The Kincaid Bride Page 12

  “I am not screeching.”

  “Not at the moment, but I doubt that you’re through yet.”

  “Just answer me one thing. If you’re sleeping in that bed, where am I supposed to sleep?”

  “This is a big bed. Crawl in and don’t worry. Believe me, any foolish ideas I might have had when I climbed those stairs out there are completely gone.”

  “Seems as though my options are limited. I either sleep in that bed with you or on the floor.”

  “Don’t tell me your troubles.” Eli yawned. “Just land somewhere and turn off the damn lights, would you?”

  “Oh, go to hell,” she retorted irritably. Still, she switched off the ceiling light and gingerly approached the opposite side of the bed from Eli. Sliding back the sheet and blanket, she turned off the bedside lamp and lay down. Her heart was thumping hard, mostly because she could hear Eli’s steady, even breathing.

  Why, he was already sleeping, the wretch! And she probably wouldn’t sleep a wink all night!

  The next morning when Eli and the ranch hands were seated around the table for breakfast, Garrett signaled for silence.

  “I have an announcement,” he said with a yard-wide grin. “Eli and my granddaughter, Melanie, were married last night.”

  Eli had just taken a swallow of coffee and he coughed and choked on it. The guy next to him pounded him on the back until Eli shot him a dirty look and mumbled, “Knock it off, Wilson.” Eli felt Collin’s eyes on him and picked up sympathy and understanding from Melanie’s brother. Had she told him the truth of yesterday’s fiasco?

  Some of the men stood up and offered to shake hands with Eli. After congratulations, everyone began eating. While he ate, Eli thought about last night. He had about as much understanding of his wife—His wife! Good Lord—as he did of nuclear science. Why had she married him if she didn’t want him in her bed? She wasn’t some wet-behind-the-ears kid, for Pete’s sake. She was a sexually experienced, independent adult, and everything that had happened between them since the day they met was her doing. He never would have made a move on her if she hadn’t let him know so clearly that she was hot to trot. Now when they no longer had to sneak around, she didn’t want him touching her. Did he have to put up with treatment like that? She should at least talk to him and tell him what was at the bottom of the anger she’d hurled at him last night.

  By damn, he was going to make her talk about it. Eli got up and said for all to hear, “Garrett, I’m going to move the rest of my things from the bunkhouse.”

  “You go right ahead,” Garrett told him with a man-to-man smile. Silly grins appeared on some of the other men’s faces—they always got a kick out of any reference to sex, be it vague or blatant. Garrett rose, too, and followed him from the dining room. He put his hand on Eli’s shoulder. “I didn’t want to say this in front of them, but don’t think you have to rush to work this morning. Take your time…if you get my drift.”

  Eli nodded. “Thanks, but I’m sure I won’t be long.”

  “Never rush love, son,” Garrett said gently, sincerely.

  How about the argument from hell? Should I rush that? “Thank you, Garrett. I know that’s good advice.”

  “It really is, Eli. Women don’t respond to haste.”

  Eli managed a weak smile and then hurried out of the house, grabbing his hat from a hook in the mudroom as he passed through it. In the bunkhouse, he stuffed his clothes into a pillowcase because the duffel bag he’d arrived with four years ago had long since disappeared. He’d seen no reason to replace it when he hardly ever left the ranch and, in fact, hadn’t been away from it overnight since the day Garrett had hired him.

  Toting the crammed pillowcase on his shoulder, Eli returned to the house. He avoided the dining room by cutting through the kitchen, where Irma accosted him. “Did I hear right? Are you and Melanie married?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, it must have been love at first sight! How wonderful.” The housekeeper looked ecstatic. “Are you going off by yourselves for a honeymoon?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so.” He shifted the bulging pillowcase to his other shoulder. “This is getting heavy. Talk to you later, Mrs. Clary.”

  “Eli Forrester, it’s time you started calling me Irma. You’re part of the family now.”

  “Yes, ma’am…I mean, Irma.” Eli made his escape and hurried through the house. He began slowing down near the top of the staircase because he was beginning to feel uneasy about confronting Melanie. She had a mind of her own and a temper, and she’d said in no uncertain terms last night that if he brought his clothes to her room, she’d throw them out the window.

