The Cowgirl & The Unexpected Wedding

“Whose side are you on?”

“Yours, of course. Always have been.”

She regarded him with an unblinking gaze. “You have, haven’t you? Even when you thought I’d lost my mind for running off and getting on the rodeo circuit.”

“Now, that one did take a few years off my life,” he said, recalling the heart-in-his-throat moments she’d put him through every time she’d climbed onto a bucking horse. “But nobody’s ever been able to change your mind once you got something into your head. I figured it made more sense to make sure you could stay on a horse than to fight you.”

“If it had been up to Cody, Jordan and Luke, they would have locked me in my room until I came to my senses,” she recalled, grinning. “You and Daddy were the only ones who didn’t try to stop me.”

“What would have been the point? You’d have climbed out the window.”

She leaned back against the trunk of the tree and gazed around, then sighed. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed all of this?”

“Not enough to come home for more than a minute at a time the last five years,” he retorted.

Her gaze locked with his. “You noticed? I’d wondered if you had.”

“I noticed,” he said.

“You didn’t exactly burn up the phone lines between here and Austin or here and Miami.”

“Did you want me to? I thought the whole point of going away was so you could try your wings away from all the overprotectiveness around here, mine included.”

“Maybe it was, at the beginning,” she conceded. “Rebellion seems to be one of those Adams traits.” Her lips curved. “But I missed this. I missed—”

Hank held his breath.

“—you,” she said softly, as if she were testing it. “I missed you.”

Damn, but it was good to finally hear her say the words. But missing wasn’t loving. It wasn’t saying that this time she’d stay and make a life with him. He couldn’t put his heart on the line for that. “I missed you, too, kid.”

She glared at him, just as he’d known she would.

“Kid?”

Hank winked. “You’re still younger than me.”

“Oh, yeah. What are you now? Pushing sixty, right?”

“Not even half that, smart aleck.”

“Twenty-nine isn’t all that old, Hank.” She looked him over with a deliberately provocative gleam in her eyes. “Looks as if you have a few good years left in you, if you’d work a little to get yourself in shape.”

“What’s wrong with the shape I’m in?” he demanded. “It can’t be all that bad. You’ve been ogling me since you came out here.”

“Have not.”

“Have, too.”

She chuckled. “Listen to us. We’re back to bickering the way we used to.”

“Some things never change.”

“I wish nothing had to change,” she said with a sigh.

He sensed the shift in mood went beyond the bickering of two old friends. “You’re thinking of your father again, aren’t you?”

She nodded, then forced a smile. “But all the worrying and wishing in the world won’t change things.”

“Have you talked to his doctor?”

“Not yet.”

“Then go. Do that this afternoon. Maybe it’ll put your mind at ease.” He touched a finger to her cheek, watched the color bloom at the light caress. For an instant, her gaze clashed with his and he thought for sure she was going to turn her face ever so slightly and press a kiss to his palm.

But she drew in a deep breath and shot to her feet instead. “I think I will go see the doctor.”

“Still want me to pick you up at six?”

She gave him a sassy grin. “Unless you’re having second thoughts.”

“Oh, no, darlin’. Where you’re concerned, I’ve always had a one-track mind.”

* * *

Hank’s words lingered in Lizzy’s head for the rest of the afternoon. There’d been a challenge there, no doubt about it The man had actually been flirting with her, which had to be a first She couldn’t help wondering whether that was because he’d finally seen that she was all grown up or whether something else was going on. living with a houseful of manipulators had made her wary of sudden shifts in attitude.

Of course, wariness wasn’t enough to keep her home. She was curious to see just where this brand-new attitude would lead them. In fact, now that she’d been reassured by her father’s doctor that his heart had suffered no permanent damage, she could devote all of her attention to Hank and figuring out just how much he really mattered to her.

Cody wandered in as she was pacing in the living room, awaiting Hank’s arrival.

“Going someplace?” he asked, looking her over, then scowling at the short skirt she’d chosen.

“I have a date.”

“With?”

“Hank.”

His gaze narrowed. “Is that right?”

“Do you disapprove?”

“Of Hank? Of course not. But you might want to consider adding a couple of more inches to that skirt before you walk out the door.”

