“Uh…” Chase shrugged his broad shoulders, looking every bit the clueless male. “Not really…”
“What about before that?” Merri pressed. “When we said hello and the kids were anything but happy to see their new dad?”
A look of hurt flashed in Chase’s eyes, then disappeared. That he apparently did recall, all too acutely, and Merri’s heart went out to him. He had already missed so much. First steps, first words. All those Christmases and birthdays. The first day of preschool. Through no fault of his own.
His expression sobered, becoming all the more sincere. “I think you’re being too sensitive,” he countered softly. “People understand we just got married and are in an adjustment period here.”
She studied his big, scrub-clad frame, deciding he was way too sexy in whatever he wore. Way too masculine and capable and kind. Aware that she could fall hard for Chase if she wasn’t careful—and she intended to be careful, particularly with a bevy of female admirers suddenly in the picture. Merri folded her arms in front of her. “Maybe people also understand a lot more than we’d like them to—which is why everyone is so skeptical when they look at us.”
What if they couldn’t fool his friends? Merri worried nervously.
Or anyone else, for that matter. What would Judge Roy do if she concluded that Merri and Chase were just scamming the court, as a means to an end? Laramie County was a close-knit community. Sooner or later, everyone knew everyone else’s business. Or at least most of it.
People certainly knew who loved whom, and who only pretended to care....
Zeroing in on her nervousness, Chase cupped her arms reassuringly and leaned closer. “We’re going to make this work, Merri.”
His hands felt as warm and strong as the rest of him looked. Shivering at his touch, she murmured distractedly, “You keep saying that.” How could he have so much faith?
His smile was slow and sure. “I keep meaning it, too.”
Inhaling the mixture of hospital antiseptic and his favorite bath soap rising from his skin, Merri edged back. “I’m beginning to see that,” she returned softly. And although she didn’t share his hope and faith—her past experiences had drained them out of her—she couldn’t help but admire his bravura.
A tenuous silence fell.
Abruptly, Merri noticed that people were staring. Again. Including the twins, who had just about finished their ice cream.
Reluctantly, Chase relinquished his hold on her and dropped his hands to his sides. “So where are you and the kids off to next?” he inquired.
She shrugged, her emotions in turmoil once again. “Depends. What do you want to do about dinner? With—” she cleared her throat “—all our guests?”
Chase scrubbed his hand across his jaw, considering. “I could pick up Sonny’s Barbecue on the way home.”
Now, that was helpful! “Sounds perfect, thank you.” Merri smiled. “Meanwhile, the kids and I will head to the grocery store to stock up on essentials for our guests, plus all the ingredients for the cooking I have to do tonight.”
He studied her face, clearly puzzled, and Merri realized she should have warned him about that. “The community center Thanksgiving dinner is early tomorrow afternoon. It’s a potluck. The kids and I attend every year. And this year I’m tasked with bringing ten crowd-size sweet potato casseroles.”
“So it really isn’t a good time to have all that company,” Chase concluded with a frown.
Merri appreciated his consideration and clasped his biceps gently. “It’s really nice that your army buddies got to come back to the States for the holidays. Even better that you all have a chance to be together for a few days.” She released her hold, stepped back and tossed him the confident smile that had gotten her through many a challenging situation. “I’ll do my best to make sure they feel welcome.”
* * *
MERRI MADE GOOD ON HER promise to Chase. And as she got to know the women, found she had more in common with them than she first thought. Addie had grown up on a farm. Nissa had twin brothers. Davita’s sister was a wedding planner. Harmony had never known her dad. Polly had entrepreneurial dreams. And Starr had the biggest crush of all on Chase.
A fact that seemed to go unnoticed by Merri’s dashing new husband. Which made the queries that came up, as soon as the twins were sound asleep in bed, expected, if not exactly welcome.
“So,” Starr said, sauntering over to stand next to Chase. “Tell us how the two of you met and fell in love.”
All eyes turned to Chase, who finished building the fire in the hearth, then straightened casually. “I don’t recall an exact moment. It was more an awareness that we had a connection—”
That is, Jessalyn and Jeffrey, Merri thought.
“—and that this was what we wanted to do,” Chase finished calmly.
Faces fell in disappointment. It hadn’t been a very romantic rendition, Merri acknowledged, although what he’d revealed had been completely truthful.
Smiling brightly as Chase came toward her, she added a few facts of her own. “Chase and I both grew up in Laramie County, so we’ve always known each other. Although not that well when we were growing up, since he was four years ahead of me in school.”
“When did that change?” Davita asked curiously.
Chase sat on the arm of Merri’s chair, took her hand in his. He turned her palm up and traced the lifeline. “When my brother and her sister became engaged. We were thrown together a lot in the months leading up to their marriage.”
“But you never mentioned her,” Starr protested.
