Lone Star Nights (24 page)

When they got to the sunroom, they found Mia wearing a tiara and dancing around like a fairy princess while Livvy strung twinkling lights around the windows.

“Here to help?” Livvy asked. She was grinning, but the grinning came to a quick end when she saw their expressions.

“Their aunt is here to pick up the girls now,” Cassie told her.

Mia stopped in mid–dance step. “We gotta go?”

Lucky nodded, not trusting his voice.

Livvy nodded, too, and she hiked her thumb to the door. “Mackenzie went out to see the bulls.”

“I'll find her,” Lucky volunteered, and he turned to Cassie. “You can help Mia start packing.”

“We gotta go?” Mia repeated, and Lucky nearly lost it when he saw her big eyes get all shiny with tears. Her bottom lip started to tremble.

He went to her, going down on his knees so he could pull her into his arms. Lucky wanted to assure Mia that this wasn't a real goodbye, that he'd see her again, but after the way Alice had just reacted, he'd be surprised if the woman didn't try to file restraining orders against Cassie and him. Not that she had actual cause to do that, but their behavior might not sit well with a custody lawyer.

“Everything will be okay,” Lucky told her, and he prayed that wasn't a lie. Mia deserved the best. Mackenzie, too.

Lucky stood, meeting Cassie's gaze. The sadness he saw in her eyes matched his own. He brushed a kiss on her cheek and headed out to find Mackenzie for what would no doubt be an even more emotional encounter than the one he'd just had with Mia.

Mackenzie wasn't by the corral, and he didn't see her in the pastures. However, Lucky did hear something in the barn. It sounded as if some kind of struggle was going on. Lucky ran toward the noise and rage filled him the moment he reached the barn.

Brody had Mackenzie pinned to the wall. From what Lucky could see, Brody was trying to kiss her. And Mackenzie was resisting. She had her hands on his chest and was trying to push him away, but Brody was shoving right back.

After that, all Lucky saw was red.

He charged toward them and caught onto the back of Brody's shirt, and Lucky slammed him against the barn door so hard that it rattled. Lucky figured Mackenzie would jump to defend this dickhead.

She didn't.

Mackenzie stood there, shaking, with tears in her eyes. The red that Lucky had seen before was a drop in the bucket compared to what went through him now. It didn't get better.

“She wanted me to kiss her,” Brody snarled. “She wanted a lot more than that.”

Obviously not. Lucky gave Brody another slam and had to rein in his rage to keep himself from ripping off the guy's arm and beating him to death with it.

Lucky's teeth were clenched so tight his jaw was throbbing. His fist, too, but that was just because he'd never wanted to punch someone as much as he wanted to punch this kid. And he forced himself to remember that Brody was indeed a kid.

“You have two options,” Lucky managed to say. “You can go to the police, turn yourself in and admit to attempted assault, or I beat the shit out of you. Your choice.”

Lucky was really hoping Brody picked option two.

“Assault?” Brody howled. “I barely touched her.”

“Barely is enough, asshole. When a girl says no, she means no. Even if she doesn't say it, if she's trying to get away from you, the answer's still no.” Lucky hadn't even realized he was yelling until Hank came running into the barn.

“You need some help, Lucky?” Hank asked.

“I think I might. Brody's either going to need to go to the hospital or the cops. And I'll need someone to escort him.”

Brody's glare turned to a stare. Then he looked away from Lucky. “The cops.”

Lucky forced himself to back away, and Hank took over from there. He waited until Hank had Brody out of earshot before Lucky looked at Mackenzie.

“Are you going to tell me that I overstepped my boundaries—” he started. But he didn't get to finish.

Mackenzie hurried right into his arms. “I was so scared,” she whispered through the broken sobs.

That did two things to Lucky. It made him want to give Brody that shit-kicking he deserved, but it also crushed him to think of Mackenzie afraid while a bully groped her. Part of him knew he should lecture her about never risking anything like that again, but Lucky could tell from her tears that it was a lesson she'd already learned.

