Leaving a wife to wonder if he’d come home that night or end up dead in some shoot-out was something he’d never do. He’d learned from his father’s mistakes and wouldn’t repeat them.
He took a deep breath and Caterina’s fragrance ensnared his senses. If there was a woman on God’s green earth capable of changing his mind, though, she was the one.
Kade had never been as attuned to a female as he was to the feisty Italian girl. Everything about her intrigued him, drew him in, and left him aching to have something he knew could never be his.
After rubbing his flat, muscled stomach, he got to his feet and bowed to Li.
“Thank you for another fine meal, Li. I appreciate it,” Kade said.
“You welcome.” Li smiled and bowed. Nik, and the rest of the hands, had been helping him learn to speak better English. “Eat anytime.”
“Don’t tell him that,” Dent said, waggling a finger at Kade. “The way that one eats, none of us would get anything.”
Everyone laughed and Kade settled his hat on his head then leaned down by Caterina.
“Care to go for a walk?”
Unsettled by both the deputy’s proximity and his breath fanning across her cheek, she found it impossible to speak. She nodded her head and waited as Kade pulled out her chair and helped her to her feet.
“The sheep are in the pasture just over the hill, if you want to check on them,” Aundy said, winking at Kade.
“Then that’s the direction we’ll go.” Kade took Caterina’s elbow in his hand and walked past the barn toward the pasture.
Unnerved to be completely alone with Kade, Caterina focused on putting one foot in front of the other as they sauntered up the hill. He was too virile, too attractive, too…everything for her own good.
“Enjoying your stay here with Garrett and Aundy?” Kade asked in a friendly tone as they walked up a narrow trail.
“Oh, yes.” Caterina looked at Kade with moist eyes. “They are the nicest, most wonderful people. I never expected strangers to take me in like this.”
“Aundy enjoys having another woman around. I think she misses her sister something fierce.” Kade grabbed Caterina’s arm when she stumbled over a tree root near the top of the hill. Instead of letting go when she righted herself, he slid his hand down and clasped her fingers in his.
She turned and looked at him from beneath lowered lashes, making heat stir in his middle and trail upward to his chest. When she didn’t object, he brushed his thumb along her palm.
“Why doesn’t her sister come? Aundy said she works for their aunt in Chicago. Surely she could leave any time she wanted.” Caterina tried to pay attention to where she walked but found it challenging with Kade holding her hand so intimately in his.
Never paying much attention to men’s clothing before meeting the deputy, Caterina noticed Kade wore a pair of snug tan canvas pants, dusty boots, a dark brown shirt and a bright green neckerchief, the same rich shade of green as his eyes. A brown hat covered his sun-streaked hair, and a gun belt rested around his hips. She thought he looked dangerous, both to those who broke the law and to her heart. It would be so easy to fall for him, but Caterina knew that eventually she’d discover he was as treacherous as all the police officers who were part of Luigi’s circle.
“I think her sister is under contract to her aunt, or some such thing. Their brother ran off after their mother died and her sister is all the family Aundy has left, except for the aunt.”
“That’s so sad.” Caterina wondered what she’d do if she had no family. Although essentially in exile, she at least knew her family was waiting for her in New York. If she ever made it back to the city, they’d be there, ready to embrace her and surround her with their love. “I’d die without my family.”
“You said you have five older brothers?” Kade wanted to earn Caterina’s trust. She held something back from him and he planned to keep digging until he found out what. “Was that hard, being the only girl and the youngest?”
Caterina laughed and turned gold-flecked eyes his direction. He stopped walking, falling into their depths, entranced by the sound of her laugh and her smoky voice. “It wasn’t hard. I was pampered and spoiled, safeguarded and protected. They all treated me like a princess. Even when three of my brothers married, they still watched out for me. They’re good brothers, even if they can be a little domineering.”
