Ultimate Texas Bachelor (14 page)

Lainey leaned forward. “How can you be sure? Did you see everything that went on between the two of them?”

“Yes. Cameras are on one hundred percent of the time.”

Not according to Brad. Which meant Gil Hewitt was lying. And if he was lying about this, what else was he lying about? Lainey was about to ask another question, when Gil abruptly declared the interview over.

“So you talked to Gil Hewitt, too,” Yvonne Rathbone said, when Lainey caught up with her. The red-haired beauty looked stunning in a white eyelet-lace sundress.

Lainey smiled, admitted this was so. She put her tape recorder on the table between them in full view and asked a few softball questions as warm-up. Yvonne told her everything she had already said countless times to reporters.

“Did you know anything about Brad before the night you all met him?” Lainey asked.

Yvonne shook her head. “They wouldn't tell us anything! We didn't even see a picture of him.”

Lainey looked at her questions. “The first moment you said hello and kissed Brad McCabe's cheek, it looked like you whispered something in his ear, and Brad laughed in response. Care to tell
Personalities
readers what that was?”

“Oh, I just said, ‘This is so stupid!'”

Okay, Lainey thought, that was the generic flirtatious response. Except… “Weren't you afraid Brad would be offended by that, given that he was there to find a wife?” she asked curiously.

“Well, everyone knew Brad wasn't the kind of guy to tolerate such foolishness.”

“But I thought you said none of you knew anything about him, at that point.”

“We didn't. But we—I—could just tell that was what kind of guy he was by looking at him,” Yvonne amended hastily.

Lainey pretended to accept her answer as truthful, even
though she knew there was no way anyone could have leaped to that conclusion in the fifteen seconds it took for Brad and Yvonne to lay eyes on each other and walk toward each other for the first time. “Can you tell me what happened the day Brad broke up with you—on camera?” Lainey asked, turning to the next page of her notes.

In front of her she had the transcript of Yvonne's retelling of the event on a network show.

“Well.” Yvonne sniffed. Her chin trembled and tears appeared in her eyes.

Lainey watched, spellbound, as Yvonne recounted, word for word, pause for pause, sniff for sniff, even eye dab for eye dab, how Brad had come in, snarled at her and left. It was a verbatim account of everything Yvonne had said before. Which could mean it was all a lie, as Brad said, and Yvonne had memorized it in order to keep her story straight. It could also be that she had told it so many times to so many people and reporters that she had unwittingly memorized her recounting. Bottom line, it was all very dramatic and damning, and if Lainey didn't know a lot more had gone on than what was currently being reported, she would have believed Yvonne and loathed Brad, too.

Lainey moved on determinedly. “Back to Gil Hewitt, the show's creator, and the producers. Did you all get along?”

“Oh, yes.” Big smile. “Famously, as a matter of fact. They were very nice to all of us.”

“No one got special treatment?”

Yvonne paused, looking like a deer in the headlights. “Not that I saw,” she said finally.

“I like Gil, too.” Lainey followed a hunch to see where it would lead. “He's very, um, friendly, isn't he.”

For the first time that afternoon, Yvonne's smile faltered, then faded all the way. “What do you mean?”

Lainey leaned confidentially close. “I heard he propositioned a number of the girls on the show.”

Emotion flared in Yvonne's eyes. Jealousy? “That's not true!”

Lainey sat back in mock surprise. “So he didn't proposition you?”

“He—of course not. Nor did he proposition anyone else,” Yvonne reiterated stiffly.

“My mistake,” Lainey said. “Now, about your background. I understand you went to San Diego State. And you were interested in theater there?” Another hunch that would be easy enough to follow through on.

“I did a few plays,” Yvonne admitted proudly.

“So you wanted to be an actress!” Lainey pretended to be deeply impressed. “How did you end up in marketing and sales instead?”

Yvonne sighed, lowered her guard. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get an agent…?”

By the time Lainey left the hotel, she thought she had a pretty good idea what had happened. But having an inkling wasn't the same as having the facts. She needed a firsthand account from someone she could trust. The question was, would Brad give it to her?

 

“I
DIDN'T THINK
you were coming back until tomorrow morning,” Brad said Sunday evening when Lainey arrived at the ranch, a sleepy Petey in tow.

“I thought there would be less traffic this evening,” Lainey replied.

“I wanted to come back,” Petey said, yawning as he got out of the car Lainey had borrowed from Annie McCabe.

“I'm glad.” Brad smiled, looking very happy to have them there.

