Taking Catie: The Temptation Saga: Book Three (14 page)

“I know it was,” Annie said, consoling. “And so does Chad.”

“Does he really?”

“Yeah. He does. Don’t you worry about that.” Annie freshened Catie’s tea.

“This isn’t the kind of marriage I wanted.”

“I know, hon.”

Catie sighed. “But it’s what I got. Do you think he might ever love me?”

“Oh, Catie.” Annie reached out and touched Catie’s forearm. “I think he already does. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

Catie jerked backward. “You can’t be serious.”

“I sure am. Do you think, for one minute, that Chad McCray is the kind of guy to do anything he doesn’t want to do?”

“Well…no.”

“So you think he married you when he didn’t want to, out of sole obligation?”

“Well, I think he’s concerned about his child. He wanted him or her to have his name. And the advantage of being a McCray.”

Annie shook her head and chuckled. “You’ve known Chad lots longer than I have, Catie, but you sure can be blind when it comes to him.”

“Love is blind, as they say,” Catie said.

“Blind, yes. But deaf and dumb, too? Do you really think Chad would have dragged you down the aisle just to give his kid a name? I’m not sure you know him at all.”

“Of course I know him.”

“I didn’t mean that as an insult, hon. That’s just the truth of it. You had him on a pedestal all those star-crossed teen years, and then you left for four years. Things change, Catie. People change. But Chad didn’t change.
You
did.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Chad was always a womanizer. You know that. Never serious. Do you think you’re the first woman to ever claim she was having his child?”

“But—”

“But nothing. He’s gorgeous, he’s rich, and women have been falling all over him for damn near fifteen years. A few have come out of the woodwork, claiming to be pregnant.”

“They have?”

“Only a few, but yeah. And you’re his first wife. What do you think of that?”

“What about the others?”

“None of them were telling the truth.”

“But I am.”

“I know you are. And so does Chad.”

“How did he know the rest of them weren’t?”

“He hired his PI friend, Larry something or other, to track down the truth on them.”

“Why didn’t he have me checked out?”

Annie smiled, rubbing Catie’s forearm in a motherly manner. “Why don’t
you
tell
me
?”

L
ater
, Catie continued to fold her clothes and put them away in the guestroom where she had spent her first night as Mrs. Chad McCray. If he wanted her in his bed, he was going to have to love her first. She only intended to share a bed with a husband who loved her. She may not be able to resist his lovemaking, but she sure as hell didn’t have to kowtow to his demands. She’d be friends with Rafe Grayhawk, too, if she wanted, and any of the other hands.

Once she finished filling up the guestroom closet, she dragged her computer in from the car and decided to set it up in Chad’s office. She walked in his nicely decorated den and sat down at his desk.

An instant message came up on his computer. From Lindabelle.

Lindabelle. Rhine, L. Could it be?

She touched the keyboard.

Is that something Chad would have said? Catie wasn’t sure. She hardly knew her husband.

Good answer, Catie.

Catie gasped. What arrangement? She started shuffling papers around on Chad’s desk.
Rhine, L. Rhine, L.
Chad’s filing cabinet. She’d have to look there.

What?

She took a shot. Assumed this was
Rhine, L
. Rhine. Her name was probably Linda from her IM ID Lindabelle.

Catie stopped reading. Jack? Her pulse raced. Her afternoon conversation with Annie raced through her mind. Several women had come around claiming to be pregnant, trying to trap Chad.

Rhine, L.

Jack.

She got up and yanked open Chad’s filing cabinet looking for anything. Any type of clue.

Finally, it appeared. A file folder. Rhine, Linda. Inside was only one paper. The results of a DNA test naming Chad McCray as the father of Linda Rhine’s son, Jack. According to the birth date, the child was over four years old.

Ding. The IM again. Catie didn’t bother reading it. She couldn’t. Her vision was clouded with tears. She typed in a message quickly.

