He held the truck door open for Sonya and waited for her to climb in. She sat and placed her hand on his chest as he stared back at the house. “I’m sorry, Austin. It can’t be easy to fight your father and love and hate him at the same time.”
“He made his choice, which made the choice for me. I hoped he’d take the deal and let it go, but I knew better.”
“He’s going to do something, you know that, right?”
Austin met her gaze. “Let him try. It’s in the hands of my lawyer and a judge. It may get messy, but in the end he can’t change what will happen. It’ll all come to me. And if he’s not careful, he’ll end up in jail.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Kelly took Austin’s words to heart. She hated to admit she’d made a huge mistake. She’d been so obsessed with having a child and a family of her own, she’d mistaken Walter’s attention as love instead of manipulation. But she saw his motives so clearly now.
He didn’t care about her. He’d used her.
He just wanted to win.
And make sure Austin suffered.
Well, he’d made her suffer, too.
Austin had fallen in love with Sonya, who obviously loved him back. Just looking at them together, holding hands, exchanging knowing looks that spoke volumes about their connection and trust in each other, proved that he’d found something they’d never shared.
And Kelly didn’t have anything like that with Walter.
He didn’t look at her like he adored her. He just wanted to knock her up to prove he could and use the child as a means to get one over on Austin. He hoped that being with her would infuriate Austin and make him jealous. It hadn’t. Austin saw through his father’s plan and pitied her for falling for it.
“I’m so stupid.”
“Smartest thing you ever did was leave him.”
No, the smartest thing she could do right now was take Austin’s advice and get out now before her child was born and twisted and used by the man sitting across from her. A man who’d strategically reeled her in with flowers, pretty words he didn’t really mean, extravagant gifts, and promises to make her dreams come true.
Careful what you wish for.
She got the man who had wealth and prestige, a man who could take care of her, but didn’t really want to. He didn’t want a loving partner and a family to make beautiful, cherished memories with. No, he wanted a woman in his bed and an ornament in his home and on his arm. The only thing he wanted to make was more money. Whatever the cost to his heart and soul. If he even had those things.
Turning his back on Austin the way he did should have clued her in to just how ruthless and heartless he’d become.
But she’d wanted what she wanted. And now she had it: a child on the way and a responsibility to do her best every day to give him or her the best life possible. And that meant making hard decisions when the choices in front of her were all bad.
Walter would never let her walk away. He’d turn it into a fight. Like he did everything else.
Well, she was leaving. But not before she righted a few wrongs.
In her mind, she owed Austin. She should have never walked out on him the way she had. She should have believed in him. She’d taken Walter’s side and told Austin to sell. She’d made it an ultimatum because she wanted a home and a family. What she’d really wanted was to be loved the way Austin loved Sonya.
She’d almost had that but let it go.
At this point, she didn’t see anything in Walter’s eyes or the way he treated her that pointed to any kind of deep affection.
“What are you going to do?”
“Hold on to what’s mine.” Walter picked up his cell from the desk and hit the speed dial. He waited for whomever he’d called to answer. “Come up to the house. I’ve got a job for you.” He ended the call and dialed again. “Once I get my lawyer involved, Austin won’t stand a chance.”
Kelly didn’t need to ask who he’d called first. Walter didn’t do his own dirty work. He liked to order people to do his bidding.
It didn’t start out that way, but now he treated her like the hired help, too.
Well, Kelly wasn’t going to be one of the things Walter held on to anymore.
She stood and walked toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll leave you to your business. I’m tired. I think I’ll go lie down upstairs.”
“How long were you going to wait to tell me about the baby?”
She didn’t really have an answer. She’d needed time to think about her options. “I was waiting for the right time to make it special.”
Walter waved that away. “It’s not much of a surprise. We were expecting it. I’ll take care of this business with Austin, then we’ll get married in the next week or two. A quick ceremony at the courthouse and it’ll be done.”
Right. Check it off the list like picking up the dry cleaning and feeding the horses. Not that Walter did either of those things. He had people to take care of the house and horses and cattle. Because Walter only cared for himself. He didn’t care enough about anyone else to try to help or please them.
She’d talked to him about the wedding she’d dreamed of having on the property under one of the massive trees, an arbor bursting with flowers. Friends and family surrounding them to wish them well on their new life together. A lovely candlelit dinner under the stars and a beautifully decadent three-tier chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and raspberry filling with white chocolate frosting and a tiny-bride-and-groom-kissing topper.
Walter didn’t want to give her the wedding of her dreams. He didn’t want to do anything for her he didn’t absolutely have to, to get what he wanted.
He thought her so malleable and easily manipulated. She’d fallen into his trap, but that didn’t mean she had to stay stuck.
She may have lost her way in her quest to get what she wanted, but she hadn’t lost sight of what really mattered. Being kind to others. Being the kind of friend others had been to her.
