Ultimate Texas Bachelor (12 page)

 

“A
RE YOU OKAY
?” Brad asked, some thirty minutes later, as they stowed the belongings Lainey had collected into the storage area behind the bench seat of the cab. It had been quite
a shock to find a For Sale sign in the front yard, a lockbox on the front door and a Realtor inside, already taking a client through. A half-dozen business cards lined up on the kitchen counter indicated others were interested in the property, too.

“Yes.”

She didn't look it. She was pale as a ghost. And he understood why. Her sister-in-law was trying her hardest to pull the rug out from under Lainey. He reached over and squeezed her hand. “You were very cordial in there.” Brad began to drive in the direction of the freeway that would take them back to Laramie. He didn't know how she had kept her composure. She certainly would have been entitled to lose her temper.

Lainey shrugged, looking very much in need of a hug, a kiss. From him. She forced a vulnerable smile.

“Chip trained me well.”

Chip had been a lousy husband, leaving her in a mess like this, Brad thought. Lainey deserved so much better. So did Petey. Silence descended. As they drove through the neighborhood, Lainey drew a deep, bolstering breath.

“I think you may be right about getting a third party in to deal with Bunny,” she said eventually. “Your cousin in Laramie— Claire McCabe Taylor—is a family-law attorney, isn't she?”

Brad nodded. “One of the best.”

“You wouldn't happen to have her number?”

“I can get it.” Figuring the sooner Lainey took a proactive approach, the sooner she'd feel better, Brad pulled over to the curb and called Lewis at work. Lewis looked up the number and gave it to him. Brad wrote it down for Lainey and she made an appointment to see Claire later that very afternoon. “Claire will be able to help you,” Brad said quietly, after Lainey had cut the connection with his cousin.

He was vaguely aware of Lainey nodding as he concentrated on the traffic.

“You don't have to worry,” he continued. “We'll get this worked out.”

More silence. Wishing he could do more to comfort her, Brad glanced over. Lainey had her head turned away from him, but he could tell by the way her shoulders were shaking that she was crying, silent, wrenching sobs that shook her whole body. He was almost to the entrance ramp to the freeway that would take them back to Laramie, but Brad turned into the first parking lot available. It happened to belong to a hotel. He eased his truck into a spot just beneath the neon sign, released his seat belt and slid across the bench seat.

He undid the clasp of her seat belt, too. She turned, tears streaking down her pretty face. Not caring that it was broad daylight and that they could easily be seen by anyone driving by, he took her wordlessly into his arms and held her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, and he bent his head, burying his face in the soft, fragrant softness of her hair and breathing in the sweet feminine essence that was her. “There, there, now,” he found himself saying, as he stroked a calming hand down her back and shifted her closer. “It's going to be okay,” he said thickly. “I promise.”

Lainey cried all the harder. He felt her despair and it tore him apart like nothing ever had. He wove his fingers through her hair and tipped her head up to his. “Listen to me. I'm not going to let anything happen to you or to Petey.”

The need on her face intensified. The next thing Brad knew, they were kissing. And kissing. And kissing. Who knew what might have happened had there not been a gaggle of female voices just outside his truck.

“I told you! It is him!”

“Brad McCabe!”

“Well, that sure as heck isn't Yvonne Rathbone.”

Lainey jerked away from Brad at the same time he broke away from her. A chorus of swearwords sounded in his head as he faced their teenage hecklers.

“Hey!” one of the young girls shouted at Brad. The heckler couldn't have been more than nineteen or twenty. “We saw
what you did to Yvonne on
Bachelor Bliss
and we're not ever going to forgive you!”

“Yeah! You had no right to go breaking her heart!”

“And now you're making another woman cry! What kind of louse are you, anyway?”

“Guys like you give all men a bad name!”

Brad looked at Lainey. She was white as a sheet, more distraught than ever. He swore. He'd never meant to hurt Lainey. Especially like this, after all she'd just been through.

Brad swore again, more heatedly this time. He put the truck into reverse and eased out of the parking space—not exactly easy to do given the proximity of the hecklers. He drove toward the exit while the girls chased after them. A soda can landed on his bumper and rattled to the ground as he turned back onto the access road running parallel to the freeway. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Lainey wiped her eyes. “For kissing me,” she asked softly, cautiously, “or for getting caught?”

 

B
RAD FROWNED
, a dark shadow crossing his face. “I'm sorry we got interrupted.” He glanced at her briefly. “Sorry you were crying. Sorry about, well, just about damn everything.”

