Her smile seemed to lit up the entire room. For the first time in a long time, I finally felt whole.
Kissing the tip of her nose, I said, “Let’s take a shower, then I want to make love to you.”
With a giggle, she replied, “I like that plan!”
The moment I pulled out of her, we both knew. Placing her on the floor, our gaze drifted down.
“Shit. Oh God, Em. I’m so sorry.”
I looked back up at her. She was still staring as she whispered, “Oh no.”
As if my heart wasn’t still beating fast from what just happened to us, add in the fact that I realized I forgot to wear a condom and then add the panic in of Emylie’s voice.
“Please tell me you’re on the pill.”
She glanced up and the fear in her eyes made me take a few steps back. “I … I am … I was.”
“Was?”
Her fingers went to her temples and she rubbed them quickly. “Oh God.”
Spinning on her heels, she dashed through the house and to her bathroom.
My heart felt like it was going to beat right the fuck out of my chest. Holy shit. How could I be so fucking stupid? Another costly mistake. Emylie was never going to forgive me.
Reaching down, I grabbed our clothes and followed her. When I walked into the bathroom, she was sitting on the edge of the tub. “I’m so sorry I let you down.”
Her head lifted. “What? You didn’t let me down. Holden, we both forgot. This is no more your fault than it is mine.”
“It was my responsibility, and I fucked up. Again.”
She shook her head. “No. It was both of ours and we were totally caught up in the moment.”
Sitting down next to her, I took her hand in mine. “So, what about the pill?”
“I’ve been taking them, but the last few days, I haven’t taken any. With everything going on and staying at your parents’ last minute, it totally slipped my mind.”
Lifting her hand to my lips, I kissed the back of it. “Are you angry?”
Her beautiful brown eyes looked into my green. “No. Are you?”
“Hell no. That felt amazing, and I loved not having anything between us.”
She grinned. “Me too.”
“But, we have so much to work out together, that I don’t think it would be wise for use to keep having sex without some kind of birth control. Don’t get me wrong, I want to have kids with you some day, Em. But I really want to be with you right now.”
“I feel the same way. Let’s not think about it, until we need to think about it. Worrying isn’t going to do any good.”
“Agreed.”
We both put on fake ass smiles, but I knew we were both freaking the hell out on the inside.
As much as I was dying to make Emylie my wife and plan our future, we needed to focus on us. I said a silent prayer as I turned on the shower and pulled her in. I also made a mental note to grab the condoms out of my wallet and put them next to her bed.
THE SICK FEELING in my stomach hadn’t settled any as Holden and I snuggled up on my sofa. After the hot shower, Holden laid me on the bed and gave every single inch of my body attention. From soft kisses to massages with his magical hand. He slipped a condom on and slowly made love to me. I didn’t want to tell him how much better it felt with no barrier, but there was no way we could risk having sex with no condom. I was going to be in full-on freak out mode until I was able to take a test.
I was about to say something when someone started pounding on the door.
“Fucking reporters,” Holden mumbled as he got up from the sofa.
“Don’t even go to the door,” I cried out.
“Em? Holden? It’s Becca!”
Jumping off the couch, I raced over to the door just as Holden opened it. Only a few paparazzi stood out by the street, snapping a picture as soon as they saw us.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as Becca pushed her way into the house. Mason followed behind closely.
“Nothing. As a matter of fact, everything is amazing! Well, wait, tell me your kitty got fed first, then I can say everything is amazing.” Glancing over to Holden she asked, “Sex. Did y’all finally have sex?”
With a roll of my eyes, I groaned.
“What in the hell?” Holden asked as he gave Becca a shocked look before asking Mason, “What do you see in her?”
Mason laughed and slapped Holden on the back. “Love is blind.”
Everyone stopped moving as Becca sucked in a breath.
“What did you say?” I asked.
Mason glanced between all three of us. “Um. I don’t know. Why are you all looking at me like that?”
I clapped my hands together and did a little jump. “Mason! You said love is blind.”
Becca stood there speechless. Her eyes were beginning build with tears as she waited for Mason to say something.
“Oh. Well, um, shit. I didn’t want the first time I said that to you to be a slip up, Becca.”
I was positive Becca didn’t care how Mason told her he loved her. She threw herself into his arms and kissed the hell out of him. Holden and I exchanged smiles and he mouthed that he loved me.
Before I had a chance to do the same, Becca pulled back and gasped, “Oh my God. As amazing as that was, we have something even more amazing! Well, no, it’s not more amazing. It’s right up there, but Mason saying he loved me is the ultimate amazing.”
“Becca!” I shouted.
Holden chuckled and headed toward the kitchen. “Nothing could make this night anymore amazing, Becca. Sorry.” Glancing back at us over his shoulder, he asked, “Beer anyone?”
“I’ll take one,” Mason said as he plopped down onto my sofa. I moaned internally. As much as I loved Mason and Becca, I really wanted to spend some alone time with Holden.
“Are you going to tell me why you’re here and what is so amazing that you had to interrupt our evening?” I asked.
With a huge grin on her face, Becca sat down next to Mason. “Yes! Okay so you know how the security company came today to upgrade the main house?”
