by Starla Kaye
“I probably messed up your plans for last night.” She flicked her gaze back to the butcher block bar, much safer territory.
“Didn’t have any plans.”
“Still…I’m sorry to have caused you so much trouble.” Trouble. Drew. She’d spend the day standing with a very sore bottom if he ever found out about this. “Good thing he won’t find out,” she muttered.
“Huh?”
She blinked at him; saw that he was staring at her…at where she’d moved her hands to, her bottom. She immediately moved them back to the counter. “Nothing.”
He looked curious for a second but didn’t press her. Instead he said, “Why don’t we go lie down and discuss how much trouble you are.” He winked at her.
Go lie down together. “In spite of how I behaved last night, I’m not easy. I don’t fall into bed with every man who catches my eye.” At thirty, she’d been in and out of several relationships, but she didn’t really play around. Although she couldn’t believe how strongly this man attracted her. She was almost willing to make an exception in his case. Almost.
He strolled toward her, looking yummier with each step he took. “So I caught your eye?”
“Well, ummmm.” He moved next to her, cupped her face and leaned close. He smelled so good, all musky man. “What…what are you doing?” she squeaked. Her heart raced and her clit was dancing in anticipation.
“Something I wanted to do from the moment I saw you last night across the bar. Kissing you.”
She thought about objecting, really. But what was the point? She wanted to taste those sensual lips of his, too. One touch and she was a goner. He had the softest lips, the most skillful tongue. She was lost to the wonder of this man.
Somehow her clothes disappeared, his shorts, too. Then she was on the tiled floor, legs spread wide, heart pounding as she watched him reach into a drawer. An instant later he’d slipped on a condom—who kept condoms in a kitchen?!—and knelt between her legs. Her conscience was screaming out warnings about being an idiot, about not knowing him, about…. Shut up!
The look on his handsome face was so tender, so filled with longing and yet he wasn’t just driving into her to satisfy his needs. Chad would have been. Now that she thought about her ex-boyfriend, he’d seldom considered what she wanted. She hadn’t resisted him, because she liked sex. But she had a feeling if she actually said ‘No,’ Erik would back off. Chad wouldn’t have.
“Are you okay?” Erik’s face was tight with strain. He bent over her, one of his hands playing with her delighted clit and palming her mound. His cock head was at her entrance, pulsing against her tingling lips. “I know this isn’t all that romantic, but….”
She reached up and stroked his beard-roughened face. “Less talk, Surfer Boy, more action.”
“Thank God.” He grinned and buried his rod in a single long, strong stroke. His balls rubbed against her. “Soooo good.”
He filled her so well, perfectly. She flexed her inner muscles and took pride in his quiet groan. The look of pure pleasure in his expression made her bolder. She pulled him down, cradling his head between her breasts. Her fingers threaded through his soft, thick hair.
He pumped steadily but finally moved his hot mouth to one breast and then the other, licking and gently biting each nipple until she was crazy with desire. All the while he worked her, she worked him as well. She arched up to meet his thrusts. They moved together as if they’d done so forever. She didn’t hold anything back from him. He wouldn’t allow it.
She struggled toward release; her head rolling side to side, breathing in ragged pants. “Oh, oh, oh, oh!” She bowed her body upward a final time, holding still. Obligingly he held still, too, waiting for her. Then it was there. Her body exploded in climax.
The moment she steadied again, he threw his head back and thrust desperately three more times. His face was red, pinched in near pain and she began to worry about him. But he rammed deep a final time and growled out her name at the same time he spent inside her. Sweating, dragging in deep breaths, he collapsed atop her but only for a few seconds before he shifted off her.
“Can I say ‘wow’?” he rolled to his side, looking at her, beaming.
“Only if I can echo it.” She leaned over to kiss him, sensing something special happening between she and her surfer boy white knight. Things were moving seriously too fast. Yet she didn’t want to slow down.
