by Various
He felt himself smile in response to her teasing.
Leah laughed out loud. “Oh, you little hooligans!”
Before he could formally introduce Carlene and Leah, exuberant whoops sounded and the kids launched themselves off the floor and at their mother. Leah dropped to her knees and gathered her children to her. She hugged them fiercely, whispering silly words of love and how much she had missed them.
Shelly pulled back from her mother’s arms. “Mama.”
Leah smiled. “Yes, dolly-girl?”
“I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” Tears streaked down Leah’s face, but she was all smiles as the kids dragged her to the courtyard to show her their toy sailboats in the fountain.
Carlene pulled out the broom and started sweeping up the pasta mess on the floor. “Your sister seems happy to be back with her children.”
“She is, almost as happy as I’m going to be getting you all to myself again.”
Carlene blushed. “Me too.”
He pulled her to him for a quick, but hard kiss.
She smiled, looking a little dazed as she went back to sweeping. “I could get used to that.”
“Me kissing you?”
“In the kitchen…just like a normal couple.”
“We are a couple, honey.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“So, that’s how you decided to define our relationship, the one that falls somewhere between a one-night stand and marriage.”
Win grimaced, but Carlene didn’t see it. Her attention was focused on the dry noodles she was trying to sweep together into a manageable pile. But he wasn’t ready to discuss the life-altering decisions he’d made in the stable.
So, even though he knew it was not the right time to be talking about this, he asked baldly, “Did you try to seduce Grant Strickland?”
He didn’t need Carlene to answer him. Her look said it all. She turned pale as milk and her lips trembled. She looked guilty as hell.
Indescribable pain lanced through Win. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“I can’t.”
He spun away and stormed out of the kitchen. He had to get away from her before he said or did something he’d regret until his dying day.
She’d loved another man enough to try to seduce him, but she’d made Win beg. The fact that she had given in and let him make love to her last night only seemed to make it worse, not better. He’d thought it was something better than he’d ever known, but if the evidence before him was any indication, she was more a master game player than Rachel had ever been.
Carlene had made him beg.
Carlene moved around her bedroom, packing her things. Leah was here now. There was no reason for the housekeeper to continue staying at Win’s ranch. If he’d wanted her to stay, he would have said something. Apparently what they had between them—being a couple—didn’t extend to the commitment of living together, or trust. As she folded the top she’d worn the night Win took her and the children out for ice cream she considered Win’s reaction to her admission regarding Grant.
He’d just walked away. There had been no opportunity to explain, no chance to tell him she was sorry. Though why she should apologize to him for something that happened before they even met stymied her. It wasn’t as if she expected him to apologize for marrying Rachel.
Win had taken Leah and her children into town for an early dinner and been avoiding Carlene ever since. That said it all, didn’t it?
How had he known about Grant? Had the other man told Win? Or had Leah said something?
After all, she and Zoe were friends. If that were the case, Carlene wondered who else Zoe had told. Was the tale of her botched attempt at seduction all over town? Carlene wished that Zoe had warned her, but she realized that was a foolish expectation.
Zoe was a really nice woman. If she’d told Leah, she wouldn’t have expected the story to spread. Probably more than most people, Carlene understood how gossip worked. Even people who cared about you, like her parents, could do their share in spreading rumor and innuendo.
Silence wasn’t always golden and the truth could be taken out of context.
She pulled a pair of jeans from the closet and folded them before placing them neatly into the rapidly filling suitcase. She wasn’t going to cry. There was still a chance for her with Win. It wasn’t as if she’d demanded marriage from him. Surely, he wouldn’t balk at being her lover because of the thing with Grant.
He just needed to cool down a little. She’d seen his possessiveness. He had a streak of it about a mile wide. He’d fired a stable hand he needed very badly simply because Lonny’d made a pass at her. He would get over his anger about Grant though. He had to. She didn’t think her heart would survive if Win rejected her completely.
When she was finished packing, she carried her suitcase out to her car. Win was waiting, framed by the open front door, when she turned around to go back inside.
“Leaving?”
The covered entryway threw his face into shadow and she couldn’t read his expression.
“Now that Leah’s here, there’s no reason for me to stay the night.”
He didn’t say anything and she couldn’t stand the distance between them. Not the emotional or the mental one. She stepped forward until she could see his face, until she was close enough to reach out and touch him. His eyes were expressionless.
She put her hand out, touching his arm—feeling the heat of his skin like a brand on her palm.
“Win, we need to talk.”
“Later, not now.”
A lead weight settled where her heart had once been. “When?”
“I don’t know. This just isn’t working.” He sounded so tired, as lost as she felt.
“What isn’t working? Our affair? You’re saying that you don’t want me anymore because of what didn’t happen with Grant Strickland?”
Win’s eyes mirrored the pain she felt, but then his gaze turned hard. “I still want you.” He raked her body with his eyes. “But that’ll pass once you leave.”
