A Texan in Her Bed

by Sara Orwig

  Two hours later, she sat quietly in Wyatt’s luxurious private jet as they gained altitude and Texas disappeared below. What was Wyatt doing? Did he hurt at all or did he even care?

  * * *

  Wyatt tried to work and couldn’t concentrate. He gave up and told Dwight he needed to go to his ranch and would see him Monday.

  As he sped along the highway, a plane went overhead. He looked up, knowing it was a commercial jet and not his plane flying Destiny home to Chicago. Even though their parting had been inevitable from the first, it hurt. He missed her and wanted her with him tonight and the rest of the week.

  He would get over her. He always did, but he couldn’t recall ever missing someone this badly. Was it purely the sex that had wrapped around him and ensnared him? At some point, he knew, that ardor would cool, although at the present moment, he couldn’t imagine it cooling even one degree. Common sense said it would and then how would he feel about her?

  He missed her, her laughter, her smiles, her surprises, her flirting, the constant excitement she stirred. Without her, the whole town of Verity seemed empty and devoid of life.

  He’d give himself a few days and then he would probably be back to normal with his life back in a regular routine that did not include a fantastic, sexy, sensual redhead who had stirred his life into a tempest.

  He could hear Duke threatening him, warning him to not hurt her and then admitting he had never talked to another man about that before. Why had Duke confronted him—even more seriously, threatened him? And Duke had known exactly what he was doing.

  Wyatt shook his head. He couldn’t answer his own questions and Duke remained a puzzle, but he had a feeling if Destiny went back to Chicago missing him, he might be in a big heap of trouble when Duke returned to Verity if she came back for the show. That might be one more bit of trouble she had stirred into his life.

  Wyatt hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. He missed her and wanted her. How long was it going to take to get over her? How long before she would be out of his thoughts?

  He wanted her back in Verity. His life was going to be quiet and dull for the next few days. He didn’t even know if he could get her television show out at the ranch.

  “Destiny,” he said, remembering driving with her beside him, her hand on his thigh, her flirting and teasing and sexy remarks.

  Another plane went overhead and he gave it a dark look. She was flying away from him, back to her busy, fulfilling life, and she would forget Verity and its sheriff, their time together, everything here.

  His spirits sank lower. He hadn’t talked to her about seeing her again and that had been his fault. He pulled out his phone, looked at it and dropped it on the seat beside him. She was flying and wouldn’t take the call.

  “Dammit. Destiny.” Why hadn’t he made arrangements to fly up and see her?

  Wyatt drove to the ranch, but unlike other times he didn’t find the usual peace and quiet. He missed Destiny as much at the ranch as he had in Verity. He changed clothes, took a pickup and went to see if he could find some work to do and take his mind off Destiny.

  By nightfall, he missed her beyond anything he had guessed possible. He hadn’t felt this way since Katherine. The realization shocked him. Had he fallen in love without even knowing it?

  He yanked out his phone to call Destiny. The moment he heard her voice, he felt better and worse at the same time. He wanted her in his arms, but he was glad to talk to her.

  “Hi. I thought I’d see if you got in and if everything is okay.”

  “Yes. Thanks for the flight home. It was easy and a good flight. I’m just starting to unpack. I’ve been on the phone with my producer for the past hour. I think I have a show. Sorry, Wyatt, if you’re still upset about Verity being on a television show.”

  “I’ve adjusted,” he said. Then, as if the thought hit him from out of nowhere, he said, “I don’t know where you live—a house, an apartment? Destiny, there’s a lot I don’t know about you.”

  She laughed. “We didn’t spend a whole lot of time talking if you’ll remember our moments together.”

  Oh, he did. Every hot one of them. “I miss you,” he blurted, wondering about himself.

  Her voice softened. “I miss you, Wyatt.”

  Silence stretched between them. “Let me know about the show.”

  “I will.”

  “Do you think I can get it at the ranch?”

  “Wyatt, I don’t have any idea what you can or cannot get on your television at your ranch,” she said. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he said, feeling anything but fine. “Do you see Duke, Amy and Virginia every day?”

  “Heavens, no. Just Amy. I see a lot of Virginia, not so much of Duke.”

  “He’s very protective of you.”

  “He is of all three of us when we travel with him. He’s a great bodyguard, not that I’ve had any real trouble.”

  Wyatt settled back, listening to her talk, wanting her in his arms and finding talking to her was better than not talking to her, but he wanted her with him more than anything else.

  When she finally said she had to go, it was two hours later. “Bye, Destiny. I miss you,” he said again.

  She broke the connection and he placed his phone on a table and sat back, lost in thought about her. He felt a huge empty void without her. How could he miss her this much? It would pass, he told himself again. Give it a week and he wouldn’t feel this way at all.

  He sat immobile, missing her, hurting, wishing he had made arrangements to see her, telling himself it was better to just break it off with her because he wasn’t the marrying type. He was quiet and laid-back while Destiny was a whirlwind who wouldn’t be happy settled on a ranch. He couldn’t be in love. It was only lust, and she hadn’t been in his life long enough for him to be all torn up over her going.

