by Joss Wood
“Because I need you, Dan. I need sex.” Alex heard the desperation in her voice and didn’t know whether she was trying to convince herself or him.
He pushed inside her and Alex wrapped her legs around his back, pulling him closer. Heat, warmth, completion. The rest of her life was crazy confusion but, as Daniel started to move, Alex realized that this made sense. It was the only thing that did.
As he pushed her higher and higher, the needs of her body stilled her whirling thoughts and all she wanted was more of him. Her hands skated over his back, his butt, down the backs of his thighs. A strand of hair landed in her mouth and she thrashed her head from side to side as he kissed her neck, pulled her earlobe between his teeth. She was so close, teetering on the edge of pleasure, when she heard Daniel’s demand to let go, his reassurance that he would catch her.
She wanted to stay here, just for another minute, bathed in that silver light of anticipation. “Dammit, Lex, I can’t hold on,” Daniel muttered.
Placing his hand between their bodies, he found her clit and stroked it, just once with his thumb. It was the sexual equivalent of a hard hand shoving her between her shoulders and she plunged over the cliff... Falling, falling, shattering. But he fell with her, his body shaking as he came.
Daniel collapsed on her and Alex didn’t mind that her breath was shallow, that his body weight pushed her into the soft mattress. When they were lying like this, intimately connected, they were at peace. It was only when they started to talk that things went wrong.
Alex pushed her nose into his neck, kissed his skin and ran her hand down his spine. Beautiful but stubborn. Gorgeous but flawed.
Just as she was, contrary and imperfect.
Daniel pulled himself up and gazed down at her, holding his body weight on one hand as he pulled the strand of hair from her mouth and tucked it behind her ear. Alex saw her confusion reflected in his eyes. Then determination replaced confusion and she knew that he was looking for the right words to use to convince her to come around to his way of thinking.
Okay, she might be stubborn but he was relentless. “I’m not marrying or moving in with you, Clayton. No matter how good you are in the sack.”
“Dammit.” Daniel slipped out of her, stood up and stalked to the small bathroom attached to the bedroom. “You are a stubborn pain in the ass!”
Sure she was but that didn’t make her wrong!
Five
The end of January
Gus heard the door to his study open and looked up to see his still-beautiful Rose, and his heart, old and jaded, thumped against his rib cage. He’d waited for fifty-plus years to see that soft smile on her face, for her to walk into the room and into his arms.
Man, he was riding the gravy train with biscuit wheels.
Rose placed her hands on his chest and her mouth drifted across his.
“Mornin’, husband.”
He was her husband. And how freakin’ great was that? He smiled, allowed his hand to drift down over her ass and grinned. “Mornin’, wife.”
After a little canoodling—the best way to start a morning—Rose rested her head on her chest and sighed. “Have you had any more thoughts on what to do about our grandchildren?”
During their wedding reception last night, Rose dropped the bombshell news that Alex was pregnant and that Daniel was the baby’s father. Strangely, instead of feeling angry, he’d felt content. Like this news was right, simply meant to be. He’d initially thought that he was so very relaxed because he’d been floating on a cloud of wedding-induced happiness, but upon waking this morning, it still felt right, like it was preordained.
He wasn’t, however, happy that Alex and Daniel were going to try to raise their great-grandchild separately and not as husband and wife. That wasn’t acceptable. Not because he cared about convention or how it would look, but because, dammit, those two were meant to be together.
They’d meant to be together ten years ago—shame on him and Rose for making their grandchildren casualties in their stupid, long-held feud—and they were meant to be together now.
“My Alex is ‘more stubborn-hard than hammered iron.’”
Rose pulled back and smiled her appreciation. “Shakespeare, Gus Slade? I’m impressed.”
Gus felt his ears heat at her admiration and then shrugged it off. They had more important things to worry about. “So, about these darned kids...”
