The Cowboy Earns a Bride (Cowboys of Chance Creek Book 8) (22 page)

“Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.” Mia tucked the contract back into her bag, flashing Carl a grateful smile.

“I have another assignment for you, if you want it.” Carl accepted the cup of coffee and slice of pie from Tracey. Mia waited for her milk and cobbler before she answered him.

“Sure.”

“Can I get you anything else?” Tracey asked.

“We’re all set for now.” Mia winced when Tracey shot her another significant look as she walked away. Was Tracey the one spreading all the gossip that she and Carl were meeting? “What’s the assignment?” she asked.

“I want you to hone the way you sell your services. Come up with an elevator pitch.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a description of what you do in a single sentence—or even a phrase. Imagine you step onto an elevator and spot a potential investor in your business. You’ve got about ten to fifteen seconds to make the sale. What do you say?”

“Ten to fifteen seconds? That’s not very much.”

“I hold patents for products that run everything from your wristwatch to the mechanical arm on the space station. Want to know more?”

Mia whistled. “That’s a great elevator pitch.”

“Let’s hear yours.”

“I create memorable weddings.”

Carl made a face. “So does everyone in the business, right? That’s okay—it takes time to come up with a good one. Think about it for a week and try to sell me next time we meet.”

“Will do. How’s the house hunting going?”

“Not great. The one I really want has already been taken.”

Coming over again. Won’t say a word.

Luke waited for Mia’s reply to his text late that night when all his work—and Ned’s—was done. It was later than he’d wanted it to be. He knew Mia needed lots of rest these days. The baby was growing bigger and bigger and so was her belly. Still, it was the earliest he could make it with all the ranch chores on his back. Ned was due to see a doctor again about his leg in a few days. Hopefully then they’d get a sense of when he’d be back to a hundred percent. Until then, Luke would keep on doing it all himself.

At least Amanda Stone wasn’t as much of a burden as she used to be. Not that he minded helping her, but he was grateful he didn’t have more expenses on his already overfull plate.

Hurry. Almost asleep.

He’d hurry. She didn’t need to worry about that.

Ten minutes later he let himself inside the guesthouse and locked the door behind him. He turned off the living room lights and made his way upstairs, happy to see a glow from Mia’s room when he reached the upper corridor. She was waiting for him under the covers, as naked as the day she was born, and Luke quickly joined her there, his body already humming with the need to bury himself inside of her. He’d come to anticipate each night they spent together. They still kept conversation to a minimum—their relationship was too tenuous to test with long discussions—but their lovemaking warmed his soul and kept him hopeful that they’d find a way to be together all the time in the future.

“How are you feeling?” he said as he climbed between the sheets.

“Shhh.” Mia kissed him long and hard and his senses leaped. All the fatigue from his long day fell away, replaced by a driving desire to worship every inch of her luscious body. He started with her breasts, nipping and teasing them until they were peaked and rosy under his mouth. Then he worked his way lower, and lower still until she parted her legs for him and welcomed his touch in an even more intimate place. Luke couldn’t get enough of her, and when she wrapped her fingers in his short hair and lifted her hips to his touch, he knew she couldn’t get enough of him, either. Later, when he was poised above her, just pushing inside, he knew that soon something would have to change. He wasn’t satisfied with slipping away to her room for silent lovemaking at night. He wanted all of Mia, all the time.

He wanted her to be his wife.

But they’d talk about that later. Right now he’d show her his intentions with his body.

He held her gaze as he slid into her right up to the hilt. She gasped, and he took advantage of the moment to swoop down and capture her mouth with his, plunging his tongue into her warm, wet depths. He moved his body simultaneously, sliding out and back into her again and soon he set a rhythm that had her gasping with pleasure, and kissing him back with a need that equaled his own.

Luke slid a hand beneath her body, lifting her hips, the better to deepen his access. With the other, he cradled the nape of her neck. He kissed her until he was breathless, then kissed her more, the whole time moving in and out of her until he could barely hold back.

“Luke.” That one word told him she was close, too. Luke redoubled his efforts, plunging in and out, revving her up to her own release, until she threw her head back and cried out with it, and he called out too, reaching his climax at the same time.

“Mia,” he said when he had tumbled down next to her, still entwined. To hell with his vow to keep silent. He had to talk to her. Had to tell her how he felt.

“Luke, no.” She pressed a finger to his mouth. He kissed it and moved it away.

“Yes. I want more than this. I want you. All of you.”

She pulled back, but Luke captured her in his arms. Held her close to him. They were still joined and he wasn’t willing to let that go yet.

“I need…” She gasped when he pulled out an inch and pressed in again, reminding her of what they’d just done.

“What do you need?” He kept his tone soft.

“I need you to be as good a friend as you are—at this.” She sucked in a breath when he moved inside her again.

“Am I good at this?” His mouth curved into a smile.

“You know you are.” She smiled, too. “You’re the best.”

“Glad to hear you say it. I thought we were good friends, though.”

It took her a moment to focus as he played with her body, moving inside her, caressing her curves.

“A real friend listens. A real friend cheers you on. First you say you support me, next you tell me I should quit. That’s not what I want from you.”

He stopped his teasing. This was about her career again. “But doesn’t a real friend say something if you’re taking too much on? Not because he’s trying to call the shots, but because he cares what happens to you?”

She searched his gaze with her own. “If that’s the truth of it, then maybe. But you earn the right to do that by being a cheerleader first and foremost. You only doubt if doubt is really deserved.”

“I do care about you.” He brushed a kiss along her temple, his hand skimming her skin until it curled around her breast. He bent down to kiss its rosy tip. “I worry about you. I want to keep you safe.”

