Wildcat Cowboy (The McCabes of Texas #2)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Wade didn’t want Josie to be left wanting, with any fantasy—any Cinderella dreams she might have—unfulfilled. He wanted her to have everything her heart desired. And because he did, he swept her up in his arms, carried her up to the master bedroom and sat her gently on the edge of his bed. He knelt before her, positioning himself between her thighs.

  Unbuttoning and unzipping as he went, he kissed her long and hard and deep. Kissed her until she moaned softly in the back of her throat and his blood began to boil.

  He slipped off her denim shirt. She took off her T-shirt. Wade sucked in his breath at the first sight of her lustrous golden skin. Her breasts were high and full—softly rounded globes with dusky rose centers, her waist slender. Wade hadn’t known he could want anyone so desperately, but he did He swiftly divested her of her boots and socks and jeans. Leaving her clad only in a pair of lacy panties, he kissed his way down her neck, sensually exploring the delicate U of her collarbone, her shoulders and arms, the insides of her elbows and wrists and finally the uppermost curves of her breasts. Not content with just seeing her, he cupped the weight of her breasts in his hands, brushed his thumbs across the tips. Once, and then again and again until she moaned.

  Loving the way she trembled, the way she looked at him as if she had known—right from the minute they’d laid eyes on each other—they would end up this way, he bent his head and traced the rosy areola of her breast with his tongue, brushed it dry with his lips, then suckled her tenderly. Eager to please her, needing to know all of her, he moved to her other breast, working it to the same aroused state before continuing with his slow, sensual exploration and moving ever downward. Across her ribs, to her navel. Lower still, to the silky skin of her knees and the sleekness of her inner thighs. Her head fell back as he reached the dark, triangle of curls. He hooked his hands in the triangular scrap of lace. One hand curved around the nest of sable curls. The other flattened against the small of her spine. Cradled between the warmth of his hands, she arched against him. He stroked her repeatedly, light butterfly touches that had her shuddering. Moving up, in. Until she twisted against him, no longer able to bear it. Until she shook with her need for him and made a low, whimpering plea. “Wade...Wade...”

  Sliding his hands beneath her, he divested her of her panties, then guided her thighs apart. Driven by the same frantic need as she, he removed his clothes, then still kissing her passionately, draped his body over hers and lifted her against him. Taking everything she offered, and giving her everything in return, he surged into her slowly, deliberately. Gasping in pleasure, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him close. While he continued with deep, then shallow strokes. Repeating the slow, deliberate exploration until she was breathing frantically and reaching for some distant, lofty point.

  Suddenly she was there, catapulting over the edge, shuddering in release. And so was he.

  HER BODY STILL HUMMING with pleasure, Josie shut her eyes and buried her head in his chest. She literally could not believe she had done that. She could not believe they both had done that. And yet she could feel how much he needed and wanted her. How much she needed and wanted him. The heat of their joining had enveloped her in a pleasure unlike any she had ever known. Like a whirlwind, the fierceness of their lovemaking had swept them both into its power.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Josie,” Wade murmured languidly at length as he stroked a hand down her spine and guided her closer still.

  Josie nestled closer. “What?”

  “That this all happened damn fast,” Wade soothed, accurately reading her mind. “And yet—” hands on her shoulders, he brought her around to face him “—in retrospect, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He shook his head in a mixture of awe and tender commemoration. “You and me, together like that. That was magic, Josie, sheer magic.”

  Which, in Josie’s estimation, made it even worse.

  She groaned and rested her forearm across her eyes. It didn’t take a psychologist to know she should have used a lot more common sense. But with his arms around her and his lips on hers, it had been hard for her to think about anything but the tenderness of his touch, the utter deliciousness of his kisses and the reassuringly strong and warm and male feel of him. She had been looking for a man this wonderful all her life. Wouldn’t it figure that she’d find the man of her dreams now, when she was least equipped to deal with him or the 100 percent honesty and forthrightness Wade required from the woman in his life?

