Thunderbolt over Texas

Five

Sydney held her breath, wondering if Cole might actually refuse.

“I want you so bad,” he said instead.

Her breath whooshed out. “You had me worried there for a second, cowboy.”

He shook his head, smoothing back her hair. “Don’t you worry. Don’t you ever worry.”

Something settled deep inside her and her worries vanished.

Cole had to be the most honest and honorable man she’d ever met. Yeah, he was getting in her way over the Thunderbolt. But he was doing it out of respect for his family.

Unlike the men she’d dated in New York, unlike some of her colleagues and contacts at the museum, everything she’d seen, everything he’d done, told her Cole was a man to be trusted.

She’d missed trust.

She’d missed honor.

She wanted him and he wanted her. It didn’t get much more honest than that.

She focused on the feel of his rough palm against her scalp. His eyes burned smoky-blue, and she felt like the most desirable woman in the world. Her lashes grew heavy and she tilted her head into the sensation of Cole.

His palm cupped her face and he kissed her eyes. Her body felt as if it were drifting on air, soaring up to the ceiling. The dying fire gave off a faint, distinct tang. The creek roared over boulders outside the window, and Cole left trails of shooting sparks wherever he touched.

She tasted his salty skin, then she squeezed his hard body tighter and tighter until she was safe and surrounded by his warmth. He lifted her into his arms as if she weighed nothing. Nobody had ever carried her before. He started to walk, and she was sorry the bedroom was so close.

“Hold me for a minute,” she said when they got there.

His arms flexed. “No problem.”

She sighed against his chest. “You think you could stop time? Right here? Right now?”

“I wish I could.”

“Try really, really hard.”

His chuckle rumbled through her. “I can go slow.”

“Easy for you, maybe.”

“Nope. Not easy at all.”

“But you’d do it for me?”

“I’ll do anything for you. Just say the word.”

Let me into your world, she wanted to say. Not just your bed, but your heart and your soul.

But that was impossible. They had here and now, and that was all. She forced a light note into her voice.

“Get naked.”

“Okay. But that might speed things up a little.”

“Or I could get naked.”

“That would be worse.” His voice sounded strangled.

She struggled to push his shirt from his shoulders. “Let’s play with fire.”

He slowly lowered her feet to the floor. “Sydney, I’ve been playing with fire since the first second I laid eyes on you.”

She took a shaky step back and reached for the hem of her T-shirt. He stared down at her with such longing and reverence that a shudder ran straight through her body. She peeled the shirt over her head, gauging his reaction, loving his reaction.

His nostrils flared and his gaze latched onto her lacy bra. Without a word, he shucked his own shirt.

She stared unabashedly at the play of muscles across his chest. “You think we want this so bad, because we know we shouldn’t?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “It probably has nothing to do with the way you look, taste, smell or feel.”

“That’s it.”

“That’s what?”

“The way you smell.”

“It’s bad?”

She shook her head, gliding toward him, burying her face in his chest again. “It’s good. So good.”

He reached between their bodies and flicked the button on her jeans. “You, too.”

She smiled and went on her toes, kissing his mouth as he lowered her zipper. “Let’s not tell anyone,” she said.

“That we made love?”

She shook her head. “The smell secret.”

“You got it.”

He rolled off her pants then got rid of his own. Then he gently pressed her back on the bed, covering her with kisses, whispering words of reverence and encouragement, sending her heart rate soaring and her hormones into overdrive.

His fingertips skimmed her stomach, circling her navel with a featherlight touch that made her breath come in a gasp and her muscles contract. Before she could adjust to the sensation, he bent over her breast, taking one nipple into his mouth, swirling and circling the crest with his tongue.

She moaned, and her hands went to his hair. Sensations rocketed through her body as his teeth raked her tender flesh and his hand began a downward spiral.

This wasn’t going to be slow. It was going to be lightning fast if she didn’t do something.

“Cole,” she gasped.

