by Katie Lane
Reba laughed. “I guess we’re just pistol-packing mamas.” She yelled back to Luanne. “It’s me! Reba!”
The door swung open and there stood Luanne with a half-finished bracelet in one hand and a fireplace poker in the other. “Good grief, Reba. You scared twenty years off my life. Both guests are in their rooms and I didn’t expect you back tonight.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, Lord, Miss Gertie went to meet her maker.” She pulled Reba in for a tight hug, the handle of the poker pressing into her back. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. I’ll activate the phone tree and get everyone over here to help comfort you in your time of need.”
Reba drew back. “Thank you, Luanne. But Aunt Gertie is fine. They just want her to stay in the hospital for a few days to make sure.”
Luanne’s shoulders relaxed. “Thank the Lord. Not only because she’s like a grumpy old aunt to me, but also because I wouldn’t know what to do with this special Ten Commandments bracelet I’m making her.” She held up the thread with the beads dangling off it that read X Death. Valentine choked on a laugh, which drew Luanne’s attention. Once again her eyes widened.
“You’re him? You’re Valentine Sterling?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Valentine swept off his cowboy hat, his hair endearingly mussed.
Luanne looked confused. “But where are your fancy black clothes and your James Bond hairstyle and your smoldering author look?”
“Luanne!” Reba scolded.
“What? I’m just saying that this guy looks like your everyday run-of-the-mill cute cowboy. He doesn’t look like that arrogant author you were telling us about.”
Valentine raised his eyebrows at Reba, and she felt her cheeks heat. He laughed before he leaned in to Luanne and whispered. “It’s all part of the illusion. I am just an ordinary guy. But don’t tell anyone.” He winked. “Now if you ladies will excuse me, the arrogant author needs to get some writing done.” He tipped his hat before he headed down the hallway to his room.
When he was gone, Reba turned to Luanne. “Did you have to repeat what I said about him being arrogant?”
“If you didn’t want it repeated, you shouldn’t have told me. You know I repeat everything.” She hooked an arm through Reba’s. “Now come on into the kitchen and I’ll make you some hot tea while you tell me why you look at the author you didn’t particularly care for like he’s a big ol’ scoop of Rocky Road ice cream.”
It was well after ten o’clock by the time Reba convinced Luanne nothing was going on between her and Valentine. After Luanne left, Reba went and got Butler from Aunt Gertie’s room. The cat wasn’t sleeping in his usual spot on the windowsill, but instead was in the basket of Aunt Gertie’s walker. The sight brought tears to Reba’s eyes, and she lifted the cat into her arms and snuggled him close.
“I know. I miss her too.”
Butler sank his claws into her shoulder.
“Oww!” She released her tight hold and the cat jumped out of her arms. Reba rubbed her injured shoulder. “You ornery old thing.”
Butler gave her a green-eyed glare and jumped back into the basket. Since she wasn’t about to pick up the mean cat again, Reba wheeled Butler to her cottage in Aunt Gertie’s walker. Once there, she called the hospital. The nurse on duty said that her aunt was sleeping peacefully and had been for hours.
Sleep didn’t come that easily to Reba. She couldn’t stop worrying about Aunt Gertie. After tossing and turning for over an hour, she finally gave up and went to check on Butler. He had left Aunt Gertie’s walker basket and was sitting on the back of the couch intently staring at something in the garden. Probably Roo. Thinking a visit with the rabbit might calm her nerves, Reba stepped out into the garden.
A full harvest moon hung high in the sky like a softer-version of the sun, washing all the flowers and plants in silver moon dust. Even Reba’s nightgown seemed to simmer as she moved along the pathway looking for Roo.
She had just started to take a deep breath of the autumn-scented night when she was grabbed from behind. She might’ve let out a scream and started fighting if she hadn’t recognized the voice that spoke close to her ear.
“I caught you.” Valentine turned her around to face him. His amber eyes registered surprise. “Reba?”
“Were you expecting someone else?”
