Kings of California: Bargaining for King's Baby

“No,” she admitted.

“Thank God.”

He released her wrists and without a word, reached for the cloth belt at her waist. Pulling it free, he silently swept the sides of the robe back, baring her naked body to his gaze.

Gina shivered a little as the cool, night air kissed her skin, but that minor chill dissipated under Adam’s steady, heat-filled gaze. Her nipples peaked, tightening in the cold, aching for the touch of his lips, his mouth. His hands moved over her body, the hard calluses on his fingers scraping against her skin with an erotic friction that sent heat directly to her center.

Shifting from foot to foot in an unconscious attempt to ease the throbbing at her core, she let her head fall back against the fence post. Adam stroked her from breast to core and back again.

“Your skin glows in the moonlight,” he said softly and leaned in to take one of her nipples into his mouth.

She gasped, arched into him and cradled the back of his head in the palm of her hand. He nibbled at her, scoring the tip of her nipple with the edges of his teeth. Ripples of something amazing rolled through her and Gina held her breath as she watched him suckle her. With each draw and tug of his mouth at her breast, Gina was swamped with more tenderness for this man who tried so hard to keep her at a distance for her own sake.

Holding him to her, she watched him as his mouth worked her body, teasing, tormenting, drawing out her pleasure as if he could taste her all night. She felt his connection to her, despite his warnings. His feelings were communicated in his touch. Tender strokes, gentle bites and licks. The brush of his breath across her skin and the sweep of his hands down her body, along her curves, down her hips and behind to cup her bottom.

In his touch, she felt everything she’d ever dreamed of.

Her hands fell to his shoulders and she reveled in the strength of him. The warm, solid feel of him beneath her hands. He lifted his head from her breast and she wanted to weep with the loss of him.

“I need to have you,” he whispered and Gina quivered from head to foot.

“You are having me,” she said on a choked-off laugh.

He smiled up at her and her heart stuttered in her chest. Those smiles of his, so rare, so breathtaking, tugged at her more than anything else.

“I want more,” he said, sliding down the length of her body, trailing his lips and tongue along her skin as she leaned against the corral fence and hoped she didn’t simply topple over.

“Yes, Adam.” Two words, softly spoken, nearly lost in the quiet, moonlit darkness surrounding them, cradling them in the cool night air.

Then he was kneeling in front of her, pushing her thighs apart with his big hands and lowering his mouth to cover the very heart of her.

Gina groaned and gripped his shoulders tighter, her short nails digging into his skin to stabilize her hold on him. But even as she found her balance, the world tipped crazily around her. He stroked her damp heat with his tongue and had her gasping for air that never seemed enough to fill her straining lungs.

Wicked, she thought wildly. Here. Outside. In the ranch yard, she was naked and letting Adam have his way with her. More, needing him to have her. The thrill of being outside with him, beneath the stars, only added to the amazing feelings churning inside.

Again and again, he tasted her, torturing her with sweet, intimate caresses that sent waves of electrical-like surges moving through her. Then he lifted one of her legs, draped it across his shoulders and Gina was forced to reach back, grabbing hold of the fence behind her. She wanted this so badly she could hardly breathe anymore. Her world had shrunk to this one spot. Just she and Adam and what he could do to her.

The only sounds were her ragged groans, his steady breathing and the nervous stamping from the horses gathered at the other side of the corral. She stared blindly up at the stars, concentrating on what she was feeling, experiencing. The night was soft, and the magic of what Adam was doing to her was almost more than she could bear.

While his tongue and lips moved over her, he slid one hand around the curve of her hip and deftly slipped first one finger, and then two into her depths. He worked her with a steely determination that had Gina shaking unsteadily as a soul shattering climax coiled tightly within and prepared to spring.

His fingers explored her depths while his mouth continued its delicious torment. She wanted to keep him just like this. Forever. She wanted the orgasm that was just out of reach to stay poised where it was for eternity. She never wanted this moment to end.

