“We’ll take that,” he said. “Think we caught our fish right off?” he asked as they buckled their seatbelts.
Laura shook her head. “Piper is afraid of horses. For all she fancies herself a rider, she isn’t much of one. She exudes fear and loathing, and they react accordingly. She couldn’t get Cloud to raise a hoof long enough to stick a stone in the frog. Cloud would kick her to kingdom come, if she tried it.”
“Oh.” Steve thought. “Could she have an accomplice?”
“Maybe. But who? You’ve heard her. She treats the hands – including you and Lance – like subhuman forms of life. Hard to see one of them doing her a nasty favor.”
“But she has lots of money, right?” Steve asked.
“Sure. She has a trust fund. And her parents give her an allowance. More money than sense,” she said disapprovingly. “Daddy wouldn’t let me get at my money until I graduated from college. And the first time I ran short of my allowance and asked for more, he just told me to get a job.” She laughed. “I had to get a part=time waitressing spot in the meal hall so I could pay my book bill and not get put on probation!”
“Your father is a wise man,” Steve said. “What do you think that girl was really up to?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Laura said. “She’s trying to stop us from getting married, because that’s the first step to me satisfying granddaddy’s condition. It’s all about the ranch.”
“Maybe we should have a word with Ms. Piper, let her know that the game’s over.”
Laura shook her head. “You don’t understand. There’s no reasoning with that one. The only thing that will stop her is if we’re actually married.”
“Okay, you’ve convinced me. Did you say the judge would be sitting at the Acton courthouse tomorrow?”
“I did.”
“It’s a date.”
* * *
Piper was still shaking when she opened the front door of the house her family called the camp. The light was on in the foyer, but the rest of the place was dark. Her mother was in Rio. Her father was in New York. Nolan had gone to Chicago to dig up some dirt on fucking Steve Holden. She stomped down the hall flicking on lights as she went.
Nolan was lying on her bed, his sleek blond head propped up against her stack of shams. His loafers had left black marks on her pink silk coverlet. She was going to have to redecorate, if the damned maid couldn’t get them out. He flicked off the TV set as she slammed the door behind her and smirked at her.
“I thought you were in Chicago,” she accused. “Get off my bed!”
“As you can see, twin, I’m right here in Success,” Nolan didn’t even sit up. His blue eyes dared her to try to remove him. “What’s the matter, Pipe? Who’s got your panties in a twist, now?”
“That’s none of your damned business.” Nolan’s condescension always got her goat. “Get the hell out of my room.”
“That’s no way to talk to your only brother.” He folded both arms behind his head, snuggled deeper into her pillows, and grinned challengingly at her. “I want to know what you’ve been up to.”
“I’m not in the mood to deal with you tonight, Nolan Belington,” she informed him. “Go away.”
“Cranky, aren’t you? You might as well tell me what’s wrong.” His blue eyes lit up. “You look like you lost a fight, sis. Tell Nolan,” he coaxed. “You always tell me in the end, you might as well tell me sooner as later.”
Experience made her cautious. It was better not to let Noland know what had happened in the stable. “It’s nothing to do with you,” she snapped.
“What’s going on with that fat bitch?”
“She’s going to marry that fucking stable hand,” Piper spat at him. “He’s put some kind of giant cheese grater on her finger. And she’s so stupid she’s flashing it around. The maids were all yapping about it.”
She had the satisfaction of seeing Nolan’s superiority vanish. His face contorted and he swore. But her pleasure in his discomfiture didn’t last. He bounced off the bed and he caught her by the arms.
“That’s just what you were fucking supposed to prevent, you stupid bitch,” He shook her harder with every word. She struggled but he was stronger and her body flopped about. “How the fuck did you let her get so close to getting married?”
He thrust her away. Piper staggered and collapsed onto an armchair. It wasn’t easy to answer him when she felt like vomiting. “It’s not like we’re BFFs,” she protested feebly, holding her spinning head. “I didn’t find out until everyone knew. I overheard the maids talking about it in the kitchen. The whole damn ranch is buzzing with the news.”
