Protecting The Colton Bride

by Elle James

  Daniel’s heart skipped several beats. Megan could wear a feed sack and make it look great. With those long legs, the subtle sway of her hips and the way she smiled...his groin tightened, and he wanted to hold her close all over again. Keeping her at arm’s length would be a challenge.

  “Hey, Dan.” Ryan waved a hand in front of Daniel’s face.

  Daniel barely saw the hand, his gaze on the woman walking toward them.

  Ryan turned. “Ah, Megan. Are you going, too?”

  Megan rolled her case to a stop, nodding. “Yes, I am.” Her gaze shot from Daniel to Ryan and back.

  Daniel took Megan’s bag and loaded it into the plane. “I have a couple more checks. Then we’ll be ready to go.”

  “So, what’s in Vegas besides the usual—gambling, wedding chapels and shows? I haven’t heard of any of those involving horses.” Ryan stared at Daniel, then Megan.

  A flush of pink rose in Megan’s cheeks. She glanced at Daniel and gave him a slight shake of her head.

  Taking Megan’s cue, Daniel replied, “We’re going to see a man about a horse. If the Kennedy Farms deal doesn’t work out, we want to have a backup plan.” Daniel didn’t like lying to his brother, but Megan wasn’t ready to announce their plans, and that was okay with him. He wasn’t certain how he felt about what they were about to do.

  “Well, then, I won’t keep you.” Ryan held out his hand. “Be careful. I understand there are some storms heading this way.”

  “I’ve already checked the weather. We’re flying north of the system.” Daniel took his brother’s hand.

  “Good. We kind of like having you two around.” Ryan shook Daniel’s hand and then pulled him into a hug. “See you in a day or two?”

  “It might be closer to a week.”

  “A week?” Ryan stepped back, his eyes wide. “What kind of horses take a week to look at?”

  Daniel’s lips firmed. “After we stop in Vegas, we’re going to California to check out more horses. I have a meeting scheduled with Marshall Kennedy in Reno in a week. We’ll be back at the Lucky C long enough to regroup and head out again.”

  “Sounds like a nice vacation. Wish I could go along with you.” Ryan nodded. “Again, you two take care and come back in one piece.”

  “We will.”

  Ryan stood back as Daniel helped Megan into the plane and climbed in after her. She settled in the copilot’s seat and Daniel sat beside her, going over the remainder of his preflight check. When they were finally ready, he showed her how to wear the copilot’s headset and slipped his headset over his ears.

  “Ready?” he said into microphone.

  “Ready.” Her voice came to him over the sound system.

  As they taxied down the grass runway and lifted off into a westerly breeze, Daniel gripped the yoke, his pulse racing as he thought about what lay ahead. In a few short hours, they’d be in Vegas getting married.

  * * *

  Megan’s fingers curled around the armrests as the plane left the grass strip and climbed into the sky. When they were far enough away from the ground that she didn’t have to worry about crashing, she settled back and relaxed.

  “I knew the Coltons had a plane, but I didn’t realize you all knew how to fly it.”

  “Not all of my brothers have learned.”

  “Just how long have you been flying?”

  “Since I was about fifteen and Big J bought the plane. He paid for my flight lessons while he learned to fly, as well. It’s always a good thing to have a copilot in case something happens to the pilot.”

  Megan’s stomach fluttered as she stared at the yoke in front of her. “Just so you know, I don’t have a clue how to fly this thing, but I’m willing to learn.”

  He smiled over at her. “It’s not a requirement, but I’m glad to hear you’re willing. Not many people are interested.”

  She liked it when he smiled at her. He had the faith in her to think she could learn to fly an airplane. She’d always been interested in flying, but her parents wouldn’t have allowed her to take flying lessons any more than they wanted her working with large animals. To say they were overprotective would be a gross understatement. Hell, she’d learn to fly if it was something Daniel wanted.

  “My parents are likely to flip when I come home with a husband. Just so you know. We’re likely to incur resistance.”

  “I can handle it,” Daniel assured her.

  “I placed a call to the attorney who handled my grandmother’s will and arranged an appointment with him in two days. I also arranged to meet with a horse broker.”

  “Good thinking. By this time a week from now, we should be sitting pretty. You with your horses, me with my breeder stock semen.”

  Megan nodded. “Sounds easy enough. However, I’ve never known anything to be that simple.”

  Daniel shot a glance her way. “True.” He held out a hand. “We’ll get through this together. We make a good team.”

  She took his hand, that same sharp crackle of electricity shooting through her. She had no doubt they’d make it, and she refused to think about what would happen afterward, when their marriage of convenience was no longer needed.

  “Hey.” Daniel squeezed her fingers. “It’s going to work out.”

  She nodded, comforted by the gentle pressure on her hand.

  “You didn’t get much sleep last night. Why don’t you relax and take a nap? I might need you later to spot me through the mountains.”

  Her heart leaped into her lungs. “Mountains?”

  “Unless you want to take the long way around, we’ll be flying just south of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico.”

  She bit on her bottom lip.

