The Texas Rancher's Marriage Read online

  Her pulse racing, Merri lifted a palm. “I can explain.”

  Liz lifted a hand, too. “I don’t need to hear it. I don’t want to hear it. Just be aware that Judge Roy is privy to all this, too.”

  Their attorney had a point. “So what do you suggest I do?” Merri asked nervously.

  “Demonstrate to everyone that what the two of you are proposing to the court is in the best interest of the twins. That there is every reason to put faith in you as a couple—and a family.”

  * * *

  CHASE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT had gotten into Merri or Starr. All he knew was that he was sandwiched between them, and both were acting as if he were the most fantastic man on earth. Smiling at him, engaging him and each other in conversation, constantly touching his arms.

  Addie kept trying to intervene, too, and divert all the attention to her, in a way that was unusual, to say the least. While Nissa, Davita, Harmony and Polly enjoyed their meal and looked on in bemusement.

  Not that the twins were about to come in last, either. Jeffrey and Jessalyn sat nestled together on the other side of Merri. Demanding that she—and only she—cut their turkey, and take the offending green beans and sweet potato casserole off their plates.

  Meanwhile, everyone they knew stopped by their table on the way to and from the buffet table to congratulate Merri and Chase on their new marriage. And each time it happened, she tensed.

  Chase knew how she felt. Because it did seem a little insincere.

  And that, he knew, was going to have to be rectified.

  They couldn’t go back into Judge Roy’s court, swearing they were “family,” when right now, anyway, they were anything but that.

  Maybe making love would help. That, and him finding a way to get close enough to the twins to become the daddy they needed and deserved....

  “Earth to Chase. Earth to Chase,” Starr teased, touching his arm again.

  What was with all the physical possessiveness? He turned to his former coworker, wondering how he could get her to back off without hurting her feelings or making a scene. To his left, he heard Merri push back her chair.

  “Hurrah! We get to go play!” the twins shouted exuberantly, running off to the temporary children’s center set up in one corner of the banquet hall. Looking flustered, Merri rushed to catch up with them.

  Starr kept right on talking, raving about the hospitality of his home county, but Chase only had eyes for the woman he had married.

  Damn, but Merri was gorgeous, even in borrowed clothes and shoes that didn’t match.

  Smiling, she settled the kids with the teenagers supervising the indoor play area, then turned and plunged back into the crowd of friends and neighbors, to his surprise making made a beeline for every single, cute, thirty-something man there. One by one, she patted them on the biceps, whispered in their ear and urged them to tag along with her.

  Within ten minutes, she had half a dozen guys surrounding her and was walking back to the table where Chase and his lady friends sat, enjoying their after-dinner coffees.

  An unfamiliar pang of jealousy knotted Chase’s gut. Was this some sort of payback for the onslaught of women around him?

  Merri gestured magnanimously as they reached the table. “What we have here, fellas, are six ladies in need of the blue-ribbon tour of Laramie, Texas.”

  The men grinned, exchanging glances with each other as well as their feminine quarry. “I think we can handle that,” one drawled.

  “Particularly if all you ladies want to stay around for the band that’s going to play later this evening, over at the dance hall.”

  “I don’t know....” Starr demurred. “I’m not sure we should desert Chase or Merri, since we’re all leaving tomorrow....”

  He stood and nudged her gently, “You should go. It’ll be fun. Besides…” He turned to his wife. “Merri and I will be busy with the kids this evening. ’Cause I don’t think there’s any way they’re going to last that long.”

  Acting all wifely again, Merri confirmed, “They won’t.”

  Starr wrinkled her nose. “You’re really going to miss all the fun?”

  Chase wrapped his arm around Merri’s shoulders and gave her a playful buss on the temple. “Not all the fun.” He winked salaciously and everyone laughed.

  “Well,” Addie murmured, looking straight at Starr, “they are newlyweds!”

  * * *

  NEWLYWEDS INDEED, MERRI thought with a silent snort.

  She didn’t feel like Chase’s wife. And he certainly wasn’t acting like a husband to her, except that he was annoying her right now, the way she had seen almost every husband annoy his wife at one time or another. Unfortunately, for everyone’s sake, Merri knew she had to follow their attorney’s advice and demonstrate that she and Chase were a viable couple who would do right by their children.

  “Can I have a word with you, hon?” Chase asked. “Privately?”

  Not if it meant they would end up kissing again, here of all places. Merri gave him a look only he could see. “Can it wait? I’ve got to talk to Paige and Kurt....”

  “Actually—” Chase began, tenderly tightening his grip and pulling her closer to his side.

  At that precise moment, the hospital chaplain passed by, beaming. He gave Merri a thumbs-up. “Best sweet potato casserole I’ve ever eaten, bar none.”

  It figured, Merri thought drily, the way her day was going....

  “Don’t know what you did to it, but the chaplain’s right—it is fantastic,” Deputy Rio Vasquez agreed enthusiastically as he passed by about the same time, another serving of casserole in hand. “Your mother’s recipe never tasted so good in all the years you’ve been cooking it.”

