Almost a Bravo

by Christine Rimmer

  When she finished telling all of it, he said, “You like this guy you married.” It wasn’t a question. “You think he’s a good guy.”

  “I do, yes. And he is good, Daniel.”

  “I believe you.”

  “I couldn’t let him lose his ranch. That ranch is everything to him.”

  “I get that.”

  “And hey.” She tried for lightness. “There’s a fifty K payoff for me when it’s over.”

  He grunted. “I know you better than that. You wouldn’t marry anyone for a payoff.”

  She swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat. “I love you, Daniel.”

  “I love you—and with Keely’s help, I’ve been making a real effort lately not to butt in, trying to let you and our brothers and sisters run your own lives, make your own choices.”

  “Shut the front door.” She couldn’t help grinning. “You, staying out of our business. That’s a lot to ask.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Another thing, Daniel. I, um, agreed with Jaxon that we wouldn’t tell anyone the specific terms of the will. Martin put this phrase in there that the marriage had to be ‘more than in name only.’ It just seemed wiser not to go around telling people we have an arrangement so that Jax can keep Wild River. I’ve let everyone else think it’s a marriage like most marriages. For love and forever.”

  “But I can discuss it with Keely?”

  “Of course. She knows everything, too.”

  “It’s your choice how you want to handle that. I won’t tell anyone—and you said Percy’s already looking into contacting Madison Delaney...” He shook his head. “I can’t believe it. We have a sister we’ve never even met.”

  “Yeah. It’s a lot to deal with, huh?”

  He said nothing for a moment, but his sea-blue eyes were watching her. “You are still my sister,” he said quietly. “That will never change.”

  Her vision blurred and her throat clutched. “Oh, Daniel...”

  “Come on, now.” He rose, came around the table and pulled her up to wrap her in his arms. She held on tight until he took her shoulders and pulled back. “It’s not only blood that makes us a family,” he said. “It’s all the years, together—every loss, every triumph, every trial we came through, stronger than ever. You are a Bravo. You always will be.” He put on his sternest look, the one he used to wear when she’d done something she shouldn’t have. “You’d better remember that.”

  “I will.” She pushed the words out around the big lump in her throat.

  “Don’t make it necessary for me to override Keely’s wise advice and go full-out substitute dad on your ass.”

  That brought a pained chuckle. “Can’t have that.”

  He squeezed her shoulders and then released her. “I’m going to call Percy, get him to bring me up to speed on what’s happening with Madison Delaney.”

  “That’ll work.” She told him about the family meeting Keely was setting up and realized she felt better, now that he knew what was going on. Keely had been right. She’d needed to tell him.

  “Stay for dinner?” he asked.

  She thought of Jax. He was probably wondering where she’d run off to. In the eight days they’d been married, she’d always returned to the ranch by five or so. “Not tonight, thanks. I need to get back.”

  * * *

  She’d left her phone in the car. When she slid in behind the wheel, she saw that the little blue light was blinking with a text from Jax. Everything okay? Are you coming home for dinner?

  Home. Already Wild River kind of did feel like home.

  Did she need to watch herself, to make more of an effort not to get too attached?

  Her phone rang in her hand. Jax. She couldn’t help smiling just at the sight of his name. She put the phone to her ear. “Sorry. I’m still in Valentine Bay. I had some stuff to deal with, but I’m on my way now. I’ll be there in half an hour or so.”

  “We’ll wait dinner for you, then.”

  “No. Really. It isn’t necessary.”

  “We’ll wait,” he said again, that low, almost-gruff voice of his reaching right through the phone to her, sending warmth curling down inside her, making her belly feel all fluttery.

  Sheesh. Keep your pants on, girl. “All right. See you soon.”

  * * *

  At Wild River, the house smelled of savory roast chicken and fresh-baked bread. She washed her hands and joined Jax, Erma and Burt at the table.

  Burt just had to make a snide remark. “So great you finally joined us, Princess.”

  Jax said, “Burt,” in a warning tone and Aislinn had to hide a smile. Princess, she decided, was a definite improvement over calling her Judy.

  Burt mumbled something else. Aislinn couldn’t make out the words—not that she cared what the old sourpuss said. She sent the foreman a dazzling smile and asked Erma to pass the chicken.

  After dinner, she helped to clean up after the meal. Burt disappeared, but Jax pitched in, too. With all three of them working, the job took no time at all.

  The minute they were done, Erma headed for her rooms, leaving Aislinn and Jax alone in the kitchen. It seemed as good a time as any to confess to him that two more people knew the particulars of Martin Durand’s will.

  “Got a minute?” she asked.

  He reached for her hand, his fingers closing around hers. His touch felt too good, too exactly right. Like her hand had been waiting all her life for him to be the one holding it.

  Oh, she was a complete fool for this man. No doubt about it.

  Out on the back porch, the sun was still up but hovering close to the western horizon, the sky splashed with layers of purple and orange. They sat on the steps leading down to the unfenced backyard, which consisted of a wide, grassy area rimmed in box elders, maples and alder trees.

