His Brother's Wife (13 page)

Chapter Twelve

“You’re
leaving?”

Grace lifted her chin,
willing the tears burning her eyes away. “Yes. It’s what you want,
isn’t it? You’ve made it no secret my being here is an unwelcome
inconvenience. You’ve done nothing since I’ve arrived but ignore me
or insult me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have packing to
do.”

She turned and started
across the yard again, her eyes and throat burning with the urge to
cry. She ignored Rafe as he said her name again and hurried her
steps, almost making it to the corner of the house before he
grabbed her.

When he turned her to look
at him, the remorse on his face was clear. “You can’t
leave.”

Grace blinked her tears
away and swallowed to dislodge the lump in her throat.
“Why?”

“Because…” He stuttered,
his mouth opening and closing several times. He looked as if he
were about to say something then thought better of it before he
shook his head. “You’ll break Jesse’s heart if you do.”

“As if you care about
Jesse’s feelings,” she scoffed. “If you did, you’d treat him as he
wished to be treated and not as a child who is underfoot all the
time.”

“I do not.”

“You do!” Grace took a
deep breath after yelling and tried to get her temper under
control. “Rafe, you can not order that boy around. He told me on
our way into town how he lived alone after your father died. He had
no one to take care of him. Only himself. In his eyes, he’s a man,
whether you or anyone else in this town sees it or not. Having you
come in and boss him around is eating at what little pride he has
left. Why can’t you see that?”

“Because he isn’t a man,
Grace. He’s a child, regardless of how you see him. He only
survived as long as he did because Morgan Avery and his brother's
made sure he was all right.”

“Fine. It's obvious you'll
not see him as anything but a child so why aren’t you treating him
like one? Why isn’t he in school? Why is he here, doing your
bidding instead of out playing with every other kid in
town?”

“He told me he didn’t want
to go.”

“And you just accepted
that answer and let him stay at home?”

Rafe growled and jerked
his hat off, running a hand threw his hair before slamming the
weathered leather back on his head. “What the hell was I supposed
to do, Grace? The kid hated me the moment he clapped eyes on me. It
took him three weeks before he’d even acknowledge I was in the
house, another two before he uttered his first words to me, which,
by the way, was to tell me to go to hell. I couldn’t very well
march in here and order him to school, now could I?”

“And what about
now?”

“What about
now?”

Grace tried to rein in her
temper and lowered her voice. “He speaks to you now. Have you asked
him what he wants?”

“If you haven’t noticed,
every time I speak to him he lashes out. I avoid speaking to him at
all if I can.”

“
And how long do you expect to live that way? Until
he
is
old enough to marry and leave?”

"Oh, so you're not
marrying him, then?" he said, his words dripping with
sarcasm.

"I've told you I'm
not."

"So why are you still
here? To torture me with your presence on a daily basis?

"Torture you?" Grace was
shocked by his choice of words. He was being tortured? How so? She
took a step closer to him and jabbed a finger into his chest. "If
anyone is being tortured here, Rafe Samuels, its me. I'm the one
cooking and cleaning for you with nothing in return other than a
bed to sleep in. A simple thank you would suffice most days but
you're too pig headed for even that." She gritted her teeth, raised
her head to try to look him in the eye and shook her head is
disgust when she failed. "I can't believe for a second I even
harbored the notion of marrying you, but trust me when I say you'd
be the last man in Montana I'd marry!"

The moment the words were
out of her mouth, Grace froze. Rafe tilted his head a fraction,
enough for her to see the fire in his eyes change so quick, she
gulped in a breath of air moments before he reached for her,
dragging her to him and kissing her like his life depended on
it.

Her knees went weak,
dizziness befalling her when he forced his tongue into her mouth.
She moaned, reached up with both hands, placing them on his wide
shoulders to steady herself and closed her eyes the moment her
heart slammed against her ribcage.

It was the kind of kiss
she'd always dreamed of. Forceful, full of passion and unrestrained
need. His free arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her flush
against him. The desire she’d seen in his eyes earlier wasn’t the
only place she noticed it. It was there on her thigh, hard and
digging into her flesh.

She tilted her hips a
fraction, rubbing herself against him and felt completely wanton as
she did. He moaned, his hold on her tightening, and she wrapped her
arms around his neck to draw him nearer.

His lips were firm and
warm, his breath hot as it washed across her lips. Heat engulfed
her body when his hand roamed down her back to her bottom. He
cupped her flesh in his hand, pulled her tight against him, the
hard length of him pressed more firmly against her leg.

He held her in a vise-like
grip, his mouth hungry and demanding and for the first time in her
life, Grace would have given herself to a man without a single
regret. Her body ached in places she wasn’t even aware could ache,
her heart was pounding against her ribcage and no matter how close
they were, it wasn’t close enough.

She gasped and broke the
kiss, dragging in lungs full of air as Rafe found the soft skin
under her ear. His tongue lapped at the flesh of her neck and goose
bumps pimpled her skin. Her breasts ached, her nipples hardening
and begging for his touch. “Rafe.”

Grace was so caught up in
the moment, she barely heard Jesse call her name. The sound of
footsteps hitting the wooden steps at the back of the house caught
her attention seconds before her name was carried to her on the
breeze.

