The Texas Rancher's Marriage

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  She laughed, and the sound of her pleasure unleashed him. He shifted so Merri was beneath him. Filled with the exquisite need that drove them both, he held her hands above her head, then kissed her again, long and hot, wet and deep, until he was pretty sure neither of them could have given their own name, and it felt so damn good their breath was rasping and their hearts were pounding. Until there was no doubt about what was coming next. “Tell me you want this,” he commanded. Tell me you want me.

  She gasped and bucked, near bursting. “You know I do.”

  A shudder racked him and then ran through her, as well. He entered her with one smooth stroke, lifting her, holding her close. Willing to play it her way for now, he murmured, “Tell me this is just the beginning.”

  Her eyes locked on his. She surged against him obediently and kissed him, unable to hold back. “It’s just the beginning.”

  Her sweet compliance sent him further toward the edge. Satisfaction roared through him, perfect and all-encompassing. He moaned, and ground his hips against hers, touching his thumb to where they were joined. She murmured his name, pleading softly. He answered her by going even deeper. Sensation built upon sensation and the world fell away. Together, they spiraled into ecstasy and beyond.

  Chapter Seven

  As soon as Merri caught her breath, the doubts starting creeping in. What had she done, except very possibly make the baby she wanted so much, with a husband she knew did not love her and probably never would? At least not in the way she had always wanted. Panicked, she began to ease from his embrace.

  Chase tightened his hold on her. Pressed a kiss into her hair. And looked at her with his what-I-could-do-to-you-if-I-only-had-the-chance-to-make-love-to-you-again eyes. “Where are you going?”

  That quickly, she found herself at the melting point. “The barns.”

  To her dismay, he saw right through her pragmatic reply. “No rest for the weary, hmm?” he murmured, calling her a liar with everything he didn’t say.

  Merri bit her lip. “You knew we had to do the milking when we stopped to…” She faltered, unsure what words to use.

  His eyes tracked the sheet she held to her breasts. “Make love?”

  Despite the fact they weren’t in love with each other, that was what it had felt like. Merri nodded shyly.

  Chase caught her wrist and pulled her back into bed. His amber eyes glimmering with suppressed devilry, he focused with laser accuracy on her mouth. “How could five minutes of cuddling be so wrong?”

  Trying not to imagine what it would feel like to throw caution to the wind and have him buried deep inside her one more time, she stated as casually as she could, “I didn’t think you were the type.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not,” he told her. “At least in the past I haven’t been.”

  “Then it’s probably best we not change that,” Merri retorted.

  “Why not?” He stroked a hand down her back.

  Resisting the urge to curl into the inviting hardness of his chest, she eased away for the second time. Caution was what she needed here. What they both needed. “I don’t want us to be confused.”

  He lifted an eyebrow, a silent question.

  “We may be married but we’re hardly friends,” she explained.

  Those laugh lines appeared again at the corners of his eyes. “Getting to know each other better in the biblical sense might help speed things up.”

  Merri tossed her head. “Trust me, Chase. Events are going fast enough as it is.”

  His gaze turned compassionate. “Too fast?”

  And then some, Merri thought. His understanding attitude prompted her to admit, “I swore when I ended my relationship with Pierce that I wouldn’t allow myself to indulge in any more whimsical thinking.”

  Chase studied her face, waiting for her to go on.

  She sighed and perched on the edge of the bed, fingering the sheet tucked around her breasts. “When I moved in with Pierce, I knew he wasn’t ready for marriage. He told me he wasn’t going to be for a couple more years.”

  “But you got engaged nevertheless,” Chase recalled.

  Merri rose and began collecting her clothes, piece by piece. “He did that to meet me halfway.”

  Reluctantly, Chase rose and began to dress, too. “Only…?”

  She tugged on her panties, then her jeans. “I’m pretty sure Pierce knew then that he was never going to want to get married to anyone. It just wasn’t his thing.” Quickly, she slipped on her bra, too. “But I couldn’t accept that. I wanted it all back then. I wanted to have a husband and a family and the home that I had never had, growing up with a single mom. And I was sure if I was patient and loving and kind enough that I would eventually get what I wanted.” She let out a wistful breath. “Allowing myself to hope that way almost destroyed me.”

  Chase sobered. “I get that you were hurt, but the two situations aren’t the same. I want the same things you do. I’ve always wanted them.”

  Merri watched him zip up his fly. “Did you also want to be loved?”

  Chase went still. He kept his eyes locked with hers for a long minute. Finally, he said, “I assumed that would be the case if I ever got there.”

  Merri stepped closer, guessing, “But it wasn’t a necessary part of the equation.”

  He braced his hands on his hips, his eyes guarded now. “No.”

  Merri looked down, her fingers trembling slightly as she buttoned her flannel shirt. “It always was for me.”

  “Past tense,” Chase observed.

  “Fate and circumstances have conspired to make me lower my expectations.”