The words stung. Did he realize he could have slapped her and it wouldn’t have hurt any more?
He was making it sound as if she were just a body to him and she knew she was more. She had to be more. “Do you really think you can forget me so easily?”
For a brief moment the stoicism vanished and she saw her answer. Fear and pain mirrored in his eyes, but there was also anger. “I believe I have to try. Rachel did a number on me, but she had nothing on you.”
“You don’t mean that.”
His stoicism cracked and he glared as if he hated her. “You tried to seduce another man, but you made me beg.”
“It wasn’t like that.
“I was lonely…depressed…I missed my real life. Grant came along and I don’t know…I guess I thought we could have something. Something more than nights spent fending off advances from drunks and carding teenagers trying to buy beer on a dare.”
“You couldn’t expect him to marry you.”
“No, we never even talked about it.”
Win said a really ugly word.
“I didn’t want to talk about marriage to Grant, Win. I didn’t love him!”
“Are you saying you love me?” he asked, trying to sound like his old hard self, but she heard the emotion bleeding through. The need that matched her own.
Oh, please let it match her own.
“Yes, I love you, Win, and making love with you was a hugely scary step because of it. I knew I would lose myself.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re leaving.”
“I thought that was what you wanted.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Never.”
“Never?” she asked, feeling light-headed.
“I don’t ever want you to leave.”
“That sounds an awful lot like marriage,” she choked out.
“Doesn’t
it?”
“Win?”
“Come back inside, honey.”
She nodded, her throat too clogged with tears to speak.
Carlene expected Win to come to her bed that night, but he didn’t. She’d come back inside to find Leah waiting. The other woman had seemed keen to get to know Carlene. No doubt because she’d spent so much time with the other woman’s children. Leah had thanked her profusely for potty-training Jared and then invited her to come to Portland to visit anytime she liked, the next day before she left town.
Win hadn’t been cold to Carlene, but he hadn’t acted like a man who wanted her to stay forever either and that oblique reference to marriage had her insides tied up in knots. He disappeared into town for a couple of hours after his sister left and then returned after the hands had eaten lunch.
He found her in the kitchen. He walked up behind her and kissed her neck.
She melted into him, the relief at his touch intense. “Hey big man. Did you get what you needed in town?”
“Yes.”
She turned around to face him. “I want to talk. Is that all right?”
He nodded and then kissed her lips, softly, gently.
They went into the living room and he pulled her onto the sofa beside him.
She bit her lip and then made herself speak. “I didn’t mean to make you beg.”
“I thought you loved him more than me, but—”
“Oh, no,” she said, talking over what he would have said next. “I didn’t love him at all, but you…I think I’ve loved you since the beginning. And it scared me.”
“You said you gave me your whole self when we made love.”
“I did.”
“That’s going to make my next question a little redundant, but definitely necessary.”
He pulled a small velvet box from his jeans pocket and laid it on her thigh. “Will you marry me, honey?”
She stared at the ring box and blinked back tears. When she made no move to touch it, Win flipped the lid up. Inside nestled the most beautiful diamond ring she’d ever seen. Its oval brilliance shone.
“Why is the question redundant?” she asked with a hitch in her voice she couldn’t hide.
“You said you gave yourself to me, that means you’re already mine. But I want the rest of the world to know it too.”
“Do you love me?”
“More than anything in life. More than my fears. More than my certainty marriage is a trap for the unwary.”
“I love you too.”
“So the answer is?”
“Do you really have any doubt?”
“No.” But his eyes said something else. “I wouldn’t mind hearing an answer though.”
She dropped to her knees in front of him and said. “Yes, Win. I want to marry you. Please, be my husband and my love for a lifetime. Please.”
“You begging me, honey?”
“Love is worth pleading for.”
“Yes, it is.”
“What do you mean we aren’t sleeping together again until after we’re married?” Carlene demanded when Win kissed her outside her bedroom door and made to leave her there.
Alone.
Win watched her warily, but smiled. “I want to prove that I love you, that you’re more than your body to me.”
“You don’t have to prove anything to me. We’re past that.”
“Yes, I do. You deserve it,” he vowed. “You’ve spent your whole life being seen as a body and I need you to know you have always been and will always be more than just a sex partner for me.”
“I know that, Win. You told me you love me…that you want to marry me, for goodness’ sake.”
She twined her arms around his neck and pressed against him. “Who appointed you the decision maker in this matter? I want to make love right now.”
He grabbed her shoulders and held her away from him in a cast-iron grip. “Honey, you are going to appreciate my restraint later. Trust me.”
She laughed. “You are so darn arrogant.”
He nodded, his expression pained. “I know.”
What was she supposed to say to that? “Well, stop it!”
“I can’t. Not this time. I need to prove to you that I love you enough to wait.”
