She saw Mac approaching them, felt his steady gaze appraising her. He appeared calmer now, but still angry. Suddenly it hurt to breathe.
“We’re ready to go home now, Uncle Mac,” Autumn chirped, gracious in victory. “I got my jewelry kit.”
“And I got my torpedo launcher,” announced Clay, holding up the big box for his uncle’s inspection.
“I see.” Mac glanced at each child before zeroing in on Kara, his dark eyes piercing. “So what does he get when he sprinkles rat poison on someone’s plate? A genuine AK-47 assault weapon? And when Autumn holds up a convenience store, let’s be sure to reward her with an eighteen karat gold bracelet.”
“Uncle Mac, are you still mad at us?” Clay was shocked.
“Yes, I’m still very mad at all of you.” Mac fastened his hand around Kara’s neck and placed the other at the small of her back. The moment he touched her, he felt the anger within him begin to dissipate. Tension of an entirely different kind tingled warmly and pleasantly through his body. He couldn’t wait to get her home. “We’re leaving now,” he announced firmly.
“Okay, we’ll go outside and look for Brick,” Autumn agreed. “Maybe we’ll catch him kissing his girlfriend.”
“Brick and Courtney, Courtney and Brick,” Clay babbled in singsong derision.
The two scampered off, lugging their white elephants.
“God, what a night!” Mac groused, his jaw clenched. “First, a dinner from hell at Pizza Ranch and then we come here, to be the floor show at the annual fall festival. I can’t wait to get back to the ranch—where you and I will have a serious discussion about buying presents for juvenile terrorists.”
Kara’s emotions were churning like a steaming caldron, volatile and hot. “If you don’t take your hands off me, I’ll let out a scream that will make any of Autumn’s seem like a whisper.”
“I’m calling your bluff.” Mac’s hands stayed where they were. “And issuing a threat of my own. If you don’t come with me right now, I’m going to pick you up and carry you out of here, and I don’t give a damn that half of Bear Creek is standing around watching us.”
Ten
Kara whirled around to face him. Her stomach tightened and she lifted her chin to lock her eyes with his. “Now it’s my turn to call your bluff. I am not going to meekly stroll out of here with you, though I’m sure your gargantuan male ego expects me to do just that. After all, you’ve had quite an evening, haven’t you, Mac? Laughing it up with Marcy Tanner, exchanging long, meaningful glances with Jill Finlay.”
It was a most un-Kara-like declaration. A week ago, she wouldn’t have raised her voice to anyone, let alone initiated a confrontation to express her anger. She would have quietly withdrawn into her shell, which she’d been doing all her life.
“You think I was enjoying myself with Marcy and Jill? Not hardly, honey. You have all the perception of a—of a—” A sudden enlightened smile crossed Mac’s face. “Of a jealous lover! That’s what you are, Kara. You’re jealous because I was talking to Marcy and Jill.” He looked so pleased that Kara wanted to pummel him.
“I am not! I don’t care what you do or who you do it with. And if you want to—to flaunt your girlfriends in front of half the town, well, go right ahead!” Her head held high, she marched purposefully toward the door.
Mac watched her leave. He was aware of his audience, watching him expectantly, wondering if he would ignore her angry departure and stay to socialize, or follow her out. Bear Creek’s most eligible bachelor brought to his knees? Squaring his shoulders and pasting a smile on his face, he sauntered out of the church basement, as if chasing after Kara Kirby had been his plan all along.
He found her standing underneath a wide-branched tree, which had shed nearly half of its yellow-gold leaves. They crackled beneath his boots, announcing his arrival. Kara didn’t bother to turn around. Mac frowned. Well, why should she? She knew damn well that he’d follow her out here.
“Congratulations,” he said grimly. “Everybody saw your irate exit. They also saw me come running after you.”
“I chose to leave. You didn’t have to.”
