The Hottest Ticket in Town

by Kimberly Van Meter

  They could trade stories about Cora all day and night. She was the glue that held together their foundation. There was no replacing a woman like that. But Laci also knew that Cora was a woman who believed in straight talk. She had no patience for beating around the proverbial bush and that’s what it felt like she was doing right now, dancing around the elephant in the room. With respect to Cora, Laci decided to just lay it all out there.

  “What are we doing?” she asked, shocking him with her quiet yet direct question.

  “We’re mourning Cora,” he said, being deliberately dense. “Let’s leave it at that.”

  She shook her head, not letting it go. “I knew the minute I left that I’d made a mistake,” she said, slipping her fingers into his. He curled his fingers around hers almost hesitantly, as if he was afraid to acknowledge that he had feelings he was struggling with, too. “Everything moved so fast I didn’t know how to handle it. I slipped back into what felt comfortable, but it wasn’t comfortable anymore. Everything felt off. Wrong. I need you, Kane. I need you in my life and I know there are issues...I know it won’t be easy, but I’m not a kid anymore and I know what I want.” His gaze burned into hers and she knew he was fighting something tooth and nail, so she pressed harder, moving closer, crowding his personal space with her body so that he remembered what it felt like to be naked against one another. “Nothing is impossible if we try. But if we quit on each other...we got no one to blame but ourselves for the misery that we’re going to feel. Tell me you didn’t miss me,” she dared, risking it all—her feelings, her dignity. “Tell me that you didn’t want me back.”

  “Laci...”

  She shushed him with a finger against his lips, only to replace it with her mouth. She kissed him sweetly, brushing his lips with hers with the tiniest dart of her tongue against the seam, teasing him with the promise of more. “Tell me, Kane Dalton, that you don’t want me.”

  “I never said I didn’t want you. I’ve always wanted you, Laci.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  “Wanting and having are two separate things.” He gently disengaged her grip and stepped away to open his truck door. “This isn’t the time or the place to have the discussion you’re looking for.”

  She knew he was right, but she felt they’d lost so much time already and death had a way of clarifying things unlike anything else. “This conversation isn’t finished,” she told him as he climbed into the truck and started the engine.

  “It is for me,” he said and pulled away.

  She watched the truck drive away and her first impulse was to cry because it felt hopeless, but then she remembered that wearing down Kane Dalton was something she’d figured out how to do when she was fifteen years old. She knew his weaknesses and she wasn’t above using them. She didn’t know how, but she got the distinct impression Cora was looking down on her, watching and rooting for her with total approval, and that gave her the strength to push forward.

  * * *

  KANE RETURNED TO the ranch and went about his usual chores, but then afterward, took a moment to chat with Rian about business, which honestly felt like two million miles away in another life.

  “You sure you want to talk business?” Rian asked as they went to the cattle enclosure to check a gate that’d been giving Kane trouble. “Business can wait.”

  “I need something to distract me,” he admitted, rubbing at his temple. “Too much going on at the same time, can’t think straight.”

  “Maybe you’re overthinking things.”

  He was too wired up to argue. “Maybe,” he admitted. “But humor me. How’d things go with that last gig?”

  “Piece of cake. In fact, there was lots of cake. You didn’t tell me that at each stop there was going to be some kind of cake with sparklers on it. I swear I gained ten pounds from that gig.”

  “You didn’t have to eat the cake,” he reminded his brother, but Rian scoffed at his comment.

  “Not eat cake? Are you kidding? There is not a cake I can walk past without getting a little sample. Too many years starving with nothing to eat to walk past something sweet.”

  Kane could understand that. He still had issues with overbuying food at the grocery store. His place was always well stocked, even if it was just him there. Hell, Laci would get a kick out of everything he had in his pantry... Stop thinking of Laci, he told himself, irritated that his mind went there so readily. “Well, you might not have had the most exciting time with Senator Graves, but it’s a good way to make the right contacts.”

