The Maverick Marriage

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “Not as much as mine.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  Their voices trailed off. Susannah glanced at her watch. Hard to believe it was already ten o’clock. Morning would come soon. Probably too soon, judging by how tired she was. “I guess I better go up, too.”

  Trace caught her wrist and tugged her toward him so suddenly she collided with his chest. “How about a walk down to the lakeshore first?”

  To her irritation, it seemed more an order than a request. Knowing how determined he was, that the boys were just upstairs, perhaps even within earshot, had her tempering her reaction to his typically autocratic behavior. Trying hard not to notice how warm her wrist was beneath his light staying grip, or the way the rest of her was suddenly tingling, she angled her head up at his. Clearly, from the I-know-you-better-than-you-know-yourself glint in his deep blue eyes, Trace had plans for them both. “I’ve seen it,” she said. Then mentally added, “From a distance.”

  “I know, but I think we need to talk.”

  “OKAY, what is it?” Susannah demanded shortly as they reached the boat dock.

  There were so many reasons that she shouldn’t let this keep happening, she thought. The primary one being that the more time she spent with him, especially like this, one-on-one, the more she felt as if she was already married to him again. Not in name only, but deep inside. And that was crazy. They had been apart for almost seventeen years.

  Though they were in clear view of the back of the lake house, their silhouettes clearly illuminated by the electric lanterns that bordered the dock, they were well out of earshot of the house, and were therefore reassured of some degree of privacy.

  As straightforward as always, Trace got right down to business. “I think we may need to revise our plans.”

  Although he was acting as if it were no big deal for them to be out here alone, her pulse was pounding at his nearness. She could see the five-o’clock shadow lining his handsome face and knew firsthand how deliciously abrasive it would feel against her face, were she to end up in his arms once again.

  But that, she reassured herself firmly, was not going to happen. This time, she would proceed far more cautiously and keep him at arm’s length. “What do you mean revise them?” she demanded. “We barely made them.”

  “The boys are not buying our only-friends, routine.”

  Susannah rolled her eyes. Not about to let him know how he was getting to her, she retorted dryly, “Maybe if you stopped kissing me at every opportunity—”

  They’d been together only a matter of hours and he’d already kissed her twice. So what if chemistry like theirs came along once in a lifetime. That didn’t mean they had to act on it. Never mind make up for all the time they had been apart

  His glance took her in from head to toe before returning to settle on her lips. “Maybe if you stopped responding like a house afire.”

  “So I’m flesh and blood. So some residual chemistry still exists between us after all these years,” she fibbed, deliberately downplaying what she felt whenever he was near her. “So what?” She stood apart from him, enjoying the feel of the cool evening breeze sifting off the lake.

  “So, sooner or later, that fire of ours is going to burn out of control, unless we do something about it.”

  Keeping her eyes fastened on his, Susannah drew in a wealth of crisp, clean air. “Is that so?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what, pray tell, do you propose to do about that?”

  He shrugged and shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit pants. “Let it burn out of control.”

  Susannah blinked, the irony of the situation not lost on her. She had left Trace once because he didn’t have time for her or their marriage; now, he couldn’t seem to stop micromanaging the details of each. The corners of her mouth lifted wryly. “Excuse me?”

  He stepped so close she could feel his body heat. “The boys have noticed our passion. We already know we’re not just going to get married according to the terms of Max’s will, but stay married as a way of sharing custody of Scott. It’s pretty clear our boys are going to want to know what the reason for that is. And since we can’t give them the real reason, we’re going to have to come up with something else, something they will accept.”

  Susannah folded her hands in front of her and took a calming breath. “And you think that reason is going to be sex.”

  His eyes gleamed with sudden practicality. “Like you said, some residual passion still exists between us. The boys have already witnessed it firsthand.”

  Exasperation stiffened her spine. “So you want us to tell them what?” She flung her arms out to her sides. “That we’re so crazy in lust we can’t keep our hands off each other?”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders again and ran a hand through the short, precisely-cut layers of his wheat-gold hair. “It’s not far from the truth.”

  Susannah dug her feet into the softness of the thick manicured grass. She gave him a withering glare and started to move past. “Speak for yourself.”

  He put out a hand to bar her way. “You saw for yourself this evening they’re already confused. If we get married, and delay getting divorced, ostensibly to inherit according to the terms of Max’s will, our reasoning may work for a while—as long as we keep our hands off each other. Which, given the way things are already going, I might add, seems highly unlikely.”

  As much as she was loath to admit it, she was afraid he was right about that. She looked down her nose at him. “What is your point?”

  “My point is, we should be forthright with the boys about our plans, as soon as we can. We should also tell them as much of the truth as we can.”

  “The truth being that we still desire each other,” Susannah guessed as her blood warmed even more.

  “And hence have decided to stay married, now that the fires of our love are rekindled. That way, it all works out neatly,” Trace explained, obviously already having given the matter some thought. “We get married as planned, thereby honoring Max’s wishes. We inherit. Meanwhile, we sort of show and tell the boys we have fallen for each other all over again. And therefore have decided to stay married and combine households,” he finished in the same pleasant and infallible tone he had always used to make a sales pitch to a client.