He smiled sheepishly. “Actually, I was expecting the ghost of Granny Dovey. She’s been teasing me ever since I got here and I thought I’d finally caught her.”
She didn’t know why the thought of him chasing after her grandmother tickled her funny bone, but it did. Or maybe her hysterical giggles had more to do with all the nervous tension from the day. Whatever the reason, she fell against him and laughed herself silly.
“You find that amusing, do you?” he said dryly.
She was laughing so hard all she could do was nod against his neck.
He chuckled. “I guess it is pretty funny. Cool Valentine Sterling chasing ghosts around in his underwear.”
She stopped laughing when she realized all the naked flesh she was pressed against. Her head rested against the strong slope of his naked shoulder. Her hands rested against the solid muscles of his naked back. And her breasts rested against the hard swells of his naked chest.
She should move.
She should definitely move.
She didn’t.
She just stood there in his arms. Today at the hospital, she had needed him for comfort. Now she needed him for so much more. She needed him to feed the desire that raced through her body. Needed him to ease the hurt in her heart. But mostly she needed him to fill the emptiness she felt every day of her life but refused to acknowledge because she didn’t want to be weak. In Valentine’s arms, it felt okay to finally confess to herself that she couldn’t do it all alone—that occasionally she needed someone to lean on. Someone she could count on.
She knew she could count on Valentine.
She drew back and studied his face in the moonlight. When had it become the most beautiful thing in her life? Without a word, she leaned in and kissed him. She kissed him like she had been dreaming about kissing him since he first kissed her. She kissed him like a passionate woman who knew what she wanted and was willing to go after it. But she wanted more than just sex from Valentine. She wanted all he was willing to give.
And he seemed to be willing to give a lot. As soon as her lips touched his, a groan escaped his throat and his mouth and tongue became just as hungry as hers. His long, skilled fingers dug into her waist as he pulled her closer, surrounding her in the hard-muscled heat of his bare chest and arms.
One kiss melted into another and another as Reba tried to get her fill of Valentine. But the more she took, the more she wanted. As they kissed, she slid her hands down to the part of him that she had wanted to touch for a very long time. His butt felt as good as it looked and she couldn’t help palming his cotton-covered cheeks and squeezing the tight muscles. His groan vibrated through her mouth and he flexed his hips, rubbing his wonderful hardness against her needy softness. She whimpered and rubbed back.
He tore away from the kiss and rested his forehead against hers, his breath pumping hard and fast. “Reba, we need to stop, baby.”
She loved the way he called her baby. “I don’t want to stop.”
He stared into her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
He gave her one more consuming kiss before he scooped her up in his arms as if she weighed nothing and carried her down the path to her cottage. She helped him open the door, and he carried her inside, then kicked the door shut. Once in the bedroom, he set her down by the foot of the bed and started to pull off her nightgown.
She placed her hand over his and stopped him. “Turn off the light first.”
He drew back, his eyes hot with desire but also understanding. “No, Reba. If we’re going to do this, then we need to see each other as we really are. There’s no more hiding.” Then before she could object again, he swept the nightgow
n over her head. Standing there just in her panties, she had the strong desire to grab her grandma’s quilt and cover herself. Instead, she tried not to fidget as he stepped back and his gaze wandered over her.
His breath rushed out. “Holy crap . . . damn. Maybe we better turn off the light.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “What?”
His gaze lifted. There was no disgust. Just a smothering heat that scorched right through her.
“I don’t know what God had in mind when he made your gorgeous body,” he said in a raspy whisper. “But at the moment it feels like he made it to tempt me beyond my endurance. I’m afraid if we don’t turn out the lights, I’m going to embarrass myself. That would be very uncool.”
The man certainly knew how to make an insecure woman feel secure.
She lowered her arms and stepped closer. “Cool is overrated. Hot is a much better temperature.”
She had never undressed a man before and was thankful all she had to deal with was a pair of black boxers. When they were pooled at his feet, she stepped back and couldn’t help the swift intake of breath. Talk about hot. Valentine was the definition of the word. And she wanted to touch every square inch of that hotness.
