Seduced by Love, Claimed by Passion~Summer Box Set

by Helen Conrad

  “Are you going to try calling Tyler again?” Becky asked her.

  Misty hesitated, munching on the meat. “No, I don’t think so. There’s no use.”

  Becky sighed, her dark eyes clouding. “You know, I keep thinking about what he did yesterday. I could have been badly hurt, and my furniture could have been wrecked.”

  Misty shrugged. “You’ve got insurance on that stuff, don’t you? And anyway, the delivery company would have had to ante up. It was more their fault than anyone’s, wasn’t it?”

  “I know but….” Becky frowned, shaking her head. “What Tyler did was really special. I want to find a way of paying him back. Of doing something for him.”

  Misty looked bored, then suddenly her eyes brightened as a thought occurred to her. She turned slowly to look at her sister. “You do? Really?”

  Becky nodded, wrinkling her nose. “I thought of baking him a cake or something, but it doesn’t seem like a big enough gesture…”

  Misty slid into the chair across from her, eyes sparkling. “I’ve got an idea. I’ve got a great idea. I’ve got a fantastic idea.”

  Becky looked at her skeptically. Misty’s great ideas usually led her into a lot of trouble. “What is your fantastic idea?” she asked warily.

  “I heard that Tyler is interested in redecorating his house,” Misty said, leaning forward as though this were the best idea anyone had ever had. “You should give him advice, maybe redo a room or two. That would be so cool, and it would serve as an example you could use of your talents. People always want to see what interior designers have done before, and you’d have Tyler’s house you could show them.”

  Becky frowned. Tyler? Redecorating? “Oh please. He might be interested in renovating his stables, but I can’t believe he cares a whit about his house.”

  “Oh, you’re wrong, Becky.” Misty’s eyes got very big as she thought fast for something to back up her idea. “He told me himself that he’s thinking it’s time he got married,” she fibbed blithely, “and he wants to get his house in proper condition to welcome a bride.” She gave her sister a bright smile. “You could help him. I was working on your appointment schedule yesterday and I know you’ve got some open time on Friday afternoon. Right around three o’clock. Why don’t you…”

  “Tyler’s thinking about getting married?” Becky said, her voice cracking just a bit as she said the last word. She felt as though she’d been punched in the stomach and she wasn’t sure why. “Tyler? Are you sure?” She was sinking into quicksand. She sat up straight and searched her sister’s eyes. “What do you mean? What did he say? Who is he talking about?”

  Misty turned her gaze away as though she were afraid Becky might read something there—like the truth. “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s got any one girl picked out or anything. He just… well, he seemed to be thinking ahead, you know. Getting ready. That’s all.”

  The quicksand had firmed up a bit, but it was still iffy. Becky took a deep breath and steadied herself. “Are you sure? What exactly did he say? He didn’t mention anyone’s name?”

  Misty finally realized that Becky, rather than doubting her story, was strangely alarmed by the prospect of Tyler marrying anyone at all. “What’s the matter? Are you afraid he’ll beat you and Shane to the altar?” She gave her sister of look of exasperation. “The way you two are dilly dallying around you’ll be old enough to be grandparents by the time you say ‘I do’.” She threw up her hands. “I can’t even imagine staying tied to one man so long without a wedding ring. You’re supposed to be having fun before you get married, and then you give it all up. Isn’t that the way it works?”

  Becky began to relax. This was all nonsense, wasn’t it? Just Misty being Misty. He might have said something to her, but nothing definite. Nothing too dangerous.

  Dangerous. Why had she thought that word? What was the matter with her, anyway? Why should it matter to her what Tyler was doing with his life? She hadn’t been around to take any part in it for a long time now. He could have been married and divorced twice in the years she was away and she never would have known anything about it.

  In fact, if she hadn’t seen him yesterday, if he hadn’t reached out and saved her the way he had, she probably wouldn’t have thought a thing about it if she’d heard he was getting married.

