Chapter Twelve
Cody locked every door, every window, checked every closet and under every bed. Gathering up a couple of towels and an armload of blankets and quilts, he went back downstairs to the back parlor.
Callie wasn’t there. Frowning, he called her name and was met with only eerie silence. Deciding to search her out, he swept through the rest of the downstairs. She wasn’t in the living room, study or kitchen. And neither were the keys to his truck. Instead, there was a hastily scrawled note on the kitchen table.
I’m sorry, Cody, truly I am, but I can’t go through with this. Talk to Cisco Kidd about the inheritance. When you do, you’ll find out there is another way for you to keep the ranch. You don’t have to lose everything. Just me....
Cody stared at the note. What the heck was she doing now? Did she really think all he cared about was the ranch? Okay, so prior to her showing up again, the Silver Spur cattle operation had been all he cared about. But that was then. This was now. Damn it, she was not running out on him again!
His temper sizzling, he headed out the back door and stopped dead in his tracks. Just as he suspected, his pickup was already heading down the gravel lane, away from the house. To his relief, the thunder and lightning had eased up for the moment, but the rain was coming down so hard visibility had been reduced to a mere hundred yards. Even so, he was able to see the brake lights come on before they disappeared into the misty night.
14:52
CALLIE GOT approximately a half mile away from the house when she realized she couldn’t go any farther. She couldn’t run out on Cody again. Because that’s exactly what she was doing, running away. Just like she’d run away from the jobs that didn’t quite work out, and the family she loathed, and her marriage. When her mother had been alive, it had been different. She’d at least tried to face up to her problems. Since then, she either hadn’t had the strength or had simply felt, in some instances, that it wasn’t worth her time and energy to try to change things, that it would be easier and simpler for all concerned if she just moved on. And maybe it had been, Callie didn’t know. She only knew that this was one situation and one man that she could not run from, not anymore. She knew that in her heart, and it was time she started listening to her heart.
She had to muster up all her courage and stay and face up to the future, whatever it held. She had to have faith that it would all work out somehow if she just gave herself, and Cody, a chance. But first she had to help him get and keep his inheritance from Uncle Max. Without the ranch, Cody would never be happy. She couldn’t live with herself if he lost all he had worked so hard for because of her.
Thrusting the truck into reverse, she backed it around ninety degrees to the right. Shifting it back into drive, she pressed on the accelerator. Rear wheels spinning, the truck reacted as if it were held in place by a steel hook and chain and stayed right where it was. Callie tried again. The engine roared louder. The wheels spun harder. To no avail. She was still stuck.
Realizing she was only digging herself deeper into the mud on either side of the narrow ranch lane, Callie cut the engine and laid her head on the steering wheel. She had fifteen minutes to get back to the house, fifteen minutes to trudge back through the pouring rain. Or it would all be over anyway, because she and Cody would have been apart more than thirty minutes. His inheritance would be permanently out of their reach. And it would be all her fault.
Callie laughed softly at the irony of the situation and shook her head. It was funny how close she had come to having everything again, only to risk it all by trying to run away, and she couldn’t even do that competently because she’d changed her mind again, decided to go back and then gotten herself stuck.
Would Cody believe she had wanted to come back on her own now, given the position of the truck? Or would he think she had been forced back due to bad driving? Heaven knew he hadn’t given her much credit up until now.
Figuring she would find out the answer to that soon enough, Callie began to gather up her gear. She had her arms full when the passenger door opened and an equally drenched Cody slid in beside her.
She swiveled to face him, not really surprised to see that he had come after her. Deep inside, she had wanted him to come after her. She always had. Callie regarded him warily. “I presume you got my note?”
Folding his hands behind his head, he stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Why else would I be here? And thanks for getting my truck stuck in the mud. We’re going to have to walk back now, you know.”
“I know —”
He lifted a hand and ever so gently touched the curve of her cheek. “So what made you stop and try to turn around?”
Callie leaned into his touch. “You saw that?” She kept her eyes locked with his.
“Trust me,” he drawled with a half grin as he dropped his hand and sat back against the passenger window, “it would have been hard to miss.”
True. Callie curved her left hand on the bottom of the steering wheel. “It occurred to me that I have been running from trouble all my life, and that maybe it was finally time I started facing up to it instead.”
Maybe it was time she took those “eight seconds” Max had talked about and used them to the fullest, rather than have a lifetime of regrets ahead of her.
