Wildcat Cowboy (The McCabes of Texas #2)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “Realistically?” Lips curving in a seductive smile, he held her against him gently as he pushed her jeans to the floor and helped her step out of them. “Probably not.” His hands hooked inside the elastic of her panties and pushed them down, too. “But the flip side of that is—” he pressed an all-too-brief, all-too-casual kiss to her navel, then divested her of her shirt and bra “—I’ll let you improve on me, too.” He rolled lazily to his feet. “And by the time we’re done with each other, we’ll both be better off.”

  Josie could think of a few things she’d like to do—like teach him to stop being so bossy and commanding. “Well, when you put it that way,” she sighed contentedly as she helped him off with his shirt, jeans and shorts. Then placed both her arms about his neck and brought his head down to hers. “I guess I’m in.”

  “Good,” Wade whispered, fitting his lips over hers. His arousal pressed against her, creating an ocean of warmth inside her. He shifted her closer, his tongue parting her lips, touching the edges of her teeth and then returning in a series of soft, drugging kisses that robbed her of the will and ability to think past the moment, the man and the desire flowing through her, more potent and mesmerizing than ever before. “Because I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Wade whispered, kissing her again and again and again.

  When he laid her on the bed, she stirred languorously. He ran his hands over her body, covering it with kisses, learning her body, teaching her pleasure in ways she had never imagined. Needing to give, as well as receive, she let out a soft groan and rolled so that he was beneath her. Her lips and hands moved over his skin, luxuriating in the satiny warmth and strength of his chest and stomach and thighs. She couldn’t get enough of touching him and kissing him, and that filled her with a kind of wonder, even as she settled over him, caressing the velvety length of him from tip to base. Whatever shyness she’d had, whatever fears and reservations, they were gone now. She wanted him deep inside her. She wanted tight sinew and taut flesh. She wanted tenderness and love. Soft kisses. Hard kisses. Kisses that fell in between. She got all that and more. From him. And she delivered all that and more. To him. Until she was shuddering and so was he, and all coherent thought spun away in frissons of endless pleasure.

  “Now?” Wade murmured.

  “Now,” Josie agreed.

  A wellspring of tenderness and need in his eyes, he moved over top of her, parting her thighs with his knee. Sliding his hands beneath her, he lifted her hips to his, surging slowly, deeply into her, into her life. She arched against him, her legs coming around him, drawing him deeper, giving him whatever he wanted, whatever he needed, whatever they both needed. Until they were gasping, shaking, drawn into a realm of sensation that had them both surging toward the outer limits of their control. How she needed this—how they both needed this—Josie thought as his fingers clamped onto hers. And holding tight, they soared into soft, sizzling love and shuddering pleasure.

  Afterward Wade held her close. The pinnacle of pleasure had passed, leaving them exhausted and replete. And more than a little awed. Josie turned blindly into Wade’s arms and buried her face in the soft hair on his chest. It would have been perfect, Josie thought wistfully, if not for the things Wade still didn’t know. The closer they became, the harder it was going to be to tell him the truth about who she really was and how she had come to be handling the drilling on the Golden Slipper. She’d hoped to wait until they’d struck oil. But what if they didn’t, she wondered uneasily. What if the worst happened and their discovery well turned up dry?

  Josie pushed the nagging uncertainty away. She couldn’t allow herself to think like that, she told herself sternly. That was her mother and father talking, not her. She knew how talented she was. She had proven it over and over again with her secret analysis and predictions on other discovery wells her father had dug.

  “You’re awfully quiet,” Wade said, his hands softly stroking her hair. “Any particular reason why?”

  One, Josie thought. And it was an important one. Her heart brimming with love and tenderness, she snuggled closer. She loved the warmth and solidness of his chest and the gentle way he held her in his arms. “I don’t want there to be anything between us,” she admitted softly. Especially now, when she felt so close to him. And yet there was, and it was a problem of her own making.

  “That’s why we’re naked between the sheets,” Wade teased.

