“Sort of goes with being so rich at such a young age, I guess.” He paused, a brooding expression on his face, a distant look in his eyes. He turned away again. “The sad thing is—as much as I hate to admit it—my parents are right.” His sensual mouth tightened into a self-effacing line. “Keeping people at arm’s length is comfortable for me. That’s why I dated all the shallow debs—because they had no interest in getting to know the real me as long as I showed them a good time, took them to the best nightspots and picked up the check.”
Josie understood. Since the demise of her engagement to Ben, she had purposefully selected escorts who would not make any demands on her. Escorts who were all too willing to accompany her to and from foundation or charity events, but were not looking for a soul mate or life partner or anything else she was unable or unwilling to give. Which, in the final analysis, usually left her with the emotional equivalent of having just dated an inflatable Safety Man doll. Which, oddly enough, had been just fine with her.
Wade frowned. “Being vulnerable to someone else isn’t comfortable. And yet I know the only way you can get really close to someone is by letting your guard down and opening up your heart. For instance, if there was something you needed or wanted to tell me, even if it was something really bad or embarrassing or private, then you should be able to do so, just like that.” He snapped his fingers.
Josie only wished that were the case.
He continued to study her, eventually guessing somewhat dejectedly, “But you can’t confide in me like that, can you?”
Josie wanted to tell him everything, but she couldn’t. Not yet. But soon, hopefully. She swallowed, doing her best not to hurt him and still be as honest as possible. “We’re getting closer.”
“Right.” Hurt shimmering in his eyes, he turned away.
She couldn’t bear the disappointment she’d seen on his face.
“Wade—” She caught him by the arm, her fingers curling around the strength and warmth of his bicep.
He turned, an expectant look in his eyes.
“You’re not the only one who has shortcomings,” Josie confessed softly, studying the tortured expression on his handsome face. “I struggle with mine, too.” She swallowed. “It doesn’t mean we should give up on us,” she continued passionately. “Heck, we’re just getting started.”
“You’re right.” He hooked an arm about her waist. “We are.” He traced the curve of her cheek with the side of his hand. “I shouldn’t push it. But—as with everything else in my life—I want what I want when I want it.” He gathered her to him for a searing kiss. Josie wrapped her arms around him, gave in to the feelings that had been building and met him, caress for caress. By the time the languid kiss came to an end, both of them were trembling. And yearning to do more.
Aware this was neither the time nor the place for an interlude, Josie hitched a breath in. “We better get out of here,” she said shakily.
“You’re right,” he said softly, affectionately, tracing her face with his hand. “We should.” Ever so reluctantly, they moved apart.
Wade picked up the box. Josie opened the door to the storeroom. And both came face-to-face with Lilah and John McCabe.
“SEE?” LILAH MCCABE ELBOWED her husband John decisively. “I told you it was worth coming back for one last look.”
John McCabe looked at both Josie and Wade. Never one to pussyfoot around, he got straight to the point. “What are you two doing here?”
“And what’s in the box?” Lilah added.
Keeping his face expressionless, Wade set it down. Ever so casually, he fibbed. “The box contains a gift for your getting-married-all-over-again-shower on Saturday night. It was mistakenly delivered here. The rec center secretary called me to come pick it up.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Lilah looked at both of them, then zeroed in on her son. “I know that too-innocent look, Wade McCabe. You’re up to something. What’s going on here?”
Josie swallowed nervously and turned to Wade. Wade looked at Josie’s flushed, upturned face. Wade knew he was going to have to come up with something. Fast. Or the surprise for his folks really would be ruined.
Still looking at Josie, Wade shrugged. “We might as well tell them.”
Josie gulped again. “Are you sure?”
Wade squeezed her hand and turned back to his folks, determined to tell as much of the truth as he could. “I want Josie to go with me to the big party here on Friday night. She hasn’t said yes yet,” he amended hastily as Josie tensed in surprise.
“Why not?” Lilah cut in, looking at Josie.
Josie turned to Wade. “You tell them,” she said oh, so sweetly, giving him a dire look only he could see.
