by Lori Wilde
Daisy took a deep breath and laid her index finger against his lips. “Shh,” she said. “No matter what happened, we can’t really regret it. Otherwise we wouldn’t have Travis.”
“Sweetheart, you have no idea how much it cheers me to hear you say that.”
“I did a lot of thinking today, Kael. You’ve made a huge effort these past few weeks to prove to me you’d be a good father. Today when you threw Travis in the pond and let the bees come after you, I knew you were serious.”
“Dead serious, Daisy. I want us to be a real family and have a real marriage. Can you do that?”
As if the glacier inside Daisy’s heart had collided head on with a flame thrower, the part of herself she’d frozen away for so long began, at last, to melt. She felt closer to Kael than ever before, not just physically, but emotionally as well.
Anger and betrayal vanished in the perfect cocoon of their love. Recrimination and reproach disappeared into the past. She had a choice to make. Forgive or hold on to her sorrow.
Daisy followed her heart. Tentatively, she scooted as close to Kael as possible, resting her lips on his.
His response was hungry and immediate. His mouth took hers with a gentle force. Tenderly, his tongue begged entry into her warm recesses, and Daisy let him in.
Throwing back her head, she moaned low and throaty. Threading her fingers through his hair, she pulled him down closer, deeper into the bed.
She wanted Kael. Here. Now. This minute. Without further ado. Arching her back, Daisy pressed herself into his body. She trembled with anticipation as a simmering heat, unlike anything she’d even known, warmed her in a soft, cozy glow.
“Kael, Kael, Kael,” she chanted.
“My darling Daisy,” he murmured, breaking their connection long enough to drop kisses onto her closed eyelids. “We’ve waited so long for this. I don’t want to rush you. Are you sure you’re ready?”
She answered by kissing him again, then looking straight into his eyes. “Make love to me, Kael. Consummate our marriage and claim me as your wife.”
“At last.” He sighed. “At long last.” And the past dropped away as he held her in his arms.
KAEL WOKE WITH A SMILE on his face. His arm was numb from the weight of Daisy’s head resting on his shoulder, but he didn’t care. He stared at her red hair spilling across the pillow like sun-burnished silk, and his heart filled with wonder.
Last night they’d made love for the first time. Soft, slow, and gentle. She’d opened up to him like a new flower reaching for the sun.
She was truly his wife now, in every sense of the word.
Somehow, he’d managed to sneak past the stone barriers she’d erected. Kael wasn’t even sure how he’d convinced Daisy he was sincere. But it didn’t matter how. All that counted was that they were together.
Only one more obstacle remained. Getting her to agree to tell Travis that he was the boy’s father. Until they cleared that hurdle, they couldn’t get down to the business of fully merging into a family.
Daisy’s eyelashes fluttered open.
“Good morning,” Kael greeted, his smile widening. He propped himself on one elbow and studied her. The cheerful glow streaming through the curtains accentuated the freckles that dusted the bridge of her nose and highlighted her determined chin.
Daisy reached for the sheet and tugged the covers high enough to hide her bare breasts. Grinning shyly, she said, “Good morning.”
“How do you feel?” he asked.
She dropped her gaze but couldn’t hide a knowing smile. “Pretty good.”
“Pretty good?” He feigned mock indignation. “That’s it?”
“Okay,” she relented, pursing her lips slightly. “I feel marvelous. Last night was wonderful.” She yawned and stretched her body, bowing her back with catlike grace.
Watching her sent hot desire racing through Kael’s masculine engines. She’d better stop it, or he couldn’t be held responsible for his actions.
“No regrets?” he asked, waiting warily for her answer.
Daisy hesitated, but for only a split second. That hesitation, however small, cleaved his heart. Did she have regrets?
“None,” Daisy assured him.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“’Cause if you’re still worried about something, we need to talk it out.” Kael caught his bottom lip between his teeth and waited expectantly.
