A Real Cowboy Never Says No (20 page)

He pulled himself halfway out of the water, and it streamed in sensual rivulets over his body. His biceps flexing from gripping the rock, he swung out over the water, extending his hand toward her. "Time to pay the toll, my pretty."

She laughed at his wicked voice. "This is a really expensive theme park."

"You're in Wyoming. We're the land of pricey resorts." He caught her hand and pulled her in for another kiss.

It lasted longer this time, and got a little bit steamier. By the time the toll was satisfied, there was no way to blame her perky nipples on the cold water. "Should we do flips this time?" She scurried up the rock, laughing as he sped up past her, apparently finding a second path in the rocks.

"You can flip?" he asked.

"Yep. I did gymnastics as a kid, and some cheerleading." She reached the top of the rock and shook her hair out as she walked over to the edge.

"Cheerleading? You seem much too serious for cheerleading," Chase said as he walked up beside her. "I could see you being editor of the school newspaper."

She grinned. "I was that as well, but yes, cheerleader. I liked the flips." She cocked her head. "Didn't you play football?"

"I did. College and high school." He studied her. "I think football players are supposed to date the cheerleaders. Want to share an ice cream sundae with me on Sunday afternoon?"

She burst out laughing. "I want my own ice cream." She patted her belly. "I have to eat for two, you know."

"Damn. And here I thought I'd just come up with a brilliant way of getting close to you. I'm going to have to work on my skills." He managed to look cranky, which just made her laugh even more.

"Ready?" She turned toward the water, taking a breath to calm herself and focus. It had been a long time since she'd been upside down. She flexed her muscles, activating memories long stored.

Chase was still beside her. "Together?"

She glanced at him, and something tightened in her chest. "Side-by-side flips? You don't think we'll kill ourselves?"

"Nope. I don't."

She nodded, a sense of rightness settling over her. "I don't either. Side-by-side then."

"You call it."

"Okay." She flexed her hands. "On three. One."

He moved a few inches away from her, giving them both space.

"Two."

They both bent their knees slightly, stabilizing their balance.

"Three!"

She took three steps, swung her arms, and launched herself off the rock, tucking her chin. To her delight, her body rotated just as she'd intended, and she had executed a complete somersault before her feet even hit the water. Chase flipped in perfect synch with her, grinning at her as they went upright. She let out a whoop of laughter, throwing her arms above her head in victory as her feet broke the surface of the water and she plunged beneath the surface.

Perfection, in every way.

The moment was heaven.

Chase stretched out on the blanket he'd brought with him, the rough surface warm against his back. Mira lay against him, using his stomach as a pillow as she pointed out shapes in the clouds.

He grinned contently as he played with her drying hair. He was valiantly trying to discern the animals she could see in the sky, but all he could see were floating balls of white fluff, constantly changing shapes.

It wasn't that he had no imagination. It was that all he could think about was the woman who'd spent the last hour leaping off the rock, doing more acrobatics than he could ever hope to do without breaking his neck, though he'd certainly tried. He'd crashed more times than not, completely schooled by her talent.

But it had been hilarious.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so hard. Mira's laughter had been infectious, each of them igniting more humor in the other, until finally, exhaustion had done them in. Well, not him, but he'd been carefully tracking her energy level, aware that her body was supporting two.

The moment he saw her energy dip and her shoulders start to slump, he'd suggested a break, and she'd agreed right away.

And now...what had been high-octane fun had morphed into quiet, peaceful intimacy that was equally perfect. She fit, he realized. She fit the ranch, she fit the horses, and she made him happier than he'd ever been.

He reached down and placed his free hand on her belly. There was a slight swell now, but it was still, devoid of any telltale movement. "When can you feel it start to kick?"

She went still, and he felt her stiffen slightly. "Around four to five months, I think. A while."

"I bet that's wild." He rubbed his thumb over her belly, almost unable to believe that a live human being was forming inside her body. He didn't want her to feel threatened by his touch. He wanted to be the one to ease her stress, not magnify it. "Pretty amazing, isn't it?" He kept up the slow, deliberate caress on her belly.

