by Susan Fox
Lainey went a little tense again. “What’s that?”
Gabe’s expression seemed to go a bit tougher, and his voice was gravelly with it.
“Are you plannin’ to leave anyway after the five years are up and things are settled with Talbot? Or will you stay with me?”
It hurt to hear him ask that. He’d just accepted her apology and given her a clean slate. To know he still expected she might leave him anyway was another little heartbreak. When she could speak, her words were thick with emotion.
“I won’t leave unless you want me to,” she whispered unsteadily.
A flare shot through his dark eyes, and she felt the glittering heat of it. He lifted his arm to drape it over her shoulders and pull her tightly against his side. Lainey put her hand on his chest.
“And thank you. I don’t deserve another chance, but I want it. Very much.” She quickly dashed the dampness from her eyes and tried to smile at him as she brushed her tear-damp fingers on the lap of her sundress. “I didn’t spoil this beautiful night, did I?”
“Only if you don’t kiss me.”
The smoky timbre of his voice was seductive, and Lainey lifted her hand to his lean cheek and coaxed him down to her lips. This kiss was tender like the one that first night, but it was now heartfelt for her, though it still carried the lingering sadness of years on it.
Gabe didn’t allow that for long before he pulled her onto his lap and boldly invaded her soft lips. He still tasted of wine, and his kiss had much the same effect on her. By the time he finally ended it, Lainey ached so desperately for more that it was all she could do to keep from taking it.
As if he, too, didn’t want to stop, he nuzzled her hair and pressed a kiss there.
“I’ve got something for you,” he murmured as he tightened his arms.
“You’ve given me several things today, Gabe,” she whispered gently, then pulled back a bit to look at him, “but I got something for you today, too. Would you mind if I gave it to you first?”
Gabe tipped his head back slightly to curiously study her flushed face. “When was that?”
“During one of your trips to the car. May I?”
He grinned a little at the formality. “You may.”
Lainey slid off his lap and rushed from the patio into their bedroom to the drawer where she’d hidden his gift. She’d asked Elisa for some paper and ribbon before supper, then secretly wrapped it while Gabe was checking messages in the den.
The tissue-wrapped jeweler’s box with the dark blue curling ribbon wasn’t very big, but after what she’d glimpsed in him today, the surprise of it might please him more than the gift itself. Lainey hurried back out to find Gabe still sitting on the swing. Though she saw no evidence of it, he must already have brought out whatever it was that he’d planned to give her. Lainey sat down next to him on the big swing and handed him the box.
He took it solemnly, then slowly tugged off the ribbon and hung the looped part that had circled the box on his little finger. It was interesting to watch him actually unwrap the box instead of simply ripping off the tissue. The sight of his big hands working so competently with the fragile paper, sent heat tingling through her as she suddenly pictured what it might be like if he touched her with that same gentle care. And then he opened the box.
Lainey was watching his face intently as he smiled and took out the string tie. “Don’t believe I’ve seen turquoise this fine,” he said gruffly as he held it up in a stronger shaft of light. “Thanks very much, my darling wife.” Now he looked at her and held it up. “Will you do the honors?”
She took it from him and slid the turquoise piece down to widen the braided loop. Then she lifted it to slip the loop over his head and lower it to his neck. Lainey rolled it beneath his collar before she smoothed the white fabric down all around and buttoned his shirt the rest of the way. When she slid the ornament to the top and gently adjusted it, Gabe caught her fingers.
Lainey watched as he closed his hands over hers so that her fingers curled around his big thumbs. The sight and sensation of his warm, hard lips pressing against the backs of her fingers made her insides melt into a quivering heat that made her whole body begin to tremble. When he began to gently nibble her fingers, she felt a series of erotic quakes go through the most feminine part of her.
Too soon he stopped and released one of her hands to reach into his shirt pocket. Lainey was still staring dazedly into his dark eyes, so she didn’t see what he’d taken out. When his gaze grew solemn, she felt a flutter of worry.