  Daniel let go of her hand and brushed his thumb across her lip. “Don’t worry. I’ve flown this route several times.”

  “I have, too. In a 747, not a crop duster.” She stared out the window at the ground several thousand feet below them. “Something tells me it will be a lot different than flying over at thirty thousand feet.”

  “It is, but I think you’ll like it.”

  Megan settled into her seat, letting the hum of the engine lull her into a trance while they were still over the flat terrain of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. At least the danger of the flight took her mind off her coming nuptials.

  She must have fallen asleep somewhere between thinking about crashing into the mountains and a cheesy wedding in Vegas, because the next thing she knew, they’d hit a speed bump on the Vegas Strip.

  Megan’s eyes popped open, and she stared around the interior of the airplane. It hadn’t been a speed bump they’d hit. The little plane hit another pocket of air and jerked.

  She sat up straight and stared out at a darkening sky. Thunderclouds rose high to her left, lightning flashing. “Is everything okay?”

  “Should be,” Daniel said through gritted teeth. His fingers gripped the yoke, his knuckles white. “Remember that storm my brother was talking about coming out of the southwest?”

  “I thought we were going around it?”

  “That’s the idea. Only it’s getting bigger as we speak. We won’t be going through it, but we’re getting some of the bumpy air around it.”

  Mountains rose ahead of them, their snow-covered peaks appearing beautifully dangerous. Megan’s heart lodged in her throat. “I thought we wouldn’t be going through the mountains on this trip.”

  “In order to go around the storm, I’m having to fly farther north. We’re nearing the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.”

  Megan’s pulse raced, her breathing becoming shallower. “Just how much experience do you have flying through mountains?”

  He laughed, though it sounded strained through the headset. “Too late to ask now, isn’t it? But for what it’s worth, I have over two th
ousand hours flying this plane.”

  “That sounds like a lot. How many of those hours were in this kind of weather?”

  “There are never enough hours flying in this kind of weather. The idea is to avoid these conditions.”

  “Should we put down?”

  “Can’t. Not here. The best we can hope for is to swing wide.”

  They hit more turbulence, and the plane dropped like someone had pulled the rug out from under them.

  Megan swallowed a scream and held on.

  Daniel moved his feet and scanned the instrument panel, his hands steady on the yoke. “Just a little farther and we should clear the side of this storm.”

  She caught and held her breath as they neared the snowy crags a lot lower than she liked.

  Lightning flashed nearby. A rumble of thunder sounded over the roar of the engine and through the muffling of her headset.

  Megan had never been so frightened in her life. But seeing Daniel in the pilot’s seat, his jaw set, all his concentration on flying the airplane, made her feel a little safer.

  Until the next big dip brought her even closer to the jagged peaks. Her stomach clenched, and she bit down hard on her tongue to keep from screaming again. Daniel didn’t need a crying woman in the cockpit with him. She had to be strong, even though she shook from head to toe.

  The clouds billowed higher, blocking the sun, making the sky ominous.

  Megan found herself leaning away from the turbulence, willing the little plane to fly safely around the storm and up over the mountains.

  They seemed to be heading straight into the mountains instead of flying over the top, and the storm appeared to be engulfing them in its fury.

  Tearing her gaze away from the mountains, she risked a glance in Daniel’s direction. His face was tense, a muscle flicked in his jaw and his knuckles were white on the yoke.

  “It’s going to be okay,” she said softly, as if speaking the words out loud would make it so. She sent a silent prayer to the heavens to deliver them safely through the storm and over the mountains they were racing toward.

  “Hold on,” Daniel said in her ears.

  Her fingers dug into the leather of the armrest. She closed her eyes, trusting Daniel to deliver her safely over to the other side of the storm and the mountain.

  Another drastic drop forced her eyes open in time to see the ragged peaks directly in front of them.

  Daniel struggled with the small plane, pulling back on the yoke at the last minute, narrowly missing the edges of a giant outcropping.

  Once over the top of the mountain, the clouds parted, and they blew through as if spit out by the storm. Slowly the turbulence subsided, and they flew out of the black clouds, into an entirely different world of sunshine and blue skies.

  “Wow.” Megan pressed her hand to her heart and drew in a long, steadying breath, then let it out. “You were amazing.”

  Daniel scrubbed a hand down his face. Beneath his Cherokee complexion, his face had paled.

  Megan reached out and placed her hand over his on the controls.

  Eventually he unwound his grip, transferring it to her hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to outrun the storm. We could have been killed.”

  “But we weren’t, thanks to your superb flying skills.”

  “I feel like we should find a place to land and rent a car for the rest of the journey.”

  “No way. I’ve never flown into the sunset in a single-engine airplane. And it appears as if we’re going to have an outstanding display.”

  “As long as you’re okay.”

  “I’ll admit, I was shaking in my boots about the time we hit that last really bad dip.”

  “You and me both.” He squeezed her hand. “But from here to Vegas it should be smooth.”

  “As long as you’re flying, I’m okay.” She smiled across at him and settled back, refusing to release his hand unless they hit another intense storm.

