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it felt good. The summer sun was shining. Sadie and his daughters would be there soon. He was home, on land that called to his soul, and for the first time in a long time, he began to think that home was right where he belonged.
“Castle!”
“It’s not a castle, sweetie,” Sadie whispered to Wendy as she set the little girl down beside her sister. Then Sadie picked up the stuffed diaper bags and looked up at Rick’s ranch house.
“Is castle,” Gail insisted.
“Okay,” Sadie said on a sigh, surrendering to the inevitable. After all, there was a stone tower at one end of the huge house and that was clearly enough for two girls who enjoyed storybooks about princesses at every bedtime.
Wendy clapped her little hands and took off running. Quickly, Sadie shouted, “Wendy, freeze.”
The little girl stopped so suddenly, she toppled over, landing on her knees and palms. Her lip curled, her eyes scrunched up and a low-pitched wail slowly built to a scream.
“Hey now!” Rick came out of the house and sprinted across the lawn toward his fallen daughter. Before Sadie and Gail had taken more than a few steps forward, he had the little girl swept into his arms and was soothing her out of her tears.
“You okay, sweet thing?” Rick asked, wiping away tears with his thumb.
“Falled down,” Wendy said and dropped her head onto his shoulder with a dramatic slump.
“I know, baby girl,” he soothed, running one hand up and down her narrow back while his gaze searched for and found Sadie’s. “But you okay now?”
“Okay,” she said, lifting her head then patting his cheek. “Down,” she ordered.
As he set one daughter down, Gail held her arms up to him. “Up.”
“Tag teaming me?” he asked with a smile as he lifted the little girl.
“Welcome to my world,” Sadie told him ruefully.
How could a man look that sexy while holding a child? Sadie’s body was humming, her blood simmering and the low, deep-down ache she’d been carrying around for days began to pulse in time with her heartbeat.
“Happy to be here.” His voice was low, a soft touch on her already ragged nerve endings.
Honestly, after being around him so much for the last week, Sadie was in sad, sad shape. Oh, she still wouldn’t consider marrying a man who only wanted her because she had given birth to his children. But she wasn’t above admitting just how badly she wanted him.
And that was a dangerous feeling.
He was a marine. Trained to spot his opponent’s weakness. She sighed to herself. Judging by the wicked gleam in his eye, he was doing just that.
“I’m glad you came,” he said after a long moment filled only with the twins’ excited jabbering.
Those eyes of his were really lethal weapons, she thought. So dark. So deep. Filled with old pains and secrets, so much so that any woman would be tempted to get closer. To discover the man within. To do just what she had done three years ago, Sadie reminded herself sternly.
She remembered it all so clearly, it could have happened the day before. Sadie had been at Claire’s restaurant, trying to look as though she didn’t mind eating alone. Rick had walked in, strolled over to her table and asked if he could join her.
She had been so lonely, so … lost, that she had said yes. For once in her oh-so-proper life, Sadie dropped her shields, lowered her guard and had allowed the real her to come storming out to play. She had held nothing back that night and, in return, she had experienced real passion. Real fire.
They shared dinner, then a walk around the lake, then a drive to a hotel in Midland, then hours of amazing sex. And over the course of that incredible night, Rick had taught Sadie that her ex-husband had been wrong when he accused her of being a frigid ice queen.
Memories rushed through her mind with a staggering force that left Sadie breathless. Image after image rose up within her, bringing back every second of that long-ago night until Sadie practically vibrated with need.
She dragged air into her lungs and forced herself to keep her gaze locked with his. She had succumbed to those eyes and that mouth once. She wasn’t going to do it again. She was stronger than her need.
“The girls have been looking forward to coming,” she said, stroking one hand across Wendy’s soft curls.
Thank God she had the twins with her, she thought. They would be her safety net. She and Rick couldn’t very well indulge in hot, steamy, wonderful, frenzied sex with their daughters in attendance, now could they?
Oh, yeah, she thought. Sad, sad, shape.
“Not you though, huh?”
“This isn’t about me,” Sadie told him, even while her mind was taunting, liar, liar. Of course she had been looking forward to seeing him. He was all she thought about lately. The man filled her mind while she was awake and starred in her dreams when she managed to sleep.
“Babe, it’s all about you.”
She stiffened. “I told you once, don’t—”
“—call you baby.” He grinned. “I didn’t. Called you babe.”
“That’s the same thing,” she told him, but couldn’t quite seem to keep her lips from twitching.
No other man she had ever known had teased her, flirted with her, treated her like … a woman. Most men around here were so deferential, all they saw was the Price name, never Sadie herself.
“How about darlin’ then?” he asked, deliberately drawing out the word until it became a deep, Southern caress.
“How about we stick with Sadie?”
He shrugged and smiled again. “That’ll do. For now.”
She took a breath, hoping to steady herself. Instead, she got a whiff of freshly showered male and felt her ragged nerve endings fray just a little bit more.
“How about we go inside?” That delectable smile of his curved his mouth in invitation. “I want to show the girls their room.”
He was already headed for the house, Gail on his hip, Wendy’s hand tucked into his when his words finally settled in Sadie’s mind.
“Their room?”
“Cozy as two kittens, aren’t they?” he asked, fifteen minutes later, his gaze never leaving the two little girls.
“Why wouldn’t they be?” Sadie shook her head as she looked around the pink-and-white splendor.
Twin youth beds, guardrails in place, were covered by lacy white quilts with pink scrolling spelling out each girl’s name in flowing script. White dressers stood alongside each girl’s bed and a collection of stuffed animals sat perched on little-girl-size rocking chairs. Pink curtains hung at the wide windows that were also gated for safety. There were matching toy boxes, two rocking horses and two identical castle playhouses, complete with tiny dolls and furniture.
The walls were white, with a mural of spring flowers sprouting up from the gleaming wood floor. A rose-colored braided rug in the center of the room provided warmth and comfort. As if even Heaven approved of what Rick had done here, sunlight speared into the room, dazzling it all with a golden glow.
He had only known about the twins’ existence for two weeks and yet he’d managed to create a little girl’s paradise. She should be pleased, she knew. Instead, a pang of worry reverberated inside her. This was permanence. Rick was making an important statement here. Letting not only his daughters but Sadie know that he was going to be a part of their lives from here on out.
“You like it?” he asked, shattering her thoughts and dragging