by Ashlee Price
He asked as he pulled out and pushed back in quickly. Katie’s eyes were still closed, but she shook her head that she was. It was hard to think when he was inside of her and the way he took her breath away. “Promise?”
“Yes Paul. I can’t help but love you.”
Paul pushed deeper and her words gave him what he needed to hear. All he had ever wanted was her and now that he had her, he just wanted to hear her scream again. Unlike before though, there was no soft music playing to cover up the sharp intake of breath as he drove back deep inside of her. He liked it better that way, nothing hidden and she seemed more exposed.
His hand moved down to her thigh, hiking it up higher with his forearm while his fingers rubbed on her swollen center. Their lips touched as he moved faster inside of her, but she finally pulled away as she cried out into the still night. He liked the quiet more, for no other reason than to have missed all of her noises from the sound of the city around them. There at the ranch, he could savor every last bit of them and make her make more as he finds out what it was that drives her so mad.
“Paul, yes, oh!”
Her body tightened up around him until he couldn’t move. He just pressed as deep as he could, while his fingers flew on her quim. Her hand moved to stop him, but he wasn’t going to allow it. She had come to him and now he was going to take all that he wanted. When she started to beg for him to stop, he rolled her over onto her stomach and took her more slowly.
Shortly after, she was begging him for more and he was more than happy to oblige. Her own fingers pressed against her sensitive clit, pushing herself and then him to new levels as her insides milked him dry. He collapsed after several moments beside her and Katie was able to finally catch her breath.
“I really hope I am not dreaming.”
Katie giggled a little and turned to lie on his sweaty chest. “If you are, then I am too.”
His arm came around her tightly and he looked down at the dark green eyes looking back at him. “What are you doing here Katie?”
“I heard you were in the area and didn’t even stop and said hi. So I thought I would come say ‘hi’ to you.” Katie leaned in and kissed his lips slowly. They were just as soft as she remembered, even though hers were reddened from the rough kisses from before. His beard was sharp and scratchy, but she liked the feel of it against her cheeks.
“I’m sorry I didn’t stop, but I knew I couldn’t compete with that.”
“You don’t have to Paul. You have made me happier than any time that I was in New York. I love you and I want to stay here with you, if you will have me.”
“Everything I have is yours Katie. Everything.”
“Good, because I want more of this.”
Her body was not finished with him, sliding over the top of him slowly. Paul’s eyes closed as his hands moved to pull her hips down, taking both their minds off of the next moment. Right then, there was only now and the feelings rendering them both speechless.
~THE END~
Cowboy’s Marriage
Introduction
Mother Callahan has fallen ill, and it’s up to her eldest son, Marcel, to run the business while she’s recuperating. That means he has to hang up his hat and put on a suit for the first time – he has to take care of the business end of things instead of working the family ranch like he’s used to.
Marcel hates the city, the concrete and noise, but then he finds an island of light in the middle of the darkness. Everything looks better when he meets a young woman with dark hair and blue eyes that he could fall in love with. That he does fall in love with.
Marcel wants to take her home to the ranch and make her his bride. But nothing happens the way it is supposed to. If he can’t get her to fall for him, he won’t be able to convince her to leave her fast-paced life.
If only he can convince Davina, everything will be perfect.
Chapter 1
Marcel waited patiently for the doctors to do what they could for her. His mother was getting older and this was the second bout she had had with her heart. It didn’t look so good this time. There was damage from the previous time and Marcel was sure that something bad was going to happen. It was the feeling deep in his gut that told him that everything was about to change.
The bench was hard underneath him and he checked his phone for the third time. He had sent a message out to all of his siblings, yet no one was answering and Marcel worried that something would happen and no one would be there. They had already lost their father on a private plane crash while he was surveying land to buy. No one had been able to say goodbye then either.
He got up from the bench and started to pace. Marcel hated hospitals, but it was not the first time and he had learned that moving around seemed to help. It wasn’t helping in that instance, but he did it more out of a need to do something.
“Marcel, I got your message.” He smiled at his sister in law and asked about his brother Chris.
“No he is off shore for the next couple of weeks and he won’t be back until then. I can try to get transport, but I don’t know if they will go for it.”
“Don’t worry about it. I think it will be okay. But if I am wrong, I don’t know. Let’s see what the doctor says first.”
The brunette moved to hug Marcel. He was the oldest and held guilt and the responsibility on his family from a young age. Now to even think of losing his mother, Marcel was doing a very poor job of hiding his emotions, something that he was known for. In that moment he just sighed heavily and for just a few seconds, was able to slump against her and not be so strong.
“It will be okay. Elna is strong and she will get through this. Just calm down. Have you talked to anyone else?”
He shook his head that he hadn’t. Everyone was too busy with their own lives and Scott and Paul didn’t even have cell phones. They were out running the cattle and wouldn’t be back in till nightfall to check their answering machine. “You know Paul and Scott won’t be in till the sun goes down and Henri is off in South America. I don’t know what Gemma is doing.”
