Do You Take This Enemy? (12 page)

Most mornings when Julian and Ella were with Lou, Ashley worked out in the utility room where they had a treadmill and small weights.

The weeks passed swiftly, and there were moments when she realized she had a good life with Gabe. His energy astounded her; he threw himself into ranch work on the Triple R, yet she knew he wasn't neglecting his own ranch either. He was learning from her dad, taking over many of the responsibilities. Her dad was home long hours now, playing with Julian and Ella until Ashley realized Lou was hardly necessary and they wouldn't miss her when she quit after her graduation in December.

Gabe spent hours when he could with Julian and Ella. The only person seeing little of Gabe was Ashley. She knew he was busy and knew why, and it hadn't bothered her because she had been recovering from childbirth and caring for Ella. As she began to get time for herself, she became physically aware of Gabe again, as well as conscious of how little she saw him.

The last week of October, while fall leaves swirled in the air outside, Gabe came through the kitchen with Julian, both of them dressed in jeans and sweatshirts. As Julian ran outside to his swing, Gabe paused. “You haven't been out since Ella was born except for times the whole family goes somewhere. I've already talked to Lou about staying tonight. How about dinner and dancing? Nothing fancy, just fun.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ashley replied, her pulse jumping.

“Great. How about six?”

“Sure. I'll tell Dad he's on his own.”

“He knows. I told him, and he's happy. I think he's going to Dusty's for dinner.” Gabe left, closing the door
behind him. Ashley immediately thought about what she might wear and went to look at her clothes.

At ten minutes before six, she studied herself again in the mirror, turning to stare at her stomach, now as flat as it had been before her pregnancy. Ella was three months old now and Ashley decided her morning workouts had paid off. She wore a red blouse tucked into her jeans and black boots. Her hair was caught in a red clasp at the back of her neck. Anticipation hummed in her because Gabe was exciting, and she remembered how much she had liked waltzing with him at their wedding party even when she had been pregnant. Eagerly, she switched off the light and went to the nursery to look at Ella.

Lou rocked the baby while Julian built a small fort of toy logs on the floor. “Ella's sleeping now. She's been content since you fed her,” Lou said.

“I'll be home to feed her, but if you should need one, I have bottles in the refrigerator.”

“Look at my fort, Mommy,” Julian said, and she knelt down to look at his construction. One morning he had called her Mommy and she had answered, happy to have him call her that. When she'd asked Gabe whether he cared, he had smiled warmly.

“I think it's great if he wants to call you Mommy,” Gabe said. “His own mother is going to be a dim memory. I know that, and I won't ever let him forget her or how much she loved him, but for all practical purposes, you're his mommy now.”

She kissed Julian and then touched the sleeping baby's cheek. “You have my cellular phone number,” she told Lou. “Don't hesitate to call if you need us. 'Night.” Ashley left, going down the hall to the family room.

“I'm ready,” she said, stopping inside the door. Gabe was across the room piling logs in the fireplace, ready to start a fire. He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Sure. I'm read—” He broke off, standing while his gaze drifted down over her and her pulse jumped.

“Wow,” he said quietly. “You look great.”

“Thank you.”

“I'll be fighting guys off all night. I may have to rethink where I take you.”

“I don't think you'll have to fight guys off. I'm married and a mother now. That's different.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said darkly, scowling. Gabe looked at her from head to toe and wondered why, even though he saw her daily, he hadn't really noticed the changes in her since childbirth. He knew she had lost weight, but she wore baggy T-shirts a lot and at first she'd still had some extra weight and a tummy. Lately he had been too busy to pay attention. Now he could hardly stop staring at her. The woman was gorgeous. His wife. Wife in name only.

Her figure was great, and that thick black hair shone with blue glints in its darkness. Her thickly-lashed, vivid blue eyes always fascinated him. She wore the diamond drop he had given her. It sparkled in the light and nestled against the open V of her blouse, bright against her dark skin. The room seemed hot and he knew he needed to stop staring at her, but Ashley was good to look at.

