The Texas Millionaire's Runaway Wife

by Mary Malcolm

  He gathered it, and their clothing from the hallway, then stopped outside the door to check messages. One. He gritted his teeth when he discovered it was from Tatiana. She wanted her money or she was going to reveal the truth. So close to the end and he couldn’t get a break. His thoughts went back to Cassie.

  Unquestionably, she was the best lover he’d ever had. He glanced down and realized he’d stay hard unless he did something about it. A devious smile formed across his face as he closed the phone and went back into the room. Moving barefoot across the carpet, he knelt onto the bed and slid his hand down Cassie’s side, landing on her bottom. She had the softest bottom. So sweet and warm beneath his hand. Pulling the covers free, he placed a kiss on her hip, then one on her cheek. She stirred as he parted her thighs and kissed the apex of curls. She smelled like sex. He nudged her legs further apart and touched the tip of his hardness against her moist slit.

  She moaned. “Not even going to wake me first, were you?”

  He grinned wolfishly as he buried himself in her.

  He moved slowly, this time. The urgency of their earlier union had come from a desperate, primal place. Now, he wanted to take his time.

  “More,” she urged.

  Stephen smiled. He was in control, and he’d take as long as he wanted.

  ****

  Finally spent, emotion welled in her chest as Cassie relaxed in his arms. She wished she could will this night to last forever. For a few hours it felt as if her world wasn’t crumbling around her. As if Liz and Annie didn’t need her, as if Stephen didn’t hate her. For a few hours, she got to just be Cassie. Sexy Cassie, sure, but at least without the worry of her day-to-day life. She stroked his belly with her hand. In only three days her entire life had turned upside down. Everything felt different.

  She couldn’t keep him like this. Couldn’t make him wait this thing out. He might not love Tatiana, but he deserved to be with someone he loved. No matter how she felt for him. She was selfish coming back. She didn’t want to lose her business to save her family, so she dragged him into a problem that wasn’t his own. It wasn’t right. And he deserved better.

  He deserved a chance to find true love. She’d leverage the bakery, that’s what she should have done in the first place. This was her problem, not his.

  But how would she convince him to let her out? She’d be the bad guy, no way around it. And that’s what she deserved. If doing the right thing made her look bad, so be it.

  Now the biggest question was trying to figure out how to be okay with herself once this was all done.

  “You’re awful quiet.”

  She pressed her lips against his chest and looked up at him again. “Just thinking.”

  “About Liz and Annie?” His arm pulled her tighter and he brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

  She rubbed his back as she said, “Them, and other things.”

  His eyebrow quirked as he waited. But she didn’t say any more. Instead she asked, “Are you hungry?” A lecherous grin formed on his lips. Laughing, she slapped his backside and said, “No. No more of that. I’m exhausted. I mean for food. Are you hungry for food?”

  He looked like a sullen child as he shifted and sat up next to her. “I could eat. Should I call Abigail?”

  Cassie rolled her eyes. “We are capable of feeding ourselves, you know.”

  He leaned against the headboard and crossed arms behind his head. “I wouldn’t know. I stay away from the kitchen.”

  “You’ve never made yourself a sandwich?”

  “Not since college.”

  She shook her head as she sat up and got out of the bed. “Where’s your robe?”

  He motioned toward the closet door.

  “Come with me. Food can be very sexy, you know.”

  He arched his brow again as he sat at the edge of the bed. “I’m guessing almost anything you do is sexy.”

  She laughed. “That’s me. Pure, raw, sex appeal.” She walked closer to the bed, carrying a second robe, but his hands reached out and snaked around her middle.

  She landed back on the bed with a soft thud and laughed. “What are you doing?”

  His eyes had darkened and his fingers moved down her arms. “Cassie, you are one of the sexiest women I know. Purely passionate. I don’t think you even realize it. Earlier you told me you don’t fit in with those blondes. You’re right.”