  Josie shifted her weight and rolled gracefully onto her side. She bent her elbow and propped her head up on her hand. Needing to reassure herself by touching him, she stroked a hand across his chest. “I mean I don’t want us to have any secrets from each other,” she said seriously. And soon, hopefully, they wouldn’t.

  He studied her, his mood abruptly turning as solemn as hers as he rubbed a hand up and down her spine. “I don’t, either.”

  An awkward silence fell between them. A new wave of guilt sifted through Josie. Her cheeks turned pink. As he continued to study her, she felt as if she were up to her neck in quicksand. After a moment Wade’s glance gentled and turned more pensive and self-effacing, too. “Look, I know establishing emotional intimacy with someone isn’t my strong point.” He swallowed, his eyes reflecting the depth of his regrets. He turned on his back, looked up at the ceiling and laid his forearm across his eyes. “Hell, to be honest—” his voice caught emotionally “—my dif ficulty in doing so is my biggest shortcoming.”

  Guilt flooded her as Josie realized Wade thought this was his fault! When it was so clearly hers! “You don’t have to apologize,” she said hastily, putting up a silencing hand to stop him from going any further.

  Catching her hand, he kissed the back of it. Ignoring the easy out she gave him, he murmured gently, “But I’m willing to learn.” He clamped an arm about her waist and drew her closer. “So what do you want to know?” he asked, as Josie draped one of her smooth sexy legs between his hair-roughened ones. “Just ask me and I’ll tell you,” he promised.

  The phone rang before she could answer. Saved by the bell, Josie thought, aware she was relieved. Maybe they both were....

  Her conscience still pricking mightily, demanding to be assuaged, Josie forced a smile and reached for the phone. “Might be Gus ’bout the drill-stem test.” She was praying for a good result. One that would allow her to tell Wade the entire truth, so she could put this whole miserable ruse behind them.

  But it wasn’t Gus, Josie realized as she listened. And the instant reprieve she had hoped for wasn’t to be. “Just a moment, please.” Josie handed the phone to Wade. “It’s for you.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” Wade said. “No. I’m aware of his father’s reputation in commercial real estate. But it’s his father’s reputation, not his.” Wade paused. “He may very well have his father’s talent for putting together deals, but I’m not interested in having an inexperienced realtor put together a deal of that magnitude—I don’t care what his vision—it’s just too much money to risk. Yeah. Thanks.” He hung up.

  “Problem?” Josie asked, aware cold chills of uneasiness were coursing up and down her spine.

  Wade lay back against the pillows, an exasperated expression on his face. “Some green kid wants me to go in on a new skyscraper in Houston. I’ve been avoiding his calls, so he had a mutual friend call me and ask me to reconsider, but there’s no way.”

  Josie slipped from the bed and began to dress. “Did you hear his pitch?”

  “No.” With a disgruntled sigh, Wade got up, too.

  “Why not?” Josie slipped her T-shirt over her head and tugged on her jeans. She zipped and buttoned them in short order. “It seems unfair to just turn him down cold.”

  Wade shrugged as he tugged on tight-fitting black briefs and then his jeans. “Maybe it is unfair but it’s also good business sense.” He slipped his shirt over his broad shoulders.

  “I don’t see it,” Josie disagreed as she ran a brush through her hair. Gathering the silky length of it in one hand, she secured it
to the back of her head with an elastic band. In fact, his attitude seemed downright unfair to her.

  Wade strode toward her lazily, buttoning his shirt as he went. Still watching her as though he wanted nothing more than to make love to her again and again and again, he sat down and reluctantly tugged on his boots. “Houston and Dallas are filled with millionaire businessmen who made their fortunes in gas, oil and real estate. A lot of their kids think they’ll follow in their parents’ footsteps and join the family business. Unfortunately, because of their wealthy, pampered upbringing, 99 percent of them don’t have the raw ambition and drive that their parents possessed, never mind an understanding of the kind of dedication required to be a success in today’s difficult business climate. They think they can skate on their family’s reputation and show up when they please. It doesn’t work that way, but try explaining that to someone who doesn’t even know he or she is a dilettante.” Wade scowled and shook his head.

