, women seemed to find him attractive. The wrong women anyway. The only one he’d had any luck with was Ann, and the luck hadn’t lasted long. They’d had only three years of marriage before she’d passed away.
    Lyla waved her hand over her own face. “And I know I’m the opposite of hot.”
    “Oh, you’re hot, all right.”
    And he so wished he hadn’t blurted that out.
    He wasn’t a blurter. Or someone who used the word hot to describe a woman. He knew how to keep feelings under wraps, and he darn sure shouldn’t be saying something like that to Lyla. Especially since it was the truth. They had enough to work through without adding “hot” labels to each other.
    Oh, man.
    She glanced at his zipper again. And that stupid, brainless part of him decided it was time to give him a reminder that’d it had been way too long since he’d had a woman in his bed.
    Well, he wasn’t getting this woman there.
    Except the plan was for him to do just that. He wouldn’t be in his bed with her, of course. And that was no clearer than it was right now with them staring at each other and with the heat rising in the otherwise cool room.
    “I think it’s time for a change of subject,” Lyla said, holding the damp towel against her throat.
    Wyatt couldn’t agree more, and it wasn’t as if they didn’t have a whole boatload they had to discuss.
    “I’ve done some damage control,” Wyatt started. “There are no official records around to prove you received a donor embryo.”
    Her eyes narrowed a bit. “Do I want to know how you discovered that?”
    “No.” And he waited to see if she’d challenge it. She didn’t, so he continued. “Of course, whoever’s behind this knows, because that’s the person who likely set it all up. Unless you