The Prodigal Wife

by Susan Fox

  If she wasn’t noble enough now to deserve him, she’d find a way to be. The craving to live up to his expectations was a powerful motivator.

  “What good thing did I ever do to get a husband like you?”

  Gabe’s dark brows climbed high and he glanced over to grin at her. “Watch yourself. Talk like that’ll go straight to my head.”

  She smiled. “So be it.”

  Gabe squeezed her hand again and went back to watching the road. Lainey stared at his smiling profile, and couldn’t help that her heart was bursting with love.

  Just after they finished lunch, Gabe went to the den while Lainey went to their room to change out of her dress into jeans and a chambray shirt. She’d barely stepped out of the bedroom into the hall when she saw Elisa hurry into the den. Thinking nothing of it, Lainey continued on until she overheard Elisa’s conversation with Gabe and stopped.

  She was about to step out of earshot when she realized it wasn’t necessarily a private conversation, though it was one she didn’t want to disturb.

  Apparently Elisa had a family emergency concerning her older sister, so Gabe gave her several days off to take care of it. Lainey was pleased that Elisa only had time to mention her ill sister to Gabe before he’d instantly responded and not only given her time off for the next week—more, if she needed it—but he’d made sure she knew he’d pay her for the days off, however many there were.

  Though Elisa hastily told him she’d try to find someone to replace her for the next few days, Gabe had cut her off with a gruff order to not concern herself with anything but her sister.

  The natural generosity and kindness of the man made Lainey love him all the more. It amazed her now that she’d ever thought Gabe was some hardened tough guy who was too pragmatic and socially inexperienced to bother courting a woman he might want for a wife. Hadn’t he proven he was more than capable and at ease with that delicate art as he’d subtly courted her yesterday and today? Because that’s essentially what he’d done.

  And now his kindness with Elisa and his sympathy for her family emergency showed Lainey something else. She couldn’t have gotten a clearer impression that Gabe not only counted family a far higher obligation than a mere job, but that he didn’t hesitate to encourage it, even to the extent of contributing to it out of his own pocket. After all, he’d not only be paying Elisa, but also someone he selected to take her place.

  Because Lainey was seeing more and more that Gabe was a remarkably sympathetic and generous man, perhaps his tough exterior and sometimes terse manner were his only protection against being targeted as a soft touch.

  Elisa bustled out of the den on her way to the opposite end of the house where her rooms were, too distracted to notice that Lainey was waiting a few feet down the hall in the other direction.

  She started forward and walked into the den. Gabe was leaning back in his chair staring off into space as if he were thinking of something, but the moment she came in, his gaze zoomed to hers and fixed there until she’d crossed to the desk.

  “I overheard your talk with Elisa.” She laced her fingers together in front of her. “That was very kind of you, Gabe.”

  “Can you cook?”

  Of course he’d ignore the compliment, so she smiled. “I cooked all the time for mother, but you’re more a meat and potatoes man.”

  “I’m not fussy. As long as it sticks with me, I don’t care. Edible’s nice, too.”

  “It will be.”

  “Thanks.” He spared her a faint smile. “You wanna see that overview now?”

  Lainey shook her head. “I thought I might see if there’s anything I can do to help Elisa, then maybe I should have a look at the kitchen and see what’s in the refrigerator for supper.”

  “Good idea. Come back after you’re done.”

  The words were low and there was an undertone that sent a tantalizing heat through her. Lainey saw the lazy gleam in his eyes and was reminded what he’d said last night about wives and private places. They’d never been alone in his big house since she’d arrived, and now they’d have it completely to themselves, perhaps for several days, since he’d asked her to cook.

  The excitement that sparkled through her was far stronger than her natural worry about might happen.

  Her soft, “I will,” was somehow more than a promise to come back later.

  Elisa seemed grateful for Lainey’s offer, but assured her there wasn’t much to do but pack a few things, which she could handle on her own. Lainey gave Elisa her best wishes for her sister, and echoed Gabe’s request to let them know how things were going when she found time.

  Lainey went to the kitchen, and Elisa left the house long before Lainey had finished taking stock of the refrigerator and deciding what she’d cook for supper. She located the cooking utensils she’d need, and explored the kitchen until she found where the dishes and glasses were stored.

  The phone rang several times but Gabe had picked up the extension in the den. When Lainey looked in on him later, he was still on a business call. The distracted glance he sent her way was absent of even a hint of what she’d seen earlier, so she slipped out onto the patio in the fresh air.

  The early afternoon was quite hot, so she only lingered outdoors a few moments before she thought of something to take care of. She glanced toward the den and saw that Gabe was still on the phone with his back to the glass, so she walked to the bedroom doors and let herself in.

  Lainey crossed to the big closet to remove the new clothes she’d bought yesterday from their various bags and boxes. As she did, she put them on hangers before she inspected them for tags and clipped them off. She got to the lingerie bag but instead of opening the two extra boxes that Gabe hadn’t actually given her yet, she took out the things she’d already seen and carried them into the bedroom to lay in a drawer.

