"now, we have a nice little trade going here, cat." she rubbed around his ears. "i feed you ground steak and you listen to me talk. look at it this way, it's a damned good trade. i'd listen to alex talk forever."

she sighed. "if he would just keep touching me."

the cat rolled over on his back.

"mushy talk means belly rubs, huh?" she laughed, scratching at his belly as he batted at her hands.

"you're spoiled, cat, you know that?"

he meowed sweetly.

"i love you, fat cat." she whispered the words. "i've never told another living soul i love them. you know what happens when you love, don't you?"

but she did love. she stared at the cat, watching those wise topaz eyes as she played with him. she did love. she loved her brother and her cousins. she loved this ragged old cat. and she loved alex. she knew last night, taking him into her body, that she loved him.

"time to get up, big boy." she lifted him to the bed, stopping as fat cat jumped to his feet and arched before rubbing his face against hers. a soft purr rumbled in his chest and she wanted to hold him to her.

wanted to grab that chubby little body and rock him against her chest. and she couldn't even explain why.

"be good, cat," she whispered. "momma has to shower."

she moved from the bed to the bathroom, shedding the robe and closing the door behind her.

she didn't see the bedroom door push open, and alex thanked god for it. the cat brushed past him with a growl and headed to his food bowl as the man stared at the closed bathroom door silently.

god, she made his chest hurt. made his heart feel as though it were breaking inside his chest.

she talked to a fucking cat. he'd bet a hundred bucks she had never talked to another human like that in her life, and he realized he wanted her to talk to him like that.

it would have been dangerous if he hadn't already decided the course he was taking. she would fall in love with him easily, he thought. he'd like having janey's love. and he'd make sure she never lacked for the petting she needed. or someone to talk to. to dream with.

he'd filled her twice last night. pumped his cum inside her until he thought he was dying from his release.

he'd found her little calendar that morning in a kitchen drawer. organized little thing that she was, she had the first and last day of her most recent monthly cycle marked.

she was in the best possible time of the month to conceive. there wasn't a chance in hell that she wouldn't.

he ran his hand over his hair. zeke had picked him up at dawn as arranged, and alex had returned to the house for his laptop and a few more changes of clothes. when he wasn't on a mission, he liked to dabble in internet security, tracing and hacking the secured sites he was paid to try to crack. it was a nice sideline.

he'd been working on one of the new sites when he heard janey talking in the bedroom.

he hadn't expected her to be talking to that damned cat. and he hadn't expected the loneliness, the need to share that he had heard in her voice. she was telling that cat secrets that she should have been sharing with close friends. women needed to share those things; he knew that from raising crista. they needed a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen.

and that was something janey had never had.

he sat back down in front of the laptop at the kitchen table and turned his attention back to hacking into the site he had pulled up. the owners were worried that several new programs might have created some vulnerabilities. alex hadn't found any yet, but he'd reached the third level into the secured areas without too many problems. that wasn't a good sign. it wasn't the programs that were the issue so much as a lack of dedicated attention to keeping certain areas of their network blocked.

he was backing out of the programs when he heard janey in her bedroom, teasing fat cat again. he wondered if that scruffy, fat-assed feline had any idea how lucky he was.

securing the laptop and closing it up, he looked up as she rounded the corner into the kitchen and came

to a dead stop.

light green eyes widened as a rosy flush filled her face. she was wearing an oversized t-shirt and a pair of socks. he doubted she was wearing panties, and the thought of it had his cock hardening again.

unfortunately, they needed to talk before he took care of that.

"what are you still doing here?" she tucked several curls behind her ear as she moved past the table and glanced at the half-full coffeepot. "coffee still fresh?"

"coffee's fresh." alex leaned back in his chair and watched her, hiding his smile as she let her gaze lick over him. "we needed to talk, though."

her gaze became shuttered as she shrugged and moved to the coffee. "what do we need to talk about?"

janey couldn't imagine anything from the night before that needed discussing. repeating, maybe, but not discussing. and finding him in the kitchen this morning made her nervous, especially considering the fact he probably heard her talking to the cat. his expression was too stoic, his eyes too watchful.

"what are your plans for the day?" he asked her.

janey shrugged. "restaurant opens at four. we have a full reservation list. i need to type up the ad for the newspaper, call the college."

she'd cemented that idea in the shower. as much as she loved being home, being around her brother, she was bringing too much grief to all of them. she'd return to california and see if it wasn't easier there.

maybe a few years down the road, she'd manage to find someplace that reminded her of home.

"that's not going to work, janey." his voice hardened.