He refused to allow them to repeat his and Rose’s foolishness and waste so much time. They had to reunite Alex and Daniel and, after showing his wife exactly how much he loved and wanted her, he’d spent a good part of the night working out how to do just that. “I have a plan, but it might involve a sacrifice on our part.”
“Okay. How big a sacrifice?”
Oh man, she wasn’t going to like this. “Our honeymoon. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I want to spend some time with you alone and I know you want that, too—”
Rose stepped away from him, pulled a chair from the dining table, sat down and crossed her legs. She didn’t look mad but, since they’d been married for less than a minute, what did he know? “Gus Slade, I have waited fifty-two years to be your wife and I don’t care about going away for our honeymoon.” A soft radiant smile lit up her lovely face. How could she possibly be more beautiful today than she was half a century ago? Yet she was. “Being with you—whether it’s here in Royal or at Galloway Cove or on the damned moon—is where I want to be.”
“Such language, darlin’.” Gus tsk-tsked.
Rose rolled her eyes. “I’m not a fragile flower, Gus. Neither am I sixteen anymore. And I can swear if I damn well want to.”
Gus hid his smile with his hand. But before he could investigate this saucy new side of his wife—man, that word just slayed him, every single time—he saw the speculation in her eyes.
“Tell me what you have in mind, and I’ll gladly sacrifice our week on Matt’s island to get those two to see daylight.”
Gus outlined his plan and watched as Rose stared out the window at the east paddock, where his old paint horse, Jezebel, was keeping company with his prized Arabians and Daisy, the airheaded goat.
“Do you think it can work?” Rose asked him, worry in her eyes. She no longer wore her mask of aloofness and he was clearly able to read her concern for both Daniel and Alex. He could see her deep desire to see them happy. Rose didn’t wear her heart on her sleeve, but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel things deeply, sometimes too deeply.
Gus sighed. They’d wasted so much time being angry with each other, but he couldn’t regret loving Sarah—they’d had a good marriage. Losing his son so early had been horrible but raising his grandkids had given both him and Sarah a second lease on life.
Rose’s life hadn’t been so easy. Her daddy had been a hard man and Ed, her husband, had been as cuddly as a hornet and had made her life hell. They’d made so many mistakes, but he was damned if he’d watch Alex and Daniel repeat their history. They might argue like crazy but the room crackled with electricity when the two of them were together. They owed it to themselves and their baby to make it work.
“Gus? Will your plan work?”
He shrugged and, needing to touch her, held the back of her neck. “I hope so, honey.”
Rose nodded and leaned her head against his side. “If it doesn’t, we’ll lock them in the barn until they come to their senses.”
Gus laughed, thinking she was joking. When she remained silent, he looked down at her. “You’re joking, right?”
Rose stood up and wound her arms around his waist. “We’re giving them the chance to come to their senses in a nice way. After all, it’s the least we can do after everything we pulled to keep them apart. But if it doesn’t work, we’ll do it the hard way.” He saw her stubborn expression and grinned. His wife was fierce. And he loved her that way.
He loved her, period. Always had.
The first week of February
Alex sat on the leather seat of the private plane Gus hired to fly his bride to Galloway Cove for their honeymoon and wished that she could ask the pilot to close the doors and whisk her away to Matt’s stunning private Caribbean island. She couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do more than stretch out on white sand beneath a blue sky, read a book and just be.
But no, before he left, her grandfather wanted to give her one last lecture and that was the only reason why he would’ve asked her to meet him and Rose on the plane. He’d leave her with a reprimand about doing the right thing, raising her baby with its father and not as a single mom in Houston.
She was depriving Daniel of being a full-time dad, depriving Gus and Rose of having quick and easy access to the baby, making life ten times harder for herself without having the support of Daniel, as well as her family and friends.
Yada yada.
