“So, how’re you going to fix it?”
“I’ll talk to her.”
“What are you going to say?”
“None of your business.” Royce didn’t have the first clue.
He’d been thinking about it for days, and had come to the conclusion that by bringing Amber to Montana, he’d turned a momentary hesitation into a life-altering event.
Whatever crazy fantasy Amber had spun around Royce wasn’t real. She barely knew him. And he barely knew her. If relationships built on years didn’t last, there was no hope at all for one that was built on a mere week.
“Make it my business.”
“No.”
Jared went silent on the other end of the line for a few beats. “You ever think…”
Royce drummed his fingers on the desktop.
“That maybe she’s not…”
“Not what?” Did Jared have something intelligent to add here or not?
Jared drew a breath. “I mean, she might really be in love—”
“No!” Royce barked.
“Could happen.”
“No, it could not.”
“I’m a married man, Royce. And I’m telling you it could happen.”
“You’ve been married a week. Talk to me in twenty years.”
“You’re going to make a woman wait twenty years?”
Royce felt his frustration level rise. “I’m going to make a woman wait until she’s sure.”
“How’re you going to know that?”
“I’ll just know.”
“Like you do now?”
“What I know now is that she’s taken, and she’s confused, and she has obligations that have nothing to do with me.”
“She’s not Mom,” Jared said softly.
“Don’t even go there.”
“And you’re not Frank Stanton.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Mom and Dad’s relationship was demanding and complex. He worked too hard and she had stars in her eyes.”
“And you don’t think all marriages are demanding and complex?” That was what the long haul was all about. It meant sticking together through the rough times, knowing better times would come again. It didn’t mean bailing the second life got a little humdrum.
“Did it ever occur to you that Dad might have shared the blame?”
“He didn’t screw around on her,” Royce practically shouted.
“Yeah, but he wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. Hell, he shot a guy.”
“The son of a bitch deserved it. I’d have shot him, too.”
“You mean, if he slept with Amber?”
“Hell, yes.”
“Gotcha.”
Royce went silent, his jaw clamping down.
What had just happened? He was the illicit lover in this triangle, not the betrayed husband.
Jared’s voice turned jovial. “Okay, fixing this is going to be way easier than I thought.”
“Shut up.”
Jared chuckled, and Royce bit down harder on his outrage. His brother could be positively infuriating.
“Let’s move on to other problems,” he ground out. He wasn’t wrong, and Jared wasn’t right. And it was definitely time to end this discussion.
His brother’s tone changed. “What problems?”
“The China deal fell apart.”
“Yeah,” Jared sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
“We’re in a cash crunch because of it. I’ve got a guy taking a thorough look at our operations. I think we’re going to have to streamline.”
“He any good?”
“He came highly recommended.” Royce drew a breath. “And, Jared. I fired Barry Brewster over China.”
“Seriously?”
“He missed the deadline, blew the deal.” He’d also insulted Amber, but Royce wasn’t going anywhere near that conversation.
“There are a thousand ways to blow a deal with China.”
“Yeah, well, he’s gone.”
“Okay. Your call. You need me to come back early?”
“Let’s give it a few more days. There’s one more thing….” Royce stopped himself. “You know what? It can wait.”
If Jared learned about Norman Stanton and Stephanie, he’d be on the next plane back to the States.
But Royce had already made this month’s blackmail payment. Norman Stanton had no idea they were on to him, and there was nothing Jared could do in the short term but worry.
“You sure?” asked Jared.
“I’m sure.”
“And fix it with Amber, bro. She’s not Mom. You’re not Stanton. And everything’s a leap of faith.”
Amber and Katie stood side by side, gazing into the three-way mirror in Amber’s bedroom.
“You don’t think it would be too weird?” asked Katie as they admired their reflections in the sleek, sleeveless, pearl-adorned wedding gown and the dramatic oriental silk bridesmaid dress.
“Like I said before,” Amber replied. “Think of them as a set. You know I like this one better.” She turned and watched the orange, gold and midnight plum shimmer in the sunlight that streamed through her big windows.
“Did I miss something?” came a masculine voice from the doorway.
Amber and Katie whirled simultaneously to see all six foot two of Royce standing in the bedroom doorway. He was wearing a steel-gray business suit, a blue silk tie and a crisp white shirt. His face was freshly shaven, and his blue gaze hungry as he stared at her.
She swallowed the tears that were never far from the surface. His appearance was her dream come true. But she couldn’t let herself hope.
“Where did you come from?” asked Katie.
Instead of answering, he strolled into the bedroom, gaze fixed on Amber as he grew closer. “Someone named Rosa said you were trying on your wedding gown.”
Amber glanced down at the silk bridesmaid dress. “Something got lost in the translation.”
“I was going to rip it from your body.” The hunger in his eyes grew more intense.
Amber tipped her head, not sure what to think.
“I flew here at Mach 1,” he told her. “All the way over South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois, I told myself you belonged to Hargrove.”
