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

As he walked out, he heard the whispers following him and he knew damn well what the folks were wondering.

Did she say yes? Or no?

Well, he thought grimly, let ‘em wonder.

By the following afternoon, the whole damn town was speculating about Rick and Sadie. There hadn’t been such a flurry of gossip since word got out that Abby Langley was a descendant of Royal’s very own Texan outlaw, Jessamine Golden.

Strange how much more interesting gossip seemed when you weren’t the subject of it.

Scowling into the sun, Rick took a pull on his cold beer and looked out over the ranch lake. He’d thought coming out here today with Joe would get his mind off Sadie, but damned if she didn’t haunt him even here.

He could still taste her on his lips. Could still feel the soft, curvy pliancy of her body pressed along his. Hear the soft catch of her breath and smell that tantalizing scent that clung to her skin.

Gritting his teeth, Rick finished the beer and tossed the empty into a nearby bucket. It landed with a clatter that seemed overly loud in the stillness.

“Everybody’s talking about you, you know,” Joe said, swinging his pole back only to let the line and lure fly out to the center of the lake. It hit with a plunk and ripples rolled across the surface, racing toward shore.

“Yeah,” Rick muttered. “I know. Good to be home, huh?”

“Well, hell, can you blame anybody? The show you put on at the TCC?” Joe shook his head. “I only wish I’d been there to see it. You could have given me a heads-up. Let me know that you were going to turn the town on its ear so I could be there to watch.”

“Right. Just what I needed. One more spectator.”

“People are wondering what Sadie’s answer was.” Joe looked at him, then snorted a laugh. “Judging from your attitude, I’m guessing she’s still saying no.”

“Woman won’t see reason.”

“What’s new about that?” Joe cranked on the spinning reel, drawing his line back in so he could recast.

Rick’s line lay on the water, drifting with the wind. Some fishing trip this was. He couldn’t keep his mind off of Sadie long enough to bother to recast. The woman was invading every damn part of his life.

“You’re not doing any of the men in town any favors, you know.”

“What?” Rick determinedly picked up his pole and reeled in the line. The whirring sound was almost comforting. He was going to fish and he was going to enjoy it, damn it.

“Abby Langley had a talk with my Tina. Told her how you’re pressuring Sadie to marry you.” Joe sighed and cast out again. “Now Tina’s giving me grief because you’re my friend.”

“I’d say I’m sorry about that, but I’ve got my own problems.” Shaking his head at the weird workings of the female mind, Rick set fresh bait on the hook.

“Yeah, well,” Joe said, “from what I hear, Tina’s not the only wife on the warpath, either.”

“That’s great.” Rick shook his head and sent his newly baited hook flying. Good cast.

“Yeah, I slept on the couch last night thanks to you.”

“Hey, don’t blame me if Tina finally got wise and tossed your ass onto a couch.”

“I’m not blaming you.” Joe sighed. “My own damn fault for telling Tina I thought you were right to insist on getting married. Man, you should have heard her after I said that.” He stopped and shuddered in memory. “My wife’s got a temper that could make a rampaging Apache back up and rethink his options. Hell, even after all that, I still say marrying the mother of your kids is the right thing to do, everybody knows that. Now all of a sudden, that’s a bad thing?”

Disgusted, Rick only muttered, “Women.”

“That about says it.” Joe kicked at the cooler beside him. “Hell, the only reason we’ve got these sandwiches to eat are because I stopped by the diner on the way over. Tina refused to make me her fried chicken. Said she wouldn’t have any part in making you happy when you’re making Sadie so miserable.” Shaking his head, he mumbled, “Not right, cutting a man off from fried chicken with no warning.”

Well, that settled it, Rick thought. Every woman in this town was as nuts as Sadie. Time was, a man who refused to marry the mother of his children was treated like an outcast. Now, he was getting the same treatment for trying to marry her.

How the hell was a man supposed to make sense of something that had zero logic behind it?

A few minutes of companionable silence passed when the only sounds were a few lazy birds halfheartedly warbling in the heat and the gentle slap of water against the shore. Sunlight glittered on the lake and glanced off it as if it were a mirror. Oaks and summer-brown hills surrounded the place and Rick took a moment to feel the familiar sense of home slide through him.

