Strictly Business [Stud Service 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (4 page)

Maria physically cringed, obviously embarrassed by such crude words.

“If that’s what it takes, then yes.” William wrapped his arm around his wife protectively. “Your mother and I would much rather you all be married to a wonderful man, but since you all seem to be so stubborn about it, we have no choice but to force your hand.”

“I’m not hearing this,” Savannah mumbled.

William stood and walked to her side. “We didn’t want to do this to you or your sisters, but you haven’t left us much choice in the matter.”

“You would rather I have a child with some guy off the street than have no child at all?”

“Somehow I don’t think it will come to that, sweetheart. But in essence, I guess you’re right. Your trust funds will be released back for your use when we have confirmation of a wedding in the future or a grandchild on the way.”

Maria stood and said, “Father. I think we should leave the girls alone for awhile to digest what we’ve said.” She chewed her lip for a moment. “We love you girls very much, but your father and I aren’t getting any younger, and we need to secure the future of our businesses with grandchildren. Otherwise, all of our hard work has been for nothing.” She took his hand and walked out the front door, shutting it softly behind them.

This is the low level my parents will stoop to get grandchildren.

Susannah muffled a groan and let her head hit the table.
Since when does life have to be so complicated?
She wasn’t ready for kids yet. “I’m too young to be a mommy.”

She was only twenty-six, damn it!
 

Susannah sipped her beer as she perused the bar scene from her wooden stool. It was the same thing she always saw when she came to town, a roomful of rowdy cowboys. Peanut shells and pine shavings littered the floor, and the walls were decorated in mishmash of country road signs and other antiques someone probably pulled out of a barn. A signed picture of the country-western singer Dolly Parton was framed and posted proudly behind the cash register.

The few locals who came in here were regulars who came more for the company than the good food. A light buzz of conversation filled the air, and the only thing different was her. She had renewed interest, and finding a man suddenly mattered.

Thank you, Mom and Dad.

“What about him?” Serena pointed to a blond-haired, blue-eyed cowboy eating hot wings and picking his teeth with a chicken bone.

“Eww.” Susannah squished her nose up. He had no manners. “I don’t think I want your help.”

“Why not? You don’t have to keep him.”

“That’s a good thing. The man needs more training than I have time for. He probably never learned to put up the toilet seat either.”

“Yeah, but he would make pretty babies.”

“Well, I’ll give you that. He’s cute.” Cute in a little-boy sort of way. The cowboy was cute, but Susannah wanted a man.

She would have preferred to find a man to keep and grow old with. Someone she could wake up with in the morning and snuggle with until she was forced to leave his warmth. She had always envied her parents in the loving relationship they had found together. It was part of why she held out for so long, because anything less she felt would be settling. She knew what she was missing, and she wanted that kind of love in her life, and she didn’t want to give up on finding that man. No guy had ever lived up to those kinds of expectations.

“Then what are you looking for? You can’t hold out for Mr. Right forever. Not with Mom and Dad’s ultimatum and since you quit your day job.”

“Yeah, do you think it’s too late to get it back?” Susannah sighed. She didn’t want to go back to working for the pharmaceutical company, and she had a small savings, but it wouldn’t last forever and it wouldn’t fund a yearlong expedition to the Caribbean, either.

“I don’t know. You didn’t do anything stupid like tell off your boss before you left, did you?” Savannah joked, but there was a serious edge to her voice.

“Maybe a little,” Susannah admitted bashfully.

“Uh-oh.” Sabrina covered her smile with a hand.

“I guess it really doesn’t matter. I don’t want to go back to work there anyhow.” Susannah grimaced just thinking of the windowless room she used to work in with its white, sterile walls. She deserved to be out in the field. She put in her dues behind a desk and she wanted to prove herself as a marine biologist.

“At least Savannah has a guy lined up already…”

“I told you, he’s just a friend.” Savannah huffed. “We have a strictly professional relationship.”

“Well, Brandon may not think so.”

“Sure. That’s why he offered to drive you to the airport.” Susannah smirked. Savannah obviously was interested in a little more than friendship. Her face turned bright red under her sister’s harassment. “But at least you have a man on your radar. That’s one better than me.”

“Or me.” Sabrina cast a wary glance across the bar.

“Come on, you can’t get all down and out about our nonexistent love life, because none of us are going to find a guy that way.” Serena grabbed Susannah’s wrist and pulled her onto the dance floor. “Let’s dance!”

Susannah didn’t bother protesting and followed her sister onto the dance floor. She noticed the blond cowboy was already out there. When Serena set her sights on something or someone, there was no stopping her.

Damn, she wished she was less afraid to reach out and take what she wanted in life. That’s the way Susannah wished she was, but here everyone knew her.

In Destiny, they expected the Gibson sisters to behave a certain way, act a certain way, but in a new city she could be anyone she wanted to be.

And as soon as she got home, she was going to make sure her sexiest lingerie got packed, because she was going to ensure she needed it.

* * * *

Susannah walked to the barn in the early morning light before most of the family would be up, but Daddy’s staff was already up and awake, feeding the horses and taking care of business. Any other man may have given up the working farm after making it big in oil, but not her daddy. He loved the land too much. The oil wells were far more lucrative, but he never turned his back on his family ranch.

The house got bigger, and he might have bought himself a few toys since then, but he knew horses.

Which was a good thing. It allowed her to keep her horse without having to pay boarding fees or find a home in the city that she could take care of him.

