Her Royal Bed

by Laura Wright

  When Bobby’d had enough, he leaned against the counter and raised a brow at her. “You’re amazing.”

  She flushed happily. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

  “I’m enjoying a few things lately.” He gave her a wink. “You ready for a ride?”

  Her breath caught in her throat as a mental image popped into her head that had nothing whatsoever to do with horses.

  “Only take a minute to saddle up a couple of ponies.” He pushed away from the counter.

  And just as quickly, the sensual image faded. She had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. She really was growing desperate. Sad but true. She wanted to know when that kiss was coming—wanted to know why they had to take things slow when they’d started out so gloriously fast. She hoped he wasn’t playing with her….

  Sakir’s warning was always there, under the surface of her skin, making her second-guess herself and Bobby.

  “C’mon,” he said, taking her hand and leading her away from the kitchen and toward the front door. “The sunset can be real shocking it’s so pretty.”

  “But we just ate,” she warned, humor lacing her tone.

  He chuckled. “It’s not like swimming, Jane.”

  Any thread of worry she’d had disappeared and she laughed with him. “All right, lead on, cowboy. Into the barn and onto the back of the oldest and slowest horse you got.”

  A man and his horse were a sacred thing.

  Bobby Callahan had always ridden solo. It was sort of a rule he had. No females behind him or in front of him. But tonight he had a woman sitting behind him, her arms wrapped around his waist, tight and warm, her thighs pressed against his, and she felt damn good. Lucky for him, Jane hadn’t felt all that comfortable on Frankie, the horse he’d originally picked out for her, and Bobby wasn’t about to walk the whole property alongside Ol’ Dolly Parton, an aging blond mare who walked as though she were stepping in and out of a bucket of molasses, so he’d suggested riding double.

  Beneath him, his gray stallion, Rip, tore up the ground while his gait remained as smooth as an ocean wave. The Texas landscape whizzed past, the air growing cooler with every dip of the sun into the horizon.

  When Bobby had reached his destination, he slowed and let the stallion walk. “The sun’s falling fast.”

  From behind him came a sigh, then the words, “It’s beautiful.”

  “The land or the sunset?”

  “Yes,” she replied, a smile in her tone.

  He chuckled. “Careful. Or you’ll get bit.”

  “Bit by what?”

  “The Texas bug.”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Think you could live here?”

  The question was a basic one, simple actually when they were discussing sunsets and pretty scenery, their mood light and humorous. But the question also held a dot of intimacy that made Bobby real uncomfortable. Things were hopping around in his mind as of late, poking at his heart and gut over this woman. He liked her, liked her mind, her up-front way of talking. He was over the moon for her cooking, and those full lips and long legs….

  Sweat broke out on his neck.

  He had to keep reminding himself why he was pursuing her or there would be some real trouble ahead.

  “Texas is already growing on me, Bobby. For many reasons.” Jane shifted against him, her arms loosening slightly. “But in the end, I believe the place picks the person.”

  He snorted. “That’s a bunch of bull, you know.”

  She laughed, let her head drop against his back. “Yeah, I know, but with a philosophy like that I don’t have to make any decisions for myself.”

  “Looking for someone to make decisions for you, are you?” He hated the race of thrill and tension that snaked through him. And before she could answer him, Bobby twisted to the right, scooped her up and planted her in front of him on the horse.

  Another rule broken, he mused. But hell, it was all in the name of revenge, wasn’t it? The darkly sarcastic thought made his gut twist, as did the hot look she sent him.

  Her eyebrow arched over her left eye. “Is this standard horse protocol, Mr. Callahan?”

  “No, but I wanted you in front of me, and instead of asking, I thought I’d make the decision for you.” He kicked the horse forward into an easy walk.

  With a grin, she wrapped one leg over his and inched herself closer. “So we’re just going to keep riding this way?”

  “Nope, we’ll stop at that tree and turn around.”

