Married to the Mom-to-Be

  She’s late. That kind of late...

  Kayla Rickard always planned to marry and start a family—with the right man. Then she met Liam O’Sullivan. Once she sampled passion in his arms, she forgot the feud that separated their families for decades. Now Kayla’s in two times the trouble. She’s secretly married to—and pregnant by—public enemy number one.

  After eloping to Vegas, the scion of the O’Sullivan empire wants to come clean. Liam wants his wife—at his side, in his bed. He’ll do whatever it takes, even get to the bottom of the feud. But are he and Kayla prepared for the bombshells they’ll uncover? They have no choice—because in nine months their little secret will be born!

  “You’re a fraud, Liam O’Sullivan!”

  He looked at her as she spoke. “Tough guy. Calm, cool and collected. Ice in your veins. All the things people say about you? None of it’s true.”

  “Sure, it is.”

  “Yesterday I thought you were in control and ready to find out we’re having a baby. But today you’re more nervous than I am. Let’s face it. Your family’s going to be as shocked about this as mine. And equally disapproving.”

  He reached out for her. “I don’t care about that. I only care about you and the baby you’re carrying.”

  “But we can’t disregard their feelings. We knew going into this relationship that it wouldn’t be easy, considering our history.”

  “We don’t have a history, Kayla. It’s our parents’ history. We were both raised with hatred for each other’s family. But this child will end that cycle. Or his grandparents won’t be part of his life.”

  “You know me. That can never happen.”

  He shot her that smoky look that got her in this predicament in the first place. The one she could never resist.

  “Oh, I know you,” he said in a throaty voice. “I know every inch of you...intimately. And I can’t wait to know you again.”

  THE CEDAR RIVER COWBOYS: Riding into town with romance on their minds!

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome back to Cedar River, South Dakota, and to my latest book from Harlequin Special Edition, Married to the Mom-to-Be!

  You may remember the heroine, Kayla Rickard, from previous books in the Cedar River Cowboys miniseries. Kayla is the perfect daughter and the perfect friend. But when the beautiful museum curator suddenly finds herself also trying to be the perfect wife, she discovers that sometimes it’s impossible to please everyone—even the people you love most. Especially when the person she loves most, Liam O’Sullivan, is the son of her father’s mortal enemy and the one man she’s always been told is off-limits. But a Vegas wedding and a baby on the way blow her plans to keep their relationship a secret spectacularly out of the water!

  As for Liam, he’s always been used to getting his own way. Until he meets Kayla. There’s no smooth road to love for these two, but the journey is one they will never forget.

  I hope you enjoy Married to the Mom-to-Be, and I’d like to invite you back to Cedar River for Ash’s story, coming in August!

  I adore hearing from readers and can be reached by email at mail@helenlacey.com, Twitter at @helen_lacey_ and Facebook, or sign up for my newsletter via my website at helenlacey.com. Please visit anytime and chat with me about my pets, my horses and, of course, cowboys. I’ll also share news about upcoming books in my latest series for Harlequin Special Edition, The Cedar River Cowboys!

  Warmest wishes,

  Helen Lacey

  Married to the Mom-to-Be

  Helen Lacey

  Helen Lacey grew up reading Black Beauty and Little House on the Prairie. These childhood classics inspired her to write her first book when she was seven, a story about a girl and her horse. She loves writing for Harlequin Special Edition, where she can create strong heroes with a soft heart and heroines with gumption who get their happily-ever-after. For more about Helen, visit her website, helenlacey.com.

  Books by Helen Lacey

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Cedar River Cowboys

  The Cowgirl’s Forever Family

  Lucy & the Lieutenant

  Three Reasons to Wed

  The Prestons of Crystal Point

  The CEO’s Baby Surprise

  Claiming His Brother’s Baby

  Once Upon a Bride

  Date with Destiny

  His-and-Hers Family

  Marriage Under the Mistletoe

  Made for Marriage

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  For Robert

  To the moon and back...always.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Meant to Be Mine by Marie Ferrarella

  Chapter One

  “I think I’m pregnant.”

  Kayla Rickard hadn’t planned on announcing the news to Liam O’Sullivan that way.

  But the unexpected craving for pistachio ice cream at nine that Tuesday morning, followed by a surge of nausea that had her racing to the bathroom to lose the contents of her stomach, and then staring at her pale reflection in the washroom mirror, had her realizing one undeniable and alarming fact.

  I’m pregnant.

  She didn’t really need an over-the-counter test or a doctor to tell her what was now seeping through to her bones with Technicolor clarity, even though she would certainly get confirmation as soon as she could. Because it all made perfect sense. She was late. And she was never late. She was nauseous, notably in the mornings. And she’d been uncharacteristically weary for weeks. Her breasts were tender. Her senses were heightened. And now these random cravings? The more she’d considered it, the more obvious it became.

