by Kate Pearce
“Just checking.” He winked at her.
Rachel paused to stare into his blue eyes. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing much.”
She didn’t believe that for a second. “Are you going to finally give Jenna the keys to the house and carry her off?”
“Like I’m going to tell you that.”
Rachel sighed. “Big tease.”
“Yup. Just keep your wits about you and don’t be surprised by anything that happens.”
“I always do around you Morgans,” Rachel muttered.
He gave her a side hug. “Hey, you’re a Morgan too.”
For the first time she actually believed him.
They walked back into the reception area where Ruth and Billy were just arriving carrying boxes of additional food.
“Do you need a hand?” Rachel called out.
Billy nodded. “Head out to my pickup. The food is all stacked in the back.” He carried on after Ruth. “Relax, Mom, you know I’m a qualified chef, right? I can help out all day if you need me.”
Rachel went out into the bitter cold and grabbed a box of what smelled like pumpkin pie. It was way heavier than she had anticipated, and she was struggling to balance it against her chest when it was taken out of her hands.
“Let me get that for you.”
She frowned at Cauy, who had relieved her of the box. “I’m perfectly capable of carrying pie. It’s the least I can do seeing as I intend to eat as much of it as I can get in my mouth.”
“There’s plenty more boxes out there to take in.”
“Then why don’t you go and get them?” Rachel inquired sweetly.
“Okay.”
He dumped the box back in her arms making her rock on her heels, and disappeared again leaving her struggling to get through the door. So much for girl power . . . She took the pies into the large industrial kitchen and dumped them on the table.
Billy looked up with a smile. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
“You’re welcome,” Rachel gasped, and turned back to the door, her knees wobbling, and not just because she’d seen Cauy. She managed to avoid getting slapped in the face as the door swung inward to reveal Cauy and Jackson both carrying stacks of foodstuffs.
“Just put everything on the table for now,” Billy said. “And thanks for helping out. The bar’s open in the dining room, and Ruth’s already setting out some appetizers, so go enjoy yourselves.”
“We’ll keep going until the truck’s empty,” Jackson said. “And then we’ll really deserve a drink. Thanks for having us over, Billy, we sure do appreciate it.”
Cauy wore his usual thick sheepskin-lined coat, brown hat, and jeans that looked slightly better than his weekday ones. Not that she cared what he looked like with his clothes on after seeing what lay underneath . . .
“Hey, Rachel!” Jackson said, grinning at her. “Happy Thanksgiving.”
“Right back at you.” Rachel picked up a smaller item from the pickup bed and returned to the kitchen. The last few Thanksgiving dinners she’d had at home had been overshadowed by her mom’s illness and her stepdad’s increasing commitment to working all the hours he could manage. In retrospect she wondered if he’d been spending all his free time with his soon-to-be new wife. After her mom’s death, she and Paul had either eaten out, or pretended they’d forgotten, and just gone on as if it was any other day.
The Morgan Ranch celebration was a different matter altogether. Ruth liked to gather up anyone she came across who was either a stranger in town or on their own. This year, among others, she’d invited the new local dentist, Mr. Lam, Dr. Tio Mendez and his grandmother, and Nancy from the Red Dragon Bar.
Rachel got busy, welcoming people to the ranch, setting them up with drinks and appetizers, and generally making everyone feel at home. The fact that she was accepted as one of the family still confounded her sometimes, but she couldn’t deny that it made her feel warm inside. She no longer felt like an outsider and that was a small miracle in itself.
Jackson was soon happily introducing himself to everyone, but Cauy settled at the bar, his back to the room, and chatted with Nancy, who had taken on the unofficial duty of bartender-in-chief. Occasionally she’d sense he was watching her, but after talking to Jenna, she didn’t want him to think she would hang on his arm like a lovesick fool....
“Hey.”
Coming out of the kitchen where Ruth and Billy were performing miracles of culinary excellence, she found him propping up the wall.
