Читать книгу The Texan's Bride - Linda Warren, Linda Warren - Страница 11

CADDE MARCHED THROUGH the back door of the Murdock house. “Jessie,” he called.

No one answered, but he found Rosa in the kitchen. “Where’s Jessie?”

“Mr. Cadde,” Rosa acknowledged in surprise. “I wasn’t expecting you again.”

“Where’s Jessie?”

Rosa wiped her hands on her apron. “Probably at the barn. She went to feed her animals.”

Animals? What the hell was Rosa talking about? It suddenly hit him that he knew absolutely nothing about his wife other than she was Roscoe’s daughter and a pain to deal with at board meetings. He had no idea how she filled her days. He just had this vision of her lying across the bed in that big master bedroom eating bonbons. Obviously, she had more animals than that silly dog.

Before he could question Rosa, Jessie came through the door looking flushed. He did a double take and wasn’t really sure it was her at first. She wore jeans, a blue T-shirt and work boots. Dark stains smeared her T-shirt and strands of dark brown hair had worked loose from her knot, curling around her face. She looked like a teenager bent on a day of mischief.

“Cadde,” she said, breathing heavily. Evidently she’d run to the house. “I saw your truck…”

He held up the document in his hand. “We need to talk.”

“Oh. Okay. Let me wash my hands first.” She hurried into the bathroom off the kitchen.

“You don’t really know Miss Jessie, do you?” Rosa asked in a disapproving voice.

“No, ma’am. I don’t,” Cadde answered truthfully.

Rosa shook her head. “Mr. Roscoe was a good man but paranoid about his daughter. He never allowed her any freedom and…”

Jessie came back, interrupting Rosa. “I’ll check on Mirry and I’ll meet you in the sunroom,” she said to him.

“The dog can wait. We need to talk.”

“I’m checking on Mirry.” Her dark eyes narrowed and she brushed past him.

He charged into the sunroom, anger eating at his insides. Was she always going to have the upper hand? Whipping off his hat, he slammed it onto the glass table along with the damn document. He eased into a rattan chair, feeling out of place in the green-and-white room that overlooked the closed-in pool. Plants seemed to be everywhere, even hanging from the ceiling.

He took a long breath, trying to relax. He’d been negotiating business deals for years and he never felt as nervous as he did today. Jessie had a way of making him crazy, but this time he was going to be in control.

From the sunroof of the pool, sunlight danced off the water. He watched as if mesmerized…and waited.

AFTER CHECKING ON MIRRY, Jessie paused at the bottom of the stairs and drew a calming breath. She wanted to change her clothes, but that was pointless since Cadde had already seen her looking like one of the hired hands.

Why had he returned so soon? Could this unexpected visit mean he was accepting the offer? Or throwing it back in her face? Could this be the one thing Cadde Hardin wouldn’t do to gain control of Shilah—have a baby with her?

It was an insane idea in the first place. Yet they were married and she wanted a child. This old house was so lonely. Next time she would rethink her father’s advice.

She walked into the kitchen and got two glasses from the cabinet.

“What are you doing?” Rosa asked.

“Getting iced tea for Cadde and me.”

“That’s my job.” Rosa took the glasses from her.

“Rosa.”

Rosa paid her no attention, as always. In a matter of seconds she had them filled with ice and tea. She reached for two napkins off the granite kitchen island and handed them to Jessie.

Jessie kissed her cheek as she took them. “I love you.”

“You need someone else to love,” Rosa told her. “And I don’t mean all those animals out there.” She thumbed over her shoulder.

Jessie winked. “I’m working on it.”

“Miss Jessie, what are you up to?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

She breezed out of the kitchen and braced herself for the scene with Cadde. Her courage intact, she walked into the sunroom and placed a glass of tea and a napkin in front of him.

“Thank you,” he muttered, taking a swallow.

Jessie sipped hers before taking the seat across from him.

He pushed the document lying on the table toward her. “I signed it.”

“Oh.” Relief rushed through her. She hadn’t expected him to concede so quickly.

“But I made some changes.”

“Oh.” His abrupt attitude was making her edgy.

“Read it, sign on the dotted line and we have a deal.”

She flipped through the document and stopped when she saw his bold handwriting. She reread the page, not quite believing her eyes. “You…you…want a real marriage?”

“That’s what it says. When the deal is official, I’ll be moving into that big master bedroom.”

Her eyes caught his. “I sleep alone. I always have.”

“Not if you sign that document.”

“Why can’t you sleep in your own room?” She didn’t want him to know her secret. She slept with the bathroom light on. All those fears from her childhood were still there. She was seven when her cousin, Crissy, had been kidnapped and killed, but she remembered it. They’d lived in Houston then and after the murder her father had slept on a cot in her room with a gun across his chest. That frightened her even more.

