One Night, Two Heirs

by Maureen Child

  “So? Let it be why you don’t leave.”

  “Daddy!”

  He jerked his head up at the sound of Wendy’s plaintive wail demanding his presence. Then he realized he could already tell the difference in the twins’ voices and he smiled. They were a part of him, those girls. His flesh and blood. His family. “Daaaaaddddddy…” Now Gail sang out, stretching that one word into about a dozen syllables and Rick’s grin spread until Sadie couldn’t help but return it. Would he ever get tired of hearing his children calling for him? He didn’t think so.

  “What do you say?” he asked, pushing off from the wall to fold his fingers around her much smaller hand. “How about both of their parents read them bedtime stories? Together.”

  She looked down at their joined hands, then back up, into his eyes. He wished he knew what she was thinking because there was pleasure mixed with sorrow in her eyes and that kind of combination could give a man gray hair before his time.

  But a moment later, she nodded. “Together. Tonight, at least.”

  “That’s a start,” he said and led her up the stairs to where their twin daughters were waiting.

  Ten

  An hour later, the girls were fast asleep and Sadie was stretched out on Rick’s bed. She had to get up and take a shower, but for the moment, she was too tired to even attempt it.

  She ran her hand over the heavy, dark red quilt beneath her and felt her insides tremble at what she knew would be coming soon. Maybe this was another huge mistake, she admitted silently. But at the moment, there was nowhere else she’d rather be.

  Amazing that this man could infuriate her to the point of mayhem and in the next instant, kiss her until all she could think about was ripping off her clothes and falling into his arms.

  “This is not a rational way to live,” she murmured aloud.

  Sitting up, she scooted to the edge of the bed and gave a quick look around. Rick was off in the kitchen getting them something to eat, so she had at least a few minutes to herself.

  This wasn’t the room she had been in only the week before. He had moved his things into the master suite and she knew that was a sure sign that he meant what he’d said about leaving the Marines and coming home to stay.

  There was a bay window at the front of the room and a window seat at its base. A stone fireplace was on one side of the room and on either side of the massive hearth stood floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. There were two comfy chairs drawn up in front of the now cold fireplace and the bed was big enough for four people.

  It was a sumptuous room, somehow homey and sensual all at once.

  Her thoughts dissolved as she heard the distinctive sound of rushing water. Sliding off the bed, she walked across the room and entered a bathroom that most women would have killed for.

  Acres of sky-blue tile with white accents gleamed in the soft light of dozens of lit candles. An oversize tub was frothing with bubbles and a mirror that stretched the length of the room reflected those dancing flames—and the man who had lit all of the candles.

  She looked at Rick. “Where did you come from?”

  He jerked his thumb at the closed door behind him and grinned. “It’s a sitting room my mom used when she wanted to get away from my dad for a while without really leaving the house.”

  “Handy,” she said and looked longingly at the steam and bubbles drifting up out of the tub.

  “Come on.” He held out one hand to her. “A bath’ll make you feel better.”

  “It’ll probably put me to sleep,” she warned him.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” he said. “See, that tub’s more than big enough for two.”

  Heat slapped at her and jolted the last bits of fatigue from her system in an instant. Her body flushed and that now familiar, damp ache settled between her thighs.

  He smiled at her and what she read in his eyes made that ache pound in time with her heartbeat. Yet, she couldn’t resist teasing. “You mean big, bad Texan men take bubble baths?”

  “Darlin’, if we’ve got company like you, there’s a lot we’ll put up with.”

  He walked toward her and every step he took made the anticipation inside Sadie ratchet up another notch. By the time he reached her, she was hardly able to swallow past the knot of need in her throat.

  “Now,” he said, taking hold of the hem of her T-shirt to drag it up and over her head, “let’s get you undressed and into that tub.”

  As good as his word, in seconds, Sadie was naked and he turned her so that she was facing herself in the mirror. Any embarrassment she might have felt drained away in an instant. She looked into her own eyes and saw the flash of heat there. Then she lifted her gaze to the reflection of the man who stood behind her.

  He covered her breasts with his hands, and as she watched their mirrored images, Sadie felt tingles of excitement light up inside her. His hands were big and tanned and the palms were calloused. She caught her breath and held it.

  “Now,” he whispered, dipping his head to the curve of her neck, “I want you to watch me touch you.”

  He looked into the mirror and met her reflected gaze. When she nodded, he slid one hand down her body, along the curve of her waist, back over her abdomen to the juncture of her thighs. A pale brush of blond hair was all that stood between him and the object of his quest.

  Sadie couldn’t draw another breath. Her head was fuzzy, her legs were weak and all she could do was squirm against him. She felt the cold chill of his belt buckle against her spine and the coarse rub of his jeans. But more importantly, she felt the hard ridge of his body pressed into her bottom.

  He sighed as she moved against him, but shook his head at her in the mirror. “First you, darlin’. First I want to watch you come for me. I want you to see us together. To know what I see when I look at you. To see my hands on your body. To feel my mouth on your skin.”

  Every word he whispered was another match adding to the inferno burning within her. Reaching back, Sadie hooked one arm around his neck, holding his head close, even as she parted her thighs for him and silently begged him to ease the throbbing ache at her core.

