Jase put his arm around Laurel, who was curled up against his side. For once, she’d fallen asleep before he did, but he’d pretty well worn her out. And he’d fulfilled his ambition—the whole town must have heard her come.
He’d half wondered if her insistence on a “special” evening was just a put-off, another example of her strange reclusiveness, but excuse or not, it worked for him. The food was passable—although he’d suspected she’d ordered in—the atmosphere was sexy as hell, and Laurel was a goddess of sensuality.
That dress—he couldn’t believe Reverend Ed’s daughter had something as hot as that in her closet. The color was like a flame against her ivory skin, and every time she moved, it clung to her in a different way, now outlining a breast, now the thrust of her hip. She’d really gotten him going with her peek-a-boo performance during dinner, but when she’d turned her back to him…
He ran his hand absently down the groove of her spine, and she shifted against him.
It was amazing how quickly he’d gotten accustomed to sleeping in the same bed with her—all night, not just for an hour after sex.
He liked sleeping with her. He liked waking up with her. He liked walking through the Shallows with her and having meals with her, even when they were as bad as that chicken, and having her sit in the den with him while he worked out business details. He wanted to put off returning to Dallas forever.
But he had responsibilities—the business, his employees, his family. If only he could take Laurel with him.
He rolled over on his back and folded an arm under his head.
Well, why not? Apparently she didn’t want to stay in Bosque Bend any longer. Why not ask her if she’d come back to Dallas with him? Permanently, like in marriage. The idea had been playing around in his mind ever since he’d talked with Rafe McAllister, but he’d been afraid to voice it, even to himself.
Lolly had voiced it, of course. Just this afternoon, in fact. “If you marry her, Dad, she really would be my mother.”
Marriage.
He pictured Laurel seeing his house for the first time. All her life, she’d lived in a century-old mansion on the busy main street of a small town in which everyone knew everyone else. What would she think of the sprawling contemporary retreat Rafe McAllister had designed for his eight wooded acres just on the fringes of North Plano? He wasn’t even sure he’d recognize his neighbors on sight.
Maybe she’d be ready for a change of scene, but would she want to live with him? She liked him as a sex partner, but would she be willing to formally unite her august heritage with the son of the Meanest Man in Texas?
He supported his head on a bent arm as he studied her face.
He was moving too fast. Five days did not a courtship make. He knew he was good in bed—Marguerite had made damn sure of that—but good sex didn’t necessarily make for a good marriage. Laurel had said she loved him, but that just might be a leftover teenage fantasy speaking. She might not be ready for another legal commitment so soon after whatever had gone wrong with her first marriage. And when he thought of it, their lives were vastly different: She was a schoolteacher—a music teacher no less, the gentlest profession of all—and he was a real estate speculator—a shark who ate other sharks.
Yep, a marriage proposal this soon would probably scare the pants off her. He smiled and caressed her hip. Maybe he’d better reword that—the pants were long gone.
On the other hand, he didn’t want to lose her.
He leaned back in bed and closed his eyes. This one he’d have to play by ear.
*
Ray Espinoza was Jase’s first appointment of the day. After they ran the Shallows down and back, he followed Ray to the Lynnwood area to look over the new section that Espinoza and Son was opening up.
“I ran into Rafe McAllister, and he said he’s working on house plans for you.”
“Yeah. We’re buildin’ for the high-end trade here, dude,” Ray explained. “More upper-middle than the first section of Lynnwood. Media rooms, three-car garages, larger lots, optional pools—all the trappin’s. Thinkin’ of putting in a country club and an eighteen-hole golf course. People in Bosque Bend are makin’ money now, and they wanna move up. We got a lot of wealthy retirees comin’ to town too. Overflow from Sun City down in Georgetown.”
Jase pulled the brim of his Stetson lower against the morning sun. “How are you gonna get this off the ground, man? Who’s financing you?”
“First National has faith in us.”
“First National? But I thought—”
Ray laughed. “You thought they wouldn’t loan to anybody named Espinoza, right?”
“No offense, man, but that’s the way it was when I lived here.” He shook his head. “Gotta admit, they wouldn’t have loaned to Growler Red’s son either, and now they’re almost watering at the mouth to hand over the cash.”