  Remembering how he’d always put his relationship with her and their life together last on his priority list, Susannah tensed. “Kind of like a business deal, right?”

  Trace shrugged. “If that’s the way you want to look at it.”

  It wasn’t.

  He studied the impassive look on her face. “I know this isn’t romantic,” he said. “I know how much you always liked things to be romantic in the past, Susannah. But in this case, we have no choice.”

  She had heard that before, too, many times. It always ended in her being hurt. She quirked a discerning eyebrow at him. “Don’t we?” She might owe him time with Scott, the opportunity to catch up on all he had missed. But that was all she owed him.

  “Maybe if you had come to me years earlier, things would’ve been different,” he said in a soft reasonable tone that set her teeth on edge.

  “Right.” She trod nearer, her feet sinking ever deeper into the thick velvety lawn. “Had I only done that, you wouldn’t have had to punish me by forcing me into marriage now. You could have done it then. Or, had I refused to cooperate with you, you could have just taken Scott away from me at the outset.”

  Trace’s lips thinned unhappily. “I won’t deny I would have tried to talk you into coming back, had you only told me you were pregnant,” he admitted harshly.

  “And if that had failed?”

  “I would have fought for my son. Accepted no less than joint custody.”

  Susannah nodded grimly. “Exactly as I thought.” She had known Trace would be ruthless when it came to getting what he wanted. And that was what scared her.

  “Which is another reason why you never told me about the baby,” he concluded, reciprocal anger flashing
across his handsome face.

  “I admit I didn’t want Scott to be the prize in a tug-of-war between us.” She hadn’t wanted their baby to be wanted only for the challenge of hanging on to him. She knew from experience that Trace looked at things as goals to be obtained. Once he had met his objectives, he tended to move right on to the next project he’d set for himself.

  That was how he had built a business empire for himself, in only seventeen years. Why he had neglected her almost from the moment the ink was dry on their marriage certificate. Because once he had wooed, won and married her, he had considered their relationship a fait accompli. Hence, having conquered her, he could set his sights on other challenges.

  She wasn’t sure she could go back to that, even if theirs was to be little more than a marriage of convenience this time, without having her heart broken all over again.

  “And Scott still shouldn’t be caught up in this battle between us,” Trace said quietly, reacting as the loving and compassionate father he was. “So what do you say? Will you heat things up between us, at least on the surface, for the boys’ sake, so that when we do tell them we intend to stay married, it won’t be such a shock to them?”

  Susannah thought of the questions Mickey had asked, and the way Scott, Nate and Jason had been slyly sizing up everything she and Trace did and said. Trace was right. They did need to do something, if only to put the boys’ minds at ease. She sighed in defeat. “When are you asking we do this?”

  “The optimum time would be sometime before the ceremony takes place.”

  “YOU’RE MOVING awfully fast, even for you, expecting me to start sharing your bedroom and being the loving wife for all the world to see in less than forty hours.”

  Trace knew he was taking advantage, not just of the situation, but of her. He couldn’t help it. Whenever conceivable, he liked things to be wrapped up as quickly as possible.

  Right now, with so much at stake and so little resolved, he felt as if he were living life on a razor’s edge. “And it’s not as if we’ve never been married before, Susannah. We have been,” he said persuasively.

  As if prior experience were all that counted! Susannah thought hotly. “Yes, but back then there was a difference,” she countered sweetly. “Back then, you were never home.” This time around, because of the kids, she had the feeling that would not be the case.

  “I’ve changed,” he admitted. “I have responsibilities to my children, and so do you.”

  If only he’d felt a similar sense of responsibility toward his wife. But maybe that was unfair, Susannah thought. She didn’t know what kind of husband he had been the second time around. Nor did she know what kind of husband he would make for her now that he was thirty-eight instead of twenty-one. Certainly, they were both more mature. Trace at least a little more sensitive, though clearly just as driven to succeed.

  “I have to think about this,” Susannah said.

  “There’s nothing to think about.”

  There it was again, his lord-of-the-manor attitude. As always, it grated on her nerves. “Maybe not from your point of view,” she asserted with an inner calm she didn’t feel.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Not all of us view marriage as just another business deal or convenience, Trace.” Susannah splayed a trembling hand across her chest, annoyed at the way he already seemed to be taking her for granted once again. “Some of us approach marriage with our hearts.”

  Trace sighed impatiently and braced his hands on his waist. “Someone has to think ahead and solve the problems as they come up. Like it or not, the boys are confused about the way we’ve been behaving, and probably will continue to behave. They stand to get even more confused unless we come up with a logical story that will make all our actions seem plausible. Turning our story into a modern, mostly male version of “The Brady Bunch” meets A Love That Never Died will do just that.”

  As much as she was loath to agree with him, he had a point. Susannah knew she owed him time with Scott. And she did not want to upset the boys. Going into the arrangement any other way would confuse and upset them all the more. Scott particularly was already suspicious. She didn’t want him to start investigating the circumstances and dates surrounding his birthday and the end of her marriage to Trace. If he did, there would be no hiding the truth from him.

