“Which was?”
“A confession that I loved him so he could throw it back in my face, use it against me, and hurt me the same way that I hurt him.”
“You don’t know that for certain, Cat. It may not be that way at all.”
“Yes, it is that way, Lisa. Otherwise, he would have told me the truth in the beginning.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “Look, I’ll talk to you later.” Without giving Lisa a chance to say anything else, she disconnected the call.
9
Where are you going?”
Cat didn’t pause in what she was doing. She continued packing as she hissed angry words over her shoulder. “I’m leaving so I hope you had plenty of fun using me the way you did.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Cat turned to glare at him, full of anger, fire, and humiliation. “I know everything, Rory. I know what you know. I also know that my showing up here wasn’t a surprise to you and that you wanted to teach me a lesson for what I did last year. Do you deny it?”
He crossed his hands over his chest and returned her glare. “No, I don’t deny it.”
His words hit her like a blow. “You, bastard. I hope you enjoyed getting your pound of flesh.”
“I did. Every gorgeous inch of it. But what I really enjoyed was getting you to admit that you’re in love with me.”
“Why? So you can throw it in my face and use my love to hurt me the same way I hurt you last year?”
“No, I did it so I could be absolutely sure that my feelings for you were reciprocated and that you wanted me back for the right reason.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard you that day, Cat. I heard you declare that you needed a man. Not me, but ‘a man.’ Then you proceeded to place me on this damn wish list. I didn’t know whether you were doing so because you realized that you loved me or if you were just in need of a sexual fix.”
Cat raised both eyebrows. “How could you not know that I loved you?”
“And how could I know it? You’ve never told me, and after the way we split, did you actually think I would assume any such thing?” he demanded.
She stared at him for a long moment, and then slowly shook her head. No, after all the things she’d said that night, there was no way he would have assumed that. “So you concocted this plan of revenge?”
“Revenge had nothing to do with this weekend, Cat. After Peyton and I figured what you and Lisa were up to, I decided to see how far you would go. I needed to know the truth before risking my heart to you again.”
“But you claimed you only wanted to maintain a no strings attached, no expectations affair between us.”
“Yes, and I said that to see what your reaction would be to my offer. If the only thing on your mind was sex, then you would have gone for it. But if you loved me, and I mean truly loved me, there was no way you would have been satisfied with sharing that kind of relationship with me.”
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Last night when you admitted that you loved me, I was prepared to tell you the truth—and I started to, but you stopped me and said we would talk in the morning.”
She remembered. At the time she had wanted him again and hadn’t wanted to spend time talking. Beside, she hadn’t been certain what he had wanted to say. “You could have made me listen.”
“No, I could not.”
She frowned. No, he could not. She had wanted him in a bad way last night, and once she had crawled on top of him, her mind had been on one thing: riding him.
He took a few steps to stand in front of her. “I love you, Cat. I never stopped loving you. But I had to be sure that you loved me, as well. What I told you the day you arrived was the truth. My life has been miserable this past year, but I couldn’t settle back into the type of relationship that we had before. My love for you demanded more, something beyond that. I’d known the moment I laid eyes on you at Peyton and Lisa’s wedding that I wanted a future with you—and that love, marriage, and babies would be part of the deal.”
He reached out and took her hand in his. “I knew about your goals, your dreams, and at no time did I ever want to take them away from you. I only wanted to enhance them. I knew my timing was off that night and that you weren’t ready and that I shouldn’t have tried pushing you into anything. But I never thought you would send me away and end things between us like you did. Your rejection hurt. Surely you can understand my not wanting to rush into a situation for you to hurt me all over again.”
She nodded. She had hurt him, which was something she hadn’t meant to do, but the thought of giving up everything she’d worked for scared her. It had taken her twelve months to realize loving Rory didn’t mean giving up anything, but was all about gaining everything.
“And something else you need to know,” he said, interrupting her thoughts.
“What?”
“There was never a Shari. She was someone I made up to save my pride. I didn’t want you to know that I couldn’t get over you, that I was still pining for you, that I was still so deeply in love with you that some days I couldn’t even think straight.”
She sighed deeply before saying, “And neither could I. I had been so sure that once you saw things my way you would come back. And when you didn’t, it forced me to realize just what I had lost, and just how much you meant to me.”
“Was it so hard to love me?” he asked, his lips curving in a wry smile.
She shook her head. “No, in fact, it was too easy. You’re wonderful, interesting, handsome, a perfect bed partner. I just didn’t think I was ready for what you wanted at the time.”
“And now?”
Her gaze remained steadfast on his when she answered by saying, “Being apart from you made me realize just how much you meant to me, Rory. It’s always good having goals in life, but I had to find out the hard way that that’s not the only thing a person should have in life. There is more to life than accomplishing major achievements, but I have to admit that when I added you to my wish list, I considered getting you to fall back in love with me again as my all-time major goal because my life would be nothing without you in it. And now if you were to ask me to share my life with you, you would definitely get a different answer than the one I gave you before.”
