by Tina Leonard
“Aunt Fiona says you should stay, but the situation isn’t stable.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
He leaned against the wall. “I’m not explaining. I’m just telling you what’s the safest thing for the children. And you.”
Silence stretched between them for a long moment. Sawyer looked away, knowing that the days of their stolen meetings were gone forever now.
She missed that so much, missed the wild side of him, and her, and holding him in her arms.
“Jace, I want you to know that I always, always took the very best care of the Callahan children. I guarded them, and would protect them still, with my life. I adored those kids, and would have never allowed anything to happen to them.”
He studied her, and she thought she saw anger and betrayal flash in his eyes. “We’ll see,” Jace said. “We’ll see.”
Then he left.
* * *
ASH KNOCKED NOT thirty minutes later, whispering “Sawyer!” through the door.
“Come in, Ash.” Sawyer sat up and turned the bedside lamp on again as Jace’s sister slipped inside and made herself at home on the foot of the bed.
“You’re not asleep,” Ash observed.
“No, I’m not.” She hadn’t been able to sleep after Jace came to her room. Her thoughts churned restlessly. “Neither are you.”
“I don’t sleep much.”
Ash looked perky, too pleased to be awake at nearly midnight, Sawyer thought crossly.
“Let’s sneak downstairs and get a midnight snack,” Ash suggested.
“Sure, why not?” Lying in this bed wasn’t going to do her any good, anyway. “I assume you have something on your mind, and I might as well hear it with a brownie and some milk.”
“It’s sheet cake today,” Ash said. She got off the bed and bounded over to the nightstand as Sawyer dressed in maternity jeans and clogs and an oversize thermal T-shirt. “What’s this?” She held up the white box Jace had given her.
“I didn’t open it.” And she wasn’t going to.
“Is it from Jace?” Ash looked at her. “Yes, I know I’m snooping, but most people can’t leave a box unopened without peeking. At least I can’t.”
Sawyer smiled, her crankiness chased off a little by Ash’s enthusiasm. “I usually can’t, either. And yes, it’s from your brother.”
“Your husband,” Ash said. “A wife should immediately open something from her husband.”
Sawyer blinked. “I don’t want gifts from Jace.”
“Oh, pooh. Knowing my brother, it’s likely those trick snakes that come flying out. Or something else equally unromantic.” She sighed dramatically. “I don’t know where we went wrong with him.”
Sawyer looked at the box, which Ash was gently shaking next to her ear. “If you’re curious, you’re welcome to open it.”
“I’m curious as a cat! But I never open anything that doesn’t have my name on it. It’s bad juju.”
Sawyer laughed. “You’d open anything, most especially if it didn’t have your name on it.”
“Okay, that may be true. But not this box. It sounds like jewelry.”
“How does jewelry sound?” Sawyer was a little shaken. She didn’t want jewelry from Jace. She wanted him. She wanted his babies.
Most of all, she wanted his trust—and love.
“It sounds romantic,” Ash said, teasing.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. It’s not jewelry. When did Jace have time to shop for that? You two were on the road all day, just like I was.”
“Yeah, and I got my ear gnawed off by my brother for giving you my keys.” Ash looked unfazed and maybe a bit cheerful about her part in Sawyer’s escape. “He was grumpier than a hungry baby all the way home.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Not at all,” she said. “Come on, let’s go hit Fiona’s treasure trove of goodies. My sweet tooth is in withdrawal.”
Sawyer looked at the box Ash had put back on the nightstand and seemingly forgotten. She glanced at Jace’s sister, who was laughing at her.
“You might as well open it,” Ash said. “Now that I’ve made you think about it, it’s going to stay on your mind.”
Sawyer tried to act as if she wasn’t dying of curiosity as she picked up the box and tore off the white wrapping paper. She made short work of opening the lid, and pulled out a white jeweler’s case.
“It might be jewelry,” she admitted, and Ash laughed.
“It might be.”
Sawyer gave her sister-in-law a curious look. “Do you know what it is?”
“I promise you I do not. He didn’t stop at a store while we were on the road.”
Sawyer opened the case, then gasped at the engagement ring inside. A large emerald-shaped diamond stared up at her, set in a white-gold setting, or maybe platinum. Tiny baguettes glittered on each side, catching the light like perfectly shaped pieces of ice. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Wow,” Ash said, coming to inspect it. “I didn’t know Jace had it in him.”
Sawyer felt her hands shaking. All she could do was stare at the stunning ring.
“Well, try it on!” Ash prompted.
“I— Oh, all right.” She was dying to. Slipping it on her finger, she was amazed that it fit, and amazed how much she didn’t want to take it off.
“Dang,” Ash said, “my brother’s a romantic, after all.”
Sawyer removed the ring and put it back in the box, which she set on her nightstand.
“What are you doing?” Ash demanded.
“I’m going to go get some of Fiona’s sheet cake and milk. What you are doing?”
“What about the ring?”
“It stays in the box,” Sawyer said, opening her door, “until I talk to your brother and find out exactly what this marriage is all about.”
