McCade's Wish (The McCade Family Series Book 2)

by McBain, Mara

  “I’ve been told that I’m easy to talk to,” he said with a wink.

  “That might be a McCade trait. I’ve had some pretty good conversations with the other two.”

  “I hope you’re talking about Cole and Genevieve.”

  “Maybe I should stop being so hard on your brothers. Insulting each other seems to be another McCade trait,” she said, smacking his shoulder in reproach. “Trey might be quiet, but he is a good listener and when he does speak, it’s usually well thought out. Except when his welcoming words to his new bride were, ‘You’re not ugly, but you’ll do.’”

  Nate’s mouth fell open, blue eyes widening, and then he roared with laughter. Adrienne’s laughter died as Nate’s turned into a coughing fit. Slipping an arm around his shoulders, she urged him to sit up. She winced at the deep bark that shook his whole body.

  “He didn’t.” he wheezed, when the bout passed.

  “I’m afraid he did. If I’d known that when I met him, I’d have hit him harder with the blackjack.”

  “Blackjack? I think you’ve been holding out on me. That sounds like a story.”

  “Maybe after breakfast,” she said with a wink and tried to ease him back down.

  “I can’t lie here anymore. How about I move to the chair?” he asked, eying one of the large wingchairs flanking the hearth. “I’ll take a blanket and prop my feet on the ottoman like a good boy,” he added with an appealing smile.

  “Okay,” she granted, unable to resist the hope in his eyes. Men were such babies when they were sick. “Can you get up on your own?”

  “I will crawl before I have you call my big brothers,” he said with a long suffering look. “Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take me to live down being thrown over Trey’s shoulder? Let me clue you in. I won’t.”

  “Enough about your injured pride, pretty boy. Those pancakes are calling my name, so get up in the chair or I will call them in here to put you there.”

  His eyes narrowed and, for a moment, he looked like he was going to test her. Adrienne lifted a regal brow and waited. He folded.

  “I’m going,” he grumbled.

  Once he was settled, she hefted the tray of dirty dishes and hurried for the kitchen. Gen tried to desert her chair, but Adrienne put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Eat. I’ll whip up a batch,” she assured her.

  “I don’t mind.”

  “Neither do I. Take advantage. Pancakes are one of the handful of things I can make.”

  “I have no doubt you can do anything you set your mind to. It’s all a matter of what’s important to you.”

  “If the maid didn’t cook, it was easier to eat out than to fix something for one,” she admitted, waiting on the griddle to warm.

  “So it isn’t that you can’t cook. It’s that you haven’t.”

  “I’ll never understand how you’re such a blooming optimist with everything that you’ve been through.”

  “It’s easier to dream of better things than to dwell on what could get worse,” Gen said with a shrug.

  “Tell me again why you married my brother who is always preparing for the worst.” Cole teased.

  “There is a difference between preparing and dwelling,” Gen said, stroking Trey’s hand.

  “I’ll accept that and as much as it pains me to say this, this power outage has been pretty painless thanks to his forethought,” Cole admitted.

  “Maybe now you won’t bitch so much when we cut wood.”

  “Don’t hold your breath.”

  Laughter dispelled any awkwardness left in the room and Adrienne breathed a little sigh of relief. There was no doubt she was attracted to the middle McCade, but they needed to do something about the tension between them before they killed each other.

  Pulling the blanket from the foot of her bed, Adrienne curled up in the small armchair near the window in her room. She’d claimed a headache and slipped away upstairs. As much as she loved Gen and her new family, a moment of privacy felt like a God send. Living by herself for so long, she wasn’t used to having to seek that out. Cole’s hideaway in the loft made more sense now.

