“What exactly did he do to you?” Nicki asked. “You never really told me.”
Candace narrowed her eyes. “When he implied that he’d chosen the W+W, it was only because he wanted to get me in to bed. I know that now because, that night, when I went back to him at the hotel, he dropped me like yesterday’s boxers. But he’s the one who got my brain in gear, so we should actually thank the jerk.”
Nicki wished she could find a way to make Shane not sting so much, too.
They dug into the sandwiches. Or, at least, Candace did, her appetite hearty, while Nicki slowly ate her food. All the while, though, Candace seemed restless, as if she had so many more ideas swirling around in her head.
Nicki knew she was right when Candace suddenly wiped her mouth with her napkin and stood. “I have no idea why I’m just sitting here when there’s an opportunity right in front of my face. I’m going to show him that he didn’t win.”
She went for the door.
“Candy…?”
“I’ll be back before dinner.”
When Candace sent Nicki a sweet, razor-edged smile, Nicki knew that Russell Alexander was in trouble.
She kept sitting at the kitchen table while Candace’s words played back to her.
I have no idea why I’m just sitting here when there’s an opportunity right in front of my face….
Hadn’t she been fighting back lately, too, until last night, when all her hopes had come crashing down around her?
She’d successfully made her way out from behind those ledgers and accounting columns that had held her at bay for so many years, so was she going to let one bad night put an end to her and Shane’s relationship?
But a snag of doubt held her back from running out of the kitchen and going to her truck, which could take her to Shane’s place. That “argument” last night had been about a lot more than merely a trifle. Besides her need to strike out, Shane hadn’t wanted intimacy. That was huge. And putting herself out there for him when she knew he would probably refuse her…
It would mean stepping entirely out of the fantasies they’d created, offering herself and nothing more to him.
Would that be enough?
Nicki glanced toward the counter, where she’d set one of her books the other day—the vampire story from which Shane had taken inspiration.
A happy ending waiting for her to either read it…
Or live it.
CANDACE HAD NEVER driven anywhere so fast in her life. She was lucky she didn’t get a speeding ticket.
But it must’ve been her lucky day.
She arrived in record time in downtown San Diego, where she knew the Lyon Group had offices in one of the skyscrapers that glimmered in the late-afternoon sun. She parked, then took an elevator up to the lobby and checked the reception area to see which offices were on what floor.
Then she took the stairs to the third level.
The young woman behind the reception desk there greeted Candace as she peered around at the glass offices.
In one of them, she found just the person she’d come here to see.
She headed toward him before the receptionist could stop her, then stood in the doorway until Russell Alexander swiveled around in his desk chair. He was dressed in a slick suit, just like the first time she’d seen him.
Aw, poor baby looked sad right now. He must’ve already gotten Shane’s phone call.
“Hello,” Candace said, trying hard not to gloat. Yet.
She would definitely be doing some of that after all the papers were signed, but right now, she just wanted Russell to get a good look at her. Wanted to plant the seed in him so he’d know who’d gotten Shane to make that call, know exactly who had undercut him and stolen the Slanted C right from under his nose.
She wanted him to know that he’d never realized just whom he’d been dealing with.
He put down that infernal phone of his; he’d been texting someone. Probably poor Margaret.
The receptionist came up behind Candace, who spoke over her shoulder to her.
“I’ll only be a moment.”
Russell nodded to the girl, then gave Candace a cool glance. “I’ve already heard,” he said. “Are you here to rub it in?”
“No, I actually just wanted to thank you,” she said.
She could see the exact moment that confusion struck his pea brain.
“For what?” he asked.
“For giving me the kind of inspiration I never would’ve had if you hadn’t kicked me to the curb.”
Short, sweet, memorable. She had no more to say, and she turned around, knowing that she’d hold dear to the sight of him looking so confused for as long as she lived.
“Candace?” he asked as she left him behind.
She took the stairs, not bothering to answer him, content with the notion that, with the lucky day she was having, he’d be on the bottom of the company totem pole by quitting time, and he’d remember damn well who’d put him there.
THAT EVENING, when Shane heard tires crunching over gravel outside the house, he put down the knife he was using to slice up some green beans for dinner.
Nicki?
She was at his back door, opening it and stepping inside before he could even invite her.
But from the way his heart was rolling through him, he wondered if he would’ve kept her out, anyway.
Flushed, she just stood there in her flannel cowgirl shirt and jeans and ponytailed hair, as if the very act of seeing him had punched her in the gut and made her forget what she was going to say.