He smiled. “Okay, let’s just see about that.”
With her hand still firmly clasped in his, he got down on a bended knee and looked up at her. Cat blinked when she realized just what he was doing. She watched as he pulled a small white box out of his jacket pocket.
“Cathleen Janelle McAlister, I love you, so very much. Will you make me a very happy man and marry me? Will you be my partner for life, the mother of my children, the joy of my life? Forever?”
Cat couldn’t help the tears that began streaming down her face. “Oh, Rory.”
He smiled up at her, his love shining in his eyes. “Sorry, but this is a yes-or-no question.”
She chuckled through her tears. “Then my answer is definitely yes. I would be honored to marry you.”
After placing the ring on her finger, he stood and pulled her into his arms. “I bought this ring for you eighteen months ago, but even after that night, I refused to believe that you wouldn’t eventually wear it one day. I had refused to give up on you, Cat.”
“But you never came around.”
“No, I was giving you the distance I thought you needed. But things between us were far from over—trust me.”
She smiled at her ring before taking a step forward and moving her hand up the back of his neck. “I do trust you. And I also love you.”
“Say it again.”
She met his intense stare. “I’ll say it as often as you like. I love you, Rory.”
“And I love you, Cat.”
“And I love you double, triple, a thousand times over.”
He swept her off her feet into his arms and quickly headed toward the bed, needing to have her close, as close as two people could get. And to
gether they would get just what they most wanted and needed: extreme satisfaction.
Epilogue
SIX MONTHS LATER
Four hours after being presented as man and wife at their wedding, Rory and Cat arrived at their honeymoon cabin. As a wedding gift, his parents had surprised them and had the cabin restored. Rory didn’t care how the inside of the place looked, just so long as it had a bed.
Three months before the wedding, his Cat had declared her body off-limits. She wanted their wedding night to be like the first time for them, and no degree of persuasiveness on his part could change her mind. So here he was on his wedding day, horny as sin.
He carried her from the car and over the threshold into the house. When he kicked the door shut and proceeded to carry her straight to the bedroom, Cat looked over her shoulder and asked, “What about our luggage?”
He grinned down at her. “You won’t be needing anything. For the next week or so, I’m going to like the look of you in bare skin.”
She chuckled. “Is that a fact?”
“Yes, sweetheart, that’s a fact.”
He helped her remove her dress, bra, panties, and everything else that stood in the way of him getting what he wanted. He then quickly began removing his own clothes.
She watched him with interest as she stretched out on the bed. “Kind of in a hurry, aren’t you?”
“If only you knew.”
“But I’m about to find out, right?”
He smiled at her. “Right.”
And then he joined her on the bed, and with a small sigh, she went into his arms. He kissed her the way he had wanted to kiss her after the minister had proclaimed them man and wife, but had he kissed her this way then, there was no telling what it would have led to.
After he ended the kiss, she smiled up at him thoughtfully. “Did I ever tell you that I have this sinfully sexy man on my wish list?”
He skimmed his thumb over his wife’s tight nipple. Then lowering his head, he took his tongue and started licking it. “Do you?”
“Yes,” she managed to say in a breathless whisper. “He’s pretty high in my list of priorities.”
“Is he worth it?”
When he placed his hands between her legs and began stroking her there, she purred. “Oh, I think so. In fact, I got a bad case of the hots for him.”
“Does he know it?”
“He will before the night is over. And he did promise me that he was going to teach me all the ways to satisfy a man. He is Mr. Satisfaction, and from what I understand, his wife will become Mrs. Satisfaction,” she said in a ragged breath when he stuck his finger inside her, stroking her deeper.
“Umm, sounds like the ultimate in gratification,” he said, leaning up to kiss her lips.
“No holds barred, from what I understand.”
“And I’m sure they were made for each other. The ideal couple,” he said, easing his body over hers.
“They are and will always be. Forever.”
And as Rory slid into his wife’s body and felt her inner muscles clutch him tight, he stared down at her, knowing he was back home where he belonged. He then whispered huskily, “Yes, forever.”
Satisty Me
Delilah Dawson
1
Look at this! ‘Inches of exquisite thickness with—’ ”
“Wow, baby! Now, there’s a keeper!”
Shauna Williams laughed as her good friend Brandy waved the vibrator over her head with a loud cheer. A little alcohol and a steady stream of naughty gifts had gone a long way toward loosening up the bridal shower. Old-school music was thumping on the speakers, beer and wine were flowing, and the small group of boisterous friends were all speaking their minds.
“Ohhh. ‘With attachments!’” Daisy, her other best friend said, catching the packing box midair and reading the label on it. “ ‘Choose from the beaver, the dolphin, the hummingbird and—’”
“I don’t need a zoo! I just want some action,” someone else exclaimed, and the group cracked up laughing again.
Brandy, the bride-to-be, opened the next gift, which proved to be rigged to send a shower of condoms into the air.
