The Cowboy's E-Mail Order Bride (7 page)

* * * * *

Ethan was gathering his tools up when he heard the sound of a truck’s engine. A familiar engine. What the hell? That was his Ford F-250 inching its way along the track toward him. A sudden lurch of fear had his heart beating double-time. Was something wrong with Autumn? Was she hurt?

Did she want to leave?

He forced himself to wait while the truck slowed to a halt and the engine died. Jamie had returned to the barn to care for the horses, Cab needed to get to work and he assumed Rob had gone to work with his father and brothers on his own spread, though he hadn’t said anything specific. The door opened and one long, bare leg appeared, then another. Autumn slid to the ground and smoothed her form-fitting flowered cotton sundress down. “I brought a picnic,” she called, and hauled a basket down from the truck heavy enough to nearly unbalance her. She held it with two hands and made her way over to him.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the button between her breasts or the expanse of skin above it. Was she wearing anything under that dress? It didn’t look like it.

“Where should we eat?” She planted her feet in front of him and leaned back to counterbalance the weight of the basket, looking at him expectantly.

“Uh…”
Damn it, man, pull yourself together
. He pointed to an pine tree that offered some shade from the heat of the midday sun. “How about over there?” He had the presence of mind to take the basket from her - hell, what was in there – bricks? – and led the way. She caught up with him after a couple of steps and slid her hand into his.

That one small gesture nearly undid him. He found his own fingers tightening around hers and a smile creeping across his face that he quickly squashed. They were supposed to be slowing things down – getting to know each other like normal people.

Normal people held hands, didn’t they?

Sure, but his reaction to her touch was anything but innocent.

When they reached the tree, Autumn took the basket back, set it down and opened the lid. Ethan felt like he’d entered a dream as she spread out a blanket and pulled out dish after dish. She set two places with a couple of chipped china plates, and cloth napkins she’d found who knew where. She’d brought fried chicken, sandwiches, pickles, chips, hard boiled eggs, potato salad, even a homemade peach cobbler. She poured a glass of lemonade and handed it to him.

“I thought you might be starving out here.”

“Thanks.” Was that his voice? He was starving, all right, but it wasn’t food he needed.

He sat down just the same and ate his fill, noticing she was watching him from under her lashes. She seemed nervous, plying him with food every time there was room on his plate, refilling his glass before he could empty it. She barely ate or drank a thing.

“What’s wrong?” he asked finally. She was making him nervous, too. What if this was some kind of last supper – a little treat before she dumped him and asked for cab fare back to the airport?

“Nothing, I just…Ethan, are you happy I’m here?”

He placed a chicken leg back on the plate. “Yes. Why?”

“It’s just…I don’t know. I came all the way here, and we had a good time last night, and then you just left…I didn’t know if you’d gotten sick of me already.”

“Sick of you?” He shook his head. “No. Of course not. This is a ranch, honey – the work here doesn’t take a holiday.” He wished it would. Lord knew, he could spend all day exploring Autumn’s body, making sweet love to her until…

She hesitated, her fingers in her lap worrying each other until he wanted to reach across and take both of them in his. “You’re sure you’re not sick of me?”

“No. Definitely not.”

She took a breath, looked up at him and said, “Prove it.”

Ethan’s eyebrows shot for his hairline. “Prove it?”
Damn, stop repeating what she says, you sound like an ass!
“How?”

He held his breath. Here’s where her true motivations would show themselves. Maybe she was like his mother, all wrapped up in material possessions. Watch, she’d ask him to buy her that ring he’d promised her and when he took her to town she’d pick the biggest rock in the place.

“Make love to me.”

At first he didn’t understand her words. He’d been so prepared for disappointment he was already forming the phrases to let her know he couldn’t be bribed with peach cobbler to buy her with jewelry, and Autumn’s simple plea didn’t even register. She said it again.

“Ethan, please make love to me.”

With a growl of pure, primordial desire, he swept away the dishes, swooped her into his arms and laid her down on the blanket. He had to stop for a moment and take in the vision of this beautiful woman flushed with wanting him, waiting for his kiss, his touch. She’d cooked all morning and come out here to find him with the sole objective of seducing him, he realized. He felt like the cares of the world had been lifted off of his shoulders. She wasn’t anything like Lacey, or his mother. She wasn’t hiding anything, she didn’t have any ulterior motives. She wanted him for him and she wouldn’t make him seek or beg or wait for her love. She would give it to him freely – more than he’d ever hoped for.

“Autumn.” It was all he could say. Then he was kissing her, the fire between them scorching his lips. He felt her arms slide around his shoulders and her breasts pressing against his chest and his ardor heightened, until he had to get closer.

She must have felt the same, because she slid a palm up his chest and broke their kiss. “Wait.” She gently pushed him back, then slowly, ever so slowly, began to undo the buttons of her dress.

As he’d suspected, she wore nothing beneath it. She spread the panels of fabric, exposing the beauty of her body to him, and he couldn’t help but worship it. First with his hands, running them up and down, from her breasts, to her hips, to the warmth between her legs, then with his mouth, tracing passages up and down her curves and dips, landing finally where it could do the most good.

She arched in pleasure as he found her secret folds and teased and stroked her to heights that had her moaning aloud. Then, when he couldn’t stand it anymore, he pushed himself into position above her and waited for her assent.

“Wait – just a second.” She reached out blindly, patted her cast off dress until she found a pocket and pulled out a small packet. A condom.

Of course. Good thing one of them was thinking straight today. They barely knew each other – certainly not well enough to have unprotected sex, no matter what they’d gotten up to last night. He had the package open and the condom on in a matter of moments, and she pulled him close again, guiding him into her, opening herself to him and crying aloud as he thrust himself inside her and joined them as one.

