Salacious Sale Page 10

  Olivia’s lawyer jumped into action. “In other words, Your Honor, they have a set amount of land they can occupy, thereby minimizing any damage a potential leak could cause.”

  “Yes, I understood that.” The judge glared at him for a long moment before looking toward the other attorney. “Let me see the paperwork.”

  The two men came forward. Olivia was thankful she hadn’t eaten lunch—or breakfast, for that matter—because with every step Cody took in her direction, she grew less confident in her ability to hold it down. Her stomach rioted, her heart thumped and her ears rang. She felt as if her lungs couldn’t work properly.

  A whole, miserable month had passed since she’d seen him. She’d screwed up, acting with untamed emotion, lashing out without thought to the consequences. She hadn’t even considered Cody’s feelings—or his pride. Olivia had confessed the entire sordid tale to Eugene, and he’d told her to have faith, but the days had dragged into weeks and still she hadn’t heard from Cody.

  He was there now. He looked tired, a little thinner than she remembered, but there was a spark of militant determination in his eye that she’d seen before—the day he’d tossed her out of his home and life.

  Sitting in her seat was torture. The minutes stretched into timelessness as he approached, but then Cody stopped at her side and caught her hand. He squeezed her fingers and held on. Her entire body burned with some emotion she couldn’t define, but for the first time in weeks, Olivia’s lungs started working properly.

  “We’ll take a few minutes so I can read this over.” The judge glanced at his watch. “Be back in here by a quarter to.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Finding a quiet nook in the hallway, Cody couldn’t seem to let go of Olivia’s hand, but, then again, she didn’t seem all that eager to pull away. Protective instincts had roared to the surface the moment he’d entered the courtroom and seen her. She’d sat with her shoulders slouched in defeat, her head bowed—and when she’d turned to look at him, Cody had been shocked at the gauntness of her face.

  Sad eyes bearing dark circles, cheekbones too sharp and pale for his liking, her lips compressed and turned down at the corners—Cody had had to turn away to keep his composure. His grandfather had warned him that Olivia hadn’t taken his departure from town very well. The old man had repeatedly scolded his grandson for breaking her heart.

  Cody hadn’t believed it until he’d seen the evidence with his own eyes. He wasn’t quite sure what to say. “So…how have you been?”

  Olivia kept her gaze on the floor. “I’m all right. How are you?”

  “You don’t seem all right. When’s the last time you ate?”

  “I ate dinner last night.” She lifted her chin in a sharp motion filled with annoyance, but then she winced. “My mother made me.”

  Cody studied her expression. “You were worried about this hearing?”

  “Of course.”

  “I bet it was hard, dealing with all this. Probably stressful.”

  “Yes. It was.”

  He tugged on Olivia’s hand until she was forced to step forward, just to maintain her balance. Cody didn’t stop there, however. He kept towing her closer until her body was pressed to his. Though she stiffened and her breathing escalated, he locked one arm around her waist and held on.

  “You missed me, Olivia.” He wasn’t asking. He was praying.

  She stared over his shoulder in such a way that the pulse in her neck was visible—and tempting. “I might have missed you a little,” she whispered.

  Though her words gave him pause, her tone bolstered his optimism. Cody groped for his courage. “I was hurt at the thought that you’d slept with me just to get my property. It felt like the land was all that mattered, and I wanted to matter, too.”

  Her lashes dipped and swayed. “You do matter.”

  “As more than a landowner and a neighbor?”

  Tears overfilled her eyes and tracked down her cheeks. Her bottom lip shook as she whispered, “Wiggins had just brought the legal papers to my house.”

  “The day you came to see me?”

  She nodded. “I was angry, not thinking right, then… After… I kind of…realized…that what I’d done, well, um—”

  “It was wrong?” Cody prodded. “You realized that you can’t use people like that. That you can’t hurt people the way you hurt me?”

  “I’m sorry.” Her inhalation had her shaking against him. “I went to your house because I was angry, and when I saw you, I got angrier, but I wanted you. Still want you.”

