Chapter 9

Ophelia

The credits rolled across the TV screen as The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly came to an end. Rose staggered to her feet from where she fell asleep on the couch and wished us goodnight before stumbling to her room.

“Goodnight, Bambie,” I called after her.

James chuckled and buried his nose in my hair. I was lying on top of him, using him like a body pillow. Grabbing the remote, I flicked off the TV before turning fully so we were stomach to stomach and resting my chin in my hands which were perched on his chest.

He smiled tenderly and ran his fingers through my hair, pushing it back off of my forehead. “You ready for bed, baby?” he asked quietly.

“That depends,” I replied with a smirk.

James laughed and mirrored my expression. “On what?”

“Bed, as in sleep or bed as in, my smoking hot cowboy curling my toes and putting me into an orgasm coma?”

His eyes crinkled adorably at the sides when his smile widened. “I vote option two, but I’m open to negotiation.”

I raised my eyebrow haughtily. “My way or the highway, LOCKEdheart. Or I’ll just have to go find me another rancher with charming chatting abilities.”

Before I knew it, I was flat on my back with a grouchy, deliciously sexy, cowboy hovering over me. I grinned as he glared at me. “There is no one else for you, Ophelia.” His frown became ferocious as a thought occurred to him. “You didn’t close your account?”

I honestly hadn’t thought about it, I’d been too consumed with everything else in my life for the last few weeks. When I hadn’t received any more phone calls or letters from the bank, I decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak. And, I threw myself into finding ways to make my ranch successful again. When I wasn’t working, I was spending all of my time with James. So no, it hadn’t crossed my mind. I shrugged. “No”—I eyed him suspiciously—“have you?”

His frown lightened and he looked sheepish. “No.” Then he vaulted up off of the couch and lifted me, tossing me over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. “No time like the present.”

I giggled and protested lackadaisically, not truly wanting him to let me go. He maneuvered me into his arms and sat at his desk, settling me in his lap. The computer was on, so he typed in the web address for the ranchers only matchmaking site.

It took a little figuring out, but eventually we managed to get both of our accounts closed. James grunted something Neanderthalish and hugged me close. I started to turn in his embrace but accidentally knocked some papers to the ground.

“Don’t worry about it,” he urged as he tried to turn my face for a kiss. But, the letterhead on one of the scattered papers caught my attention.

Booker, Peterman, & Finch.

That was the law firm I received all of the offers for the ranch from. Leaning down, I picked up the official looking document. It was a confirmation of an offer made for Red Hill Ranch. I stiffened and James pulled his face out of my neck where he’d been nuzzling.

When he saw what was in my hand, he paused, but there was no guilt or remorse in his expression. I jumped from his lap and waved the paper in his face. “You were the one trying to buy my ranch?”

“Yes.”

He kind of took the wind out of my sails with his blunt answer.

“It made good business sense, Lia.”

There was truth in his words, but my head didn’t want to listen to logic. All I knew was that he wanted my ranch and I was now sleeping with him.

“So, when I wouldn’t sell, you decided to seduce me? Convince me to sell with your stupid charm and ridiculously hot body?”

His lips twitched and I glared at him, giving his balls a pointed glance. He closed his legs and smoothed over his expression.

“Of course not, Ophelia. If I still had plans to buy it, why would I have paid it off?” he asked, exasperation dripping from his words.

I gasped and stumbled backward a little. He jumped to his feet and caught me just in time.

“You—you paid my...?” I didn’t even finish the sentence. I was too stunned.

He stepped close, his face deadly serious, and his blued eyes piercing me and seeing into my soul. “It’s what a man does for the woman he loves, his future wife, and mother of his children. He takes on the responsibility of her happiness. I know what Red Hill Ranch means to you, Lia. All I had to do was think about what I would do for Locke Creek. It was a simple fix and something that would give you relief from incredible stress and make you happy.”

There was a lot of information to digest but I got stuck on one particular thing. “Love?” I choked out. I wasn’t sure if I dared to hope.

He sighed. “What do you think we are doing here, Ophelia? Of course, I love you.”

He loved me. Well, how about them apples? And he paid off . . . whoa, back up.

“Wait, you paid if off? Not just brought it current?”

