He starts things, gets them running smoothly and then he leaves.
Axel’s hated voice intruded, and she shoved it away. She ran her life. Not others. And definitely not fear.
“Absofuckinglutely.”
“No pretty words.” She planted her palm on his chest and pushed him down on her bed. “Show me.”
*
“Baby.” August sucked in a breath. He hadn’t been sure this was where the night was going, and he didn’t want to blow it by saying or doing the wrong thing. He’d always preferred action with Cat—intense, impulsive, hot, sweaty, consuming. She burned him up.
But he wanted to make this time the best time for her.
Remind her of what they’d both been missing.
But then Cat was straddling him, her hands in his hair, and she kissed him and suddenly the room felt like it was on fire. He was on fire. He anchored his hand low on her hip, but he wanted to touch her everywhere.
Damn his injury and the resulting immobility.
Cat peeled off his shirt and hers. White cotton fluttered to the floor, and he caught a brief glimpse of pale pink nipples and areolas before they were skin to skin. He groaned but couldn’t help the stab of disappointment.
“I need to see you,” he whispered against her mouth. “I need to touch you.”
“I’m right here.” She smiled impishly.
Her eyes glowed nearly luminescent, and he groaned.
It had been so long since he’d felt her silky, taut skin pressed against his.
“Baby,” he breathed as she kissed her way down his body, her mouth a lash of fire.
Her teeth caught on the belt buckle, and she eased the leather open.
“Cat.” He hated the protest that welled up; it seemed like a crime to stop anything that created this drugging pleasure. “I want to be in you more than I want to breathe, but I’ve been lugging cases of wine all day, pouring wine, bringing ice to keep the whites and rosé chilled, and I think I’ve bathed in dust.”
“I like you dirty and sweaty.” She licked her way down the dark arrow of hair from his belly button. “Why are you wearing boxers?”
Her pert nose wrinkled in outrage, and he laughed, snagging her around her waist and holding her on top of him.
“I was trying to be a little more—” He broke off, not sure which word exactly he wanted to use. “I didn’t want to assume or hope that ah…”
She lifted herself up a little so she could look down at him.
“I’ve never seen you at a loss for words.” She trailed a finger down his chest. “Or a little shy.”
“I’m not shy,” he objected. “I just didn’t want you to think that I thought…”
“I’ve never been able to keep up with your brain, August. I’m thinking one thing and you’ve moved on down the list to item seven just when I’m thinking we have item two resolved.”
“If item two has anything to do with you riding me deep and slow and then fast and hard, item two is next on the agenda. You’re right. Showers are a waste of time.”
She flashed a quick smile—the one that had always broken his heart a little because it was so twinged with an uncertain hope.
“I knew you’d see it my way.” His Cat sighed contentedly and her hands swooshed out the leather. She folded it in half and then made it snap. “Remember when I tied you up?”
He felt his lust double. Cat had always been up for anything. And he’d loved it all. What had he been thinking the first time he’d let her walk away?
That they both needed time.
Idiot.
He couldn’t change their past, but he could sure determine their future. He thought he should give her a few weeks, maybe a month or so to come to terms with the idea of marrying him. He’d made the same error after they’d lost the baby. Time was never on his side with Cat.
“Marry me,” he whispered as she dropped the leather belt on the ground.
“Or else?” Cat smirked and then slid down his chest, making sure her pebble-hard nipples teased him.
“Cat,” he hissed when she traced his nipples with her tongue and then sucked first one into her mouth and played and then moved to the other one. And as she teased, aroused and tortured him, her hands were busy.
She shucked off his jeans and dropped them by his belt and then took his boxers off with her teeth.
“Cat, marry me,” he repeated urgently. She straddled his thighs, and he could feel her moisture slick his skin as she rocked up and down. She palmed her small breasts and tweaked her nipples, watching him watching her.
“I could do that for you.” His voice sounded like something dragged over gravel.
“Later I might let you.” Her heated gaze dropped to his cock that strained ever north like a desperate diving rod in a drought.
“I missed this part of you,” she said saucily.
His breath was ragged. “You gonna answer my question?”
“You gonna stop me if I don’t?” Her lips parted, and her tongue poised a millimeter from his tip that oozed a drop of moisture.
“Hell no.” He lifted his pelvis toward her mouth, feeling almost helpless in her thrall.
Cat took him deep in her mouth, hollowing out her cheeks to provide suction as her tongue played. August fought to keep his eyes open and his body wedged up so that he could watch her. Her concentration was complete, and he felt himself approaching the point of no return in an embarrassingly fast time.
He needed her to slow down or stop, but he was swamped with pleasure.
“Cat, my turn.” He reached out to tangle his fingers in her hair.
She looked up.
“I’m not done.”
“Rain check,” he promised, sliding the elastic tie out of her hair and letting it roll over his wrist. “I want to taste you. And I need to be inside you.”
“So you’re telling me you’re a one and done man now that you’re twenty-eight?”
His mouth dropped open.
