Читать книгу The Virgin Bride Said, 'Wow!' - Cathy Thacker Gillen - Страница 10

“What the…?” Brady said, looking every bit as shocked and upset as Kelsey would have expected him to be, given her abrupt change of mind.

“I’m a virgin.” Kelsey tugged the covers to her chin and scooted as far away from him as she could without leaving the bed. She hated to disappoint him, but she knew she couldn’t go through with it, not feeling the way she did. “I thought I could,” she continued, trembling from head to toe. “But I can’t. I—” She swallowed hard around the growing ache in her throat. “I’m sorry.”

“A virgin,” Brady repeated, still looking as stunned as if she’d hit him over the head with a board.

“Yes.” Keeping the sheet wrapped around her like a shield, Kelsey eased from the bed. “So now you know.” She took a breath, and kept her eyes from Brady’s naked, gloriously sexy body. Doing her best to build on what little dignity she had left, she said, “I trust you won’t tell anyone else.”

Brady shook his head. “Then what…what was that striptease about?”

“I thought it might be nice to go to bed with you.” Kelsey tried her hardest but could not keep her eyes from straying to his long, sturdy limbs and glowing golden skin and the wealth of curly black hair. He was solid muscle from head to toe. And lower still, below his waist… Oh, my. My!

Aware he was still glaring at her, waiting for her to continue, she moved her eyes from his arousal, back to his face. She gulped in great amounts of air. “After all, we’re married,” she said hastily, wishing he would do something besides lounge there, so expectantly, on her bed. “And it would solve some problems. And…and I’ve never done it before and all my sisters obviously have, so…”

“So you thought you’d use me to get some experience,” Brady said grimly. “And in a roundabout way keep up with all of them.” Lips set, he bounded from her bed and snatched up his jeans.

Not about to let him make her into some villainess, when all she had done was make a simple error in judgment, Kelsey stomped closer and shot right back, “Listen, cowboy, it’s not like you weren’t using me, too. To…to…”

“Experience some pleasure?” Brady filled in the blanks.

“Right.” Kelsey tore her eyes from his rigid lower half.

“Only we didn’t get anywhere near that, Kelse.” Brady stomped closer yet, his strong, tall body exuding so much heat he could practically have started a prairie fire all on his own. “All we did was frustrate ourselves.”

Like she didn’t know that? She was still tingling all over, still wanting something indescribable, still scared. But she would be damned if she would show Brady Anderson, her new husband, any of that, especially when he was being so sanctimonious. So Kelsey merely went over to her vanity and sat down on the bench. Aware he was watching her every move even as he tugged on his jeans, she crossed her legs at the knee beneath the toga-wrapped sheet, and offered him a sassy smile, pretending an ease she couldn’t begin to feel. “Better luck next time?”

“There’s not going to be a next time,” Brady vowed, grabbing his shirt.

Panic filled Kelsey’s soul. She’d gotten used to having Brady around. “What do you mean?” Despite what had just happened between them, she still wanted him in her life.

But, oblivious to her feelings on the matter, Brady jerked on his boots, one after another. “I mean I don’t enjoy being played for a fool,” he stormed.

“I didn’t do that!”

Finished, Brady stood and advanced on her so deliberately and methodically he took her breath away. He didn’t stop until he towered over her. “Then what do you call it?” he asked very softly, looking down at her.

Kelsey swallowed but didn’t back down. “A mistake.”

His lips compressed thinly. “I agree with you there.”

Remorse filled her, followed quickly by the need to behave responsibly and make amends. “Brady…”

He put up both hands before she could touch him. “Just don’t, Kelse. Just don’t.”

Without another word, Brady stormed from the room. Kelsey had just started to run after him when the phone rang. Frowning, she went to get it. Rafe Marshall was on the other end of the line. An old school chum of Kelsey’s, and former boyfriend, he was now principal at the elementary school and father of eight-year-old twins. “I really need to talk to you,” he said. “I’ve got a big favor to ask. Do you think you could come over to the school and meet me?”

“Now?” She couldn’t imagine what Rafe would need to see her about.

“Well, yes,” Rafe said, “if it’s convenient.”

Why not? Kelsey thought, her curiosity piqued. All she was going to do here was sit around and feel bad about what had not happened with Brady. “Be right there,” Kelsey said.

She went to her closet, put on a fresh set of clothes, retrieved her boots from the bottom of the stairs and headed out the door. She saw Brady come out of the barn just as she was climbing into her pickup truck. Ignoring the way he was looking at her—as if he’d had second thoughts and wanted to talk to her after all—she gunned the truck and sped off.

Rafe was waiting for her when she entered the empty halls. He led her into his office and gestured for her to have a seat. “Shouldn’t you be home having dinner with your twins?” Kelsey asked. Since his wife had died a couple of years ago, Rafe had tried to give his kids as much stability as possible. Most nights that meant he was with his kids.