His disillusionment was painful to see, but Lainey knew that ignoring it and pretending what just happened hadn't, would not make things better. “This won't help your reputation.” She plucked the bottle of water out of her bag and took a drink. She hadn't meant to cry on Brad's shoulder, but her minimeltdown had been cathartic. She did feel better. Lots better. Though maybe that had more to do with the way his arms had felt around her, so strong and sure and comforting, and the hot, sexy way his lips had moved on hers. Had those girls not come along, had they been somewhere—anywhere—else, well, who knew what might have happened? she thought, as shocked by her wanton, reckless behavior as by his.

Lainey hadn't expected Brad to want to get involved with anyone else for a good long time, after what had happened to him. And she certainly hadn't expected he would want to get involved with her.

But he obviously did….

And despite all the reasons she knew she should be keeping her distance from the sexy cowboy right now, she realized she wanted to get involved, too.

“It's just a few girls.” Brad dismissed the incident in the parking lot with a shake of his head. “Even if they tell all their friends…” He frowned again. “I mean, at this point, with half of America hating me, what does it matter?”

He was exaggerating. Half of America hadn't watched
Bachelor Bliss
, or any reality TV show for that matter. But beneath Brad's deprecating sentiment was a lot of pain. Lainey reached over and touched his arm.

“You should tell your side of the story,” she said.

Abruptly, Brad's biceps was as tense as the rest of him. He glared straight ahead as he drove in the increasingly heavy traffic. “Back to that again?”

Lainey swallowed and dropped her hand as swiftly as if she had been burned. She felt pushed away again, the same way she always had when she tried to offer advice to Chip and was rejected for “not knowing what she was talking about.” But this time she did, even if she couldn't yet explain to Brad how and why she knew the way the press operated as well as she did.

“I mean it. It's not fair.” She continued to look at Brad steadily, glad they were talking about someone's problems other than her own. She wanted to offer Brad the same kind of support he had offered her. “You're such a good guy.”

Despite the gentleness of her words, Brad looked even more provoked. “You don't know that.”

Aware he had never looked more mesmerizing than he did at that moment, Lainey countered, just as resolutely, “Yes. I
do. A bad guy wouldn't do all the things you are doing for me today.”

Brad gave a short, humorless laugh. “That's not what the tabloids would say,” he told her, looking as if he expected her to argue with him about that, too. His eyes glinted wickedly. “The tabloids would say I just want to get into your pants.”

And maybe, Lainey thought, aware it was getting very hot in that truck, that wasn't an assumption very far from the truth. She pulled the neck of her sweater away from her collarbone in an effort to get more air. Still feeling a little breathless, she acknowledged she certainly wanted to get into Brad's pants. Although she doubted she ever would have put it in those terms. But maybe that was the point. Maybe Brad just thought he was bad for her and was trying to scare her off so she wouldn't get hurt.

Had Bunny been right? Was it bad for her to be staying out at the ranch with Brad and Lewis, when every second she was with Brad clouded her perspective more and more, and made her want to be with him—not for the story she was trying to write, but just because she wanted to be with him. And not as his friend. As his woman. She drew a stabilizing breath.

“Perhaps we should move this conversation to safer territory?”

Brad inhaled deeply, too. He reached over to turn the air conditioner to its coolest setting. “Good idea.”

Lainey settled back in the passenger seat, determined to get her mind off sex—and that kiss—once and for all. “Tell me your plans for the ranch,” she encouraged in the soberest voice she could manage.

“Well,” Brad quipped, “first up, is getting all the virgin heifers in heat.”

Lainey groaned in mock dismay and real embarrassment and covered her face with her hands. Brad laughed, his old devilry coming back as swiftly as it had fled. He relaxed and went back to teasing her again. “If you're going to hang out
on the ranch, you have to get used to the idea that making babies is what we're all about.”

Lainey thought about making babies…with Brad.

Another shock.

She really was going to have to calm down.

Brad glanced at her, probably noting the color flooding her cheeks. “What?”

Lainey stammered. No social lie would come to mind. “I—I was just, um, just thinking…” And not very quickly, either.

He reached over and briefly touched her knee. “That you want another baby?”

Her skin tingled where his hand had rested. “How did you know that?” Lainey asked him, serious now.

Brad shrugged, his mood turning contemplative as he continued to drive. “You're such a good mother to Petey,” he said, obviously understanding. “You clearly love being a mother. It makes sense you would want more than one child.”

