Taken by Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens #7)

by Melissa Foster

  “Un-fair.” She rocked in to him.

  The desire in her eyes made him shiver. Her fingers dug into his back in perfect sync to her inner muscles clenching around him, driving him to thrust in deep. Their heated bodies slicked with sweat as they stroked and loved, groped and caressed, and clung to each other as if their next breath depended on the strength from the other. Luke thrust in deep, again and again, taking them both over the edge until they fell to the mattress, their bodies pulsing with aftershocks.

  Luke used to think sex was a great stress reliever, and as he reached for Daisy’s hand, he realized that as close as he and Daisy had become, they weren’t having sex at all—they were truly making love. Bringing their bodies as close together as their hearts, minds, and souls had already become. Like second skins.

  Daisy laced her fingers with his, and as Luke brought it to his lips, he knew he could handle whatever he learned about his father, as long as he had Daisy to come home to.

  Chapter Nineteen

  AS LUKE BLEW past the Welcome to Weston sign, the bone-shaking growl of his Harley vibrated through his body and his stomach tightened, taking his heart right along with it. He’d spent the first few years of his life in Weston before his mother bought her property in Trusty, Colorado. The rural back road gave way to slow-as-molasses Main Street, the center of Weston. Main Street had been built to replicate the Wild West, and like in Trusty, the people of Weston dressed the part, in jeans, cowboy boots, and Stetsons. Luke dressed the part, too, he realized, in his typical Levi’s and T-shirt. His mind shifted to Daisy, and whether she wanted to admit it or not, the girl lived and breathed the West. No woman had ever looked finer in a pair of snug jeans and cowboy boots. God, I hope she stays with me.

  He was still thinking about her as he pulled down his uncle Hal Braden’s long driveway, five hundred acres sprawling before him, nestled against the Colorado Mountains. Luke had spent much of his first six years hanging out with his cousins, Treat, Dane, Rex, Savannah, Josh, and Hugh, who were all either married or on their way to the altar. With the exception of a quick visit to meet Treat and his wife Max’s daughter, Adriana, he hadn’t seen them since he bought his own ranch two years earlier, and he missed the hell out of them.

  Luke cut the engine, taking in the ranch that had been his home away from home for so long. Good memories.

  Hal came through the front door and made his way slowly down the porch steps toward the circular drive. His long legs carried him across the walkway, and a slow smile crept across his sun-kissed, deeply lined face. Despite being in his early sixties, Hal’s broad chest and thick arms told of his years toiling on his ranch. Luke’s chest swelled with gratitude at the sight of the man who had been the driving force behind his love of ranching and horses. He stepped from his bike, and Hal folded him into his arms. At six foot six he had a few inches on Luke, and his bear of an embrace was strong and solid.

  “I’ve missed you, son.” Hal took a step. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, with the same cowboy boots that he always had. He’d always called Luke son, and when Luke was a boy, he’d wished for a father like Hal—brave, protective, wise, and loving beyond any man he’d ever known. Hal gave Luke a quick once-over with dark eyes that were common among the Braden men and nodded. “Glad you’re here.”

  Over the years, seeing his uncle and cousins had stirred all sorts of feelings that Luke would never admit to—jealousy, longing for a father he’d never have—but he was at a crossroad, ready to move forward with Daisy if she’d have him, and he needed to gain a foothold on the past to ensure he could leave those uneasy feelings behind. He could only imagine that Pierce wanted to meet him at his uncle’s ranch because, as with most things, Hal Braden held the answers.

  He spotted his cousin Rex heading up from the barn. His Stetson rode high on his head, his arms naturally arced away from his body, giving breadth to his massive biceps. Luke lifted his hand in greeting.

  “Heard your motorcycle pull up. That’s one loud hog.” Rex pulled him into an embrace, another commonality among Bradens. Affection seemed to flow in their blood.

  “She’s got a sweet growl, that’s for sure.”

  “How’re your horses? How’s the ranch?” Rex was a few years older than Luke and had helped run the Braden ranch since he graduated from college.

