"Coop!"
Bianca’s voice scraped through his insides, hollowing out his chest so that his heartbeat echoed with emotions he couldn’t bear to acknowledge. His anger refused to be denied, so he remained silent and continued tossing his belongings into his duffel.
He heard her tear across the living area of their suite, then stop in the doorway. She breathed his name with relief, but he refused to turn around.
"I thought you’d left," she said, panting.
A bitter retort pounded on his teeth, but he kept his mouth shut.
When she rushed forward and wrapped her hand around his arm, however, he couldn’t help but yank away.
She gasped. She was surprised? Really? How much did she think a guy could take before he said, "Enough," even nonverbally. Speaking could only make the situation worse. Brutally honest words—words that would rip and tear at the foundation of all they’d had together—wouldn’t do either of them any good.
As angry as he was, as humiliated and confused, Coop couldn’t bear to piss on the relationship he’d invested his heart and soul into for ten years. He loved Bianca. But he was going to have to learn to live without her.
"Coop," she begged. "Let me explain."
He spared her a glance. His chest squeezed tight at the sight of her red nose, tear–stained cheeks and her red–raw lips. Bianca rarely cried. Only death of a loved one or the desperate children they sometimes met on their travels ever evoked her tears. Like so many other things, her penchant for stoicism came in handy since he was such a self–proclaimed softie.
He squelched down the instinct to open his arms so she could rush into his embrace, where he could soothe away her sadness. He couldn’t fix this for her. He couldn’t fix it for himself. Their relationship was irrevocably broken. The best they could both do was walk away.
"There’s nothing to explain. You don’t want to get married."
"But I still want you," she said.
He scoffed. "That’s nice, but what if I don’t want you, anymore?"
"You have to," she said. She hesitated then attempted to press her hands to his shoulders.
Though it wretched his gut, he tore away from her touch. "Don’t."
"I can’t not touch you, Coop. I love you. This is killing me."
"You’re kidding, right? The woman I’ve worshipped for ten years, the woman I’ve followed around the world to the depths of the ocean or the heights of mountains, just refused to marry me and you’re the one who’s dying?"
She yowled in frustration. "You have to listen to me! You have to understand!"
Coop threw down the pair of jeans he was about to shove into his bag and swung around to face her.
"Okay. Explain it, then. I’d love to hear how you’ve rationalized not marrying me. And think hard before you answer, because if you can’t make me understand, we’re through."
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Surprise Wedding - Chapter 7
Coop’s hand hovered over the door handle to the hotel room. For the past month and a half, this had been their home. They’d played house all over the world. How stupid was he that he only realized now how little that game meant to her?
The sheer terror in her eyes when he’d opened her car door in front of the chapel punched him in the gut. For the first time he could remember, she’d refused to take his hand. How could he be so confused by a woman he’d always thought he’d known so well?
Turning, he walked away from the door and leaned his forehead against a cool glass mirror hanging on the wall, careful not to look at himself. Humiliation was never fun to see.
He’d actually believed Bianca when she’d said yes to his proposal. Why wouldn’t he? They’d been constant companions since college, sharing everything from their intense love of travel and sports to tastes in music and food. And when their preferences did diverge, they usually did so in complimentary ways. He didn’t like pickles on his hamburgers, but she liked extra ones. She abhorred dark meat on chicken or turkey and he couldn’t get enough of the stuff. In a thousand little, insignificant ways, they were two pieces of the same whole.
Why then, was she so reluctant to officially join her life with his?
She hated the idea of divorce. So did he. The strong desire to make sure they were compatible in every conceivable way before they officially exchanged vows had been the reason they’d had such a long engagement. They lived together long enough to experience both good times and bad. Heck, after ten years, they’d even confronted the possibility that they’d tire of each other eventually.
Which they had not.
After five years, Coop had known that if they hadn’t broken up by then, they weren’t going to. From that point on, he’d figured that with the right timing and circumstance, they’d seal the promise they’d made to each other in the Hawaiian treetops. He’d waited for his bride to take charge of wedding preparations, but he had made sure they renewed their marriage license every time they went home.
And yet, something inevitably came up to waylay a ceremony.
Between his family, her family and their extensive network of friends, the opinions on precisely how he and Bianca should tie the knot had ranged from the romantic to the ridiculous. Then he’d get a new assignment or she’d take a job halfway around the world and instead of dealing with dress designs, cake flavors or honeymoon destination brochures, they’d jet off to their new temporary home—never once considering their relationship anything less than permanent.
But he’d been wrong. Because while he saw his future inexorably intertwined with Bianca’s, her visions were nowhere near as clear.
If Bianca wanted him in her future, she would have married him. Today. On the mountain.
But she hadn’t.
Which meant he no longer had any reason to stick around.
The sheer terror in her eyes when he’d opened her car door in front of the chapel punched him in the gut. For the first time he could remember, she’d refused to take his hand. How could he be so confused by a woman he’d always thought he’d known so well?
Turning, he walked away from the door and leaned his forehead against a cool glass mirror hanging on the wall, careful not to look at himself. Humiliation was never fun to see.
He’d actually believed Bianca when she’d said yes to his proposal. Why wouldn’t he? They’d been constant companions since college, sharing everything from their intense love of travel and sports to tastes in music and food. And when their preferences did diverge, they usually did so in complimentary ways. He didn’t like pickles on his hamburgers, but she liked extra ones. She abhorred dark meat on chicken or turkey and he couldn’t get enough of the stuff. In a thousand little, insignificant ways, they were two pieces of the same whole.
Why then, was she so reluctant to officially join her life with his?
She hated the idea of divorce. So did he. The strong desire to make sure they were compatible in every conceivable way before they officially exchanged vows had been the reason they’d had such a long engagement. They lived together long enough to experience both good times and bad. Heck, after ten years, they’d even confronted the possibility that they’d tire of each other eventually.
Which they had not.
After five years, Coop had known that if they hadn’t broken up by then, they weren’t going to. From that point on, he’d figured that with the right timing and circumstance, they’d seal the promise they’d made to each other in the Hawaiian treetops. He’d waited for his bride to take charge of wedding preparations, but he had made sure they renewed their marriage license every time they went home.
And yet, something inevitably came up to waylay a ceremony.
Between his family, her family and their extensive network of friends, the opinions on precisely how he and Bianca should tie the knot had ranged from the romantic to the ridiculous. Then he’d get a new assignment or she’d take a job halfway around the world and instead of dealing with dress designs, cake flavors or honeymoon destination brochures, they’d jet off to their new temporary home—never once considering their relationship anything less than permanent.
But he’d been wrong. Because while he saw his future inexorably intertwined with Bianca’s, her visions were nowhere near as clear.
If Bianca wanted him in her future, she would have married him. Today. On the mountain.
But she hadn’t.
Which meant he no longer had any reason to stick around.
Surprise Wedding - Chapter 6
In nearly every aspect of life, she and Coop saw the world through nearly identical filters. They’d always wanted the same things out of life. Love. Adventure. Excitement. Thrills.
Until now. He wanted marriage. And despite how desperately Bianca needed him—perhaps, precisely because of her soul–deep love—she did not want to ruin what they had by getting married. Settling down.
And yet, what was she doing to their relationship by refusing to be his wife?
She could no longer see him on the curving mountain road. As he was going downhill, she figured she was better off using the car to catch him. Just having him out of her sight, left her feeling as if she was the last person remaining on a barren, desolate earth.
Coop never left. Not during their most heated arguments. Not when she was being utterly and completely irrational. He reasoned and cajoled and sometimes—though rarely—outshouted her until his point was driven home. But turning his back on her and walking away?
Never.
She jumped into the driver’s seat and eased the vehicle onto the unpaved road, wondering how long it had been since she’d sat behind the wheel of a car. Coop always drove. She always navigated. He had quicker reflexes and she seemed to have a GPS coded into her DNA. Together, they could find any location without more than a few garbled directions or a landmark.
Together, they made the perfect team.
So why was he so intent on changing perfection?
She slowed down as she approached the curve, sure she’d see Coop just on the other side. But he wasn’t there. She rounded the next curve and again—no Coop. With no one else braving the treacherous route, she stopped and got out of the car.
"Cooper Rush!"
Birds flocked out of a nearby tree. In the distance, she could hear a waterfall. They weren’t exactly in the middle of nowhere—she could see San José from the ridge—but she heard nothing that indicated where he’d gone.
Was he hiding?
Ridiculous. Coop might have been too angry to share a ride with her back to the city, but he wasn’t the type to skulk or hide to avoid confrontation. He probably picked up a ride with someone going down the mountain. He was likely on his way back to their hotel now, stewing over her refusal to make good on her promise to marry him—maybe even hating her for the first time since they’d met.
Behind her a dilapidated truck honked, forcing Bianca back into the vehicle. She had no choice but to return to their hotel and pray that when she arrived, Coop would be there waiting for her—though for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why he would be.
Until now. He wanted marriage. And despite how desperately Bianca needed him—perhaps, precisely because of her soul–deep love—she did not want to ruin what they had by getting married. Settling down.
And yet, what was she doing to their relationship by refusing to be his wife?
She could no longer see him on the curving mountain road. As he was going downhill, she figured she was better off using the car to catch him. Just having him out of her sight, left her feeling as if she was the last person remaining on a barren, desolate earth.
Coop never left. Not during their most heated arguments. Not when she was being utterly and completely irrational. He reasoned and cajoled and sometimes—though rarely—outshouted her until his point was driven home. But turning his back on her and walking away?
Never.
She jumped into the driver’s seat and eased the vehicle onto the unpaved road, wondering how long it had been since she’d sat behind the wheel of a car. Coop always drove. She always navigated. He had quicker reflexes and she seemed to have a GPS coded into her DNA. Together, they could find any location without more than a few garbled directions or a landmark.
Together, they made the perfect team.
So why was he so intent on changing perfection?
She slowed down as she approached the curve, sure she’d see Coop just on the other side. But he wasn’t there. She rounded the next curve and again—no Coop. With no one else braving the treacherous route, she stopped and got out of the car.
"Cooper Rush!"
Birds flocked out of a nearby tree. In the distance, she could hear a waterfall. They weren’t exactly in the middle of nowhere—she could see San José from the ridge—but she heard nothing that indicated where he’d gone.
Was he hiding?
Ridiculous. Coop might have been too angry to share a ride with her back to the city, but he wasn’t the type to skulk or hide to avoid confrontation. He probably picked up a ride with someone going down the mountain. He was likely on his way back to their hotel now, stewing over her refusal to make good on her promise to marry him—maybe even hating her for the first time since they’d met.
Behind her a dilapidated truck honked, forcing Bianca back into the vehicle. She had no choice but to return to their hotel and pray that when she arrived, Coop would be there waiting for her—though for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why he would be.
Surprise Wedding - Chapter 5
She couldn’t speak. He took her hand and gave a little tug, his roguish grin faltering when she resisted.
"Bianca?"
"I—"
Her continued hesitation wiped the smile from his face. Before disappointment clouded his twinkling dark–green eyes, she’d caught sight of his pure, unbridled excitement. He was jumping into this marriage with the same enthusiasm as he did a base dive off steep cliffs. Coop craved adrenaline, but he existed on faith. Faith in life. Faith in her.
Her foundation, however, had rocked to the core. Fear of crashing to a bottomless pit of loneliness or disappointment paralyzed her so that she could not even manage to take his hand.
"I made the arrangements this morning," he explained. "I wanted to surprise you."
"Oh," she said, gulping air. "I’m surprised."
When he leaned forward, his magnificent arms braced on either side of the door frame and his face inches from hers, her heart seized.
"Bianca, do you love me?"
"Oh, God, Coop. This has nothing to do with love."
"You’re not answering my question."
"Yes, I love you." Each word cost her. Her lungs squeezed inside her chest and sweat beaded on the back of her neck. "I’ve never loved anyone else. I plan to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Just not as my wife," he guessed, anger simmering through his words.
She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t find anything worthy to say. Coop cursed and threw himself away from her. The action was so foreign, so shocking, that he was fifty yards down the unpaved mountain road before she fully realized he’d left her behind.
"Coop!" She tumbled out of the car, barely maintaining her balance. She glanced back inside the Jeep. He’d left the keys inside the ignition. Should she drive after him? Pursue on foot?
She was dizzy, nearly blind with his abandonment. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d been apart for more than a few hours, and in the few moments since he’d left her, a lifetime elapsed. He’d never walked away from her before. Never. They’d had a few impressive rows over the course of their relationship, but each one had been followed by incredibly hot make–up sex.
As Coop became smaller as the distance between them increased, Bianca couldn’t remember what a single argument had ever been about.
"Coop, wait!" she cried, tearing around to the other side of the car to retrieve the keys. A woman had come out of the church, her head covered with a shawl and her eyes wide with surprise. She called Bianca’s name, but more as a question—as if she wanted to know if the woman screaming for the man who’d nearly disappeared around a curve in the road was the bride she’d been expecting—the bride who’d had no real intention of ever getting married.
Not even to the man she would certainly lose if she did not find a way to walk down the aisle.
"Bianca?"
"I—"
Her continued hesitation wiped the smile from his face. Before disappointment clouded his twinkling dark–green eyes, she’d caught sight of his pure, unbridled excitement. He was jumping into this marriage with the same enthusiasm as he did a base dive off steep cliffs. Coop craved adrenaline, but he existed on faith. Faith in life. Faith in her.
Her foundation, however, had rocked to the core. Fear of crashing to a bottomless pit of loneliness or disappointment paralyzed her so that she could not even manage to take his hand.
"I made the arrangements this morning," he explained. "I wanted to surprise you."
"Oh," she said, gulping air. "I’m surprised."
When he leaned forward, his magnificent arms braced on either side of the door frame and his face inches from hers, her heart seized.
"Bianca, do you love me?"
"Oh, God, Coop. This has nothing to do with love."
"You’re not answering my question."
"Yes, I love you." Each word cost her. Her lungs squeezed inside her chest and sweat beaded on the back of her neck. "I’ve never loved anyone else. I plan to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Just not as my wife," he guessed, anger simmering through his words.
She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t find anything worthy to say. Coop cursed and threw himself away from her. The action was so foreign, so shocking, that he was fifty yards down the unpaved mountain road before she fully realized he’d left her behind.
"Coop!" She tumbled out of the car, barely maintaining her balance. She glanced back inside the Jeep. He’d left the keys inside the ignition. Should she drive after him? Pursue on foot?
She was dizzy, nearly blind with his abandonment. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d been apart for more than a few hours, and in the few moments since he’d left her, a lifetime elapsed. He’d never walked away from her before. Never. They’d had a few impressive rows over the course of their relationship, but each one had been followed by incredibly hot make–up sex.
As Coop became smaller as the distance between them increased, Bianca couldn’t remember what a single argument had ever been about.
"Coop, wait!" she cried, tearing around to the other side of the car to retrieve the keys. A woman had come out of the church, her head covered with a shawl and her eyes wide with surprise. She called Bianca’s name, but more as a question—as if she wanted to know if the woman screaming for the man who’d nearly disappeared around a curve in the road was the bride she’d been expecting—the bride who’d had no real intention of ever getting married.
Not even to the man she would certainly lose if she did not find a way to walk down the aisle.
Surprise Wedding - Chapter 4
But not as much later as Bianca thought.
After making love in the cove, they drove back to their hotel in San José, hardly talking. Did Coop’s disinclination to speak stem from his suspicion that any discussion would lead to the subject of marriage and more excuses about why they shouldn’t?
Or was that only her fear?
She’d agreed to a wedding, but only so he’d make love to her. A glance, a touch, a laugh—the littlest thing made her hot for him. She had the same sway over him. Their mutual attraction was powerful stuff—and she didn’t want to lose it.
She’d seen lots of successful marriages in her lifetime. Her grandparents, married for sixty years. Her parents were closing in on anniversary thirty–five. Even Coop’s parents, who had dated since middle school, were inseparable. And yet, when she looked closely, she didn’t see sparks. She saw love, yes. But lust? Not so much.
Women’s magazines, late–night comedians, girly tête–à–têtes all claimed that marriage killed the sex drive.
That wasn’t acceptable.
Every single day Coop made her feel beautiful, cherished and wanted. His appreciation for her intellect, her love of fun and adventure and yes, her body, had not wavered since that first moment they’d met at a fraternity–sponsored road rally. She was all for jumping out of airplanes and surfing mammoth waves, but when it came to risking the bedrock of her relationship with Coop by shifting the foundation, she wasn’t ready to take the plunge.
Annie, Coop’s sister, was the perfect example. Before she got married, she jetted around the world as a sought–after photographer. She regaled Bianca with tales of wild adventures and exciting affairs. After one such trip, she’d talked about a devilishly handsome, sweet–talking corporate shark who’d swept her off her feet.
Too bad she landed with a thud the minute she’d married him.
Annie’s post–marital transformation had reinforced Bianca’s fear that marriage might not be the right path. Annie stopped traveling, taking pictures and seeking thrills. She’d settled into a life of dirty diapers, car pools and Little League. Not that Bianca had anything against Coop’s nephews—she loved kids. But she didn’t necessarily want to give up her free–for–all lifestyle to have them.
Coop never pressed the subject, but he floated the idea now and again—always after prefacing his hopes and dreams with, "After we’re married."
So to avoid conflict, she’d simply avoided matrimony.
Up until now, the diversion had worked. She’d anticipated that she could pull off at least another five years of avoidance. And by then, she’d figure out how to reconcile her fears that they’d lose their mutual attraction when bound by marriage.
At least, that’s what she’d thought until Coop pulled up in front of a quaint mountain chapel, hopped out of the Jeep and opened her door with a bow.
"Your castle, my queen."
"Coop?"
"We’re going to get married. Today. Right now. You always want to live in the moment, Bianca. Well, now’s your chance."
After making love in the cove, they drove back to their hotel in San José, hardly talking. Did Coop’s disinclination to speak stem from his suspicion that any discussion would lead to the subject of marriage and more excuses about why they shouldn’t?
Or was that only her fear?
She’d agreed to a wedding, but only so he’d make love to her. A glance, a touch, a laugh—the littlest thing made her hot for him. She had the same sway over him. Their mutual attraction was powerful stuff—and she didn’t want to lose it.
She’d seen lots of successful marriages in her lifetime. Her grandparents, married for sixty years. Her parents were closing in on anniversary thirty–five. Even Coop’s parents, who had dated since middle school, were inseparable. And yet, when she looked closely, she didn’t see sparks. She saw love, yes. But lust? Not so much.
Women’s magazines, late–night comedians, girly tête–à–têtes all claimed that marriage killed the sex drive.
That wasn’t acceptable.
Every single day Coop made her feel beautiful, cherished and wanted. His appreciation for her intellect, her love of fun and adventure and yes, her body, had not wavered since that first moment they’d met at a fraternity–sponsored road rally. She was all for jumping out of airplanes and surfing mammoth waves, but when it came to risking the bedrock of her relationship with Coop by shifting the foundation, she wasn’t ready to take the plunge.
Annie, Coop’s sister, was the perfect example. Before she got married, she jetted around the world as a sought–after photographer. She regaled Bianca with tales of wild adventures and exciting affairs. After one such trip, she’d talked about a devilishly handsome, sweet–talking corporate shark who’d swept her off her feet.
Too bad she landed with a thud the minute she’d married him.
Annie’s post–marital transformation had reinforced Bianca’s fear that marriage might not be the right path. Annie stopped traveling, taking pictures and seeking thrills. She’d settled into a life of dirty diapers, car pools and Little League. Not that Bianca had anything against Coop’s nephews—she loved kids. But she didn’t necessarily want to give up her free–for–all lifestyle to have them.