  Josie dipped her finger into a pot of clear lip gloss and smoothed it over her lips. She pressed her lips together. “I think you’re being unfair not to give the kid a chance.”

  “Maybe.” Wade grinned unrepentantly. He rolled lazily to his feet and strode toward her. “But let him prove himself on someone else’s buck, on someone else’s time. I didn’t get where I am today by making risky investments that ultimately don’t pan out.” He hooked an arm about her waist and drew her intimately close, so they were touching in one long electrified line. “Now, where were we?”

  Getting ready to make the biggest mistake of my life, Josie thought, and tell you everything before I’d proved myself as a wildcatter instead of after.

  Knowing she couldn’t bear to make love with him again, with this secret still between them, Josie looked at her watch. “The drill-stem test results should be about ready.” Hopefully they’d be good news.

  Wade regarded her affectionately. “Want to head over there?”

  Josie nodded and let out a wavering breath. “ASAP.”

  “SALTWATER,” Gus pronounced as they all gathered around to see what they had.

  Josie studied the steady flow coming out of the test tool. It was all she could do not to swear. She had been certain—as had the rest of the guys—that they were on the edge of a major oil field. Not anywhere near as big as the one her father was drilling in South America, but a field that would produce hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of oil nonetheless. “Not even a hint of oil or gas,” she said, feeling as disappointed as Dieter, Ernie, Gus and Wade.

  “Well, what do you want to do?” Gus said as he turned the flow to a tank battery where it would be held for further analysis. “Drill deeper? Or call it a dry hole, cap it and sink another well somewhere else?”

  Everyone looked at Josie. She was the one with the instincts. And instincts were telling her to keep going. “I say go deeper,” she said determinedly. “See what we’ve got in another five hundred feet or so.” Not surprisingly, Gus, Dieter and Ernie were in agreement with her, but there was someone else who should be consulted, too. Josie looked at Wade. “What do you think?”

  He regarded her with complete confidence he would not have had, she knew, had he only known she was a former deb and heiress in her own right.

  “Let’s keep going,” he said quietly, letting her know with a glance that he accepted what she recommended, and trusted her to make the right decision. Which, of course, under the circumstances, only made Josie feel more guilty. Nevertheless, Josie breathed a sigh of relief. She still had time—and the opportunity—to strike oil and make everything right.

  “Okay, boys, let’s shut her down and pull the test tool,” Gus said.

  Josie looked at the crew. They looked as tired and exhausted as she felt. Aware they had been working round the clock for days now, putting their blood, sweat and tears into the digging of this discovery well, just as she had, and that it would be several more hours before they would have the drill-stem test tool removed from the well and could resume drilling, she stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans and said as cheerfully as possible, “Anyone up for sandwiches and coffee?”

  “That depends.” Gus grinned for the first time since they’d caught sight of the saltwater flowing out of the pipe. He peered at Josie. “You doing the cook ing?”

  Josie gave Gus a quelling look as the men started chuckling. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” she scolded, already climbing down from the derrick floor.

  “Not to worry, guys,” Wade winked, heading down the metal stairs after her. “I’ll make the coffee.”

  Guffaws abounded.

  Josie and Wade climbed in his Expedition and drove the short distance to her trailer. As they got out and headed for the front door, she—who was unable to mask her never-ending embarrassment over her lack of culinary expertise—said, “Everyone really hates my coffee, don’t they?”

  He hesitated, but in the end couldn’t—wouldn’t—lie to her. “It’s probably not the best any of us have ever tasted, but it’s probably not the worst, either,” he said gently.

  “Well, that’s comforting,” Josie said dryly.

  “So I’ll make the coffee.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, letting her know with that simple gesture he wasn’t looking so much for a housekeeper as a lover-companion-confidante. “So what?”

