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Authors: Trish Milburn

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BOOK: Elly: Cowgirl Bride
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At first, he looked surprised. Then his mouth spread into a sexy smile. “Be careful or you may never get food.”

“Who needs to eat?”

He growled. “We need sustenance to keep up our strength.” With an unspoken promise of more pleasure later, he disappeared down the hall.

Elly rolled onto her side and wrapped herself in a sheet. She couldn’t stop smiling. What she’d told him was the absolute truth—she had never felt such intense joy in her life. She drifted on a cloud of happiness, which must have carried her to sleep because the next thing she knew Will was sitting next to her on the bed, now wearing a pair of long gym shorts, with a pizza box in front of him.

“Cody’s finest dining,” he said.

“And very lax on the dress code, too.”

“I can put on a shirt.”

Her hand shot out, as if to stay him. “Don’t you dare.”

He laughed and leaned forward to kiss her. “You want to sleep or eat?”

Her stomach growled. “Does that answer your question?”

He scooted into bed with her. She raised herself to a sitting position, pulling the sheet up with her.

“I’m ravenous,” she said as she took the first slice of gooey pepperoni and mushroom pizza.

“You must have worked up an appetite somehow.”

“I believe you had something to do with that.”

“Always happy to help out.”

When she smiled at him, it felt like a goofy, teenage, nothing-hidden type of smile, but she didn’t care. At the moment, she couldn’t imagine ever being in that position with another man again. It caused a pain in her chest to think of him with anyone else.

But how did he feel?

Will wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they ate.

She shook her head slowly. “How did you know I liked pepperoni and mushroom?” she asked after a couple of slices.

He didn’t answer at first, pausing long enough to make her pull slightly away and look up at his face.

“Dex and Dusty’s thirteenth birthday party,” he said.

“Oh, God. The one with about thirty kinds of pizza.

They both ate until they got sick.”

“And of all the choices, you only ate the pepperoni and mushroom.”

“How could you possibly remember that?”

“You know how.” His gaze met hers and didn’t waver.

Her breath caught. “When Janie told me you’d had a crush on me, I didn’t believe her.”

“Why not?”

“Because you never said anything. I mean other than the prom thing. And I thought you were just being nice then because you felt bad I’d been dumped.”

“I knew you wouldn’t be interested.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Come on, Elly. I was two years younger, a nerd in every aspect of the word. I couldn’t even be a part of the world that meant so much to you. I felt every bit as weak and inept as my dad thought I was. Not worthy of you.”

“Oh, Will.” She put her half-eaten piece of pizza back, no longer hungry, and stared at the greasy stains and strips of cheese on the bottom of the box.

He lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Hey, none of that. It just wasn’t the right time.”

“And now it is?”

He searched her eyes for a moment before answering. “I don’t know. Maybe. I hope so.”

“Me, too.”

They kissed for several minutes before Will pulled her close and just held her. The beauty and simplicity of being held like this, of resting her head against his chest and listening to the steady rhythm of his heart struck her as perfection. No worries, no problems could touch her here in this warm, comfortable, Will-shaped cocoon.

“I always thought you got along with your dad.”

“We were fine, just not super close. I know he would have been happier if I’d been able to go into rodeo, become a rancher.”

Elly shook her head. “He should have been proud of who you are.”

“Mom says he was, but he never told me. I think he didn’t know how to talk to me. We were just too different.”

“Is that why you wanted to go to college so early?”

“Partly. School was boring, too. And I had other reasons.”

Elly bit her lip. Had he fled home to get away from her because she didn’t notice him as he’d wanted? That made her sad in the deepest part of her heart.

“I’m sorry.”

“No reason to be. College was good.”

“I guess you were able to be with people more like you.”

He shrugged. “Eventually. I won’t lie and say it wasn’t hard at first, being younger than all my classmates, not knowing anyone, but I did make some good friends after a while.”

She let her curiosity get the better of her. “Girl-friends?”

“A few, later on.”

