Kinkade, Lea - I Got a Feelin' [The Chisholms of Texas 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (21 page)

Slowly, she eased down onto her elbows as each attempted to even out their breathing. His hips still flexed spasmodically as he carefully lowered himself onto her now-limp body, covering her with his strength. He whispered kisses over her sleek back and shoulders. Without withdrawing from her sweet pussy, he eased them down to the mattress onto their sides. They lay spooned to each other as their breathing returned to normal. He nuzzled her neck, his cock still deep inside her swollen pussy. They fell asleep like that and didn’t wake until morning.

As the sun rose over the horizon she lay wrapped in his arms. Ryan was still asleep, but he still held her tightly to his side. She held her arm out as she admired the beautiful engagement ring on her left hand. Ryan had great taste in jewelry. It was just the sort of ring she would have chosen for herself. Smiling with happiness, she laid her hand on his chest and snuggled more deeply back into the curve of his embrace.

Moving day dawned bright and clear. Between Ryan and the rest of the Chisholm brothers, packing up their belongings at the apartment took no time at all. The furniture store was delivering all of the furniture between 9:00 a.m. and noon, so Samantha and Jessie stayed at the new house and waited for the delivery in order to direct the furniture placement.

“What the hell is that?” Jessie squealed as she spotted Samantha’s engagement ring and pulled her into a tight hug. “Oh, my God. Congratulations, you two. When did this happen?” The rest of the Chisholm siblings crowded around Ryan and Samantha, admiring the ring.

“Ryan asked me last night, and I said yes.”

“Do mom and dad know?” asked Xander with a smile as the brothers slapped Ryan on the back and gave Samantha a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“No. You guys are the first. Let mom and dad figure it out on their own like Jessie did. Mom will have my head if she finds out we told you guys first. They’ll be here in a little bit.”

“You’re right. They’re going to be so happy for you,” said Jessie as tears continued to run down her face. After a few minutes, the guys took off in several trucks to the apartment to start packing.

Paying for her half of the furniture had put a serious dent in her savings, but Samantha knew she wouldn’t have felt like the house was hers if she hadn’t done it. She had taken today and the next two days off to get things settled into the new house. Ryder was covering for Ryan at Chaps & Spurs for the next few days as they got settled in. Ryan and his brothers arrived back at the house just as the furniture delivery truck was heading back out.

For now, they had purchased bedroom furniture for the master suite and for one other room to use as a guest room. They would leave the other bedrooms empty until they knew for sure what they were going to use them for. Ryan had dropped some not-so-subtle hints about filling them with babies, but Samantha had told him they might need to negotiate on the number first.

Leaving everything in the trucks for the moment, the men headed inside to get a look at the new house and furnishings. Samantha, Jessie, and Taylor were in the master bedroom putting the sheets on the massive California King bed Ryan had insisted on. It was in the Mission style, as was most of their furniture, and Samantha loved it. As they added the muted yellow comforter to the bed, Samantha looked around at the sage-green walls of the bedroom and sighed in satisfaction. Ryan had deferred to her opinion on the wall colors and she was happy to see that the medium-tone green that she had chosen for the walls worked well in this large room. With the muted yellow bedding and some throw pillows that matched the color on the walls, the bedroom felt like an oasis of serenity that she knew Ryan would appreciate just as much as she would.

After a quick look at the furniture, the men began to unload the boxes from the trucks. They’d had the foresight to label the boxes with the name of the room that the items in the box had been taken from, so they took each box into the corresponding room in the new house. They were done within an hour and, by that time, Cassie and Alex had shown up with enough food to feed an army. It took several minutes, and Samantha blatantly used her left hand to dish up her lunch, but Cassie finally spotted the ring on her finger and nearly had a fit and pulled her in for a long hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh, my goodness. When did this happen? I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

“Ryan asked me last night. We wanted it to be a surprise. I hope you’re not disappointed.”

