Texas-Sized Temptation (4 page)

“I noticed when I came in.”

“I meant it when I said you could have been arrested for trespassing if you had been caught.”

“I figured since I obviously wasn't coming to steal livestock and I'm a woman, they would give me time to explain what I was doing and at worst, run me off your property. I really didn't expect to get arrested. Besides, the sheriff is a cousin of my foreman.”

Jake smiled. “You're probably right then. It's a long ride by horseback.”

“Whatever it takes to talk to the untouchable Benton.”

“Definitely never untouchable to you. I'll be happy to convince you just how ‘touchable' I am,” he teased.

“Don't you dare,” she answered, smiling at him. He caught a lock of her hair, twisting it in his fingers and causing slight tugs on her scalp that were as noticeable as every other physical contact.

“So, Caitlin, what do you want in your future?” Jake asked.

“To continue my photography. To marry and have a family.”

“What happens to the photography when you marry and have a family?”

“I'll juggle them the way others do. I have leeway to set my own hours for a lot of my work. What's your future, Jake? No marriage, no family, continue to make money.”

“Right. No change, really.”

“You've grown up in basically the same surroundings I have, yet our families have been totally different. You have a controlling father and siblings. My father didn't want to acknowledge my existence and my grandmother raised me. I have a half brother, but I might as well be an only child, because Will cared nothing for me.”

“That must have hurt.”

She gazed into blue eyes that hid his feelings. He looked as impassive as if talking about the weather. “I was adopted when I was only weeks old, so I have had my grandmother all my life and she showered love on me. I was happy with her and loved her totally. It hurt to be snubbed and rejected, but not deeply. I don't feel scarred from it. I just don't want it to happen again to a child of mine,” she said, facing Jake and getting a strange feeling inside. Seduction could lead to
an unexpected pregnancy, a baby born out of wedlock, just as she had been. She didn't want that to happen to a child of hers and the one way to ensure it didn't, was to stay out of any man's bed.

“So seduction is out of the question tonight,” Jake remarked lightly as if teasing her, but she was certain the remark was made in earnest.

“Most definitely,” she answered quickly. How easily she answered, yet how difficult it was to stick by her resolution.

They sat and talked with Jake touching locks of her hair or her shoulder or lightly caressing her nape. Casual touches that she didn't care to draw attention to, yet they were fanning flames. Finally, she stood. “Jake, it's late. I should turn in.”

“Sure, I'll show you a guest bedroom.”

When she walked with him down a long hall, he pointed out different rooms. She stopped to look at an enormous dining room with a table that would seat thirty, a cathedral ceiling and a stone fireplace. “Do you ever have this many guests to fill this table?”

“Yes. Parties. There are times I have a lot of company out here. Gabe and I will have things together. There are family parties, too.”

“Do your parents spend much time here?”

“Nope. Dad has a ranch in the Hill Country where the area is green and scenic. This place was our family ranch, but Dad deeded it to me and gave Gabe another one he owned.”

She nodded. “How nice. A father who passes things on to more than the oldest child. Of course, mine wouldn't have passed anything on to me if I had been the oldest child. I told you, I never dreamed Will would sell the place. Neither did our father who would have put binding stipulations on Will had he known. I'm sure he assumed Will would always live there. He left money to me, but nothing else. No part of the ranch.”

“I'll have to admit, I'm glad Will sold out. Our family has wanted that ranch for generations. The sale has brought you into my life, which is a bonus.”

They strolled down the wide hall again until he turned into a suite. “These are my rooms. You'll be nearby, but I wanted you to see where I am.” She looked at the living area that held a desk, an entertainment center, comfortable sofas and chairs, a wall of bookshelves. On a nearby table she noticed a picture of a beautiful brown-haired woman standing beside a horse.

“That's my sister,” he said quietly. “We were close.”