  “As more than a neighbor?” Cody repeated.

  “Every time I touch you, you’re the only thing I can think about. Everything else fades away. And when you left…” A small sob broke free. Olivia pressed her forehead to Cody’s shoulder.

  “You missed me.” His prayer answered, he placed a brief kiss on the too-rapid pulse in her neck. “Did you miss me enough to consider having a relationship with me? And I don’t just mean as friends or neighbors or even sexual partners. I mean all of it together.”

  Olivia pulled back and stared up at him with her brows drawn together and worry dulling her eyes. “Like boyfriend-girlfriend?”

  He tried to keep from laughing at her as he nodded. “Yeah, then probably man and wife.”

  She jerked, making him tighten his hold on her to keep her close. Olivia stuttered, “You’re asking me to marry you?”

  “I’m not asking today, but I’m pretty sure that’s where we would be heading.” Cody smiled nervously. “My grandfather says a whirlwind romance is something of a family tradition. He said the O’Neals don’t have much, but they’ve always been blessed with love.”

  “What about your job? What about my ranch?”

  “I’m entering a new phase of my life and you can keep your ranch. Do you trust me to work it all out so we can be together?”

  “I didn’t like it when we weren’t together, that’s for sure.” Again, Olivia got a little teary-eyed and her nod was a bit wobbly, but after a moment she consented to Cody’s plans. “Okay. A relationship, maybe a marriage one day—probably. Okay, let’s try that.”

  Relief rushed through Cody. Tingling from his scalp to his toes, he had a hard time containing his optimism—and a hard time restraining his desire for a private moment with his future fiancée. Without thought, he turned and put her back against the wall, taking her lips in a kiss bordering on indecent in the hallowed hush of the Creek Bend City Hall.

  Slick and sliding, greedy, a touch desperate, the caress was too inflammatory. There wasn’t enough time to prolong the pleasure or add to it before the judge would call the hearing back to order. Reluctantly, Cody pulled back. “Whew, okay, that was the hardest part.”

  “It was?” Olivia gave a garbled laugh, thickened by audible lust. “I thought this hearing was supposed to be the hardest part.”

  “Nah, the Great Gas & Petrol Company has loaned me one of the best they’ve got on retainer. I negotiated it into the lease agreement.”

  “Wiggins said they filed papers to buy the land.”

  “Not to buy, but to drill. The law says they need a certain amount of space per rig, and of course there’s a whole bunch of hoops to jump through. Environmental stuff, tax stuff… I don’t know, but even I got bored listening to what had to be done when they explained it.”

  Olivia leaned farther away from him, pressing her shoulders to the wall and bracing her hands on his chest. He didn’t let her go, but Cody did back up a couple of steps so that she didn’t get a crick in her neck staring up at him.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” she demanded.

  “I’m leasing acreage to the oil company for a whole lot of money. They seem pretty positive that there is a reservoir right under the Double O. Can you believe that? All these years my family’s been struggling, and the answer was under our feet.” Cody shook his head, because the very idea still felt surreal to him. “I’ll use the money to care for Eugene at home with a private nurse. I’
m going to fix the house and build a school where the bunkhouse is now.”

  She gave him a knowing look. “For troubled boys?”

  “It’s my calling, my passion, as much as your dude ranch is yours. We’ll have equine therapy, and maybe I’ll ask your mother to show the kids how to cook. Eugene’s excited about teaching them how to fix cars.” Cody grinned. “I’ll send a few dollars to my father, invest in our land, make scholarship funds for the boys… For the first time in a long time, I’m very excited about what’s coming.”

  Her gaze roamed his face, then she smiled, too. “You look excited. So, you’re staying here with me?”

  “I have to go back until the first class at my current school graduates. Then I’ll return and get started on something I can open in the fall. That’s my plan.”

  “If Wiggins doesn’t win his case.” Olivia’s smile dropped away.

