Fannin's Flame (7 page)

Mason had been very understanding. By that time, Julia could have someone suitable sent over from the Honey-Do Agency to stay with Mimi until Helga returned. It was all going to work out so well.

“You see,” Fannin told Bloodthirsty Black, “my brothers were obviously right. Storming. Conquering. That’s the way to a woman’s heart. It’s all about handling a woman
right.
”

“Y
OU SEE
,” Kelly told Julia on the phone, “it’s all about handling a man right. Why didn’t I realize it was so easy?”

“I don’t know. You never met anyone you liked before. So the Jefferson men aren’t as bad as I imagined?”

“Nothing a little sweetness can’t cure.”

Julia laughed. “Maybe I’ll take the job at Mimi’s. I haven’t spent time with my friend in ages.”

Kelly gasped. “Why don’t you do that? Mimi would be so thrilled!”

“And I might catch me a man, too,” Julia teased. “Like you did.”

“I don’t know.” Kelly scrunched up her nose. “I think the Jefferson men think women are for entertainment and amusement if nothing’s on TV.”

“You’re pretty happy with the arrangement.”

“Yes,” Kelly said, “but it’s not marriage. It would never be marriage with Fannin. I’m planning to meet my dream man in Ireland. That would be a fairy tale come true, wouldn’t it?”

“Maybe you’re already in love,” Julia said.

“If you meet Fannin, you’ll understand that he’s capable of making me many things, but a wife is not one of them.”

“Run that part past me again about the midwife,” Mason said to Fannin the morning after the Mimi episode. “Because I’m not sure I understood.”

“There’s a lot going on we don’t understand,” Fannin said. “Some mysteries are too deep to be probed by the masculine mind.”

The two brothers sat in the kitchen, waiting for Kelly to come down and fix their breakfast.

Only, she hadn’t.

What they found instead was a note that said, “Gone to Mimi’s. Help yourselves to the fridge.”

Everyone else had lit out for town on a doughnut run.

Mason flicked the note disdainfully. “I do not like my routine messed with.”

“It does kind of stink like roadkill.” Fannin sighed. “I was hoping to have a pretty face pouring me coffee for a change.”

He was fairly certain Kelly had deserted them to a meager breakfast out of spite. She seemed to know
he was the one selected to get rid of her mother—and he was pretty certain she was going to hold it against him.

Or she was mad that he’d swept her off her feet last night. But that couldn’t be it. She’d been way too enthusiastic.

Dang, he liked his women strong.

He also liked his breakfast hot and served. He traded frowns with Mason. “Maybe somebody should mention to Kelly what we like.”

Mason shrugged. “To what purpose? She seems to have a pretty hot temper on her. We could end up with no dinner, too.”

Mason was the only one of his brothers who didn’t believe in storming the gates. Which was why he’d ended up without his true love, Fannin thought sourly.
He
wasn’t going to end up like Mason.

“Now, look. Kelly is a Honey-Do employee, and we’re paying for her service, and if we want breakfast, we should just say we want a hot breakfast every morning before we go outside and work our butts off in the cold!” Fannin stated.

The front door opened and Kelly entered, bright and cheery with wind-reddened cheeks. “Good morning,” she said, looking into the kitchen. “It’s cold outside.”

Fannin slammed his mug down. “Damn right it’s cold outside, woman! Do you think we should have to go out and work in twenty-degree weather with empty stomachs?”

She blinked. “Why, no, Fannin, I don’t think you should at all.” And then she smiled. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me. Just bellow. As is your custom, apparently.”

Kelly left, and Fannin stared at Mason. “What just happened?”

“You nicely got told to shut the hell up and fix your own breakfast, mice brains,” Mason said. “Didn’t you read her body language? Her widened eyes? The smirk she could barely contain? Those were all negative signals. Don’t-mess-with-me-or-there’ll-be-no-dinner signs.”

“If you read women’s bodies so well, then why—”

“Ah-ah-ah,” Mason said, wagging his finger. “Let’s not go there. You’re already in trouble with the help. Don’t add me to the list.”

Fannin sighed, getting up to pour them both some lukewarm coffee. “All right. Back to the midwife question. Mimi wants a midwife because she doesn’t want to go to a hospital. She found one she liked, only then that woman went to stay with her sister in Iowa. Mimi’s spent so much time in a hospital with her father that she’s spooked. And she says her mother had her at home, and our mother had all of us here, and we all lived to tell the tale. So she’s going to have a midwife.”

Mason shook his head. “I really don’t want to be within twenty miles when she has the baby.”

“Why?” Fannin stared at his brother, sensing more was going on than his usual thickheadedness.