“Anyone serious?”

“Not really.”

Elly shifted beside him. She wasn’t sure why his answer unsettled her. Maybe because it felt like there was more to the story he wasn’t telling.

“Why?” he asked. “Jealous?”

“Nope.”

He laughed. “I think you are. Careful, you’ll make that big ego of mine swell.”

She tickled his ribs. He retaliated by rolling toward her and tickling her right back until she cried out her surrender. He stopped tickling and took up kissing instead. Elly let stories of parental expectations and old flames drift away as she focused solely on the feel of the man in her arms.

 

W
ILL HAD NEVER BEEN
so scared in his life. Odd since he’d never been as happy either. But he wished he’d told Jesse about the proof of paternity before he’d made love to Elly. He wished Jesse had shared the knowledge with Elly and she’d still come to Will. But he hadn’t been able to resist the look in her eyes tonight, the obvious desire mirroring his own. How many times had he dreamed of holding Elly like this?

And all those dreams had paled in comparison to the reality.

He listened to Elly’s even breathing and knew without a doubt that he was in love with her, that he wanted to lie side by side with her like this every night. The fact that his taking actions out of the proper order might hurt that chance ate at him. But even if he had made a mistake, he wasn’t willing to walk away. Not this time.

He just hoped that whatever was happening between them was strong enough to withstand the emotional roller coaster of the days ahead and the fact that he was going to be the bearer of a finality Elly and her brothers might not want to hear. The proof he held would erase any hope that it had all been a mistake.

She woke from her dozing and kissed his chest. That simple touch had him ready to make love to her again. The smile on her face as she looked up at him told him she knew it, too.

He shoved away his fears. “Aren’t you the temptress?”

“I do my best.”

Before he had to face the reality outside this room, he allowed himself to indulge once more. He’d never had sex with a woman more than once in a night, so three times left him sated and nearly unable to move. Somehow he garnered enough energy to speak.

“I think you killed me.”

She laughed as her hair, that long, gorgeous hair, fell past her ear and pooled on his chest. “Did I break poor wittle Will?”

“I thought your days of teasing me were over?”

“But you enjoy this teasing.”

He smiled. “That I do.” They kissed for what had to be the thousandth time that night, but it never got old or less exciting. “I guess I better find the energy to take you home before your brothers mount up a posse and come beat down my front door.”

“What, you’re not willing to face down an angry mob for me?”

“Perhaps when you haven’t exhausted me to within an inch of my life.”

As if to torture him, she rose from the bed and dressed with a lot of stretching and smoothing of fabric.

“No wonder your brothers want to keep you under lock and key. You’re a danger to men everywhere.”

She laughed again and sashayed toward the bathroom with an exaggerated sway of her hips so at odds with the Elly Cody who walked around in the daylight.

By the time they headed out of Cody, he’d regained enough feeling in his extremities that he didn’t think he was a danger to his fellow motorists. He didn’t let go of her hand, even when it began to snow.

“Looks like this will be the first real snow of the year,” he said.

“Yeah. I smelled it in the wind today.”

The ground had a thin coating of white when he pulled up next to Elly’s house. He had the strangest sensation that her brothers knew what he and Elly had been doing this evening, but suddenly he didn’t care. She was an adult, and so was he.

He accompanied her to the front door, hating the idea of the most perfect night of his life ending. And not knowing if there would be another.

“Why don’t you stay the night instead of driving back?” she said.

“I’m kind of a fan of not being shot at dawn.”

She cuddled close to him. “I’ll protect you.”

As he looked down at her, he nearly told her he loved her. But he kept it bottled inside. He had to get his duty out of the way first so he’d be free to tell her everything she made him feel, how she’d always been the one for him and always would be. He just prayed she felt the same.

He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with all the love he couldn’t voice, not yet.

Chapter Eleven

The next morning, Elly was a little off on her racing times, but she didn’t let it bother her. She knew she and Pepper could clock better times, and she wasn’t going to allow a few hundredths of a second to dim the happiness vibrating through her entire body.