Lainey looked out the window wistfully, at the Texas countryside. “I did.”

“Then why didn't you have one?” Brad exited the freeway and turned onto the farm-market road that would lead them, first to Laramie, and then to the Lazy M.

“Chip felt one child was enough, particularly since Petey was a boy.”

“And you didn't argue with him,” Brad guessed, seeming to realize how much that had hurt and disappointed Lainey.

Lainey brushed at an imaginary piece of lint on her skirt. “I tried to persuade him for a while, but when I saw it wasn't working, when I realized how little time he had to spend with Petey, I concluded being mother and father to one child was probably enough of a job for me.”

“That was honest.”

“Yes, I know. Surprisingly so.” Honesty hadn't really been a trademark of her marriage to Chip. The emphasis had been
on polite accommodation. Too late, she saw that treating a marriage partner like a guest in your life wasn't the best path to take. She and Chip might have had a better marriage had they stopped being so careful and let their passion…and their feelings…flow. But they hadn't. And now it was too late to rectify that. But she still had a full life ahead of her, Lainey was beginning to see. And room in her heart for love to grow.

Brad gave her a curious glance.

“As you said, I'm always persuading everyone else to be honest and realistic about their particular situation, but not doing it myself.” She smiled, for the first time feeling ready to deal with life's thornier issues head-on. “Maybe it's time that changed.”

“Thanks for seeing me on such short notice,” Lainey told Claire McCabe Taylor.

Claire's intelligent, green eyes radiated sympathy. “We attorneys understand family emergencies.” Looking every bit the polished business professional in a discreetly tailored suit, Claire took a seat behind her desk. “Why don't you bring me up to date with everything?”

Claire listened intently while Lainey talked. “Sounds like Bunny is really trying hard to get your attention—taking your car, putting your house up for sale, emptying your bank account, and canceling your debit and credit cards.”

“Well, she certainly has it now,” Lainey lamented with a beleaguered sigh. She reached over and took Brad's hand, glad he had come with her.

Claire paused thoughtfully. The sunlight streaming in through the window blinds illuminated her neatly brushed auburn hair. “What do you think it would take to get Bunny to back off, aside from legal action on your part?” she asked.

Lainey let go of Brad's hand, clasped hers together in her lap. “I think if Petey and I moved in with Bunny and Bart that Bunny would ease up immediately, in a financial sense.”

“And personally?” Claire persisted.

“I think it would be unbearable,” Lainey admitted honestly. “Bunny means well…”

Brad gave her a look that urged her not to hold back. She knew he was right so she tried again. “Bunny thinks she is doing the right thing.”

Claire continued making notes on the legal pad in front of her, then looked up. “And what do
you
think?” she asked bluntly.

“I think,” Lainey said, “my sister-in-law needs to get a life and stop trying to live mine.”

Lainey's heartfelt exasperation brought commiserating smiles to Claire's and Brad's faces.

“Who set up the trust, do you know?” Claire asked.

“Deloche, Nussbaum and Riker.”

“Good firm. They're known for their mastery of estate law. I'll have to take a look at the papers, but I have to warn you—” Claire looked up over the rim of her reading glasses “—the terms may not be able to be overturned. And even if they are, it will be a long, prohibitively costly fight. I'm talking years here, Lainey. Legal fees that go well into the six figures.”

“I thought as much,” Lainey said, depressed.

“And then there is the emotional damage to Petey and your family,” Claire continued practically.

Brad interrupted his cousin. “I thought you were supposed to be helping here!”

“I am,” Claire responded with the ease of a respected family-law attorney. “I'm letting Lainey know what's ahead, depending on what path she takes. And it is always best to avoid familial estrangements if you can.” She turned back to Lainey. “Have you thought about supporting yourself and Petey on your own? At least during a cooling-off period?”

Lainey nodded. “I've already taken steps in that regard.” She knew it was her surest path to freedom, and the best example she could set for her son. Money didn't buy happiness—independence did.

Brad looked at her. “Does that mean you're thinking of staying on at the ranch, as housekeeper?”

“Not exactly,” she said. Here it was. The moment of truth. Her chance to come clean with Brad, at least part of the way.

Claire continued taking notes. “Did you work before your son was born?”

