Ride (15 page)

But the bond of brotherhood didn’t fade with time or distance and Cody was still the guy Chase asked advice of for everything. Chase had talked to Cody before he first did it with his girlfriend in high school after the prom. It was Cody who took him out for a beer, illegally since he was still underage then, after the girl he was seeing in college broke his heart.

Out of respect for Leesa, he skipped over most of the strip club details. “I was out with the guys for my birthday. I met her two nights ago at a club in Vegas.”

He should have known Cody was too quick to leave out much. His eyes opened wide. “Oh my God, she’s a stripper.”

“Shhh!” Chase glanced at the open door, then thought better and got up to close it. “You can’t tell Mama or Daddy.”

Cody shook his head. “Man, when you mess up, you really do it big.”

“Shut up. It’s not like that. She’s not like that.”

“Then tell me how it is.” Cody leaned forward and waited.

Chase waited for Cody to comment further with some smart-ass statement, but he didn’t. He was in older brother mode which would mean a certain amount of teasing was to be expected, but still, he was giving Chase a chance to explain. If only his parents had, not that he could explain what he was about to tell Cody to them.

Shaking his head, the facts began to seep out, more than he’d intended but he needed Cody to understand how he felt and why. “From the moment I saw her. I swear, it was like I’d gotten knocked in the head. You know right before you pass out and your vision narrows down to just a tunnel in front of you?”

“No, not really and you’ve been hit in the head too many times and I think you should get a CT scan before you leave here, but go on.”

“Anyway, I only saw her. We were in a packed club, my friends were all there. There was music and shouting and lights and all these people, but I only saw her.” He leaned back in the seat and adjusted the brim of his hat. “I don’t know. I’ve wanted girls before, but not like this.”

“So it was sexual.”

“No. I mean, yeah. Of course that too. The sex is…” Chase cleared his throat. It felt strange talking about sex with his wife to his brother, but this whole situation was a bit out of the ordinary. “It’s so much more than that. I want to know everything about her. I want to, hell I don’t know, see her baby pictures. And watch her while she’s watching her favorite movie. See her wake up and smile at me every morning.”

Cody was watching him closely. “So it’s love?”

Chase wasn’t afraid of that word the way some men were, but he also wasn’t one to use it lightly. “I don’t know. All I know is that I want to find out if it is. And if I don’t give us a chance to find out, I’m afraid it’s something I’ll regret the rest of my life.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight. You married the girl to keep her from getting away so you could decide if you love her or not?”

“No, getting married was kind of an accident.”

“How do you accidentally get married?”

“You have a few too many beers and shots of bourbon and wake up in Vegas with a wedding band.” Chase shook his head. “I know. Only me.”

Cody laughed. “No actually I think that happens quite a lot in Vegas. Mix bars open twenty-four hours a day with no-waiting wedding chapels and I can only imagine. I think what is typically you is staying married after you get drunk and married.”

“We’re not staying married. We’re waiting for Uncle Gary to get back from some big case he’s working on so he can help us.” Chase’s heart twisted at the thought of how soon that day may be.

“Ah. So how did Mama and Daddy take it?”

“It could have been better. I gotta ask you a favor. I didn’t tell them what she does for a living.”

Cody raised a brow. “You lied?”

“No, I avoided telling the truth, which I tried to do with you but you guessed.”

“They didn’t take one look at her and know? And what is her name, anyway? This new soon-to-be-ex sister-in-law of mine.”

“Leesa. No, they didn’t know. She’s not like that.”

“Okay. If you say so.”

Chase knew Cody was picturing high hair and gold sequined tube tops. Meanwhile, if he got Leesa to wear anything besides that oversized sweatshirt he’d seen her in over the two days they’d been together, it would be a good day.

There was a soft knock on the bedroom door and Chase frowned at Cody. “Expecting company?”

“No, but today’s been chock full of surprises so who the hell knows.” He shrugged.

Chase rose and opened the door to find Leesa, looking so lost and out of place his heart broke. Reaching out, he took her hand and pulled her into the room. “Hey. How’d you find me?”

She shot a quick look at Cody before focusing back on him. “Your sister, I guess. I was coming out of the bathroom when she ran past in the hallway. I asked her where you were and she pointed at this door.”

