The Tough Love Groom: Texas Titan Romances

by Taylor Hart

  So she played the part. It wasn’t hard. She’d loved theater in high school and had even been the lead in Our Town. By the time she got to college, she was determined to focus on her studies, so she’d let it go. She was ready for this part though, had practiced all week in her mind.

  “Hey." Putting on her warmest smile, she embraced him and kissed the side of his cheek.

  He held her, seeming stunned.

  “Are you ready?” She grinned up at him.

  He tipped his sunglasses down and stared into her eyes deeply for a moment then shook his head and wiped on a smile. “Baby, I was born ready.”

  Taking his hand, she laughed as she pulled him to his Jeep in the driveway. “You’re gonna love it!”

  It’d taken a lot to discover what he might actually hate in a date. A lot, but not too much for her to figure out. The guy was an adrenaline junky, but he’d never done one thing.

  He held the passenger door for her, and she let the guys in first so they could sit in the back. She hopped into the Jeep and giggled for the camera. "Head to the airport.”

  Kade only hesitated briefly before getting into the Jeep and taking off. “I thought you might choose a helicopter ride.” He let out a laugh. "Honestly, I’m glad you did. I love flying."

  The wind blew her hair, and she put her hand on his.

  Looking down at her hand then back to the road, she could tell he was confused because she was putting on a great act.

  “I just wanted to make this the most memorable day.” Turning over her shoulder, she winked into the camera.

  Kade noticed what she was doing, put on his own fake smile and waved back to the camera too.

  “Going to be the best day ever!” She held up her hands and acted all excited.

  Part of researching a guy was knowing his likes and dislikes. According to the last five years of dating history, he liked blondes or redheads. He didn’t deviate too much from that. He especially liked the cheerleaders, which made her want to gag. The interesting part was he had never been engaged or popped the question to anyone.

  He laughed and kept driving.

  She turned on the radio and blasted country western music.

  “Hey, my favorite music.” He grinned.

  “Really? That’s crazy, mine too.” She was just doing what he wanted. Being whatever he needed her to be. She jammed out and acted all fun, the exact kind of person he would like. She offered him a piece of bubble gum, and he laughed and took some. She blew bubbles and popped them. They listened to Texas Waters and Montana Crew songs. By the time they got to the airport, he seemed relaxed and happy.

  "Should I just go to the helicopter port?"

  She nodded. He drove through security, and they let him right in since she’d notified them ahead of time.

  When they got close to the helicopters, she redirected him. “No, go that way.”

  Hesitating only briefly, he did as he was directed.

  She turned for the camera. “America—this is something you are going to get to see for the first time."

  He kept going, and she could tell when he realized what they were going to do.

  "No.” He stopped the car.

  She acted like a hyper, crazy cheerleader and turned for the camera. “Skydiving! Yay!"

  A look of pure terror crossed his face, and he swung to her then back to the tandem jumpers getting ready in front of the little plane.

  It had taken a bit of digging to realize that he was terrified of heights. She saw the pale look cover his face.

  Getting out, she ran around to his side and pulled open the door. “C'mon!” She jumped and took his hand, rushing to the tandem guy and turning to the camera. “It was hard to find something that my guy has never done before, but I did it!”

  If she had been able to, she would have laughed outright at the discomfort that flitted across the championship quarterback's face.

  “Great,” he said before telling the camera guy to turn it off for a moment and tugged her aside. “I can’t do this. We need to restart the date.”

  All business now, she shook her head. “We have a contract. This isn’t a pre-recorded thing. This is happening. Plus, I thought you lived on Olympus, how could this possibly scare you?”

  Sucking in air, he bent over for a second then put his hands on his knees. “I can’t do this.”

  Thinking of the way he’d made her feel so idiotic for telling him not to fall in love with her, she turned back to the camera guy, she flicked a hand at him. "Frank, keep filming."

  Walking over to the guys in charge of the jump, she waved the camera guys over. “Meet Tim and Todd. They are both expert tandem jumpers and will be helping me and Kade today.”

  Frank recorded Kade, who still had his hands on his knees, bent over.

  Being silly, she pushed her head in front of the camera. “Are you ready, Zeus?”

  Kade turned away from her. “I think I’m really going to be sick.”

  For a second, she was tempted to give in and not do this. She walked over to him and lowered her voice. “It’s fourth and long, can you throw the pass?” She used his analogy.

  Sucking in another long breath, he stood and met her eyes. “Fine.”

  Not expecting him to so rapidly confront his fear, she stood by and observed as he introduced himself to the tandem guys.

  A few minutes later, they started their presentation. “You have to arch. The most important thing when jumping out of a plane is the right arch.” Tim demonstrated by sticking his chest out with his arms halfway up, putting them in a T position while pushing his pelvis out. “Your pelvis has to be out to put your whole form into alignment. Do we understand?”

  Both she and Kade went through the training. Part of her had always wanted to jump out of a plane. Actually, this was a dream come true for her.

  Knowing her doctor would never have allowed her to do it, she had opted not to ask.

  As she and Kade suited up for the flight, Frank filmed the details of the plane and interviewed the pilot.

