A Suitable Wife: A Sweetwater Springs Novel by Carol Burnside, Emily Sewell, Kim Killion Page A

royally pissed.
    “I guess I should explain.”
    She rounded on him. “Yeah, you do that. But first, let me say that if you meant this as a joke, it’s not funny. And if you’re serious, I’d like to know what you’ve been smokin’.”
    Her sassy indignation thickened the Southern in her speech, and he had to smother a surprised grin in a cough. The resulting anger turned her eyes a darker blue and heightened the color in her cheeks with nice results. For a brief moment he thought he saw hurt mixed with the anger.
    Or was his imagination running amok?
    “What’s the matter, Sam? Can’t think of a good excuse?”
    “I apologize for the way I handled that, but I was acting on my lawyer’s advice. I really do need a temporary wife.”
    “Temporary? Oh, this just gets better and better.” She glared at him.
    When he didn’t respond, her eyes widened. “You’re serious!”
    No doubt she was questioning his sanity about now. “I know the idea sounds crazy, but you need a pretty hefty loan, and I need to win a custody case. If you—”
    “Wait. I thought you settled all that in divorce court.”
    “Yes, and I was awarded sole custody. But Bill—that’s my lawyer—tells me Jasmine will change her mind in order to refute recent stories in the press. Her public image is pretty clean.”
    “Look, if this is some residual tug of war from your divorce, I really don’t want to get involved. Lorelei is Jasmine’s daughter, too. Of course she wants equal time with her child. I’d go crazy if I were lucky enough to have a baby, and it was taken away from me. Can’t the two of you reach a compromise?”
    Sam shook his head. “Lorelei wasn’t exactly ‘taken away’ from Jasmine.” How much should he tell her? He couldn’t face a recounting of the whole story tonight, but he had to make her understand his position. “Just between us?”
    “Of course.”
    “Jasmine never wanted to be a mother and doesn’t want anything to do with Lorelei.”
    Rosie’s eyes narrowed in concentration. “Obviously, you’re wrong if she’s suing for custody.”
    Sam swung his legs to the side and faced her. “You don’t understand. This is all a smoke screen so the press won’t label her a bad mother. The tabloids have raised questions about why she didn’t seek custody. Don’t you see? If she’s fighting for her child, she garners public sympathy and free publicity.”
    “Wow. You’ve really become cynical, haven’t you?”
    You don’t know the half of it. Even though he knew he had good reasons for his position, Sam shifted under Rosie’s pitying gaze.
    “And you’re being naïve. Believe me. I have very good reasons for wanting to protect my daughter from her narcissistic mother.”
    Rosie frowned. “Oh, come on, Sam. That’s a bit melodramatic, isn’t it? Protect her from her own mother?”
    Damn. He hadn’t meant to go there. He’d let his frustration get the best of him. With deliberate intent, he leaned in, closing the gap between them to mere inches. Her gaze became wary.
    “Look at me. I’m the same Sam you knew years ago. Have you ever known me to rely on melodrama?”
    “No, but she’s her mother . I’m sure she misses Lorelei terribly. You’ll have to give me more than your say-so if you want me to help you keep a child away from her own mother.”
    Sam stood and paced before coming back to sit sideways on the chaise, facing Rosie. “Jasmine never wanted Lorelei in the first place. I happened to find her home pregnancy test and forced her to go to the doctor.
    “She screamed at me, saying she’d get an abortion because she couldn’t afford to ruin her figure and her sex appeal for some brat of mine. There was no concern for the child growing inside her.”
    “But Lorelei’s here, so you must’ve gotten through to her.”
    Sam shook his head. “I couldn’t sway her. Seeing a few pictures in an anti-abortion pamphlet did the trick. Jasmine hates anything to do with illness and