“Since you’re stayin’, I’d like you to wear these.”
Gabe held up the gorgeous wedding and engagement rings she’d left lying beside her signature the day they’d married at the courthouse, and Lainey felt a fresh rush of tears.
The large stone on the engagement ring and the ones on the wedding band sparkled like a tiny galaxy, even in the dim light. Gabe had spent a fortune to give them to her, and she’d callously taken them off and walked away, unmoved by both the gesture and the cost.
Shamed and humbled and completely aware of how unworthy she was and how patient he’d been with her even back then, Lainey couldn’t stop the flood of tears that popped onto her lashes then dropped in miserable streaks down her face.
“Oh, Gabe, I hate myself.” The words had come out on a desperate little gust of agony.
She jumped a little when he growled out a harsh, “That’s enough,” that made her gaze shift up to the stern glint in his.
Gabe tenderly singled out her ring finger and slid on the rings, then straightened them before he gripped both her hands in his.
“We put everything behind us a few minutes ago, including that day at the courthouse. If you meant what you said, we go on from here.” His grip tightened on her hands and he gave them a slight shake. “Got it?”
Lainey gave him a trembling smile that she couldn’t quite hold. “Yes, I’ve got it. Thank you.”
The solemn look in his eyes hinted at compassion for her tears and the reasons for them, and that made it all the harder to make them stop.
Lainey pulled her hands from his and put her arms around his neck to tightly hug him. Her body still jerked with silent sobs, and it was soon apparent that she couldn’t regain enough control of herself to stop crying.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, then found herself suddenly swept up in his arms as he turned to carry her to their room. Lainey snuggled closer, her throat and chin on his shoulder as she madly wiped the wetness from her face before he could get her into the house and into the light and see them.
Once inside, he set her on her feet to pull the drapes. Lainey escaped to the bathroom to wash her face and make herself more presentable. When she stepped out, Gabe was in the big closet, prying his boots off on the bootjack.
He smiled at her when she walked to the open door, and it was truly as if he’d set aside the past. “You gonna wear that pretty white thing you got today?”
Lainey laced her fingers together in front of her. “Would you rather I wear one you chose?”
Gabe shook his head. “It’s best not to start something tonight. I might be able to handle the white thing, but not the others.”
The bluntness of that sent heat to her face that only intensified as he went on.
“And just so you’ll know, I want a lover in my bed. When the time comes between us, and it will soon, I don’t want it to be about makin’ up for anything but lost time.”
The rough charm of that, as well as the sudden erotic pictures it put in her mind, made her give a small smile. Gabe smiled, too, and her heart was jolted by a surge of love.
“You might get busy on showing more of those smiles when you get time, Mrs. Patton. They’re awful damned pretty.”
“So are yours, Mr. Patton,” she said back, genuinely meaning that.
His smile dropped abruptly from his face, but his gaze took on a dark sparkle. “Now sweet I’ll put up with in private, but pretty…” He gave his head a decisive shake.
“No self-respecting man will tolerate being called pretty.”
Lainey couldn’t help the giggle. “All right, how about handsome? Or maybe ‘awful damned’ handsome?”
His dark brows went up skeptically. “For a rough-lookin’ ol’ boy like me?”
“Especially for you. You have no idea what it looks like when you smile, or how it makes me…feel.”
Gabe had taken off his string tie and started unbuttoning his shirt when they’d started this, but his fingers stopped at the button just above the waistband of his slacks.
“Well now,” he said, his voice so low and gravelly that it was almost a rasp. “How does it make you feel, Mrs. Patton?”
The sudden hush in the big closet was heavy and subtly sensual. Lainey felt the steady thickening of the air and dared to tell him.
“It makes me…feel good. It changes the room somehow, and I have a hard time looking away. And there’s an ache after that makes me watch for it to happen again.” She took a shallow breath. “I don’t think I can explain it any better than that.”