  “The boys might even find it amusing, to see us making goo-goo eyes at each other,” Trace continued, searching her face.

  Aware he was once again weighing and analyzing her every move, Susannah said, “I’m sure you do.”

  He grew very still and Susannah knew in a flash that at least in his opinion, she had gone too far. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Trace demanded.

  Susannah shrugged one slender shoulder. Without warning, she felt herself getting hot all over. “I left your bed when you would’ve preferred I stay. Now, I’m coming back to your bed, at least in a figurative sense, when I would prefer to stay out of it. Rather ironic, wouldn’t you say?” she queried sweetly, the heat racing along her skin intensifying to a fever pitch. She looked directly into his eyes. “Not to mention the perfect revenge.”

  Was that what she’d thought of the kisses they had shared? Trace wondered in stunned amazement. Revenge? He knew if that’s what she believed, he would have to do better. Susannah was a very passionate woman. Instinct told him she wouldn’t lock herself into a marriage with him unless she was convinced of the genuineness of his desire for her, and vice versa. Fortunately, that was the one area, the only area, of their relationship where they had never had a problem, Trace thought with something akin to relief. All he had to do was remind her of that. And on that score, luck was also with him, giving him an opportunity he could not, would not, ignore. “Don’t look now,” he said quietly, inclining his head slightly at the rear of the lake house, “but we have an audience.”

  Susannah froze. He could tell by the chagrin in her expression that she already thought she knew the answer even before she croaked, “Where?”

  “The upstairs bedroom windows. I count—” Trace narrowed his eyes as he stepped closer to murmur in her ear “—one, two, three, four faces.” Knowing there was no better time to demonstrate their growing attraction to each other to the boys than during this moonlit scene next to the lake, Trace gathered Susannah into his arms and tugged her close so that every inch of her was feeling every inch of him. Ignoring her soft gasp of dismay, he lowered his head and fastened his lips over hers. And suddenly found, as the need poured out of her, mingling with the desire and the lingering hurt, that she was not the only one whose heart was pounding like thunder in her chest. Her lips were hot and sweet and soft. And so seductive. Totally caught up in what he was feeling, he threaded a hand through her hair and tilted her head so that he could delve even farther into her mouth. His need to be close to her was as overwhelming as it was surprising. And he knew that even if he kissed her and held her and made wild, reckless love to her one thousand times, it would still not be enough. It would never be enough. No matter what she’d done to him.

  Susannah moaned as Trace flattened his hand over her spine, urging her closer, until her breasts were against his chest. As her mouth opened to his, he kissed her long and hard and deep, with a mastery and tenderness he hadn’t possessed in his youth. She had never felt anything like this in her life, never wanted anyone so much as she wanted him at that moment. And that was when she knew it had to end. Before he had her convincing herself this was love, and not lust-filled revenge.

  Her mouth tingling, her whole body aching with a yearning that went soul-deep, she moved back slightly. She was dizzy, shaking. In direct contrast, he seemed as calm and in control as ever. He seemed to think, she decided unhappily as she studied the implacable expression on his handsome face, that they were only indulging in the inevitable.

  And that, she knew, was not the case.

  Nothing was certain, yet, especially her feelings.

  Releasing her, Trace glanced surrep
titiously at the house. Recalling abruptly what had precipitated thenfiery embrace, Susannah followed suit. Somehow, she thought with a beleaguered sigh, she wasn’t surprised to see four shadowy figures still standing at the window some fifty yards away, their youthful faces and hands glued to the panes in a posture of absolute astonishment.

  With a great deal of effort, she stifled a moan of utter dismay. “They’re still watching,” she murmured, flushing with embarrassment and feeling like a very bad actor in a stage play. The kind who couldn’t keep his or her real feelings separate from the ones he or she was supposed to be conveying to the audience.

  “Don’t I know it,” Trace murmured back. His sensual lips curving in masculine satisfaction, his gaze resting hotly on her damp, kiss-swollen lips, Trace reached up and smoothed a strand of hair from her cheek. In the gentle glow of the dock lights, his eyes radiated a mixture of triumph and pleasure.

  Wordlessly, he tucked the strand of errant silk behind her ear. “A few more clinches like that, a few adoring looks, and no one—not even our kids or my brother and sister—will question why we’ve decided to make our marriage a real one,” he said.

  Chapter Six

  “What kind of pancakes did you say these were?”

  “Whole-wheat banana-walnut.” Susannah smiled at the burly loggers going through the cafeteria-style line.

  “Does this mean no more plain ol’ buttermilk pancakes?”

  “Oh, we’ll have buttermilk,” Susannah was quick to reassure. “And blueberry. And apple-cinnamon, and strawberry, and any other kind of hotcakes I can dream up. The point is to give you fellas more variety, so you don’t feel you’re eating the same old thing day in, day out. Think you can live with that?”

  “If everything tastes as good as this breakfast does, you betcha!” another logger, who had cleaned his plate and was getting up to head back to the line for seconds, called out.

  “You said this was turkey bacon?”

  “Uh-huh.” Susannah smiled warmly.