Crushed Velvet (8 page)

ELEVEN

Leather and Fireworks

Plush Stud Ranch, Victoria Texas

A pounding on the door woke Bren up. She gazed over at Trev and he seemed to be totally asleep. Easing out of bed, she grabbed her robe where it’d been flung over a chair. Despite the fact that they were supposed to leave, her cheeks flamed at the thought that they couldn’t seem to stop getting back into bed together.

This was the best problem she ever had in her life. A hot man…hot for her, and she loved every dang minute of it! She knew she needed to get back to the ranch soon though and she was gonna tell Trev that when he woke up.

Making her way to the door, she opened it just a crack.

“You need to do something and quick!” Maggie’s face was pale.

Opening the door, she let her in. This was gonna be a new thing, having a sister.

“He’s here!” Maggie blurted out.

“Who?”

Maggie looked over to the bed and blushed a bright pink. “My dad.”

Bren’s eyes widened.

Maggie nodded. “He doesn’t seem to know about—about the studs.” She stepped close while whispering, “He made me take him to Daisy.”

Bren bit at her lip. “And you’re afraid of what will happen when he finds out?”

Maggie shook her head, then switched to a nodding. “No—I mean, yes.” She wrung her hands nervously. “I had to take him to her door, because she ran away when she saw him.”

“What?”

“Yeah, she ran like the wind when he showed up!”

Bren shook her head. “No way!”

“Yes way and now? There’s some loud stuff going on in that room. I think all hell is breaking loose!” Maggie looked as if she might break into tears. “I took him there, because I thought it would be better than him wandering around.”

Bren thought about what happened to Trev. “Yep, it’s not safe for a man to go unescorted in this place, all right!”

Maggie released a breath. “I don’t know about what all happened between them way back, but I think they’re breaking furniture in there!”

“Well, when Daisy gets goin’, lots of things get broken for sure.” Bren chuckled. “But, I think you may be overreacting.”

The door behind them swung open. “You gotta come quick, baby doll!” Coco appeared in the doorway.

Bren smiled at the makeup artist who’d ‘dolled her up’ yesterday before Trevor arrived.

“I mean it, there’s a tornado brewing there!”

Bren sighed and glanced over at the bed.

Trevor was sitting up and staring at the three of them. Apparently, he knew what was said as he nodded his head at her.

“Miss Plush!” Mr. Morty appeared beside Coco.

“Yes, I know. I’m coming!” She had no choice but to be tugged along the hallway by Maggie. “But I don’t know what I can do about it!”

“She’ll listen to you.” Coco walked ahead of her. “She’s always sayin’ how much common sense you have, like she respects that in you.”

Mr. Morty nodded his pointy head. “Yep!”

Maggie held Bren’s hand and moved her along.

“Daisy Plush doesn’t listen to anyone, people!” She shook her head. “Y’all should know that already!”

“That is probably the truth of it, but we’re desperate, Madame.” Mr. Morty huffed.

“Yes, siree, we are!” Coco agreed.

They all stood behind her when they came to Daisy’s door.

Crash!
A slamming sound hit the door. Bren jumped back. She looked over at Maggie.

Nodding her head, she looked even more afraid.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her fist to knock.

The door burst open and Daisy ran headlong into her. All spandex and lace corset slamming headlong into her.

It was like a domino effect and she backed into Maggie, who plowed up against Mr. Morty and all of them hit the floor as Coco was knocked back onto her butt.

Bren looked up as she was trying to get Daisy off of her and there he stood. The man in the photo. The only man who apparently that scared the dickens out of her mother.
Oh my, he was a big man and wow what a smile!

“Let me up!” Daisy yelled.

The man was chuckling while he reached down, hefting her up and over his wide shoulder.

Bren gasped as did Mags beneath her. He handled her like Daisy was a wisp of a woman and not the robust one everyone knew her to be.

He turned away while carrying a mad Daisy hornet on his shoulder.

“You put me down, right now!” she shouted.

His laughter grew as he went back through the door.

Everyone scrambled to see what was happening. Then, they all froze like they couldn’t believe their eyes.

“Lordy in heaven!” Coco whispered.

Maggie’s amused father looked down at them while easily holding a squirming Daisy. “We appreciate your concern but…” He patted Daisy’s plump derriere as if he did that every day. “This happens to be a long overdue reunion…” He gazed over at Maggie. “A private one.” He slammed the door shut.

“Oooh!” Daisy yelped from behind the door.

Bren was wide eyed as she gazed at the others.

Mr. Morty was smiling hugely. “Finally! A man that can outman The Plush Flush!”