She gasped, pulled away
from Rafe, and stared at him while trying to catch her breath. She
scrambled to straighten her hair and turned, running the remaining
distance to the house.

* * * *

Seeing her standing naked
in his kitchen the night before had left him hard and uncomfortable
half the night. After kissing her sweet lips, and hearing her
whisper his name so softly, he’d be lucky to get rid of his
erection by next month.

The back door slammed shut
behind her and Rafe saw her pass in front of the kitchen window
still toying with her hair. He smiled before straightening his coat
and readjusting his hat.

Shifting in place, and
tugging at the seam of his pants helped ease some of the pain in
his groin, but only by a fraction. That kiss had done more to him
that it should have. Damn if she wasn’t the sweetest tasting thing
he’d had in ages.

He wasn’t even sure why
he’d kissed other than the fact she'd admitted to thinking of him
as a potential husband. He'd dreamed about that very thing numerous
times himself. Of course his dreams of being married to her usually
involved her lush lips in places that weren’t his face as she
shared his bed.

Just the thought of her
heated his blood. The scent of her skin stirred him and made him
feel like a man possessed. He wanted her with an urgency that
scared him shitless. It willed him to do anything he had to do to
have her.

And fight just as hard to
see that it never happened.

If he'd learned anything
about his failed attempts at relationships in the past, it was that
he wasn't capable of being loved. Most women wanted the one thing
he would never be able to give them. Money. He'd never had it and
never would.

The ranch turned a profit
if his father's ledgers were right but just barely, and Rafe knew
without asking that Grace was used to things he'd never be able to
give her.

She was refined, well
educated, he imagined, and before arriving on his doorstep, more
than likely never lifted a finger to do anything that even came
close to resembling work.

Grace was a woman men
would fight to have and as much as Rafe wanted her, he'd never
pursue her. Not for marriage. The dream was nice but the reality
would leave him heartbroken and he'd had his heart stomped on by
someone he thought cared about him before.

He wouldn't risk being
that vulnerable again. Not for Grace. Not for anyone.

He went back to the barn
and made sure the animals were all bedded down for the night before
extinguishing the light and making his way toward the house. He
wondered if Grace was still in the kitchen as he stepped onto the
back porch.

The room was empty when he
walked inside. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t
disappointed.

Jesse walked into the
room, disturbing his thoughts of Grace. Rafe watched him to see if
he knew what had happened out in the yard but he gave no indication
he did. His eyes were bloodshot and looked glassy as if he’d been
crying. His neck held faint traces of bruising. Rafe’s blood
pressure rose just seeing it. Ben Crowley was a bastard but Rafe
didn’t think he’d ever go so far as to try and fight a boy. Just
goes to show what a low down dog the man really was. “You
okay?”

Jesse nodded his head and
grabbed a glass, filling it with water. “That piece of pig shit
basically called Grace a whore, right there in earshot of anybody
listening.”

“I heard.” Rafe removed
his coat and hat, hanging them both on the peg by the door. “It was
a bit idiotic taking him on by yourself, don’t you
think?”

Jesse shot him a peeved
look. “No. He can’t call my wife names like that and not get a
whopping for it.”

Rafe grinned, ignoring the
reference of Grace being his brother's wife. He wasn’t sure Ben got
the worst out of the ordeal but if Jesse thought so, then so be it.
“What are you doing up?”

“Came for some water.”
Jesse drank deeply from his glass before wiping his mouth with his
sleeve. “What was you and Grace talking about?”

Rafe hoped his face didn’t
give the real answer to that away. He felt heat crawling up his
neck before walking to the table and turning the wick on the lamp
down. “Mostly what happened in town.”

Jesse made a noncommittal
noise and set his glass down. “Marshal Avery says we can press
charges against Ben.”

Rafe nodded and turned
back to face him. “Probably, but you’d have to go up in front of
the judge. Everyone in town would be able to sit in. You want
everyone knowing your business?”

Jesse was quiet for long
minutes before shaking his head. “No. I don’t want them gawking at
Grace and thinking what Ben said was true since we ain't married
yet.”

He still thought they were
getting married? Rafe sighed and leaned his hip against the table
before crossing his arms over his chest. “Jesse, you do know you
can’t marry Grace, don’t you?”

Jesse’s eyes flashed, his
brows lowering. “Why not? She came out to the house with me, didn’t
she?”

“Yes.” A fight was brewing
but it couldn’t be avoided. “And she’s told you already you’re not
who she thought you were. You described me in that letter, didn't
you?"

Jesse blushed. "So? What
different does that make?"

It didn't. Not really, but
a tiny part of him thrilled at the thought of her wanting him. At
the notion she'd traveled across the country with a mental picture
of him filling her mind. "You still expect her to marry you knowing
how young you are?”

“I said her age didn’t
matter.”

Rafe sighed. “It’s more
than that, Jesse, and you know it.” The look on Jesse’s face said
he didn’t see a problem. “Look. I can't think of any other way to
say this than just being damn blunt about it. You’ve said you’re a
man, so I’ll tell it to you like you are one. Grace is a woman and
I’m sure she expects certain things from a husband.”