“Hey.” She smiled up into Cauy’s eyes. “Are you having a good time?”
“I’m doing okay.”
“You don’t like crowds, do you?”
“Can’t say I’m a fan.” He leaned down and kissed her. “You look happy.”
“I am happy.” She leaned against the wall so she could look up at him. “I’m starting to think that I might really belong here.”
His brow creased. “You’re a Morgan. Of course you belong here.”
“But I didn’t know that,” Rachel pointed out. “If Chase and the others hadn’t tried to find Annie I might never have known about all this,” she said, gesturing at the window. “All this stark, beautiful wildness my mother hated so much that she disappeared and never came back.”
“You’re here now.” He cupped her chin. “And you look damn fine to me.”
“So do you.” She hesitated. “You are going to stay, aren’t you?”
He didn’t speak for so long she held her breath.
“Yeah.”
To her dismay, he didn’t sound particularly convincing.
“I like the idea that you’ll be around when I get back.”
“Waiting for you?”
“Yes. Preferably naked in bed.”
His brown eyes crinkled at the corners. “I think I can manage that.”
She wanted to put her hands on him right now, to tear off his shirt and lick him like her favorite Popsicle.
“Don’t look at me like that.” His voice deepened, sending spasms of lust straight to her lady parts.
“Like what?” Rachel breathed her reply.
“Like you want to devour me.”
“But I do.” She raised her gaze to his face. “Is that a problem?”
“Right now?” He glanced around the hall. “Yeah, because this place is crawling with Morgans, and if I kiss you, things might get out of hand fast.”
“We could slip away.” Rachel took his work-roughened hand and placed it over her breast. “For a few minutes. No one would miss us.”
He shifted his hand until his palm cupped the weight of her breast and his thumb grazed her covered nipple. “You’re driving me insane here.”
“Good.” She took his other hand. “Come on.”
As she passed the kitchen, she stuck her head in the door. “How long until we sit down, Ruth?”
“About half an hour, why?”
Yvonne had now joined the melee in the kitchen, and was taking out a multitude of desserts and breads from her pink boxes.
“I thought I’d go over to the house, call my stepdad, and wish him a happy Thanksgiving. I wonder if he’s celebrating it in Greece?”
“That’s a kind thought, dear.” Ruth nodded at her. “While you’re over there, get Cauy to bring the crystal bowl filled with cream out of the refrigerator, and bring it back with him. I forgot it.”
“Cream?” Cauy murmured against her neck. “Things are getting better by the minute.”
Was the man who’d once ordered her off his land and barely managed to sling two sentences together making a joke? Had she changed him? Had he changed her or was it something about Morgan Valley that soothed the soul and brought out the best in people?
Still blushing that Ruth had guessed Cauy was going with her, Rachel headed out the back door of the visitor center, avoiding the guests, Cauy at her heels.
“How’s Grace doing?” Rachel asked as her breath condensed around her in the cold air. The trees were free of leaves now, and the pasture a regime
nted glittering white carpet that rolled away toward the menacing darkness of the Sierra foothills.
“She’s doing great. I put a dog door in so she can get in and out to the fenced yard. She was curled up in front of the fire when we left.”
“Lucky Grace.” Rachel took Cauy’s hand and hurried him up the stairs.
“What about my boots?”
“No time for that.” Rachel rushed him along the corridor. “And we don’t want anyone coming into the house knowing we’re up here, doing this.”
“We don’t?” He hauled her in close using the front of her sweater. “So we keep our boots on?”
“From what I remember, you can get naked very quickly when you need to.” Rachel wrapped an arm around his neck. “And so can I.”
“Naked it is, then.” His smile was as hot as hell. “Race you.”
The house was warm as toast and within a minute or two Cauy fell back on the sheets and let Rachel crawl all over him. She licked his collarbone, enjoying the salty-sweet taste of his skin, and then went lower, skimming down over his rather nice abs to her ultimate target.
