One Night, Two Heirs

by Maureen Child

  He took a breath, inhaling her scent—that soft swirl of summer rain and flowers that always seemed to cling to her skin. That scent had stayed with him while he was deployed. And it didn’t seem to matter where he was stationed or the misery that surrounded him…if he closed his eyes, she was there.

  Thoughts of her had pulled him through some dark times. Looking down into her blue eyes, he could only think, Damn, it’s good to be home.

  “How about you?” he asked. “Last I heard you were living in Houston.” Which was why he’d planned to drive into the city to look her up in a day or two. Much handier this way—having her right here in Royal.

  “I was,” she said and chewed at her bottom lip. Her gaze shifted from him. “I, um, moved back a few weeks ago.”

  “You okay?” he asked, noticing just how nervous she really was. Shaken, really, and he didn’t like how pale she was, either. In fact, she looked small and fragile and every protective instinct he had rose to the surface, temporarily, at least burying his physical reaction to her.

  “You know what? Let’s just go back inside and sit in the cool for a minute. You don’t look too steady on your feet.”

  She shook her head and said, “Oh, I’m fine, really. I just…”

  “You’re not fine. You look like you’re going to pass out. This heat’ll kill you if you’re not careful. Come on.” He took her elbow in a firm grip and steered her right back into the clubhouse.

  “Really, Rick. I don’t need to rest, I just need to go home.”

  “And you can, as soon as you’ve cooled off a little.” He drew her to the bench seat beneath the legendary plaque that read Leadership, Justice and Peace.

  She took a breath and Rick watched her gather herself. Her fingers clutched at her purse until her knuckles whitened and he had to wonder what the hell had her so upset? Was it seeing him again? Was she embarrassed by the memory of their night together?

  “What’s going on, Sadie?” he whispered and shook his head as one of the club attendants stepped up to see if he could help.

  She laughed shortly, but there was no humor in it. Her gaze lifted to his and he read worry and trepidation in her eyes. Now he was really confused. “Just talk to me.”

  For most of his life, Sadie Price had been the dream girl for him. She was beautiful, popular and even as kids, out of his league. Rick ran with a crowd that didn’t appreciate the country-club parties that Sadie and her friends attended. He’d always thought of her as pretty much perfect, except for the prim and proper attitude. He used to dream about getting past all of her barriers to find out who she really was.

  Then he’d joined the Corps and Sadie married a rat bastard who’d ended up cheating on her and making her miserable. Three years ago though, Sadie had been divorced and Rick was about to ship out for Afghanistan when they ran into each other at Claire’s restaurant. They’d shared a drink, then dinner…then a hell of a lot more.

  Just remembering that night had his body stirring to life again with a kind of hunger he’d never known before. After three long years, she was close enough to touch again. And damned if he was going to waste any time.

  “You’re just as beautiful as I remember,” he said, lifting one hand to smooth her silky blond hair back from her cheek. His fingertips skimmed along her skin and he felt a jolt of heat hit him hard.

  She sucked in a breath of air at his touch and he smiled to know that she felt the same sizzle he had.

  “You know, why don’t we head over to Claire’s?” He leaned in closer. “We could get some lunch and catch up. Tell me everything you’ve been up to the last few years.”

  “What I’ve been up to,” she repeated, then huffed out a sigh and looked up into his eyes. “That’s going to take some time. Oh, God. Rick…we really have to talk.”

  “That’s what I’m saying,” he told her, a smile curving his mouth.

  “No,” she said, “I mean we have to talk.” She looked around and seemed relieved that no one was close by before she turned back to him and added, “But not here.”

  “All right,” he said, a little wary now. What the hell was going on with her? At first she’d just seemed shocked to see him. Now she was a little jumpy. Not exactly the welcome-home response he would have hoped for. “You want to tell me what this is all about?”

  “Not really,” she admitted.

  “Sadie…”

  She stood up, tucked her purse under her arm and said, “Just, take me to my parents’ house, will you Rick? I’m staying with Dad until I get my own place. Once we’re there, I’ll explain everything.”

  Standing, he nodded. Whatever the hell was going on, Rick would deal with it as he did everything else in his life. Head-on. “Right. Then let’s get going.”

  Two

  Sitting in Rick Pruitt’s black truck brought back a flood of memories. Three years ago, she and Rick had shared one amazingly hot, sexy night that had changed her life forever. The next morning he left, reporting for a tour of duty in the Middle East.

  And maybe that was partly why Sadie had given into her impulse to grab at that one night with him. She had known he’d be leaving again right away. But the reality was, Sadie had just needed someone. Back then, she had felt as though she was disappearing. Becoming nothing more than the socialite daughter of a wealthy man. She never did anything for herself. Never stepped out of line from what was expected.

  Until that night. Neither of them had made the other any promises. Neither of them had been looking for anything more than exactly what they had found together. A little magic.

  But the truth was, that night with Rick had changed Sadie’s life forever—and he had no idea.