  Luke’s chest filled with pride. “My girls are great, and the ranch?” He inhaled deeply, thinking of the day they’d pulled out of Weston and the sinking feeling that had brought his head to rest against the window of his mother’s car as they left behind the relatives and ranch he’d loved so much. “The ranch is everything I’ve ever hoped it would be.”

  Pierce’s Land Rover pulled into the driveway. Pierce stepped from the truck, tall, dark, and eyes filled with wisdom.

  “Should I tackle him?” Rex straightened his Stetson and eyed Pierce.

  Pierce and Rex were close in age, and the two used to challenge each other like two gorillas pounding their chests. Then they’d roll around on the ground in an endless wrestling match until they were covered in dirt and sweat. Good times.

  Pierce came around the truck, wearing a pair of jeans and a black polo shirt. His dark hair was as sleek as Luke’s was coarse, and like his younger brother, he wore it short on the sides and longer on top. He, like all of the Braden men, was a few inches over six feet tall with broad shoulders and dark brown eyes.

  “Bro!” Pierce opened his arms and embraced Luke. “Damn, it’s good to see you.”

  “You too.”

  Pierce narrowed his eyes at Rex. “Do I need to take this guy down?” He and Rex danced around each other with fists in the air, feigning and dodging punches.

  “Shit. You wish.” Rex slapped Luke’s back again. “I’ve got to get back to the horses. Good to see you, Luke.”

  Pierce and Hal exchanged a quick glance. “So, little brother. You sure you want to go down this road?”

  “Yeah, I think so.” I need to.

  “In that case…” Pierce handed him an envelope, and when Luke took it, Pierce held on tight. His voice grew serious. “Hal and I want to take you for a ride and show you something. It’s your choice, but my advice is that you wait to open this until afterward.”

  Luke wanted to tear the envelope open and devour the information it contained, but the serious look in his brother’s and uncle’s eyes, held him back.

  “Sure. Okay.”

  He followed them into Pierce’s SUV. They passed through town and continued toward the mountains. Luke gazed out the window at the familiar scenery, acres upon acres of fields and pastures. When Pierce turned off the main road and the pavement turned to dirt, Luke felt his gut clench. The SUV ambled along the rutted road that led to his childhood home. Just as the old farmhouse came into view in the distance, Pierce cut to the left down a dirt road. They drove for a mile or more before coming to a huddle of trees, out of place in the open field.

  Pierce parked beneath the trees, and the three of them stepped from the SUV.

  “Are we burying bodies out here?” Luke felt a tug of familiarity but could not grasp it.

  “Sort of.” Pierce threw an arm around Luke. “Does this look familiar?”

  Luke’s nerves prickled. “I don’t know. Should it?”

  “I wish I could say no.” Pierce walked over to the tree and opened his arms. “Look around, Luke. Does any of it feel like you’ve been here before?”

  A memory tugged at Luke’s mind, just out of reach, like a ghost waiting in the shadows. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

  “Maybe you should clue me in.” Luke ran his eyes between his uncle and his brother.

  Hal rubbed his chin. “Son, there’s no easy way to talk about all of this. I expect it’ll come back to you, and I expect you’re not going to feel very good about it. The last time you saw your father was right here.”

  Luke’s chest constricted. “Saw him?” He shot a look at Pierce, who nodded. “I saw him? When? Here?”

>   Hal closed the distance between them. “You were five.”

  Pierce touched Hal’s shoulder. “Let me.” He set his eyes on Luke. “After Buddy left, he came around to the house. He’d come by drunk and cause all sorts of hell for Mom. You were just a baby, which is why you don’t remember, and then he disappeared with that other woman for years. But he came back twice.”

  Luke felt the air leave his lungs. “Twice?” It was barely a whisper. “Did he come to see me?”

  Pierce didn’t answer.

  Luke took a step forward. Breathing hard, he locked eyes with Pierce. “Did he come to see me?” His hands fisted at his sides.

  Pierce ran his hand through his hair and exhaled loudly, flashing a quick glance at Hal, who stood by silently, giving Pierce the chance to explain, as he’d requested.

  “Damn it, Pierce.” If Pierce hadn’t been his brother, if he hadn’t seen the tortured look in his eyes, he would have grabbed him by the collar and shaken the shit out of him.

