The Bull Rider's Twins (9 page)

Rafe sighed. “If you don't think that women are doing that every day of your life already, you're dumb.”

Sam sniffed. “Well, we can't tell Fiona. She'd just throw a party. That's her answer for everything. Party, party. It's her stress buster.”

“Any news on the filing?” Jonas asked. “What's the update on our legal status?”

Sam shrugged. “We could stand for Judah to get married and populate this joint. If we had a small city of kiddies here, maybe we could make a case that we are the people. The people would be best served by us keeping the ranch and opening an elementary school for the community. Something like that, anyway.”

Rafe straightened. “That's a great idea. We need an elementary school. I like kids. I like school bells. Let's build a school with a school bell!”

Jonas sighed. “Let's not put the bell before the babies, all right? First we have to get Judah to slide over home plate.”

“Yeah,” Rafe said, “and since he told me I could marry the mother of his children, I'm pretty sure he's not in love. It would stand to reason.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “You wouldn't even need a lawyer to make that case. If I was in love with a woman, I wouldn't let any of you fatheads near her. Probably not even to offer her a glass of water.”

“You're selfish, though,” Jonas said. “Maybe Judah is more generous.”

His brothers blew a collective raspberry at him.

“Judah's not in love,” Sam said, “or he would have kicked Rafe's ass when he told him he was going to pop the question to Darla.”

“Yeah,” Rafe said, “and my ass is un-kicked. It's depressing.”

“Look at that,” Jonas said, waving at his brothers to come
to the bunkhouse window. “Darla just came out of the house. She's heading this way.” He glanced at Rafe. “Suppose she's changed her mind about you?”

“Hide me,” Rafe said. “She's got a gleam in her eye that doesn't bode well.”

“Where's Judah?” Jonas asked. “We need him front and center to catch this incoming fireball.”

“Probably in the tub with his rubber ducky. How would I know?” Sam asked.

“Let's sneak out the back,” Jonas said. “They'll find their way to each other eventually, and I don't want to be in the path of love.”

“Or not,” Rafe said. “Last one out the back door has to tell Fiona we screwed up Judah's life.”

The brothers did their best Three Stooges impersonation getting out the door. Judah heard the back door slam, looked out his bedroom window in time to see the trio of siblings running for the barn.

“Immature,” he muttered, pulling on a shirt. “Always competing.”

“Judah?” a female voice called, and he grinned.
I knew that little gal couldn't resist me.

“Hi,” he said, framing himself in the bedroom doorway. “Little Red Riding Hood must be looking for her wolf,” he said, taking Darla by the hand and tugging her into his room. He locked the door. “Lucky for you, I just happen to be
very
hungry.”

“Very funny.” Darla swallowed her unease. “I'll wait out in the den.”

“Don't be scared. I'll be good to you. No biting.”

Warily, she removed her hand from his. She hesitated to be anyplace that contained Judah and a bed, but he was hardly going to jump on her and eat her like a chocolate bunny. As he said, no biting.

“I brought you this,” she said, trying not to look at him as she set his ring on the nightstand. She glanced around, curious in spite of herself. His bunkhouse room was sparsely furnished, but he kept it neat. The quilt on the bed was vintage, a beautiful patchwork pattern that must have taken months. Someone had cared deeply about the project. But Darla could hardly pay attention to the room's decor when Judah's shirt was open and he was zipping up his work jeans. She wished she hadn't accepted his invitation to enter his lair.

Bedroom.
It was just four walls. Four walls and a bed where they could be together.

There was a time she'd dreamed of nothing more.

“I'm not marrying you, Judah,” Darla said, and he grinned at her, a slow, confident grin that unsettled her and got her off her planned script.

“I got that part.” He jerked his head toward the ring. “Rafe talk you out of it?”

“No.” Darla frowned. “Did you want him to?”

He shrugged. “Only if you could be talked out of marrying me. I knew you wouldn't say yes to him. He's too wild and woolly for a straight-laced little mama like you.”

She raised her brows. “You're not exactly tame yourself.”

“But the difference is,” Judah said, sitting on the bed to pull on his boots, “I'm willing to be tamed.”

