by Casey Hagen
Another damn bruise.
Seriously, was it too much to ask that some of her time with Slade be spent not looking like a human punching bag?
He closed the door until it latched. “What’s that look?”
“It’s frustration.”
He peeled back her comforter and waited for her to crawl in before tucking the covers up to her chin. He crawled under the covers on the other side and stretched out his arm. “You comin’ over?”
She curled up against his hot skin and sighed. This. This was just what she needed. “I’ve dreamed about this.”
“What?”
“About belonging somewhere, to someone.”
He went still, and she feared she had said too much… Assumed too much in terms of her importance on the ranch. He’d said he wanted her to stay, but maybe after the Cutter fiasco he was reconsidering. He pulled back and peered down at her through heavily hooded eyes. “You’re saying all the right things at the worst possible time.”
She started to pull away. “You’ve changed your mind.”
“Woman, stop jumping to conclusions. I mean words like that make me want to peel what little clothes you’re wearing right off and bury myself inside you. Now is not the time, or the place, and even if I were willing to compromise those principles, I’m not prepared to protect you.”
His words started a slow burn under her skin. She should be too tired, too beaten down for the attraction and awareness spreading inside her. “It’s not because of all of these?” she asked, gesturing to the marks on her skin.
“Are you trying to piss me off?” Slade asked, pushing up into a sitting position against the headboard. His steely glare took her by surprise.
“Why the hell would you ask me that?” She pushed up on her knees and smacked him in the chest with her pillow.
“You keep pointing out your bruises like they’re you. They’re temporary, damn it!” He yanked the pillow out of her hands.
“Will you keep your voice down? I’m not saying they’re me, but you have to admit this looks awful.”
“Yes, but not for the reasons you’re thinking. They don’t take away your beauty; they just make it hard for me to touch you.”
His words hit her just as sure as any slap or punch she had endured. She scrambled out of the bed and grabbed her robe. “Wow, okay, so nice to know I repulse men now. Jesus.”
“Would you stop taking everything I say wrong,” he ground out. He circled around the bed and took hold of her shoulders. “It’s not that I’m not attracted. For God’s sake, I walk around this ranch all day long in a constant state of arousal because of you.”
She looked him right in the eye. If he was going to tell her why he rejected her, he was going to have to face her to do it. “Then what keeps you from touching me?”
He traced a finger over her bruised cheek. She tried not to wince, but her sensitive flesh protested.
“That right there. I don’t want to cause you any more physical pain.”
“Oh,” she whispered.
“Oh? That’s all you’ve got? You bite my head off and your whole argument collapses just like that?”
“So now you’re mad because I’m letting it go?”
“I’m mad because I want you and I’m afraid to touch you,” he growled at her.
“How about letting me decide what I can handle instead of always trying to figure it out for me? I have a voice, you know. I can speak if you’re hurting me.”
He scratched the back of his head. “Fine.”
They climbed back into the bed and she snuggled back into his embrace. “Slade?”
He tucked his chin against the top of her head. “Hmmm?”
“Promise me something?”
“Anything?”
“The minute I’m feeling better, peel my clothes off and ease both of our suffering.”
He laughed low in her ear and kissed her temple. “It will be the very first thing I do.”
***
Slade disentangled himself from Ryan’s warm limbs an hour later and made his way to the kitchen for a snack. A snack and then he was going to hit the shower and do something about this damned erection that never completely went away.
He found Lisa sitting at the table. Well, that took care of the erection. “Lisa.”
“Slade. I was hoping to run into you. How about a drink?” She poured whiskey into a glass and handed it to him.
“We’re going to pretend that we’re just two friends having a drink now?”
She dangled her half-empty glass from her red-tipped fingers and leaned back in her chair. “There was a time we were the best of friends. You remember?”
He gulped down two large swigs of whiskey, enjoying the burn through his throat and down into his belly. “Great sex does not make best friends.”
She smiled a feral smile. “Ahhh, so you do remember.”
“Yeah, I guess it’s a good thing I grew out of that bad habit of thinking with my dick. When are you leaving?” He gulped down the rest of the liquor and dropped the glass into the sink. The room swam. He curled his hands over the edge of the counter and closed his eyes. That was worse. His head swam with a sense of vertigo. “Shit. That whiskey is hitting me hard… I need to get to bed.”
Lisa laughed. He knew that laugh. Too fuzzy to figure out what it meant, he took her arm and let her guide him down the hall to his room. He flopped onto the bed, face down, wiped out. He just couldn’t make his muscles move another inch. The last thing he heard was Lisa’s laugh right before oblivion finally took him.
***
Ryan couldn’t sleep anymore. She had spent nearly the entire day before in bed, in a coma, and now, at five in the morning, her body had had enough. She showered, dressed, and found Myra in the kitchen with fresh coffee waiting.
“Good morning, Myra.” Ryan hugged Myra’s shoulders before reaching into the cabinet for a mug.
“Well, good morning, honey. You feeling better today?”
“I am. I know Slade ‘ordered’ me to rest for several days, but I would like to at least measure the flower area so I can start planning.”
