Daddy by Surprise (14 page)

Jack nodded. “Yeah. I can see the comparison. I’ve never been a big John Wayne movie buff. Although my mom gave me a complete set of his Westerns for Christmas, and I have to admit, some of them aren’t bad.”

He turned to look at her. The way she was working that bottom lip told him she was deep in thought. Planning. Juggling. Trying to fill everyone’s needs except her own. He’d never met anyone like her. Always ready to help, even when she was exhausted. And she had to be. He was pooped just from trying to keep up with her.

“We’re stopping at the house before heading to Blood Alley, right?”

That made her smile. He’d seen enough fistfights, fender benders and drunks with blood running down their faces the past couple of days to make him rename Thunder Alley.

“Yes. So you can get your bike. I’m not opening the booth until later this afternoon. One of Char’s friends is holding down the fort for me. He does Lakota painting.”

“Where are you going, if you don’t mind my asking?”

She hesitated long enough to make him think she might, but she answered, “Sentinel Pass. To see Libby.

You heard about Coop’s big party on Sunday, right? The whole town is invited.”

“Yeah. You mentioned it the other day, but I never heard what kind of party it is. Birthday?”

“No. A belated wedding party. He feels guilty about how fast he and Lib got married. Everyone in Sentinel Pass knows Lib and would have been invited if it wasn’t for the paparazzi, so now he’s going to do a big bash for all the locals.”

“This coming Sunday?”

She nodded.

“Libby asked you to help?”

She nodded.

“And you told her, ‘No. Sorry. I can’t take on anything else because I’m already running myself ragged.’”

He could tell by the way her eyes widened behind her sunglasses that he hadn’t done a good job of disguising his sense of outrage on her behalf. Even Kat’s father seemed to think nothing of making demands on his daughter’s time, despite the fact that she was juggling any number of jobs, raising two kids alone and going to school. And the guy was rich. While Kat had been on the phone, Buck had described in detail his recent safari adventure. Trips like that didn’t come cheap.

Jack’s father, for all his faults, had been one of the most generous men Jack had ever known. His mother might attach a few strings to her gifts, but not his dad. He just gave and gave. The fact that the boy who’d accused Dad of inappropriate behavior had been a pro bono case had seemed to irk Jack’s mother more than anything. Why, he wasn’t sure.

“By help,” Kat said, drawing his attention back to the present, “I plan to show up and do some creative mingling. Quite a few of the crew members will have arrived in town by then, and Libby’s afraid the two factions will wind up sitting on opposite sides of the street and never interact.”

“What about your booth?”

“I never work on Sundays unless the boys can be with me. We usually go to church, then do something that can’t be misconstrued as work. Hiking the Michelson Trail or swimming at Sheridan Lake. Or renting a bunch of movies. I don’t work
all
the time.”

“Hmm. Sorry I got all defensive on your behalf.”

She smiled. “No problem. It was kinda sweet. Sounds like something Mad—Never mind. What do you think of the rally so far?”

Mad. She’d been about to say a name. Madeleine? Madonna? She didn’t know about his dream, so it couldn’t have been Mad Jack.

He put the thought out of his head and answered her question as diplomatically as possible. He couldn’t tell her the truth. That he liked watching her work. That he hated the men who leered at her and the women who acted better than her. That he was falling in love with her and wasn’t sure what to do about it.

She’d made it abundantly clear that he was not her type—whatever that meant. Some women were their own worst enemies. Even smart women, like Kat. And his sister, Rachel. They made choices based on superficial reasons and later were shocked by the depth of their regret.

Fine, he told himself. Kat’s decisions were none of his business. This was his time to find himself and expand the boundaries that nearly caused him to make a choice based on the wrong reasons.

He’d learned from that near miss. He was his own man now. He hadn’t talked to his sister or mother in three days, although he had texted them both to let them know he was okay. In his travels around Blood Alley, he’d observed unpleasantly naked people doing the kinds of things his ex participated in. So far this trip, he’d imbibed more than was wise, eaten ridiculously unhealthy food and, let’s not forget, made love to a stranger. Hell, at this rate, he’d be Mad Jack before he left the Hills.

I’
M PREGNANT
.

