Still, she hadn’t missed the intonation in Ace’s statement. He was obviously here for revenge for someone, judging by his words. And in spite of what he’d said, the fact remained that Ace did not look like a man who was looking forward to a reunion. If Ford truly was his father, then with or without the intent of revenge, things were not going to be easy tonight.
For anyone. When Ford Carson was upset, the whole Carson clan was upset. Fiona had seemed amused by Ace’s presence, but then, Crystal knew what Fiona had been thinking. She’d been viewing him as a convenient new man in town—a match for Crystal. Fiona was always doing that kind of thing. Fiona had been purposely avoiding the obvious problems with her family. Maybe she just didn’t want to think about them. Maybe she knew she couldn’t stop what was going to happen and so had decided to simply get things over with.
Crystal hazarded a glance at Ace. His jaw was set. Tall and strong, he radiated masculinity and power even sitting down. He seemed to fill up the space of her small car. He was a man you couldn’t miss in a crowd, a man no woman would want to miss…unless she was a woman who had a problem with men.
Like me, Crystal thought.
She wondered if Fiona wasn’t making a mistake in inviting Ace to this gathering where Carsons would be so prevalent. No Carson was easily forgettable, and it looked as if Ace Carson fit the mold perfectly.
She doubted that this would be something anyone could simply get through quickly. Ace Carson was here to make a difference.
A shiver ran through her at the thought.
“You all right?” he asked in that low sexy voice.
She smiled.
“What?” he said.
“I was just thinking how that should have been my question. Are you all right with this? With going to the Lone Star Country Club? The Carsons and the Wainwrights run it, you know.”
“I know.”
“Are you…hoping to become a member of the family?” Immediately she regretted the words. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. It’s none of my business.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’ve got a right to ask. I invaded your celebration. It’s obvious my only reason for being there was to check out the Carson clan. As for wanting to be accepted, that’s the last thing I want. I have no interest in being a part of the family.”
Then what? she wanted to ask, and her very interest in Ace troubled her. She shouldn’t be here with him. But then she remembered how he’d soothed her on the elevator, how he’d protected her from Branson, how he’d noticed Timmy’s hat and boots and drawn a smile from her reserved child.
“I can’t tell you what I’m going to say to my father when I finally meet him, but…well, you probably shouldn’t be here with me,” he said.
“You’re not going to… You wouldn’t hurt anyone, would you?”
He chuckled. “My mother’s ghost would rise up and smack me good if I did. That’s not what this is about,” he assured her. “I don’t beat up aging men.”
But that aging man had once been a very young man, a dashing young man who apparently had seduced Ace’s mother.
Crystal glanced at Ace and wondered how many women had fallen under his spell.
“I won’t hit anyone,” he promised. “I never intended that. And I would not subject you or Timmy to that.” He nodded toward her little boy who had gotten bored with the grown-up talk and fallen asleep in his car seat, his cowboy hat slipping off his head to lie half-crushed beneath his chubby pink cheek.
She parked the car outside the massive structure of the country club in the large lot west of the main building, climbed from the car and circled round to free Timmy from his car seat. His body was heavy with sleep, his arms and legs rubbery, his head flopping over.
“I’ll carry him,” Ace said, and he took her son from her.
He held him reverently, her fatherless child. But Crystal also noticed that Ace stiffened slightly whenever the boy moved. And when she led him past the gardens, across the enormous porch, into the building and back to the nursery, he looked relieved to be divested of his package. It was obvious that though he seemed to like her child, he still wasn’t comfortable with the thought of having one of his own.
She shouldn’t have felt that sharp little pain at the thought. After all, she’d already walked this route. But then, this was her son. She wanted everyone to want him.
Not everyone would, though, she knew. It was just a fact of life, one she still struggled with.
“All right, ready to meet the family?” she asked, striving for brightness.
He placed a restraining hand on her bare arm, sending warmth and awareness straight into her. “Not a chance I’m going to drag you into this.” His expression was stern.
