The Texan's Diamond Bride

by Teresa Hill

  His body was big and hard and warm, and he smelled so good, fresh from the shower. She laid her head on his shoulder and eased into that spot where his shoulder met his neck, one hand pressed flat over his beating heart, letting the comfort and the reassurance of him seep into her.

  “Do you ever just want to run away from your whole family and all of its problems and go somewhere where no one can find you?” she whispered.

  “Not me. I’d find a way to seal the borders of this ranch and cut it off completely from the outside world. No one would get in without my say-so. That’s my idea of paradise when they’re all driving me crazy.”

  Paige grinned. “Okay, do it. That would work.”

  “Red, the thing is, I just haven’t figured out how. But if I did, I’d keep you inside with me, and I wouldn’t let anybody from your family in, either.”

  Which made him her hero.

  She let her hand slide up to the side of his face, and snuggled deeper into the curve of his shoulder. How could a man be so comforting and yet so sexy at the same time?

  “What do they want you to do, Red?” he asked finally. “Get back into the mine? Is that it? Talk me into it? No matter what it takes?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, they sure knew the right person to send,” he claimed. “If anybody could talk me into it, it’s you. You could probably talk me into anything.”

  “I don’t want to do it,” she tried to explain. “I want you to understand that. To believe it, if you can. I don’t want to do that to you. To use…this thing between us just to get back into that mine.”

  He took a breath, a slow, deep steadying one, let one of his hands stroke her hair. “But you will anyway?”

  “I have to,” she said.

  He eased her away from him just enough that he could look her in the eye. “No, honey, you don’t.”

  “I promised I’d do whatever it takes to get back into that mine and find the diamond—”

  “Whatever it takes?”

  She nodded.

  “Fine,” he said. “Tell your family the price of entrance is you in my bed. See how they like that.”

  She laughed sarcastically. “I wish it was that easy. You could be the evil Foley man who used me terribly, and I’d be the self-sacrificing heroine of the story who gave up her body to the evil one for the good of her family.”

  “You make me sound like a complete cad, Red.”

  “Only to my family. To yours, I’d be the scheming woman who was willing to use her body to seduce you into getting what my family and I wanted.”

  “Oh, well. In that case…it’s a brilliant plan,” he agreed.

  “It is. Both our families would understand.”

  He rubbed his cheek, slightly rough with late-day stubble, against hers. “And we’d get what we want anyway. We’d get each other.”

  “And our families would have one more reason to hate each other.”

  “Yes, they would,” he said, pulling her closer, his hold one of comfort and admirably restrained desire. “You know, I feel compelled to point out that we don’t ever have to tell anyone what we do on this ranch. No one would ever have to know. Have you thought about that?”

  “Yes,” she admitted.

  “And if no one ever knew, who could it possibly hurt?” he reasoned. “Just you and me. If we…came to care enough about each other, or if just one of us cared enough…”

  They could get hurt.

  She started crying again. He had a hand on the side of her face, pressing her close, and he felt those tears, swore softly and then he was kissing her, slowly, deeply, hungrily.

  Nothing more.

  Just kissing her like he wanted to devour her right here on the sofa.

  She sank into him, into the pleasure, going boneless in his arms, wanting to be nowhere else but there. Her heart started thudding heavily, her body warm and tingly all over, the pleasure centered on the point where his mouth was joined with hers, as if every sensation, every bit of energy, of life sprang from that union.

  Take me, she wanted to beg him. Take me so fast I don’t have time to think or to pull away. Just do it, and we’ll worry about the consequences later.

  He rolled them in one smooth motion, and she ended up flat on her back on the sofa with him on top of her, his body all big and hard and ready.

  She loved the feel of him there, the weight of him, the heat, the way one of his thighs slipped between hers in an intimate promise of the pleasures in store for them both.

  He made short work of the buttons of her shirt, undoing only as many as it took to allow him access to one breast. He pushed her bra aside and there was no teasing this time, just him sucking hard on her nipple, the sensation opening up a line directly to that place between her thighs and setting that spot to throbbing.

  She wanted her jeans off, wanted his off, wanted his mouth…She wanted it everywhere, right then, no more waiting.

  She’d come right then and there, if he kept sucking on her nipple that way. Just that would be enough.

  He slid his thigh high against her, stroking her through her jeans, and she arched up against him, holding his head to her breasts.

  The man made her insane.

  The whole situation was insane, but he was right.

  No one would ever have to know.

  It was their lives, their bodies, their secret, their time out of time, right here, right now.

  Paige had this crazy impulse to tell him she loved him. It flashed through her head in a second, taking her breath away, leaving her weak and scared and thrilled, all at the same time. Did she love him? She had never really felt that way about anyone before.

  He moved from one breast to the other, and she made a purring sound of pure pleasure, pure need. Now he was messing with her mind as much as her body.

  She’d be crazy to even think of loving him.

  Still, the idea kept nagging at her, running around in her brain, sneaking through the fog of pleasure he’d created there and making her actually think about it.

  What if she loved him?

  And then when they finished this, and she had to talk him into letting her go find the diamond…he’d think this was all about that damned diamond.

