by Merry Farmer
She’d never slept naked before. She’d never had the chance, what with sharing a room with at least one of her sisters through her entire life. It felt odd, sexy, exciting. Better still, she wasn’t the only one. Cooper was naked too, his broad chest rising and falling as he slept. At some point in the night, Faith had rolled away from him. Probably because her body had overheated after the third time they’d made love. Were you even supposed to make love three times on your wedding night?
With a throaty chuckle, she decided the question was ridiculous. She inched across the bed, tucking herself against Cooper’s side and sliding a leg over his. The important part of him was limp, but as soon as her thigh brushed it, it surged to life. Cooper drew in a breath and then let it out on a long, satisfied sigh. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, then twisted to his side, pulling Faith against him.
“Good morning.” His voice was gruff and sexy with sleep and desire.
Faith didn’t even care if he had morning breath. She clamped an arm around him, reaching for his backside, and strained across the pillow for a deep kiss.
Okay, maybe she did care that he had morning breath. She backed off, but her satisfied grin stayed in place.
“Good morning yourself,” she hummed.
Her hand reached the roundness of his rump, and she squeezed. He tensed, growing harder against the juncture of her thighs, and sighed loudly. If it was okay to make love three times on your wedding night, surely it was equally okay to make love the morning after. Even if deep tongue kissing was out of the question until some mouthwash could be brought in.
“You were great last night,” Cooper said, reflecting her thoughts. His hands got busy, tracing the curve of her backside, the line of her side, cupping the side of her breast. “I was worried it might be weird, since we hardly know each other.”
“We know as much as we need to know,” she said, tracing her fingers up his spine.
He shuddered at her touch, and Faith’s grin grew wider. Yes. This would work. She had nothing to worry about. Cooper was already responding to the heat she’d turned up all the way. They’d shared a special physical bond the night before, and already she could feel it turning into an emotional bond. They didn’t need babies to have a solid, happy marriage. And a man who kissed her the way Cooper was kissing her neck and shoulder would accept that she had turned her hobby into a successful business without fuss. Now all she needed to do was find a way to bring the subject up and—
She gasped, her thoughts vanishing, as Cooper closed his mouth around her nipple and sucked. He rolled her to her back and she splayed her legs, aching for him to fill her. This would work, this would work, this would work. Her mind sang out the happy refrain as she traced her nails up and down his back. This would definitely work. She hummed in approval as he ground his growing erection against her thigh.
The alarm buzzed.
Cooper sucked in a breath.
He stopped, muscles tense.
He lifted above her and stared at the flashing, beeping clock on the bedside table.
In spite of the obnoxious sound, Faith ignored it. She teased the hot flesh of Cooper’s sides with her nails, squirmed under him, arching her hips in an effort to draw his attention. She wanted him back on top of her, inside of her, now.
“Five-thirty,” Cooper said, then pushed away from her.
Faith gulped at the rush of cool air that wafted over her as Cooper lunged out of bed. It was just light enough for her to see his you-know-what standing up, not quite at full attention. It was also light enough for her to realize how ridiculous she looked splayed out like a flailing turtle on its back.
“Aren’t…aren’t you going to finish what you started?” She sounded ridiculous—not to mention whiney—too.
Cooper turned back to her, his eyes raking her exposed body. He glanced desperately at the clock. The display ticked over to 5:31, and he winced. “Can’t,” he said. “Already one minute behind schedule.”
“But…” Faith stammered. “But it’s Sunday.”
Cooper smirked as he headed for the door. “Tell that to the herd.”
“You can’t go to work like that,” she tried another tactic, nodding to the flagpole of his manhood.
“I’ll have to take care of it in the shower.”
He turned and rushed into the bathroom before Faith could blurt out, “Take care of it in the shower?”
Cooper was already gone. She could only huff and close her legs, going stiff with…well, it wasn’t exactly insult. She’d turned him on to the point where he had something to take care of in the shower besides washing. But really? One minute behind?
