Ten minutes later, Ty broke away from his own conversation and spotted his uncle enjoying what Ty assumed was fine liquor at the living room bar where a bartender was on duty. Donaldson had spared no expense, and Marissa apparently had thought of everything.
After she’d left this afternoon to set up for this party, he’d cared for Jordan until Hannah had come over to babysit. Marissa had suggested they try Hannah to see if she worked out, and he’d thought the plan was a good one.
Thinking about Marissa, he scanned the living room for a glimpse of her, but didn’t see her. Earlier at the party, she had waved once, and then disappeared. He wanted to find her. She was a sight tonight in a red cocktail dress that she said she’d used at Raintree Winery occasions. She looked fantastic, and put to shame all the women who had dolled up for this occasion.
Looking for her, he walked through Donaldson’s house. It was large enough for two families to live in it, Ty thought, and perfectly appointed. A far cry from the homey feel of the cabins he’d just completed with Marissa’s help. As he moseyed down a hall, he thought of the men flying in to the Cozy C tomorrow. He told himself he was prepared. He had everything planned out for their arrival and the camping trip. But even the best plans could go awry.
He knew he shouldn’t think that way. Everything was going to be fine, he told himself, for at least the thousandth time.
Hearing a man’s and woman’s laughter, he slowed as he neared a room near the downstairs bathroom. The door was partially open. He caught sight of a patch of red and he recognized Marissa’s dress. He couldn’t keep himself from peering in.
Marissa and Scott Donaldson were standing side by side, very close, examining something on a tablet Donaldson held in his hand. His other hand was on her shoulder. She didn’t seem bothered by it at all. In fact, she laughed at something he said.
Ty studied the two of them—Donaldson in his expensive custom-made suit, the fabric luxurious-looking as it reflected the overhead light. Marissa was a class act with her hair upswept, her dress molding to her just right, her high-heeled shoes making her legs look curvy and oh, so tempting. At that moment, she and Donaldson seemed to fit together perfectly. Wouldn’t any woman want a man like the developer? Accomplished, wealthy, successful. After all, Marissa had a son to think about. She had a future to plan.
Just what was Donaldson showing her on that tablet, and why did she look so darn interested?
Ty heard her say, “Thank you, Scott, that’s a wonderful idea.”
Donaldson responded, “This is my bailiwick. If I can be of any help to you, you know I will be. This is a great party you helped me throw tonight. You’re fabulous at planning, down to the smallest detail.”
Ty turned away from the doorway, having heard enough. Those two had a mutual admiration party going on in there. Plus, they seemed to have a familiarity he didn’t like at all. As he made his way back to the party, he recognized the emotion that overtook him. Jealousy.
The question was—what was he going to do about it?
Chapter Eleven
Later that night, once in the truck where they could finally speak in private, Ty asked his uncle, “What did Donaldson want?”
Eli glanced at him, then stared out the windshield into the black of night. “He upped his offer.”
“To what?” Ty asked.
Eli named a figure that made Ty’s head spin.
“Is it tempting you?”
Eli cut him a sideways glance and said simply, “It’s an option.”
An option. It was an alternative solution if the idea of a vacation ranch wasn’t a success. The land was valuable. He felt that Unc believed everything was riding on the success of the trip of these guests arriving tomorrow. And maybe he did, too. It was a test run, but if he failed the test, what would that mean going forward?
When Ty and his uncle entered the house, Ty saw immediately from the monitor on the counter that Hannah had put Jordan to bed. She was sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of tea.
Her smile was practically adoring, and all for Eli, when she asked him, “Would you like coffee or hot chocolate? I can make some.”
Eli seemed to consider the question for a long time as if it were very important. He glanced at the monitor to see Jordan was sleeping peacefully. “It looks like Jordan is settled in for the night. We can wind down with some hot chocolate until Marissa comes home.”
Ty was surprised his uncle was finally consenting to spend some time with Hannah. Was Eli actually considering a relationship with Hannah after all these years of putting her off? And why? Because the Cozy C was worth so much money he felt like somebody now? If nothing else, Ty had to thank Donaldson for that.
Hannah was already on her feet moving toward the refrigerator for the milk. “I’ll make real cocoa, not that stuff that comes in a packet. Marissa showed me where everything was if I wanted some.”
Eli swiped off his hat and hung it on the rack. “Sounds good.”
Hannah glanced over her shoulder as she pulled the milk from the refrigerator. “I brought oatmeal cookies, too, for Jordan. Are you interested?”
“I’m always interested in your cookies,” Eli assured her.
That comment told Ty that his uncle was definitely mellowing toward Hannah, if not toward life. Changes all around, he thought.
Ty tried to leave the couple alone, but they insisted he stay for hot cocoa. As they sat around the table, Eli and Hannah caught up with what was happening around Fawn Grove. Christmas celebrations in the square only concerned him as far as what he’d attend with his son—and Marissa. He’d never lived with a woman before. When he’d invited Marissa to come to the Cozy C with Jordan, he hadn’t been sure how their lives would mesh. He thought they’d meshed just fine. But what did she think? Was she looking forward to spending the holidays with him, and planning to stay well beyond the new year?
