In The Tycoon's Bed: One Night, Two Heirs

The walls were white, with a mural of spring flowers sprouting up from the gleaming wood floor. A rose-colored braided rug in the center of the room provided warmth and comfort. As if even Heaven approved of what Rick had done here, sunlight speared into the room, dazzling it all with a golden glow.

He had only known about the twins’ existence for two weeks and yet he’d managed to create a little girl’s paradise. She should be pleased, she knew. Instead, a pang of worry reverberated inside her. This was permanence. Rick was making an important statement here. Letting not only his daughters but Sadie know that he was going to be a part of their lives from here on out.

“You like it?” he asked, shattering her thoughts and dragging her gaze back to his.

“What’s not to like?” Sadie walked farther into the room and watched her girls delightedly exploring. “How did you get all of this done so quickly?”

“Amazing what enough money in the right hands can accomplish.” He leaned against the doorjamb, folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes on her.

A flicker of heat skittered through her system under that watchful stare. “Why?” she asked. “Why do this if you’re leaving again? By the time you get back, they’ll be too old for this room.”

He frowned and his eyes darkened. “I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do, but whatever it is, the girls will be a part of my life. I wanted them to have a place here. To know this ranch as home.”

“Their home is with me,” Sadie said quietly with a quick glance at the girls as they squabbled over the stuffed animals.

“Could be with both of us,” he pointed out.

“Don’t start again, Rick,” she said with a shake of her head. “We’ve been down that road too many times already.”

“And never really talked about it.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

When the girls scampered into an adjoining room, Sadie grabbed at the excuse to halt her conversation with Rick and called out, “Hold on, you two….”

“Don’t worry,” Rick said quickly, reaching out to take her hand. At the first touch of his skin to hers, Sadie sucked in a gulp of air. She felt his reaction as strongly as her own and she knew that whatever else lay between them, the sexual heat was still burning fiercely.

He gave her hand a squeeze and released her reluctantly. “Nothing in here can hurt them. I had experts come in and baby-proof the place. Hell, the whole house has had a toddler remodel.”

Sadie curled her fingers into a fist to keep from reaching out to him again just to feel that sizzle of heat. Nodding to him, she relaxed her guard on the girls a little.

She’d already noticed the window gates and the plugs in the electrical outlets. And she had to admit that, even with the worry over Rick trying to swoop her girls out from under her, she was touched that he’d gone to so much trouble. But still … “What’s in that room?”

He tucked his hands into his jeans pockets and shrugged. “Not a room. It’s their closet.”

“Their—” Stunned speechless, she followed her girls and found them pawing through rack after rack of dresses, shirts and jeans. The closet had been designed so that everything was on toddler level, so both girls had no trouble reaching all of the new clothing that had been purchased just for them.

On the floor of the closet, clear boxes of different types of shoes were stacked. Chortling gleefully, the twins indulged themselves. Wendy was tugging at a pair of miniature cowboy boots, while Gail was trying to force her sneaker-clad foot into a princess slipper.

“Sweetie, wait a minute,” Sadie said, dropping to her knees and taking the slipper from greedy little hands.

“Wanna,” Gail argued, her bottom lip poking out in a pout that was a herald of a tantrum to come.

Sadie braced for it, almost looking forward to seeing Rick handle one of his daughters when she was less than the loveable toddler he knew. But she didn’t get a chance. Instead, she listened.

“Well, now, you two girls could play in here … or we could go and see your ponies,” he coaxed.

“Pony!” Both of them leaped up and charged to Rick as if he was Santa Claus. And no doubt that’s just what he looked like to two dazzled little girls.

Their mother however, was a different story. “Ponies?”

“Tiny ones,” Rick assured her, scooping both girls up into his arms. “Really. Hardly even related to horses, they’re so small.”

“The girls don’t need ponies,” Sadie said, congratulating herself on the calm even tone of her voice.

He grinned. “Wouldn’t be much fun to get things only when you need them, would it?”

“Pony, Mommy!” Wendy slapped her hands together and Gail laid her head down on her father’s shoulder.