She was still in bed, contemplating the absurdity of the sudden end to some really enjoyable activities when the shower cut off. Cooper marched back into the room what seemed like thirty seconds later, wearing nothing but a towel. Unfortunately, there was no tell-tale bulge in the front of the towel.
He stopped halfway to the bureau and stared at her. “You’re still in bed?”
Faith blinked, sitting up. “Yes?”
Cooper’s eyes darted to the bedside clock. Once again, he winced. “5:44. The bed should already be made by now. Dammit, I hate getting behind schedule.”
Faith arched an eyebrow. “What’s your usual schedule?”
She meant her question to be teasing, but as she rolled out of bed and went to work making the bed for him, Cooper said, “Alarm off and out of bed at 5:30. In the shower by 5:31. Out of the shower by 5:38. It took me two extra minutes this morning.” He blushed as he told her.
“Two minutes?” Really? That didn’t bode well for the future.
“Bed made by 5:41, dressed by 5:45, and at the table, eating breakfast by 5:50. The ranch won’t buy itself out if we don’t knuckle down and do what it takes to improve productivity.”
Faith crossed around to the far side of the bed, tugging at the sheets, then smoothing them. Really, she ought to wash them after all the activity from the night before. She might do that later.
“Okay, well, I wouldn’t want to get in the way of the ranch’s productivity, so you get dressed and get out to the kitchen for your breakfast on time, and I’ll finish up here.”
Again, she meant it to be teasing, but Cooper’s shoulders relaxed as he reached into the top drawer for clean underwear. As soon as it was on, he stepped across the room to give Faith a quick kiss.
“Thanks. I appreciate your understanding.” Another quick peck, and he rushed back to the bureau to finish dressing.
A heavy lump formed in Faith’s gut. She shouldn’t have teased him. Teasing a man with a ranch to save—not to mention serious OCD issues—wasn’t fair. But if there was one thing life had taught her, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Actually, she thought with a smile as she finished up the bed and danced into the master bathroom, that was reassuring. Cooper had his issues, she had her issues. Maybe she really was blowing her fear of spilling the truth all out of proportion.
Fifteen minutes later, she wasn’t so sure.
“I’m sorry about the time thing,” Cooper said, getting up from the breakfast table, as soon as Faith walked into the kitchen, washed, dressed, and brushed. “It’s just that keeping on schedule and doing things efficiently is possibly the most important thing to me.”
Faith smiled and crossed the room to wrap her arms around him. “Thank you for telling me that. And as your wife, I’ll be sure to respect your scheduling as best I can.”
Cooper laughed, then kissed her. Coffee breath was a thousand times better than morning breath.
“I just want you to know that it’s not random, and it’s not just about this stupid trouble with Travis,” he went on. “See, several years ago, when Karlan and I were just old enough to take over the ranch and Kolby and Chris weren’t far behind, we ran into some tough times financially. The ranch was in real danger because of mismanagement.”
“That’s terrible.” Faith squeezed him tighter. “But you pulled it back from the brink, righ
t?”
“Right.” He nodded. “It wasn’t easy, though. The only way we were able to do it was by being organized. Really organized. I instituted the schedule and stuck to it. After a while, Karlan and Kolby eased up on the schedule a little—and Chris went off to become a traveling teacher—but I kept to it.”
“And it’s helped?”
“I’m convinced it’s the only thing that did help. It’s the only thing that will save us now—careful, thought-out organization No surprises, no delays.”
Cooper let her go and walked around the end of the table to the fridge. He pulled it open and started taking out sandwich fixings. Faith took advantage of the moment to fix herself some coffee.
“I’m not gonna lie to you,” Cooper said as he made his lunch. “I feel very strongly that it’s my responsibility to keep this ranch running at peak perfection.”
“Of course.” Faith nodded, adding sugar to her mug.
“I know that I share the responsibility with Karlan and the others, but as foreman—no, as a Culpepper—I feel it’s my duty to do whatever it takes to keep this ranch. That’s one reason I was agreeable to contact Dr. Lachele to make us some matches.”
