His Convenient Virgin Bride (12 page)

And the affair would have been public knowledge. Alec didn’t agree with the action, but he thought he understood the motivation. Still, it didn’t change anything for him. His hope of a future with Stephanie was over. The sooner he got back to Chicago, the better.

The room went silent as everyone digested the revelation.

“I’ve got a plane to catch,” Alec put in. He didn’t exactly
have a ticket, since he’d been hoping to stay here with Stephanie. But nobody needed to know that.

“If you leave,” Amber ventured, cocking her head sideways. “How are you going to shoot any man who touches her?”

“Nobody’s shooting anyone,” he returned. And Stephanie didn’t want or need his protection.

Royce came to his feet. “You’re just going to abandon her?”

“What part of marriage of convenience don’t you understand?”

“The part where you fell in love with my sister.”

Alec opened his mouth to deny it, but he found he couldn’t lie. There was no point in even attempting to salvage his pride. “She doesn’t love me.”

“Are you sure?” asked Amber.

Alec gave a sharp nod.

“Then change her mind,” Jared put in mildly. “Melissa didn’t start off loving me.”

Royce grinned. “And Amber took some convincing.”

Amber socked him in the arm. “I loved you, dummy. I just didn’t tell you about it.”

It was painful for Alec to watch the interplay. “It’s better if I just leave.”

“You sure?” McQuestin put in gruffly, his pale gaze boring into Alec. “Because if you’re wrong, and you break that little girl’s heart.
I’m
the one who’ll be shooting at
you.
”

Two miles from the main ranch, Stephanie jerked her car to the side of the muddy road and brought it to an abrupt halt.

Her hands were shaking. Her stomach ached. And she
couldn’t seem to muster up enough strength in her leg to push the clutch and gear down for the hill.

What was she going to do?

She’d come home with such high hopes. But the days and nights at Brighton now seemed like a cruel dream. She’d fallen fast and hard for her husband, and it had seemed like he was falling for her. She’d even dared to hope it was love.

But he didn’t love her. He didn’t even like or respect her. Why else would he have stripped away her business?

There had to have been other options.

Why was it
her
who had to sacrifice everything?

She gripped the steering wheel, her anger reviving, blocking out her heartache.

But then she remembered
Windy City Bizz.
Amber loved that magazine. Yet, she’d quickly agreed to sell it. And Royce had offered up the jet. And Jared had spent years building up their Chicago property inventory. He had huge plans for construction in the next decade, yet he was looking at selling.

Stephanie swallowed, a horrible thought creeping into her mind. Had she just let her brothers down? Was this why they kept secrets from her? Did they think she couldn’t handle the hard truths?

She sat back, shoulders drooping, considering for the first time in her life that she might have some responsibility to turn a financial profit, not just to provide theoretical PR and goodwill. She had an obligation to her family. And she had an obligation to Alec.

Another ranch truck rocked to a halt beside her. But she didn’t even look up.

Moments later, Amber banged on the window.

“Stephanie!”

Stephanie blinked blankly at Amber. Her pride was in tatters and her heart was broken to bits.

She loved Alec.

She realized he wasn’t trying to hurt her. He was trying to treat her like an adult, a functioning partner. He’d done her the courtesy of telling her the hard truth about her stable, instead of trying to sugarcoat it so she wouldn’t get hurt.

She loved him, and he respected her. And she’d just destroyed any chance they might have had at building a future together.

“Will you open—” Amber grabbed the door handle and yanked the driver’s door wide. “You have to come back.”

Stephanie shook her head. She couldn’t go back. She was mortified by her behavior, and she needed to go home and bury her head.

“He’s leaving,” Amber rushed on. “He’s leaving now. McQuestin threatened to shoot him, but he’s still leaving.”

“What?” Stephanie managed to say, completely confused by Amber’s agitation.

“Stephanie.” Amber took a breath. “Listen to me. Alec wanted to sell the stable—”

“He was right,” Stephanie nodded, swallowing her pain.

“—to
himself.
”

Stephanie struggled to make sense of the words.