Lainey flushed. “No. I wanted to, but we didn't need the money and my husband wanted me to stay home, and so…I did.”
I'm not going to be married to a reporter, Lainey. I need a wife with elegance and style, who devotes her life only to me. And in return, I'll provide you and any children we have with everything you've ever dreamed of….
And at that time of her life, Lainey had so wanted to be rescued. Loved. Cared for. Too bad none of it had turned out as she dreamed. Chip had been gone much more than he was ever home. And nothing she had ever done, on her own, had been good enough to really please him….

“So, in other words, you have no practical work experience,” Claire concluded.

“Right,” Lainey said, feeling a little embarrassed about that. As fulfilling as the roles of wife and mother were, she had always wanted satisfying work of her own, too. Was that wrong of her?

“Except for the professional organizing you're doing out at the ranch,” Brad cut in admiringly. “Lainey's a whiz at that.”

Guilt flooded Lainey as she realized she had just passed up her chance to confess all to Brad about why she was really there.

Claire perked up. “Maybe you could turn your organizing skill into a moneymaking operation. I know we don't have anyone doing that sort of work in Laramie.”

 

A
T SIX O'CLOCK
, L
EWIS AND
P
ETEY
arrived home from the game-testing facility in Laramie. By seven, Lewis was show
ered and dressed and headed to Austin for business meetings the following day. Travis was on their doorstep with his two younger sons, to pick up Petey for a backyard all-male camp-out on their ranch.

“We'll keep a good eye on the boys, I promise,” Travis told Lainey as he herded Kurt, Kyle and Petey toward his Suburban.

Lainey smiled. “What time should I—” She was going to say
pick Petey up
, then she remembered she didn't have a vehicle of her own to drive at the moment, and she didn't know if Brad's pickup would be available for her to use.

Travis smiled. Seeming to understand how much her predicament had humiliated and embarrassed her—Lainey had already explained it to Annie when Annie called with the overnight invitation an hour earlier—he offered gently, “Annie will bring Petey home around nine-thirty tomorrow morning.”

“Sounds great.” Lainey smiled her relief. “Thanks, Travis.”

“You bet.” Travis paused to make sure all the boys were safely strapped in, then climbed behind the wheel. “See you tomorrow!”

Petey waved excitedly.

The Suburban disappeared down the drive.

Brad, who had been tending to the herd, emerged from the barn. Aware they were going to be alone together for the entire night, she smiled at him officiously. “Did you want me to make you some dinner?” she asked, aware cooking had become part of the deal. “Or were you planning to go out?”

There was a flicker of concern in his eyes, as if he had something on his mind. Then he shifted gears and said, “How about we make something together?”

Lainey found his casual tone disturbing. Was she reading more into his sympathy—and his passionate kisses of just hours earlier—than there was? This was, after all, a man with a string of abruptly started and abruptly ended romances be
hind him. Pretending she wasn't the least bit unnerved by her growing feelings for him, she stuck her hands in the pockets of her trim black skirt. “I didn't know you could cook.”

“Can't, really. But I can grill. And as you'll note—” he pointed to the box sitting next to the back steps “—Lewis brought home charcoal and a grill for me to put together. So if you can wait for me to get a shower, I'll assemble that and we can cook some steaks out here tonight.”

“You don't have to go to all that trouble,” she said.

Brad flashed her a crooked smile. “It's no trouble.” Without waiting for her to comment further, he disappeared inside the house and up the back staircase.

He returned fifteen minutes later as Lainey was sliding a prepared salad into the fridge. She had two potatoes ready to go into the oven, broccoli ready to steam. And not nearly enough to do given how handsome and sexy he looked in jeans, boots and a navy button-up shirt. His hair was still damp from the shower, his jaw freshly shaven. As he neared her she caught the whiff of his aftershave lotion and her heart skipped a beat.

Brad grinned as awareness roiled inside her. “Don't you look as jumpy as a long-tailed cat around a rocking chair.”

Lainey rolled her eyes but did not bother to dispute the truth. She
was
nervous.

Brad plucked the screwdriver out of the toolbox in the pantry, then paused and gave her a hard look. His dark brow arched in surprise. He put down the tool needed to assemble the grill and crossed to her side. “Hey, you're not worried about Petey, are you?”

She felt breathless and confused.
No, I'm worried about being alone with you. Worried that if we spend more time together on an intimate level, I'll end up forgetting why I'm here, get in even deeper.
Assuming she wasn't already in much too deep….

When Brad had kissed her this afternoon, she had moved
from impulsively accepting comfort to wanton need in no time flat. Had they not been where they were—in his truck in broad daylight—she knew they would have ended up making love. And once would not have been enough.