Cat laughed and she engulfed him again. The vibrations teased him.
He’d forgotten this. The fun and passion.
“Definitely not.” He hauled her up so he could kiss her again.
He lodged against her entrance.
“Condom,” Cat said quickly, breaking the kiss. Her breath panted, and her hands clutched at him, and her slick entrance beckoned.
“Um.” August tried to get his brain to work. What the hell? He never forgot to glove up. “I’m clean,” he said quickly. “You’re the only woman I haven’t worn a condom with. I think I have some in my leather case in the bathroom.”
Damn. He didn’t want her to move.
“We’re getting married,” he said. “And we want a family, sooooo.”
A baby with Cat. Wow. Just saying those words filled him with an unexpected and odd longing. A family. Years ago, he’d never thought in those terms until she’d gotten pregnant, and then he’d been so stunned, guilty and had struggled to process the steps he needed to take. And by the time he’d made a plan, the hope of a baby had been snatched away.
Cat rolled over, snagged up her jeans, and pulled out a square packet from the back pocket.
“You had that all the time in your back pocket?” How had he missed that? What was wrong with him? He was definitely off his game. Only Cat was not a game.
“A girl’s gotta hope.” She ripped the packet open with her teeth. “And plan ahead.”
“I’m not sure if I’m more turned on or jealous.” August smiled. “Now get your sexy ass back on top.”
Cat rolled the condom on with her mouth. He blissed out wanting to remember every detail of their first time back together for good this time.
“Come closer,” he tempted palming her butt and trying to guide her body higher. Damn, watching her legs part wider, seeing how slick and ready she was had him so hungry for her.
“I want…” Cat moaned, trying to impale herself, but he pulled her up higher, wider.
“I need to taste you,�
�� he said, his voice wicked low. “I need to have you now, Cat. Let me.”
Uncertainty washed across her features, and he wondered at it. Didn’t like it. He pressed a kiss to her tight as a drum abdomen.
She was so pale, so work-honed and yet so passionate and warm in bed that he’d always loved her contrasts. “Yes?” he asked, kissing and exploring her as he wanted.
“Yes what?” Her voice hitched.
“You will give yourself to me?” He licked the pad of his thumb and then pressed it against her clit, applying pressure, reducing it and pressing harder again. The soft cry she made, and the way her body jerked toward his mouth made his heart soar.
“Stop playing around, August,” she breathed. “I need you inside me now.”
He loved her bossy. But she still hadn’t answered his question. She still hadn’t committed to him fully.
“You’re not telling me what I want.”
“August.” He slowly licked along her wet, tender seam. Her taste exploded in his mouth and he sucked her clit in deeper, playing with the rhythm until she writhed against his mouth, her hands pulled on his hair, demanding.
“You’re mine.”
And then, just to punctuate his point, he rolled her over, and, propping himself up on his one arm, he balanced above her, wanting both of them to remember this moment.
“Mine.” He slid himself into her body.
*
“As much as I like you sweaty and dirty,” Cat said, tilting her face to catch the stream of warm water, “there is a lot to be said for hot water.”
“And shower sex,” August said, his body crowding hers under the wide spray.
“It’s heaven,” she said at the same time he did.
August’s laugh shot another bolt of pleasure through her and Cat didn’t even bother to bite back her sigh of pleasure.
She leaned back against his chest as he shampooed and conditioned her hair and then August made a sensual assault with his body massage and shower gel technique. She felt him grow hard against her, and hummed happily.
“Again?”
August had always had the ability. The more he made love to her, the more she craved—not just the sex, although sex with him transported her to another dimension.
“Yes.” He kissed along her neck and she felt herself heating up in a way that had nothing to do with the shower. “But this isn’t just about sex, Cat.”
“I am not complaining if it is,” she said. Her limbs felt relaxed and liquid in a way she’d almost forgotten.
It was so erotic to be in such a large, beautifully glass-tiled shower with two heads and six side sprays. Decadent.
“Well it’s not,” August insisted and kissed down the line of her spine. “We’re going to do things differently this time.”
She looked at him over her shoulder. All she could see was his wet hair dripping and flirting with his sleek, tanned shoulders. He pushed it off the hard planes of his face.
“What’s that mean?” Catalina asked curiously. She’d been happy with August. She’d always felt like they fit—both stubborn, driven, sexually matched, career-goal-oriented. She’d never wanted to be with anyone else.
And then when she’d been pregnant, doubt had moved in. Her priorities had changed. She’d barely recognized herself. She’d felt insecure. And alone.
“Things were good.”
“Good,” he repeated and scowled as he turned her around so that she was looking at his still bruised chest. She kissed one yellowing bruise and then another.
“I want our life to be great. Magic.”
Catalina nearly snorted like her first quarter horse.
“Why do you find that funny?” he asked. His eyes drifted shut and he sighed as she kissed another bruise and lightly traced his ribs with her tongue, wishing she could heal him. He didn’t seem in as much pain, but she still took such care with him. She felt protective of him.
