Lucky 7 Bad Boys Contemporary Romance Boxed Set (104 page)

But she didn't look happy. In fact, the expression on her face was miserable, a portrait of longing and sadness. Cole was instantly alarmed.

She took a step back, gnawing on her lip. "I, um…" She backed up another step. "I—"

His heart went into double-time. His mother looked almost as worried as he felt. "What is it?"
Oh, God.
"Rini, my heart can't take too much more excitement today, so if this is bad news, can it wait about a hundred years?"

She smiled bleakly. "No, I just...I'm sure you and your mother have a lot to talk about, and I, uh, promised Tanya I'd…" She took another step backward. "So, I'll just be going now."

Like hell.
He'd just gotten his mother back, and he realized with blinding certainty he wanted his wife back, too, even if it meant getting down on his knees and begging. She was the one woman who made his world complete and perfect, the one who made his life worth living. Without her, nothing else mattered.

In a single step he closed the distance she had created between them. "Over my dead body."

She had a death grip on the baby, so he took Chance from her and handed him to his mother, along with the quilt he still held.

Rini looked at him uncertainly. "Cole—"

"You're not going anywhere."

She blinked, and tears glistened on her lashes. She looked so lost his heart ached. "I'm not?"

"No." He took her hand, so small and delicate, but strong enough to work miracles, and cradled it between his. He took a deep breath. "I want you back. More than anything in the world."

Her mouth opened in disbelief.

He knit his brows together, feeling more vulnerable than he'd ever felt in his life. "I knew before. But now, today, with my mother, the way you forced me to listen to her, to see how stupid and stubborn I've been, well, it just made me all the more certain."

Rini stared at him, her eyes filling with hope and wonder. "What are you saying?"

"Please, Rini, come back to me." He pulled her into his arms. "Oh, Fire Eyes, I love you. You and Chance are my life. I love you so very much. I was a prize moron for not telling you every single day, but I'll make up for it for the rest of my life, if only you'll let me."

If he had to, he'd plead and implore her to return. Tell her over and over how much he loved her. Beg her forgiveness for being such an unbelievable fool.

He kissed her eyes, her damp cheeks, her parted, trembling lips. "I love you more than life itself. Marry me all over again, Rini.
Really
marry me. Baby? Say something, please."

She burst out in tears, but this time he could see they were tears of joy. "Oh, Cole! Do you mean it? Do you really mean it?"

"With all my heart."

She threw her arms around his neck. "I love you, too, Colton Lonetree. So very much. And yes, I'll marry you again."

Relief pouring through him, he grinned happily. "This time we'll do it right. With a dress and bridesmaids, the works. Would you like that?"

"Yes. Oh, yes, yes, yes!"

"And I want a dozen more children."

Her eyes popped as wide as her happy smile. "A dozen?"

"Okay, two," he said, laughing and swinging her around.

"Deal." She kissed him, long and lovingly.

"Hey, Mom!" Cole heard his half-brother's voice call out as the screen door was flung open behind him. "What's for— Cole!"

Turning, he grinned at Billy's obvious stupefaction at seeing him in his mother's house, smiling. "Hey, bro! Come in and join the celebration."

"But—"

"Relax, Billy. Lanie and I were just—" He glanced inquiringly at his mother, who stood happily next to his brother, beaming like a summer day, Chance snuggled in her arms. "Can I call you Lanie? Mom's sort of taken, and—"

She smiled broadly. "Lanie's just fine." She turned to Billy, and said, "Cole and Rini are going to be married. Isn't that wonderful?"

Billy shook himself out of his shock and clapped Cole on the shoulder, a loopy smile on his face. "You bet! Wonderful! But I thought they were already— Oh, never mind. This is great! Cole, I— Aw, heck." Billy threw an arm around his neck and gave him an embarrassed but heartfelt hug. "Welcome back, man. We've missed you. All of us."

Cole squeezed him back and parried the mock punches his brother threw at him in an attempt to keep his face from crumbling. "Hell of a way of showing it, bro," he laughed, grabbing him for another hug.

There were more embraces all around, and Billy finally flung himself onto the couch, pleased as a sultan surveying his domain. "This is great. First I get a son, and now a whole damn family! With a mom and kids and grandkids and everything. This is great!"

Billy's words jolted through Cole. It was true. This was exactly what he'd been looking for all along, too. Somewhere to belong.
Really belong.
Down to the roots of his ancestors.

He grabbed Rini by the arms and shook his head. "I can't take you back to Pasadena with me."

She opened her mouth in crestfallen bewilderment. "But—"

"I know how much you love your new job. I can't ask you to leave it."

"But I don't—"

"And I'd really like to cut down on my lawyering a bit. I've got a bank account full of money saved, and my portfolio should keep us going for a while. I'd like to teach dancing again, work more on crafting regalia. Stay home with Chance, like I was doing before."

She blinked. "What are you saying?"

"Here, Rini. I want to live here, at Rincon. Is your house big enough for all of us?"

"I'm not—"

"It doesn't matter, we can get another one. A giant house, with lots of room. For those two dozen kids you promised me."

Rini slapped a hand over her mouth and gasped, choking on laughter. "Two
dozen?"

"What do you say?"

"To the two dozen kids, or the house?"

"Making our home here."

She smiled, her pretty fire eyes radiating so much love he thought his knees might buckle. "You mean it's my choice?"

"Yep."

"Then I choose to be with you, Cole. Wherever you are, for the rest of my life, I choose to be there, too."

Epilogue

"You've got to be kidding."

