Cowboy Take Me Away (20 page)

“Or you could have just put in an elevator,” she joked.

“Yeah. I thought about it.”

“You're unbelievable.” Hope laughed.

“I'm just lucky I have a good interior designer. She's been fantastic at telling me very diplomatically when I should rein in my stupid ideas.”

“I doubt you'd have many stupid ideas.” She laughed. “Or not that many of them anyway.”

Chase looped his arm tighter around Hope. His head was spinning right now. There was no part of him that wanted to settle down, but he also didn't want to let Hope walk out of his life again. And now that they'd had sex it wasn't like they could go back to being friends, even if he wanted to.

“Chase?”

He turned to face Hope, smiling as she reached to touch his face, her fingertips light against his cheek.

“You're a really good guy,” she said, her face impossible to read. Her smile seemed sad, her eyes moist again. He didn't know what the hell was going on with her, and she'd made it pretty clear she didn't want to talk about her troubles, so he didn't ask again. “I meant it when I said you'll make some woman very happy one day. There's not many men like you in the world, Chase.”

“Oh yeah?” He chuckled, but he knew she was being serious and he shouldn't have joked. “I'll take your word on that.”

She rose on tiptoes and kissed him, both of her palms to his cheeks. It was like a last kiss, her hold on him so tight, and it pissed him off. There was no way this was it.

When she finally pulled back, he caught her around the wrists, slowly letting her arms down and taking her hands in his. “Maybe there's only one woman who could ever make me settle down.” His voice sounded gruff, the words coming out of his mouth so foreign he could hardly believe he was saying them. “You've always been the one, Hope.”

“Don't say that, Chase. Just”—she blew out a big breath—“don't.”

“Why not?” He'd said it now and there was no point in backing down and pretending like he didn't mean it. “I'm not saying I want a wife and two point five kids, but if there was one woman I'd put before anything else, it'd be you. Always has been, Hope.”

Her eyes dropped, the connection broken.
Fuck it.
He should never have opened his big mouth.

“I need to get back to Harrison,” she said, her voice low.

“No, Hope, I was talking to you, goddamn it.” Chase was pissed off now. He stood in front of her, blocking her way.

“What do you want me to say, Chase?” she asked. “There's always been something between us and there always will be, but everything's changed. It did the second we left college.”

“You're talking about your money?” His laugh sounded cruel even to his own ears. “I don't give a flying fuck whether you're as poor as a church mouse, Hope. I trust you no matter what.” He might not have thought quite like that when she'd first told him, but he'd quickly realized how stupid that was. Hope would never lie to him, and if she needed money he was pretty sure she'd just come out and ask him for help.

She was silent and he was pissed with himself for upsetting her.

“Come here,” he ordered, forcibly tucking her under his arm and holding her close. He dropped a kiss into her hair.

“I'm sorry,” she muttered.

“For what?” He slipped his hand into the pocket of her jeans as they started walking. “The only thing you have to apologize for is if you dial me out of a rematch. Because there's no way in hell I'm gonna let that be the last time I see you naked. You hear me?”

Her laugh made him smile. Chase walked them back out into the open, heading toward Ryder's place again. The lights were like beacons in the dark, welcoming them over. He knew some people would hate living so close to their siblings, but he loved it. The ranch was his life—nothing came before family—but he was slowly starting to see that Hope had been as good as family to him, too. Because the kind of friendship they'd had had been too important to lose. He should have jumped on their plane and turned up at her ranch when she hadn't returned his calls. So they'd had sex? So what. It had been great and they'd just proved that for a second time.

Maybe there was a reason no woman had even been able to hold his attention for longer than five minutes. Maybe he'd just blamed his ex, Stacey, as a convenient excuse, because he'd never felt about her like he felt about Hope.

Maybe it was Hope who'd ruined it for every other woman he'd ever met, and he was just the stupid fuck who'd not realized what he could have had.

