by Laurie Paige
She took a shaky breath as she recalled their time of passion in the big, comfortable bed. Nothing could ever make her sorry for that.
“Look,” Bill said. “We’re both getting angry and saying things we’ll regret. I wanted to tell you I’m leaving in the morning.”
Her spirits brightened at this news.
“But I’ll stay in touch. This isn’t the life for you. You’re too smart to stay stuck out in the wilds with nothing to do but tend horses and cows. You’ll see that in time. When you tire of the cowboy—”
“I won’t.”
“When you tire of this life,” he went on as if she hadn’t spoken, “I’ll be around. Just don’t make it too long. I’m not a patient person, as you well know.”
His last statement, spoken in a lighter, almost teasing, tone, spoke of their long past together. Sadness weighed on her. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” she murmured. “I’m sorry I couldn’t marry you. I…”
She stopped as tears filled her eyes.
“Don’t wait for me,” she implored. “I won’t be coming back to Ox Bow to live. Not ever.”
She’d never resume her old life, no matter what happened between her and Cade. Not that she expected anything permanent to come of their passion.
“Find someone else,” she told Bill. “Someone who will love you with everything in her. For always.”
He was silent for a long thirty seconds. “Is that the way you feel about him?”
Unable to speak, she nodded.
His face darkened in anger once more. “Well, as they say, you’ve made your bed. If you come to your senses, you know where I’ll be.”
“I think,” Cade said, entering with two horses, “you can safely get lost.”
Leanne couldn’t hide her relief at seeing him. She crossed the arena and took the reins to one of the geldings. When her eyes met Cade’s, something warm exploded inside her and the giddy happiness of their lovemaking returned.
“That was a private conversation,” Bill informed Cade with a snarl.
“Leanne is my wife. I told you before we keep no secrets from each other.” He turned to her. “Ready?”
When she nodded, he bent and held his hands braced against his knees to help her mount. Seated in the saddle, she watched the two men from the height advantage, suddenly feeling very secure and above it all.
Instead of mounting, Cade strode over to Bill. Although he stood no more than an inch or so taller, he seemed much bigger. And dangerous, as Bill had stated.
“Don’t bother my wife again,” he said, a low threat that had goose bumps cascading along her spine.
To give Bill credit, he stood his ground. “I care about what happens to her.”
“Yeah? In that case, you’ll be glad to write a check for the twenty thousand you took from her to buy that fancy house in town. She’ll take it now.”
Bill blanched. “I don’t have that kind of money in my checking account.”
Cade was unrelenting. “Where do you have it and when can she expect it?”
Bill stepped back. “I’ll forward it to her as soon as I can arrange a loan.”
“See that you do. Or else.”
Bill glared at Cade, then left the arena.
Leanne felt much better about the situation. With that money, she could start her life over. When she left the ranch. And Cade.
On a quieter note, she finished her work. The storm broke in late afternoon. The rain sounded like a shower of golf balls hitting the metal roof. Lightning streaked across the sky in fiery arcs, while thunder reverberated from mountain peak to mountain peak. The horses became more difficult to work with as the storm raged on. When Cade called it quits, she was ready to go.
“A hot shower,” he told her as they dashed across the compound to the main house, sharing a rain poncho, which the wind tried to tear from their grasp.
In his room, as he hung up the dripping poncho, she stood silently by, not sure what to do.
He turned to her and studied her for a minute. “You’re sad,” he finally said. “Because of your friend?”
She nodded. “It all seems such a mess.”
“Life is that way at times.” He tugged off his boots and stood them in a corner. His shirt went next, then his jeans. He glanced at her. “You need some help?”
“No.” She worried some more. “Cade?”
“Speak your piece.”
“I think we’d better not…I mean, we’re not married, and we’re already living a lie…I don’t think we should complicate it with…with sex.”
He stripped out of the rest of his clothing. Her heart thudded like a lightning-spooked herd in full stampede. He was the most beautiful man—strong and lithe, graceful in the way of a natural athlete. The hunger awoke.
“Don’t look at me that way if you meant what you said about no sex,” he told her bluntly. “You get to me fast—faster than any woman ever has. I’m not sure I can share a room and nothing else.”
She witnessed what he meant about “fast.” His body was fully erect and ready for all that they had shared earlier.
“We have to control our urges.”
He moved toward her. “The question is, can we?”
She backed up a step. “We can’t give in to passion, Cade. You mustn’t seduce me—” She pressed her lips together, stopping the words but not before she’d seen fury flash through his eyes…and something more. Pain? Maybe. Was it possible she had hurt him with her refusal to feed the passion between them?
The impression of hurt fled as he eyed her coolly. “Looks like Bill was your conscience as well as your fiancé.”
“This has nothing to do with him. It’s just that I don’t like deceiving everyone.”
“Then tell them the truth,” he invited. “And while you’re doing that, you might listen to what your body is saying.” With that, he went into the bathroom and closed the door after him.
Well, she’d made her usual mess of things. Now Cade, who had been on her side—in his own gruff way—was fed up with her.