Coop never pressed the subject, but he floated the idea now and again—always after prefacing his hopes and dreams with, "After we’re married."
So to avoid conflict, she’d simply avoided matrimony.
Up until now, the diversion had worked. She’d anticipated that she could pull off at least another five years of avoidance. And by then, she’d figure out how to reconcile her fears that they’d lose their mutual attraction when bound by marriage.
At least, that’s what she’d thought until Coop pulled up in front of a quaint mountain chapel, hopped out of the Jeep and opened her door with a bow.
"Your castle, my queen."
"Coop?"
"We’re going to get married. Today. Right now. You always want to live in the moment, Bianca. Well, now’s your chance."
Surprise Wedding - Chapter 3
Desperate to escape this conversation, Bianca threw herself backwards into the water, enjoying the momentary disorientation of falling beneath the surface. In the cool, churning waters, she didn’t have to remember how long her mother had dreamed of Bianca wearing her vintage couture dress, or how her father waxed poetic about walking her down the long aisle at their family’s church.
Then there was Coop’s family. In light of his sister Annie’s divorce, the Rush’s had lately taken to speaking about little else but the grand party they wanted to throw for Coop’s trip to the altar. They were sure, since Coop and Bianca had been inseparable for ten years, that their marriage would last a lifetime—as marriages were intended.
She couldn’t argue. She had every intention of growing old with Coop. But why did she have to do so as his wife? Why couldn’t she just be his lover, his helpmate, his best friend? Why couldn’t things stay exactly as they were?
As far as she was concerned, the rope that bound her to Coop had been twisted into an irreversible figure–eight since the moment they’d met. What did it matter if they had a legal document to seal the deal?
She supposed a ceremony might be nice.
Great clothes. Fabulous party. A honeymoon trip to top all their adventures.
But then, in the end, they’d be married. Their perfect relationship would face an irrevocable and inexorable change. Why mess with perfection?
Emerging from under the water, Bianca waylaid further discussion with a long, luxuriant kiss. Inch by inch, she maneuvered him closer to the hidden cove they’d discovered a few days ago, where none of the tourists would follow. Between the dappled sunlight, the churning water, the wild jungle and their insatiable passion, a quickie remind would show him how little a wedding would impact their lives.
"You’re trying to distract me," Coop said, his mouth descending to her neck even as his magic fingers untied the back of her bikini.
"Guilty," she confessed, hissing with pleasure as he circled her nipples with his thumbs, sparking a need that made the water unequal to the wetness within her. She wanted him. And for over a decade, he always wanted her. None of the married people she knew were still hot for their partners as rapaciously as she was for Coop. Every nerve ending in her body craved him. How could she give that up simply to satisfy someone else’s idea of commitment?
"I still want to marry you," he said.
"I know," she murmured, concentrating on the feel of his mouth on her earlobe, down the tendons of her neck, across her collarbone.
"Then let’s do it today," he demanded.
She tugged at his swim shorts until she had access to the part of him she wanted more needfully than any piece of paper that declared them wed.
"Yeah," she said. "Let’s do it."
He’d misinterpret her meaning, but she’d deal with that later. Much, much later.
Then there was Coop’s family. In light of his sister Annie’s divorce, the Rush’s had lately taken to speaking about little else but the grand party they wanted to throw for Coop’s trip to the altar. They were sure, since Coop and Bianca had been inseparable for ten years, that their marriage would last a lifetime—as marriages were intended.
She couldn’t argue. She had every intention of growing old with Coop. But why did she have to do so as his wife? Why couldn’t she just be his lover, his helpmate, his best friend? Why couldn’t things stay exactly as they were?
As far as she was concerned, the rope that bound her to Coop had been twisted into an irreversible figure–eight since the moment they’d met. What did it matter if they had a legal document to seal the deal?
She supposed a ceremony might be nice.
Great clothes. Fabulous party. A honeymoon trip to top all their adventures.
But then, in the end, they’d be married. Their perfect relationship would face an irrevocable and inexorable change. Why mess with perfection?
Emerging from under the water, Bianca waylaid further discussion with a long, luxuriant kiss. Inch by inch, she maneuvered him closer to the hidden cove they’d discovered a few days ago, where none of the tourists would follow. Between the dappled sunlight, the churning water, the wild jungle and their insatiable passion, a quickie remind would show him how little a wedding would impact their lives.
"You’re trying to distract me," Coop said, his mouth descending to her neck even as his magic fingers untied the back of her bikini.
"Guilty," she confessed, hissing with pleasure as he circled her nipples with his thumbs, sparking a need that made the water unequal to the wetness within her. She wanted him. And for over a decade, he always wanted her. None of the married people she knew were still hot for their partners as rapaciously as she was for Coop. Every nerve ending in her body craved him. How could she give that up simply to satisfy someone else’s idea of commitment?
"I still want to marry you," he said.
"I know," she murmured, concentrating on the feel of his mouth on her earlobe, down the tendons of her neck, across her collarbone.
"Then let’s do it today," he demanded.
She tugged at his swim shorts until she had access to the part of him she wanted more needfully than any piece of paper that declared them wed.
"Yeah," she said. "Let’s do it."
He’d misinterpret her meaning, but she’d deal with that later. Much, much later.
Surprise Wedding - Chapter 2
Coop twirled Bianca to face him, his hands hugging the muscled curves of her arms. If she refused to make this ultimate step in their relationship, could he let her go? He’d asked her to become his wife—the first time—over a decade ago. Though she wore his ring, called herself his fiancée, showed him that she loved him in a thousand different ways, they’d yet to say, "I do." He had no idea why this chafed at him so much lately, but it did.
Maybe he was just getting older. Maybe he wanted to settle down, have a family, and put down roots. He hadn’t given the matter as much thought as it deserved, which was probably how he’d ended up in this fix in the first place. Up until very recently, he’d focused only on ensuring that once he had sorted through his contradictory desire between traveling the world and finding a place to call home, he’d have Bianca at his side. Each time they’d gone to visit their families in their hometown, they’d renewed their marriage license. And yet, he’d never once forced the issue of actually going through with the wedding.
Until now.
"Okay? Okay?" he asked. "That’s the answer I get to a heartfelt marriage proposal delivered in one of the most beautiful places on earth?"
Bianca pressed against the curve of his erection, hidden by the water from everyone but her. "Actually, when you say, ’Marry me,’ it sounds more like an order than a question."
She’d been spending way too much time with her attorney client if she was going to nitpick or look for loopholes. But this time, her attempt to divert his attention would not work.
"So the question has been asked and answered, counselor," Coop said wryly. "And yet, I continue to ask."
"And I continue to say yes!" she said, lifting her hand so that her diamond engagement ring twinkled in his peripheral vision.
"Actually—" he said, tilting his head so he could nibble on her chin "—the first time I asked, you said something like, ’Of course, now grab that zip line and let’s go!’"
She laughed as she returned his kisses. Her free–spirited, unbridled explosion of happiness infected him, instantly filling the void that seemed so wide and so deep every time he caught a glimpse of the engagement ring on her finger. Sometimes, the damned thing glittered like the sharp edges of a broken promise. Other times, it reminded him that though he’d asked her to marry him, he hadn’t exactly pushed for a short engagement.
He blamed himself. He’d started the whole thing off wrong in proposing just before they flew over the treetops in Maui. Maybe if he’d asked the first time when they were on solid ground, they would be married by now.
"Let’s get married here," he suggested.
She sighed with exasperation. They had, after all, had this conversation before.
"Coop, our parents would kill us if we eloped."
"I’m willing to take that risk…are you?"
Maybe he was just getting older. Maybe he wanted to settle down, have a family, and put down roots. He hadn’t given the matter as much thought as it deserved, which was probably how he’d ended up in this fix in the first place. Up until very recently, he’d focused only on ensuring that once he had sorted through his contradictory desire between traveling the world and finding a place to call home, he’d have Bianca at his side. Each time they’d gone to visit their families in their hometown, they’d renewed their marriage license. And yet, he’d never once forced the issue of actually going through with the wedding.
Until now.
"Okay? Okay?" he asked. "That’s the answer I get to a heartfelt marriage proposal delivered in one of the most beautiful places on earth?"
Bianca pressed against the curve of his erection, hidden by the water from everyone but her. "Actually, when you say, ’Marry me,’ it sounds more like an order than a question."
She’d been spending way too much time with her attorney client if she was going to nitpick or look for loopholes. But this time, her attempt to divert his attention would not work.
"So the question has been asked and answered, counselor," Coop said wryly. "And yet, I continue to ask."
"And I continue to say yes!" she said, lifting her hand so that her diamond engagement ring twinkled in his peripheral vision.
"Actually—" he said, tilting his head so he could nibble on her chin "—the first time I asked, you said something like, ’Of course, now grab that zip line and let’s go!’"
She laughed as she returned his kisses. Her free–spirited, unbridled explosion of happiness infected him, instantly filling the void that seemed so wide and so deep every time he caught a glimpse of the engagement ring on her finger. Sometimes, the damned thing glittered like the sharp edges of a broken promise. Other times, it reminded him that though he’d asked her to marry him, he hadn’t exactly pushed for a short engagement.
He blamed himself. He’d started the whole thing off wrong in proposing just before they flew over the treetops in Maui. Maybe if he’d asked the first time when they were on solid ground, they would be married by now.
"Let’s get married here," he suggested.
She sighed with exasperation. They had, after all, had this conversation before.
"Coop, our parents would kill us if we eloped."
"I’m willing to take that risk…are you?"
Surprise Wedding - Chapter 1
I have another love story here..is called Surprise Wedding
Cooper Rush gazed across the turquoise blue water of the Costa Rican mountain pool, and spotted the woman in the black bikini whose curves stopped his heart. The blood pumping in his chest rushed south so that his lower body seized with a deep–rooted desire. Her thick dark hair streaked down her back, the ends lust–tipped arrows pointed at her luscious backside.
He had to have her.
He dove into the pool and swam, torpedo–like, through the strangers in the water, honing in on her. When he popped through the surface, he had eyes only for her. A body only for her.
A heart only for her.
"Marry me," he said.
She tossed a coy glance over her shoulder, her honey–brown eyes wide, as if she didn’t understand the simple request. "Excuse me?"
She did not turn to face him, so he slid his hands around her waist and tugged her tight against his chest. She didn’t resist, but instead, curved her body against his so that her buttocks cradled his lengthening erection.
"You heard me," he said. "Marry me."
The beautiful siren closed her eyes, tilting her head back in sweet, but incomplete surrender. He splayed his hands across her middle and toyed with her diamond–studded belly ring, practicing the precise flick and swirl he knew she loved—especially when applied much lower down her body.
"Okay," she replied, sighing contentedly.
And therein lay the problem.
As much as they might have loved playing "strangers in the pool" games from time to time to keep their sex life exciting, Coop knew Bianca Brighton better than he knew anyone else in the world. For ten years, they’d been nearly inseparable—first through college, then grad school, then on their seemingly endless travels either to satisfy the requirements of her job as a translator or his job as an international software designer. For the past month, they’d lived and loved all over Costa Rica, in–between canyoneering the lush tropical rainforests and Bianca’s assignment to assist the attorneys for an American real–estate investor sorting through contracts drafted in Spanish.
The activities had ranged from wildly exciting to untenably boring, yet never for an instant had Coop lost interest in his ultimate goal—convincing Bianca, finally, to marry him. Because while he’d asked her a dozen times this year alone, she’d yet to walk down the aisle with him.
For too long, he’d accepted her excuses. They were too busy. Too far away from home. Too obligated to her mother’s lavish plans for a show–stopping ceremony, or too wrapped up in their own adventures to stand still long enough for a clergyman or judge to say, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Well, Coop was done waiting. And he was done allowing his lover to play the clever mouse to his determined cat.
He was going to marry Bianca Brighton. And he was going to do it today.
Cooper Rush gazed across the turquoise blue water of the Costa Rican mountain pool, and spotted the woman in the black bikini whose curves stopped his heart. The blood pumping in his chest rushed south so that his lower body seized with a deep–rooted desire. Her thick dark hair streaked down her back, the ends lust–tipped arrows pointed at her luscious backside.
He had to have her.
He dove into the pool and swam, torpedo–like, through the strangers in the water, honing in on her. When he popped through the surface, he had eyes only for her. A body only for her.
A heart only for her.
"Marry me," he said.
She tossed a coy glance over her shoulder, her honey–brown eyes wide, as if she didn’t understand the simple request. "Excuse me?"
She did not turn to face him, so he slid his hands around her waist and tugged her tight against his chest. She didn’t resist, but instead, curved her body against his so that her buttocks cradled his lengthening erection.
"You heard me," he said. "Marry me."
The beautiful siren closed her eyes, tilting her head back in sweet, but incomplete surrender. He splayed his hands across her middle and toyed with her diamond–studded belly ring, practicing the precise flick and swirl he knew she loved—especially when applied much lower down her body.
"Okay," she replied, sighing contentedly.
And therein lay the problem.
As much as they might have loved playing "strangers in the pool" games from time to time to keep their sex life exciting, Coop knew Bianca Brighton better than he knew anyone else in the world. For ten years, they’d been nearly inseparable—first through college, then grad school, then on their seemingly endless travels either to satisfy the requirements of her job as a translator or his job as an international software designer. For the past month, they’d lived and loved all over Costa Rica, in–between canyoneering the lush tropical rainforests and Bianca’s assignment to assist the attorneys for an American real–estate investor sorting through contracts drafted in Spanish.
The activities had ranged from wildly exciting to untenably boring, yet never for an instant had Coop lost interest in his ultimate goal—convincing Bianca, finally, to marry him. Because while he’d asked her a dozen times this year alone, she’d yet to walk down the aisle with him.
For too long, he’d accepted her excuses. They were too busy. Too far away from home. Too obligated to her mother’s lavish plans for a show–stopping ceremony, or too wrapped up in their own adventures to stand still long enough for a clergyman or judge to say, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Well, Coop was done waiting. And he was done allowing his lover to play the clever mouse to his determined cat.
He was going to marry Bianca Brighton. And he was going to do it today.
*Scandal at the Balfour Ball - Chapter 8
"What?" Meredith gasped in disbelief.
"He has known since he was an adolescent." Alessandro revealed his once-best friend’s deepest, darkest secret.
"Oh, that’s terrible…"
"Well, don’t start to feel too sorry for him," Alessandro advised her cynically. "He might play the charmer and the best friend to both of us, but underneath it all he has a very bitter and twisted view on life."
"But…sterile, Alessandro…you can almost understand why he feels that way."
"That he was willing to wreck what you and I have going together so that we don’t achieve what he cannot?"
"What?"
"You heard me." He sighed. "He’s that twisted up, cara. He told me to my face, too."
It was only when she saw the bleak look enter his eyes that she realized how hurt he was feeling by Marco’s betrayal of their long friendship. Reaching up with her free hand, she was about to tenderly push a stray lock of hair away from his brow and say something soothing when a sudden thought hit and her fingers stilled a half inch away from their target.
"You only decided to believe I was telling you the truth because of the baby!"
Losing the bleak look, Alessandro honed his sharpened gaze on her paling face.
"No," he said quickly. "No, Merry…" Catching hold of her hovering fingers, he crushed them into his. "This is the point when you have to place your trust in me. I did not come to my senses because I linked your pregnancy with Marco’s sterility—what difference would it have made to the two of you having an affair?" he pointed out.
"Then what did change your mind about me?"
"Madre di Dio," he groaned. "This is going to sound no better when I tell it to you!"
Then she didn’t want to know! "Get off me." She gave a push at his shoulder.
"You were a virgin," he husked out. "I was your first lover. When I first met you, Marco had told me that he was your lover, but I laughed him off because you didn’t behave like lovers—"
"I told you we weren’t!"
"But I only remembered that conversation with him after you shocked my jealous head into thinking clearly again—tonight!"
As she tried again to push him away, he growled something not very polite about stubborn women and pinned her clenched fist to the pillow beside her head.
"If he could lie to me about that, Merry—" he persisted "—it hit me that he could lie about other things, and it suddenly came to me that Marco had written the letters."
"Too convenient." Meredith denounced his logic.
"The last thing it was is convenient. You had just handed me a pen thing, which was telling me you are pregnant. We should be celebrating that, bella mia, not fighting about him."
Meredith knew he was right, but it did not stop the tears from flooding her eyes. "I was so shook up when I called you up last night to tell you about the baby. I wanted you to jump on a plane and come home to m-me."
"But you got my bad temper, instead." With a growl of remorse, he claimed her full soft mouth.
"I’m sorry," he husked between brief hot kisses. "I was very unhappy." He was really going for broke now, Meredith noted. "I pretty much hated myself for suspecting you."
She nodded her head in encouragement between kisses.
"If I could take the past twenty-four hours back I would consign them into oblivion. But I cannot, so you are going to have to forgive me—what would our baby have to say if you did not?"
Oh, that was so very sneaky. Meredith drew back from the arrival of the next kiss.
"I love you quite pathetically badly." His luscious dark eyes tried to eat through the sparks in her eyes. "You are my life, and I am going to prove how sorry I am for doubting you."
"How?"
Alessandro apparently couldn’t help it. He grinned. "Stupid question, Merry mia."
As her cheeks turned pink, he moved their bound hands to rest them on her flat stomach. "But first I am going to acquaint myself with this tiny miracle about to happen," he murmured. "This really clever bit of mixing of the best of you and me…"
Meredith squirmed a little when he fed their hands inside her robe and felt instantly drenched in the silken heat of his gentle touch. He moved closer until his face was all she could see, and she knew he was going to kiss her.
"I still have not forgiven you," she warned him a trifle breathlessly.
"I promise to work hard on making you forgive me," he vowed and claimed her mouth with his again.
Not hard and hot and passionate as he had kissed her in the middle of Balfour’s ballroom, but slow and soft and so sensationally tender, Meredith shifted restlessly as she began to melt.
"Untie us," she whispered, needing her hand free so that she could touch him.
But Alessandro just shook his head. "I like being bound to you, it makes me feel safe."
Safe…there was nothing whatsoever safe about Alessandro when he started caressing her the way that he was doing. With the deft moves of a man who knew all about seduction, he slid their bound hands up her body and made sure that it was his fingers that closed around one of her breasts then he deepened the tender kiss, dipping carefully between her parted lips and gently kneading her breast.
"Oh," she breathed as the silken heat inside her gained momentum.
Her fingers strained in an effort to reach up and touch his lean hard cheek. As if it knew it had to do it, the binding slipped its knot and suddenly she was free to do as she wished.
"You tie really bad knots," she whispered.
"Perhaps," he conceded, running the tip of his tongue along the ultra-sensitive wall of her abdomen. "But I am really good at doing this…"
He was, too. It was a long time later when Mutt woofed at their closed bedroom door and Meredith stirred lazily.
"He wants to go out."
He’s your dog," Alessandro reminded her without a hint of conscience.
"But I’m in a delicate condition…"
Wrapped very comfortably around her, Alessandro lifted his head up, dark hair a cute rumpled mess and his chocolate eyes so languorously sleepy, Meredith wriggled a little because he was just so sexy like this.
"You blackmailing witch."
Her green eyes looked back at him with perfect innocence, and her even white teeth plucked at her full, soft lower lip. Maria Callas still played softly in the background. The dog woofed again. Drowning, gorgeous tension was trickling through Meredith and she moved ever so sensually to it.
"I love you so much, Alessandro," she told him softly. "And I am never—" she slid her arms around his neck "—ever going to let you spend more than one tiny night away from me again."