Her good mood carried her through a tour with fifty third-graders and an interview with
Rodeo News,
even though she wanted to cut out on the latter when she saw Will drive up the ranch road and park by the house. By the time the reporter headed toward his truck, she was ready to bust with wanting to see Will. Somehow she managed not to run toward the house.

She barely slowed to knock the snow off her boots before hurrying in the front door. When she heard voices from the office, she hoped Jesse wasn’t accosting Will about his and her relationship. She was surprised to see the office door closed. Oh, this was bad if Jesse had shut her out. Fed up with the big brothering, she knocked only briefly before entering the office.

Jesse sat at the desk poring over some sort of paperwork in front of him. Then it hit her. Will was actually here to see Jesse, not her.

“What is it?” she asked Will, not her brother.

This time Will didn’t look to Jesse for permission to share with her. “The results of a DNA test your father had done—they prove he’s the biological father of Mark Hansen.”

She shifted her attention to Jesse. “Let me see it.”

“It’s real,” Jesse said.

“Let me see it,” she said more slowly, not brooking argument.

He handed it over. Her wonderful sense of rightness and joy shattered, fell like jagged shards of glass around her. Not because Mark was definitely her brother, but because irrefutable proof of her father’s infidelity was staring up at her. When she glanced back at Will, he didn’t meet her eyes.

She knew in that instant that he’d known last night, when he’d made love to her over and over again.

She tossed the proof of her father’s betrayal on top of Jesse’s desk and walked away from Will, out the door of the office and back into the light of a day that was gray and overcast. Appropriate. She thought of taking a ride up into the more remote parts of the ranch, but she didn’t want to be anywhere near Cody land at the moment, nowhere near her father. Instead, she headed toward her truck.

The front door opened and shut behind her. “Elly, wait.”

She kept walking, ignoring the sound of Will’s voice. Last night, she couldn’t get enough of it or him.

He caught up with her and tried to take her arm. She jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me.”

“Elly, don’t do this.”

“Don’t do what, Will?”

“Push me away.”

“You did that yourself by lying to me,” she spat at him. “What is this, revenge for rejecting you in high school?”

“I wouldn’t do that, and you know it.”

“Do I?”

Will stared at her for a long moment, his lips pressed tightly together like he was trying to prevent himself from saying something. “I didn’t lie.”

“No, you didn’t. But you kept important information from me. Haven’t I had enough secrets in my life lately?”

“I was hired by Jesse. It was my duty to tell him what I found, not you.”

“Well, you’ve told him. Job completed.”

“Elly, I didn’t plan for last night to happen the way it did.”

“Oh, nice.”

“Stop twisting my words,” he said, a touch of anger in his tone. “I’m happy it did, really happy.”

“But you knew I wouldn’t fall into your bed if I’d known about that little piece of paper, didn’t you?”

He stared at her again, and she tried not to acknowledge the hurt she saw in his eyes.

“Yes.”

A lump formed in her throat. She had to get out of here before she made a fool of herself and started crying.

“Then you’re just another man hiding things to get what he wants. No better than my dad.”

She slid into the truck, slammed the door and took off down the ranch road as fast as she could. She held the tears at bay until she hit the highway. They accompanied her all the way out of Park County as she headed east. She didn’t know where she was going, didn’t care. Just as long as it was away from Will and that piece of paper that changed everything—her past, her present and her future.

 

W
ILL STOOD IN THE DRIVE
and watched as Elly raced away from him. Part of him wanted to speed away, as far from Elly Cody and her sharp tongue as he could get. But damned if another part didn’t want to go after her, to make her understand how much she meant to him, how paternity test results had been the furthest thing from his mind as he’d carried her to his bed the night before. But her uncharacteristically cruel words proved she wasn’t in a state where she could listen now. Maybe when she calmed down.

Maybe not.

Honestly, he needed time for his anger to fade, too.