  Josie clamped her lips together stubbornly. “So I don’t like not being able to do something. That’s what.” Josie paused, aware she was about to take a monumental step here, and ask someone to help her change. And perhaps become a tad more domestic in the process. “Would you mind walking me through it and showing me what I’m doing wrong? ‘Cause even though I’m loath to admit it, my coffee is lousy and yours is pretty good. Actually—” Josie blushed self-consciously “—it’s excellent.”

  Wade grinned. He chucked her playfully beneath the chin. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” Josie tilted her face up to his. “So you’ll help me out here?”

  “That depends.” Wade narrowed his eyes at her. He folded his arms in front of him. “You’re really asking me to help you?”

  “Yeah.” Josie reflected briefly on all the time she’d spent resisting other people’s efforts to help her change. Back then it had seemed somehow noble to hang on to every idiosyncratic inch of her personality, but now—especially when it came to something like this-it just seemed foolish. “I guess I am,” Josie told Wade slowly. “But only—” she tapped his chest and inhaled the sexy, masculine fragrance that was him “—on the condition you don’t make fun of me.”

  “I won’t make fun of you,” Wade promised huskily. He gathered her in his arms, using the flat of his hand to fit them together like matching pieces of a puzzle. Josie’s breath caught in her throat. Wade smiled at her reaction to him, lowered his head ever so deliberately, and delivered a slow, languid kiss.

  They were trembling as they drew apart. Much more of this, Josie knew, and they wouldn’t get any coffee or sandwiches made. They had to stay on task here, she schooled herself sternly. At least for a little while. “Okay, where do we begin?” Josie asked, a little breathlessly. Her hands trembled as she reached over the dirty dishes stacked in the sink and rinsed out the coffee decanter, lid and plastic filter as best she could.

  Wade put the stopper in the drain, turned the water temperature to hot and squirted dishwashing liquid under the stream. As silky bubbles filled the sink, he said, “We begin with a scrupulously clean coffeepot.”

  “Makes sense I guess,” Josie murmured.

  Wade helped her wash and rinse the components, and while they were at it, her breakfast dishes from that morning. When they were dry, they set them on the counter. He looked around at the jumble of cereal boxes, old newspapers and fruit rinds littering the counter. “Where’s your coffee?”

  “In the bag there—yeah, that’s right, the open one—on the counter.” Josie studied Wade’s ruggedly handsome face. And knew it was one she would dream about forever.

&nbs
p; Josie paused and bit her lip. “Why are you frowning?”

  Wade gave her an indulgent look. He reached past her and snagged the coffee. “Because coffee should always be kept in a tightly sealed container,” he explained softly.

  “Oh.” Maybe that was why her coffee never had a delicious aroma when it brewed, once it had been open awhile, Josie thought.

  “But this’ll do,” Wade continued cheerfully. He rubbed his palms together. “Now, where are your filters?”

  Uh-oh, Josie thought. She made a face. “I ran out earlier in the week—since then I’ve just been using paper towel to stop up the hole in the bottom of the plastic filter to sort of keep the grounds from dripping through.”

  He lifted a brow and regarded her with a curious look. “Does it work?”

  “Uh...not really, no,” Josie was forced to admit.

  Wade did not look surprised about that. He muttered something she figured she probably was better off not understanding. “No good, huh?”

  “Definitely not good, but it’ll have to do.” He lined the filter then asked, “Where’s your coffee measure?”

  Josie-who’d been momentarily distracted—drew her eyes from the sexy shape of his legs and hips and the glovelike fit of his jeans, front and back. “I, uh, I don’t have one.” If she was going to get anything at all out of this lesson, she was really going to have to stay on task, Josie thought.

  “Got a tablespoon?” Wade asked, giving her a peculiar look. As Josie continued to look at him blankly, he added, “A real one.”

  Josie shook her head. Looking at Wade’s lips was no good, either. She blinked. “Uh, no.” She had to stop thinking about how much she liked his kisses. And caresses.

  “Okay.” Wade did his best with a regular tablespoon, adding one tablespoon per cup of ice-cold water. He snapped in the filter, then put the clear glass coffee decanter on the wanner

  Then he switched it on.

  Seconds later, the coffee began to brew.