“Leave it, Gage. And while I know it’s bugging you, you can’t do anything about it until tomorrow. Maybe you can show Gavin and Grayson the box when they come for lunch. They might have a better memory of it sitting on your mother’s dresser than you do, and that will solve one part of the mystery.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
They went into the living room and sat down on the camp chairs they’d purchased. They ate quietly. When Charlotte had finished, she cocked her ear.
“Is that rain?”
Gage got up and walked over to the window. “Yep, it is.”
“I didn’t notice any rain in the forecast.”
“Do we really not have anything to say to each other except to talk about the weather? We’re doomed.”
“I don’t think we’re there yet. But I do think because I cooked, you should do the dishes.”
Gage rolled his eyes. “But they’re going to take me hours,” he whined, teasing her with a wink. They both knew all he had to do was put the two paper plates in the trash can.
“It’s only fair, you know.”
“I suppose you expect me to start doing this when we get home, too.”
She shrugged. “Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Of course, if you want to get out of doing the dishes, all you have to do is cook.”
His laughter echoed around the room as he collected the plates and wandered into the kitchen.
She stretched back in her chair. There was an old bathtub upstairs, and the temptation to take a long bath to soothe her tired muscles was strong. Only they hadn’t picked up any bubble bath when they went shopping earlier in the day.
Charlotte looked at her watch. It wasn’t too late, but she doubted that any of the shops stayed open until ten in the evening like the shops in Houston did. It had been easy to get used to shopping at any hour of the day, seven days a week, something that was just becoming more popular in Australia.
“What do you want to do for the rest of the evening?”
Without thinking she voiced her thoughts. “I would love to test out that bathtub in the master bathroom. Pity I don’t have any bubble bath, though.”
“I bought some shower gel. You can always put that in the water. It should create the bubbles you want. That is, if you don’t mind smelling a bit like me.”
The thought of smelling like Gage sent sensual darts of pleasure arrowing through her. She crossed her arms across her breasts as her nipples peaked against her bra.
“Sure.” Her voice broke partway through the short word. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Sure, that would be great. I think I could handle smelling like you for one day.”
“Stay right there. I’ll fix everything up for you.”
As Gage made his way upstairs, her earlier fantasies of a future together with Gage fired through her brain again. Only this time extinguishing the flames became a little more difficult.
CHAPTER 17
Gage rolled over and tried to get comfortable. Sleeping on an air mattress was luxury in comparison to some of the places he’d slept while working on the rigs.
Maybe it was knowing Charlotte was sleeping two doors down that was keeping him awake, even if it was no different from their sleeping arrangements for the past week at his condo.
Or it was more likely that he couldn’t stop thinking about her being naked in the bathtub and now smelling like his shower gel. He’d spent that whole time trying to control the urge to go up and join her. The tub was plenty big enough for the both of them.
He groaned as his dick responded by jumping to life. He’d already taken one cold shower; he didn’t need to be taking another one. He had to think of something to get his body under control. Jerking off was one option, but it would be just his luck if Charlotte walked in on him. Would she finish him off? His body liked that idea.
You could seduce her.
Oh fuck, like he needed any more advice from the voice that had gotten him in this mess in the first place. Although the idea had merit, but when and if he and Charlotte ever made love, it would be in his nice king-size bed in his master bedroom at the condo. Not on a camping store air mattress.
A creaking floorboard dismissed the thought of seducing Charlotte. He strained his ears a little to see if he could pick up the sound again, or if he’d imagined it.
Eeeeee.
Nope, he’d heard it again, and it was right outside his bedroom door.
“Gage?” Her voice whispered across the room.
He sat up. “Red? What’s wrong?”
His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could make out her silhouette as she stood in the doorway.
“I, um, well, I can’t sleep.”
“Welcome to the club,” he muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing. Why can’t you sleep?”
“Can I come in? I don’t want to have this conversation standing in your doorway.”
“Sure, come in and sit on the bed.” He shifted over to one side to make room for her.
The mattress dipped when Charlotte sat down, and he had to grab at the side so as not to fall into her. He could make out the rigid line of her back. She looked like she was about to snap. He hesitated for a fraction of second before he placed his hand lightly on her back.
“Lie down, Red, and tell me what’s going on.”
Beneath his hand, he felt the breath whoosh out of her, and he bit back a groan as she lay down next to him. He rolled on his side so that he could spoon her from behind. She lay on top of the blankets while he lay beneath. He angled his hips away to prevent pressing his erection into her.
“It’s so stupid, really,” she started on a whisper.
“What’s stupid?” He kept his voice low and modulated to encourage her to continue.
“I started thinking about the attic, and I know you said nothing was up there, but I kept imagining I could hear things moving about. And well, you know, old house, sitting in the middle of nowhere. It has ‘horror movie’ written all over it.”
He couldn’t help it; he burst out laughing. “I’ve stayed here before. You really are safe. I’ve got my gun. We’ll be fine.”