“You’re delicious,” he answered, fingers dipping lower, increasing the onslaught of sensation.

“Slow…down…” she begged.

She felt his smile. “No way.” He crossed the downy curls and pressed into her in one swift motion.

Her hips came up off the bed, and her hands convulsed against his head. “Cole,” she wailed.

“Go with it,” he said.

“But…”

He moved to look into her eyes, his fingers pulsing in a way that made her world shift to the exquisite touch on her tender, moist flesh. She flexed her hips. He kissed her mouth.

“There’s more to come,” he rumbled against her. “I promise.”

She closed her eyes. She was past the point of resisting. Past the point of coherent thought. She was going where he led her, and there was no way to stop it.

Her world roared, then went silent.

They were skin to skin, soul to soul as he eased inside her. True to his word, he took it slow, watching her closely, gauging her desires. Their breathing synchronized as the corner clock ticked away minutes.

A warm rush of sensation crested up from her toes. He smiled and deepened his kiss, increasing his rhythm until her world imploded, the clock’s ticks slowed to a crawl and paradise stretched on and on.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, guilt nipping at her conscience. Nobody had ever done that before. No one had ever set aside their own needs to take her to paradise.

As the power of speech returned, she searched his deep eyes, worried that he’d made some stupid, gentlemanly decision against making love. “We’re not…uh…stopping, are we?”

He shook his head and brushed a lock of hair from her cheek, shifting so that his big body covered hers. “Oh, sweetheart. We’re just getting started.”

He kissed her mouth. His thumb returned to her breast and, against all odds, her desire instantly rallied.

She ran her hands down his back, sliding them onto his taut buttocks and pressing his erection against her stomach, shivering with anticipation. She kissed his harder, swirling her tongue against his.

He opened wide, and she could feel the tension rising in his muscles.

She moaned and wriggled beneath him, shifting her thighs in a clear invitation.

He gasped. “Hey. This is supposed to be the slow part.”

“Fast is fun,” she assured him, shifting again, even more meaningfully this time.

He grabbed her hip with a broad hand and held her still, pulling back to look into her eyes. “If I go now, I’m going to break a land-speed record.”

“Now,” she said. “I don’t care. Now.” Slow had been a stupid idea anyway. Nothing between her and Cole was ever going to be slow.

He flexed his hips and was instantly inside her.

She groaned, nearly melting around his heat.

He buried his hands in her hair, thumbs stroking her temples. His breath came in gasps next to her ear.

She could feel the tension cresting in his steel, hard muscles. Her body tightened and strained and pulsated.

She reached for the comfortor, fisting her hands into the fabric as their rhythm increased.

He repeated her name, over and over again. Then his hands found hers, covered hers, their fingers entwining as the world exploded into black and time ceased to exist.

Cole kissed her damp brow. “You okay?”

She sighed, sinking into his incredibly soft bed. “I don’t think okay is exactly the right word.”

“You hurt?”

“No. It’s fantastic. Fantastic is the right word.”

He chuckled low in her ear, easing most of his weight off her. “You give me heart failure all the time, you know that?”

“You’re pushing things too fast,” said Kyle as he tapped the remainder of the glass from a broken window in the toolshed.

Cole set a new pane on the ground, leaning it against the wall of the shed before he retrieved a hammer from the toolbox.

Kyle didn’t know the half of how fast they’d pushed things. Cole had never done that before-made love after only two days.

“I think we’re doing fine,” he said, strapping on a leather belt and dumping a handful of nails into the pouch.

Kyle whacked at a stubborn corner of glass and it tinkled into jagged pieces. “First you’re necking on the lawn, then you bring her home after midnight.”

A grin split Cole’s face. “Will you listen to yourself? You sound like her father.”

“I’m just saying, Katie’s not going to buy it if you don’t slow it down.”

Cole moved up to the shed wall and dug his claw hammer into the window frame. One by one, the finishing nails popped out. “It’s a compromise. Sydney’s on a deadline with the Thunderbolt.”

