Perfecting For Love - A Standalone Novel (A Doctors Romance Love Story) (Burbank Brothers, Book #3)

by Naomi Niles

  In a way, she was right: I didn't treat her like she deserved. I had been taking for granted that she would just be there for me without my having to put any effort into the relationship. Even though I hadn't burned down her paintings, Bethany was right: I had wronged her, and she deserved better. Now I just had to find her to tell her.

  Her car was still parked in front of the house so I knew she hadn't left yet, but where was she? I checked all the usual places, but in the end, she was nowhere to be found.

  "Looking for someone?" Mama asked with a knowing smile when I finally gave up and returned to the kitchen in defeat.

  "No. Just checking around the ranch to make sure everything is okay," I lied, knowing full well that I could never put anything past her.

  "I see. Your brothers already ate dinner while you were walking around. I was just packing up the leftovers into this picnic basket."

  "That's an odd thing to do."

  "No more odd than walking around in circles for no reason," she pointed out.

  "Okay, I was looking for Bethany," I confessed.

  "I thought as much. She sure seemed pretty upset with you. I would have thought you'd be avoiding her."

  "I was at first, but I realize now that's exactly what she was mad about to begin with. I put everything else in my life above her: the business dealings for the ranch, my brothers, everything. She was always last on my list of priorities; it was no wonder she wanted to leave.

  “Then, the night she tells me she's going home, mysteriously the barn catches on fire with all her hard work inside. I can see why she'd think maybe I had something to do with it; but I've got to convince her of the truth."

  "And what exactly is that?" Mama asked.

  "That I took her for granted because she feels like as much a part of me as my hand or my foot. It's like we're already one, and I didn't think I needed to tell her how much I cared for her because to me it seemed obvious.

  “But I realize now that I need to tell her every day just how much I love her. I would never destroy her paintings because they're a part of her, and I value her more than anything.

  “It's true I do want her to stay. The moment she stood up and said she was leaving, I should have begged her to stay – and that's what I'm going to do right now, if I can just find where she's gone."

  Mama didn't say a word. She just smiled at me as she handed me the large picnic basket.

  "What's this for?" I asked.

  "She took Whiskey on the path leading down to the river. I convinced her to stay one more day and make me a sketch. She's going to be hungry and thirsty after being gone all day, so there's food and wine in the basket. There's a blanket, too, in case she's cold."

  "Mama, I thought you said people should mind their own business and not interfere in matters of the heart."

  "I'm not interfering. I just packed the leftovers from dinner; that's all."

  I wrapped her into my arms and hugged her tight. "Thanks, Mama."

  Chapter Twenty-three: Bethany

  "Stay still, or I can't get on," I cried out, as once again Whiskey stepped away, just as I tried to swing my leg up from the stirrup over her saddle.

  "This had been much easier in the stable where I had a step ladder. Out here, it's nearly impossible," I complained as I tried once more to mount the horse and failed yet again.

  Whiskey whinnied at me and it sounded almost like laughter. Then, suddenly, there was a sound of breaking branches coming from nearby and the animal’s ears and head perked up in alert.

  "Who's there?" I cried out, near panic. I picked up a branch from the ground, ready to swing at whatever wild animal was about to spring from the trees and attack me. I was surprised when a familiar face appeared instead.

  "Colton! You scared the crap out of me!" I cried out happily as he stepped through the shrubs leading a mare by the reigns. I flung myself into his arms and hugged him tight with joy as the mare whinnied with surprise.

  "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Are you all right?" He squeezed me to his hard chest, and it felt good to be held by his strong arms.

  "Yes. I'm fine. I would have been back already if I could only mount this horse," I said with a giggle. I remembered I was supposed to be mad at him, and I pushed hard against his chest, forcing him back away from me. "Wait a minute: no! No, I'm not fine. I'm mad. Really mad, at you."