She pulled out of his embrace and rolled over to face him. “Why didn’t you tell me you carried a gun? Did you have it on you today when we were at lunch?”
“Hey, slow down. It’s Texas, pretty much everyone has a gun. I do have a conceal-and-carry permit, but it depends where I’m going as to whether I take it. I can assure you that whenever we’ve gone out I haven’t carried my gun with me. I brought it down here, though, because, well, there could’ve been critters here that we might have needed to get rid of. I don’t take carrying a gun lightly.”
He could see her looking skeptically at him. He reached out to touch her face. “Red, I know you can look after yourself, but Jack Cooper taught his sons to look after their own. We’re married now, so that includes me looking out for you. But I will tell you if I’m carrying or not. Is that okay?”
She nodded after a moment. “I’m still not used to the gun laws here. It’s so different back in Australia.”
“I know. Now roll over again, so I can hold you.”
Gage knew he was playing with fire, but he couldn’t deny that he liked holding Charlotte. He’d wanted her ever since their wedding night. The desire had only increased. Now, with her so close, smelling like both Charlotte and his shower gel, he wanted to forget about his promise to himself and take her now rather than in his bed. A certain part of his anatomy wished he’d do the same, too. He had to find some other way to divert his attention.
“Tell me something,” he said.
“What?”
“That weekend when you came down and looked at the place, you told me you’d changed your mind about selling. Why?”
“It doesn’t really matter what my reasons were then. Come twelve months’ time, you’ll own the land.”
The sadness in her voice couldn’t be denied, and he almost felt bad
for going ahead and arranging the survey. But they had an agreement, and with the money she would receive from the royalties of the oil production from the property, she’d be able to buy ten properties just like this one or an even better one.
“Let’s pretend that wasn’t happening. Why this place? Why Sweet Ridge?”
Charlotte didn’t say anything for the longest time, and he began to suspect she’d fallen asleep when she started speaking.
“This place would be my weekend house. It’s not too far away from Houston to be able to come down here every weekend. The Gulf Coast isn’t that far away, either, and while the beaches aren’t fabulous here, it’s still nice to be able to know that on a hot day I could drive a little way and take a walk on the beach.”
“Seems a lot of work to keep up a place this big for just you.”
“Well, I guess once we split up, I’ll take some time out from getting into another relationship. But I do hope to one day fall in love and marry again. Maybe have some kids. Then it would be fun to come down here—put a swing set in the backyard so they can play. And who knows, if my husband and I like it down here, maybe we’d relocate so the kids could go to school in Sweet Ridge. You and your brothers turned out all right.”
No matter how hard Gage tried to stop it, he failed miserably. In his mind it was him and Charlotte coming down here each weekend. Taking the drive down to the coast and walking along the beach. It was their kids he saw playing in the backyard.
He had to stop these fanciful ideas. Essentially this was a business arrangement between the two of them. Sleeping together would be a side benefit, but he couldn’t think about playing happy home with her. Nor could he think about giving up on the dream of getting the oil out of this piece of land. It had always been his end goal. Even that last weekend with his high school buddies before heading off to college, he’d bragged to them about what he would do with the land once he got ahold of it.
Could he ask Charlotte to advise him on the best way to protect the surrounding lands? He knew it was a great hunting spot, so he didn’t want to affect the animals. But Gage didn’t think she’d take him up on his offer. Not when it was her land he was planning to partially destroy with his rigs.
“Did I send you off to sleep?” she asked.
He snuggled in and buried his face in her hair. “No. I was just thinking about other things. Tell me what you’d do to the house.”
“I’d paint the outside. I like the color, so I’d just give it a fresh coat to bring it back to life. Then I’d renovate the kitchen. But I wouldn’t tear it out and make it into a modern-looking kitchen like the stainless-steel and granite one in your apartment.” She sighed. “I would maybe just re-stain the cupboards. They looked in pretty good condition when I cleaned them today. I would replace the counters with white quartz and get a big farmer’s sink and paint the walls a light yellow. I always thought I’d like a yellow kitchen.”
“Yellow is a good color. And I agree about the kitchen cupboards. Maybe change out the hardware to brighten it up, too.”
He could feel a yawn take over her body. Talking was helping her to relax. But he wasn’t about to suggest she go back to her room. Now that he had her in his arms, he wasn’t planning on letting her go that easily.
“What would you do in the living room?” he inquired.
“Oh, that room would be bright and welcoming. I wouldn’t have a television in there, though. That room would be where you could sit by the fire and read a book when it’s raining. There’s the other room on the other side of the kitchen that I would make into the family room. I would probably look at tearing down the wall between those two rooms so it would create an open plan concept and I could watch the kids while I cooked.” She yawned again. “It would be perfect.”
“It sounds like it. Is life turning out how you wanted it, Red?”
Gage had thought she’d fallen asleep as the silence dragged between them after his question. He was about to move to check when she spoke.
