“Come here, sub,” he said, willing to let her touch him. After all, a caress here or there would put them on the right course, one he could easily control once her fingers wandered.
She rushed him then and threw her arms around his neck and sobbed like a baby. Kissing his neck, she whispered, “You don’t know what you put me through. You have no idea how I’ve grieved—for the friends we’ve lost, the people we love.”
Hold it right there. What he had put her through? For the friends they’d lost? The people they’d loved?
He bristled then as she held him closer. She rambled on about how frightened she’d been. As her tears soaked through his cotton shirt, she nuzzled his skin. She spoke to him as if they were committed lovers.
At that precise moment, another voice entered his head, a voice as soft as silk and as alluring as a striking centerfold. That voice held quiet meaning. There was something significant there yet he couldn’t put his finger on it. The intrigue was as arousing and promising as the forthcoming sex with Lisa.
“Cade, can we please make love? Can you hold me without all the other? For once, can you show me how much you care about me? Just once. I’ll never ask for anything more if you’ll just give me the day and night.”
Cade drew back and stared down the bridge of his nose at the beautiful woman now sprawled across his lap. He swallowed. What would it hurt? Couldn’t he grant her what she needed then send her on her way?
Pushing her long straight hair over her slender shoulder, he brushed his knuckles against the underside of her jaw. No, he mused. He couldn’t do the whole lovemaking crap and he needed to just spit it out and tell her.
God, he hated to sound like a jackass. And he hated that he couldn’t give her what she needed, but damn it, she knew what he was. She understood when she let him into her heart what she was risking. If he later hurt her, she had no one to blame but herself.
“Make love to me, Cade,” she begged. “Put away all that lifestyle stuff.”
He balked against the insulting reference.
“You know I can’t do that,” he whispered, nuzzling her neck and inhaling her soft vanilla scent.
She burst into tears again. This time the sobs were telling. Maybe she didn’t realize it yet, but she had reached a decision.
Perhaps she had spent enough sleepless nights. Maybe she had been sent away one too many times after an unsatisfying after-sex talk or perhaps he’d just been a selfish lover, though that wasn’t something he’d ever tried to be in any shape or form. Whatever it was, Lisa was finally coming to an understanding of sorts.
Awareness spiked his curiosity as a vague memory taunted him. There was a squalling noise so loud it was all he could do to keep from covering his ears. He realized the sound was a figment of his imagination. It was a memory nonetheless, a recollection from the warehouse.
A woman had been there when he and Drake had been terrorized. She’d been there when Phillip, David, and Manny were killed. She knew too much. Now, he needed to know—was the woman he’d heard that dreadful night in some kind of danger?
He pushed aside the troublesome thought. No, she had stood with the opposition. Hadn’t she? He shook his head then and drew another quick conclusion. She was marked. He couldn’t be certain of how he’d reached the decision, but he wasn’t about to second-guess his gut.
The woman who possessed the voice now ringing in his ears was privy to guarded secrets. And he needed to find her as soon as possible.
Chapter Two
Cade didn’t like giving someone the wrong impression but as Lisa’s fingers roamed over him, he reached a decision. He’d probably live to regret it, but he would play the part.
He would let her have her memory, some fantastical image she apparently felt she couldn’t survive without. Then, he’d set her free once and for all. He would tell her to never return. He’d give her a dozen or so reasons why she’d be better off without him.
She would curse him, but she’d eventually thank him. To show he wasn’t a complete man-ass, he would send her a check and tell her to use the money to send her little brother to college. Wouldn’t that right his wrongs?
Sure, for about ten minutes. However long it would take for Lisa to write ‘return to sender’ on the envelope and walk the check back down to the post office.
Lisa’s eyes filled with love as he lowered her back against the mattress. He grabbed her wrists and forced her arms over her head. Her eyes widened, but a precious look of forgiveness washed across her face almost as quickly. “It’s okay, Cade. You aren’t used to us like this.”
He didn’t breathe a word for fear he would tell her the truth. There wasn’t an “us” to speak of and there wasn’t anything to get used to.
After disposing of their clothes, Cade lost himself in her full breasts, his mouth working from one nipple to the other as he tried to picture the woman he knew he must’ve seen at the warehouse. The soft voice kept filling his ears as Lisa whispered her own words of endearment, coaxing him forward, urging him to “make love to her” and begging him to remind her of the love they’d shared.
Dear God, she was bound and determined to ruin the moment, seemingly unaware of his now-flaccid cock. Rising over her, he slapped his hand against the pillow and looked down on the pretty woman arching to him. “Shh.”
Her hair fanned around her head. Her cheeks turned pink. “I know. I’m just so nervous.”
He cocked his head and bit back the profound need to curse aloud. Instead, he retrieved a condom from the nightstand and sheathed his half-fueled dick. Toying with his prick, he tried to create an image, paint a mental picture of the woman inside his mind, the woman who owned the voice he couldn’t forget.
“Kiss me,” Lisa said, making him wish for a ball gag then.