Of all the idiotic ideas…but also incredibly sweet and…she was not going to start crying. How had she ever gotten so lucky as to have this man return her love? “Win, that is ridiculous! I’m the one you’re proving it to and I already believe you love me.”
He smiled. “Good.”
Finally. “So, we can make love now.”
He shook his head, slow and easy. “No. This is important to me. Are you willing to wait for my sake?”
Darn him. He couldn’t turn the tables like this. “Are you asking me to prove my love for you?”
“No. I know you love me, honey. You’re willing to marry me knowing my worst flaws. I’m asking you to trust me. I’m asking you to let me do this right.”
“Okay.” What else could she say?
He let his hands fall away from her shoulders. “So, when are we getting married?”
She studied him for several seconds. “If we left now, we’d be in Reno by tomorrow morning.”
He jerked as if shocked by a jolt of electricity. “What about the white dress and all the trimmings?”
“I’ve got a white dress. I don’t care about the trimmings,” she assured him.
“Your parents? Don’t you care if they are there?”
She thought about that. “Nope. I’ll send them an announcement. They’ll be thrilled, of course.
Married women are so much more respectable.”
“I kind of thought we’d get married here in Sunshine Springs,” Win replied.
She gripped the bottom of her top with both hands and peeled it off in one smooth movement.
Win gasped and his eyes turned dark blue. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Negotiating.”
She put her hands behind her back, which pressed her breasts against the silk cups of her bra.
She grasped the clasp on the back of her bra.
Beads of sweat formed on Win’s forehead.
“Now, either you agree to Reno today or I unclasp this bra. I’m warning you. The next thing to go is my jeans. You’re going to love my silk panties.”
Win glared at her, but the unmistakable bulge in the front of his pants negated the intimidating effect of his stare. That and the fact that she knew he loved her.
“That’s not negotiation, that’s blackmail,” he ground out.
She shrugged and Win’s gaze zeroed in on her cleavage like an arrow to a target. “Call it whatever you like, but I’m one second away from taking this off.”
Win swallowed and then he grinned. “How soon can you be packed?”
“Give me fifteen minutes.” Then she bit her lip. “What about the stable?”
“The mares have foaled. One of the ranch hands can help Shorty and I can take a few days off, no problem.”
Her smile was brighter than the noonday sun. “I’m so glad.”
“Me, too, honey…me too.”
Chapter 12
Twelve hours later, Carlene unclasped the bra.
They’d flown to Reno and gotten married in the nicest wedding chapel Win could find and now he was getting his reward.
Carlene had her husband’s full attention as she let the piece of white silk fall to the thick midnight-blue carpet of their honeymoon suite. Win’s gaze was riveted to her beautiful breasts and the small scrap of silk that covered her feminine secrets.
“I told you that you’d love my panties,” Carlene purred as she walked over to join him on the bed.
He’d already undressed and he waited for her on top of the white satin covering the huge round bed that dominated the room.
“They’re every bit as sexy as the little white dress you wore to our wedding,” he assured her.
As wedding dresses went, he had to admit that it had bee
n unique. The white lace mini-dress that so obviously had been former work gear from the Dry Gulch lay in a pool at Carlene’s feet.
In fact, she had bought it to wear to work, but never got up the nerve to do so. He was glad. It had outlined her curves in a way that would have set more than one man’s hormones roaring out of control. Win had been hard pressed to make it through the wedding vows. Literally.
Carlene covered the last couple of feet to the bed in a little rush. She landed against Win’s chest, bearing him back on the bed. “This time, I’m going to lick you all over.”
He grinned. “Sure you’re up to it?”
She didn’t answer. She was too busy licking a slow path down his throat to his collar-bone. She sucked lightly on the base of his neck and he groaned.
“Baby, that feels so good.” He caressed her, brushing the sides of her breasts with his hands.
“So do these.”
She didn’t answer, but kept moving down until she was making those sexy little circles around his nipples as she had the other night. Oh, man, he didn’t know if he could take this. “If you aren’t careful, honey, I’m going to lose it before I get anywhere near being inside you.”
She laughed, the sound low and throaty. “I’m not worried, Win. I have tremendous confidence in your powers of rejuvenation.”
Then she took his nipple into her mouth and sucked and he felt an electric jolt all the way to his penis. He bucked up off the bed and shouted something feral. He figured turnabout was fair play. He might not be able to reach her with his mouth, but he’d always had long arms. He started off by kneading the sides of her breasts until she was squirming against him, rubbing her hard little buds against his torso. He pushed against her until she lifted just enough for him to get his hands under her and play with the pretty pink raspberries.
She didn’t stop torturing him with her mouth, though, and pretty soon she’d scooted down far enough that he was forced to reluctantly release the soft, velvety flesh of her breasts. She pressed wet, heated kisses down his stomach making him tense in anticipation of her going lower.