“Aren’t you assuming a lot?” Rosemarie had to quell the tremors going through her at the look on his face and his touch on her hand.
“What am I assuming, Rosemarie? That we might end the tour with both of us taking our clothes off and making passionate love to each other?”
“Something like that,” she told him shakily.
He got to his feet and pulled her out of the chair. “Let’s commence the tour with this.” His head swooped down and his lips met hers. She resisted at first and then sank into the kiss with a sigh.
*****
“Honey, are you sure you know what you are doing?” They were in the living room where Rosemarie was again admiring the ring on her friend’s finger. Both she and Mason had come back in the late afternoon and had missed dinner.
Rosemarie put her hands on her cheeks and breathed in deeply. “All I know is that I feel something for this man. I know I just met him, and he told me his deep-seated resentment for Lance and the fact that he got the bulk of the inheritance and all that, but we talked, and it was wonderful! I told him things about my life that I never told anyone... and the sex!” Rosemarie got to her feet a little agitatedly and walked over to the fire. Lance and Mason were ensconced in his office having a meeting which left them alone with each other for the time being. “The sex is out of this world, honey! He makes me feel all shivery inside and I have a feeling that I have the same effect on him.”
“So what does that mean?”
Rosemarie shrugged. “This time I'm not rushing into anything, but I want to be with him. Right now, I'm talking to you and all I want to do is be with him.”
“Are you going to give up your home and stay here?” Amy demanded. “You're not a small-town girl, Rosie.”
“Neither are you.” Rosemarie came over and sat next to her. “Yet, here you are engaged to be married to a rancher in a tiny town and carrying his child. I've seen the way Lance looks at you, the way you look at him and felt this pang of envy for what you have. I have a right to want the same thing too.”
“Honey—”
“He makes me feel alive for the first time in my life. He makes me feel loved and warm all over as if I have drunk an ocean of hot cocoa. I don’t know what the future holds, but I'm going to explore it. I know he lives with his mother, but I don’t care about that. I've been with men who own fancy homes and apartments and they've turned out to be assholes. I have money of my own, all I want is a man who will love me for me and treat me the way I'm supposed to be treated and I think it might be Mason.” She looked at her friend pleadingly. “I'm spending the night with him tonight.”
Amy reached over and clasped her hands. “If that's what you want, I'm happy for you. I just don't want to see you hurt and I'm telling you right now; if he so much as hurts a strand of hair on your head, I'm going to hurt him in places he prizes the most.”
“Thank you honey,” she said with a laugh. “Don’t worry, I already warned him about that.”
*****
“What are you doing with Rosemarie, Mason?” Lance shut down his laptop and turned to face his cousin. They'd dived straight into business and he hadn't gotten a chance to demand an explanation from him. He'd come downstairs with Amy in the afternoon to find out that Rosemarie had gone off with Mason and they hadn't come back until after supper was served.
“That’s none of your business,” Mason said mildly as he closed his own laptop.
“She happens to be a guest in my home and Amy’s best friend, so I can tell you right now, it is my business,” Lance told him grimly.
“Oh, I get it. You're concerned that if anything goes wrong between us, it will have an effect on the relationship with Amy.”
“She happens to be the woman I'm in love with and am going to be marrying very soon.”
Mason’s eyebrows lifted. “So, she isn't just someone to carry the Billings heir. You certainly lucked out cousin.”
“I repeat, what are you doing with Rosemarie? I know your reputation with women and also knew that you slept with Abigail.”
“Who told you that?”
“She did. Is this some kind of sick revenge of yours to get back at me?”
“Sleeping with Abigail was spur of the moment and yes, it was probably done to get back at you. But I saw Rosemarie in the dining room when I came looking for you and something clicked between us. I spent the day with her, and we made love. It was the most sensational moment of my entire life and I do not intend to stop seeing her. Get used to it.”
“What happens when you get tired of her?” Lance came around from behind his desk and walked over to him. “What then?”
“Are you so against me finding some happiness of my own?” Mason got to his feet, his dark blue eyes flashing as he stared at his cousin. “You have the fortune, the looks, the women who are always knocking over each other to get to you. Now you have a woman of your own who is carrying your kid. I have nothing, Lance, and now I've found someone who I share this incredible connection with, and you're pissing on it. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“If there was a way to give you half of everything I have, I would have done so a long time ago. My hands are tied, and it's not my doing. I've done everything I can to make sure you and Aunt Rebecca are more than comfortable.” He stepped back. “All I'm saying is; please do not hurt her, as I understand it, she's been through enough.”
“And I happen to know that. She told me everything and what that asshole did to her. I intend to help her get over all the hurt and pain.” His dark blue eyes sized up his cousin. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Chapter 13
“A boy!” Rosemarie clapped her hands in glee. “I can just imagine how psyched Lance is.”
“He can barely contain himself,” Amy grumbled as she stared at around the large room they'd decided to use as the nursery. “He insists on getting someone to come in to do the redecorating and I had to put my feet down and tell him that both of us along with the hosts of servants here will see to it. What do you think of a cool teal blue?”
Rosemarie wrinkled her nose. “I'm thinking of cobalt blue and antique furnishings, like the rest of the furnishings in the house. No new modern crap to spoil the effect.”
“Lance still has his crib from when he was a baby. All it needs is some polishing and it's good to go.” She walked over to the window to look out at the brilliant sunshine and the lush green lawn. It was the end of March and they'd been getting a lot of rain, heralding the end of the harsh winter. She was getting married next month, and her due date was May, which meant that it wasn't a lot of time to breathe or be comfortable. The ceremony was being held at the ranch, a small intimate one because she'd told him that was what she wanted, and her mother and her husband would be flying over as well as several members of Lance’s club.
“I'm going to be a wife and a mother, in that order,” she murmured.
“You're already a wife without the ceremony, and I have a feeling that you're going to be a terrific mother.” Rosemarie came over to stand at the window with her. “I think Mason is going to propose.”