He thrust his tongue between Lisa’s parted lips, but couldn’t help but wonder how sweet and tantalizing the woman in his mind might taste. He damned that illusion. The gal in his fantasies would be hell on wheels. Any woman who had been in that warehouse, the dilapidated building turned warzone, must’ve been trouble with a capital T.
He then recalled the passion in the unknown woman’s voice. She’d begged for their lives, in so many words. He couldn’t remember what she’d said, but the memory was there nonetheless. How he recalled anything at all, particularly then, was the million dollar question.
“Cade,” Lisa purred, straining her neck and looking at him as if she would cherish him forever.
“Shh.” He pressed his lips in a firm, solid line.
“Love me,” she mouthed.
He closed his eyes and entered her, shutting out the world in an effort to give this woman precisely what she must’ve believed she needed. Her slick cunt closed around him and she raked her nails across his chest, locking her ankles behind his back.
“Slow and easy.”
He thrust inside her once, withdrew, and gave her several solid strokes once more.
“Cade,” she crooned. “Take it easy, now.”
He bit back a growl and changed his gait.
“That’s right, just go nice and slow.”
“Just who the hell is the submissive here?” He was outraged then, but he plunged inside her, letting her liquid heat pool around his shaft. He fucked her like a soldier home on short leave, just dying to get off, tell a few stories, and then run like hell before the woman in his bed made off with too many benefits.
“I know, honey,” she whispered. “It’s all so new to us.” Her eyelashes fluttered. She turned her head and bit down on her forefinger, throwing her body into the act as he pounded into her in pure sexual frustration.
Lisa had known the rules. Until then, she’d abided by them. She’d understood in the early days of their so-called relationship.
He was a man who would never give her anything more than what a Dom was willing to give an ordinary submissive he’d met in a club, a sub who had apparently misinterpreted the boundaries he’d placed. After they’d first met, Lisa
had followed his lead and conformed to his desires. Where was that woman now when he needed her most?
In his head, he imagined another one, another submissive promising subservience, swearing to please him. Fuck! Where was that woman?
Sinking inside the endless depths of Lisa’s pussy, Cade felt nothing at all as he stroked. He might as well have been thrusting inside a hole in the wall, one like he’d seen in an adult video store he’d once visited in Amsterdam.
Lisa looped her arms around his neck and pulled herself forward. Her mouth locked over his and she tried to pry his lips apart with her fluttering tongue. He returned her wet kiss, focusing on the number of times he entered her. He wished she’d hurry up and come.
Cade didn’t want this moment to last. He wanted to feel her walls quiver, her body jolt as he pummeled her with everything he had left to give. Then, he’d know the end was near. Their time together was finished.
She framed his face and continued kissing him. That sweet, seductive whisper in his head led him astray once more.
Deadly. The woman in his mind was dangerous. Behind her, trouble loomed. He could feel it as profoundly as he could feel Lisa’s cunt milking his cock.
A smile widened her lips and she whispered against his. “I knew you’d enjoy making love. I always knew you loved me, Cade. See? Isn’t this better than the submissive games you make me play?”
Those very words were pretty much the start of the end. Cade might have been an asshole, but he wasn’t downright cruel. What he was doing, the lovemaking or fucking or whatever the hell Lisa wanted to call it, wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair to her.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he withdrew and sat on the bed with his head in his palms. After a few uncomfortable minutes of silence, he splayed his legs and rolled the condom off his prick before he faced her.
Disappointment settled in her eyes. She glared at him as if she knew what to expect next but couldn’t quite process it quickly enough to gain her bearings.
“Lisa, we should talk.”
“Now?” she asked, dragging the white cotton sheet over her naked body.
“Yes.” He traipsed across the bedroom to the trashcan. After depositing the empty condom in the fancy wastebasket, he returned to bed. Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he faced the window and noticed a car racing down the driveway.
“Wait here,” he demanded, rushing the door. Peering into the hallway, he shouted, “Are we expecting more company?”
Ace appeared at the other end of the hall. “It’s your nurse. We’ll tell her you’ll be with her in a few.”
“Thanks,” Cade grumbled, wondering why he needed a blasted nurse in the first place. He turned around to catch Lisa scrambling around in a hurried attempt to grab her clothes and dress at the same time.
“I can’t give you what you need.” Cade tried to find some measure of compassion.
“You could. You’re just too selfish.”
“True.”
She glared at him as if she couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him then.
“I can’t argue with you and I sure won’t apologize.”
Lisa paled and hurriedly dressed. It was then that Cade noticed her poor taste in fashion. Wearing white jeans, she sported an off-white blouse and royal blue heels, hooker shoes as Manny would’ve called them. Her purse was a satchel style with a bold paisley print. The cloth material looked worn and stained.
What was it that Cade had found so attractive about her in the first place? Why had he spent so much time with her in the past? Had he been that desperate for sex?
Apparently so.
“Lisa, I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then don’t,” she snapped, reaching into her bag for her car keys.
“Hang on.” He went to his desk. Once there, he retrieved his checkbook. He quickly wrote the amount for fifty thousand dollars, more than enough for Lisa to send her baby brother to college, a goal that had always been important to her. He then thrust the check forward. “Here.”