“With a beauty like you, they probably had to be on guard at all times.” Kade offered Caterina one of his most charming smiles. “I bet they daily chased off love-struck suitors.”
She blushed and shook her head.
“Although many boys came to call, I was much more interested in cooking. I worked in my uncle’s…”
Caterina cut herself off before she said too much.
“In your uncle’s what?” Kade prompted, starting to get somewhere in his investigation.
“Business.” Caterina centered her attention on the sheep in the pasture. The scene was so peaceful she sank down on the grass and watched the animals graze. She felt Kade’s warmth beside her as he sat, one knee bent, leaning back on his elbows.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as he slowly tipped his hat back and plucked a blade of grass, sticking it in his mouth and rolling it between his teeth. His shirt stretched over his broad shoulder muscles and Caterina wondered if they would feel as solid as they looked through the fabric.
Tightly clasping her hands in her lap, she focused her attention back on the sheep. Nik’s pet lamb, Butter, ran over to them and after a rub on his head, raced back to the other lambs cavorting in the pasture.
“Let me guess. Your uncle had a restaurant. Is that right?” Kade studied her with half-closed eyes and a lazy grin that made her stomach flutter and her limbs languid.
“Yes,” Caterina said quietly. Would she ever learn to keep her mouth shut?
“So you cooked for your uncle. How long did you work for him?”
“From the time I was fifteen until a few weeks ago.” Caterina wasn’t willing to lie, even if she wished Kade would stop asking her questions.
“And you leaving the restaurant, would that have anything to do with your fiancé?”
“Fiancé? Are you pazzo?” Caterina jumped to her feet, her voice rising in volume, causing the sheep to look their direction. “I have no fiancé.”
“The man who stopped by the office today had a different story.” Kade kept his lazy grin in place and his body forcibly relaxed.
When a nasty little man with a bad attitude walked into the office that afternoon, Kade pegged him as a troublesome bully. After listening to him talk about an Italian girl with more passion than sense who ran away from her very wonderful fiancé in New York, Kade wanted to punch the man in the nose and lock him in a cell. Instead, he wished him luck and sent him on his way.
Caterina’s knees gave out on her and she dropped to the grass with a thud. Kade sat up and placed a hand on her back, watching fear and anger fill her face.
“What did this man say?” she asked, her voice shaking.
“He spun a wild tale about a man who had been in love with a young girl for years and years, waiting for her to grow up. She finally agreed to marry him and the very next day ran away.” When Kade lifted Caterina’s hand in his, it felt limp and clammy. He rubbed it between his big fingers a few times before continuing. “The man said he followed her as far as Wyoming where a pickpocket detained him from boarding the train when he got off to purchase lunch. He spent the last two weeks getting off at every stop the train made, trying to find the girl so he could take her back to New York. Interesting story, isn’t it?”
Slowly nodding her head, Caterina looked at Kade and he felt his heart turn to syrup.
“He had a photograph of the girl.” Kade thought of the image the man shoved in his face. It was a perfect likeness of Caterina, from the black, curly hair piled on her head and snapping dark eyes to her button nose and delectable lips.
“What did she look like?
” Caterina asked, hoping against hope the photo wasn’t of her. That it was some mistake. That Vito hadn’t truly found her. If he had, she’d run away. Aundy would give her a horse and she’d disappear. She heard California was warm and sunny. Maybe she’d go to the Sonoma Valley and open a restaurant there.
“Quite lovely, as a matter of fact.” Kade worked to maintain a straight face. He looked skyward, as if he attempted to recall the details of the photo. “She has raven-black hair that catches the sun and shines like midnight velvet. Curls fall around her face, meant to tease and tempt a man. Her skin is soft and smooth, cheeks rosy, lips full and inviting. Though small, her nose is perfectly formed. She has the most enticing little dimple above her upper lip. Oh, and her eyes. Amazing eyes, dark and deep, flecked with gold and dancing with life.”
