"You said Clay was more than old enough to make his own mistakes. That he doesn't need me to take care of things for him anymore, right?"
"Yes, I remember thinking you were two strong-minded alpha males trying to rule the same territory. I didn't think you were listening."
"I wasn't, but I heard you, I reckon.” He winked.
At the time, she'd worried Reese and Clay might be headed for a serious life-long disagreement. The two were too much alike, too stubborn and too strong willed to work together well.
"I always listen. I don't always agree. Anyway I've asked Clay to think about buying out my part of the ranch. I'll keep my share of the land, but he can run the business."
After a long moment of shock, she said, “Are you sure about this? I haven't promised to marry you. There are things we have to talk about."
"I know. We will. I promise.” She narrowed her eyes. Reese looked as if he was the one with the huge secret. Her stomach lurched at the look of guilt in his eyes.
"Was Clay pleased?” she managed to ask.
"He will be when he understands that I haven't lost my mind."
She laughed with him. She was a little worried at his out-of-character behavior herself.
"Reese, did it even occur to you that you should have talked to me about this?” He really should have talked it over with her first.
"Damn. I should have, I guess. Damn, what was I thinking? Should have asked if you wanted to see it before I signed the contract for it, huh?"
"If you planned for me to be involved. Yes, maybe you should have talked with me."
"But like I said, I wanted to act fast and if you don't like it...."
She laughed at his bewildered expression. He realized he'd reverted to bossy type again. God, she couldn't allow him to give up his home for her. Especially under the current situation—her cowardice in telling the truth about Mandy—she couldn't. He needed to know the whole truth about Mandy before making such a huge decision.
"Reese about four years ago...."
"Want a PBJ, Mommy? I learned to make them today.” Mandy smiled up at her around the crumpled bits of sandwich.
Heavens, she'd forgotten Mandy was standing there. “Thanks, sweets. That would be wonderful.” Mandy ran off to prepare the promised fare.
Ashley knew she should talk him out of all this, reason with him. He might come to regret this farm thing. Instead, she took a deep breath and said, “Well, where is it, this farm with miles of corn?"
"Five miles north of here,” Reese answered.
"That close to town? Heavens, the land must cost a fortune."
"A small fortune,” he said with a smile. “But there's still room in the price for appreciation. The schools up there are great. You want to go see it?” Reese asked, watching her closely. “Hell, maybe I should've asked if you want me to stay in Ohio first."
She'd put off giving an answer to his marriage ultimatum, and he hadn't mentioned it again. She wanted with all her soul to ask what all this busy day of shopping had to do with the ultimatum and what it all meant for their future. She was a bit afraid to question. Her guilt over stealing his child's first years from him made her feel she had no right to demand too much.
But Ashley realized in that moment, she wanted to have it all.
Her honor would not allow her to marry him while she deceived him about Mandy.
"Here's your sandwich,” Mandy said.
"It looks wonderful, sweetie."
* * * *
"Oh, Ash, a friend of yours stopped by today,” Reese said.
She looked up. His voice sounded casual. Maybe too casual.
They were in the middle of a tour of the farmhouse he and Mandy had found. Reese inspected the massive old fireplace, rubbing his fingers over the rich, dark wood moldings of the mantle. He'd waited until they returned from their walk around the grounds to mention this friend.
"Said his name was Street. Mike Street."
At that moment, Ashley thought she saw a spark of challenge, maybe even anger, in Reese's expression as he looked at her. Whatever she saw there, was quickly masked.
"What did he say he wanted?"
"You."
"What?” Her hand went to her breast in a gesture of disbelief. His eyes followed the movement.
"Yeah, you. And the sport coupe I rented."
Ashley noticed his southern drawl had become more pronounced. Her reaction to Street's visit meant a great deal to him.
She laughed. “I can believe the bit about the car with no trouble. Mike has very expensive tastes."
"You know the man well?"
"We work together. He comes by my office about three times a week to ask me to lunch."
"Three times a week,” he growled. It was almost a shout this time. “You eat with that sleaze three times a week?"
"No. No, you misunderstand me. I never eat with him."
Ashley smiled, an understanding and tolerant female smile. She felt a surge of wicked feminine enjoyment. The hooded look in his eyes, the ill-concealed jealousy was new to her, and a bit flattering.
"You like to see me jealous, little cat?” He left the mantle and walked toward her.
Watching the man move slowly toward her, Ashley recognized a very real threat to her tranquility.
"Maybe I do. A little. It's the first ever show of jealousy from you."
He gave her a look of doubt, shaking his head no. “Not true."
"Yes, true.” As he closed in, her smile turned to appealing for mercy. “Now Reese, what are you up to?"
He smiled a devilish grin.
As he closed more distance, Ashley squealed and ran out the door, motivated by sheer fun and an illogical touch of real primitive fear. She couldn't help the girly scream. He followed close on her heels in a mock chase. She was so not the faint-hearted type, but there was a slow danger in the man today.
He kept coming. Inexorably.
She'd known he would. Expected him to do so.