Stubbornness, pride, and miscommunication had been at the root of their problems seven years ago, and he’d be danged if he’d allow miscommunication to separate them again. Not when they’d come this far. Not when they were so close to cementing the shaky foundation of the past.
She shook her head. “It’s okay.”
“Something’s on your mind. I can see it in your face.”
“I was just thinking about Travis.”
“I woke up thinking about him, too,” Kael said. “I’m ready to tell him that I’m his father.”
“Wait a minute.” Daisy secured the sheet under each armpit, then raised her palms. “You’re moving too fast for me. We’ve got to think this through. No harm is going to come from waiting a while longer.”
Kael took a deep breath. He supposed she was right, but darn it, he was ready to claim his son. “Okay,” he conceded, “when?”
“I can’t give you a definite time.”
Exasperated, Kael ran a hand through his hair. “Why not?”
“Because,” Daisy hedged, “I’m just not sure.”
“You mean you still don’t trust me.” He bit the words off, and they fell brittle into the air. “Daisy, are you telling me last night meant nothing?”
“No.”
“I thought we had made a start at repairing what we’d lost.”
“We did make a start. But that’s all it is, Kael, a start. There’s seven years of heartache between us; it’s not going to evaporate with one night of lovemaking.”
“Not if you keep nursing a grudge like a sore tooth, it’s not.” He raised his voice, upset with her and upset with himself for having placed too many expectations on lovemaking.
“Lower your voice, please.”
Kael clenched his jaw and forced himself to calm down. “All right. We’ll do it your way. You let me know when you trust me enough to tell my son who I really am. I certainly hope it isn’t on our fiftieth wedding anniversary.”
DAISY PEERED AT KAEL. He looked sumptuous propped up against the headboard, one arm
draped casually over his raised knee. His hair was mussed endearingly, and the bedcovers were tucked around his narrow waist.
If she reached out a few inches, she could brush his skin with her fingertips. That thought brought a lump of awareness into her throat. A vision of last night’s passion flashed in her mind, and a heated flush crept up her neck.
She never knew she could surrender with such abandon. For years, she’d hidden her sexuality, secretly hoping against hope and waiting for the time when Kael came home. Their tender joining had been everything she had wanted and more—so much more. Now that she’d made love to him, the stakes intensified.
If he left her at this point, she’d be completely destroyed.
Daisy closed her eyes against the fear that sprang into her chest. Perhaps she’d been foolish to give herself to him last night. Heated passion mixed with years of pent-up emotions had overcome her. She’d surrendered to Kael. Actually, she’d been the one to initiate things.
But what was done was done, and she really couldn’t regret the tenderness they’d shared.
What she could do, however, was protect Travis. She simply couldn’t allow him to tell the boy the truth until she was one hundred percent certain Kael was home for good.
The upcoming rodeo next week was Kael’s proving ground. They were supposed to attend a party at Joe Kelly’s house. A party filled with Kael’s adoring friends and fans, who would be encouraging him to have that experimental knee surgery and get back into the ring.
<
br /> Could Kael resist? Could he really turn away from the rodeo? This time, could he choose love and family over bull riding? If he passed that test, then Daisy would let him tell Travis the news.
“Daisy?”
She glanced up to find Kael watching her with a serious expression on his face. Blinking, she met his stare and saw love for her brimming in his hazel eyes.
Her heart pounded. “Yes?”
He cupped her chin in his palm. “Don’t you worry, sweetheart,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “I’m not going to let you down again. I swear it.”
Chapter Twelve
DESPITE KAEL’S REASSURANCES, quelling her anxiety proved a monumental task as the rodeo drew closer. In the seven years Kael had been gone, she’d done her best to ignore the biggest annual event in Rascal. But over the course of the past week, no matter how hard she threw herself into her work, she couldn’t avoid the rodeo talk.
