Gambling on a Secret (28 page)

“I can’t say it thrills me to be the center of gossip, but I’d like to share my bed,” she paused and peered up at him, “and my life with you.”

It wasn’t
I love you
, but maybe she suffered the same case of cold feet he did.
Yeah, right
. Even if she’d said the words, it didn’t mean she meant them. Brenda obviously hadn’t.

“You can start moving in right away if you want.” Her smile slipped a little. “After all, in a few months, tongues will be wagging anyway when I start looking like I swallowed a watermelon whole.”

A vision of Charli very pregnant flitted across his mind. With it came the nugget of speculation that would, no doubt, be on the lips of the gossipers as they wondered who the father of Charli’s baby was.

He would squelch the whispers right now by making it appear he and Charli were together. But what if he wasn’t the father? No, he had to trust her. He forced a smile. “I suppose you’re right about that. Hell, I can move in now. I only have my clothes, and I can grab those while you make breakfast.”

His presence in her bed would most likely irritate Leon when he came home. He had heard about his trip to Colorado from Tracy.
What a bitch to be so high up on the corporate food chain only you can make the deal.

Her pulling him down for a soul-bending kiss hid his smirk. Wouldn’t the son-of-a-bitch be surprised to see him answering the door when he visited? He would find great pleasure in shoving Leon’s bouquet of roses into his face. On the high from a night of the greatest sex of his life, he held her to him and took over the kiss. She surrendered when he explored her mouth. He wanted to make love to her one more time, but there was a rap on the back door.

Charli groaned and eased out of the kiss. “That’s Tom.”

He nodded and rested his forehead against hers. “Why did I tell him to work today?”

Giggling, she pulled away. “Because he’s off Monday.”

“We may as well go let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. I was hoping to sneak out before he got here.”

“Now, you can make yourself useful by putting on the coffee instead.” She took his hand and led him into the kitchen. “Then you can move in and we’ll have that date.”

Maybe they actually had a future together.

Or maybe she’d end up breaking his heart when Leon returned.

Chapter 15

Things had to be too good to be true, but Charli didn’t stop to analyze what was going on. Dylan moved his meager belongings into her bedroom before they had breakfast.

He plopped a camouflage duffle bag, which had seen better days, onto her bed. She stood in the doorway and raised her brows at him when he faced her.

“That’s it?”

He shrugged and glanced back at the bag. “All that matters.”

“You don’t have any more
stuff
?”

He shook his head once and crossed the room. “Nope. I’m not a packrat, and for thirteen years, I wore the exact same thing every day. Besides, divorce took care of the rest.”

She didn’t miss the pain that darted across his face at the mention of his divorce. Forcing her attention to the bag lying on the bed, she said, “I was wondering how the heck I was going to find room in my closet for your things. I guess I shouldn’t have fretted. C’mon, breakfast is ready.”

After they’d eaten, they jumped into his pickup and raced up the highway to Fort Worth.

Over the loud squeal of AC/DC paving their highway to hell, she said, “You know we should probably buy a truck for the ranch.”

“You don’t like my trusty old Ford?”

“You don’t like my Lexus.”

“Oh, sure, now that’s the prissy-assed vehicle of choice.”

She glared at him, and he grinned.

“Hank gave me my dream car after I took over his ranch. Sometimes I miss it.”

“Which was?”

She smiled, remembering. “A Jaguar. Bright red convertible with black leather interior, fully loaded.” She sighed. “I loved that car.”

His shock vibrated the truck. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. I traded it in.”

“You traded a Jag in for a
Lexus
?” His incredulous expression would have been funny if they weren’t in the middle of late morning rush hour traffic. A semi-truck cut across two lanes of highway directly in front of them.

“Dylan!”

He easily avoided a disaster by plying the breaks. Once he stopped consigning the driver to hell, calling in to question his manhood, along with a few things about his mother, he winced as if in pain. “Why would you trade a fine piece of automotive mastery like a Jaguar in for a Lexus?”

The frantic beat of her heart slowed as she held a hand over her breast. “I wanted something more practical to move to Texas with. Hence, the Lexus.”

As if bewildered by the circumstances, he shook his head. So, the rough and tough cowboy had a soft spot for fast, little sports cars.

After a time, he slid a mischievous look her way. “Maybe it’s a good thing you got rid of the Jag. I can imagine how sexy you’d look in one. It drove me crazy resisting you in those little robes you wear. Combined with a fast car...” He shook his head and groaned.

“I really tormented you by answering my door in a robe?”

“Hell, yeah.” He tossed her another glance. “Thank God you’d stomp off to your room to shower and dress, because I needed the time to calm my raging hard-ons.”

She laughed and admitted, “I never realized you were so attracted to me. Until the kiss in the bathroom. I would lay awake at night wondering what you were like in the sack.”

“Well?”

She tried to pretend indifference by shrugging, but she couldn’t stop the sly smile. “I wasn’t disappointed.”

He fidgeted in the seat and took a deep breath. “That’s something, I guess. I think it’s time to change the subject. My jeans are getting mighty uncomfortable.”

She laughed again and went back to the original topic of discussion. “The ranch probably should have a company pickup.”

“Probably. Although I don’t mind driving my truck.” He eyed the lane-hopping minivan in front of them. “The Ford isn’t new, but it’s reliable. We can take a look into getting something later.”

What would he do if she surprised him on his next birthday with a brand new, shiny pickup truck? It wasn’t a Jag, but that could come later, maybe their first anniversary.

First anniversary?

