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

Those eyes of his were really lethal weapons, she thought. So dark. So deep. Filled with old pains and secrets, so much so that any woman would be tempted to get closer. To discover the man within. To do just what she had done three years ago, Sadie reminded herself sternly.

She remembered it all so clearly, it could have happened the day before. Sadie had been at Claire’s restaurant, trying to look as though she didn’t mind eating alone. Rick had walked in, strolled over to her table and asked if he could join her.

She had been so lonely, so … lost, that she had said yes. For once in her oh-so-proper life, Sadie dropped her shields, lowered her guard and had allowed the real her to come storming out to play. She had held nothing back that night and, in return, she had experienced real passion. Real fire.

They shared dinner, then a walk around the lake, then a drive to a hotel in Midland, then hours of amazing sex. And over the course of that incredible night, Rick had taught Sadie that her ex-husband had been wrong when he accused her of being a frigid ice queen.

Memories rushed through her mind with a staggering force that left Sadie breathless. Image after image rose up within her, bringing back every second of that long-ago night until Sadie practically vibrated with need.

She dragged air into her lungs and forced herself to keep her gaze locked with his. She had succumbed to those eyes and that mouth once. She wasn’t going to do it again. She was stronger than her need.

“The girls have been looking forward to coming,” she said, stroking one hand across Wendy’s soft curls.

Thank God she had the twins with her, she thought. They would be her safety net. She and Rick couldn’t very well indulge in hot, steamy, wonderful, frenzied sex with their daughters in attendance, now could they?

Oh, yeah, she thought. Sad, sad, shape.

“Not you though, huh?”

“This isn’t about me,” Sadie told him, even while her mind was taunting, liar, liar. Of course she had been looking forward to seeing him. He was all she thought about lately. The man filled her mind while she was awake and starred in her dreams when she managed to sleep.

“Babe, it’s all about you.”

She stiffened. “I told you once, don’t—”

“—call you baby.” He grinned. “I didn’t. Called you babe.”

“That’s the same thing,” she told him, but couldn’t quite seem to keep her lips from twitching.

No other man she had ever known had teased her, flirted with her, treated her like … a woman. Most men around here were so deferential, all they saw was the Price name, never Sadie herself.

“How about darlin’ then?” he asked, deliberately drawing out the word until it became a deep, Southern caress.

“How about we stick with Sadie?”

He shrugged and smiled again. “That’ll do. For now.”

She took a breath, hoping to steady herself. Instead, she got a whiff of freshly showered male and felt her ragged nerve endings fray just a little bit more.

“How about we go inside?” That delectable smile of his curved his mouth in invitation. “I want to show the girls their room.”

He was already headed for the house, Gail on his hip, Wendy’s hand tucked into his when his words finally settled in Sadie’s mind.

“Their room?”

“Cozy as two kittens, aren’t they?” he asked, fifteen minutes later, his gaze never leaving the two little girls.

“Why wouldn’t they be?” Sadie shook her head as she looked around the pink-and-white splendor.

Twin youth beds, guardrails in place, were covered by lacy white quilts with pink scrolling spelling out each girl’s name in flowing script. White dressers stood alongside each girl’s bed and a collection of stuffed animals sat perched on little-girl-size rocking chairs. Pink curtains hung at the wide windows that were also gated for safety. There were matching toy boxes, two rocking horses and two identical castle playhouses, complete with tiny dolls and furniture.

The walls were white, with a mural of spring flowers sprouting up from the gleaming wood floor. A rose-colored braided rug in the center of the room provided warmth and comfort. As if even Heaven approved of what Rick had done here, sunlight speared into the room, dazzling it all with a golden glow.

He had only known about the twins’ existence for two weeks and yet he’d managed to create a little girl’s paradise. She should be pleased, she knew. Instead, a pang of worry reverberated inside her. This was permanence. Rick was making an important statement here. Letting not only his daughters but Sadie know that he was going to be a part of their lives from here on out.

“You like it?” he asked, shattering her thoughts and dragging her gaze back to his.

“What’s not to like?” Sadie walked farther into the room and watched her girls delightedly exploring. “How did you get all of this done so quickly?”

“Amazing what enough money in the right hands can accomplish.” He leaned against the doorjamb, folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes on her.

A flicker of heat skittered through her system under that watchful stare. “Why?” she asked. “Why do this if you’re leaving again? By the time you get back, they’ll be too old for this room.”

He frowned and his eyes darkened. “I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do, but whatever it is, the girls will be a part of my life. I wanted them to have a place here. To know this ranch as home.”

“Their home is with me,” Sadie said quietly with a quick glance at the girls as they squabbled over the stuffed animals.

“Could be with both of us,” he pointed out.

“Don’t start again, Rick,” she said with a shake of her head. “We’ve been down that road too many times already.”

“And never really talked about it.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

When the girls scampered into an adjoining room, Sadie grabbed at the excuse to halt her conversation with Rick and called out, “Hold on, you two….”

“Don’t worry,” Rick said quickly, reaching out to take her hand. At the first touch of his skin to hers, Sadie sucked in a gulp of air. She felt his reaction as strongly as her own and she knew that whatever else lay between them, the sexual heat was still burning fiercely.

He gave her hand a squeeze and released her reluctantly. “Nothing in here can hurt them. I had experts come in and baby-proof the place. Hell, the whole house has had a toddler remodel.”

Sadie curled her fingers into a fist to keep from reaching out to him again just to feel that sizzle of heat. Nodding to him, she relaxed her guard on the girls a little.

She’d already noticed the window gates and the plugs in the electrical outlets. And she had to admit that, even with the worry over Rick trying to swoop her girls out from under her, she was touched that he’d gone to so much trouble. But still … “What’s in that room?”

He tucked his hands into his jeans pockets and shrugged. “Not a room. It’s their closet.”

“Their—” Stunned speechless, she followed her girls and found them pawing through rack after rack of dresses, shirts and jeans. The closet had been designed so that everything was on toddler level, so both girls had no trouble reaching all of the new clothing that had been purchased just for them.

On the floor of the closet, clear boxes of different types of shoes were stacked. Chortling gleefully, the twins indulged themselves. Wendy was tugging at a pair of miniature cowboy boots, while Gail was trying to force her sneaker-clad foot into a princess slipper.

“Sweetie, wait a minute,” Sadie said, dropping to her knees and taking the slipper from greedy little hands.

“Wanna,” Gail argued, her bottom lip poking out in a pout that was a herald of a tantrum to come.

Sadie braced for it, almost looking forward to seeing Rick handle one of his daughters when she was less than the loveable toddler he knew. But she didn’t get a chance. Instead, she listened.

“Well, now, you two girls could play in here … or we could go and see your ponies,” he coaxed.