Taking Catie: The Temptation Saga: Book Three

by Hardt, Helen;

  Was she completely blind?

  No, she knew who and what he was. Still, she loved him.

  “Come on, Catie,” Judy Williamson called, “we need you and Ladybird over here. You’ll be leading the parade.”

  Ladybird was curried and saddled and ready to go, so Catie led her in the direction from which Judy’s voice had come. The Bakersville High School marching band was lining up, the band director yelling. The pom-pom girls were giggling and pointing at cute boys.

  Catie rolled her eyes. She’d never been a pom-pom. Nope, never one for that high school stuff. Of course with her clumsiness, she’d have fallen off the pyramid anyway. She’d been content to be the bookworm, the A student, the girl who preferred the company of horses to two-legged creatures.

  Unless the two-legged creature’s name was Chad McCray.

  God, was she back to him again? Would her thoughts ever be free of him?

  She shook her head and sighed. Not as long as she kept sleeping with him, they wouldn’t. She knew something else as well.

  She’d continue sleeping with him. For as long as he’d have her.

  She mounted Ladybird and took her place at the head of the parade with the grand marshal, who happened to be Dallas McCray.

  “Hey there, rodeo queen,” Dallas said, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. He was handsome, no doubt. He and Zach resembled each other. They looked like their mother, Laurie, who’d had the jet-black hair. Chad looked more like their late father, Jason McCray, whose hair had been dark, but a shade or two shy of black. Jason’s had never grayed. Even when he’d passed on ten years ago at the age of seventy, his hair was still that warm dark brown, like Chad’s. Dallas had been graying for years, and now Zach had started. It worked on them. But not Chad. Course he was younger, but Catie secretly hoped he’d remain gray-free forever. She loved the walnut warmth of his hair color. The way it felt when she ran her fingers through its silkiness. How it whispered against her thighs when his head was between her legs.

  Did she really taste like raspberries?

  “You gonna answer me?”

  She jerked in the saddle. “What?”

  Dallas chuckled. “You were a million miles away, rodeo queen.”

  Her cheeks warmed. Good thing he couldn’t read her mind. She was having some very lascivious thoughts about his baby brother. “I’m sorry, Dallas. What did you ask?”

  “I asked whether you had any big plans after the parade. Annie and I are having some people over. We just threw it together this morning.”

  “Oh. I…uh…” Chad hadn’t said anything about getting together with her. Likely he’d be at his brother’s house. “No, no, I don’t have any plans.”

  “Then stop by. Annie’d love for you to be there.”

  “Sure, I’d love to.”

  “Great. Just come by after the parade. It’s a pretty casual affair. Annie ordered up barbecue from Dixon’s this morning.”

  “Mmm. Sounds yummy.”

  “You seen Chad this morning?”

  Catie’s pulse jumpstarted, and she hoped the warmth that she knew reddened her looked like nothing more than summer heat. She cleared her throat. “No, I haven’t.”

  “Okay. I need to tell him about our shindig.” He tipped his Stetson and trotted off on his gray gelding. “See you later. I’m off. Judy’ll tell you when to go.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Dallas.”

  Behind her, the band was tuning up. Among the discord and din of voices, Catie heard Amber trot up next to her.

  “Hey there,” the other woman said.

  “Amber. Hi!” Catie was genuinely glad to see her. “Are you in the parade, too?”

  “Yeah, they asked me. I’m supposed to ride up here with you.”

  “That’s great. I’ve been gone for a while, but I’m glad they’re letting the first runner-up ride. That’s awesome.”

  “Didn’t they do it before?”

  “Honestly, I never paid much attention. The last parade I attended was five years ago.” She laughed. “I always paid more attention the horses than the people riding them.”

  Amber laughed, and her smile seemed genuine. Maybe they would be friends.

