Cheyenne Bride

by Laurie Paige

  Still she hesitated. She wasn’t really Cade’s wife, so nothing had really changed, but she felt funny about other men, including a childhood friend, touching her now that she was supposed to be a married woman.

  On the other hand, being married, even if it had been real, didn’t mean Cade had put his brand on her. Bill was simply trying to help her, as he’d always done. She probably was being silly.

  But when Bill reached for the top button of her shirt, she shied away. “Don’t,” she said, a warning in the word that surprised her. She hadn’t realized she would feel this strongly about being touched without permission.

  He snorted but paid no attention.

  “I believe my wife told you to back off,” a male voice declared in a deceptively lazy drawl.

  Cade opened the door the rest of the way and entered. He looked dangerous. In the dim light shadows formed sharp angles under his high cheekbones.

  When she met his eyes, Leanne realized he was dangerous. Anger glinted from his eyes, directed at the man next to her.

  Cade closed the space between them and put himself between her and Bill. “When a lady says no, it means no. Don’t ever ignore my wife’s wishes again. You understand?”

  Bill’s mouth thinned. “I was concerned about her. Leanne and I have been…friends…” He paused to put an insinuating twist to the word. “…all our lives. In our part of the country, friends look after each other.”

  “She has a husband now. I’ll look after her. Touch her again and you’ll be picking yourself up out of a manure pile, friend.”

  Bill’s hands clenched. Cade shifted into a fighting stance, his legs spread and braced, ready for an attack. Leanne stepped between them.

  “I think I need to lie down,” she murmured to Cade, acting the fragile female to ward off further trouble.

  He flicked her a glance, his face softening. “All right. I want to check that shoulder. Ice will stop the swelling. Liniment shouldn’t be used for forty-eight hours on a bruise,” he added with another warning glance at Bill.

  Leanne leaned against him so that he had to take part of her weight. He put an arm around her shoulders and led her outside and across the quadrangle to the main house. He took her to their room and sat her on the bed before unfastening her shirt.

  “Damn,” Cade said upon lifting her collar and examining her shoulder. “That was a wicked bite. I’ll shoot the horse that did it,” he promised, only half joking.

  He realized he didn’t like her being injured any more than he liked her being bullied.

  “I’ll get that ice pack.” He headed for the kitchen and was back in thirty seconds with a bag of frozen peas.

  She laughed and let him remove the shirt and place the bag on the bruises rapidly forming on her smooth-as-cream skin. She laid her head against his stomach. “Thanks for rescuing me. Again.”

  He felt her breath through his shirt, then he felt her mouth. She pressed several kisses along his waist, right above his belly button. His breath froze.

  “I didn’t know that was an erogenous zone,” he murmured. “Any place you touch probably is.”

  When she slipped one arm around him, he didn’t protest the embrace. “Leanne?” he said, not sure what he was asking.

  “Make love to me, Cade,” she whispered. “I need you to make love to me.”

  The words hung in the air between them. The house was silent as if it waited to see what he would do. He wondered about that himself.

  Nine

  “You’d better give that a second thought, maybe a third,” Cade suggested softly.

  Leanne shook her head. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about for days. Did you…do you have protection?”

  She couldn’t believe she’d asked that. But then, she could discuss anything with Cade. He might be cynical at times, but he took her seriously.

  His glance went to the bedside table, and she knew the answer to her question. She hugged him hard and pressed her face against him.

  “I want you so,” she whispered. “It’s like an ache inside that never leaves. Make it go away, Cade. Make love to me.”

  Against her cheek, she felt his chest rise, then heard him expel the deep breath. His hands touched her hair. When he buried his fingers in the unruly strands, she relaxed and closed her eyes.

  “Let’s get the rest of these out of the way,” he murmured, moving to her clothing.

  “Yes.”