Addie gave the striking brunette a reproving look, then turned back with a smile. “I think we all know that Chase is a guy who plays his cards close to his chest. Especially in the romantic arena.”
He stood and, all protective male, pulled Merri to her feet beside him. “You-all must be exhausted,” he said to their houseguests. “What do you say we turn in? Tomorrow morning will be here before we know it.”
Ten minutes later, Merri and Chase were in the master bedroom, hearing just a few low voices as doors opened and closed. Merri slipped into the adjacent bath. She emerged five minutes later in blue-and-white polka dot pajama pants and a gray henley.
To her surprise, Chase was already undressed, down to a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. His legs and arms were as sinewy and masculine as she had imagined. “That’s all you’re wearing?” she asked.
Laugh lines crinkled at the corners of his eyes. “Be thankful,” he teased, pulling at the neck of his T-shirt. “It’s more than I usually do. But you’re right… With the kids and company around, I’m probably going to have to invest in pajamas.”
Merri wasn’t sure the image of him in cotton pajama pants would be any less sexy. Especially if he purchased the kind that would ride low on his lean hips.
Oblivious to the sensual nature of her thoughts, he sauntered into the bathroom, toothbrush in hand. Merri watched his retreating backside wistfully.
He was so darn buff, so hotly male. And she should not be objectifying him this way....
To distract herself, Merri climbed into bed and started to make a list in her head. She had so much to do with Christmas less than a month away!
By the time Chase returned, she had switched off the light. The to-do list had grown to a daunting length.
Luckily for him, the combination of a night-light and the moonlight streaming in through cracks in the blinds gave him enough illumination to maneuver withou
t bumping into anything.
As he neared, she decided lying on her back did not seem like the wisest choice. So Merri shifted to a less vulnerable position and propped her head on her upraised palm. “What are we going to do?” she whispered, when he finally settled beside her.
Chase turned onto his side, so they were lying there face-to-face. He surveyed her with a guileless grin. “Now?”
Merri tugged her attention away from the powerful muscles of his shoulders. She shouldn’t be noticing, but hallelujah, he had a nice chest. Nice butt. Nice legs. And arms… She licked her suddenly dry lips, glad those boxers of his were loose fitting and an opaque army-green. “About all the questions,” she said, trying in vain to get her thoughts—and her libido—back on track.
He continued to regard her nonchalantly, lying there in her bed, looking as relaxed as could be. “We’ll do what we’ve already been doing,” he murmured. “Distract. Divert. And not really answer. At least not all the way.” He rolled over onto his back and folded his hands behind his head. Unfortunately, the action only served to show her how flat his stomach, and how well-endowed the rest of him, was.
“I don’t think that’s going to work.” She snuggled more deeply into the sheets, wishing it didn’t feel so cozy, lying here with him. “Not if they’re as curious and probing as they have been.”
“Sure it will.” He turned his head and flashed her another sexy grin. “It will if we keep stonewalling.”
Merri rolled onto her back, too. For several minutes they lay there in the semidarkness, side by side. Yet Merri could tell by the set of his shoulders and the sound of his breathing that he was no more inclined to go to sleep than she was.
Finally, Chase reached over and ran a hand along her forearm. “Is that the only thing bothering you?”
Her skin tingling from the compassionate touch, Merri turned her glance away from the shadows on the ceiling. If she was going to be one hundred percent honest, she’d have to admit she was a tiny bit jealous, having all those adoring females there with them. Not sure what that said about her, and certainly not about to admit she was already feeling so wifely and possessive, she rolled away from him, and retorted in a muffled voice, “I don’t like being put on the spot.”
He hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her back until her shoulders were pressed against the hard, unyielding muscles of his chest, and her bottom was nestled against his abdomen and thighs. The action was meant to comfort; she could feel it in the platonic nature of his grasp. Yet it was a very sexy, provocative embrace just the same.
“Neither do I,” he whispered in her ear, with a lot more kindness and understanding than she would have expected. Was this the type of husband he was going to be? Gentle and affectionate? Up till now, she had put him firmly in the friends category, knowing that one day soon, when they were ready to make a baby, she’d have to move him into the friends-with-benefits group.
But this suddenly felt a lot more emotionally seductive. And hence, dangerous in the lose-your-heart-to-a-man-you-know-will-really-love-you kind of way.
Pushing aside her senseless fairy-tale wishes, Merri listened to the rest of what Chase had on his mind.
“But as you said earlier,” he reminded her casually, “my friends are only going to be here for a couple more days.”
Merri shut her eyes and told herself that this was not
desire she was feeling. Though their thighs were pressed together, his hips were a safe distance away.
Pressing his warm chest against her back, he was comforting her, in a husbandly sort of way, not seducing. She closed her eyes, wondering if he was as aroused as she was beginning to be.
