His strong, tanned fingers slid over the lightweight cotton of my dress, seeking out the softness of my body. He looked sleepy and content, like a man who’d come home after a long business trip away… which is exactly what he was. And I was his home.
My eyes fluttered shut as my breath came a little faster. His thick auburn hair filled my hands as I slid my fingers over his head, caressing him. It all felt so tender and sweet, but I knew that inside he was simmering with heat and longing. So was I.
“I missed you,” he growled as he pushed the hem of my dress higher up my legs. He kissed a path along the soft, sensitive skin inside my thighs, making me shiver. He needed a shave, but I liked his prickly five o’clock shadow. The burn of his whiskers on my skin salted the sweetness of his kisses.
“I missed you, too,” I said in a breathy voice as the feel of his warm, hungry mouth made me melt. “I never want you to go anywhere again. You were gone so long.”
“Just a couple of weeks,” he said through a smile as he nuzzled me between my legs, sending a shiver of pleasure through me. “But a couple of weeks too long. I won’t be making that mistake again. I’ll stay put. Right here.”
“Good.”
Jack tugged on my panties, easing them down over my hips and pulling them free. His hands slid up to cup my breasts breasts and strum my sensitive, stiff nipples as his tongue explored the honeyed cleft between my legs.
Outside, birds were chirping and a breeze blew through the little dwarf palmettos growing against the hunting cabin, filling the world with noise, but all I cared about was how Jack groaned with pleasure when he tasted me.
Lost in a fog of pleasure, I was only vaguely aware of our reality outside the four walls of the hunting cabin yet a voice still harassed me from deep inside my mind, telling me to tell him…
“Jack,” I managed to say as his tongue lazily swirled against me, making me feel electric inside. My fingers gripped his thick auburn hair, then released it.
“Yes,” he answered before closing his mouth over me and suckling the soft, sensitive peak between my legs, making me cry out. “I’m here…”
“I need…”
I wanted to say, I need to tell you something, but the words wouldn’t come. They were boiled away by the hungry, needy heat of my body. I felt so weak, so bad. This was huge news that he needed to know, but I couldn’t being myself to break the spell.
“I’ll give it to you. Anything. Just tell me.”
He tugged open my dress, undoing all the buttons down the front and leaving me naked on the quilt. The cool autumn air settled onto my skin before Jack covered me with his warm body, filling the space between my thighs with his strong haunches.
Soon, my belly’d be big and round, swelling up between us. I half expected to see a sign of roundness or growth, but all I saw when I glanced down into the space between our bodies at his thickness jutting together me like a heat-seeking missile. Without thinking, I wrapped my fingers around his thick shaft and stroked it, making him growl with lust.
“Cass,” he breathed as he slipped inside me, sliding all the way in with a groan of satisfaction.
I cried out feeling him fill me up again, making me complete and whole and more me. My arms wrapped around his flexing, muscular body, pulling him deeper, tighter, closer. His haunches filled my hands as I held him captive inside me. I wrapped my legs around his back.
“What’s wrong, honey?” his voice was honey poured over smoke. His brows were knit together with concern above his gorgeous eyes.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I whispered, though I realized tears were streaming down my face. He kissed them away and licked the salt from his lips. “I’m just glad you’re home.”
His body responded to me, turning from tender to ferocious as his hips rolled into me, plumbing my depths. Nothing in the world compared to the feeling of him inside me. I let myself sink into the swirling pool of sensations. I forgot the world outside. I forgot the baby inside me… just for a minute.
“That’s it, baby,” he groaned as he flipped me over so I straddled him. His eyes traveled all over my flushed body as I took control.
I rolled my hips, grinding against his strong body as his hands wrapped around my waist, guiding me. I leaned against his chest, angling myself, finding deeper places, more sensitive places inside. He watched through half-closed lids as I rode him into oblivion.
“Oh, yes,” he groaned as my rhythm quickened. His eyes fluttered shut and his lips flushed red as his blood grew hotter.