"of course it is." she set her coffee on the table before reaching into the cabinet for the pack of sticky cinnamon rolls she kept there.

pulling it down, she stared at the nearly empty pack before turning narrowed eyes to alex. "you ate my rolls?"

his grin was unapologetic. "i was hungry. i worked up an appetite last night."

and her face flamed again. damn him.

"and that's one of the things we need to talk about," he told her as she set the package on the table and pulled out a chair.

"why dissect it?" she mumbled. "leave me alone."

he leaned forward, braced his arms on the table, and stared back at her, his expression hardening now.

"the condom broke, janey."

she shook her head, feeling her brain go numb. "you're not serious."

he leaned back in his chair. "i'm very serious. it ripped to hell. now we need to deal with it."

she swallowed tightly. "it was just one time . . ."

"twice."

"it ripped twice?" her eyes widened as she grappled to understand what he was saying.

his lips tilted in a strange half smile. "no. i just didn't bother with one the second time." he lifted his coffee mug and sipped as though they were talking about nothing more important than the weather.

she was in shock. there was no other explanation for it. janey felt her lips go numb, but she felt a wild, impossible surge of excitement racing through her. she did a fast mental calculation and knew, she knew the chances of her becoming pregnant couldn't be any higher than right now.

she licked her lips nervously. "was it my fault?"

she had rolled the condom onto his heavy erection. she had loved doing it, but it wasn't as though she had any experience at it.

his brows lifted. "how could it have been your fault?"

"well." she swallowed tightly, feeling the blush burning across her cheeks as she lowered her eyes to her coffee. "i put it on you."

"it wasn't your fault."

was there a vein of amusement in his voice? she couldn't lift her eyes to see. confusion jumbled through her mind. she hadn't expected that. she wasn't certain what he wanted her to say or what she was supposed to feel. she had a feeling this hard surge of joy, anticipation, wasn't it.

"it doesn't change anything." she lifted the cup of coffee and sipped at it, ignoring the heavy silence that

filled the room then.

"excuse me, but i could have sworn you just said it didn't change anything," he stated, his voice dropping, lowering.

janey forced herself to lift her gaze, to meet his hard, flinty one.

"that's exactly what i said. if i'm pregnant, i'll deal with it."

"and how exactly will you deal with it?" his lips thinned. "you wouldn't consider getting rid of my baby, would you, janey?"

shock raced headlong through her. she stared back at him for a moment in disbelief. it took critical seconds for the accusation to fire inside her brain and disbelief to burn away beneath anger.

cold, brittle mockery curled at her lips. "your opinion of me sucks, alex." she pushed back from the table, abandoning her sweet breakfast as anger curled through her. "no. for your information, i'd never consider harming our child."

the accusation hurt. it sliced through her soul with a ragged edge and left her bleeding, aching in pain.

she had forgotten; she had let herself forget to hold back with alex. she had slipped up last night.

realizing she was in love with a man softened a woman. made her weak.

"good. then i'll talk to natches tonight. we can get married in the morning after securing the license at the courthouse."

he crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at her coolly. none of his emotions showed; she had no idea, one way or the other, what he even thought about a child.

janey looked at the cup of coffee, wondering for one insane moment if it had been drugged. or if alex had just lost his ever-lovin' mind.

"no," she finally said carefully. "we're not getting married."

this was happening too fast. too many emotions were crowding inside her now, racing through her brain, making it impossible to make sense of everything.

for one moment, wild, impossible joy had filled her. alex wanted to marry her? she could keep him, hold him close to her. for how long? until he realized the cost of marrying her? a woman everyone in the county wanted to convict as a traitor? how long would it take him to hate her?

"janey." he came out of his seat, his finger pressing into the top of the table, so commanding, so dominating. it was equally sexy and irritating. "i won't allow my baby to be raised without me. period.

you don't want to test me on this."

"until we know whether or not there's a child, the point is moot." she had to force the words past her lips. "until then . . ."

"until then, i'll be fucking the hell out of you daily," he growled, moving around the table to jerk her into his arms. "and i think i'm addicted to the feel of your pussy bare, janey. there won't be any more condoms. how long do you think it will take you to get pregnant if you're not already?"

"i think you're crazy," she gasped. "listen to yourself, alex. this won't work. you know it won't work."

"why?" he pushed her against the wall, not ungently actually, the move too damned sexy. it made her wet. made her want to weaken, to surrender to him then and there. "tell me why it won't work, janey."

"do you love me, alex?"

janey already knew the answer. she knew, but it still tore a hole in her heart to see the answer in his face.

"don't believe in fairy tales, sweetheart." he sighed, touching her cheek with his fingertips. "sometimes i forget how young you are."

how young she was? as though age had anything to do with love. since when?

janey jerked away from him, barely restraining the urge to throw something at him. glaring at him instead, raging inside, she faced him, her fists clenching at her side.