“Brady’s way” turned out to be wonderful, sensual and slow. By the time morning came, and they finally fell asleep, wrapped in each other’s arms, Kelsey had never felt so well-loved, so treasured and wanted, in her life. And unless she missed her guess, Brady was just as happy with the way she made love to him, too.
So happy that when they woke the next morning, he couldn’t seem to stop smiling any more than she could. “I think we should move all your stuff up to the house and put it in the master bedroom, along with mine,” Kelsey said as they shared a breakfast of coffee and cinnamon rolls on the front porch and watched the sun rise.
“That’s a pretty big step,” Brady said, wrapping his arm around her.
Kelsey turned to him with a contented smile. “I know.” But it felt right to her. And for now, that was all that was important.
Brady grinned and kissed the top of her head. “Well, just for the record, it suits me just fine.”
Together, they brought his belongings—which consisted of a steamer trunk of clothes and books—to the house, and put them away. As they worked, Kelsey couldn’t help but compare his meager belongings to the amount of stuff she had accumulated over the years. She’d heard about traveling light, but this was ridiculous, she thought. Surely he had more stuff somewhere.
And if not, why not?
“What are you thinking about?” Brady asked as he hung the last of his shirts in the closet, next to her shirts and jeans.
The last thing Kelsey wanted to do was put a damper on the happiness she’d found. She had a feeling asking Brady questions he had always been loathe to answer would do just that. She’d find out what she needed to know in time, she reassured herself firmly. All she had to do was be patient. Even if patience wasn’t a virtue that came easily to her. “I was thinking about how much work we have to do today,” Kelsey said, glancing out the window at the clouds gathering on the horizon. “The saddles and horses and cattle are going to be delivered this morning and it looks like a blue norther is rolling in.”
Brady switched on the weather radio beside Kelsey’s bed. It ran on batteries and only got one channel—the national weather service for their area. Forecasts were broadcast continuously.
“The cold front coming down from the north is bringing a twenty-degree drop in temperatures and a ninety percent chance of rain,” the forecaster said. “The precipitation should continue throughout the night, ending by midmorning tomorrow….”
“Darn it,” Kelsey said, shaking her head in frustration as she met Brady’s eyes. “That means I’m going to have to cancel this afternoon’s after-school riding lessons.”
“What you need is a covered arena, so your lessons can go on no matter what,” Brady said. He took her by the hand and led her outside, and showed her where he thought it should go. “It probably wouldn’t take long to build, either.”
“If we had the money,” Kelsey concurred, looking at the spot Brady had picked out behind the stables. She turned to him with a sigh. “We’ve just about spent everything Wade lent us.” They had enough for feed and vet bills, to get them through until the real money started coming in, but that was about it.
“You leave that to me.” Brady leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the lips. As the sky darkened ominously all the more, he led her back inside. “Right now we have more important things to think about,” he said.
As Brady set about pouring them more coffee, Kelsey pushed away the memories the dark clouds brought. That was how the sky had looked the day her parents had been killed in the tornado. Even though no tornado warnings had been issued, she felt a sense of foreboding, anyway.
Pushing her superstitious fear away—nothing bad was going to happen—not when she had just found the kind of all-encompassing love she had always wanted, just like her sisters had. She rubbed her arms briskly, to ward off the chill that had overtaken her. She accepted the mug from Brady and forced herself to smile at him. “And what important things would those be—besides waiting for the delivery trucks that are bringing our new horses and cattle?”
He held out her chair for her, then snapped up a pad and pen off the kitchen counter, before he sat down with her at the kitchen table. “We need to figure out what our brand is going to be.”
Kelsey had been putting off a decision on that for several months now. It hadn’t seemed important since they didn’t have much stock. Now that was about to change, she figured they were going to have to come to some decision. And soon. She hesitated, wondering if they were going to be able to agree about this. “We can’t use the sideways L my parents used to have—we let the registration lapse when we sold the ranch years ago and it’s since been taken up by someone else.”
“Maybe that’s for the best, anyway,” Brady said as he put up his arm, blocking her view of whatever it was he was drawing on the page in front of him. “Given the fact that the two of us are starting fresh and going into business together.”