Hell, she wasn’t the only one.
But the longer their tense silence stretched, the more aware he became that maybe she wasn’t here for a social call. It had to be about the business of the day.
How could he have thought any differently, especially after last night?
She swallowed. “It took me a few hours to come here.”
Why? Had she been collecting her courage?
He took the chance to put himself back together, too, then veered as far away as he could from why she might’ve needed courage to see him. “It seems we’re going to be partners.”
Nicki’s gaze lost some of its shine, but then she raised her chin. “So what do you think?”
He couldn’t stand another hour without her—that’s what he thought.
Instead, he said, “Since Leigh Brickell told me that she’d like to keep my staff on, and that my mom would get this house plus a parcel of land for her retirement, it sounds like a fine deal to me. Plus, it’s for a greater cause than I could’ve ever come up with.”
“I think so, too.”
Bruised. That was the color of her words, and he’d been the one to do that to her.
But then something happened to Nicki—a gradual strength that filled her eyes.
“We’ll be able to work together, right?”
Bam—she’d nailed him once again. But the thing was that she didn’t turn her back on him. She hadn’t done it last night, either, because he’d left first.
As usual.
She took a step toward him. “You’re not going to withdraw and get all stubborn on me—”
“Nicki, last night you said that Barry Carter shouldn’t define me, and he’s not going to do it today. I’m not anything like him.”
No anger in him, just…the truth.
And she heard it. He could tell by the sheen in her eyes, the way she looked at him as if she was really seeing him for the first time, as the man he was, not a youthful crush or a character in a scene.
As a guy who’d found his footing.
“We’re going to work together just fine,” he said.
“We are?”
She’d gotten some kind of extra meaning from his comment, and he realized that he meant it with every cell in his body.
Nicki should be here, with him, today…and tonight….
Maybe even longer than that?
He moved from the counter, toward Nicki, only a few long steps away from her, a
nd she pressed her lips together, as if she was attempting to hold in her emotions.
Then she spoke. “All I ever wanted was to…work…together with you, Shane.”
This was too good to be true, he thought. Even with what she’d just said, the injuries of the past kept reminding him that being vulnerable could lead to him retreating behind an emotional wall so he could stay intact.
Like in everything else, Nicki could clearly tell he was still struggling, and she kept a slight distance.
“I’m not sure what to do next with you—not without a costume,” Nicki began. She shook her head. “Maybe that’s not true, though, because last night, even when I was wearing that harem girl outfit, I wasn’t disguising what I felt. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever worn a costume with you.”
Was she waiting for him to admit the same? Well, he couldn’t. He’d enveloped himself in the power of those roles too deeply.
“Shane, whenever you let down your guard with me, those are the times I knew what I wanted from you. And whenever you dropped those shields, I saw you as a strong man, not a weak one.”
“That’s not what I learned over the years.” Shields were good.
At least, they had been before now.
Nicki sighed. “You know that you just can’t go through life trying to please someone who doesn’t even exist.”
Like all the unreal people she’d played?
Or was she talking about his father again?
“What matters,” she said, “is that I want to be with you, in spite of when or where or why it is. Don’t you get that?” She tilted her head at a heartbreaking slant. “Didn’t you ever get it?”
She was telling him things that he’d never heard from anyone in his life. He’d never allowed women the chance, and that had almost been the case with Nicki, too.
He hadn’t responded yet, and he wondered how long it would take before she turned around and wrote him off. But she was what mattered most to him.
What would come next, if he allowed that?
He deliberately walked the rest of the way to her, and her gaze widened. He fell into the light green of her eyes just before he closed his own and pressed his lips to hers.
At first, it was as if she couldn’t believe he was kissing her when he’d never done it willingly before. She’d attempted to steal one from him last night, but he’d given her little in response. But now, as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in, his lips said everything.
I’m yours.
Shane Carter is all yours, Nicki Wade.
He sipped at her, slowly, enjoying the softness of her mouth, the way she made a tiny sound of happiness beneath his own lips.
When he’d made his point, he kept hold of her, using one hand to stroke her cheek with his fingertips.
“I do get it,” he said.
She smiled, her eyes glassy. “I can see that now.”
He kissed her again, with more promise this time—vows of long nights ahead spent in each other’s arms and dreams of him being there way after the sun came up, every day.
Every night.
Epilogue
THE DAY THAT Nicki and Shane knocked down a part of the fence that separated the Square W+W from the Slanted C was crisp, with storm clouds riding on the horizon. Still, everyone had shown up for the festivities in spite of the weather.