  Wade studied her. “It’s our business relationship, isn’t it?” he guessed wrongly.

  Josie rolled onto her stomach, buried her face in her pillow and confirmed this was at least part of her current conflict with a low, anguished groan. Clamping her lips together, she shut her eyes, knowing on that level—of professional ethics—she did feel a very sharp, potent regret. Because she knew—even though she didn’t actually regret doing so under the circumstances—that she had crossed a line that should never have been crossed in taking on the drilling of his well, in getting involved with him, in making love with him as if there was no tomorrow.

  “You’re a client of Wyatt Drilling,” she pointed out miserably. And because of that—because she hadn’t been honest with him from the start and because she had taken on Wade’s business without the authority she needed—she should have waited before bringing sex and love and passion into the mix.

  But Wade apparently didn’t see it that way. Wade saw only what they had felt. Only what they had discovered in each other’s hearts and souls and arms.

  Wade kissed his way across her bare shoulders as his hands slid beneath her to cup her breasts. “Business had absolutely nothing to do with what just happened, Josie.”

  Ignoring the tingling of her nipples and, lower still, the butterflies of desire that began to build, Josie rolled over to face him once again. “But it should have,” Josie said sternly, still trying to calm the racing of her heart and the renewed desire that was steadily building, deep inside her.

  His eyes still on hers, Wade shook his head firmly. “No.” He looked deep into her eyes. “Some things have nothing to do with business. The two of us making love is one of them.”

  Josie only hoped he would still feel that way later, when he put two and two together—as he no doubt would—and realized how and why she had kissed him when she had. So he wouldn’t read the news about the South American oil strike.

  Josie flushed with guilt, knowing that even though their lovemaking had come about because of what had been in her heart, that he might not see it that way when he found out all there was to be found out. “The kiss was impulsive,” Josie said. She swallowed hard and forced herself to not only hold his gaze but be brutally honest about as much as possible. “And I’ll be first to admit that I intended to give that kiss my full attention and a 100 percent effort.” After all, she rationalized firmly, what was a mere kiss? It didn’t carry anywhere near the import—or the inherent commitment—of actually making love. “But that was all I intended, Wade, when I launched myself into your arms,” she whispered sincerely. “A simple kiss.” Her reaction to the passion, her incredible need to make love to him, had been a total surprise.

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Wade whispered huskily against her throat, as his hands warmly cupped her breasts. “Don’t you think I felt your surprise when the sparks took off and one kiss led to another and another? Trust me, Josie. There was no way I could miss the heat of your body and the quick intake of your breath, the way your nipples pebbled against my hands or the way your thighs draped mine—even before I made you mine. Any more than you could miss the quickening of my heart or the throbbing hardness here.” He pressed her hand to him.

  “So we wanted each other,” Josie breathed, luxuriating in the warm, velvety feel of his erection beneath her palm. An erection she hadn’t had nearly enough time or opportunity to explore.

  “Still want each other,” Wade corrected, bathing her nipples with his lips and tongue until she arched agai
nst him wantonly and threaded both hands through his hair.

  Josie closed her eyes against the wildfire of sensations flowing through her and the near incessant need to make love with him again. “That’s still no excuse for my behavior,” she moaned. Especially the way she had deceived him from the very first fax.

  Upset with herself over the duplicity that might one day soon prove their undoing, and wrench Wade from her life forever, she pushed away from him and vaulted from the bed. Wrapping a sheet around her, she rushed into the adjacent bathroom.

  “You’re right. It isn’t,” he growled, striding after her. Backing her up against the bathroom counter, he tugged her against his nakedness, until there was no doubting, no ignoring, his considerable arousal. “And you know why?” He separated the edges of the sheet, parted her thighs with his knee and moved in to partake of her heat. “Because we don’t need an excuse.” Hands on her hips, Wade guided her closer, fitting softness to hardness. “We’re adults, Josie.” His hands caressed her shoulders, moved tenderly over the bare skin of her back. “Wise in the ways of the world if not each other, yet. But we can fix that, too.” His hands skimmed up over her sides, her ribs. He gently cupped the weight of both her breasts with his palms and bent to kiss her sweetly. “All it’s going to take is a little more practice and a little time.”