"You will move to Milan?"
She nodded. "No one would have had the power to cause trouble between us if we’d lived and worked out of the same city, could they?"
The tears were back. Alessandro lowered his mouth to lick them away. "It won’t happen again, Merry. I won’t be such a fool as to let it."
"And I’m having a baby." She sighed with all the blissful wonder of it. "Our baby… I feel…magical."
She looked it, too. "Beautiful, magical, wonderful…"
Mutt woofed again.
Alessandro’s answering growl could have beaten any the dog might want to demonstrate. He eased inside her with the quick hard satin sureness of a man sure of his welcome, and a low and huskily delivered, "Mutt is going to have to wait.…"
The End
"He has known since he was an adolescent." Alessandro revealed his once-best friend’s deepest, darkest secret.
"Oh, that’s terrible…"
"Well, don’t start to feel too sorry for him," Alessandro advised her cynically. "He might play the charmer and the best friend to both of us, but underneath it all he has a very bitter and twisted view on life."
"But…sterile, Alessandro…you can almost understand why he feels that way."
"That he was willing to wreck what you and I have going together so that we don’t achieve what he cannot?"
"What?"
"You heard me." He sighed. "He’s that twisted up, cara. He told me to my face, too."
It was only when she saw the bleak look enter his eyes that she realized how hurt he was feeling by Marco’s betrayal of their long friendship. Reaching up with her free hand, she was about to tenderly push a stray lock of hair away from his brow and say something soothing when a sudden thought hit and her fingers stilled a half inch away from their target.
"You only decided to believe I was telling you the truth because of the baby!"
Losing the bleak look, Alessandro honed his sharpened gaze on her paling face.
"No," he said quickly. "No, Merry…" Catching hold of her hovering fingers, he crushed them into his. "This is the point when you have to place your trust in me. I did not come to my senses because I linked your pregnancy with Marco’s sterility—what difference would it have made to the two of you having an affair?" he pointed out.
"Then what did change your mind about me?"
"Madre di Dio," he groaned. "This is going to sound no better when I tell it to you!"
Then she didn’t want to know! "Get off me." She gave a push at his shoulder.
"You were a virgin," he husked out. "I was your first lover. When I first met you, Marco had told me that he was your lover, but I laughed him off because you didn’t behave like lovers—"
"I told you we weren’t!"
"But I only remembered that conversation with him after you shocked my jealous head into thinking clearly again—tonight!"
As she tried again to push him away, he growled something not very polite about stubborn women and pinned her clenched fist to the pillow beside her head.
"If he could lie to me about that, Merry—" he persisted "—it hit me that he could lie about other things, and it suddenly came to me that Marco had written the letters."
"Too convenient." Meredith denounced his logic.
"The last thing it was is convenient. You had just handed me a pen thing, which was telling me you are pregnant. We should be celebrating that, bella mia, not fighting about him."
Meredith knew he was right, but it did not stop the tears from flooding her eyes. "I was so shook up when I called you up last night to tell you about the baby. I wanted you to jump on a plane and come home to m-me."
"But you got my bad temper, instead." With a growl of remorse, he claimed her full soft mouth.
"I’m sorry," he husked between brief hot kisses. "I was very unhappy." He was really going for broke now, Meredith noted. "I pretty much hated myself for suspecting you."
She nodded her head in encouragement between kisses.
"If I could take the past twenty-four hours back I would consign them into oblivion. But I cannot, so you are going to have to forgive me—what would our baby have to say if you did not?"
Oh, that was so very sneaky. Meredith drew back from the arrival of the next kiss.
"I love you quite pathetically badly." His luscious dark eyes tried to eat through the sparks in her eyes. "You are my life, and I am going to prove how sorry I am for doubting you."
"How?"
Alessandro apparently couldn’t help it. He grinned. "Stupid question, Merry mia."
As her cheeks turned pink, he moved their bound hands to rest them on her flat stomach. "But first I am going to acquaint myself with this tiny miracle about to happen," he murmured. "This really clever bit of mixing of the best of you and me…"
Meredith squirmed a little when he fed their hands inside her robe and felt instantly drenched in the silken heat of his gentle touch. He moved closer until his face was all she could see, and she knew he was going to kiss her.
"I still have not forgiven you," she warned him a trifle breathlessly.
"I promise to work hard on making you forgive me," he vowed and claimed her mouth with his again.
Not hard and hot and passionate as he had kissed her in the middle of Balfour’s ballroom, but slow and soft and so sensationally tender, Meredith shifted restlessly as she began to melt.
"Untie us," she whispered, needing her hand free so that she could touch him.
But Alessandro just shook his head. "I like being bound to you, it makes me feel safe."
Safe…there was nothing whatsoever safe about Alessandro when he started caressing her the way that he was doing. With the deft moves of a man who knew all about seduction, he slid their bound hands up her body and made sure that it was his fingers that closed around one of her breasts then he deepened the tender kiss, dipping carefully between her parted lips and gently kneading her breast.
"Oh," she breathed as the silken heat inside her gained momentum.
Her fingers strained in an effort to reach up and touch his lean hard cheek. As if it knew it had to do it, the binding slipped its knot and suddenly she was free to do as she wished.
"You tie really bad knots," she whispered.
"Perhaps," he conceded, running the tip of his tongue along the ultra-sensitive wall of her abdomen. "But I am really good at doing this…"
He was, too. It was a long time later when Mutt woofed at their closed bedroom door and Meredith stirred lazily.
"He wants to go out."
He’s your dog," Alessandro reminded her without a hint of conscience.
"But I’m in a delicate condition…"
Wrapped very comfortably around her, Alessandro lifted his head up, dark hair a cute rumpled mess and his chocolate eyes so languorously sleepy, Meredith wriggled a little because he was just so sexy like this.
"You blackmailing witch."
Her green eyes looked back at him with perfect innocence, and her even white teeth plucked at her full, soft lower lip. Maria Callas still played softly in the background. The dog woofed again. Drowning, gorgeous tension was trickling through Meredith and she moved ever so sensually to it.
"I love you so much, Alessandro," she told him softly. "And I am never—" she slid her arms around his neck "—ever going to let you spend more than one tiny night away from me again."
"You will move to Milan?"
She nodded. "No one would have had the power to cause trouble between us if we’d lived and worked out of the same city, could they?"
The tears were back. Alessandro lowered his mouth to lick them away. "It won’t happen again, Merry. I won’t be such a fool as to let it."
"And I’m having a baby." She sighed with all the blissful wonder of it. "Our baby… I feel…magical."
She looked it, too. "Beautiful, magical, wonderful…"
Mutt woofed again.
Alessandro’s answering growl could have beaten any the dog might want to demonstrate. He eased inside her with the quick hard satin sureness of a man sure of his welcome, and a low and huskily delivered, "Mutt is going to have to wait.…"
The End
*Scandal at the Balfour Ball - Chapter 7
Meredith was so sick she feared she was not going to be able to stop. Her world had turned hazy. Butterflies were flying around in her head. She tried a wary sip of water only to have it come back up.
I want to die, she thought pityingly and flopped with her cheek resting against cold ceramic, feeling prickling hot yet shivering cold at the same time. Tears bulged in her poor abused throat and she set them free with a pathetically weak sob.
Married for barely a year and her husband thought she could happily indulge in a raging affair with his best friend.
I so hate him now for believing that. I am never going to forgive him, she vowed as she tried—dared—to raise herself upright, though still sitting on the tiled floor with her sparkling dress spread out around her like an icy cold lagoon she could just as well let herself drown in.
And he hadn’t even bothered to follow her. He was probably too busy talking to his lawyers, finding out how quickly he could arrange a divorce and rid himself of a wife who could be pregnant by another man.
Meredith burst into a wild flood of hot tears right there on the bathroom floor in a pool of kingfisher silk.
…
He wasn’t an absolute fool. Alessandro sent the dog in first, opening the bedroom door just enough to allow Mutt to slink through the gap. When no sound greeted the dog’s arrival, no broken sob as she fell on her most precious friend, he dared to widen the opening and step into the room.
All was in darkness except for a beam of light filtering out from her dressing room. As he trod silently towards it, Alessandro saw her and stopped dead.
She was lying on their bed in a huddle of snowy white toweling, and the way Mutt had settled down on the rug beside her with his nose between his big front paws, told Alessandro that Meredith was fast asleep.
His eyes drifted to the dressing room. The hard thump his heart gave him happened because he could see the suitcase lying open on the floor half packed.
She’d been packing to leave him.
Who could blame her?
He supposed he should feel grateful that exhaustion had gotten the better of her and sent her into that huddle of white toweling on their bed.
He pulled in a breath and with a silent gesture he called to the dog. Getting up reluctantly, Mutt came over to him and looked up. Something strange must have been in his expression because the dog gently nuzzled his hand and Alessandro felt the first ever burn of moisture attack his eyes and his throat.
"Come on."
Turning away, he urged the dog out of the room with him and spent a few minutes settling the animal in his bed made up of several giant cushions and an assortment of stolen clothing.
"It is going to be okay," he promised those big brown eyes looking so limpidly up at him.
Though as he straightened, he wished he could be as certain about that as he’d sounded.
…
Meredith came slowly awake to the strangest feeling that something so dreadful had happened she would have been better off staying asleep.
Maria Callas was playing softly in the background. She flicked her eyes open, suddenly so wide awake there wasn’t a chance she was going to be able to sink back down into blessed oblivion.
"Marco wrote the letters."
Stung by surprise at the sound of Alessandro’s voice, she flipped over onto her back. He was lying stretched out beside her on top of the covers as she was herself. And he was wearing a bathrobe the same as she was.
"What?" she husked out.
His eyes were shut. He did not bother to open them. "Marco," he repeated. "I got him to confess a couple of hours ago."
Marco? Still not fully catching on to the import of what he was saying, she frowned. "You’ve been out?"
Alessandro nodded. "I called him first to warn him I was coming." An odd kind of wry smile twitched his mouth. "We met up halfway between here and Balfour Manor—think guns drawn at high noon—only this was more like midnight."
Intrigued despite not wanting to be, Meredith asked, "You had another fight?"
"I would have enjoyed it, but he did not want to fight." Raising his lazy, long eyelashes, he turned his head to look at her through the sultry dimness of a morning half light. "He’d decided to surrender before we even met up. He witnessed the Balfour ballroom kiss, you see. It told him that no matter how much poison he fed to me about you, I was not going to give you up."
At last it began to dawn on her. "You mean…Marco wrote those awful letters?"
"Every single one."
"How did you find out?"
"Now the answer to that is…complicated," he murmured very dryly. "And I’m afraid I don’t appear in the good light."
Becoming confused again, Meredith tried to lift a hand to push a tumbled lock of hair out of her eye only to choke out a shocked gasp instead.
She could not move her hand! Or at least she could move it, but only with the weight of Alessandro’s hand firmly attached to it! Staring down the length of space between them, she shot like a rabbit into a kneeling position and stared at the binding wrapped around their two wrists.
"You’ve tied me up!" she shrieked.
"No," he denied. "I have tied me up."
"What’s the difference?" Her free hand was plucking at the binding, and she realized he had tied them together with his black silk tie.
"This is the difference." With a tug he brought her toppling down on top of him.
She found herself staring directly into his dark chocolate eyes.
"Where you go now I have to go," he explained quite calmly. "As my ex-best friend discovered tonight. You’ve got me, Merry. Tied, bound, trussed and labelled. Possession of Meredith. So the next time you pack a suitcase, make sure that you pack one for me at the same time."
"You’re mad," she gasped, trying to push up again.
No chance—his superior strength kept her flattened against him with the help of their bound wrists.
"Crazy," he agreed. "About you. Mad. In love. Punch drunk on it. Scared witless by it. Jealous of any man that looks at you—no, don’t pull that sneering face."
"Let me go," she demanded, yanking hard on the black silk tie to no avail. "I am not into bondage!"
"Marco has always wanted you for himself. When I grabbed you for myself, he let his jealousy and resentment build until it twisted up his head."
Heaving out a sigh, Meredith gave up on the uneven battle to get free. Feeling her slump, Alessandro flipped her over and beneath him then covered her mouth with a short, deep, very possessive kiss.
"It takes more than resentment to write the kind of poison in those letters," Meredith said when he gave her the chance to speak.
Alessandro nodded in agreement, his expression turning bleak. "He wanted to hurt me with them enough to make me want to walk away from you so he could step into my place."
"And you believed what was written in them." She was not prepared to forgive him for that.
"Not at first," he denied. "But eventually they started to get to me. There was just enough truth in them to make them start to make a sick kind of sense."
"I don’t do that kind of sick!" Meredith objected.
"I meant the times, the dates—the smaller details. And Marco always featured high in your phone calls when we were apart."
Flushing a little as if she knew he had a point there, she defended herself. "I’ve been working with him."
"And you laugh with him a lot—"
"Because he has my sense of humor—"
"And I don’t?"
Ooh, that was a flash of green-eyed jealousy. "No. You’re a bad-tempered moody devil. Maybe I did marry the wrong Italian."
She gave a useless tug at her wrist to show that she meant it.
"No, you did not—and stop fighting me," he snapped. "Because I have something important I need to tell you."
"Well, if it’s about stupid letters and CCTV spies, you can just keep quiet. You’ve been h-horrible to live with recently, and if you think I’m going to—"
"You want children," he interrupted. "You’ve always said you want a big family.…"
Remembering the baby, Meredith tensed and went still, ready to hear fresh accusations start flying. But, instead, Alessandro delivered the biggest shock of all.
"Marco can’t have children, cara. He is sterile."
I want to die, she thought pityingly and flopped with her cheek resting against cold ceramic, feeling prickling hot yet shivering cold at the same time. Tears bulged in her poor abused throat and she set them free with a pathetically weak sob.
Married for barely a year and her husband thought she could happily indulge in a raging affair with his best friend.
I so hate him now for believing that. I am never going to forgive him, she vowed as she tried—dared—to raise herself upright, though still sitting on the tiled floor with her sparkling dress spread out around her like an icy cold lagoon she could just as well let herself drown in.
And he hadn’t even bothered to follow her. He was probably too busy talking to his lawyers, finding out how quickly he could arrange a divorce and rid himself of a wife who could be pregnant by another man.
Meredith burst into a wild flood of hot tears right there on the bathroom floor in a pool of kingfisher silk.
…
He wasn’t an absolute fool. Alessandro sent the dog in first, opening the bedroom door just enough to allow Mutt to slink through the gap. When no sound greeted the dog’s arrival, no broken sob as she fell on her most precious friend, he dared to widen the opening and step into the room.
All was in darkness except for a beam of light filtering out from her dressing room. As he trod silently towards it, Alessandro saw her and stopped dead.
She was lying on their bed in a huddle of snowy white toweling, and the way Mutt had settled down on the rug beside her with his nose between his big front paws, told Alessandro that Meredith was fast asleep.
His eyes drifted to the dressing room. The hard thump his heart gave him happened because he could see the suitcase lying open on the floor half packed.
She’d been packing to leave him.
Who could blame her?
He supposed he should feel grateful that exhaustion had gotten the better of her and sent her into that huddle of white toweling on their bed.
He pulled in a breath and with a silent gesture he called to the dog. Getting up reluctantly, Mutt came over to him and looked up. Something strange must have been in his expression because the dog gently nuzzled his hand and Alessandro felt the first ever burn of moisture attack his eyes and his throat.
"Come on."
Turning away, he urged the dog out of the room with him and spent a few minutes settling the animal in his bed made up of several giant cushions and an assortment of stolen clothing.
"It is going to be okay," he promised those big brown eyes looking so limpidly up at him.
Though as he straightened, he wished he could be as certain about that as he’d sounded.
…
Meredith came slowly awake to the strangest feeling that something so dreadful had happened she would have been better off staying asleep.
Maria Callas was playing softly in the background. She flicked her eyes open, suddenly so wide awake there wasn’t a chance she was going to be able to sink back down into blessed oblivion.
"Marco wrote the letters."
Stung by surprise at the sound of Alessandro’s voice, she flipped over onto her back. He was lying stretched out beside her on top of the covers as she was herself. And he was wearing a bathrobe the same as she was.
"What?" she husked out.
His eyes were shut. He did not bother to open them. "Marco," he repeated. "I got him to confess a couple of hours ago."
Marco? Still not fully catching on to the import of what he was saying, she frowned. "You’ve been out?"
Alessandro nodded. "I called him first to warn him I was coming." An odd kind of wry smile twitched his mouth. "We met up halfway between here and Balfour Manor—think guns drawn at high noon—only this was more like midnight."
Intrigued despite not wanting to be, Meredith asked, "You had another fight?"
"I would have enjoyed it, but he did not want to fight." Raising his lazy, long eyelashes, he turned his head to look at her through the sultry dimness of a morning half light. "He’d decided to surrender before we even met up. He witnessed the Balfour ballroom kiss, you see. It told him that no matter how much poison he fed to me about you, I was not going to give you up."
At last it began to dawn on her. "You mean…Marco wrote those awful letters?"
"Every single one."
"How did you find out?"
"Now the answer to that is…complicated," he murmured very dryly. "And I’m afraid I don’t appear in the good light."
Becoming confused again, Meredith tried to lift a hand to push a tumbled lock of hair out of her eye only to choke out a shocked gasp instead.
She could not move her hand! Or at least she could move it, but only with the weight of Alessandro’s hand firmly attached to it! Staring down the length of space between them, she shot like a rabbit into a kneeling position and stared at the binding wrapped around their two wrists.
"You’ve tied me up!" she shrieked.
"No," he denied. "I have tied me up."
"What’s the difference?" Her free hand was plucking at the binding, and she realized he had tied them together with his black silk tie.
"This is the difference." With a tug he brought her toppling down on top of him.
She found herself staring directly into his dark chocolate eyes.
"Where you go now I have to go," he explained quite calmly. "As my ex-best friend discovered tonight. You’ve got me, Merry. Tied, bound, trussed and labelled. Possession of Meredith. So the next time you pack a suitcase, make sure that you pack one for me at the same time."
"You’re mad," she gasped, trying to push up again.
No chance—his superior strength kept her flattened against him with the help of their bound wrists.
"Crazy," he agreed. "About you. Mad. In love. Punch drunk on it. Scared witless by it. Jealous of any man that looks at you—no, don’t pull that sneering face."
"Let me go," she demanded, yanking hard on the black silk tie to no avail. "I am not into bondage!"
"Marco has always wanted you for himself. When I grabbed you for myself, he let his jealousy and resentment build until it twisted up his head."
Heaving out a sigh, Meredith gave up on the uneven battle to get free. Feeling her slump, Alessandro flipped her over and beneath him then covered her mouth with a short, deep, very possessive kiss.
"It takes more than resentment to write the kind of poison in those letters," Meredith said when he gave her the chance to speak.
Alessandro nodded in agreement, his expression turning bleak. "He wanted to hurt me with them enough to make me want to walk away from you so he could step into my place."
"And you believed what was written in them." She was not prepared to forgive him for that.
"Not at first," he denied. "But eventually they started to get to me. There was just enough truth in them to make them start to make a sick kind of sense."
"I don’t do that kind of sick!" Meredith objected.
"I meant the times, the dates—the smaller details. And Marco always featured high in your phone calls when we were apart."
Flushing a little as if she knew he had a point there, she defended herself. "I’ve been working with him."
"And you laugh with him a lot—"
"Because he has my sense of humor—"
"And I don’t?"