“In some ways it has and in other ways it hasn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I wanted to work overseas and I’m doing that. One day I thought I’d have my own home, but inheriting it wasn’t how I thought it would come about. And you already know what I thought about marriage.”
Yeah, he did. He didn’t like being a blot on her marriage copybook, but there was no going back now.
“There’s still time to get your dream marriage and your dream home.”
“True.” A yawn racked her body, and he tightened his hold on her.
“Why don’t you go to sleep now?”
“Okay.” She snuggled into him and his dick appreciated the movement. “Thanks, Cowboy.”
“Anytime, Red.” He shifted his hips so he was nudging her ass with his hard length. He closed his eyes, and his last thought was that he’d never be able to sleep.
CHAPTER 18
Gage opened the door to his condo, allowing Charlotte to enter before him. The drive back from Sweet Ridge had been fairly quiet, with both of them lost in their own thoughts.
He spied the object of his thoughts as she placed it on the coffee table in his living room. He still couldn’t explain why the thought of unlocking the box freaked him out so much. He thought he’d deciphered the initials entwined into the etched flower stems. To him they looked like a J and an L. The J could stand for Jack, but his mom’s name was Denise.
Gavin and Grayson had been no help when he’d shown them the box at lunch. Neither one had recognized it, saying they couldn’t recall seeing it in their mom’s bedroom. Until he checked to see if the key opened the box, the mystery would remain.
“Are you okay?” Charlotte asked.
He pulled her into a one-arm hug and kissed the top of her head. “Yeah, just tired.”
“That box is still bothering you, isn’t it? Why don’t you go get the key? Putting it off isn’t going to make the concern go away. At least after opening it, you’ll have some sort of an answer.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
She tapped him lightly on the chest. “Now you’re getting the hang of married life.”
He looked at her quizzically. “What do you mean by that?”
“Well, it’s simple, really. Your wife is always right. You keep remembering that, we’ll have smooth sailing in our marriage.”
Gage laughed, easing some of the tension. “Well, we’ll just see if that’s true.”
A tug on his arm reminded him that he still had hold of Oil Slick. Bending down, he released the cat from her leash and she darted off around the apartment.
“You know, sometimes I wonder if being an animal isn’t the way to go,” he mused.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, your biggest concern is usually when you’re going to be fed. As a cat or even a dog, you get to sleep or play all day. You get endless cuddles, and someone is always cleaning up after you. You never have to worry about where your next paycheck is going to come from. Or whether or not you’ll lose your house. Life can be pretty stress-free being a pet.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Then she looked at him. “Unless, of course, you live in a house where, when you get a little older, the novelty of having a new puppy or kitten wears off and you start to get ignored. Like everything in this lottery we call life, you can draw the good numbers or you can draw the really shitty numbers. You’ve just got to make the most of the numbers you’re given.”
That was true. Some of the kids he’d seen while working on a rig off the coast of Brazil fit that philosophy. When he’d gotten some time to go into the nearby town, he’d been shocked at the way some people lived. But one thing remained with him. No matter what their living conditions, the kids, even with their dirty T-shirts and shorts, were so happy with their lot in life. They thought they’d hit the jackpot. It was only him who had found it surprising they could be so happy.
And here he was, a grown man, getting freaked out
by a little box.
“You’re right. I’m going to get the key.”
Charlotte kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll see what I can find to make for dinner.”
He watched her walk away toward the kitchen, his body buzzing with awareness from her brief kiss. They hadn’t really shared many hot kisses, even though he and his body were aching to take their relationship to the next level. He had to control the urge to follow her, pull her back in his arms, and kiss her until the next logical step was to find themselves tangled up in his sheets.
Gage shook his head, trying to rid himself of the erotic images. He walked into his bedroom and went over to his dresser to retrieve the key from the small top drawer.
The cold metal warmed in his hand. He lifted it up to the light and studied its shape. The more he looked, the more confident he felt that the key would fit the box.
Closing his fingers around it, he strode out of his room and back to the living room, where the box still sat on the middle of the coffee table. Two glasses of wine and a platter with some Guac Olé guacamole and corn chips sat innocently next to it.
Charlotte returned to the room. “You have the key?”
He held out his hand and opened his clenched fingers.
She nodded and sat on the couch, waiting for him to join her. With slow, measured steps, he walked to the couch and sat down. He put the key on the table in front of the box.
“It’s going to fit,” he murmured.
With a rustle of fabric Charlotte moved to align herself against his side, her hand sliding onto his thigh. Without thinking, he placed his own hand over hers.
“You ready?”
“I think so.” He lifted their hands and pressed his lips into the fleshy part of her palm. He then reached over and grabbed both the key and the box, placing the items on his lap. With Charlotte sitting close to him, lending him her strength, he knew he could face whatever the contents in the box were.
“Here goes.”
Gage pushed the key into the lock. It slid in easily. He felt Charlotte’s breath tickle his cheek. With a twist of his wrist, the key turned and the lock disengaged.
Sweet Texas Fire Page 13