“I’m sorry. I should have introduced you to Christine. Yeah, she’s our sister, and she’s ten, so I’m guessing one of her favorite shows was coming on television and she couldn’t stop long enough to be polite. And while you’re meeting family…” Chase realized that for now at least, they were her family too. “This is Cody. He’s my older brother.”

“Older, smarter and better-looking brother you mean.” Cody delivered Leesa the smile that had won him homecoming king and countless girlfriends during high school. He rose and extended a hand to her. She shook it and mumbled a hello, then she was glancing back at Chase.

“What’s up?” He put a hand around her waist and rubbed her back, something he found himself doing a lot lately. He couldn’t seem to be near her and not touch her. Especially now that they’d had sex. She was like a magnet and he was a giant hunk of metal.

“I didn’t know what I should wear for dinner.”

Cody laughed. “What you have on is fine.”

“Really? It’s a sweatshirt.”

“Really. It’s fine. We’re not formal around here.”

“Okay. Good, because I don’t have much with me.”

“Don’t worry.” He planned on remedying that situation tomorrow. If she wouldn’t let him buy her clothes, he’d buy them on his own and surprise her, and then throw away the receipt so she had to accept them.

“Okay. Thanks. I think I’m going to go lay down for a bit before dinner.” She looked pretty tired, which wasn’t a surprise.

Chase’s mind shot back to what they’d done for most of the night instead of sleep and his body reacted to it immediately. He couldn’t help himself. He leaned down and kissed her. “Okay. I’ll come get you when it’s time to eat.”

She nodded. “Nice meeting you.”

Cody nodded back. “You too.”

Then she was gone. Chase watched her walk down the hall until she disappeared into his bedroom and then closed the door.

When he turned back to his brother, he noticed Cody smiling and shaking his head. “Oh, man.”

Chase frowned. “What?”

“You got it bad.”

Chase swallowed hard, but didn’t deny it.

“And on top of that, I’m not going to worry about you being in here too much at night.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t be more than a few inches from her. There is no way you’re sleeping in here. I bet the minute Mama and Daddy are asleep you’ll be in there with her performing your husbandly duties.”

“Shut up.” Chase scowled at his brother’s coarseness.

“What? You’re allowed.”

“Mama and Daddy don’t think so and it’s their house.”

Cody shook his head. “Yeah, I bet they don’t think you’re allowed. Man, she’s pretty though.”

Chase sat again. “She is, isn’t she? I mean, it’s not just me, right? The more I get to know her, the more beautiful she gets.”

Cody shook his head. “Oh boy. There is no way you’re getting a divorce.”

“I have to. We knew each other for like twenty-four hours before. Nobody stays married after that. Do they?”

“I don’t know, but if anybody can make it work, it’ll be you.”

Chase drew in a long breath. “I don’t know if she wants to stay married.”

“Have you asked her?”

“No.”

“Well, maybe you should.”

Chase considered that. “I want to give her a few days.”

“A few days to what? Get used to the glowing reception from her in-laws?”

“I was thinking maybe she’d get used to, you know, me.” Chase felt his face get hot remembering the sex. Damn, was he blushing?

Cody eyes opened wide. “That good, huh?”

“I can’t believe I’m talking to you about this, but oh yeah. Like…yeah.” Chase couldn’t form the words to express how great it was, which was probably for the best because he was sure Leesa wouldn’t appreciate him talking about her that way to his brother. But even saying it out loud made him more determined to find a way to win her heart.

Chapter Thirteen

Leesa had never thought she’d feel safe again, but she felt moderately safe at Chase’s family farm. Sure, Bruno could find her here. The scenario kept running through her head during the drive from Nevada to Oklahoma. How they might have seen her getting into Chase’s truck, if not live and in person then maybe by reviewing the security tapes from the parking garage. Then they could have run Chase’s license plate and found out his address and been waiting here for them.

Arriving and finding his family hadn’t been taken hostage at gunpoint by three of Jerry’s men had helped her confidence a bit. Sleeping an entire night and waking up the next day still alive and in Chase’s bed helped even more.

Each hour that passed made her think she might actually be in the clear. For now. That didn’t change the fact once she and Chase signed those papers she still had nowhere to go. Jerry could be watching her family, waiting for her to get home. Then again, maybe she was small potatoes to them. Too much work to bother with.