“I’m glad you did.” Faith grinned at him—doing her best to be sexy—over the rip of her coffee mug as she took her first sip.
“Me too.” Cooper finished with his sandwich and slid sideways along the counter until he was close enough to lean over and smack a kiss on Faith’s lips. “That’s why I think it’s vitally important that we be the first ones to get pregnant. A pregnant wife within a year was part of the Granddaddy’s will, and I think it’s our duty to be the ones who check that box off.”
It didn’t matter how sultry and seductive the look Cooper gave her was, Faith’s insides withered. “Our duty?” She tried hard to keep her smile, but had to take a long drink of coffee to hide how badly it slipped.
“Yes, ma’am.” Cooper’s voice dropped to that delicious growl he’d used throughout the night to whisper dirty, dirty things in her ear. Things that weren’t really dirty and made her feel like the luckiest woman in the world.
“Cooper, there’s something I have to tell you,” she sighed, just above a whisper.
A timer went off on the stove. Cooper perked up and turned away. “Six-oh-three. Can it wait? I need to get out to the stables by 6:15, and we left the truck over at Ma’s last night.”
“I—” Faith pressed her lips shut and blew out a breath through her nose. After everything Cooper had just said about schedules, how on earth was she supposed to nail him down and have that talk now? “You go on,” she said. There would be time for revelations later.
Cooper bent over for one more kiss, then zipped to the far end of the counter where his lunch waited.
“I’m usually home by five o’clock sharp. You don’t have to make supper if you don’t want to, but the kitchen is fully stocked.” He scooped up his lunch and headed for the door. “I know your crafty things aren’t here yet, but I’ve got satellite TV. Although I’m sure Ma would love to have your company at the big house. Besides, two of your sisters are still over there, and...” He glanced at his watch. “Okay, gotta run. See you later, tater.”
He grinned at his sudden, silly term of endearment, then darted out the door.
Faith’s smile dropped as soon as he was gone. So much for it being simple and easy to reveal all her secrets.
Five hours later, as Cooper walked the perimeter of the hayfield, it dawned on him that he shouldn’t have run out on his new wife so fast that morning. Try as he did to concentrate on the hay’s growth and to calculate whether they’d planted enough to feed the herd once the weather got cold, all he could think about was how sexy Faith had looked lying naked in their bed that morning. Fifteen minutes and he could have made sure they were both satisfied for the morning. He wasn’t really turning into the kind of guy who let the fear of being fifteen minutes late to work stop him from doing the horizontal hokey-pokey with his beautiful wife, was he? Heaven help him, and damn Travis for being the root cause of all this stress.
“What?” Kolby asked from around the corner of the hayfield as Cooper approached.
“What do you mean ‘what?’” Cooper snapped. He strode the last few yards to meet up with his brother, his jeans chafing. It seemed as if even little Cooper was grumpy about him bailing that morning when things were getting good.
“You look like you swallowed a cow pie or something.” Kolby fell into step beside him, and the two of them headed back toward the stable and the ranch’s office.
“I didn’t swallow anything.” Cooper took his hat off and swatted at a fly buzzing near his overheated face. He wished he could brush off the stupidity he’d shown that morning as easily.
But the money had to be raised to save the ranch.
He glanced at his watch. 11:37. He’d make it to lunch on time. That much was a relief.
It took a second to realize Kolby was laughing at him. His brother cleared his throat. “I noticed the lights in your house go on at five-thirty on the dot this morning.”
“Five-thirty-one,” Cooper grumbled.
Kolby snorted. “I saw you leave home exactly on time too.”
“So? This place doesn’t run itself, you know.”
“What is a newly married man with a pretty wife doing sticking to schedules?” Kolby shook his head. “I’m sure you could have thought of something better to do this morning.”
Yeah, he could have. That was the problem. What kind of a lousy husband rushed off to work the morning after getting married?
A husband with a ranch to tend to.