  “I have faith.” Cody checked his watch. “And it’s time we found out. Let’s go.”

  A minute after they sat down, the judge returned from his chambers. As the two lawyers and Wiggins stood before the bench, the judge waved the packet of papers provided by the Great Gas & Petrol Company.

  “This is a very comprehensive report. Water table levels, environmental impact reports, you’ve even estimated the size of the oil reservoir beneath the Double O ranch and the estimated economic benefit to Creek Bend in accessing it.”

  Wiggins cleared his throat. “That doesn’t have much to do with the needs of the town concerning the water on—”

  “But it does,” the judge argued. “This report is backed up by students at the state university. They’re acting something like an independent review, and they support Miss Raines’ claim that her stream doesn’t produce enough water for the entire town.”

  “As I said, it’s a major tributary—”

  “Mayor Wiggins, please stop. I’m looking at the evaluation, and I’m more than happy to provide you a copy.”

  “We already did,” the lawyer for the oil company proclaimed. “We faxed it over last week in preparation for this hearing.”

  “Did you?” The judge lowered his brows and contemplated Wiggins for a moment. “That wasn’t well done of you, Bradley.”

  The mayor flushed. “There’s plenty of water!”

  “There isn’t. The stream would have enough to supply Creek Bend for three months at best, but nothing beyond that. It would be totally dry in a year and, in the process, you’d destroy one of the most innovative businesses in the township. In the end, taking the water would prove to be an undue burden on the public—and most especially the Raines Ranch.”

  At his side, Olivia practically crumpled. Sagging in obvious relief, sighing audibly, she covered her face with her hands. Cody drew her against his body, appreciating the fact that he could, a little sheepish at the thought that his chest didn’t hurt anymore. The pain had stopped the moment he’d decided to return to Creek Bend.

  He’d missed her. The doctors at his school were right, even the psychologists who’d told him the aggravation under his breastbone was due to emotional regret. Once he’d gotten over his hurt pride and listened to what Eugene had told him, he’d known that there was only one thing he could do. Luckily, the Great Gas & Petrol Company had given him the means to achieve everything he wanted.

  “We won,” he whispered in Olivia’s ear. “Let’s go home and celebrate.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Spring and summer were distant memories, but the autumn air retained warmth in spite of the lateness of the season. Cody stood under the large metal sign his ancestor had installed so many generations ago. The linked Os welcomed visitors to a new and prosperous ranch, one that would sustain the O’Neals far into the future.

  A place of hope and heart. A good place to raise a family.

  In front of him, the house glowed with warmth. The lights inside were on, ready for the gathering twilight to descend completely. Flowers lined the porch and filled fresh window boxes, the roof was brand new and not a single board sagged anywhere on the property. Next to the house, a garage had been erected, and Eugene was in there with two young men, pointing out the various parts of the engine the trio was leaning over.

  His grandfather was having the time of his life. No longer alone, no longer relegated to a lukewarm microwaveable dinner by himself in front of the television, Eugene’s progress had been remarkable. The live-in nurse, who had also taken on the duties of school nurse for the students, had been very pleased with how far her primary patient had come in such a short time. Walking on his own, his speech much improved, Eugene had taken to even the roughest of the boys, and they, in turn, had taken to his gruff but caring ways.

  The bunkhouse, situated behind the garage on the foundations of the old structure that Cody had torn down, housed fifteen boys. He had high hopes for them. Four more teachers and their families lived in smaller houses behind the bunkhouse, making the Double O its own community. Cody imagined the lives they would change there, the strong, productive futures he and his staff would create.

  Instrumental to his plans was the woman currently galloping her horse across the grassy plain. Silhouetted against the setting sun, hair flying, Olivia looked like a mysterious goddess coming to grace a man with her company. She had certainly brought blessings to Cody.

  As she drew nearer and slowed her horse, Cody couldn’t help but sway under the force of his emotions. All out, all-consuming love—he was filled with anticipation at just the thought of her presence, her smile, their future together.

