The Bride Wore Starlight (26 page)

To her embarrassment, Joely found she had no idea. She'd seen the colt a few times in the pasture with Pan, but she'd never given him more than a passing glance. She hedged her answer.

“He looks good. I think he'll make it.” She had nothing on which to base that opinion, but she shrugged.

“What are you up to today that brings you to my end of town?”

Joely hesitated briefly and then shrugged. “I was job hunting, truth be told. But I had no luck at five stops.”

Sheila wasn't listening to the details. “Wait. You're looking for a job?” She looked to the sky and clasped her hands. “Heaven above, I swear an angel sent you. Come and work here.”

Joely frowned and swiveled her head to search the office. “Am I being punk'd?”

“Lord, no. I'm dead serious.”

“What kind of help are you dead seriously looking for?” Joely still didn't truly believe it wasn't a joke. The way Alec went on about her animal skills, he could easily have set this up.

“I'm looking for a genie, that's what kind of help. The lady who cleaned for me just had to give notice, and my tech found a better-paying job in Jackson where she lives. Techs are notoriously difficult to find out here, but I'm looking. Meanwhile, I desperately need a maid, a nanny, a person to ride along with me on big calls, and an answering machine. Pick any of those jobs and it's yours. In fact, pick any three and I won't pay you more, but I will love you with dog-like loyalty forever.”

Joely laughed at the genuine hint of begging in the doctor's voice. “I can't say I'm not excited,” she said. “Working for you would be a dream.”

“It would actually be gross sometimes. But I like the phrase ‘a dream.' We'll go with that.”

“You know I have limited mobility. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do all you'd require.”

“Are you kidding? I heard that you moved around the foal last week just fine. If you have the strength to help straighten a dystocia and deliver it safely, you can handle anything a dog or cat can dish out. I admit to you, I don't pay well—thirteen dollars an hour. But I have all the free drinks, sometimes even alcoholic, that you wish; mostly flexible hours; and I really like sweet foods around here on Fridays.”

“How many hours a week?”

“How many do you want?”

“I was hoping for fifteen to twenty.”

“Sold.”

Joely laughed out loud. “You really are serious?”

“Like I said, deadly so. As of next Monday I am down to two dog-walking volunteers, a board-certified small animal surgeon who comes in Tuesdays and Thursdays to help, and my mother who files for me once in a while. I would love to hire another veterinarian, but I couldn't staff for him or her. Oh, and a side benefit? You see ninety percent of the strays that ever show up. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet for choosing as many pets as you want.”

“Oh no. That's all I need. Look, don't you need references? My resumé? Don't I need experience?”

“No to the references. You're a Crockett—best animal husbandry experts around. No to the resumé. You've been around animals longer than some of my recent techs. And as for the experience. What I just said.”

“Can I watch you do surgery once in a while?”

“Any time you're here.”

Joely stuck out her hand. “If I find out I'm being punk'd I'll cry. When do I start?”

T
HREE HOURS LATER
, Joely could barely contain her excitement as she rode behind Cole on the four-wheeler to the barn. It was just after three, and Alec had agreed to meet her at three thirty. She hoped he wasn't upset about last night, but even if he was, she had an elaborate apology planned.

“There he is,” Cole said. “Lord, that is one enormous dog.”

She peered over Cole's shoulder in surprise. She'd hoped for a few minutes to surprise Alec by getting Muddy ready without help, but Cole was right, there Alec stood, looking like a model for a Hot Cowboys calendar—leaning on the round pen fence, arms folded, black cowboy hat pulled low across his brow, and stubble shadowing his cheeks. Rowan sat like a queenly guard dog at his side, and Muddy, along with one other horse, was tied to the rail behind him.

Joely's stomach filled with butterflies, and a hungry pulse throbbed in her throat, making it hard to swallow. Forget guilt. Forget anxiety. He looked good enough to eat.