“I'm pretty sure every single woman in this town has set her cap for you at one time or another,” Darla said, “and you've never been available for more than a one-night stand. Two nights at the most, according to gossip.”

Judah grinned. “I wouldn't pay attention to gossip, darlin'. This town loves to talk, but talk's cheap.”

“It may be cheap,” Darla said, “but it's usually pretty much on the money.”

He laughed. “Let's just say I'm trying to mend my ways, then.”

“Anyway,” Darla said, “let's go back to being the way we were before we ever…you know. Next time I talk to you—”

“I'll be a father?” He winked. “I think you're going about this all wrong, sweetheart.”

“What do you mean?”

He leaned back, lounging on the bed. “This Dear John business. It's premature.”

She edged toward the door, not trusting the look in his eyes, which had turned distinctly predatory. “How so?”

“Usually a Dear John letter is reserved for people who are breaking up, which implies that there was a relationship of some sort. We have no relationship. I would suggest, therefore, that you don't know what you're missing out on.”

She blinked, trying to follow his thought process. “What exactly
am
I missing out on?”

He moved off the bed and took her in his arms. “Let me show you what you're trying to write off, babe.”

She could feel warmth, and strength, and full-on sex appeal radiating from him. It made her weak in the knees, faint in the heart. The problem was, she'd always been in love with this man. She couldn't remember a time she'd ever wanted someone else. He ran his hands along her forearms up to her shoulders and she froze, mesmerized by his touch. She had no wish to escape him; she'd wanted to be in his arms for too many years. “This isn't a good idea.”

“We don't know that it's a bad idea, either.”

He kissed her on the lips, and she melted into his embrace. It hadn't been a dream; she hadn't imagined the overwhelming passion that swept her when he held her. At some point, she wondered why she was bothering to fight him when she wanted to be with him so much.

It was something about pride, she reminded herself, and not wanting to trap him. But it felt as if he was trying to entice
her
into a trap. “Judah,” she said, breaking away from his kiss, “parenthood isn't a good reason to marry.”

“It's not the worst reason. Ships have been launched because of babies, fiefdoms have risen and fallen. I say you let me kiss you for a while before we try to solve the world's big questions. Let's just figure out if you even like kissing me before you Dear John me.” He slipped his hands along her waist, holding her against him. “You'd hate to kick yourself later for giving away a very good thing.”

He was so darn confident that he held all the keys to her heart. Darla supposed he was like this with every woman. “Maybe the only way to prove that you're not as irresistible as you think you are is to prove you wrong.”

“I'll take that dare,” Judah said. “What time do you have to open the shop?”

She looked at him, her blood racing. “What difference does that make? You just kissed me, and I can live without
it,” she fibbed outrageously. “There's nothing between us that neither of us can't live without.”

“I never said that,” Judah said, “and you need to stop thinking so hard, my jittery little bride. I haven't even begun to kiss you.”

T
WO HOURS LATER
, Darla opened her eyes. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed, trying to leap from the bed, where Judah had seduced her until she was nothing but a boneless mush of crazy-for-him. He lay entangled with her so that she couldn't free herself from him, possessive even in sleep. He'd made her gasp with pleasure, cry out with delight, and then the man slept practically on top of her, assuring himself that she wouldn't get away without him knowing. She tried to move his big arms and legs off her, and he opened sleepy eyes, grinning at her.

“Move, Judah,” she said, pushing at him. “I'm late to open the store!”

“Bad girl,” he said, running a lazy hand over her hip. “Have the customers been waiting long?” he asked, kissing her shoulder.

“An hour.” She felt his sneaky hand caress her backside, slip a finger inside her. She pushed at him with a little less enthusiasm, and he licked at one of her nipples, teasing it into instant hardness.

“Ready to tear up that Dear John letter yet?” he murmured.

“No,” she said with determination. “Just because we had sex does not mean we're right for each other, Judah.”

“Hmm,” he murmured. “Clearly I have more convincing to do. The customers will have to wait while I plead my case.”