Ooh, that was a flash of green-eyed jealousy. "No. You’re a bad-tempered moody devil. Maybe I did marry the wrong Italian."
She gave a useless tug at her wrist to show that she meant it.
"No, you did not—and stop fighting me," he snapped. "Because I have something important I need to tell you."
"Well, if it’s about stupid letters and CCTV spies, you can just keep quiet. You’ve been h-horrible to live with recently, and if you think I’m going to—"
"You want children," he interrupted. "You’ve always said you want a big family.…"
Remembering the baby, Meredith tensed and went still, ready to hear fresh accusations start flying. But, instead, Alessandro delivered the biggest shock of all.
"Marco can’t have children, cara. He is sterile."
*Scandal at the Balfour Ball - Chapter 6
Silence fell behind Alessandro, if he did not count the sound of rustling notepaper. Tension crept all over his skin. Closing his eyes, he visualized her scanning the pages of poison, and felt muscles all over him twist. He was already regretting giving in and letting her see the poison. He felt strangely like a man standing on the bow of a sinking ship. He did not know why he felt like that, unless it had something to do with the way she was maintaining this long throbbing silence.
Then it came, the frail breathless quiver of her voice. "But…this is terrible…"
Alessandro turned to look at her. She seemed to shimmer the way she shook so badly. Her lovely fair skin was as white as alabaster against the shock of her fire bright hair and the sparkling blue of her dress. Only her fingers moved, trembling like the rest of her as they sped back and forth through the wad of notes. The scrunched one came to the top and pale lips parted to release a broken choke.
"You believe this?" She looked up at him suddenly, glistening green eyes piercing into him, stark with shattering shock.
He did not answer. But then he did not need to. The fact that he had produced the poison had spoken for him.
Meredith wrenched her eyes back to the letters, then with a sudden jerk she let them fall to the floor so she could lift her hand up to cover her mouth. "Oh, what am I going to do?"
Guilt, those had to be words of guilt. "Why don’t you just tell me the truth and get it over with!"
…
His sudden burst of blistering fury made her flinch.
The truth? Meredith echoed. He wanted to know the truth?
Feeling as if she was trying to walk in a rumbling earthquake, she crossed the floor towards him and took hold of his hand. "There is your truth," she shook out, and placed the slither of white plastic in his palm. "I h-hate you now. You—you’ve just spoiled everything."
With that, Meredith turned and fled.
…
Alessandro stood staring down at what she’d given him. Having never held such a contraption before, he needed to read what was written on the tiny screen half a dozen times before its meaning finally began to sink in.
Pregnant, it told him, 4-5 weeks…
Pregnant…
A baby…
An icy chill crept over his flesh. Like a man about to confront the biggest mistake he had ever made in his life, his eyes drifted to the letters where they still lay on the floor.
That sinking ship feeling returned as he walked over to them and bent to gather them up. As he straightened up again, for some unaccountable reason his mind honed in on Marco—his best friend.
A guy he would have staked his life on being the best kind of friend a man could have.
The same guy he had snatched Meredith away from because he’d seen the two of them as just friendly business colleagues—as Merry had always stated.
Marco had told it differently…
Marco had implied that he and Meredith had been lovers, yet Alessandro knew—had received irrefutable proof that he had been her first lover.
Her only lover.
The clearly defined shape of their tri-friendship began to blur as if its sharp corners had been rubbed out. He remembered Marco had been angry with him for muscling in on Meredith, though he’d tried to cover his anger up with sarcasm.
Marco should have been his best man at his wedding, but cried off at the last minute, claiming he had caught the flu. Marco was always laughing with Meredith, flirting with Meredith when they were all in each other’s company, and he’d always dismissed it as a man thing, the desire to tease and provoke. And Marco had always been conveniently there for Meredith when he was not around—like this evening at the Balfour Ball, holding and kissing her on the lawn without a care as to who might catch them doing it despite all the rumors flying around…
He looked back at the letters held in his long tense fingers. You stupid fool, Alessandro, he cursed himself angrily.
Marco still wanted Meredith for himself.
"Madre de Dio…" he breathed.
What had he done?
Then it came, the frail breathless quiver of her voice. "But…this is terrible…"
Alessandro turned to look at her. She seemed to shimmer the way she shook so badly. Her lovely fair skin was as white as alabaster against the shock of her fire bright hair and the sparkling blue of her dress. Only her fingers moved, trembling like the rest of her as they sped back and forth through the wad of notes. The scrunched one came to the top and pale lips parted to release a broken choke.
"You believe this?" She looked up at him suddenly, glistening green eyes piercing into him, stark with shattering shock.
He did not answer. But then he did not need to. The fact that he had produced the poison had spoken for him.
Meredith wrenched her eyes back to the letters, then with a sudden jerk she let them fall to the floor so she could lift her hand up to cover her mouth. "Oh, what am I going to do?"
Guilt, those had to be words of guilt. "Why don’t you just tell me the truth and get it over with!"
…
His sudden burst of blistering fury made her flinch.
The truth? Meredith echoed. He wanted to know the truth?
Feeling as if she was trying to walk in a rumbling earthquake, she crossed the floor towards him and took hold of his hand. "There is your truth," she shook out, and placed the slither of white plastic in his palm. "I h-hate you now. You—you’ve just spoiled everything."
With that, Meredith turned and fled.
…
Alessandro stood staring down at what she’d given him. Having never held such a contraption before, he needed to read what was written on the tiny screen half a dozen times before its meaning finally began to sink in.
Pregnant, it told him, 4-5 weeks…
Pregnant…
A baby…
An icy chill crept over his flesh. Like a man about to confront the biggest mistake he had ever made in his life, his eyes drifted to the letters where they still lay on the floor.
That sinking ship feeling returned as he walked over to them and bent to gather them up. As he straightened up again, for some unaccountable reason his mind honed in on Marco—his best friend.
A guy he would have staked his life on being the best kind of friend a man could have.
The same guy he had snatched Meredith away from because he’d seen the two of them as just friendly business colleagues—as Merry had always stated.
Marco had told it differently…
Marco had implied that he and Meredith had been lovers, yet Alessandro knew—had received irrefutable proof that he had been her first lover.
Her only lover.
The clearly defined shape of their tri-friendship began to blur as if its sharp corners had been rubbed out. He remembered Marco had been angry with him for muscling in on Meredith, though he’d tried to cover his anger up with sarcasm.
Marco should have been his best man at his wedding, but cried off at the last minute, claiming he had caught the flu. Marco was always laughing with Meredith, flirting with Meredith when they were all in each other’s company, and he’d always dismissed it as a man thing, the desire to tease and provoke. And Marco had always been conveniently there for Meredith when he was not around—like this evening at the Balfour Ball, holding and kissing her on the lawn without a care as to who might catch them doing it despite all the rumors flying around…
He looked back at the letters held in his long tense fingers. You stupid fool, Alessandro, he cursed himself angrily.
Marco still wanted Meredith for himself.
"Madre de Dio…" he breathed.
What had he done?
*Scandal at the Balfour Ball - Chapter 5
Here is the continue of the Scandal at the Balfour Ball.... Enjoy
It was like receiving a hard slap in the face. Meredith gasped and jerked away from him.
He had done it on purpose—kissed her like that to bring her defenses crashing down just so he could stick his knife in her chest.
…
Aware that the pilot was waiting for them to disembark, Alessandro turned away from her shaken expression, opened the door and stepped out into the mellow, dark night.
Meredith walked off ahead of him with her slender white shoulders stiffly set and her hair a streaming river of fire down her back. He grimaced as he followed at a slower pace. By the time he entered the glass atrium, which formed the entrance to their apartment, she had already disappeared in a whisper of silk organza down the stairs. A huge black dog sat at the stair head, its shaggy black tail bashing the floor.
A glimmer of a smile softened some of the sternness from his face, and the moment it did so the dog pounced with a husky woof.
"Okay, you stupid dog," he said fondly. "You don’t need to ruin my suit."
The dog wasn’t just stupid, he was deaf to any vocal censure and refused to stop jumping up at him until he’d been petted and stroked.
Alessandro heard a door shut downstairs, and he straightened, the smile dying from his face. The dog finally took the hint and sat.
"So, where did she stalk off to, Mutt?" he queried grimly.
Mutt loped off towards the stairwell then paused to wait until Alessandro arrived at his side. Perhaps, the dog was not so stupid, he mused grimly because he let out a whimper before he shot off down the stairs.
Alessandro followed and was eventually guided into the master bedroom. He stopped on the threshold, watching as Mutt slunk up to Meredith, who was standing on one foot as she slipped off a shoe. The dog nudged her hand and she almost toppled over.
"Oh, thanks, Mutt," she murmured.
"I think he is trying to warn you I am here," Alessandro provided.
Meredith froze for a throbbing crush of a second then bent to snatch something up off the bed. It was something white, like her mobile phone, Alessandro saw in the split second before it became lost in the folds of her flowing skirts.
Had she been intending to call up her lover before he walked in here? Was Marco that important to her that she could think only of him?
A stream of acid jealousy poured into his bloodstream. As she lifted her chin to him, he saw the defiance on her pale face. Tension shot between them like an electric current. It infuriated Alessandro that it attacked every erogenous zone in his body, accompanied by flash lightning images of him declaring to hell with it and tossing her down on the bed.
He wanted her. It was like a growling animal inside him. His wife. His woman. It felt that primitive.
As if sensing the lurking intruder in their midst, Mutt let out a warning growl. Alessandro looked down at the dog standing there at the ready to defend his mistress and felt like growling himself.
"Out," he instructed the dog.
"Don’t you take your filthy mood out on Mutt," Meredith said shakily.
"Out," he repeated, spearing out an arm indicating towards the door, and Mutt, big though he was, surrendered to a greater power and slunk out of the room.
Alessandro closed the door then turned back to Meredith, who was in the process of wrapping her arms across the front of her sparkling bodice. The aroused animal inside of him honed onto the creamy lush slopes of her breasts the action had highlighted for him like a taunt.
Her soft full mouth pursed for a second then parted as she took in a short breath. "Okay." She tossed her head up. "So show me your proof."
Vaguely surprised that she had thrown down the first challenge, without a word he walked over to the television set mounted on the wall opposite their bed and switched it on.
…
Puzzled as to what was going on, Meredith watched as he used the remote. A picture of their apartment block and its car park flicked up on the screen. Alessandro walked away to remove his jacket while she watched Marco’s silver Porsche drive into the car park and stop.
"CCTV recording," he provided as Marco climbed out and strolled towards the building. "Keep watching and you will see him enter one of the lifts."
Not understanding where this was leading, Meredith turned her questioning gaze on Alessandro who was loosening the black bow tie around his neck. Squared chin lifted, sleek golden skin stretched taut, his eyes were cold beneath the heavy veil of his eyelashes.
"Is this supposed to mean something to me?" she asked him.
"Still playing the innocent, Merry?" He threw her a grim smile. "You have been lovers for weeks—maybe longer." He extended with a shrug that coincided with the undoing of his shirt collar. "Who the hell knows how long you’ve both been cheating on me."
"We have not been cheating on you!" Merry protested stiffly. "Marco and I work together—and he’s supposed to be your best friend!"
"And I need a drink."
The way he strode to the door and pulled it open left Meredith gasping in shock. Mutt was lying across the opening. Alessandro stepped over the dog and headed down the hall. Meredith, bewildered as to what had made him just walk away like that, stepped over Mutt, too, as she tagged on behind.
He was in his study pouring himself a stiff drink. When he heard her come in the room, he announced coolly, "I called you back last night after you rung off. You were talking to him."
Opening her mouth to deny the charge, Meredith thought about it and closed her mouth again.
"No smart comeback?" Alessandro mocked.
"He—he called me," she confirmed. "I thought it was you."
"And having assured yourself that I was still safely out of the way in Milan, you invited him around here to keep you company?"
"What are you getting at now?" she cried out.
…
Those lustrous green eyes did bewilderment so well, Alessandro saw bitterly. The way she was standing there in her ball gown looking like a princess with her hair a veil of fire around her smooth pale beautifully innocent face. "You have just watched him arriving here, Meredith. Stop playing the innocent."
"You—you mean that recording was made last night?" Her delicate eyebrows drew together. "Well, whoever it was he was visiting it was not me," she declared outright. "Is that all the proof you’ve got that I’m cheating on you?" she then thought to ask.
"Do you really want me to produce more?" he derided.
"If you have it—yes!" she heaved in a taut breath then let it out again. "And I want you to know that I don’t like what it is you’re trying to pin on me here."
"You think I do?"
Her temper growing thinner with her deepening sense of injustice, Meredith stalked forward and took the glass out of his fingers just as he was about to drink from it. She slammed it down on the nearest surface then spun back to flare him a look.
"Marco did not visit me in this apartment last night and I expect you to believe that!"
"You want to return to the bedroom and watch him get out of the lift on the floor below then head for the stairwell?" Alessandro threw back. "You want to make me take this all the way to the bitter end before you will stop lying about it?"
"There are twenty other floors beneath this apartment, most of them with several apartments on each! He could have been using the stairs to walk down to any of them!"
"If that was the case, why not use the lift?"
…
"I don’t know!" This was beginning to turn just a little crazy in Meredith’s opinion. The whole scene felt like a nightmare that refused to make any sense. "If the CCTV system is so clever, it should tell you exactly where he went!"
"He came to see you."
Meredith balled her hands into two angry fists. "I’m warning you, Alessandro, if you keep insisting on that, I will supply you with real proof just to shut you up!"
"You did that, in the garden at Balfour."
"With a stupid sympathy kiss?"
His jaw line clenching, he turned away from her. "Guilty lovers stealing a clandestine moment," he described. "It was very…touching."
No it wasn’t. She could tell by the way he had said it. And nor was it sufficient proof that she had betrayed him.
"Please, Alessandro, just think about it," she urged him. "Why would I want to have an affair with anyone when I’m so in love with you?"
As if she’d delivered him the worst kind of insult, he moved violently, swinging round to stride to his desk. A few seconds later he was coming back to her holding a thin wad of notepaper, which he offered for her to take.
Flickering him a warily questioning glance, Meredith saw the ring of fierce tension compressing his mouth and the granite-hard cast in control of his face. As she took the paper from him, he spun away to go and recover his drink.
It was like receiving a hard slap in the face. Meredith gasped and jerked away from him.
He had done it on purpose—kissed her like that to bring her defenses crashing down just so he could stick his knife in her chest.
…
Aware that the pilot was waiting for them to disembark, Alessandro turned away from her shaken expression, opened the door and stepped out into the mellow, dark night.
Meredith walked off ahead of him with her slender white shoulders stiffly set and her hair a streaming river of fire down her back. He grimaced as he followed at a slower pace. By the time he entered the glass atrium, which formed the entrance to their apartment, she had already disappeared in a whisper of silk organza down the stairs. A huge black dog sat at the stair head, its shaggy black tail bashing the floor.
A glimmer of a smile softened some of the sternness from his face, and the moment it did so the dog pounced with a husky woof.
"Okay, you stupid dog," he said fondly. "You don’t need to ruin my suit."
The dog wasn’t just stupid, he was deaf to any vocal censure and refused to stop jumping up at him until he’d been petted and stroked.
Alessandro heard a door shut downstairs, and he straightened, the smile dying from his face. The dog finally took the hint and sat.
"So, where did she stalk off to, Mutt?" he queried grimly.
Mutt loped off towards the stairwell then paused to wait until Alessandro arrived at his side. Perhaps, the dog was not so stupid, he mused grimly because he let out a whimper before he shot off down the stairs.
Alessandro followed and was eventually guided into the master bedroom. He stopped on the threshold, watching as Mutt slunk up to Meredith, who was standing on one foot as she slipped off a shoe. The dog nudged her hand and she almost toppled over.
"Oh, thanks, Mutt," she murmured.
"I think he is trying to warn you I am here," Alessandro provided.
Meredith froze for a throbbing crush of a second then bent to snatch something up off the bed. It was something white, like her mobile phone, Alessandro saw in the split second before it became lost in the folds of her flowing skirts.
Had she been intending to call up her lover before he walked in here? Was Marco that important to her that she could think only of him?
A stream of acid jealousy poured into his bloodstream. As she lifted her chin to him, he saw the defiance on her pale face. Tension shot between them like an electric current. It infuriated Alessandro that it attacked every erogenous zone in his body, accompanied by flash lightning images of him declaring to hell with it and tossing her down on the bed.
He wanted her. It was like a growling animal inside him. His wife. His woman. It felt that primitive.
As if sensing the lurking intruder in their midst, Mutt let out a warning growl. Alessandro looked down at the dog standing there at the ready to defend his mistress and felt like growling himself.
"Out," he instructed the dog.
"Don’t you take your filthy mood out on Mutt," Meredith said shakily.
"Out," he repeated, spearing out an arm indicating towards the door, and Mutt, big though he was, surrendered to a greater power and slunk out of the room.
Alessandro closed the door then turned back to Meredith, who was in the process of wrapping her arms across the front of her sparkling bodice. The aroused animal inside of him honed onto the creamy lush slopes of her breasts the action had highlighted for him like a taunt.
Her soft full mouth pursed for a second then parted as she took in a short breath. "Okay." She tossed her head up. "So show me your proof."
Vaguely surprised that she had thrown down the first challenge, without a word he walked over to the television set mounted on the wall opposite their bed and switched it on.
…
Puzzled as to what was going on, Meredith watched as he used the remote. A picture of their apartment block and its car park flicked up on the screen. Alessandro walked away to remove his jacket while she watched Marco’s silver Porsche drive into the car park and stop.
"CCTV recording," he provided as Marco climbed out and strolled towards the building. "Keep watching and you will see him enter one of the lifts."
Not understanding where this was leading, Meredith turned her questioning gaze on Alessandro who was loosening the black bow tie around his neck. Squared chin lifted, sleek golden skin stretched taut, his eyes were cold beneath the heavy veil of his eyelashes.
"Is this supposed to mean something to me?" she asked him.
"Still playing the innocent, Merry?" He threw her a grim smile. "You have been lovers for weeks—maybe longer." He extended with a shrug that coincided with the undoing of his shirt collar. "Who the hell knows how long you’ve both been cheating on me."
"We have not been cheating on you!" Merry protested stiffly. "Marco and I work together—and he’s supposed to be your best friend!"
"And I need a drink."
The way he strode to the door and pulled it open left Meredith gasping in shock. Mutt was lying across the opening. Alessandro stepped over the dog and headed down the hall. Meredith, bewildered as to what had made him just walk away like that, stepped over Mutt, too, as she tagged on behind.
He was in his study pouring himself a stiff drink. When he heard her come in the room, he announced coolly, "I called you back last night after you rung off. You were talking to him."
Opening her mouth to deny the charge, Meredith thought about it and closed her mouth again.
"No smart comeback?" Alessandro mocked.
"He—he called me," she confirmed. "I thought it was you."
"And having assured yourself that I was still safely out of the way in Milan, you invited him around here to keep you company?"
"What are you getting at now?" she cried out.
…
Those lustrous green eyes did bewilderment so well, Alessandro saw bitterly. The way she was standing there in her ball gown looking like a princess with her hair a veil of fire around her smooth pale beautifully innocent face. "You have just watched him arriving here, Meredith. Stop playing the innocent."
"You—you mean that recording was made last night?" Her delicate eyebrows drew together. "Well, whoever it was he was visiting it was not me," she declared outright. "Is that all the proof you’ve got that I’m cheating on you?" she then thought to ask.
"Do you really want me to produce more?" he derided.
"If you have it—yes!" she heaved in a taut breath then let it out again. "And I want you to know that I don’t like what it is you’re trying to pin on me here."