  Judy motioned for them to go, and Catie and Amber trotted along behind a few floats. Amber was incredibly good at this. She waved and smiled and didn’t look out of place at all in her first runner-up sash. Catie felt like a fish out of water. Amber definitely should have won the contest. She might not be the horsewoman Catie was, but she had the poise thing down. Catie was glad she didn’t have to walk in the parade. She’d likely trip over someone’s banana peel or something.

  * * *

  Chad didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit. That skunk Joe Bradley was hanging all over Catie. Why was he at Dallas’s anyway?

  Annie. That’s right. He and Annie were friends. He’d taken her out on a date when she and Dallas were broken up. Or before they got together. Or whatever. Chad never could keep it straight. His brother had been an idiot. He’d let Annie go.

  Course who was Chad to talk? Was he just as much of an idiot when it came to Catie?

  He sure didn’t want anything serious. Or so he thought.

  Still, he responded to her in a way different from any woman he’d known. What was it about her? She was beautiful, but Chad had known lots of beautiful women.

  She was so damn young, though. Why in hell couldn’t he keep his hands to himself around her?

  She was flirting with Joe, damn her. As if he, Chad, weren’t even here. It was his brother’s house, for God’s sake. Of course he was here, and Catie should be with him.

  But he’d leave her be. She was the rodeo queen. Everyone wanted to talk to her, congratulate her. That’s probably all it was. That’s why Joe was hanging around her. He and all those other young men.

  Hell, Joe was four years older than Chad!

  Enough was enough.

  His long strides carried him straight toward Catie and her male harem.

  “Hey, Chad,” Joe said. “Come to join the party?”

  “Come to take away the queen,” Chad said. “C’mon, Catie.”

  “What?” Catie looked at him suspiciously. “Terry was in the middle of a story, Chad. Why don’t you join us?”

  “I don’t think so.” He grabbed her arm. “We need to chat.”

  “We do?”

  “Yeah. Excuse us, will you fellas?”

  “Uh, sure,” Joe said, nodding to the others. “But don’t keep her away too long.”

  “What is this all about?” Catie demanded, as Chad pulled her into the house and down a long hallway to Dallas’s office. He shut the door and turned the deadbolt.

  “Joe’s not your type.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “I don’t have a type, Chad. And it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m not interested in Joe.”

  “He’s sure interested in you.”

  “He’s old enough to be my daddy, Chad!”

  “He’s only four years older than I am, sugar."

  “Okay, my young daddy. Jesus.”

  “He wasn’t lookin’ at you like a daddy looks at his little girl.”

  “This is stupid.” Catie shrugged loose from his grasp. “I want to get back to the party.”

  “You like being queen for day, huh?”

  “Queen for the year, Chad McCray. I’m queen for a year. And hell yeah, I’m beginning to like it. I’ve never gotten this much attention from…”

  Her cheeks pinked. Damn, she was adorable as all get out.

  “From men, sugar? You’ve never had this much attention from men?”

  “No,” she said flatly. “No, I have not. And frankly, Chad, it’s flattering and I like it. So if you’ll excuse me—”

  He clamped his mouth on hers so hard he thought for sure he’d bruised his lips. She resisted at first, but his persistence paid off, and she sighed and opened to him. He swept his tongue into her mouth, tasting her lips, her
teeth, the inside of her cheeks. He hadn’t a clue what she’d been drinking, but damn it, she tasted like raspberries. Again. He groaned. Why couldn’t he get enough of her?

  As though it had a mind of its own, one of his hands began to unsnap her white western shirt. The shirt was fitted—the same one she’d worn in the parade, and it clung to the swell of her finely shaped breasts and had made him hard all freaking day.

  She shied away.

  “Nuh-uh, sugar,” he whispered. “You’re not getting away from me.”

  She pushed against his chest, but he held her in his grasp.

  “I want you.” He ripped all the snaps open with one fell swoop.

  “You just had me last night.” Catie pushed against his chest.

  “Well, I want you again now.”

  “No, Chad. Not like this. Not in your brother’s house, with the whole town outside.”

  Chad chuckled, nipping her ear. “I remember a party once. At your house. And you would have been damn happy to do this with the whole damn town within earshot.”