  “I’m sure it is. I just prefer my gigs to be a little less boring. Almost makes me miss an active war zone.” He shared a look with Kane. “Almost.”

  “So what are we going to do about the ranch? We’re facing the same issue as we were yesterday.”

  Rian sighed and lifted his hands with a helpless shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine. I can’t even get the man to eat. At this rate, he’s going to starve himself in about two weeks.”

  “Shit,” he muttered. “I don’t know what to do, either.”

  “Technically, we’re not blood relations, so we have no say in what happens to the ranch and we can’t legally help Warren with any kind of money issues that might arise unless he gave one of us power of attorney, and I don’t see that happening.”

  “Yeah, let’s not put the cart before the horse,” Kane warned. “Cora’s just passed and he’s struggling, but he’ll snap out of it because he loves this place. It’s in his blood and he won’t let anything happen to it.”

  “He ought to sell it and move to a retirement place,” Rian said, and Kane just stared at his brother as if he’d grown another head.

  “Are you crazy? Warren in a retirement home? He’d drive everyone nuts and then get kicked out. No, that’s not what’s going to happen to Warren. We’ll figure something out. Maybe I’ll split my time between here and LA.” But even as he said it, he knew that wasn’t a viable solution, either. He blew out a short breath and then motioned for Rian to help him. “Let’s get this gate fixed and then head back before it gets dark.”

  After securing the gate, they trudged back to the house and found Laci there, talking to Warren and, miracle of all miracles, she’d managed to fix him a plate of food. She rose from her perch beside Warren and said, “I’m going to start on that pie, but you’d better make a dent in that plate of mashed potatoes or you’re gonna hear about it from me. Cora always said it was a crime to waste good food.”

  “That she did,” Warren agreed, lifting his fork with slightly trembling fingers, betraying his low blood sugar. “And Adeline does make a pretty good mash,” he said around the bite. “Not as good as my Cora, but pretty good just the same.”

  Laci caught Kane’s grateful expression and she smiled even as she briskly moved around the kitchen in what looked like a mad attempt to make a sweet-potato pie before it was time for bed.

  If anyone knew how to reproduce Cora’s recipes, it was Laci. Without a daughter to pass on her skills to, Cora had latched onto Laci and found a willing student. Their times in the kitchen had been the way they’d bonded, just as Rian and Kane had bonded with Warren by learning how to care for the animals and the ranch.

  It wasn’t until later that night, after Laci had put the pie to cool on the counter and Warren had taken himself off to bed, that Kane realized he should’ve found a hotel to stay in—not because there wasn’t room for everyone—but because the temptation of having Laci right there was more than he could possibly deny.

  And Laci knew it.

  “I’ll take the pump house,” Rian offered with a yawn, which nearly prompted Kane to stake his claim on the couch, but Laci had other plans.

  Stopping Rian in his tracks with a sweet but firm smile, she said, “You take my old room. Kane and I will take the pump house.”

  Rian wasn’t about
to argue. “Yes, ma’am.” He tipped an imaginary hat to Laci and offered a quick good-night, ducking behind a closed door and leaving Kane to fend off Laci all by himself.

  She turned to Kane and said, “I told you that conversation wasn’t over and I meant it.” She slipped her hand into his and said over her shoulder, “Don’t think, just move.”

  He smothered a groan of frustration. There were no more words that needed to be said. Nothing had changed and honestly, things had gotten a lot more complicated now that Cora was gone and they needed solutions, not more problems. But Laci wasn’t about to listen to anything that she didn’t want to hear, at least not at the moment, and frankly, he was too wrung out to fight her on it.

  22

  LACI KNEW KANE was resistant and maybe for good reason, but she was done with reason. Reason couldn’t explain why her heart tripled in beat when she saw Kane or how her entire body tingled at the mere prospect of feeling his lips on hers. He turned her crank in the best way, and seeing him again had reminded her of how much she’d missed, and all the fame in the world didn’t amount to a hill of beans when your heart wasn’t full.