“My mom is visiting and with them. I told her I’d be late.” Rafe sank down behind his desk. He was a handsome man, given to wearing his shirts and ties in the exact same color, but the stress of the past few years had left him with wings of gray just above his ears, and at his temples, and a hint of sadness around his eyes. Lately, Kelsey had noted happily, that sadness had been disappearing, bit by bit.

“Kelse, I need your help.” As usual, Rafe got straight to the point. “You know Patricia Weatherby?”

Kelsey nodded. “She works at the chamber of commerce, has a little five-year-old girl named Molly.” As she recalled, they had stopped in Laramie en route to California when Molly had to have an appendectomy, and liked the town and the people so much they decided to settle here permanently.

“Right. Well—” Rafe paused and drew a deep breath, as if already working up his nerve “—I want to ask her out.”

Kelsey shrugged, not sure where she fit into all this. It wasn’t as if Rafe needed her permission. The two of them had been over for a long time. “So what’s stopping you?” she asked.

“I’m afraid I’ll mess it up.” Rafe frowned, worry darkening his eyes. “I haven’t had a date since I got married and that was years and years ago. I’m afraid if I go out with her, without a little practice, I’ll mess it up and blow my chances with Patricia permanently.”

Rafe could be a little physically clumsy at times, but Kelsey didn’t hold that against him and she couldn’t see a nice woman like Patricia Weatherby doing so, either. “You’re being a little hard on yourself, aren’t you?”

He didn’t think so. He picked up a pencil and turned it end over end. “Do you know how many other guys have asked her out since she settled here? Fifteen. No one’s made it past a first date. She won’t go out with them after that—she says she’d like to be friends, but beyond that, she can tell it’s not going to work out. She’s real nice about it, from what I’ve heard, but she’s firm. Once she has decided you’re not the one for her, you’re not the one.”

Ouch, Kelsey thought, taking off her cowgirl hat and laying it in her lap.

“And since you sort of operate the same way… Well,” Rafe amended quickly when he saw he had offended her. He leaned forward urgently. “You know what I mean. You’ve dated a lot of guys, Kelsey, and turned ’em all down eventually, usually after just a date or two or three yourself, so…I figured maybe you could clue me in as to what it is exactly that turns women like you and Patricia off to men in the first place. Then I would know what not to do and I could just not do it.”

Kelsey could see he was dead serious. “Well, it really isn’t any one specific thing, Rafe,” she said, being careful not to hurt his feelings, even though she did think he was worrying about this unnecessarily. Still, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to help him build up his self-confidence. She sat back in her chair and fingered the brim of her hat. “A lot of things turn a woman off to a guy.”

“Such as…?” Rafe pressed.

Kelsey shrugged and did her best to explain. “Sometimes it’s a chemistry thing. I get that kiss at the front door at the end of the night, and I know…we haven’t got a shot.” Unlike with Brady. When he had kissed her, she had known they not only had a shot…that it was damned likely they’d end up together at some point, for at least a certain length of time.

“But it’s not always as simple as a lack of chemistry,” Rafe said.

“No.” With effort, Kelsey forced her mind away from Brady and his kiss, and their near tumble, and back to the conversation at hand. “Sometimes it’s the way a guy forgets to open a door for me,” she said.

Rafe looked stunned. “You want guys to open a door for you?”

“Well, not always. Sometimes. Why?” Kelsey found herself getting defensive. “You got a problem with that?”

“No. I’m just surprised. That’s all.” Rafe paused. “What else?”

“Well, honestly, Rafe, I don’t know.” As restless as could be, Kelsey shot out of her chair and paced his office, slapping the brim of her hat against her thigh as she moved. “I haven’t even had a date in a while, not since the guys in town stopped asking me out.”

“Well, yeah—” Rafe was quick to jump to the other men’s defense “—none of them thought they had a chance.” He stopped and made a face when he saw he had offended her again. “Sorry. Listen, would you do me a favor? Would you have a secret date with me?”

Kelsey sighed and sat down in her chair again. “Why does it have to be secret?”

“Because I don’t want Patricia to think I’m interested in any woman but her when I do ask her out. Besides, what I want you to do is sort of give me a dating lesson. Let’s just go somewhere where nobody knows us, and we’ll pretend we’re on a date, and I’ll do all the things I intend to do for Patricia, you know, like holding the door and having dinner table conversation and maybe even asking her to dance if you think that’s a good thing. You can critique me. And that’ll give me a chance to get all my ducks in a row and build up my confidence before I actually do ask her out. I really, really don’t want to blow this, Kelsey. I think Patricia’s the woman for me, and I haven’t felt that way about a woman since my wife died.”

Rafe seemed so sure about what he wanted. Kelsey could only admire him for that. Besides, she figured she owed him. He had steered a lot of kids who wanted riding lessons her way. “I would be happy to help you with that, Rafe,” she said.

“How about tomorrow night then?” Rafe asked.