  She wouldn’t really, would she? “No telling what that woman might do,” Eli muttered as he reached the second floor. If his things were strewn all over the yard, he was going to be mighty embarrassed. The men would never let him forget it, and he’d have to laugh and pretend their jokes didn’t bother him. Could he do it? He sure wasn’t known for his sense of humor to begin with, and to be laughed at by rough, tough men who were true sons of the West would be damned hard to take.

  Eli stopped at the door to Melanie’s room. His room, too, he told himself, but he knew she wouldn’t agree to that. Or she wouldn’t have last night anyhow. Was she in a better mood this morning? What if she was? What if, when he opened the door, she sat up in bed and gave him one of her incredible smiles? What if she held out her arms, said something sexy and funny and invited him to get back into bed with her? He got hot just thinking about it. If all she did was hint that she’d welcome intimacy between them, he’d undress and hop into that bed so fast his head would spin.

  Groaning at the immediate ache in his groin, Eli put his forehead against the door frame and told himself to cool down. Then, moving slowly, cautiously and nervously, he put his free hand on the doorknob and turned it.

  Nine

  Melanie had been awake for about fifteen minutes. She had gotten up with every intention of staying up, but after she’d brushed her teeth, depression had set in and she’d crawled back under the covers. Eli’s side of the bed was mussed and empty. Obviously, he’d awakened at his usual early hour, dressed silently and tiptoed out. It unnerved her to remember how positive she’d been last night about not sleeping a wink and then conking out so soundly that she’d not once been aware of a man in her bed. And he wasn’t just any man; he was her husband!

  “Oh, Lordy,” she whispered, shaken to her soul. She had let humiliation at being caught with Eli in such a debasing situation overwhelm her good sense and certainly her courage. If it had been anyone else but Garrett who’d walked in on them, she knew that she would not have come so unhinged. But her grandfather had seen her with nothing but a skirt held up in front of her, while the rest of her clothes were scattered all over the living-room floor. She could close her eyes still and see Eli’s briefs next to her panties. Discovering Melanie in such a compromising situation must have completely shattered Garrett’s trust in her and destroyed any pride he might have felt in his one and only granddaughter.

  Now she was married and so she must get herself unmarried! Preferably without telling her mother anything about the mess she’d gotten herself into. Sue Ellen would go ballistic if she found out her daughter had been married without her. And without the long white gown and veil, the attendants, formal church ceremony and huge reception she’d planned for Melanie ever since her daughter had been old enough to know what a wedding was all about.

  Sick at heart, Melanie moaned and turned on her side. Maybe she’d stay in bed all day. Maybe she’d stay there until she went back to San Diego! She would leave today if she didn’t have to come up with a plausible explanation for her mother about why she’d cut her visit so short.

  Her back was to the door, and when it opened and Eli came in, she never moved a muscle even though her heart was pumping in double time. Even with her eyes shut, Melanie sensed his stare and wondered how long she could lie still and pretend to be asleep. The hardest par
t of her act was to breathe shallowly; she simply wasn’t getting enough air and she had to take a big breath.

  Since it was a dead giveaway, she stopped all pretense, opened her eyes and asked coldly, “Why on earth are you gawking at me?”

  “Any man would gawk at you. You’re incredibly beautiful,” Eli said quietly from the chair he was sitting in. “You know it, too, don’t you? You also know how to make a man do any damned thing you want. A tilt of an eyebrow, a hint of a smile, a toss of your hair, the subtlest twitch of your hips. Oh, yes, you know all the tricks.”

  “I didn’t want a loveless marriage,” she said sarcastically, then flopped onto her back to glare at the ceiling.

  “No, you just wanted some fun and games while you were in Montana. What did you do when you got here? Rank all the men and decide that I’d be the easiest one to manipulate?”

  “Don’t be absurd! Every other man on this ranch who isn’t a relative is old, dense as a door or just plain unattractive.”

  “Meaning I’m not?”