“You still gonna stay the night?” Chase asked as they walked, breaking the silence between them.

“Am I still invited?”

“Hell yes. My bed's been waiting a helluva long time to meet you.”

“Chase,” she groaned. “You know I can't.”

“Even if Harris is asleep on the sofa? He won't even know what his naughty mama's up to,” Chase joked.

She bumped her body against his. “I'm sleeping with
him,
Chase. Don't go getting any ideas.”

“Of course you're sleeping with him,” he said with a laugh. “I'll carry the little guy over to my room and you can both sleep on my bed. It's the comfiest in the house.” His grin was wicked. “But don't think for a moment that I'm not jealous of him snuggling you all night.”

“You're sure?” Hope stopped walking, looped her arms around his neck. He scooped her body to his and kissed her, her pillowy, soft-as-heaven lips matching his. “That we can have your bed, I mean?”

“Yes, just like I'm sure that I want to make love to you again,” he said when he pulled back, just enough so that he could speak. He kissed her again. “Sweet, sweet love.”

“Come on, cowboy,” she whispered. “It's getting cold out here.”

He reluctantly let her step back, but he didn't let her go. “If you change your mind and get lonely in the night, I'll be…”

“You get an A+ for trying,” Hope interrupted.

“So long as I get an A+ in the bedroom, too.”

“Has anyone told you you're an arrogant son of a bitch sometimes?”

“Yeah, just when you thought I was a new-age, sensitive kind of guy, right?”

“Something like that.”

They walked hip to hip the rest of the way back. He might have sunk a shitload of money into his new breeding program, but if it meant having Hope on the ranch for the next few months, then he was ready to pray that things didn't go perfectly to plan. Because once it was over, he was going to have to think long and hard about how to keep her in his life, and he wasn't sure if he was ready to make that kind of decision or commitment any time soon.

*   *   *

“Hope, wake up.”

Hope groaned and pulled the covers up higher, not ready to open her eyes. She was so warm, Harrison's little body tight against her as she pushed her face deeper into the pillow.

“Hope.” This time the words were accompanied by a gentle shake.

She peeked out, diving straight back under when she came face-to-face with Chase. The night before came rushing back to her; Chase carrying Harrison over to the main house, her snuggling into his bed, sleepy and sated, and Chase kissing her good night before leaving them to sleep in the adjoining guest room. He'd insisted his bed was the nicest, that his room would be better for them, even though she'd thought all the rooms looked pretty incredible.

“I need you,” Chase murmured.

Hope ran her tongue over her teeth, wishing she could use a toothbrush. She pushed the covers back and gently extracted herself from her son, making sure he was tucked in still, then swung her legs out of bed and straightened. She glanced down, saw her breasts were dangerous close to spilling out, then heard Chase's low groan.

“You're sure a nice sight to see first thing in the morning,” he said, reaching for her hand and pulling her so fast toward him than she landed against his chest with a thud. His lips closed over hers, not giving a damn when she tried to protest. He kissed her long and hard, both hands on her butt. She was only wearing her underwear, and his fingers had slipped past the fabric of her panties to connect with bare skin.

“Was this why you needed me?” she asked, pushing him back with both hands and peeking behind him to make sure that Harrison was still asleep. “You know I hate being woken, right?”

“No,” he said, clearly distracted as he dropped his mouth to the top of one breast.

Hope yanked him back up by his hair, not giving in to how damn good his lips felt. She was in the same room as her son and it wasn't going to happen.

“Chase!” she scolded.

His grin was shadowed with his dimple on one side. “Sorry. You distracted me.”

Hope extracted herself from him. “So the reason you've roused me…”

“You slept in,” he said. “I've already been up and done the rounds, and some of the girls are definitely getting close. I think we'll be inseminating by this evening at the latest.”

“Shit, really?” Hope grabbed her clothes and hurriedly put them on.

“Darlin', I wouldn't be waking you for nothing. You looked cute all snuggled up with your boy.”

