by Helen Lacey
Robin felt like an idiot. She’d been so determined to make him look foolish, and all she’d done was prove she was petty and mean-spirited. “I’m mad at you. You belittled me and my work in front of my employer yesterday.”
“I know,” he said. “And I apologized, if you recall.”
“It was a crappy apology,” she said.
“I know that, too,” he admitted. “But I’m trying to make it up to you. If you’d give me a chance.”
“Why should I?” she defied, caught between a barrage of emotions she didn’t want to think about.
“Because we’re attracted to one another, and I’d like to find out where it might lead.”
She harrumphed. “I know exactly where you think it will lead...to a proverbial roll in the hay. And I think I’ve made it clear that I’m not interested in anything casual with anyone.”
“In my experience, everything starts off as casual.”
Robin glared at him. It wasn’t the beginning she was concerned about. Or the middle. It was the end. Because Amersen had a reputation for having one casual relationship after another, and she certainly didn’t want to be another notch on his bedpost, no matter how much her libido was betraying her and telling her to go for it. It would be incredible, she was certain. Great sex and a good time. But she also knew it would be foolish.
She grasped the horses’ reins and walked toward the stables, hitched them both to their adjoining stalls and began untacking Blackjack. Amersen was beside her the moment she released the gelding’s cinch, and he pulled the saddle off the horse’s back before she had a chance. He was so close she could smell a faint trace of his cologne. Or maybe it was pheromones simply gone haywire. Whatever—every part of her was attuned to every inch of him.
“My ride, my responsibility,” he said quietly. “Horsemanship 101.”
Robin stood aside and watched as he grabbed a brush from the bucket by the stall door and used it on the gelding. She did the same with Butterfly, and ten minutes later, both animals were rigged with their horse blankets and led back into their stalls. Robin quickly made up their feed, and once they were fed, she closed the stall doors and turned back to Amersen.
His gaze was intense and burned right through her. She was sucked deeply in, feeling herself sway toward him almost involuntarily. He had a kind of magnetic energy she was inexplicably drawn to and couldn’t resist. And then she was lost. All out of resistance.
She stepped forward and touched him, placing a hand on his chest, feeling the electric connection from the soles of her feet to the roots of her hair. As much as she wanted to fight it...as much as her head told her she was crazy to be within two feet of him, Robin couldn’t help herself.
His hand came up and he touched her hair, twirling the strands between his fingertips. “Ask.”
“Ask?” she echoed on a whisper.
“For this,” he replied softly, coming closer. “Ask me to kiss you, and I will.”
There was so much arrogance and self-assurance in his words, she wanted to slug him. But she couldn’t. The heat from his body ensnared her, making resistance impossible. He wouldn’t, she realized, ever take anything she wasn’t prepared to willingly give. He had integrity. He had values. In some part of her mind, she compared him to Trey and realized that her ex had been just a boy compared to Amersen. He was a man in every sense of the word. He was strong and successful and very much in charge of everything he touched. Including her. But Robin sensed he lived by a code...only taking what was given freely. He wouldn’t coerce her. And as she pressed closer, Robin realized he didn’t have to.
“Okay,” she whispered, all out of fight. “Kiss me.”
He stared into her upturned face, and she memorized every handsome angle—his strong jawline, dark blue eyes, perfectly sculpted mouth and five o’clock shadow. He was breathtaking. And in that moment, hers to kiss.
His thumb moved over her nape, drawing tiny circles as he continued to stare into her eyes. She wanted to close her lids but didn’t dare break the visual connection. Never in her life had a man looked at her in such a way. There was unmistakable heat and an electric intensity and pure, basic desire.
He moved and pressed his body against hers, drawing her closer. And she melted. Her hands crawled up his chest and curled into his shoulders and she parted her lips, waiting, anticipating, longing for his kiss so much Robin wondered if she hadn’t lost her mind. She didn’t do this...she didn’t let a little harmless flirting turn into something more. Not ever.