Myra whisked eggs in a bowl, her back against the sink. “I have a feeling you’ll turn his attitude around.”
“You got that about me, did you?”
Myra winked. “Loud and clear, my dear.”
They chatted while Myra prepped breakfast. The ranch hands wandered in just before seven, hungry and caffeine-deprived. Ryan glanced down the hall to Slade’s bedroom. The door remained closed.
“Should someone check on Slade?” Ryan asked.
“He’s usually out here by now but it’s been a busy couple of days, so maybe he’s needing some extra sleep,” Myra said.
Ivy stumbled down the hall in her pajamas and climbed into Ryan’s lap and laid her head against Ryan’s chest. Ryan snuggled her, loving the smell of baby shampoo.
“Good morning, Miss Ivy,” Ryan said.
“Morning,” Ivy mumbled.
“You excited? You get your horse today.”
She nodded and then looked around. “Where’s Daddy?”
“Still in bed, sweetheart.”
Myra put a plate with eggs, bacon, and toast in front of Ivy. Ivy went straight for the bacon, making Ryan smile.
Smart girl.
They heard a rig pull in. Will poked his head out the door. “It’s Tony with Ivy’s horse,” Will said.
Ivy squealed and jumped out of Ryan’s lap and grabbed her hand. “Come on, Ryan, let’s go wake Daddy.”
“Sure, baby; let’s go.”
Ivy dragged Ryan down the hall while her muscles protested the quick and sudden movements. She burst through Slade’s door, pulling Ryan along. “My horse is here, Daddy!”
What Ryan saw when she stopped caused her blood to run cold. The roaring in her ears muffled Ivy’s voice.
And Lisa’s.
Lisa sat up, pushed her hair out of her face, and gave Ivy a sleepy smile. “Good morning, swe
et girl. Can you hand Mama her robe?”
Lisa was sitting up in Slade’s bed, just the sheet concealing her naked body.
“Why are you in here, Mommy?”
“Oh, baby, your Daddy and I will explain to you a little bit later. Why don’t you let us get dressed? We’ll be right out, okay?”
“Okay.”
Ryan watched as Slade pushed himself up, his eyes still closed. Yeah, must have been a long night.
“Something you needed, Ryan?” Lisa said. Her knowing smirk drove the entire situation home.
Slade had gotten back together with her. He had tossed what he had started with Ryan to the side to return to his ex-wife.
Well, she wouldn’t hang around being the second choice. The pathetic wanderer who just happened to have a fling with the rancher. The stupid woman who overstayed her welcome.
She went to her room and tossed her things into her bag, slung the strap over her shoulder, grabbed her guitar, and walked past the entire crew in the kitchen and out to her vehicle.
She forced one foot in front of the other. How pathetic was that? She had just found Slade in bed with his ex and still she had to force her feet to move away from him, away from Ivy, away from the ranch she had begun to think of as home.
“Honey, are you alright? Where are you going?” Myra asked with a hand to Ryan’s elbow.
“I’m leaving.” Ryan pushed open the door, nodded at Tony who had just lifted his hand to knock, and headed straight for her truck. She tossed her duffle onto the passenger seat and stood up her guitar. Without another glance, without looking to see who watched her exit, she finally let the tears gathering in her eyes fall. She struggled for a deep breath. Her skin turned blotchy and hot.
She turned the key, and, stupidly, she looked at the main house one more time, where everyone had gathered to watch her go. She put the truck in reverse, hit the gas, and cut those heartstrings loose.
9
Slade tried to speak past the cotton in his mouth. He hadn’t felt this bad since his college days. Maybe not even then. The brilliant sunshine stabbing him in the eye told him he had slept far later than normal. He commanded his muscles to move, but they betrayed him in their sluggishness. Was he getting sick? And if he was, if this was just the beginning, he was in for one hell of a time.
The last thing he remembered was having a drink with Lisa. He didn’t even remember going to his room. He threw on a T-shirt and stumbled his way into the kitchen, where Myra sat at the table, glaring at him.
“It’s about time you pulled your sorry ass out of bed,” Myra said.
He glanced at the clock over the sink. It was after ten. “It’s late, but apparently I’m coming down with something, so a little understanding would be nice.”
She pushed her chair back and stood. Her eyes shot daggers. “That’s all you’ve got to say after the stunt you pulled? You hurt that poor girl somethin’ awful and turned this damn ranch on its ear.”
Slade struggled to keep up. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Don’t play stupid with me,” she snapped.
He poured a cup of coffee, the smell hit his nose, and he hesitated. “Myra, I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”
She snapped the dishtowel on the table. “I’m talking about your choice of bed partners, young man. Lisa comes out here this morning, all big in her britches after Ivy announced to everybody, including Tony Carlton, who was here to deliver Ivy’s horse, that she found Mommy sleeping with Daddy. Thank goodness he brought that horse so Ivy’s distracted enough that she hasn’t noticed Ryan left.”
Finally, something that cut through Slade’s foggy brain. “Ryan left?”
“She sure did. Grabbed her bag, her guitar, hopped in her truck, and hightailed it right out of here.”
