Free Duncan's Bride by Linda Howard

she just wanted him to understand. She said steadily, “That isn’t it at all. If the wedding were two months away, or even just a month, I’m certain we’d…we’d make lovebefore the ceremony, but it isn’t. I’m just asking you for a little time to rest and recuperate first.”
    He studied her upturned face, seeing the translucent shadows under her eyes and the slight pale cast to her skin. She was resting against him, letting his body support hers, and despite his surging lust he realized that she really was tired. She had uprooted her entire life in just one week, and the emotional strain had to be as exhausting as the physical work.
    â€œThen sleep,” he said in a slow, deep voice. “Get a lot of sleep, baby, and rest up. You’ll need it. I can wait five days—just barely.”
    She did get some sleep, but the emotional strain was still telling on her. She was getting married; it was natural to be nervous, she told herself.
    The day they signed the prenuptial agreement at the lawyer’s office was another day of stress. Reese was in a bad mood when he picked her up at the motel, growling and snapping at everything she said, so she lapsed into silence. She didn’t think it was a very good omen for their marriage.
    The prenuptial agreement was brief and easily understood. In case of divorce, they both kept the property and assets they had possessed prior to their marriage, and Madelyn gave up all rights to alimony in any form. She balked, however, at the condition that he retain custody of any children that should result from their union.
    â€œNo,” she said flatly. “I’m not giving up my children.”
    Reese leaned back in the chair and gave her a look that would have seared metal. “You’re not taking my children away from me.”
    â€œCalm down,” the lawyer soothed. “This is all hypothetical. Both of you are talking as if a divorce is inevitable, and if that’s the case, I would suggest that you not get married. Statistics say that half of new marriages end in divorce, but that means that half don’t. You may well be married to each other for the rest of your lives, and there may not be any children anyway.”
    Madelyn ignored him. She looked only at Reese. “I don’t intend to take our children away from you, but neither do I intend to give them up. I think we should share custody, because children need both parents. Don’t try to make me pay for what April did,” she warned.
    â€œBut you’d want them to live with you.”
    â€œYes, I would, just as you’d want them to live with you. We aren’t going to change that by negotation. If we did divorce, I’d never try to turn our children against you, nor would I take them out of the area, but that’s something you’ll just have to take on trust, because I’m not signing any paper that says I’ll give up my children.”
    There were times, he noted, when those sleepy gray eyes could become sharp and clear. She was all but baring her teeth at him. It seemed there were some things that mattered enough to rouse her from her habitual lazy amusement, and it was oddly reassuring that the subject of their children, hypothetical though they were, was one of them. If he and April had had a child, she would have wanted custody of it only as a way to get back at him, not because she really wanted the child itself. April hadn’t wanted to have children at all, a fact for which he was now deeply grateful. Madelyn not only appeared to want children, she was ready to fight for them even before they existed.
    â€œAll right,” he finally said, and nodded to the lawyer. “Strike that clause from the agreement. If there’s ever a divorce, we’ll hash that out then.”
    Madelyn felt drained when they left the lawyer’s office. Until then, she hadn’t realized the depth of Reese’s bitterness.