But as his lips touched hers, Robin realized this wasn’t like anything she’d experienced before. Sure, she’d been kissed and touched and more. But never with such scorching-hot intent. His mouth moved over hers slowly, instantly drawing a response, making her want even more. And then his tongue was in her mouth and the kiss deepened and she was clinging to his shoulders, rolling her tongue around his with pure, unadulterated hunger. He anchored her head and went in deeper, his tongue so seductive against her own she experienced a hot surge of longing down low, making her moan and then press her hips toward him. He was hard and clearly as turned on as she was.
“Give me half an hour,” he muttered against her mouth. “Half an hour and I’ll have you screaming my name.”
He wouldn’t need half an hour, she was sure of it. As it was, she wanted to pull down his fly, wrap her legs around his hips and let him plunge deep inside her, taking her wherever he wanted. Over and over. Until they couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t stand. Couldn’t do anything but feel sweat and heat and pleasure.
Except this wasn’t the place, she thought as some faraway sound, like a screen door flapping, dragged a tiny part of her brain back to reality. Her parents were in the house. It was still daylight. They could easily be seen acting like a couple of horny teenagers.
She pulled on what was left of her good sense and dragged her mouth from his, breathing hard, and she stepped back, wrenching herself free of his embrace. He released her instantly, not looking anywhere near as overwhelmed as she felt. He looked his usual infuriatingly cool self. And he was smiling, as though he knew exactly the effect he had on her.
“Robin,” he said quietly. “Breathe.”
Her chest shuddered. “You’re such a jerk.”
“I’m a lot of things. But I think we just proved that we’re going to be good in bed together.”
She tried to laugh at his arrogance and failed. Her thighs felt like Jell-O, her girl parts ached, her hands were shaking and her lips throbbed from the intensity of their kiss. She didn’t want to laugh. She wanted to kiss him again. And more.
But it wasn’t the time or place. And Robin wasn’t about to jump into bed with a man she’d known for only a little over forty-eight hours. Crazy, spirited and sometimes a little unorthodox she might be, but easy? Not a chance.
She’d brought him to the ranch to prove a point. Okay, so her plan to make him look like a failure on a horse had seriously backfired, but she still had phase two of her plan to put into action. Dinner with her sweet-natured folks...filled with enough parental pressure to make him grab his keys and run and never look back.
“I should make good on the dinner I promised you.”
He smiled and dusted his hands together. “Can I wash up first?”
She nodded. “Sure. Follow me.”
They left the barn and headed for the main house. She led him through the mudroom, conscious of his presence close behind her, and as they entered the kitchen, they were assailed by the aroma of her mother’s famous pot roast.
“Our dinner,” she said and managed a smile. “We’ll be eating with my folks tonight,” she explained and waited for his refusal. “I hope that’s okay.”
“Sure,” he said easily. “I look forward to meeting them.”
Robin noticed a tiny pulse beating in his cheek and r
ealized he wasn’t as cool as he was making out. Good. A dose of her parents over dinner would have him running out the door and back to his hotel within half an hour. Seeing as she hadn’t brought a man to the house since she’d broken up with Trey, she knew her parents would be pumping out questions to Amersen over their meal. And she couldn’t wait to see him squirm.
“You’ll love them,” she assured him. “They’re wonderful people.”
And right on cue, her mother entered the room. Veronica Harbin was the kind of mother everyone wanted—kind, considerate and always on hand for her children. A little on the plump side, she always wore floral dresses, cowboy boots, and tucked her curly blond hair behind her ears. Her mother was her best friend, and Robin loved her dearly.
“Mom, hi,” Robin said cheerfully. “This is Amersen. He’s staying for dinner.”
She watched as her mother came forward and grasped Amersen’s hand. “Lovely to meet you.”
“Likewise, madame,” he replied. “It is a pleasure.”