Shifting her gaze from the sky to the man kneeling before her, Gina swallowed hard as she watched him take her. She looked at him and seeing what he was doing to her, watching as his mouth took her higher and higher, only seemed to intensify the very feelings he was stoking within. She couldn’t look away now. Couldn’t tear her gaze from Adam as he took her more intimately than anyone ever had before.

She felt him inside, outside. Her body shook. Her mind splintered. And when the first punch of release crashed through her, she called his name on a broken shout that trembled in the darkness.

Trembling, she rode that silky wave until it ended and when it was over, she swayed into him as he stood slowly, skimming his hands up her body as if memorizing the feel of her. “You taste sweet,” he said, dipping his head to kiss her lips, her jaw, neck.

“Adam, that was—” Her forehead hit his chest as she struggled for air. Her body was humming and when he pulled her in close, she felt the hard length of him pressing into her abdomen. And fresh need erupted like a fireball.

Adam sensed her quickening desire as surely as he did his own. He hadn’t come out here for this. Had only followed her into the yard to see if something was wrong. If she was all right.

He’d felt her leave their bed and told himself that he should let her go. But in moments, he’d been following her and when he’d seen her here in the moonlight, something inside him had fisted into a hard knot of pure lust.

Looking into her eyes now, he knew this was dangerous. He knew that she would be building on this encounter, turning it into something romantic. Something that might lead to a future for the two of them. But he’d warned her, hadn’t he?

They’d gone into this with their eyes open, both of them. He was only doing what he could to keep his end of the bargain. Making love with her was just a part of the deal. That’s all this was.

All it could be.

All he’d allow it to be.

He shook his head, letting thoughts and worries fly from his mind as he concentrated only on this moment with her. He wouldn’t question this fire. Wouldn’t try to define it.

As Gina had said, they had now.

Keeping his gaze locked on hers, Adam reached for the fly of his jeans, undid the last two buttons and freed himself. She sucked in a gulp of air and curled her fingers around him. Now it was Adam’s turn to hiss in a breath through clenched teeth. Her touch was torment and pleasure rolled into one.

As she slid her hand up and down his thick length, he fought for control and knew he was losing.

Knew he didn’t care.

Nine

She wrapped her legs around his waist and Adam turned, bracing his bare back against the fence post. The weathered, rough wood scraped at his skin but he couldn’t care. All he felt, all he wanted to feel, was the woman in his arms.

He balanced her slender, curvy weight easily as he lowered her onto his body, inch by tantalizing inch. She slid over him in a slick heat that enveloped him in a rush of sensation like nothing he’d never known before.

Every time with Gina was like the first time.

And damn it, he didn’t want to admit that. Not even to himself. But she was so much more than he’d expected. Her laughter filled him. Her temper challenged him. Her passion ignited his.

Adam held her, hands at her bottom, supporting her weight, easing her up and down on his thick erection. Every move dazzled. Every withdrawal was agony. Every thrust was victory. He filled her and her body opened and held him as if made to fit his.

Her head fell back as she rode him and arched into him. He could watch her all night. Listen to her sighs. Smell the sweet, slightly citrus scent of her skin. He watched every movement she made and saw the moonlight kiss her flesh with a silvery wash that made her seem lit up from within. And when she lifted her head to look at him, that same moon danced in her eyes.

He snaked one hand up her back, cradled her head in his hand and drew her mouth to his as his body tightened, fisting in anticipation. Again and again, she moved on him, rocking, swiveling her hips, driving him faster, harder than he’d ever gone before and still it wasn’t enough.

He wanted.

He…needed…her.

Her tongue tangled with his and he took everything she offered. Her breath mingled with his. She trembled as her climax hit and when she groaned into his mouth, he swallowed it, taking that, as well. He wanted all of her. Needed all of her. And knew, bone-deep, that he would never get enough of her.

Then all thought ceased as he finally surrendered to a shattering release. And as he filled her with everything he had, he wondered if this was the night they would make the child that would end what was between them.

She still wasn’t pregnant.