Lainey's heart skipped a beat as she opened the guest house door and turned on the lights. She gazed down at her drowsy son. “Run on in and brush your teeth and get ready for bed, honey. I'll be in to say good-night in a minute.”

“Okay.” Petey turned and went back to Brad. He wrapped his arms around Brad's middle. “Night.”

Brad hugged Petey back with a warmth that filled Lainey's heart.

“Night, son.” He turned to Lainey. “Want me to carry your belongings in?” he asked as Petey disappeared into the bathroom down the hall.

Lainey glanced at the car. “No. That's okay,” she said hastily. “I don't have much. I'll get it later.”

Brad grinned, teasingly. “If I didn't know better, I'd think you were hiding something in there.”

She was. Her notes on the interview work she had done earlier in the day were tucked beneath the clean laundry in the wicker basket. “Ha-ha,” she said, wishing she didn't want to forget everything else that was going on, throw herself in Brad's arms and kiss him madly.

“It was lonely around here without you and Petey,” he said.

Lainey had been lonely, too. Conflicted. Guilty. Torn between her need to see justice done and have a career, and her need to cater only to Brad, to heck with what anyone else thought. But that wouldn't serve Brad or her need to put the truth about the goings on at the
Bachelor Bliss
show out there.

“Well, we're back now,” she said. The amount of uneasiness and guilt she was feeling told her she had no future as a double agent. But then she had never wanted to be a spy. She wanted a future as a reporter.

Chip had once outlawed that.

Would Brad, too?

“Mom!” Petey called from his bedroom.

Deciding this was no time to be thinking about such complex questions, Lainey practically pushed Brad toward the door. “I've got to go.”

He stepped out onto the porch, and she hurried back to tuck Petey in. The boy was already under the covers.

“Mom,” Petey said sleepily, “can I ask you something?”

“Always.” Lainey perched on the side of the bed.

“Is Aunt Bunny upset with you and me?”

Lainey forged ahead carefully. “Why would you think that?”

“I tried to tell her about all the cowboy stuff I'm learning from Brad and Travis, how grown-up I already am, and she acted like she didn't want to hear it.”

Lainey imagined that was true. Bunny was losing both her daughters to college this fall. Now, she thought she was losing her nephew, too. Lainey had hoped taking Petey to see Bunny would reassure Bunny that she would have plenty of time with the child no matter where Lainey lived or worked. Obviously, that wasn't the case. Yet, anyway.

“I think she just misses seeing you every day,” she said gently, doing her best to maintain a charitable attitude where her sister-in-law was concerned.

“Yeah—” Petey thrust his jaw out stubbornly “—but I'm not her son, Mom…I'm yours.”

Lainey smoothed her son's blond hair away from his forehead. “She loves you as much as if you were. You're family to her, Petey. And all she has left of your dad. So, if she's holding on a little too tight, I think that's why.”

Petey fell silent once again, seeming to understand better. After a moment, he looked up at her earnestly. “I like it out here, Mom. I want to stay even after you finish all your organizing stuff. Can we?”

Lainey wished that would happen, too, but given what she still had to do, she did not know if that was going to be possible.

 

“W
HAT ARE YOU DOING BACK
so soon?” Lewis asked Brad.

Brad stood in the kitchen, watching Lainey carry her belongings in from the car.

“A gentleman would be out there helping her lug that stuff inside.”

Brad did not need to be told that by his nerdy brother or
anyone else. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a bottle of beer. “Already asked and was refused.”

Lewis lifted a brow as he helped himself to a brew, too. “What'd you do to tick her off?”

“Nothing,” Brad admitted in frustration. “That I know, anyway.”

Lewis took the bottle opener his brother handed to him. “Not going to go after her?”

Brad shook his head.

“Why not?” Lewis persisted.

Wishing his younger brother would shut up, Brad lifted the bottle to his lips. “Because she obviously needs her space,” he explained.

Lewis looked at him, reminding Brad that of all his brothers, Lewis was the most sensitive to others' feelings.

“Sure that's all it is?” Lewis asked.

No. That was the hell of it. Brad wasn't.

Lewis lounged against the counter. “Maybe she heard about that blonde you were supposedly seen kissing in Dallas. Or maybe that blonde you were supposedly seen kissing in Dallas was Lainey,” he suggested slyly.