“Because I guarantee Travis will keep a good eye on them,” he enthused.

He stepped closer, and her skin registered the heat. Hands on her shoulders, he grinned at her in a way that sent her pulse skyrocketing.

“The triplets are going to be out there in the tent with them, camping cowboy-style, too, so…everything will be fine. Petey will have a great time.”

“I know and I'm glad.” Maybe this was the time to get it out in the open. Talk about what happened earlier.

“But just because Petey's gone, and Lewis is gone…doesn't mean that…”

He drew closer, all six foot three inches of him brimming with a curiosity that was distinctly male. And distinctly disturbing. His gaze traveled over her, the desire in his eyes unmistakable as he gathered her in his arms, aligning her soft body against the harder length of his.

“Doesn't mean what?” he asked playfully, as if knowing what she was going to say.

Lainey mocked him with a toss of her hair and planted both hands on the width of his chest. “That we…” She lost her train of thought as he pressed his lower body against hers. Her hips were lodged against the kitchen counter, making escape impossible, but she angled her head and chest back as best she could. Unfortunately, her evasive movement only served to plant her hips more firmly against his.

“…have to pick up where we left off this afternoon?” He pretended not to notice the traitorous weakening of her knees and the heavy thudding of her heart. Just as she pretended not to notice the strength and heat of his desire.

His eyes lit up as he removed her forearms from his chest,
draped them over his shoulders, then brought his head down to hers. Their warm breaths met and blended. “Okay. I'm willing to go back to the beginning. Start over…”

“Brad…”

Lainey never finished the sentence. His lips were on hers in a kiss that exuded tenderness and caring, his sweet yearning to simply be with her. Just that simply, all the blossoming emotion she'd felt for Brad, all the passion, came flooding back. Her reservations receded as she was kissed into silence, seduced by the magnetism that made her want to be his. In that instant, the world fell away, and it was only the two of them, this moment in time. Lainey knew, more than anything, what she wanted from Brad. Closeness and love. The unconditional admiration and acceptance that had always eluded her. The desire only Brad could give her. With Brad, she felt she had the potential to be a whole person. Not just a wife or a mother or a woman who never quite measured up in the eyes of those around her.

“Alone at last,” Brad murmured contentedly, kissing his way from her lips to her ear to the slope of her neck.

No kidding, Lainey thought.

He drew back. His gaze turned gentle. He traced the curve of her mouth with his fingertip, the fragile caress heating her blood. “I'm about to make a move on you,” he told her softly.

A move she had been waiting for forever, it seemed. Although, it had only been a matter of days since their paths had crossed again, this time in an intimate and meaningful way.

“So…” He framed her face with his hands, the raw vulnerability in his expression giving her the courage to acknowledge what had been in her heart all along. Flashing her a sexy grin, he teased as he tunneled his hands through her hair. “Speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

Experience had taught Lainey that moments like this were fleeting, at best. As complicated as their situation was—even if he didn't yet know it!—she wasn't going to bypass the
chance at love. “I'm not going to resist,” she told him, aware she wanted to make love with him so badly she ached. “I want this, too.”
More than you'll ever know….

“Now we're talking.” Grinning, he lowered his head and delivered a breath-stealing kiss that had her middle fluttering weightlessly and her nipples tingling. “Let's get comfortable, woman.” He swept her up in his arms in a manner that was all the more possessive and carried her toward the stairs—not stopping until he had reached his bed.

He lowered her to the floor and kissed her again, shattering whatever caution she had left. She surged against him, moaning, her arms coming up to wreathe his neck. He deepened the kiss, his tongue sweeping her mouth, tasting, stroking, teasing, until her whole body was alive, quivering with sensations unlike any she had ever felt. It felt so good to be wanted, so right to be held against him this way. She melted against him helplessly. She could feel his arousal pressing, hot and urgent, through their clothing and yearned for closer contact.

She stepped out of her shoes, then reached for the belt buckle, the zipper on his jeans. “And speaking of getting comfortable,” she teased as she eased him out of pants and shirt, shoes and shorts.

His manhood sprang free and proud. The rest of him was just as masculine and beautiful. Rippling muscles. Smooth, satiny skin. Whorls of sable-brown hair. Lainey could have stood there admiring him forever.

Brad had other ideas.

“That, darlin', works both ways.” Wanting her “more comfortable,” too, he reached for the hem of her knit top, drew it gently over her head. The zipper on her skirt was next. She trembled beneath his questing fingers as he divested her of bra and panties.