“Hey, Bronc Buster,” Cole said when he'd idled the four-wheeler just short of the horses. “That your next ride?” He nodded at Rowan.

Joely held her breath. She never would have dared call him by that nickname, but Alec only lifted a corner of his mouth in a lazy greeting. “No. Too placid.”

“She's an amazing animal,” Cole said. “Never seen one in real life, just pictures. Is she friendly?”

“Dangerously friendly.” He nudged Rowan on the shoulder, and she looked up at him adoringly. “Look who's here, big dog. Can you find Joely?”

Rowan woofed and stood, her head turning and eyes scanning. When they locked with Joely's, she gave a howl of delight and bounded for the vehicle, stopping beside it and whining, her entire body wiggling.

“Hullo, beautiful,” Joely cooed and reached for her head. “You finally got to come. I'm so happy to see you!”

Cole got in a good pat and received a free hand washing from a long gray-and-pink tongue. “Okay,” he said when Joely had dismounted the four-wheeler. “Have a great trip!”

“Trip?” She shot a questioning frown at Alec.

“It's like this,” he said. “I figured if you're going to be a proper alumni rodeo queen, you need a proper entrance. That would be on a horse. And if you're going to ride a horse in a rodeo arena in just a couple of weeks, you need a crash course in getting into shape and riding in a big space.”

“What are you plotting?”

“Nothing you can't get out of with a simple refusal. But, if you're ready for an adventure—a real one—and you brought the things Harper told you to bring . . . ”

“Oh my gosh, she was in on this?” Joely held up a small backpack filled with a rain slicker and her favorite thick hoodie. “She lied. She said she didn't know what it was for except you wanted them for some kind of riding exercise.”

“That wasn't a lie. This is a very big riding exercise. We're heading out to check two of the old trail cabins for Cole. Numbers five and six. Nobody's really been out to any of the eight for about two years according to Bjorn.”

“That's almost thirty miles one way!”

“We have four days. Longer if you want to take it slower. I took more personal days from that company that loves me so much.”

She shook her head, unable to hide her excitement any longer. “No, I have to be back by Sunday. I got a job with Sheila Ackerman today.”

“Joely, you did?”

The laconic, sexy cowboy morphed into a jubilant, grinning cowboy. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her high, planting a kiss on her lips as she returned to the ground. “I'm so proud of you.”

“Don't be,” she said and laughed at his brief confusion. “I'll tell you all about it. But even though I think the job could be pretty fun, I had very little to do with landing it.”

“I can't wait to hear. But, have I landed you, my little fish? If you say yes, we can leave within fifteen minutes. Everything's locked up at home?”

“Well, that further explains what all Harper's fuss at my apartment was all about.” Joely flicked his upper arm lightly with her finger. “Are the windows closed? Is the stove off? Make sure the toilet's not running, nothing's leaking. I was ready to brain her.”

“Sorry,” he said. “I got your sisters on board early this morning. We've been planning all day. Horses are ready. Harper raided the few clothes you have in your old room and rolled you a saddle pack with blankets, your sleeping bag, extra underclothes, and some supplies. Saddlebags are packed with food.”

“Pretty sure I'd say yes, weren't you?”

“I wasn't at all sure. We had a rough time last night. There was every chance you'd be angry enough that you wouldn't want to spend four days with me.”

“Mr. Morrissey, I would love to spend four days with you, although this is the craziest idea I've ever heard.”

“I'm sorry I didn't let you help with the packing. This plan is only about eight hours old. To keep with the spirit of crazy—I took a chance.”

“I need my hat.”

“Hanging on the saddle horn. And, just so you don't think I'll be taking care of Muddy this whole trip, I'll tell you now. This was a one-time thing. You don't have to love him, you just have to deal with him.”

Contrition filtered through her, and she nodded. “Not a problem.”

“Then,” he said, “the last question is whether you can spend four days without those.” He pointed at the crutches on the ground beside the fence.