This was his life. The Corps had been good to him, no doubt. And he had been proud to serve. But his last tour in the Middle East had been a rough one. He’d lost a close friend and come damn close to losing his own life.

Hard to imagine, while standing here in the sun-washed Texas beauty, that half a world away, men and women were dying for their country. He was so accustomed now to the whine and punch of gunfire. To the roar of explosions. To the adrenaline-laced moments of kill or be killed, that coming home was going to take some getting used to.

He wanted it though.

The decision to leave the Corps was the right one for him. Destiny had taken a hand and shown him the road he should be taking and he wasn’t going to turn his back on it. What he had to do now was find a way to convince Sadie that they should be walking that road together.

“So,” Joe said quietly, “you’re really coming home to stay?”

“Yeah.” Rick nodded. “It’s time. Hell, past time, probably.”

Joe set the butt end of his pole down against a rock and reached into the cooler for another couple of beers. He handed one to Rick and said quietly, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah?”

“That last letter you sent me …”

Rick frowned and took a long drink. Then he stared at his beer as if looking for something to say. He didn’t find anything.

“You said your friend died on a patrol.”

“Yeah,” Rick said and in a split instant, he was back there. Searing heat, gunfire erupting all around him, men shouting, screaming. He heard it all in his sleep. Saw it all in his dreams. He rubbed his eyes as if he could wipe away the memory, but he knew it would be with him forever.

“He saved your life, didn’t he?”

“He did.” Rick took a breath, stared out at the lake again because he couldn’t look at Joe’s friendly, concerned face and talk about what had happened to Jeff Simpson. Hell, he didn’t want to talk about it at all. But he knew Joe wouldn’t rest until he had the story. And, because Rick was moving back home permanently, best to get it out and done now. He steeled himself against the pain and dove in.

“It was an ambush,” he said simply, knowing that there was no way in hell Joe could ever understand what it had been like. No one could who hadn’t been there. “I was on point, first man into the village. Unbelievably hot. Sweat rolling down your back under your gear, raining into your eyes until your vision blurred and burned.

“Goats and chickens were scrabbling in the dirt and a couple of kids raced by with a battered soccer ball. Everything looked normal, but I just had a … feeling that something was wrong. A second later, I spotted a shooter in a doorway and turned to take him out.” He paused for a sip of beer. “Jeff was right behind me. He spotted a sniper on the roof taking dead aim on my back. Jeff reacted fast. Took me down in a flying tackle. In a heartbeat, I was facedown on the street eating dirt while gunfire erupted all around us—and Jeff took the bullet meant for me.”

Joe gave a heavy sigh, then slapped his hand against Rick’s back. “I can’t know how hard that was for you, buddy. Nobody can. But I’m grateful to Jeff.”

Rick turned his head to smile at his old friend. “Yeah,” he said. “So am I. Doesn’t make it any easier to live with though.”

“Can’t imagine it would.” A second later, Joe whooped and grabbed his pole. “Finally got a bite. Looks like fish for supper.”

Rick watched Joe reel in a huge bass and thought that there was more he hadn’t told his old friend. But what was said in the last few moments of Jeff Simpson’s life was nobody else’s business. In his mind, Rick heard his friend’s strained whisper. Saw the pleading in his eyes and mentally added bricks to the wall he had built around his own heart that day.

Looking around him again, Rick felt the peace of his home ranch slide into him once more, easing the tattered edges of his soul. He took a breath of hot summer air and smiled to himself as he thought that, yeah, he was especially grateful to Jeff Simpson. And maybe that’s the main reason Rick was going to leave the Corps. He didn’t want to waste the life that Jeff had made possible.

He had a chance here, for more than he ever could have hoped for.

And he was going to take it.

Nine

Later that night, Sadie arrived back at the Price family home exhausted. She’d spent most of the day with Abby, decorating the club for the upcoming TCC Founder’s Day dinner and dance. The annual event was the highlight of the year in Royal. Every member of the club would be there with their families, and Abby was bound and determined that this year would be something special.