  He sat down to put on his boots. “Which is why you agreed to marry me, without love,” he speculated.

  She went to the bureau, picked up her brush and ran it through her hair. “I wanted to be fair to you, protect the kids—and give them a complete family, plus have another child.”

  Chase frowned, walking over to stand beside her. “That’s all pretty cut-and-dried.”

  Slowly, Merri set her hairbrush down on the dresser and turned to face him. “If we’re going to be successful, Chase, it has to be.”

  “So no cuddling.”

  She tilted her chin, affirming flatly, “No cuddling.”

  Because cuddling with Chase could tempt her to fall in love with him. Merri did not want to love another man who—in the end—did not love her in return.

  * * *

  “MAYBE WE SHOULD STAY A few more days,” Starr said the next morning. The gorgeous brunette looked at Chase from her place at the table, eager to be of assistance in any way she could.

  Which would have been fine, Chase thought as he spooned coffee grounds into a filter, had it not been for her obvious crush on him. A crush that had seemed to be well under control—until his former coworker arrived in Texas, anyway.

  “It seems like you-all are swamped,” Starr continued, rising and carrying her plate to the dishwasher.

  Chase put another pot of coffee on to brew, then moved to the breakfast room windows overlooking the play set in the backyard. Yesterday had been a great day, sunny, cool, crisp. Today, the typical November gloom was back. The temperature was hovering just above freezing, and rain was threatening.

  “I don’t have to be at work until eight this evening,” Chase said. He had pulled nighttime duty at the E.R. the rest of the weekend, so he’d be sleeping at the hospital tonight.

  Merri had been up at the crack of
dawn. She had refused his help with the milking, going out with Addie instead, while he entertained their houseguests and watched the twins. As much as Jessalyn and Jeffrey would let him, anyway, given they preferred just about anyone to him.

  Merri walked downstairs now, fresh from the shower.

  Her hair still damp, she was wearing a pine-green corduroy shirt, denim jeans and boots. She helped herself to the breakfast casserole she had prepared the night before.

  “You-all don’t worry about that.” Lounging against the counter, Merri forked up a bite. “I just have to do the milking this evening, and I’ve got a babysitter to help me with the kids during their dinner and bath. Slim will be back to take over the dairy operation tomorrow morning.”

  “We have a lot more people to see,” Harmony pointed out.

  Davita nodded. “My mother is expecting us in Shreveport tonight.”

  “And my folks want us in Nashville by Monday,” Polly added.

  “We don’t want to let anyone down,” Nissa interjected.

  Chase provided further encouragement. “You-all should enjoy your road trip, as planned, before you split up to spend Christmas with your families.”

  Outvoted, Starr went to collect her suitcase.

  Merri, Chase and the twins walked the women out. Watched as they loaded everything in their rented van. Hugs and goodbyes were exchanged all around and the kids waved enthusiastically until the servicewomen’s vehicle left the drive and disappeared down the county road. Together, the four of them walked back into the house.

  Chase barely had a chance to savor the sense of family before the twins pulled away. “Can we get our blocks out?”

  “As long as you pick up your mess when you’re done,” Merri agreed.

  “Hurrah!” They ran off to the play area in the sunroom.

  “What next?” Chase asked.

  Merri picked up the folded linens on the sofas and carried them to the laundry room, alongside the kitchen. She set them down next to the washing machine, glanced at her watch and sighed. Although they had just finished breakfast, the morning was nearly gone. “I’m not sure. I’ve got a lot to do…”

  The overwhelmed expression on her face was all the invitation he needed. “What’s most urgent?”

  “The grocery store.” Merri sorted clothes. “I really need to go. But I also have a lot to do here, and who knows how much I’ll actually get done if the twins decide not to cooperate.”

  He moved back to give her room to work. “Then why not let me go, and take the kids with me?”

  Merri poured detergent over the towels, shut the lid and turned the washer on. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Chase, but the twins haven’t exactly warmed to you.”

  He winced. Talk about hitting him where it hurt. “Exactly. Which is why we need to spend more time together, pronto.”

  Merri leaned against the dryer, arms folded in front of her. “Forced proximity?”

  “It’s been known to work. Besides, it will be fun.”

  Merri rolled her eyes and pushed past him in a drift of lavender perfume. “You wouldn’t say that if you had ever taken them to the market.”

  Chase followed her into the kitchen. “Let me do this, Merri,” he said quietly. “It’s a first step toward becoming a family.”

  She stared at him a moment, then finally relented. “Okay,” she said, waving a lecturing finger at him. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  * * *

  AN HOUR LATER, CHASE was pulling into the grocery store parking lot, twins in tow. “I don’t see why we had to go with you,” Jeffrey grumbled.

  “Yeah,” Jessalyn said. “I wanted to stay with Mommy.”

  Chase put the list in his shirt pocket, then got out to assist the children. “You’ll get to be with Mommy later. Right now she needs us to buy some groceries.”