  Chad’s arousal tightened even more, if that were possible, as he thought of the gazebo on the Bay ranch, and that night four years earlier when Catie had begged him to make love to her. He had resisted, but he still dreamed of that night. Even though he’d had her several times now, the memories of that evening still inflamed his passions. Would he always be inflamed around Catie Bay?

  Catie pushed him away, and her strength startled him.

  “I was a kid then, Chad, as you reminded me that night. I no longer want to make love in front of the whole damn town.”

  “Fine then.” He took her hand. “We’ll go back to my place.”

  “No again,” she said.

  Chad gasped in surprise. “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  He shook his head. “Unbelievable.”

  “What’s so unbelievable about it? We had some good times. You made it clear that’s all I could ever expect from you. I enjoyed myself. You did your…job well.”

  “My job? What the fuck?”

  “Yeah. Your job of taking my virginity.”

  “Now you hold on, sugar. That’s not fair.”

  “It’s not? Well, here’s some news, Chad McCray. I got what I wanted. I got you to take my virginity. I wanted it. I got it. I’m done.”

  Chad shook his head, flabbergasted. Was he hearing her right? “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope.” Catie shook her head with vehemence. “I want you. I don’t deny it. But I'm no longer satisfied to come to your bed just when you’re in the mood. You have a decision to make, Chad. I’m not going to be your call girl any longer.”

  “Call girl?” Did she really think he thought of her that way? “I’ve never paid for sex in my life, and I ain’t gonna start now, sugar.”

  “Good. You don’t have to. There’s a whole ranch full of beautiful women out back, Chad. One of them’s bound to strike your fancy. And I’m sure she’ll offer it up for free. But this little filly’s done.”

  She snapped up her shirt, fluffed her hair, walked toward the door, and turned the deadbolt.

  “Catie,” he said, but she was already gone.

  * * *

  Catie stood in the powder room, splashing cold water over her face.

  She had done the right thing. Chad wasn’t serious about her, and she couldn’t keep sleeping with him. Oh, she wanted to, and only a day ago, she had been determined to keep it up. But talking to the other men had made her realize that maybe, just maybe, there was a man out there who would care for her. Would offer her more than just sex when he was horny.

  She was worth more, damn it. And she intended to have it.

  A tear trickled down her cheek.

  Too bad she only wanted it from one man, and he was the one who would never give it to her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Two weeks had passed, and he hadn’t called.

  Not that Catie was surprised. Chad hadn’t promised anything beyond the next day, and waking up in his arms and making love again had been totally worth it.

  Now, Catie was driving into Murphy. She had an errand to run, and she couldn’t do it in Bakersville. Couldn’t risk the small-town gossip.

  She needed a home pregnancy test.

  Her fears had surfaced. She was three days late.

  She walked through the pharmacy in the small cow town, feeling conspicuous. They all knew why she was here, didn’t they? Their stares melded to her flesh. Their judgments mocked her. She took a deep breath and walked down one aisle and then another, mindlessly throwing items in her basket. A candy bar. Cotton balls. A knock-off of Chanel No. 5. She felt like a teenage boy buying condoms. This was ridiculous.

  Condoms. That’s probably where she’d find the pregnancy tests. Ha. Ironic. She came upon the birth control aisle and perused the packages. Ribbed for her pleasure. Yeah, whatever.

  Sure enough, the home pregnancy tests sat on a shelf next to the ovulation predictors. She grabbed one of the boxes that had two tests. Might as well be sure, right?

  On her way out, she threw a trashy novel into her basket. There, she had several things other than the pregnancy test. This looked perfectly normal, right? She was probably a married woman buying some bath items and a book, and oh, yeah, by the way, a pregnancy test.

  Her ringless left hand seemed to glow.

  The teenage clerk rang up her purchases without a sideways glance. Breathe in, breathe out. Catie was convinced she’d hyperventilate at any moment.

  She ran to her car and sat down, inhaling.