  He kissed her hotly, until Josie trembled and her knees went weak. He stroked her dewy softness, moving up, in. Aware she could barely stand, even with his help, Josie clung to him and whispered, “I can’t believe you’re—it’s only been—”

  “Tell me about it.” Wade grinned triumphantly, all sexy possessive male. He opened the glass shower door and waltzed her backward into the shower stall. He turned on the water.

  It was cold at first, then gradually warmer. But nothing compared to his deep, passionate kisses or the heat in his eyes, Josie thought. Nothing compared to the wonderfully womanly way he made her feel. “Wade,” she whispered, knowing even as she spoke she would never get enough of him.

  “Let me love you, Josie,” Wade whispered as he began to make mad, passionate love to her all over again. Commanding everything she had to give and giving her everything in return. Loving...needing... her with every fiber of his being. “Just let me love you.”

  “PROBLEM?” Josie asked an hour and a half later as Wade hung up the phone.

  “Big one.” Wade confirmed as he watched Josie remove her last load of clothes from his dryer.

  After their last bout of incredibly passionate, incredibly wonderful lovemaking, the two of them had decided to stop worrying about the possible impropriety of their relationship and take it one day—one moment—at a time. It was an agreement Josie found she could live with. Complications aside, she wanted to continue their affair. She didn’t want any strings. Not until they’d struck oil, anyway, and she could straighten things out with her father and mother, once and for all.

  The moment she got herself out of this mess that she’d gotten herself in, she would go to Wade and tell him everything. She just hoped he would understand why she had behaved as recklessly as she had and forgive her for not leveling with him from the very beginning.

  Wade wrapped his arms about her shoulders and coaxed her into the warm curve of his body. “The messenger service just delivered a big box with my name on it over at the Laramie Community Center.”

  Josie folded her clothes quickly, stuffing them into the top of the laundry bag as soon as they were folded. “Do you know what it is?”

  Wade tugged her closer yet and pressed tiny kisses into her hair. “The architectural model of the new wing for the hospital. It was supposed to come here, not there.”

  Finished, Josie turned to face him. “You’re afraid someone will see it and tell your folks there’s a big package over there with your name on it?”

  Wade nodded. He urged her closer with the flat of his hand. Their bodies fit together like a lock and key. She could feel his arousal, and recalled all too vividly what a demanding and yet ultimately giving lover he had been. “You got it. If that were to happen, they’d know something was up—so I’ve got to go right over and get it.”

  He was talking to her so intimately and looking at her with so much tenderness. If she didn’t know better, she would think he was desperately in love with her.

  “Fortunately,” Wade continued gently, “the secretary said there is nothing going on there between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., so we can get it then and have a look around, too. You can see where the party for my folks is going to be held and figure out if there’s anything we forgot to arrange today.”

  Just that quickly he had included her in his life. Josie tried not to think how good that felt. Or how bereft she would feel if he pushed her out of it again. “Presuming a lot, aren’t you, cowboy?” Josie teased.

  “Hoping.” Wade kissed her cheek. “And you’re dam right—I am.”

  They drove over to the rec center, arriving just as the center secretary was getting ready to leave for the day. “Take as much time as you need looking around.” She handed Wade the keys to the store-room—where the box was located. “Just lock up and put the storeroom keys in my desk drawer before you leave.”

  “I DON’T KNOW ABOUT You, but I can’t wait to get a look at the architectural model,” Wade said.

  Josie smiled at Wade. He had shaved again after they’d made love in the shower, and his jaw was scented with the enticing fragrance of sandalwood and leather. “You haven’t seen it yet?” she asked. He looked so handsome in his camel-colored Western sport coat, light blue Western shirt and jeans.