  She didn’t need to hear this. Pushing against him, she tried to get back up. “Move, Stephen.”

  “No. You’re right. Those women have nothing. Tatiana? The one who keeps calling and trying to reach me, she’s nothing. She’s this young thing that I thought was beautiful. But I was wrong. You’re beautiful. You’re sexy, passionate, loving, you’re thoughtful. Hell, you even invited the local Mommy’s Day Out group over for lunch. Tatiana would have never done something like that. Those blondes would never do something like that.”

  Heat filled Cassie’s cheeks as she confessed, “I only wanted to upset you.”

  He leaned over and asked, “What do you mean?”

  “I thought the mommies and all those kids would push you over the edge. That you’d decide I wasn’t worth the effort and you’d let me out of this.”

  “How do you feel now?” he asked, voice deep and too sexy by far.

  “Right now I don’t want to feel anything.”

  He pressed his lips against hers, kissing his way across her mouth and down her neck. “What about this?”

  She moaned and moved her body in rhythm to his kisses. “I always want to feel this.”

  “Still hungry for that sandwich?”

  “Yes.”

  He laughed. “I could still call Abigail.”

  “No,” she urged as she pushed up from the bed. “C’mon.” Grabbing his hand, she led him to the kitchen.

  “Now, the key to a good sandwich,” she said, “is that it’s all about the bread.”

  He sat on a stool at the counter and waited for her to continue. “Typical for a baker to say such things.”

  She rolled her eyes. “If you want a nice tomato sandwich, but put it on soft bread, you’ll end up with a gooey mess.”

  “What if I like gooey messes?”

  She laughed. He looked like a little boy on that stool. Attentive and listening to her every word. She loved it. Pulling some hardy bread from the breadbox, she then searched the refrigerator for what she needed. “Gooey messes are great in some instances, but never in a sandwich.”

  “Should I take notes?”

  “No.”

  She slathered some mayo onto the bread, followed by mustard then cheddar cheese. “Next, the meat.”

  “Mmm, meat and gooeyness. I think I like this whole sandwich making business.”

  “You’re such a pervert,” she laughed. Taking some pastrami from a container, she layered it onto the bread, followed by lettuce, tomato and a sliced avocado. She pressed the bread together and placed it on a plate. “There, Mr. Sands, you have the perfect sandwich.”

  He looked at her skeptically. “I don’t know. I’ve had some pretty amazing sandwiches in my time. Davalo’s, over off of Broadway, for instance. So what makes this sandwich different?”

  She stepped around the counter and faced him. “It was made by me.” Picking up the sandwich, she held it to his lips. He opened his mouth and took a bite, chewing slowly, his eyes never leaving hers.

  Somehow, Stephen even made eating a sandwich into a sexual experience. Heat flooded her belly sending tendrils of excitement coursing through her veins. She tried to ignore the sexual sounds coming from his mouth.

  “Davalo’s doesn’t have anything on you,” he said finally, taking the sandwich from her hands. “Where’s yours?”

  Grinning, Cassie nipped at his palm before moving to make one more. They ate in silence, well, almost silence. He wouldn’t stop making those noises. “You don’t have to be so sexual when you eat, you know.”

  “No?” he asked, looking at her innocently.

&n
bsp; “No, you don’t.”

  He moved around the counter and traced his finger across her forehead. “You have a little mustard.”

  Her heart beat faster as he leaned in. Softly, he licked the corner of her mouth. “Did you get it?” Her voice sounded husky, even to her. And her knees felt wobbly as she leaned her hip against the counter.

  “I got it.”

  His mouth pressed over hers and she leaned further into the counter. He lifted her, effortlessly, and walked her backwards to the wooden cutting block. Cassie couldn’t help but notice that the block was the perfect height for them to make love. She untied her robe and let it fall from her shoulders. The fabric whispered against her nipples as it fell away and the cold air mixed with Stephen’s animalistic stare made her tingle in anticipation.