“Because she’ll be in pain and I don’t want to hear that. I want it all antiseptic and clean and wrapped up nice and neat by professional hands—”

“Mason,” Fannin said slowly, “you’re a chicken liver.”

Mason thumped his mug down, his eyes squinted dangerously. “How’s that, Fannin?”

“You want Mimi to go to the hospital and have it all tidied up so you don’t have to deal with it. You can just mosey in to the hospital with a cheap flower basket when it’s all over.”

“It’s healthier for Mimi and the baby, knucklehead. Quit trying to go scientific on me.”

“Psychological.”

“Same thing. Last runs the psych ward in our house, okay? Even he thinks Mimi should have her baby around trained professionals.”

“Listen.” Fannin leaned in close. “I don’t think you’ve realized it yet, but we’re surrounded by the enemy. They’ve infiltrated our house, they’re in cahoots and they’re calling the shots with this baby thing. I wouldn’t make too many comments about trained professionals.”

“This from the man who won’t fix his own breakfast.” Mason drank from his mug. “It’s just healthier in case there’s a problem.”

Fannin tapped the table.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The brothers stared up at the ceiling.

“What…was that?” Mason asked.

“It sounded like she was listening to our conversation through the ceiling and giving us grief.”

Mason shook his head. “You know, you picked quite a firecracker for a girlfriend.”

“Who says she’s my girlfriend?”

“Last.”

Fannin grimaced. “Don’t tell Kelly.”

“Take my advice.” Mason glanced away for just a moment. “If you like this girl, do something about it. Don’t wait around.”

Fannin waited.

But that was all Mason had to say. He got up and left the room after pouring his coffee into the sink.

Fannin sighed, going upstairs to find the cause of the banging. There were rustling sounds coming from inside Mason’s room, which was odd, because Mason had gone out the front door. No one was in the house except Fannin and Kelly.

Quietly he approached the room.

Kelly was on top of a ladder, cleaning out the light fixture. The ladder was off balance because she’d propped it with two legs on the carpet and two off, so Fannin moved forward to steady it. “So you’re the boom, boom, boom.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Nothing. Be careful.”

“I’m fine.”

“Just so.” Fannin held the ladder, his eyes level
with Kelly’s thighs. No, he told himself, now is not the time to think about her that way. She’s cleaning a light fixture, and people don’t have fantasies during a fixture cleaning. “Hey, I can do that.”

“No, you can’t,” Kelly replied, not even halting in what she was doing.

“I can.”

“No, you can’t, Fannin. First of all, you’re supposed to be outside working in the twenty-degree weather you mentioned. Secondly, Mama said not to let any of you boys do anything because you make twice as much work when you try to help.”

“Ouch.”

She looked down at him with those blue eyes, her cinnamon hair falling over one shoulder, and he wondered how he’d ever thought he wanted petite.

“Fannin, did you make extra work for my mother?”

“Well,” he said, “do I get points if I say no?”

“You get nothing for lying.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but most likely we all did.”

She sniffed and went back to what she was doing.

“That didn’t sound encouraging. Did I get a point?”

“No. You totaled in the negative column by evading the answer and selling out your brothers in the same breath.”

“Oh.” He returned to staring at her dress, which stretched nicely across her thighs and other areas. A
fantasy of tossing her dress up and giving her something she’d never forget crossed his mind and set his jeans afire.

He glanced up and she was looking down at him, her expression unsmiling and intent.

“Don’t you even think about it,” she said.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“Storming my portal.”

He blinked. “Would I do that?”

“Yes. There’s nothing under there but tidy whities.”

“I’m not picky.”

“I know.” Her voice was a trifle more ironic than he liked. “But I’ve had my fling.”

“I hate past tense. Did I ever tell you, I live totally in the present?”

She got down off the ladder and pulled a list from her pocket, ignoring him.

His method wasn’t working. He scrambled for what his brothers would do now.

Leave her.

He didn’t want to.

“Kelly, maybe we got off on the wrong foot.”

She gave him an arched brow. “No, I’m perfectly coordinated. Thank you for your opinion, though.”

Checking off her list, she left the room.

Fannin was left holding the ladder. “You
are
going to be mine,” he said. “You just don’t know it yet.”

K
ELLY WORKED ALL DAY
, going down the list carefully as her mother had requested. She even made
dinner, though knowing now what she knew about the men not liking her mother’s cooking, she overcame her stubbornness and went all out.

“Whoa, pot roast,” Mason said as he sat down to his plate. Steaming potatoes, carrots and mushrooms surrounded the big chunk of gravy-covered meat.

Rolls and butter were passed around. Hot tea was in steaming mugs, which the men seemed to appreciate as they warmed their cold hands.