Impossible though it seemed—the odds were so in her favor for once. They’d only made love the one time.

I mean, come on,
she thought, scowling at her reflection in the mirror. The chances seemed infinitesimal.

But she’d awoken that morning with the truth in her head. Still no period and her nipples definitely felt chafed. And the thought of the smell of coffee left a bad taste in her mouth. And she was horny as hell.

All signs she couldn’t ignore. The last had been her ex-husbands’ favorite pregnancy side effect. Raging hormones blocked her normal inhibition and turned her into a much less repressed version of herself.

She looked around the door of the bathroom to check her bedside clock. Too early to make a trip to the pharmacy for a home pregnancy test. Not that she needed a little blue stick to confirm what she already knew. But Jack probably would.

Today was Sunday. Cooper’s big party was scheduled for this afternoon, and Jack planned to take off after putting in an appearance—at Libby’s request. He’d made reservations at a motel in Edgemont, the state-line town where he’d stayed on the way here from Denver.

She couldn’t wait to pick up her sons. She missed Tag and Jordie so much she got a little weepy thinking about them. She’d talked to each boy every day and felt the experience of being away had been good for them, but she was so ready to have them back. If her friends would let them go.

Jenna couldn’t say enough about Tag’s work ethic and rapport with the tourists who came to the Mystery Spot. “He seems so much older than eight. Well, almost nine, as he tells all his coworkers. I think he has a crush on Robyn.” Robyn Craine was Jenna’s manager at the Mystery Spot. She was due to return to college in a couple of weeks, and Jenna was already sweating the loss.

Char seemed equally pleased with how her time with Jordie had turned out. “He’s an awesome kid, Kat. If I had a kid, I’d hope he’d be just as cool.”

There had been a funny catch in her friend’s usually unflappable voice when they’d talked last night, but Kat had been too exhausted to question it.

This year’s rally had nearly done her in. She’d worked through the heat, the wind and the quick summer squalls, in addition to the great horde of humanity that passed just beyond the flaps of her tent.

She’d seen everything from a woman who crashed her bike in front of Kat’s tent and nearly decked the paramedic who came to her aid to several naked people doing things they’d never have done in public if they were at home. The only thing that really surprised her, though, was Jack. He rarely left her immediate vicinity. He was like a self-appointed watchdog. And his presence had felt surprisingly comforting.

Thank God for Jack, she’d thought more than once.

Now, she didn’t know what to think. They hadn’t really talked about what might happen if the inconceivable happened—she conceived. Although it was tempting to postpone the inevitable, she knew it would be easier to talk this out face-to-face rather than over the phone.

From previous experience—both of her exes would have jumped at the plan she was going to offer Jack—and given Jack’s admitted aversion to children, she wasn’t expecting him to want to be too involved. So if he’d kick in a reasonable amount of child support, she’d let him off the hook parenting-wise.

She swallowed the bad taste in her mouth and leaned over the sink to give her teeth another go with the toothbrush. The mint flavor helped, but not much. She got a little queasy thinking about what was in store for all of them, but they’d adjust. They’d get by. Just like always.

In the meantime, she had Plan A. She quickly fluffed her hair with wet fingertips and faked a smile. What she planned to do was wrong on so many levels she’d lost count, but darn it, the worst that could happen already had, so why the heck not give in to temptation and tell him goodbye in a way he’d never forget?

She looked down at the skimpy tank top she’d pulled on, braless. Her nipples, which truly had a mind of their own even when she wasn’t pregnant, made two distinct dots against the stretchy white fabric. Two pregnancies notwithstanding, her breasts weren’t bad. Mad Jack had called them perfect.

She sighed and shook her head. She wasn’t going to think about him. She was going to seduce Jack. Jackson Boyd Treadwell. He’d given her his wallet to hold while he participated in some group tug-of-war the other day.

She’d peeked inside on the excuse she might need to know his blood type. A slightly dated group photo of Jack, his mother—Kat could tell by the eyes—and his sister was the only personal item he carried.

Despite their spending the better part of the past five days together, she didn’t really know him. He was a pleasant, generous, nicely mannered enigma. With a great body, gorgeous masculine lips and a butt that really did look sexy in chaps.

