“So, do you want to explore on your own or do you want the guided tour? I’ll warn you though, the guided tour will cost you.” He wiggled his brows up and down.
“Well then, I’ll just explore on my own.” Her curiosity begged to race up the giant staircase and fling open every door she came to. She restrained herself so as not to appear over eager.
“I’ve got to check on a couple of things in my office and make a phone call. Make yourself at home. Go on. Look around. I know you want to.”
She waited until he retreated down the hallway before taking a few tentative steps to the second level. She rested her left hand on the banister and focused on the balcony beckoning from above. Confidence replaced trepidation as she quickened her ascent. Upstairs, she found another bathroom and three bedrooms. One of them, a massive master suite at the back of the house, overlooked the meandering creek. An acute sense of peace settled over her as she stared out the window. The house, both welcoming and breathtaking, remained uninhabited most of the time. Surrounded by tranquility and majestic charm, Trevor chose to live in the chaos of Phoenix. The paradox puzzled her. She made a note to ask him about it.
“I can’t tell you how delighted I am to find you in my bedroom,” he said.
“Actually, I was just leaving.”
He settled his arms around her and drew her close for a kiss. As usual, a deep-seated passion awakened within her when his lips touched hers. She kissed him back with wild abandon. His hands crept under her sweater, and the warm strength emanating from his touch comforted. How reassuring to know that he cared about her. The growing bulge in his pants confirmed how much he wanted her. Empowerment pulsed in her veins. Now. She needed to tell him now how much he meant to her.
He walked her backward. Her knees buckled when she hit the bed. Breathless, she pulled her lips away from his hot mouth and pushed against the solid wall of his chest. “Please stop…for a minute.”
He eased her onto the bed and sat next to her. An arm wrapped around her waist. “Something wrong?”
“No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Talk to me.”
“This is happening so fast. I’m confused. I….”
Trevor ran his hand up and down her arm, offering silent comfort and encouragement.
“I don’t want li…li…like you. But…I do.”
“Why don’t you want to l-l-like me?”
“You scare me.”
He turned her sideways so she faced him, one foot tucked under her on the mattress, the other pushing into the floor. “I’m going to presume you don’t mean physically…?”
“I don’t know if my heart can stand to be broken.”
“I have no intention of breaking your heart. In fact, my intentions are quite the opposite. I brought you here hoping you’d…fall in love. I’m hoping you’ll want to live here…permanently…as my wife.”
Of its own accord, her jaw dropped and she was completely without the strength to pull it shut.
He moved to the window. Raking his fingers through his hair, he turned to face her. “I love you, Ketra. I know you’ll be happy here. And you must know that I have many, many ways to keep you safe, if you’re still afraid that the Hamiltons might come looking for you.”
“You’re married.” she cried without forethought to censor her response.
“The divorce is a done deal. I’ve talked to my attorney. Twice. He’ll have the papers signed, sealed and delivered by the end of the month. For me it was over months ago.”
“You barely know me.”
“It doesn’t have to be right away. We can wait if you want. But I feel like I’ve know you all my life. Like we’re kindred spirits. We fill the voids in each other. Don’t you feel that, too?”
“I…I….”
“What’s the real reason?” he asked. “Give me one good reason. Not some flimsy excuse. An honest, valid reason, why you don’t want to marry me.”
She studied the thick tan carpet, squishing her toes into the lush softness. “I think I have something broken inside me. Deep down where no one can reach.”
Trevor sat on the bed and hugged her close. “There’s nothing wrong with you that love can’t fix.”
“I don’t know how to love.”
“Yes, you do.”
She moved her head from side to side. He cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes.
“Do you love me, Ketra?”
She nodded.
“Then let me be the guy who fixes what’s broken inside.”
Chapter Forty-One
Ketra chewed on the corner of her lower lip. Marry Trevor? She’d grown fond of him, to the point of looking forward to seeing him, touching him, and yes, loving him. She’d even stopped thinking about the ugliness of her past. She never thought that day would come. A watery image of Kennedy holding hands with Marco flitted through her subconscious. Happiness radiated from their faces.
She peeked at Trevor. “Okay.”
He scooped her up and swung her around like a father with a child. He kissed her, once, twice, a third long time. When her feet touched the floor he framed her face with warm callused hands. “I love you. I will spend the rest of my days making you happy.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
He clasped her hands. “Come on. Let me show you around our house. We can talk about how we’ll set up your training operation.”
“My training operation?”
“I assume you’re going want to keep training horses.”
“Yeah. Of course. I just hadn’t thought about moving. Rocky set up the Diamond D for me. Now I won’t be there.”
“Kennedy’ll be there, remember? She’ll be using the arenas for her training.”
Ketra stared beyond his shoulder, trying to comprehend leaving the Diamond D. That ranch had been home for the past two years. She’d have to make arrangements with her current clients for relocating. What if they don’t want their horses so far away?
Trevor interrupted her racing thoughts. “What’s bothering you?”