Fannin sat eyeing his plate. There was a bowl of Frosted Flakes in cold milk.

If he’s smart, Kelly thought, he’ll eat the breakfast he so dearly wanted without a word.

He ate it.

There wasn’t even a hint of a comment from the Jefferson peanut gallery.

Kelly kept her eyes down as she refilled mugs with hot tea. More hot rolls were placed in a napkin-covered basket and passed around.

Fannin ate every bite of his cereal.

He looked so sad Kelly finally took pity on him. She’d made her point.

She fixed a heaping plate of meat, potatoes, and an extra roll. Silently, she placed a tea mug beside his plate, removing the cereal bowl.

She could feel his brothers taking in every move she made.

Fannin’s hand shot out, grabbing her wrist.

Startled, she looked at him.

“This is the best meal I’ve had in years,” he said, and Kelly’s heart woke up, beating extra hard. Their eyes met, and she wished she could forget what had happened between them sexually. But she couldn’t.

All she knew was that this man made her feel the way no one else in her life could.

“You’re welcome,” she murmured.

Nodding, he returned to eating.

The brothers hurriedly tucked in to their own dinners.

Kelly hesitated, her body on fire.

“You know what,” she said suddenly, “I just remembered I’m spending the night with Mama at Mimi’s. Do you gentlemen mind cleaning—”

“No, no,” they all chorused. “You go on. We want to sit here and enjoy this dinner,” Mason said.

Fannin looked up at her but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. Untying her apron with swift fingers, she said, “Are you sure you don’t mind? Because I—”

“Go on,” Mason said, rising to walk her out.

“Sit down. Please.” Kelly hurried to the door. “Everyone stay seated and enjoy your dinner. I’ll be back in the morning.”

She left, escaping into the cold without her coat. It was a fast jaunt over to Mimi’s, and she couldn’t have stayed another moment in that house with Fannin. He was making her feel things she didn’t want to feel! Now was not the time to get obsessive over a man—she wanted to find her dream man in Ireland.

Not here in Texas, where she’d lived forever.

Suddenly, fast-walking boots overtook her, and she was swept off her feet.

“Fannin!” she said with a gasp. “You scared me!”

“Not as much as you should be scared,” he said with a growl, burying his face in her hair as he walked. He found her neck and kissed it. Then she slid out of his arms, turning so that his kisses landed on her mouth instead. She moaned, trying not to lose her sanity, but he was so warm and wanting that she needed to stay near his fire.

“Oh my,” she said as his hands roamed up her body. “Fannin—”

“I don’t like it when you walk away,” he said into her mouth. “I don’t like it when you leave a room I’m in.”

“Are you proposing I sit like a statue in one place?” she asked, wondering why his possessiveness didn’t rankle her.

“A nude statue, if I have my way.”

Somehow, her dress was going up and her hands were undoing his belt. It was pitch-dark outside, courtesy of wintertime, but still she worried. “Fannin, if my mother saw me kissing you, she’d—”

“Come on.” He dragged her into a barn, fifty feet too far for her raging desire.

“Thank heavens for barns,” she said, gasping as he pulled her inside the warmth.

“That’s what we build ’em for.”

She giggled as her dress hit the hay. “Not true.”

“Totally true. Why do you think silos are shaped the way they are? It’s male advertising. The bigger your silo, the bigger your—”

“Fannin!” She followed her dress to the hay, because he gave her a slight push, giggling as she went down.

“I have a
really big
silo.”

“Stop. Let me take off my panties.” But she was laughing, and she didn’t want him to stop what he was doing to her. He kissed her mouth hard, then pushed aside her thong to get inside her. His tongue was sweeping the breath from her mouth, and all her giggles exploded into a screaming climax that had tears pouring from her eyes. Grabbing his shoulders, she pulled him to her with all her strength, burying him deep inside her.

“Did you say stop?” he asked, staring down at her, his eyes lit with mischief.

“No,” she lied.

“I could have sworn—”

Squealing at his torture, she rocked against him instead, doing what she wanted to get what she needed. The pleasure hit her again, twice as wonderfully because he collapsed, gasping, at the same time.

“
Now
you can stop,” she said smugly.

“You think?”

“I think.”

He didn’t move for a moment. Then he withdrew and flipped her onto her stomach. She felt hot man
cover her nudeness as he snapped the back of her thong.

“You fibbed about the tidy whities,” he said in her ear, “you bad girl.”

She laughed, unable to help herself. “You didn’t believe me in the first place.”

“Yes, I did. I’m very gullible. And now you’ll have to make up for your fibbing.”

She took his hands and snuggled her face into them. “Gullible? I don’t think so.”