The silence and the heavy sensuality had intensified until the air was charged with it. Gabe’s face went somber.
“If you explain any better, you won’t need to put on that white thing.”
Gabe’s masculinity seemed to reach for her and wrap around her like a giant fist. A wave of excitement and feminine fear surged through her, and her knees went weak. “Should I…step into the other room?”
It was an idiotic question to ask, but from the look in Gabe’s eyes, it was exactly the right one.
“Go on. A man can only tolerate so much before his good intentions go down the drain.”
Lainey quickly turned to step out of the closet. She got her things from a drawer, and slipped into the bathroom to remove her makeup and dress for bed.
When she came out, Gabe was already there, his back propped against the headboard, and the covers settled waist high. His dark eyes burned over her as she crossed to the bed.
She’d left off the wrap and only wore the nightgown that covered her from just above mid-chest to feet. All that held up the layers of silk were the spaghetti straps. Lainey had already checked in the bathroom mirror, so she knew the nightgown didn’t look quite as opaque as it had in the shop.
But she regretted leaving off the wrap the moment she suspected the gossamer layers were shifting as she walked, causing them to thin and thicken, giving glimpses then taking them away.
When she reached her side of the bed and climbed in, she quickly covered herself. Gabe snapped off the light almost right away, and slid down to lie beside her.
His low voice had softened. “You looked like a virgin sacrifice walking to a pagan altar.”
Lainey glanced his way in the darkness. She hoped that hadn’t offended him. “I didn’t realize.”
“Thought I’d mention that the first time between us—or any time—wouldn’t necessarily be in a bed.”
Lainey heard the hint of humor in the blunt remark, but didn’t comment because she sensed there was more.
“Having a wife gives any private place…potential.”
Now she spoke up. “How is it different with wives than with girlfriends?”
“More opportunities to wind up together in more places.”
Her soft, “Oh,” sounded impossibly virginal.
“I didn’t say that to make you wonder if I’m oversexed. Just that I mean it about waiting. Not long, but not tonight.”
Lainey smiled in the darkness and inched her hand over to push her fingers into his hand. Gabe turned toward her and put his arm around her. It surprised her when he didn’t kiss her, but she could feel the hum of tension in his big body and understood why.
The heavenly feel of lying beside him with his arm resting heavily over her was so exciting that she dared to put her hand and forearm on the arm he’d draped across her. His wordless growl made her smile again.
She laid in the dark thinking about the things he’d said. Simple things, but so welcome that she was certain now that staying with Gabe was not only the best thing she could have done, but the one thing she’d never regret.
CHAPTER NINE
THAT next day, Gabe drove her to the doctor’s appointment. Every eye was on them from the moment they walked in the door until Lainey confirmed her arrival. As she and Gabe turned to find seats, four patients said hello to Gabe then to her before they pointedly glanced at her left hand to see the rings. By the time they’d sat down, every adult in the room including the two clerks behind the arrival desk, who were still whispering to each other, had given them both a close perusal.
Gabe seemed immune to the frequent glances, but Lainey felt each one, particularly when she noticed they were focused more frequently on her than on him. It was about that time that Gabe lifted his arm and let it rest casually on the chair back behind her.
Lainey glanced toward him and saw that instead of ignoring the steady stares of the patients around them, he was returning each one. The grim glitter in his dark eyes made her risk a look to see who that grimness might be directed at. The moment she did, she saw that one by one, several sets of gazes had suddenly found something else to stare at.
Though she’d felt the censure of everyone in the room and from the clerks behind the arrival counter, it was Gabe she felt badly for. Had people stared at him like this for years, whispering just out of earshot? Small towns could be like that. For the most part it was harmless, but Lainey couldn’t help but think again of the repeated nicks to Gabe’s pride.