He might not be the steely eyed gunslinger of her dreams, but he turned her on, and that seemed as good a reason as any for what she was planning to do.

With a final glance in the mirror, she left the bathroom. Her heart was pounding more than she would have liked. Through the open windows in the living room, she could hear birds singing. The sky still held that pinkish glow she loved best.

The cool breeze tickled her bare legs as she dashed down the hall. With the most minimum of knocks, she opened the door and leaned in far enough to make out Jack’s outline on the bed. He slept on his side. Just like Tag. Pillow bunched under his head. Arm stretched out. The covers were pushed down to his waist. His chest was bare.

Her mouth went dry and her courage almost left her. But that indefinable something that got her into this mess in the first place felt more powerful than ever. Swoo. Desire. Hormones. She didn’t know its name. And at the moment she didn’t care. She just knew this would be her last chance to create a memory, not a dream.

Jack heard the door open, but he kept his eyes closed. Kat’s house was so small and poorly built he’d actually heard her get out of bed and pace around a bit before brushing her teeth. He hadn’t expected her to stop at his door, but she had. Now she was advancing slowly toward the bed.

He assumed that since he was leaving in a few hours, it was time for the I’m-not-pregnant-and-there’s-reallyno-reason-for-us-to-see-each-other-again talk. She’d adroitly managed to avoid the subject of their night together any time he tried to bring it up. He might have pressed harder if he hadn’t observed that most people in Kat’s life demanded things of her without any regard for her own agenda.

There was another reason he hadn’t pushed her for an answer. He liked her. More than liked. He was ridiculously attracted to her. There was a distinct chance he was falling in love with her. Kat. Not Katherine, the woman in his dream. It had taken this week for him to see that Kat was everything Katherine was—and more. While both women were smart, witty and brave, Katherine projected a sort of self-contained perfection. Kat was far from perfect, but she put herself on the line in ways Mad Jack’s schoolmarm would never dare.

Kat would take on any bully—even her father—to protect a friend…or her beloved bison. Unfaltering in her loyalty. Maddeningly single-minded when it came to her friends and family. The kind of person he wished his mother had been when his father had been in trouble.

Maybe somewhere along the way, he’d concluded that familial integrity only existed in yesteryear. His subconscious even provided the woman of his dreams. But then he met Kat. And reality was so much better.

Unfortunately she’d kept him at arm’s length in a neat little box of her own design. He would have been hurt if he didn’t understand exactly what she was doing—and why. He’d done the same thing with relationships all his life.

A board under her heel made a creaking sound and he used the cue to move. Trying not to overplay his role, he let out a muffled moan and rolled to his back.

“You’re awake, aren’t you?”

He kept his eyes closed, but he couldn’t prevent a grin. “Maybe, but if you’re naked, I’m pretty sure I’m dreaming.”

She hopped onto the bed beside him. Her weight made the mattress sag just a little and he rolled toward her. “I’m not naked…but I could be…if you wanted me to be.”

His eyes flew open. “Really?”

She wasn’t nude, but the few scraps of cloth she was wearing were more provocative than she could possibly know. White tank top that dipped low across the tops of her breasts. Their fullness outlined in shadow, her nipples clearly erect. The shirt’s hemline barely skimmed the elastic waistband of her French-cut panties. He could see a few golden-blond curls peaking out beneath the lavender silk.

He swallowed hard and shifted slightly so he didn’t embarrass himself. “Tell me you’re not here to—”

She leaned down and kissed him. “I’m here because I want to be. No hidden agenda. No strings. We’re unattached people who like each other, I think. I’m not wrong, am I?”

Like
truly didn’t cover the depth of his feelings, but it was enough for now. He reached out and gently ran his hand along her cheek and jaw. “You’re not wrong.” Then he pulled back the sheet to welcome her closer.

The room was light enough for her to see his body’s reaction to her offer. She didn’t lie down beside him as he expected. Instead, she curled her feet under her and lifted up slightly to pull her tank top over her head. The sight of her beautiful bare breasts and lean, tanned torso made every ounce of testosterone in him surge through his blood.

“You are incredibly sexy,” he said. “Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.”

