by Ashlee Price
She nodded and moved towards him on her crutches. Katie was getting used to them, but she was still a bit clumsy on them. “I really need to use a phone, but I didn’t see one. Do you have a cell phone I could use?”
Paul nodded that he didn’t, but he showed her on the wall where the landline was. She had passed it several times and never noticed it. Feeling silly, she didn’t make much of a comment. “Is there anything else I can get for you? Colt is still out, but he won’t go anywhere too far.”
“No, I’m good Paul. Just need to make a few calls. I was supposed to be flying back today.”
“Are you sure you are ready for travel?” He didn’t want to sound desperate, but he didn’t want her to leave either. Paul wanted her to stay forever, but he would settle on another couple of days with her for starters.
“I really am not, but I couldn’t impose on you anymore.”
“Nonsense, Katie. All you do is sleep anyways, no trouble. Stay as long as you need to. Me and Scott are out working most nights until dark, so you will have all the peace and quiet you need.” He stopped talking, realizing he was talking far too fast and starting to babble.
Katie grinned, “I might take you up on that offer for another day or two if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” Paul walked out the front door smiling to himself. Her staying didn’t mean anything, but it gave him hope that it may.
Chapter 5
It had been almost a week since Paul had first found her and though she had a whole life left behind in New York, something was keeping her in the ranch in Texas. She had met the mother Elna that ran the business and a few more brothers and other family. It felt right to her there and with whatever was going on with Paul.
He was a man of few words, but his eyes and face were expressive enough that none were really needed anyways. Paul wanted her and though he was gentle and always a gentleman, there were times that he looked at her in a way that made her shiver inside. The longer she knew him, the more she wanted to stay with him, but she knew that it had to end one way or another. Her life was in New York and she too had a family company to work at. It was what she had done since getting out of college and though she loved the quiet of the country, there was a part of her that missed the hustle and bustle of city life.
She had decided that she would tell Paul and Scott that evening that she would be leaving the next day. Her family had been pushing her to come home for days and get herself looked at by a ‘real doctor’. Katie hadn’t told them that she had been stitched up by an animal doctor. She would smile to herself when she thought of her mother’s face if she knew. Katie was going to save it for a day that she needed some brightening up.
Her skill with crutches was getting better and she was moving around the kitchen to make the two brothers some dinner. It was the first time that she had really been feeling well enough to stay on her feet so long and Katie’s way of saying thank you again. The words seemed to not be enough. There was also the fact that while Paul was a good cook, she couldn’t eat beans again. The two seemed to have an affinity to them and it was driving her a bit looney.
One of the old parts of the house that she had liked was the dinner bell off to the side, mounting by the porch swing to the wall. She jangled the small metal piece against the triangle and went back in. It had a strange sound, but it wasn’t very loud and she didn’t know if it would work or not. It was still pretty early for them to be back, but she couldn’t wait to see Paul, wanting to spend as much time as she could with him before she left.
When the door flung open after a couple of minutes, she looked back startled, almost losing her grip on the plate in her hand. “What’s wrong?”
Katie got over her shock and shook her head. “Nothing. Jeez you scared me Paul. I was just calling for dinner. I know it isn’t time yet, but you work too hard as it is.”
Once he realized that she was fine, he looked to what she was holding. “What are you doing?”
“I made dinner. I can’t sit in that bed all day while you two work. It wouldn’t be right.”
“I don’t mind taking care of you Katie, whatever you need.”
She knew that he meant it. His dark blue eyes told her so. Taking the plate from her hand, he helped her to the chair and she gratefully sat down. She had never used some of the muscles she was using now and with one foot out of commission, it all fell on her good leg, but she was still sore as her body was trying to accustom itself to the change.
“You are already too good to me Paul. You are like my own white knight.” It was true and it made Katie sad for a moment. She didn’t want to leave him, even if she had to. “You make me never want to leave.”
“Then don’t.”
He had grabbed his plate and sat down next to her. Neither one of them was thinking about the brother still out working. “I have to. I run the east coast franchises and we are headquartered in New York.”
“What do they do again?” Paul had remembered her telling him about what she did for a living, but Katie had been twisting her red strands of hair between her fingers and he was left with nothing at all to say. He had zoned out, tuning her out at that time, well several times since she had started staying with him. She would do the sexiest things and the whole time not realize she was doing it, making it far more appealing. Katie drove him crazy much of the time, like right then as she touched his hand to pass the salt.
“We own a bunch of restaurants.”
“Is that where you learned to cook?”
“Yes, after business school, I took chef courses as well. I didn’t think I should run a place that I couldn’t do all positions in, so I learned to cook. Always loved to anyways, but there was some techniques that I learned along the way.”
“This is really good Katie.”
She kind of giggled and waved him off. Everything she did was good to him and he had been complementing her since they had met. “I bet you would have said that even if it tasted like slop.”