“
He
was going to buy it.
You
were going to run it. Hell, you were going to own half of it, since you’re his wife.”

Stephanie felt the blood drain from her face, while the roar of a hurricane pounded in her ears.

Amber grabbed her hand, tugging on it. “You have to come back.
Now.
”

Stephanie fumbled with her seat belt catch. “I don’t understand.”

“He loves you.”

“Who loves me?” Stephanie pushed off the seat, landing on the muddy road.

“Alec. He loves you.”

Stephanie didn’t believe that for a minute. And even if he had, he didn’t anymore. Still a little part of her heart couldn’t help holding out hope. “He said that?” she dared ask as Amber bundled her into the passenger seat of the other truck.

“He said he’d shoot any man who touched you.” Amber swung into the driver’s side and put the truck in gear.

“That’s not exactly the same thing,” Stephanie pointed out.

“It’s some kind of a joke. But Royce says it means he loves you. But he’s convinced you don’t love him. And he’s heading for the airport. From there, with his job, who knows where he’ll end up.” Amber glanced across the seat, voice lowering. “So, if you love him, Stephanie…”

Stephanie stared back. She slowly nodded.

“You need to tell him. And you need to do it right now.”

“I’m sorry,” Stephanie mumbled. “I wasn’t thinking. You gave up the magazine. Royce offered the jet. Of course I’ll give up the stable. I didn’t mean to sound so spoiled and selfish back there.”

Amber unexpectedly smiled. “Me giving up the magazine is nothing compared to you giving up the stable. Your brothers were never going to let that happen. Of course, as it turns out, that wasn’t what Alec meant anyway.”

“He wants to
buy
the stable?” Stephanie turned the revelation over in her mind.

“And he made it clear you’d be half owner. And he’d be a silent partner. And he was doing it to provide for his wife and his child.”

“Oh, no.” Acute regret slid through Stephanie’s stomach.

“But it’s good news.”

Stephanie blew out a sigh. “I said some things. To Alec. When I thought he was out to get me.”

“What things?”

Stephanie groaned. “He must hate me.”

“What things?”

“That I only slept with him the second time—”

“You slept with him a second time?”

“And a third and a fourth and a fifth. Maybe more. I kind of lost count.”

Amber laughed. “Well, that sounds promising.”

“No.” Stephanie shook her head. “I just finished telling him I’d only done it because he bought Blanchard’s Run. It was gratitude sex, and I didn’t find him either handsome, funny or charming. I may have said I didn’t like him. I definitely implied he should get lost.”

“Do you think he believed you?”

“I was pretty convincing.”

“But you’re in love with him?”

Stephanie moaned, bending forward around her stomachache. “Yes.”

“Maybe try telling him that.” The truck rocked to a halt. Stephanie looked up to see Jared, Melissa, Royce and McQuestin standing in the front driveway.

She glanced frantically around for Alec, opening the door, stepping out.

“He’s gone,” said Jared.

“How long?” asked Amber.

“Twenty minutes, at least.” Royce shook his head.

“I’m going after him,” Stephanie decided. Amber was right. While Stephanie had been dead wrong. She owed him an apology, and she was going to suck up her pride and tell him she loved him.

She was sure it would be nothing but a lesson in abject humiliation, because no man was going to love a woman who’d behaved the way she did. And despite his joke to Royce, she was sure Alec would be happy to put as much distance as possible between himself and her.

She looked to Amber. “Give me the keys.”

“You’ll never catch him,” said Melissa. “And it’s dangerous to try.”

“Take the Cessna,” McQuestin put in.

Royce looked at the old man, then grinned. “We’ll take the Cessna.” He grabbed the keys from Amber and headed to the truck at a trot. “Come on,” he called to Stephanie.

She sprinted after him.

It was a five-minute drive to the ranch airstrip. Royce sped through his pre-flight checklist. Stephanie slapped on the earphones and strapped into the seat and braced herself for takeoff.

In no time, they were skimming a thousand feet above the ranch road. The road met the main road, and they banked east. There’d be little traffic before the Interstate, so Alec’s black car should be easy to spot.

