“I told you the hook was too big.” Nick winced in pain.
“It was an accident. Honestly, I didn’t mean to—”
“Hey, baby, if you wanted me to stay, all you had to do was say so.”
“We need to get that hook out, Nick. Sit down on that log.” She motioned toward a tree heavy with branches.
Nick raised a questioning eyebrow.
“I guess that wasn’t the brightest idea I’ve ever had. Lean over. No, on second thought, lay facedown on the grass.”
Nick obliged, seeking the comfort of a shady, grassy area protected by a grove of trees.
Tin rattled when she opened the box. He glanced over her shoulder and saw her hold up a pair of needle-nose pliers.
“Oh no, you don’t!” He struggled to stand, only to have her push him facedown, kneel above him, and clamp his thighs together with her knees.
“Settle down. I’m going to snip the hook in two, then you can take off your jeans and I’ll dig out the remainder—”
“Dig out?”
“Well, that’s kinda inaccurate. Not digging really, but cutting it out.”
“Maybe I should go to a doctor.”
“No. There’s nothing to getting a hook out. You can go to a doctor if an infection sets in,” she said in a cool, thoughtful voice, but not quite as caring as he would have liked.
She was enjoying this way too much and Nick knew it.
“Hmm, guess I could stitch you up with fishing line.”
“No,” Nick bellowed, playing along, although the pain was not a laughing matter.
“Then I’d better take you over to Doc Chalmers.”
“Does he have an emergency room?”
“No. He’s a vet, but I’ll be glad to call him, if you’d like. Or better yet, I’ll get Lola Ruth to come help. She’s a wiz at this kind of thing.” A teasing tone came into her voice. “You oughtta see her skin a catfish.”
“No, just get to work. Why do you have pliers with you?”
“I just told you. To clean catfish,” she answered with a touch of authority.
Nick shivered. He knew how to dress out catfish and it wasn’t a pleasant thought. Envisioning McCall ripping off the skin with pliers sent a second tremor through his body.
Snip. The hook separated.
“Now pull down your jeans, so I can get a better look. Guess you’ll need to lower your Fruit of the Looms, too. Be careful not to snag the fabric on the pointy part still stuck in your, uh, fanny. As a matter of fact, stand still.”
Halfway following orders, he stood up and unzipped his Levi’s, only to have McCall insert her hand between his shorts and backside, slowly sliding her palm over his hip, down his buttocks until she found the hook. Even as bad as it stung, the warmth of her soft, helpful fingers searching his sensitive flesh excited him. Carefully, she separated the fabric from the hook and helped him shuck his jeans.
Stepping back a few feet, she issued a cocky smile, openly admiring his shiny heinie exposed to the hot Texas sun.
Making a cushion with his Levi’s, Nick laid facedown on the prairie grass and prepared for the inevitable. “Okay, Doc Holliday, go to it.”
She ripped open an alcohol pad and dabbed it around the hook, before wiping off her hands and cleaning the nose of the pliers.
“Hold on, Slugger.”
Nick latched onto a handful of grass.
McCall latched onto a handful of ass.
She yanked.
He yelped.
The pliers held the metal in a death grip.
She swabbed the bloody wound with a second alcohol pad before applying a Band-Aid on the wound and slapping his unscathed cheek with her free hand. “Good as new. Get your drawers on, Slugger.”
“Thanks.” Nick pulled on his pants while McCall returned her makeshift medical gear to the tackle box.
Touching his tender buttocks, he offered her a whimsical grin. “You certainly put a different spin on ‘turning another cheek.’”
Fate offered him a stroke of genius and a damn good one even if he thought so himself. It had worked on the boat, so how could it fail him now?
“Mac, I feel woozy. I’ll feel better if I lie down for a bit.” Like a wounded soldier succumbing to a battlefield injury, Nick eased toward a mattress of grass and leaves.