“Well, she won’t want to marry him when she knows what I know,” Nolan said in a childish sing song.
“And what do you know?” She curled her feet under her and made herself a smaller target.
“Holden is some sort of spy,” Nolan gloated. “It shouldn’t be hard to make it look like he’s behind the roof and the horse and the rest of it. Douchebag even showed up at the right time.”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“Steve Holden works for some big security outfit in Chicago. Looks like he’s been hired to do a little corporate espionage. Laura has a ton of rivals. Once she learns her boyfriend has been sabotaging her stables, he’ll will be out on his fucking ass. Ring or no fucking ring.”
“What do you mean, he works for some security company?” Piper was suddenly worried. “Are you sure Laura hasn’t hired him to find out about the cattle?”
“Nah, even Laura isn’t dumb enough to pay some city dude to deal with cattle thieves. He’s here to derail her fucking breeding program. Do you know how much a fucking stud fee is?” he asked.
Piper winced at his derisive tone. “A hundred thousand dollars,” she replied.
“And the rest.” Nolan’s smirk got bigger. “Once she knows he’s played her for a sucker, Holden will be yesterday’s news.” Nolan smile made her skin crawl. “What’s has Saunders accomplished?”
Piper shook her head. “He wants more money if we want him to do anything else.”
“He’s had plenty,” Nolan said. “And done dick all.”
“He’s afraid he’ll lose his job,” she explained. She decided not to tell Nolan that Saunders made her feel a little sick when she had to be in the same room with him.
“All you had to do was hire one man,” her brother complained. “And you pick a loser.”
“Screw you. Stop whining. I did my best,” she shot back. “I had to work with what I’ve got. Maybe I chose the wrong guy, but Cory seemed open to earning a little extra money. I told him to make it look like Carlos Diego was getting sloppy. That old fart is way old. He’s past it. Do you know what he said to me?” She tried to distract Nolan.
“I can imagine,” Nolan sneered. “As soon as we get control, that old bastard is gone. We’ll hire somebody who can really do his job.”
“Yeah,” agreed Piper hugging her knees as she thought of all the people who hadn’t taken her seriously. She was so going to fire their asses.
“You are supposed to be focusing on the cattle,” Nolan snarled. “The cattle are where the real money is. What’s happening with that?”
Piper giggled uncertainly. “That’s going great. Laura and that idiot Evans are going in circles looking for the missing stock.”
Nolan curled his lip. “I suppose that’s something. But you need to do something about that fucking fiancé.”
“What the hell can I do?” she protested. “You’re the one who has the information.”
“Piper, my darling little sister, you’re not looking at the big picture. Sure, we want to make Laura look incompetent. But it’s more important to make sure that we get our fair share of the ranch. And we can’t do that if you let her get married. We have to get rid of Holden, and make sure she doesn’t replace him with some other asshole.”
“I don’t know what you expect me to do,” she said despairingly.
“You were su
pposed to have Laura find you in bed with that turd.”
“It’s not that simple,” she cried.
Suddenly he was looming over her. She shrank back in the chair and covered her head with her arms. He punched her in the stomach and then in the back of her bent head. “I’m fucking tired of your excuses, Piper.” He backed away. She looked at him through her hair and he was smiling benignly again. She shivered uncontrollably and he laughed.
“I can’t get near him,” Piper excused herself. “Laura’s kicked me off the stud twice already. Three times, if you count tonight.”
“So that’s why you look like that,” her brother said gleefully. “What the fuck happened tonight?”
Piper looked at her hands and didn’t answer.
“We have to come up with a better plan, and you have to try carrying out what I tell you to do a little better.” Nolan said as tenderly as if she wasn’t aching from his blows. Piper covered her face again and he chuckled and pulled them away to look her over. He smiled and yanked her out of the armchair.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” he said. “There’s no way we’re going to let that bitch get married. You’ll have to do better.” She managed to deflect some of his blows with her arms. She was crying when he stepped back and examined her. “I don’t want any more excuses. Understand?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Nolan was still chuckling as he walked out.