  “Why?” She glanced over her shoulder, saw the massive tree, then turned back and curled into his chest. “Amazingly, I’m really enjoying this. I’d like to go farther.”

  “We can’t.”

  Emotions were shooting off inside him like out-of-control firecrackers. With the center of her snuggled into him, fitting him perfectly, he wanted her, any way he could get her. Desire warred with an irritating wash of chivalry. He could feel her heart pounding against his chest. Was she excited, was she nervous? He wanted to protect her. But how did he protect her from himself?

  She looked up. “Why can’t we go farther?”

  “Beyond that tree…” The words weren’t as easy to speak as they were to think.

  “What?” she asked, concern etching her features.

  “That’s your brother’s land, darlin’.”

  For a moment, she just stared at him, then she nodded. “But I’m sure he wouldn’t mind us—”

  “I mind,” Bobby said firmly, his gut tight now. “I’ve never passed this boundary since the day the land was sold, and I don’t intend to trespass now.”

  He brought the horse to a stop beneath the tree. They sat there, Rip shifting his weight beneath them. Bobby stared up at the massive trunk and pale-yellow leaves as though it was something to revile, wondering, as he always did, just how long it would take him to chop it down.

  Jane’s soft voice cut through his black thoughts. “Bobby, I’ve heard one side of this story. I’m smart enough to know that there’s a lot more to it than just one side.”

  “’Course there is.”

  “You want to tell me?”

  Bobby stilled. Sure, he wanted to tell her, every last bit. From his father’s phone call telling Bobby in a miserable voice that Callahan land no longer belonged to the Callahans, to Bobby’s nightly agony over a promise he wished he’d never made. But he couldn’t say anything about that last bit, could he? Just like he couldn’t change what was promised. He’d made the vow, and what he said here would need to work in his favor with regards to wooing Jane Hefner Al-Nayhal.

  “You had to come home, right?” she prompted, “Leave your work when your father…”

  “Had his land ripped from him?” Bobby finished for her. “That’s right. Working the rodeo circuit was the best life a young man could know, but Dad needed the help. He was starting to really lose it. And with Kimmy…well, they both needed me.”

  “So you put your own life aside for your family.”

  He sniffed. “It’s not as benevolent as it sounds, I promise you.”

  “Sounds like a sacrifice to me.”

  Admiration lit her eyes, and the sweet, honest smile she gave him nearly undid him. Why couldn’t she have been a cold, unfeeling liar like her brother?

  He looked away, looked deep into the land that would never again be his and begged to feel the comforting wave of anger. “Family takes care of family, simple as that.”

  “This whole thing sounds anything but simple.” The wind blew over them, and Bobby tightened his hold on her. She released a weighty breath. “Have you ever thought about going back to the rodeo circuit?”

  “My life is here now,” he answered, his voice ripe with an acceptance he’d come to terms with long ago.

  “And you never regret the sacrifice you made?”

  “Hell, no.” He didn’t altogether believe the bold statement himself. Sure, he missed the circuit, the traveling. “How did we get on this subject? I thought you wanted to hear how your b
rother swooped in like a ravenous hawk and snatched up my father’s land. You know, this property had been in the family for over fifty years.”

  “Did your father have to sell the land?”

  “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Why?”

  “Made some deal with a seedy oil company.” One that Bobby had always thought might have connections with Sakir Al-Nayhal, though he could never prove it.

  “So Sakir didn’t actually steal the land, he—”

  Bobby interrupted caustically, “He tried to buy this land several times and my father told him to get lost. Your brother was proud and pissed off when he was rejected, and first chance he got, he took what he wanted.”

  She pushed away from his rigid body. “Why do you think he wanted this land so badly?”

  Bobby shrugged, gave a derisive snort. “He said the land had major environmental issues that needed to be addressed.”

  “And that wasn’t true?”

