She hadn’t gone through two months of hell only to once again be caught up in a maelstrom of passion. She still loved him, maybe even more than when she’d left. But over the past two months, she’d attempted to scrape together every last ounce of objectivity she could manage about him. The result was that she’d come to an important conclusion. If she let her guard down and once again accepted him as her lover, there would be nothing left of her heart or of her but pieces when he walked out her door for the final time.
He didn’t love her, and one day soon he would grow tired of her. If not tonight, then perhaps six weeks from now. If not six weeks, then perhaps six months. But when it came right down to it, it really didn’t matter when it happened. She had to remain strong, stop any passion before it started and convince him that she wasn’t interested in resuming where they’d left off.
She pulled a couple of dresses from her suitcase and hung them in the closet. “Once I gave the order to stop the drilling, there was no reason for me to stay here. I made the decision that my time would be better spent elsewhere.”
“And you didn’t think I’d be even mildly interested in that decision?”
She’d known that sooner or later this confrontation would come. She’d hoped she could have a chance to settle in and catch her breath first. She glanced at him, then away. She reached into the suitcase and pulled out a pant suit. “I thought you’d be happy. I made the decision you wanted. I also left you the note, telling you so. After that…” She gave a nonchalant shrug.
He placed his hands on his hips, and his amber eyes flashed dark fire. “Okay, Tess, let’s cut right through the crap. I’ll concede the fact that your business is far-flung and that you felt, since you’d stopped the drilling here, that your time could be better spent elsewhere. That makes perfect business sense.”
She tensed for the next volley she knew would come and it came fast.
“But damn it, Tess—what about us?”
She bent to reach for a sweater, paused for a fraction of a second, then lifted it out of the case and straightened, certain he hadn’t noticed her pause. “I don’t like goodbyes.”
He exhaled a long breath, then walked to the dresser where, before he’d arrived, she’d absently tossed a camisole, meaning to put it in the drawer later. He picked it up and rubbed the silk and lace material between his thumb and fingers.
“Okay,” he said, continuing to finger the camisole, “let’s go another way. I lost count of the times you told me no. So what happened to make you change your mind?”
The sight of him fingering the camisole, an intimate undergarment that had been against her skin, unnerved her. She walked over and carefully took it from him. “I’m not sure what you want me to say, Nick. You worked long and hard to get me to make the decision you wanted. So I made it. But now it’s not enough for you? Remember that, thanks to you, I met your grandparents. They touched me. I liked them a great deal. And I just kept thinking about them.” She shrugged again, as if, in the end, her decision had been easy. “Finally I decided it was the right thing to do.”
Nodding, he leaned against the dresser and crossed his arms over his chest. Watching him, she saw something that made her pause. There was an ever-so-slight change in him that she might have missed if she hadn’t been keeping such a careful eye on him. Still, she couldn’t identify what was different about him. It could very well be her imagination.
“I have something I need to tell you, Tess. I called up an old friend about a week after you left. He was one of my roommates in college, but now he’s an investigative reporter for the Dallas Morning News.”
Tension and dread gripped her as she anticipated what he would say next.
“He has more resources at his command than I do, so I asked him as a favor to dig around and see what he could find out about your family, its background, the company and… you.”
Anger rushed through her, extinguishing the dread. Depending on what he’d learned, the knowledge could leave her completely vulnerable to him—something she couldn’t afford. “Just what in the hell gave you the right to do such a thing? I had done what you asked. Why couldn’t you simply let it be?”
“Because it didn’t make sense to me and I needed it to.
I—” He gestured vaguely. “Obviously the reason you
made the decision was for me and my family. Except right from the first, you’d been so adamant that you couldn’t. I needed to find out what had changed.”
She pointed at him, her anger so great she was almost shaking. “If I’d known you were going to invade my privacy, not to mention my family’s, I would never have stopped the drilling, and you and the Águila be damned.”
“Believe me,” he said, his expression grave, “I knew when I made the request of Jerry that you wouldn’t like it.” He paused, as if giving careful consideration to what he would say next. “But at the time, I just thought I’d get an explanation that would satisfy me, and that would be that.”
She pointed again, this time to the open French doors. “Get out.”
He shook his head. “I’ll go, but not yet. First I want to tell you what I found out, because there’s still something I don’t understand.”
“And you think I care?” Her hands clenched and unclenched at her side. “God, Nick. You got the drilling stopped. You even had me for a while. Why wasn’t that enough for you?”
With Nick, her emotions had always run high, but she’d never expected anger. Now, though, she was practically choking with it. The thing she feared the most was to have her feelings for him laid bare. That would leave her absolutely defenseless. And she had this awful feeling that that was exactly what was about to happen.
He moved his hand in a pacifying gesture, and once again she thought she caught a glimpse of something different about him. Her curiosity was just enough to stop her from going over and bodily pushing him out the door.
“I found out that when you ordered the drilling stopped, you made a far greater sacrifice than I ever could have imagined. In fact, I’m staggered by it.”
