A Texas Soldier's Family (14 page)

He remained where he was, legs braced apart, brawny arms folded in front of him. “So?”

“An undertaking that large is going to need a medical director to pull everything together. And my guess is you want it to be you.”

* * *

G
ARRETT
HAD
NEVER
met anyone who understood him the way Hope did. All week long he had been wondering if he was crazy, unrealistic, getting ahead of himself. Taking the guilt he felt over the way the foundation and his family had let Bess Monroe and the local former soldiers down by not fulfilling their promises, and turning it into what could be a life’s mission for him.

He’d never been impulsive.

But here he was, after a little more than a week’s time, taking his career objective and standing it on its head. And not just for the soldiers. No, there was a lot more driving this.

“It’s true,” he admitted carefully, letting his gaze rove over Hope. Because she’d been working in her official capacity as scandal manager all day—albeit in a rural environment—she was dressed in a black and sky-blue print cotton skirt that molded her hips and waist and ended just above the knee. A sleeveless white cotton blouse had been paired with a blue cardigan and flats. A heart-shaped gold necklace and earrings gleamed against the creamy alabaster of her skin. As the urge to make love to her again grew, his body tightened in response. How he wished he could simply take her to bed, instead of having this uncomfortable conversation.

But she wanted, needed to know where things stood with him, so...

He looked her in the eye. “Whether I’m active-duty military or not, I want to keep helping soldiers.”
No matter what I’m doing, I can see myself still wanting you. And wanting to be a part of Max’s life, too.

“Which is why the job at Walter Reed held so much appeal to you, even if it meant reenlisting.”

He walked close enough to inhale her sweet and sexy scent. “As much as I’d like to practice medicine there, I also know there will always be other doctors ready and willing to help out.”

“You have good doctors and nurses here in Laramie County, too.” They’d seen them in action—first caring for Max and then Lucille.

“What we don’t have in Laramie County are programs designed exclusively for former military. In many ways, their needs are greater, because they are no longer in the armed services, yet many are still dealing with injuries and rehabilitation, and the process of making the transition back to civilian life.”

Understanding lit her pretty emerald-green eyes. “You know you could make a difference.”

He gently stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “Which maybe is what my dad wanted all along when he left me the two properties.”

She leaned into his touch. “For you to settle here?”

The silky warmth of her skin sent another wave of desire roaring through him.

He nodded. “And to help the people in Laramie County, where he and my mom grew up. He knew I had no ties to Dallas. That I’d never really fit there.”

“But you do here.”

Her compassion warmed him from the inside out. He let his hands slide to her shoulders. “Not sure I want to breed horses or bulls, like my brothers, but yeah... I like the Texas countryside a lot. And I like the house in town, too.”

Smiling, she lifted her chin. “It’s close to the hospital. And the office building.”

It would be a good place to settle down one day and bring up a family, he thought, his gaze roving the softness of her lips. But wary of getting ahead of himself, scaring off Hope, who thus far had only agreed to a temporary liaison with him, he reined in his innate need to just say whatever was on his mind, and kept silent about that. For now.

Garrett decided to show her what he felt, instead.

Chapter Fourteen

Garrett took Hope in his arms and kissed her until her abdomen felt liquid and weightless and her knees grew weak. He brought her against him, length to length. His tongue swept her mouth until her whole body was quivering with urgent need, her heart thumping so hard she could feel it in her ears.

And still he pressed her against him intimately, hardness to softness, until the last of her reservations regarding the wisdom of a short-term affair faded. She knew her task here would be over soon. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t make the most of what little time they had left.

Still kissing her ardently, he undid the buttons on her blouse, unfastened the front closure of her bra. He bent to kiss her chin, the arch of her neck, the uppermost curves of her taut, tingling breasts.

Around them, the sky grew dusky. The silence of the countryside as well as the warm, flower-scented air and faint summery breeze, provided a sensual setting.

It would be completely dark soon.

She didn’t care. She wanted him.

Here. Now. Like this.

Spinning him around with a boldness she had not known she possessed, she pushed him beneath the overhang, up against the side of the house. Her eyes locked with his and she began unbuttoning his shirt.

He threaded his hands through her hair, watching. “And just when I thought you couldn’t surprise me,” he murmured.

She rose on tiptoe and, parting the edges of his shirt, pressed her bare breasts against the muscles of his chest. Wreathing her arms around his neck, she smiled wickedly. “Oh, I’m full of surprises.”

Why not, since this was likely their last hurrah?

“Like this...” She fit her lips to his, opening her mouth, caressing his tongue, savoring the hot, masculine taste of him. Finding solace...finding strength...in tenderness.

Aware she had never felt as soft and womanly and empowered as she did with him, she unclasped his belt buckle and undid the zipper on his jeans. He moaned as she cupped the hard, velvety length of him in her palm. Stroking. Reveling. Enciting.

The next thing she knew, the back zipper of her skirt was coming undone, too. The floral fabric was sliding down over her knees. Pooling at her feet. A swift hook of his thumbs in the elastic and her panties followed.

“Hey. I’m supposed to be in charge here,” she reminded him breathlessly.