She leaned against the bed post and pondered Life, with a capital L. Her brother wanted her to marry and settle down. Bill wanted her to marry and work in the office—free sex and free labor, she wondered with a cynicism she’d never before applied to the relationship. And Cade? Well…she wasn’t sure what he wanted. And what of her own wants?
Listen to your body.
That was an easy one. Her physical being wanted Cade. The longing was something she’d never encountered. Her mom, in explaining relationships, had never mentioned the ache to be with someone, to touch him and make love.
She had let Bill think she was madly in love with Cade, that she’d fallen in love with him at first sight.
With a tremor that ran all the way through her, she realized another truth: she was madly in love with Cade Redstone.
No, of course she wasn’t. Really, she wasn’t.
She closed her eyes when she heard the shower come on, envisioning Cade in there, water cascading off his wonderfully masculine body. She fought an urge to go to him, to drink fully of the cup of their mutual passion.
She couldn’t. Not now. Not with this new worry, this new possibility, eating her up inside. Pain entered her chest and blocked her throat as the realization pierced the center of her heart. She loved him. She really did.
Now what?
Ten
Leanne hesitated upon entering the dining room that night. Besides Cade, Trent, and their grandfather, there was another man. She blinked, taken aback by the stranger.
Gina laughed. “You’re not seeing double. This is Blake, Trent’s twin. Blake, Cade’s new wife, Leanne, who is also Rand Harding’s younger sister.”
Leanne murmured a greeting. When Cade stood and held her chair, she took her place.
Blake told her he was glad to meet her. When he smiled, she could see the features of the Kincaid clan. He reminded her of Garrett, who, at seventy-two, was still a handsome man with thick silver ha
ir and deep blue eyes. The twins had dark hair, plus the to-die-for blue eyes the Kincaids were known for.
“Fast work, man,” Blake said to Cade with a measured perusal of his new half brother. “Wish I’d been here when the mystery bride arrived.”
Leanne felt the heat in her breasts, then her neck, ears and cheeks. She hated it that she blushed so easily. As a kid, her parents had always known when she was spinning a yarn.
Cade put a hand over his heart. “It was fated that she and I meet,” he intoned with lavish melodrama.
“You got here just in time,” Garrett told Blake after the laughter faded and thunder boomed and rolled over the valley. “The storm is a bad one. If this rain keeps up, I suspect the road will wash out. Wayne said there was a low point that always gave them trouble in bad weather.”
“Are you staying this time?” Cade asked.
“Not for long. I have to be back at the hospital in a few days. I was thinking about checking out the local medical scene. Maybe some overworked pediatrician could use a partner.” His devil-may-care grin settled on his twin, then Gina, then Cade and Leanne. “Seems you folks are going to need help pretty soon, what with all the, uh, shall we say, population increases or possibilities thereof.”
This time Gina joined Leanne in the blush.
“You’re embarrassing the ladies,” Garrett chided, but gently. His eyes gleamed as he looked at his grandsons gathered at the table.
Leanne could feel the older man’s joy in finding his kin. Gina had filled her in on some of the details of the search. The deceased father, Larry, had certainly gotten around. Looking at the attractive Kincaid men, listening to their teasing, she could see why women had been a pushover for their profligate father.
The conversation turned to the ranch and its work, as usual. “How’s that shoulder?” Garrett wanted to know at one point during a pause as the thunder boomed again.
“I explained about the bite,” Cade put in, “and that you might not feel up to coming to the table.”
She realized he had covered for her again in case she decided not to face them after their quarrel. Feeling the kindness of the older man, she wished she wasn’t such a fraud. She should tell them the truth before the lie went any further.
How much further can it go? some part of her asked.
A good question. She’d once read that marriage, in olden times, had consisted of publicly declaring the intent to be husband and wife. Having sexual congress confirmed it and made it a legal commitment.
She and Cade had done both.
“I’m fine,” she assured Garrett. “A little bruised, but mostly in the ego. I thought I knew horses.”
“A friend of mine told me that the only thing less predictable than a woman is a horse.” Garrett smiled in his benign manner.
“Female, of course,” Cade said smoothly. “It was a mare that bit Little Orphan Annie.”
Blake picked up on the reference. “An interesting nickname. Did Cade give it to you?”
“Yes.” Leanne met Blake’s smiling eyes and saw nothing but good humor and the same kindness that his grandfather displayed. He wasn’t a carbon copy of his twin. He seemed a bit more outgoing.
Trent was a rebel, wearing his hair longer than the current style, dressing more casually. Blake was a healer, concerned about lives and saving them. He had a short, neat haircut and wore a white shirt with dark slacks to dinner.
“She was an orphan of the storm,” Cade drawled in his soft Gilas accent that was as romantic to her as moonlight and roses.
She glanced out the window. The storm had darkened the sky to a smoldering charcoal gray. There would be no moon or stars tonight. The rain pelted the roof in slashing forays.
“I’m glad I’m inside. The storm sounds as if it’s getting worse,” she said, changing the subject.
Garrett beamed at the group. “It’s good to be warm and snug with one’s family gathered around.”