  “Dammit,” she muttered.

  He lifted his head for an instant, annoyed and breathless and so sexy it hurt. “What?”

  “I…I’m sorry, but we can’t do this yet!”

  He groaned, closed his eyes, hung his head over her chest, the rest of his body still lying heavily on top of hers.

  “We just…we have to settle this thing with the stupid diamond first, Travis. I’m sorry, but we do.”

  “We already did,” he complained, but he rolled off of her anyway.

  Travis pulled her up on her side with her back against the sofa, and he rolled onto his side, too, facing her. He looked seriously annoyed, seriously aroused.

  “You’re going to sleep with me, so I’ll let you look for the diamond, remember? And I’m going to let you seduce me, and then I’ll be so crazy for you, I’ll let you do anything, including look for the diamond. It’s perfect and both our families will understand, because they expect the worst of each other, anyway.”

  “I know, but that’s for them, if they ever find out and start being jerks about it. I’m talking about us. We have to settle this first for us because…because…”

  “Because why, Red?” He cupped her face with his hand, still breathing hard but giving her a sweet smile.

  “Because I couldn’t stand it if you thought I was going to sleep with you to get that damned diamond,” she said.

  He looked completely exasperated. “At the moment, I don’t really care why you do it, just that you do.”

  “I know, but come morning, you will care and I’ll care, too. I can’t have you hating me, Travis, or thinking I’m just another scheming woman who wants something from you and will use her body to get it.”

  He sighed, then swore. “I don’t think that.
”

  “Maybe not now, but afterward, when I start talking you into letting me back into the mine, you will. So we have to settle this now, and then…we can do whatever we want.”

  He went still, really looking at her. “Promise? The we-can-do-whatever-we-want part? After we settle this?”

  “Yes. And my vote for what happens right after we settle this would be getting naked.”

  “And you expect me to have a serious conversation with you after hearing that? I hardly have any blood in my brain right now, Red.”

  “Come on, focus. We have a goal in mind, Travis. We settle this, we can get naked.”

  He shook his head, trying to clear it. “If this is your idea of negotiating, you’re really good at it.”

  “This is me, sick of everything standing between us and wanting to fix it, so I can take my clothes off and climb into your bed. Come on. Get up. We can’t do this horizontally, and I think I have an idea.”

  Chapter Ten

  He sat up, got to his feet, poured himself a shot of whiskey neat and ran a hand through his hair, thinking if she was out to mess with his head, she was succeeding brilliantly.

  Maybe he was a fool, but he really didn’t care, because he was going to have her. And maybe then he’d be able to think straight and make some sense of this whole thing.

  Maybe.

  He sat back down, on the far end of the sofa, and she sat at the other end, turned sideways to face him, one leg tucked up under her, her arm stretched out along the back.

  God, he loved that wild, crazy hair of hers.

  That was his first thought. Not the greatest start to any negotiations, he knew, but still…That hair was magnificent. It made him absolutely crazy. He wanted it spread out over his chest after they made love, could imagine her stroking his entire body with her hair.

  “I don’t think you’re focusing,” she said.

  Travis rolled his eyes, telling himself she wasn’t his ex-wife, and he wasn’t about to get stupid over a woman again. The thing was, she was so much smarter than his ex-wife and more beautiful, and he wanted her even more.

  Which had the potential to make him even stupider and her even more dangerous, which was a terrifying thought.

  God help him.

  “Okay, Red,” he said. “Tell me why I’m going to let you back into that mine. I’m assuming you have some reason other than the fact that you’re gorgeous and sexy, and I want you so bad I can hardly see straight?”

  She blinked up at him. “You’re not helping. Focus, remember?”

  “Okay, tell me why.”

  “Because my brother is as stubborn as you are, and he won’t give up trying to force his way onto the ranch, just because you say no the first time or the first ten times he tries to make it happen. And the whole thing will just turn into one giant hassle that goes on and on, and you’ll hate that, Travis. You’ll absolutely hate it.”

  “Yeah, I would, but that’s no reason to give him what he wants,” he argued, hating her brother right now. “And what the hell is wrong with the guy? Sending his little sister in to do a dangerous job like heading into an abandoned mine? I plan on telling him that, too.”

  She frowned. “When you have a geologist in the family, someone who actually has experience working in mines, if you’re smart, that’s who you send to do the job. And you’re not staying focused.”

  “Okay. Fine. But I have to say, the idea of frustrating your brother sounds really good to me.”

  “Not if that’s not what you really want. Think about yourself here and what you want—”

  He grinned. “That’s easy, Red. I want you.”

  “Besides me. You want as little hassle as possible with my family, especially over the diamond, which is probably here on this ranch you love. Think about it. No more treasure hunters sneaking onto your ranch, and no McCords taking you to court, if they have to, to get into that mine.”

  “Court?”

  “Stubborn, Travis. Remember, my brother’s very stubborn, like you. And, as he’s already pointed out, my family owns the mineral rights. We’re talking about a mine. He claims we have the right to go in there and mine anytime we want. He’ll say we’re simply exercising the mineral rights and we can fight in court, if you want, for a long time. But you don’t want that. What do you want?”