  This would be the one time she would get wildly enthusiastic compliments.

  “So good,” a cowboy chimed in, “that it’s now completely gone.” He looked at Merri wistfully. “You did your mama proud.”

  “Thanks.” Honor dictated that Merri give credit where it was due, no matter how embarrassed she felt. “But I didn’t make it this year.” Smiling self-consciously, she pointed at the stunning nurse on the other side of the room. “Starr did.”

  The men fell silent as they realized they had just put their foot in it.

  “But I’ll let her know you guys all really liked it,” Merri promised, before turning to Chase. “In the meantime, I’ve got to let the twins know they’re going to go home with Kurt and Paige and the triplets for a play date, while I tend to the herd back at the ranch and do the milking.”

  A mixture of surprise and hurt flashed across Chase’s face. “I could have watched the kids,” he said quietly. Realizing this was a private discussion, their companions drifted away.

  Guiltily, Merri realized that she hadn’t even thought to ask him if he wanted to do so. She was going to have to work on this co-parenting thing. “This is sort of our tradition,” Merri explained, with an apologetic glance. “But if you want to go with them to Paige and Kurt’s home, I’m sure it would be okay with them,” she finished kindly.

  Another wave of tension ran between them, as if he, too, knew how out of sync they were. Ready to do what he could to remedy that, he looked her in the eye. “How about I help you instead?”

  Chase? Operating a milking machine? Cleaning out the barn? Merri shook her head. “Thanks, but Addie already offered to assist me again.”

  Chase aimed a thumb over his shoulder, his lips lifting in a grin. “Addie looks like she has her hands
full with that cowboy.”

  Well, what do you know? Merri thought, watching Addie flirting shyly with her gentlemen companions. Good for her!

  Merri turned back to Chase, still not able to see him assisting her. Like it or not, he belonged in a hospital, with a bevy of adoring assistants around him. She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a dirty job.”

  He fixed her with a deadpan look. “I can get dirty.”

  Heaven help her, she was reading all sorts of things into that remark. Shrugging, Merri ignored the shimmer of sexual attraction between them. “Suit yourself.”

  Realizing he had gotten to her, upping the ante another notch, he chuckled. “Thanks, hon, I will.”

  She let her gaze rove over his tall, solidly built frame and powerful shoulders. “And stop calling me hon.” When he came closer, she could feel his body heat. “Okay, sweetheart.”

  She put her hands on her hips and returned his smoldering gaze. “I don’t like that endearment, either, cowboy.”

  He rubbed his jaw in a thoughtful manner, eyeing her thoughtfully. His gaze took her in, head to toe. “Babe?”

  Her smile widened as the flirtatious mood between them deepened. “What do you think, hunk of burning love?”

  He rocked back on his heels and squinted speculatively. “Sugar?”

  Merri stifled her amusement and drew an indignant breath. “Doesn’t really fit, either, honey bunch.”

  Chase laughed, the sound deep and flirtatious. Awareness sifted through her as he shifted the fall of her hair away from her face and leaned forward to whisper in her ear, “Well, it’s not going to be darling.”

  The warmth of his breath warmed her skin. Refusing to think about hauling him into her arms and kissing him again, she retorted, “Wise decision, hubby dear.”

  “Well, then—” He wrapped a possessive arm about her waist and gave her a decisive look meant to needle her even more. “Wifey it is, then.”

  Merri groaned at the thought, even as she let him guide her toward the door.

  The facetious argument about what sort of endearments they could use for each other carried them all the way out to the ranch. Given the seriousness of the problems facing them—both in court and on the home front, it was a relief to talk about something utterly nonsensical. “Maybe I should just call you sheik,” Merri decided, when they finally parked in front of the ranch house.

  Chase got out of the SUV, glad they were finally going to have some time alone together. Their first real solitude since the afternoon they had decided to marry.

  Grinning, he fell into step beside her. “Sheik?”

  Merri paused to unlock the front door, then swept inside in a drift of lavender perfume. “You’ve already vetoed stud and honey, baby cakes and sweetie pie.”

  Merri carried their stained clothing into the laundry room and deposited it in a wicker basket marked Dry Cleaning. Whirling again, she slid past him and headed for the staircase.

  Lazily, Chase followed. “But sheik?”

  Inside their bedroom, Merri grabbed a clean set of work clothes and disappeared into the master bath. “Kinds of fits with the ‘harem,’ don’t you think?” she said, around the mostly closed door.

  Chase began to strip down, too. “So you are jealous.”

  “I am not.” Merri emerged, borrowed set of clothing in hand.

  Chase admired the way she looked in her flannel shirt and faded, threadbare jeans. He strode to the closet and rummaged for his jeans. “I was,” he admitted as he pulled out a thermal, long-sleeved T-shirt, too.

  “Of what?” Merri sat down to pull on a pair of wool socks.

  “You.” Chase closed his fly. Tugged the shirt on over his head. “With all those guys you rounded up.”

  Merri slanted him a skeptical glance as he sat down next to her on the bed.