Gina’d worried a little after that night in the ranch yard two months ago. But the fates were apparently on her side, because her period had arrived right on time.

So she was still married and still trying to find a way to convince the man she loved that he loved her, too.

“You’re thinking about Adam,” her mother said. “I see it on your face.”

Gina looked up from her place at the Torino kitchen table. She’d been assigned that chair when she was a little girl and she still headed straight for it whenever she came home again.

Sunlight speared through the wide windows her mother kept at a high gloss at all times. A clock on the wall chimed twelve times and in the backyard, Papa’s golden retriever barked at a squirrel. Soup simmered on the stove, filling the air with the scents of beef and oregano.

Nothing in this room ever changed, Gina thought. Oh, there was fresh paint—same shade of bright yellow—every couple of years, new rugs or curtains and the occasional new set of pans, but otherwise, it was the same as it had always been. The heart of the Torino house.

The kitchen was where the family had breakfast and dinner. Where she and her brothers had complained and laughed and sometimes cried about whatever was happening in their lives. Her parents, the foundation of the family, had listened, advised and punished when necessary. And each of their children came home whenever they could, just to touch base with their beginnings.

Of course, if there was something they didn’t want their parents to know, it was best to stay away. Especially from Mama. She didn’t miss much.

Her mother was standing at the kitchen counter, putting finishing touches on the lunch she’d insisted Gina eat, while waiting for her daughter’s answer.

“I must look happy then, huh?” Gina quipped and smiled too brightly.

“No, you do not.” Her mother picked up the plate holding a sandwich and some homemade pasta salad. Carrying it to the table, she plunked it down, poured two tall glasses of iced tea and took a seat opposite her daughter. “I worry about you, Gina. Two months you’re with Adam. You do not look happy. You think I don’t see it in your eyes?”

“Mama…”

“Fine,” her mother said, grabbing her glass to chug some of her tea. “You want a baby. I understand. How could I not? I, too, wanted babies. But you want them with the man you love. With a father who will also love the child you make.”

“I do love him,” Gina said and took a bite of the roast beef sandwich, because knowing her mother, she’d never be allowed to leave until she did. She chewed, swallowed and said, “Adam loved his son. He would love our child, too. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.”

Teresa crossed herself quickly at the mention of Adam’s dead son and conceded, “He did love that boy. Such a tragedy. But you know as well as everyone else he changed when he lost his family.”

Gina shifted uneasily on her chair and used her fork to move bow tie pasta around on her plate. “That’s natural enough, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It is. But he does not want to move on, Gina. The darkness in him is thick and heavy and he doesn’t want it lifted.”

“You don’t know that.”

Her mother snorted. “You do not want to see it.”

Gina sighed, dropped her fork and said, “We’ve been over this.”

Teresa Torino set her glass down, reached across the table and patted her daughter’s hand. “And we will again. Until I make you see that you are making a mistake that will only cause you pain.”

“Mama…”

The older woman sat back, folded her arms beneath her copious breasts and frowned. “So. You get pregnant. Then what? You leave? Then you walk away from your baby’s father? You believe you can do this? With no pain?”

Just thinking about it was painful, but admitting that would probably be the wrong move. Besides, she was still hoping she wouldn’t have to walk away. That Adam wouldn’t want to let her go. “Adam and I made a deal.”

“Sì.” Her mother sniffed in disgust. “So your papa tells me all the time. A deal. What kind of a way is that to start a marriage?”

“Um,” Gina said, picking her fork up again to take a bite of her mom’s pasta salad—only the best in the known universe, “excuse me, but didn’t Papa go to Italy to meet you because his parents knew your parents and they thought you two would make a good couple?”

Teresa’s big brown eyes narrowed on her daughter. “You think you’re so smart, eh?”

“Pretty smart,” Gina acknowledged with a smile. “I know my family history anyway.”

“Yes, but you also know this,” her mother said, sitting forward suddenly and leaning her forearms on the yellow-and-white-vinyl-cloth-covered table. “My papa told me I should marry Sal Torino and move to America. I argued with him. Told him I wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love. Then I took one look at your papa and loved him in that instant.” She lifted one hand and wagged her index finger at Gina. “One look. I knew. I knew it was right. That this marriage would last and be a good one. Can you say the same?”