“And you saw all this from a photograph?” A smile worked at the corners of her mouth despite her fears. “Was it a painting, perhaps, to have all that colorful detail?”
“Not a painting, but I knew the face well.” Kade would never admit it filled his dreams every time he closed his eyes since the day Caterina set foot off the train in Pendleton.
He knew every single detail about her face, whether he liked it or not.
When that Italian man boarded the train out of town, Kade made sure the photo stayed in his possession. Right now, it was tucked away in his pocket. “It’s a face a man would remember, even if he saw it only once.”
“You’re teasing me.” Caterina slapped half-heartedly at Kade’s leg, connecting with rock-hard muscle.
She jerked her fingers back. Kade caught her hand and pulled it to his lips, kissing her palm before twining their fingers together.
“I’m quite serious, Cat,” he said, using the nickname that floated through his mind for the last week. After she called him a stupid man and tried to take his plate at dinner that first night, he thought of her as a wildcat. She might hiss and splutter, but he’d bet he could make her purr as well. “You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.”
“Thank you.” Demurely, she dropped her gaze to her lap. Her mind twirled around the way he shortened her name and how it rolled off his lips, sounding like an endearment.
“You’re also in trouble.” Kade reached over and gently lifted her chin until she looked him in the eye. “Why don’t you tell me the real reason you’re here in Pendleton?”
“I … um… What did you tell that man?” Caterina asked, still not trusting Kade.
“That I’d know if there was a woman that stunning residing in town, and you weren’t. I didn’t feel the need to clarify you’re staying a few miles out of town, though. I wished him luck and sent him on his way. He’s bad news, Cat. I know a liar and a thief when I meet one. That man would hurt you if he had the opportunity.”
Caterina agreed with Kade’s assessment of Luigi’s thug. That didn’t mean, though, she was ready to tell Kade what really happened. Just because he helped her this time, it didn’t mean he would in the future.
What if Luigi’s man came back and offered a reward for information about her. Would Kade take it and turn her over to him? She’d like to think he wouldn’t, but she’d thought better of the officers Luigi had under his thumb.
She rose to her feet and wrapped her arms around her middle then stared at the sheep. For a moment, she wished she could see into the future and know if she was safe in Pendleton. Confused, she didn’t know what to do.
Lost in her thoughts, she jumped when Kade put his big, warm hands on her shoulders and pulled her back against him. Despite the fact she knew she needed to keep her distance from him, it felt so good to lean on his strength.
“Cat, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, it’s going to make it hard for me to keep you safe and protected.” He bent down and passed his lips so softly across the skin beneath her ear, Caterina wondered if she imagined the touch. When his lips brushed her cheek, a shiver rolled from her head all the way to her toes and she knew it wasn’t her imagination.
Slowly, he turned her in his arms and she lost herself in his green eyes. Instead of the brightness she expected, they were dark and stormy, luring her into a place she found both frightening and exhilarating.
After growing up with a house full of brothers and spending time around men at both the store and restaurant, Caterina thought she knew a considerable amount about the male species in general. However, she’d never had a steady beau and the kisses she’d experienced were quick and chaste from boys who were afraid one of her brothers might catch them and pound them into the ground.
Nothing in her past prepared her for the heat flaming through her entire being when Kade claimed her lips with his. Although she expected him to be harsh or rough, he was tender, unhurried, and oh, so thorough.
Not giving a thought to the possible consequences of her actions, both of her hands wrapped behind his neck and she pressed against his brawny chest, incapable of doing anything beyond wanting another kiss.
“Cat…” His husky whisper caused her to raise her bedazzled gaze to meet his. “Oh, darlin’.” He wrapped her more closely in his arms and lifted her off her feet as he melded his mouth to hers again.
Completely lost in the sensations rushing through her, Caterina was helpless to move, to think, to do anything but return what Kade offered.
When he finally slid her down so her feet touched the ground, her knees would have crumpled beneath her if his arms hadn’t been around her.
