The Rancher's Secret Son

by Sara Orwig

  “Thank you. Both the men in my life look oh, so handsome,” she said, smiling at Cody who wore a white dress shirt tucked neatly into black slacks.

  “Thank you,” Cody said dutifully.

  “Thank you, also,” Nick said, barely aware of his answer because Claire took all his attention. How could he get through the evening without flirting with her, touching her, kissing her?

  Nick picked up Cody. “Let’s go eat dinner. The limo is waiting.”

  Through dinner Cody was fascinated by the sparkling city lights out the window. Nick just wanted to look at Claire. In spite of the dangers to his heart, he couldn’t take his attention from her. Her smooth skin looked soft, beautiful, her dark eyes wide, luminous, her sensual mouth an invitation for erotic thoughts. He nearly groaned each time his eyes lit on her. He turned, trying to focus on his son as Cody enjoyed his macaroni and cheese.

  After they’d eaten their lobster dinners, Claire told him, “I looked at my calendar this afternoon, talked to my secretary and to Grandma. Cody and I can come see you next week, Nick. I think Wednesday would be good. I don’t want to overstay our welcome and I need to make plane reservations. I don’t want to drive.”

  “You don’t have to drive or make plane reservations. You can fly in the Milan plane. Come on Monday, if you possibly can, and give us a whole week. We can go to the ranch and if that begins to wear thin with him, then we can all go to Dallas.”

  “We’ll come Tuesday. I’ll need to go into the office Monday and make sure things are all set for the week.”

  “I’ll look forward to Tuesday, then.”

  * * *

  It was nine by the time they returned home, and by ten Cody was in bed asleep.

  “He likes you—which doesn’t surprise me,” Claire said as she walked with Nick to the family room. Nick shed his coat and tie, unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt, making her remember the endless nights of making love with him. Beneath his tailor-made clothes was a fit, muscular male body that she could remember far too well.

  She feared sitting here with him, alone. There was no telling how traitorous her own body could be. Instead, she had an idea. “C’mon, I’ll give you the deluxe tour downstairs.” She grabbed her iPad. “We can hear Cody on the monitor anywhere in the house.”

  She started the tour in the hall. “We have two suites in that wing downstairs and there’s an elevator for my grandparents even though they’ve already moved downstairs. My grandmother still goes upstairs, but she sleeps downstairs.” Claire was aware of Nick close at her side as they strolled through the downstairs. They looked at one wing and then moved to another to enter a large gym.

  “Someday I’ll have a pool outside, but until then, this is where I get my exercise.”

  “Great,” Nick said, looking at the polished wood floor. “Do you have any music in here? It would be fun to move around a bit. We can dance.”

  For a moment she was tempted to refuse. Dancing with Nick had always been sexy. She gazed up at him, looking into blue eyes that melted her resistance.

  “I have music I exercise with,” she replied.

  Aware of Nick standing and watching her, she turned on a tape. “Here’s a good dance tape—a bit of everything.”

  “First, let’s change something here,” he said, walking to her and reaching up to take the combs out of her hair so it fell freely around her face. “That’s the way I like your hair best.” He dropped the combs into his pocket.

  She still reacted to him as much as she had years earlier. Was it Nick, or was it simply because there hadn’t been men in her life in the years in between?

  “You shouldn’t take down my hair, Nick,” she whispered, looking at his mouth and then back to see desire flare in his blue eyes. “And we shouldn’t dance.”

  As he inhaled deeply, he shook his head. “It’s a fast song and we’ll move around, which will help blow off steam,” he said, but his voice was deeper and the look in his eyes clearly indicated he wanted to kiss her. Even though she knew she shouldn’t, she wanted Nick’s kiss.

  He stepped farther back from her and began to dance to the fast beat. As they danced, she was aware of his gaze steadily on her, moving over her body and back up to hold her gaze. Dancing didn’t blow off steam as he had predicted. In fact, watching his sexy moves only stirred her desire.

  Still, she gave herself over to the moment. Moving with the pounding rhythm, she finally felt some of the tension ease.

  It had been a good weekend, but they had put off the decisions and the discussions that would cause problems between them. For a moment they were in a dangerous limbo—getting reacquainted as he got to know his son, deliberately avoiding decisions.

  The next number was a polka. Smiling, Nick took her hands to whirl around the spacious room. She hadn’t danced a polka with anyone in years and she felt as if her feet barely touched the floor while she flew around the room with Nick, laughing. A ballad followed and Nick took her hand to dance, keeping a distance between them. He grinned as they danced slowly. “Who put this playlist together?”

  “I did. I like music when I exercise and I’ve got eclectic taste.”

  “I haven’t danced a polka since college and that’s getting to be a long time ago.”

  “Oh, sure. Aeons ago,” she said, smiling at him.

  “That’s better. It’s good to see you smile,” he said.

  “When this one is over, let’s go sit and have a cool drink. I’m ready for some quiet,” she said, thinking they should stop dancing and touching each other. Every contact added to her awareness of him, building the risks to her heart.

  “We can go now.” They stopped dancing and he waited while she turned off the music and then hit the light switch as they left the room.