“Disappointed? Never. This is the best news we’ve had since little A.J. was born. How could you think I’d be disappointed? You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to my son.” Cassie was crying and pulled her husband to her side.

“Congratulations, son. You’ve done well for yourself. Samantha, welcome to the family. You fit right in,” said Alex Chisholm as he hugged Samantha and kissed her cheek.

“When’s the wedding?” asked Cassie with a devious glint in her eyes.

“We haven’t even talked about it yet, Mom. Give us a chance to get settled into the house, and we’ll let you know when we decide on a date.”

When Jordan and baby A.J. arrived, the whole scene was repeated. It was about 1:30 p.m. and everyone had eaten their fill. Xander took the baby back home and left Jordan to help Samantha start unpacking boxes. Cassie and Jessie stayed to help as well. The men left the women to sort out the unpacking of the boxes. That night, Samantha and Ryan christened their new bed several times as they continued to celebrate their engagement.

* * * *

Samantha woke up one morning in early October in Ryan’s arms and thought about all the changes in her life over the past year. A year ago today, she had moved her life to Deseo, Texas. She had found love and was fulfilled in her career. She now had a fiancé as well as a large family through Ryan. The Chisholms knew about her childhood growing up in foster homes and the reasons for it, including the details about her mother.

Ryan had asked her to share her story with his family so they could know and understand her better. Since she felt they had a right to know but didn’t want to repeat the story for each and every sibling, she had told the entire family at the Fourth of July celebration out on the Ranch. Ryan’s youngest sister, Jennifer, had been home visiting for the long weekend from her busy law school schedule in Austin. Eli was at a rodeo and unable to make it back home for the festivities.

Samantha had become so close to Cassie, Jordan, Taylor, and Jessie that she felt like she was truly a part of the family. She was even becoming closer with Ryan’s brothers, especially Ryder, since he was over at their house a lot. Ryan and Ryder were so close, and Samantha felt a special affinity for this brother who was so much a part of the man she loved.

For months after becoming engaged, Samantha and Ryan had resisted setting a date for the wedding. Cassie continued to gently hound them about it. Samantha and Ryan discussed it and decided they wanted a holiday wedding and picked Christmas Eve as the big day. They were planning a wedding out behind the big house, like Jordan and Xander, and so they didn’t need to worry about church availability or reception sites. In Samantha’s opinion, that gave them plenty of time to plan a wedding. Although they wanted to keep it small and intimate, they knew Cassie Chisholm would be hugely disappointed if she couldn’t invite whoever she wanted. Cassie had gotten her way with both Levi’s and Xander’s weddings, and Samantha didn’t know how she would refuse the woman that she now called Mom.

Cassie had insisted that they get an engagement portrait taken and publish the announcement in what she termed the “area papers.” Unbeknownst to Samantha, that included the major papers in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, and Austin. In town, the news of their engagement had been received mostly favorably. Most of the town was happy for them and made a point of stopping into Bach Florists or Chaps & Spurs and wishing them well. A few of Ryan’s old girlfriends, or girlfriend wannabes, spread some mean-spirited rumors that Samantha was after the Chisholm money, but the rumors quickly died down after Cassie Chisholm had gotten wind of them. Samantha didn’t hear anything about the rumors until well after the women had been approached by Cassie.

Chapter 15

One day in late October, Samantha left the shop a little early and headed home to her fiancé. As she walked in the front door, she heard Ryan arguing with someone and paused in the entryway. “I’ll decide when to tell her about this. Just keep this as quiet as you can for now. I need to prepare her a little bit, I can’t just spring this on her with everything she’s gone through in the past. I owe her more than that.” Ryan sounded insistent.

“I think you should tell her as soon as possible. She has a right to know, but I understand what you’re saying. It has to be soon though, son. You’re not going to be able to keep this a secret for too much longer. Right now only the immediate family knows, but it’s going to be all over the newspapers soon. You need to decide how you’re going to handle the press. They’re going to be all over this. Any scandal they can exploit, they will.” Samantha recognized the grim voice as that of Alex Chisholm.