Coco shook her head. “I never woulda’ believed it if’n I didn’t see it with my own two eyes!”

Maggie smirked. “You don’t know the half of it.” Her eyes seemed to dance with mirth too. “Where he’s from, he wrestles alligators for fun.”

Bren finally got up and wondered what the hell was going on. “He won’t hurt her, will he?”

Maggie crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s the kindest man on this green earth.”

Coco chuckled. “Yep. ’Bout time this happened.
If that woman had a ham under both arms, she’d cry ’cause she had no bread.”

Maggie gazed over at the makeup queen. “What?”

“She always had one too many stars in her crown, all right,” Mr. Morty added with a smug grin.

Maggie looked baffled and stomped her foot. “What the hell are you all talking about?”

Bren grabbed her sister’s hand and shushed her. “Let me think here, okay? I don’t know what we should do.” She released a breath and bit at her lip.

“I think ya’ll better just back off.”

Bren’s gaze shot over.

Trevor stood a few feet away, leaning his large frame against the wall. “Sometimes, it’s best to wait out hell storms in a low key shelter.”

Bren rushed over to him. “But, Trev, he…” She took his hand. “I’m scared.”

Trev smiled. “Sweet Bren, this is the way you handle a wild horse.”

Coco laughed. “It’s like High Noon at the O.K.!”

“Did you get a look at him, Coco?” Mr. Morty was nodding in agreement while even he looked impressed.

“Uh-huh.
Big as all hell and half of Texas
!”
Coco laughed and looped her arm with Morty’s. “This calls for a ’bration of the nation, Mister tailor man!”

“It sure does, paint girl!” The two of them strolled away, while their chortles echoed along the hall.

Maggie watched them saunter happily away and threw her arms up in the air. “Another whole page for the Nonsense List!”

Bren ignored their jokes and still wondered if she should try to help Daisy.

Trev took her hand and gently pulled her down along the hall. “I don’t know him at all, but…” He gave her a sideways look. “I’ve met your Mama and I have to say, she can handle herself.”

Maggie had been staring at the pair who walked away, like they were aliens from another planet. Jerking her head up, she turned to follow Bren. “But, I know he won’t hurt her.”

“Then, why is she so scared, Mags?” Bren wondered.

“I don’t know, but he said something about her once or twice, when I asked.”

“Like what?”

“Well, he said he always knew she was scared of only two things.”

Trev stopped in the hall. “What things?”

Maggie shrugged. “Well, it didn’t make much sense. Sometimes his language is just as confusing as—
ya’ll’s.
” She seemed to stress the word to make some point.

“Just tell us, Maggie!”

“Leather and fireworks?”

Bren blinked her eyes in confusion.

Trev chuckled.

Her befuddled gaze shot over. “This ain’t funny, Trev!”

He grinned. “Yep, same as a wild horse!”

Maggie huffed. “I just don’t get Texans! Like what the heck does that even mean? Wild horses?”

Bren suddenly understood. She remembered several details now. Daisy’s story about how she felt about this man and her keeping only one photo of a man out of the many she could’ve displayed. “She loves him?”

Trevor nodded. “And that makes three things she’s scared of.”

Maggie looked back and forth between them. “How… What?”

Bren smiled at this sweet, charming and very puzzled new sister. “I guess there’s a first time for everything. Even daisies getting cropped, I guess.”

Maggie’s confusion didn’t seem to clear at all. “So, what do we do now?”

Bren gazed sweetly over at her G.I. cowboy. “Well,
we
gotta be getting back to the Triple K soon,
sis.
”

Trev nodded in agreement. “I also had an idea about that. I think our housekeeper left her job last week.” He winked at Bren.

Mystified, it took Bren a minute to get it. “Well, we’ll all have breakfast first and then see if the…Daisy tornado and her wild alligator tamer have calmed down, so we can talk to the both of them about it.”

Maggie looked back and forth again. “I swear—I know I’m in America, but…?”

Trev moved ahead of them. “Texas is a whole other country, little fluff!”

Bren rushed after him. “Wait! Trev, a man doll ain’t safe in this house alone!”

Maggie hurried after them. “Man doll? Fluff? I need a damn dictionary for this place!”

TWELVE

He’s gone cowboy…

Along the Flat River

Kanda finally found her boots and hat, then finished dressing. She stood up and realized the outfit almost made her feel like the old cowgirl boss again. She stepped outside and looked around.

A loud whistle came from beyond Wade’s black Hummer.

Wade was on a horse, riding toward her and leading her horse by the reins.

So much for feeling the old Kanda’s presence. Her mouth dropped open at the sight before her.

