Unmasking the Maverick Prince Page 15

  “You plan to have kids?” His incredulous tone cut Tori to the quick.

  “In the future.” Quite possibly in the near future, if she’d become pregnant that first night they were together. It was now or never. “Speaking of children, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  He tensed against her side. “You already have a kid?”

  “No. The birth control shot I told you about, well, it’s been a while since I had it. It might not be effective. I don’t think there’s a huge chance I could be pregnant, but nothing’s fail safe.”

  She closed her eyes tightly and waited for the fallout. Waited for him to bolt from the bed and run like the wind. Instead, he said, “Condoms aren’t one hundred percent fail-safe, either. We’ll just hope there won’t be any consequences. And if there are, we’ll deal with it if and when the time comes.”

  Tori didn’t dare ask how he intended to deal with it. She only knew that if she happened to be pregnant, she would love and care for the baby as well as her mother had loved and cared for her. She would tell her child about its father. But would she tell Mitch and face his rejection, the same as her mother?

  He lifted her chin and kissed her lips softly, thrusting all the concerns from her mind. “Are you sleepy?”

  “Not really.”

  “Neither am I. Any ideas how we might pass the time?”

  He was drawing her in again with only the idle touch of his fingertips stroking her shoulder. “We could go grab a bite to eat in the kitchen,” she said, even though she couldn’t imagine choking down a bite of anything.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Go for a midnight ride in the truck?”

  His finger drifted down between her breasts. “Why don’t we just go for another midnight ride?”

  “But Mitch, it’s only been about twenty minutes.”

  He pulled her over until they were face to face, body to body once more. He pressed against her, making it quite clear that twenty minutes had been more than sufficient. “You’re insatiable,” she told him.

  He palmed her breast. “Downright rapacious.”

  “Rapacious? How about voracious?”

  He slid his hand down her belly and taunted her some more. “Horny.”

  Tori laughed but not for long. She was too caught up in his caresses to laugh. Too overwhelmed by the fact that he could make her want him so desperately. Too aware that tomorrow would come too soon.

  But tonight was theirs—all theirs—and she planned to enjoy it to the fullest.

  After last night, Mitch knew every inch of Tori’s body, every sweet curve, crevice and furrow. He knew every sound she made when he pleased her, every soft sigh and steady moan. He knew the feel of her hands on him, all over him, and thinking about that now brought his need for her back to life, even if he hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours.

  He valued her as a lover, would miss her in those hours before dawn, but he would long for her friendship just as much. That’s why he couldn’t let her leave until she agreed to see him again.

  Determination drove him out the front door that he let slam behind him, startling Tori, who was now standing at the passenger side of Stella’s car. He slid his hands deep into his pockets before he did something stupid, like carry her back to his bed to engage her in a little sensual torment until she agreed. But that wasn’t the answer right now. She needed to know that this wasn’t only about sex. Not by a long shot. How he was going to express that, he had no idea. He’d just have to wing it and wish for the best.

  “Need any help?” he asked, realizing he was a little late in making the offer since her bags were already positioned in the trunk. His fault, since he’d stayed way too long in the shower, hoping she might change her mind about joining him after she’d refused the offer. He’d begun to sense the distance she was putting between them long before she’d left his room to pack.

  She smiled but it faded fast. “I’ve got it all. Thanks.”

  He’d never noticed the flecks of gold in her brown eyes until now, or how the highlights in her brown hair took on the appearance of fire in the sunlight. So much he hadn’t noticed and he wanted more opportunities to correct that. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to the airport?”

  “You’re needed more here. Buck told me you’re all about to saddle up and move the herd.”

  “I could take a couple of extra hours.” Man, he sounded almost desperate. Maybe he was. “The boys won’t be back from church until lunchtime.”

  “That’s okay,” she said. “Stella needs to pick up some things in the city that she can’t get here.”

  He clenched his jaw tight against protests he wanted to issue over her stubbornness. “Fine. But before you go, we need to talk about when we’re going to see each other again.”

  She leaned back against the car and toed a rock with her sneaker. “I really don’t think that’s going to be possible.”

  Damn her resistance. “Sure it is. I either come there or you come here a couple of weekends a month. If money is a problem, I’ll buy you a plane ticket.”

  Her gaze shot to his. “It’s not the money, Mitch. But there is a problem.”

  “What?”

  “I’ve been in a long-distance relationship before. It doesn’t work.”

  “We could try it. It might work for us.”

  “Yes, it probably would work for you, but not for me.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re saying, Tori.”

  She released a slow breath. “I don’t want to be your weekend girl, Mitch. I don’t want to end up like Mary Alice, spending the next nine years of my life in a relationship that’s never going to go anywhere.”

  How could he explain that she was nothing like Mary Alice? How could he tell her that she’d meant more to him than any woman he’d been involved with in his thirty-three years? “What do you want from me, Tori?”

  “Nothing, Mitch. I don’t want anything from you. But I might if we stay involved and I know that scares the hell out of you.”