  “Besides you naked? Right?”

  “Yes, besides that. Come on. What do you want? You want to never have a hassle over this stupid diamond again, right?”

  He blinked once, then again. Absolutely damned right. “Yes. How do I get that?”

  “By settling it right now. You and me. We’ll do it together. All we have to do is trust each other a little.”

  He balked at that.

  “I know. Not your strong suit. Stay with me here. You trust me, at least a little bit, right? And I trust you. I want a chance to look for the diamond, and you get a chance to get my brother off your back.”

  “Only if you find the damned thing. If not we’ll be looking forever. There are five old silver mines on this ranch.”

  “But there’s only one that matters. The Eagle Mine. I…I’m trusting you, Travis. We have the original deeds to the silver mines. There’s a clue on one of the deeds. A tiny clue on the border to the deed to the Eagle Mine. There’s a tiny diamond in one of the eagle’s claws. There’s nothing else like that on any of the other deeds.”

  He frowned. “Pretty thin as clues go.”

  “Your grandfather Elwin Foley was on that ship when it went down. He was the first owner of this ranch. My grandfather Harry McCord is the first one to have a deeded ownership of that silver mine. If Elwin hid the diamond here, and Harry found it after he won the ranch from Elwin, Harry wouldn’t have left it there without some kind of clue about where he hid it. He must have been hoping that one of his ancestors would find it later and be able to claim it as his own, with no challenge from Elwin Foley.”

  Travis was skeptical, but she seemed to believe she knew where that diamond was.

  “That mine is full of petroglyphs,” she reminded him. “You know that. You let the archaeologists inside the mines last year. I have their final report, cataloging the drawings and carvings. Eight of the petroglyphs in the Eagle Mine are of eagles. Don’t you see? The diamond is in the Eagle Mine, the spot marked by one of the eagles.”

  Damn.

  Maybe she would find it.

  “And if I don’t find the diamond,” she continued, “this whole thing will be over in a week or two. I’ll go to my brother and tell him the diamond’s not there, and he’ll believe me. And he’ll have no reason to ever bother you with this again. You’ll have all the peace and quiet you want.”

  Travis had to admit, that part sounded good.

  “I’ll even tell the world we know where Elwin Foley left the diamond, that Harry McCord found it and marked the spot, but it’s not there anymore. That we looked, and that someone must have already found it. I’ll look exhausted and like I’m ready to cry. I’ll trot out all my academic credentials and even show them the clue on the deed. People will believe me, and they’ll all leave you alone again.”

  Travis frowned. Either he was still all caught up in getting her into his bed as quickly as possible, or that made sense. He really did just want the whole mess with the diamond to end. Still, it had been so long since he trusted any woman, and he hated feeling like a fool.

  “Travis, this is like the whole thing with the ranch. You don’t really care about the diamond. You just don’t want my family to have it. And my family doesn’t really care about the ranch anymore. They’re just too stubborn to want you to own it. Do the right thing here. Do the thing that causes you the least amount of hassles and forget about the rest.”

  “Forget that your family is getting what it wants,” he reminded her.

  “Just remember that you’re getting what you want. Oh, hell, you think we’re all crazy to believe the diamond’s even there. I can tell. So if you’re convinced we’re not goi
ng to find anything anyway, then this is just sheer stubbornness on your part, to not want to let any of the McCords look for it.”

  “Well,” he conceded, “the Foleys have been accused of being stubborn before.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that. Come on. You know everything I just said makes sense.”

  Damn, it did.

  He was almost certain it did.

  “I know what you really want is the ranch,” she said, “but my brother doesn’t own it. I can’t get you the ranch from him, but when this is over, I’ll talk to my mother. I’ll do everything I can—”

  “Red—”

  “I know. You don’t think it will ever happen.”

  “No,” he admitted. “I don’t. I accepted that a long time ago.”

  But he made her want to believe it was possible.

  “I’m going to do everything I can,” she said.

  Like she thought she could do anything in the world.

  He shook his head, thinking she was still a McCord, and he was half-blind with wanting her, no doubt not thinking clearly.

  “And then, there’s the fact that I’d have to stay here until it stops raining,” she said, giving him a purely wicked smile. “And it’s flooded everywhere. I’d have to wait until the water went down, so I could get to the mine, right? Night after night?”

  “Okay, now you’re just messing with my head,” he said, thinking about nothing but her naked again.

  She grinned that super sexy grin of hers. “And…we don’t know, but the mine might be flooded underground, too. I’d have to wait for the water to go down there, and then I’d have to have time to search….”

  “And you’d spend every night of that time in my bed,” he said, not asking her, telling her. “How is this different, exactly, than you sleeping with me to get to the diamond?”

  “If I was going to do that, I wouldn’t have made you stop a minute ago. This is the two of us having a rational discussion about an issue between us and coming to a rational solution to that problem. So we can put it aside and think now of nothing but ourselves and what we want.”

  Okay. He supposed he got the distinction.