Brad hadn't told anyone he and Lainey had become involved with each other in a romantic sense. To his aggravation, everyone who had seen them interacting together in even the most mundane way seemed to know anyway. Which meant he was wearing his heart on his sleeve. Not smart, he knew. Especially given the fact that Lainey was obviously having second thoughts about making love with him.

“And maybe she didn't like showing up in the papers,” Lewis persisted helpfully.

Brad wasn't about to take advice on how to handle a woman from his only brother whose track record with the ladies was worse than Brad's. “Will you shut up?” he growled.

The smirk on Lewis's face indicated he knew what the truth was. “Guess I better be quiet if I don't want to eat a
knuckle sandwich.” He lifted his bottle to Brad in silent toast. “If you need me, I'll be in my study.”

Brad grunted in response and Lewis disappeared.

The lights were on in the guest house. Lainey hadn't closed her blinds. Through the window, Brad watched as she sat down on the sofa, opened up her laptop and got out a sheaf of papers. Then she abruptly stood, went to the windows and closed the blinds. Because she felt herself being watched? he wondered. Or because she had something to hide?

The second thought caught him unaware. He hadn't expected to be suspicious of Lainey. But, deep in his gut, he was. Why? Was it the way Lainey had refused to meet his eyes this evening, when she returned? The way she hurried him out the door and on his way? Or the way she seemed suddenly conflicted and uneasy around him? As if something had happened…something she didn't really want him to know.

All Brad knew for certain was that he was having the same feeling about Lainey he'd once had about Yvonne.

He didn't like it. Not at all.

“Ready to go test some more computer games?” Lewis asked Petey on Monday morning.

“I sure am!” Petey hopped up from the breakfast table, where he had been hanging out while Lainey did the dishes from the morning meal.

“We'll probably be home about six,” Lewis said.

Lainey nodded. “Don't forget—Annie and Travis and all their boys are coming for dinner.”

Lewis had invited them the day before, and Lainey thought it was a great idea. She'd been wanting to return their hospitality.

“Can we play after dinner?” Petey asked.

Lainey smiled. “We'll have to ask Annie and Travis, but I'm sure it'll be okay.” Since the “ranchers and rustlers” incident, Petey and his two sweet but mischievous cohorts hadn't gotten into any trouble. “Have fun.” Lainey hugged Petey goodbye.

“We will!” Petey beamed as he raced out the door.

Brad walked in, coffee cup in hand, as Lewis's car disappeared down the driveway. As always, the sight of him took Lainey's breath away. He hadn't yet shaved this morning and the hint of beard on his jaw gave him a rugged appeal. He was wearing a pair of worn jeans, boots and a clean but rumpled tan cotton work shirt. As he neared her, she could see the hair
curling damply against his nape and smell soap and toothpaste. Desire drifted through her, more potent than any shot of caffeine. His broad shoulder nudged hers as he opened the cupboard and lifted out a mug with a rodeo emblem on the front.

“Any more coffee left?”

Lainey flashed a smile. “I just emptied out what little was left and washed the pot. I'll make some fresh.”

He leaned against the counter, making absolutely no move to get out of her way. Letting her realize exactly what he wanted and that he was just waiting for the right moment. His gaze drifted over the clip that held back her blond hair. She hadn't had time that morning to carefully blow it out with her hair dryer, so wispy curls framed her face and the back of her neck. “Did I do something to annoy you?”

“What are you talking about?” Lainey asked, as she filled the water reservoir in the coffeemaker.

Brad backed her against the kitchen counter and clamped a hand on either side of her. “Last night you barely had five minutes for me. This morning you're as jumpy as a frog on a lily pad.”

Lainey felt herself blush, embarrassed. He wasn't touching her but she could feel the warmth emanating from his body. It beckoned her like a port in the storm. “I just have a lot on my mind,” she said finally.

Brad lifted a brow.

“Well, I do!” Lainey protested.

He leaned closer and looked deep into her eyes. “Somehow I don't think that's all it is.”

Lainey gulped as her heartbeat sped up. If only she could tell him everything here, now, and be guaranteed of the outcome….

“And I made myself a promise a while back not to ignore my gut anymore, when it comes to suspecting things are amiss.” He paused, letting his words sink in. “So, Lainey, I am asking you, what has changed?”

His low persuasive voice melted Lainey's resistance all the more. He searched her face and caressed her cheek with the pad of his thumb as her guilt increased by leaps and bounds.

“Are you acting this way because we made love?”

 

“W
ELL, NOW THAT YOU
b-brought it up…” Lainey stammered.