“I wish I could promise you that you'll never run into another guy like Brody,” he said, brushing a kiss against her temple. “I can't. But if it ever happens again, just call me. Or better yet, just knee the idiot in the balls.”

She nodded and kept crying. So Lucky just stood there, feeling like shit because he hadn't been able to protect her from this. However, he also felt something else. He felt what it was like to be a father.

Hell.

This wasn't any fun at all, but the fact that Mackenzie was here, crying on his shoulder—literally—also made him feel, well, loved. Too bad the feeling wasn't going to last. Also too bad he still had to tell Mackenzie about what else had gone on.

“Your aunt saw the pictures in the paper,” he explained. “She's upset about the one with Cassie and me. And she should be. We didn't set a very good example for Mia and you.”

Mackenzie pulled back and looked at him. “You're wrong. You and Cassie did okay.”

Coming from her that was high praise, and Lucky felt that L-word again along with another round of getting his heart crushed.

“Your aunt's insisting you and Mia leave with her right away,” Lucky added.

The tears hadn't stopped yet, but that put a fresh batch of them in her eyes, and Mackenzie took off running toward the house. Lucky wasn't sure if that meant she was ready to get out of there—a strong possibility after what'd just happened to her—or if she was upset about having to leave so soon.

He hurried after her, but she didn't go through the sunroom. She went in the back door and headed straight for the foyer. Cassie and Mia were there, and Mia's suitcase was beside her. She had her little hand outstretched, and Lucky could see the gold star that she was offering to her aunt.

“You let her believe it was magic,” Alice said, shaking her head. Clearly, the woman had something else to be pissed about now. “Put that away, Mia. And Mackenzie, get your things. We're leaving now.”

“Please, no,” Mackenzie begged. “Just let us stay for the wedding. Please.”

Alice huffed. “This is about that boy, isn't it? The one in the picture—”

“No, that's over,” Mackenzie assured her. She exchanged a glance with Lucky. A glance that Cassie noticed. He'd tell her all about Brody soon, but he had no intention of mentioning what had just happened in front of Alice. If the woman heard anything about it, it would come from Mackenzie.

“Well, good,” Alice answered. “But there's no reason for you to stay here. Not with these people.”

“But I gonna be a star girl,” Mia said. “I'm gonna throw gold stars and wear a princess crown.”

“And Claire wanted me to be an usher,” Mackenzie added. “Please. The McCords have treated us good. Like family. We want to stay for the wedding. After that, we'll leave with you.” She added another please. Mia chipped in a couple, as well.

Lucky could see the debate going on in Alice's head. Could also see her displeasure anytime her attention landed on Cassie and him. Thankfully that displeasure wasn't for the kids, though.

“All right,” Alice finally said. “We can stay one more day for the wedding. But not here. Get your things and you can stay at the Bluebonnet Inn tonight. I'll bring you back for the wedding, and we'll leave right afterward.”

All four of them mumbled a version of “thank you.” Mia even hugged Alice. Then Lucky and Cassie. It wasn't goodbye, yet, but Lucky knew he had less than twenty-four hours before he'd have to say a real one.

Mackenzie and Cassie went upstairs to get her suitcase, and Lucky was about to assure Mia that everything was going to be okay, but his phone buzzed and he saw Bernie's name on the screen. It was instant hope.

Stupid hope, too.

Because for just a couple of seconds, Lucky thought the lawyer might be calling with some kind of info that would stall Alice from taking the girls.

“I know you're probably in the middle of wedding stuff, but I need Cassie, you, Mia and Mackenzie to come to my office first thing tomorrow morning,” Bernie said the moment Lucky answered. “I don't normally go into the office on Sundays, but it's important.” That sure didn't sound like the kind of news that would give Cassie and him some extra time with the girls.

“What's this about?” Lucky asked.