She drew in a deep shaky breath. Who knew? All she did know was Chase’s family couldn’t be nicer. Sure, the beginning had been pretty rough, but it seemed they were the forgiving kind. After letting her and Chase know exactly how unhappy they were about their accidental drunken wedding vows, they’d let it go. Surprisingly. Amazingly. Lovingly.

After that initial meeting, his parents had been really nice. His brother seemed to like her, and his sister, when she sat still for more than a minute, did also.

They’d welcomed her into their home, a stranger, and treated her like family, right down to the lecture when she’d arrived. She’d even done the dishes with his mother after dinner. Leesa could see herself here. She didn’t dare think the word forever, because she was only here until the mysterious and lawyerly Uncle Gary arrived back from wherever. She tried not to think as far as next week, even though she knew she needed to make a plan. She didn’t want to think past right now.

The sun was shining. She was on a farm for the first time in her life, and the man who was her husband—for now—was out there doing some sort of cowboy stuff and Leesa wanted to see it. She didn’t have him for long, but she might as well enjoy him while she did have him. Watching him do his thing would be fun.

In sneakers more suited to city life than the country, she tried to tiptoe her way around the mud puddles and made her way to the barn behind the house. She didn’t have a clue what she’d find in there. Horses? Cows? Bulls maybe? It would make sense. He rode them. With that in mind, she opened the barn door gingerly, just a crack. What she was thinking, she didn’t know. If a bull did come charging at that door and want out, she wouldn’t be able to stop him.

What she saw was definitely not a bull. In fact, it wasn’t very cowboy-like at all, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like it.

Swinging the large wooden door wider, Leesa slid through and closed it silently behind her.

“Ten more.” Cody stood below Chase, who was hanging by his knees from a metal bar spanning a stall door.

She watched Chase gather his strength—she could actually see him doing it, like he was summoning the energy from somewhere else. He set his jaw, let out a nearly feral growl and pulled his body up again.

“Come on. Nine more.”

Chase repeated the move with another groan.

“Good. Eight.” Cody counted down, backwards from ten, encouraging his brother with each repetition.

Chase’s bare chest and abdominal muscles glistened with sweat in spite of the cool air that made Leesa cross her arms in front of her for warmth. His muscles moved, tensing, flexing, working. She’d seen those muscles flex up close and personal the other night.

Her mouth went dry from the vision. She swallowed hard. Then the counting was done and she realized both Reese men were watching her.

Chase while hanging upside down. His brother, standing next to him, grinning. Grabbing the bar with his hands, Chase swung his legs down and landed with a soft thud on the barn’s wooden floor. He was in workout clothes, but seeing him in sweatpants did nothing to diminish her appreciation.

“Hey. Sorry to bother you.”

He walked over to her. “No bother at all. But don’t worry, because even if you were you can bother me all you want.”

“He just wants to get out of the rest of the workout.” Cody grinned.

“Yeah, whatever.” Chase ran a hand up and down her arm. “You want me to show you around?”

“Sure.” Leesa could see it was a barn, no doubt about it, but it looked more like a gym inside and there wasn’t an animal in sight.

“When Daddy built the new barn closer to the pasture, I turned this place into a kind of workout room.”

“I had no idea you had to be in such good shape to ride bulls.”

“He was in better shape when he left here for the start of the last season. Life and debauchery on the road has done in his body. He’ll be lucky if I can whip him into shape by the start of next season.” Cody crossed his arms in front of himself, as if daring Chase to argue.

“Cody fancies himself my trainer.” Chase spoke low, but loud enough so Cody could hear. Brothers teased each other, she supposed. Brothers and sisters, however, did not. At least that was her experience with her older brother growing up.

“Anyway, you need strength, but it’s not really pure muscle that keeps you on the bull. It’s being able to stay centered, and correct your position when you get off-balance. Yeah, you need strong forearms to stay forward over your rope, and you need strong thigh muscles to bear down on the bull’s sides, but the core muscles, the stomach and lower back, those are the most important in bull riding. It’s the constant effort to remain centered that gives bull riders the strongest core muscle in professional sports.”