“Your business life or just Rexanne and all of her predecessors?”
His mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Probably the latter more than anything.”
“But that’s no longer true. Now your social life—your family life—is clear across the state.” She reached over and put her hand on top of his. “Please, won’t you just think about it?”
He studied her intently. “Does it mean that much to you?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “It does.”
“Do you hate Houston so much? Is it because of Paul?”
She shook her head, not entirely willing to explain the whole truth of it. Her disastrous marriage was one element, but actually a very small one. Then she recalled what Ginger had said about pulling punches.
“I never wanted to live in Houston,” she admitted finally. “I love the ranch, always have.”
“But you moved here years ago, right after I did.”
“Exactly,” she said softly. “Right after you did.”
She saw the precise moment when the explanation registered.
“You moved here because of me?” he asked, clearly astonished. In fact he couldn’t have looked any more shocked if she’d announced she wanted to take up stripping.
“Yep. Pretty crazy, huh? Half the time you didn’t even notice I was around.” She had abandoned her father to struggle along alone for a man who hadn’t even paid attention to her presence. The knowledge of that betrayal of her dad had eaten at her for years.
“But I always thought...” He shook his head, as if to clear it. “I guess I don’t know what I thought.”
“You just took my presence for granted,” she said, unable to hide the note of resentment, even after all this time.
He nodded slowly. “I suppose I did.” He lifted his gaze and looked her squarely in the eyes. “I’m sorry. If I’d known—”
She stopped him with a touch of a finger to his lips. “If you’d known, you wouldn’t have done anything differently. My heart was always on my sleeve, Jordan. You just didn’t want to see it.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “I was a fool, wasn’t I?”
She nodded, not letting him off the hook easily. “I always thought so, but then, I was a bit biased in my own favor. Those women you were choosing over me were airheads.”
He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed the work-roughened knuckles. “Will it really make you happy for me to move the company headquarters?”
“West Texas is home, Jordan. It’s where our family is, where our roots are.”
“More’s the pity,” he said dryly.
She chuckled at his expression. “Stop worrying about Harlan. You’ve been standing up to him for a long time now and I haven’t noticed either of you suffering too much as a result.”
“I suppose not,” he conceded. “Okay, sweet pea, we’ll give it a try. I’ll keep the Houston office space for meetings that can’t be held elsewhere, but I’ll look for space for a new headquarters when we’re home this weekend. I’ll have to see how the rest of the staff feels about relocating to determine how much space we need, but a lot of the people would probably prefer a small-town atmosphere for raising their families.”
Kelly regarded him with astonishment. He’d agreed. Just like that, and all because she’d worked up the courage to tell him straight out what was in her heart. Perhaps if she kept it up, they could work out the rest of those complicated details, starting with whether or not Jordan wanted to have more children.
Before she could tackle that subject, though, she met his gaze and caught the rising heat in his eyes. He wanted her, again, after all those times during the night. Her pulse skittered crazily and her self-esteem as a desirable woman soared.
“Do you have to go back to the office?” she asked.
He grinned. “You were reading my mind.”
He took care of the check with the speed of a man very anxious to make love to his new bride. He had them in the car and home before Kelly could gather her thoughts.
Much, much later, wrapped in his arms, she teased him about kidnapping her from the restaurant.
“Hey, you were the one who asked if I had to go back to the office,” he protested.
“How do you know I wasn’t going to suggest a shopping excursion?”
The look he directed at her was almost comical. “You wanted to go shopping?”
“Maybe.”
“You did not.” He slid his hand between her legs. “Would you rather buy a dress than do this?”
She grinned. “Maybe.”
His touch intensified. “Really?” he taunted. “I don’t believe you.”
“I haven’t shopped for a fancy designer dress in quite some time. It would take a lot to compete with trying on all those fancy, sexy clothes,” she managed to gasp. His mouth closed over her breast. “Of course, this is nice,” she murmured.
“Nice? Nice!” His voice climbed indignantly.
“Very nice.”
He lifted himself above her and entered her with exquisite slowness, the slow slide a sweet torment. The retreat left an agony of yearning. “How nice?” he demanded.
“Incredibly, wickedly nice,” she declared.
And then, for quite some time, she couldn’t speak at all.
14
The next few days in Houston turned into a honeymoon, after all. It was a time of revelation for Jordan. His bride turned out to be a woman of limitless and astonishingly inventive passion. She held nothing back.
Except, perhaps, for love, he realized despondently as he sat alone in the dark sipping a cup of coffee just before dawn on Saturday morning. They had driven back to the ranch via Luke and Jessie’s the night before, arriving late. Kelly and Dani were both still sleeping upstairs. He’d been too restless to sleep, troubled by something he couldn’t quite pin down or put a name to.
The past few days should have left him feeling ecstatic. He should have been filled with contentment, delighted with the way his decision to marry Kelly had turned out. Instead he had the uneasy feeling that he’d lost more than he’d gained.
For a woman who had stunned him with her claim just a few
