Matt Caldwell: Texas Tycoon

by Diana Palmer

  “I’m…not sure that I can’t,” she said, surprising both of them. She felt the damp warmth of his body close to hers and marveled at his vulnerability.

  His eyes opened. He lifted his head slowly and looked down at her, his breath on her mouth. “If you have a single instinct for self-preservation left, you’d better get in the car, Leslie.”

  “Okay,” she agreed breathlessly, her heart in her eyes as she looked at him with faint wonder.

  She got in on the passenger side and fastened her seat belt. He came around to the driver’s side and got into the car.

  Her hands were curling in on the soft material of her purse and she looked everywhere except at him. She couldn’t believe what she’d done.

  “Don’t make such heavy weather of it,” he said gently. “I did say that you’d have to do the chasing, after all.”

  She cleared her throat. “I think I took it a little too literally.”

  He chuckled. The sound was deep and pleasant as the powerful car ate up the miles toward Jacobsville. “You have definite potential, Miss Murry,” he mused, glancing at her with indulgent affection. “I think we’re making progress.”

  She stared at her purse. “Slow progress.”

  “That’s the best kind.” He changed gears and passed a slow-moving old pickup truck. “I’ll drop you by your house to change. We’re going out on the town tonight, cast and all.”

  She smiled shyly. “I can’t dance.”

  “There’s plenty of time for dancing when you’re back on your feet,” he said firmly. “I’m going to take care of you from now on. No more risks.”

  He made her feel like treasure. She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until she heard him chuckle.

  “That’s what you are,” he said. “My treasure. I’m going to have a hard time sharing you even with other people.” He glanced at her. “You’re sure there’s nothing between you and Ed?”

  “Only friendship,” she assured him.

  “Good.”

  He turned on the radio and he looked more relaxed than she’d ever seen him. It was like a beginning. She had no idea where their relationship would go, but she was too weak to stop now.

  They went out to eat, and Matt was the soul of courtesy. He opened doors for her, pulled out chairs for her, did all the little things that once denoted a gentleman and proved to her forcefully that he wasn’t a completely modern man. She loved it. Old World courtesy was delicious.

  They went to restaurants in Jacobsville and Victoria and Houston in the weeks that followed, and Matt even phoned her late at night, just to talk. He sent her flowers at the boardinghouse, prompting teasing remarks and secret smiles from other residents. He was Leslie’s fellow, in the eyes of Jacobsville, and she began to feel as if her dreams might actually come true—except for the one problem that had never been addressed. How was she going to react when Matt finally made love to her completely? Would she be able to go through with intimacy like that, with her past?

  It haunted her, because while Matt had been affectionate and kind and tender with her, it never went beyond soft, brief kisses in his car or at her door. He never attempted to take things to a deeper level, and she was too shy from their encounter at the prison parking lot to be so bold again.

  The cast came off just before the Ballengers’ party to which all of Jacobsville was invited. Leslie looked at her unnaturally pale leg with fascination as Lou Coltrain coaxed her into putting her weight on it for the first time without the supporting cast.

  She did, worried that it wouldn’t take her weight, while Matt stood grim-faced next to Lou and worried with her.

  But when she felt the strength of the bone, she gasped. “It’s all right!” she exclaimed. “Matt, look, I can stand on it!”

  “Of course you can,” Lou chuckled. “Dr. Santos is the best, the very best, in orthopedics.”

  “I’ll be able to dance again,” she said.

  Matt moved forward and took her hand in his, lifting it to his mouth. “We’ll be able to dance again,” he corrected, holding her eyes with his.

  Lou had to stifle amusement at the way they looked together, the tall dark rancher and the small brunette, like two halves of a whole. That would be some marriage, she thought privately, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

  Later, Matt came to pick her up at her apartment. She was wearing the long silver dress with the spaghetti straps, and this time without a bra under it. She felt absolutely vampish with her contacts back in and her hair clean and shining. She’d gained a little weight in the past few weeks, and her figure was all she’d ever hoped it would be. Best of all, she could walk without limping.

