Schulze, Dallas by Gunfighter's Bride

Author:Gunfighter's Bride
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-02-25T19:52:14+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Dead silence followed her announcement. Hearing the echo of her blurted words, Lila winced. This wasn’t the way she’d pictured it. She’d planned to wait until after the children were in bed and then the two of them would sit down in the parlor or the kitchen—as far from a bed as possible. He’d be well fed, perhaps in the mood to appreciate some of the less ... basic benefits of a marriage. She would calmly explain that she didn’t feel ready to make their marriage real in every sense of the word. She’d point out that, since she was already expecting a child, the most obvious reason for them to share a bed was not a factor. When she pictured the scene in her mind’s eye, she’d been so reasonable, her arguments so inargua-ble that he’d immediately agreed with her.

But it hadn’t been part of her plan to blurt it out like a frightened child.

“You want what?” Bishop’s tone was even—too even?

Lila took a deep breath. “I want us to have separate rooms.” She stepped sideways and away from him. He didn’t try to stop her. She wanted to believe that was a good sign, but she suspected it was because he was still reeling from shock. “It makes sense,” she said as he turned to look at her.

“Does it?” With the window at his back, his face was in shadow, his expression unreadable.

“Certainly.” She struggled to inject a faint air of surprise into her response.

“Why?”

The flat question threw her momentarily off balance. Of course there were any number of reasons why, and she’d expected to have to point at least a few of them out, but there was something about the way he asked.

“I think we should take some time to get to know each other before we ... become intimate.”

“You’re carrying my child. That seems pretty intimate to me.”

The dry sarcasm of his response struck a spark off her temper. She drew a deep breath, reminding herself that no good would come of getting angry.

“That was an ... accident,” she said carefully. “That doesn’t mean that we really know each other the way a husband and wife should.”

One corner of Bishop’s mustache curled in a sneer. “I suppose what happened a few days ago was an accident too?”

“It was a mistake,” Lila said evenly. She’d expected him to bring that up and she had an answer ready. “It was a case of circumstances and ... and propinquity leading to—”

“No.”

“N-no?” No to what?

“No separate rooms,” Bishop said flatly, answering the question she hadn’t quite asked. “You’re my wife. Like it or not, we’ll share a room. And a bed.”

“I don’t like it,” she snapped, infuriated by his dictatorial tone. “I don’t like it at all.”

“You should have thought of that before you married me.”

“I don’t recall that I had much choice,” she said bitterly. “You made sure of that when you strode into the church like some conquering warrior and announced to all and sundry that I was carrying your child.

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