I Knew You Were Trouble: A Texas Kings Novel (30 page)

“You honestly think that I think of you as some sort of novelty? That I just got off on sleeping with you because you were forbidden?”

She shrugged. “Isn’t that what made it all so fun?”

He unfisted his hands and reached for her, forcing himself to be gentle instead of giving in to his frustration and punching the table. “Yes, the fact that you were forbidden added an element on fun to what we were doing, but it wasn’t why I fell in love with you.”

“You’re not in love with me, Nate. It’s just lust. I’m sure of it.”

He fought not to laugh at the serious look on her face. “Lust? Are you kidding me?” This time he couldn’t help but chuckle at her, holding on tight to both her hands now. “Lust was me screwing my way through too many women all my life. Love?” He blew out a breath. “I’ve never been in love before, Faith, but believe me when I say I sure as hell know what it is. For the first time in my life there is only one woman I want in my bed, and I also want her in my life, by my side. I want to wake up and know that the one woman I give a damn about is tucked up beside me away from all the evil in the world.”

“Nate…”

He shook his head. “No, Faith. You don’t get to tell me how I feel. You can tell me to leave you the hell alone, and I’ll back away if that’s truly what you want, but right here, right now, is a man telling a woman that he loves her. No strings attached, as simple as that.”

He could see her breathing. Her mouth was slightly parted, her chest rising just visibly as they sat in silence.

“I can’t be hurt like she was, Nate. I can’t give you my heart and worry that one day you’ll wake up and realize you don’t want to be with the hired help.”

“Hired help?” He laughed, holding up one of her hands and leaning in closer to drop a kiss to her skin. “Are you kidding me?”

The look on her face told him she wasn’t.

“Darlin’, you were my pretend housekeeper for a few weeks. That doesn’t make you the help, and even if it did, I don’t give a fuck, to be perfectly honest.” He sighed, wondering how he was ever going to convince her that his feelings were genuine. Hell, he’d had women begging for a commitment from him in the past, yet he couldn’t make Faith believe that he wanted to be with her exclusively no matter what he said.

“Faith, you’re going to make an amazing art consultant. You’re a strong, capable,
beautiful
woman, and the last thing I’d ever want is to be responsible for crushing your dreams or your career aspirations. That’s why I love you so much. You came to me for protection when you were vulnerable, but at the same time you’re so damn strong and determined.”

She smiled, just a hint of a smile, but an upturn of her lips nonetheless.

“Your brother is one of the state’s best horse trainers in my opinion, so whatever you think about your background or your family not being good enough for me? That’s just crazy talk.”

“So what are you proposing?” she said in a low voice.

Nate had planned on having lunch first, but to hell with it.

“Funny that you ask…,” he murmured, letting go of her hand and standing. He’d discarded his jacket and put it over the back of his chair, but he reached into it now for the small box he’d tucked safely into his breast pocket.

Nate cleared his throat, suddenly not quite as confident as he’d been the day he went in to choose it.

“Faith Mary Mendes,” he said, dropping to one knee beside her.

Her hand shot up to her mouth as she looked down at him, eyes wide.

“If this isn’t proof enough that I love you and intend honoring my word, then I don’t know what is,” he said. “Marry me. Put me out of my misery and tell me that you love me, too.”

She sobbed, a quiet, barely audible sob, hand still pressed to her mouth. “I love you,” she whispered.

“Good,” he said with a laugh. “And will you marry me?” He opened the box, annoyed with himself that he hadn’t shown her the ring straightaway. “I wanted to get you something spectacular, but I didn’t think you’d want something new. So I found an antique jeweler to work with and we finally found this.”

The diamond was substantial, five carats, and it was set on a platinum band with pretty baguette diamonds to each side. The style was perfect for her slender finger, and when she lowered her hand from her mouth, shaking, and extended it toward him, he carefully slid the ring on.

“Yes,” she whispered. “It’s beautiful.”

He stood and pulled her up with him, wrapping his arms around her. “Almost as beautiful as you,” he murmured against her cheek, holding her tight.

“Are you sure you want this? That you—”

“Hush,” he said, kissing her to stop her from talking. “I have never wanted anything more in my life.”

