Fortune's Vengeful Groom

“The rodeo queen. Suzette, SueBelle, Sue…something. She was in our bed. Our bed!”

Reese slumped back into his chair as faded memories came back and he recalled that night. He’d kissed Eliza goodbye in front of the hotel, hoping she’d go home and finally have the courage to tell her family about him and their marriage. He’d met up with a friend from the rodeo named Cody Pierce and together they’d gone to the bar for a drink. Aside from missing his wife already, he’d had an event that next day so he’d decided one drink would have to be it. “Her name was Susanna.”

Eliza nodded scornfully. “So you don’t deny it?”

“Damn straight, I deny it. I never touched that woman. No, that’s not true. I did touch her….”

Eliza’s expression blackened.

He was so damn angry with her right now that he didn’t give a damn what she thought, but he hated being accused of something falsely. “I was at the bar with Cody that night. You remember him. He’s the big, good-looking bull rider who always managed to flirt with you.”

Eliza opened her mouth to respond but clamped her lips together, apparently deciding against it.

“We spotted Susanna in the corner, drinking herself into oblivion. She was really wasted. It seemed her younger brother had gotten in a bad car wreck and she couldn’t catch a flight out of town until the morning. She was pretty upset and then announced that she’d drive herself all the way to Texas if she had to. When she stood up to leave, she would have collapsed if Cody hadn’t caught her. We both knew if we left her, she’d do something stupid. Since you were gone anyway, we put her in my bed, talked to her awhile and waited until she fell asleep. I bunked with Cody that night.”

“Sounds like a good story,” Eliza said bitterly, “except when I entered the room, she called out your name.”

“And did I go to her? Did you see me? Hell, no. Because I wasn’t there. It was after midnight when we finally got her to sleep. And when I went to check on her just after dawn the next day, she was already gone. She couldn’t have spent more than a few hours in our room. I was never alone with her.”

“But…but I thought…I came back so unexpectedly, and when I saw her…I assumed—”

“I know what you assumed,” Reese said, barely managing to contain his hurt and anger. He’d given Eliza everything he had to give, but still she hadn’t trusted in him. She’d instantly thought the worst, without even bothering to stay and confront him to get to the truth. “Did you really think I’d be unfaithful to you? Where were you for those three months we had together? Didn’t you know how I felt about you?”

Eliza closed her eyes slowly, her face void of expression.

“What brought you back that night, anyway?”

She opened her eyes, the pretty blue tarnished with regret. “My…my father took ill. It was nothing serious, but Patricia decided to postpone the party. And I was so happy to come home to you that night that I rushed inside that room and then…saw her there.”

“So you wrote me a note.”

She stiffened and then sank her hand into her hair. “Yes. But first I ran. I couldn’t help it. I had to get away. I came back just before dawn after crying my eyes out in my car. I decided to leave the note with the front desk clerk.”

“Why? Why not blast me right then and there if you thought I’d been unfaithful? At least the truth would have come out. And we wouldn’t have wasted six years of our lives.”

“I couldn’t,” she said, the regret in her eyes turning to pain. “I couldn’t because…You know that I had a broken engagement right before I met you.”

“Yeah, that’s about all I know. You never gave me details.”

“You didn’t seem to want any.”

“What for? I only knew that I wanted you. I didn’t care that some loser let you go.”

“But you see, it’s so much more than that. He hurt me in ways that I can’t describe. And then when I thought you had betrayed me, too…I couldn’t face it. Or you. And I couldn’t face another disastrous scandal. I’d put my family through enough that year, breaking off that engagement. The headlines were cruel and probing…and I just couldn’t put my family through that again.”

“So you walked?”

She nodded.

“And it never occurred to you that I might have been innocent?”

Eliza lifted her eyes to meet his squarely. She breathed out, “Not once.”

“Not once,” he repeated. He tamped down rising rage. Not once had she even thought it possible that what she’d seen had been something harmless, something that could have been easily explained if she’d only sought the answers.

She continued in a quiet tone, “It was like I was reliving a scene from my past. First Warren’s betrayal, then yours. We’d been engaged for months, and two weeks before our wedding date I found him in bed with his campaign manager. He hadn’t expected me to show up when I did, either. But when I caught him, I realized that he’d used me and the powerful Fortune name for his campaign. He wanted to be Sioux Falls’ youngest mayor. I guess I never really got over that betrayal.”

“So you thought I was just like him?”

“No…yes. I don’t know,” she said, tears misting in her eyes.

“I never asked you for anything. In fact, I refused your money time and again. That’s not what I wanted from you. I only asked that you love me. But you didn’t. Maybe you weren’t ready to get married, Eliza. Maybe you still loved this guy and only used me to get over him.”

“No! That’s not true.” She rose from her seat and implored him with fire in her eyes. “I didn’t love Warren. Not the way I loved you. He got what was coming to him when he lost the election, and I knew a moment of satisfaction in that. But it all seemed so trivial to me because when I met you, I fell in love and didn’t care a thing about Warren anymore. I never thought of him that way again.”

“Except the moment there was a hint of doubt about me, you cast that so-called love aside. No, Eliza. I’m not buying it. That’s not what love is about.”

Eliza’s indignant expression faltered.

Reese hadn’t expected this. No, he’d always thought she’d walked out on him because he couldn’t provide the money and lifestyle she’d been accustomed to. They’d spend their days traveling the rodeo circuit, spending their nights often in a different motel room, in a different city. He’d been so sure that she’d gotten tired of the instability and the lack of luxury.

Now he was blown away by her allegation. She’d really believed that he’d deceived her and he’d had an affair the minute her back had been turned. This truth was a fresh injury to an old wound, one he’d nursed through the years until he’d thought it healed. Now she’d opened that old scar up and plunged it deep with a new sharp and gutting accusation.

Even now, as he gazed into her solemn eyes, he read doubt and mistrust there. What did it matter that she didn’t believe him? After all, he hadn’t come here expecting a happy reunion.

“What now?” she asked, and he noted worry on her sullen face. She didn’t want their marriage exposed; that much was evident.

He approached her, his gaze holding hers. Eliza backed away from him and he smiled. And the more she backed away, the closer he came, until she bumped into a worktable draped with white satin. He grabbed her hand and drew her near, while the other hand reached up to caress her face. She stared at him. He skimmed a finger down her cheek, tracing the delicate lines. Her skin felt smooth and utterly soft, just as he remembered. He skimmed his hand farther down, grazing her throat and then stroked lower to flatten onto her collarbone.

She drew in a quick breath, the gasp reminiscent of the passion they once shared. Heat was still there between them, simmering from their bodies. And want was still there, too. Her pulse pounded under his palm.

He slid his hand to her breast, spreading out to cup her fully. Even through his anger and hurt, the remembered feel of her created havoc below his waist.

He flicked his thumb over her pebbled nipple.

She made a sound in her throat, a little cry that drew him to full erection.

He leaned in, pressing her body to his, his mouth angling toward hers. “Now, darlin’, I give you something to worry about.”

Three

If she pushed at him, she knew he’d release her and back away. But Reese’s heat surrounded her. His eyes held her captive. And those lips, hovering so near, tempted her beyond reason. Eliza’s body responded to his.

It always had.

So when he freed her breast and splayed both hands around her waist, tugging her closer, she allowed it. And sighed when his erection rubbed into her belly.

Her mind flashed images of making love with Reese in all ways and all positions imaginable. They’d been hot for each other. They’d never let up.