She couldn’t help the look of confusion that crossed her face.
He shrugged and smiled. “What I mean is, thank you for the ride, but I accepted because Fiona said that you were going, anyway, and because I wanted to make sure that the jerk who attacked you earlier didn’t follow you. He hasn’t. But now that we’re here, I’m not dragging you into this any deeper. The Carsons are obviously your friends. Furthermore, they don’t have any more reason to like me than I have reason to like them. In fact, they have every reason to be suspicious of me and to order me out of here. I might as well tell you that their suspicions would not be without grounds. I’m not a violent man unless someone’s being threatened, but I’m not likely to feel too kindly toward the family that made my mother’s life a joke and a humiliation. So you and I part ways for now. Go circulate, Cinderella. Just be careful. Not all men—”
“—are trustworthy. I know,” she said with a smile. “A wise man told me that earlier this evening.”
He rubbed his jaw. “Check back with me on that ‘wise man’ thing at the end of the evening. You might change your mind.”
She hoped she’d changed her mind about some things, because right now Ace Carson looked very much like a man she wanted to kiss. And she had the feeling his kisses would be very difficult to forget.
What in hell was he doing here? The question played through Ace’s mind again and again as he located Fiona and followed her across the lobby of the main building of the Lone Star Country Club, an impressive structure that stretched up four stories. She led him into the elegant blue-and-ivory Empire Room, one of several dining rooms that were apparently available. The whole place smelled like luxury, redolent with flowers and the colognes of the well-heeled men and women who mingled here.
My mother might have cleaned some of their houses at one time, he couldn’t help thinking. She would never have been invited here. He almost felt like a traitor for even stepping through the door, but then, of course, it was because of his mother he was here. Once he’d known the whole truth, he’d had to come. For her. And he was pretty darn sure that wherever she was, she was looking down on him right now. It was time he won back a bit of the pride that had been stolen from her.
“Okay, you ready?” Fiona looked up at Ace. He shrugged and couldn’t help searching the perimeters of the room for Crystal.
His little half sister laughed lightly. “She’s watching from the shadows. I have the feeling that Crystal is waiting to come in and save you if need be. She told me what you did. She doesn’t like to feel obligated to anyone.”
“She doesn’t need to feel obligated.”
Fiona raised her brows. “You don’t know Crystal.”
No, he didn’t, and it would probably be best if he didn’t get to know her any better. The fact that she drew his attention like nectar attracted hummingbirds should have already told him he needed to back away. So when he sensed her presence over in the corner, he tried not to look in her direction.
He failed, and he saw that she was in conversation with a smiling, sandy-haired man.
“Ace.” Fiona’s voice slipped in.
“He’s what? He’s who?” a loud, angry male voice at his elbow demanded.
Ace forced his attention away from Crystal and turne
d toward the angry voice. A man frowned at him. No, make that two men and a woman. The men were both tall, with brown hair, and blue eyes like his. The woman, with her dark brown hair and green eyes, was almost a mirror image of Fiona. The men looked grim, the woman uncertain.
“Are you sure he’s related to us?” one man asked, ignoring Ace.
Fiona turned toward Ace. “Not completely, no, but look at his eyes. They’re a lot like yours, Matt, and enough like Flynt’s that there has to be some Carson blood in him.”
The woman who resembled Fiona closed her eyes for a second, as if she was wishing him away. When she opened her eyes again, she blinked once and nodded.
“I’m Cara,” she said. “Fiona’s twin, as you can see, and my sister said your name was what?” She looked as if she really didn’t want to know, but good manners obliged her to ask.
Ace raised a brow. “Ace Turner Carson,” he said slowly.
“What do you want?” There was no welcome in the older brother’s voice.
“Flynt…” Fiona drawled a warning.
But Ace just smiled, a long slow smile. He wanted to make people uneasy. “I don’t want much,” he said truthfully. “I’m not here to stake a claim, if that’s what you mean, little brother.”
