Natural Born Daddy (19 page)

She appeared instantly fascinated. “What about us?”

“How well suited we are. In bed and out. It just goes to prove my point.”

A shadow crossed her eyes. “What point would that be?”

“That people should use their brains more often when choosing a mate.”

“As opposed to what?”

He heard the edginess in her tone too late. By the time he met her gaze, her eyes were frosty, the brown glinting with angry amber lights. He tried to back off the quicksand he'd inadvertently wandered onto. “Never mind,” he muttered and tried to distract her with a caress.

She brushed away his hand and sat up, clutching the sheet to her. “I think you'd better tell me, Jordan.”

He saw that he was way too far into this now to escape. “Come on, Kelly, you know what I mean. We both used our heads in deciding to get married. We didn't have a lot of silly illusions. We made a sensible decision that will benefit both of us.”

“In other words, a successful merger.” Her voice was heavily laced with chilly disdain. She gestured at the rumpled bed. “And this? I suppose this is just one of the perks for the executives?”

Actually, it was, but he was wise enough to keep that particular observation to himself. “Now, Kelly…”

She climbed out of the bed, dragging the sheet with her. He was certain no one had ever exited a marriage bed with more dignity, with more icy contempt.

“Don't you ‘now, Kelly' me,” she said, waggling a finger under his nose. “I made love to you tonight, Jordan Adams. I did not seal a damned business deal!”

With that she stalked from the room, the sheet trailing after her like the train of an impromptu bridal gown. Unfortunately, Jordan had the distinct impression that not only the honeymoon, but quite possibly the marriage, as well, was over.

K
elly was still steaming at dawn when she heard Jordan coming slowly down the stairs, his steps heavy. She'd been on the front porch most of the night, wrapped in her sheet, rocking in an attempt to calm her fury.

It hadn't worked. Now, anticipating him joining her on the porch made her blood boil and her palms sweat. She'd wanted another hour or two to get her temper under control and all of her defenses solidly into place. When she faced him again, she had hoped to be cool, calm and collected. She was nowhere near that when he appeared.

Dressed in a pair of faded jeans, unsnapped at the waist, his hair becomingly tousled, his eyes still sleepy, Jordan opened the screen door and stepped outside. Looking at him made her heart climb into her throat. She refused, however, to let the mere sight of him get to her. Loving him so desperately, wanting him, was what had made her suspend judgment and agree to marry him when she'd known better.

Discovering that he still thought of their marriage as some sort of twisted business arrangement within seconds of also discovering that their passion was extraordinary had left her reeling. It confirmed every dire prediction she had made for a future built on such flimsy turf.

Even though he was waiting, she refused to meet his gaze.

“Good morning,” he said eventually, sounding wary.

She remained stubbornly silent.

“Still mad, huh?”

Huddled in the rocker, she refused to utter a word.

Jordan was not a man easily defeated. He walked in front of her so she couldn't ignore him and hunkered down. He put his hands on her thighs to still the rocker. The touch guaranteed her attention.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I swear that I didn't mean to upset you.”

She scowled at him. “But you did mean what you said, right?”

He stood and raked his hand through his hair in an impatient gesture. “Yes, no,…Hell, what do you want me to say? Do you want me to lie to you?”

A good white lie might be welcome about now, she thought irrationally, then sighed. “No, I suppose not.”

“Sweet pea, we just need a little time to adjust. This is new to both of us. Once we're settled in Houston…”

Warning bells went off in Kelly's head. “‘Settled in Houston'?” she repeated very slowly. Her gaze locked with his. “I am not settling in Houston. We agreed to split our time. Weekends, holidays and vacations here. Weekdays there. That was the deal.”

She made sure there was no mistaking where she put the emphasis. She managed to make the time they would spend in Houston sound like exile in Siberia. Jordan blinked at her adamant tone.

“We did discuss that, but—”

“No buts,” she insisted, cutting off any speculation that there was room for more negotiation. “We agreed.”

“Let's be reasonable,” he began again.