No doubt his plan worked, when he saw concern on her face. McCall helped him down on the earthen pallet. Reaching across to smooth back his hair from his face, one breast rested familiarly against his chest.
“Just lay your head back. It’ll be okay.” She butterfly-kissed him. “I promise.”
Suddenly, McCall found herself under him as he flipped over on her, covering her with his firm, hot, needy body.
“You recovered pretty fast for someone in the throes of death,” she whispered.
“Oh yeah. I’m a fast healer.” He smothered her lips with demanding mastery.
Her thoughts spun and waned on a soft wispy cloud.
Nick’s earlier actions had irritated her, so why did she want to toss out her stash of discount coupons for Double Whoppers and take up escargot when she didn’t even like snails? Why was she angry with him in the first place? He was making it hard for her to remember. A few honey-laden words of love and some magical kisses had shortcircuited her brain, sending her heart into a fare-thee-well, ring-tailed tooter.
She continued to search her mind trying to recall why she shouldn’t thoroughly enjoy his moist, passionate, and very sensual kisses.
Then she remembered.
McCall pressed her hands against his chest, separating their sweltering bodies that neared the boiling point.
They would never be free to explore their true attraction to one another until she had answers. Too many questions hovered around, sucking the life from their relationship.
“Nick, I’m ready to talk.”
“You picked one hell of a time to want to start talking.” Nick lifted upward, using his elbows for support.
“I know. But sex isn’t the answer.”
“But . . . it’s . . . a . . . good . . . place . . . to . . . start.” Between each word he planted kisses on her shoulders, neck, and face. “You have to admit, we’ve almost had some of the best sex of our lives.”
Girding herself with resolve, McCall fought off the urge to forget talking and start acting out her passion for Nick. “It’s time we get things squared away between us.”
“I was thinking of something hard between us but it isn’t square.”
Nick rolled to his back, tucked his arms behind his head and obviously ignored her scathing look while keeping an eye on the sky.
McCall studied the sky, too. It looked like melted cotton candy swirled over a bed of blueberries, which meant only one thing to her, a storm was brewing somewhere over in the west. She thought more about his statement then said, “You’re cute, but why don’t we begin by me asking you a question?” This bought her time. She made a silent prayer that when it was his turn he’d steer clear of some of the things she’d prefer not to discuss at the moment.
“To begin with, why are you so scared of commitments? And so competitive, and wanting things you can’t have?” McCall asked.
“That’s a question. Actually, two questions, not a beginning.”
“Good, so you know what a question is. Nick, if you’re serious about exploring our relationship, we’ve got to share our true feelings. If you aren’t comfortable discussing them with me, then we really don’t have much of a chance to see what comes next with us.”
“Okay, we’ll share, but isn’t that a girlie thing?”
“Either take this seriously or I’m outta here.” McCall struggled to her feet.
Before she reached her full stature, Nick grabbed her hand and pulled her down to him. “You deserve answers, but only if I can ask questions, too.”
“So, we’re back to ‘I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours?’”
“No. We’re beyond that,” he protested. “I�
��ve already seen yours and you’ve seen mine.”
“Get serious or I promise I’m gone—”
“Okay. So you think I have issues?” He raked his fingers through his hair and twitched his nose. “Well . . .”
She shot him a weary glare that reeked of I’m truly sorry I took the hook out of your butt. For all I care, you can stand up the rest of your life.
“Okay. I admit I was scared of commitments for the same reason that I’m competitive. I can’t handle failure. It’s a weakness, and I think it all goes back to being raised without a father. Mac, all I wanted while I was growing up was to have a father. I think every successful endeavor was for my dad’s benefit. Just in case he ever came back, he’d be proud of me and want me to be his son.”
McCall choked back the lump in her throat and imposed willpower to control her tears as she watched the hurt ooze from Nick like a festering wound. She remained silent, touching his cheek, erasing a lone tear with her thumb.