“I’m the least magic person I can think of,” Cat admitted.
She paused. But August could have a magic life. He was a bit of a celebrity with all of his businesses. And having a vineyard would only increase his cachet.
“I don’t accept that conclusion,” he said. Cat hadn’t been asking or giving him a choice. “Even celebrities’ lives aren’t what people think. But mostly we worked. You would attend work events with me. Sometimes you’d even work them. We’d prepare together. Work together. Clean up together and then fall into bed. We never really dated. I didn’t take you on weekend getaways. I never flew you to Paris.”
Catalina worried her lip. He sounded like he wanted something else than what they’d had, and she didn’t think she could be that woman.
“That sounds like something out of a movie or romance novel. I took myself to different places around the world, and if you flew me to Paris, I’d want to rent a car and head to Burgundy or the Champagne region.”
“So you think I’m being ridiculous?”
“A little,” she said bluntly. “You’re a workaholic. I’m a workaholic. If you really want to turn Verflucht into a destination winery and start winning awards, we’ll really be nose to the grind-stoning it. And you have all your Wolf Cowboy enterprises so I don’t see us doing too many weekend getaways unless they’re work-related, and I’m fine with that.”
She picked up the shower gel, intending to return the favor of the massage and wash, and then realized he hadn’t offered a snappy comeback. His face was a little drawn and quizzical. Did he regret sleeping with her? Did she seem too ambitious? Boring? In the time they’d been apart she’d seen pictures of him with quite a few women in industry-oriented business articles. None of them had looked like her. They’d been more polished and stylish. Not to mention beautiful.
The pictures had made her ache. And she’d been angry that not only had she noticed the other woman, but that she had cared.
August took her chin between his thumb and forefinger.
“I just want to do things right this time,” he said. “I want you to know you’re special to me.”
And then he bent down to kiss the O her mouth had formed. He kissed her like a prayer—whisper soft on each corner of her lips and then reverently in the middle.
And for the first time, Cat felt special. Unique. And his in a way she hadn’t really felt before.
She stepped into his body and deepened the kiss and used her hands to show him exactly what she wanted and her own brand of special.
Chapter Thirteen
A week later Cat drove up a long row of chardonnay on the way to the East Barn. She knew she had no reason to go there other than the feeling, which August shared, that it would be a perfect place for them to expand the winery operations. Axel refused to discuss giving up the East Barn or trading it for another outbuilding even though he hadn’t set foot in it for years.
Still Cat couldn’t let it go, and today, after she’d picked Diego up from the bus stop in the Gator, she was taking a shortcut to the East Barn just because she was curious. And, truthfully, perhaps she could either find some ammunition she could use to change Axel’s mind or maybe something she saw would change hers and she could let the idea go.
The East Barn was rumored to be haunted. All during her childhood she’d heard about spectral spirits wailing along Fury Creek or weeping in the oak groves. The East Barn stories were the most colorful. There had been supposed sightings of wounded Mexican soldiers trying to get back home, Native Americans and of tall, dark men in old-fashioned cowboy clothing, likely Wolf ancestors.
She’d never once had a creepy feeling or weird experience. Instead, she’d felt safe and happy. The East Barn was the oldest building on the property. The architecture should be preserved. And it boasted the most beautiful views. Eventually, the vineyard blocks would march up to it.
August was right to fight for it. The East Barn would be perfect for some wine club events, and because it was near the highway, there could be a separate entrance so the cattle operations and house wouldn�
�t be impacted.
Diego sat beside her in the Gator and whooped and waved his hat like they were on horseback and racing the wind. She laughed. She couldn’t remember a time she’d been so happy.
The past two weeks had been… She couldn’t even think of an adjective that came close to describing the happiness that bubbled through her, almost like sparkling wine in her bloodstream.
And yes, she wanted to add a sparkling wine, both a white and a rosé, to Verflucht’s portfolio in the near future.
She was still so astonished by the winery equipment she had access to. And living and working on Ghost Hill Ranch—technically, it was Riverbend Ranch, but only Axel called it that—was a dream come true. The views still never failed to stop her in her tracks and steal her breath. The wildflowers that now waved in the late afternoon breezes. The oak savannahs that dotted the rolling hills, and the blue creek that snaked through the lower lying area of the ranch.
The soft opening at the Bluebonnet Festival had been almost too successful. They’d had online orders and people trying to sign up for the wine club before Catalina and August had fully figured out what to put on the website. She and August had started adding on to the permanent vineyard crew, and she now had an assistant in her cellar.
But the best part—the absolute best part—was that August had been true to his word. He was learning the business. They spent much of each day together walking the vineyard, blending the wines in preparation for bottling so they’d be ready for harvest in a few months. And the nights…a thrill ran through her just thinking about the nights with August.
He hadn’t mentioned marriage again, and while part of her was relieved, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t hoping for a future with him, a family with him. It was terrifying how deep he’d dug back into her heart. And how happy she was—and that more than a little was because he was back and part of her life.
A Bride for the Texas Cowboy Page 17