“Now that you’ve brought it up, I’m dying to know how you managed that.”
B.J. turned to her, looking virginal and pure in her white dress and lacy veil. “Anonymous sex.”
Keely nearly dropped her champagne flute. “Excuse me?”
“In a bad rainstorm I dodged into one of those caves we used to play in when we were kids. My horse had run away, so when Jonas ducked into the same dark cave, he didn’t know anyone was in there.”
Keely laughed. “You must have scared the living daylights out of him.”
“I did, but when I realized he didn’t know it was me, I pretended to be someone else and seduced him.”
“No way!”
“Yep. I did.”
Keely stared at her sister in admiration. “Way to go, sis!” B.J. grinned. “It gets better. Before he left the cave, we agreed to meet secretly, and each time I made him wear a blindfold so he wouldn’t know who I was.”
“Get outta town!” Keely shook her head in amazement. “You had total control of the situation. Now, that sounds like something I’d do.”
“I know.” B.J. looked smug. “In fact, many times along the way I asked myself what you would do, and I did that. I had a blast.”
“Cool.” She smiled at her sister. “I’m so glad you made it happen. You’re perfect for each other.”
“So it seems.” B.J. gazed at Keely. “Listen, you can tell me to mind my own business if you want, but…what’s up with you and Noah? I keep picking up on all kinds of tension between you two.”
Keely swallowed, thinking how much she longed for a confidante. And after all, her sister had confessed her secret. “We, um, sort of got involved in Vegas.” “You did?” B.J.’s blue eyes glowed with eagerness. “That sure explains a lot about his weird mood lately, and the singing telegram.”
“Yeah, you told me he was the one who thought of that.”
“He not only thought of it, he was there.”
Keely was sure she must have misunderstood. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that he flew to L.A. and supervised the whole stunt, to make sure it went the way we’d planned. He stood just outside the door of your office where he could see you, but I guess you never noticed him.”
Keely was stunned. “No. No, I sure didn’t.”
“He pretended his being there was necessary, and we went along with it because we could tell from the beginning that he wanted to go over there and see you. I wondered at the time if something had happened in Vegas.”
“Yeah, something happened in Vegas.” Keely sighed. “But we don’t belong together. He doesn’t want a wild child like me.”
“Oh, you’re dead wrong there.”
“Trust me, I’m not. His expression when he looks at me tells it all.”
“Mmm.” B.J. glanced over to where Jonas and Noah stood. “By the way, can I have a sip of your champagne?”
“Sure, but I can get you a whole glass. I—”
“Don’t want a whole glass. I plan to treat Jonas to some fun and games tonight, and I don’t want to be fuzzy headed for that.” She winked as she handed the flute back to Keely. “Which brings me back to your comment. I don’t know what you’re reading into Noah’s expression, but it’s my opinion every man wants a wild child. Jonas sure does, and I’m having a great time turning into one.”
“But that’s just it—on the outside you don’t seem wild at all. You know that old saying about being a naughty girl in the bedroom and a lady in the parlor. That’s what a man wants in a wife.”
“Did Noah tell you that?”
“No, but—”
“Excuse me for saying so, Keely, but for a big sister and a city girl, you have some ideas that are seriously out of date. From what I’ve seen, Noah would take you any way he could get you.”
“Then you’re not looking close enough,” Keely said. “Haven’t you noticed how standoffish and stuffy he’s been tonight?”
“Well, duh!” B.J. said. “That’s exactly how he acted after that incident in the barn when you were sixteen and, according to Jonas, Noah wanted you so bad that summer he finally went rodeoing to try and get you out of his system. That’s how he gets when he wants something he thinks he can’t have—stuffy.”
Keely stared at her sister. “He wanted me? But he was so awful to me!”
“You were sixteen,” B.J. said gently. “A guy with principles as strong as Noah’s couldn’t have taken you up on your offer. But turning you down nearly killed him, which he disguised by being standoffish.”