“Because married couples sleep together.”

“But we don’t have to.”

He poked the document with a long finger, his brown eyes determined. “That’s the deal, Jessie.”

She clenched her hands in her lap until they were numb and then she forced herself to continue reading his other demands. “You claim all your rights as a father, which are granted in our marriage vows.”

“Yes.”

“And you insist on my full support at future board meetings after the marriage is consummated.”

“Yes.”

She raised her head and looked into his steady, unwavering gaze. “You’re asking an awful lot.”

“How bad do you want a baby?” he asked, and her insides quivered at the magnitude of her actions.

He reached for his hat and stood. “You have twenty-four hours to think it over.” With an in-your-face nod, he strolled from the room.

“Wait just a minute,” she called, infuriated that he was turning her tactics around on her.

He paused at the door and faced her. “What?”

“We need to talk.”

“Jessie, we’ve talked this to death. Bottom line I refuse to walk away from a kid of mine. I will be there from day one. Sign it or not. It’s up to you. If you don’t, we’re getting an annulment because I’m not living in this sham of a marriage any longer.”

“I see.” She should have known it wouldn’t be simple. Cadde was a skillful businessman and he had upped the stakes. She had to accept them or live the rest of her life alone. And if Cadde left she would truly be alone.

She gulped a breath. What were her options—loneliness or a real sleep-in-her-bed-every-night marriage? She’d started this out of desperation and she had to have the courage to finish it.

Her hand shook as she picked up the pen that was still lying there from the morning. She took another breath and wrote her name beneath Cadde’s. The action caused her to feel limp, weak and defeated somehow.

Cadde strolled back into the room and placed both hands on the table. Leaning in close to her, he asked, “Wanna go upstairs?”

She drew away. “I’m not a hooker, Cadde.”

“That’s how you make a baby, Jessie.” His eyes sparkled with glee at his victory, and she wanted to smack him.

“I want to get to know you better first.”

He straightened. “Now there are rules?”

“Yes,” she told him, taking the wind out of his sails. “We’re going out to dinner tonight.”

“Tonight! I’ve been fooling with this insanity most of the day. I have work piled up. I don’t have time to go out.”

She stood and picked up the document. “I’ll get this to my lawyer.” Her eyes locked with his. “Be here at eight or the deal is off.” After delivering that blow, she brushed past him. He didn’t grab her arm this time but she heard him curse. She smiled all the way up the stairs. At least she had the last word. Now she had to fulfill his demands.

CADDE TRIED TO CONCENTRATE on the Louisiana leases. With Jessie’s approval, he planned to move on them quickly. First they had to consummate the marriage. He tapped his pen on the papers in front of him. That would be a big step. It would make their relationship real, but he had to wonder how a marriage could survive without love.

He ran both hands over his face. How much did love matter? His parents had been in love until… Would he be like his father and cheat on Jessie? He didn’t know, but he hadn’t cheated on her in eighteen months and it had been a strain. He could have with Karen. Something held him back, though. It had to be that integrity thing Roscoe had talked about. He didn’t want to be like Chuck Hardin even if the marriage wasn’t real.

Sleeping with Jessie could turn out to be rather pleasant. If only he could get those off-limits notices out of his head. Who knew she wanted to change their relationship? She showed no signs of doing so…until today.

Fatherhood. He hadn’t thought much about it. He’d been too busy building a career. How was he going to balance his job and Jessie and a baby?

A baby! He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around that just yet. But as Jessie had mentioned, he was almost forty. It was time to think about a family.

With Jessie.

Shaking his head, he brought his concentration back to the leases. After they consummated the marriage, the first thing on his schedule was to call an emergency board meeting. He had to have their approval to move on anything.

He’d already talked to his geologist and engineers. They felt if they could drill deep enough they’d hit a big well. As soon as he decided which lease had the most potential, he’d get Kid out there to inform the lease holders. In this economy he was hoping they’d be grateful for some extra income. Roscoe had sat on those leases for a reason and now Cadde had to make it work.

Reading through the engineers’ notes, he glanced at his watch. Dammit! He didn’t have time to go out to dinner. Irritated, he found himself looking at the time every few minutes. At first, Jessie’d balked at the real marriage thing, but then she’d caved. His moment of victory was short-lived, though. Living up to his own demands wasn’t going to be easy.

The luxury of having an apartment down the hall from his office was something he was used to. Now he had to make the drive in every day. What was he thinking? At the time he was angry and wanted to get back at her. After cooling off, he realized some things were not going to work in his favor.