Lizzy glanced down. “Why? Don’t you think he’ll like it?”

“Oh, he’ll like it. A little too much would be my guess.”

She grinned. “Then I got it just right, I think.”

Her brother studied her worriedly. “Lizzy, what are you up to?”

“Up to?” she repeated innocently. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“Oh, yes, you do. You’ve got that sneaky-female look in your eyes.”

Lizzy laughed. “And what would you know about sneaky-female looks?”

“I’m married, aren’t I? Melissa always gets a look just like that in her eyes right before she pulls the rug out from under me. I’ve watched my own daughter use it on every man she’s ever dated, too. Now that Sharon Lynn’s engaged, poor old Kyle Mason spends most of his life looking thoroughly bewildered by her. I actually feel sorry for him.”

Lizzy gave a little nod of satisfaction. “Then I suppose I’ve finally got that right, too.”

Something that might have been panic flared in her brother’s eyes. “Lizzy, I will not have you going out with Hank and doing something you’re going to regret.”

“Regrets are for people who never took any risks,” she retorted.

“Risks?” Cody demanded, his voice escalating. “Just what risks are you intending to take?”

Lizzy heard Hank’s car outside and decided Cody had had about all he could take of her teasing. She reached up and patted his cheek. “Don’t worry about a thing, big brother. I’ve got everything under control.”

Cody moaned.

Lizzy walked out on him before he could get it into his head to try to run Hank off the property. That was not the sort of trouble she’d intended when she’d made this date. No, if there was going to be trouble tonight, it was going to be between her and Hank Robbins.

She could hardly wait.

Chapter Three

When Lizzy got outside, Hank was exiting his pickup. He almost stumbled at his first glimpse of her. His stunned expression was everything she’d hoped for when she’d chosen the skirt of which Cody so vehemently disapproved.

“Too anxious to wait for me to come in and get you?” Hank inquired, giving her a lazy, purely masculine once-over that raised goose bumps.

“Protecting your sorry hide,” she declared, refusing to rise to the taunt “Cody’s into his big-brother mode. If he’d seen you looking me over like that, there’s no telling what he’d do.”

His gaze strayed to the midthigh hem of her skirt “I can imagine. That skirt ought to be banned in most parts of the world.”

“You don’t like it?”

“Oh, I like it,” he conceded. “It just changes my plans for the evening.”

“In what way?”

“I don’t think we’ll be dining out in town, after all.”

Lizzy chuckled. “Suddenly can’t wait to get me alone, huh?” she taunted. She had deliberately—and successfully—provoked one reaction out of him. Now she was working on one far more dangerous.

“Not exactly,” he retorted. “I’m just afraid I’d have to strangle half the men in town for salivating over you. Fortunately, Mrs. Wyndham hasn’t left yet I’ll call her from the truck and tell her to fix something.”

“Sounds good to me,” Lizzy said, thinking the evening couldn’t have looked more promising.

“You haven’t gone and turned into a vegetarian, have you?”

“And have Daddy disown me? I don’t think so.”

“Then I’ll tell Mrs. Wyndham to leave a chicken roasting or defrost a steak or something,” he said, still sounding as if he’d been poleaxed.

Lizzy gave him a knowing look, then turned toward the truck and hesitated as she contemplated the long step up to get inside. It was the one thing she hadn’t considered when she’d chosen her outfit for the evening. Obviously, she’d been living in the city too long, where flashy cars, not practical trucks, were the norm among the men she’d dated.

“An interesting quandary, isn’t it?” Hank in quired, laughter threading through his voice. “Either you ask for help or you scramble up on your own and expose yourself—” he chuckled “—to humiliation.”

“A gentleman wouldn’t need to be asked,” Lizzy declared.

Before the words were out of her mouth, he slipped up behind her. She felt his hands circle her waist and the next thing she knew she had been lifted off her feet and settled snugly into the passenger seat of the 4X4. But Hank wasn’t half as quick to release her as he had been to lift her up. His work-roughened hands slid from her waist to settle briefly on her thighs. Her suddenly all too bare thighs.

Lizzy’s breath caught in her throat, and heat climbed into her cheeks. Her pulse ricocheted wildly as Hank leaned closer and closer still until his lips were almost on hers. She waited impatiently for him to close the distance between them.

