by M Elle Kelso
Finally and fully spent, they lay beside each other. The aroma of coffee was creeping into the room, bringing C.J. up on one elbow.
“Which one of us is going down for it?”
“I don’t think it will be me, I think I’m stuck here for a while. What about you?”
He eyed her with one eye, the other squinted shut.
“I guess I might make it. Give me a minute.”
She lay there, waiting for strength to seep back into her muscles and joints.
They lay quietly, in a companionable silence. They didn’t need words, actions were speaking loudly to both of them. Reaching to clasp her hand, David raised her fingers to his mouth and feathered kisses across her knuckles, then turned her hand so he could explore her palm with the tip of his tongue, before kissing the center of it as well. Just that much touch and his body thought it would like to react again, but there just wasn’t anything left. He wasn’t even sure how he’d made it through the night.
“Well, darlin’, what do you think? Do you want to wait a long time, have a long engagement, or do you want to just get it over with sometime in the next few days. Take your pick. You name the date, the place, I’ll name the minister and we’ll name the guests. How does that sound?”
“Let’s not wait. We’ve wasted so much time on the wrong track, let’s get this train going down the right one soon. How about next Saturday afternoon, at Kaycee and Blake’s house, if they’ll let us. You get to pick the minister. As for the guests I’d like? I’d be happy with just the few that were there that first weekend. Blake and Kaycee, Jared and Annie, Patrick and Suzanah, Hooch, Paul, Will and Mac. Just those ten. Is there anyone else you want?”
She waited, realizing that he was watching her. The love in his eyes made her want to cry.
“No, darlin’, that sounds just about right. Who would you have stand with you?”
He was pretty sure he knew the answer to that.
“Well, I’d like to ask Kaycee, but I know you’d like both Blake and Jared with you, so I’ll ask Annie, too.”
He rolled toward her and gave her another deep kiss.
“How did you know that, you red-headed witch? You reading my mind again?”
“If I was reading your mind, I’d say you couldn’t possibly do what you have in mind right now. Neither one of us could.”
She laughed as she saw her meaning hit him.
“Darlin’, you are really getting bold this morning. But then,” he suddenly became very sober, “you did pretty good last night, making me tell you things I had planned to leave unsaid.”
He let his body move until he was lying on his back. He felt foolish. He couldn’t look her in the eye and admit how truly stupid he’d been.
“I guess that was pretty dumb on my part, seeing as you’d have seen the scars the first time you saw me dressing. I’m sorry, C.J., that I made such a fuss about them, but if you could have heard Sonia...”
She rolled toward him, her hand covering his mouth and cutting him off.
“You hush, right now. I don’t ever want to hear that woman’s name again. Ever. You got that?”
She waited, watching his eyes, until he nodded.
“Okay, then, and you just remember. It’s you I love, not your back, or your front, or your...” her hand had found him again, teasing him with gentle strokes, “well...maybe some parts of your body.”
She laughed as she rolled against him, knowing that neither of them was ready for another go-round. Maybe after breakfast.
C.J. suddenly leapt from the bed, grabbing the towel and fastening it around her.
“Come on, let’s go get that breakfast you keep talking about. Maybe we’ll be ready to come back here after we eat.”
David pulled a terry robe out of his closet, then looked at her and found another one. When he gave her a choice, she took the solid black one, certain it would do more for her red hair than the orange and black stripes of the one he now wore.
As they descended the stairs, their arms wrapped around each other, they heard the phone in his office ring. That line was reserved for the agency partners, their investigators, and at the moment, for Patrick, because of the case they had just taken on.
Letting go of C.J. to go answer it, David swore to himself.
Damn, let’s just hope it’s nothing that will take me away from her.
When he answered, he heard Patrick and Blake talking and realized they had conferenced a call.
“So, to what do I owe this unwanted interruption?” he growled.
The silence at the other end was enormous.
“Sorry, David, didn’t know you didn’t want to be interrupted. What’s up?”
Blake’s voice held a note of caution, as though he was afraid he might hear something he didn’t want to hear. David had told them he wasn’t available until Monday and they were infringing on his private time.
“Well, as you’ll all hear about this later this morning, anyway, I got engaged last night. And I really didn’t need you guys butting in on my engagement party.”
“Way to go, David.” Blake’s grin could be heard in his voice. “C.J. said yes, huh?”
“You’d look if I said it wasn’t her, wouldn’t you?” David figured he’d give them a bad time for a few seconds.
“Yeah, sure, so do you want us to keep the secret until you come over later?”
Blake and Patrick were reasonably certain David would say yes, and he did.
“Please. I’d like C.J. to be able to spring it on the others. We should be over there sometime after lunch, maybe we’ll ride over, if it isn’t too cold.”
“How about you drive over, David. We have some planning to do about this rustling business and it might be too late to ride back.”
“Okay, we’re just about to eat breakfast, so don’t expect us for a while. I’ll break the news to C.J. that she’s going visiting.”
David had seen C.J. standing just outside the door, waiting for him, with coffee in her hand, so he knew she had heard him. She made a face in his direction, then vanished.