  He shrugged, thinking about the way he’d felt when he’d seen her flirting with them. “I didn’t know what you had in mind.”

  Her green eyes glimmering, Merri scoffed. “A sevensome?” She slapped her hand on his jean-clad thigh and bounded right back to her feet. “Seriously, Chase!”

  He stood, too, locking eyes with her. “Well, okay, not that, but…” His mood turned deeply serious again as he admitted, “I think of you as mine.”

  He watched for her reaction.

  To his frustration, she looked more wary than ever. “To a point,” she said slowly, “I am.”

  He hooked his arms about her waist and pulled her close. “More than just a point,” he said, wanting more than ever to take things to the next step.

  * * *

  MERRI SAW THE DESIRE IN Chase’s eyes. She splayed her hands across his chest and hitched in a bolstering breath. “Chase…” She moaned as his lips blazed a fiery path across her forehead, dipping down to the sensitive spot behind her ear.

  “We’re never going to feel married unless we behave like we’re married,” he coaxed, working his way down the slope of her throat.

  Merri arched against him. Her fingers clutched his shirt, even as she struggled against the sensations coursing through her body. She closed her eyes, thinking maybe it wouldn’t feel so erotic, so right, being here with him this way, if she couldn’t see him.

  “This isn’t the way,” she protested weakly.

  He slid a hand beneath her chin and lifted her lips to his. “Tell me that in five minutes,” he murmured, “and I’ll believe you.”

  The next thing she knew they were kissing. Hotly. Tenderly. Merri shifted her hands to the nape of his neck and curled her fingers into his hair. Unable to help herself—the truth was she wanted to claim him, too—she surged against him, loving the taste and touch and wonder of him. He was everything she had ever wished for, and she could feel his arousal, pressing hard against her, summoning up her own blossoming need. She wanted him desperately and she let him know it with a sweet, searing kiss in return.

  Chase knew it was medieval of him, but he wanted to put his stamp of possession on Merri. He wanted her with him, with absolutely nothing held back. Anchoring his arm around her waist, he guided her toward the bed. Their bed. Fell onto it with her, so she was beneath him. Her body was throbbing everywhere his was.

  “Okay… You’re convincing me,” she gasped, slipping her palms beneath the hem of his shirt, running them across his skin. “But we’ve got chores to do, and kids to pick up later, so we have to make this fast.”

  Chase knew what she was thinking. As long as they kept this purely physical and matter-of-fact, their hearts would stay intact. He reached for the buttons on her shirt, uncovering her a few inches at a time. The swell of her breasts peeked out from the lace of her bra. He undid the clasp, revealing creamy skin and pink nipples. His lips followed where his eyes had gone. “Not too fast.”

  But again, she wanted to keep things casual, with all the caution their situation required, and none of the heart. Knowing that wouldn’t work in the long run, not for her, Chase kissed her to remind her of what they could have, given half a chance. He kissed her to show her what he wanted them to have, in the end. He kissed her out of frustration for the way everything was evolving, and the way that it wasn’t.

  And she kissed him back, responding to his passion, meeting his need. Until he knew that what was happening had less to do with their marriage than the way she made him feel, as if he had to be part of her life, and she his. Not just for now…so they’d be more in sync as a married couple. But because there was something here. Something
real and vital and worth exploring. Something they couldn’t ignore.

  He had no more time to contemplate that, however, because she surged against him, tugging and unzipping. “I can’t wait....”

  Needing, wanting her—and the closeness she offered—he tugged and unzipped, too, and it was like Christmas Day as they wiggled out of the rest of their clothes and climbed onto the bed. Their naked bodies pressed up against each other in the fading afternoon sunlight streaming through the blinds and he stroked her dewy softness. “Here?”

  She yielded to him with the sure sense of a woman. “Yes. Oh…yes…there!” Arms wrapped around him, she kissed him again, trembling, clinging to him. He kissed her back, until she surrendered to him completely, the sweet whimpering sounds in her throat a counterpoint to the lower, fierce sounds in his.

  “And here?” Chase asked, drifting lower, ready to take each moment as it came.

  She caught his head in her hands. “Oh, yeah.”

  He parted her knees and his own pulse pounding, stroked the insides of her thighs. She arched to receive him, bringing him closer yet. “So. Very. Nice.”

  And then words deserted her as he made his next move, delved even deeper, and Merri came apart in his hands. Loving the way she looked at him then, as if he was her hero and she was his princess in waiting, he couldn’t resist teasing, “Beginning to see my point?”

  Her dreamy smile widened.

  She wanted to keep things simple.

  Yet he knew they were going to get complex.

  Mischief sparkled in her green eyes. “As long as you see mine.” Smiling sassily, Merri shifted and took control, her silky hair sliding over his chest. Downward she glided, wrapping her hand around him, using the same gentle rhythm he had used on her. Suddenly, he was the one on the edge. Her lips found him, loving him slowly and thoroughly. Chase groaned, desperate to have her. “Now I’m the one who can’t wait.”