  She leaned her cheek against the back of the chair and stared out the window. The wind had let up and the snow stopped. Sunlight glinted off the pristine snow and ice, creating a fairytale landscape. Trees stood out like stark skeletons and cattle dotted the pasture. The mountains rose in the distance, silent and majestic. She smiled, silently chiding herself for the grandiose mental description, but the truth was everything here was so wide open and pure. It was a world away from New York. She closed her eyes, picturing the snow piles dirtied by soot and traffic. As it warmed, it would turn to a filthy slush that splashed up from the tires of passing cars to splatter unsuspecting pedestrians. She grimaced. Suddenly, the city she’d called home her whole life didn’t seem so compelling. Was it the rustic beauty here, or the man downstairs that had tipped the scales?

  A knock on the door startled her. Tossing off the blanket, she crossed to the door. Cole’s smile was sheepish.

  “I’m sorry to bother you. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

  It looked like he wanted to say something else. She arched a brow and waited. He tapped his boot heel nervously and shrugged.

  “And make sure you really have a headache and aren’t just saying that because you’re still mad at me.”

  She smiled. “Neither actually. Would you like to come in?”

  He looked down the hall and then stepped into the room. She closed the door behind them and grabbed the blanket out of the chair before waving him to take a seat.

  “Thank you.”

  Sitting down on the bed she cuddled the wadded blanket to her. “I don’t have a headache. I just needed a little time to think and it’s too cold to try your hay loft.”

  His eyes danced. “When it warms up, I’d be happy to try the loft with you.”

  “I’d be tempted to take you up on that offer if you thought we might be able to be unchaperoned there,” she said, hiding a smile in the blanket balled in her arms.

  “You could’ve stayed last night.”

  “I didn’t know how they would feel about that. Trey did adamantly remind you that you have your own house, or to use the infamous loft when our making out on the couch made Gen drop the coffee service,” she snickered.

  Cole chuckled and nodded. “I guess you’re just going to have to get a little better at being discreet. You were in such a hurry to get to me last night; you didn’t even close the door.”

  He caught the pillow she whipped at him and grinned over the top of it.

  “I will remind you that I was, in fact, running from what I thought was a murderer outside my window. So at the time of entry, I was much more concerned with my safety than your modesty,” she said haughtily.

  Cole nodded, the pillow now muffling his amusement. “You have a valid point there, but in my defense, a gorgeous woman burst into my room and jumped into my bed. I was focused on protecting you.”

  “Protecting me with your body. Very noble.”

  “Mama raised gentlemen.”

  There was a hint of affection behind the boast and Adrienne couldn’t hold back a genuine smile. There was something about a man that so obviously adored his mother.

  “Did she understand your sibling sparring?”

  A wistful smile turned the corners of his lips but he nodded. “Mama had three brothers herself, so she understood boys. She didn’t often interfere unless one of us was hurt. She’d just remind us that we might fight among ourselves, but as brothers we should always have each other’s backs against others.”

  “Did it work that way?”

  “It always has.”

  “It must be nice to always be able to count on them.”

  “It is,” he said softly. “I’m sorry about earlier. I never thought about how hard it would be to be an only child.”

  “I shouldn’t have ripped into you like that,” she admitted. “I don’t k
now the history between you and your brothers. I don’t have the right to judge.”

  “That’s okay. You’re a little protective of Nate…” he said, leaving the statement hanging.

  “Handsome lawyer or not, he’s younger and just seems kind of vulnerable,” she said awkwardly. “He made a mistake. It must be difficult to live up to you and Trey.”

  Cole shook his head with a rueful chuckle. “You’ve been played.”

  Her temper flared, but Adrienne ground her teeth, swallowing the sharp retort sizzling on the tip of her tongue. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that Nate has a habit, a history, of playing the underdog to gain attention, sympathy, or simply get out of work. He discovered early that as the runt of the litter, there were times he wasn’t going to be able to match Trey or I physically. Instead of using his boasted superior intellect to figure out a way around the limitations, he used it to get out of the job all together. Surprisingly, Mama and I caught on early, but it took Daddy and Trey a bit longer. They both are, were, impatient. If you can’t keep up with them, get out of the way and let them do it.”