  The next day he threw himself into work on the ranch, doing all the jobs that required physical labor, trying to keep his mind off Destiny, trying to keep busy and failing constantly. In the quiet of the ranch, or even with guys working around him some of the time, he couldn’t stop thinking of Destiny.

  By evening, he called her. When she didn’t answer, his spirits sank lower. Was she out with someone else now? Even if she didn’t have a serious or intimate relationship with anyone, he didn’t want to think about her going out with someone else.

  Monday he was back at the office in Verity. Everything in town reminded him of Destiny and being with her the past week. He was as miserable in Verity as he was on the ranch. She probably had moved on and was forgetting him by now, picking up the threads of her Chicago life and going on with living.

  Thursday night he called her, as he’d done every night, and at the sound of her voice, he clutched the phone tightly. They just talked, more than they ever had. It was a two-hour phone call and before they hung up, she said she missed him and he told her he missed her, which seemed inadequate.

  He ended the call and it hit him. He was in love with her. It was hopeless, something he had intended to avoid, but he loved her. He couldn’t miss her this much, miss her constantly, and not be in love. She had filled his life in too many ways and now he wanted her back. Should he fly to Chicago and see her? She wouldn’t want to come back to Texas.

  He wondered if she really missed him as much. She said she did before ending their call, but how much did she mean it?

  He knew how badly he missed her. He couldn’t think at work and he had done some sloppy jobs at the ranch that he had had to do over.

  He knew what he had to do.

  He drove to Dallas and spent the next two days looking at wedding rings. Finally, wanting to impress her, he bought a ten-carat diamond ring with more diamonds and emeralds on the band. Now, if he could get a date to see her, he would fly to Chicago.

  H
e was determined to see her and he was going to fly to Chicago. He had fallen in love with her without even knowing it, while trying to guard against doing any such thing.

  When he was back home, he sat looking at the engagement ring he had bought and he felt ridiculous. He didn’t know what she felt and he didn’t want to tell her on the phone for the first time that he loved her.

  He closed the box and put the ring in a bottom drawer while he sat staring into space, something he seemed to be doing a lot of since she had gone home. She had swept into his life, stolen his heart, left him in tangled knots and then left.

  He picked up his phone to call and talk again.

  * * *

  Sunday night Destiny worked late. She had every night since she had returned from Texas. As she sat on her bed and reviewed a script for the newest show, she couldn’t keep her mind on the words in front of her. It kept wandering to Wyatt. She wondered whether he ever watched her show or if he had even tried. He hadn’t seemed to know whether he could get it at the ranch, so she imagined he had forgotten all about it. With each passing day, she missed him more. He called her each night, so he must miss her some, but he hadn’t suggested that she come back to Texas and he hadn’t said he was coming to Chicago.

  She punched the pillows behind her, then checked her cell phone next to her on the blanket. She was waiting for his nightly call. Wyatt kept his heart sealed away, avoiding love. Was he going to let life pass him by because he didn’t want to risk another hurt? Was she going to love him to no avail, just because he wouldn’t risk loving again?

  When the phone rang, she yanked it up, glad to hear from him yet almost angry with him. She wanted more from him than these long nightly conversations that didn’t tell her anything about his feelings. She settled back to talk, wondering where they were going and how long things would go on this way, which was not typical of Wyatt, who was a decisive person.

  After two hours he told her goodbye and ended the call. She sat staring at her phone. “Wyatt, why don’t you come see me? I love you, Wyatt,” she whispered.

  She looked into her open closet, her gaze resting on her suitcase. Maybe if he wouldn’t come to Chicago, she would go to Texas. She stared at the suitcase, wondering about Wyatt’s feelings. Why hadn’t he come to see her or asked her to come back? Two-hour calls every night had to mean something. But what? How deeply did his feelings run?

  Of all men for her to fall in love with—it was one she couldn’t figure out.

  Ten

  Wyatt sat at his desk at the ranch trying to go over his bookkeeping, the figures he needed to give his accountant, but he couldn’t concentrate. His cell phone beeped and he saw it was his foreman. “Brant?”

  “Wyatt, there’s a bright red limo that’s turned up the road to the house. Want me to stop and see who it is and what they want?”

  Startled, Wyatt stood and his heart started to pound. “No. I know who it is, I think. I’ll go watch for them. Thanks.” His heart raced. Jamming the phone into his pocket, he went outside on the east side of the house that gave a good view of the road. He saw a plume of dust in the distance and then a red speck that soon became a long red limo.

  “What the hell?” he mumbled. He didn’t take his eyes off the limo as it finally neared the house. As he started down the steps the limo swept past him along the drive to the front of the house.

  “Dammit,” Wyatt swore, striding back through the house to the front door. Through the windows he saw the red limo turn and head back toward the highway and he ran for the door to yank it open.

  Wyatt stopped in his tracks. Destiny stood beside a suitcase and a carry-on. Her purse hanging on her shoulder, dressed in tight-fitting jeans and her favorite red sweater, she stood facing him as the red limo disappeared down the ranch road.