  He helped her first, then she helped him. Other than her nephew, she’d never undressed a male. She wanted to explore and stroke and kiss each part of Cade as it was revealed. When she proceeded to do just that, he caught her chin and tipped her face up to gaze into her eyes.

  “Keep that up and I won’t last a minute,” he warned.

  But his eyes were laughing. She laughed, too. “This is going to be wonderful.”

  “As wonderful as I can make it,” he promised in a husky, thrilling tone. “This one’s for you.”

  With that, he lifted her in his arms and, after sweeping the bedspread and sheet aside, laid her in the bed. She lifted her arms to him when he paused to let his gaze wander over her. Heat rushed to her skin, following each point where his eyes lingered.

  “You make me hot when you look at me like that.”

  “It makes me hot, too.”

  She could see that. His body was erect, ready for completion. Sensations pulsed through her in heated waves. “Come to me,” she invited.

  He smiled and slid down to lay beside her on his side, one hand going behind her neck. His mouth claimed hers in a rampaging kiss that spoke of hunger and needs long left unattended…and other things she couldn’t read.

  “You have the most beautiful body,” he whispered, his free hand roaming over her in gentle forays that set little suns to flaming everywhere he touched.

  He settled on her rib cage below her breasts. With his thumbs, he stroked the undersides of her breasts. She lifted toward him, wanting more.

  “I can’t think,” she told him, pressing kisses along his neck as he nibbled on her earlobe.

  “You don’t have to. Just relax and let me have my way with you.”

  His soft laughter tickled her ear. Laughing with him, feeling deliriously happy, she lifted her face and sought his mouth. He let her take the kiss, then turned it into one of mutual feasting.

  She welcomed his tongue and stroked it with hers. She bit at his lips. He licked hers. Spirals of electricity whirled into the infinite spaces inside her, dazzling her with bright flashes of color.

  Magic. His hands were magic.

  He stroked her breasts, circled the nipples, gathered one into his palm, kneaded until she tingled and ached for more from him. His mouth followed his hands, sucking at her breasts until they tingled in pleasure that soaked right down to the most intimate part of her.

  Time lost all meaning. The universe narrowed until it enclosed only the two of them. Reality was each other. Everything else disappeared.

  “I’ve never felt like this,” she whispered, running her fingers into his thick, gleaming hair that smelled of shampoo and sunshine.

  “You’ll feel even better,” he promised, lifting his head to observe the effects of his handiwork. “You have the most perfect breasts I’ve ever seen. I’ve wanted to do this since that night at the cabin.”

  He bent, took a nipple into his mouth, and brushed his tongue over it while sucking at the same time.

  She clutched his shoulders and held on. “My dress slipped. I was embarrassed. Did you think me wanton?”

  “No.” He gazed into her eyes. “I thought you were frightened—not of me but of something you’d left behind.”

  “My family. And my fiancé,” she added. “I was afraid they would talk me into going through with the wedding.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she realized that was the truth. “You must think me a spineless creature.”

  “You did what you had to. As to what I think…”

  His eyes moved over her i
n a hungry foray. The hot stare stole her breath away. She put a hand over his eyes.

  “Don’t. I can’t breathe when you look at me that way,” she protested.

  He kissed the center of her palm, then pushed her hand to the mattress and held it there. He kissed her mouth and each breast, then down her body to her navel. He played there for a minute and moved on.

  “Cade?” she said when he pressed his face into the curly mound at the junction of her thighs.

  “This is going to be good,” he said, glancing up at her. “I promise you’ll like it. So will I.”

  Her eyes widened when he bent to her, his mouth finding her most intimate place. She gasped when he flicked his tongue over the sensitive nub. When he sucked, she emitted a tiny cry of surprise.

  “This is…I’ve never felt this. Oh, Cade, it’s the most intense sensation…”

  He slipped his hands under her hips, lifting her to him, stroking her constantly so that the pleasure never faded, but grew and grew until she was gasping.