He slept about three nights a week at the house to keep an eye on Jessie, as he’d promised Roscoe. But he rarely saw her. He worked long hours and she was usually in bed when he came home and still asleep when he left. Through Rosa he knew she was okay and everything was running smoothly. If he needed to talk to her about business, he’d call and come home early.

“Damn you, Jessie, for screwing up my life,” he said under his breath. Her biological clock was ticking and she’d zeroed in on him, her husband, like a buzzard on a carcass. But he was the logical candidate. They couldn’t continue to live in their farce of a marriage. It would have been so much simpler if she had wanted a divorce or an annulment. Then they could have gone their separate ways. Still, he wouldn’t have felt good about that. He’d made a promise to Roscoe and, unlike his father, his word meant something to him.

Closing the files he got to his feet and headed to the apartment to get ready for a date with his wife. And God help him, it was the last thing he wanted to do.

JESSIE WENT THROUGH ALMOST every dress in her closet and finally shimmied into a black slim-fitting one with a V-neck. Looking in the mirror, she frowned. The V showed too much cleavage and she actually had some to show off. For so long she’d been flat-chested.

Taking another glance, she decided to wear the dress. After all, tonight she was starting a new role—being a wife and hopefully a mother. She sighed. Why did it have to take a business deal to bring them together? Why couldn’t they have magically fallen in love? Because Cadde never saw her as anyone other than Roscoe Murdock’s daughter.

Pushing the depressing thought aside, she sat at her dressing table. With her olive complexion, dark hair and eyes she needed very little makeup. She applied liner to her eyes and brows and then added some lip gloss. That would do. She brushed her long tresses until the static electricity almost ate her brush. Rarely did she wear her hair loose, but tonight she let it flow down her back.

She glanced at herself in the mirror and wondered like she had so many times in her life—who did she favor? Her father had blue eyes and blond hair. Without a doubt she took after her mother. When she’d asked about her, he’d say, “Jessie, baby, your mother left us a long time ago. You’ve got me, so put a smile on that pretty face.” Then she’d feel guilty for asking about a woman who would leave her child. It didn’t keep her from wondering, though.

She’d even asked Rosa, but Rosa had come to work for them after the tragedy. She’d never met Jessie’s mother.

As a child she’d dream about the mysterious woman coming back, but she didn’t. In her teens Jessie had finally accepted that. Her mother had made her choices for whatever reasons and Jessie seldom thought about her these days.

Glancing at the crystal clock on her vanity she saw it was after eight. Damn! Where was Cadde? If he bailed on her, she’d make his life a living hell. She laughed out loud. She really was her father’s daughter. But she wasn’t making anyone’s life a living hell. If he didn’t come, they’d go back to the status quo of ignoring each other. That would be her living hell.

“Get a grip, Jessie,” she said to herself as she reached for a long strand of pearls her father had bought her in New York. Slipping into high heels, she hurried downstairs to wait.

CADDE WAS RUNNING LATE, but he couldn’t help it. He’d had a call from one of his engineers and they talked about the Louisiana leases.

He rushed through the back door and found Jessie pacing in the living room, her dog trailing her every step.

“I’m sorry I’m late.” The rest of his excuse evaporated as he stared at his wife. He knew the poised Jessie in business suits and the casual Jessie in jeans, but the sexy siren in front of him was someone else entirely. He could feel his blood pressure taking a hit.

She looked at the gold watch on her arm. “Fifteen minutes, to be precise.”

“I told you I had a lot of work to do and I got away as quickly as I could.”

“And so gallant about it, too.”

“Let’s go then.” He struggled to look anywhere but at her cleavage. He felt like a teenager seeing breasts for the first time.

Jessie bent to pat the dog. “Go upstairs to your bed, Mirry. I’ll be back later.” The little thing trotted away as if she understood every word.

“Where did you get her?” he asked to focus his attention on something beside her. If it was up to him, they’d just go upstairs but he knew that wasn’t what she wanted—just yet. Damn! Why did women have to be so picky?

“I found her on the side of the road,” Jessie was saying. “Someone abused her severely and left her for dead.”

He experienced a moment of guilt for not liking the little dog. The cruelty of people floored him, but Mirry seemed to have found a savior in Jessie.

“You’re staring,” she said.

He blinked. “I’ve never seen you with your hair down.”

She called his bluff immediately. “My hair is here.” She touched her head.

“Okay, I was staring at your breasts,” he admitted like the honest Christian boy that he was. “I never realized you had…”

“Breasts,” she finished for him.

He nodded, wishing they’d never started this conversion.

“They’re pretty much standard equipment, Cadde.”