“You’re worried about her deadline? This from a guy who was willing to throw her off the property two days ago?”

“I’m getting to know her now. And I didn’t realize her job was on the line.”

Kyle stopped, fixing his attention on Cole. “She told you her job was on the line?”

“Yeah.”

Kyle glared at him impatiently.

“What?”

“Cole. What are you doing?”

Had Kyle guessed what had happened last night? Was it that obvious?

“I’m pretending to fall for Sydney,” he said with exaggerated patience, trying to gauge his brother’s expression.

“You sure about that?”

“I’m positive about that. What are you suggesting?”

Kyle whacked the glass again. “I’m suggesting you watch yourself.”

Cole nearly choked on that one. “Hang on. This was your idea, little brother.”

“Yeah.” Kyle tugged his leather work gloves from his back pocket. “And I may have been wrong about that.”

“Wrong? Hello? What did I miss?”

“She could be playing you,” said Kyle, settling his fingers in the grooves.

“Playing me how? She’s been up front and honest about everything.” Unlike him and Kyle who were pulling one over on Katie.

“Has she?”

“Yes!”

Kyle brushed shards of glass from the sill. “Think about it, Cole. She’s getting exactly what she came for.”

“Uh, yeah. That was the deal.”

“The deal was Katie would think Sydney fell for you. But now you think Sydney’s falling for you.”

“No, I don’t,” Cole snapped.

“Yes, you do. And what the hell are the odds of that?”

Cole hadn’t honestly thought about the odds last night. But then, he didn’t think Sydney was falling for him, either. Not really. It was more a chemical thing. A very powerful chemical thing.

Not that he could tell Kyle he’d slept with Sydney. How suspicious would that look?

“It’s under control,” he said to Kyle.

“You telling me you’re not falling for her?”

“We’re faking it for Katie.”

“You and I shared a room for fifteen years, Cole. Quite frankly, you’re not that good an actor.”

“So, what are you suggesting? I call it off? Kick her out?”

“I’m just suggesting you watch your back. Don’t trust her too far too soon.”

“Fine.”

“I’m serious.”

“I said fine.”

“Just think about the possibilities.”

Cole dug in on the upper frame. “What part of fine didn’t you understand?”

He would think about the possibilities. He was thinking about the possibilities. Because he didn’t know Sydney.

Yeah, he felt as though he knew her. But she had an agenda, and that agenda included getting him to the altar.

What he’d interpreted as sweet, sexy vulnerability, could have been cold, calculated manipulation. Maybe she was hot for him, or maybe she was playing to his ego.

As bad as it sucked, Kyle had a point. What were the odds of a woman like Sydney wanting to sleep with a man like Cole after only two days?

Katie had offered Sydney the use of Kyle’s office phone to contact the museum. Sydney’s heart thumped in her chest as she dialed Gwen Parks’s number. Saying it out loud was going to make it real.

“Gwen, here,” came her friend’s voice over the phone line.

“Hey, Gwen. It’s Sydney.”

“Hey, Sydney.” There was a smile in Gwen’s voice. “How’s the hunt going?”

Sydney took a deep breath. “Well. I found it.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “Define ‘it.’”

“The Thunderbolt of the North.”

Gwen squealed and Sydney jerked the phone away from her ear.

“You actually found it? Where are you? Where is it? What happened?”

“I’m in Texas.”

Another silence.

“Who’d have thought,” said Sydney.

“Did you bring it over from Europe?”

“It’s been here the whole time.”

“Oh, wow. When are you coming back?”

Sydney lowered her voice. “Not right away. It’s complicated. Can I get you started on the show?”

“Without you?”

“Yeah.”

“Of course. But you do have the Thunderbolt, right?”

“It’s in a lawyer’s office in Wichita Falls. But don’t tell a soul. Bradley Slander is still gunning for me, and I don’t want him getting wind of this until it’s a done deal.”

“If it’s not a done deal, why am I setting up the show?”