Sadie, looking at the three of them united together against her, knew she’d lost this battle. Rick was making all of her girls’ dreams come true. From the castlelike tower on his house, to princess shoes, to ponies. Heaven knew what would be next. Just that thought was enough to have her say quietly, “Rick, you can’t keep doing this. You’ll spoil them rotten.”

Surprise etched itself into his features. “How can you spoil a child by loving her?”

She sighed again. The man was hopeless.

“Sadie, I missed their first two years.” He looked from one tiny face to the other. “I missed too much. Let me make it up to them and to myself.”

She looked at the three of them and something inside her liquefied, becoming a warm, bubbling pool of emotion. How was she supposed to stand firm when he melted her with his love for their girls?

Shaking her head, she said, “I draw the line at them riding those ponies. At least not until they’re three.”

“Riding alone? Absolutely not. But we can hold them in the saddles …” he coaxed.

“You’re impossible.”

“To resist, you mean,” he added with a wink.

“Watch me,” she countered.

“I do,” he said softly. “Every chance I get.”

John Henry’s wife Elena had made them dinner. A feast of enchiladas, rice and homemade beans. The twins had their supper upstairs, with the older woman who had insisted on taking care of them to give Rick and Sadie time to talk.

Rick made a mental note to give Elena a raise. He’d been wanting to get Sadie all to himself for hours. God knows, he loved those two girls, but their mother was his main focus. With dinner over, dishes done, he had a chance to simply sit with her in the moonlight.

For two weeks now, he’d spent nearly every day with Sadie and their daughters. And while he was enjoying getting to know his girls, what he craved was getting reacquainted with Sadie. She was making him crazy.

Dinner on the stone patio, with candles in hurricane lamps and music drifting to them from inside the house was as romantic a setting as he could imagine. Having the woman driving him to distraction sitting across from him was just the icing on the proverbial cake.

“That was wonderful,” Sadie said, sipping at her wine.

“Elena’s the best cook in Texas.”

Above them, the moon rose in the sky and a soft wind rattled the leaves of the black oaks standing along the perimeter of the yard. The candle on the table dipped and swayed behind its glass walls and the resulting shadows played across Sadie’s features.

“I’ve thought about you,” he said quietly. “A lot over the last few years.”

She dipped her head then looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “I thought about you a lot, too.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I can imagine you did, what with those two little reminders running around.”

“It wasn’t just the girls,” she admitted.

“Glad to hear that,” he said, and his pulse quickened. Getting Sadie to acknowledge that there was something between them was just the first step. He had to remind her how good they had been together. Had to show her what they could have together now.

She smiled to herself and lifted her face to the night sky. “It doesn’t change anything, Rick. Wanting you, I mean.”

“From where I’m sitting it does.”

“Excuse me.” Elena stepped out onto the patio. “I hate interrupting, but I wanted to let you know, both girls are fast asleep.”

“Asleep?” Sadie sat up straighter. “I should just take them home.”

“Let them stay,” Rick said quietly.

“Honestly, Miss Price,” Elena told her, “the two of them were just worn out with excitement. I gave them a bath, put them in their pajamas and tucked them right in. They’re just fine. The monitor’s been turned on and I brought one of the receivers out here for you to keep tabs on them.”

She set the white receiver down onto the table and Sadie looked at it. Rick knew she was thinking about just packing up the girls and running for the hills, but damned if he’d let her. This was working out great. He hadn’t planned for the girls to fall asleep, but now that they had, he wouldn’t waste his alone time with their mother.

“You two enjoy your evening,” Elena said. “I’m just heading home myself.” She walked across the patio, slipped through the line of trees and disappeared into the shadows, headed for the Henry house just beyond the stable.

“I didn’t plan for the girls to stay here with you tonight.” She reached for the monitor and turned up the volume.

“You could all stay,” he said, getting up to walk to her side of the table.

“Oh, that’s not a good idea,” she said, even as he pulled her to her feet.

“Best idea I’ve heard in three years,” Rick argued. He smoothed his hands through her long, blond hair and then cupped her face in his palms.