  “You know darned well you’re not.”

  “Really.” Eli moved from the chair to the bed, sat down and leaned over her. “What am I, then?”

  “Don’t…don’t sit there. Go…back to the chair,” she stammered.

  “But I like it here. You like me here, too, don’t you?”

  “If I liked you in or on my bed, I would have done more than sleep last night,” she retorted.

  “Let’s not confuse last night with this morning,” Eli said softly, his face drawing even closer to hers. He drank in the sight of her. “How come you look so beautiful in the morning?”

  “I don’t! Eli, don’t do this, please. Look, there’s something we have to talk about.” He slipped his hand under the covers, and she got panicky because it felt so right holding her breast. Pushing back the blankets, she lifted his hand from her body and put it on his own thigh. “I mean it, Eli. You have to listen to me.”

  He put his lips against her ear and whispered, “You’re my wife, and I want to make love to you.”

  “No, Eli,” she moaned. “I can’t.”

  “But you want to. I can see it in your eyes.”

  She shut her eyes against his penetrating gaze and said in an agonized whisper, “If we made love now, our marriage would be consummated. I intend to get an annulment and I’d like to be truthful when I tell my lawyer that we never, uh, slept together after the ceremony.”

  “We slept together last night.”

  Her eyes flashed open. “You know very well I’m not talking about sleeping!”

  He studied her face. “Do you actually believe that you and I can get in the same bed night after night and do nothing but sleep?”

  Eli wondered if she would stick to her schedule and leave when her vacation time was up. It was a surprisingly unnerving prospect and he wasn’t quite sure why. Was it because he now knew she intended to nullify yesterday’s ceremony or because once she left he’d probably never see her again?

  His mood changed and he suddenly didn’t feel so kindly toward her. She’d used him to service her sexual needs, nothing more. Not one thing that had occurred between them meant a damn to her.

  “I can,” Melanie said. “It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “Oh, I see. You’ve completely curtailed your sex drive.”

  The hard note in his voice hadn’t been there before and it made Melanie wary. “I have it under control, yes,” she said slowly.

  “Which, of course, is the reason your nipple got hard the second I touched it.”

  “I think you know that’s an involuntary reaction.”

  “Sort of like this one?” Taking her hand, he brought it to his fly.

  She jerked her hand back. “That’s quite enough of that! Are you going to cooperate with my annulment plan or not?”

  Eli got off the bed and then stood next to it, looking at her. “Nope.”

  Startled, Melanie sat up. “Why not? You certainly don’t want to stay married, do you?”

  “Were you against our getting married yesterday?”

  “Well, of course I was! Why didn’t you stop it?” she asked.

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Groaning in frustration, Melanie plopped down and pulled the pillow over her head. “Go away. You’re making me crazy.”

  “We do seem to affect each other that way, don’t we? Okay, I’m leaving now. I’ll see you at dinner if not before. Oh, by the way, if you should happen to lose some of that remarkable self-control you seem to have suddenly developed, give me a yell. Remember that I’m your man if you get hot, sweetheart.” Eli started for the door, then stopped to say, “One thing more. My clothes are in that pillowcase over there. If you should start feeling wifely, it would be a real nice gesture to hang my shirts and pants in the closet and put my underwear and socks in one of the dressers in here.”

  He was almost to the door when she hit him in the back with a pillow. She was a darned good shot.

  He left with the strangest ache in his gut. Just try to remember yours isn’t a real marriage, old sport, and that your dear wife isn’t going to be your dear wife for very long!

  Garrett saddled his favorite horse for a ride that day. He did his best thinking on horseback—always had—and God knew Garrett Kincaid had a lot on his mind. Leaving the compound, he felt Collin’s inquisitive gaze on his back. More often than not, they rode together, but today he needed to be completely alone.

  Melanie and Eli’s marriage gnawed at him. He’d behaved like a small-minded, old-fashioned tyrant yesterday, when what he should’ve done was ignore what he’d seen until he’d thought it through. After all, young people were much different today than when he’d been Melanie’s age.