Giving him a can't-catch-me grin, she ran down the hall.
Slowly and deliberately, his long strides covered the ground between them.
At last, he cornered her at the end of the hallway. She faced him, breathing fast from excitement more than exertion. He braced his hands against the wall on either side of her face, trapping her.
As she looked into his eyes, his playful humor disappeared to be replaced by desire. He lifted her hair aside and pressed his lips to the slender warmth of her sensitive neck.
"I feel your pulse accelerate. So warm and open. Always so responsive for me,” he whispered hoarsely.
She sighed and tilted her head to accommodate him. He'd won. Darn him. He knew it too. Heavens. She closed her eyes and relished his touch.
"Tell me you need me as much as I need you, Ash,” Reese whispered, pressing his lower body to hers.
Puzzled, she watched him. Reese usually made a point of not making verbal demands of her. But this was different. He seemed to need to know. He'd always been confident where she was concerned. Perhaps, in the past, the fire of their undeniable passion had made him cocky and arrogant about her willingness.
"I was so sure of you four years ago,” he said, confirming her suspicions. “Now I feel my world has shifted three times in three short weeks. First by finding you moved, then by finding you have a daughter and now by finding a potential lover with your child's hair color,” he snarled the last. “It's enough to worry the hell out of a man."
She gasped. Oh, dear God, Street did look a bit more like Mandy than either of them did. “You can't believe...."
"Tell me you need me. Tell me you want me."
"Yes,” she answered with her breath coming in short huffs. Oh, yes she needed this man. The fact that he'd never before asked her to need him had made no difference to her silly heart back then. She had anyway. Now he melted any resistance she'd mounted in the time apart.
"Yes, what, honey?"
"Yes, I need you. I want you, Reese."
"What about Mandy?” Reese asked as he followed Ashley.
"She's fine. Sleeping in the bedroom across the hall on the blanket we brought. With all the adventure, she missed her nap today. We'll hear her yelling if she needs us."
With that settled, he lifted her off her feet and into his arms and then laid her gently on the polished oak floor.
"God, I have to love you.” He came back up to her then and kissed her hard on the lips. “Do I at least get some credit for holding out this long?” he asked. “Promise you'll remember I tried to talk things out first."
She laughed softly. “I promise you."
As he aligned his body to hers, joined her cheek to cheek and breast to chest, the unfinished business between them dimmed. The rock solid flooring beneath her felt good as his strong hands grasped her hips and drew her to him.
"Tell me again that you need me,” he whispered, “I want to hear it again."
"I need you. I do.” Ashley bit her tongue, holding back words of love she was not ready to say, half-frightened making love with him would cause her to speak of it. If she did, might Reese use knowledge of her love for him as a weapon against her? She wanted to trust him as well as need him.
He might even take Mandy from her. Heavens.
She knew it was irrational, silly even, but she feared if she told him she loved him she would also tell him she could have had no one else's child, only his. She'd tell him that had been worth any cost.
Reese helped her out of her jeans, moved his hand, finding the edge of her underwear with his wonderful fingers, and all worries drifted from her, replaced by only feminine sensation.
She felt the hardened strength of him pressed against her thigh and knew he was showing her his power, perhaps unknowingly, but reminding her of his influence over her all the same, and his complete control of his own emotions.
She slipped her hands under the seam of his blue-jean shirt. Moving upward to his chest, pulling the material free from his belted waistband as she went, her hands smoothed their way along.
His breath caught.
She smiled.
The hair-roughened skin beneath the shirt aroused her further.
Seducing Reese like this was a bold move for Ashley Wilson, researcher and workaholic.
Reese delighted her with his response, groaning deep in his throat.
"Ashley, what are you doing to me?” His voice was harsh, his breathing accelerated.
"Yes, love?” She smiled to herself. Perhaps she was not without her own female power. A heady hypothesis.
Tentatively she moved her hands downward now, down to the snap of his snug jeans.
"Whoa! Sweetheart, you're moving too fast again."
"I am?"
"No need to hurry this. All kinds of reasons to take our time."
His breathing sounded unsteady, halting now. Hmmm. Interesting results to her experiment. She smiled with enjoyment.
"Yes, there is,” she said. Today she wanted to control their loving. Four years ago, she'd been content to follow his lead. But now she wanted to test her power. Just as he needed to hear she needed him, she needed to know she had the ability to hold him in a relationship. To convince him to stay with her forever.
Her small hands entered his tight jeans and boldly stroked him. “Oh, God,” he whispered, gasping. His lady took the initiative today in more than speed.
He had offered her the chance to explore his body before, years ago, tempted her to take the lead, but shyness had always stopped her. Her hand closed on his shaft now and he sucked in a harsh breath. “Baby."
She pushed gently against his chest. He yielded, rolling him over onto his back.
A fire burned across his chest as she pressed urgent kisses there and made a journey, her lips meeting her hands in the curling hair below his navel.
"A man could lose his mind this way."
Reese knew he'd better slow her down or she would take more than he had to give. In this mood, she could have his soul.