He continued. “After seeing what my mother did to my father, I didn’t think I wanted a woman 24/7. That way I’d be protected from hurt and hurting another person. A commitment leads to an engagement, on to marriage, and eventually a family. I couldn’t afford to hurt someone else like I’d been hurt. I damn sure didn’t want to be responsible for bringing an innocent baby into the world to live like I did—always looking over my shoulder and wondering if any guy who paid attention to me could be my real father.”
“And, you want all of this now?”
“Hell, yes. All of a sudden I see things differently. I want to have a kid—kids. I didn’t with Lauren.”
“Nick, you don’t have to tell me about her. I know all I need to know. Like we agreed, pasts are pasts.”
“I have to.” Nick lifted McCall’s chin. “I don’t want any secrets between us.” He lightly kissed her before releasing her face.
“Mother tried her damnedest to make me into the Pepperdine type, but I was just as determined to be Berkeley. I never fit into her world. Are you familiar with Procrustes?”
“The cruel highwayman from Greek mythology that forced people who passed him to lie on a long bed and then stretched them to fit it?”
“Yeah. I felt a lot like one of his victims.”
Lifting up on her elbow, McCall rested her chin on her hand, taking in every one of Nick’s expressions. She gave him a questioning look.
“I felt like I couldn’t be accepted the way I was, but yet I resisted conforming to society. All I wanted was to be accepted, not stretched to meet another person’s expectations.”
“Nick, I’m sorry you feel that way. You had everything you needed, a wonderful mother, plenty of money—”
“Everything but what I wanted. A father. Mother saw to that.”
“And then I came along and made you feel like you had to conform to my world.”
“No. For once, I wanted to do it. To prove to you that I’m just a regular old guy who truly cares for you. I have a confession.”
McCall was eager to hear what he had to say. He seemed so serious. “Okay.”
“I didn’t cook the meal on the boat. Our chef did and then Harold showed me a few things to do to make you believe I did it.” He shot her a shy grin. “I don’t really even know how to cook.”
She smiled and raised an eyebrow as if surprised by his confession, but decided to keep her comments to herself.
“I just care so much about you that I wanted you to think I can do anything I set my mind to.”
“Do you really care about me, Nick?”
“I didn’t think you’d have to ask that. I’ve always cared, but don’t know when I realized just how much. Suddenly, I began thinking about building a life with you. Hell, I even had little Dartmouth ankle-biters playing in the front yard surrounded by a white picket fence, neighborhood barbeques, and picking out curtains for the kitchen.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me that we’d gone from I love you to a true desire to be one?”
“Because I didn’t know myself for a long time. Suddenly, I began experiencing something unfamiliar. I think that infection has set in, and I’m on the verge of delirium. That’s the reason I’m spilling my guts to you now.”
“You’ll be okay. Why did you take Colt’s challenge so seriously?” She smiled at him, then added, “Other than male ego.”
“Mainly because I knew I could beat him. One thing I didn’t tell you about Jock and the ranch is that I spent most of my summers up there on the Triple J with Jock and his father. That’s where I learned to be a man. It certainly wasn’t swashbuckling with a doting manservant who I could twist around my little finger and who still calls me Master Dart.” He touched her cheek tenderly.
“I didn’t know how it came about, but I figured out when I saw you ride that you knew your way around a horse and weren’t trying to show up Colt.” She couldn’t resist smiling as she thought back to the look on Colt’s face when he landed in a pile of horse droppings. “And, I was glad you slugged the jerk.”
“I was trying to put him in his place because I knew what I was doing, but when he mouthed off, I had no choice but to hit him. A man never allows another man to talk trash about someone they love. All I’ve wanted since the day I realized how I felt about you is to make you happy. Make you want me as much as I want you.”
“Oh Nick, you didn’t have to try that hard, because you’ve made me very happy. In the last week, I’ve learned more about myself than I thought possible. You made me see myself differently. Made me face my own feelings and fears.” She fought back tears that clung in her throat.