I nodded as I took the bottle of beer Holden had offered me. “Yeah. What about it?”
Becca took a bottle from Holden as well. Except she placed hers on my coffee table.
“Well, when we were in Mason’s office, they had the tapes pulled up from one of the cameras. I, of course, thought about the naughty moment you and Holden had shared earlier on the back porch and I wanted to find it to see exactly what you two were up to.”
Scrunching my nose, I shrieked, “What? Becca, that is so wrong!”
She made a sound with her mouth and waved me off with her hand. “Please. Don’t act like my nosey, butting-in self has not saved you a time or two. Even you have to admit, Holden, I’ve saved your ass a time or two.”
Holden nodded and chuckled. “Yes, you have.”
“Thank you for that,” Becca said beaming with a weird sense of pride.
“Becca, please get to the point,” I pleaded, falling back against Holden’s body.
“Right. Anyway, the tapes where all the way at the beginning for some reason. As I was fast forwarding them, I saw something interesting.”
I leaned forward. “What was it?”
Her face lit up like the fourth of July. “It was Daphne on the back porch. I was curious if maybe she might have said something that hinted to her deceit. I hit play and you will never believe what Ms. Weston was talking about.”
Now it was Holden who leaned forward. “What?” we both spoke at once.
Leaning closer to us, she started telling us what she had heard. “She was on the phone with her daddy, telling him she still hadn’t been able to get pregnant and if it didn’t happen soon, she was going to have to pretend to have a miscarriage.”
I gasped and covered my mouth. I still couldn’t believe her father was going along with her crazy plan. “What kind of a man agrees with something like that?”
Holden stood up and began pacing. “The same ki
nd of man who would pay off a doctor to say Daphne wasn’t as far along as she really was. The same kind of man who pretty much forced me to marry his daughter out of guilt and helped her with that damn news conference.”
Becca injected, “You know the saying, bad press is better than no press. Maybe in some sick twisted way, he thought this would give attention to his movie.”
“Or maybe he doesn’t know that Holden knows the truth. Daphne could have hidden it that from her father,” I stated as I looked around at everyone.
“That’s possible,” Holden replied.
“It gets better,” Mason said with a big Cheshire cat grin. “Tell them, Becca.”
Becca snapped her head back to us and went on. “Right. So she goes on to talk about how much she hates Texas, your family, and most of all, your ex-girlfriend. She even makes a reference to Emylie being part-Hispanic.”
My mouth fell. “Oh no, she didn’t!”
Becca nodded. “Oh yes, she did! Then, she said she wished she could go back to the night she drugged Holden. If she could, she’d had chosen someone who wasn’t madly in love with his girlfriend or didn’t have a girlfriend at all.”
All the air left my lungs. “Ohmygod. She admitted to everything! And we have it on tape?”
Holden stood next to me with a stunned look on his face.
Mason and Becca smiled as they looked at us. “Yep. I already duplicated it and saved that part of the surveillance video to my computer. I emailed it to Sam, Debbie, Emylie, and you, Holden.”
I stood and walked up to Holden. “What are you going to do? Release it to the press?”
Holden’s face looked pained. As much as we all hated Daphne, I knew the right thing to do would be to show the actual proof we had to her and get her to retract her statements. I could see Holden thought the same.
After taking a few moments to think, Holden answered. “No. There’s no way I’ll stoop to her level. But what I will do is send it to her dad, along with the fact that I know he helped in the manipulation of her due date to make me think the baby she lost was mine. If we have this that shows he knew she did all of this, including drug me, then I’m positive he will make it all go away. He cares about his daughter, but he loves his movies more and wouldn’t want to taint his own reputation.”
“Damn. I was really wanting to see that little bitch’s face when she was outed for being a crazy lying no good for nothing bitch.”
We all put our gaze onto Becca. She lifted her shoulders and asked, “What? Don’t try and say you don’t agree with me.”
Mason stood and reached for Becca’s hand. “Come on, let’s leave and let them celebrate the good news. Hopefully, life will go back to normal around here soon. Shit, Warner. You blow into town and all hell breaks loose.”
We all let out a laugh as Holden and I walked Mason and Becca to the door.
“I believe y’all have some celebrating to do also with Mason dropping the L word!” I said as I winked at Mason.
Becca’s face lit up again. I was so happy for them both. It seemed like things were finally how they should be. At least, I sure as hell hoped so.
Three days later
Holden held my hand while we sat in the waiting room of Mr. Weston’s office. My heart was racing. Holden leaned over and whispered, “It’s almost over, baby.”
I responded with a frustrated sigh. “I hope so.”
“Mr. Warner, Ms. Sanchez, they’re ready.”
Holden glanced over to his lawyer Troy. I’d finally asked Holden why he had hired Troy and he said it was after Daphne’s father pressured him into asking for Daphne’s hand. He was having Troy draw up a prenup. Since Holden was set to inherit everything from his parents, he didn’t want Daphne to get her hands on anything.
“Let’s do this,” Troy stated with a grin.