The next hour passed quickly as he thought about spending his first Christmas with his son. But he couldn’t stop thinking how sexy Marissa had looked tonight in that red dress. Lost in his reverie, he suddenly perked up when he heard a car outside on the gravel lane. It wasn’t long before a car door slammed and Marissa came in the back door.
She grinned when she spotted Eli and Hannah sitting side by side, and her whole face lit up with that smile. “Are we having an after-party?” she asked.
Looking a bit flustered, Hannah stood. “Just cookies and catching up. Jordan was as good as gold tonight. He didn’t even make a fuss when I changed him into pj’s.” She motioned toward the monitor. “I think you’ll have a calm night.”
“That I could use,” Marissa responded, finally glancing toward Ty.
When their eyes met and held, he knew nothing was calm about the chemistry between them. Did she see that? Or did she see a future with someone like Scott Donaldson more clearly?
“I’d better be going,” Hannah said.
Pushing his chair back, Eli stood, too. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
Though she blushed a little, Hannah didn’t protest.
“Something new there?” Marissa asked with a quirked brow as the couple left the house and she set her purse on the counter and checked the monitor once more.
“I’m not sure. I think Eli has finally realized that on paper he’s a rich man. Donaldson upped his offer for the Cozy C tonight. That offer seems to have given my uncle a little more stature and a lot more confidence in himself.”
“Because he’s considering selling?”
“I don’t know,” Ty said honestly. “I think he’s holding his breath to see how this week goes. The success of it is on my shoulders.”
Marissa didn’t try to tell him it wasn’t.
“We should get to bed,” Marissa said. “You have an early day tomorrow.”
Get to bed. Ty pictu
red exactly what had happened when they’d gone to cut down the Christmas tree. He could see in Marissa’s eyes and from the expression on her face that she was remembering, too.
Afraid she’d back off, afraid their chemistry would scare her away again, he brought up a safe topic. “You pulled off a great party. Everyone looked as if they were having a good time. The food was terrific. I bet Donaldson will spread your name around.”
“Thank you,” she said, looking surprised at his words, but pleased. “It did go smoothly. If he does give my name out to his friends, and they want parties, I’ll have to decide what I’m going to do. I don’t want to leave Raintree, so I’d have to limit what I take on. I don’t want to miss Jordan being a baby. I don’t want to miss precious moments I can never recapture.”
As soon as her words were out of her mouth, the air around them seemed to become charged. She’d taken away from Ty lots of those precious moments, and he could see on her face that she knew it.
“Ty—”
If she was going to apologize again, he didn’t want to hear it. He understood she was sorry, but that didn’t make up for the time he’d missed with his son, the moments he couldn’t recapture. Did he want to go there tonight? No. Right now, he had other issues to discuss. Such as seeing her tête-à-tête with Donaldson. “You and Donaldson were in his office for a while. Discussing anything important?”
“Not really. He showed me some apartments he’d found that I might be interested in.”
He felt as if someone had landed a solid punch to his gut. “You’re seriously going to look?”
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen next,” she said.
“I don’t get you. You were just going to apologize for keeping Jordan away from me for over a year. But now you’re considering moving out. I’ve told you before I want to be his dad, day and night, all the time, not just on weekends, not just on the odd evening, not just after church on Sunday. I’m serious about that, Marissa.”
Feeling as if he’d said too much, let his guard down too far, he muttered, “I’m going to go upstairs and get out of this monkey suit.”
Before he said something he shouldn’t, before he scooped Marissa up into his arms to carry her up to his bedroom, before he let their chemistry explode, he left the kitchen and mounted the stairs.
By the time he’d reached the second floor, Marissa had caught up to him. She clasped his arm, her fingers on him like fire even through the suit coat. That was the problem. He could feel her whenever she was close. In that instant, his body revved up as it had before a rodeo, and all he wanted to do was taste her and satisfy a primitive longing that he’d tried to satisfy with bull riding and winning big purses and seeing his name emblazoned in neon on the scoreboard.
But Marissa had nothing to do with scores and bull riding and seeing the sights in the next town he drove through. She was about the Cozy C and home and a sense of belonging he’d never really had. But he couldn’t let her see he cared about that. He couldn’t let her see just how important fatherhood had become to him. He couldn’t let her see just how much he wanted her across the table from him every morning at breakfast.
Oh, no. He’d fought against vulnerability all his life. Now wasn’t the time to let his guard slip too much, not when he had to have his head on straight about the importance of the guests coming in tomorrow. Not when Marissa was looking at apartments elsewhere.
Still she was holding on to him, looking at him with those big brown eyes that made him swallow hard and practically forget his name.
“You’re never going to forgive me, are you?” she said. “That’s why looking at apartments might be the right thing to do.”
“It’s not about forgiving, Marissa. It’s more about forgetting what I’ve missed.”
She looked so sad. She looked so lost in that moment that he followed his impulses instead of good sense. She’d been holding his arm, but now he pulled away in order to slide his fingers up her nape. He brought her face close to his and he looked straight into those deep brown eyes.