  Colton looked surprised by my sudden change of emotion, but now that I remembered how angry I was at him, I let all my rage explode at him.

  "You tricked me into loving you, used me for nightly romps in the barn, and then thought you could treat me like I didn't exist. Then, when I got fed up with being used and then ignored and decided to leave, you got revenge on my by burning down the barn where we made love and destroyed my paintings in the process.

  “You thought you could make me stay so you could use me longer, but it won't work. I'm on to you. You're a liar. You're a jerk. You're a monster!"

  I was yelling at him and beating his chest with my fists. Suddenly, he caught my tiny fist in his large hands and pulled me to him. With is face close to mine, he said in a gruff whisper, "I'm in love with you."

  Before I could object, Colton took my mouth in a fiery kiss. His urgent tongue forced my lips apart, and I succumbed to the power of his passion, opening my mouth to his and allowing him to devour me. His strong hands wrapped in my hair, and I felt my body turn to liquid, leaning against him as I clung to his torso with my hands to keep from swooning as we kissed repeatedly.

  I could feel his hard muscles through the fabric of his shirt, and I hungered to feel them with my bare hands. I ripped off his shirt and ran my hands over his abs, up to his pectorals. He groaned with pleasure as my fingers found his nipples and grazed them with my nails.

  Now it was his turn. He pulled my shirt off over my head, and I was glad I had put on my lacy bra. He buried his face in my cleavage, kissing my bared flesh with hungry lips.

  Then slowly, he peeled down the straps, unhooked the clasp, and removed my bra completely. My nipples puckered in the cool night air, and I moaned aloud as Colton put his hot mouth upon them, licking and sucking my taut nubs while I ran my fingernails through his sandy brown hair and sighed with pleasure.

  "I want you so bad," he groaned as he stripped off my jeans.

  "Take me now," I panted, stepping out of my panties. I was now naked in the forest, bathed only in moonlight.

  He whipped a blanket out of his saddlebag and laid it down on the ground beneath the apple tree. Our two horses had wandered down the path a bit, leaving us alone with our intimacy. I lay down in the center of the blanket and watched as Colton stripped off his jeans and boots to lay beside me, naked.

  He took me quickly, entering my wet folds with an urgency more intense than before. I cried out with pleasure, my gasps echoing through the forest, and making the birds take flight.

  "I needed that," I sighed with satisfaction when the quickie was done.

  "I'm not finished yet," Colton whispered as he kissed his way down my body, lingering at my breasts to kiss circles around my nipples. "I want you to know for sure just how much I love and appreciate you. I don't ever want you to doubt how much you mean to me ever again."

  He kissed his way down my stomach and parted my thighs. He brought his mouth to my most intimate folds with expert workings of his lips and tongue. I gasped with surprise at the intensity of pleasure he made me feel and clutched at the blanket beneath me as he brought me climax with his wonderful mouth.

  Then, when I thought I'd experienced the most pleasure possible, he entered me again with his newly hard organ and we made love again.

  As a tangled jumble of limbs, with his mouth on my neck, and my legs wrapped around his waist, I felt him preparing to climax. My body spasmed, my back arched, I threw back my head and cried out with ecstasy as pure euphoria enveloped me. We orgasmed as one, alone in the forest with the night breeze blowing through the branches of the apple tree above us. It was the most incre
dible, beautiful moment of my life, and when we were done, I was breathless.

  "That was amazing," I sighed when I finally regained my ability to speak. Propping myself up on one elbow, I gazed down at Colton and said teasingly, "This was all part of your tricky little plan, wasn't it?"

  "I'm not that clever. It was part of Mama's plan, though." He grinned. Then he took down a picnic basket from the back of his saddle and set in on the blanket. Inside was a bottle of wine and containers filled with Margie's delicious cooking.

  Colton found two plastic wine glasses in the bottom of the basket and filled them with chilled merlot while I picked up one of Margie's hors d'oeuvres with my fingers and popped it in my mouth. It was pure heaven, and I couldn't help but sigh as I swallowed it. Colton chuckled his deep laugh as he handed me a plate piled high with my favorite foods.