Mac gave a bark of laughter. “Yeah, sure. I could’ve stayed inside and chatted up Jill some more while waiting around for Marcy to come back with her wallet. Provided continuing entertainment to the town by flaunting my former girlfriends. Thanks, but no thanks, Kara. I don’t care for the role of Bear Creek crowd-pleaser.” Mac took a step closer to her. “I’d rather please you, exclusively.”
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.” Kara’s voice trembled. “You’re deliberately turning on the charm.”
“Is it working?” Mac reached out to finger a strand of her hair. “Are you anywhere close to being charmed?”
Kara folded her arms in front of her chest and kept her eyes focused straight ahead, on the parking lot where Autumn and Clay were racing from car to car, peering inside each one.
“You’re ignoring me,” Mac persisted. He tucked the silky lock of hair behind her ear, then ran his hand over her shoulder, down the length of her arm. Kara quivered and tried harder to ignore him.
Mac was undeterred. “Not a particularly good move on your part, Kara. I’m just obnoxious enough to refuse to be ignored.”
Kara was silent. Did Mac actually think she had some kind of planned strategy for dealing with him? The truth was, she was flying blind without a clue as to what to say or do next.
Mac followed her gaze. “What on earth are those kids doing now? They’re zooming around like a couple of Keystone Kops on speed.”
“They’re hoping to catch Brick and Courtney Egan in a compromising position in one of the cars,” Kara said tightly. “I’m hoping they won’t.”
“That makes two of us. He’s too young to be making out with girls.”
“Maybe it’s genetic,” Kara said waspishly. “I’m sure you started early. And you’re still going strong.” The moment the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. Once again, she sounded like a jealous shrew!
Mac moved swiftly, standing in front of her, toe-to-toe. “You’re wrong if you think either Marcy or Jill means anything to me, Kara.”
“You’d be married to one or the other if they’d been able to cope with the kids. I’d say that means something!”
“Not anymore. Jill and Marcy were okay for a freewheeling single guy but the moment I became a family man, they were all wrong. It was over.” He cupped her chin in his hand, tilting her face to meet his dark-eyed gaze. “And I didn’t care, Kara. It just didn’t matter.”
Just because he wouldn’t admit to carrying a torch for either woman, didn’t mean there weren’t some sparks there. All of Kara’s old insecurities rose up to clobber her. What was the use? She couldn’t compete.
“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” she said stiffly.
“Apparently, I do. So I will.” He gripped both of her wrists and gave her a gentle tug toward him.
Kara resisted, holding her ground and keeping her distance. Her former stepfather’s dire laments played over and over in her head like a tape. Mac would be perfectly willing to marry any woman who agreed to his terms.
Any woman. Her or Marcy or Jill, whichever happened to be the first to say yes. And if either Marcy or Jill were to change their minds and accept Mac’s offer, Kara had no doubts that she would be on the next plane back to D.C. After all, she was at least his third choice.... Jill’s mention of Tonya, desperate but not desperate enough to cope with the Wilde kids, sprang to mind...maybe there were candidates she’d yet to hear about. Maybe she wasn’t even among the top ten finalists!
Kara conceded defeat. Why wait around for the rejection that was sure to come? Maybe she should take the initiative and just leave. Be pro-active, like all those self-help articles urged.
Mac heaved a sigh. Discussing Marcy and Jill struck him as irrelevant as speculating on the social significance of lava lamps and mood rings. The past had never interested him as much as the
present or the future. He studied Kara thoughtfully. She was his present and his future, but she seemed determined to rehash his spurious past. Well, he would indulge her. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do to satisfy her, he admitted to himself.
“Look, honey. Marcy invited herself to join us at the restaurant tonight, and when she heard we were coming here, she decided to follow in her car. I don’t know why, because the kids were bratty and rude to her all through dinner and—”
“I saw the two of you together, Mac,” Kara interrupted, her voice ragged. “She was flirting with you and you were smiling at her as if you were totally entranced.”
“No, I was in a trance. I was on automatic pilot, Kara. When a woman chatters and giggles like Marcy was doing, I zone out. Oh, I can smile and even make an occasional one-word response, but mentally I’ve teleported myself somewhere else. I was contemplating cattle futures when all of a sudden Clay and Autumn ran over to confess their evil deeds.”