So she did.
She slid her hands up his washboard stomach, traced a finger between each rib, cupped his hard pecs in her palms, and flicked his nipples to tight nubs. She caressed the slopes of his broad shoulders and cradled the swells of his biceps, before she let her hand move lower.
“Reba,” he said in a desire-thickened voice. “I swear if you touch me, I’m going to lose it.” He pulled her up to her toes and kissed her with a frantic press of lips and a hungry thrust of tongue.
All the touching had made her feel just as hungry. They tumbled back on the bed in a tangle of greedy lips and needy body parts. She thought he would get right down to business, but he continued to feed her kisses until she was breathless and dizzy. Then he drew back from her lips and proceeded to kiss his way down her body, stripping off her panties as he went.
When he was kneeling at the foot of the bed, he took her hips in his hands and pulled her down the mattress toward him. The next kiss he gave her had her humming low in her throat as she learned that Valentine was as skilled with his tongue as he was with his fingers. With deep licks and sweet flicks, he wrote a story on her. A hot, sexual story that culminated in a breath-stealing, mind-blowing, I-think-I-saw-heaven climax that made her realize how truly talented Valentine was.
And the story didn’t end there.
Just when she thought the best part was over, he kissed his way back up her body until he fully covered her. She loved the weight of him, the way all his hard spots pressed into all her soft spots. The way they fit perfectly together. Everything she had once hated about her body, she now loved. She suddenly felt like the ugly duckling who had just discovered that she hadn’t been ugly at all. She had just needed to find her place.
As Valentine entered her, Reba found hers.
He was a gentle lover. His arms cradled her head and his gaze never left hers as he thrust slow and deep. Even when she tightened around him in orgasm and he started to fall into his own, his soft whiskey-colored eyes continued to hold hers as if he wanted to read every one of her emotions and wanted to share every one of his.
In those eyes, she saw something she had looked for in a man all her life.
She saw love.
Chapter Eighteen
Val woke with a feeling of contentment. Like everything was right in the world. When he opened his eyes, he knew exactly who was responsible for that feeling. Reba lay only inches away with her mouth slightly open and her breath fluttering one red wayward curl. He smiled as the feeling of contentment grew. He brushed the curl away from her face. It must’ve tickled her nose because she wrinkled it, then awoke with a satisfied sigh and a long, leisurely stretch that had one full, sweet breast popping out from under the sheet.
He couldn’t resist cradling it in his hand and sliding his thumb over the pretty pink center.
Her eyes popped open wide and she stared back at him with confusion.
“Good mornin’, Rapunzel,” he said.
The confusion cleared and a soft smile tipped up the corners of her mouth. “Valentine.” He loved the way she said his name. It fell like sweet southern honey from her lips and made him feel like he was receiving the best valentine ever, all wrapped up in a sumptuous package.
He leaned over and kissed her, then rested his head on the pillow next to hers as he continued to caress the soft swell of her breast. “Did I thank you for the most amazing night of my life?” Her eyes turned all misty blue and she gave a slight shake of her head. He kissed her again. This time much longer and deeper before he drew back and smiled. “Thank you.”
She reach out and smoothed a strand of hair off his forehead. “Thank you for the most amazing night of my life.”
Happiness and more than a little pride swelled inside him and he drew her closer. As always, all her softness filled all his hollows. This was right. This was perfect.
“So I was thinking,” he said as he let his hand wander down to her full, luscious hips. “Do you want to see if the morning can be just as amazing?”
A sexy smile tipped the corners of her mouth and desire hot and thick pooled in his loins. “I thought you’d never ask,” she whispered right before she threaded her fingers through his hair and gave him a kiss that left him groaning.
The night before, they had made love with frenzied need. But now, with the early morning sun streaming across the bed and this perfect woman in his arms, he wanted to take things slow.