Caitlin moved closer to study the picture. “She's beautiful.” She understood why Will had gotten involved with her. “She's really gorgeous,” she said, thinking she was the feminine version of Jake with blue eyes and brown hair. Caitlin had known about Brittany Benton and Will because sometimes Will had made her cover for him when he had slipped away from family gatherings, and she could remember Brittany as one of the most beautiful girls she had known. Caitlin was aware that Will had been happy and seemingly in love with Brittany at first. She never thought Will concerned himself with the old feud or did anything with Brittany out of revenge. Caitlin was certain that Will did exactly what he wanted to do and family history never mattered to him. Since she had to occasionally be ready to cover for him with the family, she knew when he had been out with Brittany.

Brittany had always been nice to her, and Caitlin had wondered how Will could hold the interest of someone so beautiful and so friendly. Except Will could be charming when he wanted to be. He was with his friends. At first, Will had been wildly happy about dating Brittany. The little Caitlin had seen him, it still was obvious how happy he was. Probably, he had been happy until Brittany had made demands on him. Caitlin could imagine Will carelessly getting Brittany pregnant and then wanting no part of taking any responsibility.
Being with Jake had brought back memories of that time as well as the questions about what had really happened.

Had Will really been driving the car that killed Brittany Benton? If Brittany had been pregnant, Caitlin could see Will becoming desperate to avoid an obligation and the wrath of their father. Deep down, perhaps Grandmother had suspected Will had been responsible, but she always tried to hold the family together. They would never have an answer because the only living person who knew was Will, but Caitlin could imagine him going to any length to live life the way he wanted.

Caitlin's grandmother had always wondered even though she only said it aloud once. They had been talking about the trial late at night and Grandmother had gazed out the window into the dark night. “Will is focused on himself,” she had said. “He might be capable of wrecking Brittany Benton's car to get her out of his life.” Caitlin had listened in shocked silence. After a few minutes, Grandmother had turned back to look at Caitlin. “This family will stand by Will. He has to be proven innocent.”

“I remember at Will's trial, Grandmother had gathered the family. We all had to go to support Will.”

“Yeah, our family did the same to show support for Brittany even though she wasn't present,” Jake said and his tone was cold.

“My dad always insisted that Will was innocent. We celebrated Will's being found innocent of all charges. That was the one time I recall when Will was nice to me the entire evening. It was one of the few times I can remember seeing him at his best.”

“Sorry. I can't agree.”

Was Jake trying to get revenge by buying the place and tearing down all the structures, destroying everything owned by the Santerres that he could?

Her grandmother would be shocked, certainly annoyed that Caitlin was here, planning to spend the night with a Benton. Not as annoyed as the men in the family. Will hated Jake and Jake indicated the dislike was mutual. She had heard all about Brittany Benton and Will, whispers from Ginny McCorkin, her best friend, as well as her grandmother's side of the story. Rumors were that Will had gotten Brittany pregnant and refused to marry her. Grandmother had been furious with Will, but she seldom saw Will once he was a teen. Caitlin always figured Brittany was pregnant because of carelessness on Will's part. Will was too selfish to worry about someone else, even when he thought he was in love. Will wanted to stop seeing Brittany, difficult when she lived on the neighboring ranch and didn't want to stop seeing him. Then the fatal night when Will and Brittany had fought when she had died in the car wreck.

Both sides had a battery of lawyers, the Santerres' from Chicago, the Bentons' attorneys from Los Angeles. Will was found innocent and released, all charges dropped, but the hatred between the two families had grown stronger and the animosity between Will and Jake had become worse than ever.

She recalled the trial. Grandmother Santerre had insisted the entire family attend to show support for eighteen-year-old Will. The Bentons had turned out, too, all of them looking solemn and angry. Seventeen-year-old Jake and his brother, his mother and father. Will's mother had still been alive then. She had attended with Titus. Caitlin had been there with Grandmother. They had cousins from Dallas and an aunt and uncle who had come to show support for Will. It had been a solemn time. Caitlin could recall feeling sorry for Brittany and for the mess Will had created. Deep down, Caitlin suspected the Bentons had the true story. Will had a cruel streak and he was a wild driver. Before the fatal accident, when Will
had wrecked cars, she had heard her grandmother arguing with her father about covering for Will and buying him new cars without involving the insurance company. It was always difficult for Caitlin to think that Will was any blood relation to Grandmother Santerre who was kind, loving and caring.

