The Lawman's Agreement (Entangled Scandalous) by Nancy Fraser, Patti Shenberger Page B

have you know that boy is all McCade right down to his—“
    “Jackson!” Aunt Ginnie interrupted. “You boys need to save that kind of talk for the poker room.”
    “Toes, Aunt Ginnie,” Jake said, laughing. “I was going to say toes.”
    “If you’re here to escort Suzanne home,” Felicity said, “you missed her. She left about a half hour ago.”
    “We hadn’t planned on my taking her home,” Zack said. “I’m here to see you, Aunt Ginnie, and the baby. Oh, and my rascally cousin too.”
    “Really? I could have sworn each time Suzanne went to the window she was watching for you.” Felicity met his gaze and smiled.
    “Unlikely,” Zack said. “She was probably keeping an eye on the clinic to see if she had any patients walk in unexpectedly.”
    Felicity laughed softly. “If you say so, although it might be kind of difficult to see the front of the clinic from that window. All it faces is the saloon and the jail.”
    …
    Suzanne set aside her cup of tea, too frazzled to enjoy the rich chamomile blend. She couldn’t help but wonder what Zack had done all day in order to stay at arm’s length. She’d seen him through the window, twice, and had hoped he would turn toward the hospital and come for a visit, even if only to see Felicity and baby Chance. Each time, he’d looked in the right direction but had turned and gone back into his office.
    As she’d done at least a dozen times during the course of the day, she thought back about their lovemaking, the very memory making her tremble. Zack had eagerly met her every move and had returned her advances with strength, skill, and excitement. She’d not had many lovers, but the few she’d been with had not been nearly as adept as Zack.
    Suzanne bit her lip, silently admonishing herself for thinking of something so sexually fulfilling, so perfect, in purely clinical terms. It was habit. She recognized her own limitations, her own desire to stay unencumbered of emotion and look at their time together for what it was…a much needed physical and emotional release.
    At first she’d worried that he’d been put off by her eagerness. Yet once they’d begun, he’d been as excited, as bold, as she. Unfortunately, as enjoyable as it was, she worried their one night together would put a pall on their relationship. What if, because of her intense need for physical contact, Zack saw it as breaking their original agreement? What if, because she’d wanted him so badly, that after all their efforts to begin their well-planned ruse, they ended up breaking off their fake engagement as quickly as it had begun?
    Suzanne stared down at her bare hand. If they ended up calling off their engagement, how would she ever explain the fact that she’d lost her engagement ring?

    Suzanne entered the woman’s ward of the hospital and lifted Felicity’s chart in her hands. Four days had passed since the night of the harrowing delivery, and both mother and baby were progressing even better than she’d hoped.
    “Enough lollygagging around in this hospital bed,” Suzanne said. “It’s time for you two to head on home.” She smiled down at Felicity and baby Chance, and then raised her gaze to meet the new father’s. “Jake, if you wouldn’t mind getting Chance settled in for his trip home, I’d like a few minutes for one last exam of Felicity’s stitches.”
    Jake laid the baby in his basket and lifted him from the bed. “I’ll be right outside whenever you’re ready to go,” he said.
    Once the door had closed behind him, Felicity breathed a long, deep sigh. “Finally. It’s been one visitor after another for four days. If I weren’t already exhausted from the delivery and nursing, the well-meaning company would have done me in for sure.”
    “You should have said something. I could have placed orders to limit the visiting hours,” Suzanne suggested.
    Felicity shook her head. “It wasn’t as much the string of people as it was the fact you and I have barely had