With an effort he tore his attention from her. He crossed to the hall closet to get their leather jackets, and in minutes she was seated beside him in his pickup as he drove to a local restaurant and bar that had good music and a good place to dance.

While his pulse drummed in eager anticipation, he slipped his arm around her waist to cross the parking lot. Stars twinkled in an inky sky, and the cool October air was invigorating. Gabe became conscious of everything with a heightened awareness, while that magic chemistry caused by Ashley tingled his nerves.

As they crossed a porch and he opened the door to enter the rustic nightspot, he tightened his arm around her. She was his woman and he didn't want anyone thinking differently. It had been a long time since the afternoon of their wedding and those few, hot kisses, yet she had steadily
grown more important to him. Tonight he was going to discover more about her. He had thrown himself into ranch work, trying to relieve Quinn as swiftly as possible, but running two huge ranches and trying to pull one of them out of debt was a time-consuming task. He had kept time for Julian and Ella, but he hadn't given any time to Ashley. Now he vowed that would change.

He didn't want to share her for even one dance with anyone else.

They ate ribs, but his appetite for dinner had fled. As soon as he could, he took her hand. “Want to dance?”

“I thought you'd never ask,” she replied.

He followed her to the dance floor, watching the sway of her hips in her tight jeans. When had she gotten her figure back and why hadn't he noticed before now?

On the dance floor she turned to face him, moving to a two-step. The next slow dance, he reached up and unfastened the barrette, stuffing it into his back pocket. “There, that's better.”

She smiled and shook her head, her thick curtain of raven hair swirling across her shoulders. As they moved together, he caught the scent of her perfume.

Aware of her soft body, of her moving sensuously with him, her thighs touching his, he wanted her. Desire rocked him, an urgent, hungry need that consumed him.

He thought about Julian and how his son had bonded with Ashley, calling her Mommy easily and loving her as much as if she were really his own mother. Maybe if Julian could let go and love again, he, too, could, Gabe thought. And he knew Ashley had eased his grief. That terrible longing for Ella, as well as the pain for the loss of his folks, didn't swamp him daily the way it once had.

“When did you get back in such great shape?” he asked her.

“I suppose a day at a time. I exercise in the morning when Lou is with Julian and Ella.”

Gabe's eyebrows arched in a surprised look. “I didn't know that.”

“After you leave you don't know what goes on at home,” she replied, smiling at him.

“I get a rundown from Julian,” Gabe replied as his legs brushed against hers. How could he have missed the changes in her? he wondered. Had he been working that hard? Right now, she had his total attention.

“I can imagine the information you get from him. What pictures he colored and what books I read to him and what his favorite TV characters said and did.”

“I guess you're right. Maybe I should stay home some day and see what goes on.”

“You're not watching me work out,” she said emphatically, and his curiosity was stirred.

“Why not?” he asked.

“No way. I'm not that good at it, and you'd laugh at the little weights I lift.”

He was imagining her working out and it was getting another response from his body. It had been a very long time since he had been intimately involved with a woman, and all at once he was aware of the deprivation.

“I seriously doubt if I'd laugh. Try me.”

“Nope. You stay far away, cowboy.”

“I think I've been missing out on some things.”

“Like what?”

“Like slow dancing and long wet kisses and a little flirting,” he said.

“Oh my! Well, you're getting to do a little slow dancing and a little flirting, so that's two out of three.”

“I always did like one hundred percent. All or nothing.”

“You already have a lot more than nothing.” She moved her hips sensuously against him and his temperature rose. His wife was flirting with him, sending him signals that she was okay with his flirting and dancing. She was his wife, yet in a lot of ways he hardly knew her. Sweat beaded his
brow and he knew it wasn't from the room temperature or the dancing.

The music ended and a fast number came on. “Can you keep up with this one?” she challenged.

“I sure as hell can,” he said, pulling her beside him to scoot around the floor with other couples, watching her as they danced because conversation was impossible during the fast number.

They danced for another hour and he was on fire. He wanted her, wanted to bury himself in her softness, wanted more than she could or would give him and more than he knew he should take. Reminding himself to go slowly with her, he stopped dancing.

“Let's go home.” He knew he was cutting the evening short by about an hour, but he wanted to be alone with her.

