Lone Star Daddy (McCabe Multiples)
Page 18
Clint released a gusty sigh, then took her fingertips and sucked the ends of them gently, one by one. “Ah. No.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “I thought I was going to have to woo you.”
She shivered in response, aware this was all turning very sensual very fast. A fact that made her very, very happy. She gazed into his eyes, loving the fact they were alone again and doing something deliciously sexy...and forbidden. “And here it’s all so easy.”
His gaze grew serious, intent. “Some things are just meant to be,” he said huskily. Catching her wrist, he tugged her forward until she settled between his legs, her thighs wrapped around his waist, her arms on his shoulders. “This better?”
Making love with Clint was so much better than she ever could have imagined it would be. Rose pressed her breasts against his chest and rubbed lightly. “We’re getting there.”
“How about this?” His hands slid down her hips, and he fit her against him, softness to hardness, woman to man. He trailed his lips over her ear, her neck, then her lips.
They kissed wantonly, deeply.
“And this.” Aware being so close to him felt so right, Rose lathered soap between her hands and spread the fragrant bubbles over his chest, down his back, down the length of his arms. He shifted, giving her access to his thighs. Then, between subsequent kisses, slowly and lovingly, he did the same for her.
Of course, what had been lathered up had to be rinsed. The sensitive places that had been denied the first go-round were found in the second, others in the third. And there were so many kisses, Rose noted euphorically, in between.
Finally Clint groaned and rested his forehead against hers. “Time we move this to the bedroom, don’t you think?”
Good point. She was nearing completion now.
Rose chuckled. As their gazes met, the air between them reverberated with excitement and escalating desire. “Unless you know how to put a condom on under water...”
She watched his eyes darken as they roved over her jutting nipples and the curves of her breasts. She felt more womanly than she ever had in her life.
He stood lithely and, grasping her by the hand, brought her with him out onto the mat. Water and bubbles streamed down their bodies, the chill in the air an erotic counterpoint to the sizzling heat beneath their skin.
He caught her against him briefly, warming her with the length of his tall, powerful form, his arousal so pronounced, so smooth and velvety, she could hardly wait to have him inside her once again. Gallantly he wrapped her in a towel, then reached inside the pocket of his robe. Half a dozen condoms spilled out. “Can’t say I’ve ever tried it in the tub,” he admitted, gathering them up with one hand, taking her by the other. Naked and beautiful, he led her toward the bed and dried her off slowly and lovingly.
She lay down, watching as he took the towel and quickly dried himself off.
“Besides,” he whispered, lying beside her and kissing her again, “I like you under me.”
Rose watched as he opened the packet and swiftly, surely protected them both. She caught her breath at the passion still etched on his handsome face. “You do?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Big hands intimately circling her hips, he shifted so she was astride him. “And on top.”
She stretched out over him, kissing him sweetly, taking her time. His hand slid between them, stroking the tender insides of her thighs, finding the pleasure point, driving her crazy as more passionate kisses were exchanged. “Just so long,” he said finally, lifting her and surging inside, “as you’re in my arms.”
And she was. Even as they took each other to new heights and lingered there, with the tenderness and need and singularity of purpose they both deserved.
Afterward, as they lay cuddled against each other, she knew this was what it felt like when it was right. This was what it felt like when love was about to happen. “Clint?” she murmured softly, her heart full, her body still humming deliciously.
He lifted his head, gazed into her eyes and simply waited.
Wrapping her arms around him, Rose snuggled even closer. She knew she was desperately close to making a complete and utter fool of herself, but she forced herself to bare her soul anyway. “I know what I said before. But I don’t want this to be a temporary love affair.” Her eyes filled with deep, searing emotion she identified as joy. “I want it to last.”
Tightening his hold on her, Clint bent his head and kissed her again in a way that made her feel incredibly safe and cherished. “So do I, Rose.” He brushed his lips reverently over hers. “So do I.”
And then, she supposed, just so there would be no doubt, he made love to her all over again.
* * *
“DON’T YOU TWO look like a couple of honeymooners,” Aaron remarked the next day when Rose and Clint walked into their meeting with attorney Travis Anderson at their side.
Rose met Clint’s eyes. He gave her an imperceptible look that reminded her of all they had shared the night before. A whisper of tenderness swept through her. She’d never had a more romantic, and satisfying, interlude in her life. Luckily for them, many more lay ahead.
“I guess that’s why everyone thinks we’re such great business partners,” Rose replied with a mysterious smile.
“Because we’re not just neighbors but good friends,” Clint concurred.
“Well, whatever it is,” the director of the advertising campaign noted with approval, “it clearly works.”
With a murmur of agreement, everyone took a seat at the conference table, and the business meeting began.
“The clauses Rose asked for were approved and added,” Ted announced. “Clint will receive the berry picker he’s been using, free and clear, and the taxes on it will be paid by the corporation.”