Sydney twisted the phone cord around her hand. “It is. Sort of. Well… I have to marry the owner.”

Another silence.

“It’s a complicated inheritance thing.”

“You’re going to marry into the Thunderbolt family?”

“It’s a marriage of convenience.”

“Don’t you think that’s above and beyond?”

“It’s the only way. I’m pretending to fall…” Sydney hesitated over the details. “Anyway, we’ll divorce as soon as the show’s over.”

“I don’t know, Sydney.”

“Trust me on this. I’ve got it under control. My notes on the other antiquities are in my computer, along with the contact names. I’m going to reserve the front gallery.”

“You’re making me nervous.”

“I can do this.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

She had to do this. She had no choice but to do this. It didn’t matter how complicated her feelings got for Cole. Nor did it matter how much she was starting to love this crazy Texas ranch.

She was here to do a job. Once she got back to New York it would all fall into perspective. She’d be hailed a hero, and her professional reputation would be saved.

“Okay.”

“Great. Talk to you in a few days.” Sydney let out a sigh of relief and hung up the phone.

It was going to happen. It was truly going to happen.

Then she glanced up, and there was Katie, white-faced in the doorway.

Damn. She opened her mouth, but Katie turned on her heel.

“Katie!” Sydney scrambled around the desk, sprinting to the door. “Katie, it’s not what-”

“Don’t!” Katie gritted her teeth, her hands balling into fists as she stomped down the hallway. “You lied to me. You lied, straight-faced, and I let you into my family.”

“Cole knows.”

“Yeah, right.”

“He knows.”

Katie shook her head, her voice quavering. “No, he doesn’t. But he’s going to. Right now.”

She stormed out the door and Sydney took off after her.

The plan was ruined. Sydney had screwed up everything. She should have talked quieter. She should have closed the door.

Cole was going to kill her, and so was Kyle, and now Katie would be more stressed than ever.

“Katie, listen,” she gasped, rushing through the open doorway and struggling to catch up. She tried running, but her pace in heels was no match for Katie in her boots. Katie easily outdistanced her to the toolshed.

“She’s a con artist and a liar and thief,” yelled Katie as Sydney rapidly approached the three.

Kyle dropped a tool onto the ground and wrapped his arms around his wife. “What the hell?”

“She overheard me,” Sydney called as she made her way through cacti and range grass.

“She’s pretending to fall in love with Cole.” Katie’s voice broke. “I heard her. She’s only after the Thunderbolt.”

Cole stuffed a hammer into his tool belt and moved toward Katie, laying a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Katie. I know that already.”

“How could you know that?” she sniffed. “She’s lying to you. She’s lying to all of us.” She shot Sydney a look of venom.

“I am so sorry,” said Sydney, her voice shaking, a sick feeling swirling in the pit of her stomach.

“I’ll just bet you are,” Katie snapped.

“Sweetheart.” Kyle spoke against her hair in a soft voice. “This is all my fault.”

Katie tipped her chin to look up at him. “How is it your fault?”

Sydney wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole. Katie was such a wonderful human being. She didn’t deserve this heartache. She deserved Kyle’s love every minute of every day, plus a whole troop of little Ericksons running around her house.

“I did something really stupid,” said Cole.

“It was me,” said Sydney. She didn’t want to break up this happy family. They loved each other. They meant the world to each other.

“Will you two stop?” asked Kyle.

“Katie,” said Cole. “After the baby thing-”

Katie turned a shade paler.

“-I thought your stress level would drop if I got married and had babies.”

“We weren’t really going to have babies,” Sydney put in. “We were just going to let you think we’d have babies. It seemed like the perfect plan. I’d get the Thunderbolt. You’d probably get pregnant. By the time we got divorced, you’d be okay again.”

Katie turned to Kyle. “You went along with this?”

“I-”

“We talked him into it,” said Cole. “I talked him into it. Thing is, Katie. I’m going to make it come true.”