  "Thank you, but this doesn't change how angry I am at you."

  "I know. You have every right to be mad at me for the way I treated you. I should have communicated better," he said with genuine humility.

  "I should have let you know every day how much I love you and made sure you knew how important you are to me. I was busy, I had a lot going on with the ranch, but I should have talked to you and let you know why I was so busy, so you wouldn't think it was because I didn't care."

  "Nice try, but that's not the reason I hate you," I said to him. "Yes, you hurt my feelings by ignoring me, but you crossed a line when you burned my paintings in that barn fire. I can never forgive you for that."

  "That wasn't me," he said. I listened as he told me everything he knew about the investigation, how he'd found a lighter belonging to one of the employees, and how it might be the same person who's been stealing their cattle.

  "So, when we find the man who owns the lighter, William will arrest him for arson and destruction of property. It won't get your paintings back, but at least it will be justice for the crime."

  "I can't believe I blamed you." I felt terrible for the way I'd treated him. "Can you forgive me?"

  "Only if you agree to stay," he teased.

  "I'll stay till the end of the week. I promised your mother I'd stay here and create five paintings for her, and it doesn't feel right skipping out on her early and leaving her with nothing but some sketches."

  "That's good. I'm glad you're staying; but I don't mean until the end of the job – I mean forever."

  "What are you saying?" My heart skipped in my chest. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? If so, it was the answer to my dreams, but that didn't mean it could become a reality.

  "Stay with me, Bethany, here on the ranch. I love you, and I don't want to ever lose you."

  His offer was everything I'd ever wanted since the moment I'd first laid eyes on him just one short month ago. I thought about it carefully, but the answer was obvious.

  I couldn't just live on the ranch without paying rent. I hadn’t work as hard as I had to earn an art degree just to leach off the Hutchinsons and not have a career.

  Gazing into Colton's mesmerizing eyes, I said sadly, "I can't. There's no work for me out here. The only way I can stay here is if I can find a way to support myself with the art career I've worked so hard to achieve."

  "Well then, that's what we're going to do." He pulled me to his chest and held me tight, as if the strength of his arms could keep us together. Still, he vowed to help me with such conviction, I believed that if there were any way to get me a job out here as an artist, he would find it. And I really hoped he could.

  Chapter Twenty-four: Colton

  "I'm sorry, Mr. Hutchinson, but your policy does not cover damage caused by acts of arson," Mallory Meecham said to me. The insurance agent was sitting with her legs crossed in the chair across from my desk, with her red hair pulled back into a painfully tight bun and her white blouse starched and pressed to perfection.

  "The policy covers both fire and vandalism. How the hell can it not cover fire by vandalism?" I was having a hard time not letting my frustration show as my hands balled into fists on top of my desk.

  "Arson is an intentional act purposefully committed to cause damage. To commit arson and then make a claim against your policy is an illegal act of fraud," she said, clearly accusing me with her words. "We will not pay until the criminal investigation is complete."

  "You think I started that fire?" I was mad as hell and it showed.

  "You or a member of your family."

  Forcing myself to keep my composure, I took a deep breath and carefully measured the tone of my voice. "No one in my family started that fire. Read the report. It clearly states that they found a lighter, which was most likely used to start the fire."

  "So, you or one of your family members used a lighter," Mallory retorted.

  I'd never hit a woman in my life, but for her, I would have been willing to make an exception. Still, that wouldn't help my case, so I willed my fists to unclench and took several deep breaths before speaking.

  "The lighter belongs to an employee of the ranch. He started the fire, and is most likely the man responsible for cattle being stolen from the ranch."

  "Yes, I see you have filed a report with the sheriff's office claiming that a significant number of cattle have been stolen, resulting in a deficit this quarter."

  "That's correct."

