Letting her go was going to be next to impossible. Somehow, someway he was going to have to stay away from her until Sunday. Until she left for school again. If he took her, he would never be able to let her go, and he knew it. And the thought of it terrified him.
She whispered his name in her sleep. Cade swallowed hard as her nipples hardened beneath the silk, a fine sheen of perspiration suddenly coating his skin. Things had changed too damned fast, and he wasn’t comfortable with it. He had hid from his desire for her for two long, lonely years. Pushing it back where he didn’t have to examine it, didn’t have to see it for what it was. The dark, pulsating monster of need that made his flesh harden and ache, made his soul weary and tired.
For years he had feared she would fall in love with one of the pimply-faced little brats she dated. Young men too filled with themselves to care about her, to know how to touch her and to please her. And he knew now that was why he hated every young man that fought to secure a date with her. Hated them. Glowering at them and doing everything he could to frighten them away. Even the ranch hands knew better than to approach Marly. Several had found themselves without a job after trying. He didn’t tolerate it. He wouldn’t tolerate it.
Cade was possessive and brooding, and had fought to assure himself for years that it was because she was so special. He had raised her. Fought battles for her. Tended to her illnesses and her scraped knees, and once even played Santa Claus for her. Just to see her eyes light up, to see the joy that crossed her face. And God, he would die right now to see her expression lost in passion, the awe and wonderment when he brought her to climax. He wanted that so much he could barely stand the need.
He had given her all her firsts in her life since she was twelve. Her first bicycle, her first car, her first prom dress, her first prom. She had been without a date, and he had been unable to stand her tears. She swore she was the envy of every girl there when he danced that first dance with her. He had been as uncomfortable as hell. But he couldn’t stand to see her cry. Now he wanted to be her first. Her first lover, her only lover.
She was watching him. Her eyes slumberous, dark and inviting. She hadn’t changed position; she hadn’t moved a muscle as his gaze roved slowly over her body.
“We’re in trouble, Marly.” He was breathing roughly, on the verge of doing something he knew he would regret.
Her breasts were rising quicker, her breathing accelerating. He could see the excitement in her eyes, in the flush staining her cheeks.
“Am I dreaming?” Her voice was husky, calling him to her in a way he could barely resist.
“Yes,” he groaned. “Your worst nightmare. Go back to sleep so you can wake up and make everything normal again.”
“Come kiss me again so I know it’s not a dream.” She smiled at him, slow and soft, dreamy with her emerging sensuality.
Marly knew now the power she held over him. He clenched his fists as he fought her request.
“Go back to sleep.” He tried to smile back at her. “Maybe I’ll kiss you goodnight when you go to bed.”
“I’m ready to go to bed, then,” she whispered with innocent seduction. “Tuck me in, Cade.”
The flesh between his thighs hardened, nearly bursting from his jeans as her husky voice tore through his body.
“Marly,” his voice was soft, the protest lacking strength.
“You could just let me sleep with you and keep me warm. You know how cold I get at night.” Her legs shifted, the shirt riding marginally higher from the movement.
He had slept with her one night, right before she went off to college. That night was seared into his brain, as was his father’s words when he found Cade there the next morning. It had been innocent. She had been depressed over leaving home, crying. He had only tried to comfort her. But the hand wrapped around her breast, beneath the material of yet another of his shirts hadn’t been. Neither had the hard-on beneath his sweat pants been in any way innocent. That event had begun his downfall, and Marly wasn’t even aware of it. That he knew.
Cade breathed out roughly. He wouldn’t survive a night with her in his arms now. He knew it, and it terrified him. He watched as her hand pressed against her stomach, and he wondered if the ache in his gut was echoed in hers.
“Sweet Jesus,” he moaned, closing his eyes and shaking his head at the suddenly erotic pictures flashing through his mind. He would burn in hell for this. Surely as anything, he would.