“Kade, I never…” The charismatic lawman had drawn more from her than she’d allowed any other man.
“Never what?” Kade assumed a woman like Caterina, so beautiful and full of life, had any number of men vying for her attention. The way she responded to his kiss, full of longing and ardor, certainly couldn’t be from a woman who’d never touched her lips to a man’s.
“It’s nothing.” Caterina pulled back enough she could gaze into his face.
“Are you certain?” He lowered his head for another kiss. Although he’d kissed plenty of girls, none had ever made him feel so off kilter, so close to losing his control, as the one in his arms. The arousing scent of her fragrance left him nearly undone. He needed to get her back to the house.
His reason for getting her alone was so they could talk about the Italian bully that visited his office that afternoon. Resolved, he refocused his efforts on needling the truth out of her.
Tantalizingly, he nuzzled her ear. Kisses seared her neck and she melted against him again. Convinced she was under his spell, Kade lowered his voice and spoke softly in her ear. “Cat? Why did you come? What are you running from? Just tell me and I’ll help you.” An unmistakable shiver ran through her as he held her.
With her eyes mostly closed and her lips slightly parted, Kade thought she looked like pure temptation. Trained to put aside his emotions, it took every ounce of skill he possessed to keep from ravishing her with kisses.
“I had to leave. Mamma cried and Papa was so… Oh!” Caterina popped her eyes wide open. Kade had almost tricked her into telling her story. “You imbroglione! Trickster! How dare you! You tried to… to... seduce me into telling you everything. Bene! You want to know my story, I’ll tell you. There is a very bad man who wants to do bad things to me, and sent his hired ruffian to track me down. You’ve met him, so you said. That’s all you need to know.”
Caterina spun around and started running toward the house. Halfway down the hill, Kade caught her, lifting her in his arms and holding her against him.
“Cat, be reasonable.” He felt more alive than he’d ever been as sparks sizzled between the two of them. “I need to know what happened so I can take care of you.”
“Beh.” She flicked her fingers dismissively. “You’ll just use the information against me, like the others.”
“What others? What are you talking about?” Kade asked, confused.
“Never mind. Put me down, you horrid brute, and leave me alone!” She struggled against him, but his arms were too str
ong.
The sensations produced by his nearness, carried in those powerful arms, were almost more than she could bear. She didn’t think she’d ever felt so safe and cared for in her life and goodness knew her family had done their best to keep her sheltered and protected.
“I can’t leave you alone, even if I wanted to, and I don’t.” Kade continued carrying her down the hill. When they reached the bottom, he set her on her feet. Before she could run off to the house, he put one hand behind her neck, the other around her back, and held her eyes with his. “I won’t hurt you, Cat. If you want me to help you, all you have to do is ask.”
“I won’t be asking, Deputy Rawlings!” Caterina stomped off toward the house. He followed along behind, watching her skirts swish with each angry step she took. The slamming of the kitchen door made him wince as he stood by the machine shed.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you made her mad,” Dent observed with a grin as he ambled around the corner of the building with a bucket of feed for the pigs.
“With that one, it doesn’t seem to take much.” Kade removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair before settling it back in place.
Dent laughed and slapped Kade on the back with his free hand. “Fractious, is she?”
“Yes.”
“Completely unpredictable?”
“Definitely.”
“Volatile? Spirited? Beautiful?”
“Absolutely,” Kade agreed, then realized Dent was baiting him. He glared at the older man and shook his head.
“You’ve broken horses before, haven’t you, son?” Dent already knew the answer.
“Yes, sir.” Kade looked toward the house, wondering if Caterina was inside telling Aundy what a despicable oaf he’d turned out to be.
“Then you know sometimes you have to work a little harder to bring those with spirit and gumption around to your way of thinking.” Dent chuckled as he sauntered in the direction of the pigpen.
Caterina (Pendleton Petticoats Book 2) Page 8