His words caught her off guard. Tears filled her eyes before she could blink them away.
“Did I say something to bring up a bad memory?” Garrett asked, seeing her distress.
She shook her head. “It was just…my parents died in a freak storm. They were caught in a flash flood and…and swept away.”
“I’m sorry,” he said with simple sincerity.
“It was one of those things we all live through and have to learn to accept.” She managed a smile. “A part of living, as my father used to say.”
“It causes a person to rethink his or her life, I imagine,” Cade said. He stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I want to see if Watts moved the rest of the auction horses to the paddocks. We don’t need to be rounding them up again in case the storm spooks ’em.”
Leanne knew Cade didn’t care for Gil Watts and not just because of her run-in with him. The cowboy thought he knew all there was to know about tending horses and didn’t always follow orders. She’d also heard Rand complain more than once about how hard it was to get good help at the ranch because of the superstition about the Kincaid curse.
Not that any cowpoke would admit that was the reason he avoided the place.
After Cade left them, the conversation turned to the other grandsons and what they were doing. “I hope all you single men will look to Trent and Gina as an example,” Garrett informed Blake. He turned to Leanne with a kind smile. “I’d like more grandkids before I’m too old to enjoy them. Don’t put off having them too long.”
She didn’t know what to say.
“Now who’s embarrassing the ladies?” Trent demanded of his grandfather. “Having done my part to further the family interests, does this mean I get to bask in the sunshine of your approval from now on?”
“Young scalawag,” Garrett chided, “you’ll have my blessing when you establish a home and quit running all over the country, wheeling and dealing.”
Trent locked his fingers through Gina’s. “Those days are over. I don’t promise to stay at the ranch all the time, but I’m a family man now. I take care of my own.”
Leanne had to look away from the couple. They were so obviously right for each other. Meeting Blake’s eyes, she saw speculation before he smiled at her.
She returned it, liking him for the fact that he seemed to think it quite natural to meet and fall in love in a matter of days. Cade would probably laugh if she mentioned the subject with him.
With a sudden cloud over her spirits, she asked them to excuse her. Garrett stood and graciously helped her up as if she were an invalid. He murmured, “May I?” and kissed her cheek in a fond manner.
She fled before emotion overwhelmed her.
In Cade’s room, which was vacant, she dressed for bed, then stood beside it for a long time before folding a blanket and laying it down the middle.
There. That would have to do for now. Until this farce played itself out.
Cade paused inside the door. Leaning against the wall, he removed his boots and gazed at the bed. Leanne had left a night-light on for him. She slept on her side, her legs curled up, one hand under her cheek.
“What the hell?” he muttered.
Leaving his boots where they fell, he padded silently to the bed and frowned at the blanket splitting her half from his. For a second he was tempted to do something violent such as throw the damn thing out in the mud. He restrained the impulse.
He thought of sleeping at the bunkhouse or the line shack, then decided he wasn’t giving up his bed for some woman who had swooped down on him in her wedding finery and thrown herself on his mercy…so to speak.
Did he ask for any of this?
Furious at fate and its tricks, but mostly at himself for not telling her to get lost, he gave a snort of bitter laughter. She had been lost. That’s what started this whole disaster. He should have been a hard-hearted bastard and sent her on her way.
He removed his clothing, tossed it at the hamper, washed up and climbed into bed. She sighed and said his name.
Electricity curled deep down into
his body. He rolled over and lifted himself up on an elbow. “What is it with you, Annie,” he murmured, “that turns me inside out and doesn’t let go?”
A tiny frown formed between her eyebrows as if her dreams were troubling. She sighed again. Her eyes moved in deep sleep. Her lashes, lush and naturally dark, trembled against the curve of her cheekbones.
He’d been involved with one bride who had reneged on her word. Why was he bothering with another?
The answer lay beside him, he realized. His own red-headed orphan blown in by the storm. He reached across the blanket, which was laughable as a barrier, and smoothed an errant curl, then watched it wrap around his finger as if it had a mind of its own.
There was something innocent and idealistic about her, in spite of the circumstances of their meeting. She had a stern sense of fairness and a conscience. She was a good worker, quiet and calm around the animals, sure of herself at those times, but not so sure when it came to dealing with her family and friends.
Whether she or they realized it, she felt a lot of love and loyalty toward them. She didn’t want to hurt them. Maybe that’s why he’d stepped in and declared them married. Only something final and absolute could have stopped the pressure on her. He’d given her a breathing spell.
He smiled as he gathered her hair into his fist and inhaled its clean fragrance. Some breathing spell. The passion had shocked him as much as it had her. He’d known the attraction was there from the first minute. What he hadn’t counted on was the force of it.
He turned out the light and settled on his back, his hands under his head. Marriage to the right woman might not be so bad. If it was the right woman. And if he had it in mind to be a marrying man.
Which he definitely didn’t.
Leanne mucked out stalls the next day. When Gil had given her a sexy smile and remarked on the boss’s wife doing a man’s job, she’d snarled at him so sharply he’d avoided her the rest of the morning. That suited her just fine.