Taking Catie: The Temptation Saga: Book Three

by Hardt, Helen;

  “Oh.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. It’s Catie.”

  Rafe moved closer and pushed a strand of dark hair out of Catie’s eye. His touch was warm and pleasant. Not hot and passionate, like Chad’s.

  “It’s this wind,” she said. “My hair won’t stay in one place. It’s a real pain.”

  “Not so much a pain,” Rafe said. “You look real pretty, Catie. All rosy-cheeked and windblown. I bet you want to take your horse on a ride, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. I’d like that.” A ride with Ladybird would be the perfect salve for her ailing heart, to take her mind off of Chad and Rhine, L. and this farce of a marriage she had agreed to.

  “Well, then, Miss Catie,” Rafe said, holding out his hand to her, “I’ll be right glad to take you into the stables and get her saddled up, for a small price.”

  Price?

  “Uh, what do you want?”

  “Your name, honey.”

  “I told you my name. It’s Catie.”

  “The last name, pretty lady. Catie what?”

  The husky voice that came out of nowhere surprised her.

  “Catie McCray.”

  “Hey, Chad,” Rafe said. “Where’d you come from?”

  “I get around, Grayhawk.” He draped his arm possessively around Catie’s shoulders and pulled her close, jostling her so hard that she winced. “From now on, keep your paws off my wife.”

  “Your wife? Hell, I didn’t know, Chad. Since when do you have a wife?”

  “Since yesterday. If I see you sniffing around her again, you can find yourself another job.”

  “Chad,” Catie said, “he was just going to help me saddle Ladybird for a ride.”

  “I know how these hands are, Catie. They can’t keep their hands to themselves around a beautiful woman. You stay clear of them.”

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I grew up around ranch hands. They’re fine.”

  “Look, Chad. She’s your wife, I get it. I was just gettin’ to know her, that’s all.”

  “Go on and do your job, Grayhawk. I’ll saddle Catie’s horse.”

  “As you say, boss.”

  Once Rafe had left, Chad dragged Catie into the stable and pushed her against the wall. The faint smell of horse manure mixed with the fresh scent of hay assaulted Catie’s nose. Until Chad’s face came within an inch of hers, and then all she could smell was him. Spicy Chad. Musky Chad. Manly Chad. Her husband. She inhaled deeply.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

  His cheeks reddened and his nostrils flared. Catie flinched. He was angry. Really angry. Possibly more angry than when she’d told him she was pregnant.

  “I… I was going to take a ride. I’m…a little stressed Chad. I—”

  He silenced her with a punishing kiss. His lips clamped onto hers, forcing her mouth open, his tongue thrusting inside. She gasped, trying to breathe through her nose, but he was holding her so close, so tight. She pushed at his chest and tried to free herself, but it was no use. He held her against the wall, against his body. She was trapped.

  Chad finally ripped his mouth away, and they both took deep breaths.

  “What…is wrong…with you?” Catie’s words came out between gasps. “I just wanted to see Lady—”

  “Shut up!” He crushed his mouth to hers again.

  The kiss was gentler this time, though not by much. He swept into her mouth like a tidal wave, thrusting with his tongue and then retreating, while he simultaneously thrust his hips and ground them into hers, mimicking what he was doing to her mouth with his tongue. What she instinctively knew he wanted to do with his cock.

  Would do with his cock. He was already unsnapping her jeans.

  She tried to escape his kiss, but to no avail. He held her fast. Her slim form was no match for his musculature. He held her fast against his broad hard chest as he unzipped her jeans and plunged his long, thick fingers inside. She gasped into his mouth, and he groaned. She felt, more than heard it, a faint rumble in her mouth, against her breasts. She began to writhe as he touched her, grinding into his hand.

  He broke their kiss with a loud smack.

  “God, you’re so fucking wet.” He shuddered against her. “You like it when I touch you there, don’t you, sugar?”

  Catie’s breath puffed against Chad’s cheek. His words were a husky whisper against her sweaty neck.