“I know, Dad. Thanks for giving me a heads-up.”

Coming out of her reverie, Samantha stepped fully into the foyer and shut the door behind her, making enough noise that the men in the family room would hear her. The conversation stopped and Ryan called out to her, his voice moving toward her. “Honey, is that you? You’re home early. What happened? Are you sick?” He walked to her quickly and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“No, not sick. It was slow, so I took advantage of being the boss and let myself off early. Cheryl was working, and she knows how to close the shop, so I decided to let her. Do we have company? There are a couple of cars outside.”

“Yes, Dad, Xander, and Uncle Marcus are here to discuss some ranch business.” Ryan obviously didn’t want her to know what the conversation had really been about. Uncle Marcus was Alex Chisholm’s younger brother and the lead attorney for
CRE
as well as the personal lawyer for all the Chisholm’s. He looked a lot like his two brothers.

“Ranch business? I didn’t think you got involved in the business.”

“I’m still a shareholder, so I still have a vote on the important stuff.”

“Oh, well, don’t let me interrupt you. I’ll just go upstairs and get out of your hair.”

“That’s not necessary, Samantha. Marcus, Xander, and I were just leaving. I think we got things settled as much as we can right now.” Alex smiled at her as he moved toward the front door, followed by Xander and Marcus. Each man stopped and gave Samantha a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek as they said their good-byes and walked out the door.

Samantha and Ryan stood in the foyer looking at each other a little uncomfortably. “Well, I’ll just go get supper started.” Samantha moved quickly to the hall table and put down her purse. It was obvious that Ryan wasn’t ready to tell her what was going on. She needed some time alone to figure out what that conversation had been about. Obviously it was about her, but she couldn’t understand what they had been discussing. She needed some time to think about the little bit of the conversation she had overheard. Knowing she should just ask Ryan, something held her back.

As she went to move past him, Ryan grabbed her arm gently and pulled her into his embrace. “God, I love you.” Cupping her face in the palm of one hand, he bent down and gave her a sweet kiss. Samantha, sensing something more was going on, put her arms around his waist and pulled him in for a deeper kiss, opening her lips to let him in. Although she had no proof, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Ryan was saying good-bye to her in that kiss. As she moved away from his arms and toward the kitchen, her eyes teared up and she wondered if this was the end and Ryan was just figuring out a way to let her down easy.

Once in the kitchen, she fought back the tears and swiped away two that escaped before she could control them. Moving to the refrigerator to see what Ryan had set out for supper, she heard the sounds of her favorite CD coming from the family room where the stereo equipment was. It was Billy Currington, and she could hear him singing their song, “I Got A Feelin’.”

She knew she should just come out and ask him what was going on, but she decided if he was going to break things off with her she’d rather have just one more night in his arms to remember him by. Shaking her head, she tried to shake off her negative thoughts as she pulled out the chicken that had defrosted in the refrigerator.

Ryan came into the kitchen with a distracted smile on his face. Sitting down at the granite-covered island, he engaged her in conversation about her day. While Samantha diced the red onion and placed it in the bottom of the roasting pan, he asked her what Celia was up to. Measuring out the red wine and balsamic vinegar, Samantha answered him as she poured it over the chicken she had placed in the roasting pan on top of the sliced onion. She got out a few cloves of garlic and put them through her garlic press into a small bowl where she added Kosher salt and rosemary leaves. She stirred up the mixture and proceeded to spread it over and into the chicken in the roaster. Setting it to the side to marinate, she washed her hands with soap and hot water then dried them off on a dish towel.

“I should go in to the club for a couple of hours after supper. Do you want to come with me?” Ryan had cut back a lot on his late-night hours, and Samantha often accompanied him to the club when he planned on being back at a decent hour.

“I think I’ll stay home tonight, if you don’t mind. I have a slight headache, and I don’t want to be around all that noise when I feel like this.”