“With you along?” She winked. “I don't need anything else.”

J
OELY LAID ANOTHER
piece of wood on the fire and hopped backward two steps to where she could sink back onto her sleeping bag. Instead of reaching it, however, she landed in Alec's embrace when he caught her and tucked her tightly against him. She giggled. This was positively decadent. Rowan slept, secured to a nearby tree and dead to the world after a slow but long day on the trail. The horses chewed contentedly, tethered twenty feet away, and the campfire's flames danced crazily in a mounting breeze. All of it led to time. Plenty of luxurious, unscheduled, kiss-all-night time. If Joely's legs and spine hadn't ached like she'd run back-to-back marathons from her day and a half in the saddle, the night would have been perfect.

Fortunately, Alec was in the same boat.

“We're a pair, aren't we?” she asked, rubbing her thighs. “What were you thinking?”

“More like hoping. That by the time we get back, we'll magically be in shape.”

“Oh boy, I sure hope you're right.”

The night before, they'd made it to the first of the two cabins they were checking. All together eight of the one-room shelters were scattered across Paradise's nearly eighty square miles. In the past they'd been used during cattle round-ups and hunting expeditions. Now they were more curiosities than anything, but they still made good shelter for crews mending fences or for trips like this. It had been fun straightening up and sweeping out animal droppings, leaves, and dust from the tiny house. They'd talked of nothing important, kissed a lot, played cribbage with a travel set Alec had tucked into his packs, and slept curled next to each other.

Rather, Alec had slept. His deep, even breathing had lulled Joely into catnaps, but her insides had quivered all night from being so near to him with his arm flung across her torso, his belly snugged up against her back, and his right leg draped over hers. Every body part that had touched her radiated heat and had sent shards of pleasure at wildly unexpected moments in directions she couldn't predict. Deep sleep had been permanently out of the question.

At the same time, there'd been relief. She hadn't had to face baring her disfigurements to his eyes, or his touch, and she hadn't had to deal with his shock, or for that matter, his sympathy. She wanted his touch. She wanted to trust this man she feared she was falling in love with—but she wasn't sure how to trust herself with him.

There was also the message he sent by leaving his prosthetic attached. She'd never seen him remove the limb, but she'd also never spent a full night with him before. The assumption that he'd have to rest his own leg at some point seemed to be false, and it confused her. She didn't know very much about prosthetics, but she did know that even the best could quickly and suddenly turn painful without proper care. Leaving it on seemed an effective way of keeping distance between them. She didn't know how to broach the subject without having to talk about her own physical issues, but as the anticipation of another wonderful but frustrating, sleepless night grew within her, Alec's leg—and hers—were nothing less in her mind than two elephants in their midst.

“Warm enough?” he asked. “Your back's okay?”

“I'm plenty warm. And my back aches. It'll be fine in the morning.”

“Shouldn't we try to make it fine now? What would make it better?”

“Hiring Sven the masseur?”

He chuckled. “Role playing, huh? Your version of the cabana boy fantasy? Fine, I can do Sven.” He made an extremely poor imitation of Leif's Norwegian accent.

“Oh, this oughta be good.”

She was joking; he was not. “Come on. Stretch out on your stomach.”

She started to turn and changed her mind. “What about you? How are you?”

“I'm fantastic. I have a beautiful woman about to let me touch her wherever I want to.”

“Wait, I never said that.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, long and deep, taking the lead, pushing him onto his back instead of following his directive to lie down. When he groaned and pulled her to lie on top of him, she broke the kiss. She'd done it now, and her nerves almost got the better of her. Instead she closed her eyes and took a brave breath.

“Your leg has to be killing you,” she said. “I'm worried about it. I have no idea how to ask you about it because you never say anything, so I'm just blurting it out.”

“My leg is okay,” he said.

“You haven't taken off the prosthetic in two days.”

