“It worked,” she whispered.
For a moment he didn’t move. Then he started to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
“What so funny?” she asked.
“This. Us. Everything. It hit me the second I released the lock. I’m making a soap-opera drama out of opening a lock. If this were being recorded for a show, I’d be in the running for an Emmy.”
Charlotte giggled beside him. “We are being rather melodramatic. Just open the damn lid, then we can eat.”
He did as she suggested. He looked into the box. Well, great, it was just another pile of letters. Probably as meaningless as the letters and photos Gavin had found in the safe-deposit box. He lifted them out and replaced the box onto the table.
“Okay, so this isn’t what I was expecting.”
Charlotte reached out and took the top one. “I wonder who they belong to. There’s no address or name on the front or the back of the envelopes.”
“I’ve no idea.” On a whim he picked up the box again and pressed the base.
“Are you looking for a false bottom or something?”
“Yes, there isn’t one.” Instead of putting the box back on the table, he laid it at his feet so he could have room to spread the letters out on the table. What was the significance of the letters, and were they part of the clue to his father’s note to him?
Charlotte put the letter she held back onto the pile. “Are you going to open them?”
That was the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. He could be invading someone’s privacy. Yet they had been found in the house on the land that once belonged to his father and that now belonged to Charlotte.
“You should probably open them,” he said finally.
“Why?”
“Because they were found on your property. Essentially the box and the contents belong to you.”
“But you’re the one who owns the key that unlocks the box. And really, Cowboy, you need to read them, so quit being a big girl’s blouse and start reading.”
A buzzer sounded in the distance and Charlotte stood up. “That will be dinner. Take the box into the dining room and you can read them while you eat.”
“Okay,” he said.
Once in the dining room, he took Charlotte’s advice to just read the letters. He grabbed the top letter, and a very faint fragrance tickled his nose, like the paper had been sprayed with perfume before it had been sent.
To my sweet Jack,
I’m writing this letter because I can’t believe what I’m feeling is not a dream. I pinch myself and I don’t wake up. It is real. And writing it down makes it even more real. I had the most wonderful time last night. I hope you did, too.
Until next time…
“What does it say?” she asked as she placed a steaming plate of pasta in a creamy sauce next to him.
“It looks like it’s a love letter.” He held it out to her.
He took a mouthful of the pasta while he watched Charlotte scan the letter. A sweet smile and a dreamy expression broke out over her face.
“It sure does, and it’s almost like this letter was written after a first date.”
Gage nodded and kept shoveling the food into his mouth. He finished off his dinner quickly and then extracted the next letter from its envelope. No scent drifted up from this one, and he immediately recognized the scrawl.
“This one’s from Dad.”
“What does it say?”
Gage began to read out loud.
My darling, sweet girl,
If it is a dream, then I’m dreaming with you. I never wanted the night to end, but sadly it had to. I’ve never smiled or laughed so much in my life. I can’t wait to see you again. I hope you don’t think me forward in asking if you are free Saturday afternoon? I will be waiting by the tree where we first met.
Until Saturday…
Jack
“Oh, Gage, this is beautiful.”
Huh? Were women automatically programmed at birth to think love letters were so fascinating? There didn’t seem to be anything special about the two notes he’d just read. “I’m afraid I don’t follow you.”
She reached across the table and touched his hand. “Don’t you see? It’s the start of your parents’ romance. It sounds like love at first sight. Do you know how special that is? Nothing could be more romantic than that.”
The dreamy expression came back over Charlotte’s face, mixed this time with a little wistfulness.
“Do you believe in love at first sight?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I know my parents do. Do you?”
“I don’t think so. Besides, we don’t know how long it was between when my parents first met until their first date. It could’ve been a week or a month before Dad summoned up the courage to ask Mom out. If you noticed, the letters aren’t dated.”
The lightness in her face died a little, and he felt like a jerk for extinguishing that flame of romance within her.
She stood and collected the plates. “I’m going to take these through to the kitchen, and then I think I might go to bed. I’m a little tired.”
She was up and out of the dining room before he could catch his breath. His hand hovered over another letter. He didn’t pick it up. What was the point? The key he’d been left with, the key that supposedly led to happiness, led instead to a box of letters—and heartache. His father had never married after their mom had died. Had Jack Cooper been happy raising three boys by himself? Or had he been heartbroken that the woman he’d loved had been taken from him?
Gage put the useless letters back in the box. He wasn’t going to get his answer from reading them. And he was sure they weren’t going to answer his question of why the land now belonged to Charlotte and not him.
“Dad, seriously, what are you trying to tell me? What am I supposed to do with these letters?”
CHAPTER 19
Charlotte rolled over again, trying to get comfortable. The bed felt too big. Could one night spent sleeping in Gage’s arms make it impossible for her to sleep alone? She’d been sleeping alone for most of her life. Even when she’d been in a semi-serious relationship, she’d been able to sleep apart from the person. Why was tonight so much harder to fall asleep?