Watching the slight sway of her hips, he followed her from the dance floor and then took her arm to go to his pickup. It was cool in the dimly lit parking lot and wind caught her hair, blowing it slightly. At the truck, he placed both hands on either side of her, holding the door closed and hemming her in between himself and the pickup. Her eyes were wide, filled with curiosity as she looked up at him.

“Y
ou said I had two out of three,” he drawled, his voice becoming husky. “I told you, I like one hundred percent.”

Ashley looked up at him. “Well, maybe you should do something about it, then,” she said in a sultry voice, wanting his kisses.

“Damn straight, I will,” he whispered and leaned down to kiss her.

She was breathless. Daily, moment upon moment, Ashley had become more intensely aware of Gabe, until tonight he had set every nerve in her body on edge. And tonight he seemed to see her as a man sees a desirable woman, in her own right with no ghosts of the past between them.

Beneath her leather jacket, his arms slipped around her and he stepped closer, pulling her against him. Her hands flew to his shoulders while her gaze locked with his. As her pulse speeded, his mouth covered hers.

Her insides clenched and then seemed to burst into flames while she opened her lips and his tongue touched
hers. She moved her hips against him, feeling the thickness in his jeans, realizing he was aroused and wanted her. As she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him, her heart thudded.

When his arms tightened around her, she shook with pleasure. Moaning softly, she wound her fingers in his thick hair. His hand combed through her hair and then cradled her head, holding her while he kissed her. She was running the risk of losing her heart to a man she still didn't know completely, yet danger no longer mattered—except the delicious danger of more kisses. She wanted to taste, to know, to be touched.

Too long she had been with him now without succumbing to anything physical. With that first touch, her desire for him flashed like a windstorm.

With raw, hungry passion they kissed until she knew they needed to stop. The moment she wriggled and pushed against him, he leaned away to look at her.

“Gabe, we're in the parking lot,” she said, breathlessly, her pulse pounding as his hand caressed her throat.

“Ashley—”

“Let's slow down a little.”

His dark gaze was steady, holding hers. “Come on, we'll go home,” he said.

When he opened the door of the pickup, she climbed inside, knowing that in the last few minutes, their relationship had changed forever. Was she ready for whatever he wanted? She wondered. How much of himself was he offering her? Was she willing to trust her heart to him?

Gabe walked around the pickup and slid behind the wheel. Shedding his leather jacket, he tossed it over the seat, flipped the locks on the doors and turned to her.

“All I want is you,” he whispered, sliding his arm around her waist and pulling her to him.

“Things will never be the same between us,” she whispered, her hands on his shoulders.

“It's too late now to go back to the platonic relationship
we had this morning,” he murmured. “That went out the window when we kissed.”

Gabe kissed her again, and desire flamed. He wanted her—here and now. She was his wife, legally. They were a team and had grown closer since Ella's birth. Their marriage could be a whole lot better. The lady set him on fire. Her kisses were irresistible.

“Ashley, you've made me whole again,” he whispered against her lips.

Ashley's heart drummed, a roaring in her ears that almost drowned out his words. His hungry kisses consumed her. She was barely aware when he lifted her over the seat onto his lap, moving the seat back to give them room and shoving away her jacket. Cradled against his shoulder, she wound her arms around his neck, running her fingers through his thick hair. His hand caressed her throat, sliding so lightly over her breast, twisting free buttons to slide beneath her shirt.

Gasping with pleasure, she caught his wrist. She wriggled to sit up and then moved deftly back to the passenger side of the pickup and buttoned her blouse.

“We're still in the parking lot. Let's get out of here.”

He was breathing as hard as she was. He started the motor and they drove to the highway.

“I had the best time tonight that I've had in far too long to remember,” he said quietly.

“Good. So did I.”

“I feel something holding you back. Am I right?” He glanced quickly at her. “What are you afraid of?”

“I don't want to rush into an intimate relationship and then discover that neither one of us was ready for it or that one of us expected too much from it,” she answered truthfully.

“I don't think that we're in danger of either one of those things happening, but I can slow down.”