He looked down, slightly embarrassed and she loved the fact that he could be embarrassed at his age. While Paul had always wanted to talk about her, she still didn’t know that much about him. She learned more from other people than Paul himself. He really was a man with few words.
“You are going to be leaving soon, aren’t you?”
Katie looked up from her plate and at his pained eyes. They both knew that it couldn’t last where she was, but her moment from reality had taken her mind off of the passing of her father and if anything, she was more thankful for that than anything else he had done for her. “Yeah I have to.”
“When?”
She suddenly didn’t want to tell him that she was leaving in the morning. Katie didn’t want to leave him in that moment as he looked at her. His square jaw flexed when he was concerned and she felt the same way as he looked, his face so open to expression.
Swallowing hard, she licked her lips and told him that she was leaving in the morning. “So soon?”
“Yeah, I have already been here a week and I have a lot to do when I get back. I am sure the ranch wouldn’t run without you here for a week.”
He nodded, knowing it was coming, yet still not wanting to believe that soon she would be gone. There was something in the way that she looked at him longingly, that made him wish that she didn’t have to go. Paul had maintained a fantasy in his head that they would be together somehow. “I just don’t want you to go, is all. I’ve gotten used to you here and I wish you could stay always.”
Paul leaned in closer to her, so close that she closed her eyes in preparation for a kiss. Katie had been waiting for days for one, always seeing it in his eyes, but he never made a move. She found herself leaning in slowly, urging him to do what she was waiting so long for. Their lips touched softly at first and then harder as he leaned in further, pressing his lips against hers quickly.
Her mouth opened at his urging and the soft moan that left her lips egged him on. Neither one of them saw the door open or heard Scott walk in. Until
he slammed it shut as he always did. Paul pulled back reluctantly when she jumped at the sound. They were apart when Scott finally came into the kitchen. “Something smells good.”
Paul was trying to straighten himself, his body trembling from the kiss. It was more than he had thought, electrifying and perfect. He hadn’t felt that way from a kiss and if it wasn’t against his nature, he would have told his brother to go piss off. Paul wanted to kiss her again, but she looked like she was not ready to show their affection to another. Why hadn’t he waited just a few more minutes before he came in?
“Katie made it. Apparently she can cook too. I am starting to think that there isn’t anything she can do.”
Katie’s cheeks turned red with his compliment and she looked away to focus on the pasta on her plate. She let the two men talk about their day and what work was needed tomorrow. It seemed like they were always working, but it didn’t seem to bother them. Paul was happy where he was, it was obvious to anyone that was around him. He was happiest with his horse though, training and riding him. There was a look of joy that came over his face that Katie envied. She had never felt that way about anything or anyone before and one day hoped that she would find her passion.
She was happiest cooking, but she was expected to work in the family business and as the VP, she couldn’t just quit and become the chef she wanted to be. When she looked over Scott’s mouth was moving, but she didn’t hear him, tuning him out to her own loud thoughts in her mind. “What, sorry?”
“Where did you learn to cook like this?”
“Her family owns restaurants.”
“How many of them?”
“Hundreds.”
Scott nodded, but didn’t speak again, his mouth full of dinner. It had been a long time since he had tried anything so good. He too was tired of Paul’s thinking of her as perfect, but he had to agree in that instance. She could cook.
The three sat in silence as they ate, neither man taking long enough to say much of anything. Paul was waiting to finish the kiss that she had started not too long before. He needed to feel her again and when Scott finally left the table, he was saddened to see her get up as well. Frustrated, he left the plate on the table and didn’t offer to help with the dishes. He had to give himself some time to ease the need inside of him, since it would seem that he wasn’t going to be able to any other way. If she wasn’t for him, Paul felt like he was just there to torture him and then leave him yearning for her.
***
Katie climbed the stairs after Paul went up there in a huff a little while before. She knew he was upset about her leaving, but she had to and she knew that he had to understand that. It wasn’t like she had seen him coming though. Her life was already mapped out, but Katie hadn’t been expecting to find a man like Paul. It was of course her luck that she had to have one of the worst days and nights of her life to finally meet the one she was supposed to be with.
She knocked on his door softly and after a minute with no answer, pushed it open to talk to him. Katie didn’t want to leave on those terms, with him mad at her. She couldn’t bare it and she wanted him to forgive her for going. After all he had done for her, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt him.
He wasn’t in his bedroom, but the moment before she was about to leave, Paul came out of the steaming bathroom. He was wearing a towel wrapped around his trim waist and her eyes went where they shouldn’t. Her mouth was dry as she looked at his hard, rippled body. His chest hairs were light and springy. Katie wanted to go to him then, but she was stuck frozen to the spot she was in.
She finally looked down, not knowing where else to put her eyes. She didn’t want to look away. He seemed to like her discomfort and smiled at her struggle. “Sorry Paul, I didn’t know you would be so hard. I mean naked. I meant naked. Sorry.”
“You said that already.” He took a step towards her as her cheeks reddened. It was not the first time it had happened. The longer he was around her, the more flustered she seemed to become.