She knew that—how could she not? Being on her own in Houston, trying to run a company as a single mom, was going to be the hardest challenge of her life! But Gus didn’t understand—she doubted anyone would—that was less scary than remaining in Royal, utterly in lust and half in love with her baby’s father. The best chance she had to stop thinking about Daniel Clayton and the life she could never have was for her to move back to Houston. She had a far better chance of pushing him out of her mind there than here in Royal.
If she stayed here, she might just do something crazy.
“Grandpa, Daniel and I had our chance.”
“That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a second one,” Gus replied.
It was like talking to a brick wall. In an effort to get through to him, Alex pulled out the big guns. “One of the reasons we missed our chance was because you and your new bride were vehemently opposed to us being together.”
Gus hesitated before replying. “We might not have been completely correct in that assumption.”
Okay, that was as close to an apology as she was going to get from her taciturn grandfather.
“But in our defense, you were also very young.”
“Daniel,” Alex reminded him, “chose The Silver C over me. His loyalty to Rose and to the ranch has always been stronger than any love he had for me.”
She hadn’t been able to explain further, unable to admit to Gus that she couldn’t trust that Daniel would be there for her and her baby when life got tough, couldn’t tolerate the thought of being second or third on his list of priorities.
“I think you are making a mistake, Alexis,” Gus quietly told her.
“But, Grandpa, it’s my life and my mistake to make,” Alex insisted.
“Except it’s not—you have a baby to think of,” Gus replied before ending the call.
Why couldn’t he understand that she’d lost so much? If she and Daniel lived together, raised their child together, there was a good chance that she would fall in love with him again; of that she had no doubt. Wasn’t that the reason she’d broken up with him recently, because she could feel herself sliding downhill into love?
Alex had lost Daniel’s love once, and she’d mourned him for years. Their breakup had been another type of death, and she was done with death, of all types.
She wouldn’t survive another loss. Her shattered heart would crumble into pieces too fine to be patched back together again. And while she had no intention of denying him access to his child, she needed to start getting used to being on her own, to a life that didn’t have Daniel in it. He was her baby’s father, not her lover and definitely not her friend.
It was better, safer, this way. Gus might’ve found love after a half century—and she was truly happy for him—but his path wasn’t hers. She didn’t want love in her life, it hurt too damn much when it left.
If only she could get Gus, and by extension Rose, to understand that.
Alex heard footsteps and turned to look down the aisle, expecting to see the happy couple. Oh crap. Daniel. Maybe she wasn’t in for a lecture; maybe Gus and Rose simply wanted a glass of champagne with their two favorite people before jetting off for a week of sun and sand and sex—ooh, can’t go there. Sun and sand was descriptive enough.
Daniel took the seat opposite her and looked at the open bottle of champagne sitting in an ice bucket. “We’re here for a dressing-down, aren’t we? This time they are going to tackle us together?”
Alex wanted to think otherwise but she nodded. “Probably.”
Daniel placed his boot on his ankle and Alex noticed that his denims, soft from washing, had a rip at the left knee and that the hems were frayed. She pulled in a deep breath and her womb throbbed at the intoxicating scent of soap, sun and ranch life mixed with pure, primal alpha male. She’d missed him so much. Keeping her distance was torture but so very necessary.
“Thanks for answering my fifty million calls,” Daniel bit out, pulling his designer shades off his face and hooking them onto the neck band of his T-shirt.
“Don’t exaggerate,” Alex retorted.
“Stop evading the subject. You’ve been avoiding me for weeks and I don’t like it.” She had. Leaving Royal for Houston for a couple of weeks helped. She’d needed to meet with Mike, discuss their partnership agreement and get a feel for his business, but the fact that she was half a state away from Daniel had helped with her evasion tactics.
“I saw you at the wedding,” Alex pointed out.
“Where you refused to discuss anything to do with the future and the baby. We have plans to make, Alex! We need to know where we are going!”
“Do we really have to go through all this again?” Alex threw up her hands and leaned forward. “I am going back to Houston. I am taking a partnership in a start-up company, and you are staying here. In five months I will give birth.”