* * *
Laura came out of her closet carrying a suit on a hanger. “I thought I could wear this,” she said. “Since you have a jacket and dress pants now.”
Even on the hanger, the navy suit looked prim. Steve shook his head. “Don’t you have a pretty dress?” he asked.
“Nothing suitable for a wedding,” she said.
Steve strolled over to her and took the severe suit out of her hand. “Let’s take a look.”
He steered her back into the big walk-in closet. It was as big as the bedroom he had shared with his brothers growing up, but almost empty. A short row of jeans and shirts on one side hung over six pairs of well-worn boots. It faced an almost bare rod with just a few items on the other wall.
Steve looked through them. He recognized Laura’s blue tunic. And her orange blouse. He rejected a prim white shirt with a stiff collar. Passed by a printed smock. Three dresses hung at the end. One was blue and the others black. He pulled out the blue one.
“What’s wrong with this?” he asked.
Laura looked doubtful. “I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t worn that since, I don’t know when.” She held it up against herself. “It probably won’t fit.”
“Try it on,” he coaxed.
“After my shower,” she said.
She stepped out of the bathroom wearing the silk sheath. “Can you do up the zipper?” she asked.
Steve turned her around. He kissed the soft skin of her back before he pulled up the zipper. Laura turned back to him and grimaced. “It’s too tight, isn’t it?” she asked peering into the full length mirror outside her closet.
“It’s snug,” he said. “But I think it’s supposed to be. Those seams sit right at your waist.” He followed her hourglass figure with his hands. “I think you look great.”
She took the clip out of her hair. Curls tumbled around her shoulders. She tugged at the dress where it caressed her hips. “It clings,” she said. “Maybe if I put a jacket over it?”
Was she crazy? He saw a statuesque beauty in a dress that fit her like a glove. Her breasts looked scrumptious, even though the neckline didn’t show a speck of cleavage. Her legs looked a million miles long. “Tell me what you see,” he said.
“A fat woman in a dress two sizes too small!”
“Wrong. And wronger. That dress might have been made for you. It fits perfectly. And you aren’t fat.” He put a hand on her bottom and squeezed. “Muscle,” he said. “Supple, luscious muscle.”
She swallowed hard. “Do you think so?”
“I do. Marry me in that dress.”
“All right.”
* * *
In the end, they had decided to slip away by themselves. Since Steve’s parents could not be there, it didn’t seem fair to have her father present. So it was just the two of them in her little white SUV heading to Acton.
Steve thought that Laura looked beautiful in her blue dress. But she sure acted like she didn’t feel pretty. He would have to do better when they repeated their vows in front of their families.
The civil ceremony didn’t take very long. It didn’t have the formality and solemnity that Steve thought a wedding should have. And he had forgotten to get Laura flowers. She should have had flowers on her wedding day.
He produced the wedding band that Kenneth Bascom had given Nancy Patterson when he married her in nineteen seventy-nine. Laura looked surprised, but he pulled off the ring he had given her, and slid his mom’s ring onto her ring finger. The simple gold band looked right on her hand, even before he replaced the diamond ring.
Her blue eyes looked a question, but she didn’t interrupt the short ceremony to ask it.
And when Judge Benson said, “I pronounce you husband and wife by the authority vested in me by the state of Colorado,” they were just as married as if they had been in church with every one of their relatives watching.
Laura looked relieved. And also embarrassed.
“This town run to a newspaper?” Steve asked. “We have a wedding to announce.”
“Just a weekly,” Judge Benson said, shaking Steve’s hand.
* * *
Their wedding supper was as elaborate as Rosa had been able to make it on short notice. Dr. Bascom had taken the news that they had married that afternoon better than Steve had thought he would. He had shaken Steve’s hand hard and buffeted him on the shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise.