“I have. Didn't you ever wonder what the heck took a guy so long in the woods at night?” He took his turn kissing her and she reveled, not just in his kiss but in the breadth of him beneath her. And in the swift, undeniable swell that proved what power her mouth had over him. More thrills pooled low in her pelvis.

The next words hung in her throat for a long time. If she said them, she'd have to be willing to offer the same should he ask it. Her greatest fear rose in front of her.

“You don't have to leave it on.” She whispered the words almost fearfully against his mouth. “I want to know all of you. I want you to . . . trust me.”

“I haven't wanted to weird you out.”

The words were light, slightly jokey, and still she clearly heard the underlying tension. With a start she recognized her own fears in the sound, and deep inside a little of the anxiety she'd battled so long started to disintegrate.

“That's just dumb, Alec. Weird? It's not weird. It's you.”

Did she mean it? Of course she did. Then how could she do anything but open herself up in return? She couldn't have his body without sharing hers no matter how much it scared her.

“You've never made love to a one-legged guy.”

The fear flared hot just before her grin broke loose. “Am I about to?”

He pulled her back down against him and ran his hands over her seat, pulling her tight to groin and rolling his hips. “I think it might be too soon.”

She pushed up and away again, resting one elbow beside his ear and brushing his hair back with the other hand, drinking in the texture with her fingertips. “I'm afraid to let you see, too.”

“See what?” A light, perhaps one of hopefulness, brightened his eyes.

“I have more scars than the one you've seen on my face. My own arsenal to use in weirding you out.” She stopped combing through his hair. The breath she took this time was shakier than any so far. “I'd show you mine if you show me yours. Let's be weirded out together.” The words were silly, and her heart skittered around her ribcage—a scared bird that had trapped itself.

He didn't speak. Carefully, he rolled her off of him and placed one hand on her stomach. With gentle fingers he unsnapped her jeans and slowly rasped down the zipper. Then he sat up, and reached for her boots. One at a time he tugged them off.

Next came his. It took him a minute to work the left one off and expose the shapeless foot with its intricate mechanical joint. She sat up, nervousness evaporating steadily.

“Show me how it moves.”

He did.

“Amazing,” she said.

Making him lean back on his elbows, she undid his snap and opened his zipper. He closed his eyes, and a long, hard “ahhhh,” escaped when she brushed the bulge of his erection.

“Naughty man,” she whispered. “All I cared about was seeing the leg. Take your jeans off and behave yourself.”

He laughed softly with a hint of disbelief in its tenor. “I can control the leg. I can't control other things as well. Besides, it's your fault.”

He got to his feet and pulled down his jeans. The socket that cradled Alec's real leg was colorful, and it delighted her in a fascinated kind of way. The swirling rainbow decorated the top of the prosthetic and the covering that tapered along its carbon fiber shaft. He stood before her in his boxers, his right leg as beautiful and muscled as an athlete's, his left thigh muscled and strong, the knee half covered with a silicone sleeve that flexed when he moved. The limb itself was anticlimactic—dark and powerful-looking, but attached so securely that it was just him. The bionic man. And at the moment he was hers.

And he had body parts that were much more interesting than the artificial leg.

“You're pretty gorgeous,” she said. He caught her staring at the tented boxers, and he burst out laughing until it rolled over them both.

He sat on the sleeping bag and silently, deftly, removed the artificial limb. “You're amazing,” he said when he'd set it aside.

His stump did divert her attention from the part of him she really wanted to explore. The first thing she noticed was the smoothness of the skin and then the redness along the front and sides.

“Oh, Alec, it looks rubbed. I'm sorry you couldn't take it off before.”

“It gets sore, but not painful. And having it off now makes everything fine.”

“Honest?”

“Honest. Now lie back and let me take care of you for a minute.”

She closed her eyes and, suddenly, her bravery threatened to flee again as he shimmied off her jeans. Inch by inch he got closer to revealing her twisted leg, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out to stop him. And then the denim was gone, the jeans tossed aside.