  What was the point of this? Bobby thought angrily. With all the questions? It was like a damn inquisition. She was following a path that made Al-Nayhal look innocent, and Bobby wasn’t going there with her. “It’s getting dark, and so’s my mood.”

  Her face was filled with contrition. “I’m sorry, Bobby. I just want to get to the truth.”

  “Why? Why do you care?” And didn’t she know that the truth had many sides to it? Hell, if he really looked at the truth, turned away from supposition and what he believed in his heart, he might not be so quick to keep his word to his father.

  “I care because I like you.” She bit her lip, but didn’t look nervous, just desperate to understand. “And you hate my brother. That’s a problem for me.”

  “Yeah, I get that.”

  “I’m trying to build a bridge here.”

  As Rip shifted beneath them, his muscular body ready to fly again after the short rest, Bobby snaked his hand behind her neck and pulled her to him. His kiss was hard and unyielding. When he eased back, he found her gaze and said in a hushed, though ultra-serious whisper, “Sakir Al-Nayhal and I will never be friends. No matter how close you and I get, that fact will never change. Understand?”

  Tipping up her chin, she nodded. “Yes.”

  “Can you handle that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  His hand tightened possessively around her neck. He wanted to kiss her again, nip her lower lip with his teeth—brand her somehow before he was forced to give her back to her brother. But the rabid hunger he felt worried him, and he released her, lifted her up and placed her behind him once again.

  “Put your arm around me, Jane,” he commanded.

  Seconds after she wrapped her arms about his waist, he led Rip into a half turn, then kicked the gray stallion into a heart-jolting gallop toward the ranch house.

  The sky had turned an eggplant color as the sun disappeared completely, giving in to the black night.

  Jane sat beside Bobby on a white porch swing, a heavy quilt over their legs as they dipped spoons into a bowl of ice cream that Bobby held in his fist. Jane ate the sweet chocolate slowly, thinking about the passion that ran between her and Bobby. Not a romantic passion, but heat and walled-up anger and a need for redemption.

  This relationship, if she could even call it that, was growing dangerous with every moment they spent together. Bobby clearly was swimming in a sea of bitterness. He turned away from the realities of his past, clung to his own beliefs. For what reason, she wasn’t sure. But she feared she had a weakness for men with injured souls, men who loved her cooking and made her laugh. She suspected that in some way her brother had it right. Bobby Callahan could very well break her heart. And what a fool she was for taking that chance.

  Her gaze flew to his face. So rough, so sexy, with eyes that held a thousand emotions, five hundred of which were happiness and hopefulness and caring for others and a deep sense of compassion. She wondered if the truth would ever set his soul free.

  She took another bite of ice cream and said thoughtfully, “Romeo and Juliet.”

  Bobby turned to stare at her, eyebrows raised. “Pardon?”

  “That’s what’s happening here. With us. Did you read that play in high school?”

  “Sure. Boy and girl fall in love, then off themselves.”

  She grinned, pointed her cleaned spoon at his chest. “They off themselves, as you so delicately put it, because their families are bitter enemies and they’ll never allow Romeo and Juliet to be together.”

  “I don’t have any family, darlin’.”

  “It’s the principle of the thing,” she explained.

  “So, what’s your point? That we’re going to end up dead if we continue to see each other?”

  She laughed. “No, of course not.” The laughter melted into a reluctant smile. “But we might end up hurt.”

  His expression changed from playful to cryptic in a nanosecond. “Anything’s possible, I suppose. Found that out a long time ago.” He dug his spoon into the frozen treat. “But…”

  “But what?”

  His gaze found hers. “Is the possibility of pain later on worth the pleasure now?”

  “Wow, that’s a question.”

  “All I’m saying is that we’ve got something here, happening between us. Why worry about the future?”

  With her spoon mining into the ice cream, Jane replied, “Well, I guess because I’m a woman and that’s what we do. Worry. About the future and a hundred other things.”

  Bobby set the bowl on the table beside the swing and pulled Jane onto his lap. “I think about you too damn much, you know?”