“Wow.” Keely thought of how she’d tortured herself with that rejection. Then she’d tortured Noah for revenge. “I guess I was so wrapped up in my own pain I didn’t even think he might be suffering, too.”
“Feel better now?” B.J. asked.
“You have no idea.” Her self-esteem felt healthier by the minute.
“Oh, I think I do. I needed to know Jonas had suffered a little, too, after all he’d put me through.”
“I understand.” Keely cast a sideways glance at Noah. Was it really possible that he not only wanted her, but that he loved her?
“Listen, I have to warn you that Noah’s superglued to this place,” B.J. said. “So the question is, could you come back?”
“Maybe.” Keely desperately wanted to believe B.J. was right about Noah’s feelings, but if she acted on the information and her sister was wrong, life wouldn’t be worth living. “I mean, I might come back, if it wouldn’t freak everybody out.”
“I would dearly love it and so would Dad. And this town could use some freaking out, if you know what I mean.”
Keely took a sip of champagne. “Are you sure? From what I’ve heard, Mom was kinda flamboyant, and I don’t think she was all that well received.”
“The town’s grown up a lot,” B.J. said. “Besides, you’ve already done the ultimate with that centerfold,” she added with a grin. “Whatever else you come up with will be anticlimactic.”
“Well, shoot, that’s no fun.” B.J. chuckled. “Or maybe not anticlimactic. What do I know? Anyway, here’s the deal—you have to take a chance and come on to Noah, instead of ignoring him like you’ve been doing. That won’t work.”
Keely opened her mouth to object on the grounds that she might not survive the crash if Noah rejected her again.
B.J. held up her hand to stave off her comment. “You don’t have to say it. Believe me, I know what it could cost you if the plan turns sour. I had to gamble, too, with no guarantee of winning.” She reached for Keely’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Can a little sister offer a big sister some advice?”
Keely managed a smile, although her chest was tight with anxiety. “Sure.”
“That stuff we were told when we were teenagers is wrong. The way to a man’s heart is not through his stomach. You have to aim a little lower.”
Keely looked at B.J. and they both began to giggle. It felt like old times.
NOAH HAD BEEN LOOKING for an opportunity to get Keely alone all night, but she seemed determined to dance with every man at the reception except him, and when she wasn’t doing that she was hanging out with B.J. or talking with Arch. Apparently she was still trying to avoid him.
As he was wondering how to work around that, lo and behold, she walked in his direction. He knew he’d better act fast before she veered off to ask some other cowboy to dance, or one of them trotted over to ask her. Striding forward, he caught her arm.
Sensation zinged straight to his crotch. It was the first time he’d touched her since Vegas, and his body certainly remembered what to do with the information transmitted by her warm skin.
He looked into her eyes and was encouraged by the glow he saw there. “Could we go somewhere to talk?”
“We could.” Her voice was low and seductive. “But let’s not start any gossip like we did at the last reception.”
That had to mean her mind was on the same track as his. His blood heated.
“Let me leave first,” she
murmured. “Give me five minutes or so before you leave. I’ll tell people I’m going back over to Dad’s to freshen up. I’ll meet you there.”
“In your dad’s house?” He wasn’t so sure about that. He’d feel damn uncomfortable doing what he had in mind in her father’s little cabin.
“Of course not, silly. I’ll meet you by my car.”
Her car. Now, that had possibilities. “Okay.”
“See you in a few.” Then she walked away from him with that little swing to her hips that always drove him around the bend.
Noah had never spent a longer five minutes in his life. He had no idea what he said to the people he talked to during those five minutes, and he hoped nobody noticed how often he glanced at his watch. He checked his pocket at least twenty times to make sure the condom he’d stashed there earlier hadn’t somehow disappeared. Once again he was wearing rented clothes, and rented pockets could have holes.