Spearing another piece of pasta, Gina met her mother’s worried gaze and said softly, “I’ve loved Adam since I was a kid, Mama. One look. I knew.”

Teresa blew out an exasperated sigh. “Is not the same.”

“No, it’s not,” Gina said wearily. “Papa wanted to get married. Adam didn’t. But,” she added, “we are married. And I know he cares for me.”

“Care is not love,” her mother warned softly.

“No, but it could be. Mama, Adam needs me. I love him and I’m going to try to make this work. For both of us. Can’t you be on my side? Please?”

Astonishment crossed her mother’s features as her brown eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Standing up, Teresa moved around the kitchen table to stand beside Gina. She cupped her daughter’s face between her palms, then drew her in close, wrapped her arms around her girl and held on tightly. “Of course I am on your side, Gina. I’m your mother. I want for you all that you want. Always. I only wish to spare you pain.”

Gina held on and let herself be rocked for a while, taking comfort from the one source she’d always been able to count on. She thought of Adam, saw his face in her mind, felt his touch in her memory and her heart lifted, despite the odds being stacked against her. For two months, she’d lived with him, loved with him. She’d wormed her way into his house and could only hope she was worming her way into his heart, as well.

The chance she was taking was worth it. She had to believe that. She had to try. Otherwise, she’d always wonder if she’d given up on Adam too soon.

“I know that, Mama, I do,” she said, her voice getting more determined with every word. “But sometimes, you can only get to happy by going through the pain.”

“That wife of yours is a real hand with horses,” Sam Ottowell said as he thumbed through a sheaf of receipts for ranch supplies.

“Yes.” Adam smiled. “She is.” Then he leaned over his foreman’s desk and pulled a notebook toward him. Making a few quick notations, he dropped it again. “I want you to call Flanagan’s. Get an extra order of oats out here. With Gina’s horses here, too, we’re going through twice as much.”

“Right,” Sam said, leaning back in his chair, propping his hands on his abundant belly. “She’s really something, you know? Got those damn animals following her around like trained puppies or something. Girl’s got a gift with horses.”

She had a lot of gifts, Adam thought. Most particularly, she had a gift for throwing his perfectly organized life into turmoil. He’d hardly had a moment to himself since entering into this little wedding bargain. And the moments he did manage to find, his thoughts usually turned to her anyway.

“You hear those kids?” Sam asked, cocking his head as if to better hear the laughter drifting to them from the corral.

“Hard not to,” Adam snapped. Though God knew he was trying.

Sam’s features went stiff and blank in a heartbeat. He sat up, reached for the Rolodex and asked, “You going to call Simpson about the hundred-acre lot he wants to lease?”

“Yeah,” Adam said, grabbing on to the change of subject with both hands. He checked his watch, then said, “I’ll call his office tomorrow. We can work out—”

Whatever else he might have said was cut off at the sound of a scream shredding the air.

With Sam right behind him, Adam raced out of the barn, heart in his throat and skidded to a stop when that scream turned into peals of laughter. His gaze shot to the corral and everything in him fisted into a tight knot.

A boy, no more than four or five, was seated on the back of one of the Gypsy horses. The child’s parents were standing outside the corral, watching the scene with indulgent smiles as a daughter, no more than ten, hopped up and down impatiently awaiting her turn on the horse.

Gina walked alongside the tiny would-be cowboy, her hand on the boy’s thigh, holding him in place while she grinned up at him. The boy’s delighted laughter spilled into the air like soap bubbles and Adam wrestled with the pain lodged in the center of his chest.

He couldn’t move. Couldn’t tear his gaze from Gina and the boy as they moved slowly around the inside of the corral. He noticed everything. The sunlight on the boy’s blond hair, the steady gait of the horse, the patient smile on Gina’s face. Again and again, the boy laughed as he petted and stroked the mare’s neck, his tiny fingers getting lost in the thick, black mane.