  She looked at him from the corner of her eye and felt a flutter low down in her belly. His square jaw, gorgeous mouth and deep brown eyes were enough to make her body tremble with a need she hadn’t felt since that long-ago night. She remembered it all so well. The soft touches, the hungry sighs, the frantic whispers. She could almost feel his hands on her skin again. His hard-muscled body covering hers, his heavy thickness sliding deep inside—

  “So,” he asked companionably, “how’ve you been?”

  Sadie jolted, called herself an idiot and forced a smile. She wasn’t going to have the conversation they needed to have while riding through town in his truck, so she stalled. “Fine, really. No complaints. How about you?”

  “You know,” he said with a shrug, “I’m good. Nice to be home for a while though.”

  A while?

  “How long are you home for?” she asked.

  “Trying to get rid of me already?” He shot her another quick look and steered the truck down Main.

  “No,” she said and half expected her tongue to fall off due to that whopper. “I was just curious. You haven’t been around much the last few years.”

  “And how would you know that? Weren’t you living in Houston?”

  “Houston isn’t the moon, Rick,” she said. “I talk to friends. My brother. They keep me up on hometown news.”

  “Me, too,” he said. “Well, not your brother. He and I never really were friends.”

  “True,” she said and silently added they were even less likely to be friends now, though Rick didn’t know it yet.

  “Joe Davis told me when you moved out.”

  Sadie smiled and nodded. Joe and Rick had always been close. Not surprising that the town’s best mechanic had kept Rick up to date on things. She was more glad than ever that she had left Royal when she had. If not, Joe would have told Rick her big secret and heaven knew what might have happened then.

  “He, uh, also told me about Michael. I’m sorry.”

  A twinge of pain rattled through her heart at the mention of her late brother. Michael Price had led a troubled life. Somehow, he had never been able to find happiness, but he’d always looked for it in the bottom of a bottle. Eight months ago, he had been driving drunk and driven off a cliff road in California. She would always miss her brother, but Sadie hop
ed that he had at least found the peace he had been searching for.

  She lifted her chin. “Thanks. It was hard. Losing him like that. But I was grateful that he hadn’t killed anyone else in that wreck,” she said simply.

  “He was a good guy,” Rick said softly.

  “He was a good brother, too,” Sadie said, smiling sadly. Her memories of Michael were mostly good ones and she clung to them.

  “And,” Rick said, changing the subject, “now you’ve left Houston to come home again. You’re living with your dad?”

  “Just temporarily,” she said. “Until I find a place of my own. Ever since Mom died several years ago, Dad spends most of his time on fishing trips. He’s in the Caribbean now, and Brad doesn’t live there anymore, so…”

  “You’re not lonely in that big place all by yourself?”

  She nearly laughed. “No. It’s fair to say, I haven’t been lonely in a long time.”

  Rick frowned. “What’s his name?”

  “His? Who his?”

  “The guy you’re seeing,” he countered. “The I’m-too-busy-to-be-lonely guy.”

  Sadie snorted. “There’s no guy. Too busy for one of those, too.” She left it at that, not bothering to explain what he would find out for himself all too soon.

  Silence stretched out between them, the only sounds the crunch of the wheels against the asphalt and the soft sighing of the truck’s air conditioner. Outside, summer sun beat down on Royal, Texas, making even the trees seem to slump with fatigue.

  “You know,” he said finally, “I seem to remember you being a hell of a lot friendlier the last time I saw you.”

  Oh, boy. She remembered, too. In fact, her memory was so clear and so strong, it was all she could do not to squirm in her seat. A flush of heat spread through her body as images rushed through her mind. His body. Hers. Locked together. Desperate kisses, amazing sensations. Didn’t seem to matter that she was already so nervous she could hardly swallow. In spite of everything, Sadie knew that if he reached over to touch her right now, she would probably go up in flames.

  “You okay?” he asked from beside her and that deep voice of his seemed to roll across her skin.

  Oh, she really was not okay.

  “Sure,” she lied. “Fine.”

  The familiar scenery raced past them as he left town behind and drove along the highway toward the Price family mansion in the exclusive development of Pine Valley. Three years ago, Sadie had walked away from the home where she grew up to live in Houston, losing herself in the hustle and the crowds. At the time, she had definitely needed to get away. To find a fresh start where no one really knew her. Where her private life wouldn’t be fodder for local gossips.

  Now though, she was back and the past was reaching out to grab her.

  She looked at Rick again. Funny, she’d known him most of her life and yet hadn’t connected with him at all until that one, memorable night. He’d changed, she thought. He looked older, more serious, more self-confident somehow. And that was saying something, since Rick had never been lacking in confidence.

  His brown hair was trimmed military short, his brown eyes locked on the road in front of them. His hands were wrapped around the steering wheel and she watched as the muscles in his arms flexed.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Rick asked, glancing at her briefly before shifting his gaze back to the road.

  That was Rick, she thought. He wasn’t the kind to be distracted from what he saw as his duty—which at the moment, was driving. He appreciated rules and order and as far as she knew, always did the “right” thing, whatever that might be at the time.

  There was simply no way he would ever accept her version of “right.” This day wasn’t going to end well, yet Sadie couldn’t find a way out of it. Now that she was home in Royal, people were going to talk. And the fact that Rick had only been home for a day was probably the only reason he hadn’t heard whispers already.