As the couple pushed at the already loosened fencing, it gave way, crashing to the grass with a puff of dirt. On both sides of what used to be a divide, both sets of employees and families clapped and whooped while Candace hiked up her skirt, then stamped her fashionable red pump down on the wood and raised a fist in victory.
The cheers got even louder before most of the crowd headed for the food spread that the combined ranches had set out under a large tent—a precaution just in case the weather report had been all too correct and rain came down.
Shane, Nicki, Candace and Leigh Brickell remained behind.
Leigh popped open a bottle of Cristal, and as it frothed bubbles, Candace picked up flutes from the ground and held them under the streams of champagne, giving one to each of them.
They raised their glasses, and Leigh toasted first.
“To the group who made this groundbreaking possible. Long live the Circle C+W Ranch!”
“And,” Candace said, “here’s to everyone else who made this possible.”
She didn’t have to say the name when they all knew it.
Russell Alexander, who, according to business gossip, had left the Lyon Group and moved out of state. His bosses at the group had never really been on board with the whole dude resort idea, and they had decided to nix the entire project when the Slanted C had become unavailable.
Candace and Leigh went bottoms up with the champagne, but Shane and Nicki merely looked at each other. It didn’t take much to get lost in his gaze, Nicki thought, already drowning in the blue of his eyes.
They clinked glasses, then drank.
Candace was wearing one of her typically bright business suits that she’d purchased for her new job working with Leigh, developing land from other ranches around the county in anticipation of other philanthropic projects. She wandered with her new mentor toward the food. Already, the ranch kids were digging into the cotton candy from the dessert stand, and mothers were dragging them to the healthier stuff.
It wasn’t too long ago that Nicki would’ve felt less attractive next to her high-flying cousin, but these days…?
Not so much.
Even though she was in a simple wool skirt, sweater and her boots, Shane looked at her as if she had materialized from the most enticed parts of his brain.
She didn’t have to dress up to be his princess or whatever was going on in that mind of his today.
“Not that I don’t want to celebrate,” he said, “but I can’t get you alone fast enough.”
Not a week went by that they didn’t joke about what had brought them together—the games, the different roles, the great sex.
Of course, they still had a lot of that last part going on. The games, though, were occasional.
The sky rumbled, letting them know that the rain had held off for as long as it wanted to and they should be prepared.
“Enough of this,” he said, starting to toss out the rest of his champagne before Nicki stopped him, taking his glass.
“What’re you doing?” she asked.
“Getting ready for my mom to come in from the airport. She’ll be ticked that I started on the bubbly without her.”
How true that would be. Nicki had reacquainted herself with his mom when the woman had paid a visit. She had wanted to meet Shane’s girlfriend before she gave up her long vacation out of town altogether and moved back into her house on a ranch that would be ready for campers come summer. Nicki and she had gotten on like fast pals over a less expensive version of champagne one night.
The woman did like her bubbly, now that life had improved for her.
“There’ll be some champagne in the limo Leigh’s sending,” Nicki said, “so don’t sweat it. I just wish your mom could’ve been here for the fence-crashing.”
“We waited as long as possible, but the rain’s going to beat her.”
“Yeah, but…”
Shane had gotten serious, and Nicki went quiet. Something was definitely going on with him.
“What?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” He traced his fingers over her cheekbone, her neck, her sweater-clad shoulder, as if inspecting her. “There’s just…something missing from this noteworthy day.”
“Shane…”
He took one of the champagne glasses from her, then held her hand, running his thumb over her ring finger.
When he let go of her hand and reached into a pocket to fetch a golden band with diamond sparkle, then slid it onto her finger, her breath caught. Something caught in her throat, too, barring words. Burning.
“That’s what was missing,” he said softly.
She held up her hand,
held back tears, as well.
“Are you commanding me to marry you, Shane?” she asked, finally getting the words out. “Because you know what happens when you order me around.”
“You flip the tables. I know. But I’m asking you, Nicki.” He held her hand to his chest, where his heart beat so loudly that it became her own. “Will you be there every night with me? For the rest of our lives?”
She nodded, dropping the champagne glass, hugging him until she didn’t know where he ended and where she began.
She’d been waiting a long, long time for this—to be made absolutely complete by Shane Carter.
To take part in the ultimate role with the man she’d loved and would love forever.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1543-6
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Copyright © 2011 by Chris Marie Green
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