She shivered and a tiny sigh erupted from her throat. “Rick …”

“Stop thinking, Sadie,” he whispered and bent to kiss her briefly, sweetly. “Just for tonight, stop thinking.”

“We did that once, remember?” She was arguing, but her hands settled at his waist and he felt the heat of her soaking inside him.

“Yeah. I remember. All of it. The feel of you, the taste of you.” He kissed her again, teasing the part in her lips with the tip of his tongue. Every inch of his body was on fire for her. The last couple of weeks, being close to her and yet so damned separate, had been torture. “Do you know, for months after I deployed, I could close my eyes and smell you on me?”

“Oh, my …”

He bent to kiss the curve of her neck and Sadie swayed into him. Breathing deep, Rick groaned in satisfaction. “There it is,” he said, his breath moving over her skin, “that scent that is purely you. Smells like summer. Smells like Heaven.”

“Rick, you’re not playing fair….”

“I know,” he said, smiling against her skin, then nibbling at the elegant line of her throat until she shivered again. “I don’t want to be fair, Sadie. I want you.”

“Really not fair,” she murmured, hands sweeping up to splay against his back and hold him closer. “But you know this wouldn’t solve anything.”

“Not asking it to,” he whispered.

“It would probably only make things harder.”

“Things are pretty hard right now,” he confessed, lifting his head to smile down at her.

She laughed and shook her head. “How am I supposed to fight you?”

“You’re not. I’m tired of fighting, Sadie. And so are you.” He kissed her then, long and deep, tongue tangling with hers, silently demanding that she feel what he felt, want what he wanted.

Finally, though, he broke the kiss, lifted his head and looked into her eyes. He read passion glittering there and knew he’d won this round. Knew that her needs were going to overpower her sense of propriety. Just as they had that night three years ago.

He dropped his hands to her waist, then skimmed his palms up, beneath the hem of her yellow silk shirt. Her skin was softer than that silk and just touching her again inflamed him more than he had expected. His body went rock-hard and aching. His heartbeat pounded in his chest and need clamped a tight fist around his lungs so that breathing was nearly impossible.

Her eyes locked with his and when he covered her breasts with his hands, he saw the flare of desire quickening in those pale blue depths. Even through the lace of her bra, he felt her nipples pebble at his caress. Felt the sweeping rush of heat that was going to engulf them both.

“I am tired of fighting you. Fighting this,” she said, arching into him, silently asking for more. “So touch me again. Touch me all over. Make me feel the way you did on that night.”

He wouldn’t have thought it possible to get even harder, but he did. Hearing her ask for him. Seeing her desire. Feeling her heat.

Rick was lost.

Right where he wanted to be.

Seven

With the summer wind blowing all around them like a soft caress, Sadie forgot about standing her ground and gave herself up to the wonder of being in Rick’s arms again.

Her entire life, she had done the right thing, said the right thing, been the perfect daughter. Yes, she’d gotten a divorce, but even society expected that to happen once in a while. Until that night with Rick, she had never really rebelled. And in that one night, she had felt more alive than she ever had before.

She wanted it again.

His kiss enveloped her. Their tongues danced in a sensual feast of sensation until Sadie was panting for air and not really caring if she got her next breath or not. Her hands swept up and down his back, loving the feel of his hard, muscled body pressed against her.

He grabbed her and pulled her abdomen close enough that she felt the thick heaviness of his body. Desire pumped through them both with a rush that was simply shattering. There were so many sensations. So many emotions churning inside her.

Rick unbuttoned her blouse and slid it off her shoulders and down her arms to puddle on the stone patio at their feet. She lifted her arms to him, encircled his neck and gloried in the feel of his hands moving over her bare flesh. In moments, he had unhooked her bra and dropped it, too, to the patio.

Then he set her back from him and looked his fill. The warm summer air felt cool on her heated skin. He bent his head and took first one hardened nipple then the other into his mouth. His lips, tongue and teeth tortured her gently, sending her mind spinning out of control as her instincts took over.