  A couple of minutes later, when she and Kade were alone and putting on the rest of the gear, he nudged her. “You discovered I hated heights, and you tailored this to me, didn’t you?”

  At first, she didn’t meet his eyes.

  “Didn’t you?"

  Finally, she looked up, but she didn’t see what the anger she’d been expecting.

  Instead there was amusement. “You might have gained some yards, but you’re a long way from a touch down, Song.”

  Which made her laugh. Like they were sharing a private joke.

  Looking a bit off center, he shook his head. “Pretty clever, I pressure you for a date, you give me a date I don’t want.”

  Leaning into him, she smelled his cologne. Something spicy and manly. “It’s just the beginning, Kincaid.”

  He held her eyes and let out a breath. “I clearly underestimated your offense.”

  When they got up into the plane, she looked over at him. He’d gone quiet. He looked a bit petrified.

  His angst actually made her feel bad. He wasn't even pretending for the camera, simply responding to anything she said with a little laugh and "Sure."

  She hadn’t planned on letting him off the hook, but leaning over, she whispered in his ear. “Do you want to re-cut this? We can go do something else.”

  A mischievous grin flitted over his sickly face. “You bailing on me, Song?”

  That’s when she saw it. The grit Kade Kincaid carried with him all the time. On and off the field. He would jump out of an airplane, even though he was terrified.

  At that moment, she looked out the airplane window as it rushed down the airstrip. Adrenaline surged within her. She yelled. “Whoo!”

  Kade took her hand and copied her yell. “Whoo!”

  Their eyes met, and her stomach fluttered, and both of them laughed.

  Dang, this was getting real.

  It was her last thought before the plane left the ground.

&nb
sp; Chapter 8

  Kade put a hand over his heart and muttered a prayer, staring out the window.

  “I didn't know Mr. Kincaid was a praying man.” Felicity teased.

  Starting, he let out a soft laugh. “I guess your research only uncovered I don’t like heights. It didn’t uncover I also believe in God?”

  Her best poker face stared back at him.

  The thrum of the plane sounded around them. The camera guy was recording the scenery.

  It was more than obvious how much he’d underestimated this woman. Sure, from the battle they’d already had to even get on this date, he could tell she was fierce, but he’d never anticipated she would purposefully take him skydiving because of his fear of heights. His mind sorted through how she could have possibly known about that fear.

  She ticked off her fingers one by one. “No rock climbing, no bungee cord jumping. I’ve never seen a picture of you actually jumping out of an airplane,” she said, as if knowing his question and answering it.

  A couple of red strands of hair were in her eyes when she turned to look at him.

  Humor? Is that what she was seeing in those eyes?

  “The Triple Threat does all those things, but you don’t. You took them up in your helicopter, but you don’t have to jump out of that.” She said matter-of-factly.

  A surge of surprise saturated him. She had studied him. Normally, he got people who could tell him a million trivial things about himself. Down to his favorite ice cream and food. He'd never had someone tell him what he feared. It took a lot of effort to read between the lines like that.

  For a few moments, both of them stared out the window of the plane. Keeping a hand on his heart, he felt like his insides were being squeezed. Could he really do this? Go through with it? Unexpectedly, he had to barf. He bolted out of his seat and grabbed a small basket on the side of the plane, heaving out nothing.

  The tandem jumpers noticed. Tim got up to check on him.

  “Are you okay, Mr. Kincaid? Do we need to cancel this?" Tim asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

  “No.” Kade wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve and turned to face her.

  Felicity still sat, unmoved, watching out the window.

  Which kind of ticked him off. Usually women were at his side, trying to make him happy. He became even more determined to go through with this if only to show her he could. “We’re doing this.” Kade declared, moving back to her.

  They climbed in altitude to ten thousand feet, and the tandem guys each started suiting them up, strapping them in closer. Soon, they encouraged them to move over to the door.

  Kade felt like he was playing in his first game of the season. Normally, he ralphed before the first game. The wooziness of throwing up was now turning into adrenaline as they waited for the doors to open. He wanted nothing more than to crawl to the furthest corner and strap himself into about 80 seatbelts. Then cry like a baby.

  Instead, he took a deep breath, turned to her, and took her hand. “Are you ready?" He yelled.

  Looking a bit startled, she met his eyes and the most magnificent thing happened, she smiled. “Yeah.” She lifted their hands. “God Bless Texas!”

  He laughed. “God Bless Texas!”

  Tim opened the door for them. Kade looked around for the barf bucket again, but Todd started signaling down from three. He had no choice. If he passed out, Tim would pull the cord, right?

  In no time, they were off. Sailing through the air. Floating and falling at the same time. The force of the wind consumed him, and he felt like he was actually flying. He arched his back and got in position, looking for Felicity.

  He found her at his side and saw she was trying to arch too.

  They fell for what felt like forever. Abruptly, his instructor signaled him to open the chute.

  Timeless, that’s how he felt when the chute opened. He took off his goggles, staring down at the city of Dallas beneath them.

  “How are you feeling Mr. Kincaid?” Tim asked him, holding his wrist up with a GoPro attached to it.

  Kade grinned. “Awesome!”