  She stopped her horse under the metal sign and slid to the ground. Dropping the reins, Olivia threw herself into Cody’s arms. He kissed her deeply, taking her mouth with a forceful thrust of his tongue—tasting her, claiming her, preparing her for what was to come. He pulled back with a slight nip to her bottom lip.

  “Welcome home.”

  She smiled up at him but wrinkled her nose. “Sorry I’m late. A few guests got a little turned around and arrived long after check-in. Mom was busy fixing supper for everyone, so I had to get them settled.”

  “And tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow I’ll show them the mulberry tree before the leaves all fall away.”

  “Ah, the mulberry tree.” Cody tightened his arms around Olivia, pressing her close enough to feel his raging erection. Her eyes widened, making him laugh. “I have fond memories of that tree. I would suggest having our wedding there, but God only knows how the pigs would react.”

  “Our wedding?” Olivia blinked. “You said you weren’t asking me to marry you yet.”

  “I said that months ago. Now, however…”

  “You’re asking me to marry you?” A slow smile spread across her face.

  Cody glanced up at the sign overhead. Two circles to mark the Double O, his family’s legacy. “Olivia O’Neal has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”

  Also available from Totally Bound Publishing:

  Magic Matched: Sovereignty

  Lola White

  Excerpt

  Chapter One

  “Concentrate.” Encouragement resounded in the low voice of Georgeanne Davenold’s new, not-quite-wanted husband. “You can do it. You’ve done it before, just let it happen.”

  Silver ropes of magic wound through the ballroom of the Davenold coven’s English estate, ruffling Georgeanne’s hair. But what had been a sturdy, smooth ribbon of power before Silviu Lovasz-Davenold had broken her heart now felt to Georgie like a frayed thread—still powerful, but carrying a hint of the unexpected, as if it could snap at any moment. She reached for it, anyway.

  “Yes. Feel our strength, my love. We are Magic Matches, aligning and merging our talents in ways non-Matches could never understand.”

  As she drew the cool, silver current of Silviu’s talent into herself, it turned gold and grew in power, as all Matched magic did. Georgeanne let the untamed force channel through her and flood her senses. It filled a void inside her—to the brim, but the brim of the vesse
l she was, the container she was born to be, rose in proportion to the magic being pumped into her. She would never be overfilled.

  “Our bond has been there since birth,” Silviu intoned. “Our betrothal set our futures on this path, and our marriage has only solidified our connection.”

  “Our accidental marriage,” Georgie muttered. “Who knew combining sex and blood could result in a life-long union?”

  “The ties of magic are unbreakable. I am your husband, now and forever.”

  A fortunate circumstance for Silviu, considering the way he’d betrayed her. Georgie huffed. “And thanks to this morning’s surprise ceremony, my whole Family has accepted you as such.”

  “They’ve already seen our connection.” Silviu raised his hands as if in surrender, but the gesture didn’t fool her. “Please, concentrate on the task at hand.”

  Georgeanne glared at him. “I am trying.”

  “Try harder.”

  Concentrating as her groom demanded, Georgie made an effort to tighten her grip on the slippery threads of his magic. Power swept through the room, rustling the long velvet drapes, rattling the humongous windows. Golden light burned like a small sun. The chandelier swayed, and Georgie swore she heard the wainscoting groan under the pressure of the force she and her husband created between them—a force they would use to rule over all the covens of their insular world.

  “Perfect,” Silviu called out. “Exactly like that, Georgie.”

  She tipped her head back and relished the power flooding her. Having none of her own, Silviu’s magic eased an ache and healed a loss Georgie felt every day. She could almost believe his was her own magic. She could almost believe she was normal.

  But she wasn’t. She was a Bane-born witch who’d pinned her hopes of inheriting her Family’s power on being blooded and named as heir by her grandmother. She was a warrior, trained in combat and politics, because magic had not been gifted to her upon birth. She was a woman who had been banished after committing an indiscretion with Silviu when they had been teenagers.