She groaned and held his head to her breast, smoothing her fingers through his short hair, loving the slide of it against her skin. He suckled her and she felt everything inside her liquefy in a rush of molten heat that settled deep at her core.

“Rick …” She swayed into him as her knees went weak in response to the overload of sensation. “I’m going to fall over here in a minute.”

“I’m going to lay you down in a minute.”

A stirring of unease mixed with excitement lit up her insides. “Out here?”

“We’re alone, honey,” he said, kissing her again, lightly, teasingly. “There’s not a soul around.”

“But Elena. John Henry—”

“Never leave their place at night. No more buts, darlin’,” he told her, laying one finger across her lips to keep her protests quiet. “Just relax and trust me. Can you do that?”

She looked up into his eyes and realized that she had already made her decision. She wanted another night with Rick. He was the man who had shown her what real passion and excitement was. Did she really want to back away now?

“I can do that,” she said before her rational mind could override her desires.

“Just what I wanted to hear,” he said and tore off his own shirt.

She reached for him, unable to keep from stroking her fingertips along that bronzed, sculpted chest. He sucked in some air at her touch and Sadie smiled to know that she was having the same kind of effect on him that he was on her.

A purely female, sexual power swirled through her as she ran her palms across his flat nipples and when his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched, she loved the rush she felt.

“Sadie, you are making me crazy.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” she said huskily, leaning in to kiss him.

He chuckled and the sound was dark and rich, rolling through her system like warm wine.

“This is crazy,” she murmured, knowing it was true, but not really caring. “Heck, you’re crazy,” she added and even she thought it sounded more like a compliment than an accusation.

“It’s part of what you like about me,” he said and led her to the double-wide chaise. It was warm from the summer sun and overstuffed to make lounging on the patio as comfortable as possible. And Sadie could hardly believe that she was stripping out of her clothes and lying down on it, naked in the moonlight.

The heavy cotton felt scratchy against her skin, but any discomfort was lost as she watched Rick quickly get rid of his clothes. She sucked in a gulp of air when she took her first look at his body, hard and ready for her. Then she couldn’t think at all because he was there, lying on top of her, flesh to flesh, heat to heat.

She sighed when he rolled to his back and pulled her on top of him. She straddled him then, looking down into dark eyes that flashed with wicked heat. He lifted both hands to cup her bare breasts and at the first touch of his hands, she arched into him, pushing herself into his grasp. Sighing, she let all thought slide away as his fingers and thumbs tweaked at her already sensitive nipples.

She needed to touch as well as be touched. Reaching down, she wrapped her hands around his heavy shaft and smiled when he hissed in a breath through gritted teeth. She stroked him, rubbing her fingers up and down his length and across the very tip of him until he was lifting his hips into her touch.

“You’re killing me,” he groaned.

“Oh, not my intention at all,” Sadie promised. Then, feeling sexy and wild and completely out of control, she went up on her knees and slowly, slowly took him into her body. Inch by glorious inch, she accepted him, giving her own body time to stretch to accommodate his. It was an invasion of the most intimate kind and she wanted all of him within her.

She took her time, prolonging the suspenseful glide of bodies locking together to torture both of them. Her eyes closed and she moaned her pleasure.

“Enough,” he grumbled a moment later and rolled them over again, until Sadie was on her back and he was wedged between her thighs.

She smiled up at him. “Impatient.”

“Damn right. We’ve waited three years to do this. So let’s get to it.”

“You are a romantic, aren’t you, Rick Pruitt?”

“Darlin’, you, naked, in the moonlight—that’s as romantic as it gets.”

“Smooth talker.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her hips to him.

He pushed deeper inside her and Sadie gasped, tipping her head back to look up at the stars. He was inside her. Filling her. And for the first time in three years, she felt … complete.

He moved then, rocking his hips, setting a rhythm that she raced to match. Her gaze fixed on his, as if his dark brown eyes held every secret she had ever wanted to know. Breath laboring, bodies straining together, they held on to each other and hurtled toward the explosive release waiting for them.