  His gaze caught hers in the mirror as he slowly, slowly lowered his hand to the heart of her body. The first brush of his fingers against her sex brought a whimpered sigh scraping from Sadie’s throat. She laid her head back against his shoulder, kept her gaze locked on their mirrored images and concentrated on what he was making her feel.

  His fingers moved over her flesh, sliding back and forth, dipping into her heat only to slide out again. His thumb smoothed across that one perfect nub of sensation until Sadie was gasping and writhing against him. Still she watched, unable to look away, unable to tear her eyes from the image of his hands on her body.

  With his free hand, he tugged and tweaked at one of her nipples, creating a tangled mass of desires that threatened to choke her with their strength. She was a shivering, trembling knot of raw nerves as he continued to stroke her innermost flesh in the most intimate caresses.

  Again and again, he delved deep within her. First one finger and then two, taking her higher, pushing her faster until she was twisting against him and fighting for air as desperately as she fought to reach the climax building within.

  “There it is,” Rick whispered, obviously sensing her release was close. “Grab it, Sadie. Take what I can give you and let me watch your pleasure.”

  “Rick…Rick…” She shuddered, gasped, pulled in a desperate, frantic gulp of air and rocked her hips against his hand in a frenzied rush toward completion. “Touch me harder,” she whispered. “More…more…”

  He looked into her reflected eyes and gave her what she needed. He stroked that nub of flesh where so much pleasure was caged until she splintered in his arms and called his name helplessly.

  Minutes, hours might have passed for all Sadie knew. Her hips were still moving on his hand and she didn’t want him to ever stop touching her. She was spent. Sated. And still wanted him.

  He turned her in his arms, wrap
ping her up close to him and kissing her until he couldn’t breathe, think. Rick thought he had known want before, but those few moments with her, watching her pleasure move across her face, hearing her breathless cries had inflamed him past the point of reason.

  Tongues tangling together, hands moving, exploring, bodies pressed together, they stood, locked into an inseparable unit in the middle of the plush bathroom. The world fell away until it was only the two of them with the constant rush and stream of hot water filling an enormous tub to keep them company. The air was hot and sultry. The steam from the tub misted around them like shadow dancers.

  Rick tore his mouth from hers, then quickly rid himself of his own clothing. Sweeping her up into his arms, he carried her into the tub and sat down in the hot, frothy water, cradling her on his lap. Her breasts pushed into his chest. Her wet, silky body moved against his. Her hands slid up his neck and framed his face as she kissed him with a heat that was more enveloping than anything that had gone on before.

  As if they had each resigned themselves to the inevitable. As if the harsh words between them were forgotten and the problems still waiting for them were resolved.

  They were lost, both of them, and together they were found.

  He reached down, took her legs and parted them over him. She straddled him easily and moved quickly to take him inside her. There was no slow, deliberate torture this time. No. Now, the torture was being apart. Their only salvation was to join. To lock their two separate bodies into one. To claim the magic that they could only find together.

  She impaled herself on him, letting her head fall back as he filled her. Rick kept his hands at her slender waist, then slid them to her hips. He moved her on him, helping her set a fast, breathless rhythm designed to push them both over the edge as quickly as possible.

  They’d had the prelude.

  Now they each wanted completion.

  Still the raging torrent of water rushed into the tub. The jets on the sides of the massive tub pulsed, driving that water into his back, across her skin. More sensations added to those that were born with a touch.

  She rode him desperately, rising and falling, releasing him and claiming him again and again. And through it all, her gaze remained fixed with his. As if nothing else existed beyond this room. Beyond this small sea of water that held them in a hot, foaming embrace.

  Rick’s breath was hard and fast. His needs erupting inside him, quickening with every move she made. He leaned forward, taking first one of her nipples then the other into his mouth, working them with his teeth and tongue. Nibbling. Suckling. Taking her needs into him and giving them back to her mixed with his own.

  Her breath sang around him like a damn symphony. She sighed and his heart fisted. She moaned and he got even harder. She twisted her body on his and he felt the tug of release pulling at him.

  “Go, darlin’,” he urged, rearing back to look up at her fierce, beautiful face. “Take me as only you can.”

  “I want to watch you now,” she said, each word coming in a short, hard gasp. “Come first. I’ll follow.”

  Her gaze locked on him and Rick did as she asked. He released the taut reins of control, surrendered to her heat and allowed his body to erupt into hers.

  He called her name on a harsh, guttural groan and before his body had emptied itself, he felt the first tremors shake through her and knew she had kept her word and followed after him.

  Sadie slumped against him, her breathing ragged. Rick wrapped his arms around her, murmured her name and even as he held her close, he silently vowed never to let her go.

  An hour later, they were lying together in his bed and Sadie was more confused than ever. She ran her fingertips up and down his arm, draped across her middle. She’d come to the ranch tonight, half ready to have him arrested for kidnapping or, at the very least, to hit him with something heavy.

  Instead, she’d landed in his bed, in his arms and she couldn’t bring herself to regret it. So what did that mean? Her feelings were so convoluted, her mind so tired of going over the same arguments and finding no answers.

