The Rancher's One-Week Wife (10 page)

Did she have the courage to ask him to put the divorce on hold for a while to see if they could make their marriage work? Was that what she really wanted? Could he forgive her for the mistake she’d made in thinking their marriage would lead to her resenting him as her mother had resented her father? What would she do if she asked him for another chance and he decided that wasn’t what he wanted?

She yawned again and felt the shadows of sleep begin to tug at her. Maybe if she rested for a while, she’d be able to think more clearly and the answers would come to her. They had to. Happiness for the rest of her life might very well depend on it.

* * *

The following evening, Blake took a swig of his beer as he watched his wife chatting and laughing with Tori Laughlin across the patio at the Rusty Spur Ranch house. Karly seemed to be having a good time, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she would be around for the next get-together with his friends and their guests.

They hadn’t talked about the future beyond agreeing that she would stay a few more days and she hadn’t seemed any more ready to discuss what would happen after that than he was. Before they made love, he had promised her they would talk afterward. But they’d both fallen asleep and when they woke up together in bed, nature had taken its course once again. They’d spent the rest of the night reacquainting themselves with each other’s bodies and that morning they had awakened just in time to get ready to leave for the late-afternoon barbecue.

“You’ve really got it bad for her, don’t you?” Eli Laughlin asked, walking up to stand next to Blake.

“Yeah, I guess I do,” he admitted.

“She seems real nice,” Eli commented. “When did the two of you meet?”

“During the Nationals Finals in Vegas before Christmas,” he said, never taking his eyes off Karly. He took another swig of his beer. “That’s when we got married.”

When he’d called Eli a few days before to tell his friend he would be bringing a guest to the get-together, Blake had explained that she wasn’t aware he owned the Wolf Creek Ranch and that he’d like to keep it that way. As he expected, Eli had immediately agreed. But Blake had known that at some point he’d need to explain his strange request and tell Eli that he and Karly were married.

In the middle of taking a drink of his beer, Eli choked and Blake reached over to pound him on the back. When his friend stopped coughing, he stared at Blake like he’d sprouted another head.

“You got married,” Eli repeated as if he couldn’t quite believe what Blake had just said.

Blake nodded and explained the events leading up to the current situation he and Karly found themselves in. “But filing for the divorce is on hold—at least until the end of the week.”

Eli nodded. “That gives you a little time to figure out how you’re going to ask her to stay—and how to tell her you own the Wolf Creek. You’re also going to have to tell her why you kept that from her in the first place.”

Watching his wife play with the Laughlin’s two-year-old son, Aaron, Blake tried to imagine having a family with Karly. If her interaction with the toddler was any indication, she loved kids and would be everything he could possibly want for the mother of his children.

“Any suggestions about how I should go about handling all of that?” he asked, grinning.

Blake had known his friend would be the last to pass judgment on the way Blake and Karly met and married. Eli and Tori hadn’t gotten together in the usual way, either. And Blake had been confident that Eli wouldn’t question his reasoning for keeping his wealth out of the equation. Before he met Tori, Eli had dealt with his own share of unscrupulous women going after his bank account.

Eli laughed. “You know better than to ask me for advice when it comes to women. I’m sure you remember what a stubborn jackass I was when Tori and I got married. I just thank the good Lord above that she loved me enough to give me a second chance.”

“And look at you now,” Blake agreed, laughing with his friend. “You’re still a jackass, just a little less stubborn than you used to be.”

“It takes one to know one,” Eli retorted.

“What are you two laughing about this time?” Tori asked.

Looking up, Blake grinned as he watched the women and the toddler walking toward them. “I was just agreeing with your husband that he’s a jackass.”

“I was telling him that it takes a jackass to know one,” Eli explained.

Tori laughed. “Well, it’s nice to know some things never change. But right now, I need to steal Eli for a few minutes. The band has arrived and he needs to let them know where to set up while I take Aaron inside for a few minutes to change him into his pajamas.”

“She said he’d be asleep before the band finished their first song,” Karly commented as Tori carried the little boy inside the house.

Putting his arm around her shoulders, Blake pulled Karly to his side. “Are you having a good time?”

When she smiled up at him, it caused a hitch in his breathing. He suddenly wished they were back at the foreman’s cottage, where he could spend the rest of the evening making love to her.

“I’m having a wonderful time,” she said, sounding happy and relaxed. “I really like your friends. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to meet your brother. Tori said he was supposed to be here, but was called away on business.”

“Sean used to be a special agent with the FBI,” Blake said, nodding. “They still get in touch with him sometimes to act as an independent consultant on certain types of cases.”

“That sounds fascinating,” she said, sounding genuinely interested. “Is your brother still involved in law enforcement?”