“Well, I’m trouble, all right,” Cody murmured, tipping the brim of his hat back and sliding over to take her in his arms. “And maybe I have been pushing you a little too hard.” He nuzzled the soft skin of her neck. “But I’m glad you had a change of heart. ’Cause I’ve had one, too. I don’t know how people build successful marriages, Callie. But I know we all have to start somewhere and build from the ground on up. So I’m willing to try a little harder if you are, to see where this passion of ours is leading, to see if we can’t make our relationship work after all.”
Callie did want to make love with him again, so very much. She wanted a relationship and a satisfying marriage, too. But she was leery of hoping for too much for fear of being disappointed again. “What about the ranch?”
Cody shrugged. “I’d rather worry about the ‘us.’ I think it’s what Max would want.” He drew back slightly. “Ready to go home?”
Callie knew here was her chance to tell Cody everything, including the many reasons why she was all wrong for him. But when she opened her mouth, no words came out.
Instead, all she could think about was their dwindling time together. She knew it was precious, as were her growing feelings for Cody and his for her.
They could talk about Buck and Pa anytime.
But they’d only have one evening before their wedding.
Cody framed her face with his large, work-roughened palms. “We’ll work it all out, Callie. The ranch, our love affair, this marriage Max got us in, everything. I promise. But not here and not now. We’ll do it after we get home.”
13:22
MAYBE CODY WAS RIGHT, Callie thought. Maybe she should slow down, stop trying to solve everything at once and work on things one at a time in order of their importance. And first and foremost, now and forever, was her rekindled love affair with Cody. With the wedding Max had scheduled only half a day away, the time to work on that was now. As long as she knew where she stood with him, that was.
“You still want to marry me, even after I ran away again?” Callie asked, as she jumped down from the cab of the pickup truck and into the warmth of Cody’s waiting arms.
Cody gave her one of his hellion grins from years past. “And not just because it’s the only way I’ll inherit,” Cody continued gently as he swept off his hat and fitted it over her brow to protect her from the driving rain. “Our little foray onto the range tonight, not to mention the stunt you just pulled, gave me plenty of time to think, Callie. As hard to believe as it is, I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that I am never going to get you out of my heart, Callie Sheridan,” he drawled. “At least not any time in the next fifty or sixty years. That being the case, I think this marriage Max wants for us—this real marriage—is something we definitely ought to pursue. And all that aside, it’s also something I want to do,” Cody concluded, bending his head to give her a slow, thorough kiss.
Callie wreathed her arms around his neck and returned his searching kiss passionately. Cody might not want to admit it, she thought elatedly, but he was changing, coming back to civilization again. Max would be proud of that. And so was Callie. Realizing at the same time that they were getting drenched, they broke apart laughing. “There are better places for doing this,” Cody teased.
Callie clasped her hand tightly in his. “I agree.”
Their heads bowed against the blowing wind and rain, Cody tucked her hand in his, and they headed back toward the house, slipping and sliding on the muddy ground as they went.
Even though their progress was slow, the weather abysmal, Callie knew there was no better time to get a few other things straight, as well. “When we get married, Cody, you can run the entire ranch. Even my part of it.” In fact, she was going to deed the land over to him so he would own it outright, but she was saving that fact as a surprise, sort of a wedding gift extraordinaire.
Cody lifted a brow as the lightning flashed to the south of them. He regarded her speculatively, even as he moved to shield her as best he could from the pelting rain. “What about your own dream of making an independent life for yourself here in Montana?” he asked as he tucked her in close to his side.
Callie knew now that the happiness she had felt here in her teens had all been due to Cody. That had been what she had come here hoping to replicate. “I can still pursue that, in other ways.”
Cody slid a hand behind her back as they hurried up the front steps. “Not as easily without working control of your inheritance,” he pointed out, pressing a light kiss to her lips.
Reveling in the way he was protecting her again, even at cost to himself, Callie kissed him back briefly. “Nothing worthwhile ever comes easily, Cody,” Callie countered breathlessly as she swept off his hat and handed it back to him for drying. “Don’t you know that?”
“I’m beginning to.” He paused on the front porch as the rain beat the roof overhead in a steady, drumming rhythm. Callie looked into his eyes and knew she was finally getting her life together, in all the most important ways, at long last. And it had nothing to do with what job she held or what state she lived in. It had to do with Cody and the life and family they would one day build for themselves.