The man had impeccable timing. She’d give him that. Just when she thought her heart was going to burst with longing, his mouth settled over hers, soft and gentle and coaxing. It was nothing like their greedy, frantic kiss that morning. This one was all about subtle nuances and pure temptation.

The kiss lasted an eternity, or maybe it only seemed that way because it stole her breath and left her reeling. If she was over the man, his kisses shouldn’t have any potency at all. One should have been pretty much like another.

Instead, they seemed to get more and more devastating. That morning, Lizzy had been thoroughly shaken by the discovery that time hadn’t dimmed the power of Hank’s kiss to rattle her completely. She was even more shaken by this one, in part at least because he had initiated it. It only confirmed the risk she was taking in seeing him tonight Somewhere along the way, he’d gone and changed the rules on her.

First he’d openly flirted with her, and now this kiss. Whatever restraints he’d placed on his actions years ago seemed to be a thing of the past. The turnaround was unexpected and dangerous, but it played nicely into her own plans. For once she wasn’t going to worry about risks or consequences. She was dedicated only to discovering whether old dreams could be turned into reality.

She suspected they both knew where this date was going to end up. Heck, she’d wanted to throw him down on the ground out in that pasture and make love to him right there. Discovering after all this time that he was not nearly as indifferent to her as he’d always pretended had only heightened her desire. At this rate, they’d be lucky if they made it to the end of the very long White Pines driveway before they started ripping each other’s clothes off.

“Hank?”

“Hmm?” he murmured, clearly reluctant to release her.

“Cody’s inside. He’s probably been watching every move we’ve made. My hunch is he’s halfway between the living room and the gun cabinet.”

Hank pulled away and sighed. “I suppose you have a point.”

“Believe me, no one wishes it were otherwise more than I do.”

“Then I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with the fact that we’re only twenty minutes down the road from my ranch.”

“We could make it in five, if we took the horses, instead of driving the long way around,” Lizzy argued.

He studied her intently. “Surely you can hold the thought a few extra minutes.”

Lizzy refused to admit that she’d been clinging to the same thought for years. “I’m not sure. You might have to remind me.”

“Not a problem,” he said, regarding her with a look every bit as hot as a branding iron. “Not a problem at all.”

* * *

Hank was pretty sure he was in way over his head. One look into Lizzy’s sparkling, expectant eyes, and rational thought fled. He’d always known she wanted him, always forced himself to ignore the blatant desire in her eyes.

Tonight, though, there would be no ignoring the obvious. He had the distinct impression if he tried to exercise a little restraint, Lizzy would take matters into her own hands. Clearly, the woman was out of patience, and he was darned sure out of willpower.

Hank doubted Cody had intended him to seduce Lizzy the first chance he got. He also figured it was none of her big brother’s damned business what they did. Lizzy was twenty-four now and certainly knew her own mind, and this had been a long time coming. Not that Lizzy’s desires would enter into it for Cody—or any other Adams. If their protectiveness kicked in, Hank was done for.

For once, though, Hank was only going to worry about one Adams, the woman seated beside him with her eyes on the road and her hand resting less than subtly at the top of his thigh.

Lizzy’s touch was so intimate, so disturbing that he forgot completely about the call he’d intended to make to his housekeeper. He had to concentrate very hard to keep his eyes on the road or they’d end up in a ditch.

Because of that, they walked into the ranch to find the lights on, but the oven cold and not so much as a whiff of Lizzy’s favorite bread in the air, much less the scent of dinner.

“Damn,” Hank muttered, gazing around in dismay at the tidied room and bare table. “Mrs. Wyndham’s gone.”

“Were you feeling the need for a chaperone?” Lizzy inquired.

“Actually, I was more concerned about the dinner I promised you.”

She stepped up close and slid her hands up his chest “Oh, I think we can improvise. I’ll bet you know your way around a kitchen.”

She might have been talking about cooking, but Hank got the distinct impression that dinner was the last thing on Lizzy’s mind.

Still, he made a valiant attempt to get her to focus. He extricated himself from her clever, wandering hands and aimed for the refrigerator. Maybe a quick blast of chilly air would cool him off sufficiently to keep his wits about him. After all these years of waiting, he didn’t want to hurry things along too much. There was something to be said for anticipation, though he’d thought until now that he’d had his fill of it.