Brad had the impression he was not just being pushed away momentarily, but for good. The thought was damn disturbing. And yet here he was following her around like a lovesick pup. What kind of spell had she put on him? It wasn't like him to pursue someone who did not want to be pursued. “Yes?” he prodded, wishing she would cut straight to the chase.

“I'm not sure that was the wisest course of action, under the circumstances,” she recited in a low, battle-weary voice.

Frustrated she was not more talkative—didn't women usually enjoy delving into their feelings?—he dropped his hand and settled against the counter. “I didn't hear you complaining at the time.”

Lainey crossed her arms. In the soft light of the kitchen, her classically beautiful features were more pronounced. “Well, maybe I should have protested,” she said as her eyes met, then veered away, from his. “We hardly know each other.”

“A fact I am trying hard to remedy,” he countered softly, “by spending more time with you.”

Lainey leaned a slender hip against the counter. “Even so—”

“We know everything there is to know about each other where it counts, Lainey.” Brad moved closer yet, until he was inundated with the sweet softness of her once again. He inhaled the intoxicating blend of perfume and woman. Determined to prove they did know enough about each other to become intimately involved, he put his arms around her. “For instance, I know you love your son and you're one of the best
mothers I've ever seen.” She lifted her face up to his, gazing into his eyes, and he continued seriously. “I know you have a kind heart and a generous soul…and a sweetness of spirit I can't even begin to find words to describe. I know you make me want to be a better man than I've ever been. I know you're the woman I've been waiting for, the only woman for me,” he confessed in a husky voice, feeling as astonished as she appeared to be by the way he was putting himself out there. “And I know when you finally let your guard down, which isn't nearly often enough to please either of us, you're feeling as connected to me as I am to you.” Feeling her melt against him, he kissed her cheek, her temple, the delicate skin just behind her ear. “So what else do we need to know?”

Again, something flared in her eyes. She looked as if she had the weight of the world on her slender shoulders. “Brad—”

Resolved they would not lose ground here, he brought her closer yet. “Stop pushing me away, Lainey. Take down those barriers that surround your heart.”

He gathered her against him, bent his head and kissed her the way he had been longing to kiss her since she'd come back last night. Determined to make her see what they could have if she would just let her reservations go, he deepened the sweet caress. Then all pretense, all reserve, was gone as she met him, kiss for kiss. Desire thundering through him in waves, he flattened the hard length of his body against the soft pliability of hers. Able to feel how much Lainey wanted and needed him, no matter what she said, he swept her mouth with his tongue, kissing her until she gave him back everything he had ever wanted, everything he had ever expected. Before long, the blood was pooling hot and urgent in his body, and he wanted her more than he had wanted any woman in his life.

When she sagged against him, signaling she felt the same, he broke off the embrace just long enough to slip an arm beneath her knees and lift her against his chest. Her eyes were
misty with longing and love as he carried her up the back staircase, and down the hall, to the rumpled covers of his bed. The need to make her his—not just for this moment in time, or next month or next week, but forever—was stronger than ever.

“You've got to promise me something,” he whispered as he tugged off his boots and hers and joined her on the bed.

“What?” She watched as he unbuttoned her blouse.

He eased it off her shoulders and away from her body, enjoying the way the uppermost curves of her breasts spilled out of the white lace bra. Beneath the thin fabric, he could see the jutting nipples. “To stop running from me, from us.”

She trembled as he slipped a strap off her shoulder and down her arm. “Is that what you think I've been doing?” she murmured as he drew the fabric away.

Brad traced the delicate pink-and-white flesh, luxuriating in the soft, silky feel of her. “I know you're scared.” He stared into the turbulent, forest green of her eyes, eyes that were still vulnerable and full of need. Eyes that maybe believed a little of what had been written and said about his allegedly fickle heart. “You don't have to be. This leap of faith we're taking has success written all over it.”

She looked like she wanted to trust him, trust the two of them and their impetuous involvement, so much. And he set about showing her that she could, as he removed her bra and kissed her neck, shoulders, collarbone and breasts. They continued kissing—hard, soft, and every way in between—caressing each other until they lay together naked on the bed.

“And I thought I'd given up all my wild ways,” Lainey sighed.

Brad grinned as he thought about the sexy dress he had missed seeing her in. He'd have to get her in one again. One he'd purchase for her. “Wild can be good,” he whispered, holding her so close they were almost one. His own body throbbing, he moved down the length of her, exploring as he went.