Somewhere during the conversation, Lauren, along with Nick’s intentions to tell McCall about the Triple J acquisition vanished. His business problem could wait. McCall could not.
“Back in LA, I asked you about the hurt in your life. You made it very clear you didn’t plan to discuss it. I respect that, but please remember, I’ll always be here and have a big shoulder,” Nick said.
“Thanks. I like big shoulders.” She nestled up to his side. “Nick, you’ve earned the right to know what I’m scared of, too.”
“Mac, you don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do. I’m scared of rattlesnakes. I hate to throw up. And the worst, I’m horrified of getting one of those viruses that get under your toenails. You know the type you see on TV where the little ogre-looking thingy lifts up a toenail and looks at the yuck under it?”
Nick chuckled and rolled toward her. “Now tell me what your heart is scared of.”
“It’s terrified of the thought of losing you like I’ve done everybody in my life. Paw-Pa, Daddy, and then Mother. All the people I ever loved, except for Granny and Lola Ruth. And, yes, I was afraid of you, too. Of my feelings. I think that’s why I acted like I did on the island. I wanted you to go away, so then I wouldn’t take the chance of getting close, of feeling, of loving you.” McCall peered up into his eyes. “I was afraid I’d run you off, if I got too close.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Angel Eyes.” He slipped his hand behind her head and pulled her down to him. “How do you figure it’s your fault that you lost your parents and grandfather? That’s a big burden to carry for a young woman.”
“I should have been able to do something to help them stay safe. Make Daddy take better care of himself. Make Mother strong enough to stop smoking and save her from being ravaged with cancer. And to stop Paw-Pa from tangling with that stallion the day he got trampled to death. I should have been able to do something. I guess that was why I was so angry at you for taking such a risk in the corral. I was so mesmerized by your talent that I couldn’t leave, but knew you could end up dying in the dirt and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.”
“That was beyond your control, Mac. You don’t have to save the whole world. I’ll be here to shoulder some of your burden. And there’s one thing for sure, you can’t get rid of me that easy. I’ll be there for you.”
“I’m glad. Where do we go now?”
“To a place where it rains while the sun shines. Do you have your passport?”
“Yes. I don’t know what possessed me, but when I found out we were going out in the Pacific on your boat, I put it in my bag.”
“Good. I always have mine with me. Can you be packed by morning? I’ll have the jet readied.”
She nodded and settled her head on his broad chest. “But we still have a lot to talk about. I want to know about the land deal you’re working on, what is going on with your construction firm, have you scouted for a new pitcher?”
“We have a lifetime to talk.” He grew silent and pulled her closer to him. “Right now I want to focus on us. Business comes second to you.”
“I know you spend a lot of time on your iPhone,” she said. “Are you sure we don’t need to go back to LA?”
“No. That’s why I have the best managers money can buy running my businesses. Plus half the calls are from Mother. I hate to admit it, but if she continues checking up on me, I’m going to begin ignoring her calls.”
“Shame on you, but okay. No more questions for the time being.”
Together they gazed into the sky, feeling closer to the heartbeat of the universe than they’d ever felt.
The stillness of the prairie settled around them as they lay cocooned in one another’s arms, in their own universe, far, far away from the pressures of the world. Far away from the clouds that churned in the west like boiled Armageddon.
McCall snuggled closer to Nick and they watched as ominous clouds erased the sun.
“Slugger, as much as I’m enjoying our outing, we’d better head for the house.” She motioned her head toward the west.
They sprang to their feet when random jolts of wind lashed against their faces. Lightning danced across the soundstage of the sky as throbbing green-black clouds threatened and coursed their way toward them. A wagonload of thunder rumbled.
Forgetting the fishing pole and tackle box, they raced through the pasture, trying to outrun a wall of rain.
Feeding heifers raised their heads as though checking the severity of the storm and formed a single file, ambling toward shelter.
“Damn it, McCall, hurry.” Nick grabbed her hand and pulled her close to his side.
The Tycoon and the Texan Page 18