He pressed her into the sheets, kissing her, torturing her with sexy passion, giving her no room for thinking of any
thing but him. Darla felt herself giving in once again. He knew exactly what he was doing to her.

The problem was, she didn't know if she worked the same magic on him.

“W
HAT IF THERE'S NO SUCH
thing as forever?” Darla asked Jackie that afternoon. “What if forever is just smoke and mirrors?”

Jackie glanced at her as she put away hand-beaded garters. “If you're talking about being audited, I'd say forever would be a real pain and I would hate it. I'd break the mirror and blow the smoke away.”

Darla wrinkled her nose. “Forever as in marriage.”

“Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind. We sell the prepackaging to the dream here.” Jackie waved a hand around the room. “We never thought we'd be so successful when we were planning this little adventure. We said, ‘let's give it a shot and see how dumb we are to give up a good job, and try to sell dreams in a bad economy.'”

Darla nodded. “We did jump off a cliff without knowing what was beneath us.”

Jackie nodded. “Marriage is the same thing.”

Darla stared at her. “Does Pete know you feel like this? That you just took a leap of faith?”

“He took a leap of faith, too. I think it's harder for guys.” Jackie giggled. “They don't know if we're going to decorate with lace doilies and leopard-skin rugs. They don't know if we're going to cook for them, or if we can. When Pete married me, he knew little about my cooking and less about how I might decorate. And then there's the biggest question of all.”

Darla's eyes went wide. “Do men have all these deep thoughts? Or do they just dive in and hope it goes well?” Judah was probably a “diver.” He didn't seem interested in her cooking or decorating. “What's the super-question?”

“Whether we're going to give them a lot of sex after marriage, or if we're just trying to drag them to the altar with lassos of lust.”

Darla blinked. “They worry about that?”

Jackie shrugged. “It's a fact that there's a lot more nookie going on in the beginning than later. But that could be for any number of reasons, not necessarily lack of enthusiasm on the female's part.”

“Have you been reading these bride magazines?” Darla sank onto a cabbage rose-printed sofa. “I don't think Judah worries too much about lovemaking.”

“Because he's in romance mode right now. But on a subconscious level, he's figured out whether he wants to make love to you all the time, and if you'd like it. They like enthusiasm, too.”

“Gee,” Darla said, “all I was worried about was whether there was such a thing as forever.”

“You're thinking romantically. Guys think logically. With their need barometer.” Jackie giggled. “The comforts of hearth, home, kitchen, bed.”

Darla liked being in bed with Judah—too much, if anything. “But there has to be more.”

“Not for men. They don't get caught up in the fairy tale. It's pretty cut-and-dried.”

“It doesn't sound very romantic.”

“A moment ago you were wondering if forever was practical. It's not an illusion if both people have the same goals.” Jackie laid some white gloves in the case. “Have you ever listened to the brides who come in here? They never talk about how wonderful their guys are. They talk about the dress, the flowers, the cake. Nothing that lasts.”

“That's true,” Darla said.

“They're in love with the icing,” Jackie said, “when they should be focused on the cake.”

“I don't remember you being so focused,” Darla said. “When did this happen?”

“After I let Pete sweep me off my feet.” She smiled. “You should let Judah sweep you. Trust me, it's a whole lot of fun to be romanced by your man.”

Jackie and Pete had gotten married after Jackie had a surprise pregnancy. Pete appeared to be gaga over his bride—still.

“Even with three newborns, the romance is—”

“Hotter than a pistol.” Jackie closed the cabinet. “I wouldn't worry about forever so much, Darla. I'd be enjoying my nights, if I was you. And coming in late every once in a while is a good thing, too. I can cover opening the store.”

Darla blushed, wondering if Jackie knew that she hadn't been late because she'd overslept. Darla never overslept. “I can't think about anything else when he makes love to me,” she admitted. “I'm holding out to see if we have anything in common that's not physical, but I'm not sure I'm going to be any good at telling him no. I gave Sabrina the magic wedding dress back, and then I found myself in bed with Judah. And it was wonderful.”

“You
are
running in place, aren't you?”

Darla blinked. “You're right. I need a new plan.”