“We’re attracted to each other. We want each other. What’s not right about that?”
How could she tell him when she didn’t know herself? All she knew is that Harper was someone special. Someone she could actually imagine a future with. And she didn’t have time for a man right now.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She’d just decided against men for the time being. She wanted to finally be her own person and not be subject to the whims of men like she’d been during those years at Rachel’s.
But Harper? Yes, Harper was a decent guy. A guy she could fall for. So the last thing she wanted was a one-night stand with him. If she slept with him now, she’d destroy any chance for a relationship.
Was he even looking for a relationship? Probably not. Still, sleeping with him now felt both very right and very wrong.
Very right because she was wet and horny and extremely attracted to him.
Very wrong because he was the type of guy she wanted in her future, and she might destroy that possibility if she fell into bed with him on the first date.
“I’m sorry. I know I said I wanted this.” She scooted away from him. Had to be away from him to get her body under control. Still she shuddered. It wasn’t working. “I was feeling close to you. I told you things I haven’t told anyone, and I’m not really sure why. But I don’t sleep around. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me.”
He cocked his head. “You worked at Rachel’s.”
A sword of anger lanced through her. How dare he assume— “As a dancer, damn it. Not as a prostitute!”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.” He stood. “I’m a big boy. It’s been a long time since I’ve slept with anyone, and the truth is, I’m horny as hell for you. But I’m also a gentleman. I understand a lady can change her mind.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, and her anxiety eased a bit. “I assure you I’m not in the habit of being a tease. If you want me to go, I will. We don’t need to have dinner.”
His dark eyes danced as he grinned. “Of course we do. I’ve got the steaks all ready to go. I hope you’ll stay.”
Thank God he wasn’t angry. “I’d love to stay. Thank you.”
“But if you expect me to have dinner with you and not jump your bones right here and now, you have to do something for me.”
“Of course. What’s that?”
An adorable dimple cut into his left cheek. “Put your shirt back on, baby. Right now you look good enough to eat.”
Amber warmed as she donned her bra and shirt. “Better?”
“Not really,” he teased, “but it’ll do for now. There’s one thing we need to get clear though.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“I like you, Miss Amber, and I’m not done tryin’ to get you into my bed.”
She laughed. “That’s fine by me. If we continue to go out and we like each other, that’s where we’ll end up. I’m looking forward to it.”
His dark eyes gleamed. “So am I.” He stood. “Now about those steaks.”
“I’ll get our salad ready.”
She went to the kitchen to start work as Harper went outside to the patio to put the steaks on the grill. He came back in with a serious look on his face.
“One thing I want to know.”
“Sure. What?”
“How did no one know till now that Thunder Morgan is your dad?”
“I never told anyone his name till you.” She shook her head. “Funny. I told you a lot of things tonight that I never talk about. My mother, for example. Rachel’s. I’ve never told Catie or Angie any of that stuff.”
“Still, you knew his name.”
“You got a cutting board?” Amber rinsed off a tomato. “I knew it was Morgan Cross, not Thunder Morgan.”
Harper grabbed the board out of a cupboard and handed it to her. “True. I guess most people wouldn’t know his real name. I only know it because he was friends with my dad.”
“Can you tell me a little about him?” She sliced into the tomato’s red flesh.
“Careful, I’ve nearly de-fingered myself with that knife.” He winked. “He’s a good guy. Retired now.”
“How old is he?”
“I haven’t a clue. Probably in his late fifties or early sixties. He knew my dad from his days on the western slope. He worked as a ranch hand for my great-grandpa when he was just starting out. Once he took a few good-size rodeo purses, he left the ranch and went out on the circuit. Never married, never had kids. Or rather, I never knew he had kids. My guess is he doesn’t know either.”
“I seriously thought my mother made up the name to put on the birth certificate.” She dumped the tomato into the salad bowl and began chopping a few scallions.
“He’s a real person, and she told you he was a bronc buster, right?”
“Yeah. They must have met when he was in Texas doing a rodeo or something. She never told me more than his name and the fact he busted broncs. I stopped asking after a while. Then she kicked me out.”
“Why? Why did she kick you out?”
Amber sighed and tossed some bagged lettuce into the bowl. “Who knows? She was a drunk, Harper. I have no clue why she did half the things she did. I wasn’t much of an expense to her. I did all the cooking and cleaning. If I didn’t the place was a sty.”
“Did she work?”
“At the post office, yeah.”
“At least she held down a job.”
“As far as I know. Once I left I never looked back. I have no idea what she’s doing now.”
“You mean you haven’t seen her?”
“Heck no.” Amber tossed the salad to keep her hands busy while past emotion crept into her. She held it at bay. “Why would I want to see the woman who kicked me out of her house when I was only sixteen? If it weren’t for my friend Laura taking me in, I’d have been on the streets.”
“I guess I can’t blame you.” Harper’s arms slipped around her waist from the back. “I’m sorry life was so tough for you. It’s hard to imagine a mother not wanting her child. My mother loves her children so much.”
“You don’t know how lucky you are.”