Grandma Mavis could be heard above the ruckus. “Girl, you need to open my present. It doesn’t come with a zoo, but it’s got rotating pearls inside it. I always said a woman outta have herself some nice pearls.”
Shauna mentally added up the number of drinks Grandma Mavis had drunk, then gave the signal to the bartender to limit the alcohol. As party hostess, she was in charge of making sure everyone had fun, which had also meant getting a hotel stay for almost everyone and hoping they still remembered the details in the morning.
The ladies had started laughing at a large inflatable doll that Brandy was desperately trying to shove back into its box when the suite doors opened and a throng of men burst into the room.
Shauna reached for her cell phone to call security before realizing it was the groom-to-be and his best men.
“Oh, freaky-deaky!” Ben shouted. “Looks like we crashed this parry in the nick of time. I need my woman! Where’s my woman?”
“Where’s mine?” The question echoed through the group, causing some screeches and more laughter as the men found spouses and girlfriends to drag to the makeshift dance floor.
Shauna felt the presence of Max Jackson at her side and turned to him. At six foot six, his height was still imposing to her own six feet, and even his jacket couldn’t disguise the sheer width of his chest and arms. He’d come a long way from being the scrawny guy who’d worked hard labor on her father’s gardens. The guy she’d had a tremendous crush on. The guy her father had hated and called “ghetto.” The guy she’d been devastated to leave behind.
It was funny how the years had changed her, but she wondered if he still thought of her as Daddy’s little rich girl, supposedly too snooty to settle for a mere gardener… .
In the past week, she’d found out he was coordinating the men’s bachelor party and knew it would only be a matter of time before they met again.
After all these years, she couldn’t deny she wasn’t over him yet. Maybe she never would be.
One look from him standing next to her now, and her heart damn near knocked out of her chest with joy. The flash of recognition in his eyes drew a ghostly thrill up her spine.
Max gave her one of his cryptic raised eyebrows. “Long time no see.”
“Yeah.” The five years suddenly folded up into nothing. “You look great.”
“So do you, but then you always looked great.”
She tried not to stare, but there were all the subtle changes to look for: He had become a tall, sturdy, solid black man who had surpassed her imagination. His jaw was more defined now, making him look harder. His mouth looked delectable, and his nose had a tiny scar on the bridge… .
“What’s going through that brain of yours?” he murmured.
Calm down, she lectured herself.
“Was your bachelor party so boring that you had to crash ours?” she remarked, smiling wider when he scowled.
“Nothing like that,” Max said, glancing back over the crowd. “Ben just couldn’t stand it. He was sure Brandy would be dancing with a stripper by now.”
Shauna sighed overdramatically. “Brandy nixed the stripper plans.”
“Is that disappointment I hear?” His deep rumble mocked next to her ear.
Shauna kept her eyes on the couple, now grinding to the music. “So many dollar bills and no place to stuff them,” she replied.
Despite the noisy room, he must’ve heard her because he laughed, the low sound sending a hot shiver down her spine.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Never would’ve guessed you were the type.”
“There’s lots you don’t know about me,” she said primly. Well, maybe he knew that she was no longer living in the lap of luxury, having gone from having some “financially difficulties” to just being straight up “broke.”
Max moved a bit closer, and the scent of h
is cologne was good enough to make her want to snatch him up for a long deep inhale. But she controlled herself.
Barely.
Only Max could create this instant rush of something sexual and dangerous that appealed to her on a very basic feminine level. There was no way she could tell him how proud she was of him that he’d come so far on his own.
Her gossipy girlfriends had informed her that he now made money hand over fist in land-development deals. And yet once upon a time, he had been the boy with the rough edges who had once clipped flowers from her front yard and then knocked on her window to deliver them. He was also the loner who preferred the library to the thug crowds in the lunchroom. He was the one her father had warned her about.
Good God, the man was so damned sexy!
She absently fanned herself.
“You still don’t dance without being asked, huh?” he chided.
“Not true. I’m just making sure things run smoothly. Don’t have time to dance.”
He flashed her his patented grin, the one that went from crooked appeal to stunning in zero seconds. “I’d give you my next paycheck to see you cut loose on the rug.”
Shauna instantly thought about the junior ball they’d missed, the one where she had stood him up.
She was about to reply when three bridesmaids rushed to Shauna’s side, their arms full of bridal shower gifts.
“Here. Folks are stepping all over them. Besides, you know Grandma Mavis, so I shouldn’t have to explain. The woman’s been trying to get her hands on all of ’em. Wouldn’t be surprised if she already snuck a couple into her purse.”
Shauna began to protest, but the women were already piling the items in her arms, pausing just enough to flirt with Max.
“I could use some help here,” Shauna said to him over her pile.
“They all seem easy enough to operate,” he smirked.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Ha ha.”
“No sense of humor,” he grumbled, lifting the bulk of the items off the top. “Where to?”
“The coat closet.” With a tilt of her head, she indicated the way.
Mr. Satisfaction Page 6