"You think I do?"
Her temper growing thinner with her deepening sense of injustice, Meredith stalked forward and took the glass out of his fingers just as he was about to drink from it. She slammed it down on the nearest surface then spun back to flare him a look.
"Marco did not visit me in this apartment last night and I expect you to believe that!"
"You want to return to the bedroom and watch him get out of the lift on the floor below then head for the stairwell?" Alessandro threw back. "You want to make me take this all the way to the bitter end before you will stop lying about it?"
"There are twenty other floors beneath this apartment, most of them with several apartments on each! He could have been using the stairs to walk down to any of them!"
"If that was the case, why not use the lift?"
…
"I don’t know!" This was beginning to turn just a little crazy in Meredith’s opinion. The whole scene felt like a nightmare that refused to make any sense. "If the CCTV system is so clever, it should tell you exactly where he went!"
"He came to see you."
Meredith balled her hands into two angry fists. "I’m warning you, Alessandro, if you keep insisting on that, I will supply you with real proof just to shut you up!"
"You did that, in the garden at Balfour."
"With a stupid sympathy kiss?"
His jaw line clenching, he turned away from her. "Guilty lovers stealing a clandestine moment," he described. "It was very…touching."
No it wasn’t. She could tell by the way he had said it. And nor was it sufficient proof that she had betrayed him.
"Please, Alessandro, just think about it," she urged him. "Why would I want to have an affair with anyone when I’m so in love with you?"
As if she’d delivered him the worst kind of insult, he moved violently, swinging round to stride to his desk. A few seconds later he was coming back to her holding a thin wad of notepaper, which he offered for her to take.
Flickering him a warily questioning glance, Meredith saw the ring of fierce tension compressing his mouth and the granite-hard cast in control of his face. As she took the paper from him, he spun away to go and recover his drink.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Her Unexpected Cowboy - Chapter 8
Madison stood in the dim light of Callum's apartment at his ranch and began unbuttoning his shirt, her heart rate increasing with each button released from its confines.
"Are you sure about this?" Callum asked.
"Yes."
He slid his hands along her jaw and lifted her face to kiss her. And kiss her, he did—thoroughly.
The rest of their clothes joined the pile on the floor.
"You're beautiful," Callum said.
She ran her hand over his sculpted chest. "So are you."
They fell onto the bed and into each other's arms. All her worries, all her questions about the future faded away as Callum Cody, her most unexpected cowboy, made love to her.
…
Over the next week, Madison and Callum spent every evening together after he brought Jason home from work. Once, she cooked for the entire Cody clan. She loved seeing the attention the family showered on her brother, watching him coming out of his dark hole. Another night, Callum helped her organize documents for the book project. They went riding and talked about her parents. But no matter what they did, the evening always ended with her in his arms, most often just kissing. But they did make love on a blanket beneath the stars during a break in that ride over the Cottonwood.
"You're in love with him, aren't you?"
Madison looked up from where she was making a surprise lunch for Jason and Callum to take to Pebble Creek. Elly had come in from her morning practice session and was leaning against the kitchen counter.
"Yeah, I think I am."
"Are you going to stay?"
"I don't know. I mean, my whole life is back in Phoenix."
"No, it's not." Elly extended a copy of the Cody Enterprise. "Maybe this will help you make up your mind."
When Elly headed for her room, Madison looked down at the paper, at an ad circled in red. "Opening for a high–school American History teacher. Apply at Cody High School."
…
"This one's got the devil in him," Harry said as he tried to get one of the bucking horses to cooperate long enough to usher the animal from his stall to the arena. About the time he said it, the horse jerked in the opposite direction and headed straight for where Jason was standing at the entrance to the barn.
"Watch out!" Callum called.
The horse snorted and kicked, barely missing the boy. Jason was smart enough to get out of the way, though, and dived for the dirt to the right of the doorway.
"You okay?" Callum asked when he made it outside.
Already, Jason was standing and dusting himself off. The kid had the makings of a good cowboy.
"Yeah."
An anguished cry and movement beyond the barn caught their attention. Madison dropped a picnic basket and raced to her brother. "Are you hurt?" She tried to search his body for injury, but he stepped out of her reach.
"I'm fine. Stop worrying."
Madison rounded on Callum. "This is what you have him doing? Working around dangerous animals?"
"No, he has orders to stay away from the bucking stock."
"That's not what it looked like. Jason, get in the car. We're leaving."
"No."
Madison jerked her attention to Jason. "What do you mean, no?"
"I mean, I'm not leaving. I like working here. I'm learning to ride, how to run a ranch. I want to ride in a rodeo at some point."
Madison looked like she was going to have a stroke.
"Jason, go on in the barn so I can talk to your sister."
Madison looked like she might cry as her brother did Callum's bidding and not hers.
"I know it might not look like it now, but we take really good care of him here. I would never put him in harm's way on purpose."
"Isn't that what encouraging this rodeo nonsense is doing?"
"Rodeo is what finally set me straight when I was as wild as a buck," he said. "And I think it's also going to do that for Jason."
When she looked up at him, there were fat tears in her eyes. "He's all I have left. I can't lose him, too."
Callum couldn't stand seeing the hurt back in her eyes, so he pulled her to him, surprised she let him. "You won't. I promise."
…
Madison didn't sleep all night. The part of her that wanted to protect Jason kept up a constant wrestling match with the part that wanted to make him happy again. She slipped out of the house just as the barest hint of daylight was making its appearance, and took a long walk around the ranch, imagining herself living in Wyoming permanently. If she could get the high–school position and Jason didn't need so much supervision anymore, maybe that would leave more time for writing books.
As she returned to the house, she found Jason sitting on the top of the front steps waiting for Callum. She sank down beside him and counted it a victory that he didn't move away.
"I'm sorry," he said out of the blue.
"For what?"
"Everything. Being so awful since…Mom and Dad died."
Tears pooled in Madison's eyes. "I know it's been hard. I'm sorry I couldn't make it better."
"You did." He reached over and took her hand.
Madison pulled her brother into her arms. "I love you, Jason. I just want to see you happy again."
"I love you, too." He pulled away. "And I am happy."
She looked at him. "Here in Wyoming?"
He nodded.
"You really want to try rodeo?"
"I think so. Callum says it'll be awhile before I'm ready to even try, but I'm willing to wait."
"You really like him, don't you?"
"He's cool. And he likes you."
"You think?"
Jason rolled his eyes. "It's obvious. You're both kind of sickening about it."
Madison laughed and ruffled her brother's hair. Her heart swelled with happiness, and it was all because of the man driving up the ranch's entrance road.
…
Madison could barely contain her excitement as she drove toward the Pebble Creek Ranch later that day. She couldn't wait until Callum brought Jason home to share her news. Within ten minutes of walking into the office at Cody High School, she'd had the job as the new American History teacher. She didn't even look at it as a demotion from her college position because it was going to allow her and Jason to start a new life, one she hoped would include Callum Cody.
When she reached the ranch, she went straight to the barn and found him alone outside the stalls. She didn't stop as she walked into his arms and kissed him with all the energy surging through her body.
"Nice to see you, too," he said on a laugh when she finally ended the kiss.
"Do you think you can train Jason to be a rodeo cowboy?"
"Yes."
"Good."
His eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"
"The permanent population of Park County just increased by two."
"You're not going back to Phoenix?"
"No."
He smiled. "Then I guess I don't have to convince you to stay before I do this." He dropped to one knee and pulled something out of his shirt pocket. When he opened the velvet box, she gasped.
"I know it sounds crazy, but I've fallen head over heels in love with you, Madison Gray. And you'd make me very happy if you'd be my wife."
"I love you, too. Yes!"
Callum got to his feet and slid the ring on her finger. "It's an antique, originally sold to finance a family's trip along the Oregon Trail."
"It's perfect." She looked up at him. "You're perfect."
He pulled her close. "You, me, Jason. We'll make the perfect family."
Of that she had no doubt.
The End
"Are you sure about this?" Callum asked.
"Yes."
He slid his hands along her jaw and lifted her face to kiss her. And kiss her, he did—thoroughly.
The rest of their clothes joined the pile on the floor.
"You're beautiful," Callum said.
She ran her hand over his sculpted chest. "So are you."
They fell onto the bed and into each other's arms. All her worries, all her questions about the future faded away as Callum Cody, her most unexpected cowboy, made love to her.
…
Over the next week, Madison and Callum spent every evening together after he brought Jason home from work. Once, she cooked for the entire Cody clan. She loved seeing the attention the family showered on her brother, watching him coming out of his dark hole. Another night, Callum helped her organize documents for the book project. They went riding and talked about her parents. But no matter what they did, the evening always ended with her in his arms, most often just kissing. But they did make love on a blanket beneath the stars during a break in that ride over the Cottonwood.
"You're in love with him, aren't you?"
Madison looked up from where she was making a surprise lunch for Jason and Callum to take to Pebble Creek. Elly had come in from her morning practice session and was leaning against the kitchen counter.
"Yeah, I think I am."
"Are you going to stay?"
"I don't know. I mean, my whole life is back in Phoenix."
"No, it's not." Elly extended a copy of the Cody Enterprise. "Maybe this will help you make up your mind."
When Elly headed for her room, Madison looked down at the paper, at an ad circled in red. "Opening for a high–school American History teacher. Apply at Cody High School."
…
"This one's got the devil in him," Harry said as he tried to get one of the bucking horses to cooperate long enough to usher the animal from his stall to the arena. About the time he said it, the horse jerked in the opposite direction and headed straight for where Jason was standing at the entrance to the barn.
"Watch out!" Callum called.
The horse snorted and kicked, barely missing the boy. Jason was smart enough to get out of the way, though, and dived for the dirt to the right of the doorway.
"You okay?" Callum asked when he made it outside.
Already, Jason was standing and dusting himself off. The kid had the makings of a good cowboy.
"Yeah."
An anguished cry and movement beyond the barn caught their attention. Madison dropped a picnic basket and raced to her brother. "Are you hurt?" She tried to search his body for injury, but he stepped out of her reach.
"I'm fine. Stop worrying."
Madison rounded on Callum. "This is what you have him doing? Working around dangerous animals?"
"No, he has orders to stay away from the bucking stock."
"That's not what it looked like. Jason, get in the car. We're leaving."
"No."
Madison jerked her attention to Jason. "What do you mean, no?"
"I mean, I'm not leaving. I like working here. I'm learning to ride, how to run a ranch. I want to ride in a rodeo at some point."
Madison looked like she was going to have a stroke.
"Jason, go on in the barn so I can talk to your sister."
Madison looked like she might cry as her brother did Callum's bidding and not hers.
"I know it might not look like it now, but we take really good care of him here. I would never put him in harm's way on purpose."
"Isn't that what encouraging this rodeo nonsense is doing?"
"Rodeo is what finally set me straight when I was as wild as a buck," he said. "And I think it's also going to do that for Jason."
When she looked up at him, there were fat tears in her eyes. "He's all I have left. I can't lose him, too."
Callum couldn't stand seeing the hurt back in her eyes, so he pulled her to him, surprised she let him. "You won't. I promise."
…
Madison didn't sleep all night. The part of her that wanted to protect Jason kept up a constant wrestling match with the part that wanted to make him happy again. She slipped out of the house just as the barest hint of daylight was making its appearance, and took a long walk around the ranch, imagining herself living in Wyoming permanently. If she could get the high–school position and Jason didn't need so much supervision anymore, maybe that would leave more time for writing books.
As she returned to the house, she found Jason sitting on the top of the front steps waiting for Callum. She sank down beside him and counted it a victory that he didn't move away.
"I'm sorry," he said out of the blue.
"For what?"
"Everything. Being so awful since…Mom and Dad died."
Tears pooled in Madison's eyes. "I know it's been hard. I'm sorry I couldn't make it better."
"You did." He reached over and took her hand.
Madison pulled her brother into her arms. "I love you, Jason. I just want to see you happy again."
"I love you, too." He pulled away. "And I am happy."
She looked at him. "Here in Wyoming?"
He nodded.
"You really want to try rodeo?"
"I think so. Callum says it'll be awhile before I'm ready to even try, but I'm willing to wait."
"You really like him, don't you?"
"He's cool. And he likes you."
"You think?"
Jason rolled his eyes. "It's obvious. You're both kind of sickening about it."
Madison laughed and ruffled her brother's hair. Her heart swelled with happiness, and it was all because of the man driving up the ranch's entrance road.
…
Madison could barely contain her excitement as she drove toward the Pebble Creek Ranch later that day. She couldn't wait until Callum brought Jason home to share her news. Within ten minutes of walking into the office at Cody High School, she'd had the job as the new American History teacher. She didn't even look at it as a demotion from her college position because it was going to allow her and Jason to start a new life, one she hoped would include Callum Cody.
When she reached the ranch, she went straight to the barn and found him alone outside the stalls. She didn't stop as she walked into his arms and kissed him with all the energy surging through her body.
"Nice to see you, too," he said on a laugh when she finally ended the kiss.
"Do you think you can train Jason to be a rodeo cowboy?"
"Yes."
"Good."
His eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"
"The permanent population of Park County just increased by two."
"You're not going back to Phoenix?"
"No."
He smiled. "Then I guess I don't have to convince you to stay before I do this." He dropped to one knee and pulled something out of his shirt pocket. When he opened the velvet box, she gasped.
"I know it sounds crazy, but I've fallen head over heels in love with you, Madison Gray. And you'd make me very happy if you'd be my wife."
"I love you, too. Yes!"
Callum got to his feet and slid the ring on her finger. "It's an antique, originally sold to finance a family's trip along the Oregon Trail."
"It's perfect." She looked up at him. "You're perfect."
He pulled her close. "You, me, Jason. We'll make the perfect family."
Of that she had no doubt.
The End
Her Unexpected Cowboy - Chapter 7
Madison retreated to her room to change–and try to get her racing heart under control. She was going out, on a date, with Callum Cody. She wondered if she had enough willpower to keep her hands off him at least until after they ate dinner. She stifled a giggle and got to work looking for something date–worthy to wear. Needless to say, dinner with a gorgeous man had been the farthest thing from her mind when she'd been packing for this trip, but she finally managed to come up with some nicer jeans and a purple top with a hint of ruffle. She added some silver jewelry and some purple espadrilles to complete the outfit, and brushed her hair.
When she walked back into the living room, more Codys had appeared—Elly and her brothers. A whistle of appreciation drew her attention to Dusty.
"I think I'm in love," he said.
"I'd hate to have to teach you some manners," Callum said, sounding possessive, but not in a scary way. No, that hint of "my woman" in his words made her go all warm and eager all over.
Laughter filled the room, and Dex punched his twin, Dusty, playfully in the arm.
"Ignore these idiots and go have fun," Elly said. "We'll keep Jason busy."
Madison scanned the room and noticed the cards on the dining–room table. "What's going on?" With all Jason's issues the past several months, the last thing he needed was to start gambling.
"Don't worry, we're playing for peanuts," Elly said.
"Literally." Dex held up an industrial–size can of peanuts.
Callum placed his hand on her back and urged her toward the door. He leaned close to her ear. "Stop worrying. He won't get in any trouble."
Madison took a deep breath and gave herself over to a night for herself.
Callum held her hand in the dark of the truck's cab as he drove. She hoped he couldn't feel how rapid her pulse was. It had been so long since she'd been out on a date. Since her parents' death, she'd had no time for anything but Jason and work. It felt so good, so right to have a night where she could indulge in what she wanted.
And she wanted Callum Cody.
As they rolled into Markton, the tiny town nearest the Cottonwood Ranch, an odd sense of rightness came over her. This couldn't be any more different than Phoenix, and yet it called to her. Maybe it was that the quiet, laid–back, peaceful atmosphere was such a balm after the past tumultuous months.
Callum pulled into the crowded parking lot next to the Sagebrush Diner. "Here we are, Markton's finest dining. Unless you want to go into Cody for something a little nicer."
"No, this is great."
Callum looked across the truck at her. "You do know I'm going to kiss you again before this night is through, don't you?"
Anticipation surged through her body, tempting her to tell him they should just skip dinner and go right to…dessert.
Feeling a bit braver than she had in a long time, she leaned toward him. "I'm going to hold you to that." Then with a laugh she pulled back and got out of the truck.
He caught up with her before she stepped up on the wooden porch of the restaurant. He wrapped his arm around her waist before opening the door for her.
"You have to let me get doors for you or they'll take away my cowboy chivalry badge."
"Well, we can't have that." A smile seemed to take possession of her face, and she welcomed it with open arms.
After they slipped into a booth, Madison looked around at the rustic, western décor. The obvious locals hanging out at the square bar in the middle of the restaurant.
"I know it's not fancy like what you have in Phoenix," Callum said.
"Are you kidding? I love it. It's got way more personality than some fancy place."
When the waitress finished taking their order, Callum reached across the table and took her hand. She let him, loving the feel of his warm palm, the roughness of his honest work calluses against her skin. Her face heated when she thought about those hands running over other parts of her body.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked. He didn't miss anything.
She shook her head. "Nothing."
"I don't believe you."
She met his eyes and got the distinct impression he was thinking about the same thing. Suddenly, it was very hard to sit still, to not squirm. Even when she'd been on dates before no one had ever affected her the way Callum did, and not so quickly. Something about him made her believe being cautious wasn't always a good idea.
…
Somehow he would make it through this dinner despite the fact all he wanted to do was take Madison back to his place and make love to her all night long. He'd never been one for romantic notions, for believing in love at first sight, in settling down and having a family. But Madison Gray had changed all that, had him thinking about things like happily ever after. He was falling for her, and falling hard. Not smart when she wasn't staying.
Unless he could convince her to stay.
"How's the work on the book coming?" he asked.
"Great. I'm really getting excited about it. There's such a rich history there."
"I bet there are lots of things you could write about around here."
She met his eyes, and it was so good to see they were bright with excitement instead of filled with hurt and exhaustion.
"You're probably right."
Throughout dinner, they talked about his days riding bareback on the rodeo circuit, her teaching, how Jason was getting the hang of ranch life.
"I can't thank you enough for whatever you've done," she said. "I'm just stunned by how quickly I've seen a change in Jason. I mean, I don't fool myself. We still have a long way to go, but at least he's not biting my head off anymore."
"Maybe it's just timing. One of those steps in the grieving process."
"Maybe." She stared down at her empty plate. "You know, I can still remember every word of the phone call when I found out Mom and Dad had been killed by the thugs of some warlord. They were there trying to help feed people, and they were killed over a few bags of grain."
Callum squeezed her hand but didn't know what to say to make it better. Maybe nothing would. "I'm sorry."
She shook off the melancholy. "At least they were doing what they believed in. That gives me some comfort." Madison squeezed his hand back. "I'm in the mood for a walk. Want to give me the grand tour of your metropolis?"
He paid the check and escorted her into the cool night. When she rubbed her bare arms, he went to the truck and retrieved his denim jacket for her.
"Thanks."
He took her hand because he couldn't bear not touching her. By the time he'd shown her everything Markton had to offer, holding her hand wasn't enough. He tugged her off the sidewalk into the darkness next to the closed Markton Feed and Grain store.
"If I don't kiss you, I'm going to explode."
She looked up at him and smiled. "Then kiss me, cowboy."
When she walked back into the living room, more Codys had appeared—Elly and her brothers. A whistle of appreciation drew her attention to Dusty.
"I think I'm in love," he said.
"I'd hate to have to teach you some manners," Callum said, sounding possessive, but not in a scary way. No, that hint of "my woman" in his words made her go all warm and eager all over.