A spark of electricity landed between my legs and started to smolder, to smoke. A gasp escaped my lips as I fed it carefully, bringing the flame of pleasure to life. My breasts swayed as my hips flicked and rolled on him, working his sex like a piston.
“That’s—that’s it…. god, you feel so good,” I whimpered as he thrust up into me.
We gripped each other hard, our bodies clamoring to consume each other as the sound of our love echoed off the polished wood walls of the cabin. Our voices met in the air, deep and light, night and day. When we came together, it felt like something sacred.
“Yes… god, yes…”
Words poured out of me as the pleasure exploded inside me like a supernova, blinding me, stealing my sense, making me free. I was suddenly in the stratosphere, high above where all my earthly problems looked tiny and insignificant. I saw from there how much he loved me, how much he’d want the baby. All the complications would work themselves out.
“Cass,” he groaned as he erupted into me, filling me with his heat. More and more waves of lust swirled between us, building up, up, up like a tsunami. “Oh, Cass… I love you.”
“Do you promise?” I managed to say as I wrung the last bits of pleasure from my body. “Swear it.”
“I swear it. I swear it forever…”
I have to tell him. Tell him now.
The light flowed in through the windows and I felt more relaxed, more at peace, than I had since I’d found out I was pregnant. I couldn’t ruin the moment. I just couldn’t.
Tomorrow, I thought as he kissed me again and again.
I’ll tell him tomorrow.
Chapter 12
“Cash is here, honey. Come on, get going!”
Mother stood in the foyer with her slender finger hooked inside the sheer curtain covering the front windows. She let the fabric drop as I came down the stairs dressed in a simple cotton frock she’d picked out for me, just for today.
“Alright, I’m coming,” I sighed as I took a look at myself in the foyer mirror and pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ears.
A swell of voices rose outside; it was Conrad talking to Cash out on the street, laughing and joking and carrying on.
“Look at you,” mother said as she sidled up and looked at me in the mirror. “You’re still looking a little peaked, baby. Are you still feeling under the weather?”
My tummy’d been warring with me for days, but it would soon pass. Now I was just worn out from carrying the burden of my secret—and the fact that I had to see Cash again.
Every fiber of my being told me to just tell everyone—Jack and my folks and everyone else in town—that I was pregnant. I needed to get it over with so I could move on with life, but I was scared. I was scared, so I was going along with the ruse of seeing Cash yet again.
“I’m fine, mother,” I answered as I stared at myself in the mirror. Big, dark circles hung around my eyes that even my mother’s heavy duty concealer couldn’t conceal. “I’m just tired. And I look like death warmed over.”
“Oh, honey, no you don’t,” she reassured me with a pat on the arm, though I could see she agreed. “You just look like a girl in love, is all. I was the same way. I couldn’t sleep half the night, I was so love sick.”
Oh, lord.
I was just about to open my mouth to answer when the doorbell chimed and the door was answered and Cash came blowing in like a whirlwind.
“Mrs. Peterson, you are a vision,” he said as he hooked hi
s hand around my mother’s dainty waist and waltzed her around the foyer as I watched.
Mother’s breathless laughter echoed off the vaulted ceilings as he released her and turned to me.
“And you, Cassy. You are also a vision,” he said as he took my fingers in his hand and kissed them.
“You’re so kind to say,” I answered, remembering my courtesies. The smile on my face felt like poison as I met his eyes. “You look very handsome.”
One of his patented million-dollar smiles flashed across his face and lingered there like a dying firework as he ran his hand through his hair. It was my first time seeing him since we’d gone to the bayou together.
“Well, I certainly hope you think so,” he answered with a roguish wink. “I could hardly take out the prettiest girl in town looking like a tramp. What would everyone say?”
“Oh, Cash, you could never look like a tramp,” mother answered as she smoothed down her skirt. “You’re a born gentleman.”
I nearly choked on my bile. A born gentleman. Yeah, right.