Throwing the covers off in disgust, she got up and padded out to the kitchen. She pulled open the fridge and grabbed the carton of milk. She filled a glass and wandered over to the window. She opened the blinds a little to look out over the city. At this time of night she expected the streets to be empty, but there were still quite a few cars driving around.
Gage’s reflection joined hers in the glass.
“Can’t you sleep either?”
“It would seem that way,” she responded tartly.
A light chuckle. “Yeah, that was kind of a dumb question.”
Charlotte drained the rest of the milk before turning to face him. “So, why can’t you sleep?”
He shrugged his shoulders. He was shirtless and he was breathtaking. The hard labor working on the rigs had defined his abs so that he had a nice six-pack. And no doubt regular gym work maintained the look. She gripped the glass a little tighter. What she wanted to do was reach out and touch him.
“I don’t know. Just a lot on my mind, I guess.”
She walked over to the sink, rinsed the glass, and placed it on the counter. “Did you read any more letters?”
“No. I didn’t see much point. I’m not sure I want to read too much about my parents’ romance. I might find out things I won’t be able to forget. And I don’t think they’re going to give me the answers I want.”
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. It wasn’t her business what he decided to do with the letters. They looked at each other for endless minutes. Her body prickled with desire to kiss away the lines of disappointment on his face. If she didn’t get out of here fast, she’d find herself giving in to the urge. Sleeping with Gage would change the boundaries of their relationship. She’d been the one to say the marriage
was a business arrangement only, although it was getting harder and harder to keep her hands off her husband.
Charlotte pushed off the edge of the counter. It was time to get out of the kitchen, because the heat was becoming intense. “Well, I think I might try to see if I can get some sleep. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow at work if I don’t.”
She brushed past Gage, averting her eyes from having one last look at his impressive chest. She hadn’t gone an inch past him when his hand shot out and gripped her arm. Before she had time to think, she found herself up against that hard chest.
She looked up at him, ready to ask what he was doing, when his lips crashed down on hers. As his lips roved over hers, demanding a response, she gave it to him by opening her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers playing with the thick strands of his hair.
Her neck fell back as he nipped his way from her lips to her jaw to the hollow of her collarbone. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to his room, where he laid her on the bed before joining her.
“We shouldn’t be doing this, Gage,” she whispered. “It will only complicate things.”
“It’s too late, things are already complicated. This is what we should’ve done on our wedding night. This is as inevitable as breathing. And it’s so simple, Red. I want you, and I think you want me, too.”
She closed her eyes as his hand traced a line down her body, between her breasts, stopping just above the small sleep shorts she was wearing. His touch was gentle and perfect. She grabbed his hand and opened her eyes to look at him. “Yes. Everything you said is true. I want this. I want you.”
He groaned and gathered her close, kissing her once again. Her hands roamed over his back, his muscles contracting beneath her fingertips, his skin so warm she was sure she was about to burst into flames.
When his hands gripped the hem of her top, she relinquished her hold on him so that she could lift her arms up to allow him to remove it.
“Oh yes.” The words hissed out of her as Gage palmed her breasts. He rolled her nipples between his thumb and forefinger. Heat built up inside of her, and her hips moved against him. She needed to feel him, skin on skin. Her hands to went to the waistband of his shorts and pulled them down. His erection sprang out and bumped against her thigh.
He was right. This was what she’d been wanting since their first kiss.
“You’re so beautiful, Red.” He interspersed his words with kisses on first one breast then the other, playing and sucking on her nipples. She moaned in pleasure. If he kept this up, she’d orgasm just from him playing with her breasts.
Her own hands set out on their adventure, tracing the bumps of his spine until she reached the curve of his ass.
As she went to squeeze it, Gage moved, removing the taut flesh from her reach. “Not fair,” she complained and bit his shoulder.
“Ouch. You’re going to pay for that, Red.”
“Really, what are you going to do, Cowboy?”
“This,” he said, licking his way down her body until he found the top of her curls.
Her stomach muscles clenched in anticipation of his first touch at her core. As his tongue swiped her slick folds, she cried out. All coherent thought left her mind as he pleasured her with his tongue, stroking in and out of her, building the tension inside of her body. She gripped the sheets and lifted her hips to give him better access.
“Please, Gage,” she whimpered as he stopped.
“What is it you want?”
“Oh God, I want you, Gage. Inside me. Over me. I need you.”
He reached over and opened his bedside table drawer. “Your wish is my command.” He pulled out a condom, ripped the foil, and rolled it on. He changed his position so that he rested his hard cock between her thighs. He nudged at her entrance. “Look at me.”
She raised her eyes to connect with his. He leaned down and kissed her. She could taste herself on his lips. It only turned her on more.
Charlotte lifted her hips, feeling his head nudging her entrance. “Now, Gage.”
