Not Looking for Love: A Cowboy Romance (27 page)

The next Friday night, Kara drove out to Richie’s place. She had been giddy for the past five days, since Richie and she discussed and defined their relationship over the phone while she was on a business trip. It was just the two of them. He had confessed he hadn’t been with anyone in a long while either and had no desire to be with anyone but her.

After the week away she was looking forward to hanging with him by the pool for the weekend along with the amazing sex they always had, nothing more relaxing, and he even said he would make dinner for them which was a rarity. Richie would rather order in instead of cook.

She didn’t complain about her job, Victoria opened doors for her and she worked her butt off to better herself, to erase, to cleanse away her past.

The sun had already set when she pulled up. Using the key he had given her, she walked into his house. Ambient lighting coming from the accent lamps created a glow as she moved further in, and a flickering light came from the doorway of the dining room. “Richie?” she called out. No answer, but she knew he was home, she felt his presence.

‘Give It All We Got Tonight’ by George Strait began to play on the stereo that was set up on a shelf in the living room. She looked to it and smiled as she dropped her canvas tote bag and purse then walked toward the dining room when she spotted Richie coming downstairs.

“Hi,” she said as she took him in. He was dressed in a charcoal suit with a white shirt and purple tie. His hair was combed back and had a little slickness to it, and his facial hair looked like it had just recently been redefined. Her legs felt like rubber as a line of heat shot through her body and her heart beat fast in anticipation of him coming closer.

She didn’t take her eyes off of him as she let out a sexy sigh.

“Welcome home,” he said as he stepped off the last step. “I love it,” he said in reference to her hairstyle. She had cut off her long locks while she was in New York, keeping it just below her shoulders and had it framing her face. He could tell she had her highlights redone.

She let those words sink in. 
Welcome home.
“Thank you.” She self-consciously smoothed down her hair. She hadn’t told him about it but it was the right time for a change. She snickered. “I figured it was time to grow up.” She smiled and when he lifted the corners of his lips she knew he was remembering when he had said those words to her the day she graduated college. “I missed you,” she said as they moved closer to each other.

“I missed you too.” He took her in his arms and brought his lips down to hers.

Her senses were heightened, he smelled amazing. She always loved his signature cologne so light and crisp and the hint of Irish Spring soap, but the pheromones that were prevalent above all else when he was aroused, like now, always drove her wild. His lips were so soft and pliable as they worked her mouth. When he broke the kiss, she was disappointed, she wanted more, so much more of him.

“Dance with me,” he said as he took a step back and placed a hand on her waist and held the other up.

She rested a hand on his shoulder and gave him her other hand and he twirled them around the living room as he sang in her ear.

“Come on,” he said when the song ended. He clasped her hand in his and led her to the dining room while another George Strait song began to play.

Kara gasped. She practically lived at his house and only a handful of time did they used the dining room, either when entertaining some friends of his, or when his parents were in town, visiting. Never for just the two of them.

The flickering light came from the two candles that were on both ends of the table. The lit chandelier, the one Kara had picked out, glowed softy on a dimmer along with the matching wall sconces.

The buffet table was set up with a silver chafing dish and the table was set for two with two silver domes covering the dinner plates.

Richie pulled out a chair for Kara and then reached for the bottle of white wine that sat on ice in a bucket on a stand near his chair, and poured.

“To you, Kara. You look lovely tonight,” he said after he sat and picked up his glass.

Kara picked up her glass and clinked his glass. “Thank you.”

Richie picked up the dome in front of her to reveal a pasta dish; gnocchi in a creamy mushroom sauce, the steam still rising.

“Oh, I love this dish,” Kara said as she smiled. She was so hungry she was salivating.

“I know. Dig in.”

Without asking her twice, she reached for the grating cheese and sprinkled on two full spoons then she passed the cheese to Richie and dug in.

“So, why the formality?” she asked before scooping up a couple of pieces of the little potato based pasta.

