Seducing Zeb (Tarnished Saints Series) (25 page)

She looked down at him and almost laughed seeing that the black eye she’d given him was just starting to heal and now he had a shiner on the other eye to match, making him look like a raccoon.

“Thank you for coming to my rescue tonight,” she said, sitting down next to him.

“Why were you even in Burley’s after I told you I didn’t want you there?”

“Zeb Taylor, you can’t tell me what to do. Especially since you never tell me what you’re doing.”

He just looked at her and seemed to think it over and then nodded. “All right. Fair enough. And I’m sorry that I haven’t acted the way you would have liked lately but -”

“I know what you’re going to say. You’re a bachelor and you can’t change your ways. Don’t bother telling me.”

“That’s not what I was going to say.”

“Then what is it, Zeb?
Are you going to try to deny that you made dates with those two girls while we were married?”

She heard him sigh, then his hand went up to touch his hurt eye
s and he looked the other way when he spoke. “No. I’m not going to deny it, but that’s not exactly how it went. I didn’t make the date while we were married, I just postponed it, that’s all. But at the time, I had my mind set on being a bachelor and didn’t think we were going to stay married anyway. Still, I know it was wrong, and I am sorry. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to be married, but now I’ve changed my mind.”

“Oh really?” Her stomach lurched and she had so much to drink that her head spun and she had to pee. “I can’t hear any more tonight, Zeb.” She started to walk away but he grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Please, Cat, let me explain.”

“Zeb, if you don’t let go of me, you’re going to be sorry.”

“I’m not going to let go of you. Ever.”

Cat tried to get away but she couldn’t. Nor could she stop herself from hurling her insides
, just turning her head to miss Zeb, but still throwing-up all over his shoes.

“Are you sick, sweetie?” he asked. “Here, lie on the couch while I clean up.”

She was asleep before her head even hit the couch pillow.

Chapter 22

Zeb waited patiently for Cat to wake up the next morning, already having gone over in his head a hundred times what he was going to say to her. He’d planned on telling her all about her brother, but then Lorenzo called earlier and told him he’d decided to go home and get some sleep last night and wait til morning to leave. But he was able to board a plane and it had already landed at Kalamazoo airport. Zeb had phoned Nate to go pick him up at the airport and to bring him directly over to their lake house.

Lorenzo asked him not to say anything yet because he decided to surprise Cat after all. Now, Zeb just hoped he could avoid her question of where he’d been until Lorenzo got there.

“Wake up, sweetheart,” he said, pushing a lock of her long, dark hair behind her ear. “How are you feeling?”

She stretched and opened her eyes and actually smiled at him, probably forgetting how much she really hated him for a second.

“Zeb?” she asked, then made a face as she tasted the inside of her mouth and she remembered just what happened last night.

“Oh no. I’m sorry I threw up on you.”

“It’s alright, Cat,” he said. “I’ll get a new pair of shoes. Now why don’t you go brush your teeth and then I have somewhere to take you.”

“I can’t go anywhere before I shower and put on some makeup,” she said, making her way to the bathroom.

“Cat, please. This is important. No one is going to see us. Now just brush your teeth and come with me. It won’t take long.”

“Oh, all right,” she said and
disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.

Zeb waited nervously for her to come out of the bathroom, going over in his head what he was going to say when he asked her to marry him. He had a box wrapped up in his back pocket with a ruby necklace in it that he’d bought for her at the airport while he was on stand
-by. It was expensive and also lined with diamonds, and while he knew he was taking a chance that she might not accept it since she’d think he was throwing his money around again to get her to forgive him, it was a chance he had to take.

He
wanted to use the rings from Vegas again just as a token until they had time to go shopping for real rings, but hell if he could remember what he did with his, nor did he ever know what Cat did with hers.

So
this morning, since it was the weekend and Thomas’s kids were home from school, he sent Dan and Sam over to his office to look through his desk drawers for the ring. He heard car tires on gravel outside and looked out the window to see Dan’s ’67 Chevy convertible pulling down the driveway. He ran out to greet them.

“Dan, Sam, did you find my ring?” he asked anxiously running up to their car.

“Sorry, Uncle Zeb,” said Dan shaking his head. “We looked everywhere but couldn’t find it.”

“Maybe it’s under some of the papers on my desk. It’s pretty messy. Did you look there?”

“It wasn’t messy at all,” said Sam. “Ever since Cat cleaned it, everything is organized and in the file cabinet. You should see it. She did a great job.”

“Yeah,” said Dan. “For a while there we thought we had the wrong office.”

“Cat did that?” he asked, feeling his heart go out to her. She’d been working so hard to make things nice for him. And the fact she’d furnished the cottage with antiques and also decorated didn’t go unnoticed either. She had been trying so hard to make this marriage work and unfortunately he had done nothing to add to the relationship at all. And if they weren’t already married, he had no doubt in his mind that Cat would probably turn down his proposal. “All right, thanks boys. Now you’d better get going because Cat is coming out and I’m going to take her for a rowboat ride and propose to her.”

“Sweet,” said Dan and turned the car around. They were just about to drive away when they stopped and Sam called out to him.

“Oh, Uncle Zeb, this was on your desk and it looked important so we thought we’d better bring it to you.”

Zeb walked back over and grabbed the letter from Sam, see
ing that it looked like his annulment papers.

“Was it already opened?” he asked.

“Yep. Maybe Cat did it, but it wasn’t us,” said Sam as the car rolled away down the driveway.