“Noble of you, but I’m too hungry to admire your nobleness. I spent many hours on the road getting my ear chewed off. Let’s go do girl talk over sheet cake. We have things to discuss, if you can tear your mind off my brother for thirty minutes,” Ash teased.
Sawyer’s breath was still stolen by the lovely gift from Jace. She followed Ash into the hall, but couldn’t help glancing toward Jace’s closed door. Her cowboy had another think coming if he thought he could romance her with diamonds. He could—and it would be hard to hold out against that—but she was after the ultimate prize.
His heart.
* * *
JACE SAT UP when he heard his bedroom door creak open. He glanced at the military watch on his arm. Two in the morning. “Who is it?”
“Sawyer.”
He felt the side of his bed sink a bit as his wife sat down next to him. He wished he could see her, but was afraid if he turned on the light, she wouldn’t say whatever it was she’d come to say. “What’s on your mind?”
“So much is on my mind.”
He heard the hesitation in her voice. “It’s understandable. A lot has happened fast.”
“Yes.”
He wanted everything to happen faster; he wanted her faster than it seemed he could ever get her.
So he did the only thing he could do—he scooped his wife into the bed with him. Too surprised to move, Sawyer lay still, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her.
“Ahh.” Jace sighed with heartfelt satisfaction. “So this is what it feels like to hold you in a real bed.”
Chapter Eight
Sawyer was so stunned when Jace pulled her against him that it never occurred to her to move away from her husband or get out of the bed. It felt amazing to be back in Jace’s arms again, and she wanted to lie with him like this forever. She was afraid if she left now, she would never get the courage to come back. It had taken every ounce of courage she had to
slip into his room, with the full intention of telling him she couldn’t accept his beautiful ring.
But that thought flew from her mind the moment Jace reached for her.
She wanted him to kiss her, make love to her.
“Babe?”
“Yes?”
“Are you okay with this?”
Sawyer closed her eyes in the darkness. “I am if you are.” The guilt she’d been holding inside weighed on her, but being with him like this made her believe that maybe they could move past everything.
He rolled her toward him, gently pressed a kiss against her lips. She froze, waiting to see what he’d do next, then thought I’m not waiting any longer and kissed him back. Their kisses turned urgent and Sawyer felt consumed by Jace in the best kind of way. He ran a hand along her back, cupper her bottom and groaned, the way she’d heard him groan many times before.
It thrilled her, and she didn’t want him to stop.
“You feel amazing,” he said. “I’ve missed holding you.” He put a hand on her stomach, tracing the fullness there. “I don’t want to do anything to hurt you.”
Sawyer kissed him. “You’re not going to hurt me.”
He pulled off her top, tossed her pants to the floor. Just like the old days—almost—he was quick to get rid of her clothes, and she dispensed with his, her hands racing to hold him.
“Wait,” Jace said. “I’ve finally got you in a bed. I’m not rushing this.” He pushed her back on the pillows, kissed his way to her breasts, teased her nipples before pressing kisses against her tummy. “I’ve waited so long for you,” he said, parting her legs, “to be in a bed, where I can take my time, without wondering if someone’s going to see us in the great outdoors.”
She squeezed her eyes closed, her heart beating crazily as he stroked the inside of her thighs. He kissed her most private place, his tongue searching, and Sawyer cried out as she went over the edge into pleasure, unimaginable pleasure.
“Come here,” Jace said, pulling her on top of him so that she could straddle him. “You set the pace.”
She sank onto him, her body accepting him easily—gladly.
“Oh, God,” Jace said with a groan, “I’ve missed you. I’ve missed this.”
He held her close, and she sensed him trying hard not to grind his hips against her the way he wanted to.
“You’re not going to hurt me,” Sawyer told him.
“I’m not going to find out. We have years to get wild. Tonight, gentle is the key.”
He tensed when she ground down upon him, anyway. She took pleasure in tormenting him just a bit, easing up and moving slowly while holding his eyes with hers.
“You tease,” he said.
“Yes, I do.”
He kissed her, holding her close. Suddenly Sawyer felt pleasure sweeping her, rising inside, eager to push her into love’s mystery. She tightened up on Jace, kissing him harder, taking him with her as she began to move faster.
When the pleasure hit them, it was as if a tidal wave that had been cresting forever finally broke, leaving them helpless in each other’s arms.
“Don’t leave again,” Jace said, ten minutes later, when she lay in his embrace, stroking his hair. “Whatever we have to do, we can work it out.”
Sawyer swallowed hard as she sprawled on his chest. There was nothing she wanted more—and yet he knew as well as she did that sleeping with her had brought trouble right to his door.
She wasn’t sure how to change that, either.
* * *
“TELL ME WHAT happened to your hands,” Sawyer said in the night, when Jace turned her over to make love to her again.
He hesitated in the darkness, ran a rough palm gently over her breasts. “I removed someone from the premises before I came upstairs. It was no big deal.”
She froze. “You got in a fight?”
“It wasn’t just me. Dante, Tighe and I found someone on the grounds who didn’t want to leave as quickly as we wanted them to.”
Chills ran over her. “Did they hurt you?”