* * *
Mandy blinked her eyes open and stared up at the ceiling for several long minutes. She didn’t recognize it. Or the feel of the mattress beneath her. And she felt boneless, so sated she didn’t think she could ever move again. Boneless? Sated?
She jerked upward, heart racing, head throbbing. The sheet that had covered her slipped to her legs. With a moan, she put her palms to the sides of her head. A hangover, again. This was getting old. More importantly, where the hell was she? She glanced warily around the obviously expensive hotel suite. Las Vegas. Fountains. The Bellagio. She had a really bad feeling.
Confirming it, a familiar whiskey-warm, masculine voice said, “Good morning, Mrs. Mallory.” Erik stood in the doorway to a connecting bathroom, wearing a sexy grin and nothing else. And a certain part of him was waving with determination for her attention.
“Oh God, what have I done?” She flopped back against the rumpled bed and groaned. Drank too much, that was obvious. A bad habit that was ending today. Liquor was never touching her lips again. But this time she’d really screwed up. “We’re in Las Vegas, aren’t we?” Say no. Say no. Say no. She already knew the truth, had remembered coming to the Bellagio. But she was desperate. Say no!
He ambled over, frowning a little, and sat next to her on the bed. Without a thought, he reached down to cup a breast, giving a gentle squeeze. “My favorite city in the whole world right now.”
It was hard to concentrate when her nipples were pebbling, when heat was settling lower in her body. But this was important. Remember. Remember what you did yesterday. As her fuzzy brain tried to sort through things, she recalled his greeting. “Mrs. Mallory? Oh, please, tell me I didn’t hear you right.”
His frown deepened and he pulled his hand away. She wanted to protest, bit down the urge. “You don’t remember going to that little chapel down the Strip? You don’t remember promising to love, honor, and obey me forever?”
Automatically, she countered, “I would never promise to obey anyone.” Then she squeezed her eyes closed, tried to ignore the jackhammer in her head. “Never mind that, it’s not important.”
“Yes, it is.” He sounded annoyed.
She ignored his comment. Instead she said, “I remember we decided to come here because I had a few days off from the airline. We played some roulette, played some slots.” She rubbed her forehead and envisioned sitting in a lounge. “We ran into some friends of yours. Went dancing, drinking.”
Mandy slitted one eye open and found him watching her, a vein pulsing in the side of his neck. She’d never seen him angry before, but he sure was now. “I’m never drinking again. I mean it. I do crazy things when I’ve gone over my limit, which is apparently very little.”
“Crazy things like going home with a strange man?” Now he looked oddly hurt.
“Well, actually, you took me to your home.” He didn’t appear to like her specifics.
“Admittedly, I did. But you certainly didn’t seem to mind being with me after that.” He stood, his cock at half-mast now in his annoyance with her. “We’ve been together almost 24/7 for the last two weeks. In Maui. In Los Angeles. Now here.”
“It was all great.” She attempted to soothe him. “I mean the sex was stupendous. And I enjoy being with you….” She shook her head. “But marriage? You and me? We barely know each other outside the bedroom.”
It hurt to think, but she finally remembered his friends, their ridiculous dare. Now she sat up again, irritation sparking through her. “It was a joke. We were all drunk. They were the ones supposed to actually get married. We just went along
to make sure they did.”
“They didn’t. We did.” He held her gaze but she couldn’t determine exactly how he felt. But surely he didn’t really want to be married to her. They’d had fun…a lot more than that, in truth. Still…marriage?
“Oh shit.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Don’t cuss.”
“This is a cussing worthy situation.” She curled her hands around the sheet, suddenly very aware of being naked. Not that he hadn’t seen her naked a lot during these last weeks. But this was different. “So we end it.”
To her surprise, he shook his head. “No.”
“What?” She couldn’t have heard him right.
“I said ‘no.’ There can’t be an annulment, for obvious reasons. And I’m not agreeing to a divorce. At least not yet.”
“You’re kidding, right?” He had to be. Why would he want to stay married to her? Even worse, why did she feel saddened by the idea of divorcing him?