  “No. He didn’t come to see you, Luke. And he didn’t come to see me, or Ross, or Wes, or any of the others.”

  “He came to see Mom.” Luke crossed his arms against the truth, huffing each breath. He didn’t come to see me. He’d known it his whole life, and the truth was still a bullet to his chest.

  “No.” Pierce’s eyes glazed over with anger. “He didn’t come to see Mom. He came to get Mom’s money.” Like their uncle, all of his siblings and their cousins, their mother had inherited the Braden family wealth.

  Luke felt Hal’s heavy hand on his shoulder. His nerves were on fire, muscles corded tight. He shrugged him off. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Son, this is going to be painful to hear.” Hal looked down at Luke. He was so close that Luke could see the veins in his neck pulsing. “Your father wanted your mother’s trust fund. He didn’t want to be a parent.”

  Hal’s tone was calm, even, terrifyingly prepared, unlike Luke, who felt like he’d run headfirst into a bullet train. Luke tried to process the information. “So…he was a greedy bastard. Did she give him money?”

  “She did,” Hal answered. “Until I found out what was going on.”

  Luke paced. “I don’t understand. I thought he left with some other woman.”

  “He did,” Pierce explained. “He left with a woman from another town, but he came back. Twice. He signed away his parental rights when he left, but something must have changed. He told Mom that if she didn’t give him money, he’d take her back to court and get us back.” Pierce drew in a long breath and blew it out slowly. When he continued, his voice was calmer, quieter. “The problem was, Luke, he didn’t want us. If he had taken Mom to court, he probably wouldn’t have won anything more than visitation, but Mom wasn’t going to take that chance. She knew he didn’t want anything to do with us.”

  He didn’t want anything to do with us. Why did he think he wanted to know this pig of a man? What the hell was he thinking? “If that’s the way it went down, and Mom paid him off, then why did he come back the second time? And why did he stop coming by? And what the hell does this place have to do with any of it?”

  “Let’s walk.” Hal walked down the road.

  Luke reluctantly followed, shaking his head.

  Pierce walked beside him, steady as a rock, as he’d always been. “Listen, Luke, this is not easy shit. You sure you want the details?”

  “Fuck yes. Why the hell didn’t you tell me ages ago?”

  “I didn’t know it all, not really. I was a kid. I didn’t remember. When you asked me to track him down, I asked Hal about it,” Pierce explained. “It sucks man. You’re sure?”

  “I want to know so I can put it away, Pierce. Don’t you get that? Right now Buddy’s a fucking skeleton in my closet.”

  “Fine. But don’t go apeshit on me,” Pierce warned.

  Hal’s deep voice silenced them. “The first time Buddy showed up, your mother gave him twenty-five thousand dollars. She thought that would be the end of it, that she’d be able to move on with her life, and that you and your siblings wouldn’t have to deal with him showing up anymore.”

  “Was he that much of an ass?” Luke wished like hell he could remember.

  “Worse,” Pierce answered. “I remember what it was like when he lived with us, and he was demeaning and nasty to Mom day in and day out.”

  “I can’t see her taking that kind of shit from anyone.”

  Hal answered. “Your mother loved him like no other, Luke. Love’s not something you can turn on or off. It sneaks up on you and wraps itself around your nerves. It seeps into your soul, and it infiltrates all the crevices of your mind so you can’t think past it.”

  Luke knew that all too well by the all-consuming love he had for Daisy.

  “Once he left and your mother had space and time without him, she reclaimed her mind and her heart.” Hal stopped walking and faced Luke. “She realized what he’d been like, and she’s never let anyone else get that close to her again.”

  Pierce slid his eyes to Hal, then back to Luke. “I heard Mom talking to Buddy on the phone before school one morning, and when I got to school, I told the nurse I forgot my homework so I could call home, but I called Uncle Hal. We all had school, but you had a doctor’s appointment, so you stayed home.”

  Hal ran his hand down his face, then crossed his arms across his broad chest. “I called Catherine, but she refused to let me step in. I did something I don’t regret, Luke, but you’re not going to like hearing it.” He paused just long enough for Luke to cross his own arms over his chest, steeling himself for whatever was to come. Hal’s brows knitted together. His solemn stare was locked on Luke, and when he continued, though his voice was even, his chest rose and fell with the ache of his confession.