His ragged groan as she licked him from root to tip made her want to smile. He gave her no time for that, flipping her onto her back with a strength that always surprised her considering how lean he was.
“My turn.”
Soon she was gripping the sheets and writhing around like a needy fool as he carefully brought her to the crest of a climax before protecting himself and sliding home deep and true. She drew her thighs up and planted her heels in his muscled ass, urging him on.
He slowed down, taking his time until she was almost reduced to begging, before he finally relented and took her over into pleasure so bone deep that she lost her sense of self. She traced the raised lines of the scars that fanned out from his throat down his left arm and over his back.
“I’m not as sensitive there,” he murmured in her ear, surprising her with the admission.
“I didn’t notice.” Rachel shaped his shoulders with the palms of her hands and slid them down to his wrists. “I just hang on and pray I’ll survive.”
“Me too.” His chuckle warmed her as he kissed her throat and slowly levered himself off her. “I suppose we should be getting back.”
Rachel studied him as he sat on the side of the bed putting on his shirt and boxers. He was as lean as a greyhound with no excess fat on him at all, and she wanted to pull him back down to her, and just stay there forever.
“Are we just hooking up?” Rachel asked.
He turned to look at her. “Why would you think that?”
She sat up and drew her knees to her chest. “Because all we do is have sex.”
“Mainly because we both choose the worst times to get it on, and then we have to rush.” His faint smile was wry. “I’ll take you out on a real date if you like.”
“Like one when we talk to each other, and all that good stuff?” Rachel asked dubiously.
“Sure.” He gathered up his clothes. “Do you think it will be okay if I use the bathroom?”
“It’s next door so you shouldn’t bump into anyone,” Rachel said, pointing in the general direction. “Go ahead.”
He paused at the door and looked back at her.
“You still okay about this?”
She thought about not making love with him ever again. . . and couldn’t imagine it.
“I’m good.” She blew him a kiss. “Go get cleaned up.”
He waited another beat before nodding and leaving her alone in the unusually quiet house. She lay back on her bed and studied the ceiling. She wanted him, she liked him, and she didn’t want to give him up, so why was she still so unsettled? He hadn’t asked for a commitment, and she hadn’t asked for one back. They were both in agreement about that at least.
But why couldn’t it become more? The thought burst into her head. Couldn’t they talk and grow together and even be separated for a while, and it not make the darned bit of difference? Her mother had scolded her for building elaborate dream scenarios out of nothing and being upset when they didn’t materialize. Wasn’t that what she was doing right now? Trying to make Cauy into something or someone he had never wanted or asked to be?
Rachel let out a sigh and rolled over to the side of the bed. The water had shut off next door so Cauy was probably finished. Her body was humming with satisfaction, but her mind wasn’t quiet. She reminded herself of all the reasons why a relationship with Cauy wasn’t in the cards. She imagined his face if she suddenly turned up at his place saying she wasn’t leaving town, and would stay and live with him forever.
He’d run for the hills . . . and she’d probably get as bored and resentful as her mother had been.
She snorted at that image and found her smile again. She wasn’t going to build castles in the air and watch them come crashing down again. She’d take what she’d been given, live in the extremely pleasant moment, and be thankful for it.
* * *
Cauy adjusted his grip on the huge crystal bowl Rachel had given him to bring over to the guest dining room and glanced at his companion as they walked across from the house. She’d been quiet since she’d come out of the bathroom, and that always worried him. Had he missed something? She’d asked him if he thought of her as a hookup, and everything in him had rebelled at that idea.
She was much more than that. She was a revelation.
Cauy stopped walking. “It’s not just about the sex.”
“Where did that come from?” Rachel blinked up at him.
Cauy carried on talking. “What you said earlier. The sex is great, but I don’t think of you as just a booty call.”
“Thanks.” She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “That’s good.”
“Unless that’s what you want?”
She frowned. “I’m the one who likes talking things through, remember?”