  “Trey’s comment this morning about Nate perking up because the work was done makes more sense now, but what does that have to do with me?”

  “Nate’s milking the incident. He wants you to feel sorry for him. You said earlier that he could barely get up to move to the chair. When you’re not right there, he moves around just fine.”

  “Are you serious or are you saying this because you’re jealous of the attention I’ve been paying Nate?” she asked suspiciously.

  “If he wants to vie for your affections, then he should do it like a man and not play your emotions with the puppy ploy.”

  She couldn’t hold back a little laugh at the disgust in his voice. “I’m afraid I don’t know what a puppy ploy is.”

  “Little, cute, and helpless makes women melt.”

  “Like a puppy,” she said flatly.

  He nodded. She glanced out the window and took a deep breath.

  “Are you okay?”

  Adrienne nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment. Nate had played her for a fool. Surely, Trey and Genevieve realized it too. She glanced at Cole. He was watching her. She bit the inside of her cheek. Humiliation warmed her face. Why wasn’t he gloating?

  “Should I at least be flattered by his interest or was it simply sibling rivalry at work, a game?” she asked, fighting to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

  “That’s something that you would have to ask him to be sure, but Nate is smart and a man would have to be a moron not to be attracted to you, darlin’.”

  His drawl made her heart do a stutter step. She hugged the blanket. A simple endearment shouldn’t be that sexy or make her feel this way.

  “What were you thinking when you said you would be willing to marry me?”

  “Honestly?”

  She nodded, her fingers twisting in the blanket’s hem.

  “I was thinking you were crazy to believe a man would hold your past relationship against you. To put it bluntly, we’re not in the 1800’s anymore. I don’t believe every man expects, or even wants, a virgin bride. God’s honest truth, I don’t have a lot of experience so maybe you could teach me a thing or two, like you said the other day.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, his expression unsure. She’d never thought him sexier than in this moment of vulnerability. She opened her mouth to tell him, but he continued.

  “I told you then that you’re stunning, and I meant it. You bowled me over the moment I saw you and, the more I’ve been around you, the stronger it’s gotten.”

  “I drive you crazy!” she protested.

  “You sure do, in more ways than one,” he said with a laugh. The uncertainty in his blue eyes was replaced with humor, but his words were serious. “I work hard all day. I don’t often have a desire go into town when I’m done. Life here can get lonely. With a woman like you, it’d never be boring. You’d make the long nights sweet, and be the spur in the ass I needed at times to get cleaned up and take my beautiful woman to town for a show or dinner.”

  “I’m more interested in those long, sweet nights,” she said with a seductive smile.

  A lazy grin spread across his face and he levered himself out of the chair. Adrienne swallowed hard as he took the two or three steps to the bed, her buzzing brain wondering how he could make walking look so sensuous. He leaned over her. She gave way, sliding back on the bed. Her body hummed as he gave chase, crawling up her so that she was pinned between his arms and legs. A firm tug tore the blanket from her fingers and he tossed the shield aside.

  Cole hovered over her, his lips inches from hers as he stared into her eyes. Her tongue slipped out, wetting her lips and he grinned again. His breath made her lips tingle. More than anything, she wanted to reach up and yank his mouth down to hers, but she wanted him to make the first move. His head shifted to the side, his face coming close enough that his lips and the tip of his nose trailed down the line of her jaw. Her head fell back when those lips found her pulse and played over the tender skin.

  His body lowered over hers, molding her into the mattress. Lips continued to trail over her throat in a caress not quite a kiss. Her arms slipped around him, hands splaying over the broad planes of his back. She could feel the ridge of his arousal pressed against her. With his knees framing her, she couldn’t open to him the way her body wanted. It was a small favor to her slipping control. His hot breath fanned her ear, drawing a shudder. She moaned into his mouth when it finally covered hers. His kiss was deliberate and drugging.