  “What?”

  Liam’s hollow voice broke through her thoughts. Kayla took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and looked him over...every perfectly proportioned inch of his six-foot-two frame. His short, dark brown hair was cut neatly and his features were flawlessly put together. He was turn-your-head handsome. And successful and confident and sexy as sin. His midnight-blue gaze met hers and Kayla was drawn deep into him. It was always like that between them. There was tension and heat and raw, undeniable attraction...

  And now, God help them, there would be a baby, too.

  “I’m...you know. Late,” she whispered, the words curdling deep in her throat.

  The moment he realized what she meant his expression turned to a kind of wary bewilderment. He stared at her, searching her face with his eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “No,” she replied quickly, dropping her voice again. “I mean, I’m sure that I’m late, but I’m not sure about anything else. But I...I feel like I am. Which probably doesn’t make any sense because I wouldn’t be too far along. But I feel...I don’t know...different.”

 
He was silent, looking at her with hot, blistering intensity. There were questions in his eyes and tension in his jaw. “We obviously need to talk about this.”

  “Not here,” she said, looking around the reception area. “People might see us and—”

  “My office?” he suggested quietly.

  Kayla nodded. She’d been to his office many times, mostly to discuss the upcoming charity benefit for the local hospital that was being held at the museum and art gallery where she was the curator. And the extension plans for the gallery that were currently being reviewed by the local council.

  He looked tense and guilt snapped at her heels. It had come out all wrong. She’d planned on going somewhere private and quietly letting him know she suspected she was pregnant...not announcing the fact in the middle of the hotel foyer with his staff and guests watching on.

  The O’Sullivans were the wealthiest and most powerful family in Cedar River, a small town that sat in the shadow of the Black Hills of South Dakota. And Liam was the heir apparent to the O’Sullivan portfolio and fortune. Both his brothers lived elsewhere—Kieran was a doctor in Sioux Falls and Sean was a movie producer in LA. Liam had returned to Cedar River after college and taken over from his father when he retired, running the big hotel in town, along with several other businesses.

  Kayla followed him wordlessly toward the elevator and by the time they reached his second-floor office she was a bundle of nerves. She looked around as she crossed the threshold. “Where’s Connie?” she asked.

  “Lunch,” he replied and checked his watch. “So we have about fifteen minutes until she gets back to her desk.”

  Connie had been Liam’s assistant for several years and Kayla liked the other woman a lot—but she didn’t want anyone’s prying eyes around them while they discussed her bombshell.

  She walked farther into the room and then followed him into his large office. “Okay.”

  “You do look a little pale,” he said as he closed the door. “You were sick last week,” he said, almost as though he was talking to himself. “I should have realized.”

  Kayla shrugged and said lightly, “Well, it only occurred to me after I threw up today, so don’t beat yourself up.”

  “Will pregnancy complicate your condition?”

  Kayla had suffered from anemia since she was a teenager. A heavy menstrual cycle and her vegetarian lifestyle meant she had to keep the condition under control with her diet and exercise. She would certainly be asking her doctor about any precautions or supplements she’d need to take if she was pregnant.

  “I’m sure it will be fine. And I didn’t mean to tell you in the middle of the lobby,” she admitted. “It just slipped out that way.”

  “It’s okay,” Liam said as he moved to the small kitchenette in the corner of the office and grabbed a bottle of water from the bar fridge. “I’m always glad to see you.”

  More guilt pressed between her shoulder blades. It had been three days since they’d been this close. Her doing, not his. She was the one putting distance between them, stepping back and finding excuses to stay away. But there was no stepping back from this. A baby would change everything.

  Kayla instinctively pressed a hand to her belly. Even without a test, she knew she had a baby growing inside her... Liam’s baby. Every instinct she possessed told her it was true.

  “Why don’t you sit down,” he said and passed the bottle to her.

  Kayla took the water and stared at him. “You seem awfully calm.”

  “Hysterics won’t help.”

  She gave a brittle laugh and he immediately gave her an inquiring look. “I’m trying to imagine you being hysterical.”

  He ignored her words and pointed to the dark leather sofa pushed against one wall. “Come and sit down, Kayla.”

  She walked across the room and sat down. He was a few strides behind her and then perched on the armrest, elbows on his knees. “You said you were late. How late?”

  She held up one hand. “Five or six days. But last month I had an unusually light period,” she said candidly, figuring there was little point in being coy about the whole thing. “And you know I’m paranoid about keeping track of my cycle to avoid any bouts of anemia.”

  He was silent for a moment, clearly absorbing her words. “I take it you haven’t been to see a doctor or done a home test?”

