You can makeone with me.
I repeated over and over what Buck Wilder had said to me before I fled from him, ducking under his forearm and from the elevator and the hospital. I’d barely slept that night because that was all I could think about.
He’d overheard me talking to the sperm bank.
How mortifying!
Instead of making fun of me, he’d… he’dofferedto do the job for me. Ditch the donor sperm and take a donation from him, right from the source.
Which meant he wanted to have sex with me. And do it bare and make a baby.
What man volunteered for that?
Maybe one who wanted my family’s money. But did he even know I came from money? Mabel was my mother’s sister and had grown up wealthy. She’d walked away from it all for a man and settled in Devil’s Ditch. Started the diner. Looking at her little house in the old part of town, no one would know Mabel came from old money. Plus, what New York socialite would choose to run a diner in Montana?
Aunt Mabel and I didn’t have the same last names, so unless Mabel blabbed about her family–which I doubted since she’d left New York to avoid them and never went back–the money reason why Buck was offering his baby-making services was out.
Still, Buck made no sense.You can make one with me.
“Is this decaf?” Earl asked as I refilled his mug. He was at the counter and it was the end of the breakfast rush. Only two booths had customers, one a group of farmers who came in twice a week for coffee and a long chat, the other who’d already ordered.
I blinked, stared at the pot in my hand. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Earl,” I told him with a tired smile. Igrabbed up his mug and dumped it out. Found a fresh cup and got the correct carafe and filled it.
“No worries, honey,” he said. He wore an old canvas jacket, a baseball hat that promoted a tractor company and a kind smile. He came in every weekday morning for his breakfast so I now knew what he wanted. Except when my brain was full of Buck Wilder and his… services. “Heard the Wilder’s new baby is named after you.”
I grinned at this town’s impressive gossip mill, the way news spread like wildfire in a drought. Today, I was the center of the talk. “That’s right. Pretty special, huh?”
“Pretty special,” Buck Wilder said, adding onto the conversation as he dropped down in the empty seat next to Earl and tipped his Stetson in greeting to the older man. The way he was looking at me made me think he wasn’t talking about baby Sage.
My heart skipped a beat because he was here. In the diner. In front of me. Eyeing me.
The one he wanted to impregnate the old fashioned way.
The idea of it, of himwantingto… God, breed me? Kinky as hell, especially knowing we shared the same naughty interest.
Because of that gossip mill, I knew he was therancher of the family, the one who ran their huge property doing all kinds of things with hay and horses and cows. I knew nothing at all about that way of life or what was involved.
I just assumed it probably couldn’t involve being at the diner most mornings for breakfast like Earl, who’d probably retired before I was born. There was no doubt Buck worked and worked hard. Those muscles that made my panties damp didn’t come from a gym.
“I’ll take some of that coffee,” he said when I continued to stare.
That broke me from my thoughts as I pulled a clean mug from beneath the counter and set it in front of him. He filled in Earl on the new babies and how everyone was going home later this morning as I took in Buck’s blue flannel shirt. The way the top two buttons were undone and a hint of dark chest hair peeked out. The way the sleeves were rolled up and his forearms were exposed. And his hands… hands that would touch me in all kinds of ways if I made a baby with him.
“It’ll be your turn soon,” Earl said, patting Buck on the arm.
Buck didn’t respond, only stared at me in such a heated way that I was surprised my clothes didn’tscorch off. I couldn’t help but stare right back. Because Ilikedhis gaze on me. Liked how he was so focused on me. It was a little unsettling, but it also felt good, too. I didn’t remember Jackson ever looking at me like he wanted to eat me with a spoon.
Buck and I hadn’t even kissed. We’d barely touched.
And he wanted to give me a baby. The way he was eyeing me, he wanted to prove Earl right, that his turn to be a father would come soon.
With me.
The bell from the kitchen broke the stare. I went to grab the latest order and carried the plates to the table by the window. When I returned behind the counter, Earl was gone and cash was tucked beneath his half empty mug.
“Did you think about my offer?” Buck asked.
My cell vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, read the screen.