  “Nice,” he murmured, smiling as they settled themselves into the car. “But we’re not going to overdo things, are we?”

  “Whatever you say, boss,” she drawled.

  He chuckled as he cranked the car. “That’s a good start to the evening.”

  “I have something even better planned for later,” she said demurely.

  His heart jumped and his fingers jerked on the steering wheel. “Is that a threat or a promise?”

  She glanced at him shyly. “That depends on you.”

  He didn’t speak for a minute. “Leslie, you can only go so far with a man before things get out of hand,” he began slowly. “You don’t know much about relationships, because you haven’t dated. I want you to understand how it is with me. I haven’t touched another woman since I met you. That makes me more vulnerable than I would be normally.” His eyes touched her profile and averted to the highway. “I can’t make light love to you anymore,” he said finally, his voice harsh. “The strain is more than I can bear.”

  Her breath caught. She smoothed at an imaginary spot on her gown. “You want us to…to go on like we are.”

  “I do not,” he said gruffly. “But I’m not going to put any pressure on you. I meant what I said about letting you make the moves.”

  She turned the small purse over in her hands, watching the silver sequins on it glitter in the light. “You’ve been very patient.”

  “Because I was very careless of you in those first weeks we knew each other,” he said flatly. “I’m trying to show you that sex isn’t the basis of our relationship.”

  She smiled. “I knew that already,” she replied. “You’ve taken wonderful care of me.”

  He shrugged. “Penance.”

  She grinned, because it wasn’t. He’d shown her in a hundred nonverbal ways how he felt about her. Even the other women in the office had remarked on it.

  He glanced at her. “No comment?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, I was just thinking about something.”

  “About what?” he asked conversationally.

  She traced a sequin on the purse. “Can you teach me how to seduce you?”

  The car went off the road and barely missed a ditch before he righted it, pulled onto the shoulder and flipped the key to shut off the engine.

  He gaped at her. “What did you say?”

  She looked up at him in the dimly lit interior where moonlight reflected into the car. “I want to seduce you.”

  “Maybe I have a fever,” he murmured.

  She smiled. She laughed. He made her feel as if she could do anything. Her whole body felt warm and uninhibited. She leaned back in her seat and moved sinuously in the seat, liking the way the silky fabric felt against her bare breasts. She felt reckless.

  His gaze fell to the fabric against which her hard nipples were distinctly outlined. He watched her body move and knew that she was already aroused, which aroused him at once.

  He leaned over, his mouth catching hers as his lean hand slipped under the fabric and moved lazily against her taut breasts.

  She moaned and arched toward his fingers, pulling them back when he would have removed them. Her mouth opened under his as she gave in to the need to experience him in a new way, in a new intimacy.

  “This is dangerous.” He bit off the words against her mouth.
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  “It feels wonderful,” she whispered back, pressing his hand to her soft skin. “I want to feel you like this. I want to touch you under your shirt…”

  He hadn’t realized how quickly he could get a tie and a shirt out of the way. He pulled her across the console and against him, watching her pert breasts bury themselves in the thick hair that covered his chest. He moved her deliberately against it and watched her eyes grow languid and misty as she experienced him.

  His mouth opened hers in a sensual kiss that was as explicit as lovemaking. She felt his tongue, his lips, his teeth, and all the while, his chest moved lazily against her bare breasts. His hand went to the base of her spine and moved her upon the raging arousal she’d kindled. He groaned harshly, and she knew that he wouldn’t draw back tonight. The strange thing, the wonderful thing, was that she wasn’t afraid.

  A minute later, he forced his head up and looked at her, lying yielding and breathless against him. He touched her breasts possessively before he lifted his eyes to search hers. “You aren’t afraid of me like this,” he said huskily.

  She drew in a shaking breath. “No. I’m not.”

  His eyes narrowed as he persisted. “You want me.”

  She nodded. She touched his lips with fingers that trembled. “I want you very much. I like the way you feel when you want me,” she whispered daringly, the surprise of it in her expression as she moved restlessly against him. “It excites me to feel it.”