  She tensed when he moved again, stroking inside her and outside at the same time, filling her with more sensation than she could bear. She gasped his name.

  “Easy, love. It’s only going to get better. Tell me anything you don’t like.”

  “Everything is wonderful, so much feeling…and the tension…I’ve never felt this way. I want you. Come to me now.” The miracle of it rushed through her, this wonderful passion, the sharing of it, this wanting to take and to give at the same time.

  “Not yet. I want you to have more. I want to give you pleasure you’ll never forget.”

  His voice was raw, rough with male desire. He bent to her again. His mouth and his finger moved in unison. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed and clutched the sheet as her blood ran hot and rampant, wildly out of her control and totally in his.

  And she didn’t care. Later she would need to think about that, but not now. At this moment she was beyond thought. She could only react to his delicious caresses inside and outside her body.

  She writhed and twisted and cried out as wave after wave of need flashed through her. “Cade, I want…I want…”

  He moved more vigorously, surfeiting her with sensation upon sensation. She stopped breathing.

  The waves mounted, higher and higher yet.

  “Trust me,” he murmured against her hot flesh. “Let yourself go. Take all you need from me.”

  “Don’t stop,” she pleaded. “I’m—”

  There were no words for what happened next. With another caress from him, a sun seemed to explode inside her, causing her to cry out in surprised delight.

  Cade felt the coiled release and nearly came unglued himself. She was the most natural lover he’d ever had, giving herself to him and the pleasure in total trust.

  He moved up beside her when the tension was gone completely and let her rest. “You’ve never had that before,” he murmured, unable to keep the pride out of his voice.

  “Never,” she vowed. She pressed wild kisses all over his chest. “It was the most wonderful thing imaginable. You have no idea—”

  He grinned when she stopped abruptly. A beguiling blush bloomed in her cheeks.

  “I think I have an inkling,” he assured her.

  When he laughed, she tilted her head back and gazed at him with an expression in her eyes that drove a hot poker of need straight down inside him.

  “I want to be in you now,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  She looked so full of anticipation, he had to laugh again. “There’s nothing like a willing woman.”

  “More than willing,” she said with her usual un-abashed honesty that still surprised him.

  “One minute.” He moved away and opened the bedside drawer. He rolled the condom quickly and returned to Leanne.

  She was watching everything he did as if his every action was one of great importance. Something that had been curled tight inside him unfurled like a leaf bud in spring. She made him feel good, and that made him want to deepen the intimacy between them.

  How deep? a cautious part of him asked.

  He didn’t know. It was more than good sex. He knew her dreams. She knew his. He’d helped her when she needed help. She was helping him with the horses and the breeding program for the computer. She was good at both.

  When she ran her hands along his sides, then around his hips to caress his buttocks, he stopped wondering about how involved they were becoming. There was only this moment and her.

  Her.

  He lifted himself over her and nearly came apart at the heat that enclosed him when he entered her. She was hot and wet and open to him.

  “Once more, with pleasure,” he murmured, and reached a hand between them to stroke the pulsating tip that responded as pleasure filled them both to the brim.

  “Look at me,” he requested at one point. “I want to see you when I bring you the ultimate gift between a man and a woman. I want to see the passion in your eyes, on your face. I want to see you enjoy this. I want you to see how much I’m getting from you.”

  “Yes,” she crooned. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

  They went over the edge together, staring intently into each other’s eyes.

  “I want to go,” Leanne insisted.

  Cade shook his head. “You need to rest. You’re injured.”

  “If one of the men was bitten because he stupidly turned his back on a cantankerous horse, would you insist he take the rest of the day off?”

  When he frowned at her, she knew she’d won. She pulled on her clothes and sneakers as fast as she could and clamped her hat on her head. Cade was ready before she was and waited for her. Crossing to the arena, she was careful not to touch him. She’d seen women cling to men as if they owned them after making love. She wouldn’t like someone doing that to her. She wouldn’t do it, either.