  “I love your home,” he said. “And you’ve done so well with Cody. When you come to Dallas, I’d like to have my family out so they can meet him.”

  “That’s fine, Nick. How is your family? Is Madison still painting? I met her when she had an exhibit in Houston.”

  “My family is fine. Madison married Jake Calhoun and she doesn’t travel as much. She has the family ranch now, but lives on Jake’s ranch. Wyatt is county sheriff, of all things. Friends talked him into taking the office, but he’s retiring to his ranch after this term. Tony is ranching and the busy bachelor. We see each other fairly often. My folks are in Dallas and Dad is retired.”

  “You should break the news about Cody to your parents first. Your father will no doubt have things he wants you to do.”

  “Most of my life I’ve gotten along with Dad and I’ve done what he wanted. Even more than Wyatt, who never gave Dad trouble. Madison and Tony—well, that’s a different story. Particularly Tony. Frankly, I don’t think he was right in the way Dad dealt with Madison, but that’s over and she’s married to Jake Calhoun now.” He shrugged. “I think Dad will cooperate with me just because we’ve always gotten along.”

  “You mean you’ve always done what your dad wanted.”

  “Yes, I have. I don’t think he’s been unreasonable,” he said. “Dad has helped me in my career and in politics. I owe nearly everything to him. He seems to have endless contacts.”

  Those endless contacts worried her. Judge Milan was a powerful man. While Claire had never even met his parents, she suspected they didn’t want Nick marrying a woman with obligations far from DC, as well as someone who would not put Nick’s career first. She could understand their concern for their son’s future and his happiness, but it didn’t help her feelings when she had been so in love with Nick and he had seemed to be with her.

  “I’ll talk to my dad. Don’t worry about my family,” he said as they headed to her kitchen. “This is their grandson, and right now their only grandson, so they’re going to welcome him and love him. I’ll admit that since he’s a good kid an
d he looks like a Milan, they will really be happy about him.”

  “And want you to have him all the time.”

  He stopped and held her back. “I promise I will not take Cody from you,” he said solemnly, looking directly at her.

  While she nodded, she couldn’t imagine how they were going to work out sharing their son if Nick moved to Washington.

  They continued to walk and within minutes they sat in the family room.

  Nick turned his chair to face her, pulling it close in front of hers and to one side so he had room for his long legs. He took her hand in his. “Claire, Cody is wonderful and I’m so happy about him. I want you to be happy to have me in his life. I know it’ll be difficult for you to share him when you’ve been accustomed to having him all the time. As long as I can see him some, I promise we’ll go slowly.”

  “Thank you,” she said, certain that his intentions were good, but soon he would have his family pressuring him to get Cody into the Milan family. Even as she thought over their dilemma, she was aware of her hand in his as it rested on his knee.

  He sat too close and his gaze was too intense, but she didn’t care to tell him and let him know that his touch or his nearness had that much of an impact on her.

  “We can have his name changed to Milan without a marriage. Would you be opposed to that?”

  “I’ll think about it. I can’t give you an answer instantly,” she said, withdrawing her hand from his and sipping her drink.

  “All I ask on anything I suggest is that you just think about it. We’re exploring possibilities, that’s all. Monday I’ll open a trust fund for him and a savings account. I want to be part of his life in every way I can. You’ve done well and it’s obvious you don’t need my help, but I want to share in the costs for him.”

  “That’s fine, Nick. We don’t need to go back to things I’ve already paid. I’ve been able to take care of him. But we’ll share costs as we move ahead.”

  “Good.”

  He picked up a long lock of her hair and let it fall through his fingers. “Whatever we work out, it’s good to be with you again,” he said.

  She gave him a fleeting smile, unable to say the same thing back to him. Part of her wondered whether he really meant what he said, because every moment together moved them closer to another confrontation.

  Now came the part she’d been dreading. “Sooner or later,” she said, “we’re going to have to work out a time for him to be with you and a time for him to be with me. I’d rather work it out between us and not involve lawyers. That is, except you.”

  “That’s fine with me. Since I am a lawyer, if you change your mind and want one, that’s acceptable. I just want you and Cody happy.”

  “He’s never been away from home at night,” she said, hating that she was about to lose control.

  Nick leaned closer, placing his hand over hers, holding hers lightly. “Claire, I don’t want to hurt you or Cody. I meant it when I said I promise I’ll work with you. I just want to share my son’s life and know him.”

  “There are moments I can’t handle looking into the future. I’ve had him with me constantly since he was born.”

  “If I do something you don’t like, tell me. Promise you will and I’ll promise you that I’ll try to work it out. How’s that?”

  Nodding, she began to breathe deeply and get control.

  When Nick’s gaze went to her mouth, her heart missed a beat. She didn’t want this reaction to him, but she couldn’t keep it from happening. Physically, she responded to every look, each touch. In too many ways, she liked being with Nick, and so far he was not pressuring her about Cody, but she expected that to come.

  “This has been a good weekend,” he said, his voice lower than usual, as it always was when his thoughts turned to sex. “Thank you for it, Claire.” Leaning close, his hands on the arms of her chair, he brushed her lips lightly, an impersonal, casual kiss, but when his lips touched hers, the moment changed.