He cursed himself for doing things backward. Anger at the entire situation made him clamp his jaws and have to resist the urge to punch the door of his SUV. And to make matters worse, he felt eyes on him. Jesse had stepped out onto the front porch and didn’t look too happy. Will didn’t know if it was because of Elly or the confirmation of his father’s adultery, not that it mattered.

But Jesse’s presence didn’t feel like the only one. Will stared toward the barns though he didn’t see anyone. That didn’t mean they weren’t hidden in shadows, cooking up a way to string him from the nearest tree for hurting Elly.

Something made him look toward the ranch office. There stood Anne Cody on the edge of the porch, staring at him. From this distance, he couldn’t read her expression, but that was probably a good thing. He’d seen enough mama bears protecting their cubs to know it was time to make his own getaway.

As he drove down the ranch road, he wondered if he’d ever drive along its length again. He was done with the job he’d been hired to do, and Elly…well, he didn’t know if she’d ever want to see him again.

His heart weighed like a boulder, making breathing difficult. How could he have waited this long to be with Elly only to screw it up royally?

Her words—that he was no better than her dad—kept repeating in his head until he grew sick to his stomach. Despite how unfair she’d been, he still looked for her as he drove through Markton and later Cody. But there was no sign of her. At least the sun had come out and he didn’t have to worry about her getting caught in a snowstorm.

He pulled into the driveway next to his house but couldn’t muster the energy to get out of the vehicle.

Could he stay here if he’d lost Elly for good? Would it be better to go back to Denver and take Kate up on her offer of employment? Maybe convince his mother and aunt to move there, too? Then he’d have no reason to ever set foot in Park County, even Wyoming, again.

 

E
LLY DROVE ALL THE WAY TO
Sheridan, parked and walked the streets without any destination in mind. She just needed distance, time, nothing that reminded her of Will or her family. Time to refocus on what was important—the Finals. She couldn’t believe she’d almost let her brief relationship with Will steer her off the course she’d been on for years.

A poster in a shop window caught her attention. It depicted a gorgeous beach and bright blue water and proclaimed Cancun in large, red letters. What Will had said about her traveling and taking photos all over the world tried to tempt her, but she swatted it away like the pesky fly it was. Photography was a minor part of her life, something she did when she had the time. She was a cowgirl, a member of the Cody family with all the responsibilities and expectations that encompassed.

She needed to stop thinking about things that were just fantasy like becoming a world traveler.

Or being held in Will’s arms again.

She walked and walked, until the cold wind whipping around the edge of buildings had slapped her cheeks to near numbness. If only it could do the same thing to her heart, deadening it to feeling until she was over Will.

Had she really said the things she had to him? Part of her knew she’d been mean, unreasonable, but she was so tired of secrets and the pain they caused.

After a couple hours of aimless wandering, she made her way back to her truck and headed home. It was time to deal with the new reality because there was no going back.

When she arrived at the turn into the ranch, she pulled over to the side of the road and took a few moments to breathe deeply, to prepare herself for whatever waited at the end of the road. The drive up to the homestead house had never seemed so long. She spotted horses being loaded, feed being transferred to the horse barn, the hands going about their late-afternoon duties. To the unknowing eye, all would seem normal.

She made her way into the house and found Jesse sitting at the kitchen table, his big hands wrapped around a mug of coffee.

“Where you been?” he asked without looking at her.

“Sheridan. Needed time to think, away from everything.”

He nodded like he understood. “There’s fresh coffee.”

She poured herself a cup and sat across from him. The silence grated on her nerves, and it wasn’t going to make the conversation any easier. “So, what does this mean?”

“That Mark has a right to some of the ranch, to everything.”

As she’d anticipated. But it wasn’t the family fortune that mattered so much to her. It was how the situation was going to affect her family from now on.

She’d never seen Jesse look so haggard, so bone-deep weary. Yes, he could be gruff and overbearing sometimes, but she loved him. He worked hard to keep the Cottonwood Ranch thriving while not letting his dream of winning the National Finals in bull riding slide. He’d always taken his role as firstborn very seriously. And now that had been ripped away from him.