When he left the office, he wasn’t sure which way she’d gone; back upstairs or out to the kitchen. But the banging of a frying pan led him to her.
“I know. You didn’t want to go out this afternoon, but if we don’t, it’ll have to be Sunday, and by then, we might really not be able to walk. So we’ll get dressed up, go show off your new ring, invite everyone to our wedding, and fit in our little meeting. I just hope nobody complains about our wedding being too close to Christmas. They’ll still have nearly two weeks to get ready. And we’ll only take up one day of their time.”
She smiled at him, unwilling to even act as though she was annoyed with him. She loved this man so much it made her heart ache just thinking about it.
While they were eating breakfast, David told her his plans for her newspaper office. She sat in total amazement while he told her he’d be willing to pay to have everything, even her presses, moved to the ranch. Her silence began to worry him.
“If you’re not all right with this, darlin’, say so. I only want to do what will please you.”
“Not all right? You just blandly suggest we move the whole paper out here and you expect an answer?”
C.J. gawked at him. She was still in some kind of shock.
“Well, if you don’t want to move, it’s all right with me. I just thought you’d like to be closer to work, not have to make the great commute.”
David was really beginning to worry that this was not to her liking.
“Would you really do that for me? Move everything, let all those people run loose around here on press day, pay to have those huge presses moved? You’d really do that for me?” Her eyes were round in awe.
“Sure. Why not. I don’t want you to have to commute if you don’t want to. I really don’t mind.”
He was still unsure of what she was thinking and was waiting for something to happen. But he was not prepared when she hurled herself at him, flin
ging her arms around his neck and planting kisses all over his face.
“I take it that’s a thank you?” He managed to speak between kisses with a smile on his face and in his voice.
“Oh, David, that’s one of the things I really didn’t want to have to do, commute to town to publish the paper. But, I’ll meet you halfway. I’ll move the office out here, at least my office, and I’ll keep the rest of it in Douglas. The sales staff, all one of them at the moment, and the presses can stay there. Keep the noise and the worst of the traffic away from here. Anything I need to do can be done by fax or by email or by phone. This electronic age was made for times like this. Oooh!” Her squeal was accompanied by another flurry of kisses. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, you’re welcome, you’re welcome.” He kissed her as he spoke, following her example with a murmur and a kiss, then another, and another.
Before long, they found their bodies had sufficiently recovered that David’s arousal was pressing on C.J.s belly, making her body come alive while she stood there. Without warning, she had the belt off his robe and was dropping the belt from hers as well, as he watched in amazement. She pushed him down into his chair, held back her robe and stepped across his legs and straddled him where he sat.
Only minutes later, they were exhausted by the power of their lovemaking and David held her close while he complained, albeit without much effort, to let her know he didn’t mean a word he was saying.
“Darlin’, we’ve got to stop doing this. We might be out in public the next time the mood strikes and look where we might end up.” He pointed above them, showing her the underside of the kitchen table.
Her helpless giggles started him laughing and soon they were holding each other and laughing uncontrollably. When they had calmed down, he helped her up, leading her once more back to the shower. This time, he let her shower by herself, while he shaved. Just the act of sharing the bathroom with this beautiful woman was enough to stir him again.
Down, boy, down. We gotta meetin’ to attend, then we can come back here and play around all night if we want to.
Another thought struck him as he waited for C.J. to be finished in the shower. This one was a lot more serious and left him pacing the bedroom carpet until she was out and dry.
Coming out of the bathroom, she saw the concerned, worried look on his face and wondered what had happened. She walked across to him, touched his face with her fingertips and looked at him.
“Okay, honey, what’s the matter? You look like you just lost your last friend.”
David stared down at her, not sure how to broach the subject.
“C.J., darlin’, I gotta ask you this, but I don’t quite know how, so here goes. Are you protected?”
He saw the moment she understood the question. Her eyes flared for a moment, then she hung her head.
“Oh, no. We spent the whole night making love without protection, didn’t we? It just seemed so right, I never gave it a thought. And we never talked about kids. I don’t even know if you want children.”
She moved away from him, to stand by the window. As she looked out at the snow, she felt, rather than saw him, as he moved up behind her.
“I want them, C.J.. The question is, do you? If we don’t both want the same thing, we could be in trouble here.”
“Well, you can relax.” She turned to face him. “There isn’t any problem. I have always wanted children, at least two I always thought, but Allan wouldn’t hear of it. So when he was home, it was always protected sex. I was on the pill and he made sure nothing happened by having a condom handy every time we actually slept together. I’m sorry, David. I never thought. I’ve seen you with Blake’s and Jared’s kids, and just figured, I guess, you would want children of your own.”
He pulled her into his embrace, turning her again so her back rested against his chest. He stood behind her, with his hands crossed over her abdomen. His fingertips stroked her, unconsciously she thought, while he swayed with her.
“Guess it’s a good thing we were meant to be. With all the times we made love last night, you might be pregnant.”
“Do you think so? I’d like that. I’m old enough waiting might not be an option. Guess I’d better talk to my doctor about all this. But that can wait until after the wedding. Oh, David,” she turned in his arms, her head resting on his chest, “I’m sorry. I never even thought about protection last night.”