And once Abby had her mind made up, Sadie thought with a smile, nothing could stop her. Not even Brad—who had, of course, shown up to protest everything they were doing.

“There’s nothing wrong with the decorations we use every year,” he had said, flatly challenging Abby to fight him on it.

He wasn’t disappointed. Abby had climbed down from the ladder she was using to string twists of blue-and-gold crepe paper across the ceiling. Fisting her hands on her hips, she had faced him down.

“And then we can have the same food, the same wine and maybe even the same songs. Heck,” Abby told him, “we don’t even have to hold new dances, we can just videotape it and play it for the members every year. That way nothing will ever change and you’ll finally be happy.”

“Tradition means something in Texas,” Brad had argued.

“Progress means something here, too,” Abby countered. “Else we’d all still be riding horses and sending telegrams instead of emails!”

“Progress for progress’s sake means nothing.”

“Holding on to tradition because you’re too cowardly to change means even less.”

Sadie smiled just thinking about how her brother’s face had frozen into a mask of frustration and barely reined-in temper. It was at that point that Brad had stormed from the club, looking as if he was about to explode. To be fair, Abby hadn’t been doing any better by the time he left. It was a good hour and a half before Sadie’s friend was able to talk without grumbling.

“The man just doesn’t know who he’s dealing with,” Sadie said aloud.

She parked just opposite the front door, shut the engine off and dragged herself out of the car. She just stood there for a long minute, leaning against her SUV, looking up at the night sky, too tired to even walk the short distance to the house. Abby was a hard taskmaster, but Sadie knew this ball was going to be the best one ever.

But, time was passing and she still had to get inside and give the girls their bath and tuck them into bed.

Smiling, she forced herself toward the house only to stop when the front door was flung open. Her father stood in the open doorway, backlit by the hall light.

“Dad.” Pleasure warred with a sinking sensation in her chest. She loved her father, but had figured out a long time ago that she was simply never going to be the daughter he wanted her to be. “When did you get home?”

“This afternoon.” In his seventies, Robert Price was still a handsome man. His hair was mostly silver now, but he stood tall and straight and still carried the air of authority that had ruled Sadie’s entire life.

Summoning a smile, she walked to him, went on her toes and kissed his cheek. “It’s good to see you. Did you enjoy the Caribbean? Catch lots of fish?”

“I did,” he said grudgingly. “Until I arrived home expecting to get a little time with my granddaughters only to find they’re not here.”

A ball of lead dropped into the pit of her stomach. Panic clutched at her heart. “Not here? What do you mean they’re not here? They have to be here. Hannah babysat them for me today while I was at the club with Abby and—”

None of that mattered. Nothing mattered but finding her daughters. Where was Hannah? What could have happened?

She pushed past her father, headed for the staircase, to the girls’ room, but her father’s stern, no-nonsense voice stopped her dead.

“Don’t bother, they’re not in their room. Hannah tells me their father picked them up this afternoon and took them out to his ranch.”

Slowly, Sadie turned around to face her father. His cool blue eyes were glinting with disapproval. The lead ball in her stomach iced over, then caught fire in a splintering shower of fury that swept through her in such a rush she could hardly draw a breath.

“He did what?”

“You heard me, Sadie. Rick Pruitt picked up the girls and took them home with him.” Frowning, he asked, “Is this going to be a regular thing now? Are the girls going to be tossed back and forth between you two with no notice at all?”

“No,” she told him, feeling the fire of her anger slide through her veins. “They’re not.”

“Hannah tells me that Pruitt has proposed to you.”

“He did.” Sadie was already walking out of the house, the heels of her sandals clacking noisily against the floor. Her father kept pace with her, out the door, down the porch steps and across the driveway.

Robert slapped one big hand on the car door to hold it closed when Sadie tried to wrestle it open. “And you turned him down?”

“I did.”

“Why the hell would you do that?” he bellowed. “The Pruitt boy wouldn’t have been my first choice, but you made that decision when you conceived your girls. Now he’s here, ready to do his duty and you tell him no?”