The breath rushed from Sydney’s lungs and she blinked at Cole’s rugged profile. Because of last night? Because of what they’d shared?

Was it possible? Did Cole think there was something growing between them?

Her chest expanded with a warm glow. She had no idea how they’d work it out, but the thought of Cole wanting to try settled around her like a soft blanket.

“As soon as I divorce Sydney,” Cole continued, and Sydney’s heart went flat, “I’m going to find another wife. A real wife. I’m going to take on some of the responsibility of this damn dynasty.”

Cole’s words died away to silence and Sydney took an involuntary step back.

Of course he’d find a real wife. What on earth was she thinking? Cole couldn’t do New York, and Sydney wasn’t staying in Texas. Her career and her life were about to take a quantum leap. The sky would be the limit after the Thunderbolt show.

Katie stared at her, and Sydney forced out a shaky laugh. “See? It’ll all work out.”

“Cole,” said Kyle. “You don’t have-”

“My mind’s made up.” Cole rubbed Katie’s shoulder. “I just hope I can find a wife who’ll hold a candle to you.”

Katie wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to Sydney.

Sydney moved closer. “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about.” Katie had come to a perfectly logical conclusion.

She nodded her agreement. “Okay. But we probably shouldn’t tell Grandma it’s a sham.”

Cole looked at Kyle, and Kyle looked at Cole.

“You’re right,” said Cole. “We still have a wedding to plan.”

Sydney parked herself on an old workbench to watch Cole finish the window repair. It had seemed like a good idea to give Katie and Kyle some time alone. She wanted to ask Cole about his marriage promise, but she didn’t want him to think she cared.

If she didn’t care, would she ask or stay quiet? Hard to know. Probably ask. After all, it was all academic to her.

She made up her mind. “Cole?”

“Yeah?”

“Were you serious? Or were you just trying to make Katie happy?”

“Serious about what?”

“Finding a real wife.” She hated the pain that flashed through her chest when she said those words. It was almost as though she was jealous. Which made no sense. She was never going to see Cole again after the museum show. That had always been the plan.

Just because she’d slept with him, she didn’t need to get all moony-eyed about it. She’d slept with men before. Men she’d liked and trusted. But she’d never gone around the bend over it. She’d never started imagining forever. Never even been jealous of the women they might date in the future.

Cole nodded as he hammered tiny nails around the wood that held the new glass. “I am putting too much pressure on Kyle and Katie. It’s time I held up my end of the family.”

“Do you think planning to marry some unknown wife is such a good idea?”

He stopped hammering and gave her a long look. “Yes, I do.”

“It doesn’t strike you as just a little bit self-sacrificing?”

He went back to hammering. “Not really. We Texans take loyalty and honor very seriously.”

Sydney shifted on the bench. “Ouch.”

Cole shrugged. “Not a criticism.”

“Yeah, right.” Obviously her values were a question mark in his mind. She might be fine for a night in bed, but she sure didn’t meet his standards for a wife.

Good girl, bad girl again. At least this time she knew which one she was.

“We can probably move the marriage plans up,” he said.

Sydney nodded. “That’s good.” The sooner she got away from him, the better.

“If Grandma suspects anything,” he continued, “it’ll be that you’re pregnant and we need a quickie wedding.”

“But you’ve only known me a few days.”

He pounded in a final nail and dropped the hammer into his belt. “I travel a lot. She’ll assume we’ve met before.”

“Of course.” Sydney nodded. Because a bad girl is always good for a one-night stand when a guy’s on the road. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to focus on business. “I’ve asked a colleague to start preparing for the show.”

Cole gave a nod.

“Is there any way I could take a look at the Thunderbolt before the wedding?”

“I guess so. What for?”

“It’ll help me conceptualize a display for it. It would really help if I could take a couple of pictures to send to the museum.” Business, business. All business. She could do this.

Cole stood back to scrutinize the job. “I’ll drive you in as soon as I can get away.”