A more stubborn woman never drew breath, he thought and swooped in on her, unable to keep from touching her for another minute. If he couldn’t sway her to his point of view with logic, then damn it, he’d use whatever weapons he had in his war chest.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her so close she couldn’t help but feel again his body’s reaction to her. She wasn’t immune to the chemistry sizzling between them. He could feel her heartbeat racing.
She closed her eyes, sighed a little and still shook her head. “No.”
“Think about it, Sadie,” he murmured, dipping his head to run his lips along the column of her throat.
She shivered and, damn it, so did he. The taste of her filled him. Her scent clouded his brain and shot his body into overdrive. His brain was fogging over and his instincts were clamoring at him to toss her down onto that so-comfortable sofa and lose himself in her. As he’d dreamed of doing for too damn long.
This woman had been in his soul—his bones—for as long as he could remember. Even as a kid, he’d noticed her. Now, as a man, he could admit that though he wouldn’t love her, wouldn’t love anyone, he felt more for her than he ever had for anyone else.
That would have to be enough.
She moaned, a small sound sliding from her throat as she clung to him, arching into his body with a need that matched his own.
“Remember that night?” he whispered, mouth moving over her throat, up to the line of her jaw and back down again. “How good it was? How good we were? We could have that again, Sadie….”
She cupped his head in the palm of her hand and held him to her as she sighed in pleasure. He ran the tip of his tongue across her skin and nibbled at the throbbing vein at the base of her neck.
“I want you so badly I ache with it,” he admitted. “And you want me, too. I can feel it.”
“I do,” she murmured and he felt a flicker of hope rise up inside him.
“Just think about marrying me, Sadie,” he said softly, lifting his head to look down at her.
She swayed a little, opened her eyes, met his and stiffened. “That was so not fair,” she muttered.
“Fair?” he countered. “You’re the one holding all the cards here, Sadie. I’m just playing the hand you dealt me.”
“Oh, stop with the poor-country-boy act,” she told him, pushing out of his embrace to glare at him. “You knew exactly what you were doing. You were trying to seduce me into marriage and it’s not going to work.”
“Why the hell not?”
Sadie smoothed her hair, lifted her chin and said, “Good sex isn’t enough to build a marriage on.”
“It was great sex and it’s a lot better than bad sex.”
“I am not getting married.”
“You surely are.”
“You can’t force me.”
She had him there. He couldn’t force her to marry him. But that wasn’t saying that he wouldn’t do his damnedest to convince her.
Gritting his teeth, Rick took a breath. “You know how you said earlier that Brad was a hardhead? Well, honey, you could give lessons.”
“You’ve been back home one day, Rick. You told me yourself you’re only here for a month.”
True, he did have only thirty days’ leave. But if he decided to get out of the Corps, he could be back in Royal in no time. To stay.
“I’ll retire,” he blurted the words, surprising even himself.
“Rick, you love being a marine. You told me so yourself not two hours ago.” She stared up at him. “What about your duty to country?”
“I have a duty to my kids, too,” he argued.
“God, what am I going to do with you?”
“Easily enough answered,” he told her. “Marry me.”
“Well,” a voice said from the hallway, “it’s about damn time.”
Rick turned to face the man standing in the open doorway of the living room. Brad Price looked grim and his gaze was narrowed and fixed on Rick.
“Brad,” Sadie said with a tired sigh, “what’re you doing here?”
He came into the room, never taking his eyes off of Rick as he spoke to his sister. “I came to talk to you. Felt bad about our argument at the club.”
“Now’s not a good time,” Sadie said quickly.
“Yeah, I can see that.” He walked up to Rick, ignoring Sadie completely. “So you’ve seen the girls?”
“I have,” Rick said, stepping forward and sweeping Sadie to one side of him, keeping his body between her and her brother. This was between him and Sadie and he wasn’t about to let Brad push his way into the mix.
“You know,” the other man said, “I agreed with Sadie when she decided not to tell you about the girls when you were overseas….”
“Big of you to agree with her to keep my kids from me.”
“Brad,” she said.
“She did it for you,” Brad reminded him.
“Everybody’s so thoughtful,” Rick said, features hard and tight. “Doing me favors I never asked for. Hiding my children for my own good.”
Brad took a step forward. “You ungrateful—”
Rick took a step closer. “You expect me to thank you?”
“Stop it,” Sadie warned.
“What she did is between Sadie and me,” Rick told the man staring him down. “Just like this conversation is. You don’t get a vote.”
“I’m her brother.”
“Which is why I’m still being polite.”
Brad’s gaze narrowed, but Rick wasn’t intimidated. He’d been through firefights, walked down dark streets in enemy territory. He’d had friends die in his arms and been convinced that he wouldn’t live to see another sunrise. Nothing Brad Price could show him was going to throw Rick.
“I want to know what you’re going to do about my sister and her daughters.”
“Brad, honest to God, if you don’t get out of here…”
“I’m not going anywhere until he tells me he’s going to marry you.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’ve already asked her. Twice. You walked in on the second time.”
Brad nodded. “Good. When’s the wedding?”