He shook his head and plunked his cowboy hat back on. “Maybe I should take my lunch back to the house and eat it with Faith.”
Kolby thumped him on the back. “Maybe you should take the rest of the day off and eat your wife for lunch.”
Cooper scowled at him. “If I ever hear you talking so disrespectfully about my wife again…”
“Okay, okay, I was just making a brotherly suggestion.” Kolby held up his hands, but his laughter continued. “But if it helps, Karlan and I are both working our tails off today, and Angus is in the workshop fixing the tractor. The ranch won’t fall to pieces if you spend one afternoon doing something other than worrying about money and buy-outs.”
Cooper sent his brother a wary look. The problem was, Kolby had a point. One afternoon wouldn’t bring the whole operation crashing down on him. The ridiculous provisions of Granddaddy’s will were already well on their way to being fulfilled. Two of them were married, Kolby was about to be married, and even though he was playing his cards close to his chest, Chris was probably halfway to the altar as well. The only remaining challenge was for one of the ladies to end up pregnant before the year was out. Really, by going home and spending the afternoon with Faith, he was ensuring that that happened sooner.
So why did the thought of setting one foot out of line fill him with dread?
“I’ll just check on her,” he said, half to himself, half to wipe the smirk off Kolby’s ugly face.
“I’m sure she’d like that.”
“She’s probably busy doing something. I’ll get in her way.”
“Or not.”
“She might be up at Ma’s or off somewhere doing something with her sisters.”
“Or she could be stretched out in bed, waiting for you to come home.”
Cooper narrowed his eyes and clenched a fist. “You’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’, Kolby.”
“And you’re making mountains out of molehills,” Kolby snapped back. “Go home to your wife. Let us take care of the ranch.”
It took a lot more inner struggling—struggling that made Cooper feel stupid more than anything else—but by the time they walked through the stable’s tall front door, he’d made up his mind. Without another word to his obnoxious younger brother, he grabbed his sandwich out of the office fridge and headed back to the house.
Each step made his heart lighter, an
d when he climbed up onto the porch and walked through the front door, he had a smile on his face.
“Faith?”
The kitchen was empty, so he marched on through and down the hall. And yeah, he poked his head into the bedroom, just in case Kolby was right and she was laid out on the bed, ready and waiting. Part of him was glad she wasn’t there.
Part of him…well, wasn’t.
“Faith?” he called again and rounded the corner into the den that made up most of the back part of his house.
The TV was on, tuned to one of those shows where people fixed up houses, but Faith wasn’t watching it. Instead, she sat at his computer, a sketch pad of some sort in her hands. The screen displayed a picture of a chubby, sleeping baby.
Cooper’s heart rolled in his chest at the sight. Faith stared so intently at the baby on the screen, sketching away, that she hadn’t even heard him. He shifted his weight to one hip and just grinned at her. Now there was a woman who was on board with his dreams and plans for the ranch. She was so eager to have a baby that she was looking up pictures of them online. Why had he been so worried again? Heck, coming home to spend the afternoon in bed with his wife was part of his job at this point, wasn’t it?
He’d been standing there, his arm resting against the doorframe, just watching her for more than a minute when something finally drew her attention. She glanced, unconcerned, in his direction.
With a sharp gasp, she jumped in her chair. The sketch pad skittered out of her hands and fanned open on the floor. Cooper peeked long enough to see that it was filled with sketches of babies before dragging his eyes up the long lines of her legs and arms as she perched in the chair. His wife sure was beautiful.
Beautiful and suddenly jumpy.
“Cooper. I didn’t see you standing there.”
She scrambled to right herself, reaching for the computer mouse and clicking frantically. Several windows of babies flashed on the screen as she closed them. As fast as could be, she leapt to her feet and stood blocking the monitor, eyes wide.
It was actually kind of sweet.
“I know what you’re doing there, sweetheart.” He pushed away from the doorframe and sauntered into the room, doing his best to make like one of those seductive heroes in the movies that women went wild about.