  “I don’t know if I’d put it that way, but I think about you, too.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” she replied, grinning, allowing the heaviness of their ride and all conversation about family to fall away.

  Bobby repositioned the blanket over her shoulders and let it cover him. “What do you think about?”

  She smiled. “That night.”

  “Ah, yes. That night.”

  “Your eyes,” she whispered.

  He found her neck, grazed his lips over her pulse point, and uttered, “Your skin…”

  She smiled, closed her eyes. “Your mouth…”

  He pulled her face down to his and covered her mouth. This time, there was no anger in his kiss, only desire. He tasted like chocolate and cold, and the sound of his breathing, heavy and hungry, made every nerve in her body jump with excitement. When his tongue darted out, lapped at her upper lip, she opened for him, her breasts tightening in response. Such a heady reaction to just a kiss was new for her.

  With a hungry whimper, she curled her arms around his neck and pulled his head closer so their kiss could go deeper. Running on pure instinct, Jane closed her lips around his tongue and sucked.

  Bobby went stiff, then shuddered. He pulled away from her, and she saw that his eyes were near-black with need, his breathing labored.

  “Did I hurt you?” she asked, concerned.

  “Not yet, Juliet.”

  A strange blow of emotion sank into her chest. Why would he be the one to say that? To pull away and say something like that? He wasn’t the one taking the chance here…was he? He was the one who didn’t want to worry about the future. She closed her eyes for a moment, deeply confused, desire and frustration running a race in her blood.

  He gently lifted her off him. “I’ll take you home now.”

  “I didn’t ask you to.”

  “I know.” He took her hand and led her off the porch.

  Seven

  When Jane walked through her brother’s front door that night, she felt weary, aroused and more confused than ever. What had started out as a light affair had shifted into something far more than casual fun. Bobby seemed to be agonizing over moments of intimacy, limited though they were, and Jane couldn’t figure out why. Was it that he really didn’t want her? Had that one amazing night they’d shared taken all the mystery out of their relationship? />
  Melancholy twisted around her heart. She felt the exact opposite. That one night had been an awakening for her, a moment where she’d come to realize that there might be a man out there for her—and the thought of exploring more nights in his arms made her breathless with anticipation.

  As she walked into the living room, she felt a heavy gloom cover her, then noticed that it was the house that had brought on the feeling. Sakir and Rita’s home was unusually quiet and dark for nine o’clock. No Marian, no Rasan, Sakir’s assistant. Had everyone gone to bed? she wondered, following a dimly-lit hallway toward the kitchen. A nice cup of hot chocolate sounded like just the thing to take up to her room to aid her as she tried to get Bobby Callahan’s blue eyes and hard mouth out of her head.

  But before she reached the kitchen, a chunk of yellow light purged into the hallway ahead. Soft laughter followed. Both light and sound were coming from Sakir’s library. There was something in the sound that drew Jane toward it like a tired body to a soft bed. She paused in the doorway, found Sakir and Rita sitting hand in hand on a brown leather couch. They were chatting with someone Jane couldn’t see due to a white-leather high-back chair.

  Sakir looked up when Jane entered the room and seemed to fight between a welcoming smile and a worried gaze. Jane wanted to tell him irritably that he didn’t need to worry—that Bobby Callahan had barely touched her tonight, but she didn’t get the chance when he quickly said, “You have a visitor. And a very charming one.”

  Rita nodded to the person before her, and Jane, eyebrows furrowed, stepped farther into the room. Rounding the chair, she nearly fainted with pleasure when she saw the beautiful, long-legged blonde.

  “Mom!” she exclaimed, running straight for her like a lost toddler.

  Crushed in her daughter’s zealous embrace, Tara Hefner laughed. “How are you, sweetie?”

  “I’m fine. But why didn’t you call to tell me you were coming early? You weren’t supposed to be here for another week.”