Sutherland’s Pride (19 page)

He laid one hand on her stomach and stroked it over her skin, tracing all the evidences of Johnny’s advent.

In answer, she slid her fingers through the hair on his chest then tested the strength of the muscles in his arms and shoulders by probing and kneading them gently.

He leaned over her, studying her body slowly and with grave attention to detail before bending his head to kiss her and trace his tongue over the outline of her lips.

Pride returned the kiss and breathed in the heated scent of his skin with joy and gratitude. No matter what happened between them in the future, at least she had this night to remember, a night when she was almost able to feel as if Flynn loved her again the way he had before she became pregnant with Johnny.

• • •

Flynn lay beside Pride in the heated aftermath of their lovemaking and wondered what he had done wrong. Making love to Pride affected him as much as ever, but he saw the caution settle over her like a blanket the moment they satisfied their passion.

Sure enough, she still refused to marry him, and he had no idea what he could say to win her consent.

He needed more time with her. Maybe he could wear her down.

“You don’t have to go back to Lake Charles,” he said. “If you don’t want to stay in Anahuac, you can stay here with me.”

Pride yawned and snuggled her face against his side. “Johnny and I would be very much in your way if we stayed here. It would be better if we went back to Anahuac.” She yawned again and added, “I had planned on staying there another two weeks at least, while I went through everything and got the house ready to sell.”

“Why don’t we look around at houses?” he suggested. “If you’re thinking of moving back to Houston, you’ll want a house with a yard for Johnny to play in.”

He knew several real estate experts, but on further reflection, he thought his mother might be the better person to help in that direction. She had studied real estate and had a sixth sense about houses.

“I was thinking more in terms of an apartment with a swimming pool and children’s play area,” she replied. “Houses have yards that have to be kept up.”

Flynn noted that she planned to live with Johnny as a single mother in an apartment and not in a house with a yard and a husband. That meant she still did not trust his motives, even though she was willing to make love with him.

He kept a tight grip on himself. Scolding Pride and threatening to haul her off to a justice of the peace most likely would result in her instant flight back to Lake Charles.

“Don’t worry about the yard,” he said, when he thought he had regained sufficient control of the urge to argue with her. “That’s why they invented lawn services.”

Pride remained silent, and Flynn resolved to call his mother right away. He needed to present Pride with a house she would find impossible to turn down.

Waking up next to Pride ranked as a major attraction in itself. Too bad, Flynn thought, Pride didn’t seem to look at it that way, especially when Johnny awakened early and came in the room to stand beside the bed.

“Good morning, Johnny,” he said, when he opened his eyes to find Johnny’s little face barely six inches from his. “Do you usually wake up this early?”

“Flynn’s.” Johnny examined the arm Flynn stretched out to him but spotted nothing of interest. “Daddy.”

“That’s right,” Flynn agreed. “Are you ready for breakfast?”

Pride came awake with a start. “Johnny?”

“He’s awake and wanting to know where everybody is,” Flynn said. “We have a busy day ahead of us, so let’s get moving.”

With that, Flynn set the pattern for the next two weeks. During the day, he escorted Pride and Johnny through houses and apartments then he took them to a museum or another attraction sure to appeal to Johnny.

At night, he either took them someplace to eat then back to his apartment, or if Pride insisted, he drove them back to Anahuac and spent the night with them. First, he told himself, Pride needed to grow accustomed to his presence. Then she might be willing to marry him.

Bettricia Sutherland got busy and located a house in a quiet suburb of Houston that she thought would be the perfect home for a young family, and Flynn lost no time in taking Pride to look at the property.

“It’s not on the market yet,” he told her. “The family is transferring to Dallas. If you like it, we can get the jump on everyone else.”

Pride studied the spreading lawn, neat flowerbeds, and sheltering pin oak trees. “It’s very nice.”

“There’s an above-ground swimming pool and a deck in back,” he added. “It’s a big backyard.”

Accompanied by the homeowners, Flynn marched Pride around the entire house and the large, well-landscaped backyard.

“Nice kitchen, huh?” Flynn asked.