  Well, that wasn’t really true. She’d always had a soft spot for Tyler. She would have thought about it. But not in this strange, over-the-top way she was thinking about it now. This was silly, really. She had no right to care this much. She took a deep breath and slowed her heartbeat back down to normal.

  But Misty was still babbling on. “By the time I’m twenty-three, I hope I have my man tied down and a baby on the way.” Her eyes took on a faraway look. “Either that, or I’m in New York working as a super model.”

  A spontaneous bubble of laughter burst from Becky’s throat. “I don’t think there’s an employment category called ‘Super Model’,” she teased. “I think you apply for model and hope someone calls you ‘super’ once you’re working in the profession.”

  Misty shrugged. “Whatever. Shane said he could get me in if I really wanted to go to New York. He knows a lot of super models.”

  Becky’s smile froze in place. She had no doubt what Misty said was true. “Baby, don’t count on Shane,” she said quickly. It was difficult to get Misty and Trevor to understand that Shane said a lot of things when he wanted people to like him. That you couldn’t count on him to remember he’d ever said them. And anyway, the last thing in the world she needed was another reason to be obligated to Shane.

  She bit her lip and tried to think of some way to say all that to her sister, but Misty didn’t have time to wait. She rose restlessly, still talking about how different her life was going to be from Becky’s.

  “Just don’t make any big decisions too soon, Misty,” her sister advised her softly, her gaze filled with a faraway look. “Don’t close any doors. Keep yourself free and unattached as long as you can.”

  Misty shrugged. With the supreme confidence of youth, she didn’t consider it very likely she would fall into any traps. “I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing when I’m your age, but I do know I won’t still be hanging around out here in the sticks, wondering where my boyfriend is, like you are.”

  Becky put both hands around her coffee mug. “I know exactly where Shane is,” she said calmly.

  Misty stood looking down at her, her hands on her hips. “Well then tell me this. Why aren’t you there, too?”

  She looked up frankly into her sister’s eyes. “Because I don’t want to be.”

  Misty stared at her and swallowed hard, finally beginning to realize what this might mean.

  “Oh,” she said and took a deep breath. “You don’t mean that, Becky. You’re just feeling out of sorts.” She frowned. “You should go see Shane play more often, you know? Like you used to. You’re letting him become a stranger. That’s no good for a long term relationship.”

  Becky still held her gaze. “I know,” she said.

  Misty made an impatient gesture. “So you want to break off with him? Is that it?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But you’re having second thoughts.” She shook her head, as though she just didn’t understand Becky’s thinking at all. “Well, I wouldn’t tell Mom that,” she warned. “She’ll have another stroke. All she ever talks about is how wonderful it is that you have Shane in your life.” She threw out a quick smile. “And that she has Shane as a client. Without him, this family would be measuring for curtains in the poor house. Maybe you ought to remember that.” She stared into Becky’s eyes for a long moment, then turned, shaking back her copper hair and taking up her books. “Gotta go. I’m going to be late for class. See ya later.”

  “Goodbye.”

  Misty left, but her words hung around, pestering Becky, forcing her to think about things she would just as soon ignore. Somehow she had let Shane become too big a factor in her life
and the lives of her family. It had begun a long time ago, when she was very young. She’d been caught up in it for years, not realizing exactly what it meant. Each year had bound her more and more tightly to him. And now, when she was having second thoughts, it was beginning to look as though she was tied to him in ways that would be very hard to sever.

  Not that she’d decided she wanted to sever them, she reminded herself hastily. But still….

  She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about Shane right now. And the moment she pushed him out, Tyler came in to take his place. She opened her eyes again and smiled. Yes, she would stop by and see Tyler that afternoon. And offer to redecorate his house.

  Sometimes Misty really did have some great ideas.