He grimaced wryly. “Not that they were even slightly repentant. They were downright triumphant!”
“Tricia Franklin told them that Marcy hates them and stopped seeing you because of them,” Kara said quietly. “I think they were showing loyalty to you.”
“Maybe they were, in an Addams Family sort of way. But I think it more likely that they were showing their loyalty to you, Kara. Their credo goes something like this—no woman but you hangs with the Wildes, and all interlopers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the kids’ abilities. Which are considerable,” he added ruefully.
His fingers tightened and he tugged her a little harder. “Now come here and kiss me and then we’ll go home and—”
“No.” Kara backed away, as far from him as the length of her arms would permit. Reluctantly, Mac dropped her wrists.
“I’m sorry, Mac,” she said breathlessly. “I thought I could go through with it but—”
“Moving on to Jill and those alleged meaningful glances,” Mac interrupted, his voice resolute and unwavering. “Boy, did you call that one wrong! Jill thinks I’m an idiot but she’s impressed with you. I think she’d be willing to act as your agent in drawing up a killer prenuptial agreement.”
“Prenuptial agreement?”
“Jill thinks you should make me cough up a big bundle of cold hard cash before the wedding. Is she right, Kara? Is that what you’re holding out for?”
“No! I never said—I don’t understand why she would say such a thing to you. I never told her I wanted money, I...” Kara paused to catch her breath. She was so off-balance she could hardly remember what she’d said during her brief conversation with Jill. But she knew it hadn’t involved a cash payoff!
There was an unholy gleam in Mac’s eyes. “If you insist on a prenuptial agreement with a chunk of cash going into a bank account bearing your name only, we can talk to Jill’s new flame, Tom Egan, tonight. He’s a local attorney and an old friend of mine, and I’m sure he would be willing to draft a—”
“I don’t want your money!”
“So you’ll marry me without a prenup?”
“Yes! I mean, I would if I was going to marry you but I—I need some time to think, Mac. We both do.”
“I don’t agree, but you can think at the ranch if you insist.”
“No, I need some time alone. I can’t think clearly when you—”
“And I are making love?” Mac arched his brows. “Good. I don’t want you to be able to think clearly when you’re in bed with me. Save all that clear thinking for dealing with the kids and working on the books.”
Kara steeled herself against the seductive images of herself in Mac’s bed, rendered mindless with desire, then drowsily satiated and replete. Neither state was conductive to analytical thought.
“I can’t stay at the ranch. I want to fly back to Washington tomorrow.” She swallowed hard. The way he was looking at her, intense and possessive and utterly determined, made chills run down her body.
“I’ll ask Uncle Will to drive me back to the ranch to get my things tonight and I’ll stay in town with the Franklins.” She remembered Tricia’s grievous allergies. “We’ll pick up Tai tomorrow and drive to the airport, if—if you don’t mind letting him stay with you tonight.”
“Sure, the cat can stay,” Mac said coolly. “In fact, he’s not leaving the ranch.”
Kara’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what you heard me say, sweetie. I’m holding the cat hostage. If you want to live with him, you’ll live with him in my house.”
Kara suppressed an irrational urge to laugh and to burst into tears at the same time. “You can’t hold Tai hostage!” She tried for derisive defiance and was dismayed by how nervous and uncertain she sounded.
“No?” His smile was a challenge. “Who’s going to stop me?”
Kara stared at him, debating whether he was serious or not. “I am. You—You wouldn’t really keep Tai from me, would you?”
Mac tilted his head and appeared to consider it. “I’m willing to negotiate,” he said at last.
“How big of you!” Kara wanted to shake him, to wipe that self-confident arrogance right off his face.
“Do it, Kara,” Mac taunted, his voice low and deep. “Go ahead and slap me. You know how much you want to. I’d rather have you fight with me than retreat and withdraw. In fact, I won’t allow you to do it. I’ll keep provoking you until you’re so damn mad, you’ll attack me instead of detaching yourself.”