“You need to get up. We’ve got just enough time to grab some breakfast before we head to the airport.” He walked into the bathroom.
“To the airport?” They’d only come here for the one day. She remembered that much now. And oh what a disastrous day that had turned out to be. She had a flight back to Maui to work tomorrow. He had some kind of business meeting, although she still didn’t know exactly what he did for a living. Another reminder of how little they knew about one another.
“Move it.”
She didn’t like being ordered around. Where was the teasing, laughing man she’d spent so much time with? She wanted him back. She wanted her exquisite lover back.
“Let’s just go back to the way we were.” She climbed off the bed, searching for her clothes.
“We can still have that, but now we can have more, too.” He looked around the corner at her, his expression determined. “Give us a chance. Give me a chance.”
Her stomach tightened and something in her chest pinched. A part of her wanted to agree, to trust in him…to trust that maybe just this once she hadn’t made another horrendous mistake with a man. But a bigger part of her was scared to take the risk. Every other man had grown tired of her, tossed her away. She had a feeling that when Erik realized they had nothing in common, that she bored him outside of the bedroom… Well, it would hurt a whole lot more when he walked away.
“I can’t.” Tears trickled down her face and she turned away, jerking her dress on. “And I’m not going back to Los Angeles with you.” She swallowed a sob. “I’m going home to the ranch.”
Chapter Two
“Do you want to tell me who Erik Mallory is? Why he thinks he’s your husband?”
Mandy’s heart raced at the sound of her irate older brother’s voice. She didn’t need this today. Ever, in truth. From where she sat in the straw trying to clean off a newly born foal while his mama watched carefully, she took her time looking up at Drew. He wasn’t going to be happy with her.
“Legally, I suppose he is.” She admitted quietly and focused once more on the adorable long-legged chestnut foal trying to figure out how to get to his feet.
Big scuffed boots moved directly in front of her. Then Drew crouched down so she had to face him. “Legally? Exactly what’s that supposed to mean? And why did this Mallory sound pretty pissed off?”
Pissed off? “If anyone should be upset, it’s me!” He’d tricked her into getting married. Partly your fault, her annoying conscience added. And he’d wanted her to completely change her life to work with his. Okay, he hadn’t actually said that. But his world was in California. Hers was here in Kansas on the Weatherford Ranch, at least now it was.
A muscled forearm came down and Drew tugged her awkwardly to her feet. He glowered. “Quit stalling. Tell me what crazy thing you have gone and done this time.”
She shook off his arm and ground her teeth. She wanted to snap that what she’d done wasn’t crazy, but it had been. Still. “My business.”
His expression grew darker. He’d been her guard dog big brother far too long. She was thirty now; she could take care of herself. Oh, and I’ve done such a good job of that lately. She slumped. “It’s just a little problem I need to take care of.” And the Grand Canyon is just a small crack in the earth.
“A little problem? You’re married—legally, or so you said—and you don’t share this news with me. Does anyone know? Mom? Dad?”
Soft footsteps padded down the cement path of the horse barn in their direction and drew their attention. Mandy’s best friend, Tanya, took one look at her scowling husband and shook her head. “It’s her private business, Drew.” She hurried closer. “She had reasons for not telling you.”
Mandy groaned under her breath at her friend’s foolish attempt to defend her. Drew’s face tightened and his narrowed gaze warned Tanya that they would be having a “talk” later. No doubt a “talk” that involved the use of his hard hand on her soft bottom. He didn’t like secrets or anything that even hinted at his being manipulated. Which he clearly believed he had been.
“House. Now,” he growled at his wife.
When she merely tipped up her chin stubbornly, Mandy wanted to tell her to back down. She should be the one getting the brunt of Drew’s frustration, not Tanya. Not that she wanted to feel the flat of his hand on her butt.
“This is between my sister and me. For now anyway.”
