Harlequin Presents January 2013 - Bundle 2 of 2: The Ruthless Caleb WildeBeholden to the ThroneThe Incorrigible Playboy

by Sandra Marton

  “Hell,” Jake said softly.

  “Caleb?” Travis cleared his throat. “Do you—does this friend care for her? Or is this about—about being responsible?”

  “That’s what it’s about. Being res—” Silence. Then Caleb said, so softly his brothers both leaned toward the phone, “Of course he cares for her. I told you. She’s beautiful. She’s bright. She’s—she’s—”

  “Caleb,” Jake said, “listen man, what I said before, about not doing anything—”

  “—precipitously,” Travis said. “You need to think. Come home. We can talk—”

  “Talking never solved a problem,” Caleb said. “A man needs to take action. You flew ’copters, Jake. Travis, you flew jets. I...hell, never mind what I did. The point is, things start going bad, a man needs to take action, not talk. And this—this is a thing starting to go bad.”

  “Go bad, how?” Jake said softly.

  Caleb didn’t answer.

  “Caleb,” Travis said, “tell us what’s going on.”

  “I did,” Caleb said, very calmly.

  He did? his brothers mouthed to each other.

  “And you guys helped. You helped enormously.”

  “Caleb,” Travis said, “is this about that woman in New York? Dammit, is this about you?”

  “Me?” Caleb said with all the indignation he could muster. “You have to be kidding. Would I ever get myself into a mess like this? It’s about a friend. I told you. A good friend.”

  “Who?” Jake demanded.

  But Caleb had hung up.

  Jake depressed the speaker phone button. For an endless moment, neither he or Travis said anything. Then Jake shook his head.

  “Oh, man,” he said softly.

  Travis nodded. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”

  “Should we go looking for him?”

  “Yes. No. Crap. He sounded okay at the end, didn’t he?”

  “Yeah. Calm. Very calm.”

  “So, what do you think?”

  “I think his friend is named Caleb.”

  “Yeah. Dammit. So do I.” Jake paused. “What’s he’s going to do?”

  Travis considered. Then he sighed.

  “Look, the bad news is, this is Caleb. The good news is, this is Caleb. We know how he works.”

  “He keeps his emotions close. He never asks for advice.”

  “He just did.”

  “No,” Jake said, “he didn’t. He wanted to lay out the situation so he could find a solution.”

  Silence. Then Travis said, “So, what now? Do we figure out where he is and go after him?”

  “If you guys had done that to me after I left Adoré—I mean, Addison—I’d have beaten the hell out of you. And I sure wouldn’t have taken any advice you had to offer.”

  “You’re right,” Travis said glumly. “We don’t want to push him.”

  “Exactly. Besides, this is Logic-Man. Remember how we used to call him that when we were kids?”

  “Yeah,” Travis said, trying his best to sound convinced. “You’re right. Logic-Man will definitely not do anything—”

  “Precipitous,” Jake said, and the brothers flashed each other smiles that only they would have recognized as false.

  * * *

  High above the earth, still hundreds of miles from Dallas, Logic-Man stared out the window at a sky filled with puffy white clouds.

  A bed of clouds.

  As white, as welcoming as the bed he’d shared with Sage hours before.

  Sage.

  Those angry tears in her eyes when he walked out—

  Tears he could have kissed away.

  Tears he could have changed with the words he’d felt filling his heart.

  Caleb shot to his feet and went to the cockpit.

  “Ted?”

  “Yes, Mr. Wilde. I was just going to ask Sally tell you the weather’s improved. No need to buckle in or—”

  “We’re going back.”

  “Back, sir?”

  “To New York. To Kennedy Airport. If you need to file a new flight plan, whatever—”

  The pilot smiled.

  “No problem, sir. Next stop, Kennedy.”

  Caleb nodded, returned to his seat, and tried to figure out how to handle the battle that would come next.

  * * *

  By the time they landed, he still didn’t have a clue.

  What would he say that could possibly convince Sage he only wanted to do what was right?

  She was so damn independent. So quick to get ticked off.

  He’d phoned the limo company before the plane touched down. They’d have a car for him in an hour.

  Wait another hour, to deal with this mess? To hell with that.

  He phoned Hertz instead, rented a car.

  “Any special model, sir?”

  “Whatever you have that’s fast.”

  A long, low, mean-looking sports car was already purring when he climbed into it. The trip to Brooklyn, end-of-the-world Brooklyn, should have taken an hour.

  He did it in thirty minutes.

  He brought the car to a screeching halt at the curb, right beside a fire hydrant and a couple of kids who looked like they’d stepped out of a reality show about street gangs.

  Caleb took out his wallet, extracted two hundred-dollar bills and, tearing them in half, gave a half to each kid.

  “The car’s still here, untouched, when I come back, you get the rest. Understand?”

  The kids grinned and nodded. Caleb went past them, ran up the steps to the front door, pushed it open and raced up the stairs.