“I am so bloody sick of the word duty!” Sadie shouted it and almost enjoyed seeing the shock written on her father’s expression.

“I’ll thank you not to raise your voice to me,” Robert said coolly.

“It’s the only way you’ll ever hear me, Dad,” she snapped. “I am no one’s duty. I won’t be forced into marriage. Not again.”

This time, her father at least had the grace to look abashed. After all, it had been he who had forced her to marry Taylor. The man who had shown Sadie up close and personal just how humiliating a life could get.

“You owe it to your children—”

“That’s right, Dad,” she interrupted him and felt a rush of power inside her. She’d never stood up to him before and at that moment, she couldn’t for the life of her fathom why not. “The girls are my children. Not yours. I’ll make the decisions concerning them and I don’t need any help. Not from you. Not from Rick Pruitt.”

“You’re obviously overwrought,” Robert said.

“No, Dad,” she countered, “I’m not overwrought. I’m pissed.” She deliberately used a word she knew her father would find distasteful and felt another wash of freedom sweep through her.

“Sadie,” her father said, his voice softer now, his eyes filled with concern.

No doubt, she told herself, he was convinced that she’d had a nervous breakdown. One padded room, coming up.

“I’m not crazy,” she said. “I don’t need to lie down. And I don’t need you telling me what to do. Not anymore.”

He opened and closed his mouth several times, but not a sound came out. For the first time in Sadie’s memory, she was seeing her ever-so-perfect father speechless.

Sadie looked up at him and realized that the man who had run her life … the man whose approval she had sought for so long … no longer worried her. She was an adult now. A mother. And she didn’t owe her father or any other damn person in Royal an explanation for anything she did.

“As for what happens with my girls, that’s between me and Rick,” she added. “Frankly, Dad, it’s none of your business.”

“Sadie!”

“Oh,” she said, since she was on a roll and why stop now, “I’ll be finding a place of my own. The girls and I can’t stay here, Dad. I appreciate the interim help but it’s time I stood on my own two feet again.”

Deliberately, she peeled his fingers off the car door, opened it and slipped inside. She fired up the engine, rolled down her window and said, “I’m going to collect my daughters. I’ll talk to you later.”

And fatigue forgotten, she stepped on the gas until her tires squealed a protest as she peeled out of the driveway. A quick glance in her rearview mirror showed her that her father was still staring after her, clearly thunderstruck.

She smiled grimly.

He wouldn’t be the last man she had it out with tonight.

Rick was ready for her.

He had been waiting for this confrontation since bringing the girls home to the ranch a few hours ago. Rick had to admit that without Sadie’s housekeeper Hannah’s cooperation, he never would have gotten away with it. Thankfully, though, the older woman was on his side in this mess. Also thankfully, Hannah had been with the Price family so long, was so much a mother to Sadie, that she wasn’t worried about the possibility of losing her job for helping him.

It had been good, having his kids here for the afternoon. They had explored the stable, petted horses and fed carrots to the two ponies. They visited John Henry’s golden retriever, who just happened to have given birth to a litter of pups the week before. The twins had been delighted with those puppies and were already busy claiming all eight of them.

Rick smiled, in spite of the battle that was looming in his immediate future. He was being sucked into a world filled with puppies, ponies and little girls’ laughter.

And he loved it.

No way was he going to lose it.

When Sadie brought her car to a screeching halt out front, Rick opened the door and stood on the threshold, arms crossed over his chest, feet braced in a fighting stance. He knew she wouldn’t listen to reason, so he had decided to try different ammunition in their private little war.

Looked like he had gotten her attention.

Sadie slammed the car door and shouted, “Where are they?”

“Right here,” he said. “Where they belong.”

She came around the front of the car like an avenging angel. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see sparks flying off the top of her head, she was so furious.

Well, she should join the club because he was pretty mad himself. And he was fed up. Not a good combination.

“The girls belong with their mother.”

“Wrong,” Rick said as she closed on him, fury obviously firing every step she took. “They belong with their parents. Both of us.”

She actually growled and threw her hands in the air helplessly. “We are not together! Damn it, Rick …”

“Hey, I tried to be reasonable. I tried to do the right thing. You don’t want to hear it.”