Sensing Josie was about to bolt, Wade clamped his hands possessively on her shoulders. And, in an effort to calm her, caressed them reassuringly. “Josie’s not really at ease in situations where she has to act all ladylike and everything,” he said. His eyes glimmering with barely checked humor, he continued with exaggerated solemnness. “She’s a lady roughneck, you know,” Wade drawled as Josie’s eyes widened in surprise. “And that’s why we’re here.”
Lilah blinked, confused. “I don’t understand.”
Wade looked at Josie, mischief only she could see sparkling in his eyes. He continued to provide cover for them, preserve the surprise for his folks and tease her mercilessly all at the same time. “We might as well tell them everything that’s been going on between us, sweetheart, and get ’em up to speed.”
Everything? Josie thought, aghast. And let his parents know they’d made love?
Blushing fiercely, Josie clutched his arm. “Wade,” she warned, ever so deliberately. “I know what you’re saying but I don’t think—”
Wade laced his arm comfortingly about her shoulders and patted her arm. “It’s okay, hon. They’ll understand. Josie asked me—well, actually I volunteered—to teach her how to be a lady. I’ve dated a lot of debs, so I figure, who would know better, right?”
Wade’s mother straightened the hem of her pink cardigan with a sigh. “Oh, Wade, not again!” Lilah said.
“Not again what?” Josie asked, turning back to Lilah.
John sighed. “Wade tries to make over all the women he dates to suit him. To the point his brothers have joked what he really wants is a Stepford wife, Laramie style.”
“Cooking, dressing, behaving, goals. Before all is said and done Wade meddles in every aspect of his girlfriends’ lives, no matter how often we tell him not do it!” Lilah sighed. Then continued with a firm look at her son, “He has to learn if he loves a woman he loves her for who and what she is, not with an eye to transforming her into something else.”
“In the meantime, feel free to kick his shin anytime you want,” John McCabe told Josie.
Josie, whose worst fear was being abandoned because she somehow didn’t measure up to someone else’s expectations of her, glowered at Wade, then turned back to John. Was this what she was getting herself into? More unhappiness on the romance front? Initially she’d thought Wade was just acting that way to get her attention. But if this was a pattern, that was something else indeed.
Josie turned back to John. “I just might take you up on that,” she demurred. Certainly the idea of teaching the sometimes-overbearing Wade a lesson or two appealed to the feminine side of her.
“Excuse me, you two,” Wade interrupted his dad and Josie, forcefully enough to completely divert everyone’s attention from the box. “We’re trying to have a discussion here. So you should stay on topic. Now, back to this being-a-lady stuff. First and foremost, at any big party, is knowing how to dance. Josie, sad to say, sometimes has a little trouble staying with the beat of the music. Not to mention a little trouble walking like a lady.”
Completely exasperated with him by now, Josie rolled her eyes.
Ignoring her, Wade continued his much-too-lengthy, much-too-detailed explanation. “As long as I had to come over here to get the package, I suggested we try dancing on this flo
or. Sort of a trial run.” He spread his hands wide. “Only I forgot to bring my stereo and she doesn’t like my singing.”
“Or your storytelling,” Josie cut in.
Wade gave her a quelling look, then turned back to his parents. “So we went looking for a stereo. Couldn’t find one. Decided to give up and just practice some more later, at her trailer or my ranch house, and then we went to get the package.”
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you less is more?” Josie cut in dryly. “Your parents probably don’t need—or want—to know all that,” she told Wade meaningfully.
Wade turned and looked deep into Josie’s eyes. While Lilah looked at her son with barely masked exasperation. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Lilah McCabe knew full well her son wasn’t telling her everything. “You really expect me to believe all this?” Lilah questioned dryly, propping her hands on her hips.
“It’s true, isn’t it, Josie?” Wade turned to look at her. He held her eyes with a look that was all innocence. He didn’t like misleading his folks, the tiniest bit, even for a good reason. On the other hand, he didn’t want them nosing around in his love affair with Josie, either. “I have been giving you dancing lessons.” He telegraphed the need for her continued cooperation with a look.