The knock at the study door had him jumping with a guilty start. His gaze flashed to her as she hastily jerked the blanket over her body, her face flushing in embarrassment. Shaking his head he watched as the door inched opened, wondering if her thoughts had somehow mirrored his. Praying not, because if she actually did it, he knew his heart would explode.
“Cade. Got a minute?” Sam was standing in the doorway, his bruised face unusually serious.
Hell, he was going to have to stand up.
“Yeah, a few.” He stood, thankful that he had pulled the tails of his shirt from the waistband of his pants earlier. There would have been no way to hide his arousal if he hadn’t.
Marly swallowed tightly as Cade left the room, closing the door behind him. Her body was pulsing beneath the blanket, shivering with the look in Cade’s eyes. She had never seen anything so hot, so achingly possessive and wanting as that look. As he watched her fingers move lightly over the silk of her stomach, she had seen his needs, his desires. She closed her eyes. She knew what he wanted. She knew he would have never been able to resist her if she had.
Regret filled her as her fingers stilled on her stomach, the blanket lying at her hips. She had been tempted, but terrified. She cursed her own immaturity and lack of experience. Other women would know how to entice him, how to give him what he wanted without being hesitant or frightened.
Cade was a very sexual man. She had heard that when she was as young as fourteen. He had been a young man, but even then, careful to keep his women away from Marly. But that hadn’t kept her from hearing the rumors. It hadn’t stopped the women he bedded from whispering the tales they heard. How he could go all night. His touch slow and sure, his kisses hot and wild, his hands bold and his desires as carnal as original sin. She had hated the rumors, jealousy eating her up inside, but she had listened. She had listened and fought to understand what they meant. She had known, even then, that she loved Cade and that one day she would have to know the needs of the man, as well as the friend.
Could she do it, she wondered? Could she tease and tempt him as those other women had done? Did the older Cade still enjoy the sights and sounds that the younger Cade had, from his women?
“That look on your face is killing me.” His voice was raw and husky, and when she opened her eyes, his gaze was a liquid flame centered on her hand and the fingers still rubbing over the silk softly.
He was standing beside the couch, his dark face flushed, his eyes glittering and centered longingly on that hand.
“What look?” Marly couldn’t breathe. She felt too warm, too excited. She needed his touch too damned much to wait any longer.
“Marly,” he whispered warningly. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
Marly licked her lips.
“When I was sixteen, Kari Black told me about that little fling you had with her sister,” she said softly.
Cade’s eyes widened in shock.
“Sisters talk. I was so mad at you, Cade. Remember? I wouldn’t speak to you until you quit seeing her.”
“I remember.” His tone was guttural.
“Her sister told her all kinds of things Cade, and I listened. I hated it, but I listened, because I wanted to know how to please you. How to make you need me so badly you couldn’t resist me.”
“No,” he whispered weakly, his eyes greedy, transfixed as her fingers went to the buttons of her silk shirt.
Marly was breathing roughly. All shame, all sense of decency deserting her as Cade’s gaze became riveted by her slow movements, his hands mirroring hers
as he began to unbutton the shirt he was wearing.
One by one the buttons were undone, until the edges lay neatly down the center of her body.
“Marly,” he said thickly, roughly as she moved her hand, her fingers trailing in the slowest caress from the cleavage of her heaving breasts down.
His shirt was shrugged from his powerful shoulders as he watched her, his face flushing with desire, with helpless fascination as her fingers met her stomach. He fought himself, fought his need for her. Then her fingers reached the line at her hips, touching the waistband of the lacy thong panties.
“God, Marly.” His fists clenched as her fingers played with the waistband deliberately. “Do it, or stop. Your choice, but decide now.”
Her fingers disappeared beneath the waistband, but she knew it didn’t halt the knowledge, the clear sight of where they touched. Then they pulled back, running over her flesh above the silk of the panties, leaving a damp crease down the center of the triangle of fabric.