“Where are you two bright young things off to tonight?”
Cash met my eyes and winked.
“Dinner at Avery’s and a walk along the river, if that’s alright with Cassy.”
My mother’s eyes were practically heart-shaped listening to the golden boy describe our evening. Her hands clasped together in what looked like prayer as she held them against her breast, nodding in delight.
“That sounds wonderful, don’t you think, honey?”
“Wonderful,” I echoed. “Though perhaps we could skip a walk tonight. I—I haven’t been feeling well.”
Truth be told, I just didn’t want to risk running into Jack along the river front. I knew he’d been down at the marina working on his boat and, well, he didn’t know I was being set up on yet another date with Cash. I didn’t have the heart to tell him.
“Oh?” Cash’s brows lifted in surprise, but there was something about his face that told me that he knew already. “Hope it’s nothing serious.”
“It’s nothing serious,” mother twittered nervously as she stepped toward him. “Just a little tummy trouble. She’ll be right as rain.”
“I have no doubt. She’s always been a healthy girl.”
A healthy girl. I’d been hearing that description all my life. Sturdy. Robust. Healthy as a horse—with a frame to match.
“It’s better than the alternative,” I joked dryly as I grabbed a cardigan from the hall closet and pecked my mother on the cheek. “I’ll be home by eight o’clock.”
Behind me, Cash laughed.
“I thought you didn’t turn into a pumpkin until midnight.”
“Eight o’clock seems awfully early, honey. Why don’t you play it by ear…”
“I’ll let you know if I’m going to be late,” I said as I stepped out onto the porch and into the fresh autumn air.
“Night, Mrs. Peterson,” Cash said as he kissed her on the cheek again for good measure.
“Have a good time, you kids. Don’t do anything foolish.”
Dinner passed in a blur of étouffée and sparkling water. Cash carried the conversation, as always, while I looked nervously around the dining room.
A hundred smiling faces glowed in the candlelight while huge ceiling fans swirled the ancient bayou air above our heads. A starched white tablecloth cushioned my wrists as I tried desperately to appear natural and normal—or as close to natural and normal as I could appear, under the circumstances.
“Cassy? Earth to Cassy; come in Cassy.”
“Hm?”
I startled and looked up to meet Cash’s eyes pinned onto mine. I blushed. I’d been daydreaming.
“You were miles away.”
“I was,” I conceded as I took a sip of water and dabbed my lips with a napkin to buy time. “Miles and hours, in fact.”
My mind was already at home, in bed, with a book.
“Something on your mind?”
There was an edge to his voice that I didn’t like, a sort of knowingness that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I hated that feeling, and Cash gave it to me far too often.
“Nothing at all. I’m just finishing my meal so I can get home.”
“Well, that’s no way to talk to your date. Anyone would think you didn’t like me, Cassy Peterson.”
“Well, then, anyone would be correct on that assumption.”
A lop-sided grin bent his lips as Cash tossed his linen napkin onto the table with a sigh and gestured for the waiter to pour more wine.
“None for me,” I said, holding my hand over my untouched half-full glass of merlot. “Actually, could you take this away?”
The waiter dipped his head as he took the glass away. The smell was nauseating me.
“That wine is twenty dollars a glass, Cass.”
“Next time ask if I want wine before you order it and you’ll save yourself twenty dollars.”
“Next time,” he echoed. He held the words on his tongue as if tasting them. “I always think each time will be the last and then—lo and behold!—we end up together again. It’s like the universe is trying to tell us something.”
“Less the universe and more your daddy and mine having big ideas. I’ll be glad when this whole notion of me and you being a couple dies a natural death.”
A burst of laughter escaped Cash’s lips.
“Oh—oh, darlin’, there won’t be a natural death to this whole situation. You have to kill it, don’t you know? You could. Easy as pie.”
Anger welled up inside me, but I fought to keep control of myself. I pushed my shoulders back and lifted my chin.