Laughter filled the room, and Dex punched his twin, Dusty, playfully in the arm.
"Ignore these idiots and go have fun," Elly said. "We'll keep Jason busy."
Madison scanned the room and noticed the cards on the dining–room table. "What's going on?" With all Jason's issues the past several months, the last thing he needed was to start gambling.
"Don't worry, we're playing for peanuts," Elly said.
"Literally." Dex held up an industrial–size can of peanuts.
Callum placed his hand on her back and urged her toward the door. He leaned close to her ear. "Stop worrying. He won't get in any trouble."
Madison took a deep breath and gave herself over to a night for herself.
Callum held her hand in the dark of the truck's cab as he drove. She hoped he couldn't feel how rapid her pulse was. It had been so long since she'd been out on a date. Since her parents' death, she'd had no time for anything but Jason and work. It felt so good, so right to have a night where she could indulge in what she wanted.
And she wanted Callum Cody.
As they rolled into Markton, the tiny town nearest the Cottonwood Ranch, an odd sense of rightness came over her. This couldn't be any more different than Phoenix, and yet it called to her. Maybe it was that the quiet, laid–back, peaceful atmosphere was such a balm after the past tumultuous months.
Callum pulled into the crowded parking lot next to the Sagebrush Diner. "Here we are, Markton's finest dining. Unless you want to go into Cody for something a little nicer."
"No, this is great."
Callum looked across the truck at her. "You do know I'm going to kiss you again before this night is through, don't you?"
Anticipation surged through her body, tempting her to tell him they should just skip dinner and go right to…dessert.
Feeling a bit braver than she had in a long time, she leaned toward him. "I'm going to hold you to that." Then with a laugh she pulled back and got out of the truck.
He caught up with her before she stepped up on the wooden porch of the restaurant. He wrapped his arm around her waist before opening the door for her.
"You have to let me get doors for you or they'll take away my cowboy chivalry badge."
"Well, we can't have that." A smile seemed to take possession of her face, and she welcomed it with open arms.
After they slipped into a booth, Madison looked around at the rustic, western décor. The obvious locals hanging out at the square bar in the middle of the restaurant.
"I know it's not fancy like what you have in Phoenix," Callum said.
"Are you kidding? I love it. It's got way more personality than some fancy place."
When the waitress finished taking their order, Callum reached across the table and took her hand. She let him, loving the feel of his warm palm, the roughness of his honest work calluses against her skin. Her face heated when she thought about those hands running over other parts of her body.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked. He didn't miss anything.
She shook her head. "Nothing."
"I don't believe you."
She met his eyes and got the distinct impression he was thinking about the same thing. Suddenly, it was very hard to sit still, to not squirm. Even when she'd been on dates before no one had ever affected her the way Callum did, and not so quickly. Something about him made her believe being cautious wasn't always a good idea.
…
Somehow he would make it through this dinner despite the fact all he wanted to do was take Madison back to his place and make love to her all night long. He'd never been one for romantic notions, for believing in love at first sight, in settling down and having a family. But Madison Gray had changed all that, had him thinking about things like happily ever after. He was falling for her, and falling hard. Not smart when she wasn't staying.
Unless he could convince her to stay.
"How's the work on the book coming?" he asked.
"Great. I'm really getting excited about it. There's such a rich history there."
"I bet there are lots of things you could write about around here."
She met his eyes, and it was so good to see they were bright with excitement instead of filled with hurt and exhaustion.
"You're probably right."
Throughout dinner, they talked about his days riding bareback on the rodeo circuit, her teaching, how Jason was getting the hang of ranch life.
"I can't thank you enough for whatever you've done," she said. "I'm just stunned by how quickly I've seen a change in Jason. I mean, I don't fool myself. We still have a long way to go, but at least he's not biting my head off anymore."
"Maybe it's just timing. One of those steps in the grieving process."
"Maybe." She stared down at her empty plate. "You know, I can still remember every word of the phone call when I found out Mom and Dad had been killed by the thugs of some warlord. They were there trying to help feed people, and they were killed over a few bags of grain."
Callum squeezed her hand but didn't know what to say to make it better. Maybe nothing would. "I'm sorry."
She shook off the melancholy. "At least they were doing what they believed in. That gives me some comfort." Madison squeezed his hand back. "I'm in the mood for a walk. Want to give me the grand tour of your metropolis?"
He paid the check and escorted her into the cool night. When she rubbed her bare arms, he went to the truck and retrieved his denim jacket for her.
"Thanks."
He took her hand because he couldn't bear not touching her. By the time he'd shown her everything Markton had to offer, holding her hand wasn't enough. He tugged her off the sidewalk into the darkness next to the closed Markton Feed and Grain store.
"If I don't kiss you, I'm going to explode."
She looked up at him and smiled. "Then kiss me, cowboy."
Her Unexpected Cowboy - Chapter 6
All thought of pulling away from Callum fled Madison's mind the moment he kissed her. This might not be a good idea, but it sure felt good—skin–tingling wonderful, to be exact.
He lifted his hand and placed it against her cheek, so gently her heart swelled. She wondered if he would be a tender lover or wild enough to make her totally lose her mind.
The sound of the door opening caused common sense to come rushing back into her brain, and she jerked away from him, turned toward the materials on the table. But the silence that followed told her that whoever had come in wasn't fooled. She glanced toward the door and saw Jason and Elly. Her friend was trying to hide a smile, but Jason looked confused. Before she could speak, he turned wordlessly down the hallway. At least he didn't slam his bedroom door this time.
Elly strolled toward the refrigerator. "I was coming in to see if anyone wanted dinner, but looks like some people skipped right to dessert."
"Elly!" Madison's face flamed in embarrassment. "This isn't funny."
"I agree," Callum said.
Madison looked at him, and what she saw in his expression wasn't amusement. It was desire. And she wasn't at all sure he couldn't see it on her face, too.
But he also must have seen the concern for what Jason would think, the worry that she was doing the wrong thing, because he gave her an understanding smile and stood.
"See you all tomorrow. I've got a lot of neglected paperwork waiting for me at home. We'll take that walk some other night."
As she watched him walk out the door, Madison pictured herself glued to the chair so she wouldn't run after him and finish what they'd started.
…
Callum noticed Jason was even quieter than normal the next day, and not just on the ride over to the ranch when he was still half-asleep. He kept it up all day, even when he was out by the practice arena watching his and Harry's every move with the horses. But despite the silent treatment Callum figured was a result of Jason walking in on him kissing Madison, he was beginning to see something else in the boy's eyes. Interest. If Callum wasn't mistaken, the boy was at the earliest stages of catching the rodeo bug.
Toward the end of the day, he was on the phone in his office arranging for the sale of three of his best bucking horses to a rodeo stock contractor when he noticed Jason hanging around outside the door. He motioned for him to come in and have a seat while he finished up the call. When he hung up, he leaned back in his leather chair.
"What's on your mind?"
Jason bit his lip for a minute before answering. "Can I learn how to ride the horses?"
"You mean Tulip Sue?" Callum asked, referring to the oldest, slowest mare on the place, the one used to teach toddlers how to ride.
"No, the bucking horses."
"You ever been around animals much? And I don't mean cats and dogs."
Jason shook his head.
"Well, then, Tulip Sue it is."
Jason looked about to argue when Callum raised his hand. "Listen, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. I don't think your sister would take kindly if you break your neck under my watch."
"Do you like her?"
"Yes, I do." Callum didn't believe in beating around the bush with the kid.
"Are you going to ask her out?"
"I have, twice. She said no both times."
Jason's brows furrowed. "But…I thought maybe she liked you, too."
"I'd say she does." If the way she'd responded to his kiss was any indication.
"Then…" Jason shook his head. "I don't understand girls."
Callum laughed. "You and every other male on the planet." He sat up and leaned his forearms on his desk. "I'm going to be straight with you and hope she doesn't skin me for it."
"Okay."
"Your sister is mighty afraid of doing anything that's going to hurt you any more than you've already been hurt."
"How would her going on a date hurt me?"
"She's got it in her head that she has to focus solely on you, to help you get past whatever has been happening with you the past few months."
"She's not my mom." Jason's voice held a thickness that conveyed clearer than words how much he missed his mother.
"No, but she's been put in that role now, as unfair as that is to both of you. She doesn't have the luxury of being just your big sister anymore."
Jason stared down past his knees to the floor. "I guess I've been horrible lately."
"Don't think there's any guessing about it, bud."
The silence stretched for a few beats before Jason met Callum's eyes. "It's okay with me if you take Madison out."
"I'm not the one you need to tell."
…
Madison spent the entire day talking with J.W. and Anne about their family tree, all the stories they could remember being told about their ancestors. Before she knew it, it was past time for Callum to bring home Jason.
"I'm sorry I've taken up so much of your time," she said as she rose from the overstuffed chair in the Codys' living room.
"No need to apologize, dear," Anne said. "We're excited to have you doing this. Elly has had nothing but wonderful things to say about your work."
"I hope I can live up to your expectations." And she hoped they'd understand if somewhere along the way she found some scoundrel or scandal in the Cody past and was obligated to include that as well.
By the time she reached the homestead house, Callum's truck was already parked outside, but there was no sign of him or her brother. She stepped inside to find Callum waiting for her, dressed in clean jeans, boots that weren't scuffed and a white shirt with black embroidered scrollwork near the shoulders.
"Little dressy for dropping off the help, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but not for taking a pretty woman out to dinner."
Her heart jumped at the thought, but she reined it in. "Callum, I…"
"I told him it was okay."
Madison turned toward where her brother stood at the entrance to the hallway. "You did?"
He nodded.
"You heard the man," Callum said. "I'm afraid you're not going to be rid of me until you say yes."
Madison stared first at her brother, then Callum—two against one. She guessed she was going out with Callum Cody.
He lifted his hand and placed it against her cheek, so gently her heart swelled. She wondered if he would be a tender lover or wild enough to make her totally lose her mind.
The sound of the door opening caused common sense to come rushing back into her brain, and she jerked away from him, turned toward the materials on the table. But the silence that followed told her that whoever had come in wasn't fooled. She glanced toward the door and saw Jason and Elly. Her friend was trying to hide a smile, but Jason looked confused. Before she could speak, he turned wordlessly down the hallway. At least he didn't slam his bedroom door this time.
Elly strolled toward the refrigerator. "I was coming in to see if anyone wanted dinner, but looks like some people skipped right to dessert."
"Elly!" Madison's face flamed in embarrassment. "This isn't funny."
"I agree," Callum said.
Madison looked at him, and what she saw in his expression wasn't amusement. It was desire. And she wasn't at all sure he couldn't see it on her face, too.
But he also must have seen the concern for what Jason would think, the worry that she was doing the wrong thing, because he gave her an understanding smile and stood.
"See you all tomorrow. I've got a lot of neglected paperwork waiting for me at home. We'll take that walk some other night."
As she watched him walk out the door, Madison pictured herself glued to the chair so she wouldn't run after him and finish what they'd started.
…
Callum noticed Jason was even quieter than normal the next day, and not just on the ride over to the ranch when he was still half-asleep. He kept it up all day, even when he was out by the practice arena watching his and Harry's every move with the horses. But despite the silent treatment Callum figured was a result of Jason walking in on him kissing Madison, he was beginning to see something else in the boy's eyes. Interest. If Callum wasn't mistaken, the boy was at the earliest stages of catching the rodeo bug.
Toward the end of the day, he was on the phone in his office arranging for the sale of three of his best bucking horses to a rodeo stock contractor when he noticed Jason hanging around outside the door. He motioned for him to come in and have a seat while he finished up the call. When he hung up, he leaned back in his leather chair.
"What's on your mind?"
Jason bit his lip for a minute before answering. "Can I learn how to ride the horses?"
"You mean Tulip Sue?" Callum asked, referring to the oldest, slowest mare on the place, the one used to teach toddlers how to ride.
"No, the bucking horses."
"You ever been around animals much? And I don't mean cats and dogs."
Jason shook his head.
"Well, then, Tulip Sue it is."
Jason looked about to argue when Callum raised his hand. "Listen, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. I don't think your sister would take kindly if you break your neck under my watch."
"Do you like her?"
"Yes, I do." Callum didn't believe in beating around the bush with the kid.
"Are you going to ask her out?"
"I have, twice. She said no both times."
Jason's brows furrowed. "But…I thought maybe she liked you, too."
"I'd say she does." If the way she'd responded to his kiss was any indication.
"Then…" Jason shook his head. "I don't understand girls."
Callum laughed. "You and every other male on the planet." He sat up and leaned his forearms on his desk. "I'm going to be straight with you and hope she doesn't skin me for it."
"Okay."
"Your sister is mighty afraid of doing anything that's going to hurt you any more than you've already been hurt."
"How would her going on a date hurt me?"
"She's got it in her head that she has to focus solely on you, to help you get past whatever has been happening with you the past few months."
"She's not my mom." Jason's voice held a thickness that conveyed clearer than words how much he missed his mother.
"No, but she's been put in that role now, as unfair as that is to both of you. She doesn't have the luxury of being just your big sister anymore."
Jason stared down past his knees to the floor. "I guess I've been horrible lately."
"Don't think there's any guessing about it, bud."
The silence stretched for a few beats before Jason met Callum's eyes. "It's okay with me if you take Madison out."
"I'm not the one you need to tell."
…
Madison spent the entire day talking with J.W. and Anne about their family tree, all the stories they could remember being told about their ancestors. Before she knew it, it was past time for Callum to bring home Jason.
"I'm sorry I've taken up so much of your time," she said as she rose from the overstuffed chair in the Codys' living room.
"No need to apologize, dear," Anne said. "We're excited to have you doing this. Elly has had nothing but wonderful things to say about your work."
"I hope I can live up to your expectations." And she hoped they'd understand if somewhere along the way she found some scoundrel or scandal in the Cody past and was obligated to include that as well.
By the time she reached the homestead house, Callum's truck was already parked outside, but there was no sign of him or her brother. She stepped inside to find Callum waiting for her, dressed in clean jeans, boots that weren't scuffed and a white shirt with black embroidered scrollwork near the shoulders.
"Little dressy for dropping off the help, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but not for taking a pretty woman out to dinner."
Her heart jumped at the thought, but she reined it in. "Callum, I…"
"I told him it was okay."
Madison turned toward where her brother stood at the entrance to the hallway. "You did?"
He nodded.
"You heard the man," Callum said. "I'm afraid you're not going to be rid of me until you say yes."
Madison stared first at her brother, then Callum—two against one. She guessed she was going out with Callum Cody.
Her Unexpected Cowboy - Chapter 5
Madison still had the image of Callum at the forefront of her thoughts when she walked back inside the house and found Elly sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee. She must have come in the back door from the training arena. Elly was making a run at the National Finals Rodeo in barrel racing, and she spent a good portion of her days practicing.
"You like him, don't you?" Elly asked, startling Madison so much she stopped in the middle of pouring herself a cup.
She grasped for some type of reasonable response. "He's nice. And I appreciate what he's doing for Jason, giving him a job to keep him occupied."
"But it's more than that, right?"
Madison finished pouring her coffee and joined her friend at the table. "I'm attracted, yes, but I can't act on it."
"Because you're going home eventually."
"Yes. And I've got to focus on Jason right now."
"You deserve to focus on yourself, too."
Madison looked up at Elly. "You sound like him."
"We Codys, we're a smart bunch."
Madison smiled. "Modest, too."
"Sometimes I think Callum and Dusty are competing to see who can be the biggest flirt in the family, but they're both good guys under all that." Elly traced the rim of her coffee cup. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but maybe you should go out with Callum. Just for fun, nothing serious. It could be exactly what you need."
"I've already told him no, twice."
"If I know my cousin, he'll ask again."
Madison suspected Elly was right. Would she be able to say no a third time, particularly when her friend thought it was a good idea to say yes?
"So, how are things going for you at work?" Elly asked, steering the conversation a different direction.
"Good. Busy, of course."
"You ever find a book project?"
Madison had told Elly how much she wanted to write books about her specialty, the settling of the West.
"Not yet. There never seems to be time to work on it anyway."
"You've got time now." Elly looked around the great room for a moment. "And I just had an idea for a topic."
"Oh?"
"You know my family was some of the first white settlers in this area. What if you worked on a Cody family history and how it figures into the settlement of Wyoming?" Elly leaned forward, excitement lighting her eyes. "This would be great for our family, and it could launch that part of your career. I know Mom and Dad have tons of old documents, photos."
Madison itched to get a hold of those pieces of the past. "What would your parents say?"
"Are you kidding? They'd love it. Come on, we'll go talk to them now."
As Madison followed Elly to her truck, a spark of the hope she'd been losing flickered back to life. Jason, Callum, this chance to do what she really wanted—it felt like things were looking up. She just hoped fate wasn't being cruel and teasing her.
…
Callum didn't know quite what to make of the jittery feeling in his stomach as he drove onto the Cottonwood Ranch at the end of the day. It'd been a very long time since a woman had made him feel like this, like he was living in a state of constant anticipation. He refocused his thoughts on the boy sitting on the other side of the truck.
"Harry tells me you did a good job in the barn today, particularly for someone who's never worked on a ranch."
"Thanks."
"You're a man of few words, aren't you?"
Jason glanced at him before turning his attention back to the road in front of them. "Just don't feel like talking much."
Callum nodded. "I understand. Sometimes a man's just got to be alone with his thoughts."
"Madison wouldn't agree with you." Jason sounded one part frustrated, one part defeated. "She thinks I'm just a kid, that I need her hovering over me all the time."
"You given her any reason to think that?"
Callum sensed a heated denial coming, but then something seemed to shift in Jason. His shoulders slumped. "Maybe some."
"You want to know what I think?"
Jason looked at him, silently giving his answer.
"I think your sister is hurting just as much as you, maybe more. Only she has to be the strong one and can't show it."
"She say that?"
"She didn't have to. Just look at her and you'll see it. What happened to your parents isn't her fault."
Jason turned to stare out his window at a portion of the Cottonwood's cattle herd. Callum left him with his thoughts the rest of the way up to the homestead. Madison was nowhere to be seen when he parked. Maybe he should leave, give Jason a chance to talk to his sister. But when Jason slipped out of the truck, he headed straight for where Elly was walking Jasmine, one of her backup horses. Ah, poor kid. That crush didn't have a chance in the world, especially since Elly was a decade older than Jason.
He could drive away, but he didn't. Instead, he headed up the porch steps, paused to knock on the door before pushing it open. "Anybody home?"
"Callum." Madison spun in her chair at the table, surprise making her eyes wide. "I didn't realize what time it was." She looked back at the stacks of papers and photo albums strewn across the table.
"What's all this?" he asked as he crossed the distance between them.
"Cody family documents and photographs. Elly convinced me to work on a family history of the Cody family in Wyoming."
"Really?" He sank into the chair beside her.
"Yeah, it's something I've always wanted to do."
"My family's history?"
"No, write books about the settling of the West. It's my specialty, what I teach."
He leaned a bit closer to her. "So, found any impossible rogues in the family tree?"
She laughed. "Just you."
Callum shifted closer still. "So, Madison Gray, do you like rogues?"
Madison met his gaze, and he realized just how close they were to each other, close enough to feel her warm breath.
"Maybe," she said softly, sounding dazed and unsure.
"Let's find out." He captured her delectable lips in a kiss.
"You like him, don't you?" Elly asked, startling Madison so much she stopped in the middle of pouring herself a cup.
She grasped for some type of reasonable response. "He's nice. And I appreciate what he's doing for Jason, giving him a job to keep him occupied."