Gleefully Rose turned to Clint, who had a completely inscrutable expression on his face. “Surprise!” she said.
Ted grinned at her joke and continued, “Additionally, a steep lifetime discount has been arranged for any future Farmtech equipment that Rose and Clint wish to purchase for their prospective ranches. In return, the Farmtech legal department has added a few more clauses to the contract, too.” Ted paused. “They’re marked by the purple tabs in the copies we have printed out for review. So if everyone will take a look...”
Pages rustled.
The exec continued, “Basically, it says we reserve the right to send in a professional team to trim and manicure the blackberry fields at the Double Creek Ranch next spring, prior to and during the filming. And to make any visual or artistic adjustments necessary for filming.”
Beside Rose, Clint stiffened, clearly displeased. “I thought we were done with that.”
Rose had thought so, too. Especially since she knew how he had loathed having to stand around posing for the cameras.
Ted smiled. “For this year, yes, we are done with the on-location work at the Double Creek Ranch. But next year, we’re also planning to send out teams of local news reporters and journalists to see a live and in-person demonstration of the berry picker.”
His eyes narrowing, Clint told everyone, “But the fields won’t be there.”
Everyone stopped.
Gasping inaudibly, Rose felt herself freeze. She hadn’t felt this blindsided since Barry had told her he didn’t want kids, after all.
Yes, the clues had been there all along—then.
Had they been there this time, too?
She just hadn’t wanted to notice them?
Given the hard, unyielding look on Clint’s face, this was indeed the case.
Everyone looked at her as if to say, Do something! Work your magic! But how could she, when Clint clearly was of such a different mindset than everyone else in the room?
He continued, “I’m mowing down all hundred acres with the tractor I just bought. That’s all going to be pa
stureland for my cattle and horses. So if you want to use footage of the Double Creek Ranch, that’s fine with me, but it will have to be footage that’s already been filmed this year.”
A stunned silence fell.
“No one told me anything about this!” Ted said angrily. “We’ve designed a whole publicity campaign around that hundred-acre blackberry field! It was going to help us show how a former rodeo star turned successful farmer without losing an ounce of his sex appeal or lust for life in the process!”
Rose’s heart sank. She had thought that to be the case, too.
But had it all been an illusion? Something she had needed and wanted to see for them to be a couple, but wasn’t really there after all?
Rose did not have the answers to those questions.
However, she did know when a business arrangement she’d worked so hard to negotiate was about to implode.
Determined to salvage the deal before it went even further south, Rose stood, matter-of-factly made eye contact with everyone in the room, then said graciously, “I’m sorry for the confusion.” She implied with a glance that it was all a simple mix-up that could be easily corrected. “Could I have a moment alone with Clint, please?”
She had been in stickier situations.
She could fix this, too.
With disgruntled sighs, everyone filtered out.
Finally she and Clint were alone in the elegantly appointed conference room. She walked over to where he now stood, at the windows overlooking downtown Dallas. “What are you doing?” To this deal? To himself? To them?
Hands shoved in the pockets of his trousers, he swung around to face her. “Exactly what I said I would do all along. Turning my family ranch back into a cattle and horse operation.”
Maybe it was the fact that they were both in business clothes—a dark suit for him, a sheath and jacket for her—instead of their usual ranch attire, but suddenly he looked like a stranger to her. Worse, he seemed to be regarding her the same way.
Rose tipped her chin up. “You know the worth of the blackberry bushes. How unique and wonderful they are.”
“I do. Which is why I asked Amy to come out and take a look and figure out what would be required to keep the line going.”
Okay. That was something.
Handsome jaw set, Clint continued, “She’s working up a proposal as we speak. To take root cuttings and plant some on your farm, and as many others as you like—or can arrange for—elsewhere, too.”
Just not on his land.
Rose could not deny that her cousin’s wife had not just an amazing plant nursery, but a way with growing and engineering plants that was unparalleled. “That’s great, Clint, but it takes several years for new canes to produce a decent crop of blackberries.”
His voice dropped persuasively. “But once they do, the plants can produce for fifteen to twenty years.”
He was right. Long-range, his plan was fine, assuming they could duplicate the soil conditions at his place elsewhere.
He took her hand in his. “I know losing those fields is a temporary hit financially, Rose. For both of us. But there will be other monetary gain to be had by the sale of the root cuttings. And the work you’re doing for Farmtech.”
If that were all it was, it would be one thing. If she’d even seen this coming. But she hadn’t. She’d thought the two of them were of the same mind and heart.
Only to find out she and Clint were as far apart in what they wanted as she and her ex.
She’d made a mistake that inadvertently involved her kids once. Was she about to make another?
Rose swallowed. She withdrew her hand from his and stepped back. Still feeling terribly betrayed, she pointed out, “Except there won’t be any work for Farmtech for either of us if there’s no berry patch at Double Creek.”