“And why won’t you kill it, hm? What could you possibly have to gain from wasting time with someone who despises the very sight of you when you could be out wooing some Ole Miss sorority girl?”
The perfectly handsome, debonaire veneer on Cash’s face faltered for just a second as his gaze flickered across the room. He turned back to me and reached across the table to set his fingers across mine.
“Mind your voice, Cassidy Peterson. Don’t make a scene.”
“There’s no scene, Cash Jackson. No one is looking at us at all and, even if they were, I am far passed caring.”
I pulled my fingers free from the weight of his hand and wrapped them around the stem of my water glass. I took a drink as I glanced around the room. It was filled with a couple dozen mid-century Cash Jackson’s and their vintage debutantes wearing silks and placid smiles. It was spooky; like looking into the future.
“So, answer me,” I said in a low, measured voice. “Why don’t you cut me loose and move on, hm? You could say no when your daddy sets us up.”
Candlelight glowed on his handsome face, showing every perfect contour. In that moment, he looked like nothing less than the living devil—seductive, harmless, charming, gorgeous. He smiled and I saw the candle flame flickering in his oily black pupils.
“There’s no reason, Cassy. I’m just… having fun. I haven’t had so much fun in a long, long time.”
“Fun?”
The word dropped into my heart like a stone into a pool. Ripples of disgust and fear moved through me.
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a click of his tongue and a wink. “I haven’t known such a fun girl since… well since ever. You keep me on my toes and you’ve got secrets. So many secrets.”
“Just the one,” I managed to say without moving my hand to my belly.
“Don’t you know lying is a sin, ma cher?”
I hated hearing Creole on his tongue.
“I’m not lying,” I answered, though I was certain he could see my pulse pounding at the base of my throat.
“Tsk, tsk. Well, whatever you say,” he answered with a shrug as he swirled the wine in his glass. “Just maybe give Betty Willows a call one of these days and let her know. She seems to think you have another, somewhat bigger secret.”
His finger flicked toward my belly, a barely perceptible movement that nonetheless spoke v
olumes. His eyes barely landed on my belly before lifting to survey the room again.
Betty Willows… she read my chart. She’s talking about me, telling people I’m…
Pins and needles washed over me, making me feel faint as I gripped the edge of the tabletop. The candles blurred as I fought to sit upright. All the low, genteel voices around me suddenly felt as cloying as a cloud of cheap perfume. I couldn’t breath, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t speak…
“I’ve got you, Cassy,” Cash said as he gripped my elbow and leaned in to steady me. His breath smelled of expensive wine as he whispered into my ear. “A girl in your state ought to rest more, you know? Here, let’s get you home and to bed. Your mama’ll be glad to have you back. Well, to have both of you back safe and sound.”
Before I knew it, we were stumbling into his convertible and pulling away from the curb into the night.
“Cash, please,” I managed to say before a sob rocked my whole body, stealing my voice. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“Me? Oh, hell, Cassy I’m not going to tell anyone. But I make no such promises on Betty’s behalf. Boy howdy does that girl hate you. And she’s got a tongue loose as a well-oiled hinge, though she swears that she’s only told me.”
“What did I do to her? I don’t understand. I mean, I know we aren’t friends or anything, but why on Earth would she go around telling stories about me?”
Cash laughed as he hung his arm out the window and let the air swirl through his fingers. He shook his head.
“You know, for a smart girl you’re awfully dumb sometimes.”
He turned on his blinker and pulled over onto the side of the road. The river stretched out ahead of the car, the light of a hundred houses twinkling on its surface. The engine died, plunging us into darkness.
“Girls like you don’t beat girls like Betty. It’s just not in the equation. Hell, girls like you are not even a variable to girls like Betty—and yet you’re sitting here with me and she’s not.”
A dull anger pulsed inside me like a second heartbeat. I could have spit nails, I was so mad. Why did everyone have to be so nasty? Why couldn’t Betty just move on and find some other rich college boy to hanker after?
The Debutante Page 9