"But it's more than that, right?"
Madison finished pouring her coffee and joined her friend at the table. "I'm attracted, yes, but I can't act on it."
"Because you're going home eventually."
"Yes. And I've got to focus on Jason right now."
"You deserve to focus on yourself, too."
Madison looked up at Elly. "You sound like him."
"We Codys, we're a smart bunch."
Madison smiled. "Modest, too."
"Sometimes I think Callum and Dusty are competing to see who can be the biggest flirt in the family, but they're both good guys under all that." Elly traced the rim of her coffee cup. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but maybe you should go out with Callum. Just for fun, nothing serious. It could be exactly what you need."
"I've already told him no, twice."
"If I know my cousin, he'll ask again."
Madison suspected Elly was right. Would she be able to say no a third time, particularly when her friend thought it was a good idea to say yes?
"So, how are things going for you at work?" Elly asked, steering the conversation a different direction.
"Good. Busy, of course."
"You ever find a book project?"
Madison had told Elly how much she wanted to write books about her specialty, the settling of the West.
"Not yet. There never seems to be time to work on it anyway."
"You've got time now." Elly looked around the great room for a moment. "And I just had an idea for a topic."
"Oh?"
"You know my family was some of the first white settlers in this area. What if you worked on a Cody family history and how it figures into the settlement of Wyoming?" Elly leaned forward, excitement lighting her eyes. "This would be great for our family, and it could launch that part of your career. I know Mom and Dad have tons of old documents, photos."
Madison itched to get a hold of those pieces of the past. "What would your parents say?"
"Are you kidding? They'd love it. Come on, we'll go talk to them now."
As Madison followed Elly to her truck, a spark of the hope she'd been losing flickered back to life. Jason, Callum, this chance to do what she really wanted—it felt like things were looking up. She just hoped fate wasn't being cruel and teasing her.
…
Callum didn't know quite what to make of the jittery feeling in his stomach as he drove onto the Cottonwood Ranch at the end of the day. It'd been a very long time since a woman had made him feel like this, like he was living in a state of constant anticipation. He refocused his thoughts on the boy sitting on the other side of the truck.
"Harry tells me you did a good job in the barn today, particularly for someone who's never worked on a ranch."
"Thanks."
"You're a man of few words, aren't you?"
Jason glanced at him before turning his attention back to the road in front of them. "Just don't feel like talking much."
Callum nodded. "I understand. Sometimes a man's just got to be alone with his thoughts."
"Madison wouldn't agree with you." Jason sounded one part frustrated, one part defeated. "She thinks I'm just a kid, that I need her hovering over me all the time."
"You given her any reason to think that?"
Callum sensed a heated denial coming, but then something seemed to shift in Jason. His shoulders slumped. "Maybe some."
"You want to know what I think?"
Jason looked at him, silently giving his answer.
"I think your sister is hurting just as much as you, maybe more. Only she has to be the strong one and can't show it."
"She say that?"
"She didn't have to. Just look at her and you'll see it. What happened to your parents isn't her fault."
Jason turned to stare out his window at a portion of the Cottonwood's cattle herd. Callum left him with his thoughts the rest of the way up to the homestead. Madison was nowhere to be seen when he parked. Maybe he should leave, give Jason a chance to talk to his sister. But when Jason slipped out of the truck, he headed straight for where Elly was walking Jasmine, one of her backup horses. Ah, poor kid. That crush didn't have a chance in the world, especially since Elly was a decade older than Jason.
He could drive away, but he didn't. Instead, he headed up the porch steps, paused to knock on the door before pushing it open. "Anybody home?"
"Callum." Madison spun in her chair at the table, surprise making her eyes wide. "I didn't realize what time it was." She looked back at the stacks of papers and photo albums strewn across the table.
"What's all this?" he asked as he crossed the distance between them.
"Cody family documents and photographs. Elly convinced me to work on a family history of the Cody family in Wyoming."
"Really?" He sank into the chair beside her.
"Yeah, it's something I've always wanted to do."
"My family's history?"
"No, write books about the settling of the West. It's my specialty, what I teach."
He leaned a bit closer to her. "So, found any impossible rogues in the family tree?"
She laughed. "Just you."
Callum shifted closer still. "So, Madison Gray, do you like rogues?"
Madison met his gaze, and he realized just how close they were to each other, close enough to feel her warm breath.
"Maybe," she said softly, sounding dazed and unsure.
"Let's find out." He captured her delectable lips in a kiss.
Her Unexpected Cowboy - Chapter 4
Madison forced herself to look away from Callum and his sexy grin and focus on her brother. She took a breath and ventured a question, hoping it didn't ignite another of his volatile responses.
"Did you have a good day?"
He gave her one of his familiar shrugs, only this one wasn't as dismissive or tinged with anger. "It was okay." He looked over at Callum.
"Go on, ask her," Callum said.
Jason swallowed and met her eyes only for a moment. "Callum said he'd give me a job if it's okay with you."
"A job?" This was the last thing she'd expected, and suspicion flared that Callum was using her brother to get to her. But when she looked at him, he didn't seem to be in full-on flirt mode.
"I told him that I had to start working at fourteen to save up enough for a down payment on a car. Took me every bit of those two years to do it, too."
That surprised Madison. She knew that Elly and her brothers all had jobs on the Cottonwood and Callum worked on his family's ranch, but she would have expected the well-to-do Codys to provide vehicles for their children. That they hadn't, at least not for Callum, spoke volumes about how they'd raised their kids. It made her feel better about having Jason around Callum. If she couldn't get through to her brother, maybe a man could. That thought made her heart ache, but that was less important than getting her brother back on the right path.
"What would you be doing?"
"Glamorous things like mucking out horse stalls, " Callum said with laughter in his voice.
When she glanced at Jason, he was looking at Callum with admiration in his eyes. As much as it hurt to acknowledge that a stranger might be able to do what she'd failed at for months, she nodded.
"Okay."
"Dex and Dusty should have some old stuff you can wear to work," Callum said. He nodded toward the collection of barns behind the homestead. "I bet you can catch one of them before they call it a day. I'll be by to get you at seven in the morning."
Jason just nodded and took off around the house.
"I can't believe he didn't moan about the time. He usually sleeps half the morning."
"He probably will complain in the morning. I still do."
Madison looked back at Callum, who'd come to stand next to the porch, propping his outstretched arm against one of the support posts.
"Thank you, for whatever you said or did."
"Wait until he's shoveled some horse poop before you thank me. He may decide I'm the devil tomorrow."
"But for now he seems to be interested in something other than going home and hanging out with the wrong people."
"Well then, you're welcome."
"Did…did he say anything to you?"
"Not much. He's not much of a talker, at least not yet."
"He used to be." Madison gripped her hands in her lap. "Before our parents died, he was such a bright, happy kid, always talking about something new he'd learned or e-mailing me funny YouTube videos. But when they died and he had to come live with me, he just…" She shook her head. "He changed."
Callum sat on the edge of the porch and propped one leg up on it. "People deal with grief in different ways. I know it's hard now, but I have a feeling he'll get past it."
"I hope so. I'm out of ideas of how to help him."
"Maybe he's to the point where he needs to help himself."
She met his gaze. "Or have someone new try."
"I'm not really doing anything, Madison, just giving him something to do, someplace to go so he has something else to focus on. You know that's what all the bad stuff probably was, him trying to find something to make all the hurt go away."
"Deep down, I know that. I just feel like I've failed him."
Madison didn't realize how close Callum was sitting to her until he reached out and took her hand in his. She didn't pull away. His big, warm hand felt too good. She felt so much support in that touch that she nearly gave way to the tears she seemed to always be holding back.
"I think this job might be good for you, too," Callum said.
"How so?"
"I'm guessing you haven't had any time to do your own grieving, or healing. Take it now, when you have the chance."
Madison squeezed his hand in return. "There's more to you than meets the eye, Callum Cody."
"That's what I keep telling everyone," he said and winked at her.
She laughed and shook her head.
"That's a pretty sound, you laughing."
Madison blushed and gently pulled her hand away. It would be oh so easy to fall under Callum Cody's spell, to believe that there could be something between them. But she didn't think she could handle any more heartache, and that's what she'd get if she gave in. Because maybe sooner than she'd like, she'd be headed back to Phoenix, back to preparing lesson plans and working on academic papers on westward expansion, back to staring into the eyes of the college students in her classes instead of those of the most handsome, intriguing man she'd ever met.
"One of these days, you won't pull away," he said.
When she looked up and got caught in his gaze, she was afraid he was right.
…
The next morning, Madison was up at the crack of dawn. She used the items she'd gone to the grocery to buy the night before to make Jason's lunch and a batch of cinnamon apple muffins for her brother and Callum. She felt she had to do something tangible to show Callum how much she appreciated what he was doing, even if he did brush it off as no big deal. To her, it was a very big deal.
When she heard Jason coming down the hallway, she turned and was stunned to see her brother looked like a real cowboy.
"Well, you look ready to ride the range."
"I'm just doing grunt work," he said. He noticed the paper bag on the kitchen island. "You made me lunch?"
She smiled. "Yeah."
He stared at the bag long and hard, and it finally dawned on her what she'd done. Every morning, her mom had made lunch for her father and had it ready for him in a paper bag when he'd headed for the office. She opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of a vehicle outside drew her attention.
"That's Callum." Jason grabbed the bag and headed out the door.
Madison stood in the kitchen for several seconds before she picked up the container of muffins and walked outside.
"I thought you might be avoiding me," Callum said where only she could hear him when she walked up next to the truck.
"No."
"Hey, what's wrong?" He reached for her hand, but she lifted the muffins to provide a buffer between them. "What's this?"
"A thank you."
"That wasn't necessary."
"It was for me."
Callum placed his fingers beneath her chin and lifted it, forcing her to look him in the eye. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I just did something that reminded Jason of Mom and Dad. Long story."
"Then when I bring him back this afternoon, you and are I are going for a long walk." When she started to object, he wouldn't let her. "No arguments."
Her heart beat a couple of times. "Okay."
As she watched Callum and Jason disappear down the drive, she was already looking forward to that walk even though she dreaded the conversation.
"Did you have a good day?"
He gave her one of his familiar shrugs, only this one wasn't as dismissive or tinged with anger. "It was okay." He looked over at Callum.
"Go on, ask her," Callum said.
Jason swallowed and met her eyes only for a moment. "Callum said he'd give me a job if it's okay with you."
"A job?" This was the last thing she'd expected, and suspicion flared that Callum was using her brother to get to her. But when she looked at him, he didn't seem to be in full-on flirt mode.
"I told him that I had to start working at fourteen to save up enough for a down payment on a car. Took me every bit of those two years to do it, too."
That surprised Madison. She knew that Elly and her brothers all had jobs on the Cottonwood and Callum worked on his family's ranch, but she would have expected the well-to-do Codys to provide vehicles for their children. That they hadn't, at least not for Callum, spoke volumes about how they'd raised their kids. It made her feel better about having Jason around Callum. If she couldn't get through to her brother, maybe a man could. That thought made her heart ache, but that was less important than getting her brother back on the right path.
"What would you be doing?"
"Glamorous things like mucking out horse stalls, " Callum said with laughter in his voice.
When she glanced at Jason, he was looking at Callum with admiration in his eyes. As much as it hurt to acknowledge that a stranger might be able to do what she'd failed at for months, she nodded.
"Okay."
"Dex and Dusty should have some old stuff you can wear to work," Callum said. He nodded toward the collection of barns behind the homestead. "I bet you can catch one of them before they call it a day. I'll be by to get you at seven in the morning."
Jason just nodded and took off around the house.
"I can't believe he didn't moan about the time. He usually sleeps half the morning."
"He probably will complain in the morning. I still do."
Madison looked back at Callum, who'd come to stand next to the porch, propping his outstretched arm against one of the support posts.
"Thank you, for whatever you said or did."
"Wait until he's shoveled some horse poop before you thank me. He may decide I'm the devil tomorrow."
"But for now he seems to be interested in something other than going home and hanging out with the wrong people."
"Well then, you're welcome."
"Did…did he say anything to you?"
"Not much. He's not much of a talker, at least not yet."
"He used to be." Madison gripped her hands in her lap. "Before our parents died, he was such a bright, happy kid, always talking about something new he'd learned or e-mailing me funny YouTube videos. But when they died and he had to come live with me, he just…" She shook her head. "He changed."
Callum sat on the edge of the porch and propped one leg up on it. "People deal with grief in different ways. I know it's hard now, but I have a feeling he'll get past it."
"I hope so. I'm out of ideas of how to help him."
"Maybe he's to the point where he needs to help himself."
She met his gaze. "Or have someone new try."
"I'm not really doing anything, Madison, just giving him something to do, someplace to go so he has something else to focus on. You know that's what all the bad stuff probably was, him trying to find something to make all the hurt go away."
"Deep down, I know that. I just feel like I've failed him."
Madison didn't realize how close Callum was sitting to her until he reached out and took her hand in his. She didn't pull away. His big, warm hand felt too good. She felt so much support in that touch that she nearly gave way to the tears she seemed to always be holding back.
"I think this job might be good for you, too," Callum said.
"How so?"
"I'm guessing you haven't had any time to do your own grieving, or healing. Take it now, when you have the chance."
Madison squeezed his hand in return. "There's more to you than meets the eye, Callum Cody."
"That's what I keep telling everyone," he said and winked at her.
She laughed and shook her head.
"That's a pretty sound, you laughing."
Madison blushed and gently pulled her hand away. It would be oh so easy to fall under Callum Cody's spell, to believe that there could be something between them. But she didn't think she could handle any more heartache, and that's what she'd get if she gave in. Because maybe sooner than she'd like, she'd be headed back to Phoenix, back to preparing lesson plans and working on academic papers on westward expansion, back to staring into the eyes of the college students in her classes instead of those of the most handsome, intriguing man she'd ever met.
"One of these days, you won't pull away," he said.
When she looked up and got caught in his gaze, she was afraid he was right.
…
The next morning, Madison was up at the crack of dawn. She used the items she'd gone to the grocery to buy the night before to make Jason's lunch and a batch of cinnamon apple muffins for her brother and Callum. She felt she had to do something tangible to show Callum how much she appreciated what he was doing, even if he did brush it off as no big deal. To her, it was a very big deal.
When she heard Jason coming down the hallway, she turned and was stunned to see her brother looked like a real cowboy.
"Well, you look ready to ride the range."
"I'm just doing grunt work," he said. He noticed the paper bag on the kitchen island. "You made me lunch?"
She smiled. "Yeah."
He stared at the bag long and hard, and it finally dawned on her what she'd done. Every morning, her mom had made lunch for her father and had it ready for him in a paper bag when he'd headed for the office. She opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of a vehicle outside drew her attention.
"That's Callum." Jason grabbed the bag and headed out the door.
Madison stood in the kitchen for several seconds before she picked up the container of muffins and walked outside.
"I thought you might be avoiding me," Callum said where only she could hear him when she walked up next to the truck.
"No."
"Hey, what's wrong?" He reached for her hand, but she lifted the muffins to provide a buffer between them. "What's this?"
"A thank you."
"That wasn't necessary."
"It was for me."
Callum placed his fingers beneath her chin and lifted it, forcing her to look him in the eye. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I just did something that reminded Jason of Mom and Dad. Long story."
"Then when I bring him back this afternoon, you and are I are going for a long walk." When she started to object, he wouldn't let her. "No arguments."
Her heart beat a couple of times. "Okay."
As she watched Callum and Jason disappear down the drive, she was already looking forward to that walk even though she dreaded the conversation.
Her Unexpected Cowboy - Chapter 3
It took a few stunned moments for Madison's brain to kick-start again after Callum's comment on the porch. He'd disappeared inside the house before the message from her head made it to her feet and she moved to follow.
When was the last time a man had made his interest in her so obvious? Had any ever done so? She was certain none had her contemplating giving in to temptation quite so thoroughly. But this situation won the award for bad timing. Even so, she didn't say anything else to deter him. She tried to convince herself it was because she was so hungry and he was cooking, but her eyes kept straying to how snug his jeans fit him as he stood at the stove. She nearly fell out of her chair when he flipped the omelette onto a plate and swung toward her in one fluid motion, nearly catching her ogling his backside.
He hadn't been lying. He could make a mean omelette.
"This is delicious."
"Delicious enough to let me take you out?"
She ignored the little pang at how she had to answer. "I'm sorry, but no."
Callum shrugged. "Can't blame a guy for trying."
And trying. He flirted with her so much during the rest of breakfast that she felt on the verge of giggling at some points. Despite her marathon sleep session, she must still be tired.
"Well, if you change your mind and suddenly can't bear not to see me, call the Pebble Creek Ranch. I'll be here in a flash."
She did laugh then. "You are, perhaps, the most persistent man I've ever met."
He smiled, making her heart go wild in her chest. "I do my best."
…
Callum tried to refocus on the work he had waiting for him as he drove toward home, but that was difficult when all of his senses were still focused on Madison. He couldn't get her out of his mind, not since the moment he'd first seen her. Having his concentration shot wasn't smart when working with bucking horses, which was what he was heading home to spend the rest of the day doing.
As he topped a hill, he spotted someone walking along the side of the road. Almost instantly, he recognized the jeans and red shirt. Damn, the kid had gone farther than he thought he would. He didn't like the idea of him causing Madison to worry more, making the dark circles under her beautiful blue eyes even darker. Maybe he could do something about that. He slowed as he pulled up next to Jason.
"Out for a walk or running away?"
He saw a sliver of concern pass over Jason's young face before recognition hit. "Just walking."
Callum wondered if Jason had entertained thoughts of running away, but something told him the boy didn't quite have what it took to go through with the deed. He might be angry with Madison, but he'd bet good money that he loved his sister beneath all that misplaced anger.
He pointed toward the passenger door. "Get in."
Jason just stared at him. After all, he really didn't know him. He was just the cousin of his sister's college friend.
"I'm headed down the road to my family's ranch. Going to work with some bucking horses today if you want to hang out and watch."
Jason hesitated a moment more before opening the door and slipping into the passenger seat.
Callum didn't force conversation on the boy. He figured he'd talk when and if he got ready. When they turned into the ranch's entrance, Callum started pointing out things—fire tower on a distant ridge, a few guest cabins along Pebble Creek, the main house where his parents lived with his sister, Regina, and brother, Baker.
"Our oldest sister, Natalie, lives in Cheyenne with her family."
"You all sure like big families out here," Jason muttered.
Callum laughed. "Need a lot of kids to fill up all this land." From who knew where, an image of himself as a father with his own kids formed in his mind—kids who looked remarkably like Madison.
He shook away the image. Yeah, he was attracted to her, but why was he having serious thoughts like that when he hadn't even known her a full day?
He parked next to the barn that held his office and apartment and connected to the outdoor arena where he worked the bucking horses with the hands. When he got out of the truck, Jason followed without a word. Callum gave the boy a quick-and-dirty tour before he got to work. On the way out the back of the barn, he texted Elly to tell Madison that he had Jason with him so she wouldn't worry. As Callum talked with Harry Wurton, his most trusted hand, about their newest horse's progress, he glanced toward where Jason was leaning against the back of the barn, trying his teenage best not to look interested. Callum had to laugh because he probably looked like that at fourteen, too.
"Who's the kid?" Harry asked.
"Little brother of Elly's college friend."
"City kid, huh?"
"Yeah. One who's had a tough time of it recently."
"That explains the visible chip on his shoulder."
Callum nodded. "He and his sister needed a break from each other." And better the kid was here than finding whatever trouble he could.