“What’s this?” she asked, only glancing at the sum.
“Since your parents died, you’ve always worked two jobs to support Nick and yourself. Use the money to send Nick to school. You said he was enrolled in a community college. Pay the tuition and spend the rest on an extended vacation.”
“You’re trying to pay me?” The disgust in her voice overshadowed the pain in her eyes. “You want to buy me off?”
“I want to help you.”
“Did I ask for your help?”
“No, but I want to give it.” He took a deep breath and waved at the door as if he were shooing her away. He immediately regretted it and said, “Consider the money a parting gift. My way of thanking you for all the good times we’ve shared.”
“So it’s not enough that you fucked me without finishing what you started, now you have to belittle me, too?”
“I’m not trying to insult you. I’m trying to take care of you and your brother. It’s the least I can do.”
Lisa took several ragged breaths. Before he could prepare for her vengeance, she delivered a swift kick to his groin.
“Mother of evil, damn you to hell!” he screamed out in agony, doubling over from the intense pain shooting through his balls and cock. “What the bloody hell do you hope to accomplish by kicking me?”
“Consider it my parting gift,” she grated out before prancing down the hallway. She ripped the check into bits as she hurried by Ace, Abby, Drake, and someone Cade could barely see thanks to his stooped position and blurred vision. “I’m thanking you, Cade Livingston. At least now I know the rumors are true. You are a condescending asshole without the ability to love anyone except yourself!”
* * * *
“That went well,” Drake said, feeling a tad bit sorry for Cade.
“The fucking bitch was going for irreparable damage.”
“I don’t know which is worse, your wounded pride or the fact that she kicked you where you’d likely been booted a few dozen times while we were held hostage. I’m sure you were already black and blue down there.”
Cade splashed cold water in his face and returned to the bedroom. “Tell that nurse I need a heating pad for my balls.”
“We’ll be lucky if she’ll even see you after what she witnessed.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She’s a little shook up. Ace is talking to her now, trying to reassure her.”
“Get another damn nurse then! We don’t need someone coming in and out of here if she’s afraid of her own shadow. If Lisa’s tantrum frightened her, imagine what she’ll do if she’s here when Donovan throws one of his notorious fits.”
“She’s the only one who checked out on the security clearance.”
Cade frowned. “What do you mean she’s the only one who checked out?”
“Riley and Ace cross-checked backgrounds on fifteen nurses. Her profile was the only one that was clean from top to bottom. A few might have worked, but her record was impeccable.”
“And you don’t find that odd in the least?”
“What do you mean?” Drake slowly started following him.
“She’s employed by a homecare agency, I presume?”
“She’s a hospital employee actually. She only moonlights in special circumstances. We’re lucky to have her, all things considered.”
“And I’m one of those special circumstances?” Cade asked.
“Don’t take it personally,” Ace said, entering the room and the conversation. “Are you all right, by the way?”
“Yes,” Cade snapped. “And you and little Miss Goldilocks need to stay out of my affairs. If I want to get laid, I’ll call my own gals. Got it?”
Drake laughed. “He was scared to death you’d make a move on Abby.”
“I’m not interested in Abby.”
Drake and Ace stared at one another before Drake slowly shifted his gaze to Cade. He’d heard him talk about Abby enough to know she was his sexual fanta
sy to the extreme.
“I’m not!”
“You’d better not be,” Ace said, lowering his voice. “I’d hate to have to bury another friend.”
Drake didn’t find the threat amusing in the least. He cleared his throat and to change the subject, he said, “Try not to piss off our nurse, Cade. We both need her. She’ll only be around for a few weeks. If we don’t make her feel at ease here, she may not return. We don’t want to run back and forth between the hospital and ranch for bandage changes and more antibiotics.”
“Ace, would you please remind Mr. Rogers here that we stitch each other up and change bandages as easily as most folks slip on a different pair of shoes?”
Drake chuckled. “I’d rather have our nurse’s hands-on care, thank you very much.”
“What’s her name?” Cade asked.
“Maria Rodriquez.”
Cade stroked his jaw. “Why does that name ring a bell?”
“Well you saw her standing in the hallway a second ago. Does she look familiar?” Ace asked.
“After Lisa damn near disarmed me for life, I didn’t see anything except stars. I could tell there was someone child-like standing next to you two beasts, but other than that, I couldn’t make out features. Why? Did she recognize me?”
“Not as far as I know,” Ace replied. “Hell, if she knew you, she’d probably leave now while she still has her sanity.”
“Ha, ha, ha.” Cade took a deep breath. “So how am I supposed to play this?”
“What’s that?” Ace asked.
“Should I climb in bed and pretend to need round-the-clock care or just sit over there and act as if I’m pissed because you morons think I need a nurse in the first place?”
“I told you he wouldn’t be a good patient.” Abby’s voice filled the room.
As if everything unfolded before Drake’s eyes in slow motion, Cade turned to look beyond them and immediately paled. Drake then knew with one hundred percent certainty. Much like his own, Cade’s life was about to change.
Cowboy Boots and Uncensored Behavior Page 4