“One,” Josie corrected sweetly. And it took every ounce of self-restraint Wade possessed to keep from taking her into his arms and kissing her madly.
“You’ve given me one dancing lesson,” Josie corrected. “So far, anyway,” she added sweetly.
And he wanted to give her many more lessons in the art of kissing and making love, Wade thought. Not because Josie needed them. Heck, she was a great kisser. And even better at making love. No, he wanted to make love to her again because he was in love with her. And soon she’d know it, too, Wade thought. But right now he had to deal with his parents.
“I stand corrected. One lesson,” Wade said, his hot glance skimming her from head to toe. “So—” he placed a proprietary arm around Josie’s waist and looked at his parents cheerfully “—as you can see, Josie and I’ve got our work cut out for us if we’re going to be dancing together at the big bash here on Friday night.” Especially since he had apparently ticked her off by revealing the dancing lesson.
John looked at Josie. “I hope you’ll be there. It should prove to be a fun evening.”
“Did Wade tell you it’s black tie?” Lilah put in helpfully, beginning to look a little worried at the continued tension between Wade and Josie. “So if you need to get a dress for the event, I could probably help you with that.”
Wade added enthusiastically, “Josie’s mama in Dallas sent her a real pretty dress to wear. As I said, Josie has a little trouble looking feminine sometimes, so I’m hoping—if we work on her dancing a little more and I buy her a real pretty pair of boots—that she’ll go with me on Friday night. So what do you say, Josie?” Wade prodded, loving the excited blush of color that had come into her cheeks almost as much as the glitter in her eyes that told him she would not allow him to have the upper hand in their relationship. Not now. Not ever.
“Will you go with me?” he asked softly, aware of the irony of asking Josie for a first official date after they’d already spent the afternoon making mad, passionate love. He already felt as if she was his woman and would be for the rest of his life. He hadn’t, however, done much courting, Wade realized guiltily. And that was something that was going to have to be rectified. Pronto. A woman as wonderful as Josie deserved a lot of courting. He took her by the hand and got down on bended knee. Looking up at her, with all the affection he felt for her reflected in his eyes, he asked softly, meaningfully, “Will you be my girl?”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!” Josie fumed, the minute Lilah and John had departed the rec center. She looked grievously affronted! Probably, Wade thought, because she felt it had all been for show. It hadn’t. But convincing her of that now, he realized with regret, was probably just not going to be possible. He’d have to do it later, when her temper had abated and they were alone. And he could show her—through kiss and touch—how he felt about her, how very much he cared.
Wade shrugged his broad shoulders affably. “I had to throw my parents off the track somehow so their surprise wouldn’t be spoiled. Not that I mind—” Wade winked at her, aware they were so close they were touching “—since you agreed to be my date Friday night.”
“What choice did I have but to agree?” Josie volleyed back, more emotionally than ever. She propped her clenched fists on her slender hips and tilted her chin up to his. “I had to shut you up somehow!” she stormed.
Wade grinned. “You could have tried this!” he said. He planted one hand at the base of her spine, the other at her nape. Hauling her close, he dipped his head and delivered a searing kiss. With a low moan of satisfaction Wade threaded his hand through the hair at the back of her neck and angled her head so their kiss could deepen. His other hand pressed against her spine, drawing her closer, until her breasts were pressed against his chest. She murmured her acquiescence in a soft sigh. Wade shuddered as her tongue swept his mouth, hotly and voraciously, and her muscles—tense and strained only moments before—quickly molded to him. Her heart was pounding in a trip-hammer rhythm that matched his. As they continued to kiss, her mouth contoured gently to his, she arched against him wantonly, as if she—like he—wanted this never to end. And it was that reaction, plus the knowledge of the place they were in, that forced Wade to end the kiss. He would finish this, he thought, releasing her ever so slowly and reluctantly. But it would be later, when he could give her all the time and attention she needed.
Breathless and disheveled, Josie pulled back. Her blue eyes shimmering with an unmistakably aroused light, she looked up at him and shook her head. “You are so bad.”