He shrugged. “Something different, I guess. You always look beautiful for me. Too much?”

“Oh, no not at all. What a nice surprise.”

He nodded. “So, how were your trips,” he asked in-between bites.

“New York went well. She lifted her eyes up. “Victoria got me an appointment with her hairdresser, and my clients already got back to Victoria with a work order and I have to run back there in two weeks to supervise.” She set her fork down and reached for her wine as she leaned back. “And the trip to Seattle was quite exhausting. Mr. Buckley keeps altering the designs his wife picks. We had already ordered this rare granite, but when he saw how much it cost, he canceled it and went with a less expensive stock granite. Victoria took a fit, but ate the cash. And Mrs. Buckley was not happy either. I was privy to their little fight… and I learned more than I needed to know about them.” She harrumphed.

Richie looked up from his plate. “Oh, yeah? Like what?”

Kara set her glass down and giggled. You’re dying to know, aren’t you?”

He let out a short laugh. “It’s always good to know your competition.”

Mr. and Mrs. Buckley owned a small chain of hotels geared more for the businessperson, but they had two elegant hotels, one in Aruba, the other in Dubai, that usually topped the best hotel lists in all of the travel magazines, with the Warren coming in second.

Kara speared some more pasta and wrapped her lips around her fork as she glanced at Richie. She shook her head, smiled, and chewed before she answered. “Well, did you know Mrs. Buckley has a young suitor? Mr. Buckley made mention when he brought up all the money she wasted on one of the bedrooms in their mansion.”

“What? No? Are you kidding?” Now Richie dropped his fork and picked up his wine as he sat back, looking at her sideways with a grin on his face. “She’s got to be in her eighties now, maybe mid to late.”

Kara nodded as she picked up her glass and took another sip of wine.

He reached for the bottle and refilled their glasses as Kara continued. “Irma,” she dipped her head, “Mrs. Buckley, made mention of the fact that Mr. Buckley couldn’t get it up for the past fifty years.”

Richie chuckled and Kara giggled. “I was dying. I just wanted to get out of there. I tried to walk backwards toward the door, but Irma looked to me and said ‘don’t you go anywhere’. That woman is sharp, and geez, still has a sex life as she’s pushing ninety.”

Richie pushed back his chair and got up and gathered their empty plates. “We can only hope,” he said. “I got it,” he added when she made to get up, then he walked out of the room. He came back and walked over to the chafing dish and picked up the two clean plates he left next to it earlier.

When he came back to the table and set down their dishes Kara gasped in surprise. “Is that a champagne butter sauce?”

“Yep.”

“Oh, my God, did you make this?” In her dish was a piece of filet mignon and four sea scallops drizzled with the light sauce.

“I’d like to say yes,” he said as he reached for a little covered dish in the middle of the table and spooned some string beans in her dish. “But I’d be lying.” He chuckled and looked at her. “I had it bought in.”

“Not form Bella Donna’s. From where?”

“Yes, this is Bella Donna’s.”

Her eyes shot up to his. “Huh! Are you kidding? They flew it in?”

He nodded.

“Oh, Richie, thank you. It’s my favorite meal. I love you.” She began to cut a piece of the steak as he looked on and smiled.

He cut his steak and thought about how pleased he was that she liked his dinner choice. It did cost a pretty penny, but seeing her face, knowing she was enjoying it, he determined it was well worth it and he’d do it again in a heartbeat.

They made small talk during the rest of their dinner and toward the end of it they were tossing sexy innuendoes to each other with Richie undoing his tie. The two of them left the table and went upstairs to Richie’s bedroom with Richie stripping Kara as they went.

Kara paused and got serious. “We should really clean up the dishes first. I’d hate to have to do it later.”

“It’s taken care of.”

“What?”

“The cleaning lady is coming in to clean up.” He looked at his watch. “She’ll be here in about an hour.”

“You got Fran to come in on her day off?”

“Yes. Now get those panties off, I’m gonna pleasure you all night long.”