Bernie cleared his throat. “Dixie Mae's will. Per her specific instructions, it's to be read at eight in the morning. Brace yourself, Lucky. There are some surprises.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

C
ASSIE
WAS
SO
not in the mood for a girls' night, but this was for Claire. A last-minute bachelorette party. Claire more than deserved something like this the night before her big day, but Cassie just wasn't up to a celebration.

The only redeeming thing about it was that it was small—just Claire, Livvy, Helene and her—and it was in the sunroom at the ranch. It meant Cassie could put in an appearance and then excuse herself.

So she could go to her room and cry.

And pack.

Which would only result in more tears. But by tomorrow, she'd be ready to cry again. She always cried at weddings, and this one would be a tearjerker because shortly afterward Lucky and she would have to say goodbye to the girls.

The house already seemed way too quiet without them. And that was saying something since Livvy was doing the “Boot Scootin' Boogie” to the popular Brooks & Dunn song.

“This would have been so much better with strippers,” Livvy insisted, tossing back another glass of wine.

“No, it wouldn't have,” Claire replied. Both Helene and Cassie agreed. Helene probably for a totally different reason than Cassie, though. Helene didn't appear to be the stripper-watching type.

Claire had apparently had very specific instructions. No male strippers or anyone else that Livvy might try to sneak in to liven things up. Claire had instead wanted wine, cheese and girl talk. Other than the dancing and the Brooks & Dunn, Livvy had abided by that.

“I understand you're the owner of three more cats,” Claire said to Cassie.

She nodded. “I bought them from my father. Had Bernie draw up ownership papers that I signed this afternoon. It's all official now—I'm the owner of six cats.” Of course, on the way to the lawyer's office, Cassie had parked in front of the Bluebonnet Inn hoping to get a glimpse of the girls. She hadn't, though.

“And I'm happy to say that after the wedding, the cats will be brought here,” Helene explained. “Not that we weren't happy to have them at the office, but some of the clients are allergic.”

Cassie thanked Helene again for taking care of them and assured her she was already working out something more permanent. With a single phone call, she'd put her LA condo up for sale and had asked her Realtor to look for a place that allowed more than two pets. However, the idea of taking six cats still seemed a little daunting.

“Cats?” Livvy huffed. “That's what we're going to talk about tonight?”

“No subject is off-limits,” Helene said.

“Except for the kids. Sorry,” Livvy immediately added.

“That's okay,” Cassie assured her. “They're on my mind whether we talk about them or not.”

Which was a serious mood killer.

This time Livvy groaned. “Can we at least talk about sex, then?” Livvy asked. “Dirty sex,” she qualified. “The nastiest sex you can think of. How about I start? Blow jobs—yea or nay?”

Cassie laughed, causing the other three to look at her.

“Something you want to tell us about Lucky?” Claire said.

That stopped her laughing. “No.”

Clearly they wanted more, but Cassie didn't have more to give them. Lucky and she had had sex, but it hadn't involved a blow job.

“Then Helene can tell us,” Livvy insisted. “Since Lucky and Logan are identical twins, it'd be pretty much the same account anyway.”

Helene smiled and sipped her wine. “A lady doesn't talk about such things.”

Too bad because Cassie wanted to hear. It was silly to want details, but it felt deliciously naughty doing this. And it got her mind off the girls for a few seconds. Too bad her mind kept going back to them, though.

“I've got a sort-of BJ sex story,” Claire volunteered. “Not about Riley, though. About Logan and Lucky.”

That got their attention, and even Livvy stopped dancing so she could rejoin them on the sofa.

“Logan might have told Helene about this and, Cassie, you might remember,” Claire went on, “but when Lucky and Logan were seniors in high school, Lucky was seeing Darla Jean Nederland.
Briefly
seeing her.”

Cassie had to shake her head. Helene shook her head, too. By her senior year, the only thing on Cassie's mind had been getting a high score on the SATs, and she had especially shut her ears whenever there was talk about Lucky.

“Well, anyway, Lucky wanted to break up with Darla Jean, but every time he'd try, she'd cry and carry on,” Claire continued. “So Logan lost some bet to Lucky, can't remember what about, and the payoff was that Logan would pretend to be Lucky and do the breakup. Logan was a lot better at that sort of thing anyway.”