“Ask your sister.”
Brad looked at her. “Well?”
Sadie stood to one side, arms crossed over her chest, the toe of her shoe tapping frantically against the wooden floor. “There’s not going to be a wedding.”
“Are you kidding me?” Brad looked at his sister as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and Rick was glad to see that someone else was as frustrated with her as he was. “He’s finally home and wants to do the right thing by you and his kids and you tell him no? What are you thinking?”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “I’m thinking, Bradford Price, that this is a private argument and none of your business.”
“None of my business?” he shouted. “You’re my sister, how is this not my business?”
“Don’t shout at her,” Rick said, his own voice loud enough to command attention.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Brad demanded, crowding in on Rick.
“I’m the man who’s going to marry your sister and you’ll watch how you talk to her from here on out.”
“Is that right?”
“Damn straight,” Rick told him, bristling for a fight. He hadn’t come here looking for trouble, but he wouldn’t walk away from it, either.
“I don’t need you to defend me,” Sadie said, turning on Rick with the same vehemence she’d shown to her brother only a moment ago.
“What you need is somebody to talk some sense into you,” Brad snapped.
“Amen to that,” Rick acknowledged, hating to agree with Brad on anything.
Miss prim-and-proper Sadie Price reached up, and tugged at her own hair in sheer frustration. Letting her hands fall to her sides again a moment later, she shot a glare first at her brother then at Rick. “I’ve had enough. I’m done talking. That’s it. Both of you get out.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Why should I go?” Brad demanded. “This is my house, too.”
“Not anymore. Go away,” Sadie repeated. “Both of you.”
“Sadie, you’re not being reasonable,” Rick said stubbornly. “We’re not finished talking.”
“Thank God one of you is making sense,” Brad muttered.
“I’m with Sadie on this one, Price,” Rick said tightly. “Butt out.”
“Both of you butt out,” Sadie snapped.
“I swear the women in this town are ruining men’s lives.” Clearly disgusted with his sister, Brad shook his head. “Abby Langley’s driving me around the bend and here you are doing the same thing to this poor bastard.”
Sadie poked him in the chest with her index finger. “Don’t you swear at me.” When Rick grinned, she turned on him in a flash. “And I don’t want to hear one more word from you, either. Both of you…just get out of my house.”
A soft cry sounded and Sadie turned instantly toward the baby monitor on a nearby table. Another halfhearted sniffle and cry came through loudly. At least one of the girls was awake.
“I have to go check on the twins,” she said, heading for the doorway.
Rick was right behind her. Hearing that tiny cry had sent an arrow of something sharp and sweet shooting through him. “Are they all right?”
She stopped, looked up at him and put one hand in the middle of his chest to keep him from coming any closer. “They’re fine.” Then she shot her brother an irritated look. “They probably just heard their daddy and their uncle acting like jackasses.”
When she left the room, she never looked back, only called out as she went, “You two can see yourselves out.”
Rick looked over to Brad. “Well, that went well, thanks to you.”
“Don’t blame me if you’re fool enough to try to talk sense to a woman,” Brad shot right back.
Frustrated beyond belief, Rick grabbed his hat and tugged it on. He shot Brad another hard look and said, “This isn’t over between me and your sister.”
“I wish you luck with that,” Brad muttered. “But I warn you. Sadie’s changed since the twins came. Used to be you could predict how she’d react to something. Now…” He shook his head helplessly.
He had already noticed the changes in Sadie, Rick thought, and hadn’t needed her brother to clue him in. There was a time when Sadie Price never would have lost her temper. It wouldn’t have been ladylike. Her icy coolness had always attracted him for some reason. But Rick had to admit that the wild heat of her now was even more appealing.
A few minutes later, Rick was in his truck, looking up at the facade of the Price mansion. Everything in him urged him to stay. To batter away at Sadie’s arguments until they evaporated like shallow creeks in high summer.
But, he thought, as he turned the key and fired up the engine, he was already learning something about Sadie. She was a woman a man would have to sneak up on. She had already dug her heels in, refusing to marry him and she wasn’t likely to back down from that.
So, he’d have to seduce her. Charm her. Get her into bed and make love to her until she couldn’t think straight.
Then he’d get her to marry him.
Five
The fireworks booth was doing a booming business.
Nothing like a small-town Fourth of July, Sadie thought with a tired smile. She’d missed this when she was living in Houston and now that she was home, she wanted to be a part of it all.
Which was why she was standing behind the counter explaining the finer points of whistling rockets and multicolored fountains to excited kids and their tired parents.
She tried to see past the crowd to where Hannah was watching over her napping twins. But there were just too many people in the town square. Seemed like every citizen of Royal had turned out for the festivities. The noise level alone was almost deafening. Between the crowd itself and the country-and-western band playing at the far edge of the square, peace and quiet would be hard to come by today. But then, who needed peaceful on the Fourth of July?
Summer heat sizzled every breath and the delectable scent of barbecue drifted on a lazy wind. Sadie was having a good time. In fact, the day would have been perfect. If not for thoughts of Rick Pruitt. The man was keeping her on edge, though she hated to admit it, even to herself.