“Yes and no,” he answered, setting his empty beer bottle on one of the patio tables to take her in his arms. “He’s a private investigator now. But when he was with the Bureau he was a crisis negotiator. He gets calls from law enforcement agencies all over Wyoming and the surrounding states when they have a situation that requires his expertise.” He leaned close to nibble kisses along the side of her neck. “But I don’t want to talk about Sean right now. I want to discuss when you think it would be acceptable for us to leave for home.”

She shivered against him and he knew she was anticipating the night ahead of them the same as he was. “I think we could leave after a couple of dances, since we have an hour-and-a-half drive to get back to the ranch.”

“I’ll be right back,” he said suddenly as he released her and started across the patio to where the band was getting ready to start playing. When he reached the frontman, Blake pulled his wallet from the hip pocket of his jeans and took out a couple of hundred dollars. He handed the money to the man. “I’d really appreciate it if you could make the first couple of songs slow ones.”

“Hey, for two hundred dollars we’ll make the whole first set slow ones,” the man answered as he pocketed the money.

“After the first two, you can play whatever you want,” Blake said, grinning. “Just make sure what you play is slow and good to dance to.”

The man nodded. “You got it.”

Blake walked back to where Karly stood and draped his arm across her shoulders. “Two slow dances and we’re out of here.”

“You didn’t,” she said, her voice filled with laughter.

“Yup, I sure did.” He brushed his lips over hers. “I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.”

When she rose up on tiptoes, she whispered, “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m not the least bit sorry.”

Ten minutes later, when the band broke into a popular slow country love song, Blake led Karly out to the section of the patio that had been designated as the dance floor. Taking her into his arms, he swayed her back and forth in time with the music. The feel of her body aligned with his and the sensual brushing of her lower stomach against his steadily growing arousal had him wishing it had been one and done, instead of the two dances they’d decided were socially acceptable.

His heart stalled when she put her arms around his neck and pressed herself closer. “You’re making me a little crazy, sweetheart,” he warned.

“Only a little?” Her sexy smile sent his blood pressure sky-high. “I guess I’ll just have to try a bit harder to make you a lot crazy.”

Blake swallowed around the cotton clogging his throat in order to get his vocal cords to work as he looked around to find the Laughlins. When he spotted them talking to some of their guests, he took her by the hand and started toward the couple.

“Where are we going?” Karly asked, sounding like she already knew.

“To thank Eli and Tori for having us over.” Giving her a quick kiss, Blake grinned. “Social conventions be damned, sweetheart. We’re heading back home where we can both be as crazy as we want to be.”

Eight

T
he moment he closed the door to the master bedroom in the foreman’s cottage, Blake took Karly into his arms and captured her mouth with his. The hour-and-a-half drive from the Rusty Spur Ranch had taken its toll and he was wound up tighter than a two-dollar watch. Every nerve in his body was on high alert and he ached with the need to once again claim her as his wife.

His wife. Even the words felt right and if he’d had any doubts about marrying her before, they had been erased this evening. Watching her with his friends—seeing her play with little Aaron—had been enough to convince him that Karly was the woman for him. She fit in perfectly and he could tell that she and Tori would end up becoming best friends.

If this was even a glimpse of what their lives would be like as husband and wife, he’d be the happiest man alive for the rest of his days. And he fully intended to make sure she was the happiest woman.

Deepening the kiss, he gently stroked her tongue and explored her soft, sweet recesses. Her taste and eager response to the caress were all he could have hoped for. Reaching down, he tugged the tail of her T-shirt from the waistband of her jeans.

Her warm, satiny skin was like a fine piece of silk beneath his calloused palms. Easing away from the kiss, he skimmed his lips along her jawline and down her neck to the fluttering pulse at the base of her throat. “Sweetheart, I’d like to go slow and love every inch of you. But I need you so much right now, I’m not sure that’s going to be possible.”

She caught his face with her delicate hands and lifted his head until their gazes met. “You can go slow the next time, Blake. I need you now.”

“Thank God,” he said, burying his face in her silky blond hair. “I don’t think I could wait much longer, even if my life depended on it.”

“I feel the same way. I thought I would burst into flames when we were on the dance floor and I felt how much you needed me.” She shivered and he knew it had nothing to do with being chilled. “But I want you to do something for me.”

Without a second thought, he nodded. “Anything for you, Karly.”

“Let
me
make love to
you
,” she said, giving him a look that sent his hormones racing through his veins at the speed of light. “Do you mind?”

What man in his right mind would turn down a beautiful woman doing incredibly sexy things to his body?

“I need you to promise me something, Karly,” he said, pulling her close for a quick kiss.

“Wh-what’s that?” she asked, sounding a little short of breath.

“If I tell you to stop whatever you’re doing, can you give me your word that you will?”