  She reached forward and untied his robe. “I bet you’ve never spent much time in this kitchen, have you?”

  “Just at the bakery,” he said, his thumbs grazing over her nipples. “But I think I might want to spend some more. My past experience and my experience today have taught me they can be more fun than first imagined.”

  Blushing, Cassie remembered their time in the bakery. It was only once, but it had been amazing. Excited by the memory, she arched her breasts into his hands and raked nails down his back. “I’ve always enjoyed them,” she breathed, inches from his ear. She nibbled the lobe and tightened her hands around his neck. “Something so...raw...about a room like this. All these knives. The cold metal pots and pans. Sterile surfaces.”

  “God you’re so hot.”

  Leaning down, she bit his nipple, pulling it back between her teeth.

  He let out a hiss and forced her legs further apart. “Lay back, Cassie.”

  She did what he asked, anticipation flooding the entire time.

  “You’re so wet.”

  “You make me that way.”

  He ran his fingers up and down the length of her dewy sex and pumped them into her a few times. His thumb grazed her nub making Cassie arch into his hand. She wanted more. She always wanted more. “Stephen,” she breathed.

  His robe fell to the ground and he nudged the tip of his erection between the folds of her sex. “This what you want?”

  “Yes,” she hissed.

  He slowed down. Barely nudging, never quite entering. Cassie felt she may die right there on the block as she waited for him. The hard wood beneath her felt smooth and sexy. He parted her and ran his finger over her a few more times. If he kept that up, she’d come before he ever entered her. “Stephen,” she bit out, feeling raw.

  He pressed the head into her and waited. “Say you love me.”

  His words made her grow hotter. Wetter. She didn’t want to think. She only wanted to feel. “I love you,” she whispered.

  “Say it again.”

  “I love you. God Stephen, I love you.”

  He pressed in hard, filling her with his entire length. His body leaned over hers and he pulled her into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his midsection as he walked them both. They landed hard against a wall. Cassie raised and fell on him. The cool wall pressed against her back, his fingers dug into her bottom.

  “Say it again,” he urged.

  “I love you. I love you.” He pressed in deeper and they moved back to the block. In a flurry of quick thrusts he brought them both over the edge. Completely spent, Cassie closed her eyes and barely felt as he carried her back upstairs.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Say I love you. Those four words rocked Cassie to her core. Not in the middle of it. In the middle she would have agreed to rob a bank had he asked. But after, once her sex-muddled brain had a chance to think, she realized what an odd request. Say I love you. From a man who acted so much as if he hated her. Perhaps they were just words.

  Or maybe he really had feelings for her.

  “Listen,” he said, “we need to talk about something tonight.”

  Stephen was fully dressed, ready to go into the office. Cassie was lying naked and not the least bit ashamed in his bed.

  “This whole marriage thing.”

  Had he been reading her mind? She waited for him to continue.

  “I don’t think we made a good enough impression at the Travis Building, so my brothers and I discussed it, we’re throwing a party next weekend.”

  “What kind of party?”

  “A wedding party, of sorts. My family, cousins, about five-hundred of my closest friends.”

  Cassie’s jaw dropped. It seemed a party that big would take more than a week to pull off. Then again, when you have unlimited resources they way the Sands family does, she supposed you could pull anything off. “So what’s going to happen?”

  “Mostly a lot of greeting people, letting them see us together, making sure there is no doubt we are well and truly married.”

  Cassie nodded. Not exactly what she’d had in mind, but for Stephen’s sake perhaps it would be enough. Maybe if people saw them together at the party, they could get a quiet divorce and move on with their separate lives.

  Who was she kidding? She’d seen gossip TV before. In the age of the internet, no one with even the smallest celebrity status got a quiet divorce. Someone would dig it up. Some clerk at the courthouse would be paid the equivalent of a car payment or maybe even a little more, and then their quickie divorce would be out for the public to see. Scandal aplenty. Then, if they dug only a little deeper, they would find their marriage hadn’t happened the way they’d presented it to the world, either.