“I was mad as hell when I found out she’d duped my dad about Angie’s paternity. It wasn’t fair to him or to Jeff, my uncle.”
“Angie’s real father, yeah I know.” Amber leaned back into Harper’s hard chest. Instantly her agitation lessened. Ahhh. What a remedy for the anxiety produced by the subject of her mother.
“But I’m beginning to understand why she did it.” Harper’s breath was warm against her scalp. “She did it for Angie. To give her a good life. She married a man she didn’t love so her child would have a great life. There’s a lot of selflessness in that.”
“There’s a ton of selflessness in that, Harper. Don’t hold a grudge forever.”
“You should take your own advice, baby.” He turned her around to face him. “Do you ever think about seeing your mother? Working things out?”
Her tummy churned. Here came the agitation again. “There’s a huge difference. My mother never did anything out of selflessness. Who in hell kicks out a sixteen-year-old girl? That’s plain selfish.”
“True enough.” Harper trailed one finger over her outer ear. “Maybe she had her reasons though.”
“Yeah. She couldn’t afford me plus the booze. Typical Karen Hedstrom priorities.”
“That’s her name? Karen Hedstrom?”
“Yup.”
“And you never knew your father at all?”
“Nope. She never saw him again after that night.”
Harper’s brow furrowed. “Interesting.”
“Why?”
“Why she’d put his name on your birth certificate. Give you his last name.”
Amber shrugged. “Doesn’t seem so weird to me.”
“Maybe not. You’re twenty-two right?”
“That’s right.”
“Twenty-two years ago Thunder Morgan was already pretty
well-known. If you are truly his daughter, why wouldn’t your mother have tried to contact him to get child support?”
“Don’t ask me. I have no idea how Karen’s mind works. She was probably too inebriated to think of it.”
“Hmm. Doesn’t seem to make sense.”
“It’s too late now. I’m way too old to get child support. He wasn’t there when it counted.”
Amber tried to turn around and grab the salad bowl, but Harper stopped her. “If you’d known your father was famous, would you have tried to contact him?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “Why the third degree, Harper? Maybe he’s not even my father. I really don’t care. I’ve made it on my own for the last six years. I don’t plan to start taking help from anyone now.”
“I’m not saying you need his help. But wouldn’t you like to know him?”
“What good would it do now? He didn’t want me before.”
“Baby, that’s not fair.” His strong hands gripped her shoulders. “He didn’t know about you before.”
She sighed. “Look. You now know more about me than pretty much anyone in the world. Could we just eat our steaks?”
“Crap, the steaks!”
He ran outside. A few minutes later he returned. “Well, they won’t be blue, but they’ll be medium rare. That okay with you?”
She laughed. “That’s just fine. I’ll put the salad on the table. And when we sit down to eat, could we please talk about something besides my genetic makeup?”
“Absolutely.” He brushed his lips over hers.
Chapter Seven
Harper had a perpetual hard on thanks to Amber Cross. And he had a sneaking suspicion that she was his type after all. He’d have loved to screw her brains out the previous evening. In fact, he’d brought it up because he’d assumed she’d hop in the sack with him. She’d worked as a stripper, right? Course that didn’t mean she was easy, and he berated himself for being so prejudiced. Even so, she’d almost gone through with it. When she changed her mind he thought he’d explode. But now, having had the night to ponder it, he was glad they hadn’t done the deed.
Amber Cross was special. Maybe even the one. He’d never in a million years imagined it would be her. But clearly they had chemistry, both physical and emotional.
She wasn’t a quick fuck.
The girl’d had one hard life. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why her mother wouldn’t have gone after Thunder Morgan for child support. Unless Thunder Morgan wasn’t Amber’s father after all. But then why would Karen have named him on her birth certificate?
Amber was holding something back. Harper wasn’t sure what it was, but he was sure of one thing.
He was going to find out.
* * *
Amber had Sunday off. She relaxed in her studio apartment above the beauty salon. It was tiny but cheap, and it worked for her. She had finally saved up enough money to buy a tablet, and she fired it up after she’d downed her first cup of coffee.
Her Google search? None other than sweet Daddy himself, Thunder Morgan.
He had his own web site, of course.
Her heart nearly stopped. There on the web page were her light brown eyes.
She’d always been a dead ringer for Karen Hedstrom, except for the eyes.
He was handsome—sandy gold hair graying at the temples. An older man now, but she flipped through his gallery and caught sight of him in his younger years. Wow. Buff and beefy, just the way Karen liked her men.
Why on earth would he have been interested in bedding a worn-out drunk like her mother?
And why, why, why hadn’t her mother gone after him for child support?
Harper was right. Something was up with this story. Amber scanned each page of the web site. Nowhere was the name Morgan Cross mentioned. She did a Google search cross referencing the two names. Nothing.
Either Thunder Morgan was not Morgan Cross, or he had left that name behind for some reason.
Two things niggled at her.
First, Harper would not lie. He was Catie’s brother, and he was a good man. He wasn’t a liar. If he knew Morgan Cross was the birth name of bronc buster Thunder Morgan, that was how it was.