“Got it.” Cauy nodded. “And I meant what I said about taking you out on a proper date.”
She pressed her gloved hand to her chest. “Be still my beating heart.”
He found himself smiling. She was laughing up at him again so that was much better. He loved her smile and the way she lit up from inside. Somehow it made him feel more alive, like there was hope for the future, and all that other stupid sentimental stuff he’d given up on.
“There are a lot of extra cars here,” Rachel said as her gaze went past him to the crowded circular driveway. “How many people did Ruth invite? This looks more like fifty than twenty, and some of these cars are either rentals or have out of state plates.”
She held the door open so that Cauy could go first with the crystal bowl. The roar of conversation and the sight of so many people milling around made him want to retreat, but he had to keep going, Mrs. Morgan needed the cream.
“This is weird,” Rachel muttered.
Cauy delivered the cream and went back to find Rachel. “What is?”
“All these people.”
“Your grandmother is a generous woman.”
“I know that, but—” Rachel grabbed Ry’s arm as he went past her. “What’s going on?”
Ry shrugged. “Don’t ask me. BB’s up to something, but he’s not telling me anything, although I think Chase is in on it.”
Ruth banged on the table loud enough to create a pause in the chatter. “Will everyone take their seats, please?”
Cauy noted that the four remaining guests had been corralled at the table with the ranch hands who certainly wouldn’t allow the guys to get away with any bad behavior. It was the same four guys who had appeared at the mine before, which set all Cauy’s hackles up.
Rachel took Cauy’s hand, led him to the Morgan family table, and pulled out the chair next to hers. He took a quick survey of her brothers, but no one seemed to object to his presence so he sat down. Yvonne, Billy, and Ruth appeared and placed platters of carved turkey at the end of an enormous buffet table filled with food.
“Everyone help yourselves!” Ruth said. �
�Family hold back, and no fighting in the line!”
Chapter Seventeen
Rachel eyed the last bit of stuffing and turkey on her plate, and visualized putting it in her mouth. Nope. It wasn’t happening. She barely had room for any of the desserts that were now on the buffet table, and she had to try the pie Cauy had gone to fetch for her.
She looked over the chattering crowd on the far table and barely recognized anyone. Something was definitely going down, but she had no idea what, except that BB Morgan was in the thick of it.
“I got you all four different kinds of pie,” Cauy said, setting a plate in front of her. “I wasn’t sure which one you’d prefer.”
She stared up at him admiringly. “Good thinking.”
He shrugged and sat beside her helping himself to coffee. “Your two older brothers are out in the hallway whispering to some old guy with a white beard.”
“Santa?” Rachel asked, the spoon halfway to her lips.
“Wrong day,” Cauy said. “He wasn’t wearing the red suit, either.”
“Maybe its BB’s Realtor, and he’s going to hand over the keys of the house officially to Jenna?”
“Didn’t BB build it himself with Chase’s money?” Cauy finished his coffee.
“Not all of it. He definitely got a loan.”
“Maybe it’s the bank manager come to repossess the place.”
“Funny,” Rachel said, mock-frowning at him. “On Thanksgiving?” She put down her spoon. “Oh my gosh, he’s changed.”
“Into what?” Cauy inquired, his gaze still on Rachel.
“His dress uniform,” Rachel said, gasping and grabbing hold of Cauy’s hand. “Where’s Jenna?”
Blue Boy Morgan cleared his throat and stood at the front of the gathering. “Can I have your attention, please?”
Everyone immediately stopped talking to stare at him. Chase stepped up behind him, one hand on Blue’s daughter Maria’s shoulder.
“Jenna? Can you come up here, sweetheart?”
Rachel held her breath as Jenna slowly turned toward her fiancé, her face a picture, and made her way to the front.
Blue took her hands in his and stared down at her.
“I hope you’re going to like this idea of mine, but it’s also okay if you don’t.” He took an audible breath. “I love you, Jenna.”