“Is it my imagination or does this all feel a little familiar?” Callie quipped as he took her hand in his and they walked inside.
Cody shut the door and gathered her in his arms, drenched clothing and all. Nothing had ever felt so good to Callie as he did at that moment. “It isn’t your imagination,” he said softly, feathering kisses across her brow, down her cheek to her lips. He tangled his fingers in her hair and kissed her sweetly. “And it does feel a little familiar, and it should, because the Silver Spur is going to be your home starting tomorrow, thanks to Uncle Max.” He paused, his lips curving up in anticipation. “Once we get the legal details settled, I have a feeling you’ll be coming in and out of this ranch house a lot. Probably burning pots and rearranging furniture and redecorating as you go.” He ducked her laughing swing. “Which is—” he kissed her again, more sensually this time “—exactly—the way—it should be.”
He was awfully open to her renewed presence in his life all of a sudden. He also looked as if he wanted very much to take her to his bed and stay there a very long time.
Callie wanted to be with him, too. But aware Buck and Pa could be lurking anywhere in the vicinity, Callie glanced around nervously. “Cody, after all that’s happened today, maybe we should —”
“Check out the house before we get too serious? I agree.” He stepped back slightly but did not release her. “I also think we should do it together.”
Callie looked down at herself. They were surrounded by mini puddles of rainwater. “We’re dripping everywhere.”
Cody gave a relaxed shrug. “It’s all right. It’ll dry.”
Cody took the flashlight and led her through the house. It was completely untouched. Realizing that Pa and Buck had not been back in their absence, Callie breathed a big sigh of relief. For once, she did not have to worry.
“Okay, we’re alone. We’re safe. And the house is secured and locked up tight as a drum. Now, you want to tell me what is going on with you and making you so jumpy. And I mean the entire story, Callie,” he warned softly, his protective instincts coming to the fore once again, “not just bits and pieces.”
She had come back here to confront him, but suddenly it seemed like a very tall order. What if she told him and he decided to spend the night hunting down Buck and Pa? What if he found them, and the resulting melee — and Callie was sure there would be a melee when the three of them met face-to-face again — prevented Cody from making it to the wedding, and then inheriting?
She wanted to tell him, of course. She just wasn’t sure this was the time. Perhaps after the wedding... after the honeymoon... would be better?
Needing time to think, Callie moved to the window, then drew the shades, shutting out the outside world and the storm that continued to rage overhead. The house had taken on a definite chill. Without warning, Callie found herself shivering uncontrollably. She crossed her arms tightly beneath her breasts. “It’s complicated, Cody. I’m not sure I want to get into it all tonight.”
He lifted a brow and continued to watch her steadily. “It’s not as if we have anywhere else to go tonight, or anything else to do.”
“True.” Callie watched while Cody spread out some quilts on the leather sofa in the back parlor. While Callie stood behind him and stripped off her jeans, boots and shirt, he knelt to start a fire in the grate. Clad only in her undies, which were still a little damp, she toweled the layers of her hair and wrapped herself in one of the thick quilts he’d taken off the beds earlier.
The comforter engulfing her from foot to chin, she curled up in one corner of the sofa.
Noting she was still shivering, Cody stood. “I’ll be right back.” He took the flashlight to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of brandy and two glasses. He opened the bottle and poured a generous amount into a snifter. “This will help you warm up.”
Callie shook her head, afraid the fatigue and the alcohol would work to loosen her tongue to disastrous result. “Thanks, but no,” she said politely.
Cody pressed it into her hands anyway. His blue eyes were even with hers. “Afraid of letting your guard down, even a little bit?” he queried softly as he continued to watch her in that unsettling way of his.
In so many ways, Callie thought wistfully, wishing she could make him understand everything. “Yes, I guess I am.” They had risked so much. To lose it all now would be unbearable.
Curving her fingers around the glass, he guided it to her lips and forced her to take a small sip anyway. He gave her an exasperated smile. “Then you know just how I feel whenever I’m around you.”
The brandy forged a burning path to her stomach. Callie coughed and warmth flowed into her cheeks. Another drink and her teeth had almost stopped chattering.