His response was to start a slow, torturous slide into her. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out at his possession. He then pulled out and entered again, this time all the way.
“Oh yes. Yes. Yes.” It became her personal mantra as he increased his rhythm. Her orgasm built until it burst through her with a force she’d never felt before. She called out his name to mingle with his cry of “Charlotte” as he came inside of her.
When he collapsed on top of her, she welcomed his weight. He quickly rolled over, taking her with him. He feathered her face with soft kisses.
“You okay?” he asked.
She snuggled into him. “Mmm-hmmm.”
“Sleep, Red.”
Yes, she could sleep now. Lying in Gage’s bed, in his arms—it was the perfect place to be.
• • •
Charlotte tried to move but couldn’t. She stretched open an eyelid and came face-to-face with a black face and a little pink tongue lapping at a paw. She became aware that Oil Slick was only part of the reason she couldn’t move. A heavy, hairy leg rested over the top of one of hers and an arm firmly anchored her around her waist.
Gage.
She and Gage had made love. Not once, but three times. Her body ached deliciously, but her mind ached in a completely different way.
What have I done?
As wonderful as it had been exploring Gage’s body and allowing him to explore hers, as she’d feared, it added another complication to their already-complicated relationship. What happened in this bed had changed the parameters of their arrangement. They couldn’t go back to having just a business arrangement. How on earth was she going to go back to sleeping on her own now?
Charlotte normally prided herself on her levelheadedness, but last night she had been anything but reasonable.
“I can feel you thinking,” Gage muttered against her neck, his breath tickling the fine hairs. Her nipples peaked and heat suffused her body.
She was in so much trouble.
She needed to get out of here. Charlotte made a move to first get Oil Slick off her and then to pull the covers back so she could slip out.
Gage had other ideas, though, and he pulled her back until she curved into his body, his morning erection nudging her butt.
“I don’t regret anything that happened last night,” he started. “But I have a feeling you do.”
What could she say? She could try to deny it, but what would be the point? It was the truth. She did regret sleeping with Gage—even though it was the best sex she’d ever had in her life.
“We shouldn’t have done this, Gage.”
His fingers began to draw patterns on her belly, causing her muscles to jump with every touch. There was no way he couldn’t feel it, too.
“Why not? We’re husband and wife.”
“Yes, but it was supposed to be in name only. A business transaction. You get the land, I get a green card. No sleeping together to blur the lines. Now those lines are completely blurred.”
“We agreed on that before we knew we had to be married for at least two years.”
Indignation made her roll around and pull herself out of his embrace. “Are you telling me you slept with me because you’re stuck with me for two years now?”
He ran a hand through his hair. She recalled the texture of it from her own exploration of it last night.
“No, I slept with you because I want you. Because I’ve wanted you since before we even got married. With us being married for at least two years, would you have been happy to sleep in separate rooms the whole time? And you do realize that as part of the process to obtain your green card, we could be interviewed here, in our condo, by the Immigration Department? What are they going to say if they see we’re sleeping in separate rooms, or even are awkward around each other?” He shrugged his shoulders. “This way, when and if they do a home visit, there will be no awkwardness between us. All things considered, sleeping together a
ctually enhances our chances of convincing the Immigration Department that our marriage isn’t a scam. We all win in the end.”
While his words made sense to her, Charlotte didn’t know how she was going to be able to keep her heart out of the relationship. His flippant attitude about it all annoyed her, as well. It hurt to think he could approach this change in their relationship so casually. Of course, for a man it wasn’t hard to separate emotions from sex. How many times had she heard girls in the office in Sydney bemoaning the fact that the guy they were currently seeing wouldn’t take that next step and commit to them? The guys were happy to have a warm body in their beds but then still go out with their mates. She’d never pegged Gage to be a sleep-and-run kind of guy, and she’d hoped she was right.
She couldn’t deny how tempted she was to throw caution to the wind and agree to the change in their relationship status. But then she’d end up being like those girls she’d rolled her eyes at as they’d cried into their coffee in the break room. How was it that guys could so easily compartmentalize their lives? Sex and emotions in separate boxes in their minds and their hearts.
“I don’t know, Gage. I don’t think it’s the best idea.”
His response was to lean over, push her hair to the side, and start to nuzzle her neck, to kiss her in the spot under her chin she’d had no idea was so sensitive.
A moan escaped her, even though she tried to bury it.
“You don’t play fair.”
He chuckled against her neck. “When I want something, I do everything necessary to get it.” He kissed her softly then. Her insides churned in anticipation of what might follow.
She ripped her lips away from his and looked into his desire-laden eyes. “Yes.”
“Yes to what?” he asked. He was making her say the words out loud.
“Yes to altering the terms of our marriage. Yes to moving into your bedroom. Yes to making this marriage more than one on paper only.”
“Good.” He grinned wildly, setting her heart to fluttering in five different directions.
Sweet Texas Fire Page 14
