Brand (The Donovan Dynasty)

by Sierra Cartwright

  “I don’t understand why you want to hold me after every time we have sex.”

  “Doesn’t every man?”

  “Excuse me? No. No one, actually.”

  “What a missed opportunity. It’s important to me to connect with you, talk about what we did, see if there’s anything you’d want to change the next time. Sometimes emotions can be triggered while having a scene, and I want you to feel safe.” If he were honest, he’d also admit that he did it as much for him. He always had. His mentor had stressed the need to provide adequate sub aftercare. It was part of a Dom’s responsibility. Cade had learned that a slow return to normal life also benefitted him. He learned a sub’s most intimate secrets that way, and offering comfort filled a need in him.

  The connection with Sofia, however, was something he’d never experienced with anyone else. She seemed as reluctant to receive his care as he was determined to provide it.

  She put her hand on his chest and eased away from him. “You know, I may not be capable of giving you any more sex for a month.”

  “Forget the shower. I forbid it. I’ll run you a bath. Epsom salts.”

  “That sounds a little self-serving.”

  “It is.” He grinned.

  He helped her to stand then scooped up her clothes. Starting with her bra, he handed her each item individually.

  Despite what they’d shared, she still blushed a little.

  “Underwear?” she asked.

  He was tempted not to give the panties back, but he relented and tugged them out of his jeans’ pocket.

  “Thank you.”

  He dressed while she finished putting on her boots.

  “Would you like me to do that?” she asked when he started to clean the table with a sanitizing wipe.

  “Not necessary.”

  “I’m confused by the acts of service,” she said. “That seems like something you should ask me to do.”

  “My scene. My equipment. My responsibility. There are other Doms who feel differently, but I see it the same as I do any of the things that matter to me. From the house to my horse to my riding equipment. And there’s a satisfaction in caring for things.” Including her.

  Satisfied, he returned to the bench and cleansed the vibrator.

  “That thing is diabolical.”

  He looked over his shoulder. “Did you like it?”

  She’d mentioned that it took her some time to process the things they shared. Giving her the space she needed, and him the reassurance he needed, was a balancing act.

  “It was almost overload,” she said. “I was sort of afraid I wouldn’t be able to come at all.” She paused. “But when I did… It was one of the most powerful orgasms I can remember. You’re spoiling me, Mr. Donovan.”

  “The pleasure is mutual. I’d never used anything like it before.”

  “On a woman…sub, ever?”

  “I should tell you, those kinds of intimate toys are yours. I bought it for you, specifically.”

  “I’m… Thank you.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “So…”

  He waited. Even though he’d rather encourage her along, he continued what he was doing, guessing it would be easier if he wasn’t looking directly at her.

  “What was it like for you?”

  “I think I wore down my back teeth.”

  “No. Really?”

  He lined up everything meticulously then faced her. “The tightness was incredible. I don’t generally have to work to hold back an orgasm. This time I did. With the vibrator on your clit—”

  “You could feel that?”

  “Yes. Believe me, sweet Sofia, that was every bit as powerful for me as it was you.”

  She pulled her hand out of her hair.

  “I would keep silent rather than lie,” he assured her. After this afternoon, masturbating might never be enough again.

  Once the area was in order, he indicated she should precede him down the stairs and out to the ATV. He whistled and Loopy appeared from nowhere to jump into the back.

  “Where was she?”

  “It’s always a mystery. I think she’s at least one-eighth ghost.”

  In the house, she went upstairs. He lit the grill then refreshed their wine glasses and carried one up to her.

  Since the bathroom door was closed, he knocked but then walked in without waiting for a response.

  She was sitting in the tub with the faucet running at full blast. Her hair was piled on top of her head and secured with a barrette bearing the Texas flag. “Are bathrooms not sacred?”

  “In the vanilla world, maybe.” He crouched next to the tub and noticed that she’d put a bottle of body wash and a pretty pink razor on a ledge. The sight of her personal effects startled him, and not in a bad way. Other than a few stays in a hotel room, he’d never shared space with a woman. He should have thought to ask if there was anything she’d like to keep at the ranch. But that would have required him thinking of something other than her submissive surrender.

  “As long as you’re bearing gifts, you’re welcome to barge into the bathroom.” She sat up to accept the glass then took a big sip. “Okay, this is officially more pampered than I’ve ever been.”

  “Ever?”

  “Ever. Wine. Bathtub. Hot man bringing it to me. Oh, yeah, amazing sex. And he said he’d cook.”

  “It does sound like a pretty good deal,” he agreed. Having her here wasn’t so bad for him, either. He’d found himself looking forward to her visit. Making sure that he had his work done so that he could enjoy the evening had kept him sharper and busier than usual.

  She reclined. “I might stay in here forever.”

  “Do you have a hot tub?”

  “There’s one at the apartment building, but I rarely use it. Too many kids. And it’s a hassle to switch into a swimming suit, go down, get wet, shiver all the way back…”

  “Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to true decadence.”

  “You’re doing pretty well so far.” She wiggled her toes beneath the spray.