“But you want something or you wouldn’t be here,” the younger brother stated.
“That’s Matt,” Cara said. “And he has a point.”
“He does. Everyone wants something, after all, don’t they?” Ace asked. “I suppose the Carsons—all of you—want to protect your money and your name.”
“You say that as if you mean to threaten us in some way,” Flynt accused, but he looked slightly less hostile now, as if the shock had had time to settle. “Is that what you’re here to do?”
Not exactly.
“I don’t want any of the Carson cash,” Ace said, biting off the words, “and believe me, I don’t pose a threat to any of the Carsons’ health. Wouldn’t you come looking if you found out you had relatives you never knew about?”
The two men seemed to be wrestling with that concept. Fiona and Cara exchanged a look.
“Branson Hines was bothering Crystal tonight. He tried to force her to kiss him. Ace stepped in and sent him packing,” Fiona said softly.
Matt and Flynt Carson looked at each other. Flynt’s lips twisted slightly, as he seemed to study what little information he’d been given. Not that Ace cared. He wasn’t looking for anyone’s blessing. In fact, it was the last thing he wanted or needed. He started to walk away.
“Carson.”
At the single word, Ace stopped and turned back. Flynt’s blue eyes were narrowed. “Let’s get one thing straight,” he said. “I don’t like you and I don’t like you being here, but I hope you broke his nose.”
Ace rubbed his jaw. “Afraid not. I’m not an especially violent man.” His voice sounded cold and barely restrained even to his own ears.
“He nearly choked him,” Fiona volunteered.
“Um, I see, not violent,” Matt noted with a frown.
“Didn’t appear that he was going to go away without some persuasion,” Ace admitted.
“And you persuaded him?” Cara asked.
“It’s something I’m good at.”
The two men exchanged a look.
“You planning on being around real long?” Matt asked.
“For a while.”
“I take it you aren’t expecting a big welcome?”
“That would be a bit out of place. And unwarranted since I’m not exactly here on a quest to mend fallen fences.” He stared into his younger half brother’s eyes and saw a bit of himself looking back. He didn’t like the feeling it gave him. He realized that he had the advantage. He’d come here knowing that there were untold secrets on the Carson front. The four Carson brothers and sisters were just facing that fact.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Ace said, and he nodded and turned to leave again.
“You still haven’t told us, Ace, what your intentions are in coming here,” Fiona said, and when he looked at her, she didn’t look as much worried as speculative. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Crystal. She was watching him, and her eyes were big with worry.
“Hell,” he said almost beneath his breath.
“Pardon me?” Cara said.
A smile lifted the corners of Ace’s mouth. He looked at the expensively dressed, obviously privileged group standing before him. He couldn’t forget the innocent woman standing off to the side worrying, and he knew he’d been right all along. He didn’t fit in here and never would. But then, he hadn’t come here for that; he hadn’t even come to stay very long at all. He had come here for a reason.
“I just came to raise a little hell like I always have,” he told Cara, and smiled as she blinked. “I regret to inform you, baby sister, that your oldest brother doesn’t care much about pomp or prestige or the joys of settling down and behaving himself. And I’m here just to meet the clan, let you know I exist and who I am. And then, in time, when I’ve caused enough talk and trouble and discomfort, I’ll do what all men like me tend to do. Drift away. Move on. And you can go on as you always have. Except you’ll know that there’s one more Carson out there. Hell, you’ll wonder, like I do, just how many more of us there actually are. Now I think I’ll move along. Nice meeting all of you Carsons.”
And he saluted his half brothers and sisters and strode off.
As he passed the part of the room where he’d last seen Crystal, Ace couldn’t help looking her way. He was on his way—for the first time in his life—to face the man who had seduced his mother, contributed his DNA and then turned his back forever on her and the son he’d fathered. He should have been elated, gleeful even. It was the moment Ace had prepared for, maybe all his life.