“Hank?”

“Yes?”

“Am I making you nervous?”

“Sweetheart, a tornado makes me nervous. You scare the daylights out of me.”

She seemed surprised and just a little fascinated by that. “I do? Why?”

Hank grinned at her. “Oh, no. I’m not giving you any ammunition to use against me. You’re way too sure of yourself as it is.” He deliberately turned back to study the contents of the refrigerator. “How about baked ham?”

Instead of a response, he felt the glide of a hand up his back. His body jolted at the touch.

“Lizzy.” It came out in a choked voice, part plea, part protest.

“Yes, Hank.”

She sounded amused. Obviously, Lizzy had learned a lot about seduction since she’d been away. Hank wanted to murder the man who’d taught her. He swallowed hard and forced a nice, neutral tone into his voice.

“I asked if you wanted baked ham.”

“I want you.”

Well, hell. The game was pretty much up now, Hank thought desperately. He slowly closed the refrigerator door and turned to face her. “Lizzy...” he began, intending to be rational and very, very careful in what he said next.

She cut him off by slanting her mouth over his and snuggling up so tight that his entire body went on red alert. He locked his fingers around her elbows, intending to push her away, but a moan of pure pleasure escaped instead.

She tasted like mint and felt like satin and fire. Hank’s ability to fight the potent combination pretty much wilted on the spot Years of pent-up hunger rampaged through him. There was a brief moment—no more than an instant—when he could have backed away, but as if she sensed it intuitively, Lizzy chose that precise second to slide her tongue into his mouth, to rock her hips against his already throbbing arousal.

Hank was lost He’d wanted her for so long, dreamed of having her in his arms, in his bed, hot and willing and filled with just this kind of urgency. He broke off the kiss and scooped her into his arms, then headed for the master suite. At the door, he locked gazes with her.

“Are you sure?” he asked, because it was the right and honorable thing to do. Even so, he prayed he already knew her answer, because if she said no now, he was pretty sure his body would shatter into a thousand pieces.

She touched a finger to his lips and smiled. “Stop fretting, cowboy. I’ve been sure forever.”

Hank believed her because he was desperate to. He carried her into the suite and kicked the door closed behind him. Slowly, he lowered her to the king-size bed, then went to pull the drapes across the wall-to-wall glass with its view of the wildflower-bright fields at sunset.

“No,” Lizzy protested. “It’s beautiful. It will be like making love outdoors.” She grinned at him impishly. “Just the way I wanted to earlier today.”

“Making love was on your mind this afternoon?”

“Yep,” she said without the slightest trace of embarrassment. “How about you? Did it cross your mind when you saw me?”

All this straight-out talk about making love was making Hank nervous, but he couldn’t deny the truth. “Oh, yeah, darlin’. It crossed my mind.”

She gave a very feminine nod of satisfaction. “Good.”

Hank sank down beside her. She had always had a tart tongue and willful nature, but he got the distinct impression that the past few years had given her a new level of confidence to go along with that. Add in the discovery of her own sexuality, and she might very well be more than any sane man ought to tangle with.

“Lizzy—” he began, only to be interrupted before he could get the thought out.

“Hank, surely we did not come into your bedroom to chat,” she said, reaching over to fiddle with the buttons on his shirt.

Hank brushed her hands away and tried one more time to focus on having a sensible discussion. “Lizzy, just how experienced are you?”

Her hands, already back at work on his buttons, stilled. She met his gaze evenly. “You want to talk about my track record with men?”

Hank detected a dangerous note in her voice, but he plunged on. “I think we should. Not how many or anything like that That’s none of my business, actually.”

“I’m glad you can see that much at least.”

He swallowed hard. “I was just wondering...have there been any?”

“I’m twenty-four, Hank. What do you think?”

He thought if she’d run across a man she wanted since leaving Los Piños, she wouldn’t have hesitated to sleep with him. The gleam in her eye suggested it would be wise not to suggest that.

“I think,” he said softly, “that a straight answer is called for. Your experience or lack of it makes a difference in where we go from here.”

