by Vivian Arend
Luke snickered. “Because men make women ill?”
“Oh, honey. Testosterone is the cause and the cure for so many ailments.” Lisa eyed his packed bags, wrinkling her nose. “That’s everything you need?”
He’d packed most of his closet. “Doesn’t it look like enough?”
“Never said that.”
Caleb came out of the master bedroom and closed the door carefully behind him, pausing to wrap an arm around Lisa’s shoulders to give her a brotherly hug. “She’s feeling better, but I convinced her to take a nap before trying to get vertical again.”
Luke checked his watch. “We’d better get going to make our appointment on time.”
“Go on,” Lisa insisted. “I’ll take care of everything that needs to be done here.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” Caleb told her.
“That’s what family does—they take care of each other.” Her grin widened. “Even when they don’t want to be taken care of.”
“Damn right,” Luke agreed. Tamara was stubborn, so it was good to see her sister and Caleb were keeping her under control.
They got everything done in town pretty quick, but Caleb sat in silence as they headed back to the house.
“I’m gonna do my best,” Luke assured him.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. Glad you’re the one going and not me.” He glanced over at Luke before putting his gaze back on the highway. “Think you’ll run into the Talismans?”
His ex-fiancée’s family. “Possible. I don’t think they’ll make trouble, though. Penny and I called it off pretty mutual.”
“There’s no lingering plans to reignite that, then,” Caleb stated.
Soft curses escaped before Luke shut them down. “Definitely no. Not a thing you need to worry about. That was a different time and place, and I learned my lesson.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Caleb muttered.
Jeez, he didn’t need any bull right now. “Cryptic much?”
“Just feels as if the lesson you learned was to not get involved with women, period. They aren’t the enemy.”
Yeah, not the conversation he wanted to have before heading into a stressful situation. “I hear you, and I agree one hundred percent that women are wonderful creatures, but you took a breather after your wife left. Give me the courtesy of doing a reset myself.”
“Okay. Only tell me you’ll go with your gut,” Caleb encouraged. “Because it took me far too long to work up my courage to try again. Doesn’t mean you have to.”
“And on that note, drop me by my place. I’d better get changed. I’m supposed to meet Kelli in about thirty minutes so we can get on the road.”
His big brother still seemed to have something to say, but he closed his mouth and nodded. “No problem.”
Caleb dropped him off then headed back to the house.
Luke didn’t bother to do anything except change. He grabbed his phone charger then hurried to the main house. He left his truck running so it would warm up, stepping to the front door to grab their bags.
He stopped, staring at a set of three matching pieces of luggage in confusion. “Hey. Where’s my stuff?”
Lisa poked her head around the corner from the kitchen. “What’s that?”
Luke looked around. “Did you move my bags?”
Tamara stepped from the master bedroom, a soft blue robe wrapped around her slim form. She blinked at him.
Damn. “Sorry I woke you.”
She shook her head. “I was awake. It’s my fault—I told Lisa she could. Your things are in there.”
She pointed at the smart blue suitcases waiting at the front door.
He paused for a second before it registered. Fancy hotel, making a good impression. Not the place for his worn gunny sacks or Kelli’s ancient hockey bag. “Damn. Okay, that’s rather brilliant.”
Lisa joined them at the front hall as the door opened behind Luke, and Kelli stepped in.
“I transferred your clothes, but I didn’t look at any of it,” Lisa promised.
Luke rolled his eyes. “I promise I won’t faint at the thought of you handling my socks.”
Lisa picked up the third, smaller square and pushed it into Kelli’s hands. “This one has your things that didn’t fit in the other case. Don’t bother looking now, you can figure it out when you get to the hotel. There are travel advisories being posted for this afternoon, so you’d better get on the road before the snow stops you.”
“What are we doing?” Kelli asked, eyeing the bags with suspicion. “Where’s my bag?”
Luke put a hand on her shoulder and twisted her toward the front entrance. “We’re leaving in five minutes flat. Take a pee break if you need, and let’s go.”
He picked up the two matching suitcases, tipped his chin toward the girls, then stepped outside.
Tossing the bags in the back of the crew cab, he paused. He didn’t know which one was hers and which one was his. No problem. They’d get everything straightened out when they opened them in their hotel room…
Their hotel room.
Understanding of how intimate this situation was struck Luke out of the blue. He’d honestly been blind to the implications, and now the truth rushed in and slammed him with the force of a tsunami.
Jesus, he was in so much shit.
6
Hands down, this was the most awkward road trip Kelli had ever taken.
It hadn’t started that way. For the first forty-five minutes or so she’d spent her energy chatting up the training techniques she’d been reading about that could help Chili Pepper.
Talking her fool head off was the only option. Either that or she’d have fallen into twisting her fingers in her lap like some shy miss as she fought to start this seduction business.
It wasn’t fair. Kelli’s education in sex had been ninety percent animal husbandry, and horses didn’t need invitations to get on with the deed. Nope. When the opportunity arose, they took it. Enthusiastically.