  “You’re thinking,” he whispered, tugging her closer.

  Her back to his front, she felt his heat sliding into her body. His breath brushed against her hair and the steady thud of his heartbeat pounded in time with hers.

  “C’mon, Sadie,” he prompted, “I can practically hear the wheels in your mind turning. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  She turned her head so she could look back at him. Her heart turned over in her chest as her eyes locked with his. How had he become so important to her in so short a time?

  Or was it that short? she wondered. Had they been heading here all their lives? Was the crush she’d had on him as a girl only the seeds of what was flowering between them now?

  Oh, God. Her stomach pitched as she realized the hard truth she’d been managing to ignore for days. Maybe years.

  She was in love with Rick Pruitt.

  Her heartbeat sped up and her mouth went dry.

  There was no other explanation for her behavior. Why else would she have turned down his marriage proposals time after time? If she didn’t love him, she might have married him if only for the sake of the girls.

  But loving him, how could she do that? How could she sentence herself to a half life where she loved and wasn’t loved in return? He’d made no secret of the fact that he wasn’t interested in love. What he wanted was his children and a great sex life with her. It wasn’t enough.

  Her eyes closed as her heart wrenched in her chest. Misery rose up and choked her.

  When did this happen? That first night when they made the twins? Or was it before, when a teenaged Rick had smiled at her? Or was it, she asked herself, when he’d stormed back into her life demanding to be a part of it? Or maybe, she thought, it had happened when she had first seen him with their girls? Watched the wonder in his eyes, the pure love radiating from him for those two tiny charmers?

  Oh, it didn’t matter when it had happened. All that mattered now was the fact that she was in love with a man who felt nothing for her but desire.

  Misery spilled into despair. Loving alone was a sentence of loneliness and she didn’t see a way out of it.

  “Okay,” he said, dipping his head to kiss her temple. “Now I have to know what’s making you frown when you should be feeling as good as I do right now.”

  “I do feel good,” she said quietly, knowing that statement for being only a half truth. “But—”

  He dropped his head onto the pillow. “Knew there had to be a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”

  “How can there not be?” She turned around, braced her forearms on his bare chest. Looking into his eyes, she saw everything she could ever want and knew that unless he loved her, too, she would never have any of it. “Nothing’s been solved, Rick. We still have a major problem.”

  “You have the problem, darlin’,” he said, tapping her nose with his finger. “Me, I’m a happy man. I know what I want. I know what I’ve got.” He ran one hand over her back in a slow stroke that had her arching into his touch like a cat.

  Sighing, Sadie told herself to get a grip and try to talk. Her body, though, kept turning on her. “I was furious with you today.”

  “Yeah.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “May all our fights end just like this one did.”

  He gave her a quick squeeze and Sadie felt a well of sorrow fill her. Realizing that she was in love should have made her happy. But all she could see was more pain headed her way. And still, she had to know for sure.

  “Rick, why do you want to marry me?”

  “What?”

  “Simple question,” she said, hanging onto a slender thread of hope. Maybe he did love her. Maybe he had just assumed that she would know that when he proposed. Maybe there was still a chance that she could have the man—the life—she wanted.

  Because she couldn’t be a wife only because she was a mother. She couldn’t marry a man who simply desired her, either. Th
ere had to be more, she thought.

  There had to be love.

  Rick studied her face for a long moment, then used the tips of his fingers to smooth her hair back behind her ear. Emotions churned in his eyes, but they appeared and disappeared so quickly, she couldn’t identify them. All she could do was wait and pray that he would say the one thing she needed to hear.

  “You know why,” he said, and that bubble of hope inside her popped. “We’re good together, Sadie. We make a good match. We’ve got kids and we should be a family.”

  “We should,” she agreed sadly, knowing that it would never happen. Not this way. Not the way he wanted it to.

  With no other options open to her, Sadie couldn’t stay. She pushed out of his arms, slid off the bed and walked to the chair where she’d dropped her clothes.

  He sat up, quilt pooled at his waist. In the soft lamplight, his skin looked like burnished bronze and his brown eyes were shadowed and dark. “What’re you doing? What’s wrong?”

  “I’m going home,” she said softly.

  “Damn it, Sadie.” He jumped out of bed and walked to her, grabbing her arms when he reached her. “Don’t do this to us anymore. This game between us is getting old.”

  “I agree,” she said, “and I don’t want to play anymore. But, Rick, it isn’t me doing this.”

  She tugged her T-shirt over her head and stuffed her arms through the sleeves.

  “Well, it’s not me. I’m not the one running away.”

  She cocked her head and looked up at him. “Aren’t you?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Sadie sighed and lifted both hands in surrender. “Never mind. It’s nothing.”

  “Then why are you leaving?”

  “Because you can’t give me what I need.”

  “Bull.” He glared down at her and his dark eyes fixed on her mercilessly. “Tell me what you’re talking about and I’ll get it for you.”

  “Love.”

  It was as if the world took a breath and held it. The silence between them was so profound, Sadie heard the drip of the water faucet in the bathroom. The soft sighs their children made, drifting through the baby monitor. The silent crack of her own heart breaking.