Boy, wasn’t that putting the cart before the horse? They probably wouldn’t last the day. There was still a gulf between them. Did he believe she’d slept with Leon? Did he still love Brenda? The image of Brenda and her baby popped in her mind and a terrible suspicion bored into her heart.

She looked at his profile. He was so handsome, so strong and honorable. Yet, something vulnerable hid below the tough-guy skin. “When are you going to tell your parents and Tracy about the baby?”

He didn’t look at her. “Tracy will find out soon enough. As for my parents, I think we should wait a little. Just to let us get used to the idea. Maybe, tell them after you see the doctor.”

Sure, there was no use getting their hopes up about a new baby if something was wrong with it and she had a problem.

Or Dylan decided he didn’t want to stick around, after all.

“Charli, it has nothing to do with not wanting the baby,” he said when she didn’t speak. “A lot of people wait until the third month to tell folks. We should have some time to come to terms with what’s happening.”

She nodded and looked out the window. “You still think the baby might not be yours.”

When silence met her statement, she looked his way. His jaw flexed, and he didn’t look at her. “The thought has crossed my mind.”

“Dylan.” She waited for his gaze to meet hers, if for only a second. “I swear I never slept with Leon. Before you, I haven’t had sex since I was eighteen.” She closed her eyes and swallowed, knowing she had to tell him something. But she couldn’t tell the truth, at least not all of it. “After I ran away, I met a man in Vegas. We–we got married.”

He looked at her again with wide eyes. “He’s the reason you don’t want to get married again.”

“Yes.”

“Did you love him?”

Averting her eyes to her hands in her lap, she shrugged. “I thought I did. He took me off the streets, gave me a place to live.”

“And beat you.”

She nodded and sucked in her bottom lip. “Yeah. Our marriage was annulled after my grandfather found me in Las Vegas.”

It wasn’t the total truth, but it was close enough, and all she intended to divulge. She and Ricardo Rodriguez hadn’t been legally married, since they never applied for a license. The facade of marriage had been his way of controlling her, and she’d been too young and naive to realize it.

She looked at him. His hands gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened.

“I would never hurt you, Charli.” His voice came from a place so deep, it rumbled.

“I know.”

He met her gaze with eyes so fierce they frightened her.

She assured him, “I haven’t seen him since I left Vegas.” She’d already said enough about her life with Ricardo. “I suppose waiting to announce the baby will be okay. That way the Grapevine won’t completely exhaust the juicy grapes all at once.”

He deftly switched lanes to merge onto the correct ramp off the Fort Worth beltway.

“No, we definitely want to make sure there’re enough ‘juicy grapes’ on Winnie Cartwright’s grapevine.” The sarcasm fell as flat as his forced smile did.

For the rest of the trip, an uneasy silence descended upon them. By the time they arrived at the auction, she was determined to not let the shadows in their relationship or of her past ruin the day. They pulled into the parking lot crowded with livestock trucks, pickups, and SUVs–many of them with trailers.

She turned to him and touched his arm as he killed the engine. “Dylan, I know it’s hard to trust me, but I’m not a woman to play games. To me Leon was never more than a friend. Yes, he wanted to be more, but he wasn’t. It’s you I want. It’s your baby I’m pregnant with.”

He skimmed his fingers over her cheek. “And I want you, Charli. I guess I–I can’t help but wonder why you chose me.”

“Don’t wonder.” They locked gazes, and her fingers closed over his, resting on her cheek. “C’mon. The auction’s about start, and I want that chilidog you promised me.”

They got out of the truck and headed toward the office to claim a bidding number.

A few moments later, they scanned the pens of cattle. When she found two pens of year-old Angus heifers offered by the same rancher, she said, “How about these? They look healthy and would be good for breeding.”

After coming up beside her at the metal railing, he leaned over his arms on the top and surveyed the heifers with a critical eye. He pushed his hat back and looked at her. “You know more about this stuff than I’ve ever given you credit for. It’s time I stop underestimating you.” She raised a brow, and he said, “These are good. So, you’re done playacting at ranching, huh?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He took her hand in the natural way of new lovers. The action about stopped her heart. “Now don’t get your tail feathers all in a ruffle, although you have very nice tail feathers.” He leaned back to glance meaningfully at her jeans-covered ass. She poked him in the chest, and he pushed her Stetson back over her head a little and met her gaze. “It means I’ve been waiting for you to decide to actually raise some cattle on the old place.”

He might not trust her, but he had faith in her. She often wondered what he truly thought of her, especially when he’d make the kind of smart-ass comments like the one from that morning about her going to a livestock auction. For a long time now, she’d figured he was waiting for her to break a nail and run away like some prissy bitch.

Whose fault was that?

She’d cleaned herself up over the years, given up massive amounts of makeup for a more natural look and traded trashy clothes for designer names. Although she still sometimes showed more skin than most people were comfortable with, no one ever questioned her wealth or her sense of high fashion.

But she was a rancher, not a runway model.

“You really believe in me?” Her voice dipped and nearly cracked.

He squeezed her hand. “Yes.”

She fought the sting behind her eyes, and the heat racing into her cheeks had nothing to do with the temperature of the late May day. She sniffed and turned away before she made a fool out of herself by crying.

They moved along the aisle to find seats in the auction arena. “I’ve been thinking of changing the name of the ranch.”

“I wondered when you’d get around to it. What are you thinking?”

She looked up at him and snorted. “I haven’t the foggiest, damned idea.”

He snickered and held out the cardboard placard with their number on it. “Do you want to do the honors?”

“Oh, I think you’ve got it covered. I’ll just sit here and keep you company.” She patted his thigh and stroked the area in a slow circular motion with her fingertips.