But instead of joy, he felt as if concrete weights were pressing on him.
He should have been clipping across the floor on his way to deliver the news to his father that the “bad penny” Carson had just shown up. Instead, he moved to Crystal like steel to magnet. He looked down at the complete concern in her big hazel eyes, and a low groan escaped him.
She was leaning against a wall, hovering in the background, staring at him as if he were Timmy or some other soul in need of her concern. It occurred to him that she was genuinely worried about him. That wouldn’t do. She had enough grief in her life. She didn’t need to be thinking about his problems.
Somehow he managed a teasing smile. He leaned one palm against the wall and swooped in close.
“You, darlin’, are driving me completely nuts tonight,” he whispered right next to her ear.
He felt the shiver slide through her. She lifted her chin. “What do you mean?”
Ace gave her his best slow lazy smile, designed to disarm and chase away ugly worrisome thoughts. “I mean that the whole time I was talking to the gang,” he said, nodding in the direction where the Carson siblings were still standing deep in conversation, “I kept thinking that I wanted to do this.”
And with one fluid motion, he slid his arm lightly around her waist. He slipped his other hand beneath her hair and exposed her neck to his view. Lightly he touched his lips to the spot where her pulse was pounding. He gave her plenty of time to slither away, plenty of room to run.
Instead, she gasped softly. If anything, she moved closer.
He closed his eyes, afraid to move. Had he meant to scare her? No, definitely not, but maybe he’d meant to warn her that she shouldn’t trust him any more than that Branson character. That she shouldn’t waste her worry on a man like him who could not stick around any more than Timmy’s father had.
“Are you worried about meeting Ford?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “No.” The word came out a little harshly. And hell, why not? With Crystal’s body this close, what man wouldn’t feel like he was losing control? “No,” he said more softly.
But when he pulled back, he saw that he hadn’t soothed her a bit. If anything, she looked more concerned
about him than ever.
And when he turned and walked away, he thought he heard her soft steps behind him.
Five
Crystal followed along a good ten feet behind Ace, unable to stop herself. She’d watched him with his newly found half brothers and sisters. She’d seen the way he’d handled the situation, playing it light, but there was something rigid about his jaw. He stood apart. Because he disliked them or because he expected them to dislike him?
He had obviously come to meet the family, but he just as obviously had no desire to linger. He didn’t appear to have any love for his father; he spoke of revenge for someone other than himself, but insisted he wasn’t a violent man.
Ace Carson was a million questions wrapped into a couple of great big questions. Who was he really and why was he here?
She didn’t have a clue who he was, but his touch had made her want to turn in his arms and press against him. He insisted he wasn’t respectable, but he had protected her twice.
She had a feeling he was good at protecting other people, but who was going to protect him? He was moving across the room to meet the man who had not wanted him even when he was an innocent, appealing baby. What must that be like?
For a moment a vision of her own son doing this same thing, seeking out his father years from now, rose before her, and her heart nearly cracked.
But she looked at Ace. He wasn’t like Timmy and he was a very strong man, yet right now he was about as alone in this town as a man could be.
She walked on behind him.
Then from a side door, she sensed a presence. Crystal turned to see Ford Carson moving toward them with his thick white hair, his bushy eyebrows and his air of complete command. People approached him, eager to speak to this towering man they all knew and loved so well, but he shook his head and kept moving toward Ace.
Like an animal sniffing the air for danger, Ace stopped suddenly. He turned and saw his father for the first time.
For several seconds he didn’t move. Then he frowned and stepped forward. He glanced at Crystal out of the corner of his eye. For a moment, she thought he was going to tell her that it wasn’t safe for her to be here. She probably shouldn’t be intruding like this, but she wasn’t sure she could let him do this alone. Again the image of Timmy doing the same thing rose before her. Again she realized that Ace wasn’t Timmy, but still, she had to stay.
Her Sweet Talkin' Man Page 5