As the truck sped quietly through the night, she was acutely aware of him beside her.

They were quiet the entire ride home. As they crossed the yard, he draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close against his side. Tossing their jackets on a chair in the kitchen, he switched on a hall light. “Wait in the family room for me. I'll go tell Lou we're home. We're early enough, she may want to drive into town tonight.”

Ashley nodded and left him, going into the family room to start the fire. In minutes, flames curled over logs, and she stood watching them until the scrape of Gabe's boots indicated he was in the hall. He entered, closing the door behind him and switching on the baby monitor.

“Lou left. I walked out to the car with her and she called her fiancé to tell him she was driving home.” Gabe crossed the room to pick Ashley up easily, carrying her to the sofa to sit with her on his lap. He stroked her cheek lightly. “I want you, Ashley.”

“I want you, too, and you want me, but right now this attraction is a physical thing.”

“What I feel is more than lust,” he said softly, trailing kisses along her temple, down over her ear to her throat and to her mouth. His lips brushed hers in featherlight kisses that were an exquisite torment, while his hand caressed her throat.

Ashley moaned, knowing she was lost to seductive arguments, hot kisses, Gabe's magnetism. “Uncle Dusty said you were a fast-talking hustler—” she whispered, winding her fingers in Gabe's thick hair and pulling his head down to her.

His mouth settled firmly on hers, his tongue thrusting over hers, as he leaned over her and kissed her hard and long. At the same time she unbuttoned and pushed away his shirt, his hand slid down to twist free the buttons of her shirt and shove it open. With a flick, the clasp of her bra was undone, and then his warm, calloused hand cupped her breast. His thumb drew delicate, lazy circles over her sensitive nipple and she moaned again, her hips shifting against him.

“You're a beautiful woman,” he whispered and then leaned down to take her nipple into his mouth and draw circles around the tight bud with his warm tongue.

Ashley ached with a fiery need for all of him. She wanted him desperately, she had poured out her emotions and fears to him yet caution held her back.

While her thoughts raged a silent battle, his kisses were torment. He shifted and she was beneath him on the sofa as he moved between her legs, and his fingers were at the buttons of her jeans. Ashley shoved against his chest. “Wait, please,” she whispered.

He paused instantly, moving back to hold her on his lap. Even though she had stopped him, she wanted him. While she straightened her clothes, she combed her fingers through his unruly hair. As she did, he watched her, and she wondered what was running through his mind.

“You think I'm being foolish,” she said.

“I can slow down,” he said in husky voice. “Tonight was great. I'm happy.”

“Tonight was great for me, too. I'm over my hurt from Chicago because of you,” she said, stroking his cheek and jaw and feeling the faint rough stubble of his beard. “It's like something that happened very long ago and is no longer significant in my life.”

“Good. That's progress. You've healed my grief. There are moments I still hurt. I think of Ella and miss her, but the pain and loss are easing. I'll always remember, always miss her, but not on a hellish moment-by-moment sea of memories like I have had. Her loss along with the loss of my folks was overwhelming. Julian is better now because of you. He talks more now and he laughs more.”

“I'm glad.” She hesitated, then murmured, “Gabe, if I lost this ranch, I'd like to think you'd still want me,” she said quietly, admitting the truth to him. It was hard to say it aloud, the words had a peculiar ring and caused a barrier to the closeness they had been achieving. He didn't withdraw, yet she ached for a denial.

He stroked her cheek and ran his fingers lightly through her hair, gentle touches that still invoked fire. “I'd still want you. I swear I would, Ashley. I haven't been very romantic, darlin', but maybe I can improve,” he said, a light tone back in his voice.

“It goes a lot deeper than being romantic, Gabe,” she said solemnly. A baby's faint cry could be heard, and Ashley slid off Gabe's lap. “I hear Ella. I'll go feed her.”

“Sure.” He stood, and she faced him, knowing her shirt was a thousand wrinkles from his hugs. His shirt was the same, unbuttoned now to his waist and his muscled chest showing. His mouth was red from their kisses and locks of brown hair fell across his forehead. She smoothed back the locks of his hair and then moved closer, standing on tiptoe to pull his head down and kiss him, putting all her feelings into it.