“Uh, I’ll just head on back to the office,” Sam said, and slipped away unnoticed.

While his vision narrowed to that solitary child, Adam’s mind filled with images of another boy. On another sunny day. Another lifetime ago.

“I want to stay with you, Daddy.” Jeremy’s big brown eyes were filled with tears and his lower lip trembled.

“I know you do,” Adam said, checking his wristwatch and inwardly wincing. He was already late for a meeting. There were offers to be made, documents to be signed, dreams to be crushed. Instead of that wince, he smiled to himself. Since taking over the family ranch, he’d already made a difference.

He’d found new buyers for their grain and cattle. New tenants for the farmland and he had plans to rebuild the King stables.

If that meant spending less time with his wife and son than he would have liked, that’s the price he would pay. He was doing this for their future.

“Please let me stay,” Jeremy said and a single tear rolled down his cheek. “I’ll be good.”

“Jeremy,” he said, going down on one knee long enough to look his son in the eye. “I know you’d be good. But I’ve got work. I can’t play now anyway. You’ll have more fun with Mommy.”

Adam lifted his gaze to the woman standing behind his son. Monica didn’t look any happier than Jeremy, but rather than tears in her eyes, there was fire. Anger. An expression Adam had become more and more used to seeing.

Jeremy’s chin hit his chest and his narrow shoulders slumped in dejection. He rubbed the toe of his bright red tennis shoe in the dirt, sniffed loudly and ran one hand under his nose. “’Kay.”

As the boy turned and walked with slow, miserable steps toward the silver sedan parked in the driveway, Adam stood up to face his wife.

“That’s so typical of you, Adam,” she muttered, shooting a look over her shoulder at their son to make sure he was out of earshot.

“Let’s not do this right now, all right?” He checked his wristwatch again and Monica hissed in a breath.

“You never want to ‘do’ this, Adam. That’s the problem.”

“I don’t have time for it, all right?”

“Why don’t you schedule me in for a week from Tuesday, Adam? Will I get one minute? Or two?”

He blew out a breath, reached out one hand to her, but she skipped back to avoid his touch. Adam sighed. “You know as well as I do, I’ve got responsibilities.”

“Yes, you do.”

He was irritated, angry and just a little weary of this whole situation. Monica had less and less patience with what she saw as Adam’s “preoccupation” with the King ranch. And as she pulled further away from him, he did the same. The ranch was his family’s legacy. It took time. Dedication.

The car door closed behind Jeremy and he looked to see his son pull the seat belt across his chest and hook it securely.

Glancing back at his wife, Adam said, “Can we not do this now? I’ve got a meeting.”

“Right.” She shook her head, blond hair flying in a tight, short arc around her jawline. “Wouldn’t want you to miss a meeting just because of your family.”

“Damn it, Monica.”

“Damn you, Adam.” She turned and stalked to the car without another look at him. Just before she opened the car door, though, she allowed her gaze to lock with his. “Not that you’ll notice or anything, but I thought you should know—we’re not coming back. Jeremy and I are driving to my mother’s in San Francisco. I’ll let you know where to send our things once we’re settled.”

“Just a damn minute,” Adam said, starting for her.

But she hopped into the car, fired the engine and raced down the driveway before he could get to her. He watched dust and gravel fantail up behind the wheels of her car. The sun beat down on his head and shoulders and despite the heat, he felt cold. Right down to his bones.

The dust settled and still he stood there, watching after the car carrying his wife and son away from him. Then the alarm on his watch beeped and he idly reached to turn it off. He had to leave for the meeting. He’d give Monica a chance to cool off. Then they’d talk. Work this out.

He headed for his SUV.

First things first. He had just enough time to make that meeting.

Twenty minutes later, Jeremy and Monica were dead.

Adam came up out of the past with a jolt.

It had been years since he’d allowed himself to remember that day. But now, it had all rushed back at him because of the child, still laughing, in the corral.

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