  Then he was standing outside Sage’s apartment.

  His heart was banging but it didn’t have a thing to do with his gallop up those stairs.

  What would he say to her? How could he convince her to stop being so stubborn?

  Where was Logic-Man when he needed him?

  He took a deep breath.

  The logic would come, once he started talking. He was a good talker, especially under pressure. It was one of the reasons for his reputation as a hotshot litigator.

  Just do it, he told himself, and he rang the doorbell.

  * * *

  Sage had just come out of the shower.

  A shower that had been almost ice-cold.

  She’d wrapped herself in her robe, padded, barefoot, to the phone and called the super.

  “There’s no hot water,” she’d said, and he’d yawned and said yeah, he’d see what he could do, which she knew pretty much meant he wouldn’t do anything and God, that made her angry and she unloaded on him with everything she had.

  It wouldn’t change anything about the hot water, but she figured it was better than being in tears, especially since that was how she’d spent most of the past few hours.

  The super was collateral damage.

  Caleb was the real target.

  Didn’t he understand that she didn’t need what he’d offered? His financial support?

  She’d provide for her child and herself, thank you very much.

  What she’d wanted from him, what she’d hoped for from him—

  The doorbell rang.

  So much for the super not doing anything.

  Sage looked down at herself. Robe. Bare feet. Wet hair flopping in her face. Not a fashion plate but who cared? Mr. Del Gatto wasn’t a fashion plate, either, not when he wore jeans that gave the world a view it couldn’t possibly want whenever he squatted under the sink.

  The bell rang again. A fist pounded on the door.

  “Dammit,” she heard Caleb roar, “open this door!”

  Sage had always thought phrases like the blood draining from somebody’s head
were just examples of overblown prose, but she could feel the blood draining from hers.

  Caleb had come back.

  “Sage!” The door shook under the pounding of his fist. “Open—the—door!”

  She hesitated. Then she took a steadying breath, went to the door, undid the endless locks and saw him standing there, big and hard-looking and angry as hell.

  Her eyes narrowed.

  What did he have to be angry about?

  “What are you doing here?”

  He glared at her. She was a mess. Wet, stringy hair. That same old bathrobe. Bare feet...

  Rage, more potent than any he’d ever known, swept through him.

  “How come this door doesn’t have a peephole?”

  “I don’t know,” she said coldly. “You’d have to ask the manufacturer.”

  “It’s ridiculous to have to open a door before seeing who’s standing outside it.”

  Sage folded her arms.

  “Thank you for that report from Consumer Complaints. Is that why you came back? To discuss doors?”

  “No. Of course not. I—I—” He swallowed hard. His anger was receding; something was moving in to take its place but he wasn’t sure what it was, except that it scared the hell out of him. “Sage. We need to talk.”

  “Try another line, Caleb. I’m all talked out.”

  “We need to talk sensibly.”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it. Okay. He was right. They’d done some shouting but little talking and they did, after all, have a shared interest here.

  “Five minutes,” she said coolly, and opened the door wider.

  Caleb stepped over the threshold and shut the door after him.

  “Okay.” He paused, searched for the right words. “For starters, about the financial thing—”

  “I’m not going to talk about that again.”

  “Fine,” he said gruffly. “Don’t talk. Just listen. I want to take care of you. Is that so terrible?”

  “I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”

  “Maybe not,” Caleb said. “Maybe it’s just me. Maybe taking care of you is what I need...”

  Dammit, he thought, and he forgot logic, forgot everything except what he felt for the woman standing in front of him, so strong and beautiful she made his soul ache.

  He said something rough, pulled her into his arms and kissed her, hard at first and then with heart-stopping tenderness.

  “Don’t,” she said, “oh God, Caleb, don’t...”

  It was a protest without meaning because she was kissing him back, the salty taste of her tears on his lips and hers.

  He held her closer; the race of their hearts merged.

  “Sage,” he said thickly, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to say anything to hurt you.” He cupped her face, looked into her eyes. “This isn’t about financial responsibility,” he said. “It’s about us. You. Me. The baby we made together.”

  “You’re a good man, Caleb Wilde. I know that you want to do the right thing—”

  “I want more than that. I want the real thing.” He brushed his lips over hers. “I want us to be a family.”

  “What are you saying, Caleb?”

  “Sage.” He took a steadying breath. “Marry me. Be my wife.”

  “No,” she said, “no, that’s crazy—”

  “Listen to me, honey. We get along fine.”

  “Except when we’re shouting at each other.”

  “Except then,” he admitted, “but it’s only because you’re as stubborn as I am.”

  Was that a smile? A hint of one?

  “We respect each other,” Caleb continued. “We’re good together, in bed and out.” He put his hand over her belly. “And we’re having a child,” he added softly. “Seems to me those are decent, solid things to build a marriage on.”

  Sage stared into her lover’s eyes. He was right; those were solid things to build a marriage on. The world was filled with people who married for far less.

  Except, she wanted more.