“I don’t belong—”
“I told myself I’d reason with you, I’d make you understand you had an obligation to your fiancé, I’d explain again that nobody falls in love in a week, and what you thought you felt for me was an illusion.”
He took her hands.
Katie took a few steps toward the door. “Uh, I’m…just going to…” She slipped outside and shut the door behind her.
“At least that’s what I told myself,” said Royce. “And then Rosa told me you were trying on your wedding dress. And I knew I had to stop you. I knew there was no way I could let you marry someone else.”
“I’m not marrying—”
“I still find it impossible to believe a week is any kind of a foundation for a lifelong commitment. I looked up the mathematical odds on marital success. They’re not good.
“But I do know I want you. And I know I’ll shoot any guy who touches you. And I’m thinking maybe that’s a sign that there’s something to this.”
Amber fought the smile that tightened her lips.
As declarations of love went, this left a whole lot to be desired. But this was Royce, and she knew his demons, and she knew just how difficult it was for him to even contemplate the possibility of happily ever after.
“I love you, Royce.”
“You can’t know—”
She put her fingertips over his lips. “I do know. And, guess what? I know you love me, too. And I know you’re going to figure it out eventually. And if I have to wait a year, or ten or twenty, for you to decide we should stay together, that’s fine with me.”
His arm snaked around her waist, and he jerked her up tight against him. “I want to start staying together now.”
“No problem.” She smiled at him, trai
ling her palms over his chest, wrapping them loosely around his neck. “We’ll hang out together while you give this love thing some serious thought.”
He settled his other arm around her. “And by hanging out, I hope you mean living together, working together and sleeping together.”
“I do,” she told him.
“Good.” He gave a decisive nod. “Then I’m thinking we’d better be married while we’re hanging out. I don’t want anyone else to try to steal you. Your father’s already a little ticked off at my brother. And there’s the whole propriety thing.”
“You think it’s logical for us to be married while we figure out if we’re in love?”
“Completely logical,” he said. “Especially if we want a few kids. You’re not getting any younger—”
“Hey!” She smacked him on the shoulder.
“And who knows how long it’ll take for us to be sure.”
“Maybe twenty years?” she asked.
“Maybe even fifty.” His expression sobered. His gaze caressed her as he slowly dipped his head. Then his warm, soft lips came down ever so gently onto hers, sealing their bargain.
“What do you say, Amber?” he whispered against her mouth. “Will you spend the next fifty or so years married to me, just in case I love you?”
She nodded, coming up on her bare toes to kiss him again, longer this time, more soundly.
“Yes, I will,” she whispered. “Just in case.”
His arms engulfed her, and he lifted her completely off the floor. His mouth slanted and his kiss deepened, and she clung to him, heart bursting with joy.
When he finally set her down, slowly sliding her along his body, his grin widened. “Well, what do you know.”
“What?”
“I think it might be happening already.”
She couldn’t help but smile in return. “Imagine that.”
He nodded. “And it’s really easy. You know, I think I’m going to be very good at this.”
“There’s not a doubt in my mind.”
His blue eyes stared down into hers. “I love you, Amber.”
“I know you do, Royce.”
“Forever.”
“Absolutely.”
“Who knew.”
“I did.”
“You did at that.” And he bent to kiss her one more time.
Eleven
Royce couldn’t think of a single thing he liked better than the sight of Amber at Hargrove’s wedding—wearing the bridesmaid’s dress. Katie had been radiant on her walk down the aisle. She’d beamed at Hargrove during the first dance, then laughed with him when they cut the cake. Royce caught the garter again, and this time he knew it was fate.
“She looked spectacular,” said Amber as they walked, hand in hand, beneath the lighted tress of the waterfront patio. The reception was in full swing inside the restaurant, notables from both the business and political worlds dancing it up at the black-tie event.
“Your life’s not going to be anything like hers,” Royce observed, thinking about the reporters hovering in the parking lot.
“No, it’s not.” Amber grinned, turning to the rail to stare out across the sparkling water. She took a sip of the bubbly liquid in her champagne flute.
Royce moved up behind her, tracing a fingertip along her bare shoulder. “Any regrets?”
“Yes,” she sighed, and he felt a moment’s pause.
But she covered his hand with her own, holding his touch against her skin. “I regret saying no to you in the hotel room earlier.”
A surge of masculine pride swelled within him, and he leaned down to kiss her shoulder. “I told you so.”
“You did.”
“Weddings have a way of making women feel all romantic and mushy.”
“It’s true.” She nodded, taking another drink.
“And all those romantic and mushy feelings have a way of turning to—”
“Lust?”
“Which could have been pre-empted,” he whispered in her ear. “If you’d only let—”
“There you are, pumpkin,” came David Hutton’s hearty voice.
Royce immediately stepped back from Amber.
“Seems like I’m always finding you off in a corner with this Ryder fellow at wedding receptions.”
“He does have a way of finding me,” Amber joked, turning to face her father.