  Mitch couldn’t deny that. He also couldn’t deny he didn’t want to lose her completely. “If you mean marriage, you know how I feel about that.”

  “Oh, yes. You’ve made that clear as glass.”

  Turning away, she opened the door but Mitch closed it with his palm before she could climb inside. “Tori, I’m asking you to think about it. You don’t have to answer me now.”

  She faced him again and framed his jaw in her palm. “Yes, I do have to answer you now. And the answer is no. I’m already halfway in love with you, and I don’t want to go all the way alone. I don’t want my life to be full of goodbyes. So let’s just leave it at this.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him as gently as her touch. “I’ll send you a copy of the article when I’m through with the final draft.”

  Still reeling over her declaration, he didn’t know what to say. Could he really offer her more than his time in bits and pieces? Could he even consider committing to her? Right now, he wasn’t at all sure, so he offered her the only thing he could until he sorted everything out. “You don’t have to send the article, Tori. I trust you.”

  She looked as if he’d given her his entire ranch. “I won’t let you down.”

  She already had, but it wasn’t her fault. It was his.

  “I have something for you,” she said, then pulled a brown clasp envelope out of her back pocket. “Here. But don’t open it now.”

  Mitch took it in his hand and turned it over. “What is it?”

  “The picture you took of me in the office.”

  Damn. “When did you get it developed? Where did you get it developed?”

  “Stella let me in the drugstore yesterday morning before they opened. I used their equipment.”

  Man, that was the worst move Tori could’ve made. “What did you do with the negative, because I don’t have to tell you what could happen—”

  She patted his arm. “I destroyed it, so don’t look so worried.”
<
br />   Something else was also weighing heavily on his mind and he needed to get it out in the open. “You will tell me if you’re pregnant, right?”

  “We’ve got to go, Tori,” Stella called from the driver’s side.

  Tori consulted her watch. “She’s right. I’ve got to go. Bye, Mitch. It’s been great.” Without another word, she slid into the car and closed the door.

  It’s been great? How many times had he said that to a woman before he sent her away to resume his solitary existence? He was getting a bitter taste of his own medicine, and it burned like acid all the way to his gut.

  Angry at Tori over her casual dismissal, at himself for not being the kind of man she needed, Mitch spun around and headed for the house, determined not to watch her drive out of his life. But as if he’d lost command over his will, he turned and leaned a shoulder against the rock support on the front porch. Stella pulled the sedan out of the circular drive and headed away, then stopped abruptly.

  When the passenger door opened, Mitch believed Tori had changed her mind. Believed she was coming back to tell him that she didn’t want it to be over. At the very least, coming back for one more kiss. Hell, he didn’t care why, just as long as she did come back.

  All his hope dulled when she exited the car with camera in hand and snapped a picture of him, favoring him with a sweet smile as his final keepsake.

  Mitch remained in the same position until the car disappeared from view, the ache that he’d had since that morning growing more intense with each passing moment. But this time it was centered in his chest, right around the neighborhood of his heart.

  “Are you going to tell him if you’re preggers?”

  Avoiding Stella’s scrutiny, Tori continued to stare out the side window at the passing scenery on the interstate, what there was to see aside from billboards and the occasional fast-food joint. “I hope I have nothing to tell.”

  Stella turned down the radio, a good thing since the love song was greatly aiding in Tori’s temptation to cry. “He has a right to know.”

  “And I have a right to live my life as I choose, so butt out.”

  `“My, my, you’re testy. I bet you are pregnant.”

  Tori sent Stella a look as sour as her stomach. “I could be premenstrual. Have you considered that?”

  “I guess that could be it, but I don’t think it’s likely.”

  “You sound like you want me to be pregnant.”

  Stella took one hand from the wheel and patted her belly. “Misery loves company.”

  Miserable was exactly how Tori felt at the moment, and she didn’t welcome any advice from her friend or anyone else, for that matter. “Look, if I did happen to be pregnant, I don’t see any reason to involve a man who doesn’t want kids or marriage or anything that even remotely resembles commitment. It wouldn’t be fair to subject my child to that.”

  “Mitch isn’t like your father, Tori. I know he’d want to do the right thing. And if you dig down deep past all that pain you’re in now, you’d know it, too.”

  Tori shifted to one side as far the seatbelt would allow. “What is the right thing, Stella? Marrying only for the sake of a baby?”

  She saw a flash of hurt cross her friend’s face. “Bobby and I married because we love each other. The baby only sped things up a little.”

  How could she have been so careless with her words and Stella’s feelings? “I didn’t mean you and Bobby. I know you love each other. But Mitch doesn’t love me.”

  “Did you ask him?”

  “I shouldn’t have to ask. I did tell him before I left that I was falling in love with him.”

  Stella’s eyes went wide as the wheel. “What did he say to that?”

  “Not a thing, and there’s my answer.”

  “Maybe he’s scared, Tori. Bobby nearly swallowed his tongue before he got out the ‘love’ word the first time.”

  Tori was terrified. “Love’s a scary business, especially where Mitch is concerned. I’m not even sure he’s capable of it.”

