Fannin's Flame (8 page)

“Yeah. I am.”

He popped her rear with the flat of his hand.

“Fannin!” she gasped.

“Yes?”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Something I wanted to do from the moment I met you.”

And then he slid inside her again. She screamed into his hand, loving every moment of the sweet torture.

“I like my breakfast hot and my dinner hot, but as long as you’re as hot as you are for me, I’ll eat every meal cold if that makes you happy,” he said huskily into her ear. “If you’re cooking it, it’s going to be delicious, anyway.”

She closed her eyes, passion and wonder flaring inside her at the spell of his words.

“I’m so glad you came to town,” he told her, rocking against her so that she felt every thrust. “You’re just right for me.”

Then he lay still against her, though his cheek was against her back, and she could feel his heart beating against her shoulder. Gently he stroked her hair.

She loved every second of his attention.

“I’m in big trouble,” Kelly murmured.

“What?” Fannin said, his words a sleepy grunt.

“Nothing,” she said. “Nothing at all.” She tried squirming out from underneath him, to no avail. “This has got to stop.”

“Hang on,” he said, suddenly sounding very awake. “Don’t move.”

That definitely had to cease. He could not go on being macho man. “Listen, buster, I’ll move when I want to—”

He held her tightly still, his muscles tensed.

“What’s wrong?” Oh, heavens, what if her mother was nearby? What would Helga say about her rolling around in a barn with a Jefferson brother?

“I think something just gave out,” he said.

Kelly sat up as soon as Fannin released his strangle-hold on her. It wasn’t doing any good anyway, because she’d struggled like a wary kitten in his arms.

“What do you mean something just gave out?” she demanded, sitting up to push tousled hair out of her eyes.

He took care of matters the best he could, grabbing his own clothes and handing her dress to her. “I mean the condom malfunctioned. It’s all that body heat you give off. You melted it.”

She gasped with outrage. “
I
melted it?
You
melted it, with your…your—” Her blue eyes were wide open. “Oh, no. I mean, you don’t think—”

“I don’t think so.” He buckled his belt. “They were the best brand the pharmacy had. None of them advertise their record as far as not breaking.”

“It should have been fine,” Kelly said. “When did you buy them? A year ago?”

“Yesterday. Latex shouldn’t give out in a day. I think it was a defect.”

She went totally still. “Yesterday?”

“Yeah. You would have thought we’d be safe. I mean, the expiration date was still wet on the box.” He winked at her. “I’m kidding. But they
should
put an expiration date on the box. They’re like rubber bands and you know how those lose their snap.”

She ignored his theory. “You bought condoms
yesterday.
”

He hesitated at the change in her tone. “Yes.”

“So this was premeditated.”

“I don’t meditate around you, Kelly. That’s one thing I definitely don’t do. I do not feel like going ahhmmmmm—”

She bounced out of the barn.

“Hey! I hate it when you do that!” He went after her, standing in front of her so she had to look at him. “Could we just finish one conversation to both our satisfactions?”

“I should have listened to my mother,” she said. “You are all as wild as March hares.”

“I don’t understand why you’re mad.” He really didn’t. But he wanted to understand so he could fix it. There was a major communication gap going on, and after sex he liked his women cooing and soft rather than howling mad. “Is it because the condom tore?”

Kelly stared at him. “I do not want to hear that verb in conjunction with condom again.”

“Kelly, I’m sorry. Next time—”

“There isn’t going to be a next time, Fannin,” she
said. “This has got to stop now. Before you derail all my plans, all my dreams. Listen, you might think I’m made-to-order for you, but you’re the absolute worst thing that could happen to me.”

“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”

“I do not. And I cannot believe you bought condoms yesterday.”

“Biggest box they had.” He was genuinely confused. “Kelly, spell it out for me. What are you so angry about?”

“You presumed.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Presumed we’d want safe sex?”

“Presumed we’d have sex!”

“Well, we already had, it was a given that we would again. I mean, I want to, and you seem happy.”

Silence met that.

“You are, aren’t you? Happy with me? I mean, you’re not exactly putting up a fight. I didn’t have to drag you in here like a caveman. My brothers are all about the caveman thing, but I go for subtlety.” Fannin was proud of that.

Kelly shook her head and left the barn.

Fannin waited.

“Just for the record,” she said, coming back inside, “I’m not ever doing that again. I’d be in big trouble if I got pregnant.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re all wrong for each other. We have
different life goals. We have nothing in common. My mother doesn’t like you. You don’t like her.”

“I don’t have anything against Helga. Not exactly. Not personally, anyway.”

“It doesn’t matter now, Fannin.”

She left again.

He grinned. She was wrong. Great sex was the common denominator that leveled the playing field.

And the field was definitely level.