“And bound to get more wickedly mischievous still,” Wade promised, pulling her closer for one last, loving kiss that soon had them both trembling and wishing for more.
“Now, let’s go get you fitted for those boots.”
Josie blinked as she blotted the moisture from her lips and tried to restore some semblance of order to her hair. “You weren’t serious about that,” she exclaimed dryly.
Wade liked her like that—all soft and disheveled and ready to jump back in his waiting arms. He put an arm around her shoulders and drew her intimately close.
If this was what it was like after keeping company with her only a couple of days, how would he feel after a week or two. He was already counting the minutes whenever they were apart, whereas time just flew by when they were together. Wade figured this must be what it was like when you were falling in love in a way that would last your whole life through. It must be what his parents had felt when they got together, and what they still felt. And perhaps why they wanted it for him so much.
Suddenly the idea of getting married and having kids didn’t seem as though it was something he ought to be running from. Especially with Josie in his life. “Josie, honey, when it comes to pampering my woman and making sure she has the best this life has to offer, I am always serious.”
Judging from the look on Josie’s face, she liked the sound of that. Wade smiled. So did he.
BY THE TIME THEY STOPPED by the boot makers, it was past seven. “You sure you don’t want to stay in town and grab some dinner?” Wade asked.
Josie shook her head, her guilt over having been away from the drilling site most of the day increasing by leaps and bounds. “I’ve really got to get back, Wade. I never meant to be gone this long as it is.”
During the twenty miles back to the Golden Slipper Ranch, Josie and Wade talked about the party. To Wade’s delight, Josie was almost as excited as he was about the upcoming event. But all that changed when Josie saw the big white Cadillac parked in front of her trailer with the license plate reading BITSYC.
Wade tracked the hot flush of mortification spreading across Josie’s face. “Someone you know?”
“It’s my mother,” Josie mum
bled, looking all the more embarrassed. “I should have known she’d show up here in person to try to convince me to go back to Dallas.”
Wade recalled Meg Lockhart’s warning to Josie, earlier in the week. “Just tell her it’s not that simple—that you’ve got a life going on here.”
She sure did have a life going on here, Josie thought. With Wade. Not that this would make a difference to Bitsy, who was determined to get her as far away from the oil fields as possible. “To her, it is that simple,” Josie replied flatly as she unhooked her seat belt. Contemplating the task ahead, she moaned and pushed both hands through her hair.
“Let me go in with you,” Wade said.
“No,” Josie replied quickly. She didn’t want Bitsy carrying on in front of him. She put up both hands to ward off his help. “I really need to handle her alone. Please.”
“You’re sure?” Wade frowned, looking unhappier—and more protective of Josie—still.
“I promise. You can meet her some other time. Just not yet.”
BITSY STARTED IN on Josie the moment Josie stepped inside her trailer. “I can’t believe you’re using your trust fund to pay for this—this lunacy!”
“I’m loaning myself the money. Wade McCabe will reimburse me for any costs I incur once we strike oil on the Golden Slipper.”
“And what if you don’t? What then?” Bitsy voiced Josie’s worst fear.
Josie drew a breath and faced the petite, darkhaired woman she loved more than life itself but could never ever seem to please.
With a beleaguered sigh, Josie sat down at the kitchen table. Her own jeans, faded yellow T-shirt and dusty boots in direct contrast with her mother’s azalea-red silk couture pantsuit and matching shoes. Diamonds sparkled in her earlobes and on both manicured hands. Her delicate, expertly made-up features were framed by a stylish short cut, and not a hair was out of place. But even though Bitsy looked like she spent twenty-four hours of the day just getting beautiful, Josie knew nothing was further from the truth. Bitsy could be in and out of the bath in under an hour. She spent long hours running the family foundation, and even longer hours raising additional funds for the various charities the Corbett Foundation supported. She was a beautiful, dynamic, popular, successful Wonder Woman. Next to her Josie always felt like a pale imitation. But that wasn’t her mother’s fault, Josie knew. It was because she hadn’t proved herself yet. Once she had, everything would change.
Wildcat Cowboy (The McCabes of Texas #2) Page 14
