“You don’t have to do anything except be you,” Cade told her. “That’s the part I can’t resist—not even now.” Seeming newly aware of his own arousal, Cade wriggled teasingly. He kissed her, then gave her a look full of concern and care and passion. “We’re about to become one, Violet. Are you ready?”
“For you?” Assuredly, she nodded. “Beyond a doubt.”
At her response, Cade closed his eyes. Seeming inexplicably moved by the emotion of the moment, he went entirely still.
Violet thought then that he must have felt the same connection between them that she did. As if in proof that he did, Cade truly did make them one: he entered her in one sure stroke. He paused to be sure she was unhurt, then went on.
Having him inside her was…remarkable. Feeling filled and fulfilled in a way she never had before, Violet clutched Cade nearer, wide-eyed and astonished and enlightened. This was what she’d needed. This and everything that had passed between them until now. This was what she’d been made for…feeling this way.
With soft kisses and tender touches and more and more and more skillful thrusting, Cade made love to her in a way that felt unforgettable. His body fit perfectly to hers; his gaze melded seamlessly with hers; and even as he brought them both closer and closer to a new pinnacle of pleasure, Cade never let Violet forget one thing: she was beloved. She was treasured and needed and beautiful to him, and she was his. They were united.
“Oh, Violet.” With a mighty groan, Cade thrust harder. Beneath them, the mattress dipped and swayed. The bedclothes grew yet more tangled. The coming together of their bodies turned even more frenzied, and still Cade gazed only at her. “Yes,” he panted. “Yes. You feel so good. So right. So…ah.”
He went still. Then he shouted. With an utter lack of inhibition, Cade lost himself in her body. He moaned anew, wholly lustily. Then, with his hair tousled and his muscles slicked with sweat, he delivered her his most stunning grin yet.
“Does that mean you’re pleased?” Violet asked breathlessly.
He laughed. “I’m beyond pleased.” He cradled her close, hauling her atop his big, sprawled body while they panted for breath. “I’m exhilarated. Buoyant.” A hearty swearword. “I’ve never felt anything like that before.” Cade shook his head. He kissed the top of her head, then smoothed her hair. “It must be because of you. You make everything better, Violet. Everything.”
Happily, she snuggled against him. “I guess I do!” Wearing a smug—and this time authentically sophisticated—smile, Violet stroked her palm over his bare chest. Now she was free to toy with his lovely muscles all she wished. “That’s because I love you,” she confessed, unable to hold back any longer. Brimful with the knowledge of it, she yearned to fling open the windows and yell it to the world. “I love you, Cade! And now, thanks to everything we’ve shared, I can tell you so.”
Still wearing his bliss-filled, endearingly enamored grin, Cade gazed at her. “Then I’m the luckiest man in the world right now,” he said. “I was right about you all along, Violet—you are my good-luck charm. And now you’re much more besides.”
“Much, much more,” she insisted giddily.
“Yes.” Just for an instant, Cade furrowed his brow. Pensively, he gazed at his hotel room’s ornate plaster ceiling medallion. He seemed lost in some remembrance—and this time, it appeared not to be a happy one. “You are more. Much more.” He paused almost ominously. “You’re more than I deserve.”
“What? Of course I’m not. You’re—”
“No one has ever loved me.” Cade went on staring at the ceiling, seeing…something she couldn’t guess. His bleak-sounding voice scared her. “There’s no reason you should be different.”
“There’s every reason,” Violet tried reassuring him. This new melancholic side of Cade confused her. “I love you! I—”
His gaze swerved to meet hers. “Saying it twice as often won’t make it doubly true.” He grinned. His usual exuberance returned with his smile, bringing with it a full measure of charm. It was as though Cade’s brief, brooding descent had never happened. “But making love twice as often will make you feel twice as good.” He gave her a provocative look. “I’ll show you.”
“Oh!” Suddenly diverted, Violet smiled, too. She knew she should address Cade’s conviction that he was incapable of being loved. The very notion broke her heart. But just at that moment, Cade was smiling at her and stroking her thighs and gazing at her as though she was the most delectable treat he’d ever encountered, and she simply couldn’t muster the mental acuity to cope with his erotic stimulation and his potentially devastating past, all at the same time. She felt too overcome.
