He walked over and cupped her face, rubbing his thumbs across her cheek, and Cam was startled to realize she was crying.
He pressed his lips to her forehead, then pulled her into his arms and held her against his chest. “It isn’t written anywhere, Camry. If you ever decide to get married, it will be to the man youchoose, not who the universe chooses. And if you have a baby with him, it will be the choice of both of you.”
“But I want to make love to you,” she whispered.
He tilted her head back and looked down at her in surprise. “You do?” He grinned somewhat drunkenly. “You’ve fallen in lust with me?”
She buried her face in his chest again. “I don’t know what I’m feeling,” she growled. “Other than confused. What if we make love and I get pregnant?”
“You won’t. We’ll take precautions.”
Cam melted against him with a heavy sigh. “Father Daar says that if a baby’s wanting to be born, no contraceptive will stop it.”
“Father Daar?”
She looked up at him. “He’s an old priest who used to live in a cabin up on TarStone, but now he lives on the coast with Matt’s brother, Kenzie Gregor. Daar’s been around forever, and presided over my parents’ and all of my sisters’ weddings. And he’s always told us girls that if a child is wanting to be born, it will be, and that we just have to accept what Providencedecides.”
Luke gave her a crooked smile. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but for a scientist, you have some really strange notions.”
She nestled back against him. “I can’t help it,” she said with another sigh. “I was born into a really strange family.” She looked up at him. “So . . . are you still in lust with me? Or have I managed to scare you off?”
He arched a brow. “That would depend on if your father is going to come after me with a shotgun. Greylen strikes me as rather oldfashioned.” He grinned. “Is that the real reason your sisters married the men who got them pregnant?”
Cam toyed with the zipper on his jacket. “And if Daddy did come after you with a shotgun,” she asked, finally looking up into his eyes, “would you make an honest woman of me, or jump on the first plane back to France?”
“Hmmm . . . I don’t know.”
Cam squirmed to break free, but Luke pulled her back against him with a laugh, and tucked her head under his chin. “Give me a minute here, MacKeage. On the one hand, I’m no more ready than you are to think about having a baby, but . . .” He ducked his head to look her in the eye. “But the more time we spend together, the more in lust with you I get. And I do have a whole box of condoms that I’d hate to see go to waste. But then . . .” He suddenly set her away, shaking his head. “Nope, I’m too tired right now to know what I’d do. So let’s head north, find a place to set up camp, and have a nap.” He spun around and headed into the woods in the direction Max had gone. “Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know what I decide,” he said over his shoulder.
Cam stood gaping at him walking away. Of all the . . .
Wait. Had he been teasingher?
But nobody teased her. Ever. They didn’t dare, because they knew that though she occasionally got mad, she alwaysgot even.
Cam suddenly smiled. So he wanted to have a nap, did he?
She just as suddenly scowled.
He’d brought a whole boxof condoms?
Chapter Thirteen
By the time they finished setting up camp halfway up the north side of Springy Mountain—after stopping at Megan and Jack’s building lot to refuel the snowcat—Camry was so exhausted that she didn’t care if she dieda virgin; she simply didn’t have the energy to get even with Luke.
The dogs cooperated, and immediately settled down on their new doggie bed inside the large tent she and Luke had just pitched. Getting Luke to cooperate, however, was another matter entirely, as the man appeared jumpier than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
“I told you those PowerBars were loaded with sugar and caffeine,” she muttered, stripping off her outer clothes.
He looked up from unlacing his boots. “We’d be camping in a snowbank right now if I hadn’t eaten them,” he said, waving at the tent they were in. “I’ve been awake for over thirty hours.”
Stripped down to her long johns, Cam crawled into the sleeping bags she’d zipped together. “If you’d taken a nap like I did yesterday, instead of sneaking out to buy condoms, you wouldn’t have needed to eat them. Now you won’t be able to sleep.”
“Oh, I’ll sleep, all right,” he said, crawling in beside her.
Luke then let out a yawn—which made her yawn—and folded his hands on his stomach. But instead of falling asleep, Camry noticed he started twiddling his thumbs as he stared up at the tent roof. “You do realize that as soon as your father discovers one of his groomers is missing, he’s going to know you’re the one who stole it.”
“I know.”
“Which will lead your mother to believe that you’ll be home for Christmas.”
“Go to sleep, Luke.”
He stayed silent for all of sixty seconds. “Only Grace didn’t seem to be worried about Christmas,” he murmured, apparently talking to himself as much as to her. “She asked me to have you home by the solstice.”
Even though her eyes were closed, she could tell that his thumbs had stopped twiddling and that he was looking at her. “I thought it was strange at the time, but now I know it’s because it’s your birthday.” He snorted. “As well as all your sisters’ birthday.”
“Go to sleep,Luke.”
A full ninety seconds went by before she felt him roll toward her. “And since your big day is December twentieth, I’ve been thinking maybe we could hop on a plane after your birthday party and spend Christmas with my family in British Columbia.”
That got her eyes open. “What?”
Propping his head on his hand as he faced her, he rested his other hand across her belly to cup her opposite hip. “It’ll be fun,” he said with an eager smile. “Mom and André are dying to meet you, and Kate is beside herself with curiosity. She’s been sending me at least ten text messages a day for the last week, asking about you.”
“You toldyour family about me?”
“Of course. And I promised that I’d bring you home to meet them.”
“But why?” Cam whispered, horrified at the thought of meeting his family, considering she couldn’t even face her own. “What did you tell them about me?”
He suddenly flopped onto his back, folded his hands on his belly, and stared up at the tent roof again. “I told them that just as soon as I worked up the nerve, I was going to ask you to marry me.”
Camry bolted upright. “You what!” she attempted to shout—only it came out as a squeak.
He hadn’t really just mentioned the M-word, had he?
He also sat up, and took her suddenly trembling hands in his. “I was going to wait until after we found Podly and you made up with your parents to ask you.” Two flags of red rose into his shadowy beard. “In fact, I even planned to buy a ring and get down on one knee, but . . .” He lifted her hands to his mouth and kissed them. “But when you told me about your strange family traditions yet admitted you wanted to make love to me anyway, I started thinking that maybe I should take blatant advantage of your confusion and propose beforewe made love.”
He let go of her hands to close her gaping mouth, then immediately placed his finger over her lips to keep her from saying anything.