All of them made a sound of agreement about that. Logan wouldn't have had any trouble ending a relationship, even with a Nederland.

“So Logan dressed up like Lucky and went to Darla Jean's house to tell her it was over. But when he opened the door, she was standing there stark naked, and she tackled him. Even after she kissed him, she still didn't know it wasn't Lucky and tried to give him a BJ.” Claire patted Helene's hand. “Don't worry, Helene. It didn't work.”

Helene dismissed that, too. Clearly she wasn't worried about her man. And shouldn't be. Logan and she had been together a long time and seemed perfect for each other.

“Then what happened?” Livvy pressed.

“Darla Jean was, is, quite aggressive. And strong. She managed to get Logan unzipped, but Logan was finally able to get away from her. The next day at school, Darla Jean told everyone that Lucky was impotent.”

Livvy laughed like a loon. “As if.” But then she blushed. “Sorry, Cassie.”

Cassie waved her off. “I know Lucky's had a lot of lovers. And besides, it's not serious or anything between us.”

There was no mistaking the look all three of them gave her. Skepticism. A big dose of it, too.

“Uh, Cassie,” Claire said. “I'm pretty sure Lucky's in love with you.”

Cassie choked, not on the wine but the huge gulp of air she sucked in. She wasn't sure what surprised her more—that Claire had said that or that Livvy and Helene made sounds of agreement.

Good grief. They had all lost their minds. Lucky wasn't in love with her. And vice versa. And this wasn't a conversation she wanted to have. Nope. She was already on the path to a good heart-stomping, and if she added even a smidge of the notion that the no-rings-attached Lucky had real feelings for her, then she might give him too much of herself.

Her heart might never recover.

It was time for a subject change. “I can't believe Darla Jean couldn't tell the difference between Lucky and Logan,” Cassie said.

“I know,” Helene agreed. “They're nothing alike. She should have been able to tell the second she opened the door.”

Definitely, and that gave Cassie something to think about. For a second or two. But her stupid brain kept going back to Claire's L-word remark. And to the skeptical look the others had given Cassie.

“You know, Lucky's in his room,” Livvy whispered to her.

Mercy, was she that obvious? Apparently so. Because Claire and Helene nodded. “We won't talk about you behind your back if you want to sneak out and see him,” Claire offered.

“Oh, yes we will.” Livvy laughed again. “But your choices are us, sex talk, wine and cheese—or Lucky. I'm thinking that's not really a choice.”

Livvy was right. It was sort of embarrassing to duck out when the women obviously knew the reason for the ducking. And when one of those women had been Lucky's previous lover. Still, that didn't stop her.

Cassie finished off her wine, gave her best wishes to Claire and walked to the other side of the house to Lucky's room. She knocked once, then opened the door before she could change her mind. Not that she had time to change it anyway because Lucky was right there.

“What the heck took you so long?” he asked and pulled her to him and kissed her.

She'd intended to bring up Claire's comment in a roundabout way, but that kiss stopped Cassie from saying anything, and after a few seconds of being in Lucky's arms, she wasn't sure she could think, much less speak. In fact, she didn't want to speak. Cassie wanted to be swept away, and sweeping away was Lucky's specialty.

However, the sweeping stopped almost as fast as it had started.

“Are you okay?” Lucky asked her.

Cassie knew he wasn't talking about that kiss. This was about the girls. “I miss them already,” she admitted.

“Yeah.” That's all he said for several long moments, though he did push her hair from her face and kiss her again. Not like the knee-weakening kiss from before, but it was still a kiss.

“Stay with me tonight?” he asked.

“What the heck took you so long to ask?” she countered.

He smiled. It was that “I'll make you melt” smile. Of course, he'd already seduced her so it wasn't necessary to bring out the big guns, but a dimple flashed in his cheek.

Despite the smile, there was a sadness around them. One that Cassie felt bone deep. So maybe their being together right now didn't have as much to do with the scalding attraction as it did with needing to be with someone who understood.