“You take good care of my little girl,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Steve said. Freddie was smiling genially. But Steve wasn’t sure that his new father-in-law was convinced. And why the hell should he be? He probably thought Steve Holden was a goddamn fortune hunter.
But Freddie asked Rosa and Carlos to join them for supper to celebrate the marriage. The foreman and his wife dressed up in their best clothes. And they joined in Freddie’s toasts with hearty good humor.
Even so, the meal seemed to go on forever. Steve had plenty of time to wonder if every wedding celebration was this embarrassing for the groom. But at last it was over, and he and Laura were able to go back to her bedroom. Their bedroom.
* * *
It was their wedding night. A sudden suspicion cramped Laura’s heart. She looked down at her hand where her wedding ring gleamed dully beside the fancy ring Steve had bought her in Denver.
“You never told me where this ring came from,” she said. Please, don’t tell me you were married before.
Steve picked up her left hand and kissed it. She felt his tongue on her knuckles. “That ring was the one my birth father put on my mother’s hand. I always meant to give it to my wife.”
Didn’t seem to be much to say to that. “I’ll give it back to you when this is over,” she said.
His face changed, and all the happiness left it. He gripped her shoulders so hard she almost worried that he was going to shake her. But all he did was kiss her. It wasn’t one of those tender, explorative kisses he usually gave her. It was a violent, dominant, overwhelming kiss. And it frightened her how much she liked it.
She was sucking hard on his tongue, before she knew what she was doing. Her dress fell off her shoulders, and Steve was picking her up by her waist and lifting her away from its folds. He stalked across to her bed and tossed her onto the mattress. She bounced and looked up at him. Her warrior was looking at her as though she was plunder.
He bent over her and undid the straps on her sandals and tossed them away. He was still fully dressed. But he seemed to be concentrating on getting her naked. She had a moment’s doubt. But when she covered her breasts wit
h her hands, he pulled them away. She was really glad she was wearing her blue lingerie.
“I want to look at you,” he growled. He lowered his head and his mouth found her exposed navel. His tongue probed it. She’d never thought of her belly button is an erotic zone before. But she felt that all the way to her clit. His hands were busy pulling her thong off. He kissed his way from her navel to her bush making guttural noises of satisfaction.
“You haven’t taken your clothes off,” she protested.
He stood up. His face was intent. He blinked a little. And he stripped so fast that it seemed only seconds before he was kneeling on the bed and spreading her legs wide so he could attend to her sex. His tongue lapped, sipped, and probed. There was no delicacy in his approach tonight. It was as if he was ravishing her. She thought maybe she shouldn’t be getting as aroused as she was, but she couldn’t help it. She was even more turned on than she had been when he was gentle.
She put her hands on his head, whether to urge him on, or stop him, she didn’t really know. He removed her hands and lifted his head. “No touching. Hold on to the bedstead,” he said.
Obediently she gripped the wrought iron poles. “Stay that way,” he commanded. His head went back between her legs and he sucked, and lapped, while her legs writhed in his firm grip. Her orgasm was building and building. But every time she thought she was going to come, he backed off again.
He moved his lips to some new spot and began his love play all over again. When he finally let her come, she was trembling, shrieking, and so desperate for release, that her mind had gone blank.
He was inside her, before the last spasms of her convulsions were over. He pumped into her with desperate passion. He bellowed into her ear, but she couldn’t make out his words over the blood thrumming through her veins. She thought that what he cried was, “You are my wife.”
* * *
Laura and Steve were a little late for morning turnout. Steve figured that as last night was the only honeymoon they were likely to have for a while, being a little behind was acceptable. But it looked as though Lance Prescott didn’t agree. Because as soon as Laura parked, he pounced on them.
“Thank God you’re finally here,” he cried. He looked gray.
Bear Pause (BBW / Bear Shifter Romance): A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance (Bear Fursuits Book 6) Page 15