Cade licked his lips, watching her, mesmerized as he went to his knees beside her.
“Do it right,” he whispered, his fingers hooking in the waistband of her panties and pulling them quickly down her legs.
Marly cried out weakly, her thighs falling apart at his urging, feeling the brand of his gaze centered at her most vulnerable point.
“No,” he growled. “Let me see you, Marly. Let me see you.”
She touched herself, crying out as his hands touched her thighs, his long fingers moving closer.
“Tell me what you want, Marly,” he growled as her fingers ran slowly over the humid curves of her own desire-slick flesh. “Tell me, Marly.”
Tell him? God, she couldn’t breathe, let alone speak.
“Now.” His voice roughened as one fingertip touched the dew of her need. “Tell me what you want now.”
“Kiss me,” she panted harshly, wishing he would do anything. Something. She was dying.
He looked up at her, his eyes nearly black now as a finger slid smoothly past the folds of skin, lodging at the entrance of her body.
“Where?”
Marly whimpered as her thighs trembled, her inner muscles clenching in agonized need.
“Cade,” she cried out weakly.
“Did Tara tell you about that Marly?” He asked her softly, his lips going to her thigh. “Did she tell you how I would kiss you? Taste you?”
He was teasing her, tormenting her. His tongue touched the satin flesh his lips caressed, drawing higher by only slow degrees.
“You didn’t kiss her there.” Marly shook her head, nearly crying in pain at the thought. “No. You didn’t.”
“No, I didn’t,” he agreed. “But by God, I’m going to kiss you there.”
Before she could cry out he was between her thighs, his lips covering her, his tongue spearing into her. Marly lost her breath. Stars exploded all around her as he held her hips steady, thrusting into her repeatedly, driving his tongue deep and hard into the very center of her body as she exploded into so many fragments she thought she was dying.
When she opened her eyes again, Cade was kneeling before her, his gaze hot, his hands working frantically at the button fly of his jeans. Then he was spreading the edges apart, pushing the material over his hips as the thick length of his erection sprang free.
“God. Damn, Cade.” Sam’s shocked voice was like a bucket of ice as Cade leaned forward.
Chapter Sixteen
“Why didn’t you just lock the fucking door?” Sam’s hushed voice was filled with understandable shock, an hour later.
“Shut up, Sam.” Cade shifted in the saddle, staring into the inky blackness of night as they moved through the pasture. This was not the ride he had been expecting.
“Damn.” Sam was still shaking his head. “I just didn’t expect that.”
It wasn’t the first time Sam had made that comment in the last hour.
“Shut up, Sam,” Cade growled warningly.
Cade could still smell the sweet scent of her, the heat and desire, hear her cry of release as it rained over his tongue. He was dying. His erection was like a steel hard spike an hour later. He hurt until he could barely stand to sit in the saddle. If it didn’t go away soon, he’d be walking the damned horse.
“I just didn’t expect it,” Sam said again. “Not yet.”
“If you don’t shut up, I’m going to kick you out of that damned saddle,” Cade gritted out between clenched teeth.
“Yeah, like you could do that with that hard-on killing you,” Sam snickered in amusement. “I say I’m safe for several hours yet.”
Asshole, Cade thought. He didn’t have a brother with a lick of sense; he had one that was a moron who just didn’t know any better.
“I didn’t glimpse any protection there either, bro,” Sam whispered just loud enough for him to hear. “You know the dangers, right?”
Shit. Cade closed his eyes, remembering the fiery heat of her dew slick flesh against him as he positioned himself to enter her. Hell no, there hadn’t been any protection. He shifted uncomfortably, the thought of that worrying him as nothing else could have. He had never forgot to use protection in all of his adult life.
“Cade, you’re gonna be careful next time, right?” Sam asked him somberly. “I mean, you’re not going to take a chance, are you?”
Cade was silent. The thought of Marly, pregnant with his child, was heating through his body. Her soft belly rounded with life, her face glowing with it. He didn’t think it was possible, but his body only hardened more.