She gestured for him to walk out of the room in front of her and she followed. “It's been just the two of us for a while now. We're kind of used to cuddling up in bed together.”

Hope excused herself to use the bathroom, letting Chase go on without her. She quickly went to the toilet, then made the mistake of looking at herself in the mirror. On second thought, she turned the faucet on and splashed her face, trying to freshen up. She glanced up again.
Useless.
She was at least pleased she'd wiped most of her makeup off before crashing, but she still could have used some help to look better.

Ugh
. She didn't have time to worry about how she looked, and besides, Chase had seen her barefaced plenty of times in college. If she was going to scare him off for not looking cute, she'd have done it years ago.

Hope turned the faucet off, ran her fingers through her hair, and headed into the kitchen.

“Oh, hey,” she said, averting her eyes for a second when she almost walked smack bang into a bare-chested Nate. He was wearing running shorts and shoes, but his chest was slick with nothing but sweat.

Nate grinned. “Morning.” He shrugged into his T-shirt and Hope turned to Chase.

“I'm going to head straight out. I don't want to miss an opportunity,” she told him.

“You hungry?” Chase asked, palms down on the counter as he leaned forward.

“Starved,” she admitted, hand over her growling belly. “Are you offering me breakfast on the go?”

His smile was infectious. “You go, I'll follow with bagels.”

“And coffee?” She gave him her sweetest smile as she walked backward.

“And coffee,” he promised, shaking his head.

“I'll babysit,” Nate chimed in, grabbing an apple and taking a bite as he watched them. “I'm sure I can distract him with Autobots versus Decepticons.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I'll check the heifers, monitor them for a little while, and then if I need to stay I'll arrange a sitter and get Harrison back to my place.”

Nate shrugged, like he had nothing better to do than look after a kid. “Don't sweat it. I'll feed him and then we might head down to see the pony. Is it okay if I take him out for a ride?”

“Absolutely.” Hope hurried toward the door then stopped. “Damn. I don't have any boots.”

“There's a pair Chloe wears sometimes at the back door,” Chase said, already slicing into a bagel. “And no taking him to the pony. I'm the one who made the promise and I want to see the look on his face when I introduce them.”

Nate just shrugged, but she didn't have time to hang around and listen to them banter. So long as someone was looking after Harrison, they could fight over the honors.

“Thanks.” Hope might be insanely attracted to the man making her breakfast, but she was also excited about her work. And if she was honest with herself, she liked the idea of showing Chase just how good she was at what she did. She might not have a lot of money anymore, but she was a damn good vet, and she was going to make sure every single one of his herd got in calf if it was the last thing she did.

She looked in on Harrison again quickly before she left, but he was still sleeping and she didn't want to disturb him. Normally she'd never have left him to wake up without her, but he'd had an amazing night and he'd gotten on like a house on fire with Nate. With the entire family.

She pushed away a familiar, sickening feeling of guilt and squared her shoulders.
His uncle
. Nate was Harrison's goddamn uncle, and here she was keeping the truth from everyone. It had all seemed so clear when she'd decided to keep Harrison a secret from his father, but cracks were forming, and she didn't know what the hell to do to make things right.

 

Chapter 11

Chase spread the bagels with cream cheese and looked around for the to-go cups Nate usually kept stashed away. When he found them he flicked the machine on and put the coffee in the filter.

“I know you're gonna laugh at me, but I couldn't stop thinking last night that Harrison kinda looked”—Nate paused, coming around to lean against the counter beside the coffee machine—“like you did as a kid. Like we both did.”

Chase tightened the filter arm and turned to stare at his brother.
He what?
“You've got to be fucking kidding me.”

He knew that look on Nate's face, knew when his brother was going to go like a dog with a goddamn bone. Chase sighed and resisted the urge to slam his fist into something. When it came to Hope, he jumped straight into the defensive; always had, always would. But Nate was talking the same way he had when he'd suspected Stacey of being a gold digger.