He wore a Stetson hat and sat atop a black stallion. Maybe the biggest horse she ever saw. Her heart pounded as he drew closer.
Oh, God. He looks like a cowboy!
There goes the unholy factor search.
Could he be real? So hot before and now he had to do it! He’d gone cowboy on her!

He dropped the reins in front of her. “Mount up, Kandy girl.”

Her spit had dried up in her mouth and she almost didn’t hear him with her heart drumming like it was.
He’s magnificent! I keep thinkin’ how can he get any hotter? Then…he ups the temperature on me again!

Tall in the saddle and totally at ease, he looked like he’d been born there.

“You—?” She spluttered like a girl who just got an eyeful of her first male peep show. “You ride?”

He tilted his hand back and grinned. “I can ride a little.”

Bending down and getting her reins, she was totally off balance now.
The next thing ya know, he’ll be saying ma’am and yee-haw or some shit like that!

“I equipped our horses with wrangling ropes, water bottles and even a picnic lunch.”

Kanda swung herself up and into the saddle and she halted again as she was face to face with this new phenomenon that was wranglin’ Wade.

“Hello?” he called, as if she were faraway.

Blinking her eyes, she just couldn’t get used to him being on a horse. “I thought we were gonna take your Hummer? I surely never thought you would—cowboy up.”

He shrugged his wide shoulders, his black shirt accenting his chiseled torso. “I can cowboy up as good as the next stockader. Besides, that isn’t how they ride the range out here is it? I mean, I don’t see ya’ll riding in some dune buggy.”

Ya’ll? Did he just say that?
Kanda tried to hide her shock and dismay.
Why does this bother me so damn much?
She shrugged back at him to try and hide her discomposure. “Okay, if you’re sure you can keep up?” She didn’t know why, but she knew she was gonna push and challenge him from now on. She just had to see a bad trait in this man somehow or another. This whole thing had gotten way out of her control and she almost wasn’t sure who she was anymore, let alone who he was.

“I can try…ropin’ girl.” He gave her a flirtatious wink.

“Hmph!” she grunted under her breath and spurred her horse into a gallop.

Her horse knew her every whim and turn by instinct. It took off, racing across the plains.

Maybe I can dust him out and see if he gets mad or something?
She hunched low to her horse and the trusty mare knew this meant she wanted even more speed. Dust flew in their wake and she resisted the urge to look behind to see where Wade was.

A noise rose up in a cloud of dust beside her as the black stallion crested her mare and gave out a loud snort.

Wade tugged his hat at her almost like a smartass salute and his massively powerful horse sped on by them.

“What the…?” Dust flew into her gaping mouth. She clapped it shut and pulled the bandana up over her nose that she’d borrowed back at the cabin.
He wants a race, does he?
Kanda pushed her horse harder as the dust rose across the plains of the Triple K acreage.
Time to show up, Mister Fucking-fantastic!

~~
****
~~

Daisy squirmed on his wide shoulder, then her breath rushed from her lungs as Rand dropped her onto the bed. She flopped like a dummy doll and felt her bustier hitch up high. “What in the hell do you think you’re---”

“Shhh.” He placed his fingers to his lips.

Daisy was huffing and puffing as she yanked her corset down. Her pout must’ve been a sight to see as she glared at him.

Rand stared hard at her, his eyes dropping to her breasts.

Her face grew hot.
I done showed him my peaches, didn’t I? S
he slowly peered down and her breath caught, as sure enough, her rosy nipples were just peeking above the lace fringe. “Dammit it all!” She swiftly jerked the lacey boob contraption back up.

When she glanced up she saw that his eyes were glittering at her like stone cut sapphires. Daisy gulped, as the blaze in that gaze could probably light up the entire town of Abilene.

Quiet-like, he sat down on the bed. “Now, we’re gonna act like adults, okay?”

Crossing her arms over her leather-laced bosom, she gave him her best girlish pout.

Rand chuckled. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

Daisy refused to be baited and she certainly wasn’t gonna look at him. His voice was enough. Everything that came out of that yummy mouth sounded seductive.

“I wanna talk about Mags.”

Daisy did glance over at him now as her arms dropped away.

“I mean, she is what’s important.”

“I—I agree.” Tears formed in her eyes. Her guilt over that girl rose to a height that should’ve made her nose bleed.
Don’t spill them tears, Daize! Don’t do it!

Rand looked away now. “Don’t cry. You know what it does to me.”