He sighed. “Could we go?”

“Sure.” She picked up a small purse from the coffee table.

“Do you want to go in my truck or your Suburban?”

“Your truck,” she replied. “My vehicle has feed in it and it’s smelly.”

“What do you feed?”

“Animals that would starve if I didn’t.”

They talked as they walked through the dining room to the kitchen. Rosa had said something about animals and now he was curious.

“What kind of animals?”

“I have five horses from the Houston SPCA. Their owner left them to starve to death in a pasture. I know someone there and she calls me when they have an animal that’s been mistreated or abused and needs a home. I also have a donkey that had an infected eye and a ram with one horn. Gavin cut off the other one and operated on the donkey’s eye. They’re doing very well. The horses were skittish at first, but between Gavin, Felix and me we’ve managed to gain their trust. Gavin doctors their sores every week or so.”

“Who’s Gavin?”

“The vet.” He opened the back door and she asked, “Do you want to know who Felix is?”

“No. I sign his damn paycheck. Why isn’t he picking up the feed?”

“Felix was busy and I was in town at a board meeting, as you may recall, so I picked it up. No big deal.”

As soon as they stepped into the garage, the Dobermans sniffed at their feet.

“Oh, I hate these dogs.” Jessie made a face.

“Why?” Again he was curious. She seemed to have an affinity for animals.

“They’re trained to kill. I told Daddy I didn’t want an animal like that, but he insisted when he went on that trip to Alaska. He was afraid someone would breach the security system while he was gone. And he wanted a surprise for the perpetrator.”

Cadde remembered that trip with Roscoe. They were checking out the oil situation, but Roscoe decided it was too damn cold for his Texas blood. Roscoe called Jessie two to three times a day and sometimes more if he was feeling restless and worried. Fear was his constant companion. He never lost the paranoia that someone was going to take Jessie from him.

“Why don’t you just get rid of them?” he suggested.

“I tried. No one wants a dog like that. I might see if Gavin can gently put them to sleep. I hate doing that but they kill every animal that comes into their perimeter—squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, possums, birds, anything. There’s always something dead in the yard in the mornings.”

She took a breath. “And they attacked the man who delivers hay for the horses. He stopped at the house and made the mistake of getting out of his truck. They were on him in a second. Felix was barely able to grab their collars and restrain them so the man could get inside his vehicle. It was very scary. I’m even afraid to go out after dark, and if they attack one of my mistreated animals I would just die.”

“Then call your friend Gavin first thing in the morning.” He didn’t want her living in fear. He wasn’t all that fond of the dogs, either.

They walked to the passenger side of his King Ranch truck. Suddenly she turned and he bumped into her. He caught her arms to steady her. Smooth, silky skin tempted his fingers and a delicate fragrance wafted to his nostrils. His heart rate rose like mercury in a thermometer. Oh, God. He released her. This was going to be a long, long evening.

“A couple of days ago Will brought me a baby fawn,” Jessie was saying. “Someone had killed her mother.”

“Who’s Will?” How many men came out here to see Jessie? He knew she was the big selling point. The animals were just an excuse. For the first time jealousy flickered in his gut. It was ridiculous. He’d never had these symptoms with the other women he’d dated. So why was Jessie different?

“The game warden,” she replied, and he jerked his attention back to the conversation. “The little thing needed nourishment badly. I have her in a cage in the barn. Since she’s a new scent I’m afraid the Dobermans will attack her. I keep a rifle at the barn and one in the house if anything goes awry.”

“Jessie, I don’t like the sound of this. Call the vet.”

She flipped back her long hair. “Are you telling me what to do?”

“Yes,” he replied.

In the light from the garage he could see her black eyes flashing. “Just so you know I don’t respond well to people telling me what to do.”

He met her gaze. “Just so you know, as your husband, I’ll be doing that—a lot.”

“I figured,” she replied in a saucy tone. “Don’t expect me to be a dutiful wife.”

He opened the passenger door of his white truck. “That’s the last thing I expect from you.”

She laughed softly and it seemed to clear the tiredness and stress from his mind.

His vehicle was high off the ground and he intended to help her inside, but she hitched up her skirt, showing a long length of smooth thighs, and hopped in without a problem.

Why did Roscoe think Jessie was fragile and helpless? She had as much strength as he had. Why had Roscoe never seen that?

He walked around to the driver’s side. Why had he never seen that? He just assumed Jessie was as vulnerable as Roscoe had described. They’d both been wrong. Jessie could match his strength any day of the week. Their marriage would be a test of wills. Who’d be the first to give in, the first to compromise?

As he backed out, he knew one thing. It wasn’t going to be him.