Bridled and Branded (10 page)

Rhett nodded. “It’s handled.”

“Good,” Blaine said, moving his fingers to Lynlee’s inner thighs, walking them closer and closer to her pussy.

“You gonna join us?” Blaine asked.

Rhett studied Lynlee for a minute. He’d always feared losing the connection he and Blaine were often able to form with the women they took to their beds, and now he knew why he’d had the fear. Lynlee Lewis wasn’t a threesome kind of gal. Whether or not poor Blaine noticed yet, since he was definitely mesmerized by the little vixen, remained to be seen.

“I’ve had a helluva a day,” Rhett said. “I’m going to pass. Maybe I’ll have a rain check after the wedding.”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, twirling his fingers into her channel until he drew out her soft, womanly cry. “After the wedding.”

Lynlee threw her head back and snapped her legs closed, trapping Blaine’s arm. God help him, he wanted a woman like that, a woman who had a good time in bed and wanted him as much as Lynlee clearly desired Blaine.

Some men had all the luck when it came to falling in love.

“You two kids have fun,” he said, working his walk toward the door and hoping she’d at least feel a small sense of loss, but knowing better all along.

“We will,” Blaine called out behind him. But Lynlee never said a word, and that was enough to confirm what he knew to be true.

Yeah, Blaine and Lynlee were strung out on new love. They were too blinded by their feelings to realize that the only addiction they’d ever have was the strong yearning only the other could feed.

* * * *

Lynlee didn’t feel a sense of loss when Rhett left. Maybe he’d hoped to join them, but she didn’t want him there. She’d enjoyed him plenty the night before, but right then, she needed Blaine’s love and affection.

When the door closed, she rolled over him, seating herself on top of his cock until her body enveloped his. “Oh, Blaine!”

“I didn’t give you all of this yesterday, sweetheart. Take me an inch at a time.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I want all of you. Now.”

“You can have all of me, sugar,” he said, gripping her thighs. “There you go. Ride me, darlin’. You said you want to go wild with me, and that’s what I want, too. Go buck wild, baby.”

She threw her arms behind her head, and in an instant, lost herself in the moment. Her body moved over his, and she dropped her hands and surfed, skimming his chest and pinching his nipples, loving the favorable response when he hammered inside her walls faster and faster.

She’d never felt more beautiful or empowered. Blaine’s body changed her and everything she knew to be true about love and commitment.

His eyes held hers, not in challenge, but with compassion. And she felt the love vibrating through them as she took him.

“Come!” he demanded, catching her off guard. With her riding on top, his orgasm came fast and hard, violent even as sweat poured off his forehead and he bit his bottom lip, his hands sliding over her until he grabbed her ass and plunged harder into her core.

“Blaine,” she said breathless. “I’ll always love you.”

“And you’ll always have me,” he assured her, rolling over her after the climax subsided. “Now, let me show you why you’ll never tire of me.”

Chapter Thirteen

Blaine met Rhett at the stables the next morning. He had an added skip in his step, and he tried to tone it down a notch when he saw the huge smile spread across Rhett’s mouth. “Well, don’t you look like you’ve been rode hard all night long.”

“And all morning,” Blaine stated proudly.

“Damn,” Rhett said. “You could’ve sent me a text. I would’ve taken the little wench off your hands.”

“Still pouting, I see.”

“Nay, not me.”

“Yep, believe so.”

The two men walked toward the main exhibitor’s tent, and Rhett went straight for the gut. “Does she know yet?”

“About what?”

Rhett stopped walking and faced him. “Does she know the reason you aren’t worried about fathering that idiot’s unborn child?”

“Go for below the belt, why don’t ‘cha, and, yeah, she knows. She says it doesn’t bother her.”

“And you believe her?”

“Why wouldn’t I? Lynlee isn’t the soft and fragile flower everyone thinks she is. Maybe she doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Ever thought of that possibility?”

“You won’t make her happy, Blaine.”

Blaine kicked up some sawdust. “I’m going to try my damndest. And you can’t fault a man willing to put forth the effort.”

“No, but you’ll never succeed, and I’m worried about you. What are you going to do when you fail her? She’s not like us. I saw that last night.”

“Why? Because she didn’t ask you to stay?”

He shrugged. “It’s a lot of things.”

“Well, get over yourself,” Blaine said. “I’m marrying her.”

“And
you will
divorce her,” he said in a strangely tight voice.

Blaine started walking again. “The hell you say.” Damn him. Rhett hit a new low. Lynlee had always been a huge part of Blaine’s life. Why would Rhett or anyone else believe he didn’t have what it took to make her happy?

“Hiya, Blaine,” he heard a little gal say from behind him.

Blaine wheeled around and stood inches from the Dixon twins, two gals he’d had in his bed—on separate occasions—right along with Rhett. Whew, he thought, if love had many tests to face, he was staring at the first of many.

Rhett smirked. “Told ya.”

“Told me nothing,” he said without so much as a wave hello to the twins. Hell, all he needed was Lynlee. With so much angst in the air, maybe he’d go find her and convince her to spend the entire day in bed. Besides, with the dark clouds overhead, it looked like a bad storm was headed their way.
 

* * * *

Blaine was in his camper when Rhett came in from the show later that evening. He’d been seething all day and practically jumped Lynlee’s bones so much that she told him to go away for a while. She had work to do. Otherwise, she might have hurt his feelings.

The day show had been ripe with one rain delay after another, and finally all the evening classes were postponed until the following day. Even though the show had indoor facilities, the rain came down so hard the barn areas were flooding, and the exhibitors didn’t have any place to practice or warm up prior to their classes.

“We need to talk,” Rhett said, taking a seat on one of the bar stools.

“If this is about my marriage to Lynlee, then you need to listen first. I’m not canceling my marriage plans.”