She relaxed slightly. "It is."

They were both silent for a moment, but it was no longer a tense silence.

"Chase?"

"Yeah."

She put her hand over his. "I think you'll be a great father."

His hand stilled on her belly. "You do?"

"I do." This time, it was Mira who began a slow caress, tracing her fingers over the back of his hand. "Even if we don't get married, I'm going to put you in my will as the baby's guardian. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have look out for it if something happens to me. Is that okay?"

A ball seemed to lodge itself in Chase's throat. "Yeah, sure. Of course it's okay."

"Good." A faint smile played at the corners of her mouth, a smile so sweet that he found himself wanting to lose himself in it.

He grinned, untangling the ends of her hair. A lock fell free and floated over his chest, across a long scar from the horsewhip his father had found at the town dump one day. His smile faded, and that old, familiar fear clamped across his chest. As idyllic as this moment was, it didn't hide the truth of her life, and of the demon chasing her and the baby. He knew suddenly that it didn't matter what his brothers thought. Mira and her baby deserved to be protected, and he was all they had. He was their protector, end of story. He knew it, without any doubt whatsoever, whatever the repercussions were with his brothers. "Mira?"

"Hmmm..." Her eyes fluttered closed, and he felt her head become heavier against his stomach as she began to doze off.

"I think we should get married."

Her eyes snapped open, and she turned her head to look at him. "Why?"

He shrugged. "It feels right."

She smiled slightly, and his heart seemed to stutter in his chest at her relaxed smile. "It's felt right all along, hasn't it? You think it's all because of AJ?"

He took time to consider her question, then finally he gave her the truth. "I don't know how much of it is the last ten years, and how much of it has been the last few weeks. I don't think I can divide it." He lightly squeezed her belly. "I just know that I want to protect both of you." His gaze flicked to his scarred forearm. "We can't leave anything to chance."

She stared up at the sky, watching the clouds. "What has changed with your brothers?" she asked. "I can tell you meant it just now, when you said we should get married."

"Nothing has changed with them, but I've changed. I know it's right, and if I know it's right, they'll come around. You saw Travis. He understood."

"He understood for a few months of free room and board. Not for the full nine months, let alone marriage."

"It was a start. We've all been knocked around by our father. They'll get it." He knew they would, because they had to. "There's no way on this earth that I can do anything but commit every last resource I have to you and the baby."

He saw a tear trickle out of the corner of her eye, but she didn't look at him. "Do you love me, Chase?"

"I've always loved you." The words were automatic and natural, a truth that he'd lived with for over a decade.

She turned her head to look at him again. "Not like that. Do you love me so desperately that you feel like you'll never be whole again unless I'm by your side?"

Fear clamped down on him, even though a part of him burned to say yes, to acknowledge that she'd described exactly what he felt like, putting into words that which he couldn't articulate himself. But he didn't. Because he knew he couldn't. Instead, he shook his head. "I can't do that. I can't even let anyone that close, even if I want to." But if he were capable of letting someone matter that much to him, it would be her.

"I see." She closed her eyes, putting distance between them, distance that made him want to shout in denial.

Swearing, he caught her hand, drawing her attention back to him. "Don't you understand, Mira? I know I can't give you promises of soul-searing love, but I'm giving you every last thing I have to give. Whatever love I'm capable of, it's yours. My money. My home. My family. My brothers will become yours. I'm offering you my circle of protection. It's everything to me. It's all I have to give, and it's yours."

He knew it wasn't enough, not for Mira the woman, but maybe, just maybe, it would be enough for her as a mother who needed to protect her child.

Mira bit her lip. "Chase—"

"Can you afford to say no? What if Alan comes for you? What if he finds you living in town, and your only safety is my name on the kid's birth certificate? A name on a line isn't going to be enough, Mira. Are you willing to risk it for the baby?" He knew he was being unfair, pushing her at her most vulnerable, but he didn't know what else to do. All he knew was that he
had
to make her a part of his world. He knew that he alone wasn't enough, but his protection might be. It
had
to be. "You know we get along. We have great sex. We fit okay, and the baby will be safe."