Finally he figured he could start after her. His excuse for leaving was to go find a bottle of aspirin. Consequently he walked in the front door of the ranch house and then slipped out the back. On the short trek over to her dad’s, he recited instructions to himself. Enjoy the moment. Remember the condom. Don’t tell her you love her.
He didn’t see her beside the car, but he sure as heck saw a pair of black lace panties dangling from the radio antenna. His heart beat like crazy. Softly he called her name.
“Back here,” she said in a low voice.
He could barely breathe as he peered into the back seat of the Mustang. The light wasn’t very good, but good enough that he could see that she lay there naked, her dress rolled neatly and tucked under her head for a pillow, her knees bent delicately so that she’d fit on the seat.
Smiling at him, she cupped her breasts in both hands. “It’s so hot. I could hardly wait to get out of those clothes.”
His tongue didn’t seem to want to work.
“Is this what you had in mind when you said we needed to talk?” she asked.
Still unable to speak, he nodded.
“I thought so.” Then she slid one hand between her thighs and caressed herself. “This weather just makes you want to be bad, doesn’t it?”
With a soft moan, he reached for the car’s door handle.
“Wait.”
“Wait?” Now, there was a terrible word if he’d ever heard one.
“Not yet,” she whispered.
Not yet. Two more words that should be wiped right out of the language. He gripped the handle and his voice was a harsh croak. “What do you mean, not yet?”
“What’s the password?”
He felt like someone was trying to strangle him. “Password?”
“Tell me the password and you can come in. I’ll give you a hint. It has four letters.” Her hand fluttered between her thighs. “Mmm, that feels good.”
“Keely.”
“Four letters, Noah.”
He gripped the door handle so hard his fingers hurt. And all the while he was drawn to the indistinct but riveting sight of her fingers gliding into the place that he’d had wet dreams about. “I’m thinking of a four-letter word, all right,” he ground out, struggling for breath. “What is this game, Keely?”
“It’s a shakedown, Noah. Here’s a big hint. The word rhymes with the name of a bird.”
His jaw clenched. “A duck.”
Her soft, musical laughter rode the night breeze. “Now, there’s a man for you. Not a duck. A different bird.”
“Damn it, I don’t know anything about birds. And I—”
“A dove.”
“A dove?” His brain stalled. Only one four-letter word rhymed with dove. And last he knew, she hadn’t been interested in hearing that word. Hope surged in his chest. “Okay, a dove it is.” He opened the door.
“What are you doing?” she said. “You didn’t say the password.”
“I will,” he said fervently. “Trust me, I will.” He nudged off his shoes, grateful that he wasn’t wearing boots. Then he took off the rest of his clothes, heaving them piece by piece into the front seat of the car. At the last minute he remembered to take the condom out of his pants pocket.
“But that’s the rule,” she said. “No password, no nooky.”
“That’s what you think.” He put on the condom and climbed into the car, hoping she wasn’t serious enough about this rule business to kick him in the balls. “I’m the kind of guy who breaks rules.” Kneeling on the edge of the seat, he braced one hand against the convertible’s boot as he leaned over her. “And I happen to think that’s the kind of guy who turns you on.”
“Is that right?” She gazed up at him, seeming disinclined to kick him. In fact, she seemed quite glad to have him there.
“Yeah, that’s right.” If only he could see her face better. He tried to plan his next move, but he couldn’t see much of her at all. His body was casting a shadow over the very spot he was aiming for. He drew back. “Put your foot down.”
“I was trying to put my foot down by making you say the password, but you’re not playing by the rules, so—”
“I mean your actual foot. Put it on the floor.”
“Oh.” She followed his directions.
Okay. He had clearance. It was cramped quarters, yet worth every charley horse he might get in the process. But as he leaned toward her, his shadow fell on her willing body once again and he fumbled a bit.
And then, wonder of wonders, she took his sheathed penis in her hand and guided him toward paradise. But right before he reached heaven, she stopped.
“What’s the password?” she whispered. “You promised to say it.”