True to his word, he was getting to know his daughters, dropping by the house every day during the last week, playing, reading stories, helping with bath time. And the girls were delighted with the attention. Both Gail and Wendy woke up every morning now asking when Daddy was going to come.
“How you doing, Sadie?”
“What?” She turned and smiled at Abby Langley. “Sorry, I was daydreaming, I guess.”
“In this heat, maybe you’re just hallucinating.”
Sadie laughed and shook her head. “If only…”
Abby leaned one hip against the counter. Handing Sadie a bottle of cold water, she uncapped her own and took a long drink. “Boy, that’s good. Okay, so who’s the daydream about? A certain marine, I’m guessing.”
Sadie took a grateful sip of the icy water and let it slide through her system. Even with the fans behind them stirring the hot July air, it was stifling in the fireworks booth.
“Hey, Abby,” one of the other workers called out.
“Sadie and I are on a break,” she answered.
“I could use one. Too much heat and too many thoughts,” Sadie admitted. “And yes, your guess was right. All of those thoughts are about Rick.”
Abby was one of the only people outside her immediate family who knew the truth about the twins’ father. Sadie hadn’t had many close friends in her life, so she treasured Abby and had really missed their friendship when she and the girls were living in Houston. Abby understood growing up in Royal as the daughter of wealthy parents. But she also knew what it was like to strike out on her own. She had made a dot-com fortune when she lived in Seattle, then come home to Royal to marry her high school sweetheart. Everything had seemed perfect for her.
Of course, nothing had turned out the way she’d expected. What ever did?
“Tell me,” Abby urged.
Sighing, Sadie said, “He’s been coming over every day. Spending time with the girls…”
“And this is a bad thing?”
“No.”
One of the other workers in the booth reached past Sadie for a box of red sparklers. Sadie took Abby’s arm and pulled her away a few steps. Lowering her voice, she continued, “It’s not that I don’t want him to get to know his daughters. They should have a father in their lives and they’re already crazy about him—”
“I hear a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”
“But,” Sadie acknowledged with a nod, “what happens when he ships out again? He’s home on leave. He’s still a marine, Abby. Which means he’s not staying in Royal. When he leaves, the girls won’t understand. They’ll just know their daddy’s gone.”
“Okay, that would be hard,” Abby said as they both deliberately ignored the customers starting to stack up on the other side of the counter. “But isn’t it still better for them to know him?”
“Yes, of course, it’s just…”
“Confusing?”
“Extremely,” Sadie said with a sigh. “You know, even when I was a kid, Rick Pruitt…confused me.”
Abby laughed. “Sadie, when we were kids, all boys confused us. Hasn’t changed much.”
“No.” A sad smile curved Sadie’s mouth as she idly straightened a stack of Magic Wonder fountains. “But for you, it was different. Your family was rich, but they didn’t keep you separate from everyone in town. Brad and I went to private academies, remember?”
She shrugged as if it didn’t bother her, but it still did. When she was a girl, Sadie had wanted friends. She’d seen the other girls her age going shopping or sitting in the diner, laughing together or flirting w
ith boys, and she had desperately wanted to be one of them. But except for Abby, she remained an outsider. Just as she had been for most of her life.
“True, you weren’t around much,” Abby mused. “Even when you were, your father didn’t really like you hanging out at the diner with the rest of us.”
Sadie laughed at the image. “The children of Robert Price didn’t ‘hang out.’” She took another sip of water and looked out over the crowd gathered in the square. “We didn’t really belong in Royal, you know? Oh, born and raised here, sure, but we could only see the other kids on the weekends, so we never really built the kind of friendships here that everyone else had. Our father was too determined to keep us isolated for whatever reasons.” She smiled, reached over to squeeze Abby’s hand. “If not for you, I would have been miserable. It was hard on me, but in a way, I think it was even worse for Brad.”
“In what way?”
Sadie pushed a stray lock of blond hair out of her eyes and shrugged again. “I don’t know, he was popular with the girls in town.”
“Of course,” Abby muttered. “He never did have any trouble attracting girls.”
Sadie grinned. “He’s my brother and he irritates me beyond all reason at times, but come on. He is great-looking.”
“Maybe,” Abby allowed.
Still chuckling, Sadie said, “Anyway, even though most—” she paused for a knowing look at Abby “—of the girls liked him, the guys in town weren’t real thrilled with the ‘rich guy’ swooping in on the weekends.”
“Yeah,” Abby said softly, reluctantly. “I’d forgotten about that.”
Sadie blew out a breath. “God, that sounds so whiny, doesn’t it? Poor little rich kids….”
“You’re not whiny. Ever. So,” Abby prodded, “tell me about Rick?”
Sadie smiled ruefully. “You remember, he was Mr. Popularity even then. Captain of the football team.” She shook her head and called up the memory of a teenaged Rick Pruitt, and in response, she felt that odd fluttering in her stomach again just as she had then. “He wore jeans and boots and T-shirts and his hair was too long and his eyes were too dark and he looked like every girl’s dream of a bad boy who was really a good guy.”
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