  He realized he was standing there and staring at her. He dashed down the steps, taking them three at a time, and ran to her.

  “What are you doing here?” he said, looking into her wide, green eyes. He didn’t give her a chance to answer. He swept her into his arms and kissed her, holding her tightly against him, wondering if this was a dream and he would wake up.

  Her arms wrapped around his neck as he picked her up, still kissing her, and he carried her into the house and kicked the door closed behind him. He headed to the nearest downstairs guest bedroom, stepping inside and shoving the door closed.

  * * *

  Over an hour later, he rolled over, taking her with him. He looked down at her. “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi, yourself,” she answered, gazing up at him wide-eyed and solemn.

  “This was a surprise.”

  “I suppose it is,” she said, trailing her fingers over his chest.

  “Want to tell me what’s going on? What are you doing here?”

  “We’ve had a lot of long phone calls, but nothing much else. I’ve missed you, Wyatt,” she said, sounding uncertain and cautious.

  His heart began to drum. “Darlin’, I’ve missed you so much, it’s been hell. Destiny, I shouldn’t have let you go home like that, but I didn’t know my own feelings. You made me fall in love with you. I wasn’t going to do that, but I did. I did, I have. I love you,” he declared.

  “Wyatt! I love you. I don’t know what happened to either one of us. You’re a cowboy, a Texas rancher and you always will be. You’re quiet and you want a quiet life. I’m none of that.”

  “Hardly,” he said, grinning. “You wrecked any peace and quiet in my life. You’re the center of attention everywhere you go. Neither of us is going to change either. Another Calhoun to take hold of a Milan and change him completely.”

  “I don’t think there is a shred of a feud between this Calhoun and Milan,” she said, kissing his throat and looking up at him mischievously.

  “Wyatt, I’ve loved you almost since the first night we went out,” she said and he let out his breath, drawing her to him and kissing her hard and long, wanting to let her know every way possible that he loved her.

  Suddenly he stopped. “Stay right here. Don’t go anywhere,” he said as he got up and left.

  “Where would I go like this?” Destiny asked an empty room. She scooted up, pulling a sheet beneath her arms and wondering where he had gone. His words echoed again and again—he loved her.

  He came back to slip beneath the sheet with her. “Destiny Jones, will you marry me?” he asked.

  Her heart pounded with joy as she threw her arms around him. “Yes, oh, yes.”

  He kissed her and in minutes he leaned away and fumbled in the bed to hand her a box. “I got this for you.”

  Her eyes widened. “Wyatt, I’m surprised. Since I went back to Chicago, we haven’t even been dating—” She opened the box and gasped. “Oh, Wyatt, it’s beautiful.” She threw her arms around him to kiss him again. “I love you,” she said after a long kiss.

  “I love you, Destiny. I should have told you before you went back to Chicago, but I didn’t know my own feelings.”

  “I thought you didn’t care. When did you decide that you’re in love?”

  “I care. I love you with all my heart, but I didn’t realize it until you were gone. Destiny, it’s been hell without you. Hon, we’ve got so many problems.”

  She laughed and looked at him, throwing her arms around him again to kiss him. Finally, she leaned back. “Now, tell me about all the problems we have...after you put that ring on my finger.”

  She held out the ring and he took it to slip it on her finger. “A perfect fit,” she said. “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen. Diamonds and emeralds. Perfect.” Sh
e looked up at him. “So what are the problems?”

  “You won’t want to live on the ranch. You have a television show in Chicago. I do want to live on the ranch. I work in Verity.”

  She giggled. “We’ll work it all out. You’ll see. You have your own airplane. We don’t have to be together every minute. Shows don’t last forever and I have other things in my life I want to do. I might have a book career. There are jobs in Dallas and—” She stopped, realizing she was babbling. She took a breath and smiled at him. “Or I just might retire and have our babies. You do want babies, don’t you?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do now that you’re going to be their mother. Little girls just like you so we always have excitement in our lives. I’ve spent the first half of my life resting up for what’s coming.” His smile lit up those amazing blue eyes.

  “Wyatt, we can work through any problem as long as you love me and I love you and we’re together a lot of the time.”

  He wrapped his arms tighter around her. “Well, so much for problems.”

  “Did you know I have a suitcase out in front of your house?”

  “It won’t go anywhere. I’ll get it when I put on clothes, which isn’t going to happen for a little while longer.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m going to make love to my fiancée.”

  How she loved the sound of that. She leaned in to kiss him before a thought struck her. “Wyatt, I need to tell Mimi and Desirée. Mimi is going to have to start liking Milans. She warned me you might be sneaky.”

  “I’ll forgive her. And I want to tell all my family, too. I want you to meet my mom and dad.”

  “A judge. He may not approve of me.”

  “He’s a man. He’ll approve of you and if I love you, my mom will love you.”

  “Even when they find out I’m a Calhoun?”

  “They managed with Madison. They will with me. Let’s have this wedding soon.”

  “As soon as possible. Wyatt, I missed you so much. I didn’t have any idea what you felt.”