Robin saw her mother flush. Like mother, like daughter, she thought, swooning over a sexy accent. “We’ve been out riding, so I thought I’d loan Amersen some of Evan’s clothes.”
“Of course,” her mother said and smiled. “You know where they are. Dinner will be on the table soon, so don’t be too long,” she said and winked.
Robin grabbed his hand, ignoring the way heat immediately flared in her belly, and dragged him from the kitchen. Once they were out of earshot, she dropped his hand as though it was a hot poker and spoke. “How do you feel about a shirt and jeans? Mom hasn’t cleared out my brothers’ rooms, even though they left years ago. And you’re about Evan’s size.”
“Great,” he said agreeably.
Too agreeably. She knew he didn’t want to wear her brother’s old clothes. But he was too stubborn to say so. They were a lot alike, she realized. It made her long to stop being so aware of him. But he was right—they were attracted to each other. And their kiss had proved it. Who knew why they pushed one another’s sex buttons? She’d never really understood physical attraction. If she did, she might have had a reason for Trey’s infidelity.
She heard the television blaring in the front lounge room and knew her father would be watching his favorite game show before dinner. She beckoned Amersen down the hallway and up the stairs, stopping at the first door. Her brother’s bedroom was exactly as it had been when he was a teenager—sports trophies on shelves, old posters on the walls. Evan still used the room if he stayed at the ranch for a weekend, so she knew he had spare clothes in the closet. Robin rummaged through the clothing and pulled out a soft plaid shirt, a pair of jeans and a lightweight Sherpa jacket.
She turned around and looked at Amersen. His suit and coat looked crumpled and grubby but redeemable, and she figured that a visit to the dry cleaner’s should fix it. She passed him the clothes and shrugged.
“You can change in here. Meet you downstairs.”
She left the room and closed the door, refusing to think about how he would be nearly naked with just a wall between them. She waited at the bottom of the stairs, and when he opened the bedroom door and stood at the top of the stairs, she simply stared at him.
Oh, dear god, he was too gorgeous for words.
She liked the look of a suit on him. He carried it off effortlessly. But in jeans and her brother’s plaid cotton shirt, he was out-of-this-world hot.
“I really wish you were old and ugly,” she said and scowled.
He laughed and came down the stairs, his coat, suit pants, shirt and jacket flung over one arm. “No, you don’t.”
“I do. And just so you know, what happened in the barn isn’t going to happen again.”
“Sure it is,” he quipped when he reached her. “You can’t fight the inevitable.”
“I can,” she assured him. “You’ll be leaving town in a few days and we’ll never see one another again.”
“Never is a long time.”
“Never is what I want, Mr. Beaudin.”
“Amersen,” he corrected, reaching out to touch her cheek with the back of his fingertips. “You promised.”
“You have to stop doing that,” she said quietly and stepped back.
“Doing what?”
“Making me...” Her words trailed off and she glanced toward the living room and grimaced at the loud television, wondering what Amersen thought of the whole scene, because he seemed annoyingly relaxed. “Making me like you.”
“I can’t help it, Robin,” he said, so softly she instinctively leaned closer. “Every moment I spend with you, I miss Paris a little less.”
His words were provocative, sexy, and made her realize one incomprehensible fact.
I’m going to fall in love with this guy. I just know it.
And it was one big pile of fertilizer that made her the biggest fool of all time.
* * *
Amersen wasn’t sure why Robin had invited him to dinner with her family. Maybe to make him uncomfortable? The truth was, he didn’t do parents. Not ever. He never dated anyone long enough to form any kind of attachment, and back home he wouldn’t have entertained the idea of meeting the family of someone he’d known for only two days.
Or likely ever.
But strangely, he sincerely wanted to meet her family.
Her father, Cliff, was a solid man who’d clearly had a stroke—he walked with the aid of a cane—but was very affable and chatty. Her mother was genuine and talkative and clearly adored her husband and daughter. Robin had a happy family. Much like his own, he realized, with parents who were genuinely in love with each other.