Kelsey studied him. Brady was one of the most deliberate men she knew. If he had brought this up, it was because he had made a decision. “You have something in mind, don’t you?”
“Mmm-hmm.” He continued drawing, then turned the page over so she could see. “What do you think?”
Kelsey studied the two interlocking hearts, with the arrow that went through them both. “Even sort of makes sense,” Brady continued, then explained what he was proposing with a heart-stoppingly sexy smile. “Locked hearts. Lockhart.”
Kelsey flushed at the unexpectedly romantic nature of his suggestion. “I like it. As long as it’s not taken.”
“It isn’t.” Brady sat back in his chair, looking confident as all get-out. “I checked. So what do you say?” He looked deep into her eyes. “You want to register that as our brand?”
Yes, Kelsey thought. You don’t know how much. Mostly because of how much it seems to indicate you care about me and think of us as a couple now.
But almost as soon as she thought it, the practical side of her disagreed with the emotions of her heart. Adapting a brand like that set the bar pretty high for them. Since her parents had died, Kelsey had made a habit of setting the bar low, so she wouldn’t be crushed if her hopes and dreams didn’t match the reality of what actually occurred. She bit her lip, searching for an excuse that would allow him to back out gracefully, before they made even bigger fools of themselves than most people—including her family and the McCabe clan—thought she already had. “I don’t know, Brady.” Kelsey traced her finger around the rim of her coffee mug. “The other ranchers in the area might have a heyday with this.”
Brady shrugged his broad shoulders affably, as confident he was going to get what he wanted in the end, as ever. “Let ’em tease me for being romantic. I don’t care who knows you stole my heart, Kelse, ’cause you have.” He leaned across the table, took her hands in his and kissed her, sweetly and tenderly. The next thing she knew she was sitting on his lap. His arms were all the way around her. And he was still kissing her with a passion and a gentleness she had never guessed might exist when they heard the sound of a vehicle rumbling up the drive. “That’s probably one of our deliveries,” Kelsey said, reluctantly starting to break it off.
“Let ’em wait,” Brady murmured around another kiss. “Can’t they see I’m busy here?”
Kelsey giggled and let him draw her even further into the embrace. Before she knew it, Kelsey had forgotten all about their visitor, and she was kissing him back, at first sweetly and tenderly, then with building passion. One kiss turned into two, two turned into three. Brady wrapped his arms around her more tightly, bringing her closer yet. She arched against him, her breasts crushed against the powerful muscles of his chest.
“Well, seems like I owe you five bucks after all,” a familiar feminine voice said.
Kelsey and Brady turned to see Dani and Beau standing by the porch. Dani shook her head, tacitly accepting blame where it was due. “Beau’s been saying for months now that the two of you were seriously, romantically attracted to each other,” she said. “I was thinking it was just a friendship, and a pretty casual one at that. Seems he was right,” Dani continued as she and Beau came all the way up the porch, an overflowing gift basket in hand. “And it also seems I owe you an apology, Kelsey.” Hand to her pregnant tummy, she backed into the chair Beau held out for her and set the gift basket on the kitchen table. “I am so sorry I got upset about the computer.”
“It’s okay.” Kelsey waved off her older sister’s concern as she slid off Brady’s lap. “I shouldn’t have broken it.”
“You didn’t break it,” Brady interrupted, pulling her right back into his lap and anchoring his arms around her waist. “It broke on you, remember?”
Kelsey wished she could be as sure as her husband was about that.
“He’s right,” Dani said firmly, exchanging matter-of-fact looks of apology with everyone in the room. “That computer has been giving me trouble off and on for months now. I just didn’t take the time to get it looked at. And I’m really sorry I started crying and everything.” She teared up again just talking about it, and fished for a tissue in the pocket of her chic maternity pantsuit. “I’ve just been really emotional the past few months.”
“I can attest to that,” Beau said, gently patting Dani’s shoulder. “She’s even started crying at the commercials on TV.”
“Well, some of them are pretty sentimental,” Kelsey pointed out in Dani’s defense.
“The ones about floor wax?” Beau teased.