Daisy sniffled. “I’m tryin’.” She’d forgotten that detail about him. She wasn’t one to cry at all, but she did a time or two while with him. Whenever it happened, he would take her up and do all sorts of unmentionables to get her to stop. Maybe that was why it’d affected him like that, because she was always the type that was too proud to shed tears.

He placed his hands together and gazed around at the room. It looked as if he clamped his large hands to keep from reaching for her. His gaze stopped at a certain point in the room.

Oh…crap on a cracker! He sees it!
Daisy panicked.

“You still have that picture?”

She gulped and didn’t answer.

“Daisy?”

She released a huge breath. “Yes—I kept it. You were the only man that ever had a place on my mantle, okay? Happy now?”

“I haven’t really been happy since the day you left.”

Daisy drew in her breath.

He stood up. “My kids have made me happy. They’re both something to be proud of. My work has even seemed to fill some holes. I’ve had a fling or two. Being a man, I always have the need. Then, over the years, there’ve been a few women who wanted to give me all that you wouldn’t.”

Daisy was staring at him now. “I
couldn’t
give—not wouldn’t.”

Rand turned and looked at her. “It never worked though. There was only you.”

Daisy looked away. “Please, Rand…”

He sat down again and grabbed her up.

Her chest crushed up against his. Still hard…still so dammed hot.

“That always turned me on, whenever you begged.”

She bit at her lip. Boy howdy, could he ever make her beg for it! Like her life depended on another touch, another stroke of his body to hers. She’d never been that way with any other man since. The man was overpowering and hotter than—well, it scared her then—and it surely scared the bejeebus out of her now too!

She started to tremble. This was also un-Daisy like. It was ‘Daisy Dissembling’ time. After all these years? She was finally gonna pay. Her mama always told her that Rand would eventually make her pay for leaving him like that. After eighteen years, she had felt her mama was wrong about this one thing.

Nope!
Now, here he was, bold as day, and still hot as hell. His scent, his warmth, those eyes and that silk-laced voice? Combine it all and you’ve got yourself a walking heartbreak. Her gaze rested on his chest.
Don’t look up, Daize. Don’t.
Her eyes betrayed her will and they moved up along his throat to meet that hot blue gaze. The trembling in her body doubled.

“You’re shaking.”

She took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s just the shock, you know? From the tussle just now.”

He shook his head.

Daisy bit at her lip and knew she was trapped. If she didn’t get him away from him very soon, she would be on her knees begging for him to stay with her. It was just the same way as it was so long ago, like all the years had just up and vanished.

Only, he never knew how much she’d loved him. He was never aware that she would’ve given up everything for him. It scared her so bad and she feared that… Like all men? He would crush her heart to itty-bitty pieces and smash all that was Daisy to…dust. She gave him up instead. It seemed the sanest thing to do at the time.

“Well, by the way you tried to run? I suppose you still don’t love me.” He let out a somber sigh.

Her gaze shot up to his face. “You know that’s not

—”

Rand grinned at her and gave her a blue-eyed wink.

“Ooh!” She got up from the bed and stomped her boot. “You came here after all these years, across the world, to tease me?” Hands on her hips, the Daisy hornet was in full stingin’ gear now.

Rand took a step back and just looked at her. His grin faded. His eyes continuing to blaze at her. “Yeah, I guess I did.” He took a step toward her. “It seems that anything you do will doom us both. If you cry? I’ll kiss every inch of you until your eyes dry up and everything else will get wet.”

Daisy held her breath as his voice wove that web of sensual heat around her.
Make him stop, Daize. Two minute warning!

“If you get mad? I get hard in all the right places and I will pound the anger right out of you.” The look on his face remained impassive, despite his words. “Even if you fight me, it will only make me want to tame you down.”

Daisy was breathless now. “Why do you think I ran?” She gulped. “All you have to do is stand there and I…”
All he has to do is breathe, I guess?

He took the last step to reach her. “Remember what your favorite was?” he asked, as his eyes burned at her. Now, he did blow a gentle warm breath on her cheek.

Her heart was hammering bad now.
No, don’t let him say it. Run, Daisy, run!
Her protective voice echoed like pennies in a well; the one she hadn’t heard for so long. Only the image of what he was suggesting burned right through. It doused the voice—smothering it completely.

“What did you call it?”

Her throat had swelled close. Maybe out of self-protection?
Don’t say it. If you do, he’ll get in. When he does, you won’t ever get him out.
“Riding the…” Her voiced faded to nothing.

He grabbed her arms and tugged her close.

Her mouth met his ear.

He seemed to wait for it.

She couldn’t stop herself, no good sense was left when he was this close. “…Rand,” she finished the sentence in a whisper.