  “Laci...” He started to survey the small pump house, likely looking for somewhere else to sleep aside from the bed with her, but she was having none of that and immediately started stripping. He stared, his gaze achingly hungry and desperately wanting, even if he was trying to tell a different story with his mouth. “What are you doing?”

  “Seems obvious to me. I’m getting naked.”

  Bless his heart, she thought with a wild rush, he was trying so hard to remain stoic, but soon enough she’d win because there was too much at stake. “You know, the thing about death is that it reminds the living that they’ve got one life to live. Cora was a vibrant woman and we have to honor the spirit of the woman who told me that a good woman does three things to her man—fills his belly, feeds his soul and satisfies him in bed.”

  “She said that?” Kane asked, startled.

  Laci laughed. “Yes, she did. What the heck do you think we were talking about all those times in the kitchen? Recipes? She was one smart woman. I was just too young to put those lessons into play when it mattered most, but I’m not a kid anymore.”

  His gaze traveled to her bra and held there as she snapped it open, releasing her breasts, and he sucked in a tight breath. “No, you’re not,” he agreed, and she knew he itched to reach for her but still he held back. “But this...it’s not a good idea.”

  “Hush.” She wiggled out of her panties and tossed them at him. “I’ll tell you what’s not a good idea...walking away from something real. Cora and Warren were blessed with a true thing, love that doesn’t fade with time. I know you feel that way for me because I feel that way about you and I’m not about to let you go without a fight. Not this time.” He groaned, fighting himself, but it was only a matter of time. She was on a mission to win and nothing was standing in her way. Especially a button fly. She popped his buttons and pushed his pants down off his hips so she could free his cock. “There it is,” she crooned, going to her knees to nuzzle the warm, hard flesh. “Now I’m going to help you shut off that brain of yours.”

  And then she sucked that lovely cock right down her throat, gripping his hips and locking her mouth on all that thick, engorged flesh, because Kane was the prize and she played to win.

  But soon enough, Kane’s groans turned urgent and she knew he was close to coming. He pushed her gently off his cock, and she gasped as he picked her up and tossed her to the bed, covering her with his big, hard body. “You like to play a dangerous game,” he told her, the head of his cock pressing against her, insistent, demanding. “I won’t be your casual friend with benefits,” he warned in a silky voice, even as his hand snaked down to her slick folds and his finger dipped between the dewy flesh. She shuddered when he found her clitoris and teased it with a light but firm touch. “I play for keeps and I don’t think you know what that means.”

  “I want it all,” she gasped, clinging to him. “I want you, Kane, and everything that comes with you! I swear. I would s-stop touring—” she held him tightly when he pinched her clitoris, causing her to sweat “—if you wanted me to, I would do anything, Kane. Anything!”

  He growled and slid down her body to replace his fingers with his tongue and teeth, lightly nipping the tender, sensitive flesh as he splayed her legs on either side of his face. He ravished that sweet pleasure spot until she was thrashing, crying out, babbling nonsensical words until she came so hard that she went limp, her entire body damp with the sweat popping along her pores. But he was insatiable and ready to split her in two with the force of his thrusts.

  It was as if he was possessed with the need to brand her body, because he flipped her over and immediately plunged inside her until she thought for sure he was hitting her tonsils, but it felt so good, so sinfully right, that she arched her back to take more of him. She wanted to be filled with Kane, to be so completely and utterly taken by him that she lost herself to the pleasure of being with the man she’d lost her virginity and heart to so many years ago.

  He pounded her, her entire body shaking with each thrust, but she met him with a growl, pushing against him, taking each wonderfully jarring motion with gleeful abandon because she was nearing that beautiful edge, prepared to leap into oblivion. “Yesss, Kane! Yes!” And then she tumbled into sweet bliss as wave after wave of intense pleasure buffeted her body, clenching every muscle and turning her inside out with happy sweetness as Kane followed her with a shout, then withdrew with a shudder to collapse beside her.