  For five years Gabe had refused to go to war to keep his wife. He could have gone after her and made her listen to the facts. He could have used his control over her inheritance to force her to come back to Texas; he could have sent his lawyers to inform her of the true financial state of Talbot Ranch. She wouldn’t have stayed away then.

  Pride rather than choice had kept him from doing those things, but it had also been anger that had kept him from letting her know about Talbot. That same anger had driven him to wait until the five years were up, then consider petitioning the courts to make a financial claim on Talbot. Worrying Lainey with that might have been a suitable piece of revenge, though he knew he’d never follow through because of his promise to John to preserve it for her.

  But five years of pride and anger, made more bitter by the rigid celibacy he’d forced on himself, had suddenly changed the moment Lainey had walked down to those corrals Monday, saying she’d do anything to make it right.

  He’d taken ruthless advantage of that, both prodding and shaming her into staying with him, counting on the decency he knew her father had instilled in her in a last bid to get the marriage he’d waited so long for. If she had the honor to follow through, maybe they’d both find something worth staying married for.

  He’d learned the moment he’d seen her shading her eyes to fretfully look for him, that five years of smoldering anger and sexual famine hadn’t managed to destroy his feelings for her or his reasons for marrying her.

  Lainey had been his choice for a wife months before John Talbot had confided his worries about Sondra somehow frittering away what was left of Lainey’s inheritance, and had asked for his help. Though Gabe had believed the revised will would eventually be changed once Talbot was back in the black and Lainey parted ways with her mother, he’d never seriously believed it had a chance to go into force for many years. Because of that, the moment John had asked him what he’d want in return for protecting Lainey, Gabe hadn’t hesitated to name it.

  Gabe had already planned to inform John that he wanted to start seeing his daughter with marriage in mind, so his request had been both a clear signal to John of his determination to do so and a
shortcut to find out if the man approved.

  Not only had Lainey shown promise of the ladylike beauty she’d now become, but she’d loved the land and loved ranch life just as intensely as he had. Because she was the type who wouldn’t care whether the man she married had money or not, she seemed even more suitable for a man who’d found out one too many times that he was wanted as much or more for his money than for the kind of man he was.

  And Lainey’s daddy had been an honorable man with far more influence over her than her harridan mother. She’d shown an impressive sense of duty to them both that had been difficult for her to balance, though she’d managed it to her father’s satisfaction.

  Several times Gabe had caught her blue eyes straying curiously to him and seen the bright sparkle of interest. Even after Lainey had moved to Chicago with her mother, he’d seen that same shy interest each time she’d come to visit her father. He’d wondered endlessly if her interest in him was anywhere near as strong as his interest in her.

  He’d needed little more than John asking him what he wanted out of the deal before he’d bluntly asked for marriage. His response had been everything Gabe could have hoped for. After a moment of silence, John had suddenly laughed, clapped him on the back, then informed Gabe that Lainey would be home for a visit in three weeks.

  “Don’t wait for me to die to get a ring on her finger, son,” John had said. “Get started the day she gets home.”

  He’d enthusiastically shaken Gabe’s hand, and declared that he’d have the marriage spelled out in his will as the main condition for Lainey to inherit Talbot.

  But John had died almost two weeks later and, thanks to the will, Gabe had put the ring on Lainey’s finger in the courthouse a week after that, which turned out to be the day before Lainey had originally been due home.

  Had she truly loved him once as she’d claimed?

  Close to four days with her under his roof had sorely tried his resolve to wait for sex. Though he was sympathetic to Elisa’s family emergency and regretted it had happened, suddenly all he could think about was the fact that he was alone in the house with his wife. Lying next to her in bed for the past three nights had almost finished him off, and he knew he couldn’t face another night of celibacy. He might not be able to live through another hour of it.

  His brain told him it was too soon, but his body roared with need.

  Lainey had just collected all the empty boxes to stack the smaller ones inside the larger ones. She stowed them on the shelves above the clothes rods, then heard Gabe walk into the bedroom from the hall.

  Everything in her was suddenly attuned to his arrival, though she tried to quickly finish up with the bags and the tags she’d clipped and set in a pile. Her heart beat twice for every carpet-muffled boot-step, but she didn’t look his way for fear he’d see either her excitement or her sudden nervousness.

  The moment Gabe stepped into the big closet, the air pulsed with his presence. His hands settled on her waist then skimmed slowly around to her belly and lingered there, fingers splayed. He pulled her back against his big body, and the scorching heat that radiated through their clothes sent the temperature in the closet shooting through the roof.

  When he pressed his mouth warmly on the side of her neck, her pulse rocketed upward with the temperature. Her knees instantly went weak, and a few of the tags she’d been holding fell from her fingers like dry leaves.

  Gabe reached to take them before she could lose the rest, then tossed them to one of the shelves above the clothes rod. Meanwhile his lips continued to explore her neck then her earlobe. When he lowered his hand from the shelf, he let it wander over her, tentatively at first, then more boldly. He pressed more tightly against her and his jaw settled snuggly against her cheek.

  “Feels like rain in here,” he murmured against her flushed skin.