Zeb took one look at the Decree of An
nulment signed by the judge, realizing he was no longer married to Cat. All records of them ever being husband and wife were null and void and this hit him hard in the gut as it wasn’t what he wanted to see just now. Damn, he never should have paid extra to push it through so fast. He regretted it now, not realizing at the time what a mistake he was making. And if the letter was opened, then Cat obviously had seen it too.

“Okay, I’m ready. Where are we going?” asked Cat coming down the stairs to meet him
. She had changed and obviously thrown on some makeup. He just smiled inwardly knowing that Cat was so much like him that there was no doubt in his mind they belonged together. He usually didn’t go out the door before he looked his best either. But things had changed. Now he was walking around with stubble on his face and two black eyes. And although he’d changed his clothes and shoes he swore he still smelled from puke.

He took the letter and held it up for her to see it. “Did you open this?” he asked, and saw her eyes dart the other way.

“Yes. I did,” she admitted.

“Cat, how do you feel about no longer being married?”

He had hoped she’d tell him she hated it and wanted to stay married, but instead she acted nonchalant.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, looking out toward the lake. “So are we going somewhere or what?”

“Yes. Come with me.”

Cat went with Zeb down to the lake, wondering what this was all about. She figured since he had the letter in his hand and asked her how she felt about not being married any more that this was all leading up to that big news he had about where he’d been lately. It hurt her more than anything to think of Zeb with someone else, but she didn’t want to let him know that. That’s why she acted as if she didn’t care.

“Judas said Denny and his friends were wanted in Vegas and that they’ll be behind bars for a long time.”

“What about me?” she asked, stopping in her tracks. “I cheated for that scum. Are they going to put me in jail as well?”

“No, you’re not going to jail, Cat. I made sure of that.”

“Why? What did you do?”

“I
made sure they knew you were being forced to do that. However, down the line you may have to testify against Denny.”

“My pleasure. I’ll do whatever it takes to put him
behind bars where he belongs.”

They stopped walking and were now on the pier. Cat looked down to see a rowboat
. Zeb untied it and got inside. The waves moved the boat up and down and made her feel dizzy.

“Come on, get in,
Cat.”

“You want me to get in that thing? You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t even like the water.”

“Please. I have something I need to ask you. I thought we could row out to the middle of the lake and that it would be . . . I don’t know. Romantic.”

Cat didn’t know what Zeb was up to, but he almost sounded as if he wanted to make amends so she figured she’d give it a shot. She stepped out to get into the boat, but got dizzy and put her foot and weight on the side of the boat
instead.

“No! That’s not how you get into a boat!” she heard him shout but it was too late. She tilted the boat and lost her balance, and ended up dumping both of them into the water.”

She knew she should have been upset but when she saw Zeb sitting in the lake looking like a drowned rat, she burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny,
” he said, crawling out of the water and helping her to her feet. They both made it to the pier and sat down. Zeb pulled off his shoes and water poured out as he laid them one by one on the pier next to them.

“Oh, Zeb, I’m going to miss you
. And I’m only sorry things didn’t work out in our marriage.”

“What are you talking about
?” he asked.

“I know what’s going on,” she said. “Y
ou went to St. Louis to be with a girl. Don’t try to hide the fact. Remember I called and the woman answered.”

Now it was his turn to laugh, though Cat didn’t think it was funny.

“Sweetheart, that’s not why I was there. And that woman was only the wife of a man I went to see. She just happened to answer the phone.”

“Oh. Really?”

“I swear. And I’ll tell you exactly what I was doing there and who I was meeting, but first I have to tell you that I love you.”

“You . . . love me
?” Cat never expected to hear him say this.

“I love you and I want you
to marry me. Even if our annulment already went through because I was too unorganized to stop the procedure.”

“You mean you didn’t do that on purpose?”

“Of course not, Cat. Sweetheart, I realize that you were right about everything. I do like my toys too much and the things money can buy.”

“Then don’t give it up, Zeb. Because I have to admit I like it too. And you were right about me using my looks to get what I want as well.”

“So you’re saying that you don’t care if I keep my designer clothes, the Mercedes or even Jeeva?”

“I don’t mind at all.” She reached up and touched him gently on his cheek. “I saw how miserable you were when we tried the contest, and I was just as miserable.
Face it, neither of us could continue the contest only after one day. So why put ourselves through that misery again? I know that your aunt was right now in stopping me from marrying James and tricking me into marrying you. After all – we really do belong together.”

“Good ol’ Aunt Cappy. I’ll have to thank her later. But now, Cat I want to tell you that
I love you and I want to marry you. For real this time.” He slipped off of the pier and got down on his knees in the water and took her hand in his. “I don’t have a ring, but I was going to let you pick it out yourself. However, I did get you something to hold us over.”

He handed her a long box and she opened it. Water came sloshing out and landed on her lap and made her jerk and they both laughed at that. She looked down to see the most beautiful necklace she’d ever seen made from rubies and diamonds.

“Zeb, it’s beautiful. And it must have cost a fortune.”

“I’m not trying to bribe you with expensive gifts like you think, sweetheart. I can’t help it. I just like nice things and that’s one of the reasons I like you.
And you deserve this, as well as so much more than I can ever give you. I love you, Cat and want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

“Zeb, do you really mean it?
”

“
I do.”

“Tell me more of those reasons why you love me.”

“I love the way you smile, Cat. Your face lights up and makes my heart sing. And of course I love the way you look. Your eyes are like mirrors to your soul and your lips are so seductive that I just can’t help it –” he shot forward and plastered a big kiss on her, surprising her again. “I just have to kiss you.”