Austin may have had some harsh words for her, but he’d said them to get her to wake up to what was really going on. She’d turned her back on him then. Not now.
Walter grunted out a greeting to his lawyer, then started laying out his plan to crush Austin. She’d already been dismissed as far as he was concerned. Well, she knew her next move and Walter wouldn’t like it one damn bit, but he deserved it.
She walked out just as his man walked in, giving her a leering once-over. She dismissed him the way Walter did her and walked up the stairs to the master bedroom. She bypassed the bed and headed for the massive walk-in closet, thanking God that she’d left the empty right side as it was and not moved in before the wedding that would never happen. She went to the cabinet that looked like four drawers, but was really just a secret door. She pushed the button behind the top hanging rod and the cabinet door swung open, revealing a secret vault. Walter’s wife, Annie, had probably used it for her jewelry. Walter used it to hide all those things he didn’t want Austin to discover.
She punched in the four-digit code Walter didn’t bother to cover up the one time he allowed her in here with him while they were discussing all the medical options they had available to them to get pregnant. He’d been so distracted and agitated that it was taking so long to get pregnant, he simply went about stuffing folders into the safe and didn’t think twice about her standing behind him.
She hadn’t outright tried to get the combination, she just found it silly that he’d chosen such a simple one. So she started with two and went down the right side of the keypad and punched in three, six, and nine. The mechanism unlocked and she turned the handle and opened the door.
Annie’s tray of jewelry sat on the top shelf. Beneath that were several large raw sapphires atop folders and six stacks of cash. She pulled out the folders and closed the door on the other items. Nothing was more valuable than the contents of the folders anyway.
She stuffed the papers into her overnight bag along
with the few clothing items she had left on the dressing table and walked out of the bedroom.
At the bottom of the stairs, she momentarily stared at the closed office door, then retrieved her purse from the hall table, and walked out the door knowing whatever happened to Walter, he deserved it.
She was never coming back.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Austin sat on the couch, his gaze on the fireplace in front of him but his mind a million miles away. Sonya fell into his lap and tried not to spill the double whiskeys in her hands. She gave him one and clinked her glass to his. “To us.”
They both took a sip of the smooth twenty-year-old scotch they’d picked up on the way home. On her. This time. Because soon Austin would never have to worry about money again. She was so proud of him for standing up to his father, and for himself, even though it was hard.
Walter was his father after all.
They deserved to celebrate their engagement.
Austin smiled up at her. “You said yes.”
She slipped her hand behind his neck and combed her fingers into his hair. “And I meant it. I hope you’re sure, because I’m a yes-for-forever kind of woman.”
“Exactly. That’s why it was so easy to make the decision to ask, because you’re the kind of woman I want. One who loves with her whole heart. One who sees the flaws and the potential. The kind of woman who works hard for what she wants, and even harder for the people she cares about. You don’t back down. You don’t give up. You stick.”
She brushed her fingers through his hair and against his scalp, soothing him. “I know it feels like everyone in your life let you down. I can’t promise we won’t have our ups and downs, but as long as you want me to be your wife, I’ll never leave you, Austin.”
He clinked his glass to hers, took a sip of his drink, then set his glass on the table next to the sofa, wrapped his arm around her waist, and flipped her onto her back on the couch beside him. She nearly spilled her drink all over the floor and laughed at his audacious move.
He slid his hand down the center of her chest, over her belly, and right to the button on her jeans. “You might want to drink that before it spills all over you.” He undid her jeans and tugged them down her thighs and right off her legs, taking her shoes and socks with them. He stared down at her burgundy lace panties.
His heated gaze acted like a laser, heating her core and making her hot and wet. “I want your hands on me.”
He gave her exactly what she wanted and planted his hand over that swatch of lace and rubbed his thumb up and down her soft folds. She rocked her hips, needing more and wanting it rough to feed that urgent desire building inside her.
He leaned forward and kissed her belly. She melted, then came alive when his thumb swept inside her panties and slid into her wet core. She pressed into his hand, needing more, but he pulled away, stared up at her, and sucked the evidence of her desire for him right off his thumb.
“You taste so damn good.”
Before her mind processed that sexy-as-hell move and his lust-filled words, he pulled her panties down her legs, propped her thighs over his wide shoulders, and licked her center in one long slow sweep. Her core tightened and she nearly leaped right over the edge, but Austin kept her hovering there as he made love to her, his lips pressing soft kisses, his tongue diving in, then circling her clit. Again and again, until she writhed against his mouth. He slipped in one finger and stroked inside and out, his tongue flicking and circling her clit until she climbed that peak and soared right off it, coming with intense spasms against his mouth.
He kissed a trail down her thigh and back up as she slowly came back to herself.
While he did that, he somehow managed to pull out his wallet, find the condom, undo his jeans, and shove them down to slide the condom on, then lever himself over her.