He’d found out about the clause in the will. After that, it wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to figure out why she’d given the order. She waited for what he would say next, dreading the sound of pity that would fill his voice.
But instead of saying anything, he slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans, then brought them out again, glanced toward the terrace for several moments, then at her, a frown on his face.
That was when she realized what was different about him. He was uncertain about something. She’d never seen him hesitate about anything. He’d always been completely assured, even when he’d maneuvered her into the position of having to spend the night at his grandparents’ house.
He glanced at his feet, then looked at her. “Why, Tess? Why would you make such a huge sacrifice for me?” He gestured, and this time she thought she saw his hand tremble. He stared at her, his brow furrowed. “As I understand it, because of your decision, it’s now almost one hundred percent certain that you’ll lose your part of your family’s company. You needed that time you gave me. God, Tess, why didn’t you tell me? If I’d known…”
Her knees suddenly weak, she sank onto her bed. If he had figured out that she loved him, her decision would make sense to him. Yet he was still saying he didn’t understand, which meant she still had a shot at keeping her feelings to herself. “Believe it or not, Nick, I have a heart.” She made her tone very matter-of-fact. “The day I made the decision, we came close to having a blowout on the rig. I decided I didn’t want anyone’s death on my conscience. Not your men, or you, or my crew. So I stopped all operations so that a complete maintenance check could be conducted.” It wasn’t a complete lie, and he just might buy it.
His shoulders slumped, once again something she wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been watching him so carefully. Then, slowly, he walked around the bed and went down on bent knee in front of her.
He gazed up at he
r. “When you just left without saying goodbye, I felt like I’d been hit with a battering ram. I went a little crazy. Ron, as usual, was no help. I even called your sisters, trying to find out where you were, but they gave me the impression they couldn’t have cared less.” He reached for her hand and looked at it. “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know where you were, because if I’d known, I would have gone after you instead of staying here and taking care of business.”
He laced his fingers through hers. By doing that, it would make it harder for her to pull her hand from his, though she couldn’t be sure if that was why he’d done it. She couldn’t read him, not at all.
“Finally I calmed down,” he said, his gaze searching her face, “and I realized I had no other alternative but to wait two months until you returned. That was when I started thinking. During the day I’d been focusing on the Águila, and at night I’d been coming here and focusing on you.”
She could feel herself holding her breath. She had no idea what he was leading up to, but she could hear an uncertainty in his voice that matched the way he was acting.
“But when you disappeared, I had no choice but to stop and think about it. That’s when I realized how vitally important you had become to me. And I figured out something I should have known from the beginning. I figured out I love you, Tess.”
She was stunned. It was the last thing she’d expected to hear him say. Her fears had been unfounded. He was the one who was setting aside his pride and laying bare his heart, and she knew exactly how hard it was for him, because she knew exactly how hard it would be for her.
He hadn’t guessed she loved him, she realized. How could he? From his point of view, she’d walked away from him without a backward glance. She hadn’t even given him the courtesy of a phone call. She’d told Ron not to give him her itinerary. Now she understood his uncertainty.
He was opening himself up, telling her that he loved her without any reassurance that his love would be returned. It obviously hadn’t occurred to him that the only reason she could have made such a decision was because she loved him.
In effect, she’d given up her part of the company for him, but he’d given up his pride for her. To her way of thinking, it was an even trade.
“Tess?”
Tears of pure bliss appeared unbidden in her eyes. She smiled unsteadily and squeezed his hand. “I can’t begin to tell you how happy you’ve just made me, Nick. In fact, I’m overjoyed.” She blinked away the tears. “I love you more than I can ever tell you.”
“You…” He slowly shook his head, and a trace of wonderment entered his expression. “You’re not just saying that, are you? Because if you are—”
“I wouldn’t say something like that if it weren’t true.” She pulled her hand from his and tenderly framed his face. “Nick, I stopped the drilling because I couldn’t bear the idea that I was putting you in even more danger than you already were. And I left because I badly needed some breathing space from you. I needed to find some objectivity, because I was afraid that if I stayed, I would eventually be so crushed when you left that I would never recover.”
His expression solemn, he closed his fingers over her wrists and pulled her hands down to hold them. “God, Tess. I love you. I will never leave you. Ever. Please believe that.”
She nodded, her eyes tearing once again with happiness. “I do.”
He laughed, and to her surprise his eyes glistened with tears that matched her own. “You love me. I can hardly believe it. But…” He shook his head, and the tears disappeared. “Tess, the sacrifice you made. I don’t completely understand all the whys and wherefores, but the part I do understand is that you’ve probably lost your portion of Baron International.”
“It could very well turn out that way, though if I wanted, I could keep the job. But I’m not going to give up yet. While I’ve been away, I’ve had some time to think about that, too, and I may have a plan. I don’t know if it will work or not, but—”
“What is it? I’ll help you. I’ll do anything you want.”
She laughed lightly. “Then make love to me, right here, right now.”
“But your plan—I want to help.”
