by Unknown
“I told you, I have a job interview. I’m already late.”
He walked across the room and rummaged through the hangers in the closet. Turning back to face her, he tossed a washed-out navy blue sweatshirt with the faded letters, University of Montana, emblazoned across the front of it. “You can wear that and these.” He flung a pair of faded jeans to her. “My sister left them the last time she was here. You’re about the same size.”
Kaycee glanced down at the sheet she still held against her body. He sighed. “For heaven’s sake, I’ve seen what’s behind the sheet. As armor, it’s useless. I know what you look like, exactly how your breasts feel in my hands, how your nipples taste on my tongue. Remember?”
Heat suffused her cheeks. Did he have to be so blatant with his words? He had to be the most sexual animal she’d ever come across in her life. Nothing seemed to faze him, except the fact he’d thought she wanted an abortion if she was pregnant. He’d looked shattered at the thought.
Stricken, she bowed her head and allowed her hair to curtain her embarrassment from his eyes. “I remember,” she whispered. She lifted her head, forced herself to meet his dark gaze. “About last night—”
“Last night was beautiful. Today sucks!” He took her hand, held it tight and slid the ring back on her finger. “You’re my wife. Wear it.”
Kaycee searched his eyes. Oh, God. What was she going to do? His life was at risk, but she couldn’t bear hurting him. “Yes, last night was beautiful,” she said softly, her lips quivering. “Last night was—”
“Then don’t let someone like Smitt Davis ruin what we have. What we’ve shared.”
She searched his eyes, wondered at the rush of color that stained his face. She drew a deep breath. “Why did you marry me?”
His dark eyes clouded with pain, pain she’d inflicted. “Because I wanted to.” He brushed a curl from her cheek. “And it was the right thing to do.”
“Maybe it was right at the time, but it doesn’t change the fact, that in the clear light of day, I don’t want you for a husband. I don’t want a child.” She dropped the sheet and yanked on the jeans and sweatshirt. She dragged on her socks, then leaned over and tied her shoes. Escape! It seemed she was always trying to escape this man. She jumped up from the bed and marched toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
She turned back to face him from across the room. “I’m leaving.”
“You’re in no shape to go anywhere.”
“I have a job interview.”
“How the hell can you be worried about a damn job interview when we still have things to resolve?”
“There’s nothing to resolve, Jace. It’s over. I have to make a living. There’s no room in my life for you.”
“Have you looked in a mirror? Forget the damn job interview. If I were interviewing you, I’d have to wonder what kind of lifestyle you live. Looking at you now, I’d never hire you if I was interviewing you. Neither will anyone else.”
Kaycee bit her lip. Just how bad did she look? “He’ll have to accept me as I am. I need this job.”
“I know you need time to get used to the idea of having a husband. I’ll give you time, sweetheart,” he said, following her. “I’ll wait until you’re ready.”
She heard the exasperation, along with a hint of desperation in his voice.
“Not long…but for you, I’ll wait,” he said, right on her heels.
“You don’t understand anything.” She paused in the hallway turned back to face him. “I don’t want to be married. Not to you. I don’t want a baby! Not yours. I don’t know how much plainer I can say it. Leave me alone!”
She hated the appalled look that darkened his eyes. She whirled and hurried down the hall. They had issues to resolve all right, and they were certainly not going to be in his favor. He’d wait ‘til Doomsday if he believed she would ever be his again.
Feeling like the proverbial hare chased by the determined hound, she paused in the spacious living room, her back to him. Damn! Damn! She shouldn’t want him. And because she did, she had to fight harder to keep him safe.
He followed her, was right behind her. His quiet tread unnerved her.
“Kay.” He said her name softly, huskily, a shortened version of Kaycee her family had used all her life.
Her heart skipped a beat. She felt his pain, the hurt he tried to mask. She turned slowly to face him a second time. She could do this. She had to do this.