Keeping me in his grip, James backed up to sit in his chair once again and guided me to sit in his lap. “What’s mine is yours, Lia. It didn’t make sense to pay for the mortgage separately, especially after we get married. We’ll merge them under the same umbrella corporation and then we can pay all the expenses . . . “ I stopped listening because apparently, my brain had lost the capacity to focus on more than one thing at a time.

“Are you rich?” I blurted.

James laughed, “We are decently wealthy.” He put an emphasis on “we” and it sent something warm and snugly straight to my heart. “Not like billionaire rich, but we do okay,” he ended with a cheeky wink.

Oh yes, the “we” thing. On to the next item I had yet to process. “Did you say we’re getting married?”

James sighed and turned me so I was straddling his lap and he could look me in the face. “I’ll spell this out for you, ok?” I nodded, too dazed to be offended that he was treating me like a little kid. With my brain short circuited, I kind of felt like one.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Explain it to me like I’m five.”

“I love you”—he paused and arched his brow—“You with me so far?”

I gave him my best “don’t be an ass” look and he laughed.

“So,” he continued. “Since I love you, I want you to be happy, which meant making sure your ranch was safe.”

“Right.”

“And also because I love you, I want to marry you.”

I melted a little but still gave him some sass. “You may want it, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to ask for it.”

He studied me for a moment, the cogs in his mind obviously spinning. Then he leaned around me and opened his desk drawer to retrieve something. “I was still deciding how to do this, I wanted it to be special. But, for children, I’ve heard show is better than tell.”

I raised an eyebrow before looking at what he held in his hand, at which point both brows were probably lost in my hairline.

A little black box was open and a ring sat among shiny satin in the same color. The ring was platinum with a large, round diamond in the center, flanked by two slightly smaller matching stones. It was beautiful, but what took my breath away was the noticeably custom detail. The center stone was surrounded by a delicate, gold horseshoe, also set with tiny diamonds.

“The horseshoe is gold because no matter what happened in your past, or in our future, you will always be first place in my eyes.”

I didn’t know any woman who wouldn’t cry at such beautiful words, but I honestly wasn’t expecting the level of waterworks that burst from me. Neither was James, and he looked a little lost as to what to do.

“H—h—happy tears. I swear!” I blubbered. What was the matter with me? Seriously!

James watched me sob skeptically. I gave him a watery smile and it seemed to mollify him a bit. “So, you’ll marry me?”

I threw my arms around him and squeezed him as tightly as I could. “Yes!!!”

He coughed and I jumped back a little to see his face was a little red and he took a deep inhale of oxygen. “Stronger than you look, baby,” he half laughed, half coughed.

“I want to pay you back for the ranch though.”

He frowned and shook his head. “What’s mine—I’ll tell you what,” he amended his comment when I opened my mouth to argue. I snapped it shut and he continued. “If you’re hell bent on paying me back, I think I can come up with a list of things for you to do.”

This could be very good or very bad, depending on James’s level of depravity at any given moment. “Like what?” I asked cautiously.

“You’re already marrying me, so that’s a start. You could tell me you love me.”

Well, shit. I felt like such a bitch. How many times had he just declared his love for me? And I didn’t say it back even once. I grabbed his face and rubbed our noses together before giving him a sweet kiss. “I love you, James Locke. I can’t wait to marry you.” He grabbed my hand and slid the ring on, then kissed my hand.

“How about you give me babies to pay me back?” His smile was adorably devious.

“Just how many would it take to repay you in full?” I asked in my best professional negotiator voice.

He grinned. “I’m thinking at least four, but let’s start with one and see how it goes.”

I laughed. “One at a time seems like a smart plan.”

“Ah,” James added. “But, there is one caveat.”

I waited.

“The bank of James requires repayment to begin immediately. So, we should probably get started on making that baby.”

I was a little startled that he wanted to have a family so quickly, but the idea sunk in comfortably fast. It felt right for us.

Standing, I took his hand before guiding him to the bedroom and into the master bath. I opened the medicine cabinet and fetched my pills and the box of condoms we’d never opened. I walked over to the trash and dumped them in, then headed back to the bedroom, leaving a trail of clothes behind me.