To Tame a Wilde (Wilde in Wyoming)

by Terry, Kimberly Kaye

  Yasmine was pregnant, and had recently learned that it wasn’t one Wilde, but two little Wildes growing in her tummy, a fact that had Holt, her husband, with his chest swollen with pride.

  “How’s Holt?” she asked, ready to giggle. Holt and Yasmine had always cracked her up, as Holt had a wild sense of humor and could make anyone laugh with a few well-chosen words.

  “Girl, he got his chest all poked out, proud, like he did something!” she said.

  “Yeah, well, girl, he kinda did help. I mean, it takes two and all that.”

  “Yes. True. And that is exactly what I’m talking about. It takes two. Not one. Two,” she emphasized. “With the way my husband is walking around the ranch talking about how potent he is...how, if it wasn’t for his Superman sperm— What, baby? I’m on the phone, I can’t talk to you!” she said, yelling at Holt, one hand covering the mouthpiece. Despite the ambivalent feelings Sinclair had due to her own personal situation, she fought back a laugh.

  Holt and Yasmine always, without fail, cracked her up. When Yasmine got back on the phone, the two women caught up on what had been going on at the ranch in her absence.

  Finally she opened up with Yasmine. She hadn’t told anyone what had been happening between her and Nick, not because she didn’t feel like she could, but mainly because she hadn’t figured out her own feelings. Until he’d told her he loved her.

  She knew without doubt she’d heard it.

  After she spilled her guts, told Yasmine everything, she waited. Then said, “I love him, Yaz. I really love him.”

  She waited for the scream.

  It wasn’t a long wait.

  “Oh. My. God! They were right, Althea and Nate were right! Wahooo! Wait until I tell them. Oh. My. God!”

  Despite the yelling and hollering, Sinclair picked up on something, a frown making her sit straighter.

  “Nate and Althea were right? What do you mean, Althea and Nate were right?” she asked.

  She wondered if Yaz’s pregnancy was affecting her in some weird way she had never heard of. There was a pause, and she could feel Yasmine’s discomfort.

  “Oh, shoot. Me and my big mouth,” she mumbled.

  Oh, no. This wasn’t good.

  Of all the women, Yasmine was not only the worst to know a secret, she was the worst to keep a secret. Which was why she knew that what she was about to hear wasn’t going to be something she necessarily wanted to hear.

  “You might as well come clean, Yasmine. Cat’s darn well out of the bag. Almost, anyway. Besides...you know you always feel better when you do,” Sinclair said, cajoling the woman and not feeling the least bit bad when Yasmine, in her pregnancy-induced emotional state started to whine, sniffing while saying, in a very small voice that Holt was going to get her when he found out. Then she stopped to giggle at her own words, repeating them.

  “Holt’s gonna get me,” she said around her giggles. “Maybe the babies will come quicker if he does!” she said, her mind already on something else.

  “Focus, Yasmine,” Sinclair said, trying not to snap at the pregnant woman, knowing that it was truly the hormones racing in her body that made her the way she was. Kind of...

  “Okay,” said Yasmine, sobering. She began to whine again, begging Sinclair not tell, and on and on...until Sinclair forced the truth out of the woman. Finally.

  And the truth made her face blanch.

  When Sinclair was able to get off the phone, adroitly avoiding an agreement not to tell the brothers, she in fact wondered who she should confront first. The three men whom she considered brothers...

  Or the one she was beginning to love like one. The one who was the identical twin brother of the man she was in love with.

  All four men were not only in cahoots with each other, regarding the Wildes and the property, the inheritance and all, but were also responsible for her being there in the first place. They were responsible for all of the time she had been there, and for purposely throwing her and Nick together.

  Chapter 22

  “I messed up, Key.”

  The admission was made reluctantly as Nick found his brother in one of the stables, after looking for him the entire day.

  He’d wrestled with the issue of the Wildes and, more importantly, Sinclair, for the better part of the day.

  Hell, he’d been wrestling with it for longer, much longer than that.

  “I was wondering when you would come and find me,” his brother replied mildly.

  “Am I missing something here?”

  “No, Pica. I just figured you would make your way here eventually. Grab a broom. Menial work clears your head,” he said.

  With a frown Nick grabbed a broom as his brother’d asked, and began to help him clean out a stall.

  “Okay, so what gives? Why are you doing ‘menial’ work, as you put it? Everything okay with you and Sonia?” Nick asked, putting his own troubles to the side to make sure his family was okay.

  Key threw him a smile. It was strained in the corners and Nick began to worry. “We’re fine, Pika... No fears. Just shoot. What’s on your mind?”

  Again, Nick hesitated. Two times his brother had called him by his nickname, one was to purely tick him off, the other time was as if something was on his mind, bothering him.

  He continued to sweep after Key refused to say anything more.

  Nick spilled his guts.

  Opened up to his brother in ways he never had with anyone else.

  He told him how he felt about their parents, how he felt about Clint Wilde.

  “I know you don’t feel the same way that I do, Key. I get that. And, man, damn if I know why it affected me like that—that he never found out about us—but it did,” he finished, glancing toward his brother.