“We need to talk.” He blew out a soft breath. “Look, I swear to you, I can be a patient man. I’ll wait until you’re ready for me. But you can’t just walk away from we’ve started. This is too important to leave unsettled.”
“What we started last night, ended last night. It’s settled. I have a job interview.”
“You can’t worry about some damn job interview right now, but I’ll wait for you to finish it. Come back here when you’re done and we’ll talk about everything calmly and rationally.”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her breasts in a protective gesture. “I don’t want you to wait.”
At his dark look, she stammered, “I–I mean, you–you’d be wasting your time. I…don’t want you. I don’t want you to ever touch me again. I don’t ever want to see you again. It’s over! Done! Try to understand. I don’t want you!”
Lies. All lies.
He leaned forward and lightly stroked her brows with a trembling finger. A whimsical smile touched his lips. “No, I guess you don’t,” he said huskily. “My mistake.”
She drew in a sharp breath. Her soul felt as shattered as he looked and sounded. Smitt had forced her to destroy something good and sweet. Something clean.
At that moment, she hated Smitt Davis more than she ever had in the preceding months. A healthy dose of defeat weighed her down. How could she damage this man? But she had and there was no going back. He stood there, fists clenched, and she was helpless to fix it, didn’t dare mend the rift. “I have to go. I’m sorry, but…please…it’d be better for the both of us if you sought an annulment or a divorce. I’ll sign whatever you want. Just stay away from me.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“I have nothing to offer you,” she blurted. “What I did have, Smitt Davis stole away and ruined it.”
She whipped around and headed straight for the front door. Her fingers closed on the brass doorknob. She hesitated, drew a deep breath, another, and shut her eyes to combat the threat of tears. “Thank you…for everything.”
“I wasn’t there when you needed me the most, but from now on, I will be, if you’ll let me.”
Her chest ached. Wild desperation clawed at her. She nearly jumped out of her skin when he gave a low growl and closed his hand over hers where it rested on the doorknob.
“Wait!”
Tears scalded her face. She saw the drops fall on his bare arm, felt him flinch.
“Aw, hell, darlin.’ Don’t cry. I turn to mush every time you cry.”
She choked on a laugh, wrenched the door open and stumbled into the corridor.
He caught her around the waist. “Sweetheart, wait! Jesus, will you slow down a minute?”
A soft, strangled sound escaped her as her bottom connected flush against his thighs.
“Wait for what?” She wriggled away from the intimate contact and broke his hold on her. Warmth heated her face as she whirled around and hit him hard enough his head snapped back with a jerk.
He snarled like a wounded beast. He dug his fingers into her shoulders and jerked her closer. She flung her head back and waited. Before he could say anything, she heard a noise, the sudden, sharp intake of a quickly drawn breath.
She swung her head about in time to see Duel freeze in mid-stride. His gaze shot from to her, to the rugged cowboy with his muscled arm around her waist, his jeans unfastened, and her breasts pressed against his bare chest.
What a picture that must surely be. Crap!
Good-bye job.
Could this get any
worse?
“Oh…shit,” Duel exclaimed then snickered.
Kaycee blinked and turned her gaze from Duel to Jace, then back to Duel. They both looked as if they’d just spotted an alien from another planet.
Duel cleared his throat. “Uh, good, the two of you have met. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lady hit Jace before or ever seen him chase after one. So, Kaycee, how do you think you’ll like working for my brother?”
“Cut it out, Duel,” Jace snapped.
“Bro–brother?” she stammered weakly.
Jace slowly released her. “You’re Kat woman?” A devilish grin settled on his lips. He looked like a wolf, a very, complacent and satisfied wolf.
“Kat woman?”
“Never mind, Kaycee fits you better.” He eyed her with what could only be described as a calculated, devious glint. One he didn’t bother to disguise. He folded his arms across his wide chest and rocked on his bare heels. “I’m Jace Dakoda Remington,” he announced with a contented drawl. “Close friends and family, call me J.D. You, I believe, are the lady in need of a job.”