  The warmth of his hand seeped through the material covering her breast. Her nipple stiffened under the gentle strum of his thumb. Her mind spun. For a man that claimed little experience, he was playing her body with skill. She shifted underneath him, her body already aching for more of his. Her fingers bit into the ridge of his shoulder blades when he rocked against her. The bunch of her skirt foiled the thrust of his hips, but her body still moved against him. He pulled his lips from hers, leaving her panting.

  Shifting to the side, he reached down to drag her dress up. She muffled a moan into his shoulder at the press of his zipper against her core. Hooking her knees over his hips allowed Cole to thrust against her, the material still separating them not enough to mask his desire. His mouth was hungry on hers again. Her body arched up into his, begging for more. He rocked harder. The squeak of the bedsprings sounded loud, even over the pant of their breath. She groaned in frustration this time. The damn power outage made the house as quiet as a tomb.

  “Cole,” she gasped, tugging lightly on his shoulder.

  His big body slumped, stilling against her. When he lifted his head she could read the resignation in his eyes. He would stop if she asked him to. The man was a saint.

  “The bed’s too noisy. We have to find a quieter way to do this,” she whispered. She wasn’t nearly as virtuous as he was.

  He blinked at her for a moment and then glanced around the room. She bit his earlobe to draw his gaze back. She almost laughed at the desperation on his face.

  “I have an idea. Get your clothes off.”

  Hope flared in his eyes. Rolling off her, his fingers went to work on buttons. Scooting to the edge of the bed, Adrienne stood on shaky legs and hurried over to lock the door. His gaze was on her when she turned back. She winked and he grinned, shucking his shirt. Keeping eye contact, she shimmied out of her clothing. Cole’s fingers became awkward as he watched her show. Dropping the last scrap, she strolled over and sassily straddled his leg to help pull off his boot. His breathing was harsh by the time she repeated the movement with his other one. She fought an evil grin. If she wasn’t careful, this wasn’t going to last long.

  “Take a deep breath, cowboy,” she whispered, petting his chest.

  His cheeks seemed to flush under his tan, but he grinned and ran his hands over her shoulders, trailing down her arms to catch her hands. Pressing them together, he kissed them
lightly before stepping back to remove the last barrier. Adrienne couldn’t help taking a moment just to admire his body. Every inch of his six-four frame was chiseled muscle. If this was what working on the farm all day did for a man, it would be worth waiting at the door for him.

  “I hope you like what you see because you’re even more stunning than I imagined,” he said, his voice hoarse with desire.

  She’d been told many times she was beautiful, heard flowery compliments in different languages even, but none had touched her like the simplicity of Cole’s statement. She bit her lip against a ridiculous prick of tears and stepped close to run her hands over his powerful shoulders and arms.

  “I’m looking forward to spending hours mapping every muscle in your gorgeous body, stud, but right now it’s these we’re going to put to work,” she purred, squeezing his biceps. He tilted his head in question. “Do you remember the barn?”

  She didn’t have to say another word. He lifted her with ease, urging her legs around him. A hiss escaped her as her shoulders pressed against the cold outside wall, but within moments the heat rolling off his body surrounded her. He nuzzled behind her ear, along her jaw, and down the the hollow of her throat. She gasped as his hands left her hips to travel, relying on his bulk to pin her to the wall. His touch was reverent. The flex of his fingers was so gentle as he fondled her breast that she wanted to cry again. She’d never had a man treat her with such care.

  She opened her mouth to reassure him she wouldn’t break, but the words came out a strangled gasp as fingers parted her lower lips to stroke. Her hips jumped against his hand. She whimpered as her arousal slicked his fingers, allowing them to glide over her. The back of her head thudded against the wall as he slowly pushed one digit into her. The feeling brought her earlier desire flaring back to life, and she desperately clenched around his hand.

  “Please, Cole.”

  He pumped his finger, making her nails sink into his back as he curved the digit. She thrashed against the wall, her body needing more. A second finger stretched her. Using her legs she pushed up the wall, riding the thrust of his hand. The feeling was exquisite but just not enough.