She focused on his warm gray eyes, before responding. “I’ll probably lose my clients. They’re almost all from Flagstaff.”
“We’ll get you some new ones. If your reputation precedes you, that won’t be a problem.”
Joining hands, they moved to the lower level. “Do you want to look around the house some more, or shall we go outside?”
“I’d love to see the barn.”
“It’ll need some remodeling for barrel training, but I think it’s large enough to house about ten. That’s about what you have now, right?”
She nodded.
They left the coolness of the house for the arid heat outside. The barn sat far enough from the house to keep the smells and flies from permeating the residence, but near enough that the animals could be reached quickly in the event of an emergency. Two lean men of average height exited as they approached. Both wore well-worn straw Stetsons pulled low to shade their eyes.
“Hi, Cal.” Trevor shook hands with the older of the two men first. “Reed, good to be home.”
Cognizant of the covert interest from the two cowboys, Ketra moved closer to Trevor. Cal, a man she guessed to be about fifty, darted occasional glances her way. Reed, who she put at about thirty, had reddish-yellow hair, hazel eyes and a wad of chew bulging from his lower lip. He jutted his chin at Trevor’s acknowledgment. His eyes wandered the entire length of her body. Every minute or so he spat a stream of brown spittle into the powdery dirt.
“Cal, Reed, I’d like you to meet Ketra. This pretty lady has agreed to marry me, despite my many flaws and weaknesses.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She shook first Cal’s hand, then Reed’s, releasing her grip after the briefest of contact.
Both men removed their hats and nodded.
“Cal and Reed are my right and left arms. They run the place, since I’m gone so much. I’m hoping that’ll change real soon though.” He slapped Reed on the back. “My fiancée is a horse trainer. She’ll be making some changes in the barn.”
Trevor winked at her. She smiled. Warmth flooded her body at the prospect of sharing this ranch with him. Marriage all of a sudden, became very appealing, euphoric when she considered the nights. Now she understood why Kennedy had such a hard time trying to explain her feelings for Marco. She couldn’t explain it either, but the feeling was sensational.
“So, how’s the new little guy doing?” Trevor asked.
“Growing like a weed,” Reed answered.
“I’ve got a brand new colt,” Trevor explained to Ketra. “A couple of months old. I’ve been dying to see him.”
They followed Reed, slowing their pace while their eyes adjusted to the dimness inside. Ketra swatted at gnats swirling in the rays of sunshine filtering through the windows high above the stalls. The ceiling was twice as high on one end of the barn than the other. The second-story loft housed a multitude of hay bales.
“The tack room’s on the other end.” Trevor gestured toward a door at the far end of the barn. “The reserve hay is in one of the sheds across the yard.”
Ketra said nothing, envisioning herself working in this well cared for structure with her own animals. A horse nickered. Trevor released her hand to greet it. She followed at a slower pace, not yet comfortable in his barn or as his fiancée. She peered over the lower half of the Dutch door into the stall, spread with a thick layer of clean wood shavings and straw. A knobby-kneed pure black foal stared back at her with huge curious eyes.
Trevor stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Isn’t he cute?”
“He’s perfect.”
He nuzzled her neck and trailed kisses across her jaw and earlobes. She squirmed. “I’ve been trying to find the right name for him. Nothing I come up with seems right. Got any ideas?”
“Zeus.”
“Like the mythology guy?”
“Yeah. The mythology guy.”
“I like it.”
He continued to plant kisses on any exposed skin. Unable to deny her body’s insistent urging, she turned full in his arms and pressed her hips against his thighs. He kissed her and she let him, uncaring that Cal and Reed lingered in the background.
“Let’s move on so we can get back to the bedroom,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper.
He captured her hand and led her to the tack room. She conducted a cursory inspection of a few saddles, halters and ropes, neatly stored along one wall. Shelves hung on two walls stacked with various equipment, tools and first aid supplies. Still leery of strangers, she cast a quick glance behind her to ensure that Trevor was still close by. She nodded. “Very nice.”
“We’ll make room for all of your stuff. Let’s go look at the sheds and the creek. It’s nice this time of day when the sun sets.”
She gasped. “The sun’s already setting? We have to get back. I have horses to feed. Rocky’ll be worried.”
“Relax. I called Rocky a little while ago. He’ll take care of the horses tonight and in the morning. We don’t have to hurry back.”
“He…he knows we’re here?”
“Um hum.”
“Did you tell him…?”
From his perch against the doorframe, he dipped his chin and raised his brows.
“You didn’t tell him that you…that we…?”
“Are getting married?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
“I figured you’d want to do that. In your own way. When you’re ready.”
His soft caring tone made her insides somersault. Is this how marriage to him will be? Kind, caring words? Caresses that made her shiver? Tender gray eyes that understand and console?
She must have been silent too long because he pushed himself away from the door jamb. “Do you want to go home? I’ll take you back.”