“Beau’s right. I have been weeping a lot at strange moments,” Dani said. “The doctor says it’s hormones. Anyway…” Dani handed over a basket of goodies for Kelsey and Brady. It was filled with an assortment of gourmet cheeses, wine and fruit, as well as a freshly baked loaf of sourdough bread. “I wanted to make sure we were okay, ’cause I don’t want to fight with you, Kelsey.”
“I don’t want to fight with you, either,” Kelsey said.
The two stood, and Kelsey and Dani hugged as best they could around Dani’s pregnant tummy. Dani looked at Kelsey as they drew apart. “You really are happy, aren’t you?” she said softly, looking as pleased as Kelsey was about that.
“Yes,” Kelsey smiled. “I am.”
And no one was more surprised about that than she was.
KELSEY AND BRADY SPENT the rest of the day making sure the cattle got unloaded to the appropriate pastures, the new horses put in the stable, and the saddles and tack stored for cleaning and repair as soon as they could get to it. They didn’t eat dinner until after nine, and by 10:00 p.m., they were exhausted and ready for bed when the doorbell rang.
To their amazement, Rafe Marshall was standing on their doorstep. He was dressed in a suit and tie, and looked more miserable than Kelsey could ever recall seeing him. Rafe looked at Brady. “About last night—”
“Kelsey explained.”
“Good.” Rafe gave Brady a man-to-man look. “I wouldn’t want to be responsible for any trouble between the two of you.”
“You haven’t been,” Kelsey said.
“In fact, if anything, you helped us get a few things straight,” Brady said, looking at Kelsey. He turned back to Rafe and shook his hand, then ushered him in out of the rain and chill November wind. “So it all worked out in the end.”
“I’m glad,” Rafe said, looking happy for them but no less miserable himself.
Kelsey took Rafe’s overcoat and hung it on the rack next to the door to dry. She had only to look at his face to know he had bad news. “What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned.
Rafe sat down in front of the fire Brady had built. “When I took Patricia to the Gilded Lily tonight, we had the same maître d’ you and I had last night.”
Kelsey tensed as she and Brady took a seat on the sofa. “The snooty, sarcastic one?”
“Yep. He recognized me instantly, and he pulled me aside before he seated us, and said he was glad to see me but that he hoped the woman I was with tonight was not married to someone else because he didn’t want any more ugly scenes. Patricia overheard, and she marched out of the restaurant before we could even be seated.”
Kelsey flattened a hand across her heart. “Oh, no.”
“‘Oh, no’ is right,” Rafe agreed miserably, looking at both Brady and Kelsey. “I tried explaining to her that it wasn’t what she thought, but all she wanted to know was one thing, had I been with someone else last night who was indeed married to someone else. And when I confirmed that was so, she cut me off and demanded I take her home.”
“Did you at least explain everything to her?”
Rafe shook his head, sighed heavily. “There was no point. She just wasn’t going to listen. Besides, I didn’t want to make things worse for you, and at this point, no one in Laramie knows what you and I did except Brady and he’s not telling anyone. Are you?”
“I haven’t,” Brady confirmed. “But I do think you ought to just spill all to Patricia and let the chips fall where they may.”
“I agree,” Kelsey said. “Honesty is always the best policy.”
“I’m sure she’ll understand,” Brady continued.
Rafe and Kelsey exchanged troubled looks.
“Okay, I’m missing something here,” Brady concluded quickly. “What is it?”
“Patricia was involved with a married man before she came to Laramie,” Kelsey explained. “The whole experience has left her kind of gun-shy when it comes to men.”
“The bottom line is I blew it with her, just like I figured I would,” Rafe continued. “I just wanted you two to know what happened, and that I protected Kelsey and her reputation. No one knows she was the woman there with me, and no one has to know.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Kelsey said. “Someone has to talk to Patricia and set her straight. And it’s going to be me. I’ll go and see her first thing tomorrow morning.”
RAFE MARSHALL LEFT shortly after. Brady would have thought that would have been that, as far as Kelsey was concerned, since nothing more could be done that evening, but it wasn’t. Her mood was as down as Rafe’s had been.
Figuring there was something there that needed to be talked about, Brady added another log to the fire in the fireplace to ward off the chill of the evening and brought out the bottle of wine that had been in the basket Beau and Dani had delivered earlier in the day. “Okay, tell me what’s on your mind,” he coaxed as he poured them both a glass of chardonnay.