“You’ll show me, hmm?” Touched and thrilled and aroused, Violet cradled Cade’s face. His beard stubble tickled her palm. She couldn’t help smiling. “I do hope you’re not bluffing.”
“With you? Never,” Cade swore. “Are you ready?”
His eyes glimmered with mischief, furthering the thought that she’d simply imagined his unhappiness earlier…and making Violet wonder at the abrupt change in him, too.
This Cade—the one who currently charmed her with kisses and scandalous, huskily voiced erotic promises—was familiar to her. This Cade looked like a man who’d never entertained a sad thought in his life. He looked like a man who’d always been admired and adored and in complete control of himself and everything around him.
But Violet knew she’d glimpsed something important a moment ago. She’d glimpsed the truth in Cade’s face. She meant to explore that truth further. After all, wasn’t that what true love meant? Knowing the one you loved and helping him?
But first… “Am I ready for you? Always,” she promised.
But she wasn’t. Not entirely. Because as Cade surprised her by rolling them both over until she straddled him, Violet squealed. Her eyes widened. Her thighs quaked. Even as she splayed her hands atop Cade’s massive chest for balance, she realized that she would never be able to predict Cade’s next move. He was the gambler here, not her. All she could do was hold on and hope for the best. So that’s what she did.
“I love you, Cade,” Violet whispered as he loved her.
“I love you, too,” she would have sworn she heard him say in response. But a heartbeat later, they were both lost to the pleasure they’d found together. Words were beyond them both.
At least they were until later. Then, lolling in a tubful of hot bathwater, laughing as Cade helped her wash up, Violet remembered a few words she’d planned to give Cade herself.
“You really are a good man,” she began. “I always knew it.”
Cade merely lathered her shoulders, silently and adeptly. His soapy fingers dipped and slid divertingly over her wet skin.
“That’s why I’m going to help you,” Violet went on. “I’m going to help you live up to the terms of my father’s wager.”
Cade stopped. His fingers went still. “What wager?”
“His wager with you, of course. Since you lost, you’ll have to take part in honest labor in exchange for honest wages. Isn’t that correct?” Knowing full well that it was, she smiled. “I’m on good terms with everyone in town. I can help you find an apprenticeship as a wheelwright or a cooper or a blacksmith—”
“You said you hadn’t spoken with your father this morning.”
Cade sounded gobsmacked. She’d thought he might be. That’s why Violet hadn’t brought up any of these issues until now. They would have interfered with her greater mission: flying with Cade. Experiencing pleasure with Cade. Loving him, most of all.
“That’s right. But I did speak with Papa late last night after he got home from Jack Murphy’s saloon.” Violet sighed, remembering the rather awkward conversation she’d had with her father in the lantern-lit hours past midnight. “He really can be too overprotective of me at times, I’m afraid. As far as Papa is concerned, no one is ever good enough for me. Not that he’s had much opportunity to test that theory over the years, given my dearth of genuine suitors. Most of t
hem,” she confessed, “were more interested in my friend Adeline than me.”
Slowly, Cade continued soaping her back. “Is that so?”
“It is.” Relieved to have this discussion out in the open at last, Violet nodded. “But you will be more than good enough for my father. I’m certain of it! In fact, I’m counting on it.”
“Counting on it?”
“Yes. So we can be together.” Wearing her most joyful smile, Violet tipped up her head. Her new viewing angle brought Cade’s hard-edged face into her sight. He appeared thoughtful. “So we can be together, just like this,” she clarified, “for as long as we want to be. Isn’t that why we’re here right now?”
“Right now, yes.” Cade continued his sensual soaping. “But I don’t plan to stay in Morrow Creek,” he reminded her.
Violet found it easy to overlook that detail. Surely Cade would change his mind once he became familiar with his new friends and neighbors. Coyly, she said, “Then I guess we’d better make the most of our time together right now, hadn’t we?”