They kissed, a slow, lazy kiss that could have gone on for hours if they hadn’t been in the middle of a gallery with only an hour to spare before they could potentially be surrounded by other visitors.

“I will never ask you to forfeit your career for me, even it means being apart,” he told her, holding her body against his, her cheek to his chest as he rested his chin on the top of her head, in her silky hair. “Everything that is mine is yours.”

“Really?” she asked, her voice barely audible.

Nate stroked her back. “Really.”

“I’m sorry for being so stubborn,” she confessed, leaning back in his arms and gazing up at him. “I just…” She didn’t even know what to say, so overwhelmed by what was happening, by what he’d just asked her.

“Hey, your stubbornness is one of the things I love about you.”

Nate kissed her again, before laughing at the rumble that came from her belly.

“I think we should actually eat this amazing lunch before we leave. I don’t want you being undernourished.”

“I’m not pregnant yet, Nate. You don’t have to worry about my eating habits.”

They both laughed.

“Is it so wrong to want you barefoot, pregnant, and under house arrest?” he joked.

“What happened to wanting me to pursue my career?” She pushed him back, but he didn’t let her escape his arms.

“I want you any which way I can have you, Faith. So long as you’re mine.” He pulled her close.

“You still want my advice on which painting to buy, don’t you?” she asked. “I mean, after all the time I took making notes and deciding…”

“Darlin’, we have to buy
something
today. Just remember that it’s going to be for
our
collection, so make sure you choose wisely.”

The slow smile that spread across her face was contagious. “Ours?”

“Faith, you’re going to be my wife. Whatever we do from now on we do together.”

She stepped away from him, clasping his hand and tugging him to his seat.

“Well, let’s have lunch, buy this damn painting, and find a hotel to spend the night. I’m ready for some of this togetherness you’re talking about.”

His eyebrows shot up, and he winked as she took the silver lid off one of the dishes.

“Oh really?”

“Yes, and trust me, you’ll need all your energy to keep up with me. So eat up.”

“
All
my energy?” he quipped, taking his own lid off, not nearly as interested in the food as he was in the woman seated across from him.

“Yes,” she said, picking up her fork but never taking her eyes off his. “And then some.”

He laughed; then so did she, holding out her left hand at the same time.

“Are we really going to get married?”

“No. This was just some big scam to get you into my bed tonight.”

“Well, it worked.” She was still smiling and looking down at her ring. “It’s perfect, Nate. I couldn’t have chosen better myself.”

“You’re perfect. And the perfect girl deserves the perfect ring.”

He’d never been one for big romantic gestures, but seeing the smile on Faith’s face told him that he’d want to spoil her for the rest of her life just to see her face lit with happiness.

“To us,” he said, raising his glass.

“To us,” she murmured in reply, taking a sip and grinning at him over her glass.

Thank god he’d stopped being such an idiot and manned the hell up to his feelings. He’d been an idiot plenty in the past, but not chasing Faith and showing her what she meant to him would have been the biggest mistake of his life.

*   *   *

“You know, it should have scared me, the fact that you’ve been with so many women.”

Faith stretched out on the oversize bed, the final rays of sunshine falling across the covers.
So much for flying out tonight
. Instead they were holed up at the Waldorf Astoria, in an extravagant room filled with fresh flowers to make it feel like home, as if they were already newlyweds without a care in the world. She might like to pretend she wasn’t impressed by his wealth, but there were certain things that she was already starting to look forward to enjoying, and beautiful rooms and lazy afternoons spent in them were top of her list.

Nate stroked her face, his fingertips gentle as they caressed her skin like she was the most precious thing on the planet. “How about we don’t talk about the other women I’ve been with.”

“But it didn’t,” she continued, finding it impossible to keep her eyes open, relaxed and feeling like her limbs had turned to jelly after being in bed with Nate all afternoon. “You’ve been with plenty of women, gotten all that out of your system, and by now, I figure that you know exactly what you want.”

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “You could say that.” He dropped a kiss to her lips, mouth moving slowly across hers. “Because all I want is you. In my bed, in my kitchen, on my plane…”

She giggled. “I kinda like the sound of all that.”