“I’ll tell you about it later. Right now I need you more than I can say.”
With a groan, he stood, and with one sweep of his arm, he cleared the bed. The suitcase fell off the end and the remaining clothes in it scattered, but neither of them noticed. She reached for him and pulled him onto the bed with her.
She kicked off her shoes, thinking that at last she knew what true happiness was. She felt exhilarated, and, at the same time, she felt completely at peace.
He shifted so they lay side by side. “I hope you realize that now that I know you love me, I’m never going to let you get away from me.” His voice was husky, and his touch was tender as he traced the lines of her face and jaw. “I want to marry you and have babies with you and live the rest of my life with you. I want to grow old with you.”
“We’ll be a family,” she said with soft elation. One day she would tell him how important that was to her, but not now. She slipped her hands under his T-shirt to feel the familiar warmth and smoothness of his back, and joy bubbled up in her and filled her voice. “And we’ll spend part of every summer at your grandparents’ farmhouse so that our children can run free and discover their own treasure. And we’ll start our own wall of pictures, and we’ll continue the tradition of growing your great-grandmother’s irises, lots and lots of them that we’ll pass on to our children for their homes.”
His amber eyes shone bright as the sun. “By the way, even though you haven’t said it, you will marry me.”
She laughed, because it had been a statement, not a question. His uncertainty was gone and his self-assurance had returned. “Yes, Nick,” she whispered, as she drew his head down to kiss him, “I will marry you.”
Epilogue
Seven months later
In her uncle’s office on the Double B Ranch, Tess stood and handed one of the Baron International lawyers a check. “There it is—every penny required by my father’s will, and four days early, I might add.”
Uncle William smiled broadly from behind his desk. “Congratulations, Tess. I knew you’d do it.”
She laughed. “Then you knew more than I did.” She glanced at Nick, who was sitting to the left of her in one of the big easy chairs positioned in front of her uncle’s desk. The pride beaming from his amber eyes and the rocksolid certainty that he loved her gave her a sense of security she’d never known before.
The rest of the family was there, as well. Des’s chair was to her right. Jill sat on the other side of him. Kit was restlessly roaming the area behind the desk.
To her gratification, Des stood and reached over to give her a light, brief hug. “Let me add my congratulations to Dad’s.”
“Thank you.”
Jill glanced pointedly at Nick. “I’m glad for you, Tess. It’s just too bad you were put into a position where you had to sign away your rights to millions of dollars.”
“Quit glaring at Nick,” Tess said mildly. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s Father’s for making up that stupid clause in the first place. Besides, in the end I got exactly what was most important to me—my portion of the company and Nick.”
Kit stopped her pacing, cocked a hip and frowned at Nick, then at Tess. “Still, you did give up an awful lot. And you were just plain lucky that Becca’s husband works for one of the biggest oil companies in the world and was ready and willing to make you a deal. You could easily have lost it all.”
“It was more than luck,” Des said in quiet rebuke. “She chose Mel’s company because he’s a friend of hers, but any of the other big oil companies would have jumped at the chance.”
Kit glared at Des, so Tess tried to divert her. “Turned out Mel and his company believed in me and my abilities more than my own father ever did. They’re making the leap of faith that the well will pump enough oil over the years to make the mon
ey they paid me worthwhile.”
Des rested his hand on Tess’s shoulder. “You made an excellent deal, too. They not only paid you up front what you needed to satisfy the will, but they’re also going to pay you a percentage of future royalties after they make back the advance.”
“I suppose it’s as good a deal as she could expect to make,” Jill said, glaring at Des and at his hand on Tess’s shoulder. “But she had to sign over the rights of something that had come about because of her own instincts and hard work.”
Tess smiled at her sister. “Uh, was that by any chance a compliment?”
Jill’s brow creased. “You know it’s true, Tess. You’re just like Kit and me. We never let go of anything that we’ve developed. Father taught us that. We keep what’s ours, develop it as we see fit, then sit back and collect the money for the rest of the project’s life. But because of your lost time, you had to give up the well, and in the end, you won’t make nearly the money you would have if you’d been able to keep it.”
“She’s right,” Kit said. “Have you calculated the money you’re going to be losing?”
“Yes. But I’ve also calculated what I’ll be gaining. I now have what should have been mine in the first place. Plus, I have something else that’s far more valuable to me.”
She reached for Nick’s hand, and he stood. “We’d like to invite all of you to our wedding in two weeks. It’s going to be a small ceremony, just for family, held in the little Uvalde church where Nick’s grandparents, parents and his sister were married. Afterward we’re going to throw a big party for all our friends, plus a great many people from the town.”
“The party will be on the grounds of my grandparents’ farm,” Nick said, speaking for the first time. “We’ve arranged for it to be held beneath a giant tent, so we won’t have to worry about the weather.”
“And we’re going to have a fantastic band,” Tess said, continuing where Nick had left off. “There’ll also be lots of fabulous food and drinks.”
The Barons of Texas: Tess Page 16