Merri shifted her free arm across her breasts. A few more days? “That’s still long enough for your gal pals to continue the inquisition.” Which could put them in an even more awkward position than they were now, sharing her way-too-small bed, pretending it was a normal, expected event.
Grasping her shoulder, Chase turned her so she was lying flat on her back once again. He positioned himself a safe distance away, propped his head on his hand and stared down into her face, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to kiss her again. This time, strictly for them and no one else.
There was only one thing she could think of doing, when he looked at her that way. The problem was that if she gave in to the surge of recklessness she felt, all her carefully constructed barriers would fall away. At this moment, theirs was a marriage in name only. For both their sakes, she needed to remember that, as did he.
Chase shrugged, his own desire under a lot better control than hers. “Well, then, guess we’ll all just have to stay busy, won’t we?”
“Speaking of that…” She swallowed, noting the sudden parched feeling in her throat, and struggled not to think of how “being busy” making love with him might feel.
Because that just wasn’t going to happen.
At least not in the next couple of days—since a pack of way-too-observant females had systematically taken over the house.
No. When it finally happened, it would just be the two of them. Alone in this house. No distractions. No time limits. No having to be careful or quiet....
Aware how all this trying-to-not-be-turned-on was actually arousing her even more, Merri jerked in an uneven breath. “Did I tell you I’m on duty for the milking tomorrow?”
Obviously enjoying how flustered she’d become, he tilted his head and gave her a cocky grin. “No.”
Glad to talk about work, Merri replied, “Traditionally, Slim has Thanksgiving Day and Friday off, and then he does Saturday and Sunday for me.”
“Want me to help?” Chase asked, gallant as ever.
Oh, Lord, if ever there was a knight in shining armor…
“No.” Nor did she want him to forget everything they had previously agreed to, and make hot, wild, unrestrained love to her. Here and now, company be damned.
Shaking off the image of her stretched intimately beneath him, drenched in moonlight and asking for pleasure, Merri reached over to set her bedside alarm. Her thigh accidentally bumped his in the process and frissons of heat coursed through her. “I can handle it.” She shifted farther away, toward her side of the mattress, warning herself to keep all physical contact to an absolute minimum.
Ignoring the quickening of her pulse, Merri added as calmly as possible, “But what I would like is for you to take care of the kids, so I don’t have to wake them and take them down to the barn with me.”
Ready to assist her in whatever way he could, Chase nodded. “No problem.”
Mind on the list. Mind on the list! Merri swallowed again. “Also, if your friends are up, maybe you could rustle up some coffee or juice or whatever till I get back to the house?”
He caught a strand of Merri’s hair and tucked it behind her ear. “We can handle that,” he promised, even more softly.
With her insides fluttering at the tenderness of his touch, she sucked in a breath. “And then, after that, I have to make those ten, crowd-size sweet potato casseroles.”
He gave her a slow smile that suggested he would be a very patient, very thorough lover. The implication caused her to shiver all over.
His fingers stroked the inside of her wrist as she struggled to stabilize her soaring-out-of-control emotions. “I saw the recipe you laid out on the kitchen counter,” he admitted.
Merri nodded, her breathing not nearly as deep or as even as she would have liked. “It was my mom’s. She was famous fo
r it. People asked for it every year.” The only problem was, Merri thought worriedly, her rendition of the dish had never quite measured up to her mother’s. No one said so, but she knew it. And after tomorrow, Chase would know it, too.
Misreading the reason behind her apprehension—the pressure of cooking for a very competitive, though appreciative, small-town crowd, Chase squeezed her hand again. “It’s going to be all right.”
Trying hard not to think about what it would feel like to kiss him again, privately this time, Merri nodded. She really had to stop wanting Chase like this. “I hope so.”
Conversation lagged after that. Fatigue set in. Before Merri knew it, she had fallen asleep, only to wake five minutes before the alarm went off. Acutely aware of the big, warm man lying beside her, Merri turned her head slightly and opened her eyes. Damn, but Chase was gorgeous, even in his sleep. His profile was strong and even and so very male, given his high cheekbones, chiseled jaw and sensual lips.
He was lying on his back, as he had most of the night, head squarely on the pillow, with his arms folded behind it. Which gave her a great view of his muscular chest, nicely formed pecs and six-pack abs.
His forearms were covered with crisp hairs a shade darker than the short sandy locks on his head. Ditto his long, lean legs.
He hadn’t touched her once through the night. Which was a shame, Merri decided, since she had very much wanted to touch him.
But he was right to stay on his side of the queen-size sleigh bed.
Although they’d agreed to make a baby together—when the time was right—it wasn’t right yet. And wouldn’t be until they got through the guardianship process. Until then, Merri thought, throwing back the covers, they had best err on the side of the caution.
So no more kissing Chase. No more tempting fate. No more anything except walking the straight and narrow.
The Texas Rancher's Marriage Page 6