Royce was still a bit jumpy around the man. The two-carat solitaire on Amber’s finger had mitigated some of the antagonism, but Royce wasn’t sure David had forgiven him for breaking things off with Amber. He also wasn’t sure that a jet pilot was an acceptable substitute for a senator as a son-in-law.
“You look amazing,” David told his daughter, kissing her gently on the forehead.
“And you look handsome as always,” Amber returned.
Royce held out his hand to shake, refusing to let David see anything but confidence. “Good to see you again, sir.”
“I trust you’ll be making your own wedding plans soon?” David asked him.
“Daddy,” Amber admonished.
“Don’t want to give the man time to change his mind again.”
Royce held the handshake a little longer. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
David harrumphed.
“I love your daughter, Mr. Hutton.” Royce wrapped an arm around Amber’s shoulder and drew her close. “I’m going to marry her and make her happy for the rest of her life.”
“I would hope so. What with all the turmoil you caused.”
“Daddy, I stopped loving Hargrove before Royce got anywhere near me.”
Royce nearly choked on her choice of words. “The wedding will be soon,” he assured David.
Amber glanced up at him in surprise. “Royce, we haven’t—”
“Very soon.” He gave Amber a meaningful squeeze.
David cracked a smile. “You keep my baby girl happy, son. And we’ll get along just fine.”
“I will,” Royce assured the man.
“Call me David.”
“Okay.”
David winked at Amber and started away. “Don’t stay out too late.”
“I’m not coming home tonight,” she warned him.
David turned his attention to Royce again. “Soon.” He waggled a warning finger before he turned away.
“You want to head for Vegas tonight?” Royce asked Amber.
“Vegas is a terrible idea,” said Stephanie.
Royce had left the jet under the command of his copilot and dropped into one of the seats in the main passenger cabin.
“Thank you,” Amber said to Stephanie from the seat next to him.
They’d picked Stephanie up from a junior jumping show in Denver, and Jared and Melissa were hitching a ride from Chicago to the ranch for the last few days of their honeymoon.
“Well, she’d better come up with something,” Royce told his sister. “I don’t want her father gunning for me for the next year.”
“He likes you,” said Amber.
“No, he likes you. He tolerates me because you love me.”
“I do love you,” she confirmed, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“And I love you,” he automatically returned.
“Oh, gag me,” Stephanie groaned.
“I thought you were a romantic,” Melissa put in, moving up from the back of the cabin where she’d been sitting with Jared.
“I am a romantic. But, yuck, she’s kissing my brother.”
“Well, I totally get it,” said Melissa.
“That’s because you kiss my other brother.”
Melissa got a gleam in her eyes. “You know what else I do to your other brother?”
Stephanie clapped her hands over her ears. “Pink fuzzy bunnies. Pink fuzzy bunnies.”
“What the hell?” asked Royce.
“She’s obliterating the image from her brain,” Amber informed him.
Royce shook his head at the nonsense. “You,” he said to Amber. “Come up wi
th a wedding plan, or we are heading for Vegas.” Then he exited his seat and moved to the back with his brother.
“Hey.” Jared nodded to him, looking up from a table full of reports.
Royce sat down, lowering his voice. “You met with Alec Creighton?”
“I did.”
“What did you think?”
Jared glanced to the front of the plane where the three women were chatting. “Seems like a good guy. Smart. On the ball.”
“Did you talk to the VPs?”
Jared nodded. “They were shocked about Barry Brewster. It’s got them looking over their shoulders. But I think in a good way.”
“What about Konrad?”
Jared grinned. “Oh, he really hates you.”
“Yeah. I kinda got that.”
“He’s demanded to deal directly with me from now on. Threatened to quit if you’re involved in the construction division.”
Royce clamped his jaw, while a burning anger roiled up in his stomach.
“Told him no,” Jared said mildly. “Told him you were taking over the construction division, and if he didn’t like it, he should have his letter of resignation on your desk Monday morning.”
Royce gaped at his brother. Konrad might be a jerk, but he was an incredibly valuable employee.
“Family is family,” said Jared. “It’s your company, too, and you did one hell of a job while I was away. Well, except for ticking off David Hutton.”
“I’m working on that,” said Royce, glancing to Amber, struck as always by how much he adored her.
“That’s what counts, bro. Everybody’s working hard at head office, looking to streamline, reallocating cash flow. We’ve survived trouble before.”
Royce’s attention shifted to his sister, and he lowered his voice. “After that, there’s Stephanie.”
“Yeah,” Jared agreed. “We need to talk about that one.”
“Does Melissa know?” asked Royce.
“That Frank Stanton is Stephanie’s father?” Jared shook his head. “I’m keeping the club as small as possible for now.”
Royce nodded. He was glad Amber already knew; he wouldn’t want to have to make the choice to keep a secret from her.
“It was hard enough on me,” said Jared. “Finding out what I did the way I did.”
Royce nodded his agreement with that, too.
“Stephanie can never find out,” Jared vowed.
In Bed with the Wrangler Page 14