  He still had her hand in his and he didn’t let go. Instead, he pulled her closer and rested their joined hands on his hard thigh.

  He leaned in and his lips brushed her cheek. She felt his breath across her skin and wished that this moment might never end. Really, she needed to watch herself or she would tumble into love with him all over again.

  “Stuff?” he whispered in her ear.

  “Hmm?”

  “On the phone, you said you had ‘stuff’ to deal with in Valentine Bay.”

  It was as good a lead-in as any, she supposed. “I had lunch with my best friend, Keely, who recently married my oldest brother, Daniel. I told her everything, about Martin switching me with Madison Delaney on the day we were born, about you and the three months we have to be married so that you can keep Wild River and I can get a fifty-thousand-dollar payoff, about all of it. And then I was late for dinner because I went to see Daniel and told him everything, too.”

  For a long chain of uncomfortable seconds, Jax didn’t reply. He did keep holding her hand, though. Was that a good sign?

  Finally, he said exactly what she’d been expecting he would. “I thought we’d agreed to leave the terms of Martin’s will out of it, to tell people we got married for real and forever.” His voice was too careful.

  And she suddenly felt contrary. “Well, at least the for-real part is true. We are really married.”

  “Not the point. And you know it.”

  He was right. Damn it. “I’m sorry. Truly. But I needed to tell Keely. And she convinced me that I should tell Daniel.” She looked at him and waited for him to finally meet her eyes. “And now that I’ve broken our first agreement, I’m not expecting you to believe me, but that’s it, Keely and Daniel. That’s all. I won’t tell anyone else and neither will they.” And then she thought of Percy and Daffy. She’d told them, too.

  He read her so easily. “Who else?”

  She scrunched her eyes shut and let out a moan. “I have such a big mouth.”

  “Who?�
�

  “My great-aunt and great-uncle. I told them, too.”

  Did he sigh? She couldn’t tell for sure, with her eyes shut. But it seemed that maybe he had.

  He let go of her hand.

  “Oh, Jax.” She made herself look at him. “I really am sorry.”

  And something wonderful happened. His cool expression warmed. He put his arm around her and pulled her in nice and close against his side. His lips touched her hair. “You know, maybe we’re making too much of this.”

  “Too much?” She leaned into him. He was so strong and solid and it felt so good, just to be there on the porch with him as the sun set, her head on his shoulder, his cheek against her hair. “You think so?”

  “Yeah. We have a real, legal marriage, however long it’s going to last. Nobody’s defrauding anybody. We live together and we support each other.”

  “We like each other,” she added, because that mattered. Yeah, okay, marriage was supposed to be all about the love. But two people needed to like and respect each other, too.

  He put a finger under her chin and she looked in his eyes again. “Tell whoever you need to tell.”

  She let out a huff of a laugh. “Well, I already pretty much have.”

  “It is what it is,” he said. “And we don’t have to lie about it.”

  “Good. Because I don’t want to lie about it.”

  “Aislinn.” He said her name so tenderly. And he touched her hair, a lingering stroke of his big hand. That slow, sweet caress wrecked her in the most wonderful way.

  They were married. Truly married.

  Maybe it wasn’t forever. But when you got right down to it, what was?

  She wanted him, all of him. So very much. “Jax, I...”

  “Yeah?”

  She tipped her head back and they shared a long glance. Heat ricocheted through her. She whispered his name again as she lifted her mouth so their lips could meet.

  Chapter Six

  Jax took his time with that kiss.

  He loved the taste of her mouth, the feel of her body in his arms, the way he could look in her eyes and sense if something was bothering her. He’d never had a clue what Judy might be thinking.

  But Aislinn...

  Aislinn tried to be careful, to be logical, to puzzle things through, to guard her tender heart.

  But her nature was to be open. Willing. Already, after being married to her for a week and a day, he was just next door to certain that Martin had been right. She would make an ideal wife for him.

  She seemed to like living at Wild River. There were no sulky looks, no hints that she found ranch life empty and boring. She had her workshop and her enormous, good-natured rabbits, her large family not that far away. She kept busy. She knew how to handle herself on a horse, and she even managed to treat Burt with tolerance and a smile.

  Jax pulled her closer. He nipped at her lower lip. She made the sweetest little moaning sound. He could eat her right up.

  Yeah. He might as well admit it to himself. When their three months were over, he was going to want to make it forever.

  Was he too easy, too eager to start seeing her as a companion for life?

  Burt would say, Hell yes! But Burt had zero confidence in the trustworthiness of any woman.

  Jax didn’t believe that she’d manipulated Martin. But even if she had, well, so what? Martin had owed her a lot more than the fifty thousand she would get when the terms of his ridiculous will had been satisfied.

  Her mouth gave beneath his, those plump lips parting. He slipped his tongue in and tasted her sweetness more deeply.

  She sighed and snuggled closer. He turned her, lifting her, until she was sitting across his lap, her soft arms around his neck. He groaned at the feel of her round bottom, brushing him, making him harder, hotter, as their kiss went on and on.