He was close to achieving that particular goal. Kara imagined smacking his hard cheek, playing the scene like she’d seen in hundreds of movies and TV shows. Her palm actually tingled in anticipation.
But she restrained herself, her civilized reserve prevailing. “You are not going to incite me into an act of physical violence, Mac Wilde.”
“Then I’ll incite you into another kind of physical act.” Mac yanked her into his arms.
His mouth was hard and hot and strong. He crushed her against him, as if he couldn’t hold her close enough, molding her softness to the unyielding male planes of his body. His tongue went deep inside her mouth, and Kara moaned as a shiver of pleasure swept through her. Her body was so conditioned to the ecstasy of their lovemaking that he had only to touch her to rekindle the need and the hunger within her.
Kara’s self-control, always so formidable, was not strong enough to keep her from responding, and she gave in, leaning heavily into him as he held her tight. Her arms encircled his neck. Her middle rubbed his as she arched against the burgeoning pressure of his thighs.
It was a tempestuous, carnal kiss that swept them instantly into the hot urgent throes of desire. Kara felt his heat and his hardness and clung to him, the empty ache inside her making her whimper because it was an ache only he could fill, and she knew how good it felt with him full and deep inside her.
She wanted him now; nothing else mattered but being with him. Common sense and pride, words of advice from well-meaning others and the specter of past lovers ceased to exist. In this timeless vortex of passion, only the two of them existed.
“Wow!” A third party suddenly was catapulted into their own private world. It was Autumn’s voice that shattered the sensuous spell secluding them. “That’s how they kiss on soap operas!”
Mac groaned and lifted his mouth from Kara’s, but he didn’t loosen his grip on her. He held her tightly against him and pressed his lips against her temple. Kara felt the rigidity of his erection fiercely against her and her whole body throbbed in response. Neither she nor Mac were capable of conversation quite yet, but Autumn didn’t mind, she carried on a monologue.
She recited a garbled version of several plot lines running on one daytime soap, then added curiously, “Do you think Brick and Courtney are kissing like that?”
“Lord, I hope not,” Mac finally managed to rasp.
Kara slipped out of his arms, and he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw as a wave of unbridled frustration roared through him.
“Lily an
d Webb kiss like that,” Clay said conversationally. He was kneeling beside Autumn, delving into the box and taking out pieces of his new used toy.
Kara drew a sharp breath and looked at Mac who seemed to have been turned to stone. “What did you say, Clay?” he asked, his tone deceptively calm.
But Clay was not deceived. He dropped a plastic wheel and covered his mouth with both hands. “I forgot! It’s a secret. I’m not supposed to tell!”
“You knew a secret?” Autumn was indignant. “How come you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t tell anybody,” Clay said proudly. “I saw Lily and Webb kissing in the barn and Lily bought me a Gameboy game if I didn’t tell.” His face fell. “Till now. It just kind of slipped out. Lily will be so mad! She’ll run over my Gameboy and all the games with the car. She said so!”
“Webb Asher?” Even in the moonlight, Mac’s face was visibly pale. “And Lily?” He went even whiter. “My God, I asked him to stay with her tonight! We’ve got to get home right now!”
His angry urgency alarmed Autumn. “Is Webb going to kill Lily if we don’t stop him?” she cried, clutching at Kara for reassurance.
“No.” Kara stroked her silky black hair. She didn’t add that Webb was the one at risk for homicide—at Mac’s hands. No use truly scaring the already anxious child.
Mac was already headed toward the Jeep Cherokee, parked at the far end of the parking lot. Kara scrapped her plans for staying at the Franklins. If anyone could bring some sense of order to the Wildes’ house tonight, she knew it was her.
“Mac, wait,” she called, and he stopped in his tracks. “You can’t leave without Brick.”
Mac came striding back. “I forgot all about him.” He gripped his head with his hands. “God, I’m a basket case. Lily and Asher? How long has this been going on? I swear I’ll—”
Wilde Bunch Page 19