“Love,” he murmured, rolling the word on his tongue, tasting its sweetness. “I love you, Keely.”
“That’s the password,” she said, guiding him forward. “Now you can come in.”
He slid home with a sigh. Nothing was equal to the feeling of being right here. Nothing. But a million questions buzzed in his brain. “Now what?”
She stroked his back. “I thought we had that part down. In, out, in, out. It works very well with us.”
In spite of the enormous significance of the moment, he couldn’t keep from grinning. “I mean, now what do we do about us? You don’t want to live here.”
“Yes, I do.”
He leaned down, trying to see her face better. “You do? Just like that? Why?”
“Because I love you, you big dope.”
“You love me?” Incredible. She’d said it. He decided to ignore the big dope part and focus on the I love you part. Besides, she was right. He was a big dope for not tracking her down years ago.
“Yes, I really, really love you,” she said. “And I know I stick out like a sore thumb in this town, but if you can deal with that, I sure can.”
“You love me.” He couldn’t believe that a man could be this happy. What a perfect night. He began gently to rock. “If you love me, I can deal with anything. Besides, you’re not a sore thumb. You’re a Ferrari in a world of Fords. This town needs you in it. And I need to be in you. It all works out.”
“That sounds nice.”
“I’ll think up more nice things to say when I’m not so busy. Oh, God, but you feel good. Let’s have a small wedding.”
She picked up his rhythm and tightened around him in that special way of hers. “Let’s have a big one. A blowout.”
“Fine.” He was through being chatty. He just wanted to revel in the sensation of pushing into the warmest place on earth while a cool breeze tickled his butt. “A big wedding it is.”
“That was easy.”
“You keep letting me do this and you can have anything you want.”
“Then stop right this minute.”
He froze in mid-thrust. “Stop?”
“Pull out a minute. Then I promise you can come back, and you’ll have oh so much more fun. Please, Noah. If you love me.”
He did love her, so he pulled out.
Before he realized what she meant t
o do, she’d reached between them and slid the condom right off, slick as a whistle. Then she tossed it out of the car.
“Hey!” he said. “That was my only one! I thought you liked the ribbed kind.”
“Well, I did, but you said I could have whatever I wanted, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“I want babies, Noah. Now come to momma, big boy.”
With a groan of pure bliss, he did exactly that.
Epilogue
“YES!” KEELY GRINNED in triumph as she read an e-mail from her editor, Jim Stevens, at Prime Destinations magazine.
“That sounds like my cue.” Noah appeared in the doorway of the ranch-house bedroom he’d converted into an office for Keely. “Have you been downloading from that Kama Sutra site again?”
“Nope. This is better.” She glanced up as he leaned casually against the door frame and wondered how she’d ever imagined life on this ranch could be boring. She’d enjoyed more innovative sex and pure bliss in the past six months with Noah than in all her years of being single.
What she hadn’t thought of he had. They’d made love in every room inside and most of the secluded areas outside. A major bathroom remodel had resulted in a large whirlpool bath plus a huge shower with nozzles at interesting levels and bench seats at an appropriate height for fun and games. Mirrored closet doors in the bedroom reflected a four-poster bed dressed in satin sheets.
They’d also enjoyed some spectacular, sensual episodes when he’d gone along on some of her travel assignments. But he’d never encountered an assignment like the one she’d landed this time. She smiled and hit the print command on her computer.
“Better, huh?” His gaze warmed as it slid over her. “Am I going to need props for this one?”
“Only a suitcase.”
His eyebrows lifted. “If I’m going to make love to you on top of a suitcase, we’d better look around and see if I have any hard-sided ones left. Those soft-sided jobs will cave in for sure.”
With a laugh she reached for the hard copy of the e-mail. “I don’t know what benefit we could get from making love on a suitcase, but I’m willing to give it some thought. In the meantime, take a look at this.” She handed him the piece of paper.
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