Rodeo Legends--Shane

by Pamela Britton

  Beautiful.

  And frightened out of her gourd.

  She held a bouquet and the baby’s breath tucked between the blooms of red roses trembled like the skin of a frightened horse when it sensed danger. Her eyes kept darting between him and the man who would marry them, to the altar with its big stone cross and then back all over again...as if she sought silent reassurances from one of them.

  “You look beautiful,” he said when she reached his side.

  The words caught her attention. She glanced down at herself.

  “Do I? I’m afraid the girls at the department store went a little crazy when they heard I was getting married today. They insisted on going all out, bouncing me from department to department, and one of them was a race fan, and so she knew who I was and she helped me with the dress, even though I think it’s way over the top. I thought about a veil, too, but I worried it’d be too much—”

  “Kait.”

  She’d been about to take a breath, but he forestalled another gush of words with his hand. “It’s okay.”

  He saw her eyes widen just before her lashes swept down. He saw her take a deep breath. Saw her hands clench the bouquet tighter. But when their gazes met again, there were tears in her eyes.

  He gently squeezed her hand. “We’re going to be fine.”

  She clung to him like a drowning sailor would a life raft. And it amazed him. Here was someone who drove two hundred miles per hour and who’d been in some horrific wrecks. Who routinely faced off with some of the toughest men in the racing industry but who feared her future to the point that her whole body trembled.

  He squeezed her hand again. “Trust me. Things will work out.”

  He saw her take another breath and then she said, “Okay.”

  She seemed ready then, even took a step so that they were closer together. “You look great, too, you know.”

  Did he? He’d rented a tux from the wedding chapel, but he still wore his cowboy hat, and he hadn’t taken the time to check his appearance to see how he looked. He’d been completely caught up in making all the arrangements while Kait went out to find a dress and get herself ready. It’d taken them hours to set things up. They’d started at the Las Vegas courthouse. Then they’d had to find a place that could actually marry them on such short notice. Then they’d had to wait because the chapel couldn’t fit them in until early evening. He’d spent the time shopping for a wedding ring and then getting ready himself. He’d had no idea so many people would want to get married in Las Vegas, but it was hard not to feel like they were simply one couple in a long assembly line of future husbands and wives.

  “Are we ready?” asked the Elvis look-alike.

  “I guess so,” she said.

  The man nodded, opened his book. “Dearly beloved...”

  * * *

  SHE BARELY REMEMBERED the ceremony. Even now, as they signed the official marriage certificate, she couldn’t recall the words the officiant had said.

  “Congratulations,” Natasha, the chapel’s wedding coordinator, said. “You make such a beautiful couple.”

  What do you want to bet Natasha says that to everyone? Kait thought.

  “If you head to the front of the chapel, our wedding photographer will meet you there to take pictures. They’ll be beautiful this time of day.”

  Shane had insisted on the deluxe wedding package and she hadn’t argued. At least they’d have pictures...and a ring on her finger. It caught the light as she set the pen down. She’d expected a plain gold band like the one she’d bought him. He’d gotten her a rock the size of a lug nut. Well, okay, maybe not that big, but it was tall and round and felt strange on her finger.

  And so they went outside, the Vegas skyline already set aglow by the lights of the Strip, and posed in front of the Little Chapel on the Hill looking for all the world like a couple at a normal wedding. When they finished, she gathered her things and they both headed for Shane’s red truck, which was easy to spot thanks to the rodeo logos and his sponsor’s name painted across the doors.

  “It’s late,” he said, glancing at the skyline. “And at some point I’ll need to change out of this tux and return it, although I suppose I could do it right now before we leave.”

  “Maybe I should change out of my dress.”

  “No. Don’t do that. It seems somehow...wrong. We should both stay in our wedding clothes.”

  He frowned and she could tell he was up to something. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Well, it seems to me that we should have a wedding night.” Then he quickly added, “Not that I expect anything, you know, physical. I just think we should spend the night here. Sort of make it seem more official. I think people will find it strange if we drive straight home tonight. Plus I don’t fancy driving all the way back to Via Del Caballo with such a late start, and I’m pretty sure you’re exhausted, too.”

  Tired didn’t begin to describe the way she felt. Ever since she’d gotten pregnant, she’d been dragging herself around. Today was no exception.

  “And hungry,” she admitted. “Starving, actually.”

  He nodded. “I’ll rent us a room. Unless you’d like to stay in your own room.”

  “No. That’s okay. It might seem kind of strange to people if someone finds out you and I spent our wedding night in separate hotel rooms.”

  “That’s my thinking, too, and I know just the place where we can stay.”

  Wherever they were headed, he didn’t need to consult his GPS. He just drove straight to the hotel.

  “Wow,” she said when she spotted what looked like an Italian villa perched atop a small hill. The sign outside read Le Bellissime Ville.

  “I’ve stayed here a few times over the years,” he said as they crossed over a moat that ringed the perimeter of the place. Then they drove between a giant stone archway set into a three-story stucco facade that’d been backlit by a clever contractor. They entered a courtyard-style check-in area that so closely resembled an actual village that Kaitlin felt her mouth drop open.

