Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (24 page)

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Authors: Helen Conrad

BOOK: Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5)

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“Cody,” she said, trying to focus on his face. “I...”
She turned her palms up helplessly, then clenched
them into fists. “I love you.”

There was a shocked moment, then his hands were on her shoulders, fingers biting in. “Kelly.” His voice
was strangled. “Kelly, darling.”

She was in his arms. She closed her eyes and huge, hot drops rolled down her cheeks. “Oh Lord, Kelly.” His kisses rained over her cheeks, her hair, her neck. She turned her face up to him like a flower turning to
ward the sun, and he was there, his mouth caressing
hers.

“Listen.” He gently pushed her back, talking low
and fast. “I hope you don’t mind, but I went ahead
and scheduled a party day at the Video Palace for the
girls. It’s all arranged. I even got parent volunteers to go with them. They’ll be gone for hours. And in the
meantime—“ he took her hand “—you’re coming with me.”

She nodded, her eyes still wet with tears. She was going with him. She didn’t even have to stop and think about it. She would go with him to a distant star if he
asked her.

They roared through residential streets and then out
across the desert in his car. She was flying through clouds. She couldn’t think, didn’t speak. But he was
beside her and he was all she needed.

Ten minutes out of town, she spotted an oasis on the
hill. Another moment and they were pulling up along
a white rail fence that enclosed grass as green as any in
Kentucky, and horses as fine as the best Arabians in
the world.

The house was a modern adobe with red tile on the
roof and a courtyard with a tinkling fountain and
Spanish tile and bougainvillea everywhere. It was stunning. It could have been a film set, or the house of a desert prince.

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured, turning to him questioningly.

“Come on.” He got out and went to her door,
helping her out to join him. “This is my place.”

“Yours?” She stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"It's mine. I bought and built it, the house, the stables, the barn, everything."

She stared at him, not sure what to believe. "When did you have time to do all that?"

He looked into her face and laughed. "I didn't do it with my very own hands," he teased her. "Though I did spend some weekends feeling like someone on a chain gang. No, but I drew up the plans and ordered the supplies and hired the contractors."

"So it really is yours?"

He nodded.

She shook her head in wonder. “Why didn’t you tell
me?”

His eyes were luminous as he reached out to touch
her cheek. “I never told anyone. No one else knew about it but Monty. I bought the property years ago
and I’ve been developing it as a horse-breeding facility ever since. Just last year I had the house built.” He
nodded toward where the beautiful house sat at the top of the
hill.

"But…you're a gambler," she said, searching his eyes.

He nodded. "And I'm also a rancher. My passion is breeding horses, Kelly. I've been working toward this for a long, long time."

She gazed at him in wonder. "My cousin is married to a guy who breeds horses," she said, beginning to smile. "His name is David Santiago. His ranch is in Destiny Valley."

Cody nodded. "Sure. I know David." He grinned at her. "So Shawnee is your cousin?"

She nodded, eyes bright as diamonds. "I never knew," she said softly.

"You weren't meant to know. Not until I was ready to tell you."

She sighed. "It doesn't make any difference, you know," she told him happily. "I'm over that gambling thing. Just as long as you stay safe."

His arms came around her from behind and he
pulled her close against him. “Do you think Tammy will
like it out here?” he asked softly.

Kelly twisted and gazed at him, speechless, her gol
den hair blowing in the wind. “Why?” she asked at
last, breathless.

He lifted an errant wisp of hair from where it fluttered over her lips and smiled. “Because this is where
we’re going to live.”

“What are you saying? You’re the man who claimed he would never marry.”

He nodded sagely, though his eyes were sparkling.
“A sound rule. I’ve lived by it all these years.” He
drew her closer. “And then I met you.” He buried his
face in her hair. “I want to marry you, Kelly.”

Her head was floating like a helium balloon.

She was going to faint.

“Cody—“

“Hush, don’t answer yet. Let me tell you some
thing about my plans. I quit at the casino. I’m going
to be concentrating most of my efforts out here,
breeding horses. But I won’t try to kid you, Kelly. I’ll still be gambling. Poker’s in my blood. I’ll be follow
ing the circuit from time to time, playing the tournaments.” He dropped another kiss and then unwound
his arms, taking her hand and leading her again. “Hush. Don’t answer yet. Come on up and see the house.”

The house was furnished like a showroom, beauti
fully modern but with few personal touches. But al
ready Kelly found ideas for improvement flashing
through her head.

The bedroom was another story. The moment she looked inside, she knew it somehow had been de
signed especially for her. His bed was huge and overstuffed, a downy heaven filled with fat comforters and
fatter pillows. In another moment, they were both
flopping down on it.

“I love this!” she cried out, laughing.

