In The Tycoon's Bed: One Night, Two Heirs

“You always were the closed mouth sort,” John mused and turned his gaze on the house, too. “It’s a good place, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But a house needs people living in it. A family. Making memories. It’s not good for a house like this to stand empty too long.”

“Real subtle,” Rick said with a half smile.

“No point in being subtle. If I’ve got something to say, I just come out and say it.”

Rick sighed. John had been warming up to this for a week, he knew. “Let’s hear it.”

The older man scrubbed one hand across the back of his neck. “You know I was just as proud of you as your folks were when you joined the Corps.”

“I know that.”

“But that said,” John told him quietly, “there’s a time for leaving home and there’s a time for coming back.”

He frowned, shifting his gaze to his mother’s window again. If he hadn’t left the last time, he’d have been here when Sadie found out she was pregnant. He’d have been here for his mother before she died. Maybe she wouldn’t have died.

But the world of ifs was a crowded one with too many possibilities and no changes. Looking backward only fed regrets and that didn’t help a damn thing.

“I’m just saying,” John continued, “your mom was real excited to know that Sadie Price was going to have your baby.”

Rick snapped him a hard look. “Mom told you?”

“‘Course she told me. And Elena. Who the hell else did she have to tell?”

“How about me?” he demanded, as a spurt of anger shot through him. “I’m standing here wishing I’d been here for Mom. For Sadie. And now I find out that not only my mother knew about the twins, but you and Elena did, too? Don’t you think somebody should have told me that I was going to be a father?”

John didn’t even blink in the face of Rick’s anger. Instead, he frowned. “Yeah, I did think you should be told. But your mother didn’t want you distracted while you were over there. She about wore out her knees praying for you every night and she thought that if you knew about the babies that you wouldn’t be focused and could end up getting hurt. Or worse.”

The mention of his mother’s prayers quelled the fiery anger inside him with a bucket of guilt as effective as ice water. But he had to ask. “When she died, why didn’t you write and tell me about the girls then? I could have come home.”

“For how long? A two-week leave? Then you head back to a combat zone? What would have been accomplished?” John shook his head and scraped one work-worn hand across a hard jaw covered with gray stubble. “No. Your mother was right not to tell you. Wasn’t my call to go against her wishes.”

“Fine,” he muttered, realizing that this was an ancient argument and nothing would be changed by it, anyway.

Besides, maybe John was right. Who the hell knew? He could admit that finding out about his mother’s death while he was overseas hadn’t been an easy thing. Discovering the truth about the girls might have been even harder to take. “Doesn’t matter anymore, anyway. Point is, I’m home now. I know about the twins, now.”

“Yeah. The question is, what’re you going to do about it?”

“Wish I knew,” Rick told him.

“Well,” John said, slapping him on the shoulder, “while you’re thinking, why don’t you ride out with me to check the herd. Get your mind on something else. Maybe the answer will come to you when you’re not trying so hard to find it.”

Rick grinned. “This just an excuse to get me back in a saddle?”

“Damn straight. Want to see if all that walking you do as a marine has made you forget how to ride a horse.”

“That’ll be the day,” Rick assured him. “But Sadie and the girls are coming here for dinner, so I can’t be out long.”

“Then we better get moving. Unless like I said, you don’t feel comfortable on a horse anymore.”

“You want to see comfortable?” Rick steered the older man toward the stable. “I’ll race you out to the north pasture.”

“What do I get when I win?” John asked.

Rick laughed and, damn, it felt good. The summer sun was shining. Sadie and his daughters would be there soon. He was home, on land that called to his soul, and for the first time in a long time, he began to think that home was right where he belonged.

“Castle!”

“It’s not a castle, sweetie,” Sadie whispered to Wendy as she set the little girl down beside her sister. Then Sadie picked up the stuffed diaper bags and looked up at Rick’s ranch house.

“Is castle,” Gail insisted.

“Okay,” Sadie said on a sigh, surrendering to the inevitable. After all, there was a stone tower at one end of the huge house and that was clearly enough for two girls who enjoyed storybooks about princesses at every bedtime.

Wendy clapped her little hands and took off running. Quickly, Sadie shouted, “Wendy, freeze.”

The little girl stopped so suddenly, she toppled over, landing on her knees and palms. Her lip curled, her eyes scrunched up and a low-pitched wail slowly built to a scream.

“Hey now!” Rick came out of the house and sprinted across the lawn toward his fallen daughter. Before Sadie and Gail had taken more than a few steps forward, he had the little girl swept into his arms and was soothing her out of her tears.

“You okay, sweet thing?” Rick asked, wiping away tears with his thumb.

“Falled down,” Wendy said and dropped her head onto his shoulder with a dramatic slump.

“I know, baby girl,” he soothed, running one hand up and down her narrow back while his gaze searched for and found Sadie’s. “But you okay now?”

“Okay,” she said, lifting her head then patting his cheek. “Down,” she ordered.

As he set one daughter down, Gail held her arms up to him. “Up.”

“Tag teaming me?” he asked with a smile as he lifted the little girl.

“Welcome to my world,” Sadie told him ruefully.

How could a man look that sexy while holding a child? Sadie’s body was humming, her blood simmering and the low, deep-down ache she’d been carrying around for days began to pulse in time with her heartbeat.

“Happy to be here.” His voice was low, a soft touch on her already ragged nerve endings.

Honestly, after being around him so much for the last week, Sadie was in sad, sad shape. Oh, she still wouldn’t consider marrying a man who only wanted her because she had given birth to his children. But she wasn’t above admitting just how badly she wanted him.

And that was a dangerous feeling.

He was a marine. Trained to spot his opponent’s weakness. She sighed to herself. Judging by the wicked gleam in his eye, he was doing just that.

“I’m glad you came,” he said after a long moment filled only with the twins’ excited jabbering.