by Cat Schield
“I love you,” she told him, meeting his gaze as they danced together, hips moving in ancient rhythm.
JT laced his fingers with hers and set their hands on the pillow beside her head. Without breaking his steady stroke into her body, he kissed her gently on the lips before murmuring, “You’re my everything.”
His confession caused her body to spasm. Her orgasm rolled over her in slow waves of ever-increasing pleasure that slowly faded. When she opened her eyes, she found JT watching her. Her lips curved at the wonder in his expression. He began to move against her powerfully, chasing his own finish. In seconds his body shuddered as his climax claimed him. He let her watch every emotion play across his face.
Breathing harshly, JT collapsed on his stomach beside her on the bed. He peered at her from beneath his long lashes, a wryness in his expression making him look younger than his thirty years. Or, Violet corrected, he looked exactly the age he was and she’d grown accustomed to how stress and unhappiness had made him seem older.
She rolled over on her side and cupped her hands beneath her cheek. “I’m here to stay.”
“I assumed that when I saw all the packing boxes in the hall.”
“And by here I mean wherever you are.” Her lips firmed. “I fully intend to fight dirty if that’s what it takes to save our marriage.”
“There’s nothing to save.” He lifted one hand to forestall her heated rebuttal. “Let me finish. I simply mean that I was wrong to push you away and that I’m fully committed to spending the rest of my life with you.”
Violet let him see her delight. “Good. I think you made a wise choice.”
“So do I.” JT rolled onto his side until their noses were an inch apart. His heart rate had returned to its regular resting pace, but every third beat or so it skipped a little as he realized just how happy he was.
“Feel like telling me how the shareholder vote worked out?”
Why did he get the sense that she already knew?
“Strangely enough, it came out in our favor.”
“Really?” She did a lousy job of sounding surprised. “How is that possible?”
“From what Brent was able to gather after I left, Casey didn’t vote his shares.”
“That’s odd. Any idea what happened?”
JT decided Violet’s poker face was improving, but he knew her well enough to pick up on the trace of amusement in her eyes.
“I don’t know if you remember but he was in the midst of a nasty divorce.”
“I seem to recall something about that.”
Now JT knew she’d been up to something because she’d been the one to point that out to him in the first place. “He let his wife have his four percent of Stone Properties stock in the settlement.”
“You don’t say.” Violet looked suitably fascinated. “But if his ex-wife had the shares, she wouldn’t be able to vote them because she was no longer family.”
“True.” JT let the rest of his explanation hang in the air, but Violet didn’t press him to continue. And why would she? JT suspected she already knew how it ended. “Without Casey’s four percent, my father and I controlled an equal number of shares.”
“So how did we win?”
“That’s an excellent question. Perhaps you’d like to explain to me.”
“Me?” She sounded innocent, but a smug smile tugged at her lips. “Why would you think I had anything to do with it?”
“Because I’ve met the ex-Mrs. Casey Stone and she’s greedy and beautiful, but not particularly bright. I don’t understand why she wanted the shares at all.”
“Well...” Violet drew out the word, reveling in the telling of her tale. “It seems that a year ago Casey had bought a big, beautiful love nest for his new amore and hadn’t declared it as part of the divorce settlement. So, I let Brittany know and suggested that she might want to ask for the Stone Property shares and let Casey have the house.”
“And he went for that? The shares had to be worth more or that was one hell of a house.”
“He was in a hurry to remarry, and he stood to lose big because he hadn’t disclosed the house.” Violet shook her head. “Brittany was thrilled to sell me the stock. After all, I’d done her a good turn. And in the end, I think she received more than Casey intended for her to have.”
“You own the four percent?”
“I do.”
“This wasn’t something you managed overnight, was it?” JT didn’t wait for her to answer. “After I told you it wasn’t worth pursuing, you went behind my back, didn’t you?”
“You refused to let me help.”
“And now I see I was wrong.” As much as he hated admitting that, Violet’s delight took the sting away.
“Good. Maybe now you’ll start listening to my advice.”
“Yes, oh wise one.”
JT put his arms around her and softly nuzzled the side of her neck. She smelled like fresh-cut grass and summer sunshine, both favorite scents from his time on the farm in Kentucky. Lulled by the steady beat of her heart against his, JT felt the door to his most guarded secrets crack open.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” he told her, strangely at peace now that he was on the verge of telling her about the worst moment of his life.
“You don’t have to thank me. I’m your wife. I’ll always have your back.”
“Then you should know what you’re letting yourself in for.”