  “Don’t you?” he said again.

  “Y-Yes. You know I do.”

  “Why’d you leave my bed this morning?” He nibbled on her neck. Tiny little nips that turned into bites. They stung. A little bit pleasure, a little bit pain.

  “I…”

  “I woke up and you were gone.” He bit her earlobe. “I wanted you next to me.”

  “But this isn’t…”

  She lost her train of thought for few seconds as he sucked on the spot below her ear that made her crazy. She sighed, and then gasped as he bit her neck again. Still his fingers worked her. She squirmed as tiny sparks erupted on her skin.

  She inhaled, and then answered his question. “It’s not a real marriage.”

  He backed off a little at that. He looked straight at her, his dark eyes scalding hot. He grabbed her hand, led it to his crotch, and rubbed it over his denim-clad arousal. “Does this feel real to you, sugar?”

  “It… It was never a question of that.” She closed her eyes he slid his fingers through her folds and pushed one inside her. She gasped. The invasion was so sweet, so right.

  “Tell me, sugar. How does that feel?”

  “Good, Chad. So good.”

  He pushed his finger farther into her. “That?”

  “Heaven.” She rasped against his cheek, kissing it, letting the day’s growth of his beard prickle her lips.

  “Let me tell you something, Catie McCray.”

  He helped her unbuckle and unsnap his jeans. Nibbling on her ear, he pushed her jeans down, and then his own. When the hard head of his cock pressed against her wet flesh, she shuddered.

  “You’re mine. All mine.” He pushed his cock into her wet channel. “You’re not for Grayhawk or anyone else around here, you got that?”

  She gasped as he withdrew and pushed into her again.

  “Answer me, damn it.” His voice was raw. Untamed.

  “Wh-What?”

  “Who do you belong to, Catie?”

  “You, Chad.”

  “Whose bed are you going to sleep in from now on?” His thrusts became faster, more urgent.

  “Y-Yours. Only yours.”

  He plunged into her again, at the same time as his mouth came down on hers and assaulted her. They kissed in a frenzy of tongues and teeth, devouring each other, as though they’d been starved for years, centuries.

  When he broke the kiss, Catie drew a deep breath, her passions rising, her skin tingling.

  “That’s right, sugar. Come for me.” Chad’s fingers touched her swollen flesh as he continued to pound into her. “For me. Only for me.”

  At his command, she shattered, her body quaking as the rapture took her through a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. From somewhere outside her body, she heard her own voice—or a husky, low imitation of it—echoing Chad’s name.

  As she started her descent, Chad pushed harder, stronger, flooding her with new and vibrant sensations.

  “Damn, you’re even tighter after you come, baby. Give me one…more…ah!”

  He thrust into her so deep, that for a moment she thought they’d become one being. His whole body trembled against her, perspiration trickling down his cheeks and neck, dripping onto her neck, trailing down between her breasts. He stayed there for a precious moment, holding her, leaning into her, before he pulled away and pulled up his boxers and jeans.

  He pulled a blue bandana out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here,” he said. “Clean yourself up.”

  Then he left the stable.

  What? Catie stood dumbfounded, her jeans and pant
ies still around her ankles, Chad’s hanky hanging limply from her fist.

  This was really it?

  Her cheeks heating, she wiped the evidence of their lovemaking from herself with a few quick swipes, pulled up her jeans, and fastened them.

  Again, he’d taken her to the stars.

  He’d made love to her with a passion so fierce, she wasn’t sure it was real. In her inexperience, she had nothing to compare it to. Was it always like this?

  He’d said she was his.

  His.

  But he hadn’t said the three words she so desperately needed to hear. Instead, he’d left her, like always.

  She slid down the wall, the splintery wood scraping her back through her cotton shirt, into a sitting position. Pulling her knees up, she wrapped her arms around them and fell to the side, onto the hay-covered floor. She lay there, in a fetal position, waiting for the tears to come.

  They didn’t. Was she truly all cried out over Chad?