“Look at you.” The prayer-like whisper brought tears to her eyes.

“I'd like it better if you didn't.” All she wanted was to pull him down, roll over and mesh with him, make herself invisible and stop the shivers coursing through her body.

“No, don't say that. You had a terrible accident. Now that you're part of me, of my life, I hate that it left you feeling ugly. But you aren't. The scars aren't. They're here because you are, and thank God.”

Tears spilled down her temples, hot and healing. He'd never seen her scarless, and he didn't care. He didn't compare her to anything, least of all who she'd been before. She had a clean slate with him. The knowledge slammed through her.

“Don't cry,” he said. “Don't. It's okay.”

“It's more than okay.”

“I want you, Joely. I thought it was because you're beautiful, and I'm just a guy with a typical one-track brain, but that's not it. I want you because you're you, and you make me feel like the only man on Earth who matters. Because I think I'm falling in love with you.”

In love?

“I thought you weren't in this for serious.” She held his cheeks between her hands, searching for the truth in his words.

“Helluva thing. I'm still trying to reconcile it.”

Joely sat up and scrambled, with only a little awkwardness, into his lap. Heat against heat, she pressed to his hard length until they both groaned in desire. Without taking time for finesse, he pushed her torso away so he could yank her T-shirt over her head with eager hands. A fluid movement of his fingers at her back flicked apart her bra, and she fell forward to kiss him, tunneling beneath his shirt and hitching it up between them.

For the shortest moment she could manage, she broke their kiss so she could shuck his shirt off, then she spread her hands across his pecs in exploration. His bare chest, with its perfect dusting of sexy hair, thrilled her.

They lay back, he beneath her first and then vice versa. Multiple times they changed their positions to explore each other, and when every item of clothing had been shed and their bodies touched skin to skin for the first time, Joely felt like she'd climbed Wolf Paw Peak to reach the beautiful top. What she'd thought was going to be a painful journey had been spiritual.

They rolled to their sides and Alec ducked his head to catch first one breast and then the other in a delicious kiss. His strong hand pressed sensually against her lower belly and sought the spot between her thighs that controlled every sensation in her body.

“How's that?” He circled his finger gently, and his words went straight into her core.

Within seconds she couldn't stop the swift pressure within every muscle and nerve fiber. Higher and higher he pushed her until she looked right over the top of the mountain and prepared to explode over the edge.

And he stopped.

She cried out. “You can't!”

“Ssh. Trust me.”

She opened her eyes. The tension in his face surprised her. Pleased her. He pulled away and grabbed a foil packet from above their heads. “Where did you get . . . ?” she asked, breathless, craving his touch back.

“A magician never reveals his tricks.”

“Let me put it on.”

“I'm not sure that would be a good idea.” He laughed, but it was choppy and harsh with desire.

She let him do it just so she could get him back into her arms sooner. When his fingers picked up where they'd left off, he brought her straight back to that brink of explosion. One last time he left her teetering, just long enough to shift and glide into her with a long, hot, silken stroke. Her explosion detonated, and she kept only enough wits about her to grab hold of him and make sure he was caught in the blast with her. Time—how long the fireworks lasted or how long she hovered with Alec in pure ecstasy—ceased to matter. When they finally floated back to reality, a fresh well of tears overflowed. This time, however, she laughed through them and wrapped her arms and legs, which now felt more whole and healthy than at any time in her life, as thoroughly as she could around his spent body. She wanted him this close forever—as if they'd truly shared the same body, flesh, and soul for those moments, and she'd lose him if she let go.

“You okay?” His question rolled into a deep, chuckle.

“More than.” Her heart swelled with joy. With freedom. “Thank you.”

“Aw, Joely, don't thank me. That was us. Together.”

“Then thank you for allowing me to say I'm falling in love with you, too. I haven't wanted to scare you off.”

“Don't kid yourself. It scares me plenty.”

“Try not to let it.”