  He hadn’t known that a kiss could be like this, slow and sweet and hot and—more. Painful, too, but in a good way, the best way. He was thirty-four years old and he’d been with three women before her: his ex-wife, his high school sweetheart and the girl he’d dated in college. When it came to sex, he’d thoroughly enjoyed all three.

  But this, with her, felt different somehow. Hotter. Better. More intense—and there was that word again: more.

  She broke the kiss to settle back into the cradle of his arm. Her sooty eyelashes fluttered open and she regarded him through those black eyes she’d gotten from the father who’d denied her from birth. “I want to be with you, Jaxon. Really with you. It’s probably foolish and definitely too soon. But I don’t care. I want you to take me upstairs to my room. I want to open that door to your room...”

  He bent close again, captured her lower lip between his teeth and bit down gently, loving the soft fullness of her flesh there, swiping his tongue over it. A tiny groan escaped her. He drank in that hungry sound before he let go. “And then what?” he asked, because he needed to hear her say it out loud.

  She didn’t disappoint him. “I want to go through that door with you, to your room. To your bed. I want tonight with you.”

  “I want that, too. I want all the nights.”

  A husky little whisper of a laugh escaped her. “Let’s start with this one. See how it goes. See if we still feel the same way in the morning.”

  “I already know how I’ll feel in the morning.”

  Those dark eyes gleamed. “Oh, yeah? How’s that?”

  “Satisfied. And ready for more.”

  She laughed. And then she wriggled free of his hold and stood. “Let’s go inside.” She held down her hand.

  Jax took it.

  He followed her willingly in the back door, across the kitchen, down the central hall to the stairs and up them. She pulled him into her room and through the inner door to his.

  As she led him across his sitting area, he stopped and pulled her against his body, her back to his front. “I can’t take it.” He whispered into her hair. “I need to have my hands all over you.”

  “Yes,” she replied in a tender little whisper.

  He buried his face in the curve of her neck and she leaned back against him with a sigh. Pushing the wide neck of her shirt out of the way, he scattered a string of kisses along the satin flesh leading out to her shoulder. At the same time, he brought his open hands up over the cage of her ribs until he could cup her breasts in either palm.

  They were round and firm. Just the feel of them sent a fresh surge of blood to his groin. He plucked at her nipples through her clothes. She wriggled against him, murmuring his name, “Jaxon,” pleadingly, like she wanted everything from him.

  Well, everything was exactly what he wanted to give her.

  He was starving. He really was. Starving for her, for her kind ways and her beautiful skin, for the things a woman has that a man needs—heart and tenderness, the promise of understanding, so that life could be more than work and a decent bank balance.

  More.

  Yeah. It really was the perfect word for what she offered. More.

  “Say it again,” he instructed. “Aislinn, say my name.”

  “Jaxon.” It came out just right, all breathless and wanting.

  “Again.”

  “Jaxon. Jaxon. Jaxon...”

  “Woman, what you do to me...” He brought his hands up to her shoulders and turned her to face him, so he could have her mouth again, so he could taste the hot sweetness beyond her parted lips.

  She twined her arms around his neck and pressed her body close to him. He felt caught by her, captured. A willing victim, the enthusiastic engineer of his own total defeat.

  He clasped her waist and lifted her. She knew what he wanted and wrapped those fine legs around him. Her low-heeled sandals clattered to the floor as she hooked her ankles together at the small of his back.

  Kissing her, drawing her tongue into his
mouth so he could taste her even more fully, he carried her to the bed. When he tried to set her down, she leaned backward, pulling him with her.

  They went to the bed together, both of them laughing through the unbroken kiss.

  She caught his head between her slim hands. “Condoms.” Her face, flushed and so serious, enchanted him. Enchanted? It was one of those words he never used. Not even in his mind.

  Until tonight.

  He was a goner. No doubt about it now. He gave a nod, repeated, “Condoms.”

  “I don’t have any, Jax. Do you?”

  He did. He’d bought them three days ago, the last time he went into town. Because when a man wants a woman, he needs to be ready if the moment comes when she wants him, too. He shifted off her enough to switch on the bedside lamp, slide open the nightstand drawer and pull out a chain of them. “Will these do?”

  Her smile bloomed wide. “Yippee.”

  He dropped them on the nightstand and turned back to her. “Now. Where were we...?”

  “Right here.” She lifted her mouth to him. He took it for another one of those long, delicious kisses.

  But he still had his boots on. The boots had to go.

  With definite reluctance, he sat up. “Don’t move.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I really like the way you say that.”

  She tugged on his shirt. “Get back here.”

  “I’m working on it.” He whipped off one boot and then the other and tossed them away, his socks, too. Then he turned to her, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up to a sitting position. She blinked at him, kind of stunned, as he pulled her silky shirt out of her jeans. And then she caught on. She lifted her arms for him. He took the shirt up and away.

  Her bra was white lace, with a little satin bow between the swells of her pretty breasts. He could not resist. He bent close and opened his mouth over her left nipple, sucking right through the lace, drawing her in.