That weekend after the trial Will had gone out to celebrate. She'd heard he had had a big fight with Jake Benton. She never heard who won, but assumed Will because she suspected he was meaner and he was a year older and bigger, but she'd heard stories about Jake Benton, too, and wondered if he had held his own with Will.

Caitlin closed her eyes for a moment to clear her thoughts, then glanced around the room again. “You have everything you want here,” she said, hoping to change the subject.

“Yes, I do. It's comfortable and I come here to relax and get away from the regular work and office. This is my first love.”

“Then why don't you ranch? You don't have to work like crazy.”

He shrugged. “Yes, I do. I want to make money. I want total independence from my dad and there are accomplishments in the business world that will help me get what I want to stay totally independent.”

“Like making more money, owning more property, building a bigger company and a few other things along the same lines,” she said.

“Right. Let me show you where my bedroom is,” he said, taking her arm. She stood, resisting him slightly.

“I think I can find your bedroom, should I need to. If the house catches on fire, I'd guess you have an alarm system.”

He grinned. “You can't blame me for trying to get you into my bedroom. I'd like to remember you in there in my arms.”

“It's not going to happen. Not tonight at any rate,” she added.

“Very well, I'll show you to your room next. Wait a minute.”

He left and disappeared into an adjoining room to return with folded clothes and a robe on a hanger. “You can have these tonight.”

“Thanks. Some of that is still in a package,” she said.

“I keep extras. I told you, I have a lot of company here off and on. By the way, I have motion sensors and alarms that I turn on in the evening. Don't go beyond the end of the hall without letting me know.”

“I won't.”

He led her to another suite near his. “How's this?”

“Lovely,” she said, looking at a cheerful suite with white furniture and brightly covered floral patterns in the chairs, splashes of yellow and green in the decor. “Thanks for the shelter from the storm,” she said.

He stepped closer and slipped his arm around her waist. “One good-night kiss isn't the end of the world.”

“It'll never stop with one,” she whispered, standing on tiptoe as she wound her arm around his neck again. His mouth covered hers and she placed her other arm around his waist, holding him while she kissed him in return. The impact was stronger. Temptation grew, but she stopped him. “Jake, I'll see you in the morning.”

He gave a hungry look before brushing a kiss on her cheek as he strolled out. She followed him, keeping a wide distance between them.

In the hall he turned. “I'm glad you came and we didn't just have this appointment at the office. It turned out better that I didn't know you wanted to talk to me.”

“You didn't have the long ride from my ranch or try for over twenty calls to get through to you.”

“Sorry,” he said.

“You're not really. You'll continue keeping out unwanted visitors. See you in the morning, Jake. You can call me at seven o'clock. How's that time?”

“Perfect. Good night,” he said and was gone, closing the door behind him.

She stood staring at the door. His presence was overwhelming and the day had been a surprise. She had never expected to find Jake Benton a man she would be attracted to. Would he talk reasonably next week or had he already made up his mind and was simply toying with her?

Would she see him again after his decision? She should complete their business and get out of his life. He would get out of hers soon enough.

As she remembered his kiss, her lips tingled. He had stirred a storm in her, something totally unexpected.

She ran her hand over the pile of clothing. The robe was dark blue velvet, soft and warm. She picked up a package wrapped in tissue with a seal and opened it to find new dark blue silk pajamas and slippers. There was a package with a small hairbrush and comb, new toothbrush in plastic, more toiletries in the plastic from a store.

Caitlin showered and dressed in the silk pajamas, relishing the smooth, soft material against her skin. She slipped into the robe, turned the television on low and curled up in bed to watch, but her thoughts drifted to Jake and she neither saw nor heard the program she had turned on.