Forty-five minutes later and the two of them were trying to catch their breaths. She had lost track of all the orgasms he had given her and because he held out that long, his climax wiped him out.

She turned to him, and with his eyes closed he reached for her and tucked her in against him and fell asleep.

About an hour later Richie woke up to see Kara staring at him with a small smile on her face. His lips curled up as he stretched. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she replied. “The Fran just left.”

“You heard her?”

She nodded, as she watched him turn his upper body and pull something out of his night table drawer then turned back to her.

“Kara,” he said her name as he looked at her.

Kara saw he held a little black box, different from the one he had presented to her over and over again that she had turned down. Then she looked up to his eyes and saw a light there, a warm loving feeling enveloped her but she also began to panic.
Please don’t ask me. Please don’t ask me.
She repeated to herself over and over as she began to sit up.

He took a breath. “You know how I feel about you. I know you feel the same way about me. As I said before, I haven’t been with anyone else for a while now. You’re it. And I know you haven’t been with anyone since your, er,” he grinned, “fake boyfriend.”

She’d been nodding but cracked a smile.

He sat up now. “I want to build a life with you, I want to have kids with you, and I want to grow old with you.”

She bit her lip trying not to shed the tear that was forming in her right eye.

He flipped open the box and Kara stared at the large square diamond with smaller diamonds all around it. She looked up to him then back to the ring. “Oh, Rich, you bought another ring? That is so beautiful.” She looked back up to him, that tear she was trying to hide slid down her cheek along with some others.

He jumped off the bed and dropped to one knee. “Marry me, Kara. I would be so proud to call you my wife. Will you marry me?”

She couldn’t stop the flow of water now as she shook her head. “I want to, Richie, every time you’ve asked me I wanted to say yes…but I can’t.”

He hated to see her cry and he hated that she said no again. “Why?” He got back on the bed and sat beside her. “Why do you keep shooting me down?”

“I love what we have. Don’t you?” she asked.

“I want more.”

With her hand she swiped her eyes, her body rocked with little tremors, and Richie wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her to him. “Please tell me.”

“My past, the videos. It’s just a matter of time before it all comes back. Who knows when another video of mine will surface, and who resurfaces it?” She pulled away from him and looked him straight in the eye. “You accused me of fucking your cousin when he barged into that hotel room with one of my videos. And, God knows how many more are out there that could link the wife of an heir to the Warren fortune to it.”

“Kara, I apologized back then, but I’ll apologize again.” He clasped her hand in his. “I’m truly sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion. And before you say it, I know I was cruel in bringing it up at your apartment when I saw you and Matt in your hallway together. I don’t think I ever apologized about that. So, I will now. Again, I am truly sorry. I have shit for brains.”

She smiled, shaking her head when she saw his charming grin.

He got off the bed and walked to his closet. He came back out a moment later hefting a file sized storage box. After placing it down on the floor by the bed, he held up his index finger and went back into the closet.

“Is this your porn stash?” Kara chuckled.

He came back out with another box and placed it down beside the other box and again he held up his index finger and walked back to the closet. When he came out with yet another box he locked eyes with her and after he placed the last box down he swept his hand toward them. “Check it out.”

“I’ve been in your closet countless times. I think there are more of my clothes in there than yours.”

He chuckled. “No doubt.”

“I don’t recall ever seeing your porn stash there.” She looked to the boxes than back to him. “What are you trying to tell me? Should I be worried?” she joked.

He shook his head. “Open them.”

She jumped off the bed and knelt down, happy the conversation steered away from marriage. Gleefully she opened the first box he brought out and leaned in. “Well, at least I rate. My vids are at the top.” She rummaged around. “Though, you have more than one of each. Do you have one for each—” She stopped searching in the box and looked up to him. He was smiling. Then she went back to rummaging. She looked back up before she opened the second box he brought out and rummaged around, much quicker that time because she wanted to open the third box and yep sure enough, all these boxes had her videos in them and nothing else save for the one lone DVD case in the last box with no title. She held it up in question.