“Sure there will. It may not be as the Farmtech team envisions it right now, but there will still be a berry picker to sell and a couple to sell it.” His lips twisted in a rueful smile. “You heard them. We’re like honeymooners. We have a chemistry that’s at least unique and highly watchable, if not darn near iconic.”
His joke citing the words of the ad execs fell flat.
She frowned at him, struggling not to cry. “Except that chemistry is a fake.”
The rims of his eyes darkened. It was his turn to be nonplussed, but she took no pleasure in that. “How do you figure that?” he asked gruffly.
Tension throbbed between them.
“Because if that chemistry were real, Clint, I wouldn’t have to tell you how much those blackberries have come to mean to me.” She spun away, unable to bear his nearness any longer. “I wouldn’t have to explain to you how you are hurting and disappointing not just me but legions of other people. Our business colleagues. Our friends and neighbors. All our customers.”
Nor would she be so shocked to find out the depth and breadth of the differences between them.
She balled her hands into fists at her sides. “You would know how much those berries mean to everyone who has enjoyed them this year. You would know it would be almost criminal to destroy them! Never mind give up the only reason you and I have to be together...”
Abruptly he looked as if he’d been the one blindsided with a punch to the gut. “Did you just say that those berries are the only reason we have to be together?”
She guessed she had. And for good reason. “That ad campaign for the harvester was going to have us working and traveling together all year long!” Bitterly she admitted to herself how much she had been looking forward to that, too.
He huffed in disgust. “So without it, we’re over. Is that it?”
Were they?
Sadly, Rose realized that was indeed the case. Her shoulders hunched in defeat, she acknowledged, “I can’t be involved with a man who doesn’t want what I want again, Clint.” It was just too miserable and ill-fated a situation. Because even if it didn’t end now, it would surely end later.
A muscle worked in his jaw. “And I can’t be involved with a woman who will be with me only if I meet her demands and adhere to whatever narrow definition of our life together that she has.”
So their love affair was over.
Why was she not surprised? Maybe because all along she had known it was too good, too wonderful and special to be true.
Wearily she tried to salvage what they could. “Okay, fine. We won’t be lovers anymore.” They could keep a small part of what they had built, however, assuming she could figure out a way to salvage the deal with Farmtech. “We could still have a business partnership, Clint.”
His gaze hardened. “No, Rose, we can’t,” he returned. “Not if we’re not friends. And given the way we both feel, well, let’s just say maybe we both should have seen this coming.”
Giving her no chance to reply, Clint turned on his heel and walked out.
Chapter Fifteen
“Is that the contract?” Violet asked Saturday afternoon, shortly after closing, when she stopped by Rose Hill Farm to pick up a fresh supply of locally grown produce.
Putting the legal papers aside, Rose nodded and took the reusable mesh crate her triplet handed her.
Still in the scrubs she’d worn for her thirty-six-hour hospital shift, Violet followed Rose around the barn. “Did you get everything you wanted?”
Rose picked out several lush green zucchini and two equally delectable crookneck yellow squash from a colorful display. “From the Farmtech tractor company? Yes.” It had taken ten days of nonstop negotiating between the execs and the lawyers and the “talent,” but finally everyone was happy, and a new plan was in place.
Looking as peaked as usual after one of her long shifts, Violet added a head of cabbage and two large sweet onions to the stash. “So they agreed to let you be the sole spokesperson for the berry picker?”
Violet added new red potatoes and a bunch of carrots to her basket. “Why do you think he agreed, then?”
“Because I pushed him into it,” Rose said, guilt tightening her chest.
Violet made a dissenting face. She walked over to the cucumbers and selected a few. “Clint McCulloch doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who gets steamrollered into anything he doesn’t want to do, even if a pretty woman is doing the asking.” She added a head of baby lettuce. “So why did he really say yes?”
Rose added strawberries, raspberries and blueberries to her basket, then paused in front of the new crop of yellow peaches. “To be perfectly honest, I don’t have a clue why he ever agreed.”
Regret lashed through her. It would have been so much simpler if he hadn’t. They wouldn’t have become friends. Or lovers. She wouldn’t have fallen so hard and so fast for him. Wouldn’t have wanted more... Violet carried her crate over to the cash register and set it down with a thud. She turned to Rose, hands on her hips. “Yeah, you do. You just don’t want to say it.”
Rose felt her breath hitch. Her sister was right. She didn’t want to voice it because hearing it aloud made it real.
Irreversible.
Nor did she want to lament all she had lost.
And she had lost a tremendous amount, behaving as she had, insisting that he forget what he wanted for his ranch and do what she wanted for the Double Creek.
Her selfishness had gotten her in trouble before, when she’d wanted a baby despite her ex-husband’s disinterest, and ended up raising triplets completely on her own.