Rick bent his head to take her mouth with his as the first of the tremors wracked her body. She tasted him as a shattering climax claimed her. Sadie held him tightly, shuddering as ripple after ripple of pleasure roared through her.

And before the last of those tremors died away, he groaned and, still kissing her desperately, emptied all that he was into her depths.

Two hours and lots of sex later, they were lying in Rick’s bed, just down the hall from their sleeping daughters. The monitor was on the dresser, their clothes were in a heap on the floor and their heartbeats were just beginning to slow down to normal.

Curled up beside him, Sadie rested her head on Rick’s chest and took a long, shaky breath. She hadn’t felt this good in years. But she knew there would be a price to pay for it. Sleeping with him was going to reopen the talk of marriage and she had the feeling he wasn’t going to like hearing her say no again.

“It’s good,” he said softly, going up on one elbow to look down at her. “Having you here in my bed. Having our daughters sleeping just down the hall.”

Sadie sighed. “Rick, what we did tonight doesn’t change anything for me.”

He smoothed her hair back from her face and she closed her eyes briefly to enjoy the gentle caress. “It changes everything, darlin’.”

“No.” Opening her eyes, she swallowed back her own needs and fought to remain logical. “It’s not me you really want, Rick—”

“Oh, I think the last couple of hours should have convinced you you’re wrong about that.”

She had to chuckle at that, since her body was still buzzing from his careful attention to detail. “I mean, what you want is family. You just found out about the girls and you want them in your life, I understand that. But this isn’t about me.”

He took a breath and blew it out before saying quietly, “The first time I saw you, you were about seven years old, I think.”

“What?”

“My parents took me to dinner at Claire’s restaurant and I saw you at another table with Brad and your folks….”

She scooted out from under his touch and braced her back against the headboard. “I don’t see what any of this has to do with—”

“I remember,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “because I was ten years old and didn’t much like girls. But then I saw you. Your long blond hair was pulled back by a pink headband and you were wearing a white dress with ruffles. You looked like a pretty doll sitting there with your hands folded in your lap.”

A pretty doll. Funny, Sadie told herself, that was how she’d felt most of her life. Not that her parents hadn’t loved her, but she had never really been allowed to be a child. She was always in a dress. Always told to sit up straight. Always expected to be perfect.

Which was why she’d made sure her daughters owned more pairs of play pants than they did dresses. At least until Rick came long.

“And I remember the waitress hurrying past your table and she spilled a Coke. It dropped onto your lap and I can still see your reaction in my mind.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered, “I remember that.”

She hadn’t thought about it in years. Now that she had though, the day came back in a rush of memories that had her cringing inside.

Rick sat up beside her, tucked a pillow behind her back and then took her hand in his. “You didn’t shout or scream in surprise. You just sat there, your white, lacy lap filled with dark brown cola and you cried.” His thumb moved back and forth across her hand. “Big, silent tears, while your mom rushed to clean you up and the waitress babbled apologies. Your dad didn’t even look at you, he just took Brad and led him outside.”

“He never did like scenes,” Sadie whispered.

They were having Sunday dinner at Claire’s because her father considered it good business to frequent local establishments. He always said, they were the Price family and it was up to them to set an example for others. He said that it was important that people think well of them so they were always to be on their best behavior.

When they got home that night, her father had made a point of telling her that she had comported herself well by not throwing a hissy fit in the diner. He said it was all the waitress’s fault, but that everyone in town would be talking about what a perfect lady Sadie was.

A lady.

At seven.

It had been a stifling way to grow up, Sadie thought now.

“You were still a beauty at sixteen,” he said, leaning down now to plant a kiss on her forehead.

Relieved to have a change of subject, Sadie laughed. “Oh, please. You never knew I was alive when we were teenagers.”

“That right?” He dropped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close to him. “I was playing basketball with some guys one day at the park when you walked by with Abby and a couple of other girls. Don’t remember who they were, because my memory’s all about you. Your hair was long and you had it pulled back into a ponytail. You were wearing white pants and a red top and you were smiling at something. And I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”