Scandals from the Third Bride

“No, Katherine. I knew what I was doing when I bid for an evening with you,” he answered with a note of steel in his voice. Beneath her anger was a dim awareness that he was far more self-assured and confident than he had been nine years ago. He had to be worth a royal fortune to have tossed away five hundred thousand dollars to go out for a few hours with her. Occasionally, she had read about him in newspapers or seen articles or pictures in magazines and she knew he was a successful business entrepreneur, but she hadn’t dreamed the extent of his fortune. How had he made so much money in such a short time? Why was he back? Questions buzzed in her head.

Lance returned and his voice finally penetrated her shock. Lance extended his hand toward Cade and they shook hands.

“Thank you, sir, for your overwhelming donation to this fine cause. Your generosity will be deeply appreciated for years to come. You’ll change many children’s lives. And in return, you get an evening out with one of Fort Worth’s most beautiful women, Katherine Ransome.

“Before we go any further, let me introduce myself. I’m Lance Wocek. We’re overwhelmed by your donation that’s the largest we’ve ever had in any local charity event from a single donor that I recall.” He looked expectantly at Cade.

“Lance, you two know each other,” Katherine interjected in a tight voice. The two men had grown up in Cedar County and gone through Rincon High School together and she had been four years behind them. “Remember Cade Logan?” she asked. “Cade, I’m sure you recall Lance.”

Lance’s jaw dropped, and his eyes grew round while he stared at Cade. “Cade Logan? From high school? You’ve changed,” he stammered. “I didn’t recognize you,” Lance said as if talking to himself, and Katherine remembered the wild, slender boy who had won her love.

She could clearly see his shaggy long hair, tattered T-shirts and faded jeans and she had to concede that he did look different. She herself hadn’t recognized him at first. She surveyed the differences, noticing he had filled out his lanky six-foot-four-inch frame with broad shoulders. His black hair was neatly trimmed and combed. There was a subtle difference in his demeanor, a presence about him that indicated a “take charge” personality that hadn’t been there before.

But the sexy bedroom eyes with thick lashes were the same. He could still flash the penetrating look that always made her feel as if he knew her every thought. His full, sensual lower lip was the same, as was his wide, sculpted mouth.

“I’m the same Cade Logan,” Cade said easily. “It’s been a while.”

“None of us—” Suddenly Lance broke off and looked back and forth between Katherine and Cade. “You two…” His voice trailed away, and he looked stricken.

“I’ll make arrangements with Katherine for our evening together,” Cade said smoothly. “I have a check here for the five hundred thousand. Shall I make it out to the Slade House Children’s Foundation?” Cade asked, pulling out his checkbook and pen.

“That’ll be fine,” Lance said, staring at Cade until someone spoke to him and he had to turn away again.

Katherine couldn’t believe what was happening. She hoped it was a nightmare that would vanish upon waking.

Only it wasn’t disappearing. Cade gazed at her with unfathomable brown eyes, and she didn’t have any idea what was running through his mind.

“Why are you doing this? You can’t possibly want to go out with me.”

“I think I’ve shown that I do want to go out with you. I want to see you and this was the quickest, simplest way to do so.”

“It was rather costly.”

“I didn’t want to hassle over you with someone, nor did I want you to back out of the evening. It’s far more difficult to change your mind and your promise when so much is at stake for the kids.”

“Your donation will be wonderful for the charity.”

“I was happy to help that cause. Where should I pick you up and how is six?”

“Six is way too early,” she said, hoping she could go late and come home early. You can pick me up at this address,” she said, opening a small, black bag and producing one of her business cards. She turned it over, retrieved a pen and scribbled her address before handing the card to him. Again his fingers brushed hers and sent another electrifying jolt to her system.

He glanced at it, looking from it to her in a curious scrutiny that made her want to fidget and ask him what he was thinking.