“Well, good,” he muttered, reaching for her left wrist so he could push her arm back onto the pillow and force her onto her back.

“The benefit of you saving your bed at home for me is that I don’t have to insist you get a new mattress at least,” she teased.

This time she was certain Nate growled; she heard the rumble in his throat as he stared down at her, his face inches from hers as he positioned himself above her, supporting his weight with his elbows.

“Enough talking!” he demanded.

“Or what?” she asked, wiggling beneath him, arching her back so her breasts were against his bare chest. “Haven’t you had enough of me yet?”

“I knew you were trouble,” he muttered, reaching for both her wrists so he could hold her down properly, his body heavy against hers now. “From the day I realized you were all grown-up and gorgeous, and then all over again when you landed on my doorstep demanding I take you in.”

“You think I’m trouble?” she asked, sucking hard on his bottom lip and receiving a curse from him in response. “I’d say that’s the pot calling the kettle black.”

“Oh yeah?” he murmured, taking her mouth against his and kissing her hard until she moaned. He softened it then, his lips going from firm to so, so soft.

“Yeah,” she managed.

“I’ll show you trouble, Ms. Mendes. Like you’ve never known in your lifetime.”

She let him kiss her, loving that he was holding her down yet she felt safe as she’d ever felt with a man. “That’ll be ‘Mrs. King’ to you soon.”

“I know,” he replied, slowly releasing her wrists so he could move down her body instead. “And I can’t wait.”

Faith gasped as he kissed her neck, then her collarbone, then teasingly plucked kisses around her breast. He might have thought she was trouble, but he was the one who’d gotten her into trouble way over her head. Only now she could see that for once in her life it was the kind of trouble she should have embraced rather than run from. All she’d ever wanted was to be happy, to know that what she was giving a man was going to be returned and then some. And with Nate she had everything. A man she’d admired since girlhood, who’d turned into jaw-droppingly gorgeous, yet with the business acumen to succeed in everything he turned his hand to, and he loved her.
He loved her.
Nate fricking King loved her, and she intended to bask in his love for as long as she could.

Epilogue

NATE was sweating. His suit felt like a wet suit, it was clinging so tightly to his body, like a plastic cling wrap that he couldn’t escape from.

“I’ve found a fan,” the wedding planner announced, hurrying in with the cord of an old fan trailing behind her.

“Great,” Nate muttered, tugging his shirt out of his pants so he could hold the cord up. She went to plug it in, but Chase took over, bending down to push it in while Ryder angled the fan.

“It’s not that hot,” Ryder teased, standing in just his shirt and tie, suit jacket resting over one of the pews in the first row of the old church.

“Trust Faith for picking the only damn place with no air-conditioning.”

“Hey, she wanted an intimate ceremony for like thirty people instead of some kind of circus for two hundred.” Ryder shook his head. “I’d be thanking my lucky stars.”

Nate shrugged. “I just want this whole thing over.”

“Cold feet?” Chase asked, frowning as he crossed his arms and leaned against a seat.

“No,” Nate said emphatically. “I just want Faith here in front of me, the ceremony to be over with, and us getting to work on the happily ever after part.”

“In bed?” Ryder laughed and Chase joined in.

“I’m just too damn hot; that’s the problem,” Nate muttered. “Why couldn’t we have just eloped?”

“Don’t say it!” Sam called out, interrupting him. “I might be okay with you marrying her, but I don’t want to hear anything about the two of you, or whatever the hell depraved things you want to do with her as part of that happy ever after.”

Nate dropped his shirt and held out his hand to Sam. “Does the fact that you’re here mean she’s here, too?”

Nate’s friend grinned. “Yeah, she’s here. Looking pretty gorgeous.” He looked Nate up and down. “I think it’s about time you tucked yourself back in. Can’t have my sister marrying a hobo.”

They all laughed and Nate was pleased Sam was here. They’d known each other a long time, and it was good having him with his brothers alongside him. People started to file into the church then, just a handful of friends they were both close to. Nate forgot all about how hot he was as he greeted everyone, took his mind off the fact that he was about to get married as he chatted. Ryder had been right—a ceremony for a couple hundred people wouldn’t have been anything like this, wouldn’t have held the same meaning.