Of course, the attraction was a big part of it.

No use trying to fool herself about that.

Cassie stepped back into his arms and right into another kiss, and she tried to prepare herself for the onslaught. For the fierce intensity that'd happened the other time she had been with him.

But no fierceness.

Lucky kissed her as if he had all the time in the world. Slow. And easy. He didn't even press her to him. He kept an inch or so of space between their bodies, just enough room for her breasts to occasionally brush against his chest. Cassie hadn't expected this from Lucky. Wasn't even sure she wanted it. Fast and frantic didn't give her time to think. It only gave her time to feel, and that kind of swept-away feeling was exactly what she needed now.

Or maybe not.

The long, dreamy kiss continued. No pressure. He definitely didn't take it up to the French stage. And then something happened to her. Cassie started to relax. She started to move into the kiss without actually moving into him. It reminded her of those long-lost innocent days when she'd first been kissed. A time when there were no other expectations but to feel, to be in the moment.

So that's what she did.

She took a mental trip back to high school, and even though she'd never kissed Lucky then, she knew this was how it would have been. Cassie wasn't sure how long it went on. The time just slipped away. But not the need. Lucky was building the fire slowly inside her, making her want him even more.

“Where next?” he asked her. He must have doused himself with pheromones or something because that two-word question sounded sexy as hell.

She glanced at the saddle. Lifted her eyebrow.

“Well, I've never used it as a sex toy,” he said, “but if it's what you want...”

Cassie considered it. Dismissed it. For now. “My neck,” she settled for saying.

Of course, it wasn't really where she wanted him to kiss her. She wouldn't have minded him getting on his knees again and giving her another of those special kisses, but Lucky was creating a mood here. Best not to spoil it with a blatant request for oral sex.

He didn't kiss her neck, though. He stared at her, his right eyebrow lifted. “You can do better than that,” he challenged.

So maybe blatant was okay here after all. And maybe she could create her own mood. Cassie pinned him against the door, unzipped him and went to her knees. Lucky managed a hoarse sound of surprise before she took him in her mouth.

There.

Challenge accepted.

Cassie was pretty sure he had not expected this, but since the next sound he made was one of pleasure, she thought maybe she'd hit the right chord. She took and tasted until the pleasure was hers, too.

She never would have done this in high school.

Cassie continued for several more seconds before Lucky gutted out some profanity, caught onto her shoulders and hauled her back up to him.

“I'm not getting off with my clothes on this time,” he insisted. “And you're not getting off unless you're bare-assed naked.”

Cassie wanted to tell him not to expect too much, that her body in no way qualified as hot. Especially compared to the kinds of bodies Lucky was no doubt used to seeing. But then he pulled off her top and her bra and went after her breasts with his tongue, and she no longer cared if she looked hot. Because she was hot. Her body was burning.

Mercy, the man was good.

For once, she was seriously glad he'd had all that experience because Cassie wanted to benefit from it.

Since he was kissing her and ridding her of her jeans, Cassie got to work on making him naked. That gave her a moment's pause, though, and she suddenly wanted to slow things down again. She'd fantasized about seeing Lucky naked for a long time, and she wanted to appreciate every moment of this, every inch of him.

Even though she was standing there, topless and with her jeans and panties pooled around her knees, Cassie stopped him, then had to stop him again when he tried to kiss her. The kiss would be amazing. But it would nix the peep show she had planned.

Cassie started with his shirt, opening it button by button and slipping it off his shoulders. Of course, he had a six-pack. Of course, he was perfect.

“You're amazing,” he said, his gaze shifting over her body.

She thought maybe she said,
Thank you but that's BS
. Or maybe she just said it in her head. That's because her mouth was occupied with kissing his chest. He tasted as good as he looked, and she would have made her way back to his erection if Lucky hadn't stopped her.

All this stopping and starting made her want to scream. Or just screw him. Cassie was leaning heavily toward the latter option.