  “This is amazing,” she said.

  “I know. Crazy, isn’t it?”

  Multicolored buildings painted in beiges and browns and pinks stretched up around them. Each of them had a different level roofline, but all of the roofs were covered by something resembling wood shingles. The buildings differed in the type of windows and doorways set into their facade—some windows were square, some rounded, some with sashes, some without. Baskets of flowers hung between them, as did old-fashioned lanterns. The cobblestones continued so that it seemed as if they drove into the middle of a plaza.

  “I like this place because it’s private.” He pulled beneath a porte cochere and stopped. “I’ll go inside and book us a room.”

  “Do you need money?” she felt the need to ask.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” He smiled his million-dollar grin, the one that had won him bull-riding fans the world over. “You’re my wife. What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is also mine.”

  It took her a second to glean his words but only because her attention had caught on the word wife. “Haha. Very funny.”

  But she had to force a smile.

  Wife.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said with a kind smile and a tip of his cowboy hat.

  Left alone, she was struck by their situation again. Married. Pregnant. And her parents didn’t even know.

  Her stomach clenched, acid burning her insides. Food. She needed food because suddenly she felt sick.

  It didn’t take long for him to return but by the time he had, her panic had increased to the point that she felt light-headed.

  “We’re in luck. They had a suite available.”

  “Wasn’t that expensive?”

  He cocked a teasing brow. “I told you don’t worry about it.”

  She nodded, but it m
ade her woozy again. She touched her forehead, as if that might somehow help her brain from swimming.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Just a little dizzy is all.”

  And scared, all of a sudden. More frightened than even the first time she had climbed into a go-cart. She’d been five and scared to death, and then her dad had gently given her a shove and she’d taken off and that had been that. What she wouldn’t give to have her dad here now.

  She could feel tears creep into her eyes.

  Shane turned toward an attendant and tossed him the keys. “Here,” he said to the startled man wearing some kind of brocade jacket. “Park this for me. We’re in the bridal suite.”

  He didn’t wait for the man, well, the kid, really, to answer, he just darted around the front of his truck and pulled the door open. She felt like a complete ninny. She never cried. It wasn’t allowed in racing. But ever since she’d gotten pregnant...

  “Come here.”

  She stared at him, puzzled, not sure what he intended to do, and started to slip out of the truck.

  He scooped her up in his arms. She gasped. He pulled her up against him.

  “Shane, put me down.”

  “Not on your life,” he said. “You’re my wife and you’re carrying my baby and you look like you’re about to pass out.”

  “People are staring.”

  “So?”

  But if people stared, it was only to smile when they spotted what no doubt appeared to be a happy couple that had just gotten married. She heard soft whispers of “How adorable” and more loudly called “Congratulations” and then someone saying “Hey. Isn’t that Kaitlin Cooper?”

  She hid her head in Shane’s arms like she was ten years old, but it felt good to be tucked up against him. She wanted to close her eyes. To maybe go to sleep. To slip away into a dreamless world where she wasn’t facing the prospect of motherhood and the end of her racing career. Well, the season at least.

  Someone must have held the elevator door for them, because she heard them say, “What floor?”

  “Five,” Shane said.

  “You can put me down now.” She peeked a glance up at him.

  “That’s okay,” he said, shifting a bit, and she realized they were alone as the doors closed. “You weigh next to nothing.”

  “I feel ridiculous.”

  “That’s your inner race-car driver speaking. Hard to let go of control, I imagine. But you just stay right here. I’ll set you down when we get to our room, then I’m ordering room service for a meal and you’re going to relax and take it easy until you don’t look as pale as that dress you’re wearing, which is nice, by the way, but your cheeks shouldn’t match the color of it.”

  Was she that pale? She felt like she’d been walloped by a pace car. It made her wonder if it was really the pregnancy or if something more was wrong with her.

  The elevator dinged. And at the end of a long hallway was a room with a sign next to the door.

  Bridal Suite.

  “Hang on.” She felt him shift her weight, his arm moving. How he managed to hold her and somehow find the card key was anybody’s guess, but he did it. The door emitted a beep, and he wasted no time using his butt to push it open. She gasped at the beauty of the room.

  “Not bad, eh?”

  It must have cost him a small fortune. She had expected quaint and cozy. They’d gotten lavish and extravagant. Off-white marble floors covered a space nearly as large as her home back in North Carolina. In the middle sat a sunken conversation pit surrounded by marble columns. A dining area was to their left, and to their right she caught a glimpse of the bedroom. He took her straight to the sunken living room, or whatever one would call it, the scent of a massive bouquet of flowers reminding her of the honeysuckle that grew outside her home. It made her instantly homesick.

  “Don’t move,” he said after depositing her on a plush off-white couch. From beyond an arched window, she could spy the entire Las Vegas Strip. It stood as yet another reminder that she was far from home.

