A Very Merry Princess
Page 11

“I am.”
“How’s he settling in?”
“He loves it here. He’s made friends with a barn cat and he’s eating well.”
“Wait until he meets the zebras,” Nick said, looking at Pallas.
His fiancée groaned. “Don’t remind me.” She turned to Beth. “I run a destination wedding business. I do themed weddings and over the summer I had a bride who was all about a black-and-white wedding. She begged me to rent the zebras, so I did. It was a nightmare.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Nick said calmly.
Pallas’s eyes widened. “They escaped. Cade and Carol had to chase them down. They could have been killed.”
He pulled her close and kissed her nose. “Always find that rain cloud, don’t you?”
Pallas smiled at him. “Is this where I remind you it did, in fact, rain that morning? And the DJ held up the wedding party.”
“With a flare gun.”
“Still, it was a gun!” Pallas turned back to Bethany. “My weddings are normally much more calm than that, believe me.” She pointed to the far side of the room. “Come on. Let’s get champagne. I’ll introduce you as we go, but don’t worry. You won’t be expected to remember any names.”
Drinks in hand, they circulated through the room as Pallas introduced Beth to her family. Cade joined them a few minutes later.
“Sorry about my mom,” he said, moving next to her.
“Don’t be. It’s fine. I’m not ashamed of what I do and if people have a problem with that, it’s not up to me to change them.”
Cade studied her for a second, as if thinking about her words, then he held out a plate with several cheese puffs. “These will make you feel better.”
“I can’t be won over with pastries,” she told him, then popped one in her mouth. An unexpected slight tang blended with the smooth cheese and the melting pastry. It was all she could do not to groan or grab the plate.
“I take it back,” she admitted. “I can be won over with pastries.”
Cade laughed, then looked at his sister. “Thanks, sis. I’ll take things from here.”
“Introduce her to Drew.” Pallas grinned. “Our cousin is very charming. He runs the bank.” She lowered her voice. “Which makes our mom crazy but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“We’ll save Drew for later,” Cade muttered, leading Bethany away.
For a second she allowed herself to hope it was because he was nervous about her meeting his successful cousin. That he might be worried about her reaction. And while that was probably wishful thinking, it still felt nice to pretend he saw her as more than the person who had accompanied his prize horse to Happily Inc.
* * *
IT WAS NEARLY ten o’clock before Bethany and Cade left for the ranch. She’d been seated with the younger cousins at dinner, at what was obviously the kids’ end of the table. Cade had started to complain to his mother, but Bethany had intervened, saying she was fine where she was. She’d had a great time talking movies and computer games with the teens and telling them about El Bahar. Years ago she’d learned that stories about her summers with the nomadic tribes often got her out of awkward conversational pauses. When in doubt, mention camping in a desert oasis.
“I’m sorry about my mom,” he said for maybe the fourth time.
She put her hand on his arm—to, ah, be nice, she told herself. Not to feel the muscles. “Stop. Seriously, I’m fine. Totally and completely fine. I had a great time. I ate enough for twenty, had champagne and talked kitten heels with three of your cousins. My evening was perfect.”
“She’s a snob.”
“Some people are, but you’re not and I’m not, so please let it go. In a few weeks I’m going to be gone. She’s your mother and there’s no reason to be mad at her. I swear.”
“Thank you. Other than that, was it okay?”
She put her hand on her very full stomach. “I’m very happy right now. Full and sleepy. Everyone was nice to me. I love your Grandpa Frank. Don’t take this wrong, but if he were to ask me out, I’d probably say yes.”
Cade chuckled. “I’m not going to pass that piece of information on to him.”
“I’m crushed.”
He pulled into the long driveway and used the remote to open the gate, then drove past the house and around to the barn.
Before she could ask why he was parking here, he killed the engine and looked at her.
“You’re going to check on Rida, aren’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Now you’re closer. I’ll leave the back door open for you.”
Like she’d thought before—nice. And considerate and really, really good-looking. Those hazel eyes appealed and when he smiled, her whole body tingled.
Without thinking she leaned toward him. Mostly because she could use a few tingles in her life. It had been a long time between tingles, probably because the guys she’d been dating had been uninspiring at best. Oh, but they’d been safe. She’d made the decision to sacrifice love or even attraction for knowing she would never be hurt and at the end of the day, she’d been left with nothing. Her father had scared them all off. Worse, she hadn’t actually missed them when they’d been gone.
But Cade was different. She liked a whole lot about him, plus the tingles.
Maybe it was the cheese puffs, or the champagne or the fact that he’d driven her right up to the barn. Whatever the reason, she put her hand on his bicep and raised her chin expectantly. It was only when he hesitated that she had the awful thought that she could have misread the entire situation and he might not be interested in her at all.
Before she could scream and bolt, he slipped his hand into her hair to cup her head and brushed his mouth against hers.
That was it—a brief, almost-chaste moment of contact. It should have been nothing, but it was everything. Nerve endings fired, her heart raced and her breath caught.
He did it again and she nearly moaned. On the third time, she wrapped her arms around his neck and surrendered to whatever it was he wanted from her.
He drew her as close as she could get, what with the truck console between them. Hard plastic bit into her ribs, but she didn’t care—not when Cade swept his tongue against her bottom lip. She parted for him and he deepened the kiss until she was all fire and need.
A very tiny, sensible part of her brain whispered that she should be careful, but she ignored the soft words. Just once she wanted to be like everyone else. For there not to be consequences. Only the whispering continued and she began to remember that she wasn’t like everyone else. While she liked Cade a lot, she didn’t know if she could trust him and until she was sure...
She drew back. He did the same. They stared at each other, their breathing loud in the truck cab. Finally she opened her door and stepped out.
“Thank you for everything,” she told him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He nodded without speaking. She walked into the stable and went to check on Rida. Partway to his stall, Harry joined her, meowing as if asking about her evening.
“It was good,” she told the cat. “I had a nice time.”
Harry’s expression was quizzical.
She smiled. “All right. Better than nice. Are you happy?”
The cat began to purr.