  Chapter Five

  Tyler took off his hat and wiped his face with the handkerchief he’d just wet down with water from the bottle he kept attached to his saddle. There was a cool marine breeze blowing, but he’d been riding hard to get back to the house in time to take Sandy to her 4H Club meeting, and he was sweating as though it were a much hotter day—and so was his horse.

  “Come on, Gypsy,” he said with easy affection toward the animal. “Just a few minutes more and we’ll have you back where Jancy can rub you down and cool you off.”

  As they came over the rise, the first thing he noticed was the car parked at the house.

  He swore softly and considered riding back the way he’d come, but he knew that would be nothing but foolish. “Time to face the music, Gypsy,” he told his horse. “I’m pretty sure this is going to be Misty. She’s been gunning for me for days.”

  He swung down out of the saddle and handed the animal off to Jancy, his main wrangler. He looked down at himself and groaned. He was hot and sweaty and dirty--well, hell. Misty deserved it. If you came interrupting him during the workday, you got what he was--a rancher, and he wasn’t going to apologize for that.

  He walked on into the house, steeling himself for another round of telling Misty there was no way he was kidnapping her sister for an afternoon. He could hear voices from the kitchen and he knew Sandy had let the visitor in.

  “Let’s get this over with,” he muttered to himself, squaring his shoulders and preparing for a fight. But as he rounded the corner into the kitchen, he came face to face with Becky herself, and he stopped dead in his tracks, staring at her.

  “Hey, Tyler,” his little sister said happily, bouncing around Becky like a puppy. “Look who’s here.” She flung an arm out as though presenting the woman herself. “Becky’s going to teach me all about decorating. Isn’t that cool?”

  “Uh…yeah,” was all he could manage. “Uh…hi Becky.”

  She was smiling, but then her gaze dropped and took in how his wet shirt was hugging his muscular chest and her eyes widened. Her pretty mouth opened for a moment, as though she was truly surprised by what she was seeing.

  “Hello, Tyler,” she said, but she wasn’t looking into his eyes.

  He blushed. Second time that week. There was no other way to describe it. He saw that she was impressed by the way his body looked, all wet with sweat, and it embarrassed him. This wasn’t what he’d ever thought a meeting between the two of them would be like.

  “Uh, Sandy, are you ready to go?”

  “Go?”

  “To 4H. Jancy will help you with that stuff for the honey bee project you put together. He’ll help you get it into the truck. Go on out there and….”

  “My honey bees!” Sandy cried. She was already on her way.

  Becky looked up into his face and she smiled a crooked smile and suddenly all was as usual. She was looking cool and efficient and he was dreaming of things that could never be. Just like always.

  She had a tape measure in one hand and a strip of his kitchen wallpaper that looked freshly ripped off the wall in the other. He gestured toward it.

  “What’s going on?” he asked her.

  “Oh. I’ve been measuring. I’m…uh…” She bit her lip, then smiled at him. “I’m sorry. I should have talked to you before I got started like this. But listen, Misty had a great idea.”

  No. None of Misty’s ideas were worth a damn. And most of them ended up putting him into something disastrous.

  “I was wondering what I could do to thank you for what you did the other day, catching that cart and saving my life and the furniture. And Misty said you were thinking about getting married.”

  “What?”

  Damn that Misty anyway! Where could she have got such a fool idea? An electric shock seemed to jerk through his body.

  “No way.”

  “Oh.” She looked confused for a moment. “I…uh…I thought you were thinking about settling down.”

  “No.” He shook his head and looked fierce. “Not going to happen.”

  “Oh. Okay.” A tiny smile settled on her pretty lips. “Well, anyway….I thought I might come on over and look at your place and see if I couldn’t do some redecorating for you. As a thank you. For what you did for me the other day.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes.” Her eyes brightened and she warmed to the idea. “I could come over every day for awhile and put in new wall paper and curtains and…”

  “Every day?” He had visions of her underfoot and in his way every day. Didn’t she remember that they had a background? Didn’t she know he’d once been crazy about her? He couldn’t have her here every day. He’d go nuts. “Not every day.”

