Chapter 13
Lyric closed her father's bedroom door and listened, but she didn't hear any voices. Night darkened the windows. Dinner must be over. She lingered longer than she realized in her father's comforting presence. At least one person in the world understood why she had to split from Riskin. Her father understood, and he gave her his blessing. She could carry that with her to bolster her courage for the job ahead.
She crept out to the living room. The kitchen stood empty and spotlessly clean. Maybe Melody really could take over the household duties to take the load off Lyric's shoulders. Everyone treated Melody like a shrinking violet, but maybe she just needed more responsibility to bring her out of her shell.
Nothing remained for Lyric to do for the rest of the night. Instead of doing dishes and putting away the leftovers, she could…what could she do? She never considered doing any hobbies or projects of her own. Her duties in the house took up all her time. She never did anything for herself since she took over the housework.
She stopped in the living room door and looked right and left. That's when she saw him. Mattox sat alone in the couch corner. The lamp shone over his shoulder on piles of file folders, loose papers, and that tell-tale book open on top of it all. He flipped the pages and wrote notes in the margins.
He smiled up at Lyric. “There you are.”
“Where is everybody? I guess I missed dinner.”
“Melody left a plate in the oven for you. She said you were talking to your father. It must have been about something important.”
“It was.” Lyric migrated over next to him and sat down. She made sure to leave a respectable gap between them. “I was talking to him about you.”
He closed the book. “And what did he say about me?”
“He said he's known what you were up to for months, that you came and asked him a bunch of pointed questions about his pedigree, and he put the pieces together that you were trying to go out on your own. He's been sobering up all this time and never told anybody.”
Mattox nodded. “I wondered about that. He made a lot more sense than he should have for someone too drunk to hold up his head.”
Lyric nodded down at the papers in his lap. “Let me guess. You're working on your breeding program.”
He shifted the book to the bottom of his stack and brought out the loose papers. “Actually, I'm working on a business plan for the bank. I'm working out my budget projections for the next five years of running the ranch with my new pedigree.”
“What are you doing that for? I'm sure Riskin has that worked out.”
“He has it worked out for the current pedigree. Anyway, this is all mine. I'm applying for a loan so I can expand my operation.”
Lyric's eyes widened. “Wow! You've really got it all figured out, haven't you?”
“That's what keeping your eyes on the far horizon is all about. You can't fly blind and expect to hit your target. You'll never get where you want to go if you don't know where that is.”
She stared down at the papers. Why hadn't she bothered to learn any of that stuff? Why hadn't she kept her eyes on the far horizon instead of giving up? If Mattox could spend nights and weekends studying the ranch's operations, so could she.
“How are your cattle doing?”
“They're doing fine. That bull isn't near as old as Azer and Riskin led me to believe. I had him checked out by the vet. He's got lots of good years left in him, and half those calves are bulls, too.”
Lyric closed her eyes and shook her head. “It's hard to believe all of this is happening. I never would have believed it.”
Mattox rifled his papers into a stack. “I find it hard to believe, too. I'm still amazed all this fell into my lap.”
“By all of this, do you mean your cattle or the ranch?”
“All of it. I didn't think about taking over when I first came here, but now everything is falling into place.”
Lyric shifted on the couch. “I guess I fell into your lap, too.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Is that what you did?”
She blushed. “Don't you know it?”
“I thought you sort of did that yourself.”
She couldn't stop herself from laughing. “I guess I did, but you sort of did it to me, too.”
“How did I do that?”
She waved her hand up and down in front of him. “Well, look at you. Anybody would fall for you when you're like this.”
“I didn't think about making you fall for me when I cut my hair.”
“You liar! Of course, you did.”
He pressed his lips together to stop himself smiling. “Well, maybe just a little bit.”
“It's not just the way you look. Everything about you changed, or maybe just everything about the way you act changed. You're smart, calculating, far-sighted—everything we thought you weren't. You can have anything you set your eye on. You became an Alpha.”
He didn't smile now. “I guess I did. I have your father to thank for that.”
“He gave me his blessing just now.”
“His blessing to do what? To dump Riskin and…”
“And…?”
She peeked at his face. “And mate with you instead…if you want to, I mean. I understand if you don't feel the same way about me. I realize this is sudden and everything. I just....”
He covered her hand with his. “I do feel the same way about you. You know I do.”
Her eyes snapped up. “You do?”
“Do you think I kiss girls all the time the way we kissed in the tack room? Do you think I meet my life's mate every day of the week?”
She could barely whisper. “Is that what I am?”
“Absolutely. And I'm yours. You wouldn't ask your father for his blessing if I wasn't.” His face drifted closer. She swam in those hypnotizing eyes. “We were made for each other, Lyric. We're mated for life.”
“We haven't mated yet.”
“We don't have to. If I never touch you again, we're mated for life. Nothing can change that. We just have to get a few pieces of extra business out of the way before we live happily ever after, like breaking the sad news to Riskin.”