Lainey arched up off the bed. “You certainly make me believe that,” she murmured, whimpering and moaning her pleasure in a way that drove him crazy with desire.

“Good.”

“In fact—” she turned and draped her body over his “—being wild with you is downright fun.”

“Is that so?” Brad drawled.

“Something about letting go…”

Her lips drifted over his skin. “Doing whatever I please…no longer caring about what people think….”

Brad's breath hitched as her lips wooed and seduced. Wondering if he would ever be able to get enough of her, he moved to switch places with her again, so she was beneath him. Parting her knees with his, he braced a hand on either side of her and situated himself between her thighs. “Take it from me—a person's reputation can only go so far in revealing who that person is deep inside.”

Lainey ran her hands over the muscles of his back. “You're a good man, Brad McCabe.”

Insistent he be the one to set the pace, Brad took her wrists in hand and anchored them above her head. “And you, Lainey Carrington, are not only a good woman, but the only woman for me.”

“So what does that mean?” Lainey teased softly, as they locked eyes, playfully and pleasurably delaying the moment when they would come together completely. “We're going steady?”

“Too high school.” Brad lowered his mouth to hers once again, lifted her against him and surged into her slick, wet heat, slowly and deliberately. “I prefer something more grown-up.”

So did Lainey. “Exclusive?”

“Permanently exclusive,” he told her, all the love she had ever wanted to see shining in his eyes, as he entered and withdrew in shallow strokes that soon had her moaning and
trembling, wanting, needing. Straining against him, she took up the rhythm he had started, until there was no more delaying, and their hearts thundered in unison. He was surging deeper, harder, claiming her as his. Holding fast to him, she claimed him, too, and then there was nothing…save one secret…standing between them. Their passion was so strong and so right and so filled with tenderness that it didn't feel quite real. But it was, Lainey thought, as she took everything he offered, gave him everything back in return, and soared into the sweet, hot abyss right along with him.

They clung together afterward, bodies humming with pleasure, hearts content. Except for that one thing.

The fact that he did not know she was working as a reporter, investigating him.

She wanted to tell him. She was going to inform him. She should have already done so. Except that if she did, she was pretty sure he would cease all contact with her. And the thought she might lose him when the truth came out about what she had been doing was devastating. So wrenching, in fact, that she burst into tears.

 

F
OR THE LIFE OF HIM
, Brad couldn't figure out why Lainey was crying. These didn't look like tears of bliss. They looked like tears engendered by great conflict. “What's wrong?” he asked, unable to understand why she didn't feel as happy as he did, given what had just happened between them.

She just shook her head.

“I can't understand if you won't let me in,” he told her tenderly as he stroked a hand down her spine and guided her closer still.

She only sobbed harder.

Frustrated that he wasn't able to comfort her as he wanted, he searched her face and asked, “Do you think I've treated you badly, making love to you so soon?” Damn it, he had known a woman like Lainey needed courting, a lot of it.

She shook her head and avoided his eyes.

“Because I swear, if I thought that was what was hurting you, I'd call a halt to the physical side of our relationship. It'd be hard, but I'd do it—” His voice caught as he realized how vulnerable he'd become to her. “I'd do anything to keep you in my life,” he whispered intensely.

She shoved her hands through her cap of tousled hair. She looked more emotionally inaccessible than ever. “You don't understand.”

“Then help me,” he pleaded. He hated feeling so helpless.

Lainey wiped the tears from her eyes. She sat up against the headboard, pulling the sheet to her chin, holding the fabric against the nakedness of her body with her bare arms. But to his mounting disappointment, as their gazes met and held, all she did was seem to get further away from him. Finally, she swallowed and took a deep breath.

“I don't deserve you,” she said thickly. Fresh tears started as she dabbed at the corners of her eyes with the sheet. “And I want so badly to—” She paused, shook her head miserably, seemingly unable, or maybe just unwilling, to go on.

“Is this because of how your husband made you feel?” he asked as he sat up beside her, really wanting to understand. “Because I swear, if it is—”

She drew in another deep, shaky breath. “It has nothing to do with him,” she confessed, finally able to talk more calmly. “It has to do with the fact that I am not the sainted person you think I am.”

 

L
AINEY SAW THE LOOK
on Brad's face and knew he thought the problem was one of damaged self-esteem. If only it were that simple, she thought unhappily. “It's just…I've gone about this all wrong,” she tried to explain in a voice still coated with tears. And she didn't know how much longer she could keep up the subterfuge. She was trying to be all things to all people and succeeding at none of it.