  “Dinner will be about twenty-five minutes. Maybe half an hour.”

  “Do you need help?”

  “Next time.”

  “Good. I wasn’t planning to get out of the tub, but manners said I should at least offer.” She reached forward long enough to turn off the faucet.

  “I’ll let you know when dinner is served, Your Highness.”

  The smile she gave him? He’d crawl through cut glass to see that again.

  He had dinner nearly ready when she joined him in the kitchen. The scent of her reached him first—like a spring morning after a rain. It was intoxicating. Almost as potent as the smell of her arousal.

  He turned and glanced at her. Her hair was still piled up, leaving her neck bare. A few damp tendrils escaped to curl alluringly along the side of her throat.

  She had on a black tank top. Her shorts were skimpy enough that they should be outlawed. He appreciated them in the house, but he wouldn’t allow her into town wearing them. The feeling of possession that swamped him caught him off guard, but he didn’t question it. This view was his. Only his.

  Her feet were bare and she’d only applied a hint of mascara to her honest, hazel eyes. Everything about her was guileless. Sofia McBride was the fresh air he’d needed in his life. He was captivated.

  She moved across the room to stand next to him. “What can I help with?” she asked while brushing a finger down his forearm.

  “Do you want to eat on the patio or at the island?”

  “Outside is nice, as long as it’s cool enough.”

  “We have an overhead fan and it’s shaded.”

  “Then outside.” She gathered plates, silverware and napkins and carried them out to the courtyard.

  They met back in the kitchen. “I’m not sure that I’d ever be inside if I had that courtyard at my disposal,” she said.

  Except for in the mornings, he rarely took time to enjoy it.

  “Miss Libby had the fountain put in, but it
was my mother who did most of the landscaping. She has a thing for color, design, the height, ground cover, things I’ll never understand. She’d look out the window and say, you know, that banana tree should be moved. So Manny would send over a worker, and it would be moved. She was always right.”

  “Maybe because she didn’t feel comfortable making changes to the house? And there’s not a lot of color in here.”

  He’d never thought of it that way, but she might have a point.

  “Do we need any other condiments?” She glanced over and saw he’d put together a salad. “Oil and vinegar okay for that?”

  “That’ll work.”

  “Do you have steak sauce?”

  He swung his gaze toward her before realizing she was grinning.

  “One simply does not adulterate Running Wind beef,” she said, stealing the words before he could utter them.

  Cade shook his head.

  “Teasing, Cade. I made stir fry last week,” she reminded him. “There was no need for anything other than a light hand with the seasoning.”

  “You horrified me.”

  “The expression on your face was priceless.”

  They worked together effortlessly. She brought in the pitcher of sun tea and did a taste test. “Another hour would be better, but it’s not bad. Want some?”

  He viewed the weak-looking stuff with skepticism. “Does it come with whiskey?”

  She frowned at him. “It could. I hear it’s good with wine.”

  He shuddered. “Definitely not.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’m not ruining a good cabernet with that stuff.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  He fed Loopy, and by the time he joined her in the courtyard, the table was set. She’d shaken the leaves off the seat cushions, transferred the salad to a blown-glass bowl and she’d clipped a couple of hibiscus blooms and put them in a jar as a centerpiece.

  It was an unnecessary though homey touch that he appreciated. Ordinary was anything but with her around.

  After she took her first bite, she closed her eyes. “It melts in your mouth,” she said.

  He felt an odd sense of pride. Throughout the years, his family had worked to cultivate this kind of beef and it was some of the best available. When he thought about it, which he’d rarely done, it was astounding that he was part of this legacy.

  “Tell me more about your mother?” she invited after taking a bit of salad.

  “Hell of a woman. Not many people stand up to William Donovan.”

  Sofia put down her fork.

  “He offered her a significant amount of money to go away quietly when she got pregnant. I think her no had a hell in front of it.”

  “I’m confused.” She frowned. “I thought the Colonel wanted you to be more involved with the family.”

  “He does. But it wasn’t always that way.”

  Wordlessly, she waited.

  Cade had never told anyone this story, and he wasn’t quite sure why he was now. “For the first few years that I was alive, Mom continued to work at a ranch, as a riding instructor and wrangler. She left me with an elderly neighbor most of the time. Because she didn’t want the Donovans telling her what to do, she vanished. It wasn’t until I was five that my dad found us. I remember the yelling. Days of it. Finally, he must have worn her down. He moved us out of the horrible place we’d been living. Single-room garage apartment. Plenty of bugs, in spite of my mother’s best efforts. No air conditioning. A piece of crap heater in the winter.”

  Color drained from her face. “I had no idea.”

  “The life of privilege you accused me of? In the early years, nothing could have been further from the truth. I still appreciate everything.”

  She took a long drink of her tea.

  An opportunity to look away, he guessed.

  “I owe you an apology,” she said, meeting his gaze.