After they found him? Well, things were definitely going to get tough. She tried to come up with a speech in her mind, something,
anything
that might help him forgive her. But she was drawing a blank.

“Painful, isn’t it?” asked Royce through the radio.

“I was so stupid.”

He laughed. “We all are. I told Amber she should marry her former fiancé. I could have lost her right then and there.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Stephanie peered out the small windshield, scanning the length of road in front of them. Range land whizzed by, with the occasional barn or stream. “We don’t know how this one’s going to turn out.”

“He loves you, Steph.”

“I may have killed that.”

“You can’t kill it. Believe me, you can’t kill it.”

Stephanie drew a breath, desperately trying to convince herself that Royce knew what he was talking about. But the fact was, he didn’t. His and Amber’s relationship was unique and special. It wasn’t representative of every other relationship in the world.

“There he is,” said Royce, pointing to the road. And Stephanie’s heart went into overdrive.

Royce overflew the car, checked for traffic, then turned the Cessna in a tight circle, bringing it down on the pavement of the road. They coasted to a stop, and he shut off the engine.

Stephanie removed her headphones, unclipped the harness then clambered out of the small seat, stepping on the wing strut before dropping down to the pavement.

“Go get ’em, tiger,” Royce called with an encouraging grin.

Stephanie couldn’t muster up a smile in return. Her palms were sweating and her knees were weak. She took a few trembling steps along the centerline, watching
for Alec’s car to come into view. She didn’t have long to wait.

The black car coasted to a stop, but Alec didn’t get out.

Squinting, at the tinted windshield, Stephanie forced herself to walk toward it.

Finally the door opened, and Alec stepped out, frowning. “What the hell?”

“I’m sorry, Alec.”

He looked at the plane, then back to her. “What the
hell?
”

“It’s Royce. We were afraid you’d beat us to the airport and get on a plane, and I wouldn’t be able to find you.”

“So you landed on the
highway?
Have you lost your mind?”

“I came to apologize.”

He was still frowning. His eyes were squinted down in anger. “It never occurred to me in a million years that I’d have to make this rule. But don’t you ever,
ever
take my baby up in an airplane and land on a public roadway.”

“It’s perfectly safe. We checked for traffic.”

“Stephanie.”

“Okay. Okay. I won’t.” She paused. “But don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

“To say you’re sorry?”

She screwed up her courage. “To say I love you.”

His expression never flinched. “They told you about me buying the stable?”

She nodded.

“And you’re grateful for that?”

“It’s not about gratitude.”

His look turned skeptical. “Really?”

“It was never about gratitude for Blanchard’s Run.”

“That’s not what you said an hour ago.”

“I lied an hour ago.”

“But you’re not lying now?”

“No.”

He took a step forward, jaw clenched, expression grim. “Explain to me, Stephanie. How exactly am I supposed to tell the difference?”

It was a fair question. She moved closer to him. “I guess you can’t.”

His expression softened ever so slightly. “So, when you tell me that you love me? Which, by the way, I desperately want to believe—”

“But you need proof?” she ventured.

“And it can’t be sex.”

“Too bad.” Her voice dropped low. “I’ve been thinking about sex all week.”

Something twitched in his expression.

“I missed you so much,” she told him. “I thought about you all morning. I imagined you pulling me back into your arms, holding me tight, and telling me everything was going to work out for us.”

“And instead I threatened to sell your home out from under you.”

“I should have listened longer. And it shouldn’t have mattered. I should have been able to handle the hard truth.”

“I should have started with the punch line.”

“I love you, Alec. I don’t know how to prove that to you, but I’m willing to do anything you say.”

A grin twitched the corners of his mouth. “Marry me?”

“I already did.”

He reached out and took her hands in his. “Have my baby? No. Wait. You’re already doing that.”

She couldn’t help but smile.

“And since we’re already having amazing sex…” He drew her in closer. “I can’t come up with a single thing that would definitively prove you love me.”

“I could shoot somebody,” Stephanie ventured.

His hand slipped to the back of her neck, fingers burrowing into her hairline. “What are you talking about?”

“Amber said it was some kind of a joke. It meant you loved me.”