  She needed to do the pregnancy test now. She couldn’t wait until she got home. She stuck the box in her purse and walked into the grocery store next to the pharmacy. She headed straight to the back where the restrooms usually were.

  She eased into a stall and sat on the toilet. She opened the box and read through the instructions quickly. So this was what she had been reduced to. Peeing on a stick in a public restroom.

  Here goes nothing.

  After following the instructions, she hid the stick in the test box and watched the second hand on her watch.

  Had three minutes always been this slow?

  Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock.

  Insanity threatened to overtake her.

  When the second hand finally hit the twelve, nausea rose in her gut, and her skin tightened.

  She slowly withdrew the stick from the box.

  * * *

  Chad missed Catie.

  He finally admitted it to himself. He was going to ask her on a real date. Dinner, maybe a movie, and then sex back at his place.

  He chuckled. His brothers would give him three shades of shit for this.

  Damn, she was so young. But he’d been ready to hit the hay with Amber, and she was nearly as young as Catie. Funny thing was, he didn’t think of Amber that way. He didn’t remember Amber as a cute little toddler.

  He thought of his brother Zach, who had married Dusty O’Donovan, seven years his junior. Dusty had been the daughter of one of the McCrays’ ranch hands. They left the ranch when Dusty was six and Zach was thirteen, and the two met up again seventeen years later.

  But Zach hadn’t watched Dusty grow into an awkward prepubescent, a pretty freckle-faced teen, and a drop-dead gorgeous woman. Would it have been different for Zach if he had?

  Plus, Catie and Chad were eleven years apart, four more than Zach and Dusty. Hell, what did it matter?

  She was a woman and he was attracted to her. Attracted as he’d never been before.

  He picked up his cell phone and called the Bay house. Why had he never thought to get Catie’s cell number?

  “Hello.”

  “Hi, Maria. It’s Chad McCray.”

  “Chad, how are you? Are you calling for Wayne?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Harper then?”

  “Uh, no. I’d like to speak to Catie, please.”

  “Oh. Goodness.”

  Clearly, Catie hadn’
t told her mother where she’d spent the night a few weeks ago.

  “Is she there?”

  “She ran a few errands. Can I have her call you later?”

  “Uh…” He wanted to call her. Not have her return his call. He wanted to do this right.

  What? Who was that voice inside his head, and what had it done with Chad McCray?

  “No, ma’am. Thank you. I’ll call back later.”

  “Okay, Chad. Bye now.”

  Damn, if only he had her cell number.

  He felt like a schoolboy rather than a thirty-two-year-old man, giddy over a first date with a girl he really liked. A girl he wanted more than anything. A girl who could steal his heart.

  His heart? Since when had his heart become involved? He’d liked women before, had feelings for them, but never had he felt this yearning for closeness. Not just the closeness of bodies either.

  He jolted from his thoughts when his cell phone rang. He looked down. He didn’t recognize the number.

  “Yeah?”

  “Chad?”

  Catie’s voice. Damn, had her mother told her to call him? “Hi there, sugar. I was just thinking about you.”

  “Oh.” Then, “You were?”

  Something was off in her voice. She sounded sad, remorseful. “Did your ma tell you I called?”

  “Uh, no, she didn’t. I’m not home. I’m in my car.”

  “Yeah, she said you were running errands. You close by?”

  “Not too far,” she said. “I…uh…need to talk to you.”

  “I want to talk to you, too, sugar. You want to come over?”

  “We need to talk in private, Chad.”

  “Nothing more private than my bedroom, baby.”

  Silence. What was wrong? He wanted her to come over so he could take her in his arms and promise her everything would be okay. That he’d make it okay for her.

  Who was this stranger?

  “I… I can’t come over for that, Chad.”

  “Okay.”

  Don’t push. You want to take her on a real date, remember? The sex’ll come later.

  “Let’s meet somewhere private.”

  “Just come over here, Catie. I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself. I’ll have Brenda whip us up some sandwiches for lunch, okay? You hungry?”