She went to the feed store to find Boss Martin and Kurt McNally shooting the breeze about the local boys competing in the bull riding event. While she got a trim at Dorothy’s Curl-Up-and-Dye, the ladies quizzed her about Kael’s injury. She drove down Main Street only to be confronted with red, white, and blue rodeo banners spanning the road.
It seemed as if a time bomb had been set in her brain, and Daisy was ticking off the minutes, just waiting for Kael’s reaction. He’d promised her he had given up bull riding for good and that he wasn’t going to have the surgery, but for Daisy, seeing was believing.
They’d planned on taking Travis to the rodeo, both agreeing that avoiding the event was not the answer.
Kael had to face his retirement and deal with the fallout. Daisy couldn’t go on living not knowing if he’d gotten bull riding out of his system or if the old longing still lurked within. In her estimation it came down to one thing. Which did he care about most? Her and Travis or his career?
So, she waited with bated breath, fingers crossed and her heart on hold, for the man she loved to give himself to her completely with no holds barred and no regrets for what he was giving up.
KAEL, TOO, FELT THE effects of the impending rodeo. The excitement that skittered through the town plowed past him in a rush. It had been seven months since his misbegotten spill on the back of the Texas Tornado, seven months of physical therapy, a lot of pain, and a very major decision
looming over his head.
Except, finding out that Travis was his son had altered everything. From his relationship with Daisy to his own self-image, Kael was not the same man he had been seven months earlier. Now he had a family to consider. He no longer had the luxury of making decisions based on his own wants and desires. For once, something meant more to Kael than fame, adulation, adventure, and proving himself.
The thing was, he embraced this wondrous new life with enthusiasm he’d never dreamed possible in the days of his youth.
Becoming a husband and father were the true tests of his manhood, not staying eight seconds on the back of some angry, snorting beast. To provide a solid, stable environment for his child, to offer his wife the love and affection she’d lost out on, to share with them both all the joy and
happiness family life could bring—now that was a goal worth achieving.
Sure, Rascal’s preoccupation with the rodeo sent a sweep of nostalgia through him, but that didn’t mean he wanted to go backward in time. He’d been there. He’d participated. He’d been the star of the show, the golden boy. He’d had his glory in the sun. It was time to look forward.
To turn the reins over to the young guns who still had something to prove.
“Hurry up, you guys,” Travis pleaded, hopping from foot to foot several yards in front of Kael and Daisy.
He was a miniature Kael, decked out in cowboy regalia, from his straw hat to his cowboy boots to his western-style shirt and sharply creased blue jeans. They’d all three made a special trip into Rascal the evening before just to get the outfit for Travis.
“All the good seats are gonna be taken by the time we get there,” Travis complained.
They’d parked the pickup in the dirt lot behind the rodeo arena and followed the stream of people to the ticket gate.
“Hold your horse there, cowboy; give your mom and me a chance to catch up.”
Travis rolled his eyes. “Slowpokes,” he grumbled but smiled.
“He’s changed a lot since you’ve been home,” Daisy said, gazing at her child with a tender expression.
“He’s opened up,” Kael agreed. “He doesn’t seem so shy since I’ve been taking him into town with me when I run errands.”
“I kept him on the farm too much. I know that.”
“You did the best you could,” Kael soothed.
“You’ve been good for him.”
“Thank you for saying so.” Kael slipped his arm securely around her waist and kept most of his weight on his good leg so he wouldn’t limp.
The past week had been tentative between them. He knew Daisy was secretly waiting for him to dash off after the rodeo circuit again, but he wasn’t about to break his promise to her. Nothing matched the joy he’d found in becoming a father, and nothing had prepared him for the pride he felt for his son. He wouldn’t jeopardize that feeling for the largest purse in the PBR.
They ambled through the entrance and around to the covered bleachers. Travis wriggled with excitement, his eyes growing as round as half-dollars as he took in the sights and sounds.