Callum didn't make it obvious he was keeping an eye on Jason, but he had to admit some satisfaction when the boy showed a bit of interest. As Harry pulled himself up onto Jumping Bean, Jason pushed away from the wall of the barn. By the time the large chestnut horse bucked Harry into the dirt, Jason was near the fence watching every move, a hint of light in his eyes.
Callum casually strode over to stand next to Jason. "This one's been a bear to train, but I think we've got him just about ready."
"For what?"
"The rodeo circuit."
"Oh." Jason watched as the hands led the horse out of the arena. "That's what you do, train horses to buck?"
"Yep. Used to ride them until a particularly nasty fellow named El Diablo bucked me right into a fence during a rodeo and knocked me out cold."
"You couldn't ride anymore?"
"Not the bucking stock. Doc said one more concussion might knock my brain right out of my head."
Jason laughed, and Callum wondered when he'd done that the last time because the kid looked surprised that it had happened.
Not that he'd had a lot to laugh about.
Callum looked toward the house and couldn't imagine losing his parents, especially not at the same time. And not when he'd been fourteen.
Even though she knew where Jason was, Madison fretted about him all day. She'd gone on a ranch tour with Elly, had lunch with Elly's parents, J.W. and Anne, in their gorgeous showplace home, and tried to read a novel. But she kept asking herself what Callum had been thinking taking her brother to his ranch, wondering if Jason was behaving or causing trouble. She hated having to worry about her brother's actions, but he'd been a different kid during the past several months.
She closed the book she couldn't concentrate on when she noticed a familiar pickup coming up the long drive from the main road. Nervousness twisted her stomach, and she had to admit it wasn't all because of Jason. Part of it was because she was about to see Callum again, and she was scared by how giddy that made her.
When the two of them got out of the truck, Callum touched the front edge of his hat. "Madison."
Her skin heated at the mere sound of her name on his lips. She figured if she ever let herself get too close to him, she might very well go up in flames.
And she wasn't at all sure that was a bad thing.
When was the last time a man had made his interest in her so obvious? Had any ever done so? She was certain none had her contemplating giving in to temptation quite so thoroughly. But this situation won the award for bad timing. Even so, she didn't say anything else to deter him. She tried to convince herself it was because she was so hungry and he was cooking, but her eyes kept straying to how snug his jeans fit him as he stood at the stove. She nearly fell out of her chair when he flipped the omelette onto a plate and swung toward her in one fluid motion, nearly catching her ogling his backside.
He hadn't been lying. He could make a mean omelette.
"This is delicious."
"Delicious enough to let me take you out?"
She ignored the little pang at how she had to answer. "I'm sorry, but no."
Callum shrugged. "Can't blame a guy for trying."
And trying. He flirted with her so much during the rest of breakfast that she felt on the verge of giggling at some points. Despite her marathon sleep session, she must still be tired.
"Well, if you change your mind and suddenly can't bear not to see me, call the Pebble Creek Ranch. I'll be here in a flash."
She did laugh then. "You are, perhaps, the most persistent man I've ever met."
He smiled, making her heart go wild in her chest. "I do my best."
…
Callum tried to refocus on the work he had waiting for him as he drove toward home, but that was difficult when all of his senses were still focused on Madison. He couldn't get her out of his mind, not since the moment he'd first seen her. Having his concentration shot wasn't smart when working with bucking horses, which was what he was heading home to spend the rest of the day doing.
As he topped a hill, he spotted someone walking along the side of the road. Almost instantly, he recognized the jeans and red shirt. Damn, the kid had gone farther than he thought he would. He didn't like the idea of him causing Madison to worry more, making the dark circles under her beautiful blue eyes even darker. Maybe he could do something about that. He slowed as he pulled up next to Jason.
"Out for a walk or running away?"
He saw a sliver of concern pass over Jason's young face before recognition hit. "Just walking."
Callum wondered if Jason had entertained thoughts of running away, but something told him the boy didn't quite have what it took to go through with the deed. He might be angry with Madison, but he'd bet good money that he loved his sister beneath all that misplaced anger.
He pointed toward the passenger door. "Get in."
Jason just stared at him. After all, he really didn't know him. He was just the cousin of his sister's college friend.
"I'm headed down the road to my family's ranch. Going to work with some bucking horses today if you want to hang out and watch."
Jason hesitated a moment more before opening the door and slipping into the passenger seat.
Callum didn't force conversation on the boy. He figured he'd talk when and if he got ready. When they turned into the ranch's entrance, Callum started pointing out things—fire tower on a distant ridge, a few guest cabins along Pebble Creek, the main house where his parents lived with his sister, Regina, and brother, Baker.
"Our oldest sister, Natalie, lives in Cheyenne with her family."
"You all sure like big families out here," Jason muttered.
Callum laughed. "Need a lot of kids to fill up all this land." From who knew where, an image of himself as a father with his own kids formed in his mind—kids who looked remarkably like Madison.
He shook away the image. Yeah, he was attracted to her, but why was he having serious thoughts like that when he hadn't even known her a full day?
He parked next to the barn that held his office and apartment and connected to the outdoor arena where he worked the bucking horses with the hands. When he got out of the truck, Jason followed without a word. Callum gave the boy a quick-and-dirty tour before he got to work. On the way out the back of the barn, he texted Elly to tell Madison that he had Jason with him so she wouldn't worry. As Callum talked with Harry Wurton, his most trusted hand, about their newest horse's progress, he glanced toward where Jason was leaning against the back of the barn, trying his teenage best not to look interested. Callum had to laugh because he probably looked like that at fourteen, too.
"Who's the kid?" Harry asked.
"Little brother of Elly's college friend."
"City kid, huh?"
"Yeah. One who's had a tough time of it recently."
"That explains the visible chip on his shoulder."
Callum nodded. "He and his sister needed a break from each other." And better the kid was here than finding whatever trouble he could.
Callum didn't make it obvious he was keeping an eye on Jason, but he had to admit some satisfaction when the boy showed a bit of interest. As Harry pulled himself up onto Jumping Bean, Jason pushed away from the wall of the barn. By the time the large chestnut horse bucked Harry into the dirt, Jason was near the fence watching every move, a hint of light in his eyes.
Callum casually strode over to stand next to Jason. "This one's been a bear to train, but I think we've got him just about ready."
"For what?"
"The rodeo circuit."
"Oh." Jason watched as the hands led the horse out of the arena. "That's what you do, train horses to buck?"
"Yep. Used to ride them until a particularly nasty fellow named El Diablo bucked me right into a fence during a rodeo and knocked me out cold."
"You couldn't ride anymore?"
"Not the bucking stock. Doc said one more concussion might knock my brain right out of my head."
Jason laughed, and Callum wondered when he'd done that the last time because the kid looked surprised that it had happened.
Not that he'd had a lot to laugh about.
Callum looked toward the house and couldn't imagine losing his parents, especially not at the same time. And not when he'd been fourteen.
Even though she knew where Jason was, Madison fretted about him all day. She'd gone on a ranch tour with Elly, had lunch with Elly's parents, J.W. and Anne, in their gorgeous showplace home, and tried to read a novel. But she kept asking herself what Callum had been thinking taking her brother to his ranch, wondering if Jason was behaving or causing trouble. She hated having to worry about her brother's actions, but he'd been a different kid during the past several months.
She closed the book she couldn't concentrate on when she noticed a familiar pickup coming up the long drive from the main road. Nervousness twisted her stomach, and she had to admit it wasn't all because of Jason. Part of it was because she was about to see Callum again, and she was scared by how giddy that made her.
When the two of them got out of the truck, Callum touched the front edge of his hat. "Madison."
Her skin heated at the mere sound of her name on his lips. She figured if she ever let herself get too close to him, she might very well go up in flames.
And she wasn't at all sure that was a bad thing.
Her Unexpected Cowboy - Chapter 2
The dizziness dissolved as soon as Callum's strong hands gripped Madison's arms. But on its heels came embarrassment and she pulled back, breaking the contact.
"Sorry about that," she said. "Guess I'm more tired than I thought."
"Looks like you need a hot meal and a good night of sleep."
At the mention of sleep, the craziest image of curling up next to Callum flitted through her mind. To hide the new wave of heat invading her cheeks, she turned and went to stand next to her suitcase.
"I think you're right. Thanks for helping us with the luggage."
"Anytime."
When Callum didn't make a move to leave, she couldn't help looking up at him. When their eyes met, he seemed to come out of some sort of trance and moved toward the door.
"I'll leave you to get unpacked. Maybe we'll see each other around."
She smiled but didn't voice the thought that she would like that.
When he disappeared down the hall, she stood listening to the thunk of his boots until they faded. Only then did she sink down onto the bed. She lifted her palm to her forehead to see if she was running a fever, because she was feeling way warmer than the weather could account for.
But she knew it wasn't a fever. It was a blazing hot attraction for a man she'd met not five minutes ago. She'd never experienced such a visceral reaction to a man, but she couldn't have picked a worse time to have it slam into her.
She lay back on the bed, wondering what else could possibly add to the out-of-control maelstrom her life had become.
…
All the way from his home on the Pebble Creek Ranch between Markton and Cody to the Cottonwood the next morning, Callum tried to think of some plausible reason why he would be visiting the ranch again so soon. If he didn't come up with something, there would be no end to the teasing his cousins would shoot his way when they realized the real reason was so he could get another glimpse of Madison Gray.
He still hadn't come up with anything when he parked next to the ranch office in the converted bunkhouse. As he slipped out of his truck, Elly stepped out the front door of the office.
"I wondered how fast you'd be back over here," she said, that expected note of teasing in her voice.
"What, a man can't visit family?"
She snorted. "Don't waste your effort. I've got eyes. I saw how you were looking at Madison yesterday."
"I was just being neighborly."
"Oh, please." She nodded toward the house. "You're out of luck, though. She's still not up. She fell asleep without even eating last night."
"She looked exhausted."
"Not a surprise. She's been through a lot lately." Elly crossed her arms. "Which is why I don't want anyone hurting her."
He met his cousin's gaze. "I'm not planning on it."
"Good. Because, cousin or not, I'll take it out of your hide if you do."
…
Madison dragged herself out of the deep well of sleep. It felt like she was swimming up from the dark bottom of the ocean. She blinked several times, her mind trying to make sense of the light flooding the room. Gradually, reality coalesced in her brain. She was stretched out on the bed, still in the clothes she'd worn the day before. At some point, she'd pulled the comforter over her. Her suitcase still sat beside her, waiting to be unpacked.
She managed to move her head enough to see the clock on the nightstand. It was after eight o'clock. She'd slept for more than twelve hours. Pure and utter exhaustion had finally won the battle.
The sound of voices outside caught her attention, spurred her to slide off the bed and dig for some clean clothes in her suitcase. Never had a hot shower felt so good, easing her aching muscles, ones that felt as if they'd been tensed from the moment she'd received the news of her parents' deaths. The only thing that made her get out of the shower when she did was the persistent growling of her stomach.
When she reached the living room, Jason was parked on the couch in front of the TV, flipping channels. She braced herself for hostility right before she spoke.
"How did you sleep?"
Jason just shrugged.
Madison fought the urge to reprimand him. After all, it only made things worse. Everything she did seemed to make things worse.
"What would you like to do today?"
"Go home."
Madison sighed. "We just got here. Give it a chance. It's beautiful here, don't you think?"
Jason spun toward her, anger in his eyes. "Then you stay out here in the middle of nowhere. Let me go back. I can stay with friends."
"Your friends are part of the reason we're here in the first place."
Jason tossed the remote control on the coffee table and stormed toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Out."
She followed, but by the time she reached the door he was already down the steps and making long strides down the driveway. When she opened her mouth to call him back, nothing came out. The hope she'd felt the day before dissolved into utter hopelessness.
"Don't worry, he'll come back when he's hungry."
The deep, sexy voice had Madison turning toward the end of the porch. Callum Cody sat there in a rocking chair, today looking every inch the cowboy in scuffed boots, faded jeans, a blue snap-up shirt and a black cowboy hat.
"I should go after him."
Callum nodded toward Jason's retreating form. "No need. This place is huge. He can walk all day and not leave Cody land."
"He could get a ride on the road."
"Honey, around here anyone picks up a stray kid is going to make darn sure he gets back where he came from."
Something about the absolute surety in his voice eased her worry. But that "honey" he'd uttered and the way it made her heart race—that she didn't know what to do with.
"I heard you got that good night of sleep," he said.
"I can't remember when I last slept that long."
"It's the clean air and clean living out here. We all sleep like babies."
A little laugh slipped out of Madison, surprising her. She'd feared she had forgotten how to laugh. "Now why do I doubt that?" Oh my, was she flirting with him? Had she totally lost her mind?
"I have no idea," he said, all feigned innocence.
She rolled her eyes. "You forget I went to school with a lot of cowboys."
"I feel like I ought to be affronted on behalf of cowboys everywhere."
Again, she laughed a little, then glanced down the driveway. Jason was growing smaller with each passing moment.
"So, what's a city girl do when she comes to the country for the summer?" Callum asked.
Good question. "I really don't know. I guess I didn't think much beyond the actually getting here."
"How about you let a cowboy take you out?"
If possible, her heart sped up even more. As appealing as that sounded, she couldn't allow herself to give in to the temptation. She couldn't handle one more thing, couldn't even think about getting attached to someone else who wouldn't be there in a few weeks.
"Please don't take this the wrong way, but I can't. It's just…not a good idea."
Callum stood and took a few steps in her direction. "Well, at least let me make you breakfast. I make a mean omelette."
As if to betray her, her stomach let loose with an audible growl.
"I guess that's my answer," he said, laughter in his voice. He started past her then stopped so close she swore she could feel the warmth of his body. "And just so you know, I don't agree. I think us going out is a very good idea."
"Sorry about that," she said. "Guess I'm more tired than I thought."
"Looks like you need a hot meal and a good night of sleep."
At the mention of sleep, the craziest image of curling up next to Callum flitted through her mind. To hide the new wave of heat invading her cheeks, she turned and went to stand next to her suitcase.
"I think you're right. Thanks for helping us with the luggage."
"Anytime."
When Callum didn't make a move to leave, she couldn't help looking up at him. When their eyes met, he seemed to come out of some sort of trance and moved toward the door.
"I'll leave you to get unpacked. Maybe we'll see each other around."
She smiled but didn't voice the thought that she would like that.
When he disappeared down the hall, she stood listening to the thunk of his boots until they faded. Only then did she sink down onto the bed. She lifted her palm to her forehead to see if she was running a fever, because she was feeling way warmer than the weather could account for.
But she knew it wasn't a fever. It was a blazing hot attraction for a man she'd met not five minutes ago. She'd never experienced such a visceral reaction to a man, but she couldn't have picked a worse time to have it slam into her.
She lay back on the bed, wondering what else could possibly add to the out-of-control maelstrom her life had become.
…
All the way from his home on the Pebble Creek Ranch between Markton and Cody to the Cottonwood the next morning, Callum tried to think of some plausible reason why he would be visiting the ranch again so soon. If he didn't come up with something, there would be no end to the teasing his cousins would shoot his way when they realized the real reason was so he could get another glimpse of Madison Gray.
He still hadn't come up with anything when he parked next to the ranch office in the converted bunkhouse. As he slipped out of his truck, Elly stepped out the front door of the office.
"I wondered how fast you'd be back over here," she said, that expected note of teasing in her voice.
"What, a man can't visit family?"
She snorted. "Don't waste your effort. I've got eyes. I saw how you were looking at Madison yesterday."
"I was just being neighborly."
"Oh, please." She nodded toward the house. "You're out of luck, though. She's still not up. She fell asleep without even eating last night."
"She looked exhausted."
"Not a surprise. She's been through a lot lately." Elly crossed her arms. "Which is why I don't want anyone hurting her."
He met his cousin's gaze. "I'm not planning on it."
"Good. Because, cousin or not, I'll take it out of your hide if you do."
…
Madison dragged herself out of the deep well of sleep. It felt like she was swimming up from the dark bottom of the ocean. She blinked several times, her mind trying to make sense of the light flooding the room. Gradually, reality coalesced in her brain. She was stretched out on the bed, still in the clothes she'd worn the day before. At some point, she'd pulled the comforter over her. Her suitcase still sat beside her, waiting to be unpacked.
She managed to move her head enough to see the clock on the nightstand. It was after eight o'clock. She'd slept for more than twelve hours. Pure and utter exhaustion had finally won the battle.
The sound of voices outside caught her attention, spurred her to slide off the bed and dig for some clean clothes in her suitcase. Never had a hot shower felt so good, easing her aching muscles, ones that felt as if they'd been tensed from the moment she'd received the news of her parents' deaths. The only thing that made her get out of the shower when she did was the persistent growling of her stomach.
When she reached the living room, Jason was parked on the couch in front of the TV, flipping channels. She braced herself for hostility right before she spoke.
"How did you sleep?"
Jason just shrugged.
Madison fought the urge to reprimand him. After all, it only made things worse. Everything she did seemed to make things worse.
"What would you like to do today?"
"Go home."
Madison sighed. "We just got here. Give it a chance. It's beautiful here, don't you think?"
Jason spun toward her, anger in his eyes. "Then you stay out here in the middle of nowhere. Let me go back. I can stay with friends."
"Your friends are part of the reason we're here in the first place."
Jason tossed the remote control on the coffee table and stormed toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Out."
She followed, but by the time she reached the door he was already down the steps and making long strides down the driveway. When she opened her mouth to call him back, nothing came out. The hope she'd felt the day before dissolved into utter hopelessness.
"Don't worry, he'll come back when he's hungry."
The deep, sexy voice had Madison turning toward the end of the porch. Callum Cody sat there in a rocking chair, today looking every inch the cowboy in scuffed boots, faded jeans, a blue snap-up shirt and a black cowboy hat.
"I should go after him."
Callum nodded toward Jason's retreating form. "No need. This place is huge. He can walk all day and not leave Cody land."
"He could get a ride on the road."
"Honey, around here anyone picks up a stray kid is going to make darn sure he gets back where he came from."
Something about the absolute surety in his voice eased her worry. But that "honey" he'd uttered and the way it made her heart race—that she didn't know what to do with.
"I heard you got that good night of sleep," he said.
"I can't remember when I last slept that long."
"It's the clean air and clean living out here. We all sleep like babies."
A little laugh slipped out of Madison, surprising her. She'd feared she had forgotten how to laugh. "Now why do I doubt that?" Oh my, was she flirting with him? Had she totally lost her mind?
"I have no idea," he said, all feigned innocence.
She rolled her eyes. "You forget I went to school with a lot of cowboys."
"I feel like I ought to be affronted on behalf of cowboys everywhere."
Again, she laughed a little, then glanced down the driveway. Jason was growing smaller with each passing moment.
"So, what's a city girl do when she comes to the country for the summer?" Callum asked.
Good question. "I really don't know. I guess I didn't think much beyond the actually getting here."
"How about you let a cowboy take you out?"
If possible, her heart sped up even more. As appealing as that sounded, she couldn't allow herself to give in to the temptation. She couldn't handle one more thing, couldn't even think about getting attached to someone else who wouldn't be there in a few weeks.
"Please don't take this the wrong way, but I can't. It's just…not a good idea."
Callum stood and took a few steps in her direction. "Well, at least let me make you breakfast. I make a mean omelette."
As if to betray her, her stomach let loose with an audible growl.
"I guess that's my answer," he said, laughter in his voice. He started past her then stopped so close she swore she could feel the warmth of his body. "And just so you know, I don't agree. I think us going out is a very good idea."
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