Leanna pulled away. “I will call Gemma and see where she is at. Just sit down Marcel. You are making everyone nervous.”
Marcel looked around and then noticed the looks he was getting from the other people in the small waiting room. He took up a lot of space and was quite large, only making the room smaller. Pausing with indecision even though his body wanted to move, he finally sat back down and tried not to twitch. After a few moments he went and talked to the nurse station. She was in surgery and wouldn’t be out for at least an hour.
Instead of staying inside to worry, he went down to the entrance and went for a short walk. Leanna had been on the phone when he had gotten back from talking to the nurse and if anyone could rally the people there, it was her. The space helped clear his mind and he found himself praying, something he hadn’t done in a very long time. It wasn’t like him to be so agitated, but the city always did that to him. It was where the good doctors were, but there was just far too much concrete and not enough green to suit him. What he wouldn’t give to change the morning’s events and be back on the ranch where they were supposed to be.
Marcel had walked about two miles before he turned around and started back. He was feeling better, some of the excess energy gone from troubling him, but he still wanted her to be okay. When he got back in the waiting room and seen his sister, he knew that it was going to be okay. Gemma had a way about her. Just being in her presence was enough to make him feel better about it all. “She is going to be fine bro. Mom will be fine, she always is.”
***
The doctor came out and he had an unreadable face. He should have played poker, Marcel thought to himself. Now he wanted assurances, not that not grim, expressionless face. Standing up, Marcel walked up to him as he waited to hear news on his mom. What he hoped for was to hear it said that she was going to be okay. Marcel had to check the reactions of his sister and sister-in-law, just to make sure that he had heard it correctly.
Sighing, he thanked the man. “She is going to have a rough road ahead of her, but I know Elna and I know that she is going to pull through just fine. She is made from sturdy stock.”
“Can we see her?”
He nodded, “But she is going to be resting for a while. She came out from the operation fine, but Elna is going to be foggy for the rest of the day.”
Marcel was already moving towards the double doors where the man had just come from ICU. He had to see her, make sure she was okay with his own eyes and then he could breathe finally. When Gemma followed him, he took strength from her being there next to him.
When they moved into her room, Marcel stood over her for a moment and was a bit surprised when her eyes opened. “I’m not dead yet.”
He leaned back, standing up. “Mom, this is not funny. You just had a heart attack.”
Elna smiled and he pushed the brown hair back from her forehead. “I know Marcel. I am feeling my age today.” She looked around and saw Gemma and Leanna, but he knew that she was looking for the rest of her boys. “Where are your brothers?”
“You know Paul and Scott are running cattle, Henri and Chris are out of the area right now.” He was worried that she was confused, but she sighed.
“I know. I have something to say and I wish all of you were here, but I guess you will have to bring them back home when you can. You will give them the message won’t you?”
Her speak was worrying to her son. She sounded like she was giving up or wanting to say good bye. “Don’t talk like that. You are going to be fine.”
“No, not like that, I’ve just been thinking.”
Marcel sat down next to her. “Okay, what were you thinking about?”
“I was thinking that I need to pass the company on now. I can’t keep working there, at least not for a time while I am recovering.”
He tried to stop her. It wasn’t the time. She had just gotten out of surgery and the last thing she should be worried about was the business. “I will take care of it, don’t worry.”
“Good, that’s what I had in mind. You are going to have to take over for a while, but my assistant will help you out. She knows what and where and who for everything.”
“Okay mom, really this is something we can talk about later.”
“Yes, there is something else. Gemma, you too.”
She moved closer and like Marcel, didn’t like the finality in how she was talking. Elna was talking like a woman that had things on her mind that she wanted settled. “I have been thinking.”
“Mom, you have only been here for a couple of hours.”
Elna smiled. “It seemed like longer. I realize now that I don’t want to go without my children settled.”
Marcel sat back and took in her face, grinning. “Are you really going to use your heart attack to push that again?”
Her smile broadened. “I will if I have to. It is sad that I have had to go so long without grandchildren. Only Chris is married and I have five other children that I want to see settled. I don’t have forever to wait and this just reminds me that time is short.”
Marcel was pulled between the moment and the fifty other ones where she had tried unsuccessfully to get him married off. He always told her that he would find the right one, one day, but it didn’t seem a sufficient answer anymore. “I will do my best ma. I am sure that it’s about time.”
She seemed to accept the answer, relaxing some as she laid back. Gemma didn’t answer the call to comment. Her love life was a mess and there were no prospects on the horizon. The only thing left to do was go out to bars or start online dating. Neither one sounded good to her, so she looked away to avoid her mother’s eyes.