Instead, she gazed coolly back at him and hoped he couldn’t detect her racing pulse or ragged breathing or any other reaction she was having to seeing him. Why was he here? The big question had always been why had he left, but now, the answer to why he had returned was more pressing.

“Have you had dinner tonight?” he asked.

“No, I haven’t, but if we go out tonight, that’s the night you just bid for and won.”

“That’s fair enough,” he said. “Can you leave now?”

“Leave? They’ll serve a very elegant dinner here. That’s part of the evening. Then there’s dancing afterward,” she said, unable to think about dancing with him and being in his arms again.

“I’d rather get out of here where we can be to ourselves. I don’t care to be interrupted all evening. Is there any arrangement that as a participant you have to stay?”

“No, not at all. My part in the auction is over. I’ll tell them I’m leaving and join you at the door,” she said, both relieved they would get the evening together over quickly and on edge about going out with him.

If she ever saw him again, she had always expected that she would hate him, but that wasn’t what she felt. Fury was dominant, but she responded to him as a female would to a sexy, appealing male. The evening alone with him made her tingly and excited even though she didn’t want it to.

After telling a coordinator she was leaving, Katherine hurried to one of the private rooms that the bachelorettes had been given to use as a dressing room. She paused to look at herself in the mirror, glancing swiftly over her sequined sleeveless black dress with a low-cut vee neckline. She wore high-heeled black pumps.

Taking a deep breath, she left, hurrying toward the exit and experiencing another jolt when her gaze met Cade’s as he watched her approach. A few hours with him and the evening would be over, she reminded herself. She could guard her heart and emotions for that long, surely.

He held the door open for her and then walked beside her, sliding his arm around her waist while they stepped outside into a cool October night. She felt the light contact with Cade as if it were a burning brand. She was prickly with raw awareness of his shoulder against hers, his arm circling her waist and her hip lightly touching his.

In the front of the club at the porte cochere, a limousine waited with a driver, who opened the door for her. Cade climbed in and sat beside her, turning slightly to face her.

Gazing back at him, she almost felt as if she were with a stranger. She didn’t know Cade any longer. There was only a dim connection to the boy he once was and the person she knew. Yet there was no way to wipe out memories or her hurt or her anger.

“Why are you here?” she asked bluntly.

“Reasonable question. Some curiosity about you and my past. But that part is minor.”

“So what’s the big reason?” she persisted.

“I’ve found that ninety-nine percent of the time, when you purchase something, it’s worth the difference to get the best.”

“So you’re here in Fort Worth to get the best of whatever it is you want.”

“That’s right. Why were you in the bachelorette auction?”

“The Slade Home is one of my favorite projects. Little children shouldn’t be on the streets. You helped the children enormously tonight,” she said, aware that he deserved thanks for what he had done for the kids.

“But, at the same time, you’d rather I hadn’t bid.”

“No. The money is more important and it’ll do many needed things,” she said, thinking how bland their conversation was while sparks ignited the air between them, and she fought the attraction for him that pulled at her as if he had never walked out and the past hadn’t been filled with hurt.

“You could have written a check to the charity, so I’ll inquire again, why did you participate?” he persisted.

“I’ve been asking myself that all evening,” she remarked dryly, still having the feeling of talking to a stranger, except for his voice. She knew his voice. Even his hands were different—larger, less roughened.

“So the men who bid didn’t particularly mean anything to you?”

“Not at all. I recognized one man and we’re friends. Where do you live?” she asked, curious in spite of wanting to ignore Cade.

“I live most of the year in Los Angeles, part of the time in Pebble Beach, part of the time in Switzerland. I’m building a house in Houston.”

“You’ve done well. Sometimes I’ve read about you,” she said. “According to the papers, you’re an entrepreneur involved in investments and finance,” she said, leaving out that every time she had read about him, she had wondered how someone who had been penniless and a high school dropout—a mechanic whose expertise had been bikes and cars—could have investments, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking about his life.