  But are the generations really so different? Garrett wondered. My beloved Laura was pregnant when we married over fifty years ago, and I was no more than a randy young sapling—younger than Melanie, for a fact. What if I forced a marriage yesterday that should not have taken place? Who am I to make such a major decision for someone else?

  But Melanie is such a lovely young woman, and she should not be giving herself to a man she doesn’t love and maybe doesn’t love her. At least Laura and I loved each other. Every day of our marriage we loved each other. Sometimes I still miss her so much I can’t bear it.

  It’s strange, Garrett thought, that neither Melanie nor Eli made the slightest objection to getting married. It’s all very confusing.

  And my mind is also vague on what to do about Larry’s other sons. Or should I do anything at all? Do any of those young men know who their father is? Isn’t it odd that not a one of them ever came looking for Larry? How will they react to inheriting a share of the Kincaid family’s Whitehorn ranch?

  I must make a decision about that. Wayne agreed to let me know if a serious buyer should materialize, but it wouldn’t be fair to leave my cousin hanging indefinitely.

  Walking his horse over his own land, Garrett wondered if Collin and Melanie were worried now about the future of their inheritances. And he hadn’t yet told Alice about Larry’s six sons. Actually, he hadn’t told his daughter because he had a pretty good idea how she’d react to the news. It had to be done, of course, and maybe this afternoon he’d drive to Elk Springs and drop in on her.

  Or maybe he’d do that tomorrow.

  Sighing heavily, Garrett brooded about the swift passage of time and the fact that each year seemed to go by faster than the one before. And he thought of the mistakes people made with the ones they loved most, the hurts they caused each other, and he wondered again if he’d done the right thing for Melanie yesterday.

  Melanie finally dragged herself out of bed and into the shower. Dressed in jeans, plaid cotton blouse and her riding boots, she headed downstairs. She had just reached the first-floor landing when the telephone started ringing.

  “I’ll get it, Irma,” she called. “I’m right next to Granddad’s office.” Sitting in the desk chair, she picked up the receiver. “K
incaid ranch.”

  “Melanie, it’s me.”

  “Mom! Uh, hi. How are you?” Melanie was beside herself. She wasn’t emotionally prepared to talk to her mother today. All it would take was a tiny slip of the tongue for Sue Ellen to catch on that something was awry in Montana.

  “Melanie, I’ve done a lot of thinking about what you told me. About your father’s six illegitimate sons, you know? I’ve tried not to worry about you and Collin. I mean, please don’t think I’m greedy or selfish because I want my children to receive their rightful inheritance. You must never think that I’m hoping for any financial gain for myself, but you and Collin are Garrett’s legitimate heirs and it concerns me that Garrett might do something foolish with his estate.”

  “Such as splitting it nine ways?”

  “Nine?”

  “Aunt Alice, Mom.”

  “Oh, yes, Alice. Have you seen her?”

  “Not yet. Everyone’s so busy, and I’d like Collin to go with me.”

  “Has Collin been too busy to spend time with you?”

  “Everyone’s busy here, Mom.”

  “Well, heavens, what do you do all day?”

  Well…yesterday I got married, Mom. Melanie winced. “Let’s see. I’ve been training a pretty gray filly, and I’ve gone riding and swimming. Did you ever swim in Dove Lake when you lived here?”

  “Oh, my, I haven’t thought of Dove Lake in years. Yes, your father and I went swimming there in good weather.”

  There was a giddiness in Sue Ellen’s voice that made Melanie smile and think, And what else did you and Dad do at Dove Lake, Mom? But then she remembered what she’d done at Dove Lake, and her own face colored and she steered the conversation in another direction.

  “And there’s Irma to talk to, and Saturday I cleaned the house. Believe me, Mom, there’s something to do every minute of the day. I’m not bored, believe me.”

  Melanie winced again because she’d said “believe me” twice in the space of two seconds. She was trying too hard to sound happy with her visit, wanting to convince her mother that everything was great. On the other hand, she realized that she hadn’t really lied. She definitely was not bored, nor had she been bored for one moment since she’d arrived. For a quiet, out-of-the-way place, a lot sure went on here.