“You don’t think I do?” Violet’s breath fell against his skin in a soothing cadence. “I didn’t read your file, but I know that you’re more troubled than the average person by mistakes you’ve made and that you carry childhood hurts that may never heal.”
“I’m more troubled because the mistakes I’ve made aren’t forgivable.”
“That’s impossible for me to believe.”
He never stopped being astonished by her faith in him, but she needed to know everything. “The day my mother died...”
“JT.” She cupped his cheek, offering comfort, and drew her thumb across his lips, silencing him. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“But I do. You were right about my needing to let go of the past. I can’t do that if I continue to let fear hold me captive. I need you to know what happened with my mother.” He pressed a kiss into her palm and closed his eyes. “I was the reason she died.”
Violet’s body jerked in reaction to his words, but instead of pushing him away, she moved even closer as if she wanted to slide under his skin and share the burden with him.
“That morning, she confronted me about using her credit card without asking and charging five hundred dollars’ worth of video games. She didn’t care that I’d bought the games, but the fact that I’d lied about it when she caught me made her angrier than I’d ever seen her. She’d found the games in my room and while I watched she threw them away. Then she told me I wasn’t allowed to go on a weekend trip with my friends to Universal Studios Orlando. We were supposed to leave from school that afternoon. I don’t remember ever being that mad.”
JT sucked in an unsteady breath as memories of that morning washed over him. They were crystal-clear and razor-sharp as if the fight had happened yesterday, not eighteen years earlier.
“I can see why she grounded you and I understand why you were upset, but I don’t see how it’s your fault that she died. She overdosed. You had nothing to do with that.”
“I upset her. I told her I hated her and that I understood why Dad couldn’t stand to be arou
nd her.”
JT shook his head, but there was no denying what he’d done. For a moment he couldn’t breathe. His throat had tightened past the point of pain. He’d never told anyone the role he’d played in his mother’s death. He needed to claw through years of self-loathing to let it out. It felt as if his insides were shredded.
When he continued, his voice was thick with anguish. “Then I grabbed my backpack and acted like I was leaving for school, but I snuck back to my room and packed what I would need for the weekend.”
“You went anyway?”
“I figured she’d be so out of it by the middle of the afternoon, she’d never realize that I wasn’t home until I was long gone. By five that evening she was dead. No one found her until the next morning when the housekeeper showed up.”
“You were twelve,” Violet said. “Your mother was a troubled woman who retreated into drugs and alcohol to cope with an abusive husband. How can you think you were to blame?”
“I overheard someone talking at her funeral. I realized that if I’d come home after school like I was supposed to, I could have found her still alive and called 911.”
A tear slid down his cheek. Before he could lift his hand to sweep the dampness away, Violet cupped his face in a fierce grip.
“JT, your mother was an addict. She could have overdosed at any time. You were not responsible for her illness.”
He heaved an unsteady breath. Part of him recognized that she was right, and he sensed her love and support would help him forgive himself.
“I love you,” he told her, speaking the words out loud for the first time.
Tears filled her eyes, but her smile was brighter than the sun. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him hard. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve needed to hear you say that.”
“It’s taken me a long time to understand what I was feeling,” he murmured into her hair. “Before you came along, the emotions I was most familiar with were dark ones.”
“All that is behind us now,” she said crisply, her optimism revving up. She leaned back and regarded him, her eyes determined. “Starting today, we have an abundance of new adventures awaiting us. Starting with house-hunting in Miami. I spoke with Grandfather about acquiring some property downtown and building a Fontaine property.”
“About that.” JT hadn’t expected her to be so enthusiastic about leaving Las Vegas for Miami and was worried that his news might not be what she wanted to hear. “We’re not going to Miami.”
“Why not? Now that your father has lost his chairmanship and is probably going to face jail time, the company is yours.”
“Here’s the thing. The night before the annual meeting, Brent and I had a long chat about the future of Stone Properties. We came to the conclusion that it would be better served with him at the helm.”
“But...but...” she sputtered, “it was your grandfather who started Stone Properties.”
“And with Brent running things it goes back into family hands.”
She cocked her head and regarded him. “What are you planning to do?”
“What I told you I was going to do before the shareholders’ meeting. Get out.”
“I see.” But it was obvious she didn’t. “So, where are we going?”
He soothed her worries with a smile and the stroke of his palm along her arm. “Nowhere. Neither one of us is leaving Las Vegas. In fact, I’ve decided to sell my shares of Stone Properties and buy Titanium.”
Her smile was blinding. “I think that’s a wonderful idea. But are you sure you want to settle for one property when you could be in charge of a dozen?”