She blinked as if the intensity of the moment was just a little too much. That’s when he kissed her.
The kiss turned hot and heavy right away. There wasn’t any hesitancy on her part and definitely none on his. The momentum they’d experienced the day they’d cut the Christmas tree down seemed to build, and he swung her into his arms and carried her into his bedroom. He stood her by the side of the bed, then he turned on the bedside lamp and in a couple of strides shut the bedroom door.
“Jordan,” she said.
“I’ll leave it cracked,” he responded, and opened it about an inch. Then he shrugged out of his suit coat, undid his bolo tie and asked in a low, husky voice, “Are you going to undress, or do you want me to do it?”
“I might need help with my zipper,” she said softly.
“I’d be glad to oblige.”
“I can unbutton your shirt,” she told him.
“Are you telling me we’re going to go slow this time?”
“I’m not sure what we’re going to do,” she admitted, and he knew she meant more than in this room, right now.
But in this room and right now was all he could think about. As he reached around her to find her zipper, she attacked his buttons. No, they weren’t going to go slow. He could tell.
“Let’s not think about tomorrow,” he said. “Or next week or after Christmas.”
She stopped for a moment as if she had to give his words consideration. “Deal,” she said breathlessly.
* * *
Marissa hadn’t made the deal with Ty lightly. She’d thought about climbing those steps to him before she’d done it. She’d thought about what she’d done to him and whether guilt had brought her to his bedroom. But it wasn’t guilt. She wanted Ty, plain and simple. She wanted him in every way possible. She wanted to experience everything she could with him. Would he ever trust her enough to have a future with her? Could she forget he’d once been a traveling cowboy and believe that maybe that wanderlust wasn’t still in his blood?
But according to the deal she’d made, she wasn’t going to think about all that now. Those questions had done nothing but confuse her up until this point. Maybe analyzing life wasn’t the same thing as living it. Maybe what she had to do was live it with Ty.
She couldn’t see how dark the blue of his eyes was in the shadow of the lamplight, but she could feel the intensity of his gaze as he reached around her and pulled her zipper down its track. She pushed aside his shirt, laid her palms on his skin and sifted her fingers through his chest hair. She felt his groan rumble in his chest as he pushed her dress off her shoulders and it fell to the floor. She stepped out of her heels and reached for the band of her panty hose when he caught her hands and slipped his inside the waistband.
“I’ll take care of these,” he said in that voice that was so deep and sexy she could just melt in a puddle right then and there.
He did take care of the panty hose and all that was left was her bra and the black onyx beads around her neck. They’d been a gift from Kaitlyn last Christmas. She’d worn a strapless bra tonight so she didn’t have to worry about the cut of the neckline of her dress.
Ty’s hands deftly went to the fastener of her bra at her back. He unclipped it. The bra fell away.
“I’m still amazed you’re a mom,” he said.
“I’ve gained a few pounds.”
“Not that anybody would notice. You’re so beautiful, Marissa. You take my breath away.”
This was Ty. He could be charming, but he didn’t use lines, and he said what he meant. Tonight she’d been uncomfortable with Scott Donaldson’s remarks, when he’d stood too close, the way he placed his hand on her shoulder or on her elbow or at her waist.
She didn’t want to move away from Ty. His words washed over her like sparkling
fairy dust that could transform her into Cinderella. Didn’t every woman want to be Cinderella? Didn’t every woman want to find Prince Charming?
Ty didn’t wait for her to help him remove his slacks and underwear. He shucked them off almost as quick as she could blink, then he motioned to the bed for her to get in. After he whipped back the spread and sheet, the wide expanse of the king-size mattress stared her in the face. This was his bed—where he slept, where he dreamed. Something powerful shook her in that moment, something that told her this was different than the other times they’d come together.
After she was on the other side of the bed, he chuckled. “Don’t go too far. Light on or off?”
“On,” she said. She had to see his expressions, to maybe get a glimpse of what he was thinking. She had to see his reactions to everything she did.
“After the daylight, this is kind of mellow,” he remarked wryly.
“Even though it was daylight, we didn’t see a thing. It was all so quick.”
“But pleasurable,” he reminded her.
“Maybe I want more than pleasure tonight,” she said quietly.
For just a moment, he stilled. Did he understand that she loved him? That she wouldn’t be here in his bed with him if she didn’t? It was too soon to say the words. And even if it wasn’t too soon, she was still afraid if she said them, he’d feel trapped. That’s what she’d been afraid of all along if she told him about the pregnancy. She would trap him.
Ty shifted to the side and ran his hand down her shoulder. “I want to kiss you all over.”
That was just a phrase, she told herself. He couldn’t really mean all over.
But his lips started a journey. He visited her mouth for an exploratory but complete kiss that made her limbs tremble. When he trailed small kisses to her breast and flicked his tongue over her nipple, she clutched his shoulders with a ferocity he had to feel.
“Like that?” he asked with the Texas drawl he’d been born with.
“I like it all,” she whispered. But she couldn’t let him do it all. She couldn’t let him give all the pleasure. She took his hand and she kissed his palm, letting her tongue flick out along his life line.
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