“Minx,” Cade said a third time. Then he kissed her and smiled at her, and all was right between them—especially once the soapsuds fight broke out, and a new round of loving began.
Chapter Nine
“I feel certain I’m going to regret this.” Full of equal measures disbelief and discomfort, Cade eyed the distant blacksmith’s shop. The place hunkered on the outskirts of Morrow Creek, a short walk from the schoolhouse and the town’s namesake creek. Even from a quarter mile away, Cade heard the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer striking an anvil at regular intervals. The sound came coupled with the persistent smell of smoke. “I once won a racehorse at the faro table. Keeping that beast in horseshoes nearly broke me. I lost it on purpose a week later.”
“Well, then. I guess blacksmithing must be lucrative.” Striding confidently beside him, Violet looped her arm in his. Her face positively beamed with encouragement. Her voice rang with faith in him. “Besides, you have to start somewhere. You might be excellent at blacksmithing, for all you know!” She gave his arm a heartening squeeze, inadvertently cradling him against her bosom. “You seem to be very good at everything else you do.”
“Mmm. We’re good together, I’d say.” Reminded of the languorous time they’d spent in his bed earlier that morning—and the several mornings before that—Cade quit walking. He couldn’t help feeling pleased that he’d impressed Violet. Because of her, he felt hopeful for the first time in years. “At least if the past few days are anything to go by. And I’d say they are.”
“They definitely are,” Violet agreed, holding him close.
“In fact, I think we may have left my hotel a bit hastily this morning,” Cade continued, pulling Violet toward a copse of ponderosa pines. He leaned against the nearest tree’s thick-barked trunk, then drew Violet closer to join him in that sheltered spot. He twined a bit of her hair in his fingers. Tenderly, he smiled at her. “We should have stayed in bed.”
“That would have been nice. And definitely warmer too!”
Agreeing with that in the best way he knew how, Cade kissed her. He still couldn’t believe that Violet—gentle, innocent, helpful Violet Benson—had enchanted him so thoroughly. Less than a week ago, she’d appeared at his hotel room door, full of cheeky talk of “reforming” him. She’d gotten under his skin. She’d shown him that love might be possible for him, despite the hard lessons of his past. Since then, almost against his will, Cade had begun hoping they could be together—hoping her scheme to help him forge a new, gambling-free life could really succeed.
Not that he felt entirely ready to take up that life straightaway, by beginning the one-day apprenticeship that Violet had arranged for him at Daniel McCabe’s smithy shop.
“Maybe we should dally here awhile,” Cade suggested instead, lowering his hands to her bosom. He loved touching her there. He loved touching her everywhere. Never had he known a partner more giving or enthusiastic or compassionate. Just being in Violet’s presence moved him deeply—so deeply, in fact, that Cade had already blurted out his most shameful secret to her, followed almost instantly by his most strongly felt fear.
No one has ever loved me, he’d confessed to Violet while holding her close. There’s no reason you should be different.
Yet she was different. Cade was powerfully glad of it.
“After all,” he went on, forcing himself from that painful memory as ruthlessly as he had on that earlier day, “I haven’t yet shown you how stimulating it can be to feel the fresh air on your bare skin—to make love outdoors, where there’s no one to hear you cry out in pleasure except the earth and the sky—”
“And that truck farmer working his fields over yonder…”
Cade followed her pointing finger. “Aha.” Another kiss. “That only means we’ll have to delve deeper into the forest.”
She laughed. “You’re incorrigible—and apparently immune to the chilly autumn weather, too.” She shivered as she glanced up at the cloudy territorial skies overhead. “It’s cold outside!”
“I’ll keep you warm,” Cade promised. He felt full to overflowing with fondness for her, overcome with a mixture of unaccustomed optimism and all-too-familiar swagger. He’d told Violet he loved her, after all…but he didn’t think she’d heard him. That’s the only reason he’d risked saying it at all.
Because some things weren’t meant to be wagered on—especially not love or the burgeoning promise of it. As much as Cade excelled at gambling, he wasn’t reckless. Not usually. Not like this—not the way he was with Violet…with hoping they could have a future together despite the sadness of his past.
