guy into place as a father for Jace—and just seconds ago she’d extracted his promise that he wouldn’t tell Jace he was the boy’s father!
“I guess I’m not used to wearin’ these shoes,” she mumbled by way of an excuse.
He wasn’t going to let her get away with it. Even knowing he shared some blame for her situation, that he hadn’t the least right to be anything approaching angry, Deke still was. Deathly so.
“But somehow you seem to think you can fill mine for Jace pretty well, don’tcha?” he said.
That brought those blue eyes flashing up at him in defiance. Straightening, she lifted her chin before descending the steps to reach her boyfriend’s side.
“Of course you get a hello kiss—darlin’,” she said sweetly, offering him her lips.
Obviously about as mashed for a woman as a man could get, the fellow wrapped his arms around Addie and enthusiastically pressed his mouth to hers.
Sure, Deke could have made as big a show of not watching. He wanted nothing less than to give her the satisfaction of knowing she’d gotten to him in this instance.
But the truth was, he couldn’t have looked away if his life depended upon it, and so he stood there in a hell of his own making, as this man with his shiny boots and country-singing-star looks kissed the stuffing out of Addie Gentry.
Finally, she broke the kiss and turned toward him, the other man’s arm lingering at her waist. It did Deke some good to see in her eyes the defiance, and not the look of a woman who’d been thoroughly and satisfyingly kissed.
He held her gaze without a flicker of emotion.
Her intended finally seemed to notice the silent byplay between them, for he spoke up. “I don’t believe we’ve met. Connor Brody’s the name.”
If he’d been stunned before, now Deke felt his blood stop dead in his veins. “Brody? Any relation to—”
“Mick Brody? He’s my dad.”
Of course. Of course. If Addie had wanted to put a fine point on just how unsuited the two of them had been for each other, she couldn’t have done a better job than to pick a Brody. He’d never met this particular Brody before, but he’d once had more acquaintanceship than he wanted with Connor’s father, Mick. And from the looks of it, Connor had all the qualities his father had been swift to point out as lacking in Deke’s father and Deke, foremost among them responsibility.
No! He had been responsible—if not in those hours leading up to D.K. Larrabie’s fatal mistake, then every single day after that. And if Addie would just give him the chance, she’d find that out!
Except, from what she had just said, he had no chance of gaining her regard or her forgiveness. The very thought that he couldn’t, nearly sent him back down the road again, in spite of everything.
But he couldn’t go. Whatever his failings before, that didn’t excuse him from doing his best by Jace from here on out.
And that meant he’d be damned if he’d stand by while she handed any man the right to be a father to his son.
“And you would be…?” Brody asked after the lengthy pause.
Deke couldn’t have invited a better opening if he’d laid it out himself.
“Well, seein’ as how you asked,” he drawled, “I’d be—”
“Don’t, Deke,” Addie said in a warning that had just enough pleading in it to stir his conscience.
The problem was, she should have stopped there. But in her urgency to keep him from spilling the beans, she stepped forward as she said it. She stumbled again, this time as she caught the toe of her shoe on the gazebo step, which propelled her straight into Deke’s arms.
Her breasts came flush up against his chest as she grabbed his shoulders for balance and his fingers grasped her waist. He just barely heard her gasp over his own stifled groan.
Holding Addie the woman as opposed to Addie the girl was as different as night and day—and yet as familiar to Deke as the fit of his leather work gloves. Because every time he’d ever stroked the back of his fingers across her cheek, every time he’d pressed his palm to the small of her back, every time he’d trailed his mouth down her throat and beyond—all came rushing back to him like the wind across the plain. He had no time to set his defenses against the familiar yearning that quickly followed.
Their gazes collided as surely as their bodies had, and Deke saw in Addie’s blue eyes what he hadn’t minutes before: desire, as strong and stormy—and undeniable—as ever.
He’d have felt some satisfaction if the sight hadn’t pushed his own desire even higher.
Deke gritted his teeth.
“Deke, please, don’t,” Addie whispered, still clinging to him. “Don’t stir up any more trouble.”
“I stirred up trouble?” How could he have imagined her being hardened? She was anything but, as soft as a down pillow and as pleasurable to sink into. “Damn it, Addie, you’re marryin’ a Brody?”
“Addie?” Brody said from a few feet behind her. “What’s goin’ on here?”
“Let me explain things to him myself, please,” she begged Deke. “Remember, you made me a promise. You wouldn’t break it again so soon, would you?”
“That promise was for Jace’s sake and you know it!” Deke said, in a low voice.
She had no response for him, only staring up at him in mute appeal, blue eyes shimmering.
“Why only nine months, Addie?” Deke demanded out of the blue, as would a man grasping at straws. But he had to know. “Why’d you give up lookin’ for me after just nine months?”
“Why seven years, Deke?” she whispered as insistently. “Why has it taken you seven whole years to come back?”
Damn but it was quick, that wicked sharp blade of guilt slipping between his ribs, cutting through nearly a decade’s worth of defenses, so that he’d have done anything to rid himself of the pain.
Then Deke’s gaze fell to Addie’s lips, still glistening from the kiss of that Roy Rogers wannabe—and a Brody to boot. The sight sure enough bought him a measure of reason.
“What’s that sayin’, Addie?” Deke murmured. “Somethin’ like, Those that can’t run with the big dogs shouldn’t come off the porch.”
He didn’t voice the other bromide that had sprung to mind: All’s fair in love and war.
He set her away from him and gave the now thoroughly stumped Connor Brody one of his friendliest smiles.
“To answer your question, I’m the new ranching consultant at the Bar G,” he said.
He let the relief just barely touch Addie’s expression before he added, “The name’s Deke Larrabie.”
Brody frowned. “Larrabie? You mean you’re…?”