  His arm tightened around her and he looked into her eyes. As she looked at his mouth, she couldn’t catch her breath. Even knowing it was folly that could only cause her trouble, she wanted his kiss. That brief contact of his lips on hers stirred desire, a longing for a kiss, for a bonding, maybe even reassurance.

  “Claire,” he whispered, winding his fingers in her hair behind her head as he lifted her to his lap, drew her to him for a deep, passionate kiss. His arms tightened around her, pressing her against him, and she turned, slipping her arms around his shoulders, kissing him in return while longing enveloped her. How long had it been since she’d been kissed like this? How was she going to resist him?

  She kissed him, wanting him, wanting the problems gone between them and wanting to make love, to get lost in passion once again.

  Thought ceased as she spiraled away in his kiss, a kiss that made her hot and shaking with desire. She clung to him, wanting him to disappear and at the same time trying to bind him to her so he would never leave her.

  He shifted, turning her to cradle her against his shoulder while she held him tightly.

  Finally, through the haze of desire, that nagging voice of reason spoke up and she came to her senses. She realized how kissing him was going to have her tumbling into a bigger disaster. She did not want to fall in love with him again and set herself up for another heartbreak because Nick wasn’t going to change and he wouldn’t give up his ambitions or his career. Not for her or for Cody. As she thought of that, she shifted away from him and moved off his lap.

  “This isn’t going to solve anything,” she whispered, standing to walk away from him.

  She glanced back to find him staring at her with a shocked look that she couldn’t fathom. Had their kisses touched him on some emotional level? She doubted it and she didn’t want to be taken in by Nick’s smooth talk.

  He was a politician, accustomed to charming people and getting what he wanted out of them. He expected to win their friendship and trust. She had been all through that and it had been heartbreak that she didn’t like to recall.

  “Or it might solve everything,” he said gruffly, as he sat up and placed his elbows on his knees.

  “I’m tied to a business here and my family. You’re tied to your career in Dallas, Austin and later in DC. That isn’t changing, Nick, and marriage won’t make any of it go away. Any personal relationship between us will complicate our lives as it did before.”

  He stood and crossed the room to her. “Kisses are like dancing—sexy and great fun. No harm done.”

  “And on that note, we’ll call it a night.”

  “Sure,” he said, falling into step beside her as they went upstairs together and stopped at her door.

  “I’m going to church in the morning,” she said, gazing into his blue eyes while knowing she should walk away. “Can I leave Cody with you? I’ll have his breakfast ready.”

  “Absolutely. Leave him with me. Good night, Claire.”

  “Night, Nick.”

  She closed her door and ran her hand across her forehead. The day had been filled with ups and downs, moments when she forgot the circumstances and just had fun. There were moments in Nick’s arms when years fell away and for a few minutes she was with a sexy, desirable man who dazzled her.

  But, like the flip of a coin, moments could reverse. There had been times that reminded her of the problems that loomed: dividing Cody’s time between them, remembering how she had felt when she had learned of his engagement and she was pregnant with his child, and the terrible breakup that had been the worst time of all.

  She got ready for bed automatically, lost in her thoughts about Nick.

  Unless she guarded her heart constantly, Nick was a threat to her happiness.

  Then again...she glanced at the door, thinking about him in bed across the hall. Unwanted images came of lying in his ar
ms when he was sprawled in bed, his virile male body so breathtaking. It was impossible to keep him out of her thoughts when she was sleeping only a hall away.

  She couldn’t stay away from him. She couldn’t be with him. What was she to do? The time was coming when she’d have to make a choice.

  She knew the wrong choice could blow her future happiness.

  Seven

  Sunday morning Claire heard Nick just before he stepped into the kitchen. Dressed in a dark brown knit shirt and chinos, he radiated vitality as he swept into the room. He had always commanded attention wherever he went and that hadn’t changed.

  “Good morning,” he said, smiling at her. “Good morning, Cody.”

  Cody smiled at him. Still wearing his blue pajamas, Cody sat eating his breakfast. The woolly toy Nick had given him was in a nearby chair along with the fuzzy monkey.

  “Have you named these?” Nick asked, picking up the woolly toy.

  “Monster and Mr. Monkey,” Cody answered.

  “Good names.”

  She was pleased to see Nick’s smile and how easily he dealt with her son. Their son, she corrected herself.

  She checked the clock. “Nick, I need to leave. If you have any questions, Cody can probably answer them and if you need me, I have my phone.”

  She crossed the room to kiss Cody on the forehead. “Be good for your dad. I’ll be home after church.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Cody said, eating another bite of oatmeal.

  “Can I leave him long enough to go to the door with you?” Nick asked her.

  “I’m going out the back way and yes, you can,” she said.

  Nick walked beside her. “Don’t worry about us, Claire.”

  “I won’t. He’s got a bright dad who can handle mostly all problems and Cody is a bright little kid, so you two will be fine. I’ll see you after church.”

  “Seems like I should kiss you goodbye,” he said, startling her, and then she saw his smile and knew he teased her.