“It’s wonderful.” He could not tell what she was thinking, as she kept her face arranged in calm, expressionless lines.

“Four bedrooms,” Flynn pointed out. “There aren’t many houses like this available with four bedrooms.”

“True.”

“What do you think of the yard?”

“The yard is perfect,” Pride allowed.

The backyard boasted a six-foot-high brick and wrought-iron wall and could hold several children, a swing-set, and a dog with ease. The above-ground swimming pool and deck had been arranged for family living.

When he drove them home, Johnny chattered on about the swimming pool, much to Flynn’s delight.

“We ought to make an offer on it,” he told Pride. “It won’t last long once they put it on the market.”

Pride said something noncommittal and turned to adjust Johnny’s car seat.

“Centrally located, too,” he added. “It’s only a twenty minute drive from the office.”

“Assuming there’s no traffic jam on your route,” Pride said. “I’m not ready to make a decision about a house or apartment right now, Flynn. I still have business in Lake Charles. It’s going to be a few months before I’m ready to relocate.”

Flynn fell silent, thinking hard. Obviously, he needed another plan.

Fortunately, he had already prepared Plan B.

• • •

Pride awakened alone in her own bed in her father’s house in Anahuac. After leaving Johnny to spend the night with Flynn’s parents, she had driven home to Anahuac and told Flynn she needed time alone to work on her column. Tracy Eric had some catching up to do.

Since Flynn probably needed some time to catch up on his own work, she thought the time apart would benefit both of them. The last thing she wanted was a husband who wanted her child more than he wanted her, she reminded herself.

She felt as though things between them had rocketed out of her control, and that her excuses to avoid accepting Flynn’s marriage proposal had worn thin. Either she needed to marry Flynn, or she needed to give him a solid reason why she would not.

The problem, she admitted, was that she no longer had a solid reason. Flynn had successfully demolished every one of the reasons she had clung to for so long.

Somehow, she made it through the night. Unused to being alone, she kept waking up to go check Johnny’s empty bed. When she awakened to check the bed beside her for Flynn, she decided it was time to get up.

She climbed out of bed and threw on her green chenille robe, smiling at her own foolishness, and wandered into the bathroom, where she scrubbed her face energetically and peered at her nose in the mirror. The hours spent in Flynn’s company had exposed her to enough sun to cause her freckles to reappear. Soon, she might even develop a light tan.

With only herself to care for, Pride hardly knew how to begin the day. She stood in the kitchen a moment then settled at last on fetching the morning newspaper she had yet to cancel the subscription for. Accordingly, she opened the front door to a sparkling early summer morning.

The sun, just rising, sparkled off the dew covering the grass. Pride stood on the porch barefoot and searched the wet grass for the paper. She located it at last, hiked up her robe, and tiptoed carefully toward it.

Snatching it up by its plastic wrapper she turned to head back to the house, but the sun shone directly in her eyes and blinded her to the fact that something blocked her path. She walked into a solid male body.

“Good morning, Pride,” Flynn said.

Pride gave an involuntary frightened squeak and started back. “You scared me half to death. What on earth are you doing sneaking up on me at this hour?”

“I’m glad you asked that question,” Flynn said. “Have you plugged in the coffee pot, or left anything cooking?”

“Not yet.” She shaded her eyes to study him.

“Wait right here.”

Flynn bounded up on the porch and nipped inside the house before she could gather her wits enough to protest.

She rubbed her eyes. He wore khaki trousers, a knit polo shirt, and boat moccasins, exactly as he had when he went sailing.

Moments later, he reappeared, carting her purse and her laptop computer tote. He locked the door carefully behind him.

Pride watched him, baffled. “What are you doing?”

“I’m abducting you,” Flynn said gravely.

“Oh, yes? Well, let me tell you something, Flynn. I’m not at my best at an early hour of the morning. If you expect me to be abducted or anything else at this hour, you’re crazy.”

“Darling, the idea of an abduction is that the abductee has no choice in the matter.”

He reached her side, swept her up in his arms, newspaper and all, and walked across the wet lawn with her.

Across the street, old Mrs. Jones, in her bathrobe and slippers, watched from her porch.