Gone was the hesitation that had plagued him at first. He knew, without a doubt, that Mira was the missing piece of his life, the very thing he'd been waiting for all these years. She made him laugh. She made his house feel like a home. She enriched the life he wanted to live.

His brothers would get on board, one by one. She could be the anchor that held them all together in a way he could never do, because he couldn't articulate or express the warmth that she could. "Marry me, Mira."

She didn't answer, and he felt his soul freeze, hovering in terrified anticipation of what she might say. Had he pushed her too far to the edge? She had a job now, and was on her way to supporting herself. Soon, she wouldn't need him, except to deal with Alan.

She sat up, facing him, her blue eyes searching his face. "Chase—"

The sudden roar of a motorcycle broke through the moment. They both turned to see a bike hurtling across the plains toward them. It took Chase only a split second to realize it was Zane.

Alarm ripped through him, and he lunged to his feet. What in the hell was his brother doing out there on his bike?

Mira grabbed her jeans and yanked them on. "Who is it?"

"My brother." Chase jerked his own pants on, watching the dust spiral from Zane's tires as he sped toward them. "He never comes out here. Something's wrong." Instinctively, he shaded his eyes to look toward his ranch, half-expecting billows of smoke to be filling the air, but the sky was blue.

The relief that his ranch wasn't on fire was fleeting, replaced by the gnawing realization that it had to be something else equally wrong. He jerked on his shirt and shoved his feet in his boots as Mira got dressed.

The horses were dancing in agitation as Zane roared up. Chase suddenly recalled that he'd silenced a call from Zane just before they'd headed out to ride.

He grabbed Mira, pulling her back as the back tire came to a stop inches from her bare toes. "What's wrong?"

Zane jerked his helmet off and dragged his forearm across his sweaty forehead, his face lined with absolute fury as he shot Mira a look so deadly that Chase stepped in front of her. "What's going on?" Chase asked.

His brother jerked his gaze off Mira. "Steen's been stabbed. Some altercation in the prison yard. They think he's going to die. We can't get in to see him, because you're the only one on his visitor list. I've been trying to reach you all fucking morning, and you've been out here with
her
while your own brother is dying? What the fuck, man? We have to go!"

Chase felt the bottom drop out of his gut. "Son of a bitch." Without hesitation, he swung his leg over the back of the bike as Zane gunned the engine. "Can you take the horses back?"

Mira's face was ashen. "Of course," she said. "I'll take care of everything. Go!"

Chase just had time to shout his thanks over the roar of the engine, and then the bike was hurtling across the high desert, bouncing over ruts as they raced back toward the ranch in a race for the life of one of the few people in the world who mattered to him, who had been dying alone while he'd been swimming with a girl.

Steen looked like he was already dead.

Stunned by the state of his younger brother, Chase sank down next to the hospital bed. Despite his attempts to visit, Steen had refused to see him for over two years. His head was shaved, several new scars marked his skull, and his skin was ashen. Tubes were coming out of his arms, and his bare torso was wrapped in bandages. Around his wrist was a handcuff, locking him down to the bed like he was a fucking criminal who would rip off his tubes and start shooting up the hospital.

Of anyone who he thought would wind up in prison, it wasn't Steen. Son of a bitch. "Steen." Chase leaned forward in his chair, whispering urgently. "You with me?"

"He goes in and out of consciousness." A nurse walked up, carrying a clipboard. Behind her, Chase could see the police officer on duty to guard his brother. "You must be Chase Stockton."

"Yeah, what's going on?"

She smiled. "Excellent. I'm so glad you're here. Steen was asking for you when he first came in for surgery, before he lost consciousness. We tried to call at the time, so he could at least hear your voice, but we were unable to get through. We had to go ahead with the surgery. There was a lot of damage, and he's already showing signs of infection. We're doing what we can, but he has to want to live in order to fight through it. He has a long recovery ahead even with the right attitude."