Before Tanya could challenge him, Mandy hissed, “Stop it! This is all my mess. Not yours, Bro. Not yours, Tanya. Mine…all mine.” She sucked in a breath. “When did Erik call? What else did he say?”
Drew continued to frown in disapproval at his wife and finally she heaved a put-upon sigh and strode back out into the bright light of the mid-July afternoon. “You two give me nothing but headaches.”
“Considering your wife is six months pregnant, I’d say Tanya gives you more than headaches.” She’d wanted to lighten his mood.
But he was intent on not being distracted. “Back to this husband business. When? Where? Why?” He leaned down and helped the struggling foal to his feet, gently stroking his neck as he wobbled toward the mare now standing as well.
Mandy watched him, thinking how far her troubled brother had come since marrying Tanya. She’d healed his bruised heart, even mellowed him out some. He would make a great father. At the moment, though, he was being a pain-in-the-neck brother. Something he could excel at sometimes.
“We met in Maui.” That first meeting had been pretty embarrassing. She’d been upset about Chad dumping her and gotten…okay, drunk. Erik had taken her under his white-knight wing and took her home with him. And then…. But Drew didn’t need to know any of that.
“You married him there?” His brow was furrowed.
She shook her head. No, we got hot and heavy there. But Big Bro didn’t need to know that either. “We just hung out for a few days until I had to fly back to Los Angeles. Erik is from California. So we goofed around some more there until I had a few days off from the airline.” And, oh my, hadn’t they had some seriously hot times in LA. They’d hardly left her bedroom.
“So you married him in LA?” Drew was sounding testy again, tired of her story dragging out.
Again, she shook her head. “Las Vegas. It’s, uh…complicated.” Now she huffed in irritation. “Stupid surfer boy refused to get a quickie divorce like we should have done. He has been totally unreasonable about this marriage thing ever since. And I’m the one who is pissed off, Drew. Me!”
Drew narrowed his eyes. “Is he thinking he’s going to get part of this ranch in the divorce settlement? It won’t happen; I can tell you that for damn sure.”
“He hasn’t mentioned wanting any kind of settlement. I don’t know for sure, but I think he has money. Trust fund money or something. I’m not sure he even works. We really never talked much about that.” He hadn’t exactly thrown money around while they were together, but he never seemed to have trouble paying for anything, including their short stay in a fancy suite at the Bellagio. Sh
e studied her ringless hand, felt the special-made wedding ring on a chain around her neck. He’d sent it to her just last week…with a note wanting her to come back to California, saying he was too busy to get away right now.
“Spoiled rich, huh? Well, hell, Mandy.” He gaped at her like her head was on backwards. Maybe it was.
She scuffed the toe of her boot in the straw. She was so mixed up. And, truthfully, scared to death to even think about what she’d gotten involved in because she’d lusted after the wrong man. “What else did he tell you?”
Drew studied her for a minute as if trying to analyze the situation. He’d calmed down but he clearly wasn’t happy with what she’d done. “He said he’s flying into Wichita in the morning, should be here around noon.”
“Then I’m leaving tonight.” She realized how childish that was the moment she said the words. She’d been running from her problem and Erik for over a month now. Even going so far as to take time off from her flight attendant job with Hawaiian Airlines and stay far away from her condo in Maui and her apartment in Los Angeles. She hadn’t wanted to run into him and had been certain he wouldn’t haul himself all the way out here to Kansas. Wrong.
“Nope. You’re staying right here to work whatever the problem is out.” Drew gave her a look that all but promised he would hog-tie her to a chair to make sure she did. “I’m going to be right there when you talk to him.”
Stubborn man would, too. He could be a hard ass sometimes, but there wasn’t anyone more loyal. He’d have her back. She smiled gently at him. “I love you dearly, Bro, but this is something Erik and I need to face together.”
When he looked ready to protest, she stopped him in the quickest way she could. “Where do you and Tanya do most of your talking? Private talking.” Her friend had told her the only times she could get Drew to say more than a few words was when she got him completely sated. They talked as they lie together all tangled up in bed.