“He saw us kissing, so maybe he already knows.”
“I just had dinner with him. As long as he hangs around the ranch, he's still hoping to get you back.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Mattox nodded. “Don't worry about Riskin. I'll handle him.”
“Just don't hurt him. Don't kill him or anything like that. I couldn't live with that.”
He squeezed her hand. “I'll be gentle with him for your sake. Just don't let any man come between us again, or I won't be responsible for the consequences.”
A brilliant smile spread across her face. She couldn't stop herself leaning toward him. “I won't. If we're together, I won't have to.”
He clasped her hand, but made no move toward her. “It's getting late. I should go to my room. Tomorrow's another busy day.”
“Mattox?”
“Yes?”
“Were you serious about me helping you with your herd?”
“It's not my herd. It's yours. I told you that. I'm doing this for you. All the money from this herd goes to you.”
She closed her eyes. She couldn't stop the blood rushing to her cheeks. “Stop saying that. It isn't true. You're doing this for yourself and no one else.”
“I admit I get a sense of accomplishment out of it, but I want you to reap the rewards. If we're going to be together, I want to make you rich. I want to make you notorious and powerful and unstoppable.”
“You're the one who's notorious and powerful and unstoppable.”
“If I'm any of those things, I am them because I have you.”
“You have me because you are those things. You wouldn't have me if you were weak and shrinking and obedient the way you were before.”
He smiled to show his teeth. “There you go. It's a match made in heaven.”
He bent over his papers, but she held him back. “Don't go yet.”
“I'm not going anywhere. I'm just going upstairs to my room. I'll be right down the hall from you all night long.”
She couldn't let him go. Her whole being thrilled to keep him close to her. “That's still too far.”
He gathered his papers in his free hand. “That's the way it's got to be, at least until we wrap up the loose ends floating around.”
“Do you mean Riskin?”
“That's just one of them.”
Her own attraction pulled her toward him. She wanted so much more than this, so much more than holding hands and talking on the couch. She wanted to devour him, to taste and touch and consume him, but something held her back.
She studied his lips. She longed to kiss them one more time, to experience that delirious vertigo of falling into him through his skin. She wanted to caress his inky chest with every inch of her skin, to drink his indomitable power through his lips.
She didn't cross the barrier separating them, though. What was wrong with her? Hadn't she fallen into his lap along with everything else? Wasn't she part of the spoils he conquered?
She looked up from his lips to find him scrutinizing her with his deep glittering eyes. His eyes danced down to her lips and back up to her eyes, but he made no move to come closer. Did he crave her kiss the way she craved his? Did the same insatiable hunger torment him as burned through her guts? How could he hold himself back like that? Didn't he see how much she wanted him? How could he thrill her and leave her grieving?
She pried her fingers out of his hand. She would just have to deal with this aching need until he got rid of Riskin. Then nothing would stop them from coming together. She inched back on the couch. “I guess we both better get to bed.”
He took his hand back without a word. He crooked his elbow around his papers and got up. Lyric kept her head turned away so he wouldn't see her face twisted in anguish. She swallowed the lump in her throat and coughed. “I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”
He followed her upstairs. When she paused at the upper landing, he squeezed her hand. “Good night, Lyric.”
She nodded, but couldn't speak. This soul-destroying loneliness never bothered her before, not even when her mother died. She always relied on Riskin's company to carry her through hard times, but she couldn't count on that support now. She cut Riskin adrift, and when she put out her hand to grasp Mattox, he slipped through her fingers. She couldn't face going back to her cold dark room alone, not with him so close, so warm and glowing with life.
He gave her one last smile and a nod before he turned away and headed down the hall to his room. Shadows swallowed him up and the door latch caught. That door cut her off from her life, her future. Her whole self waited for her behind that door.
She started to turn away. Her own room waited for her, but it couldn't welcome her like he could. What was she thinking? What loose ends could she possibly tie up to prepare her to meet him any better than she was prepared now?
She made up her mind in the blink of an eye. She turned back around the other way and strode down the hall to Mattox's door. She touched the door, but didn't knock. What would he do? Would he tell her to go back to her room? Of course not. He was her mate. She belonged in his arms, for better or for worse. She would stay with him. She didn't care what anybody said, and hang the consequences.
She grasped the knob and swung the door open. A single lamp burned next to the bed. Mattox sat bare-chested on the bed. His pile of files and papers rested next to the lamp. He could pick them up and study them whenever he wanted to.
He showed no surprise when she walked in and closed the door behind her. He sat up straight and put out his hand to take hers. He drew her toward him and folded his arms around her waist.
Overwhelming satisfaction and joy welcomed her into his arms. Nothing could ever be more right than this. His head nuzzled against her stomach, and his muscled biceps surrounded her hips in luscious warmth. His breath seeped through her dress and thawed her frozen heart. She left all her loneliness and grief behind in the hall and came home to his embrace.