Satisfied, he stepped back and began to unbutton his soaked shirt. “Nevertheless, we can’t go on this way, Callie.” His shirt hit the floor. Then his boots, socks and drenched jeans and briefs. Unselfconscious in his nakedness, he rubbed a towel briskly over his hair and down his body. Wrapping a blanket loosely around his shoulders, he grabbed his own snifter of brandy and sat down beside her. “We can’t keep fighting each other and telling each other only half-truths. I can see you’re scared.” He inhaled the brandy’s aroma, then took a long drink. “But I have to know what’s going on. I have to know what made you run away from me tonight. And I have to believe it’s more than the fact you and I had a fight tonight or that we made love this morning that has you jumping around like someone who’s just seen a ghost of summers past. So what’s happening? Is someone blackmailing you? Is that what’s been going on?”
Callie put her glass aside and wrapped her own blanket around her all the tighter, obscuring her body from the neck down.
She wanted to tell him everything, but she was afraid if she did he would be out of there like a shot, hunting down Pa and Buck, storm or no storm. And there was no telling what he would do to them if he found out how much they had been pressuring her to join in their criminal activities.
She stared at the leaping flames of the fire with stony resolve. “I know you’re trying to help, and I appreciate it, Cody, really I do, but I don’t want you involved.” I don’t want you hurt again, especially on my account!
Cody turned to face her. He trailed a hand gently down her face. “Suppose I’ve decided I’ve spent too long on the sidelines already and want to be involved?” he asked softly. “What then?”
Callie thought of Pa holding the gun on her before supper. Though she tried to shut them out, his vicious words rang in her ears. We wanted you to know we mean business.... Cody McKendrick owes us.... And your brother Buck and I are going to finish it.... You find a way to get us a big cash settlement as dowry, gal, or else....”
Trembling at the memory, Callie vaulted to her feet and stalked closer to the fire. “You were hurt by your association with me once.” In fact, it was clear to see from his hermitlike existence that what had happened in Mexico had almost destroyed him. She twisted her fingers in the comforter and told him miserably, “I couldn’t bear it if it happened again.” I couldn’t bear it if this time it were all my fault.
“Which is why you were going to leave me tonight?” Cody guessed.
She stared into the fire a long moment. Then, gathering all her courage, she pivoted to face him. “And why I am still going to leave tomorrow, immediately after the wedding, just for a few days,” Callie confirmed calmly as she made up her mind, telling herself it was best that way for both of them.
She would lure Buck and Pa away on her own, away from Cody, call the sheriff and have them arrested, and then she would come back to Cody, free and clear, and tell him everything, thereby saving him all the grief. After all he had done to protect her in the past, she owed him that much and more.
“I just need time to get some personal matters straightened out.” She bit her lip, knowing this time she wasn’t running away from Cody but making it possible for her to go to him. Able to see he didn’t view it that way, however, she persuaded softly, “It’ll be better that way, you’ll see.”
Cody got up. He lowered the blanket to his waist and knotted it there, then stalked wordlessly to her side. His hands on her shoulders, he pulled her against him. She was nestled against his hard, solid body, her head on his bare chest, with only the comforters they had wrapped around their bodies between them. He pushed back the edge of the blanket and kissed the curve of her shoulder. “Without a wedding night?”
“We can have our wedding night now, if you want.” Callie splayed her hands across his shoulders and leaned into him with sensual abandon.
“And you think that’ll make up for it?” His eyes glittering with anticipation, Cody sank down into an armchair and pulled her between his thighs.
Comfortably ensconced on his lap, Callie eased her arms about his neck and looked up at him earnestly. Cody was a strong man. Strong enough for this. “I know what I am asking of you is unusual, but I’m asking you to trust me,” she said softly. I’m asking you to think the worst of me and love me anyway. Because if he could do that, then she would know he really loved her. And then she would be able to tell him everything and know he would understand.
Cody’s shoulders tensed. His expression altered swiftly. “How can I do that, Callie? How can I trust you when you’re still shutting me out this way?”
Reminded of the way his own family had shut him out from the trauma surrounding his parents’ tragic accident, the long wait, their death, Callie fell silent. She knew what he was saying. She didn’t think telling him about Pa and Buck would make things any better for him. Not tonight, not tomorrow. And certainly not if that knowledge kept him from inheriting the Silver Spur cattle operation—or worse, sent him back into the emotional wilderness from which he had just begun to emerge.
Besides, she thought wearily, Sheriff Anderson already knew. He had encouraged her to do the right thing. And Callie was. If Buck and Pa returned, she was going to turn them in to the authorities. Meantime, Cody needed to be distracted. If that meant a silly argument with her, so be it.