  She didn’t know how long she stayed in that position. Eventually she felt a nudge on her arm. “Hey there, Ms. McCray.”

  She opened her eyes and stared into the black orbs of Rafe Grayhawk.

  “You need any help with anything?”

  Catie bolted upward, sniffing. Thank God, the tears hadn’t come, or her face would be pink and splotchy.

  “I think your husband can afford a better place for you to nap, sweetheart,” Rafe said, extending his hand.

  Catie took his hand gratefully and stood up. “I must have fallen asleep. Chad and I… We had a long day yesterday.”

  “Thought you were gonna take that pretty mare on a ride?”

  “Yeah. Yeah. I am.”

  “I’ll saddle her up.”

  “Chad said—”

  “I know what Chad said, Ms. McCray.”

  He winked, and she couldn’t help smiling at the handsome ranch hand.

  “I’ll mind my Ps and Qs, don’t you worry.”

  “Please.”

  “Okay, I’ll leave. No harm done.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I meant, please call me Catie.”

  “Not sure the boss would approve.”

  “I don’t care. I didn’t ask for his opinion on the matter.”

  Catie brushed the dirt and hay off her thighs. To hell with what Chad said. She and Rafe weren’t doing anything wrong. He was helping her, that’s all. She touched his forearm—as hard and sinewy as Chad’s, though it didn’t induce the sparks on her skin the way Chad’s did.

  “I’d love your help saddling Ladybird, if you don’t mind. After all, you need to get to know her now.”

  “True enough,” Rafe said with a cocky grin and walked toward Ladybird’s stall. “If I had an hour or two free, I’d saddle up my bronc and go along with you. Course we know the boss’d frown on that.”

  Catie smiled. This young man was kind and easy to talk to. So much easier to talk to than her distant husband, who wanted to love her body, but not the rest of her.

  “No doubt he would,” Catie agreed, “but I’ll tell you what.”

  Rafe turned back around and met her gaze. “What?”

  She winked. “We’ll just keep it between us, okay?”

  His lazy grin lit up his handsome features. “Darlin’, that’s about the best idea I’ve heard this year.” He turned and continued saddling Ladybird.

  * * *

  Catie rode Ladybird to Annie and Dallas’s house. Later, sitting with Annie over herb tea, Catie spilled her guts.

  “I don’t know what to do,” she said, after pouring out the story of her and Chad, the baby, and the bedroom situation. “He seems to want me, but yet he doesn’t. This whole baby thing—” She patted her belly. “I want this child. More than anything. But as much as I love Chad, I never wanted it to be like this. It really was an accident, Annie.”

  “I know it was,” Annie said, consoling. “And so does Chad.”

  “Does he really?”

  “Yeah. He does. Don’t you worry about that.” Annie freshened Catie’s tea.

  “This isn’t the kind of marriage I wanted.”

  “I know, hon.”

  Catie sighed. “But it’s what I got. Do you think he might ever love me?”

  “Oh, Catie.” Annie reached out and touched Catie’s forearm. “I think he already does. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

  Catie jerked backward. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I sure am. Do you think, for one minute, that Chad McCray is the kind of guy to do anything he doesn’t want to do?”

  “Well…no.”

  “So you think he married you when he didn’t want to, out of sole obligation?”

  “Well, I think he’s concerned about his child. He wanted him or her to have his name. And the advantage of being a McCray.”

  Annie shook her head and chuckled. “You’ve known Chad lots longer than I have, Catie, but you sure can be blind when it comes to him.”

  “Love is blind, as they say,” Catie said.

  “Blind, yes. But deaf and dumb, too? Do you really think Chad would have dragged you down the aisle just to give his kid a name? I’m not sure you know him at all.”

  “Of course I know him.”

  “I didn’t mean that as an insult, hon. That’s just the truth of it. You had him on a pedestal all those star-crossed teen years, and then you left for four years. Things change, Catie. People change. But Chad didn’t change. You did.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. Chad was always a womanizer. You know that. Never serious. Do you think you’re the first woman to ever claim she was having his child?”