Her eyes widened and both blond eyebrows shot high on her forehead. “And you think this is the way to convince me to marry you? Kidnapping my daughters?”

He snorted derisively. “I didn’t kidnap anybody. Those girls are just as much mine as yours.”

She stomped up the front steps, stepping into the light thrown from the entryway. Illuminated against the backdrop of night, she looked even more beautiful than ever, he thought. Her long blond hair was loose around her shoulders. Her green T-shirt was wrinkled, her blue jeans were faded and soft and the heeled sandals she wore displayed toenails painted a deep crimson.

He wanted her so badly he could hardly breathe.

She pulled in a deep breath that did wonders for that T-shirt, then she lifted her chin and glared at him with all the freezing power of the ice princess he had once thought her to be.

“I want to see my daughters. Now.”

“All you had to do was ask,” he said.

“Why should I have to ask to see my own kids?” she snapped.

“Huh. Exactly what I’ve been asking myself,” he told her.

Her mouth tightened up and he knew she was gritting her teeth in pure frustration. Good to see she was feeling a little of what he’d been dealing with lately.

“Are you going to let me pass?” she finally managed to grind out.

“Absolutely,” he said and stepped to one side, allowing her to slip past him and into the house.

“Where are they?”

“In their room,” he told her, following her as she headed for the wide staircase. “They’re perfectly happy. Elena made them dinner, they’ve had a bath and now they’re playing before bedtime.”

“Their beds are at home.”

“This is their home.”

The wall along the stairwell was lined with dozens of framed photos. Of Rick’s family, going back generations. This was the Pruitt home. Where Pruitt children were raised. Where his girls would grow up, he told himself firmly.

She stopped halfway up, pausing on a wide stair tread, and turned her head to fry him with another hot look. “You had no right.”

Rick grabbed her arm and held her in place. “I had every right. I’m their father.”

“You should have asked me.”

“Right!” He laughed shortly without a trace of humor. “Like you enjoyed just asking me to arrange visits with the girls? I’ll be damned if I’m going to ask permission every time I want to see my own kids.”

She huffed out a breath, threw a quick glance at the top of the stairs, then turned her gaze back on him. “Rick, we’re going to have to work this out. Legally. Visitation. Schedules.”

“Do I look like the kind of man who’s going to visit his kids according to a schedule some lawyer cooks up?” he asked her, keeping his voice low, so his daughters wouldn’t hear him arguing with their mother.

Pulling her arm free of his grasp, she said shortly, “You won’t have a choice. This is how things are done, Rick.”

“Not in my family,” he countered. “In my family, parents and children live together. They love each other. Those girls have a right to grow up on the ranch that will be theirs one day, Sadie. I want them to know it. To love it, like I do.” He waved one hand at the wall behind her. “Look at those pictures, Sadie. That’s family. The twins’ family. They belong here.”

“They will be here,” she said, clearly trying to ap pease him. “But they’re not going to live here with you fulltime, Rick. They’ll be with me. They need their mother.”

“Yeah, they do,” he acknowledged. “But they need me, too.”

He looked into those blue eyes and found himself fighting against his own instincts. Yes, he’d gone to her house to collect the children, not just because he’d wanted to be with them. But because he knew it would be a hard lesson for Sadie. He wasn’t going to be cheated out of his kids’ lives because their mother was too stubborn to do the right thing.

“I won’t be bought off with weekends and part of the summer. I won’t be a part-time visitor to my own children.”

“I didn’t say it would be like that.”

“Yeah? How do you see it going, then?”

She sighed heavily and he only now noticed the signs of weariness about her. Her eyes weren’t as clear as they usually were and there was a decided droop to her shoulders. Looked to him like she’d been getting by on very little sleep lately. Just like him. He didn’t know whether to feel bad about that, or to be pleased knowing that she was as affected by this battle between them as he was.

He went with pleased.

Sagging against the wall, she looked at him for a long minute and finally shook her head. “I came over here ready to skin you alive for taking the girls without so much as telling me what you were up to.”