Then she turned away from the computer and looked down at her belly.

“Well, sweetheart,” she said aloud, gulping through sobs, “it looks like you already have a big brother.”

She needed some answers. She looked into the file folder again and found Linda Rhine’s address in Utah. About a day’s drive. Well, she had nothing better to do. No rodeo queen duties.

Nice day for a road trip.

Or night, rather. The sun was already setting.

She threw some clothes into a duffle and plugged the address into the GPS on her phone.

She’d planned to meet Harper later and talk about getting her other stock over to one of Chad’s barns this evening. That could wait a few days. Right now, she had a rival to face.

At four in the morning, Catie arrived in Podunk, Utah. Actually, Applewood, Utah, but it made Bakersville look like a thriving metropolis. Of course, it was the middle of the night. Perhaps it would look like civilization in the morning. There was only one motel in town, and they luckily had a vacancy, though she had to ring the bell ten times before someone came to help her. Finally, an older man, rubbing his sleep-filled eyes, came to the counter and booked her into a room. Sleep came as soon as her head hit the pillow, her eyes swollen from crying.

W
here the hell was Catie
?

Chad lay awake, Marnie snuggled by his feet. The minutes crept by on his digital clock. He’d watched two o’clock come and go, and then three, and now four. Damn. Anxiety gnawed at him. She wasn’t at home. He’d called the Bays earlier. He couldn’t call them again. He’d just worry them. She wasn’t with Dallas and Annie, and Zach and Dusty were out of town.

He got up, paced, and went down to his office. He couldn’t sleep anyway. Might as well get some work done. He took out his business account, wrote out some invoices, paid some bills, and went to settle some of his personal accounts. The grocery bill, the gas for the giant propane tank that fed his house, water, electric, septic system.

And Linda and Jack needed to be paid.

He had no legal obligation to the woman and her son, but he wanted to help them, especially after hearing what she’d gone through with her parents. He’d have to tell Catie. Where the hell was she?

He’d felt a loss when he woke up the previous morning and she wasn’t next to him. He’d pattered down the hallway and found her sleeping soundly in one of his guest rooms. That told him how she felt about him. So much for her schoolgirl crush.

Yet she responded to him today in the stable, when he’d taken her roughly like a selfish bastard. He was sorry for it. But when he’d seen Grayhawk with his hands on his woman…

His woman.

His wife.

Tonight she hadn’t come to his bed like he’d asked. Aw hell, like he’d
demanded
. What had he become? What was it about this one little woman that turned him into a feral beast? Well, he hadn’t exactly been nice to her about the whole baby thing. He knew she wasn’t pulling a stunt on him. Warmth crept up his skin, making it tingle. Truth be told, he
wanted
Catie’s baby. A little person who was part Catie and part Chad.

He cared for Catie. Maybe he didn’t love her yet, but he sure as hell felt a lot more for her than he had for any other woman.

An urge to barge into the guest room and force her back into his bed overwhelmed him, but he resisted. He scribbled out a note to leave on the counter in the kitchen. He had to go out of town on business and would be in Denver overnight. He’d leave before she was up in the morning. He checked the coffee machine to make sure Brenda had set it for six a.m. Yep, good. He left the note for Catie and then made his way to his bedroom and flopped onto his big empty bed. He inhaled Catie’s scent on the pillow. Mmm, raspberries and lime. His wife. His wife who should be in his bed. Though he was hard as granite, he was determined to leave her alone. He hadn’t been easy on her.

One thing was for sure, though. When he got back from Denver, they’d have a serious discussion about their marriage. This was going to work, damn it.

C
atie took
a deep breath before she knocked on the door of the modest house on Cherrytree Street in the small town of Applewood, Utah.

It was Saturday, and she hoped Rhine, L would be home. Sure enough, a pretty blond woman answered, smiling.

“Yes, may I help you?”

“Are you Linda Rhine?”