“Do I seem like I’m hurting?” He pushed her legs apart with his knee and kissed her. “It was no big deal.”
Her breath caught when he entered her.
“Tell me if—”
“You’re fine. Quit worrying.” Sawyer gasped. She gave herself up to her husband, knowing he wasn’t telling her everything, was holding something back.
Yet she’d kept things from him, too.
Maybe it didn’t matter. She clutched his shoulders, wrapped her legs around him as he steadily, gently stroked inside her, filling her with everything she’d been missing for too long. Sawyer closed her eyes, felt passion igniting between them, and started falling into the pleasure waiting for her.
The truth was, she’d do anything to keep Jace. She’d “bought” him at auction, and she’d married him despite knowing she had a secret she should have admitted up front.
Maybe she was a terrible person—but she had her cowboy.
She surrendered, drowning in the sexy pleasure, loving the feel of Jace finding his own release inside her.
I never really thought I’d have him. I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep him, she thought as he cradled her in his strong arms. Was it wrong to want him so much?
She lay against his neck, feeling his heartbeat and his slow relaxation into sleep.
I’ll ask him tomorrow, she thought. I’ll ask him who they tossed off Rancho Diablo. No more holding back between us.
Sawyer fell asleep with Jace’s hand on her stomach, warming her, holding his children.
Holding her heart.
* * *
JACE RODE HARD toward the canyons, away from Rancho Diablo and the temptress who was still asleep in his bed. He’d wanted desperately to crawl back in and make love to her again, but at 4:00 a.m. and with chores to be done, sanity had returned.
He had a tiny problem. His wife had spied on his family, and he was going to have to explain the situation to them, in words his ham-headed brothers could understand.
“What are you going to do?” Ash asked as they pulled up near the canyons.
“What can I do? She’s my wife. She’s having our children.” And I’m in love with her.
I certainly didn’t make my downfall too hard on her.
“You have to forgive her for the sake of the babies,” Ash said practically.
“I have forgiven her, damn it.” Jace put binoculars up to his eyes, checking the activity on Galen’s newly acquired land. It looked as if the Feds and reporters and various authorities were determined to turn the land inside out. In the end, it wouldn’t come to anything. By now, Wolf had moved anything of strategic value out of the tunnels, relocating his operations the devil only knew where. “I’m just watching my back so a knife doesn’t land in it.”
He felt Ash’s glance on him before she looked through her own binoculars. “I guess I can’t blame you for feeling that way.”
“I wouldn’t care if you did blame me. It’s the way I feel. I stepped in the trap, and I’ll decide how it affects me. I know that Sawyer probably gave up some strategic information without meaning to. She thought she was protecting her uncle. I’m okay with that.” Jace understood that family was all that mattered.
“You can’t be a jerk to your wife, though. It’ll be bad for her pregnancy, bad for the children. Bad for both of you.”
“Thanks, Madame Buttinski, but I think I’ve got it handled.”
“Jerk,” Ash said. “I like Sawyer. I want both of you to be happy.”
“I like Sawyer, too.” Too damn much. Making love to her in a real bed, taking his sweet time with her, had nearly annihilated any good sense he had. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this. Sawyer and Storm are playing on our team now.” Jace was ce
rtain of that.
“Of course they are,” his sister said impatiently, “now that you’re married. The ties that bind and all that. Before, she had little choice. But you’re her family, we’re her family, and I think she needs to tell the family that Rancho Diablo comes first in her heart now.”
“Confession?” He put the binoculars away. “Maybe. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” It occurred to him that Sawyer wouldn’t want to make a confession to the family. Least said, soonest mended. On the other hand, they really didn’t know everything she’d revealed, and maybe Ash was right. It might be best if they cleared the air. “Shall we ride over to Galen’s kingdom?”
“It bugs you that he bought the land, doesn’t it?” she asked curiously.
“It bugs me as much as it bugs you.”
“True,” Ash agreed, “but I’m not married with kids. You are. So you actually would have been up for the new ranch.”
He glanced at his sister. “I’m guessing you haven’t heard from Xav Phillips lately.”
Her face pinked a little, but it might have been the cold February breeze and the brisk ride here that had touched her cheeks with color.
“I haven’t heard from him, no. I don’t really think about Xav anymore,” she said airily.
That was bad. His sister had mooned after Xav Phillips for so long Jace had begun to think she might actually manage to catch the man. But lately, he’d noticed his sister mentioning him less and less, and frequenting the canyons—where Xav had often ridden lookout duty—almost never.
It was a complete reversal for his baby sister, and he felt sorry for her. He knew too well what it felt like to love someone and not have that person return your feelings in the slightest. Or to pretend to return your feelings, while all the time crushing your heart with lies.
“You’re the last Callahan,” Jace told his sister. “The last free spirit in our family tree.”
“I’ll always be that way.”
“Ash, I have no doubt that the right man will tie you down sooner rather than later. Not that I’m in a hurry to see my baby sister scooped up by a—”
“Jace, I don’t want to talk about it,” she interrupted, wheeling her horse around and kicking it into a full gallop back toward Rancho Diablo.