  Lainey felt stroke after stroke of sensation whirl through her and settle low. If she’d had more power over her body, she might have smiled. She enjoyed the way Gabe put things, blunt but not crude. But since rain broke droughts, she knew precisely what he meant to happen now, and felt the heated swirls down low rob her of will.

  “I…believe it does,” she said, her voice so shaky with breathlessness that her words were barely audible.

  “You picked up that quick Yankee accent in Chicago,” he drawled. “Bet I can slow it down.”

  His big hands slid higher. The moment they reached their goal, another huge quake went through her body before his hands moved down again and he turned her toward him.

  Lainey barely had time to focus on his face before he kissed her. She was aware of nothing beyond what Gabe’s lips and hands did then until she was somehow lying across his bed with his big body settling against hers.

  It was silent in the big room, dim from the closed drapes, but the air was so heavy with need and anticipation that every button pushed through every buttonhole, every brush of denim on denim, and the faint stutter of callused fingers skimming over cotton, sounded like tiny strokes of muted thunder.

  As piece after piece of clothing was leisurely pushed or pulled away to tumble lazily off the edge of the big bed, Lainey thrilled to the heat and feel of Gabe’s hard flesh and the faint abrasion of his callused hands and masculine hair against her tender skin.

  There wasn’t a single identifiable word between them as they kissed and explored, though Gabe’s big body was taut and trembled from the effort of his restraint the whole time.

  Because Lainey’s control had melted away from his first touch in the closet, she was barely aware of the moment Gabe’s control snapped. Or that the tender violence of it made her cry out helplessly with joy as her body soared with his to some lofty place before gravity brought them back down. Slowly, gently, they were dragged back to earth, pausing to float on an aftershock for a precious scattering of seconds before dropping downward again to land softly in each other’s arms, so drowsy from the trip that they dozed heavily.

  The women Gabe had been with before he’d married Lainey had been experienced. A few of those had been jaded. He’d never noticed at the time, but now he knew exactly how tawdry and incomplete sex had been back then, because he’d just discovered this past hour what it was meant to be.

  His worries about being able to hold back to give Lainey time to catch up with his libido had been well-founded. A man could only restrain himself for so long, and he’d ended up rushing her more than he’d meant to.

  And yet as Lainey dozed in his arms, he knew what he’d really done. The primitive need to overwhelm her and somehow mark her as his own had made it impossible to wait another second. He’d figured she’d never been intimate with a lover, so he’d gambled that giving herself to him would forge a deep bond between them. A woman raised like Lainey had been wouldn’t easily indulge in casual sex and, as he’d suspected, she was still a virgin at twenty-five. Or had been.

  Though Lainey had agreed to stay with him, what would happen once she truly realized he’d forgiven her and she got over her guilt? The deep insecurities he’d managed to conceal from the world had been laid bare in these past few minutes, and he felt them more sharply than he had since childhood.

  Would Lainey be happy to stay here as his wife or would she come to resent him for pressuring her? Would she resent him for rushing her into sex?

  And worse, had she allowed him to seduce her so soon because she felt she owed him for his years of fidelity, or had she given in so quickly because she would have done the same, even if things had been different between them these past five years?

  Even Gabe knew it was too soon to hope that she’d done it out of love. If he’d had the ability to wait, would loving words have been part of their consummation? Or would waiting a few more days or weeks have given her time to decide that she’d never be able to love him?

  He reckoned he was a true pig, because after years of what she’d put him through, he couldn’t have stood never knowing what it had felt like to make love to her.

  He’
d learned enough about sex years ago to bring her quickly to the point where her body made the choice, rather than her heart. Using her innocence against her like that had been selfish, possibly cruel, but he’d needed to have at least this much with her. His body hadn’t been able to wait for her to decide whether she could ever say the loving words that he was too proud to say first.

  He’d loved her all along, however angry and disappointed he’d been, but he didn’t truly know how she felt about him. She’d said she’d loved him once, but could she again?

  Lainey stirred in his arms and gave a soft sigh. It suddenly didn’t matter to his body whether this woman loved him or not, or whether she ever would. Need moved his brain from actual thought to male instinct. The moment he kissed her, her response both comforted and encouraged him.

  She was completely his…at least for now.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THEY’D barely found time to eat that first night. From the next day until late afternoon on Saturday, they’d lived in their own private world.

  Though Gabe had the relentless habit of working from dawn till dusk six days a week, with only a half day less on Sundays, he’d turned over the running of Patton and Talbot ranches to the foremen. Business calls to Patton were forwarded to the barn office, and no one came to the house but the mail carrier.

  Gabe couldn’t remember when he’d spent so much time indoors, but never in his life had he been so wrapped up in any woman as he’d been in his wife.

  Lainey soothed something in him that he hadn’t been aware needed soothing, she’d softened him. Being with her now more than rewarded his long wait for intimacy and companionship, and she’d somehow made those bitter years worth every dust-dry second.

  She was a more than passable cook, and she brought him coffee and breakfast in bed. They’d eaten one lunch at the creek, but they’d had all their other meals on the patio. She’d beat him at checkers, shyly seduced him on the creek bank then later in the living room when she’d modeled one of the two camisoles he’d surprised her with, and she’d let him join her in the shower.