“Fine. You want to be difficult, then be difficult,” she stormed. Aware he was angry, upset again, she pushed away from his lap and started to step by him.
Cody sprang to his feet and caught her arm. As he tugged her back around to face him, his blanket fell to the floor, revealing six feet of naked, muscular male. “You think walking out on me again, even for a few days, won’t hurt me?” Cody demanded gruffly. His eyes were as dark and turbulent as the storm outside.
Callie tried not to notice how splendid his naked body looked in the gleaming firelight, or how much she wanted to touch every inch of him. “I—we—need some time to sort through things on our own. Until that happens, you’re better off without me, Cody.” It was her turn to protect him, she thought anxiously, just as he had tried to protect her by taking her away to Mexico. If only she could make him see that.
“No.” His gaze slid down her body, taking in the supple curves and still-damp skin. “I was never better off without you, Callie,” he said hoarsely. He tunneled his hands through her hair, tilted her head back and kissed her with surprising tenderness. Lifting his lips from hers, he said in a low voice that seemed wrenched from his very soul, “I will never be better off. Don’t you get it? I need you, Callie.” His hands glided down her spine to her waist. “I’ve needed you in my life from the first moment we met and I’ll need you with me the rest of my life.”
Callie had longed to hear him say that. “Oh, Cody, I need you, too,” she whispered joyfully. She let the blanket fall to the floor and stood on tiptoe to kiss him full on the lips. “So very, very much.”
Cody smoothed the hair from her face. “Then let me look at you,” he said in a choked, emotional voice.
Feeling gloriously beautiful and very much a desirable woman, Callie stepped back. Her heart pounding, she lifted her eyes to his.
WANTING TO REMEMBER everything about this moment, this night, Cody let his glance sift slowly over her. Callie was beautiful, dressed or undressed, but she had never looked more radiant than she did at that moment. Her hair tumbled in damp disarray to her shoulders. Her transparent ivory-lace bra and bikini were damp and clinging, outlining clearly the shadowy vee and the pale pink nipples. Her long, silky legs and slender thighs filled him with a longing that was almost painful in its intensity.
Wanting her to know how much he desired her, he cupped her bottom with both hands and pressed her against his erection. With a soft sigh, she rocked against him. Linking her arms about his neck, she stood on tiptoe and initiated a sweet, evocative kiss. Cody knew they were far from solving all their problems, but he did not care. He had to have her. He deepened the kiss, letting his tongue sweep into her mouth. Her lips softened on his, inviting him farther into her sweet, urgent heat.
Groaning at the waves of pleasure soaring through him, followed swiftly by an even more urgent need, Cody sank down onto the sofa. She followed, straddling his lap. Her hands braced on his shoulders, she sat back slightly as he unclasped her bra and freed her breasts. Her nipples were ripe, pink berries begging for his caress. She trembled as he bent and kissed them, one by one. She twined her hands around his shoulders as his mouth moved urgently, demandingly on her breasts.
Then they were kissing again. Moving to the floor. Stretching out alongside each other. Needing to know she was his and his alone, Cody ran a hand up and down the insides of her thighs. “Now,” she whispered.
Cody smiled and directed his hand higher to the soft inner folds. “Not yet.”
“Cody – ” she whispered as his tongue found her depths.
“That’s it, say my name.”
And she did, while she bucked and writhed and finally came apart in his arms. And she was still saying it as he swept up her body and took her again, completely this time. Surging deep, surging slow, he sheathed himself completely in her, filling her to the core, until the fever of their lovemaking simmered within her, and him, into a white-hot blaze of release.
For long moments neither of them was capable of doing anything. They couldn’t move, could barely breathe. Finally, afraid he would crush her if he didn’t change position, Cody shifted to his side. Callie went with him but stayed cuddled close. “If only it had been like this before,” she sighed regretfully as he kissed the soft, vulnerable curve of her throat.
“I wanted it to be,” Cody confessed as he kissed her fingertips and then the palms of her hands, her wrists. “I wanted you so much I thought I would die from the wanting. I still feel that way.” And always will.
Abruptly, Callie looked as if an enormous burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Smiling, she reached for him again. Fitting her lips to his, she drawled provocatively, “It’ll pleasure you to know, Cody McKendrick, that I feel that way, too.”