Second. She couldn’t overlook it or deny it. The man stared at her from her computer screen with her own eyes.
“I’ll be damned,” she said aloud.
She had questions. Tons of questions. She should go to Karen. But she hadn’t spoken to the woman since she’d been kicked out of her house. What would she do? Go to San Antonio and show up on her doorstep?
Hi, I’m the daughter you threw out with the trash. Uh, how come you neglected to tell me my father was Thunder Morgan? And how come you neglected to tell him he had a kid?
She couldn’t do any of those things. She didn’t have two nickels to rub together. How would she get to San Antonio? On her looks? Hardly.
Her cell phone interrupted her thoughts.
She smiled. It was Harper. They’d exchanged numbers last night.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said. “Feel like some coffee?”
“I’m on my second cup already.” She laughed.
“How about I come get you and we’ll head to Rena’s for some more. And maybe a croissant or two?”
“A croissant? You mean a cowboy like you doesn’t want a hearty bacon and egg breakfast?”
His chuckle warmed her ears. “Well, that does sound good.”
“Come on over to my place then. I’ll make you breakfast. And my coffee’s better than Rena’s.”
“Better than Rena’s? Them’s fightin’ words.”
“She brews a good pot, for sure. But mine’s better. Strong, thick, and black, like my men.”
“Huh?”
She giggled into the phone. “Just a joke, cowboy. From a movie I saw once.”
“I won’t turn that down. I’ll be over in half an hour or so.”
She took a quick shower and let her hair hang in wet waves around her face and shoulders. Then she tidied up the place, which didn’t take long given its size, and started a fresh pot of coffee. She looked in her small fridge. Plenty of eggs and bacon, good. Also a few apples and a few cartons of yogurt. That was about it. Time to do some shopping. She’d get to that later today.
She started the bacon, and by the time a knock sounded on her door, the tiny place was alive with the aroma of smoky pork.
“Come in,” she called.
“Hi there.” Harper entered carrying a bouquet of wild flowers. He handed them to her.
“Thank you. That’s so sweet.” She grabbed a jar out of a cupboard and put the flowers in water.
“I’ve never been up here before,” he said.
“It’s small but comfy. It’s actually really convenient to have everything in one room.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed. “A double, huh? Not a lot of room.”
“Don’t need a lot of room just for me.” She gave him what she hoped was a teasing smile and served up a plate of bacon and eggs. “Here you go.”
“Smells great.”
“Just sit down at my little table there.” She pointed. “Dig in.”
“You’ve fixed this little place up real nice.”
“It worked well since this is about all I had to bring with me. I roomed with my friend Laura and another girl in San Antonio. Most of the furniture belonged to the other girl. I was thrilled when Judy showed me this place. I knew I wouldn’t have to go out and buy a lot of stuff I couldn’t afford.”
“Makes sense.” He took a bite of eggs. “Mmm. Good. So, I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?”
“About your situation.”
She gulped down a sip of coffee, her nerves on edge. Was he going to bring up Rachel’s again? “What situation might that be?”
“About your dad, Thunder Morgan.”
Oh, that was all. She breathed easier. “Funny you should mention him. I was just doing some research this morning.”<
br />
“And?”
“And he was already a pretty big name by the time he hooked up with my mother. So I’m confused why she didn’t tell him about me.”
“Maybe she didn’t know how to get in touch with him. The world wide web wasn’t as worldwide twenty-two years ago.”
“That’s true, but he was a pretty big name, especially in rodeo country.”
Harper swallowed his mouthful. “Well, there’s one way to find all this out.”
“And that is?”
“You could ask her.”
Amber nodded. She’d thought of that, but… “Yeah, I suppose. But I literally haven’t seen her or spoken to her since she kicked me out.”
“So?”
Clearly Harper wasn’t getting it. Of course not. He’d had a model childhood. “It’s a little awkward.”
“She’s your mother, and you deserve some answers.”
“I deserve a lot of answers. Doesn’t mean I’m going to get any.”
“Can’t hurt to try.”
She sighed and pushed her plate to the side. “The thing is, Harper, it can hurt. I don’t want to go back to San Antonio. I left for a reason. I got the hell out of Rachel’s. I don’t want to go back there.”
“Even to find out more about who you are?”
“Can’t I find out from here? I mean, you said you know Thunder Morgan. You could contact him.”
“Yes, I could do that, I suppose.”
“Would you?”
“For you?” He leaned forward—the table was so small—and brushed his lips against hers. “Anything.”
Her skin erupted in tiny bumps. Just a small peck, and here she was ready to hop into the sack with him again. And with her bed only twenty feet away—in plain view, still rumpled—it’d be darn easy.
Nope. Not going there. Not tumbling into bed with Harper just because he was tousled and sexy and oh so sweet to her.
She stood. “More coffee?”
He shook his head. “I’m doing fine. What are you doing the rest of the day?”
“No plans. I need to hit the grocery store. Pretty much all I had left was eggs and bacon. You got lucky this morning.”
“Not as lucky as I’d like to.” His voice was soft, husky, so very masculine.
Treasuring Amber: The Temptation Saga: Book Five Page 5