She wasn't in the mood to be reasonable. Being reasonable and practical and pragmatic—to say nothing of caving in to her hormones—was what had gotten them into this disastrous situation.

“We had a verbal contract,” she said, throwing his favorite sort of terminology back into his face. “Are you trying to wriggle out of it?”

He winced, but didn't back down, either. “Now, Kelly…” he began in a placating tone that set her teeth on edge.

“Forget it. We can end this marriage just as quickly as we arranged it,” she warned.

Even as she spoke, she spotted the stubborn thrust of his chin and recognized that she might have pushed Jordan too far. She didn't much care. If this marriage wasn't going to be a partnership, if his promise of compromise had been so much hot air, they might as well discover it now.

“We are not ending this marriage,” Jordan said quietly, eyes blazing. “As for where we live, we'll work it out.”

“We already have,” she said again.

His jaw tightened. “Fine. Pack your bags. We'll pick up Dani first thing tomorrow and drive back to Houston.”

Kelly was shaking her head before the words were out of his mouth. “Not tomorrow. I can't leave the ranch with no one in charge.”

“No problem. I'll call Daddy. He can deal with your hand to make sure chores get done until we make other arrangements.”

“But the cats…”

“The damned cats will be taken care of. Weekdays in Houston,” he reminded her, throwing her own words back in her face. “We'll settle anything having to do with the ranch next weekend. Daddy can screen some candidates for foreman while we're gone.”

Backed into a corner now, he wasn't going to budge on this. If she intended to hold him to the letter of their verbal agreement, then he clearly planned to hold her to it, as well. Kelly could see that from the fire in his eyes and the clenching of his jaw. The gene for stubbornness, carried by both Harlan and Mary Adams, had clearly doubled in Jordan. Kelly tugged the sheet more tightly around her and rose as regally as any queen.

“Why wait? I'll be packed in an hour.”

He scowled. “Fine, if that's what you prefer. I'll make some coffee and some breakfast. As soon as we've eaten, we can drive to Luke and Jessie's.”

Kelly could only begin to imagine what those two would have to say about Kelly and Jordan appearing on their doorstep first thing in the morning after their wedding night. The prospect was damned humiliating, but she refused to back down and ask Jordan to at least delay their departure until Sunday after all.

Let him explain why their honeymoon had ended so abruptly. He thought he had all the answers. Let
him see how well they held up to his brother's scrutiny. Maybe she'd even take Luke up on his offer to punch his brother out for her. No doubt he hadn't imagined there would be a necessity for it quite this soon.

Still seething, she threw clothes into suitcases with almost as little care as she'd displayed when leaving Houston after her divorce. She gathered up a few of Dani's favorite toys and resolved that her daughter would be allowed to pick out a new selection for the Houston house. If they were going to be shuttling back and forth, then each home needed to have its own set of clothes, toys and books. She refused to pack and repack every few days. The same went for everything from cosmetics to toothbrushes. Two complete households, she decided firmly. Let Jordan put that in his pipe and smoke it.

And, first thing on Monday morning, she intended to have a very long talk with Ginger about the logistics of moving Jordan's primary business offices home to west Texas.

In fact, she might very well take the secretary to lunch and probe her brain for the secrets of tolerating her husband's high-handedness. She had always considered herself to be an expert on Jordan, but she'd seen a new side of him in the past few weeks—a man all too used to getting his own way—and she had a feeling Ginger knew far more about that side than she did.

Refusing to ask for assistance, she hauled the luggage downstairs and piled it by the front door. Lured by the aroma of coffee, she reluctantly headed for the kitchen and another confrontation with her husband.

Jordan glanced up from the morning paper at her entrance. “I have pancakes and bacon staying warm in the oven. Sit down. I'll get it and pour you a cup of coffee.”

“Just coffee and juice for me, and I'll get it.”

He scowled at her as he stood. “Sit, dammit. I said I'd get it.”