But maybe finding Whittier—and the answers he could give—wasn’t the only route to the future he needed, Cade had begun to consider lately. Maybe abandoning his search for those answers was.
Not that he was keen to tell Simon Blackhouse as much. He still hadn’t informed his benefactor of the wager he’d lost with Reverend Benson—and its subsequent requirement that Cade forgo gambling altogether. With that restriction in place and the faro tournament’s qualifying games drawing to a close soon, his chance to find Percy Whittier might be slipping away, Cade knew.
But those were problems for another day—a day when he didn’t have an armful of kind, generous woman to love…even if he might have to do so amid the pine trees and nosy warbling birds.
“Be with me,” Cade urged Violet, wanting to forget everything except this moment…and this woman. Deftly he worked at her coat buttons, then slipped his hands inside. Blissful warmth, wonderful curves and the promise of Violet’s sweet love awaited him there. He could no more resist those things than he could forget why he’d come to Morrow Creek in the first place.
“You’re just trying to delay arriving at the blacksmith’s shop,” Violet averred, giving him a frisky swat. “Don’t worry. You can do this, Cade. If not this, then something else. I have several apprenticeships lined up for you. I’m good at helping people, remember? I won’t give up on you, no matter what.”
“Maybe you should. You wouldn’t be the first.”
“There you go, sounding gloomy again.” Frowning, she took his hand. She cradled it in hers, gazing intently into his face. “What happened to you, to make you believe such things?”
Yanked unwillingly from the warmth of their togetherness, Cade thought of orphan trains and cold nights and potential foster parents who tightened their lips and shook their heads at the notion of taking in two fast-growing, rascally foundling boys. He and Judah had tried appearing especially angelic once, hoping to lure in a decent caregiver. That had only landed them with a temporary “mother” who thought a swat was as good as a hug and hard factory labor was all that orphaned boys were good for.
Running away had seemed the only reasonable response.
“If I wanted work, would I make my living at cards?” Cade asked, hauling himself back to Violet by dint of sheer will—and doing his best to divert her from her troubling questions. “If I
was meant for an ordinary life, would I be a sporting man?”
“My life is ordinary.” Violet crossed her arms, appearing wounded. “But I have good friends and satisfying work and—”
“And more good deeds to your credit than an angel can claim. I know.” With a grin, Cade held up his hands. He knew better than to push her on this. “I already promised you I’d go through with these apprenticeships.” Reminded then of another vow he’d made, Cade added, “I also promised you once that I’d make every man in Morrow Creek want you. I’m well on my way to having accomplished that. Getting my hands dirty at a few local businesses will be a good way to test the waters, even if the apprenticeships don’t work out. Because if you think I’m going to let just anyone have you without vetting them first—”
“‘Have’ me?” She snorted. “That’s not for you to say, Mr. Foster.” In a cavalier tone, Violet pressed onward. “What do you think we’ve been doing together all this time? I’ve already found the only man I want. While it’s true that he can be a stubborn, contrary cuss from time to time, I happen to be—”
“He doesn’t sound like much, this man of yours.”
“—awfully fond of him.” Showing that she meant she was fond of him, Violet smiled more broadly. “In any case, I no longer wish to be irresistible to the menfolk in Morrow Creek.”
“It would be good for you if you were,” Cade protested, warming further to the notion of using his trial employment as a way to fulfill his original promise to Violet. He could scarcely allow her to count on him for the future she deserved. She deserved better…much better than him. “Then when I do leave town, you’ll have your pick of suitors to—”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Violet interrupted crisply—almost as though she’d forgotten his vow to her and didn’t want to be reminded of it now, despite the bargain they’d made when she’d provisionally agreed to be his good-luck charm…and he’d offered to squire her around town in a sham courtship. “Right now, there are a few things you should know about Daniel McCabe, the blacksmith. He’s very happily married to the schoolmarm, Sarah, so don’t try to corrupt him as a means of avoiding work at his shop. You know you could do it.”
Lisa Plumley Page 12