"Ashley, honey, wait ... stop.” He tried to laugh, as if his pleading was a joke, but he failed to carry off the deception. The laughter died in a near grimace of pain and anticipation as her lips found his manhood.
"Ashley!"
Ashley laughed, well-pleased with her little experiment.
Her untamed male had lost this battle to her. Now if she could just lock him in this room forever.
But in a flash, he erupted to action beneath her, rolling them over, drawing her to him. Piercing her, filling her.
"Reese!” she cried. The look of intense concentration on his face drew her further under the spell of passion. She writhed beneath him, grasping him to her closer still.
The harsh rhythm of their movements arched and changed until completion washed over her.
She cried out over and over.
He followed her to climax, his triumphant groan hot against the sensitive skin of her neck.
"Hold me,” she whispered. “Hold me."
"Glad too,” he breathed. He did as she'd asked, enfolding her in a deep hug.
She held the words of love in but it was torture to do so.
They lay together for a long time.
* * * *
Later, as they gathered their things to leave the old house, Reese wondered that he'd been fool enough to try to influence Ashley with this place, with something his money could buy for them together—this pretty, empty house.
As far as he could tell, all he had accomplished was getting himself in deeper trouble. More under her feminine spell than ever before. More vulnerable than ever. Hellfire.
They both helped Mandy gather her toys and stuff them into a plastic storage thing in the shape of a spotted horse.
As he locked up, he watched her, mesmerized by her sexy body as she moved.
She was a siren—a seductive, spell-casting siren. No doubt about it. Good thing the little one was awake or he'd ravish Ashley again. Right now.
Years ago, he'd dated a much different woman than his Ashley. The kind that dressed in designer dresses and left waves of fifty-dollar perfume in their wake. Like the ones in the television commercials a man was told he should want.
He remembered the surprise on his brother's face when he brought Ashley to Texas the first time. Clay clearly hadn't understood it either.
Reese suspected Clay had been in love with the daughter of Fredericks the horse trader since his senior year in high school. Come to think of it, his brother hadn't chosen a conventional beauty either. Barbara Anne Fredericks was tall and long-legged with a pretty face, but she was better with horses than most men were. Not the girlie girl her name implied.
"All set,” Ashley's voice drew him back from his thoughts.
Reese felt wary of the newly confident woman Ashley was now. The new urgency she'd put into loving his body just now astounded him. The urgency was almost better described as starving. He didn't know, but it was as if she expected there would be no future for their relationship. He felt a spear of panic at the thought. There'd always been a touch of irrationality, being out of control, in their loving. But this was different, something deeper.
She handed him the toy thing and he lifted it into to the SUV.
Ashley stopped still to watch Reese with the toy box. The incongruity of the large man and the thing amused her.
Reese said very little after their wild, uninhibited lovemaking, most of the few words he'd spoken had been directed to Mandy. She sensed his circumspection and wondered what troubled him. He reminded her again of the real wolf held captive at the zoo. Maybe he felt disoriented, trapped.
Could he be embarrassed by the force and strength of the storm of passion he'd shown this evening? She'd sensed his surprise at the power of what they'd done together in that empty room just now.
She was a
bit shocked herself. She'd never felt so confident and sure of herself before in their lovemaking, not even the first day he came back to her.
"We don't know each other very well, do we? Not really,” Ashley suddenly rushed into speech.
"What makes you say that?” He turned from his task, his eyes guarded.
"Oh, just that if you counted the hours and days we've spent together when we were uh ... dating, it really wouldn't add up to very much, would it?"
"We were engaged. We planned to marry."
"I know. Still, in many ways we were strangers."
He speared her with his silver eyes. “Maybe we haven't experienced much of each other, but I know you well, honey."
She folded her arms at her chest. “I'm not so sure you do,” she said. Looking off toward the winding stream, she was unable to look into his piercing eyes. She wanted to warn him not to put her on a womanly saint's pedestal. Under no circumstances did she belong there. She was much too human with all the usual flaws.
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Chapter Seventeen
The next day, Ashley went over the progress of her work with the lead design engineer, Patrick Homfield. He lowered his large frame to the chair across from her desk, rubbing his gray hair back off his forehead.
Papers were spread about her desk in a semi-ordered manner. Pat had the most recent prototype of the impossibly small infrared detecting device with him. It still gave too many colors. They needed to refine the resolution on the small screen, narrow it down to the three colors so it would be most useful to the human eye.
"It's coming along beautifully, Ashley. Not a thing to worry about. And ahead of schedule with development money to spare. Can't beat that."
"No, we can't,” she agreed.
"We should make our target date with no problem."
Pat was very pleased. She could hear the triumph in his voice. It was rare for a project to go progress without one or two glitches. They'd been lucky, if you forgot about the possible spy thing going on.
"What do you think it will be used for, Pat?” She hadn't planned to ask that of her friend, but she did wonder.
He looked at her strangely.
"What do you mean?"
His eyes narrowed with suspicion.
The Horseman's Heritage Page 12