Kelly rolled her eyes at the testiness and sat. He poured the coffee, filled a glass with juice and then reached into the oven to retrieve the breakfast he'd prepared. Suddenly he yelped in pain and jerked his hand back. His bare hand.

Kelly sighed and stood. Jordan obviously wasn't thinking any more clearly this morning than she was.

“Let me see,” she said, reaching for his hand.

“It's fine,” he growled.

“Let me see,” she said, and clamped her hand around his wrist. There was a nasty streak of red across his palm that was destined to blister. She tugged him toward the sink. “Here, run cool water on it and I'll get some salve.”

He stood stoically while the water cascaded over his burned hand. She retrieved the ointment she kept on hand for burns. Taking his hand in hers again, trying not to notice the way her pulse jumped at the contact, she gently applied the soothing salve, then wrapped the wound lightly in gauze.

She was so intent on bandaging his hand that she didn't notice the intensity of his gaze for some time. When she finally glanced up, the fire banked in his eyes was every bit as hot as the plate he'd tried to pick up.

She released his hand at once and turned her back on him, busying herself with getting the offending
plate from the oven, turning off the stove and then sitting down at the table to eat the breakfast she'd claimed not to want. It might as well have been sawdust for all the attention she paid it as she swallowed bite after bite mechanically.

“We can't avoid talking about it forever,” he observed eventually.

He'd tilted his chair back on two legs and clasped his hands on top of his flat stomach in a posture that screamed of relaxed confidence. She risked a look directly into his eyes. “Talking about what?”

“The fact that we've gotten off to a lousy start.”

She shrugged. “We both know it. Why talk about it?”

A look of annoyance passed across his face. “So that we can resolve the problem and move on.”

Kelly's temper flared. “How…businesslike!”

He stood up so fast, then, that his chair toppled over. Before she realized what he intended, he was leaning over her, bending down, his mouth unexpectedly plundering hers in a bruising kiss clearly meant to wipe all other thoughts out of her head. After a brief struggle of wills, it succeeded in doing just that. Her mind emptied of everything except the way Jordan made her senses swim. She abandoned the battle and gave herself up to that devastating kiss.

His lips gentled, then, coaxing, persuading, reminding her of the way they'd been together in the middle of the night—hot, slick sensuality, mind-altering pleasure, gentle sharing. They were good together, as instinctively attuned as two people who'd been married for decades. Jordan was the kind of sensitive, intuitive, giving lover women dreamed of
finding. He had gauged her reactions time and again and suited his lovemaking to her needs. He was doing the same thing now.

Eventually he released his grip on her shoulders and stood back, his gaze fixed on her in a way that told her he was taking in her flushed cheeks and the kiss-swollen lips that clearly told him the effect he had on her. For once, though, he seemed more dazed than smug.

Observing him, Kelly thought how ironic it was that they were so instantly attuned physically, while all the years of straight talk had abandoned them and left them suddenly incapable of communicating in words without bickering.

She gathered her composure and drew herself up. “I think it's time to go,” she said in a voice that shook.

For a moment she thought he might argue for staying right here, for settling their differences in bed, but he didn't. After a bit, he just nodded curtly.

“I'll get the bags into the car,” he said.

“I'll clean up in here and be right with you.”

It was all so cool, so polite and civilized that she wanted to scream. Instead, the instant he was gone and she was left alone with soggy pancakes and cold coffee, she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

She'd had the wedding of her dreams the day before. She was married to the man she'd always loved. She'd discovered a passionate side to herself and to him that had filled her with ecstasy.

And she'd never been more miserable in her entire life.

* * *

Jordan would rather have faced a firing squad than Luke and Jessie's worried, accusing looks. Their gazes darted between him and Kelly, their eyes filled with questions that only Dani's presence had kept silent since their arrival.

“So, you're driving back to Houston?” Jessie said with obviously feigned cheer, her gaze penetrating. “Do you have to be back in the office first thing Monday? You are supposed to be on your honeymoon, after all. Surely the incomparable Ginger could hold down the fort a few days longer.”