* * * * *

With a cry of animal desire that shocked her as much as it thrilled her, she gripped Ethan’s hips and urged him inside her. When he answered with a powerful thrust it was all she could do not to give herself up to oblivion right then.

She wanted more, though – much more. She didn’t think she’d ever get enough of this man who filled her and set her on fire. If she’d known sex could be like this she’d have been combing Montana years ago, searching for her cowboy. New York would never be the same when she went back.

All thoughts rushed from her mind as Ethan’s strokes brought her closer and closer to the edge. The male scent of sweat and leather, the softness of the blanket and hard, lumpy ground beneath her skin, blue sky and sunshine peeking between far overhead boughs all merged together in a blinding flash of heat and light as she swept over the edge of desire and into the abyss of ecstacy.

As they lay panting, entwined, Autumn’s senses came back to her with a snap and with them came uncertainty. What kind of a person was she, using sex to secure a story? Maybe Ethan wasn’t handing over cash, but she depended on her writing for a living, so in a way she was still trading sex for money as if she were a prostitute.

Although, if she was truthful, the story was the last thing on her mind right now. She tried to take a mental step back. What if there was no job on the line, what if she’d just met Ethan through friends or at a bar or party? Would she still be here, making love to him under the sun?

Yes. Oh, hell yes.

The answer came as clear as day, and with it an even greater sorrow. Because she couldn’t have feelings for Ethan. He was nothing but a story to her, and in less than a month she had to get on a plane and leave for good. Once the story was published, there was no going back. He wouldn’t want her then.

Ethan rolled off her and spooned her into an embrace. “Autumn, you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He nuzzled her neck and breathed a contented sigh. For a few moments there was silence between them as they both gazed up at the blue sky winking in and out between the boughs of the pine. Then he whispered, “Autumn. Will you be my wife?”

She held her breath.
Oh my God, was that a real proposal?
In a flash she saw the month ahead, the ring, the congratulations, the parties, the preparations, the dress, the wedding…

No, not the wedding. She would leave before the wedding.

He was offering her everything she needed for this story – all the details she could use to write the kind of attention-getting, sexy, catty, zinging expose CityPretty demanded for its feature articles. As soon as she saw Ethan’s video want ad for a bride, she knew she could use it as the basis for a scathing editorial on the lengths men would go to get exactly what they wanted.

So why was she hesitating? What had her boss told her time and time again? You can’t be a journalist and have feelings – not when you work for a magazine like CityPretty. You have to go for the jugular, do what it takes to get the killer headline. Be ruthless! Feelings are for social workers.

“Autumn? Will you marry me?” Ethan asked again.

She took a breath.

“Yes.”

* * * * *

Ethan waited while Autumn finished snapping photos of the partially weeded garden, the picnic basket sitting on the back steps – she fussed a little about not having any shots of his proposal, but agreed with him it was for the best since they were both in their birthday suits – and the mess she’d left in the kitchen when she’d raced off to find him. Together they washed up and straightened the kitchen and then he took her hand.

“Ready to go pick out that ring?”

She nodded hesitantly.

“You don’t look so sure. Changed your mind already?” A stab of fear pierced his heart. He hoped she hadn’t.

A small smile touched her lips. “It’s not that, it’s just…it feels weird, you spending money on me. It doesn’t seem right. You hardly know me.”

“I know I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you.” A new thought struck him. “You know that, right? Marriage for me is forever. I don’t do divorce.”

Her eyebrows rose, delicate swoops of brown he longed to kiss. “I know. I feel that way, too. It’s just…I don’t want you to feel like you have to…buy things for me.”

Her discomfort was plain to see and he wondered what had happened in the past to make her so hesitant to take a gift from a man. “Sweetheart, it’s my job to take care of you now. I’m going to be your husband. I will spend the rest of my days making sure you have a roof over your head, food in your stomach and pretty clothes and jewelry to wear. There may be hard times now and then, and I may not be able to give you everything you want, but I will do my damnedest to see you right.”

Her mouth fell open a little, and he was torn by the desire to kiss those soft lips and tear the man limb from limb who made this woman so shocked that someone might want to lighten her load.

“Come on, we’re going to get you the prettiest ring you ever saw. Nothing but the best for my girl.” He pulled her along out to the truck and had a sudden flash of understanding about his own parents. No wonder his father had put up with his mother’s spending without a fight. He’d loved her to distraction – he’d wanted her happy, and so he did whatever it took to make sure she stayed that way, even if it meant mortgaging the ranch to the hilt.

Speaking of which.

Ethan realized in a rush of panic that he didn’t have the money to buy a fancy engagement ring. What the hell was he thinking? As Autumn strapped herself into the passenger seat of the truck, he walked around to the driver’s side slowly, cursing the amnesia that seemed to hit every time he was within five feet of her. Hell, he’d dug himself a good hole, hadn’t he? He opened the door, climbed in, stuck the key in the ignition, and tried to breathe.

His credit cards were maxed out. He had barely enough cash to pay the bills until the next cattle sales went through. All his high-falutin’ words about caring for Autumn and keeping her in house and health swirled in his mind. Empty promises. He was one flat tire away from going bankrupt himself.

What the hell was he going to do?

“Forget something?” Autumn said when he didn’t start the truck.

“What? Yeah…yeah, I did. Hold on.” He grabbed the excuse she handed him gratefully, hopped back out of the truck and retraced his steps to the house. Back inside the kitchen he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Rob.

“Rob. I need five thousand dollars. Now. For the ring, you rich sonofabitch. Move the money into my account. You have half an hour. Don’t give me that – you’re the one who booked the chapel, remember? Now I have to buy Autumn a ring. Yeah, so what if I like her; it’s still your fault.”