  “Okay.” She studied him wisely and the smile was back in her eyes. “Maybe every other day. But often enough to get the job done.”

  He frowned, still not really getting it. His vision was full of Becky sunlight and his mind was fogged with sensual impressions that had nowhere to go. “What job?”

  “This house. Don’t you think it needs an update?”

  Of course it did. He knew that. But he didn’t want to admit it too quickly. “Maybe.”

  “Take my word for it. It’s not up for debate.”

  She gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder with her delicate little hand and for a few seconds, he couldn’t breathe. He looked down at her red lips and he wanted to kiss her so badly, he had to close his eyes to keep from doing it. His heart began to bang like a hammer and he knew this was impossible.

  “No,” he said with more vehemence than perhaps it deserved.

  She looked startled, pulling her hand away quickly. “No what?”

  “I don’t want you here working on my house.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Why not?”

  Why not? Because you remind me every minute of what a coward I was not to go after you myself, back when I might have had a chance. You remind me every minute of how much I’ve longed to hold you and love you and have you for myself. It’s too much. I can’t take it.

  But he couldn’t say all that. She would freak, for one thing.

  And she would despise him for another.

  “Listen, Becky, I…I don’t want to be beholden to Shane,” was what came out of his mouth instead. “It won’t work.”

  Becky went red in a flash and suddenly turned into a small and very determined virago. “Tyler Carrington! Don’t you dare!”

  He blinked. It was only the truth. “What?”

  Her eyes flashed. “What the hell does Shane have to do with this?”

  That stumped him for a second or two. After all, to say what the whole town thought of her was actually a bit insulting, when you came right down to it. You belong to Shane and what you do is a gift from him…isn’t it?

  But once again, he couldn’t say what was in his heart and mind.

  “You’re Shane’s girl,” he muttered lamely.

  She stared at him for a long moment, then turned away. “I’m going to pretend you never said that,” she said crisply. “Now let’s get back to business here. I think we should tear out this wall.” She gestured toward the wall that divided the kitchen from the dining room. “I’ve checked and I don’t think it’s load-bearing.”

  Sud
denly, he wanted to laugh. She was going to run right over him like a tiny steamroller, wasn’t she? She wasn’t waiting on permission.

  “Aren’t you going a bit beyond interior decorating?” he pointed out.

  She flashed him a smile. “I’ve been studying design. I’ve even looked into going to Architecture school at Cal Poly.”

  He shook his head. There she went, zooming on ahead of him, plans and impulses and courage. She would do it. And she would be good at it. Meanwhile, he would adore her and ache for her and watch her walk down the aisle with his supposed best friend. He was screwed, wasn’t he?

  It had been one thing when they were gone, away at college and then doing things in other parts of the country. He could mope over things that might have been, but they were removed and he didn’t have to be reminded every day.

  The worst part was, he couldn’t up and move like they could. He was a rancher. His ranch was his home and his job and his life. His feet were planted in the soil and he wasn’t going anywhere. So he just sat here and waited to react to what they did.

  He swore softly, thinking of it.

  “What?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Listen, I’ve got to take Sandy over to 4H.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “So…I’ve got to go.”

  “Okay. But…”

  Oh no. She’d said “but”. What next?

  “I’m going over to the coast on Friday.” She smiled at him, looking hopeful. “Why don’t you come with me?”

  “What? Why?”

  “I did some decorating for a cousin of yours. Reid Carrington?”

  He nodded. He knew Reid.

  “You can take a look at what I did for his house and you can decide if you want me to work on this place.”

  “Oh.”

  She smiled harder. “I’ll pick you up at one or so. We can stop somewhere for lunch, then drive on over. Okay?”

  “Uh….”

  “It won’t take long. Just a twenty minute drive to the coast and….”

  “I think I’m busy.”

  “Oh.”