She looked confused. “All right. But I don’t understand—”

“I want us to finish this race together,” he said, grinning.

He could tell she understood his meaning when she smiled. “I want that, too. I promise.”

“Good.” Stepping back, he held his arms wide. “I’m all yours, sweetheart.”

Karly wasted no time in pointing to the side of the bed. “If you’ll sit down, I’ll take your boots off.”

Looking forward to seeing what she had in mind, he did as she requested. He swallowed hard when she turned her back to him, straddled one of his legs and bent over. But when she started tugging on his boot and her delightful little bottom bobbed mere inches in front of his face, Blake was pretty sure he was going to have a coronary. By the time his boots and socks lay on the floor beside the bed, sweat had popped out on his forehead and his upper lip, and he felt like he just might need CPR.

“Sweetheart, why don’t we take off our clothes and get into bed,” he said, forcing himself to breathe as he stood up to unbuckle his belt. “Otherwise, I’m not going to last long enough to get to the main event.”

“I think that would be a good idea,” she said, sounding a little winded herself.

“I give you my word that I’ll let you take my clothes off me another time when I’m not so revved up,” he said, making quick work of his clothing.

He made it a point to keep his gaze averted while she removed hers. If he hadn’t, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have gone up in a blaze of glory.

As Karly got into bed, he reached into his jeans for one of the condoms he’d remembered to get from his medicine cabinet when they were over at the mansion the day before. Placing it on the bedside table, he stretched out beside her.

When he started to pull her to him, she shook her head. “Remember, this is all about me giving you pleasure,” she said, her smile causing another wave of heat to course from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

“Just keep in mind that I’m only human and I do...have my limits,” he said, feeling like he had been branded when she placed her hand on his chest.

When he cupped one of her perfect breasts, she closed her eyes and nodded. “I’ve almost reached mine, as well.”

Just knowing that she was as turned on as he was had him clenching his teeth in an effort to slow down his overly active libido. But when she reached over to take the packet from the bedside table and carefully opened it, Blake closed his eyes and held his breath. He’d never had a woman do what Karly was planning to do and he could only hope that he had enough strength to hold on to what little control he had left.

At the first touch of her fingers to the most sensitive part of his body, Blake felt like he’d been treated to the business end of a cattle prod. He groaned and tried to think of something—anything—to take his mind off what the woman of his dreams was doing for him.

“Are you all right?” she asked when he let loose with a deep groan.

He nodded as he reached to take her hands in his. “I think you’d better give me...a minute.”

“You need to catch your breath?” she asked.

“Yeah, we can...call it that,” he said, breathing deeply in an effort to release some of the tension gripping him. When he felt like he had regained a degree of control, he warned, “I’m not going to be able to take much more, sweetheart.”

“I can’t, either,” she said, rising to her knees.

His heart stopped completely when she straddled his hips and guided him into her. As he watched, she lowered herself onto him and just the sight of her body taking him in was mind-blowing. But the feel of her warmth surrounding him caused his body to respond with a tightening that left him feeling light-headed.

He watched her close her eyes as if she savored being one with him. Humbled that a woman as loving and beautiful as Karly would even want to be with him, he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he still loved her.

It made him more determined than ever to find out what happened after she returned to Seattle. Whatever it was they’d find a way to work through it. And he could only hope she’d be able to forgive him for not telling her about himself sooner and give him a chance to make it up to her.

But he didn’t have time to dwell on what he was going to do about his self-discovery and whatever obstacles they still faced. As he watched the woman who owned his heart, she opened her eyes, gave him a smile that caused his chest to tighten with emotion and slowly began to move against him.

He placed his hands on her hips and held on as the friction of their bodies increased the pressure building inside of him. He could tell Karly was experiencing the same sensations from the blush of passion on her porcelain cheeks and the rapt light in her big blue eyes.

As he felt himself reaching the point where his satisfaction was inevitable, Karly’s tiny feminine muscles tightened around him a moment before her head fell back and she gasped from the intense sensations flowing through her. That’s when Blake took control of the pace and did his best to give her as much pleasure as he possibly could before his own release set him free. Groaning, he shuddered as he gave up his essence to the woman he loved.

When Karly collapsed on his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and held her to him as their bodies cooled and their breathing returned to normal. “Are you doing okay?” he whispered close to her ear.

“That was incredible,” she said, raising her head to kiss his chin.

“You’re incredible.” He enjoyed the feel of her lying on top of him and the connection they still shared. “Next time I promise you can take my clothes off and have your wicked way with me,” he said, chuckling. “But I was so turned on, I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes if you’d taken your time.”