“No.” She blurted louder than necessary. She cleared her throat and added in a more normal voice. “I was just thinking.” She closed the gap between them. “You’re so nice. I’m not used to that.”
“People can be nice, you know.”
“I know.”
He wrapped his arms around her and they swayed from side to side for a moment. She reveled in the nearness and the intimacy of the moment. “I hope Cal and Reed don’t think I’m a bitch. Because…well, you know.”
“They’ll love you in no time. You won’t find a better pair of cowboys than those two. I wouldn’t go off for days at a time and leave the care of my ranch to someone who wouldn’t safeguard it. And everything else that’s mine.”
She rolled her eyes, but relished in the knowledge that he considered her his. “Let’s go look at that marvelous sunset you promised.”
When she tried to go past him he snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her against his chest. Her feet left the ground. Covering her mouth with his, he slid his tongue against the seam of her lips. She entwined her tongue with his and wrapped her legs around his waist for stability. After a long, feverish, timeless kiss, they pulled apart. The tack room was engulfed in darkness.
Trevor growled low in his throat and set her on her feet. Hand-in-hand they walked into the pink twilight, past the house and beyond, to the creek whose clear water rippled with golden sparkles from the setting sun. Birds swooped around them, warbling from the whispering branches of the oak trees. Squirrels scurried to complete their daily chores before settling in for the night.
At the water’s edge, Trevor squatted, tugging her down beside him. He curled his arm around her shoulders and leaned his head against hers.
“Thank you,” he whispered into her ear.
“For?”
“Helping me come to terms with the last few months of my life. The most horrible months of my life.”
She placed her hand against his cheek, the softness where her fingertips lay contrasting with the bristly stubble on his jaw beneath her palm. “I guess I should thank you, too. For the same reason.”
“We’re a lot alike, you and me.”
“It’s kind of weird how our lives are so…oddly connected.”
He placed a kiss on her palm, then sucked her fingertips into his mouth, the brief intimate contact igniting fireworks in her belly.
“I have to confess something. We kind of set you up for this trip. I wanted to show you my ranch but couldn’t convince you to come with me today.”
She drew back from his embrace. “Explain.”
“I gave Kennedy the idea that you guys should go shopping today. They had to come this way anyway.”
“You coerced my poor unsuspecting sister to conspire with you to get me off the ranch?”
He grinned. “And she was more than willing to go along with it.”
“Figures.”
“I was pretty sure you wouldn’t deny her.”
“Nobody denies Kennedy anything.”
Trevor flung his head back and laughed. “It must run in the family.”
“Did you tell her the reason why you wanted to bring me out here?”
“No. But I suspect she had a pretty good idea. Your uncle, too.”
“Is that the detective in you talking?”
“Probably.” He tossed a pebble into the creek, waiting until it plopped before sending another chasing after it. “Are you okay with me being a detective?”
She glanced at the horizon, a phenomenal display of crimson entwined with butterscotch swirls and wisps of apricot and pink. “Are you? I mean, after what happened?”
He held her hand and focusing on the slow-moving creek. “I’m good at what I do. Being a cop is something I decided I wanted to do a long time ago.”
“You’re
not such a bad cowboy either.”
“Gee, thanks. I think.”
They sat in silence as the shadows lengthened around them. “I’m okay with you being a cop,” she said. “As long as you’re okay with me being a horse trainer.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
They lingered on the creek bank while the stillness of the thickening darkness absorbed into their souls. The musicians of the desert—the coyotes, the cicadas, the crickets, the bull frogs—were tuning up for what promised to be a hearty nighttime symphony very soon.
“You made a comment, when I first arrived at the Diamond D, about me needing to go to the Hokey Pokey Clinic.”
She started to protest but he placed his fingertips over her lips. “Yeah, that wasn’t nice, but…you were right. It’s a hard pill to swallow and I wasn’t willing to accept it then. But I am now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I have to see a shrink before I can go back on duty.”
“Hey, I was just being a smart ass.”
“I know.”
She listened to the water trickling past and the remaining birds squawk before settling down for the night. “Isn’t that standard procedure when a cop shoots someone?”
“In my case, no. I had anger issues. After Heather left. It may have affected my judgment.”
Her conversation with Rocky replayed in her mind. No wonder he was itching for a fight when he arrived. She’d played right into his hands, too. Her own judgment had been clouded for years. Perhaps therapy would benefit her as well.
“Until I get clearance, I’m still considered a risk.” He studied her face for a moment. “It’s a stressful job. I let my personal life interfere. But it didn’t have anything to do with me shooting Glaskel. Of that I am sure.” He threw more pebbles into the stream. “I just wanted you to know. I don’t want any secrets between us. I made an appointment with the psychologist tomorrow.”
Ketra rubbed her arms against the evening chill. “Let’s go inside.”
At the house, Trevor turned on lights and locked doors. Ketra settled into the leather sofa opposite the fireplace, removed her boots and curled her feet beneath her. He brought a glass of wine.
On Common Ground Page 28