Paducah was a chestnut-colored Arabian mare. She had a black mane and tail, but the rest of her was a reddish-brown color. She used to compete through her high school years as a cutting horse, but since she moved away Paducah had retired. Hopefully she was getting her fill of relaxation and sunshine in the open fields. Susannah didn’t want to let her go, but in some ways it would be best if she was ridden regularly and allowed to raise a foal of her own. She would make a beautiful mother one day.

Susannah put her hands on the fence and climbed onto the lower rungs, peering out into the distance. A group of horses was out in the pasture clustering together, not surprising since they were herd animals.

She tried to pick out her Paducah, but she couldn’t. She whistled and waited for the reaction. Sure enough, one of the horses picked up its ears and separated itself from the herd. Her heart sang at the sight of her dear old friend clipping her way to see her, but then she saw her belly was unusually round.

Paducah was either very bloated or very, very pregnant.

Either way, she wouldn’t be riding her today. Susan didn’t know what to feel—happy or disappointed—but her horse was growing up, too. Paducah would be a good mom.

“Whatch’a doing, baby? Were you out playing the field? You should have known better. Those studs only have one thing on their mind.” Paducah sniffed the air and pushed her head close enough to Susan to scratch her on the ears.

Susannah knew it would have only been a matter of time, but she wanted to be more in color, or to help to choose the bloodlines. Of course, she would be happy to have any baby from Paducah, champion or not, but now it was too late. “I guess I shouldn’t call you ‘baby’ anymore, not when you’re going to be a mommy.”

It seemed only fitting that they would be travelling this journey together.

“Hello, Sunshine.” Susannah turned to see Buck approach her. His dusty straw hat concealed most of his hair, but there was evidence of his aging years if she looked hard enough. Gray stubble graced his jaw, and the lines next to his eyes were deeper, more defined. He was one of the few workers who’d been around forever. At least as far as she could remember, he’d always been a fixture.

“Hey, Buck. I was just wondering who the father was. You don’t happen to know who it is, do you?”

“Not for sure, but there’s a black stallion that’s been keeping his eye on the ladies.”

“Hmmph.” Her eyebrows pulled down in a frown, surprised her father hadn’t gelded him. Most of the stallions were kept in the barn so they didn’t fight or run the mares ragged in the field. Usually the only ones to run free were either gelded or females.

When she knew what to look for, she could easily pick him out from the rest of the herd, and she realized instantly he was too fine a piece of horseflesh to neuter. An Arabian stallion with strong, linear legs guarded the herd, his shiny coat glistening in the sun. He circled the herd, keeping the horses in a tightly packed group.

Sensing her disappointment, he responded, “Susan, I thought you’d be happy. You always talked about breeding Paducah one day.”

“One day—not today. I am going away for the next six months, so I won’t be there when she…” Stubbornly, she blinked away the tears.

“Oh, don’t you worry one bit. I’ll look after her. Been around plenty of mares birthing in my time. We’ll make sure nothing happens to her or the foal.”

“Thank you, Buck.” She gave the old man a kiss on the cheek, pleased when she saw how it made him blush.

“T’ain’t nothing, and don’t worry none. Paducah will be fine.”

“I know. I worry too much, Buck. Thanks for setting my heart at ease, but you will call me when it happens? It’s just another thing to make me want to come home before I even leave.”

It had been years since Susannah had flown in a commercial plane, but having her father turn down her request for the private plane left her little choice.

She had to get to Jamaica somehow, and she wasn’t giving up on going just because her parents had a bug to get their grandkids this year.

She pushed her way through the crowds toward her goal, following the signs to Terminal D. DFW Airport in Dallas was bigger than she remembered it, and the crowds made her nervous. Her chest felt tight and her muscles tense. Her body was giving off all the signs that her blood pressure was higher than it should have been, and she felt as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. It was an unreasonable fear she fought since childhood, but she never could talk herself out of it. She found herself examining every stranger’s face and memorizing the tiniest details as if a crime was about to occur.

It was how she came to recognize him so quickly. Curious, green eyes pretending to read a
Wall Street Journal
but were actually scanning the aisle and every passenger that walked by. So her father didn’t trust her and decided to send his lackey to follow her?

This could not possibly be a coincidence.

She confronted him immediately, approaching him with crossed arms and a fierce edge to her voice. “What are you doing here, Ethan, isn’t it?”

“At your service.” He folded the paper and sat it neatly on his lap.

“Don’t you mean Daddy’s service?”

“Mr. Gibson might be my employer, but he sent me to ensure your safety.”

“He sent you to babysit me.” She huffed and shook her head in disdain.

“I wouldn’t call it that.”

“Then what would you call it?”

“A job with fringe benefits, but we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other better later. I got a seat next to yours on the aisle.” He smiled, catlike, as if he was going to get his way no matter what she did or said. Something about that cocky smile infuriated her.

“We’ll see about that.” She turned her back to him and stomped away, furious that she was going to be subject to his know-it-all attitude. He was one of those males that thought they could get away with anything on their way to world domination and acted like women should drop to their knees to allow them to pass just because they were drop-dead gorgeous.

Ethan was a good-looking guy, but it wasn’t enough for her to begin to act like some brainless twit.

She could easily change her flight—or something—and she was mad enough to do it. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to walk calmly to the customer service booth, not run, and spoke to the lady who looked like a secretary behind it.

“I need to change my flight.” Susan slapped her papers down on the counter. She glared at the clerk who had the most irritating but polite look on her face.

“There may be a slight fee.”

“I don’t care.”