When she remained silent, he realized that she had fallen fast asleep. Kissing her cheek, he rolled them to their sides, pulled the comforter around them and held her close. He wasn’t sure how he was going to explain why he hadn’t been entirely honest with her about owning the ranch or the fact that neither of them would ever have to work another day in their lives if they didn’t want to.

But it was past time he told her everything about himself and the reasons he’d felt compelled to keep the information from her. He hoped she’d understand his past experience with his gold-digging stepmother and the years she’d held his family’s ranch hostage in her attempt to get the most money she could out of it. He also hoped Karly would be able to do the same when he told her about that buckle bunny, the one claiming he had made her pregnant in an effort to extort money from him, and how it had left him deeply suspicious of women’s motives, as well.

When she murmured his name and snuggled into his embrace, he kissed her forehead. He wasn’t sure how she would react to his revelations. But tomorrow he was going to tell her everything, pray that she understood and ask her to stay with him for the rest of his life.

* * *

The morning after the barbecue at the Laughlins’, Karly sat at the table in the mansion’s library, staring at the screen on Blake’s laptop. She was supposed to be finishing up a purchase order for novelty items from one of the import companies in Hong Kong. But she couldn’t have cared less about cases of rubber ducks, plush finger puppets and inflatable plastic beach balls. Her mind was on what would happen at the end of the week when it was time for her to leave the Wolf Creek Ranch. Blake hadn’t mentioned anything about wanting them to stay married and have her remain in Wyoming with him. And she hadn’t told him that she would like to stay and be his wife.

Nibbling on her lower lip, she thought about her reasons for refusing to join him at the ranch after they left Las Vegas and how she felt about that now. After she and Blake parted eight months ago, she had returned to pack up her apartment and quit her job. And that had been when her doubts set in. She had worried that she might move to the ranch and discover that she couldn’t stand the quiet remoteness or that she would miss having a productive career. She had been so afraid of being unhappy that she’d convinced herself not to even take the chance.

But now that she’d spent time on the ranch, she found that she loved the peace and quiet. And it came as no small surprise that she found feeding a couple of orphaned calves much more rewarding than keeping a warehouse stocked with rubber ducks and plastic beach balls.

She sighed. She’d watched her mother sink into a deep depression after they returned to New York from the Midwest, especially after Martina hadn’t been able to resume her career in the fashion industry. Her mother’s misery had left a lasting impression on Karly and one of her biggest fears had always been that she would turn out to be as dissatisfied and resentful as her mother.

But looking at things objectively, Karly could never remember a time when her mother had been truly happy—not before they’d moved to the Midwest or after. Martina Ewing had been dissatisfied before her husband moved them away from New York. She’d been unhappy living in a small town in Middle America and when she and Karly returned to New York, she hadn’t been content there, either. It was a hard truth to face, but her mother had been one of those people who always searched for something to make her happy and when she couldn’t find it, blamed someone else. She had never discovered that true happiness comes from within and that just being with the people she loved was a real blessing.

But this time with Blake had convinced Karly of that truth. No matter where they lived or whatever job she needed to work to help with their finances, she knew she would be truly fulfilled as long as they were together. And she finally felt ready to create a life of happiness with him. She hoped he was ready for that, too.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where Blake is, would you?” a man’s voice asked from just inside the door.

Unaware there was anyone else around, Karly jumped and placed her hand on her chest as if that would slow down her racing heart. “Oh, dear heavens!”

“I’m sorry,” the man said, stepping forward with his hands outstretched in front of him as if to stop her from panicking. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He looked contrite as he hooked his thumb over his shoulder toward the hall. “I would have asked Silas, but he’s taking his afternoon nap and it’s easier to wake the dead than to try to rouse him once he’s asleep.”

“Silas does seem to be able to sleep through anything.” She’d noticed that fact while working to set up her workspace in the library a couple of days ago. Feeling calmer, Karly smiled. “Blake is out in the arena working with a new stallion.”

The man nodded. “Thanks.” He turned to leave, then turned back. “By the way, I’m Sean Hartwell, Blake’s brother.”

Once he’d introduced himself, she could immediately see the resemblance between the two men. About the same height, Sean had the same dark brown hair and brown eyes as Blake.

“I’m Karly Ewing,” she said, not sure if Blake had mentioned he had a wife.

“Are you his new secretary or assistant?” Sean asked.

She wondered why Blake would need an assistant. It suddenly dawned on her that Sean must have meant to ask if she was the ranch owner’s new secretary.

Smiling, she shook her head. “No, I’m staying with Blake for a few days over at the foreman’s cottage.”

Sean surprised her when he frowned. “Why are the two of you staying over there? He hasn’t lived there since he built this place and moved in almost two years ago.”

Karly stared at Sean for several long moments as reality began to sink in. “I-I’m not sure,” she said slowly. “I suppose you’ll have to ask him.”