  Now, that was how to make a woman forget her own name. She stared unseeing at the darkened ceiling, drifting on a sea of happiness, knowing that she would settle for nothing less than Kane every night for the rest of her life. She rolled to her side and propped herself onto his chest with a sated smile, saying, “Whatcha thinking about now?”

  “Nothing,” he admitted with a hoarse, bewildered chuckle. “But then, that was your plan all along, right?”

  “Pretty much,” she admitted. But as her heart rate slowed to a normal pace and the sweat slowly dried on their bodies, she knew she had to say what needed to be said because while the sex was phenomenal...there was something deeper between them that she wasn’t going to let him forget. “I love you, Kane,” she said simply, going straight to the point. “I always have and I always will.”

  “I love you, too,” he said, the quiet admission rocking her foundation in the most profound way. “Love isn’t and never has been the issue.”

  Excuse me? She frowned and sat up. “Then what is the problem?”

  He tweaked her nipple as he stared up at her. “The problem is that we live different lives.”

  “I can give up touring,” she said, but he shook his head.

  “I would never want you to do that. What kind of asshole would I be if I asked that of you?”

  “Whatever is in our way, I’ll remove it.”

  “What if it’s me?”

  Confused, she asked, “What do you mean?”

  “What if I’m not cut out to be the man who stands in the shadows while the world gets the best of you? It’s selfish and I know it, but I don’t want to share and that’s just not possible with your career. The thing is, I’m torn. I love that you followed your dreams and achieved wild success because you deserve it. You really do. But I’m afraid that eventually it’ll get to me. I don’t like the idea of complete strangers whacking off to your picture or plotting to kidnap you. I’d go crazy.”

  “So your solution is to leave me? What if there is someone out there plotting to kidnap me? What then? Once it happens, then you can care?”

  He scowled. “That’s not what I meant. I already care, I just...I don’t know...Laci...I’m just trying to be honest with you.”

  “And I’m being honest with you. We’ll make it work. People d
o it all the time. Come with me on tour, be my security detail. No one can protect me more than the man who loves me...the possible father of my children.” She let that drop and she watched with happiness as his gaze widened with the idea and she knew it’d been the right thing to say.

  “You want kids?” he dared to ask and she nodded. “With me?”

  She leaned down to whisper, “I want everything with you,” before brushing a kiss across his lips. “I want it all. The house, the kids, the fights, the make-up sex. I’m signing on for the real deal, not the fairy tale. How about you?”

  * * *

  KANE STARED, UNABLE to process the words because his heart was hammering so hard he couldn’t breathe. Yes, he wanted it all with Laci. Had always wanted that with Laci, but he’d resigned himself to never having it because their paths were never destined to intersect, but now she was telling him that everything he’d ever wanted could happen if he just had the courage to take that leap of faith with her. He simply couldn’t think straight.

  “Kane?”

  Her questioning gaze brought him back to reality and he shook himself. He needed to stay focused. “And if I said yes...what then? You’re in the middle of a tour and I’ve got a business to run in Los Angeles.”

  “I’m ready to call it a day with this tour,” she said. “Besides, I just fired my manager and I need to find a new one. I’ll sell the LA house, keep the Ojai ranch to use as our home base. It’s secluded enough and quiet but not totally isolated.”

  She seemed to have it all figured out and he had to admit, it sounded like a decent plan, but there was Warren to think of now. He sighed and said, “What about Warren? He’s falling apart without Cora. We can’t leave him alone. I don’t even know if he knows how to keep the electric on and the water paid. Cora did all that for him.”

  Laci considered this for a long moment and then said, “Then we help him. We hire people if we have to.”

  He shook his head. “Rian and I already thought of that...not gonna happen. He doesn’t trust anyone but me and Rian.”