“Then trust me. Trust that I know my own strength.” Her eyes fluttered closed as he flicked her nipple with his tongue.

“Your strength, huh? I don’t know. You don’t look very strong,” he teased.

Her eyes flew open again. Before he knew what hit him she’d pushed him on his back and climbed on top. He took in the view with appreciation. Her breasts had definitely grown in the last month or so, their areolas wide and dark. He cupped them both and enjoyed the heft of them, growing hard again inside of her.

Mia took hold of his wrists and pressed them back against the bed, a move that brought her delicious breasts well within range of his mouth. “I’m weak, am I?” she said.

“Baby, you know you’ve got the upper hand on me.” But he took advantage of the situation to nuzzle first one and then the other of her beckoning nipples.

Mia rocked her hips, sliding up and down the length of him, making him harder still—something he’d thought was impossible. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a prettier sight than his girl enjoying him like this. Every rock of her hips set her breasts in motion and every touch of her skin against his set him further alight. When she increased her tempo with obvious pleasure it was all he could do to hold back.

Soon he didn’t need to. Mia came with a cry that rang in his ears and he quickly followed. Bucking against her, feeling her press down against him in equal measure, had his pleasure pulsing throughout his body until he was wrung out.

Mia collapsed in his arms with a passionate kiss.

“See what I mean?” Luke said. “We can’t stay apart when we’re this good together.”

She pulled away from him and rolled to her side, reaching up to cup his jaw and hold his gaze. “Then learn how to be my friend. Trust me to make my own decisions. Support me in them. That’s all I’ve ever wanted from you.”

A million thoughts ran through his mind—that he loved her, that he wanted to protect her, that she was doing too much, working too hard. He pushed them all away, staring back into her beautiful blue eyes. “All I can promise is that I’ll try.”

‡
Chapter Sixteen

“C
an I take
your order?” Mia asked the cowboy in line some days later, ignoring the buzz of her phone in her pocket. She kept it with her in case of emergencies, but tried not to use it on Fila’s time. She took her job as the front woman for Fila’s Familia seriously. Besides, the restaurant was always packed. Today, however, her phone had been ringing off the hook and she wondered who was trying to get a hold of her.

Fifteen minutes later, when there was a lull in the action, she escaped to the ladies’ room and checked it, negotiating the tight space carefully now that her abdomen was taking up more space than it ever had before. Tracey had left a dozen messages. She tapped the first one with trepidation.

“Mia, it’s Tracey. The florist called and she says she can’t do the arrangements you sent me. She says some of the flowers aren’t available. I told her to send me photos of what she can do and I hate all of them. I really hate them!”

Mia clicked Tracey’s other messages to hear more about the florist.

“I don’t trust her, Mia. If she can’t even copy a bouquet and get it right, she’s bound to mess up on the day of the wedding. I don’t want ugly flowers!”

Mia’s heart was pounding by the time she heard all of the messages. She quickly called Tracey back, checking her watch to note that two minutes of her break had already elapsed.

“I know it’s just flowers,” Tracey burst out the second she picked up the call, “but I only get married once. I want it to look perfect.”

“I know, I know,” Mia soothed. “And it will. Trust me. I’ll talk to the florist on my next day off and get it all sorted out.”

“But—”

“Tracey, I’m at work. I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Call me when you get off.”

“That’ll be practically midnight.”

“I’ll be awake.”

But Mia would be exhausted. She was already. “I’ll call tomorrow. First thing.”

“But—”

She hung up and hurried back to the counter where a line now stretched nearly to the door. She took orders as fast as she could, relaying them to Camila and Fila in the kitchen. Camila eyed the crowd through the pass-through. “I know I should be grateful we’ve got so many customers, but I don’t know how we can keep up.”

“I don’t think I can keep up,” Mia said as the front door opened and more people filed in. She sent Camila a pleading look and Camila nodded in return.

“We need to find more help.”

Luke stopped in
surprise when he came home to find his mother seated at his kitchen table. He closed the door behind him, hung up his coat and flopped down in his seat, exhausted as usual. “Come for lunch?”

“No, I came to talk about this.” She waved what looked like a children’s book at him.

“What’s that?”

“I think you know. And I have to say I’m disappointed in you. I know you and Ned have your difficulties sometimes, but resorting to teasing him about his dyslexia is really a low blow.”

“I didn’t—”

“Luke. Let me have my say. You’re a grown man. I can’t ground you or punish you anymore when you go astray. But this wasn’t worthy of you. This… I don’t like. I don’t ever want to see this kind of behavior again. Make things right with your brother. Family should stick together, not tear each other down.”

She got up, kissed him on the cheek as she walked by and left without another word. Luke didn’t bother to contradict her, even if whatever she thought he’d done, he hadn’t. He moved to the table and picked the book up.

See Spot run. Run, Spot, run.

Hell. Ned must have been ballistic when he saw this. He was a proud man and he hated that people knew about his difficulties with reading. He’d been working steadily with Camila, who volunteered at the local literacy center, and had been making good progress. Luke hoped this stupid joke didn’t ruin it.

He threw the book in the trash and went to look for Ned, but his brother wasn’t in the barn or stables, or even in the shed he used as a mechanic’s shop. When he finally gave up the search, he was hungry and discouraged, so he returned to his cabin, rustled up a quick lunch and ran upstairs to change his shirt. The sight of the guest bedroom door—the nursery door—hanging wide open stopped him in his tracks.

He’d closed that door this morning.

Hadn’t he?

A quick peek into the room confirmed his worst suspicions. Someone had been in there. Someone with a grudge.