Kelsey hesitated. “Tomorrow’s pretty busy. Brady and I are going on a buying trip and I’m not sure how long it will take, or when we’ll be back, but Wednesday evening is definitely free.”

“Wednesday evening is good for me, too.” Rafe smiled. “Meet me at the Gilded Lily, around seven.”

Kelsey frowned at the mention of the restaurant he had selected. “There are a couple of waiters over there who are known to be a little snooty, Rafe.” In Kelsey’s opinion, it was not the place to be if you were as nervous as Rafe was likely to be on his first date with Patricia Weatherby.

“It’s also the only true five-star restaurant in the area and I want to impress Patricia and show her a really memorable time.”

Kelsey could see he had his mind made up. Far be it for her to try to change it. “All right, then. The Gilded Lily it is. Oh, and Rafe?” Kelsey paused as she headed out the door. “I probably should mention one more thing. As of this afternoon—I’m married. So your idea about keeping this little dating lesson of ours a secret? It’s a good one.”

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” Brady demanded the moment Kelsey sauntered in the front door. He was dressed in his usual dusty brown cowboy boots and jeans, but he had changed into a clean blue denim work shirt that brought out the blue of his eyes. Trying not to think what it might be like to go on a date with Brady, Kelsey walked right past him, into the kitchen.

Even though she knew she owed him an apology, she didn’t want to think or talk about what had happened between them earlier. She still felt pretty embarrassed at the way she had lured him into her bed and then chickened out at the very last minute, before anything really momentous could happen. But she figured he did not need to know that.

“And hello to you, too, husband dear.” Adopting her most carefree air, Kelsey put the bag containing a take-out beef barbecue dinner down on the table. “I hope you’re hungry. I bought this especially for you.”

His scowl faded as the aroma of tender, mesquite-flavored beef and spicy barbecue sauce filled the air. “If you’d have asked me, I’d have gone with you.”

Kelsey brought out containers of vinegar-based slaw, potato salad and beans, and snapped the lids off those, too. She held his gaze for a moment, before she went to get the plates and silverware. “I thought we both needed some cooling off time.”

“You can say that again.” Brady brought two cold drinks and a stack of paper napkins to the table and held out a chair for her before he sat himself. As casually as if they ate dinner as a couple every day. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he’d been talking to Rafe about the things she really wanted from a man. One thing was for sure. Brady’d never held a door or chair for her before, not even when they got married this afternoon. In fact, he’d gone out of his way to steer physically clear of her.

Kelsey waited until they had both filled their plates with a generous amount of food, then said, “Listen. About what happened earlier, I’m sorry.”

Brady sighed in a way that let her know he had as many regrets as she did. He reached across the table and took both her hands in his. “I’m sorry, too.” He looked at her deliberately. “I scared you and I sure didn’t mean to do that. If you’d just told me you were a beginner…” His voice trailed off.

Despite her desire to remain in peace-making mode, Kelsey couldn’t help the rise of temper insider her belly. He made her sound so inept. She tugged her hands out of his. “A beginner?”

“A beginner in bed,” Brady corrected himself hastily. “Okay?”

Kelsey frowned. She hated the fact he looked so at ease when she was still tied up in knots. “Well, if I am, it’s not for lack of trying this afternoon.”

“If I had known how inexperienced you were,” Brady huffed in an irritated tone of voice Kelsey was beginning to know all too well, “I would have said no.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Exactly why I didn’t tell you,” Kelsey sassed right back, determined not to let him get the better of her in this or any other way.

“But had I agreed,” Brady added as if she hadn’t spoken, continuing to look at her in a very sexy, very determined way, “I would have indoctrinated you slowly. I wouldn’t have rushed you into it. I would have—”

“Seduced me?” Kelsey guessed hopefully as the two of them began to eat.

“Yes.” Brady nodded.

Abruptly, Kelsey’s mind was filled with images of the two of them in bed. All night. “Well, we could still do that,” Kelsey murmured offhandedly, her curiosity mounting as her innate recklessness took over once again and pushed her to explore this life to its limits. What would it have been like, she wondered, if she hadn’t panicked, but instead had regained her courage and let Brady’s hand move lower, more intimately still? Would he have made love to her, the way he had wanted to make love to her? Would they still be in her bed now? Despite her fear, she tingled just thinking about the possibility of losing her virginity with Brady. Here. Now. Tonight. After all, he was her husband….

Brady, who was still watching her intently, guessed at the nature of her thoughts and made a rude, guffawing sound in the back of his throat. “Oh, no, Kelse. Not on your life are we trying that again.”

Kelsey’s brows knitted together in consternation. The disaster this afternoon aside, she had never been one to give up on anything she really wanted, and neither, she sensed, had Brady.

“Why not?” she asked. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do when you fell off a horse, so to speak? Get back on?

Brady took a thirsty gulp of his drink and forked up some tender beef. “Because I am not all that fond of sexual torture and cold showers, that’s why not.”