He let his fingers caress and lips kiss every square inch of her. He learned what made her sigh and what made her moan and what made her cry out his name as if it were a prayer. He took her to her limits—which also took him to his. When he couldn’t take anymore, he entered her with slow, deep strokes that made her plead for more.
He gave her more.
He gave her everything.
Reba deserved everything.
After they were both satisfied and spent, he pulled her into his arms and finally accepted that he needed this woman. He needed her smiles and her feisty retorts and her determination and her truthfulness. Reba was real. And he needed that realness. He needed it more than he had ever needed anything.
A few moments later, a soft snore told him that she had fallen asleep. He started to join her when Rhett Butler jumped onto the bed. He hadn’t known the cat was in the house. Val reached out a hand and the cat stared at it for a second before he daintily made his way up Val’s legs and curled up on his lap in a pool of hairless skin. Val scratched his soft ears until they both fell into a contented sleep.
When he woke again, he reached for warm woman. Instead he got a sharp scratch. He pulled back his hand and glared at Butler, who was now curled up on Reba’s pillow.
“You are an ornery thing,” he grumbled.
The cat stared back with indifference before closing his eyes and going back to sleep. Val sat up and looked around for Reba. She wasn’t there, but there was a tray on the nightstand that hadn’t been there the night before. It held a cup of coffee, a can of cat food, one red rose, and a note.
You were sleeping so soundly I didn’t want to wake you. I’m headed to the hospital to check on Aunt Gertie and will be back tonight. If the prince should want to come back to my tower, I’ll have my hair down and waiting.
Rapunzel
P.S. Please feed and keep a close eye on Lucifer.
Val smiled and picked up the rose. He had done research on the language of flowers for one of his villains who had used different flowers as calling cards with his murder victims. And red roses were the classic “I love you” flower. He smelled the flower and glanced at the window. Was it his imagination or had the sun suddenly gotten much brighter?
He hopped out of bed ready to start his day. “Come on, you ornery ol’ cat. Let’s feed you so I can get some writing done
.”
Once he’d fed the cat, he took a shower in Reba’s bathroom. As he lathered with her floral scented shampoo and soap, he couldn’t help thinking of their night together and fantasizing about the night ahead. When he was dressed, he scooped up the cat and headed to his room. On the way, he ran into Mike and Ty. Ty was up in a tree while Mike stood at the bottom yelling up directions. “You need to go higher so it doesn’t look so much like a sheet.”
“If you want it higher,” Ty yelled down at him, “you need to get your butt up here and take it higher. This is as high as I go.”
“What’s going on?” Val asked.
Mike turned to him. “Val? I thought you’d left town.”
“I decided to stay.”
“Does Miss Reba know?”
Val couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “She knows.”
Mike looked confused. “It’s funny that she didn’t mention it when I talked to her this morning.”
Val couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed that Mike got to talk with her before she left and he hadn’t. Of course, Val had gotten to do a lot more than talk with her so he probably shouldn’t be jealous. Especially when Reba would soon be sending Mike and Ty on their way.
“So does someone want to tell me what I’m supposed to attach this stupid sheet with?” Ty yelled down.
“What exactly are you doing?” Val asked.
“Miss Reba asked us to put this sheet in the tree. I guess a bunch of teenagers come here on Halloween night to see the ghost of Reba’s great granny. And she doesn’t want them to be disappointed.”
It was so like Reba to not want to disappoint anyone who came to the boardinghouse. But after all the glimpses he’d caught of a billowing white gown, he didn’t think Reba needed to put up a fake ghost. There was definitely something supernatural going on here. Still, if Reba wanted a sheet put up, she was going to get it.
He set down the cat and gave him a stern warning. “Stay away from the bunny.” Then he climbed up in the tree to help Ty. When the sheet was strung through the branches as convincingly as possible, he climbed back down to find Rhett Butler was gone. After some searching, he found the cat with the rabbit. Thankfully, Butler was not eating Roo. The cat was lazily stretched out in the sun sleeping while the bunny sat next to him, munching on a black-eyed Susan.
