Page 53 of Big Bad Wolfe

Jillian stumbled to the fence, dropped quivering forearms on the weather-polished wood and buried her face in her hands.

Oh, God, I’ve just married a man I know next to nothing about.

A man who’d had a vasectomy.

No children, ever.

It shouldn’t matter so much. Shouldn’t matter atall.She wasn’t planning on ever having Zane Wolfe’s beautiful, dark-eyed, raven-haired babies.

Yet she’d just committed at least two years of her life to him.

What if her longed-for white knight arrived while she was locked into this insane contract? Her true soulmate. Would he understand the circumstances? Would he be patient enough to wait?

What about her lifelong dreams for a big, rowdy, happy family—now on indefinite hold?

Her stomach knotted, and despite the temperate summer evening she shuddered, cold from head to toe.

“Jillian.”

Zane’s quiet hail sent her spinning around.

She choked on an unexpected surge of fury. “I don’t want to see you right now.”

He walked closer. “We should talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to be married to you!”

He cocked his head. “Then at the point when the officiant said, ‘do you, Jillian, take this man … ’ you probably should have replied, ‘no.’”

Her fingernails stabbed into her palms. “Do you think that’sfunny?”

“Ah … not if you don’t.”

She swallowed the ball of tears rising in her throat. “You’ve done yourduty,now leave me alone!”

He moved closer, moonlight gilding his regal features, the endless brown pools of his eyes reflecting the glinting stars … and sincere regret. “In hindsight, I should’ve told you about the vasectomy. After the broken condom catastrophe with Deb, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance, ever again. But honestly, it didn’t occur to me to discuss it with you. We were in agreement about this marriage being only a contractual legality.”

“Contractual legality.” She inhaled shakily. “Oh, we are. It is. Just go the hell away.”

“Not this time.” His tender smile completely disarmed her. “It’s okay. You can be mad at me, I can take it. You’ve lived through your own personal seven month nightmare. By my calculations, you’re overdue for a meltdown.”

“I’mnothaving a meltdown. I don’t have meltdowns.”

“You’re only human, sweetheart, you’re entitled. Everybody has ‘em.”

“When was the last time you melted down, Wolfe?”

White teeth flashed. “I ah … channel my frustrations into more pleasant energy-burning activities. You should give it a try.”

“What? But, I thought … You said … You said you didn’t want to have sex with me,” she blurted.

His unexpected wicked grin delighted her, knocked her completely for a loop. “No, I said I was not going to have sex with you.”

Fury faded into dismayed confusion. “What are you doing, Zane?”

“Attempting, apparently with limited success, to charm you out of wanting to rip my head off.”

“I’m not mad at you.”

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