  Although she did want to touch him again.

  “Stay inside,” he ordered. “I’ll bring the horses in. We’ll finish this bunch and call it a day. The storm is on its way. The animals will get spooky if there’s lightning.”

  She followed him inside the huge building and saluted smartly at his back.

  He caught her in the act. He stared at her a minute, then a grin broke over his face, turning him into the handsomest man she’d ever seen. “Don’t think you’ll be able to get away with being smart just because you’re sleeping with the boss,” he warned.

  “You mean, I don’t get special privileges? Well, heck!”

  He shook his head, ruffled her hair, then lingered, running his fingertips down her cheek to her mouth. She kissed one finger as it brushed over her lips.

  “Put it where it counts,” he ordered gruffly, and bent to her mouth before she could speak.

  They went from teasing to hot in a flash. He gathered her into his arms, wrapping her in a blanket of warmth and the strangest bliss she’d ever known. The kiss trembled on the brink of control.

  He let her go abruptly and stalked out.

  She leaned against a post, spent as if she’d run a mile. She knew why he’d left. Their passion for each other bothered him. It was all-consuming and way too involving. He didn’t want involvement.

  “That was a pretty scene,” another voice intruded into her musing.

  Whirling, then wincing as she moved her shoulder, she saw Bill at the side door, standing in the shadows. “When did you get here?” she demanded.

  “About the time the kiss went from warm to hot.” He walked over and studied her moodily. “I don’t think you ever kissed me like that.”

  “I didn’t,” she admitted.

  “Why?”

  She understood what he wanted to know. “It’s different with Cade. He…from the first moment…there was something about him…”

  Words failed her. She didn’t want to hurt Bill, but neither could she out-and-out lie. The muscles in his jaw worked. She steeled herself for his anger.

  “It’s because he’s new—a stranger, and therefore more exc
iting than the man who’s been your friend all your life. But strangers can be dangerous, Leanne. You could be hurt.”

  “Cade would never hurt me.”

  He made an impatient sound. “You’ve known the man all of what? Barely over a week. And married him. My God, where was your head?”

  “Where it always was according to you and Rand—up in the clouds.”

  He didn’t catch the irony. “Yes.” He ran his hands through his hair, then put them on his hips.

  The lecture mode, she cynically observed. Maybe Cade’s attitude was rubbing off on her. She’d never been cynical of her longtime friend before.

  “I guess I can understand,” he continued. “You were unsure about the wedding. I admit I was pushing you and using Rand to help out. You ran off and right into someone who was sympathetic and, as you said, different. You were vulnerable. He took advantage—”

  “Never,” she stated, glaring at her ex-fiancé. “Cade was always a gentleman, even when he had to get me out of my bridal dress—” She realized she shouldn’t have said that at the same time fury blazed in his eyes.

  “I can’t believe this. No wonder he can’t keep his hands off you. Why didn’t you call the housekeeper if you needed help?”

  “I…she wasn’t available.”

  The blue eyes narrowed. “Where the hell were you when you met up with him?”

  She considered making up some plausible story and discarded the idea. He wanted to know all the gritty details? She would give them to him. “At a line shack up in the mountains. It was raining and I missed the ranch road. I took shelter there. He fed me and undressed me and loaned me his clothes to wear.”

  “I’ll bet he did.” Bill was the epitome of disgusted male pride.

  “And he didn’t do a blasted thing that was in the least ungentlemanly. Until I asked him to.”

  Fury suffused Bill’s face, which she’d once thought handsome, turning it brick red. “I suppose I’ll have to give him credit for marrying you. It’s obvious he didn’t have to.”

  Leanne bowed her head as the extent of her lies hit her. Cade probably wished she’d never shown up at the cabin. Perhaps she should admit there was no marriage, that she just wanted to be left alone to sort out her life and Cade had covered for her so she could. Would anyone believe they had slept in his room without…?