  He groaned out loud and closed his eyes. “For God’s sake, honey, don’t say things like that to me!”

  Her fingers moved down to his chest and pressed there. “Why not? I want to know if I can be intimate with you. I have to know,” she said hesitantly. “I’ve never been able to want a man before. And I’ve never felt anything like this!” She looked up into his open, curious eyes. “Matt, can we…go somewhere?” she whispered.

  “And make love?” he asked in a tone that suggested he thought she was unbalanced.

  Her expression softened. “Yes.”

  He couldn’t. His brain told him he couldn’t. But his stupid body was screaming at him that he certainly could! “Leslie, sweetheart, it’s too soon…”

  “No, it isn’t,” she said huskily, tracing the hair on his chest with cool fingers. “I know you don’t want anything permanent, and that’s okay. But I…”

  The matter-of-fact statement surprised him. “What do you mean, I don’t want anything permanent?”

  “I mean, you aren’t a marrying man.”

  He looked puzzled. He smiled slowly. “Leslie, you’re a virgin,” he said softly.

  “I know that’s a drawback, but we all have to start somewhere. You can teach me how,” she said stubbornly. “I can learn.”

  “No!” he said softly. “It’s not that at all.” His eyes seemed to flicker and then burn like black coals. “Leslie, I don’t play around with virgins.”

  Her mind wasn’t getting this at all. She felt dazed by her own desire. “You don’t?”

  “No, I don’t,” he said firmly.

  “Well, if you’ll cooperate, I won’t be one for much longer,” she pointed out. “So there goes your last argument, Matt.” She pressed deliberately closer to him, as aware as he was that his body was amazingly capable.

  He actually flushed. He pushed away from her and moved her back into her own seat firmly, pulling up the straps of her dress with hands that fumbled a little. He looked as if she’d hit him in the head with something hard.

  Puzzled, she fiddled with her seat belt as he snapped his own into place.

  He looked formidably upset. He started the car with subdued violence and put it in gear, his expression hard and stoic.

  As the Jaguar shot forward, she slanted a glance at him. It puzzled her that he’d backed away from her. Surely he wasn’t insulted by her offer? Or maybe he was.

  “Are you offended?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious and embarrassed.

  “Heavens, no!” he exclaimed.

  “Okay.” She let out a relieved sigh. She glanced at him. He wouldn’t look at her. “Are you sure you aren’t?”

  He nodded.

  She wrapped her arms around her chest and stared out the windshield at the darkened landscape, trying to decide why he was acting so strangely. He certainly wasn’t the man she thought she knew. She’d been certain that he wanted her, too. Now she wasn’t.

  The Jaguar purred along and they rode in silence. He didn’t speak or look at her. He seemed to be deep in thought and she wondered if she’d ruined their budding relationship for good with her wanton tendencies.

  It wasn’t until he turned the car down a dirt road a few miles from the ranch that she realized he wasn’t going toward the Ballengers’ home.

  “Where are we?” she asked when he turned down an even narrower dirt road that led to a lake. Sign-posts pointed to various cabins, one of which had Caldwell on it. He pulled into the yard of a little wood cabin in the woods, facing the lake, and cut off the engine.

  “This is where I come to get away from business,” he told her bluntly. “I’ve never brought a woman here.”

  “You haven’t?”

  His eyes narrowed on her flushed face. “You said you wanted to find out if you could function intimately. All right. We have a place where we won’t be disturbed, and I’m willing. More than willing. So there’s no reason to be embarrassed,” he said quietly. “I want you every bit as badly as you want me. I have something to use. There won’t be any risk. But you have to be sure this is what you really want. Once I take your virginity, I can’t give it back. There’s only one first time.”

  She stared at him. Her whole body felt hot at the way he was looking at her. She remembered the feel of his mouth on her breasts and her lips parted hungrily. But it was more than just hunger. He knew it.

