The Virgin Bride Said, 'Wow!'

Wade lifted a brow in a way that said “The lady doth protest too much.”

Brady knew how Wade felt. If he didn’t know better, he’d think by Kelsey’s defensive reaction and the blush in her cheeks that there was something going on between them. Not that it would have been surprising if there had been, from a strictly physical perspective. Kelsey was one very sexy woman. She was half a foot shorter than Brady, with a slender, athletic body that curved in all the right places. Very much a tomboy. Notoriously fickle. But somehow very innocent, nevertheless. She had a way about her that somehow made her everybody’s kid sister. And yet there was nothing siblinglike about the increasingly lustful feelings he was beginning to have for her, Brady knew.

Was that what Wade McCabe was picking up on? Was that what had Wade, and everyone else who knew them, concerned about the partnership between him and the black sheep of the Lockhart family? Brady wondered, his glance taking in Kelsey’s snug-fitting jeans and red cowgirl boots. The man’s denim work shirt she wore knotted at her hips was loose enough to conceal the abundant curves of her breasts and her slender waist—the figure-hugging tank top she wore beneath was not.

“Kelsey,” Brady finally said, before Kelsey could make the two of them look even guiltier with her hot-tempered protests, “Wade is not interested in our love life or lack thereof. Not that there is one, you understand,” Brady finished firmly, looking at Wade. Regardless of how much he desired Kelsey, he had never once so much as tried to kiss her. For one thing, he didn’t want to be another notch on Kelsey’s belt. He figured to date and then be dumped by her, as she apparently dumped every man sooner or later, would be the kiss of death for their partnership. Because he doubted he could ever get over that. For another, he didn’t think he should get involved with her when he still had some very sticky problems of his own to deal with—a secret debt of his own that was coming due in two weeks. A debt that could change the way she felt about him, permanently, once she realized all he had been keeping from her and everyone else in Laramie. She might understand him not telling everyone about the rash promises he had made and the debt he owed. A debt he still had no way to effectively settle, without a loan from a venture capitalist like Wade McCabe. But she wouldn’t understand him not telling her. Not when his earlier actions could leave her partnerless in another two weeks.

“That’s good to hear,” Wade continued with a warning look at Brady, picking up their conversation where Brady had left off, “because Kelsey is like a kid sister to me and I wouldn’t want to think you or anyone else had taken advantage of her.”

“Wade, could you please just forget about my personal life and concentrate on business. I’m trying to get a loan from you here—not advice to the not necessarily lovelorn.”

Brady grinned at her cute play on words.

Wade was amused, but he didn’t grin. “Kelsey, I am a businessman, pure and simple,” he told her firmly, standing to signal the meeting was over. “I don’t make bad investments. If I had I never would have been a millionaire by the time I was thirty. And the bottom line is, this partnership of yours and Brady’s does not look like something that is going to stand the test of time to me.”

“Thanks, anyway.” Brady stood, too, and held out his hand, to let Wade know there were no hard feelings. Maybe the trick here was to go to a venture capitalist who didn’t know them personally. Someone who didn’t feel so protective of Kelsey.

Ignoring Brady’s hint that they cut the meeting short and make a dignified exit, Kelsey glared at Brady, who was still shaking hands with Wade McCabe. She slipped her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “Oh, really, and how do you figure that, Wade?” She lifted her chin, the look she gave Wade as contentious as the rising tenor of her voice. “Do you have some sort of businessman’s crystal ball?”

“No,” Wade returned evenly, abruptly looking as if he were an exasperated father talking to a wayward child. He clamped his lips together. “But I do know your history with men and jobs, Kelsey.”

Oh, man, Brady thought, having heard this same spiel or something like it from everyone in Laramie County.

“And you never stay with either very long,” Wade continued flatly, not about to back down from his stance any more than Kelsey was. “The bottom line? The only way I’d loan you and Brady money is if you were married.”

“WELL, THAT’S IT THEN,” Kelsey said as she and Brady walked back out to the Lockhart-Anderson Ranch pickup truck. She thrust out her chin defiantly. “We’ll just get married. Today.”

Brady rolled his eyes. “Kelse, be serious.”

“I am.” She stomped closer. “We need the money to expand. You need more cattle, fence and feed to start turning a profit on your side of the ranch. And I need more horses, another stable to house them, and the money to hire some instructors so I can teach all those kids and adults who want riding lessons from me. The only way that will happen is if we get a loan.”

“I agree we need more money as soon as possible,” Brady said. He opened the passenger door for Kelsey.

Instead of getting in, she leaned against the side of the truck. “Then let’s get hitched and get it,” she suggested in her usual carefree manner.

Brady frowned. As much as he hated to admit it, he could see himself married to Kelsey. He could also see them in bed. Making love. And doing any number of things that would lead to nothing but trouble. He had just sworn to Wade McCabe he would keep Kelsey out of trouble. Not lead her into it. “Marriage is serious business, Kelse,” he reminded her sternly.

A mixture of curiosity and devilry sparkled in her dark green eyes. “You say that as if you know,” Kelsey taunted.

Brady hated being the responsible one in any relationship. But when he was with Kelsey, that was exactly what role he usually found himself playing. “Well, I do,” he retorted evenly.

Kelsey’s lips parted slightly in an “oh” of surprise as she continued to study him carefully. “Have you ever been married?”

“No.” Deliberately, Brady pushed aside the memory of his near-miss. “You?”