  “Did?”

  Nick laughed. “Yeah, did. Crazy thing is, it doesn’t even matter anymore,” he said, running a hand over the back of his head. “And the reason for that is because of Sinclair,” he admitted, his voice gruff, raw.

  His brother said nothing, just continued to work, but Nick knew he was paying close attention to what he was saying.

  “I love her more than I thought I could ever love a woman. More than I thought it was possible to love,” he said, and turned away. As much as he loved his brother, he felt exposed admitting his feelings about Sinclair in such an open way.

  “Have you told her?” Key asked.

  Nick shook his head no even before he’d fully asked the question.

  “No. Don’t know how. Hell of it is, I don’t know if she feels the same way.”

  “Man, come on. You know the woman loves you. Hell, the whole damn ranch knows how you two feel about each other. Damn sure you haven’t hidden it.”

  “I tried. Damn if I didn’t. It’s just that whenever we’re together, it’s like there’s no one else. I love her more than I love the A’kela Ranch.”

  When he made that admission the brothers locked gazes. The emotion in his eyes was one he couldn’t hide, not from his twin. The A’kela was not simply their ranch, it was them, who they were.

  By saying he loved her more than the A’kela it was clear that his words were deep and heartfelt.

  Key smiled. The smile was one of relief, mixed with something more.

  He grabbed his brother and hugged him. They hugged for long moments before Nick lightly shoved him, making him laugh as he pushed his twin away.

  “I can’t keep her here forever. She has to know the truth soon.”

  “Don’t be an idiot like I was with Sonia. Tell her. Don’t let her leave without telling her. And tell her the truth—that you don’t want the Wildes’ ranch. That the Kealohas don’t want the Wyoming Wilde Ranch.”

  Nick blew out a breath after patting his brother on the back. “Wish it was that simple. Ho
w the hell do you tell somebody you love that you’ve been keeping something from them, just because you wanted to get to know them...? That what you felt from the first time you spoke was something you’d never felt for another person before?”

  “Just like that, brother,” Key said.

  The brothers locked gazes. Nick laughed. “Just like that, huh?”

  “But before you do, there’s something I’ve got to tell you. And I don’t think you’re going to like it,” he warned, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck.

  Although he felt dread, Nick recognized the gesture, one that he himself made whenever he was unsure of himself.

  “Oh, hell...what is it? Don’t tell me... You and the Wildes have been talking?”

  The look Key gave him was almost worth the ass-whooping Nick was going to give his brother for going behind his back to talk to the three men Nick had professed to dislike.

  Even as he began to roll up his sleeves, Nick knew that as far as ass-whoopings went, this one would be fair and evenly matched.

  “Aw, hell. Okay, let’s get this over with so I can tell you everything and you can get your woman,” Key grumbled and began to roll up his own sleeves.

  No one knew him like his brother. It was a natural thing to do, to go to him. Even if his brother was an ass sometimes.

  Chapter 23

  She was on fire with need for him, unsure if she could hold off until they got back to either her hotel or his home.

  Her glance fell over him. In the dim light of his truck cab, she was still able to make out how able his big hands looked as they gripped the wheel.

  He must have felt her gaze as he turned enough to glance over at her. He smiled and reached over to lift her hand up and bring it to his mouth.

  He surprised her when he turned it over and placed a kiss in the center of her palm.

  She felt the...intimacy of the kiss. Erotic. Different. But so hot.

  “Today was amazing. Don’t know the last time I enjoyed myself like that, Sin.”

  She smiled at his words. When he’d first called her the nickname it had startled her, so different than what she’d been used to in the way of nicknames.

  “Sin,” he’d called her.

  She was the sensible one. The responsible one. Definitely not a woman with a nickname like Sin.

  No. She was the girl who studied, sailed through undergrad and law school easily. The one who worked hard and...worked hard.

  Family had come first. Her own. She and her father, as it had been the two of them since her mother’s passing years ago. Then her extended family. The Wildes.

  Now that her father had passed away, what kept her at the Wilde Ranch was the Wildes themselves. After everything they’d done for her, from the financial assistance that had allowed her to go to law school, to the position as their attorney, she felt a sense of...obligation to them.

  Sensible Sinclair. That was who she was and, more importantly, who she was comfortable being.

  She turned away from Nick, but allowed him to keep her hand within his much bigger one.

  Sin.

  One side of her lips hitched upward into a secret little smile. Lord knew the man had made her sin more than a little bit. And she’d loved every minute of it, she thought, holding back a sigh.

  She’d decided to talk to Key first, after hearing everything that Yasmine told her that happened, from the beginning.

  Assuming her friend’s pregnancy-addled brain had it right, a part of her felt gratitude for what they’d done.

  But she still was unsure about how Nick was going to respond. She knew that his dislike for the Wildes ran deep... How was she going to tell him that his brother had been in communication with them from the get-go?