  “Oh, he is. It’s just going to take the right woman, and I honestly believe that could be you.”

  If Tori could really believe that, then she would have agreed to see him again. She would have returned to Quail Run on weekends, showed him the sights of Dallas and made love to him as often as she could. But he’d given her no hope of that ever happening. He’d given her no promises. And hopefully, he hadn’t given her a child, even though, under different circumstances, that would be the greatest gift of all.

  “Speed up a little, Stella,” she said. “I’m going to miss my plane.”

  “You’re going to miss Mitch Warner, Tori. You won’t be able to escape him, even when you get home.”

  “I have too much work to do on the article to think about him.”

  Even before Stella snickered, Tori realized how ridiculous that sounded. “Considering the story’s about him, that’s going to be tough, Victoria.”

  Regardless of what had transpired between them, Tori vowed to do the best work she had ever done. She was professional enough to paint a favorable picture of the man, even if he’d considered her only a convenience. Even if he happened to be the man she loved and could never have. He was still a good man. And no one knew that better than Victoria Barnett.

  He lives in obscurity in Oklahoma with his grandfather who calls him Gus. The town folk consider him the consummate community leader. To see him on the street, he appears to be a classic contemporary cowboy. But in reality, he’s a Harvard- educated rancher whose roots run deep in a political dynasty…

  And he was going to be a father.

  That morning, Tori had taken three tests to confirm what she already knew—she was pregnant. As her mother had done before her, she’d traded common sense for charisma in the arms of a commitment-phobic cowboy. Another sad case of repeating history.

  She had no idea how to tell him. Or even if she should tell him, although he did indicate he wanted to know so they could “deal” with it. But what then?

  Tori didn’t have time to ponder the hows and whys when her boss breezed in, holding the last draft of the article, number five at Tori’s last count.

  “I think this is almost it,” Renee declared, her smile accentuating her apple cheeks. “It’s got everything. Great quotes. Local color. Love the pictures. But…”

  Tori hated it when people ended a sentence with “but.” “What is it now?”

  “You’re missing a very important aspect, namely a comment from Edward Senior.”

  “This is about Mitch Warner, not the senator.”

  “It just won’t ring true unless we interview his father.”

  She could just imagine what Mitch would have to say about that. “I promised I wouldn’t involve his father—”

  “You don’t make promises you can’t keep, Tori.”

  Renee had that look about her, the one that said she wasn’t about to budge short of a sudden Texas tornado, signaling certain defeat for Tori. “And how am I supposed to get this interview when the article goes to press in a few hours?”

  Renee tossed the draft on the desk in front of Tori. “I’ve taken care of that. Senator Warner has agreed to give you fifteen minutes.”

  Tori felt the internal panic button depressing. “When?”

  “Now. He’s on his way up. Be nice to him.”

  With that, Renee swiveled on her heels and strode out of the office before Tori could manage another argument.

  A few minutes later, Senator Edward Warner arrived in the open door, an impeccably polished statesman and a glimpse of the future Mitchell Warner. Tori had seen him in numerous photographs and on TV, yet the images had not done him justice.

  His black hair was painted silver at the temples and his eyes, though not as light as Mitch’s, were sky blue. He was slighter in build and probably two inches shorter than his son, yet his air of confidence and palpable control made Tori’s office seem to shrink.

  Rising slowly from her seat, Tori regaine
d enough composure to extend her hand. “Senator Warner, I’m Victoria Barnett. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

  He stepped forward and took her hand for a brief shake. “Very nice to meet you, Ms. Barnett. I do have a plane to catch back to D.C. in two hours, so I don’t have much time.”

  Tori gestured to the chair opposite hers. “Then please, have a seat and I’ll explain why you’ve been asked here today.”

  He sat and sent her a practiced politician’s smile. “It’s my understanding you would like some sort of statement from me concerning a feature on my son.”

  “Yes, that is what my editor is requesting.”

  “This wasn’t your idea?”

  “Actually, no. Mitch doesn’t…” She studied the paperweight on her desk, hating how ill-prepared she was for this meeting. “I’m afraid your son—”

  “Doesn’t care to have my opinion.”

  She finally looked up and found his expression somber. “That’s correct.”

  “Then I assume you know that our relationship has not been on the best of terms.”

  “That’s been common knowledge for some time. But Mitch did mention it to me a time or two.”

  “That surprises me, considering my son is a very private man. He also has a strong contempt for the media, and rightfully so. Until the past few years, he’s spent his life in the spotlight. He was forced to grieve for his mother on national television. My position has left us all open for scorn.”

  The disdain in his tone disturbed Tori. “Senator Warner, you are under no obligation to say anything at all.”

  He smoothed a neatly manicured hand down the lapels of his navy silk suit. “If I thought that I could say something to mend my relationship with my son, I’d do it. I’m afraid it’s too late for that.”

  “It’s never too late. I only know that whether he admits it or not, he needs you in his life.” Two minutes in his presence, and she’d already revealed too much.

  “You sound as if you have a personal investment in Mitch’s well-being.”