  “Only sketches.” Wade borrowed the letter opener on the secretary’s desk. He sliced through the brown tape that sealed the edges. Together, they removed the packing material around the model and lifted it ever so carefully out of the box.

  Josie looked at the model of the new wing, which was built in the same turn-of-the-century Texas design as the rest of the hospital. It was obvious a lot of thought and care had gone into this project, from the design of the long narrow windows and the plentiful landscaping and new three-tiered parking garage to the seamless way the new wing merged with the rest of the historic building. “It’s beautiful,” she said. And it was a very generous, very selfless thing for him to do.

  Wade sighed in satisfaction as she looked over the model carefully. “I think my parents are really going to like it,” he told her proudly.

  “And so will the rest of the community.”

  Without warning, a door shut in the distance.

  As the soft thudding sound reverberated in the stillness, Josie looked at Wade curiously. “I thought we were supposed to be the only two people here right now.”

  “We are.” Grimacing, Wade got up to quickly shut the storeroom door and thereby block off the model of the new hospital wing from view.

  Catching sight of the interlopers, he swore softly beneath his breath.

  “Who is it?” Josie whispered, as he peered around the door frame.

  Wade closed the door as soundlessly as possible and put a silencing finger to his lips. “Don’t say a word,” he mouthed. And a second later Josie knew why.

  Chapter Nine

  “He’s not here.” John McCabe’s deep baritone echoed through the empty rec center.

  “Then I’d like to know where that son of ours is,” Lilah McCabe countered in obvious vexation. “That’s his Ford Expedition in the parking lot.”

  Beside her, Josie felt Wade tense. But there was nothing they could do unless they wanted to reveal themselves and ruin the surprise for his parents.

  “He could be anywhere in the downtown area,” John countered, sounding ready to wrap it up.

  “And why is this building unlocked if no one is here?” Lilah demanded, her purposeful footsteps moving past the storeroom with lightning speed.

  “You’re asking the wrong person, dear.”

  “I’m worried about him, John,” Lilah stated passionately, as Wade’s tall, strong body tensed
all the more.

  “Wade’s fine.”

  “But he’s not happy,” Lilah persisted emotionally. “I know he’s not.”

  John sighed. “Give him time.”

  “I have. We both have. And he still doesn’t know how to let someone get close to him.” Lilah paused, then continued, even more emotionally, “We never should have let him start earning all that money at such an early age.”

  “Do you really think we could have stopped him?” John McCabe retorted, just as passionately. “Delayed it, maybe. But stopped him? Honey, people with Wade’s kind of talent for making money end up like Donald Trump as surely as you and I ended up being healers and working in the medical profession.”

  “But the money, John, all that money!” Lilah worried out loud. “All it does is serve to keep people away from him.”

  Isn’t that the truth, Josie thought, knowing how many friendships and opportunities had been denied her when people learned she had a trust fund.

  “It isn’t the money keeping people at arm’s length, Lilah. It’s him. Until he learns to open up—to trust someone enough to confide in them—then there’s no way he’s ever gonna get married,” John retorted sternly.

  “I know, I know.” Lilah sighed tiredly. “I just want all of our boys happy.”

  “And they will be, Lilah,” John McCabe soothed lovingly. “Just give them time.”

  The voices faded away. The front door to the rec center shut. For a moment Wade and Josie were both motionless, then Wade reached over and switched on the storeroom light. His face looked strained in the fluorescent light.

  “I’m sorry I heard that,” Josie said, her heart going out to him. She knew it had embarrassed—and hurt— him. Worse, she knew how it felt. Her parents often despaired over her and her life in much the same way.

  Wade shrugged. Faint streaks of color stained his face from cheekbone to jaw. “It’s okay. I’m used to it. The assumption within the family—and outside it—has always been that because I’m so good at making money I have very little heart.” He paused and looked deep into her eyes as if trying to be understood.