  “Here.” He handed her a bottled water. “Drink this.” He even opened it for her, and as she looked into his blue eyes she found herself thinking that she’d gotten lucky with him. He could have completely brushed her off, in more ways than one, and yet here he was treating her like fine china, and it was...nice.

  Oh, no. Don’t you be going down that road.

  That was all she needed, to develop feelings for him. They were having a baby together. That was all. He had married her out of kindness. When this was all over and done with, she’d go back to her life in North Carolina and he’d go back to his.

  Right?

  Chapter Four

  Shane had never, not ever, seen a woman eat like Kait had, then pass out on a couch so fast. He might have thought something was wrong with her if he hadn’t called a bull-riding friend with five kids. He’d reassured Shane that pregnant women were notorious for gulping down food and instantly falling asleep, but then the friend had asked who was pregnant. Shane had hung up on him.

  Snnnnnnnkkkkk.

  He looked over at the couch from where he was sitting at the dining table, the remains of their dinner still in front of him, and saw the tiny body emitting a sound unlike any he’d never heard before.

  Snnnnnnnnnn.

  Snoring.

  Yup, he thought, crossing the room. Definitely her. The product of a million masculine fantasies, and there she was, mouth wide open, head cocked back, hair falling off her head. A part of him wondered what her fans would say if they could see her now. It made him smile, and he scooted in closer, taking care his cowboy boots were nothing more than a gentle shuffle on the marble steps that led to the sunken seating area. She still wore her wedding dress. Still had little sparkly things in her hair. That couldn’t be comfortable. The thing was as tight as snakeskin, and yet you couldn’t tell she was pregnant.

  She was carrying his baby and that should scare the piss and vinegar out of him, but it didn’t. He should probably wake her up, though, and maybe ask if she wanted to change, although now that he thought about it, they hadn’t exactly planned for an overnighter. Did she have extra clothes? Where were the ones she’d been wearing before she’d arrived at the church? He’d shed his jacket the moment they’d ordered dinner, his sleeves were rolled up and his cowboy hat was sitting on the peg of a chair.

  The sound of her snores grew even more pronounced. Her elegant hairstyle had started to come undone. But she looked adorable lying there and so at peace. He hated to disturb her.

  “Kait,” he said softly. “Wake up.”

  She didn’t move.

  “Kait, honey.”

  Another snore. And just for a moment he’d thought about what it would be like if this were a real wedding and what she would have done if he’d reached down and gently kissed her cheek. Only this wasn’t real. And he couldn’t kiss her and it frustrated the hell out of him.

  Not meant to be, buddy.

  He needed to move her, though. She’d roll off that couch. Plus that dress really didn’t look comfortable, so for the second time that day, he found himself slipping his arms beneath her. She hardly stirred, just tipped her head into the crook of his arm and everything inside him stilled and he just stared down at her in wonder. How had he, a bull rider, ended up holding Kaitlin Cooper, star of stock-car racing? He would bet he was one of the few men in the world who knew she snored.

  The bedroom was just as lavish as the rest of the bridal suite. Off-white coverlet. Marble floors. Ivory window curtains. Beyond a massive double door, there appeared to be a terrace with hanging plants and yet more flowers, and it was good to focus his attention on the room because it kept his mind off other things, like how her breasts seemed ready to escape the confines of her dress.

  “Kait,” he said again as he gently laid her down.

 
She was out. If she’d been a prizefighter, the referee would be at the ten count. But now that he’d thought about it, she’d had a busy twenty-four hours. She’d left early to meet him in Via Del Caballo. He’d swept her into his car not long after and driven her to Vegas. She’d spent the rest of the day getting ready for their wedding. No wonder she slept so soundly.

  He slowly slipped his arms out from beneath her and stood above her.

  She was his wife.

  If the circumstances were different, he would have been proud to call her that on this day. But he wasn’t proud. He was embarrassed. He shouldn’t have gotten her in this situation in the first place, but, damn, she was beautiful. He took a moment to admire her. Even with her blond hair all topsy-turvy and her generous mouth open, she did it for him. She had sweeping brows that arched above widely spaced eyes. She had a tiny frame but voluptuous curves. That body was usually covered by a firesuit, one that concealed her figure, but her wedding dress revealed every glorious inch of her, and it was strewn with crystals that caught the light and made her seem like some kind of ethereal being. She probably wouldn’t even feel him kiss her.

  In theory.

  He knew it had been a bad idea to give in to impulse because clearly Kait was like Snow White. One slight brush of his lips and her eyes popped open.

  He froze. She blinked. He drew back. She smiled. He leaned in and kissed her again, this time on the lips. She seemed to melt back into the bed, and it wasn’t what he’d expected her to do, but he didn’t give it much thought because, like the first time he’d kissed her, his whole world shifted. The room faded away and it was just the warmth of her mouth and then the taste of her, which somehow, crazily, reminded him of strawberries. He would never remember lifting his hand and cupping the side of her face, but he must have done so because she tipped toward him, changing the angle of their mouths, and then her tongue found his own and he heard himself groan.