His lips briefly became flat lined. That is the video Lou shot of you and Danny.”

She gasped as she looked from him to the case. “How?” She looked back up to him.

“Poppy gave it to me as soon as he got out of rehab. He told Lou to hand it over if he wanted to keep his job.”

“You had it all this time?”

He nodded.

“Did you watch it?”

He nodded again. “Not the whole thing.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“For what?”

She nodded. “Do you know if there are any more of these floating around?”

“Poppy assured me there aren’t, but you never know, and I’m not saying that’s all of them.” He gestured to the other videos. “There may be a few more of those out there. Maybe a few hundred more in people’s homes or something, but there is nothing on the shelves, nor online anymore, from retailers anyway. And I make a commitment to you right here, right now. I will continue to hunt down any that pop up anywhere.”

She stood up, the damn tears threatening again, and walked to him. He pulled her in and she clung to him. “You did this…for me…? I’m speechless,” she said into his shoulder.

“I love you so much, Kara, I’d do anything for you,” he whispered by her ear before he bent his head and kissed her.

“She pulled her lips away, feeling slightly dizzy from that kiss. “What if your family finds out about me?”

He continued to kiss her, her cheek, her neck, her shoulder. “They already know,” he said just before he dipped his head to kiss the top of her breasts.

“What!” She yelped as she pulled back.

He looked up to her and let out a breath. “Kara my parents have known since that photographer snapped a picture of us at the very first auto auction I took you to.”

“Oh, my God.” She moved out of his arms and spun around trying to catch a breath.

“Kara.” The sound of his soft voice by her ear calmed her. “It’s okay.”

She turned around. “They knew when I first met them in Aruba and the few times they were here? Oh, my God. Oh, God.”

Nodding his head, Richie said. “Yes. And you know what?” He turned her to him. “They adore you.” His lips were so close to hers, he could feel her sweet breath and he kissed her again.

“Come on, get dressed,” he said when they broke the kiss.

“Where are we going?”

“To a bonfire.”

Earlier that day, Richie had cleared some bush from his property and piled it up. While he carried the boxes down to it, she set up a couple of folding lawn chairs. He ran back to the house to get the lighter fluid and matches and pulled out a little bottle of Crown from the cabinet in the living room.

After spreading the liquid on the twigs, braches, leaves, and rooted weeds, he pulled out the matches from his pants pocket and gave them to her.

It only took one match to ignite, but she threw another on the pile and stepped back. They watched as the fire grew then Richie opened one of the boxes of DVDs and handed her a couple. She threw them into the fire and took a breath, then she looked to him, a smile began to form and lit up her face. The two of them flung DVDs in until all three boxes were gone.

After all of the DVDs were thrown in the fire, they sat back on the chairs and sipped the Crown as they watched every last one of them burn.

“You know, while I began doing this for you, as I hunted them down, I found it therapeutic for me. I was quite sure about us before, but now, I can unequivocally state I am one hundred percent sure.”

Back in his bedroom with the fire extinguished, their love making started out slow and sweet but soon turned into a frantic need for each other. “Will you marry me, Kara?” Richie’s breaths were short, but he maintained control.

“Yes,” she said, by his mouth, just before she tightened her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his hips.

He slammed into her and came as she clung to him. Still panting, and without moving from inside of her he looked into her eyes. As their heavy breathing subsided, it hit him, “Yes? You said yes?” He smiled wide.

“Yes.”

“Finally.” He dipped his head and kissed her again before pulling out of her. “We could have saved some time if you had just told me you liked square rings instead of round.” He chuckled as he moved off of her and removed the ring from the box.

“Hah! Both rings are beautiful. You have exquisite taste.”

“Then both rings you shall have. I’ll call my jeweler in the morn—”

“Nooo. Stop it. One is enough.” She turned to her side and he reached for her hand and slid it on her finger.