And the guys she’d fooled around with, while not an extensive list, were all heat-of-the-moment, gotta-do-it-now events.
This slow, deliberate bullshit was for the birds.
When she realized Luke was doing nothing more than making noncommittal grunts and uh-huh noises, she started giving him some side eye.
Kelli thought back, wondering if she’d been unintentionally rude or out of line. Nope, she couldn’t think of anything out of the ordinary.
She fell silent for a bit, glancing at his hands on the steering wheel. It was probably the whole gala thing reeling inside her gut, at least to some degree. They were about to show up where she didn’t feel comfortable, and he couldn’t either. She’d cut him slack for that in the hopes that he’d do the same when it came to her acting awkward.
Maybe she should take Josiah up on those acting lessons. She wasn’t sure anyone else in the community was aware he actually did have a background in the arts.
Secrets.
She closed her eyes and rested her head back, stretching her spine and trying to relax. When it came down to it, all of them had secrets.
Secrets were not necessarily terrible. They just were. Never in a million years had she dreamed as a fifteen-year-old sitting on a bus to the middle of nowhere that at some point she’d have the opportunity she had today.
Suddenly the need to tell Luke that grew bigger than she could hold back. She sat upright and faced him. “Thank you. Thank you for trusting me, and for bringing me along. I promise I’m not doing it just to get to work with Chili Pepper, but because I want the very best for Silver Stone, and for Emma and Sasha. I want this week to go really well.”
That was all true. It wasn’t all she had on her agenda, but…she couldn’t make herself continue. Not with him acting so weird.
His fingers tightened on the wheel, knuckles going white. “I know you do.”
He seemed about to say something else before his lips pressed together.
Okay, then. Someone else’s stress level
was a wee bit out of control.
“You’re totally going to rock this. I mean, you know how to talk to these people. If I wasn’t already head over heels with Silver Stone, hearing you talk about her would impress the hell out of me every time.”
Babbling. She was babbling.
“Thanks, but I’m not looking for a pep talk.”
Kelli adjusted her position to stare out the front window as huge snowflakes swirled through the air. The next time she spoke, she wasn’t quite as cheerful. “Then you might want to take a couple Xanax before we get there, because right now you are not chill. Not at all.”
“I’ve got something on my mind.”
“Obviously.”
He growled.
Kelli glanced at him, and in spite of her own worries, a snicker snuck out. “Wow. I thought my nose was out of joint about not getting to wear jeans for the next week, other than the ones we’ve got on right now. Which, thank you very much for figuring out there was one event we needed to dress down for.”
He ignored her chatter and slid over to the side of the road, pulling into a rest stop. Then he jerked open his door and got out, slamming it shut behind him as he paced off a few steps into the whirling snowfall.
Well, it appeared somebody was more than stressed. Considering it wasn’t anything she’d done, it certainly wouldn’t hurt for her to try cool him off.
Kelli got out, and by the time she joined him, he’d stomped his way back. “Spit it out. I’ve never seen you this cranky.”
He dragged a hand through his hair before jamming his hat back into place. “I thought this was going to be no big deal, but the closer we get to the hotel, the more I realize I jumped to a few conclusions. And now we’re stuck, and I don’t know how to tell you.”
Okay, that was not sounding as positive as she’d hoped. “You’re starting to freak me out.”
He planted both hands on his hips and took a deep breath. He looked her straight in the eye. “I think you’re the best person to come to this event with me, I truly do. But I might have told the registration team that you and I have a slightly different relationship than what we’ve got in real life.”
She was doing her best to keep up, but he was not making it easy. “What kind of relationship did you tell them we have?”
“You got the part about me saying you’re the best person to come to this event, right?”
“The fact you’re emphasizing that makes me suspect whatever you said equals me wanting to kill you.”
Unflinchingly, Luke confessed. “I told them you’re my significant other.”
Kelli maintained eye contact. It was probably the most difficult thing she’d ever done in her life. Not even leaving her old life behind, abandoning everything except what she could fit into a backpack, had been this tough. That had been her and her alone. Doing what was right to make a better life.
Having him look at her, truly look at her, with such utter misery— The first sensation in her gut was to want to fix it for him…
The second sensation was not quite so generous.
She’d spent years—years—hiding her attraction. Keeping the lines firmly in place because it wouldn’t have been right to step beyond them, and he went and lied without blinking and turned them into a…them?
“Is there a reason you need a significant other?” That couldn’t be her voice. It was far too calm and cool.
He nodded. “Family businesses get a leg up far quicker than some flighty dude who is solo and still sowing wild oats. We are a family business, but I’m the only brother who could go. And I had a fiancée, but that’s over now—”
“Just don’t. Don’t talk about Penny,” Kelli snapped.
Okay, that was rude on her part, but seriously? The guy was in enough trouble right now. Comparing her even remotely to that cold-spirited woman was not going to make this go easier on him.