  Well, she couldn’t let him hear this news secondhand. She owed him the truth. At last.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” Just trapped like a rat, she added silently. Oh, she had known that this day was going to arrive, sooner or later. She had just been hoping for later. Much later. Which was ridiculous really, she argued with herself. She had moved back to Royal. She knew that, eventually, Rick would return. And keeping a secret in a small town was just impossible. Wasn’t that one of the reasons she had left in the first place?

  Frowning, she focused on the road and tried not to think about what would happen when they got to her family home.

  “If you say so,” he said, his tone telling her he wasn’t convinced. “So. Since you’re fine and I’m fine and we’re not talking about anything else, why don’t you tell me what you were doing at the TCC besides making your brother crazy?”

  She blew out a disgusted breath at the mention of her brother. “Shoe was on the other foot, actually. Brad is the most stubborn, hardheaded man in the state of Texas.”

  “This is news to you?” he asked with a chuckle.

  Brad Price had long had the reputation in town of being the most hidebound traditionalist in the known universe. His hard head only added to the fun.

  “No,” Sadie said, grateful to have a safe subject to talk to him about. “But I keep hoping that somehow, someday, Brad will wake up in the twenty-first century. Anyway, I went in to talk to him about being a part of designing the new clubhouse.”

  “There’s going to be a new clubhouse?” Rick whistled, long and low. “Never would have believed that. The club’s been the same for more than a hundred years.”

  Sadie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “So it should always stay the same? Why put in electric lights? Why aren’t they still using oil lamps or candles? Why have a telephone? Is tradition so important that no one wants progress?”

  “Whoa!” He laughed, then asked, “Is progress so important you just forget about tradition?”

  She glared at him, those warm, sexy feelings she’d been experiencing only moments ago dissolving as surely as sugar in hot coffee. “You sound just like Brad. Is this a guy thing? Is it only women who are willing to look at the future?”

  “No, but looking to the future doesn’t mean forgetting the past.”

  “Who said anything about forgetting?” Sadie waved her hand in dismissal. “All we’re talking about is an up-to-date, comfortable club that every member can enjoy.”

  “Now I know what this is about.” He smiled and nodded sagely. “I heard Abby Langley’s a member now. I suppose that’s what’s got the women in town up in arms?”

  She just stared at him. “Is it all men or just Texans?”

  “Huh? What?”

  “You have that drawling tone to your voice when you say ‘women’ like you’re describing a child throwing a tantrum.”

  “Hold on a minute, I wasn’t trying to start a fight.”

  “No, you’re just stuck in the same rut every other man in town is in.”

  “I’ve been home for a day and suddenly I’m the enemy?”

  “No,” she said on a sigh. “You just caught me at a bad moment. Sorry.”

  He shrugged. “No problem. I know what it’s like to be up to your eyeballs in something and take it out on someone else.”

  “Still not much of an excuse. It’s just that Brad makes me so furious.”

  “Isn’t that what brothers are for?”

  “I suppose so,” she acknowledged, then she smiled. “Besides, I think Brad having to deal with Abby is going to be payback enough.”

  “Who knew you had such a mean streak?” he asked, his grin taking the sting out of his words.

  “I’m a Price, too, don’t forget.”

  “Wouldn’t dare.” He steered into a left turn lane and stopped for the red light. “I’ve done a lot of thinking about you in the last few years, Sadie.”

  “You have?” She tensed up again. What was it about this man that could set every nerve in her body to jangling?

  His long
fingers tapped against the steering wheel. “Sometimes, thoughts of you were all that kept me sane.”

  “Rick…”

  “You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I just wanted you to know that the night we had together has stayed with me.”

  “It stayed with me, too,” Sadie said, then turned her head to avoid his gaze.

  That single night with him three years ago had changed her life so completely, it was no wonder that she’d thought of him often. But now, knowing that he had been doing the same, made her feel even more of a terrible person than she had been. What could she possibly say to him? How would she ever explain?

  She’d spent a lot of time assuring herself that one day, she’d tell him everything. That when he got back she would apologize and do whatever she could to make things right.

  Yes, she could have written to him, but she had talked herself out of that. She’d been…worried about him. A career marine, he had been in harm’s way for most of the last few years, and every night, she’d said a prayer for his safety. If she had told him the truth in a letter, it might have distracted him when he could least afford it. Besides, a letter would have been the coward’s way out. Face-to-face was the only honorable way. And like she said, Sadie was a Price, too. Her parents had raised their children to be honest, to keep their word and to never break a promise. Honor meant something to the Price family.

  But that didn’t mean that she had room for him in her life. She wasn’t looking for a husband. She didn’t need a man, her life was busy enough at the moment, thank you very much. But she did owe him the truth.

  And that was something she wasn’t looking forward to.

  He pulled to a stop at a red light, then turned his head to give her a quick grin. Only one corner of his mouth tipped up, and in that instant, Sadie felt a flash of heat wash over her. Just like it had on their one and only night together three years ago.

  “So tell me what you did in Houston.”