He grinned and lifted both hands in ready and willing surrender. “Then I guess I’ll have to let you have your way with me.”

Deciding the only way to keep him where she wanted him was to trap him with her weight, she took his hand and directed him toward the glider.

A quick tug sent his jeans down his thighs. Leaving them at mid-knee, thus trapping him right where and how she wanted him, she settled on his lap, her arms encircling his shoulders, her thighs planted tight on either side of his.

“Now, where were we?” she murmured, kissing him again.

“Here?” The tip of his manhood pressed against her. “Or here?” Seconds later, his calloused palms moved slowly, lovingly upward over her ribs. “Or maybe here...?” Her nipples tingled as he bent and kissed her breasts. She moaned again, yearning to have him inside her.

This was torture.

Sweet torture.

But torture nevertheless.

“Maybe I will let you call the shots,” she said, kissing him again, deeply, provocatively. “As long as it’s—” she shifted wantonly to show him what she meant “—right now.”

He grinned, his lips nipping at hers even as one hand slid between them. He refused to let her rush. “Not yet.”

Gripping her buttocks with one hand, he spread her thighs all the more, stroked her inner thighs, made his way through the nest of soft curls to the softer petals hidden within. She shuddered, gasped as he sent her libido into overdrive.

And still he kissed her with maddeningly slow intensity until her blood flowed through her veins like liquid fire and her body pulsed and shuddered with exploding need.

With a groan, he brought her down over top of him. Pushed up into her, hard. Seeming to know, as always, exactly what she wanted and needed, he lifted her against him, thrust deep, let her settle, thrust deep again. Faster, then slower. Then perfect, so perfect. Her soul soaring as high as her heart, he possessed her on his terms. Refusing to let her run away, set unnecessary limits, he brought her to life. Again and again. Until at last his control faltered, too. They surged together, finding a pleasure so deep and profound it seemed impossible. And Hope knew that maybe—just maybe—she’d been wrong. This wasn’t a short-term love affair, after all.

It was one that would last.

All she had to do was open up and take a risk.

With her heart. With her life...

And maybe Garrett would, too.

* * *

M
ORNING
BROUGHT
WITH
it a flurry of activity. While Hope cared for Max and responded to journalists inquiring about the theft at the Lockhart Foundation, Garrett went into town to meet with Bess Monroe and the other founders of West Texas Warrior Assistance.

At noon, he returned to the ranch with his siblings and recovering mother in tow.

Not that Lucille had apparently accepted her physician’s advice to take it easy. A fact that appeared to be irking her own doctor son to no end.

Garrett squared off with Lucille as she called everyone to the long plank table. “Mom, you just got home from the hospital. Now is not the time for a Lockhart Foundation board meeting.”

Hope backed Garrett up. “I agree.”

Although Lucille had slept nearly nineteen hours straight in the hospital before being released, the older woman still looked exhausted in a way that would take weeks to recover from. But, for the moment, as Lucille waved off her eldest son’s concern, she was as fiercely determined as ever. “Nonsense! There are things we need to talk about—and vote on. I won’t be able to rest until we do. And since my doctor’s orders were “rest, rest, and more rest...”

With a groan, everyone sat down.

Hope started to exit the room.

Lucille waved her back. “No, Hope, you need to stay.” Reluctantly Hope returned. “The first order of business is that I want you to be the new director of public relations at the Lockhart Foundation. A move that takes board approval.”

Taken aback, Hope looked at the shocked faces all around her. “We probably should have talked about this beforehand. And you should have spoken with the board, too.”

Had Hope not fallen hard for Garrett, she would have jumped at the opportunity. The fact that she was intimately involved with him made it all far too complicated.

Lucille scoffed. “And give you a chance to refuse me? No way. You need a job with more flexible hours. Recovering from the scandal is going to continue to be an uphill climb and we require your expertise.”

Hope slipped into the open chair next to Sage and looked across the table at Garrett. He was so still he could have been playing a game of statue.

That did not seem like a good thing.

She battled a self-conscious blush and swallowed around the rising ache in her throat. Suddenly, she had to know. “Did you instigate this?”

He let out a long breath, shook his head.

Disappointment roiled through her. Why, she didn’t know. Since when did she want anyone propelling her into a job that would likely upend her life more than it already had been the past few weeks?

She had Max to consider.

Well, that and her heart, which suddenly seemed to be in jeopardy, too.

Garrett rubbed his hand across his jaw, as if it were taking everything he had to contain himself. Dropping his hand, he met the gazes of everyone at the table. “Hope’s right,” Garrett said in a low, clipped tone. “We probably should have spoken about this. Since finding the funds for her salary could be a problem, given the current state of foundation bank accounts.”

“I have a solution for that, too,” Lucille announced with a brisk smile. “I’m selling my home in Dallas. Half the proceeds will go into a trust to fix up the Circle H, where I now plan to reside full time. That, plus the money from my retirement account will see me comfortably into old age. The other half will go to the foundation.”

She paused for effect as she glanced around the room. “But this time, I don’t want to try and work with one hundred charities. I just want to work with one. West Texas Warrior Assistance. If Garrett is going to be the medical director, we need to support him.”