“Which are?”

“Her dad and my parents are coming up, and we’re going to be married day after tomorrow.”

“Already pushed it back a day or two, have you?”

“We didn’t have much of a choice given the weather. She can’t just load everything up and call it a day because of a little rain and a wedding date.”

“No, certainly not,” Rhett agreed with loads of sarcasm. “After all, a gal only gets married once or twice in her life.”

“Smart ass.”

“What’s the big rush, Blaine?”

He shrugged. “I’ve waited long enough for her, and now that I know she wants me as much as I want her, I don’t see the point in putting things off.”

“There’s more to it.”

“What are you getting at?”

Rhett took a deep breath. “I never told you this before, and it never came up. I wouldn’t be mentioning it now if I didn’t think there was a mighty good reason.”

“Go on.”

Rhett tilted his chin up and pursed his lips. “Blaine, one of the reasons I told Scott Sanders that I’d do right by his woman if I got her knocked up was because I knew I wasn’t the man who would have to bite the bullet.”

“I hope to hell not,” Blaine said. “That would be some hell on earth to have that woman knocked up with your child.”

Rhett reluctantly nodded. “I imagine it will be.”

“What do you mean, it will be? What are you trying to say?”

“Sarah Beth
is
pregnant. Her husband took her to the local doctor this morning. Scott and Sarah Beth will tell you more when you talk to them.”

Blaine shook his head. “I won’t be talking to them. You can count on that.”

“You will,” Rhett deadpanned. “You see, Blaine, I can’t father a child. I had a vasectomy when I turned twenty-four. I was screwing around too much, having way too much fun, and children don’t fit into my lifestyle.”

“A vasectomy?”

“That’s right.”

“Well,” Blaine said, releasing a loud sigh of relief, “what are you doing here, then? We should be out celebrating.”

Rhett slowly shook his head. “No, Blaine. I’m afraid with what I have to tell you, there won’t be much reason to party tonight.”

Blaine felt his gut twisting into true knots, and by the expression on Rhett’s pale face, he knew his friend felt he was delivering a death sentence. “Damn it, spit it out!”

“She’s pregnant with your child, Blaine. Her husband waited ten years to marry her, and one of the reasons he finally agreed was because she dropped her notion of children.

“Before they exchanged vows, she allowed him to have a vasectomy, something to ensure she didn’t get pregnant. Turns out, she’d tried to trick him a few times, and he didn’t trust her to take birth control. He has a volatile temper—something we’ve seen—and never wanted a child of his own for fear he might harm his own son or daughter.”

Blaine felt all the blood drain from his body. “You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

“They’re lying.”

He shook his head. “I wish they were. I made the local doctor prove what they were telling. I have a fax from his family physician, and all of their medical records are coming this way by FedEx tomorrow. Your father paid a hefty penny for them.”

“You talked to Dad about this?” Enraged, Blaine clenched his fist and started pacing.

“You can get mad all over. I was trying to look out for you. Those two are trying to railroad you. Sarah Beth waited until the time was right to slip into that bar. Then, she did her best to find the most eligible bachelor there. She plotted and planned this pregnancy, Blaine. She wanted to become pregnant, and she worked her strategy without the first flaw.”

“I can’t get a woman pregnant.”

“You were an unlikely candidate to get someone pregnant because of a lower sperm count, but your doctor never believed it was entirely impossible. I’ve spoken to your father.”

“Why the hell didn’t you just speak to me?”

“Because of this right here. You don’t want to listen!”

“He’s listening now,” Lynlee said, appearing in the doorway and placing her hand on Blaine’s back. “You have my attention, and by damn, I’ll make sure you keep his.”

Chapter Fourteen

The next day, Scott and Sarah Beth Sanders were waiting for them. Blaine walked by the pair without acknowledging them. Lynlee shot Sarah Beth a cold glare, and Rhett had to admit, he wouldn’t have blamed Lynlee if she’d decked Sarah Beth.

The smug expression and haughty attitude Sarah Beth displayed made Rhett’s skin crawl. What in the hell had he been thinking the night he picked her up? He must’ve drank one too many or failed to drink enough.

The woman looked loopy. She had that crazy kind of fixated stare, complete with glassy eyes. Rhett wondered if her mental problems were deeply rooted, perhaps hereditary.

They were a long way from home, but that fact didn’t deter the Sanders couple. Rhett wondered, if for only a second, if Scott and Sarah Beth were part of a huge scam to railroad ranchers with a lot of money.

The McCains were well known for their exorbitant wealth. Maybe, just maybe, Rhett was the bait but Blaine was the man they wanted to hook from the beginning.
 

Something didn’t add up. Sure, the local physician confirmed Sarah Beth was pregnant. Scott’s medical records documented his vasectomy. None of that mattered. Blaine was getting a raw deal and it was Rhett’s fault. He introduced a psychotic maniac to his best friend.

Watching the way Blaine worked around the stables without so much as a cross word or a glance in their direction made Rhett nervous. What was going through his mind?

After Blaine helped Lynlee pack her rig, Rhett pushed by the deranged couple and grabbed the tack trunk. Tossing it into the back of the long bed, he said, “I’ll be seeing you, Lynlee.”

She smiled, squeezed his hand in passing. Then, she turned to Scott. Using the heel of one boot to scrape the horse manure off the tip of the other, Lynlee said, “I’m not necessarily a rich woman, but I do know a child can be bought for the right price.”

“We’re not in the business of selling babies,” Scott quickly informed her.

“See that’s my point. I’m not interested in buying one. If you think you’re going to come into our lives and ruin what Blaine and I have only started to build, you might want to stop and think this through.” She then began a serious search through her very deep, black leather purse. When she pulled out a plastic case housing a DVD, Rhett released a sigh of relief.