“Don’t worry, Sam. I’ll take care of Marly. Now do you want to tell me one more time why we’re out here on these damned horses?”
An hour later, they drew abreast of the two cowboys waiting on them. The ride had been a slow one due to the darkness of the night and the need to protect the horses’ legs from hidden holes or unknown rocks. Behind them rode half a dozen other cowboys, their horses snorting quietly in the still air of the late night.
“Bret.” Cade dismounted, drawing abreast of the two riders waiting on them. “What’s up?”
“Sorry to drag you out here like this boss, but I was afraid the ‘copter would give us away, and the trucks too. I think you need to see this and I don’t know if you want to let anyone know we’ve found it.”
One of the old, unused line cabins was tucked into the shelter of the hill rising in front of them. The door was opened, and only a faint light showed as the door cracked open and the men walked in.
“Didn’t want to wait till morning. It’s also why I told Sam to make sure one of you stayed with Miss Marly.”
They walked into the cabin, a building that should have been forgotten, unused by man or beast in the years since Cade had bought the helicopter. But here was proof that someone had used it. It, and many other areas of the ranch. But what struck terror into Cade’s soul was the pictures scattered out over the table.
Marly. Every picture there was, was of Marly. And all of them were taken in just the past two years. Some were taken while she was at school, at home. There were pictures of her riding her horse, driving her truck, laughing up at Cade, lying out beneath the steam of the pool, Greg at her side, the bare cheeks of her rear glowing in the glossy paper.
There were pictures of her in his arms outside the barn. That first touch, the power and passion of it appearing crude and somehow vulgar when viewed through the lenses of the camera. She was perched on his thigh, his hand tucked between the cheeks of her rear, the position of his finger clearly visible, buried deep inside the tight little hole.
Cade felt something freeze in his soul. It wasn’t the only picture of him and Marly either. There were dozens displayed out on the table. Cade raised his gaze, staring at Sam as his blood beat sluggishly through his body.
“Call Brock, make certain Marly’s okay. Tell him to lock her in a room and stay with her.”
“Already took care of that.” Sam nodded but pulled the cell phone from the holder at his hip anyway.
Quickly, he keyed in the numbers. “I told him before we left. Before I knew what Bret found.”
Cade listened silently as Sam spoke to his brother. Sam’s voice stayed steady and calm, indicating there were no problems at the house. As he continued the phone call, Cade walked around the cabin, the beam of the flashlight picking out more signs of habitation. The boxes of ammunition, several of which were halfway empty. Gun oil and cleaning squares, saturated with the efforts of cleaning and maintaining more than one weapon.
The bed in the back was neatly made. On it laid another picture. One of Marly staring into the direction of the camera from her balcony, her expression dreamy, her blue eyes shadowed with emotion as she braided her hair. The picture must have been taken the summer before, because she was barefoot, propped against the railing and enjoying the morning.
He walked back to the table slowly, staring down at the pictures once again, a wave of fury washing over him. The bastard was watching her, violating her. The son of a bitch was obsessed by her.
“Is this the way you found them?” Cade waved his hand over the table and the pictures it contained.
“We ain’t touched anything, boss,” Bret assured him. “We found this right after dark, checked the area over and then called Sam. I figured it was your call what we did.”
Cade breathed deeply, fought to do so steadily. His heart was beating out of control, fear snaking like an evil wind down his spine.
“Looks like whoever it was, was here not too long ago.” The other cowboy, Jake, moved to the side of the room, along the wood stove. “These ashes ain’t old, the stove barely cold. He’s also stocked coffee and some canned stuff in the back. He intends to come back.”
Cade’s fists clenched. Was the bastard preparing the cabin to bring Marly here? Had he somehow convinced himself he could take Marly from Cade, and the family that loved her? The man was clearly obsessed with her, in a way that ruled out any possibility of sanity.