  Yasmine had informed her that after his initial communication, Nate had reached out and, believing he was speaking to Nick—and not realizing it was Keanu he was talking to—had told him that they—the Wildes—looked forward to meeting the Kealohas, and had nothing to hide. They wanted the brothers to come to the Wilde Ranch to see it. He’d invited them to become part of the family, to move to the ranch if they had a desire to.

  The Wyoming Wilde Ranch would welcome the twins with open arms, sharing in the wealth as they knew their father would want them to.

  She’d wondered how and what they’d had to do with her, and how the second part of their odd but well-meaning plot had evolved.

  She bit her lip, wondering how she was going to tell Nick that part, as well. It got kind of tricky, there.

  She’d searched for him all day and finally found him in town, and the two had decided to come back to the A’kela. It was then she noticed that he was quiet.

  More quiet than usual.

  “Baby...can we talk?” she asked, and he turned to her, his blue eyes filled with lust and need. A heady combination; one she knew too well.

  “Yeah...after.”

  She knew what “after” meant, and felt her body respond. She also knew something was on his mind, as well.

  “I promise, baby. We’ll talk...after,” he said, his eyes holding hers, and she nodded. Again he brought her hand to his lips to place a soft kiss in the palm.

  For some reason the sweet gesture brought tears to her eyes. She batted them away, and stared out the window, wondering how he was going to feel when she told him.

  The truck came to a smooth halt and Sinclair began to unbuckle her seat belt when his hand on hers made her stop. She turned to face him, a question on her lips.

  The look in his eyes made her ask, “Baby...what’s wrong?” Dread pooled in her gut, afraid she knew the answer.

  “I think you’re right. You’ve been right all along,” he said, searching her eyes. “Let’s talk.” He squared his shoulders. “Hell, let’s get it over with now. I don’t want to wait,” he finished.

  “Here?” she asked, wondering at the urgency. It was as though he thought he was going to face the firing squad.

  She swallowed. Afraid. She knew that what she had to tell him he wasn’t going to want to hear. He may even question her motives, but she had to tell him.

  She was opening her mouth to tell him when he forestalled her.

  “My brother...the Wildes...have all been in communication with each other, for the entire time we have been,” he began.

  Promptly her mouth formed a perfect O.... He knew.

  She listened as he told her, his head hung low as though he was afraid, or ashamed. She felt the love she had for him grow even more, and the decision she had made, to stay at the ranch, she prayed was one he wanted, as well.

  “Baby, it’s okay. I know everything!” she said, but realized he wasn’t listening. When he continued speaking, she frowned. The happiness she felt began to fade as disbelief took its place as he continued to speak.

  * * *

  Nick knew that if he didn’t say it in one big rush, get it all out, he would never do it.

  After he and his brother had nearly come to blows, he knew it was the least he could do to tell her the truth, the entire truth.

  As his brother had told him, he knew he could hold back, not tell her of his part in it, how he’d already decided long before she came that he wanted nothing from the Wildes. But if he did, there would be no other reason for their continued communication.

  “And I couldn’t do that. So I went along with it, pretended I still wanted to sue the Wildes,” he said, finishing stoically. He hadn’t been able to look at her, not since he’d seen the crestfallen look cross her pretty face.

  “Why did you do that? Why did you lie like that?” she asked, her voice so low he felt, for the first time in his adult life, like damn near bawling, she was pulling at his emotions so.

  “I’m sorry. It was the only way...” He stopped.

 
“Revenge was that important to you? To waste my time...?”

  “No. It was because I was already in love with you. Which is what my brother saw. Which is why he went along with the Wildes in sending you out here, as well,” he said, praying to God it was as his brother had said: that the Wildes had seen her love for him, as well, the spark they hoped would flourish for a woman they considered a sister.

  She frowned. “Okay, let me get this straight. Your brother and the Wildes put this all together because your brother believed you were in love with me, and the Wildes thought I was in love with you?”

  He nodded his head.

  She chewed her bottom lip, frowning at him.

  “And did you? I mean, uh, were you falling in love with me then?”

  Her eyes were lowered and he was unable to see the look in them. But he heard the uncertainty, the small catch.

  “God, yes, baby. I didn’t know it, but I knew I’d never felt like that in my life. It wasn’t long before I started to suspect I was in love with you.”

  “Falling-down-drunk kinda love?” she asked.

  He felt a grin tug at the corner of his mouth. Humor was good. If she was laughing...

  “Falling-down, begging-please-baby-please in love with you,” he said, hope blossoming.

  “Well...I guess since you put it that way,” she said and laughed when he dragged her across the seat and into his lap, swallowing her laughter with a kiss.

  * * *

  “Oooh, yessss.” The wail of pleasure was ripped from her lips in one long hiss.

  For long, hot moments, there was nothing to be heard in the stable but the sound of horses softly neighing, providing background noise to what was going on in one of the empty stalls.

  “Shush, baby. You’re going to wake up the ranch if you keep that up,” Nick said, his deep voice husky and low, intimate as it and he brushed over her skin. “But I do like how you respond,” he said.

  Before she knew what he was going to do, she felt him stroke deep inside her in one fatal hot slide, deep inside her welcoming warmth.