“Don’t be sorry, I didn’t either. I guess if it was meant to be, it will happen. I won’t be sorry.”
His embrace made her feel as though she was the only thing of worth in his world. Then he was pushing her away, telling her to hurry up and get dressed.
“We have to leave for Blake’s and the discussion with Patrick. We can get back to our discussion tonight when we get home.”
Home.
That sounded wonderful to C.J. Finally, a man to love, a man who loved her, and a wonderful home they would build together.
When they got to the Corbin ranch, the women oohed and ahhed over C.J.’s ring, congratulations were exchanged and it was well on into the afternoon before everyone settled down.
C.J., with Kaycee and Annie, and Suzanah listening but not contributing much, put together the first plan for her wedding day. C.J. was happy with the arrangements, all that was left was to find a dress to wear. David had taken his fair share of the ribbing being handed out and decided he liked the feeling of knowing C.J. was his and these people were all happy for them. Even when she was out of his sight, he could smell her, taste her. His body occasionally got a mite unruly, letting him know his love for this woman was still new enough to bring on these unexpected reactions. When they sat down to lunch, C.J.’s hand in his lap did nothing to help him.
After lunch, those involved with the rustling operation got down to business. C.J. took notes, not sure what she’d need or what she could use; but she had to make sure she got everything. The press kit would be done over the next month or so, but a release would be put out on Monday. She felt there was enough urgency to it to make it impossible to wait for her own publishing date. For her own paper, she would flesh out the details a bit, adding the few additional details that could be published at the time.
“Mike Williams phoned this morning,” Blake spoke into a pause, “wanting to know when we would need him to start doing aerial work.”
David looked around the table, waiting for someone to make a suggestion, but no one spoke.
“Patrick, you’re the one that can best direct us in this. When do you think we should start?” He hoped they’d get a day or two, he wanted at least one more day alone with C.J. before reality interfered.
“I think, if it could start now, any day would be good, sort of let us know if there are any areas we should be watching in particular. Like, if there are a set of suspicious tracks seen tomorrow, we could check them out again in a week’s time, see if they’ve been used or, if it snows again, are there new ones visible. I guess it depends on how much the aerial work would cost us.”
“Well, I know that Mike is planning to charge you for the gas only, not for his time, because his father is involved and he owns the helicopter. So he doesn’t want to price himself right out of the picture. I don’t know what David’s plans are.”
Blake was looking at David with arched brows when he finished speaking.
“Since I own mine, but haven’t got enough business insurance to cover this, I’d have to add a little to the gas charge, just enough to cover the additional insurance payment increase so I could fly it for you. I can’t imagine it will be very much, just enough to make sure if anything happens, it’s covered.”
“That’s not a problem, I’m sure the others will all go for that. I think it comes well within the amount we budgeted for aerial work.”
“Okay, then how about asking Mike to check his half of the area no later than Monday, and I’ll do mine tomorrow. It shouldn’t take too long and C.J. can come with me, then I’ll drop
her off in Douglas before heading back.”
David noticed C.J. scowling at him from across the table and wondered what he’d said that was wrong. He figured he’d soon hear.
When the meeting broke up, the men drifted back to the large kitchen, looking for fresh coffee. C.J. held back, watching him; as David realized she hadn’t followed him, he smiled then came back to her.
“All right, what did I do?” He grinned down at her sure she was going to give him a bad time about something..
“You didn’t do anything. I had a thought during that meeting, but I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others.” She paused, a frown creasing her forehead. “Did anyone ask Patrick if there were any of the affected ranchers that might be guilty of this, but reporting losses so that they aren’t suspected?”
Her serious gaze put him back into work mode. He found himself frowning as he thought back to the meeting he had attended.
“No, I don’t think anyone has mentioned it. What makes you ask? Anyone in mind, in particular?”
David was suddenly on edge as he realized what she was asking.
“Well, I’m not sure I suspect anyone in particular, but there is a reason for asking that question. One of the affected ranchers is close to bankruptcy, if the gossip around Douglas is right. Might be a way of adding to his income without too much risk. Then, if he does go bankrupt, he’s got cash coming from somewhere else. Ranchers around here sell their cattle as a collective. In other words, their herds are all co-mingled at the stockyards. They’ve already hammered out a deal with the brokers and buyers, for a certain price for all of them. Cattle production around this area has been so uniform, that the buyers agreed a few years ago to buy for one price from a pool of cattle, rather than from each rancher individually. That means, that if rancher A and B lose cattle, rustled by rancher C, then all three put their sales animals into the commingled herd, who’d notice if a few of rancher C’s animals didn’t carry rancher C’s brand.”
C.J.’s explanation stopped David cold. He immediately called Blake and Jared back and hastily explained her theory to them. Blake, in turn, called back Paul, Will and Mac, outlining the theory to them, and assigning each investigator names of affected ranchers to be checked out. Blake and Jared kept a couple for themselves, people that they didn’t want to have upset if they found out they were being investigated.