He stopped, framing her face with his large hands.
“I love you,” he said haltingly, earnestly, searching her eyes. “I’ve never said that to a woman before.”

She smiled dreamily. The shock had worn off, but the thrill would never fade. “Then how do you know
it’s love?” she teased. “It might just be a bad case of
spring fever.”

He shrugged, looking down at where she lay. “You
tell me,” he said softly. “Is it love when you smile
every time you think of someone?” His hand cupped
her cheek. “Is it love when you want to take every
thing to show them, every joke you hear, every rainbow you see?” He kissed her lips once, twice, then raised himself a little. “Is it love when something in
side burns to be with them?” He stared down at her
again, almost as though he were puzzled by the entire
affair. “Because that’s the way I feel about you.”

Kelly reached up and touched his lips with her fingertips. “Me, too,” she whispered, her eyes full of the
longing she had for him.

He kissed her again and again. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her sweetness, of her warmth. He drank
of what she had to offer until her lips were swollen.

His hand played with her buttons, then found her
breast, cupping it and enjoying the feel of her hard
nipple through the cloth. She sighed, moving beneath
him, and he felt the rush of hunger flowing through
his blood.

He pushed aside her blouse and bra and let her
breast out into the air. He kissed the tip. Urgency was
growing in him, but he ignored it, kissing her softly,
tasting her skin, playing with her nipple until it too was
swollen and she was writhing beneath him, calling his
name, her hands searching for him, coaxing him to
come to her.

Lying back, Cody let her undress him, her fingers trembling with her eagerness. He watched her every moment, not wanting to miss anything she did or any
expression that might pass over her face. He wanted her so badly, and it was going to be right this time.
He’d given up his apartment in the Marquis. This was his home now. And Kelly was the only woman he’d
ever brought here.

Kelly could hardly breathe; her chest felt tight and
her legs ached. She loved the darkness of his chest, the
tightness of his flat stomach, and when she drew the
leather belt from around him and began to pull off the rest of his clothes, she could hardly believe the beauty
of what she uncovered. She’d seen him before, but not
like this, not in the sunlight, not on this downy com
forter, his nakedness so hard and smooth and dark and magnificent.

Her hands fluttered across him like blossoms in a
breeze, and then he gripped her, pulling her up, and
she gasped as he tore the last of her clothing away and touched her, stroked her, tempted her to the edge of
delirium.

“Say you love me,” he demanded roughly in her ear.

Beyond words, she moaned and reached to pull him closer, but he held her hands. “Say you love me,” he
said again. “I’ve got to hear you say it.”

Kelly’s eyes opened wide and stared into his dark, mysterious gaze. She didn’t understand him yet. Per
haps she never would. But she loved him, and right now she needed him more than she needed air to
breathe.

“I love you,” she gasped out, almost fiercely. “I love you!”

He plunged in as though that had been all he’d been waiting for, carrying her
into the white heat of passion. She clung to him,
crying out in need, in anticipation, and then finally in ecstasy. She wrapped herself around him, holding on, never wanting it to end. And then, with a sigh, she went limp against him.

He kissed her, his body still tingling, his relief so intense that he could feel each muscle sigh on its own.

“What do you think?” he said at last, opening one
eye to look at where she lay among the pillows beside
him. “Think we can make it together?”

She smiled at him. “I don’t think there will ever be any problem with the lovemaking,” she said softly.

His eyes darkened and he touched her face. “Can you really marry a gambler?” he asked.

“I’m in love with a gambler,” she said. “I think
marrying him should be the next step.”

“You do understand that I’m not reformable?” His
eyes searched hers.

“Oh, Cody!” She laughed. “Don’t ever change for me. I wouldn’t want you any other way. Don’t you
know that?”

He grinned, mussing her hair. “So you can accept me and my questionable ways, can you?”

She nodded happily. “If you can accept me and my
moralizing.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He’d
always considered himself a relatively happy person. But the joy he was feeling now was so far beyond
anything he’d ever experienced before that he had to
stop every few moments and remind himself this wasn’t a dream.

“I came into your world and we shook a few people up, didn’t we? And then you came into mine and
you did the same.” He chuckled. “I don’t know, I
think maybe you and I are going to have to go off and find a desert island somewhere where we can fit in—
with each other.”

“This will be our desert island,” she whispered,
moving her naked body closer to the heat of his. “Just
you—" She touched him. “—and me.”

“Just you and me,” he whispered back. “I’ll take those odds.”

The End

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Read the rest of the Ranchers Series!

Destiny Bay Romances ~ The Ranchers

Native Silver

Destiny Ranch

Sweet Desperado

Stealing Shane's Girl
(Novella)

Luck Be A Lady

Don't Tell Me You Love Me(Coming soon)

DESTINY BAY BOOKS AVAILABLE NOW

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