Despite all the family on the ranch, he seemed like the loneliest person in the world. At least she’d found happiness in someone else’s arms for a short time. She saw every day how happy the women in Walker’s, Dex’s and Dusty’s lives made them, and she wanted that for Jesse.

Even if it might never be in the cards for her.

At the moment, she couldn’t imagine being with anyone but Will, but couldn’t face being with him either. How would she know if he were keeping something important from her? How could she ever trust him?

She refused to go through the same kind of pain her mother was experiencing.

“How much?” she asked.

Jesse looked down at his coffee, but Elly felt like he was staring beyond it. “Will said it’s up to Dad and Mark to work out.” He took a drink of his coffee before rising and dumping the rest down the sink.

She wondered if he’d been sitting here alone with his thoughts long enough that the coffee had grown cold.

“Jesse.”

He looked back at her.

“Janie told me Mark isn’t interested in the ranch. I think he probably just wanted the truth.”

“Well, he got what he wanted.” He grabbed his coat and headed for the door. “I’ve got work to do.”

Work awaited her attention as well, but the walls of the house threatened to close in on her. She too pulled her coat on and followed Jesse out the door. When he stopped a few feet from the house, she redirected her gaze and saw her father talking with Mark in the lengthening shadows next to the ranch office.

The ferocity of Jesse’s anger came off him like a shock wave as he spun in the opposite direction and headed for the practice arena. She hated the idea of him astride a surly bull at the moment, but there wasn’t anything she could do to stop him.

As she watched her oldest brother stalk to the barn, she had never felt so powerless. When she glanced back at Mark, it struck her that in reality he was her oldest brother. Even though it might never feel like it.

 

F
OR THE FIRST TIME EVER,
Will didn’t feel like going to work. He doubted he’d be terribly productive, and he sure wasn’t going to want to talk to anyone. Not exactly the best way to drum up business. And if word of his and Elly’s blowup hadn’t reached Delia already, one look at him and she’d know something was wrong.

He lingered over his coffee, but the longer he sat and tried watching the morning news, the more a feeling of claustrophobia pressed in on him. He couldn’t stay in this house all day with nothing to occupy his mind.

By the time he reached work, he was an hour late.

Delia started to say something, but she didn’t get it out before he stepped into the doorway of his office—and saw Kate standing inside. Tall, stylish, gorgeous Kate with her long, golden-brown hair and elegant features looked so out of place that he wondered for a moment if he wasn’t really awake yet.

“Kate.”

“Will!” She rushed forward and wrapped him in a hug.

He was too stunned to do anything beyond offer a feeble hug back. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, you talked about how wonderful it is here so much that I had to see for myself. I booked the cutest little cabin outside town, had breakfast in a quaint diner this morning.” She smiled. “And I can see the allure of practicing here if you’re keeping a banker’s hours.”

“I had something to do this morning before coming in.” Yeah, refereeing the two halves of himself. He couldn’t decide if he was an idiot for messing things up with Elly or if the anger he felt at her attack was more than justified. Maybe a bit of both.

“That’s okay. Delia has been a sweetheart and kept me company.”

Will hazarded a glance back at Delia, who was looking at him with a million and one questions in her eyes.

“She said a good friend took these amazing photographs.” Kate walked across the office and touched the edge of the frame around one of Elly’s scenes. The herd of elk depicted in it looked as if they might walk out of the foggy river valley where they were grazing right into his office.

“Yeah, Elly’s very talented.”

“Is her work sold here in town anywhere?”

Will wanted to say, “No.” Something deep inside him didn’t want Kate’s and Elly’s worlds to touch each other. But that was silly. If Kate bought some of Elly’s photographs, maybe she would display them in her office back in Denver. Perhaps clients would see them and buy some of their own. Elly was talented, and more people should see that, despite his conflicted feelings toward her.

BOOK: Elly: Cowgirl Bride
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