K
ELLY WENT STRAIGHT
to Mimi’s house, with only a glance back toward the barn. Fannin stood in the doorway, his silhouette clear from the light overhead. He was watching her, making sure she made it in safely.

A shiver rolled over her skin. He was so possessive, he made her nervous. She wasn’t sure why she liked being the object of his sole attention. His focus unnerved her, scared her and yet made her feel very sexy.

She had never imagined trying not to fall in love could be such torture.

Mimi lay on a sofa in the sheriff’s huge television room. Kelly entered the room quietly, thinking Mimi was asleep, but then Kelly realized Mimi was sobbing.

“Mimi!” Kelly said. “What’s wrong? Are you hurting?”

Mimi wiped at her eyes with a tissue. “No. I feel much better.”

“Are you having another panic attack? Isn’t that what you called it yesterday?”

Mimi nodded. “I think maybe I am.” She tossed the wet tissue into the trash and got another. “I do not understand why I’m constantly teary. This should be the happiest time of my life.”

Kelly wasn’t sure about that. Mimi was huge for such a petite woman. She looked like she was one minute from liftoff. “It’s going to be okay, Mimi,” Kelly said, reaching to comfort her. “Mama’s here, and I’m going to be here at night when I get done working at the Jeffersons.”

“Don’t let them suck you in,” Mimi said, blowing her nose so hard that the tissue flew around her fingers.

“Suck…me in?”

“Yeah. Don’t fall for them. It’ll happen before you realize it. One minute you’re sitting on a log, and the next minute you’re drowning in the swamp.”

“I see,” Kelly said, not really understanding but recognizing the words as a warning. Her skin went chilly.

“I shouldn’t talk about them like that. I’ve known those boys all my life. We’ve been through everything together. But they’re such
boys.
It’s like they drank from Peter Pan’s Elixir of Boyhood. And for some reason, women are attracted to that like bees to sugar water.”

“Women like boys?”

“Yes.” Mimi lowered her voice. “I haven’t quite
decided if it’s the mothering factor or the insipid desire to change them. It can’t be done, you know. They can’t be changed.” Mimi sniffled.

“Um, do you think you could sleep now?” Kelly asked, desperately wanting the subject changed. She wondered if she’d fallen into the Jefferson swamp. And if she had, which scenario was she subconsciously reacting to?

“I know four of them got caught,” Mimi said. “But that was weird science. I mean, you wouldn’t believe what the men put those girls through before they got to the altar. Frisco Joe, Laredo, Ranger and, ugh, I don’t even want to talk about Tex. There’s no simple romance with them.”

“Mimi, are you warning me about something specific?”

Mimi turned bright eyes on her. “I think I’m a little jealous that you’re over there all day, alone in the house with Mason.”

“Mason?” Kelly stared at her. “Oh…no, Mimi, you’re not in love with Mason, are you? I mean—” Her gaze swept Mimi’s huge belly. And then she fell silent.

“He doesn’t know,” Mimi said. “And he never will. You mustn’t tell a soul. It’s so wrong of me to feel this way! I thought once I married Brian, somehow I wouldn’t care as much. I’d get busy with the baby and some mom clubs…but it hasn’t worked.”

Kelly’s heart stung for Mimi. “I am so sorry. I had no idea.”

“Julia never told you?”

“Of course not. Julia would never gossip. When she sent my mother out there, she just said Helga was perfect for what the Jeffersons needed.”

“It was perfect for what
I
needed. Which was keeping Mason mine. Is that not the most horrid thing you ever heard? I’m a horrid, horrid woman! And my child is going to have a horrid mother!”

“Oh, Mimi.” Kelly didn’t know what to say. She’d hate to be in love with a man she couldn’t have. Instantly she thought of Fannin. Never again, she told herself. I’m staying out of that swamp! “Mimi, where’s your husband?”

“In Austin. Or Houston. Depends on the case.”

“Oh.” That didn’t help matters.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

Kelly nodded, not really wanting to hear it but realizing that talking was keeping Mimi from crying.

“We got married because of my father.”

Kelly blinked.

“Because Dad was so sick and I was scared he wasn’t going to last forever, and I wanted him to hold his first grandchild. And Brian agreed to…be the father.”

Kelly’s eyes widened. “Brian agreed?”

Mimi nodded.

“So you have a marriage of convenience?”

“We have a marriage,” Mimi said with finality. “And I have a grandchild for my father.”

Kelly leaned back against the sofa. No wonder Mimi was so miserable.

“My mother left when I was very young. She’s alive somewhere, probably moving from man to man.” Mimi tossed the final tissue away, seeming stronger now. “It’s always been just me and Dad.”

Helga had never said anything to Kelly about wanting her to get married and start a family. Kelly had never had that urge—until now.