And while they sat at the big scrubbed table in the modest kitchen, talking about the ranch and horses, eating a meal that was homey and filling, and touching briefly on his business with Kate Fortune, Amersen could think of only one thing...that he ached to kiss Robin again. The memory of her pressed against him—of her lips and hands and lovely curves—was something he just couldn’t shake. And he wanted more.
“So, Amersen,” Cliff said and gave a lopsided grin. “You’re going to sell perfume with Mrs. K?”
He noticed Robin’s brows come together and smiled. “Something like that.”
“She’s a fine woman,” Cliff said and nodded. “With a good mind for business. She might not be running the show now, but she’s still the reason the Fortune family are big news in Texas. Don’t let her age put you off...she’s as switched on as ever.”
“I won’t,” he assured the other man. “And thank you for the advice.”
Cliff puffed out his chest. “Anytime.”
Amersen saw an opportunity to dig a little deeper. What could it hurt to know a little more? “So, do you know the Fortunes very well?”
Cliff nodded and managed a half shrug. “I know Graham and Wes. Before the stroke got me, I used to breed and train quarter horses. I’ve sold a few for Pete’s Place over the years,” he explained, instantly jogging Amersen’s memory.
Pete’s Place, a ranch that took in troubled kids, had the name Fortune stamped all over it. Graham Fortune Robinson had spent years running the ranch, which helped teenage boys in need of a fresh start, until he’d taken over as CEO of Fortune Cosmetics. But according to some reports, the guy was still a rancher at heart and his appointment to the role by Kate had been a surprise. Still, he appeared to be doing a good job. Most of Amersen’s other half siblings worked at Robinson Tech, the family corporation.
A place he intended to steer clear of while he was in Texas.
“The Fortune family is an important one, I gather?”
Cliff nodded. “For sure. Muddled and mixed-up...particularly since that whole fiasco with Gerald Robinson was exposed.”
Amersen’s back stiffened at the mention of his biological father. “Fiasco?”
Robin’s mother spoke next. “You know, the thing with Gerald Robinson,” she said, her voice quickly dropping an octave. “And his secret former life as Jerome Fortune.”
“I’m sure Amersen doesn’t want to hear all the gory details,” Robin said extra cheerfully and cast him an apologetic look, as though her parents had somehow embarrassed her. “It’s really none of our business.”
Cliff nodded. “Can’t help feeling sorry for Charlotte, though. Couldn’t be easy finding out your husband used to be someone else and that he’s got a bunch of illegitimate kids scattered all over the place. The man was busy,” Cliff said and grinned at Amersen. “If you know what I mean.”
“Cliff,” Veronica admonished her husband. “That’s not dinner-table kind of talk.”
The older man patted her hand and chuckled. “Looks like I’m in trouble with my lovely wife. Still, all I’m saying is that I’ve been married for over thirty years and it’s never been hard to stay faithful...but Robinson obviously couldn’t help himself, since he apparently was with every woman he met, from his next-door neighbor to the babysitter.”
Amersen stilled. The babysitter. His mother. Suzette. Au pair to the Robinson children for over a year. His chest tightened, his breath suddenly shallow. He was the product of that union. It made him sick to his stomach thinking how Robinson had seduced his mother and then paid her off once she discovered she was pregnant, and a familiar dread crept up his limbs and threatened to constrict his chest.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
He swallowed hard and sucked in some air, willing his lungs to do their job and keep him from racing to the rental car to grab his inhaler from the passenger seat. The last thing he wanted was to embarrass himself in front of Robin and her parents by having an asthma attack.
He met Robin’s gaze, saw her expression narrow and managed a small nod. She smiled fractionally, her blue gaze holding his, and oddly, it calmed him. He kept his stare steady with hers, pulling on all of his self-control to keep his breathing calm. After a few seconds, Amersen felt normal again, and he relaxed, the air filling his lungs steadily.