“God, you’re beautiful.” He leaned down and kissed her, sliding his tongue in for her to taste the passion he spilled out of her and the whiskey they’d shared.
He broke the kiss and met her gaze. “I meant to do this way better, but I want you so damn bad.” He thrust into her hard and deep.
She grabbed his ass and pulled him closer.
His eyes rolled back and closed on a groan.
“Love me, Austin.”
He pulled out nearly all the way, then thrust back in hard and deep again. “I do. So much.” His hips pumped in long deep strokes, the tempo building.
She loved it. She wanted him deeper, closer, and wrapped her legs around his waist. He thrust deep and rocked his hips, creating that sweet friction she craved. Her core clamped onto his thick cock. Austin lost all finesse and control and pumped in and out of her, their hips slamming together in an urgent need for the release that came over both of them, bucking Austin’s big body and tightening hers as waves of pleasure exploded through both of them.
Wrung out, her body went lax and Austin fell on top of her, his face in her hair, his breath sawing in and out at her ear.
Scrunched on the sofa, she tried to straighten her leg and found it pinned against the sofa back and hooked over Austin’s arm. It made her laugh.
“What’s so funny? I thought that was pretty damn fantastic.”
She rubbed her hand under Austin’s shirt and up his back. “You twisted me up like a pretzel.”
He moved his arm and slid his hand down her thigh as she stretched out her leg. “Sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt better. Ever. Like you’ve set a new bar and I’m not sure how you’re going to beat it.”
His soft chuckle made her heart flutter. She loved that after all that happened today, he’d found a way to show her how much he loved and wanted her and could still laugh with her.
“You can bet I’m going to try. Every time I see you, even think about you, I want you. I thought it was bad those first few days you worked here with me, but it just keeps getting worse. So you’re going to have to suffer through it.”
She wrapped him in her arms and hooked her legs around him and held him close in a whole-body hug. “I can take it, if I get to feel like this every time I’m with you.”
Austin leaned up on his forearms and stared down at her. His thumb brushed against her temple where the bruises had faded but not disappeared yet. “How’d I get this lucky?” He leaned down and kissed her softly. Sweetly. A kiss so filled with love, she wanted it to go on forever.
They lay like that, tangled around each other for a few minutes. But Austin’s back got the better of him. He kissed her on the forehead, disentangled himself from her, stood up, and dragged his jeans up over his hips, but left the fly wide-open. “I’m going to get cleaned up.” He headed to their room.
Sonya wallowed in the afterglow of really great sex.
Austin’s ringing phone disturbed the peaceful quiet. Sonya snagged his phone off the coffee table. She checked the caller ID and answered even though it wasn’t for her.
“Hello.”
“Oh, uh, hi. It’s Kelly. I called Austin, but I really need your help.”
Sonya played along. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m at the Blue Mining offices. I left Walter at home, talking with that man he sent after you. They’re planning something. Before they go after Austin, I’m going to get the proof he needs to get what’s his. I stole some files out of the safe at the house. Can you meet me here? I’ll give you the documents and anything else I find. Some of the stuff is obvious, but you’re an accountant, and I work for the heat treatment side of the business. You know what Austin needs. I don’t want to miss anything.”
Sonya rolled off the couch and grabbed her panties and started dressing.
“I’m on my way. Can you get into the computer system?”
“I’m in. I’ve pulled the inventory records. My guess is that the first thing he’ll do is start moving the money out of the accounts as soon as the bank opens. What financial records do you need to prove Walter stole everything from Austin?”
She opened the shower door and stared at her man. Sexy perfection. Ripped abs, sculpted chest and shoulders. And she wanted to bite that strong bicep that flexed as he massaged the soap into his hair. He tipped his head back and rinsed the suds away. She watched them slide down his chest and over his body. She’d like to follow that trail with her hands.
He opened his eyes and jolted when he saw her standing there watching him. But the wide smile he gave her was an invitation to join him. God, she wanted to, but she needed to help him finish this business with his father more.
“Ready for round two?”
He’d already gotten her off twice on the sofa. “I’m one up on you already. This would be round three for me.”
“Then you need to catch me up, sweetheart.”
“I’d love to, but”—she hid his phone behind her thigh—“the computer system at Wild Rose went down. They can’t take any payments and I need to go over to Roxy’s to see if I can fix the problem.”
“Now? It’s late.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ll be as quick as I can.”
He came to her and kissed her softly. “Hurry back. I’m not done celebrating our engagement.”
She traced her fingers along his strong jaw to his chin and let her hand drop. “I’ll take care of this, and then we’ll have nothing to worry about and we can focus on us.”
He kissed her again, then slipped back under the spray.
She closed the shower door and headed for the front door and her truck. “Kelly, you still there?”
Restless Rancher Page 23