This time she didn’t bother holding back a groan. It slipped past her lips loud and clear.
Did he have to look so damn smug?
Did he have to make it obvious he was well pleased with himself?
This wasn’t—she decided—just wasn’t, one of her better days!
Chapter Twelve
Why should I obtain by force that which I can obtain by cheating?
~Doc Holiday
Penthouse Floor
Saturday 12:45 p.m.
“I’m not even going to ask what that was about,” Duel whispered as Jace brushed past him.
Jace shrugged and stepped through the entrance to Duel’s office. “Good, because it’s none of your business.”
“Met your match, did you?”
Jace folded his arms across his bare chest. “Wipe the smirk off your face, and get lost.”
“But…it’s my office.”
At Jace’s dark scowl, Duel backed up a step and laughed. “All right! I’m going. But we really need to talk about you getting an office of your own. Soon.” He grinned at Kaycee. “You two get acquainted.” He flashed Jace a devilish look. “Or maybe you already have, since my brother isn’t wearing a shirt.” He raked Jace with a wicked glance. “The top button of your jeans is unfastened and…are you barefoot?” At the deep rumble of warning Jace emitted, Duel held up his hands in surrender. “I’m going. I’m going.” He started past Kaycee, paused and gave her a big smile. “Oh, yeah, I’m forgetting something here.”
He brushed a kiss against Kaycee’s bruised cheek. “I’m thinking you’re my new sister-in-law?” At Kaycee’s slight nod, he shouted, “Woo-hoo!” He punched a fist in the air and laughed. “Yes! Welcome to the Remington family, sweetheart. We’re a wild and woolly bunch.” He grinned. “I can promise you, your life will never be the same again.”
He touched the bruise with a light fingertip. “I’m not going to insult my brother by suggesting he was the one who hurt you like this. I know J.D. would never harm you, and if I know him as well as I think I do, he’ll take care of the sum-bitch who did.” He paused at the door, slid his gaze up and down Kaycee once again, then winked. “You sure do more for that sweatshirt than ole’ J.D. ever did.” He punched a fist in the air again and laughed. “Yes!”
“Shut the damn door behind you,” Jace yelled. “And stop snickering!”
Duel laughed and pulled the door closed behind him.
Kaycee reeled with the strong desire to follow him, even though he was acting a little bizarre. Why the hell was he so happy about the marriage? You’d think it was all his doing, getting them together. A feeling of doom swept over her. She believed Duel was right about one thing. Her life was never going to be the same again.
Get acquainted?
She moaned. In her opinion, she and Jace were already too damned well acquainted.
He edged around her and settled his powerful frame in the leather chair behind the wide desk. His gaze zeroed in on her, piercing and sharp as a knife. “Sit down.”
She barely stifled the hysterical giggle that threatened to belch from her mouth. She wondered just how authoritative or how dignified he imagined he looked bare-chested, barefoot, and his fly partially undone, all while conducting a job interview with a woman who was his wife?
Did he wonder, just as she did, when his life had turned to shit?
She sighed and lowered herself onto the chair facing him. Might as well get this over so she could go home—hell, her life had gone down the crapper anyway.
Why had she never met Jace here before? She couldn’t count the times in the past few weeks she’d been in Duel’s office discussing the possibility of her going to work for his brother. Jace had probably been to Reno hundreds of times and in Duel’s office as well.
How was it possible they’d never bumped into each other?
She narrowed her eyes to fine slits.
He’d probably been in the lounge picking up women and taking them to his suite and boffing out their brains.
“Well, well,” he murmured, breaking the silence. “So you’re the little she-trainer. Tell me about yourself, Miss–Miss–Mrs. Remington.”
“Spencer. Miss Spencer!”
“Mrs. Remington,” he corrected. He chuckled, pleased with her obvious dismay.