  Megan figured if they could survive something as insanely intense and dangerous as braving that storm and nearly crashing into the mountain, things could only get easier. They’d land, check into a hotel, find a twenty-four-hour wedding chapel and tie the temporary knot.

  What could be hard about that compared with the flight over?

  Chapter 6

  “We’re sorry, but the hotel is booked for the weekend,” said the clerk behind the counter of the newest of the big casino hotels.

  “Every room?” Megan asked.

  “There’s a huge techie convention going on. I’ve had to call several hotels to find rooms for walk-in guests. There just aren’t any available. I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t help you.”

  Megan couldn’t believe their luck. The one weekend they decided to fly to Vegas to get married and every hotel they’d been to thus far had been completely sold out.

  “Come on. We’ll walk next door.” She hooked Daniel’s arm and dragged him to the exit. “I have a feeling there will be a vacancy there.”

  “We’ve been walking the Strip for over an hour with no luck.” Daniel covered her hand on his arm and glanced down at her with a crooked smile. “We might have to sleep in the plane at this rate.”

  “It’ll be okay. There has to be a room in one of these hotels. I’m determined to have a shower. I still smell like the barn, and that’s no way to go to a wedding.” She winked up at him.

  “Which reminds me.” Daniel’s lips firmed. “We still have to find a chapel.”

  “Excuse me, sir,” someone said behind them.

  The clerk they’d been speaking with ran to catch them at the door. “I just got off the phone with a cancellation. Our special honeymoon suite is available.”

  Megan was already shaking her head. “A suite? Isn’t that expensive?”

  Daniel stepped toward the clerk. “We’ll take it.”

  “But, Daniel, we don’t know how much they’re asking.”

  “I don’t care. It might be the only room available in all of Las Vegas, and we have a wedding to go to. It only seems fitting.”

  Daniel followed the clerk back to the desk and slapped his credit card on the counter. A bellboy appeared and collected their bags.

  Soon they were shown to a large penthouse suite with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the brightly lit Las Vegas Strip.

  Megan walked to the window and stared out at the glitzy lights of the city, worried that Daniel was spending too much of his own money to make this farce of a wedding happen. “I would have been fine sleeping in the plane.”

  Daniel stepped up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. “This is better. And we need to take a few pictures of us in this suite when we return after the wedding to show your parents.”

  Megan leaned back against him, the solid strength of Daniel easing her misgivings and stirring in her a deep longing to be held in his arms for longer than a temporary arrangement. “You’re right. I just hate spending your money for my troubles.”

  “You’re helping me, too, so we’re even.”

  Megan turned back to the spacious living room with a table and chairs for intimate dining and a sofa for two in the middle of the sitting area. A door opened into a bedroom with a king-size bed made up in crisp white sheets and a classic white comforter. One bed. Two people.

  “We can worry about sleeping arrangements when we get back from the chapel,” Daniel said. “I’d like to take a quick shower. How long do you need to get ready?”

  “About twenty minutes. I want to shower, too, but you can go first.”

  Alone with Daniel in the hotel suite, Megan tried to keep it all businesslike, but one look at the bed and her pulse kicked up. A second look and her core heated. If this were a real wedding between two people in love, the room would be perfect for consummating th
e marriage.

  For the hundredth time since Daniel had made the suggestion of getting hitched, she reminded herself it was temporary. Daniel had shown little interest in a relationship between the two of them over the past few months she’d been working for him. And he’d been pretty adamant about their marriage being a business arrangement, nothing else.

  Daniel set Megan’s bag on the luggage stand. “You know, maybe we should revisit the idea of a prenuptial agreement.”

  His statement hit her square in the chest. “What?” She faced him, frowning.

  He paced away from her and back, raking a hand through his thick, dark hair. “You’re a potentially wealthy woman. You need to protect your assets.”

  “Isn’t it a bit late to get an attorney to draw up a prenuptial agreement? We’re getting married as soon as we can get showered and dressed.”

  “At the very least, we could write it out on a piece of paper and each sign it in front of a witness.”

  “My grandmother’s trust fund isn’t a huge amount.”

  “Megan, you don’t have any siblings you haven’t told me about, do you?”

  She shook her head.

  “You’re an only child. You stand to inherit everything your parents own.”

  “I don’t want what they have,” she insisted. “I would rather they spent it all before they die.” She’d left California to get away from that life and had no need of their money or land holdings. “I couldn’t give a damn about my inheritance as long as we save those horses. If my parents should pass away before we end our relationship, I’d give all their money and property to charity. You could have it.”

  Daniel’s lips thinned. “I don’t want your parents’ money. I prefer to make my own way in life.”

  Her back stiff, her chin held high, Megan said, “Same here.”

  “But you’ll have a fiduciary responsibility to their wealth should they leave it all to you. I’m sure they have people who depend on them for their livelihoods. You want to protect them.”

  Megan’s mind flew to their housekeeper, Mrs. Gibson, who’d been with the Talbot family since Megan could remember. She’d practically raised Megan when her parents were off to all corners of the world. Then there were the groundskeeper and the ranch foreman, both of whom had worked for the Talbots for decades.