  “But—”

  “But nothing. He’s gorgeous, he’s rich, and women have been falling all over him for damn near fifteen years. A few have come out of the woodwork, claiming to be pregnant.”

  “They have?”

  “Only a few, but yeah. And you’re his first wife. What do you think of that?”

  “What about the others?”

  “None of them were telling the truth.”

  “But I am.”

  “I know you are. And so does Chad.”

  “How did he know the rest of them weren’t?”

  “He hired his PI friend, Larry something or other, to track down the truth on them.”

  “Why didn’t he have me checked out?”

  Annie smiled, rubbing Catie’s forearm in a motherly manner. “Why don’t you tell me?”

  * * *

  Later, Catie continued to fold her clothes and put them away in the guestroom where she had spent her first night as Mrs. Chad McCray. If he wanted her in his bed, he was going to have to love her first. She only intended to share a bed with a husband who loved her. She may not be able to resist his lovemaking, but she sure as hell didn’t have to kowtow to his demands. She’d be friends with Rafe Grayhawk, too, if she wanted, and any of the other hands.

  Once she finished filling up the guestroom closet, she dragged her computer in from the car and decided to set it up in Chad’s office. She walked in his nicely decorated den and sat down at his desk.

  An instant message came up on his computer. From Lindabelle.

  You there?

  Lindabelle. Rhine, L. Could it be?

  She touched the keyboard.

  Yeah.

  I talked to your wife earlier.

  Wife?

  Yeah, wife. There’s some woman in your house answering your phone, claiming to be your wife.

  I guess I got married.

  Is that something Chad would have said? Catie wasn’t sure. She hardly knew her husband.

  You did?

  Yeah. What do you want anyway?

  Congratulations. She seemed real sweet. Didn’t know where you were though. Seems weird, if you’re newlyweds.

  I run a ranch. No one knows where I am all the time.

  Good answer, Catie.

  Have you told her about our arrangement?

  Catie gasped. What arrangement? She started
shuffling papers around on Chad’s desk. Rhine, L. Rhine, L. Chad’s filing cabinet. She’d have to look there.

  Ding. Another IM. Well, have you?

  Not yet.

  Don’t you think Mrs. Chad McCray has a right to know where her husband’s money goes every month?

  What?

  I’ll tell her when I get to it.

  Okay.

  This isn’t any of your business, L.

  She took a shot. Assumed this was Rhine, L. Rhine. Her name was probably Linda from her IM ID Lindabelle.

  Maybe not. But I do care about you, Chad. If this marriage of yours is going to work, you need to tell her about Jack.

  Catie stopped reading. Jack? Her pulse raced. Her afternoon conversation with Annie raced through her mind. Several women had come around claiming to be pregnant, trying to trap Chad.

  Rhine, L.

  Jack.

  She got up and yanked open Chad’s filing cabinet looking for anything. Any type of clue.

  Finally, it appeared. A file folder. Rhine, Linda. Inside was only one paper. The results of a DNA test naming Chad McCray as the father of Linda Rhine’s son, Jack. According to the birth date, the child was over four years old.

  Ding. The IM again. Catie didn’t bother reading it. She couldn’t. Her vision was clouded with tears. She typed in a message quickly.

  I have a meeting. I’ve got to go.

  Then she turned away from the computer and looked down at her belly.

  “Well, sweetheart,” she said aloud, gulping through sobs, “it looks like you already have a big brother.”

  She needed some answers. She looked into the file folder again and found Linda Rhine’s address in Utah. About a day’s drive. Well, she had nothing better to do. No rodeo queen duties.

  Nice day for a road trip.

  Or night, rather. The sun was already setting.

  She threw some clothes into a duffle and plugged the address into the GPS on her phone.

  She’d planned to meet Harper later and talk about getting her other stock over to one of Chad’s barns this evening. That could wait a few days. Right now, she had a rival to face.