Thankfully, Fannin had pointed out the path she was on. Now that she knew she was having a safe fling—
had been
having a safe fling—she could move on to finding Mr. Right. “I understand completely,” Kelly said.

“Well, I knew you would. You’ve been raised with a single parent. You understand how it feels to want to make them happy. Helga would adore a grandchild.”

“Do you think so?”

“Absolutely. Why do you think she’s over here all the time mothering me?” Mimi looked at her wryly. “She couldn’t mother you, because you were busy working. So she mothered me.”

“Oh, dear.” Kelly felt her own panic rising inside her. “I’m moving to Ireland.”

Mimi looked at her. “Oh, that will make your stalwart mother happy.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means don’t kid a kidder. We single-parent
children are all our parents have. We don’t go off to live in foreign places.”

Kelly knew her mother would be heartbroken, that was true. But it was something she needed to do. “I’ll never know who I am if I don’t go. I’ll never understand the other part of me.”

“I don’t want to understand the other part of me,” Mimi said bitterly. “I would shave my head before I got to know my mother.”

Helga certainly felt animosity toward Kelly’s father, which was to be expected since he’d abandoned them. “But it’s a ring house in Ireland,” she murmured.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s a castle. Your mom will miss you. She doesn’t complain, probably because she doesn’t have the English to do it, but she’s lonely here. Think about it. How would you like to be responsible for a ranchful of men who were really little boys?”

“Mason doesn’t quite strike me that way,” Kelly said.

“You’re not going to fall for him, are you?”

“Absolutely not,” Kelly said. “I’m not going to fall for any of them.”

“Oh, boy,” Mimi said, closing her eyes as she laid her head against the sofa. “Famous last words. You know, eventually one of them will try to sleep with you. If you do not resist—at all costs—you’ll be lost.”

Kelly’s mouth dropped open.

“Of course, I never slept with Mason and I’m lost anyway.” Mimi frowned. “Either way, you could be sunk.”

“Do you think…Fannin drank from Peter Pan’s Elixir of Boyhood?”

“Oh, he drank the big gulp,” Mimi said. “He just disguises it under a kind and gentle demeanor.”

“Kind and gentle demeanor? I haven’t seen that side of him, except with my mother. And Joy.”

“Who is upstairs comfortably sleeping on your mother’s back.”

“Back to Fannin and the big gulp—”

“Yes. Well,” Mimi said, her voice lowered confidentially, “Fannin’s lure is specific and targeted and all the worse because he won’t
see
you once you fall for him.”

“Spell that out for me slowly. I’m sort of a newbie where men are concerned.”

“Okay. Fannin’s sort of the honorable one among the brothers. He won’t sleep with everyone he meets. He’s very selective.”

Which didn’t make Kelly feel a whole lot better.

“So what happens is he’s just really nice and treats everyone gently, which earns him a lot of grief from his brothers. Like if they’re out with a group of women, everybody will sleep with someone that night except Fannin. He’ll pick out the lonely girl and then spend all evening with her. And then she’ll fall for him. But he won’t sleep with her, at least not usually. He’s had a girlfriend or two. One threatened to have
his baby so he’d have to marry her. Whew,” Mimi said. “I can tell you Fannin was out of there like his boots were on fire.”

Kelly’s stomach felt as if it was being iced.

“So Fannin’s such a nice guy that the girls adore him, but he won’t
see
them. You know, he never notices them.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Oh,” Mimi said with a slight laugh, “I know everything about those crazy men.” She sobered for a second. “Which is a double-edged sword, because they know everything about me, too. It was fun growing up, because I’d sit around with them, listening to their stories, just being one of the guys. I knew what tricks they were pulling on whom….” She sat up. “It was a sword that later came back to cut me deeply. Once a man sees you as one of the boys he never considers you as a woman.”

“Oh,” Kelly said.

“Back to Fannin,” Mimi said brightly. “He did have one girl we thought might be The One. She really brought out the animal in him. I think they made love in every hayloft in town.”

“Oh,” Kelly repeated, her insides knotting.

“She was mad for him. And it seemed he was crazy about her, too. You had to be careful what door you opened in case they were behind it nookying.” Mimi giggled. “It seemed like she was perfect for him. Adoring, blond, petite.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Yeah.” Mimi put a hand on her stomach. “And then one day, he was over it. Just like that. I never really knew what happened, but I heard that the girl mentioned the dreaded
M
word. Worse, the rumor mill mentioned that she wanted babies. Which is not something the brothers actually looked forward to at the time—there’s twelve of them and they weren’t hankering for more Jeffersons.”

“Oh.”

“I mean, marriage had to come up eventually,” Mimi said practically. “She thought he was in love with her, the way she was with him. All that sweet charm really undid her.”