No problem there, Hope noted. Garrett’s siblings were completely behind the idea.

“Let’s vote on it,” Sage enthused. “All in favor of hiring Hope, say aye.”

A chorus of “Ayes!” came from around the table.

“And focusing the foundation on West Texas Warrior Assistance?”

Once again, the support was unanimous.

Sage made a note in the meeting minutes.

Hope cleared her throat. When she had everyone’s attention, she asked, “Shouldn’t you ask me if I want the job?”

“Ah, not just yet.” Sage turned back to her mother. “Obviously, Mom, you’ve given this a lot of thought.”

Lucille smiled. “I have. And for the record, I also want to install Adelaide, since she was instrumental in helping us uncover the fraud, as our new chief financial officer.”

Wyatt frowned the way he always did when his former girlfriend’s name came up. “We definitely need to talk about that.”

Lucille leveled a look right back at Wyatt. “Oh, we will,” she promised.

Garrett shook his head as if that would clear it. “Mom, what’s gotten into you? You used to be so...restrained!”

“The last few weeks made me think about all the problems I couldn’t solve, as well as the ones that we could, if we had just not swept problems under the rug and instead confronted them directly. And that brings me to my next agenda item.” Lucille referred to her tablet. “Garrett, you’ve said you’re willing to be CEO. Can you start immediately?”

He nodded, obviously willing to do whatever it took to allow his mother to concentrate on regaining her good health.

Lucille smiled her approval. “Everyone want to vote on the last two items?”

And with a quick vote the family gave its approval.

“Great.” Lucille grinned at the four children gathered around her. “Now, what are we going to do about having Garrett, the new CEO, in Laramie, and Hope in Dallas? Hope, are you—and Max—willing to relocate? As soon as it’s convenient, of course.”

The matriarch of the family was definitely a steamroller. And she had just run roughshod over Hope. With all good intentions, certainly, but Hope still felt shell-shocked and uncertain.

Knowing she had to get her life problems figured out and solved on her own, Hope ignored the intentions and focused on the assessing way Garrett was looking at her. She lifted her chin. “Lucille, I appreciate your confidence in me, but I haven’t even said I’d take the job yet.”

“If we meet all your demands—salary, living arrangements, work hours, responsibilities and so forth—would you?”

Hope looked at Garrett, still having no clue as to how he felt about all this. And that was the sticking point—not where she lived, or how much she made, or even how many job responsibilities she would have. She wanted to know what he felt. That he wanted to work side by side with her. Because if that wasn’t the case...and the maddeningly inscrutable look on his face said maybe it wasn’t...then any further discussion was pointless.

She’d grown up feeling in the way. She wasn’t going to do it again.

“I don’t know what I’d do. All I know is that I can’t give you an answer today, not like this.”

For a second, disappointment reigned.

Hope realized she hadn’t been the only one secretly wishing she could be a permanent part of all this...

Sage looked at Garrett with a mixture of starry-eyed envy and approval. “Maybe it would help if you came clean.” She prodded her eldest brother in the unabashedly romantic direction she wanted him to go. “Told everyone the two of you are...um...”

Lucille put in hopefully, “Serious about each other...? Engaged?”

It was all Hope could do not to groan. If Garrett’s mother only knew how far from any kind of commitment, never mind any lasting future, she and Garrett were...

Lucille would be so disappointed.

As disappointed as Hope suddenly felt.

What happened in the darkness of his bedroom was one thing, to have it scrutinized in the glaring light of day, with the people who meant most to him gathered around, was another.

Garrett looked at Hope as if trying to read her mind. This time, she gave him nothing of what she was feeling, putting him on the hot seat, too, right along with her.

“No,” he said finally. “It’s too soon for that.”

Lucille harrumphed, her disapproval as sharp as the glare she gave her son. “But not too soon to sleep with each other.”

A collective gasp was followed by a beat of silence.

Ignoring Garrett’s dark scowl, Lucille turned and focused on the blush blooming in Hope’s cheeks. “I know two well-loved people when I see them.”

Funny, Hope thought. Until now, she’d felt that way. She looked into his eyes and saw regret, and wondered if it was as painful as the remorse filling her heart. But there was no clue in the watchful silence of the room.

Garrett swung back to the members of the board, squared his shoulders and tried again. “I get that you’re trying to help, Mom, but what Hope and I have shared is
not
up for family discussion. Nor is any aspect of her life or mine. I thought I had made that abundantly clear.”

Suddenly, Hope didn’t want their relationship to be something that could not be acknowledged or talked about. Even, or especially, to his family. To her surprise, she wanted one heck of a lot more. And she wanted it right now. Because if he didn’t feel what she did, if he didn’t even come close, then Lucille’s unspoken accusation was right. What were they doing?

And to think she’d been worried about a succession of nannies! This was so much worse for her baby boy than that! Max deserved stability, and it was up to her to give it to him. He could not be expected to love and depend on Garrett, only to have the only father he had ever known walk away without warning. She and Garrett both had career decisions that needed to be made.