Pride began to feel concerned and a little annoyed. “Put me down, Flynn Sutherland. This is not funny.”

“In an abduction, the man is supposed to sweep the woman off her feet, preferably while she’s wearing something long and trailing,” he indicated her long, cotton robe, “and toss her into his carriage.”

Pride glanced down the street. Flynn had parked his Bronco behind a hedge, where she couldn’t see it from her front lawn.

“I’m not going anywhere at this hour,” she said. “Put me down.”

“Sorry, sweetie. In an abduction, the abductor ignores all the pleas of the abductee.”

“Flynn, I am not pleading. I am telling you that if you don’t put me down this minute, I’m going to — ”

Flynn somehow opened the car door with her in his arms and tossed her and her belongings, inside. She and her belongings bounced on the seat then, Pride tried to fling herself back out the way she had entered.

“I hope you aren’t going to force me to tie you up,” Flynn said, mimicking an evil leer.

She attempted to force the door open far enough to let her slip out while Flynn closed it.

“This has gone beyond a joke,” she said, in the same patient tones she used when Johnny back-sassed her. “I want you to let me out of this car.”

“Sorry, darling. You’re now in my power.”

“I’ll show you power,” Pride said, and tried to shove him back with the car door.

“I think you have that backwards,” Flynn said, smiling tenderly at her.

The next instant, he gathered her in his arms, pushed her further into the Bronco, and pulled out her seat belt. He locked it around her then he slammed and locked the door on her.

Pride, after a bemused second, fumbled for the seat belt release with one hand and the door lock with the other. She could locate neither immediately and lost precious seconds while Flynn rushed around and leaped into the seat beside her.

“Too late,” he cried, obviously enjoying himself.

“Flynn Sutherland, if you don’t stop this nonsense this instant … ” Her words faded out when Flynn started the car. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The Bronco leaped forward, kicking up gravel as it raced down the quiet street. Acceleration forces pushed her back against the seat.

“I keep on telling you,” he said, grinning. “I’m abducting you.”

“You’re crazy,” she said, with conviction.

“Possibly.” He looked pleased with himself. “But I’ve thought the matter over very carefully, and this was the only viable alternative.”

“Let me tell you something, Flynn Sutherland. You didn’t think hard enough.” She stared out the windshield, still in a state of unbelief. “As a matter of interest, what were the other alternatives?”

“The way I saw it,” Flynn said, in confiding tones, “there were really only two alternatives. One, I could try to reason with you on land, and two, I could try to reason with you on the water. Naturally, great sailor that I am, I opted to reason with you at sea.”

“If you think you’re going to reason with me anywhere at all after this, you’ve finally flipped.”

“I know what’s wrong here,” Flynn observed. “You haven’t had any coffee yet.”

“You’re right. Maybe if I had some coffee, I wouldn’t be thinking about throwing myself out of this car and taking my chances hiking through the streets in my robe.”

“Forget it, darling.” Flynn glanced at her, brown eyes merry and admiring. “It’s a nice robe, but not quite the thing for street wear.”

She looked down at herself. No doubt about it, the green chenille robe looked exactly like what it was, a bathrobe.

They passed a fast food restaurant that did a brisk breakfast business. Flynn whirled the Bronco into the parking lot and turned off the motor.

“You need some breakfast,” he said, in sympathetic tones. “I’ll be right back.”

This was her chance to leap out and telephone a taxi. Instead, Pride sat still. Several early risers sat in booths by the windows, and other cars came and went. There was no sense in giving everyone fuel for gossip. Besides, she really needed coffee.

Plus, Flynn could see her from inside the restaurant, and she saw that he kept a close eye on her.

Moments later, he returned. The fragrance of fresh perked coffee reached her nostrils, along with the appetizing smell of a take-out breakfast carton.

He handed her a plastic coffee cup, and Pride sipped it gratefully. “Maybe now I’ll get some sense out of you,” he said, grinning.

“I doubt it.” Pride sipped more coffee. “How’s Johnny this morning?”

“Still sleeping, I hope. Mom and Dad kept him up way past his bedtime last night, and he loved it.”