Kelsey was a complicated woman. Brady wanted to understand her as badly as he felt she secretly wanted to be understood. But that wasn’t going to happen unless she let him. And right now, for everything she said to him, she still kept twice as much to herself. Of course, he could hardly criticize her, given what he had yet to tell her about his identity and his past, Brady thought.
“It’s nothing,” Kelsey insisted. She took a sip of her wine, then put it back on the coffee table in front of her.
“It is something if it has you looking that unhappy,” Brady disagreed as he sat down beside her.
Kelsey gave him a look that let him know she didn’t appreciate his goading. Tough, Brady thought. He wasn’t giving up until he found out what was bothering her. “If you want to play twenty questions, we can do it that way.”
Kelsey blew out an exasperated breath and leapt up from the sofa. Both hands shoved in the back pockets of her jeans, she began to pace.
Abruptly, she whirled to face him and said in a low, dead-serious tone, “If you’re smart, you’ll get out while the going is still good.”
Brady blinked, sure he hadn’t heard right. “What?”
Kelsey lifted both hands in a helpless gesture, then let them fall again to her sides. Moisture gleamed in her pretty green eyes. “I’m jinxed.” She swallowed hard and, her eyes locked with his, continued explaining sadly, “You’ve heard of Wade McCabe, and how everything he touches magically turns to gold?” she asked softly. “Well, everything I touch turns to rust.”
Brady would have laughed at the ridiculous notion, had she not been so pale. “You’re serious,” he whispered.
Kelsey nodded. She wiped her damp eyes with the back of her hand and said in a low, trembling voice, “And with good reason. This situation with Rafe is only the last in a long line of catastrophes, the only common denominator in all of them being me.” The tears she had been suppressing fell in a torrent, spilling over her cheeks and chin. “My parents died because I wasn’t where I was supposed to be and they were out looking for me.”
“That was a random act of fate, Kelsey.”
“I might believe that, too, if it were only that incident.” Kelsey shoved her hands through her hair. “But there have been dozens of them since.”
“Such as…?”
“I knew about Jenna’s botched elopement to Jake when they were teenagers. I could have stopped it, Brady. If I had, his parents might never have found out about it and taken action to separate them, and they might never have been apart.”
Brady hadn’t been around when that happened, but he had heard the story at the time Jenna and Jake had gotten married this past summer. “That was years ago, Kelse. You were just a kid yourself.”
“So? There’s no age limit on jinxes, Brady. I’m bad luck, pure and simple.” She studied him in obvious frustration. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
Brady shook his head. “No.” He stood and tried to take her in his arms, but she pushed him away.
“Maybe you would if you had been around when Meg delivered Jeremy.”
Brady leaned against the mantel. He studied the color in her face and the anguish in her eyes. Was this guilt the root of her recklessness? Was it fear behind her legendary fickleness, instead of just an inability to make up her mind or commit to any one person or thing? “What happened there?” he asked calmly, wanting—needing—to know how all these pieces fit together for her.
Kelsey sat down again on the sofa. She gulped her wine. “Meg went into premature labor when we were returning home from a shopping trip together.”
Brady watched the way her fingers tightened on the stem of her glass. “I suppose you did something to Dani, too?”
Kelsey nodded, her knuckles turning as white as her face. “I’m the one who talked Dani into going off to Mexico with Beau Chamberlain to help settle their feud.” She took another gulp of wine. “They came back married.”
Brady shrugged and countered calmly, “They look happy enough now.”
“They weren’t at first!” She set her glass back down on the coffee table. Distress tightened the pretty features of her face. “In fact, due to some weird happenings down there, neither of them could even remember saying ‘I do.’”
Brady had heard about that, too—everyone in Laramie had. “The fact they both had amnesia about their wedding was not your fault,” Brady said sternly. Guessing what she was about to say next, he said, “And neither was the fact her laptop broke while you were using it.”
“Yeah, well—” Kelsey shivered, looking as if she would never be warm again “—tell that to her the next time something happens and it can’t be fixed so easily. Tell that to Rafe, who probably had a clear shot to Patricia Weatherby’s heart until I got involved.” New tears spilled down Kelsey’s cheeks.