  Jeffrey crossed his arms in front of him, making it difficult for Chase to get the safety harness off. “We don’t want to share Mommy with you anymore,” he said with a glare.

  Well, at least I know what the problem is, Chase thought.

  “Yeah,” Jessalyn added, with equal seriousness. “Can you go home now? We decided we don’t want you to be our daddy, after all.”

  Trying to hide his hurt feelings, Chase cast a look at the increasingly gray clouds overhead. Was it too much to hope that the rain would hold off till later? “We are going home as soon as we get the stuff.”

  “Not our house. Your house. We want you to go to your house,” Jeffrey retorted.

  “The Broken Arrow Ranch is my home now,” Chase explained patiently.

  Jeffrey scowled. “No, it’s not. It’s ours.”

  Jessalyn nodded in solidarity, then told Chase sternly, “You need to go away now.”

  Chase exhaled. Talk about running the gauntlet…

  Figuring this discussion could wait until later, he took a calming breath and suggested mildly, “How about we do this? How about we all try cooperating for a change?”

  Silence fell. The twins’ expressions remained recalcitrant. And Chase knew for a fact how stubborn they could be.

  When all else failed, there was always the carrot and the stick. It had worked on him when he was a kid. Heck, it still worked, when the stakes were high enough.

  He straightened and rested one arm on top of the SUV door. Casually, he announced, “There are cookies in it for anyone who is a big help to me in the store.”

  He knew they were hungry. They’d barely touched their breakfast or the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Merri had insisted on making for them before they left the ranch.

  Aware the children had finally stopped arguing with him, he upped the ante. “Any kind of cookies you want. You get to pick.”

  The ice in their demeanor thawed. Slightly mollified, the twins relaxed enough to allow him to unbuckle the straps and get them out of their safety seats, and out of Merri’s SUV.

  Chase held their hands as they entered the store. Merri had warned him not to let them roam free. He pointed to a shopping cart shaped like a car, with two side-by-side child seats, each sporting its own play steering wheel. “How about we ride in that?”

  The twins readily agreed. Chase lifted them in and fastened their belts, and they were off. “You’re not pushing very good,” Jessalyn pointed out.

  That was because the big, clunky thing was twice the size of the other shopping carts, nearly as wide as the aisles and had no turning radius to speak of. “I’m still getting the hang of it,” Chase said.

  He stopped in front of the Free Cookie display at the front of the store and got out one sugar cookie for each of them.

  “I want two,” Jeffrey announced.

  “One each,” Chase reminded the twins.

  In search of the first few items on his list, he hit the produce aisle. It was crowded with other shoppers, most of them women. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to stop and congratulate him on his new job, and on moving back to the ranch with his beautiful now bride and those precious children.

  The twins had finished their cookies. They were getting restless.

  “Thanks so much. I’ve really got to go.” Chase pushed on without the zucchini Merri had asked for. But the broccoli was handy, so he got that instead.

  On to the meat aisle.

  He scanned the packages, did not see top round, so bought sirloin steak.

  “I’m still hungry!” Jeffrey said loudly.

  “Yeah, I want anothe
r cookie, too!” Jessalyn announced.

  “When we get home,” Chase promised, rounding the corner as best he could, into the dairy and juice aisle.

  There, in front of him, was Judge Roy. Like everyone else, she was dressed in jeans, shirt and a waterproof jacket, probably because the courts were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Beside her were two of her teenage daughters. The girls seemed perfectly behaved as they helped their mom get what was on her list.

  Recalling what the judge had said about not trying to pull anything over on her, Chase nodded briefly in recognition, then hurriedly pushed on, catching a corner of the doughnut display in the center of the aisle. Several boxes tumbled to the floor.

  Embarrassed, he bent to get them.

  “I want those!” Jessalyn shouted.

  Don’t let them talk you into getting too much sugar, Merri had warned. They’ll want everything sweet that they see.

  “I think we’ll just stick to cookies.”

  The twins opened their mouths to protest.

  Aware of Judge Roy behind him, Chase leaned forward and promised very very quietly, “Remember? Be good, and you get to pick whatever kind of cookies you like.”

  As always, they drove a hard bargain. “Both of us?”

  “Yes,” Chase said, deciding it was only fair. “One kind of cookie for each of you.”

  “Hurrah!” The twins cheered so loudly every shopper in the aisle turned to look at them and smile.

  Unfortunately, Chase couldn’t find the next few items on the list.

  The bread rack was ridiculously empty. There was every kind of jelly but grape. The kids were ornery and restless.

  “I’m tired!” Jeffrey shouted.

  “I’m hungry!” Jessalyn proclaimed, even louder.

  Chase grabbed strawberry jam and headed down the cookie aisle.

  With the judge in the store, the sooner he got out of there the better.

  Jeffrey pointed to the extra-dark mocha biscotti. “I want those ones, up there.”