  She lifted her face to his and brushed a breathless little kiss against his firm chin. “I wouldn’t let any other man touch me,” she said quietly. “And I think you know it.”

  “Yes. I know it.” He knew something else as well; he knew that it was going to be a beginning, not an affair or a one-night stand. He was going to be her first man, but she was going to be his last woman. She was all he wanted in the world.

  He got out and led her up the steps on to the wide porch where there was a swing and three rocking chairs. He unlocked the door, ushered her inside and locked it again. Taking her hand in his, he led her to the bedroom in back. There was a huge king-size bed in the room. It was covered by a thick comforter in shades of beige and red.

  For the first time since she’d been so brazen with him, reality hit her like a cold cloth. She stood just inside the doorway, her eyes riveted on that bed, as erotic pictures of Matt without clothing danced in her thoughts.

  He turned to her, backing her up against the closed door. He sensed her nervousness, her sudden uncertainty.

  “Are you afraid?” he asked somberly.

  “I’m sorry, I guess I am,” she said with a forced smile.

  His lean hands framed her face and he bent and kissed her eyelids. “This may be your first time. It isn’t mine. By the time we end up on that bed, you’ll be ready for me, and fear is the very last thing you’re going to feel.”

  He bent to her mouth then and began to kiss her. The caresses were tender and slow, not arousing. If anything, they comforted. She felt her fear of him, of the unknown, melt away like ice in the hot sun. After a few seconds, she relaxed and gave in to his gentle ardor.

  At first it was just pleasant. Then she felt him move closer and his body reacted at once to hers.

  He caught his breath as he felt the sudden surge of pleasure.

  Her hands smoothed up his hard thighs, savoring the muscular warmth of them while his mouth captured hers and took possession of it a little roughly, because she was intensifying the desire that was already consuming him.

  His body began to move on her, slow and caressing, arousing and tantalizing. Her breasts felt heavy. Her nipples
were taut, and the friction of the silky cloth against them intensified the sensations he was kindling in her body, the desire she was already feeling.

  His knee edged between both her legs in the silky dress and the slow movement of his hips made her body clench.

  His hands went between them, working deftly on the tiny straps of her dress while he kissed her. It wasn’t until she felt the rough hair of his chest against her bare breasts that she realized both of them were uncovered from the waist up.

  He drew away a little and looked down at her firm, pretty little breasts while he traced them with his fingers.

  “I’d like to keep you under lock and key,” he murmured gruffly. “My own pretty little treasure,” he added as his head bent.

  She watched his mouth take her, felt the pleasure of warm lips on her body. She liked the sight of his mouth over her nipple, that dark, wavy hair falling unruly onto his broad forehead while his heavy eyebrows met and his eyes closed under the delicious whip of passion. She held his head to her body, smoothing the hair at his nape, feeling it cool and clean under her fingers.

  When he finally lifted his head, she was leaning back against the door for support. Her eyes were misty with desire, her body trembled faintly with the force of it. She looked at him hungrily, with all the barriers down at last. Other men might repulse her, but she wanted Matt. She loved the feel of his hands and his eyes and his mouth on her body. She wanted to lie under him and feel the delicious pressure of his body against and over and inside her own. She wanted it so badly that she moaned softly.

  “No second thoughts?” he asked gently.

  “Oh, no! No second thoughts, Matt,” she whispered, adoring him with her eyes.

  With a slow, secret smile, he began to divest her of the dress and the remaining piece of clothing, leaving her standing before him with her body unveiled, taut with passion.

  She was shy, but his hands soon made a jumble of her embarrassment. She felt her body jerk rhythmically as he suckled her breasts. It was so sweet. It was paradise.

  When he eased her down onto the huge bed, she lay back against the pillows, totally yielding, and watched his evening clothes come off little by little. He watched her while he undressed, laughing softly, a sensual predatory note in his deep voice. She moved helplessly on the coverlet, her entire being aflame with sensations she’d never known. She could barely wait. She felt as if she was throbbing all over, burning with some unknown fire that threatened to consume her, an ache that was almost painful.