“No,” Kelsey replied rapidly, the look she gave him letting him know she had never been anywhere close. Which wasn’t a surprise, given her notoriously fickle history with men. “But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t be if it were necessary for business reasons,” Kelsey continued. “And let’s face it, it is.” She stood, legs braced, heels dug into the gravel driveway beneath her feet. “The only way anyone, whether it be bank or venture capitalist, is going to give us any money is if we first demonstrate enough stability to prove to them it will be a sound investment, either by cohabiting on our ranch for a very long time, like a matter of years, or going the traditional route and already being happily married. Besides—” she shrugged “—it will get everyone who thinks I shouldn’t be partnering with you, because it will prevent my ever falling in love and/or getting married to anyone else, off my back.”

She had a point there, Brady admitted reluctantly to himself. He braced a hand on the roof of the pickup, next to her head. “I thought the wedding fever that had swept town last summer had sort of died down,” he countered, looking down at her.

“Hah!” New color swept Kelsey’s cheeks, making the golden splattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose stand out all the more. “It’s only gotten worse since Sam McCabe and Kate Marten got married last week. John and Lilah McCabe are dropping hints about me marching down the aisle.” She looked at Brady, her frustration as evident as her determination to do something about it, something reckless, something they wouldn’t want her to do. “My sisters make no secret about how much they want me to marry,” she continued hotly.

“But you’ve told everyone under the sun you are never getting married, ever, no matter what.” As far as Brady was concerned, that should settle it. But it didn’t. Not for the Lockhart sisters, the McCabes, or even, it seemed, Kelsey herself, who had seemed to get more and more antsy about the subject as time went by, Brady noted.

Kelsey bent her knee and propped the sole of one boot against the side of the pickup. “So?” she shot back mischievously. “I’m notoriously fickle, remember? I change my mind all the time. I’ve had several dozen different jobs in the past six years, and many, many more boyfriends. This will be just another indication of my flightiness.”

Brady regarded her in exasperation. He couldn’t deny being involved with Kelsey—even as merely business partners—brought an endless array of surprises. But there was a limit as to what he was willing to do, even to achieve his dreams of being a successful rancher and self-made man. With a great deal more patience than he felt, he explained, “Kelse, we can’t just say ‘I do’ and then move in together and live under the same roof and have everything magically work out.”

Kelsey looked shocked. Abruptly, she moved away from him. “Who said anything about living under the same roof?” she spouted, looking abruptly as irritated with him as he was with her. She poked a finger against his chest. “I’m talking about a marriage of convenience here, a business arrangement, Brady. I just want to get hitched long enough to get our money.”

Brady released his breath in a whoosh of frustration. “Doing something purely for the sake of money is always a bad thing, Kelse.” He knew, having already done so himself. In fact, it was the agreement he’d made two years ago that was likely to be the end of life as he wanted it, yet.

“But building up our business isn’t.” Kelsey turned pleading eyes to his. She grabbed both his hands and squeezed them in hers. “Please, Brady.” She looked up at him in a way he was hard-pressed to deny. “Let’s get hitched. Now. Today.”

“YOU DID WHAT?” Wade McCabe asked two hours later.

“We got married at city hall,” Kelsey announced, still carrying the bouquet of Texas wildflowers Brady’d gotten her before they’d gone into the courthouse.

“This isn’t funny,” Wade said, after studying the marriage certificate they’d handed him, for proof. Wade glared at Brady.

“Believe me, it’s no joke to us, either,” Brady replied. He was pretty sure it was the overbearing, intensely protective nature of all those around her that had pushed Kelsey to be the wildly reckless woman she was.

“So let’s talk money,” Kelsey said, grabbing Brady’s hand and plopping herself down in a chair in front of Wade’s desk. “Brady and I were thinking prime plus one, in terms of interest rates.”

“Payable in six months, max,” Brady added firmly, as he took the chair next to Kelsey’s. He didn’t want them beholden to Wade any longer than possible.

“There’s no way you can do that,” Wade argued.

Actually, Brady thought silently, there was. Although even Kelsey didn’t know about the way he was going to do that….

“By then, we figure we’ll have established enough of a history and a business to be able to get another loan, from either a venture capitalist or a bank,” Kelsey said seriously, looking and acting like the top-notch business-woman she was.

“Okay. I’ll give you the money you want,” Wade said, “but I’ve got some conditions, too.”

Although he wasn’t anxious to learn what they were, Brady had expected as much.

“Such as…?” Kelsey prodded.

“If this marriage of yours proves to be a fraud, I get the deed to your ranch, free and clear.” Wade gave that a moment to sink in, then continued, even more seriously, “It’s not too late to back out. Because unless I miss my guess,” Wade continued, looking from one of them to the other, “this is still at the stage where it can all quietly be undone, maybe without even an annulment if you’re lucky enough. People will know what happened, of course—since you went to city hall—but the mistake won’t be a permanent or long-lasting kind of thing, and you’ll still have your ranch.”

“Just not the loan money from you,” Brady guessed quietly.

Wade nodded. He looked at Brady as if he thought Brady should have known better than to get sucked into one of Kelsey’s wild ideas. Unfortunately, Brady knew that was true.

“Fine. Draw up the papers,” Kelsey said heatedly.

“I mean it, Kelsey.” Wade frowned all the more. “If you insist on doing this…on trying to pull something over on me and everyone else, I’ll take your ranch,” Wade warned.

Brady had only to look at Wade to believe him. This was the only way Wade thought he could protect Kelsey from herself. Not surprisingly, Kelsey kept her hold on Brady’s hand. “I married this man. I’m staying married to him,” she announced boldly. “Now, draw up the papers, Wade. ’Cause as soon as you do, we’re signing on the dotted line.”