His arms banded her, holding her tight as he leaned over her and kissed her in return until they both were breathless and she knew she had to go. “I better run,” she whispered, pushing against him. “It was a wonderful evening, Gabe,” she said and left swiftly.

Gabe watched her go, looking at the sway of her hips, her long legs, mentally undressing her and wishing he had her in his bed.

Going to the kitchen, he stripped off his shirt and tossed it over a chair, then got a cold beer and carried it to the kitchen table. He thought about the evening, replaying it in his mind, thinking about her kisses that could heat him in a flash. He mulled over all she had told him; they had married in the coldest way possible, without one shred of romance in a bargain that, in truth, had been a business deal. No wonder she was disturbed about his feelings, he thought, mentally swearing at himself for his lack of finesse.

It had been a damned good business deal, but that's all it was. Prenuptial agreement, contracts, legal advice—they'd had all the business trappings. She had been treated
cruelly by the jerk in Chicago, had returned home to speculation and gossip about her baby, then had agreed to the deal with him.

Well, the lady deserved better, Gabe decided he wanted to court his new wife, wanted to please her. He thought about his feelings for her. Gabe took another long drink, feeling the cold beer go down his throat. He wanted her, there was no question about that. He had a growing admiration and respect for her. He liked her company. Love? He didn't know the depth of his own feelings for her, but she was becoming essential to his life.

They needed more nights like tonight where they could be together without the rest of the family. Moments that were shared fun and companionship. He thought of all the work he needed to get done, yet he could rearrange his schedule slightly, take a little more time for his family. It would give him more time with Julian and Ella, too.

His thoughts shifted back to the evening with Ashley until he was hot and bothered again, wanting her and knowing sleep wasn't going to come easily. Maybe he was falling in love with his wife. Why not let go? Julian had, and he loved Ashley without question.

Gabe knew that one thing he could do was court the lady a bit. A courtship was something she was long overdue to receive.

He decided to take a cold shower and to read a book he had bought on cattle breeding.

 

Monday afternoon the refrigerator quit cooling, and Quinn was on his knees on the kitchen floor working on it while Mrs. Farrin worked at the sink peeling carrots for a casserole. Holding Ella, Ashley sat at the table helping Julian with a model rocket ship he was building. Quinn swore softly and stood.

“I need a smaller wrench to get in there,” he said, glancing out the window. “Looks like we're going to have company.”

Standing to look out the window, Ashley saw a white panel truck coming up the road, a plume of dust rising behind it. The truck stopped at the back gate and a man emerged with a large bouquet of two dozen red roses.

Surprised, Ashley stared at the bouquet. “Looks like someone in this house is getting roses,” Quinn remarked dryly, glancing at Ashley.

“Who're they for?” Julian's high voice piped up, joining them at the window.

“I think for your momma,” Quinn replied, and all of them turned to look at Ashley. Her cheeks grew warm and she felt as dithery as a new bride.

Stepping outside, Quinn met the deliveryman and accepted the bouquet of roses. “Might pretty flowers,” he said, setting them on the kitchen table.

“Mommy, will you help me?” Julian asked, returning to his rocket ship.

“I'll help you,” Quinn said, “when I finish fixing the refrigerator. In the meantime, Julian, come with me to find a wrench.”

“Sure,” Julian said, always happy to tag along with Quinn. The two left, and Mrs. Farrin turned to take Ella.

“Put your flowers where you want them. I'll take care of the little one.” She took Ella from Ashley and went down the hall, talking softly to the baby.

Turning to her flowers, Ashley inhaled their sweet scent and carried them to the family room. She placed them on a table and then opened the card.

She ran her fingers over the card, then smelled the flowers again, feeling a rush of longing for him. Next Saturday night he wanted to go out again. Joy filled her. She read
the note again, once more running her fingers over his signature. Love, Gabe. She knew it was a casual closing, yet it gave her a thrill to read the words. If only—she closed her eyes and thought about him, recalling their evening, knowing she was falling in love with him whether he was in love with her or not.