  “I followed your mother here, where she met Buddy. You were in your car seat in the backseat of your mother’s car. I heard him hollering at her from way down the road. He didn’t touch her. He wasn’t a violent man, but he was mean as a snake.”

  Shivering began in Luke’s limbs and an icy rush filled his chest. “Wait.” Bits and pieces of the memory slammed into his mind. “He…He was hollering. The window was down a few inches, and I heard him. I can’t remember what he said, but…” He paced, kicking up dirt beneath his feet. “I struggled to get out of the stupid booster seat. The seatbelt was stuck. I had to wrench my neck to see above the headrest. She was yelling, too. I…I saw your truck at the same time that I got out of my car seat, but the doors had those stupid child-safety locks. I couldn’t get out.”

  Hal nodded. “You banged on the window, hollering and crying your eyes out.”

  Luke met his gaze. “I saw you. You stepped between him and Mom. Mom grabbed your arm.” He fisted his hands. “Damn it.”

  “She insisted she could handle him.” Hal’s voice remained calm. “But I was done with it, Luke. I was not going to let some cretin treat my sister and her children like pawns. I sent your mother away with you. I didn’t want you to see any more than you already had.”

  “Pierce, did you know all of this?” Luke met his brother’s gaze.

  Pierce shook his head. “Not until recently. I only knew that he stopped coming around after that last time. I sort of knew Hal was involved, but I was a kid, Luke. I didn’t want to know. I was just glad he wasn’t making Mom upset anymore. I know Buddy’s a mystery to you. To me he’s a nightmare I can’t forget fast enough.” Pierce shrugged.

  “Uncle Hal, what happened next?”

  Hal held his gaze. “I ended it.”

  “How?”

  “That’s not important. I did what I had to do to keep you kids and my sister safe. Buddy left, and no one’s heard from him since.” Hal’s eyes never wavered from Luke’s.

  How he did it wasn’t important, whether by fists, money, or words alone, Hal had done the right thing—probably the only thing—that would have allowed Luke and his siblings, and their mother, to have normal lives. Luke would probably never know if
Hal had beaten Buddy up, threatened him, or paid him off, and frankly, he didn’t give a rat’s ass. Family knows no boundaries. He’d heard it a million times, and until this moment it hadn’t clicked so clearly into place.

  “I’m sorry that he wasn’t a better man, Luke.” Hal continued. “It pains me that you kids didn’t have a better father, but you had a damn good mother.”

  Luke nodded. “Apparently, too good. Sounds like she should have dumped his ass before she had any of us.”

  “Don’t you ever say that.” Hal’s voice turned stern. “The only good thing that man did was to give you kids life. Don’t you ever regret that. Your mother sure as hell doesn’t.”

  The pieces of Luke’s memory were finally falling into place. He’d been locked in the car. Even at five years old, he’d known that the way his father had been shouting at his mother hadn’t been right. He’d carried that with him for twenty-five years.

  “That’s why I do it.” Luke said more to himself than to them.

  “What?” Pierce leaned in close.

  “That’s why I step in.” He met Pierce’s dark gaze. “That’s why I react so viscerally to guys treating women like shit. I can’t ever let it go. Christ, Pierce. In my head, those guys are him. Those women are Mom. He did fuck me up.” No wonder Pierce had watched over him with the eagle eyes of a parent. A missing parent.

  Pierce laid a hand on his shoulder. “No. He made you a better man than the likes of his sorry ass.”

  Luke needed to climb onto his motorcycle, race down the highway, and let the wind drive away the memories and the ghost that he still felt clinging to his back.

  No, that’s not what I need at all.

  I need Daisy.

  He needed to see her, feel her in his arms. He wanted to help her realize her dreams and treat her like she deserved to be treated, love her like she deserved to be loved, by a man who no longer had the cloud of his past hovering over him.

  Luke took one last glance behind him as they drove away from the huddle of trees. The ache in his gut and the emptiness that his father’s leaving had left in his wake was gone. Left in the dust. Buried.