Kelli’s heart pounded. She deliberately uncurled her fingers from where they’d squeezed into tight fists. Not that she wanted to plant one in his face, but…
Well, okay, that option wasn’t completely off the books.
She took a deep breath, pulling back to her yoga Zen. She still wanted him, damn him anyway, but this thoughtless act of his was wrong. So very wrong.
“You fucked up big time,” she told him.
Luke gave a quick nod. “I know. I mean you’re right. I mean—” He sighed heavily before twisting to stare up at the Rocky Mountain range that rose to the west of where they stood. “Damn, I’m sorry. I was doing the logical thing. I didn’t think this through.”
Her thoughts darted like river trout on a caddis-fly hatch day. “Then you can think it through with me now. We’re supposed to act as if we’re a couple around a bunch of people we need to impress with the quality of our stables and our skills with horses. And since I work for you, if I don’t do this, and thus screw up the event before we even get there, then potentially, there’s a threat hanging over me because you could fire me.”
Luke blinked. “What? I’m not going to fire you.”
“What if I told you I wasn’t comfortable lying about our relationship? That I didn’t want to go through with this?”
He opened his mouth. And wisely closed it.
“What if the only way I would do this was if I didn’t work for you? You know what, maybe you should just go ahead and fire me.”
His eyes flashed.
She moved in closer. “Do it. Say, you’re fired, Kelli.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m not going to fire you.”
“But you have to, because this isn’t a work event, is it?”
“It is— I mean, it isn’t.”
“Just fire me, Luke,” she ordered.
“No. Not even if you tell me to turn the truck around and forget the gala.” As he said that, though, he looked sick. His face had gone white, and she was one second away from forgetting the whole thing.
This was killing her, too, it really was, but he needed to know what he’d done was wrong, dammit. “Fire me. Do it,” she shouted.
“Fine, you’re fired,” he shouted back.
She grabbed him by the jacket front, dragging him close enough their faces were on the same level. “Too bad you’re not my boss. You don’t have the authority to fire me, only Ashton does. Besides, Tamara said I’m never allowed to leave Silver Stone, so there.”
Her fingers were still tangled in his jacket, their bodies inches away from each other. Luke looked as if she’d shoved him through an old-fashioned wringer.
“Then what the hell did you make me say you were fired for?” he asked far more quietly, more of the old Luke looking back at her instead of the haunted, worried stranger.
She loosened her grip a little, staying close enough to use him as a wind block. “To prove that I don’t work for you, so no one can say that you forced me into this. And because you’re twenty kinds of asshole for not knowing this was a fucked-up idea. And because you deserved to suffer a little.”
“Thought I was having a freaking heart attack a minute ago,” he admitted.
She wasn’t done with him. He still might keel over before their conversation was finished.
“Aren’t I your friend? Why didn’t you come to me earlier and tell me what was going on?” she demanded.
“You are my friend, and I didn’t say anything because—” He stared over her head for a second before confessing, “I didn’t realize. I mean, I already considered you family when I wrote your name down. It honestly didn’t hit me until I saw the suitcases how intimate this whole thing could be, and that’s when it clicked.”
Intimate. A shiver raced over her skin. He had no idea. No idea at all what she’d wanted and dreamt of and hoped for so long.
And he thought of her as a…sister?
Luke straightened his shoulders. “I stand by what I said at the beginning. You really are the perfect person to help me represent the ranch.”
She did a quick reshuffle inside,
doing her damnedest to shove away the part that was saying she was crazy for not picking up something heavy and bopping him over the head with it while she had the chance.
This not just being a work-event changed things. A lot, and now it was her turn to have to pull a balancing act. It was one thing to have hoped to start something sexual—that would have been two grown adults having fun behind closed doors. No one would have known.
Being connected for real…
For fake real…
God, she didn’t even know what to call this nonsense. Other than complicated. Very complicated.
A layer of snow was building on both their shoulders as the white-out conditions increased. As much as she’d like to have it all out, here and now, that wasn’t going to happen.
Besides, he’d probably like to be hanging on to something when she tossed her final grenade.
“Get back in the damn truck,” she ordered. “We’ll figure out the rest while we drive. No use in freezing off limbs before we have to make friends and influence people.”
He stared at her in near shock before his smile spread, and as usual, warm molasses heat drifted through her belly. “You’re not going to call it off?”
“Nope, but I am going to up the ante. You’ve got one hell of a bill to pay.”
He’d always prided himself on being one of the smarter of the Stone boys, but getting back in the vehicle and heading on to their destination gave him plenty of time to reassess.
On the good side of the ledger: Kelli had not instantly taken his keys and run him over until he was dead. Although he was smart enough to know that was still a high possibility.
She grabbed the printout he’d made of the actual events and was staring at the sheet intensely. Again, something he should’ve done with her if he’d been smart enough to discuss this a few days ago.
“So they’re impressed by family-run stables. Silver Stone definitely has that. Caleb and Tamara would’ve done a great job attending if she was up to it. So it’s not a lie, not really. I can do this.”