“What about visitation rights? A nanny to help you? Child support?” Daniel bellowed.
“We can sort that out later when—” Alex broke off when she noticed the attendant approaching them. The young woman stopped, stood in the aisle alongside them and tossed them an easy smile.
“Sorry to interrupt but we’ve just had word that Mr. and Mrs. Slade are running a little late. But we need to move the plane so that the next aircraft can take our slot.”
Alex looked at Daniel and they both shrugged. “Okay?”
That bright, mischievous smile flashed again and Alex saw that her name tag read Michelle. “Safety regulations state that we can’t taxi without you both wearing a seat belt. Regulations, you know?”
“For God’s sake!” Daniel muttered, reaching for his seat belt and pulling it over his waist. “Do you have an idea when they might be here? I need to get back to the ranch. I have a meeting in an hour.” He frowned at Michelle, as if it were her fault their grandparents were late.
Michelle watched Alex buckle up before turning her attention back to Daniel. “They should be here soon, Mr. Clayton.”
Alex felt the aircraft move forward as the pilot guided the plane to its new position. The attendant walked away and Alex reached for the bottle of champagne and a crystal glass. Now, this was the way to fly. And if Gus had meant this champagne to be for Rose, then he should’ve been prompt. Besides, any sane woman needed alcohol while dealing with Daniel Clayton. It was deeply unfair that that much sexy covered a whole bunch of annoying.
Before she could tip the bottle to her glass, the champagne was whisked from her hand and the bottle dropped back into the ice bucket. “Not happening.”
Alex glared at Daniel. “When did they make you the no-champagne-for-breakfast police? Last time I checked, I’m an adult and I can have—”
“Cut it out, Alex. I’m the dad who’s telling his baby’s mom that she can’t have alcohol while she’s pregnant.”
Alex wanted to lash out at him, tell him that he had no right to tell her what to do, but dammit, on this point he was right. She coul
dn’t drink alcohol while she was pregnant. Gah! What had she been thinking? Probably that she needed the soothing power of the fermented grape, especially if she had to deal with Mr. Impossible.
Alex risked looking at Daniel and saw the smug smile of his face at winning that minor battle. Annoyed, she kicked out and smiled when the toe of her right boot connected with his shin.
“Ow, dammit!” Daniel howled before bending down to rub his injury.
“Don’t be a baby, Clayton.” Alex looked out the window, saw that the plane was whizzing past the trees bordering the airport and frowned. “Aren’t we going a bit fast?”
“Don’t kick me again,” Daniel warned and followed her gaze to the window. He released a low curse. “We’re not taxiing.”
Alex gripped the arms of her seat. “Daniel, what’s going on?”
“If I’m not mistaken, we’re about to take off.” Daniel looked around, saw an electronic panel and jabbed at the button labeled Attendant.
“This is Michelle. What can I do for you, Mr. Clayton? Miss Slade?” Michelle’s melodious voice drifted over them.
Daniel didn’t waste time looking for explanations. “Stop this plane right now or I’m going to have you all arrested for kidnapping.” Alex shivered at the I’m-going-to-kill-someone note in his voice. She’d only heard that voice once, maybe twice, before and she knew that you didn’t disobey Daniel Clayton when he used it.
“Sorry, sir, but we can’t do that. Besides, Mr. and Mrs. Slade promised to pay all our legal fees if you decide to sue us. Plus a hefty retainer.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Daniel asked, his eyes widening.
Alex immediately understood why. They’d left the ground and they were literally jetting off to God knew where.
“There is an iPad in the side pocket of your seat,” the airline attendant continued, and Daniel kept his eyes locked onto Alex’s face as he dropped his hand to the side of his seat.
“Switch it on and there’s a video clip on the home screen. It should answer all of your questions,” Michelle stated, and Alex heard the click as she disconnected the intercom.