When we walked in, Daphne and her father shot me a dirty look. I kept my chin up and didn’t let them see that they affected me in any way.
Mr. Weston’s nostrils flared the moment he saw me next to Holden. His voice was laced with anger as he spat out, “I hope you have a damn good reason why you’re here in my office.”
With a smile, Holden opened his laptop, set it on Mr. Weston’s desk and hit play.
The video of Daphne on the back porch started. I’d never seen two people turn white as ghosts before.
Daphne’s father glared at Holden while his daughter sat next to him wringing her hands together. “Are you going to release this to the press?” he asked, attempting to keep his voice calm.
Holden reached for my hand. “No. But I want Daphne to retract her statement.”
Daphne laughed, but then quickly stopped when her father turned and shot her a look that clearly told her they had lost.
“She’ll do it today,” Weston replied with a look of defeat.
Daphne’s head snapped as she turned to her father then back to Holden. “What in the hell am I supposed to say?”
Holden wore a glowered expression. His nostrils flared slightly and his expression was cold and distant. It was clear he was still very angry for all of the shit this crazy woman put us all through.
“I don’t give a shit what you say, Daphne. That’s not my problem. You’re damn lucky I’m not releasing it to the press after the shit you pulled with me. The years I lost and the hurt that was caused because your twisted, fucked-up mind thought you could get away with this.”
Holden turned to Mr. Weston. “And I’m sorry sir, but knowing you played a part in this too, well I think I’m being more than fair, don’t you?”
Daphne’s father leaned back in his chair. I’m sure he thought his money would be able to get him out of anything, and it probably would. Even this. But he wasn’t going to risk it. That was clear.
“Daphne will make a statement saying that things between the two of you have been declining for some time. You both thought that marriage was the key, but quickly realized that was not the way to go. She suffered a small breakdown after you both agreed to split amicable, and that she apologies to Ms. Sanchez for the undue stress she has caused.”
“The miscarriage?” Holden asked.
Weston cleared his throat. “She’ll say she suffered a small breakdown when she realized that relationship was not going to mend itself and she found out she was indeed never pregnant.”
Daphne jumped up. “Like hell I’m going to say I suffered a breakdown!”
Mr. Weston slowly turned his chair and practically shot daggers through his daughter. “Would you rather that or be labeled as a jealous crazy person who drugged a man, lied about him being the father, then turned around and faked a goddamn pregnancy? I’m through with your bullshit, Daphne. This time you’re not getting your way. You’ll make the statement, and then you’re going to forget Holden Warner ever existed.”
Four months later
The knock on my office door had me drawing my head up. “Come in.”
“Hey.”
Smiling, I leaned back in my chair and replied, “Hey. How’s everything going?”
Holden walked up to the chair in front of my desk and sat. “Going good. Mason got the hunters all settled into the cabins and looks like they’re planning on an evening hunt.”
“That’s good. I saw a really nice, large, non-typical with at least fourteen points and a drop tine over on the bluff near three points.”
He smiled and replied, “Damn. Someone should really pat the wildlife manager on the back.”
My cheeks heated. “We’ve got some nice looking bucks this season.”
“We’ll take them over there. I’m thinking I want to do things a bit differently. Since Mason and I can split up and take the hunters to different locations on the ranch, I think it’s going to work out even better. Dad seems to really be on board with it. Split them up so they aren’t all fighting for the same damn buck.”
I nodded. “Well since we cut back the number of hunters this year, I think we have a really good chance of having even better buc
ks next year, especially with the feeding plan I’ve implemented.”
“I love it when you talk like that.”
With a chuckle, I rolled my eyes.
I loved how life had settled into place for all of us. With all of the drama with Daphne finally over, we were able to start our lives. After Daphne made her statement, the press quickly forgot about us and focused on Daphne and her mental breakdown. Last I heard, she had pulled out of her father’s movie and checked herself into some mental health resort in Europe somewhere.
“I’m glad that your dad agrees with the new plans.”
“Yeah, me too. I’ve missed this. All of it.”
The way Holden was staring at me told me there was something on his mind other than hunting season. Tilting my head, I gave him a pondering look. “What’s on your mind?”
“You. Always you.”
My stomach fluttered. “I was hoping you were going to say the house.”
A small chuckle passed through his lips. “That too. The builder said he’s almost positive we’ll be in by Christmas, if not sooner.”
A bubble of excitement built in my stomach. Holden had worked hard with talking me into moving in with him when he said he was building a house on the ranch. It wasn’t anywhere near the main house that was his parents’, but closer to the south side of the ranch. It had been a part of our original plan back when we made one. I couldn’t help but think about how far we had come in the last few months. One of my best memories was of Holden whisking me away to Fredericksburg for the weekend. We spent one day wandering the shops and picking out things for the house. That night and leading into the next day, we spent in our room. Making love and talking. It was amazing.
“That will be fun! Decorating our very own home for Christmas!” I said with a big grin.
His eyes turned dark. “I was thinking it would be more fun breaking in each room with hot sweaty sex.”
Heat pooled between my legs causing me to press them together. Things between Holden and I had been steadily heating up and definitely not slowing down.