Brady went back to the sofa and sat down beside her. He shifted her resisting body onto his lap and cuddled her against him. He pressed a kiss into her hair. “You’re going to fix that tomorrow, we both are, when we talk to Patricia and tell her straight out what happened and why.” Brady paused. He tucked his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her head up to his. “As for everything else, in every life a little rain must fall. You can view the catastrophes that come up as problems and give up. Or you can view them as challenges and take ’em on, one right after another.” He flashed her a crooked grin designed to lift her spirits. “You know what I prefer.”
She let out a wistful breath and slowly began to smile. “You like the challenges.”
“Yep.” Brady threaded his hands through her hair, glad she had come to her senses once again. “And most of all, I like you. You’re my favorite challenge, Kelse,” he told her solemnly, loving the way she nestled against him. “The one I want to win, and dedicate myself to, more than anything else.”
Warm amusement sparkled in her eyes as she splayed her hands across his chest, rubbing, stroking. Reckless as ever, she said, “You think you’ve won me.”
Brady noticed she didn’t quibble with his desire to dedicate himself to making her happy. Deciding it was time they curtailed the talk and switched to action that would better prove the way he felt about her, he shifted her so she was lying against the back of the sofa. He stretched out beside her, cupped her cheek and gently ran his thumb along her lips.
“Famous last words,” he teased. “Especially since there’s not a challenge that’s gotten the best of me yet. You included, sweetheart.”
Kelsey grinned all the more. “Well, maybe I’ll be the first,” she murmured softly, already unbuttoning his shirt.
“I don’t think so.” He took her face in his hands and kissed her with the same deep and abiding hunger she felt. Her lips softened under his, inviting him into her sweet, urgent heat. But when he wanted her undressed, it was Kelsey who took the lead, helping him with his clothes. Touching and kissing him with a wild sensuality that surprised him, even as it pushed him toward the edge. Not about to go without her, he shifted so she was beneath him once again. Together, they dispensed with her clothes. The orange-blossom scent of her hair and skin drove him wild, and their kisses, fed by a passion that had taken on a life of its own, took on an even wilder flavor.
“Now,” she said, urging him closer.
“Not,” Brady decided, “until I’ve had my fill.”
She shut her eyes as he took her hands and anchored them on either side of her head. “I can’t wait that long,” she whispered.
“Yes, you can,” he whispered back, loving how much she wanted him. “And I’ll prove it to you.”
Ignoring her hoarse exclamation of need, he held her wrists in one hand and used his other to touch, stroke, love. She trembled and he kissed her again, taking her mouth with his, until the mating of their tongues was an intimate act without an ounce of restraint. Her skin grew hot and flushed, and her thighs splayed wide to accommodate his legs. His sex pressed against her, and a fierce wave of tenderness swept through him. He hadn’t expected her to be so vulnerable—ever. She was. He hadn’t expected her to be so open to loving him. But she made him feel like he was hers and hers alone.
Knowing, even if she didn’t, that she was the one who was conquering him, he flicked her nipples with his tongue and touched her with his lips and explored her with his hands, until she was silky wet and trembling. Ready. Wanting. Needing. Parting her knees with his, he braced a hand on either side of her and situated himself between her thighs. Her hands caught his hips, brought him against her, closed around him and guided him inside. The last of his restraint fell away as she drove him to the brink. He moved inside her, commanding everything she had to give, while at the same time availing every part of him to her. They were married. They were part of each other. And for the first time, the only time in his life, Brady learned what it was like to be with a woman, heart and soul. He hadn’t known he could want like that. He hadn’t known he could need. But he did. And so, he thought, as their climax inevitably came, did she.
They floated there, breathing hard and clinging to each other. Enjoying the aftershocks consuming their bodies, Brady touched his lips to her face, her hair. She was so sweet. So wild. And she was all his. Which left them only one thing to resolve. He shifted so he could see her face, and she could see his. “Still feel like a jinx?” he asked her softly.
“No.” Kelsey let out a trembling sigh as she pressed a kiss into his palm, gratitude and affection shimmering in her eyes. “Not anymore,” she told him confidently.
“Good,” Brady said, his satisfaction complete. He tightened his arms around her possessively. “’Cause you’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Kelse.” No question.