  He saw her on his left, removing her goggles. “Whoo!” She yelled into the camera.

  A million thoughts plagued him about this woman. He realized he had thought he’d had her pegged, but truthfully, he knew nothing about her.

  “Here, take the controls, and you can turn it yourself.” Tim said.

  “No,” he said, not wanting to do something that would endanger his life more than it already was.

  He looked over and saw her taking the controls and doing all kinds of turns.

  So he took the controls and began trying to ease it back and forth slowly, eventually taking a sharper turn. It was a rush. Until he noticed the ground was coming at him rather quickly.

  “All right, are you ready, Mr. Kincaid? Remember how to land? Press your arms down with the controls and pick your legs up, bending at the knees."

  The ground was coming faster and faster, and he remembered something about ground rush, but he couldn’t remember exactly how to prevent it.

  “Now!” Tim yelled.

  He pulled the hand controls down and pulled his feet up, just like they’d practiced. And bam. He landed in a solid pile of gravel.

  It smarted for a second, and then he was fine.

  “You did it!” Tim cheered, unstrapping them.

  “Yeah!” Kade yelled into the camera that had been waiting for him.

  He turned and saw her landing a couple of feet away.

  “Yeah!” She lifted a fist to him in the air.

  “God Bless Texas!” He grinned and got up feeling amazing. When was the last time he’d cheated death? His arms and legs were numb and energized at the same time.

  Their instructors quickly unstrapped them.

  She rushed over, happiness shining on her face as well. “How did it go?”

  Unsure if it was the thrill of the jump or all the tension between them before or how happy she seemed in this moment—how innocent and elated—he took her into his arms and kissed her.

  Chapter 9

  Felicity wasn’t sure if it was the euphoria of the jump or the fact that he’d kissed her first, but she actually did something she never would have thought to do. She pressed herself closer to him, slipping her hands behind his neck and reciprocating. Her mind went a hundred miles an hour. She felt drawn to him by a magnet pull she didn’t know how to explain. Finally, she got her wits about her and pushed him back, reflexively slapping him across the face.

  Looking momentarily daft, he let out a laugh and pulled her into a bear hug, lifting her off the ground. “That was amazing!”

  Felicity spun in the air and wondered if she could really finish this date and keep up appearances. The kiss had startled her. She hadn’t kissed anyone in years.

  Putting her down, he didn’t even acknowledge the slap. “What now, boss?” He pointed to the camera guy.

  Her heart raced, and her adrenaline was out of control. She let out a loud laugh and pointed at him. “You are crazy!”

  He laughed too and pointed back. “Hey—you just jumped out of an airplane!”

  They looked at each other and burst out laughing again.

  She walked with him back to the training point where their instructors, the camera people, and the other instructors had assembled. As they approached, everyone whooped and hollered at them.

  She was feeling so good. Amazingly, she realized she wasn’t faking anything.

  They took off their gear and ruminated more about the jump.

  “I have never been afraid of heights, but when the plane door opened, even I was terrified."

  He laughed and blew out a long breath. “It was a rush. I’ll give ya that.” He leaned close and said, too quietly for the cameras to pick up, “If you hadn’t been there, I would’ve chickened out.”

  His words were sincere. She could tell. For a few moments, she almost forgot she should be on guard against him.

  The camera
flashed a couple of more pictures.

  After they said goodbye to Tim and Todd, he turned to her, lifting an eyebrow. "So what other torture do you have planned for today?"

  It partially annoyed her that he’d figured it out, but it also made her respect him that he’d gone through with the jumping out of a plane bit. She’d seen how terrified he’d been. “You really are a larger than life man,” she said quietly, unsure of how she was feeling about him at the moment.

  The side of his lip cocked up. "Didn’t feel that way a few moments ago.” He held up a hand and rubbed his jaw. “Well, except maybe when you slapped me for that kiss. That made me feel larger than life.”

  Once again, she laughed and hated that she was laughing. “You better have the camera guy cut that part.”

  He grinned wider. “Ya know, I’ve never been slapped before.”

  “You deserved it.”

  Kade cocked an eyebrow and pulled her closer, making sure no one could hear. “You kissed me back, Ms. Song.”

  She let out little laughs that sounded disjointed and pulled back. She would never admit that. “No, no way I kissed you back.”

  All of a sudden, his hand was on her waist, and he pulled her close to him again.

  The quickness of his movement astounded her. And it really astounded her to be face to face with those lips again.

  His breath rained down on her. “Next time we kiss, I’ll make sure I ask first.”

  Feeling this insane attraction to him, she glared at him. “And I’ll say no.”

  He laughed and abruptly, he let her go.

  Stumbling back, her emotions raged between extreme desire and extreme hatred that she felt this way. “I’ll slap you again if you kiss me.”

  Putting his sunglasses back in place, he took a step to her and took her hand. “I guess I must be a glutton for punishment.”

  Next, she made Kade go to a McDonalds and eat breakfast. He’d been quoted in a college article as saying he hated fast food, especially McDonalds, which he’d taken a lot of heat for in the press.

  Unexpectedly, he did it with a smile on his face. Even offered to sign and hand out a couple of balls to the kids in the play land.