Hiking her heavy silk wedding gown up off the dirt path, Rini burst out in a gale of laughter at the accommodations Cole was pointing to.

He looked offended. If he could possibly look anything but wildly sexy in his midnight black tuxedo and starched pleated shirt. "I'm perfectly serious. If it was good enough for my ancestors, it's good enough for me. And you, too, woman."

She fought a losing battle to look stern. "I know for a fact Luiseños didn't live in tepees, Cole. You told me so yourself."

When he'd suggested moving back to the rez, this wasn't quite what Rini'd had in mind. Still, she couldn't help but giggle at the miffed expression on his face.

"Lodges," he corrected. "Besides, it's just for one night."

"Our
wedding
night," she reminded him with an exaggerated pout that threatened to dissolve into mirth.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? Throw your mother and Frazer out on their noses?"

She chuckled. "You could have made
them
sleep in the tepee—"

"Lodge."

"All right,
lodge,
and they'd have thanked you for the intense cultural experience. I've never seen anyone charm my mother quite as quickly and thoroughly as you managed to do. It was an amazing thing to behold."

He flashed her the old pirate smile, wiggling his eyebrows. "Darlin', you think
that
was amazing, just wait."

He reached for her and she demurred, ducking away quickly. He put his hands on his hips and with a feral gaze watched her retreat. "And what about Alexa?" he called. "You'd make your pregnant sister sleep in some sleazy motel?"

She stopped in her tracks, aghast at what he was suggesting. "Of course not!" A smile spread over her whole being when she thought about Brad's announcement at the reception that evening. Alexa was finally carrying the baby she so longed for, and she'd made it through the first trimester. It was all too perfect.

Including their primitive honeymoon suite. It brought back wonderful memories of a certain night in May… But of course, she wasn't going to let Cole know that. Just yet.

"That would be beastly of us. A pregnant woman, and all."

"All right then. Stop complaining and come here."

He looked at her hungrily. It was that same look he'd been giving her since she'd walked down the grass aisle in Tanya's backyard earlier, on the arm of his best man, Renegade Santangelo. A look that said he would eat her up in a single bite if she let him come too close.

He came closer.

She scampered away. She wanted him tied up in knots by the time they reached his lodge. Judging by the sizzling looks he was sending her, her strategy appeared to be working.

She flashed him her most flirtatious smile. "Renegade looked particularly handsome today," she remarked.

Cole grunted, stalking her steadily.

She sighed provokingly. "Black leather pants and frilly shirt. Very sexy. And that hair…"

"RaeAnne seemed to like it."

"They make a nice couple. Speaking of nice couples, who was that hunk Tanya was with? Someone new?"

"That's it.
I won't have my wife talking about every other man at my own wedding."

"Why, Cole. Are you jealous?"

"Damn straight!"

Sucking on a fingertip, she tilted her head coquettishly. "Good. I wouldn't have wanted this expensive
silk
gown to go to waste."

"Come here, before I have to come get you." Lifting her skirts scandalously high in the air, she fled.
He groaned. "I suppose the stockings are silk, too," he called after her, agony in his voice.

Pausing in her flight, she rounded a tree and peered at him coyly. "Why, yes, as a matter of fact."
Among a few other interesting bits and pieces he'd soon discover.

The late summer sun had set a while ago, leaving a magical twilight dimness in its wake. The stars overhead were just peeking out of the murky blanket of sky, the sliver of moon a pearly luminescence above the trees.

Breathing in a lungful of sultry, spice-scented air, she continued to stroll in the direction of the beautifully painted lodge in which they would spend their first night together after renewing their vows and affirming their love.

Cole sauntered toward her, obviously attempting to look casual in his pursuit.

She stooped to pick a wildflower, letting him come within a few yards before waltzing off. "Billy and Jeff were having a good time at the reception," she said.

"Yeah. They get along well. They've been really good for each other."

"He makes a terrific father," she said thoughtfully, temporarily forgetting about eluding Cole. "And your mother is in heaven."

"Don't I know it." He stuck his hands in his pockets and inched toward her. "
Both
mothers. They're turning out to be quite the buddies. Conspiring over who to fix Billy up with." He smirked. "What a pair."

She giggled. "Well, I think it's cute."

"You would."

He lunged, and she squealed in delighted terror when he almost caught her. With a rustle of silk petticoats, she scurried off, skipping and sliding over the uneven ground in her formerly white slippers.

"You're going to pay for this, woman," he growled, a menacing expression on his face.

Her blood stirred heavily at the thought of what the price would be. "Why, for what, darling?" She turned and gave him a guileless look.

His eyes raked over her thoughtfully, systematically, artfully.
Thoroughly
. A frisson of anticipation shivered down her body.
Oh, yes.
She was getting nervous now. She took a step backward.

"You'll pay for making me chase you." He followed. "And for that gorgeous silk gown. And for each and every one of those lacy silk petticoats. But you'll especially pay for the stockings."

Another step backward. "Oh, dear. I suppose I'll be wickedly punished for the rest, too." She peeked up from under fanned lashes.

He looked momentarily stricken. "The rest?"

She nodded solemnly. "You know. The
rest."

He pulled his chin up, unsticking his collar from his neck. His gaze fastened on the décolletage peeking tantalizingly through her gown's sheer upper bodice. "Such as, for instance?"

"Oh, well, like, um, the other"—she gestured up and down her torso—"lacy, frilly, silky things. Underneath."

His lids drooped to half-mast and he actually licked his lips. He was hot. She could practically see the smoke rising from his broad, muscular shoulders. Pure electricity shot through her body, starting at the tips of her breasts and streaking directly to the junction of her thighs.