  “Not yet. I didn’t want to go to Talbot’s Drugstore. If I buy a pregnancy test in this town, word would spread like wildfire.”

  “I can go and get it.”

  “No,” she said, her tone growing frantic. “That would be worse.”

  It sounded overly dramatic, but it was the truth. And Liam didn’t disagree. Cedar River was a small town, and small towns weren’t easy to get lost in. He nodded fractionally, as though he was working out a solution. And of course he came up with one. In typical Liam fashion.

  “We could drive into Rapid City this afternoon and buy whatever test is needed.”

  “Not today,” she said and shook her head. “Tomorrow,” she added, thinking that Rapid City, a forty-minute drive from Cedar River, was far enough away that she wouldn’t be recognized. “I still feel a little queasy. And anyway, I can go by myself, so there’s no need to—”

  “Kayla,” he said softly, cutting her off. “We should go together.”

  Of course he was right. And she didn’t want to exclude him. But she also didn’t want him thinking he could snap his fingers and she’d simply comply.

  “I didn’t tell you so you could make all the decisions, Liam. Stop being so bossy.”

  “Habit,” he said and his mouth twitched as he sat back. “You know how I am.”

  Yes, she knew. Better than anyone.

  She got to her feet and walked toward the long window. The drapes were open and the street below was its usual bustle for a midweek lunchtime.

  She loved Cedar River. After college in Washington State she’d returned home for two months, helping her father out at his real estate office. She knew there was nowhere in town she could utilize her degree and eventually got an opportunity to work at an art museum in Colorado. It meant leaving again, but she had to do what was best for her career. The next few years she’d spent working in Denver had been good ones, but something had always been missing from her life. She’d enjoyed her work, made friends, dated and eventually had a three-year relationship with a college professor during her time there. But there had been a hollowness to her life. An emptiness. A space that she couldn’t fill with work or friends or a romantic relationship. A space she needed to fill with one thing.

  Home.

  Cedar River had called her back. When the long-serving museum curator retired and the position became available, she had immediately applied, and with her stellar references had quickly been offered the job. That was over a year ago. She’d had dreams back then...dreams of living back in town, of spending time with her friends and family, and then of meeting someone special, settling down and having a family of her own. Someone that wasn’t Liam O’Sullivan.

  Because her father absolutely hated his father...hated the entire O’Sullivan family, in fact. And she knew it would break her parents’ heart when they discovered she was in a relationship with the son of their mortal enemy.

  She knew Liam, of course. Every girl in town knew the three handsome O’Sullivan brothers. And she’d always liked his younger sister, Liz. Since he was seven years older than Kayla, they had traveled in different social circles, but she remembered his youngest brother, Sean, from high school, even though he’d been a couple of grades above her. It seemed there were always girls hanging around the O’Sullivan boys. By the time she’d returned to town permanently, both Sean and Kieran had moved away. Liz had died tragically, leaving three young daughters and a husband behind, and Liam was running the hotel.

  And she
didn’t give him a thought. Not one. Not ever. Until the night her car collided with his in the hotel parking area. She was backing out, he was driving in. His hulking black Silverado had barely sustained a scratch, but her aging Beamer wasn’t as lucky. One broken taillight and a crumpled trunk later, she’d gotten out of the car full of apologies and then had clamped her mouth shut when she realized who she’d crashed into.

  Because she’d been raised on a steady diet of dislike and abhorrence for anyone named O’Sullivan all of her life. The feud went back thirty years, before she was born. It was not a story that anyone talked about in detail. Her father and J.D. O’Sullivan had been friends once, even partners in business. But something had happened that had changed everything, and Kayla had always happily kept her distance, leaving for college and not giving the O’Sullivans a single thought. When she returned to visit her parents over the years, she would occasionally see Liam or even his brothers around town if they were visiting their family, but never entertained the idea of talking to any them. She went to the O’Sullivan pub with her friends and rarely registered Liam’s presence. Of course, that changed once she returned home permanently and then crashed into Liam’s truck a month later.

  Immediately on the defensive, she’d expected him to be arrogant and judgmental and entitled about the whole incident. That’s who he was—or at least, that’s who she believed he was. And she did her best to ignore his handsome face, broad shoulders and how good he looked in jeans, white shirt and a leather jacket that screamed money and good taste. He was hot, no doubt about it. But he was also as off-limits as the stars from a distant planet.

  He’d looked her up and down, quickly registering who she was and probably imagining the great big red flag waving between them just as she did. She saw a flicker of something in his eyes, a kind of unexpected and guarded awareness that was mirrored in her own.

  But to her surprise, Liam had been very civil about the whole thing. They’d exchanged cell numbers and insurance details and he even called a tow for her and a cab once she’d refused his offer to drive her home. She said goodbye before one last apology and left. And that, she’d thought, was that.