Cowboys perched on catwalks above the cattle pens. Cowgirls in showy costumes trotted by on horseback. Rodeo clowns performed antics for the gathering crowd. Everywhere they looked there were cowboy hats and boots and big belt buckles. Kael had broken out his lucky gold belt buckle for the occasion.
Several people shouted a greeting to Kael, and he raised his hand in response.
“Wow,” Travis said, clearly impressed. “You sure know a lot of folks.”
Kael rested his hand on his son’s shoulder. “When you ride the circuit for seven years, you get to meet a lot of people.”
“I’m going to be a bull rider when I grow up!” Travis declared.
A mix of emotions charged through Kael. On the one hand, he’d be proud to have his son carry on his career, but did he really want his child risking his life for the sake of a sport?
Shooting a glance at Daisy, he saw the boy’s comment hadn’t been lost on her, either.
“You can get any ideas like that right out of your head, young man. Bull riding is dangerous.”
“Ah, Mom.” Travis kicked at the dirt with the toe of his boot. “You never let me do anything fun.”
Daisy opened her mouth but snapped it shut before she said anything. Kael leaned over to take her elbow and whisper in her ear. “Don’t worry. He’ll forget all about this. Last week, he wanted to be a fireman.”
“Just don’t encourage him,” she whispered back. “Please.”
“Settle down, Mama Hen.” He stroked her waist. “Come on, I see some good seats up ahead.”
They clambered over the wooden bleachers, and Kael situated his family next to the bull chutes. “Okay,” he said. “I’m taking orders. Who wants soft drinks?”
“I’ll have a ginger ale,” Daisy said.
“Root beer!” Travis said. “And cotton candy.”
“Be right back.”
Whistling to himself, Kael started toward the concession stands. It felt great to be back in the rodeo arena, if only as a spectator.
The robust smell of sawdust, leather, and cattle filled the air, teasing Kael’s nostrils and coaxing his memory. If he weren’t injured, if he wasn’t with Daisy and Kael, he’d be on the catwalk right now, checking out the bulls and comparing notes with his compadres.
“Let it go, Carmody,” he muttered. He got in the concession line but couldn’t stop looking at the gates where cowboys milled, preparing themselves for the upcoming events.
A firm hand clamped down on his shoulder. “Will you look what the cat dragged up.”
<
br /> Kael turned to see his ex-manager, Randy Howard, grinning at him. Randy was a tall man in his late forties with a big belly and an even bigger smile.
“Hey, you old so-and-so.” Kael clasped Randy’s hand in a hearty handshake. “How you doin’?”
“Pretty good.” Randy cocked back his head for a better look at Kael. “Marriage agrees with you.”
Kael glanced at Daisy in the stands and smiled. “Marrying Daisy is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
“Must be hard, though, footloose cowboy like yourself taking on a ready-made family. Tell the truth, you miss bull riding, don’t you?” Randy swept his hand at the hustle and bustle around them.
“Well, it is more than family life that retired me,” Kael said, touching his knee.
“That knee doesn’t have to stop you,” Randy said. “You know Tug Jennings came out of retirement last month after having that same surgery you need.”
Kael hadn’t expected the news to hit him so strongly. Three years ago, his chief competition, Tug Jennings, had suffered a knee injury. An injury identical to Kael’s. To hear that Tug was competing again after the surgery left a strange hollowness in Kael’s chest.
“Whenever you’re ready to have the surgery, just say the word,” Randy said. “I’d love to have you back as a client.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“No?”
“Nope.”
“So, what are you doing to keep busy these days?”
“Beekeeping.”
“Bee what?”
“I’m helping Daisy run her bee farm.”
Randy hooted. “Never would have fingered a wanderer like you to turn bee farmer. Got to hand it to you, man. I could never settle for something so mundane.”
“Beekeeping’s not mundane,” Kael said, feeling himself get defensive. He shouldn’t let Randy goad him or let thoughts of Tug Jennings get the better of him. He’d made his choice, and he knew in his heart it was the right one.