  “You’re awful quiet.”

  Cassie turned to him. “Just thinking.”

  He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. “Anything I can help you with?”

  She didn’t think so. Not unless he knew how to change history. “No.”

  “Annie’s going to be fine. I’ve worked with Magnolia Bransford for a long time. They have tremendous success. You’ll be surprised by the difference.”

  Cassie smiled painfully. “It’s not Annie.”

  His eyebrow quirked, waiting for her to elaborate. Instead, she turned away and glanced out the window. A party.

  How was Cassie supposed to ask him for a quiet divorce if he planned to have a party to celebrate their marriage?

  She sighed and tried not to think about it. They’d just have to face that when the time came. She’d talked with Charles Sands last night; she didn’t think it would be too surprising to the old man if their marriage ended quickly.

  But what consequences would Stephen face?

  After he left, Cassie sought out Abigail. She needed to do the right thing, but she needed to talk to someone. She hadn’t found the courage to talk to Stephen, and that left only one other person in the house.

  It took some convincing, but Cassie finally got Abigail to sit on the couch with her. “I know you’ve been with him for a long time, and you’re very loyal. I know you’re probably the only other person I can go to who can help me,” Cassie implored.

  A mixture of guilt and determination settled on the woman’s face as she talked. “I shouldn’t be doing this, but I think for you to better understand Stephen, you should understand about his mom.”

  “His mom?” He’d never really talked about his mother. Only his father. Cassie already knew what a bastard Charles had been. Not to mention the string of ex-wives.

  As Abigail unfolded the story, Cassie’s heart broke for the little boy Stephen had been. At ten years old, after the William and Andrew were born, his mother left them. Stephen had never told her. “She never came back? Never tried to contact the boys?”

  “No,” Abigail said. “Not even once. When Stephen was twelve he got in trouble and his dad had to pick him up from school and take him to the office. After that, he spent every afternoon there. Stephen told me several years ago it was Gayle who finally told him the truth about his mother.”

  “You mean—”

  “Charles never told the boys.”

  Cassie shook her head in amazement. She couldn’t
believe the man would be so cruel to his own sons. “Why would he do that?” she whispered. Her heart broke for all four boys. No wonder they didn’t have normal relationships.

  “He didn’t know how.”

  Biting her lip, Cassie decided to go ahead and ask the question lingering between them. “So when Stephen married me like that, out of the blue, what did he hope to accomplish?”

  Abigail shook her head and put her arm over the back of the couch. “That isn’t how Stephen thinks. He loved you and didn’t want to give you a chance to leave. If you ever did leave, I imagine it would feel like his world was crashing all over again. He doesn’t bounce around between women, not as much as the tabloids would make you believe. Most of the women in those pictures are friends, or acquaintances. There must be something truly special about you for Stephen to have wanted to settle down.”

  It felt like a hole punched into her heart. She had left. She couldn’t have known about his past, and he’d certainly given her reason to go, but he’d given her a piece of himself and she threw it back. It made her ache, and it made her angry at all the time they’d wasted lying to each other. Her by holding back so much of herself, him for pretending to be anyone other than who he truly was.

  “I shouldn’t have told you any of this. But you’re his wife, and I love him. He’s like a son to me and you’re right, I’m protective of him. But it’s only because no one else has been.”

  Cassie nodded.

  “So, take good care of him, Cassie. If you’re in this for the wrong reason, you need to end it before this has a chance to get any muddier.”

  “I will,” Cassie said. She didn’t know what else needed to be said and she sensed Abigail was finished, so she stood.

  “I know you aren’t a bad person, Cassie. But Stephen’s not had a chance to be with a good one, so please just be careful.”

  She smiled again and pulled Abigail into an impromptu embrace before leaving.