He dumped his coffee and looked for his boots. “Why didn’t you stop her?”
“Why didn’t I stop her? She’s a grown woman and can do as she pleases. Why didn’t you think about this possibility before you hopped into bed with that she-devil?”
This is what happened when you didn’t put your shit where it belonged. Where the hell were his goddamned boots? “I didn’t hop into bed with anyone.”
She slanted him an incredulous look. “Ivy and Ryan found you, in bed, with Lisa. You’re going to deny that?”
He found the boots under the table, dropped into a chair, and yanked one on. “Yes, damn it! I was in here last night. Lisa was here, she poured me a glass of whiskey and…well, fuck, I don’t know what came after that, but it sure as hell wasn’t Lisa and me spending the night together.”
“You sure about that?”
Well, no, damn it. He couldn’t be sure, but one thing he was sure about: He was going to get to the bottom of this once and for all. This was Lisa’s doing. Not a doubt in his mind, and she was going to explain herself, then she was going to get the fuck off of his ranch for good.
“How long ago did Ryan leave?”
“A couple hours or so.”
“Where’s Lisa?”
“She’s out there with Ivy and Ryan.”
He halted pulling on his second boot. “What?”
“Ivy’s new horse, she named her Ryan.”
“Fuck.”
Myra raised a brow and folded her arms over her chest. “I would say that about sums it up.”
Slade grabbed the phone and called down to the barn. Levi picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Is Lisa down there?”
“She sure is.”
“Send her up to the house.”
“Will do. You gonna straighten this mess out?”
“One way or the other, yeah, I’m going to straighten it out.”
“Good to know. I didn’t think you were stupid, but having Lisa in bed with you, it made me wonder.”
He paced the kitchen. Never in his life had he been tempted to throttle a woman, but right now he was about as close as he could imagine ever being.
“I’ll just go check on Ivy.”
“Levi will keep an eye on Ivy. You’d better stay here and keep an eye on me.”
“Fair enough.”
Lisa came through the door, a bright smile on her face. She had done her hair up in a ponytail. Unlike her normal attire, she had chosen blue jeans, a V-neck T-shirt, and boots. She looked like she fit in. Funny, she had never dressed like that before, so why now?
“You’re looking well this morning, Lisa.”
Lisa glanced between Myra and Slade. Her smile slipped, just a bit. “Thank you.”
Slade stood behind a chair and gripped the wooden back with all of his might, to resist grabbing Lisa’s arms and shaking her. “So tell me, why were you in my bed this morning?”
Lisa cast an uneasy look at Myra. “Slade, silly, you don’t remember?”
“No, I don’t. So why don’t you fill in the blanks for me?”
“Well, we had a drink and you opened up the discussion about us becoming a family again.”
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, bullshit! There’s no way I went from thinking about proposing to Ryan to reuniting with you. So how about the truth?”
“Well, you had been drinking.”
“A drink you gave me and I can’t remember anything after. Why is that, Lisa?” It was starting to make sense to him. The feeling of being sick, then nothing, and his sluggishness this morning. He never would have thought Lisa would go this far, but now, now he had no doubt that she had.
Lisa glared at Myra. “Can we have this discussion in private?”
Slade squinted at her, hating what she had done, more and more with every breath. “This is as private as it will ever be between us. Where did you go last night?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“No? I thought we were becoming a family again? If that’s the case, don’t I deserve to know where my wife was?”
She glanced away. “I wa
s out.”
He never took his eyes from her. “Out where?”
“Slade…”
“Lisa, you’d better come clean now, or I’m heading straight for Doc Stevens to get some testing done. What’s it going to be?”
She cocked her hip and that sneer that he knew so well returned to her face. “Fine. I did it. I put something in your drink. We belong together. Our daughter deserves to have a family.”
Rage, hot and scathing, burned through his veins. She’d drugged him. She’d drugged him to trick him, Ivy, his employees, and Ryan. She’d decided she wanted what she wanted and didn’t consider the consequences for anyone involved, least of all their little girl.
“You have ten minutes to pack and be off my ranch.” His grating voice surprised him.
“Slade, you don’t mean—”
He advanced on her, but stopped just shy of putting a hand on her. She was many things. Things he hated, but she had given him Ivy. Frankly, that was the only thing saving her ass right now. “Ten minutes or I go straight to the doctor and then the sheriff’s office.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “But I’ll be back. I will see my daughter.”
“After the stunt you pulled, there’s nothing left for you here. You’ll be hearing from my attorney.”
She pursed her lips and glared. “If he can find me.”
He gave her a hard look. “Honey, my well is deep. He’ll find you.”
***
Ryan struggled to drive. Images of Lisa cozied up in Slade’s bed flashed through her mind, causing her to alternate between tears and waves of nausea. How could he? After everything he’d said to her, the things they’d done, how could he jump into bed with Lisa like it all meant nothing?
Had she misread him that badly? Living at his ranch had brought clarity about her real life, her relationship with her dad, and what she wanted moving forward. How, with all that, did she misread the situation with Slade the way she had? Or had she? Maybe he did want her, but then Lisa seduced him.