“I suppose that depends on who wants to know.”

“I’m Caitlyn Bay…I mean McCray. Caitlyn McCray.”

The woman’s smile faded. “Oh. You’re Chad’s wife.”

“Yes. May I come in?”

She sighed and her cheeks reddened. “Of course. Yes. What can I do for you?” She held the door open. “I’m sure this isn’t really what you’re used to.”

Catie forced her lips upward. No reason not to be pleasant. “Don’t be silly. It’s lovely.” Small and modest, the home was clean and decorated beautifully. Linda clearly loved plants. Greenery adorned every table and nook.

“Is—” Catie cleared her throat. “Is your son here?”

Linda fidgeted with her hands. “Yeah. He’s up in his room playing.”

“I’d love to meet him.”

“Of course. I’ll go get him. Please make yourself at home.”

Catie sat down in a hunter-green recliner. Tiny hooves danced in her tummy. She swallowed, forcing back nausea. So Chad had a son. No big deal, right? He wouldn’t be the first man to knock up a woman out of wedlock. Heck, he’d done it twice now.

Why hadn’t he told her? Why hadn’t Annie? Instead, she’d looked Catie straight in the eye and said Chad had checked out all the women who claimed to be pregnant with his child.

Linda returned with a pretty little blond boy who looked nothing like Chad. He was a dead ringer for Linda, though, so he could still be Chad’s kid. Heck, she herself didn’t resemble Wayne at all.

“He’s very handsome, Linda.”

“Thank you.”

“He’s about the same age as Chad’s nephew, Sean.”

“I don’t know about Chad’s nephew. But Jack’s four.”

Catie smiled at the little boy, and he smiled back.

“So Chad told you about us, huh? Last night, when I spoke to him, he said he hadn’t yet.”

“We don’t have any secrets,” Catie said, wishing to the stars that she spoke the truth. “I wanted to come up here to meet you and his—” The words stuck in her throat like peanut butter. “Jack.” She’d almost said son, but couldn’t.

“Oh. Can I offer you anything?”

“No. I won’t stay long.”

Fifteen minutes of small talk later, Catie left.

C
atie hadn’t come home
.

Chad’s stomach churned. Was she all right? Was the baby all right?

He’d called Wayne and Maria, and then the police. No one knew where she was. Her car was gone though, so she probably hadn’t been taken. Then again, someone could have held her at gunpoint.

Chad shuffled through her bedroom like a madman, looking for clues. Nothing. Hmm…she’d set up her computer recently. He ran down the stairwell and into his office. He opened each drawer of his desk, of his credenza. Nothing again. He flew to his file cabinet, his heart stampeding, and opened each drawer, searching for something, anything.

He found it.

The file on Linda Rhine had been replaced in the cabinet backwards.

Damn! Catie must have found out about Linda’s son. Would she have gone to see Linda?

Chad cursed to himself. Damn those conniving people!

He didn’t mind taking care of the kid. The poor boy didn’t have anyone else. But damned if he’d let this situation jeopardize his marriage.

He shook his head.

Did he want this marriage after all?

Catie’s image—her soft mahogany hair, her big brown eyes, her slender and shapely legs that went on forever—eased into his consciousness. Had her image always been there? Since she’d stumbled back into his life a few weeks ago, she hadn’t left his thoughts for more than a minute at a time. His mind whirled to that fateful night in the gazebo four years ago. God, he’d wanted her, would have given his fortune for one taste of her innocent sweetness. She’d said she hadn’t yet kissed a boy.

He’d reminded her he was no boy.

She’d been a kid then—just turned eighteen. A kid in a beautiful woman’s body. He’d summoned every speck of willpower he possessed to reject her.

Now Hurricane Catie had returned, wreaking havoc in his life.

Fuck.

He’d never been so happy.

Love.

How hadn’t he recognized it? Had he been so adamant about not making a commitment that he’d been ready to let her walk out of his life?