Though no one would be able to miss it when a man like Gabriel Patton walked in, she was certain he wouldn’t appreciate attracting attention for anything more than his good character and hard-won accomplishments. She’d heard enough about how he’d grown up to know that his family had frequently been the target of gossip, and that the gossip had also included him.
Gabe had overcome his difficult upbringing and worked his way up in the esteem of others while he’d worked toward his financial successes. To know after all he’d done to achieve respect that his witchy wife had again made him a target of more gossip made Lainey feel sick. Even worse, it occurred to her then that it might even be possible that a few people had considered Gabe some kind of villain who’d driven his wife away.
Lainey sat tensely, steeped in the consequences of what she’d done. Eventually she reached for Gabe’s hand. He eased it over to meet hers and she warmly gripped it. She felt him absently brush his thumb over the diamonds on her rings, idly lining the engagement ring up with the wedding band then rotating one or the other so he could realign them again.
It was an absentminded task of boredom, so Lainey glanced at the abandoned news magazine on the chair next to hers. She was just about to offer it to him when a nurse stepped into the waiting room to call her name. Gabe released her hand, so she picked up the magazine and passed it to him as she got up.
Because more people were beginning to walk in from the parking lot, Lainey felt guilty for leaving Gabe alone to face the scrutiny of several more sets of curious eyes.
It was marginally less uncomfortable to go to the pharmacy to fill her prescription. At least here they could wander the aisles of the big drugstore and avoid being noticed. If someone did notice, and some had, they could cut it short by moving to another aisle. In spite of that, Lainey didn’t feel so much as a quiver of relief until they were finally in Gabe’s big pickup on their way to the highway and home.
She’d been about to apologize to him for the attention that day, when he spoke as if he’d known what she was thinking.
“Once they get used to seein’ us together, the Dairy Queen’ll get a new flavor of ice cream or some cattleman’ll get twins off one of his cows, and we’ll be yesterday’s news.”
Lainey exhaled a nervous breath that ended on a grateful laugh. She reached over to grip his hand.
Gabe glanced her way. “So get that sick look out of your eyes, Mrs. Patton. Folks will soon come around.” H
e faced forward to watch the road as he went on.
“Not often a hard marriage straightens out, and most folks like to see that.” He paused to negotiate a turn. “Once they get done talkin’ it to death one way, they’ll talk it up the other way. Sayin’, ‘Ain’t Lainey and her man good for each other? Salt of the earth, the both of ’em.”’ His exaggerated drawl coaxed a smile out of her.
Lainey put her other hand fondly over the back of his. “I hope so.”
He growled out a decisive, “I know so,” as his big hand squeezed hers. “Since I can tell you’re already worried about Mac’s barbeque, you might as well stop. It won’t hurt folks at all to see that I’m proud of my wife.”
Oh, God.
“Proud? Oh, Gabe…”
They’d stopped at the last stop light in town, so Gabe glanced at her again, his expression deadly serious.
“Takes a lot to face up to things, then work to make them come right. Takes even more to hold your head up and not let anyone run you off. You’ll go with me Saturday, and you’ll let ’em see what you’re about now.”
Gabe glanced ahead of them just in time to see the light change, so he started the pickup forward.
Lainey’s impulse was to tell him she doubted it would be as easy as he’d made it sound. Instead she tried a different tack.
“I haven’t done all that much work, Gabe. And certainly very little to make anything right between us.”
Gabe’s profile went stern. “You came back to face up to things, you’re going down the road with me in this pickup, and you mean to stay. I’ve got faith in the rest,” he said then glanced over at her to add, “I’ve got faith in you.”
The sincerity she read in his solemn gaze caused a bittersweet ache, and Lainey couldn’t help the sting of tears. Was she a good enough person to live up to his lofty expectations of her?
Particularly when she could see that his expectations told her more about the disappointed yearning in him than they did about his good faith and level of optimism. And, oh, God please, she didn’t want give him even a whisper of disappointment.