“I can’t think when you are like that.”
“What? I am basically covered. What you wear at the beach and all.”
Her head nodded, but Katie was still not able to speak. He was still wet from the shower and while the towel did cover him up, it left very little to the imagination. The longer Katie looked at it, the bigger the knot underneath the cotton became. “You keep staring at it. You are going to make it bigger.”
She looked up, dragging her eyes up his hard chest and finally to his eyes that were now laughing at her. Was she that obvious? Katie knew she was, half tempted to wipe her mouth off, sure she was drooling. “I wasn’t staring.” She could hear the quavering in her voice as she tried not to sound defensive or so needy.
He didn’t believe her and Katie didn’t blame him. She had never been one to hide the way she felt and in that moment, she was thinking of only one thing. Paul was all business, though, sure he was going to embarrass himself if she looked at him like that again. “Did you need something?”
She shook her head that she did, though she didn’t remember what she had originally come in there for. He wanted to hear the words, not letting her off with just a whimper and bedroom eyes. Her green eyes tried to tell him, but she couldn’t. After another few heartbeats of silence, it was Paul that broke the silence. “What did you need Katie?”
Her eyes flicked down to where she had been staring before and then back up to his eyes that were no longer laughing. All she had to say was one word and she knew that he would have his hands on her, what she truly needed. It was just getting the courage to say it that made it so hard to do.
“You, Paul. I need you.”
He moved towards her quickly, pulling her soft body up against his and kissing her until she could no longer think anymore. Her body yielded to his commanding touch, giving him anything that he wanted. Katie was his to take. But just that night and they both knew that it would have to be enough.
***
“Sorry I didn’t wake you up Paul, but you looked so peaceful sleeping that I didn’t have the heart. I also don’t have the heart to tell you goodbye, so I will leave you this. Thank you for everything and for last night. I will always remember how magical it was. Love, Katie.”
Paul looked down at the note and then around the room. She was gone and the place beside him where she had been was cold. Sighing to himself, he closed his eyes for a moment, making sure that the night before had not been a figment of his imagination. He got up hoping to catch her, for one last kiss, to say goodbye, but when he went downstairs to the guest room, it was empty and she was gone.
“Where are your pants Paul?”
Paul looked down and saw that he had nothing on. “Sorry.” He turned around and went back up the stairs and shut his bedroom door behind him. Sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach was back and a part of his heart was gone.
Chapter 6
“You can’t keep moping around the house brother. It has been almost a week now.”
Paul just shrugged. It had been a week since she had left and he had heard from her. He knew that she was gone and that he probably wouldn’t see her again, but he didn’t care. What he cared about was her and a life that he had for so long found fulfilling was no longer so. He was empty. Part of him knew that he was never going to get back what he lost.
Katie had just become like some figment to his imagination. She was a dream that came true, but only for one night and even though Scott knew that, he hated to see his brother that way. Scott decided if that is what love was, then maybe he was better off not feeling it after all.
“I have never seen you like this before. Why are you acting like this is the first time you have had a break-up?”
“We didn’t break-up Scott. She was never mine to begin with.”
Scott just shook his head, not sure what to say to Paul to make him feel better. He knew that he had to get it together. He hadn’t shaved in several days and he hadn’t even taken his horse out to walk since
then. Colt was getting as irritated at him as Scott was. But he didn’t know how to change the feelings in his heart.
“Then why are you moping around here like you lost your prom date?”
“Because I love her.”
It was the first time that Paul had said it in his head, let alone out loud. He did love her and though he knew it was wrong to, only going to hurt him in the end, she was the type of woman that you couldn’t help but love. Katie had something inside of her that brought out the best in him and though she was gone, it was impossible for Paul to just forget about her. He didn’t want to forget about her and what they had shared.
Scott didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. He had seen the love between them happening and his own chest had tightened a few times with the idea that he wished that he could find the same love, but now he wasn’t so sure. Paul now seemed to be in a pure painful agony that had no end in sight. How would anyone want what he was going through? “I am sorry Paul. I don’t know what to tell you. You can move on or go get her. Those are your two choices. You can’t just sit here moping.”
Paul just shrugged. His brother had no idea what he was going through. How could he? He had never been in love and he was sure if he had ever been, he would give better advice than to shake it off. “I can’t help it. She is gone.”
The dark-haired man was sick of hearing it and he left the table with a huff. There was nothing worse than watching someone struggle that had no desire to fix the situation. “Fine Paul, just sit there and mope then. One of us has to go feed the animals.”
“I am going Scott. Look, I am sorry I have been such a drag. I never felt this way before and I knew that she was going to be leaving and I didn’t want to see her go, but I at least thought that I would get to say goodbye to her.”
“Does it really matter though? I mean you were going to have to end it one way or another. She lives up in New York and we leave here. It is like two different worlds and I know that since Davina did it for Marcel, you think there is a chance, but Davina and Katie are very different.”