  Tears rolled down her face.

  She wanted his love.

  His heart.

  She wanted the joy of knowing Caleb would bring her into his life even if she weren’t carrying his child...

  Because she loved him.

  She loved this honorable, kind, decent, arrogant, impossible man—

  “Sage.” He wiped her tears away with his thumbs. “I’ll make you happy. I swear it.”

  She made a sound that might have been a laugh, but Caleb figured that wasn’t possible because her tears were coming even faster—

  Which only proved how right he was about men not understanding women because even as he figured she was going to turn him down, she smiled through that teary deluge, rose on her toes, touched his lips with hers and said, “Yes.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  SAGE had been born in a small town in Indiana.

  The press called that part of the States the American heartland. Meteorologists called it Tornado Alley, but she’d been lucky.

  Though tornadoes had touched down only miles from the small frame house she’d grown up in, none had come close enough to sweep her away.

  Now, one had. Except, this force of nature wasn’t a storm.

  It was a man named Caleb Wilde.

  What happened after a woman accepted a proposal of marriage? Sage had seen enough movies to hazard a guess.

  Kisses. Laughter. Incandescent joy.

  Okay. She hadn’t actually expected that. Caleb’s proposal, while tender, had been based on honor. On principle. On doing the right thing.

  Still, it would have been nice if the moment of tenderness had lasted just a little longer, if he hadn’t gone from concentrating on her to concentrating on his phone.

  A quick kiss. A smile. Then he’d stepped back, pulled the phone from his pocket and turned into someone she didn’t know...

  But then, she didn’t know Caleb Wilde at all.

  Right now, he was all business, reading, then answering what she assumed was a series of text messages. When he’d finished with them, he made a couple of quick voice calls that consisted mostly of terse commands.

  And just when she’d decided he’d forgotten she was in the room, he looked up, saw her, and gave one more terse command, this time to her.

  “Pack,” he said. Then he turned his back. “Ted,” he said crisply, “how soon can you—”

  “Why?”

  “Hang on, Ted.” He smiled politely at Sage. “Why, what?”

  “Why did you tell me to pack?”

  “So we can get out of here ASAP.”

  “Where are we going?”

  He gave her a long look. Then he spoke into the phone again, told Ted that he’d see him in an hour, and ended the call.

  “We’re going to the airport,” he said. “You don’t need much. A change of clothes, perhaps. Toothbrush, comb...although, come to think of it—”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “What you’ll need. Or what you won’t need. The bathroom on the plane is fully stocked. Toothbrushes. Shampoo. What I’d guess you’d call toiletries—”

  “Are you deliberately playing stupid? What airport? What plane? Did you actually think you could order me to do something without explaining what that something is all about?”

  She’d surprised him. It showed on his face. Apparently, not many people spoke back to Caleb Wilde.

  A couple of seconds went by; she could almost see him deciding how best to handle what surely was his idea of mutiny.

  Finally, he nodded, even managed a smile.

  “I suppose I should explain.”

  “An excellent plan.”

 
“We’re flying to Texas.”

  “We, as in you and this guy, Ted?”

  “Ted is my pilot.”

  “Your pilot. As in the pilot of your plane.”

  “Right.”

  His own plane. His own pilot. And how, exactly, did that involve...

  Oh, God!

  “Wait a minute. Do you think I’m going somewhere with you?”

  “Of course. To Texas.” He paused. “You have a problem with that?”

  She stared at him. “You’re the one with the problem,” she said coolly. “Because I am not going anywhere.”

  “Look, I don’t have time to argue. I have to get back to Dallas.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Nobody’s stopping you.”

  “Dammit, Sage...” His phone rang. He ignored it, but it kept ringing. Finally he muttered something, snatched the phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen.

  “Caleb,” she said, “listen to me—”

  He held up his hand.

  “Yes,” he said into the phone, “that’s correct. Call my office. My P.A. will...”

  He began pacing the room.

  Sage watched him. She tried hard to keep a cool expression on her face but her heart was pounding.

  Texas? He expected her to go to Texas? Today? Tonight? She’d all but lost track of time.

  Texas, when she’d never been further south than New Jersey? When she had a life here? When she hardly knew the first thing about Caleb or his family or—or—

  But she’d promised to marry him...

  Obviously, she’d made a mistake.

  “Caleb,” she said sharply, “Caleb, listen to—”

  That hand lifted again.

  It was such an imperious gesture. Did he hope she’d not only obey his commands but curtsy, too?

  A hot ball of anger lodged in her chest. It was a much safer emotion than the quick lick of terror and she embraced it, let it flood her senses as she stepped into the path he seemed determined to wear into the thin carpet.

  He stopped dead, eyebrows raised.

  “Hang up,” she said between her teeth.

  If his eyebrows lifted any higher they would disappear into his hair.

  “I mean it, Caleb. Hang. Up. The. Phone!”

  He looked at her as if she were a new species, one he’d never seen before.