  “You couldn’t have known.” He waved her off. She wasn’t the first to have preconceived notions of him. “My mother told my father that we were fine, told him to go away, promised she’d never ask the Donovans for anything. To Dad, that wasn’t the point. He wanted to know his son, be involved in his life. Mom told me a few years ago that she eventually believed him.” He placed his knife on the serving platter. “When she refused to join him, he threatened to sue her for custody. She had no doubt that he would take her to court, but he told her he didn’t want it to come to that. He wanted to take care of her, as well. The Colonel was waiting for us at the house. On the front porch. Mom stayed in the truck. Dad had his hand on my shoulder and he made me go meet him.”

  “You were five,” she whispered.

  “He told me he was my grandfather, that I was part of the family, that I had obligations. My dad, who I didn’t even know at that point, kept his hand on me so I couldn’t run away.” He put down his steak knife. “I saw the Colonel irregularly after that, but my dad quite frequently. My grandfather and I had a discussion, once, after my father…” Was killed needlessly, recklessly? “Passed. He apologized for the way he’d behaved. He’d overreacted, believed my mother was a gold-digger, that she’d tried to trap my father when he was supposed to marry someone else. When she’d vanished, he realized the truth. He said it had haunted him, kept him awake nights, that his grandchild was out there somewhere. He hired a private investigator to find us. My mom didn’t make it easy for him. And when Jeffrey contacted her, she changed her phone number. But she wasn’t entirely surprised when he showed up. Bottom line to her was that I was entitled to my inheritance, and she realized she could stay with me at the Running Wind, or that William would use his resources to take me away. To her credit, she never said anything bad about either of them. And she’s never taken a dime of their money for herself. That’s my mother.”

  Sofia moved her plate aside.

  “I’d like you to meet her.” The words were out of his mouth before he’d fully thought them through. Much to his mother’s annoyance, he’d never introduced her to anyone he’d been involved with. Then again, no other woman was Sofia.

  “I would enjoy that, too.”

  Together, they cleared the plates. While he loaded the dishwasher, she put away the leftovers and the jar of sun tea that he intended to dump as soon as she left.

  Then they went back outside to finish their wine.

  She stretched out on a chaise and he pulled over a chair to sit near her.

  “It’s like another world out here. Peaceful.”

  How long had he looked without seeing the bushes, the mockingbirds, the butterflies? Maybe he never really had, he mused. He’d been so concerned about being an imposter, proving himself worthy, carving his own damn place that no one could take from him.

  “You really should consider opening up the barn for events,” she said. “This place is a little slice of heaven. You can bottle it and sell it. Even have a gift shop with mementos.” She rolled her wine glass between her palms. “No reason the ranch logo can’t be on these, and on a host of things. Coasters. Koozies.”

  “What the hell is that?”

  “Those neoprene or foam protectors for aluminum cans. To insulate them? Keep your beer cold?”

  “Beer comes in bottles or on draught.”

  “Snobbery, Mr. Donovan.”

  “Snobbery and good taste are not synonymous.”

  She grinned. “Anyway, I’ll get some samples of things for you. Water bottles, pens, that sort of thing, key rings.”

  “People would buy that kind of stuff?”

  “Mementos. You create an experience her for them and they will want to remember it.”

  “Want to see some more?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s go to the river.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Do you have jeans?”

  “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

  “Any man on the ranch will turn into a caveman if they see that much skin.”

  She self-consciou
sly tugged on the hem of her shorts. “They’re not that risqué.”

  “They are.”

  “Are you trying to dictate what I wear?” She scowled ferociously.

  “As well as protecting you from bug bites.”

  “Oh. That.”

  “That. If you’re getting sucked on, I’ll be the one doing it.”

  The golden flecks in her eyes seemed to blaze. Maybe it was the early evening sun, or maybe it was a reflection of the impact his words had on her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cade had told her to grab a long-sleeved shirt. Since she didn’t have one, she’d selected one of his before going out back to meet him near the ATV.

  As always, he looked ruggedly handsome.

  He hadn’t let her into the private sanctuary of his innermost thoughts the way that she’d hoped, but each time they were together, he offered her a different glimpse. She saw him as more complex, even vulnerable. She knew he would object to that word, but that didn’t change the fact he’d told her about the five year old who’d stepped into a massive responsibility.

  “Ready?”

  Loopy was already onboard and ready for his takeoff.

  Sofia enjoyed the dog’s howl of delight as much as Cade’s carefree grin.

  He drove her past the barn and she felt a blast of heat that she told herself was from the sun. What he’d done to her in that building had left her limp.

  Having her ass and pussy so full had made it impossible to breathe. Then he’d added the sucky, licky, confounding vibrator. Even without any other stimulation it would have driven her insane, but with his dick and the thick plug, it had been close to overwhelming.

  They exited Cade’s private part of the ranch and passed through a couple of bump gates then traveled at least another five or ten minutes before arriving at the river.

  She pulled out her phone to snap pictures once he’d stopped beneath a tree. “Can you imagine a gazebo here?”

  “Always remodeling,” he said.

  “Trying to make you money,” she countered while climbing out of the ATV. “Brides would love the pictures. Especially at sunset.”

  He came to stand next to her while Loopy dashed to the water’s edge. Cade whistled, but the dog ignored him and happily scampered in.