“Is this one of those technical discussions, then?” she inquired ever so politely. “To determine if delicate, virgin-appropriate behavior is warranted?”

Heat flooded into Hank’s cheeks. “Something like that.”

To his astonishment, a smile suddenly broke across her face and she flung herself into his lap.

“If that isn’t the sweetest, most caring thing anyone has ever done,” she said, peppering kisses across his face. “Next you’re going to want to talk about birth control, aren’t you?”

Hank sighed. “Yes.”

She knelt and straddled his thighs, framing his face with her hands. “Okay, here it is. I have never, ever slept with a man. I am taking birth-control pills. It seemed like the sensible, responsible thing to do. Does that cover everything?”

“Sensible?” He seized on her choice of words. It wasn’t a word he would have associated with the impetuous Lizzy. “Were you anticipating—” he hesitated and chose his words carefully “—something like this?”

“I’m twenty-four,” she reminded him again. “You never know when the right man might come along.”

“I see.”

“Hank?”

“Yes?”

“How much longer is this conversation going to last?”

He heard the thread of impatience in her voice, recognized the flare of fire in her eyes. “Oh, I’d say we’re pretty much at the end of it.”

“And you’re not backing out or anything?”

He pulled her to him. “No, darlin’. Not if my life depended on it.”

He covered her mouth with his and wondered at the way the taste and feel of her made his pulse jump and his blood heat. Surely other women had had the same effect, but at the moment he couldn’t think of a single one who had. Maybe that’s what truly scared the daylights out of him. He knew—had always known—that once a woman like Lizzy got into a man’s blood, she’d be there forever.

Yet mere was no way at all, no way in hell, he could walk away from her now without ever knowing the way her body would come alive at his touch, without tasting for the first time the pebble-hard nipple of her breast, without feeling the slick, moist heat of her surrounding him.

One by one, he stripped away her clothes, allowing himself to feast on the sight of her. He’d seen her in the skimpiest of bikinis, but it wasn’t the same as watching her blouse slowly slither away to reveal a lacy, sexy bra in purest virginal white. It wasn’t at all like watching her shimmy out of that scrap of a skirt to reveal lacy bikini panties in startling, come-hither red.

Sweet heaven, she was perfect, with her full breasts and narrow waist and hips that flared just enough to entice a man to bury himself inside her. Her skin, when he reached for her, was burning hot to his touch, a wonderfully alluring mix of silk and dangerous fire.

But it was the look in her eyes that captivated him. Part saucy wanton, part innocent, it was the look of a woman with no second thoughts and anticipation very much on her mind. She was his for tonight at least, and he would never forget the precious gift she was bestowing on him.

“You are so beautiful,” he said, his voice low and husky. “So very beautiful.”

“Am I?” she asked, sounding surprised.

“As if you didn’t know.”

“Okay, you’re not the first person to say it,” she admitted. “Just the first one who mattered.”

Hank was awed by the implication of that and by the trust she was placing in him. “I’ve always thought you were beautiful,” he told her. “I just wouldn’t allow myself to think about it.”

“I was so afraid you would never look at me as a woman, that I’d always be the pesky kid next door.”

Hank chuckled. “Lizzy, I think you were born grown-up. I never thought of you as a kid—that was the scary part I used to be terrified someone would take advantage of that.”

“But never you,” she said softly.

“No,” he agreed. “Never me.”

“Hank?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I think we’ve waited long enough.”

“Yes, darlin’, I think we most assuredly have,” he agreed as he removed the last of her clothes and set out to teach her everything he knew about making love.

He was slow and patient and dedicated with his caresses, until the fire burning inside her had her writhing beneath him, her body coated with a sheen of perspiration and jolting with his every touch as she strained toward a first-ever climax.

“Not just yet,” he whispered as he knelt above her. “We’re going on this ride together.”

He entered her then, taking care to be sure that the pain was quick and over almost before she knew it.

“Oh!” she protested, then “Oh, my” as he eased deep inside.

Hank couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from her face as emotions raced across it, from anxiousness to anticipation to pure, ecstatic delight. Then when he was sure that her pleasure was at its peak, he allowed his own to build until they both shattered with soul-rocking climaxes, first hers, then his.