Her cheeks were too pink. That didn’t surprise him. He knew she didn’t handle compliments well, but he couldn’t help lavishing praise as he touched her. “Your skin is the prettiest color I’ve ever seen. Last time, I thought it was candlelight that gave it this warm, sunny glow, but no. This is you. Beautiful Kat.”

She cocked her head in question.
Last time.
He didn’t want to mention his fantasy woman, Katherine. Now was not the time to bring up another woman’s name—even if she was a figment of his imagination and probably some subconscious incarnation of Kat.

To distract her, he took her hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed each fingertip, stained with henna. There wasn’t a part of his body he wouldn’t trust to her capable hands. He wanted to tell her that, but he didn’t think she’d believe him.

She wriggled close enough for him to smell her warmth and raw sexual perfume. Need hit him at a gut level. It took all his self-control not to pin her below him and take what she appeared to be offering.

“I woke up horny,” she said. “Foreplay is nice and all, but I’m…um…ready for whatever.”

Not what he was expecting to hear. Not his shy, straitlaced Kat. He’d never even heard her swear. But when he looked in her shining blue eyes, he understood. This was about mutual need. The sexual tension that had been building all week wasn’t one-sided.

“Then by all means, my dear, hop aboard,” he said, flopping backward—exposed. Vulnerable.

She looked her fill and actually licked her lips. “Nice package,” she said, her blush intensifying. “I understand that’s the correct lingo these days. I don’t remember looking that closely last time.”

“Thanks. I aim to please.”

“I can see that, but if you don’t mind…I…um…Oh, heck, I’m just going to say this. You mentioned something about fantasies when I first met you. And that got me thinking about something I’ve wanted to try but didn’t exactly know how—or who—to ask. Would you be up—no pun intended—for a little…um…bondage? Nothing kinky, just…”

The word threw him for a second. It reminded him of Jaydene. But only for a second. This was Kat. Sweet, shy, adorable Kat, who was offering him yet another chance to prove something to himself. If he dared.

He held out his hands, wrists together. “Anything you want. I’m your man.”

Her grin lit up the room for a second before she vaulted from the bed. “I’ll be right back.”

She returned with two men’s ties. One a sober blue. The other a gaudy paisley print. “I promise this won’t hurt,” she said, taking his left hand and stretching it out toward the knobby bedpost.

“I probably shouldn’t admit this,” she went on, “but when I bought this bed for Tag, I actually thought the headboard had all sorts of possibilities.” Her blush was so adorable he almost blurted out his love for her.

Not yet. Too soon. She wouldn’t believe me.

“I promise not to tell him,” Jack said. Like that kind of conversation would ever come up. He’d never talked sex with his dad, and couldn’t imagine discussing the subject with someone else’s kid.

She climbed over him to secure the other wrist. He watched as she made a quick, efficient flip of the wrist and pulled a loop through the knot. “Where’d you learn to tie so well?”

“The ranch. My dad didn’t think I was smart enough to go to college, so he wanted me to have some marketable skills.”

“Like tying up men?”

She laughed. “Like tying up horses.”

She sat back and looked him over. “Cool. Now I pretty much have you at my mercy, don’t I?”

He flexed first one arm, then the other. He definitely wasn’t going anywhere. “I believe you do, Miss Katherine.”

He winced. The name had slipped. He saw her eyebrows knit for a moment, then she shrugged lightly and straddled his waist. She wiggled provocatively. He wanted to touch those perfect breasts. But when he reached out, his arm stopped well short of her.

“Whoa. I don’t think I like this. I can’t touch you.”

“Sure you can. But only the parts I let you touch.” To prove her point, she leaned over and put his left hand on her breast. His right fingers came in contact with her leg.

He closed his eyes and stretched to get the most for his reach. Then she moved again. She put her hands on either side of his face and leaned down to kiss him.

“I didn’t expect this, you know,” she told him, running her tongue across his bottom lip.

“Expect what?”

“Everything. You surprised me. On so many levels.” She trailed tiny kisses down his neck and across the top of his collarbone. Her fingers played with his flat nipples until they stood rigid. Every sensation wreaked havoc on his self-control, but the ties around his wrists kept him from trying to take over the seduction.