“Kaycee Remington.” He said her name as though he savored the sound of it on his tongue. “It has a certain ring to it. An appeal. Don’t you agree?”
“I can’t believe this.” She rolled her eyes and muttered through clenched teeth.
“What do you want to know?”
Could there possibly be any secrets left between them? She squirmed. He certainly knew more about her than she was comfortable with him knowing.
How could she work for this man?
The answer to that was simple.
She couldn’t.
She wouldn’t.
He watched her like a hawk eyeing a juicy piece of meat. Waiting. Patiently waiting for the right moment, then he’d swoop in and go for the jugular. She’d never felt so vulnerable or so defeated. “I suppose Duel explained to you I train cutting horses?”
“My brother isn’t big on explanations. He’s one of those, here’s the deal, take it or leave it types.” Jace shrugged. “It works for him.”
He grinned, fiddled with an ink pen, flipping it end over end between his fingers and back again. With those damn sensual lips and those damn Tom Selleck dimples flashing at her, how was she supposed to concentrate? Kaycee sighed. She had a feeling she never stood a chance against Jace Dakoda Remington—the man, the cowboy, or the husband.
“He did mention you have some…qualities to be admired,” he continued. “I think I’ve discovered most of those already.”
Drat the man.
She tightened her lips. “Mr. Remington—”
“Jace or J.D., if you prefer. Although I like Jace better, no call for formalities, darlin’. I’m your husband, after all. And I love…ur…uh…all your qualities.”
“I should have listened to my instincts when they told me to run like hell from you the first time I saw you perched on that damned barstool last night.”
“Huh. Too late now. I gotcha. So how well do you know my brother?”
Kaycee blinked. “What? For Pete’s sake, do you have to sit around half-naked like a male model in an issue of Playgirl?”
Jeez, couldn’t the man put on a shirt?
Did he have any idea how distracting his naked chest was?
Or how her fingers itched to sift through the thick screen of silky hair?
What had he said to her?
She tried to remember what the question was he’d asked. Oh, yeah—something about Duel. “He’s a very good friend.”
And why would Jace even want to know?
“How long have you known him?”
“Not long.” She licked her lips.
What was with the third degree?
She clenched her fingers, distracted by the site of that wonderful chest. Her thighs tightened with an inner spasm of warmth. She clamped her lips together. No sense making a groaning fool of herself.
“But he’s a very good friend?”
“Mmmm—” She glanced up, not certain of what she just replied to. “What? Oh…uh…yeah, a good friend.”
“We are conducting a job interview. Right?”
She studied the crease between his brows wondering what the hell he was talking about. There was no way she was going to sit here and go through a fake job interview.
“I think somewhere along the way, I lost you in this conversation, darlin’.”
“Can’t you put on a shirt?”
He lifted a brow. “I’m comfortable, but thanks for your concern.”
“Concern, hell. Put on some darn clothes!”
He lifted both brows. Silence reigned, lingering for nerve-shattering moments. He leaned back in the chair and made a tent of his fingers. “Uh-uh.”
“Very well, have it your way.”
Jace eyed her with frustration. So, it was back to business. He wondered how his little wife would react if he stood up and dropped his pants. He wasn’t wearing underwear, and she’d just managed to give him the boner from hell. “I always do,” he replied huskily.
Did she have a clue what she did to him?
What was it about this female that kept him so damned randy all the time?
Hell, he was too old to be getting a woody every damn time she looked at him. Every time she spoke. He cleared his throat. “How long have you been training horses? Do you have references?”
“A long time. No. No references.” Her gaze held his, so deep a purple it was like looking at a bruised sky. “Under the circumstances, I think this interview is rather pointless,” she said. “Don’t you agree?”
“No, darlin’, I don’t agree. You’re my wife. I want you to return to Montana with me. You certainly won’t have to worry about working.”
“There! I knew it! I just knew you were one of those males who liked to keep the little woman pregnant, barefoot, and in the kitchen. I want to work,” she said firmly.