  "That's why we suspect that someone in your family deliberately started that fire."

  "Why would we do that when we already have enough problems?"

  "Some policy holders mistakenly think that cashing in on their policies will solve their problems. Your ranch is in debt, so all you have to do is burn down enough of your property and we'll cut you a check big enough to pay off your debt. Well, sorry, Mr. Hutchinson, but we refuse to pay for fraud."

  "This is outrageous! Burning down that barn isn't worth much. I just want to be compensated for the value of the hay and equipment that was inside."

  "As well as a collection of art?"

  "Yes."

  "An odd place to keep art. What other items can we pretend were stored in the barn? Maybe we can bring the cost up enough to not only pay off your debt, but net a profit." Her sarcasm was getting to be too much, and I feared I just might hit her after all.

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest, and Mallory focused in on the bandages covering my burns.

  With a snarky attitude, she said, "People often get injured when started fires like the one you caused. Let that be a lesson to you, Mr. Hutchinson."

  "I didn't start that fire. Read the damn report from the fire marshal. He doesn't have any reason to lie for us. You should accept his word as truth, and he says he found the lighter that started it all."

  "A lighter you claim belongs to an employee?"

  "Yes."

  "So, you expect me to believe that an employee tried to burn down the place where he gets his paycheck? Why would anyone do that?"

  "I don't know."

  "And, why hasn't that employee been arrested for arson?"

  "I don't know which one it is."

  "Well, then who's to say the lighter isn't yours?"

  "It belongs to an employee. I can't remember which one, but when I do, I'm going to call the sheriff's office and have him arrested. Then you'll have your damn police report."

  "Good. That's when I'll pay on your policy, Mr. Hutchinson, and not before. Until then, I'm putting everything on hold pending the outcome of the criminal investigation. We do not look kindly on fraud, Mr. Hutchinson."

  My blood raged in my veins as I opened my office door for her and watched her exit. I slammed the door shut behind her, knocking my lucky horseshoe off the wall.

  "That's about right." I sighed as I picked up the horseshoe and held it in my hands. It seemed like my luck had run out. The ranch was deeply in debt, and the hope I'd had for a profitable season had been washed away by the continued theft of my cattle.

  Mallory Meecham had been right about one thing: I had been counting on using the check from my insurance claim from the
barn fire to pay off our debts. She was completely wrong in suspecting I had committed the arson, but until I could figure out who owned that lighter, there was no one else to blame.

  The one bright point in my life right now was that Bethany had agreed to stay till the end of the week.

  Every day, she sat with her easel and her paints out by our special apple tree by the river. Brett chaperoned to make sure she was safe, and every evening, we went out together, just the two of us, to the lake where we ate, and talked, and laughed, and made love.

  It was the perfect summer, and it was about to come to an end. Bethany had basically completed the piece she was working on: the fifth and final painting Mama had commissioned. Now, it was time for her to leave.

  I had asked her to stay with me here on the ranch, and I understood why she had to say no. Bethany Foster was independent, proud, and fiercely capable. She had basically raised herself under the care of a resentful mother, gotten herself into college, and had the fortitude to find her father. She'd come all the way out here to the country from Chicago, where she managed to win over the hearts of my entire family.

  Her courageous independence was what I loved most about her, and I couldn't ask her to change who she was just to stay here on the ranch for my own selfish desires. Bethany deserved to have the career she had worked so hard to achieve; I just wished she could have that and still stay with me here on the ranch, where I always dreamed of having a wife and children in the home I loved.

  Of course, the way things were going, there might not be a ranch to call home much longer. The mortgage payment was coming up and there was no way to make it, the taxes were overdue, and we still had all the expenses of maintaining the cattle.

  I'd been over the numbers a dozen times, and there was no way to make them match up, even if I made drastic cuts. The bank where'd I'd gotten a loan wouldn't increase my line of credit, and the only way to get by was to start selling some things.