“With Brent at the helm, Stone Properties will be in good hands. And I’m not really a sit-in-an-office-and-do-nothing-but-read-reports-and-make-policies kind of guy. I like the pulse of Las Vegas and have decided whatever else I do, here’s where my headquarters will be.”
Violet frowned. “That’s all well and good, but what happens if I win Grandfather’s contest and take over Fontaine Resorts and Hotels? I’ll have to move to New York City. What becomes of us then?”
JT had never considered that possibility. It wasn’t that he lacked faith in Violet’s abilities to do the job or her grandfather’s shortsightedness in not recognizing her talents, but she’d always seemed as much a part of Las Vegas as the strip itself.
“I guess I’ll have to rethink my plans.”
Her eyes softened. “You’d do that for me?”
“Did you not hear me when I said I can’t live without you?”
She snuggled closer and kissed his lips. “Then you’ll be happy to know that we’ll be living together in Las Vegas. I spoke with Grandfather and bowed out of the CEO race.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I made you my priority. Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, I intend to be by your side supporting you.”
“I feel the same way.”
She laughed. “Then I guess we’re pretty lucky that we both love Las Vegas so much because this is where we’re going to raise our children and grow old together.”
Her vision of their future was so much better than any he’d ever dreamed of. Gone were the shadows that had kept him from believing he deserved to be happy. Violet’s love had banished every one.
JT’s arms tightened around her. “I can’t imagine anything better than that.”
* * * * *
If you liked Violet’s story, don’t miss her sister’s tale: AT ODDS WITH THE HEIRESS.
Available now from Cat Schield and Harlequin Desire!
Keep reading for an excerpt from YOUR RANCH...OR MINE? by Kathie DeNosky.
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One
Lane Donaldson couldn’t help but laugh as he watched the five men he called brothers acting like a bunch of damned fools.
It was funny how a baby could do that to otherwise intelligent grown men. And whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was no different. He had done his fair share of making faces and odd noises to try to get a smile out of the kid, as well.
He had invited his family and friends to the barbecue to celebrate his winning half of the Lucky Ace Ranch in a poker game last fall. But because of the birth of his nephew a few months back, the celebration had turned into a party to welcome the new baby to the family as well as to commemorate his big win.
“Y’all are going to scare the pudding out of little Hank,” Nate Rafferty complained as he made another face at the infant in his brother Sam’s arms.
Nate and Sam were as different as night and day, even though they were the only two biological siblings out of the band of foster brothers who had spent their adolescence together on the Last Chance Ranch. While Sam was happily married with a three-month-old son, Nate was too busy trying to date the entire female population of the southwest to settle down. In fact, of the four remaining confirmed bachelors, Lane incl
uded, Nate was hands down the wildest of the bunch.
“And I suppose you think you’re not scaring the kid with that sappy grin of yours, Nate?” Ryder McClain asked, laughing. “I play chicken with two thousand pounds of pissed-off beef every weekend and you’re still enough to scare the hell out of me.” A rodeo bull fighter, Ryder was without question one of the bravest men Lane had ever had the privilege of knowing—and Ryder was also the most laid-back, easygoing of his foster brothers.
“How much longer before you become a daddy, Ryder?” T. J. Malloy asked, taking a swig from the beer bottle in his hand. A highly successful saddle bronc rider, T.J. had retired at the ripe old age of twenty-eight and in the ensuing years had started raising and training champion reining horses.
“The doctor told us the other day that it could be just about any time,” Ryder answered, glancing uneasily over to where his wife, Summer, sat talking to Sam’s wife, Bria, and Bria’s sister, Mariah. “And the closer it gets, the more I feel like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”
“Getting a little nervous, are you?” Lane asked, grinning.
“More like a lot,” Ryder said, glancing again at his wife as if to assure himself she was still doing all right.
“I know exactly how you feel, Ryder,” Sam said, nodding. “About a month before Bria had little Hank, I mapped out the quickest route to the hospital and made several practice runs just to be sure I could get her there in time.”
“Both of you have helped cows during calving season for years,” Nate said, his tone practical. “If you’d had to, you could have delivered little Hank, Sam. And you could deliver your and Summer’s baby, Ryder.”
Every one of them gave Nate an unimpressed look, then, shaking their heads, resumed their conversation.
“What?” Nate asked, obviously confused.
“I want the best for my wife when the time comes for her to have our baby and I’m man enough to admit I’m not it,” Ryder answered, his disgusted expression stating louder than words what he thought of Nate’s logic.