Conflicted (Everlasting Love)(34)
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” She started to take it from the box, but he stopped her.
“Allow me.” Grasping her suddenly shaking hand in his steady one, Jesse kissed her open palm lingeringly. As he slid the ring home, he murmured, “I’m going to make you happy, Desiree. I swear it.”
She cupped his face in her hands, the diamond on her finger gleaming brightly in the Las Vegas sunshine. “You already do.”
Smiling, she pulled him onto the bed with her, her eyes gleaming seductively as she slid her fingers inside the waistband of his jeans. “But I know how I can be happier.”
He tugged off his T-shirt in one smooth, coordinated move before slowly sliding her blouse off her shoulders. “Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll make you ecstatic.”
“I’m counting on it,” she murmured as she slowly stretched out over the brightly colored bedspread.
“Me, too, darlin’. Me, too.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
THIS WAS BETRAYAL. Desiree stared at the letter Rio had just handed her. She read it a second time, then a third, as she struggled to assimilate what it said. Struggled to deal with the fact that her husband and oldest son had conspired behind her back.
Everything inside her demanded that she attack, but she did her best to ignore the impulse. They might have blindsided her with this, but she refused to go off half-cocked and emotional.
“Mom.” Rio’s voice was low, pleading. “This is all I’ve ever wanted to be.”
“A veterinarian?” she demanded. She hadn’t fought as hard as she had to continue the ranch’s tradition only to have her son walk away from everything she wanted to give him. Shaking the letter for emphasis, she strode across the stable toward him. “You want to go all the way to Colorado State so that you can be a veterinarian?”
“It’s the best program in the country,” Jesse said as he put a hand on his eighteen-year-old son’s shoulder. “One of the top in the world.”
“It’s almost impossible to get into, Mom. But I did it. I made it and I want to go.”
“Why am I just now hearing about this? We sat down, the three of us, months ago and talked about your future. We talked about where you were going to apply and what you were going to major in. At no time did you bring up Colorado State or veterinary school. I would remember if you had.”
Rio looked at his father pleadingly. “Dad and I—”
“Oh? You did this behind my back?” she asked Jesse.
He cocked his head, stared at her with unfathomable eyes. “We didn’t want to upset you until we knew if Rio could actually get into a preveterinary program.”
“So you knew I’d be upset? Yet you did it anyway?” She paced away, her hands clenched angrily at her side. “What is wrong with you?” She whirled to face her son. “Your job is supposed to be this ranch, Rio. You’re supposed to go to school and study business so that you’re ready to run the Triple H when something happens to me.” God, what would she do if Rio wasn’t there to assume control? Would that be yet another way she failed to meet her father’s expectations?
“I know that, Mom.”
“Then what’s all this talk of being a veterinarian?”
“Desi—”
“Don’t you Desi me, Jesse. I’m not even talking to you right now. You deliberately did this behind my back. You deliberately kept your mouth shut and let me think that everything was going the way it was supposed to.”
“Supposed to?” The words burst from Rio. “Nothing is ever like it’s supposed to be around here, Mom!”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means that I don’t want the ranch! I’ve never wanted it. Only, you’ve never been able to see that.”
The words hung in the air, a land mine waiting to detonate with one wrong move. Minutes ticked by as Desiree stared at her son in silence. When she finally spoke, her voice was ice-cold. “What makes you think you have a choice in the matter? The oldest child has inherited this ranch for the last four generations, Rio. My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father, me. Do you think this is what all of us wanted to do with our lives?” Opening her arms wide, she gestured to the stable and beyond. “Do you think I wanted to spend my life chasing an award that we seem absolutely incapable of winning? Do you think I wanted to spend my life tied up with horses and ledgers and breeding charts?”
“If you hate it so much, why are you trying to make me do it?” His voice sounded young, and it was clear from the expression on his face that Rio hated it.
“Because it is your responsibility.” Her voice cut like a knife. “It is your legacy and I will not let you turn your back on it.”
“He’s not turning his back on anything, Desiree. Why can’t he be a veterinarian and still take over the ranch when you retire?”
“Because that’s not what he wants,” she said. “He wants to run away from here, wants to completely forget any responsibility he has to this place.” Her laugh was harsh. “He plans on turning his back on everything he’s been trained for, everything five generations of my family have worked for. Even better, he wants me to pay for him while he does it.”