The four people talked for a little while longer until they were ushered out of there so Elna could get some rest. It was just like her, in the middle of a tragedy, she was trying more than anything to bring everyone together. Marcel worried that without her there, the family would fall apart.
He wanted to stay, but he had some work to do at the ranch. His brothers would have taken care of most of it, but there was also the fact that they didn’t know what was going on and Marcel didn’t want them to find out from the hurried voice message that he had left earlier. The circumstances were different and their mother wasn’t on the brink as he had feared. She was going to be okay and Marcel just wanted to get home before they got there and heard the message.
It was almost dark before he got back, but they were still out in the field. Going into the main house, Marcel went to the messenger and erased the blinking message. He went out to the stables and checked on the horses, his own needing food and water. Marcel pulled him out of the barn for a quick run in the fading light, just needing a moment of quiet and freedom that only the vast empty grazing land could offer him.
Chapter 2
The family had gathered together, the ones in the area and talked about what was to be done with the business and their mother. Someone would need to be hired to help take care of her while Gemma and Leanna were working and Marcel had to take over the business side of the company.
Callahan Meats was one of the largest in Texas and even though he had been working for the business his whole life, Marcel had only been in the offices once before. Elna had been an accountant, so she had naturally taken over the business when her husband died. Now it was on Marcel to be that type of person, the business type, the one in the suit and he wasn’t sure that he could be. He would have to try though, there was no one else.
He tried to tell himself that it would only be for a time, but the fact was that Elna was getting older and she may not come back at all. If she did, it was going to be a while. So he tried to make the best of it, spending his last weekend on the ranch, riding and trying to get everything taken care of.
There was still the question of if he was going to stay in the city, the commute just too much to do every day. That meant that he would only be home on the weekends, so he had to pack up a few things to take with him as well. It all spelled out to be a long week and by the time it was Monday morning, he was ready to go, having stewed on it all weekend, unable to actually enjoy his last couple of days at home. Conroe had been his home for a long time and he wasn’t looking forward to changing that.
As he drove into the city, the lanes of traffic got wider and it seemed like everyone started to get in a rush. It was strange to be back there after so long and it was a place that he hadn’t wanted to go to. Following the directions from his GPS, Marcel found the huge ten story building with his family name on the side and moved towards the front entrance.
The only good thing about never being there before was that no one knew who he was. He was able to move around freely, getting a feel for the place and the people he would be working with. Going up to the top floor, he walked around the hallway and then moved into his mother’s office. It was there that he was finally questioned of his intent to be there.
“Can I help you Sir? This floor is not for guests.”
He turned around to the tall, raven-haired beauty that had spoken to him. Marcel had never met someone who had taken his breath away, but she did and he was unable to answer. He just stared back at her aquamarine eyes.
“Are you okay Sir?”
Marcel shook his head that he was. He could tell by her expression that he needed to say something and stop being a twit, but it was harder than it sounded.
“Yes, sorry. I um, am here to take over for Elna.”
“Are you now? And you are?”
“Her son, Marcel. Nice to meet you…”
“Davina.”
“Nice to meet you, Davina. You are my mother’s assistant?”
She nodded. “I wasn’t sure who was going to be taking over for her. You are going to have your hands full. She was a very busy lady.”
“I know. She told me to get with you about all of that, so I guess we are going to be working together.”
She just looked down and then back up. “I have a schedule for
you, let me just print it out and then we can go over the meetings we have planned. If you don’t think you can do something or you have questions, just ask and I will do the best I can to help you out.”
“Thank you.” It was heart felt. There were many things he had been worried about, but he felt like he was in good hands with Davina. The only problem that he could see, was working with such a beautiful young lady and not being affected.
“No problem Mr. Callahan. We are all here to help you in whatever way you need.”
His mind went to somewhere it shouldn’t have and he looked away slightly embarrassed. “I appreciate it. I am more used to cows and horses. This is actually the first time I have worn a suit since my father’s funeral.”
“Well, if you don’t mind me saying Mr. Callahan, it looks good on you.”
***
Davina wasn’t expecting Marcel. She was expecting a middle-aged man that was a little soggy in the middle like the rest of the men in upper management. She had known Elna for years, knew that she had many sons, but not one like him.
He was soft spoken for such a large man and even though he was out of his element, it appeared that he had it all under control. It was admirable the way he had acted in the board meeting. They had tried to take advantage of his newness, but he didn’t give them an inch. He had his own mother’s plans and Marcel was not going to let anyone deter him from her plans to expand. The board wanted to wait and since Elna was out of the loop for a while, they were hoping that her replacement would go along with what they wanted.
They hadn’t been expecting him either. By mid-day, he had already pissed off as many people as Elna could manage and Davina was gaining more respect for her new boss. She invited him out for lunch and they talked a little bit about Elna. The two women were really close and she hadn’t been able to get down to the hospital and see her.
“I was hoping to go this weekend, but then something came up and I was forced to stay in town.”