To Have a Wilde (Wilde in Wyoming)
Page 14
She kicked off her shoes and, yawning hugely, she arched her back before sagging against the back of the sofa briefly, mind and body both exhausted.
Sighing, she quickly divested herself of her clothing and stood. Wearing nothing but her panties, she padded over to the bed and drew back the colorful spread.
A grin of appreciation settled across her face when her nearly naked body met the cool, soft, high-quality sheets. As she nestled into the sheets, the image of Key’s face the last time she saw him drifted across her mind.
She didn’t know if she should be happy or sad that he wasn’t going to be around when she spoke with Nick and his father tomorrow. One part of her knew it was the right thing to do. After their last angry exchange, she knew that if, and when, the time came that he wanted to speak to her, it would have to be him taking the initiative. There was no way on God’s green earth he would want anything to do with her.
The bitter anger and betrayal she felt ran deep. But, for as badly as she hurt, that Key would believe her capable of something so awful, a part of her understood his pain. More than anything she hated that she had been the one to cause his family so much grief, beyond the show. The fact that his father had been okay, medically, had done little to alleviate the mountainous amount of guilt she felt that one of her staff members had been responsible for the attack.
No wonder the man hated her. She sighed, nestling her body farther down into the covers. She was lucky Nick and his father had agreed to see her. When she’d received the call from them, she’d been not only surprised, but also very grateful.
Now she would do everything she could to make it up to Key to his family. That was the least she could do. As far as Key was concerned...she drew in a breath, blowing it out in a small gush of air. There wasn’t a lot she could do about that. It was up to him.
Tears slipped down her face as she allowed her body and mind to relax, and she succumbed to mindless exhaustion.
* * *
Keanu raised his key to place in the lock, surprised when the knob turned without assistance. He frowned, before shrugging it off. Although the guest cottage was rarely used, and those who worked the ranch were trusted, after their mother had passed away, they’d kept the doors locked.
Oh, well. He’d ask Ailani about it when he saw her next.
Once inside, he groped blindly for the light switch but changed his mind. He knew the cabin like the back of his hand, and he was just going to fall into bed, anyway.
He slipped off his shoes and eased his jeans down the length of his legs, kicking them away. He grabbed his ends of his T-shirt and lifted it over his head before padding over to where the bed was. Once there, he sat down at the foot and yanked off socks.
He was so damn tired, all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep until Monday.
After being gone for the past week, he had no more perspective on the situation than he’d had the day he left.
It had been a tense month, but as soon as his father had been cleared from the hospital, and Keanu was assured he was going to be okay, he’d left the ranch. He’d needed time away to clear his head.
His plan had been to stay away for the next two weeks, but when his brother had called to tell him he needed to return to oversee the renovations on the house, he’d grudgingly agreed to do it.
The house had been locked up when he’d returned, and not up to dealing with a bunch of workmen’s mess, he’d opted, at his brother’s suggestion, to use the guest cottage.
Although he wasn’t in the mood for questions—or advice—from anyone in the family, he’d come home once Nick told him he and his father planned to stay in a hotel near the house for a few days, as the dust and smoke was bothering his father.
For that reason and that reason alone, Key had agreed to come home, sending his foreman to finish the job of purchasing equipment.
He loved his family, but he still needed time to think without anyone offering their opinion. It was probably too late with Sonia, anyway, he thought, sighing. The talk with her parents hadn’t exactly been...forthcoming.
“Damn,” he muttered, “I’ve screwed this all up.” His face tightened as he drew in a deep breath, standing to stretch. He’d game-plan it all tomorrow. Right now he needed sleep.
He padded, naked, to the bed and lifted the down comforter and slipped inside, sleep claiming him as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Chapter 22
The dream came softly, slowly, blowing into her mind as a lover slipped into a bed. A hard, warm arm was thrown across her breast, callused fingers toying with her nipples, one big thigh clamped over both of hers as his cock speared gently between her buttocks.
She moaned in pleasure, settling back against the even harder body attached to the arm and leg. And cock.
“Hmm,” she murmured, allowing the dream to continue, not wanting it to ever end.
With a soft sigh and lazy smile on her face, she allowed herself to drift into the sensations, taking each one in, glorying in the feel of hot, hard masculinity blanketing her body.
* * *
The dream dragged into his mind, bringing his cock to rock-hard awareness even as he slept. A woman, soft, warm, was nestled tight against his body, her sweet soft ass nestling his hardening shaft. He grasped one plump breast and thumbed it, feeling it spike against his hand in gratitude.
A throaty moan was his reward and Key brought her closer, his hand moving from one plump breast to travel down the line of her chest, past her slightly rounded tummy to tangle and nest in her soft thatch of curls, slipping his fingers inside the elastic band of her panties.
Inserting a thick finger deep inside her heat, he twirled it around and groaned when he felt her body’s response, as her walls clamped down on the single digit, tugging it, begging for more.
Desire drew an answer from his own body; his shaft hardened to granite and poked against her sweet backside, demanding attention. When she lifted up and ground on it, he felt his face tighten.
The dream was as hot as it got. He wanted nothing more than to shift that sweet little body of hers beneath him and lose himself inside her heat, her warmth.
But he wanted it to last. Even as he dreamed, he knew he wanted it to last. He knew that when he awoke, the dream would be over. If he couldn’t make it last with her in real life, he damn well would hold on to what he could in the dream.
Slowly, he withdrew his fingers from her body, satisfied when she cried out in protest.
Just as she always did.
The truth of that struck him hard, nagging at him, but he allowed the dream to unfold.
Her soft mewling cries were his undoing.
He flipped her body over and covered it with his, taking her mouth in one long, drugging kiss as he ground his body into hers.
“Hmm,” his lover moaned into his open mouth. The satisfaction he felt from the pleasure he was giving her again gave him pause.
Her pleasure came before his. It always had. It always would....
He remained silent. He would give her everything he had, if only in dream. He would show her what she meant to him. Give of himself without holding back.
He found her heat and stroked inside, giving it to her in the way he knew she had come to love, his fingers delving deep inside, grinding softly into her sweet pussy while his thumb toyed with her tight blood-filled clit.
His cock was so hard it was nearly painful, as lust and desire for her beat down on him, nearly driving him past his control. But he wanted...needed to give more.
He pulled his mouth from hers and traced her lips with his tongue.
“I love you, Key...please make love to me,” she whispered.
And that was all it took.
All it took to drag Key’s eyes open, force him to shake the embers of sleep away. This was real�
��she was real. He’d missed her....
As he stared down at her, he didn’t question why she was in his bed, didn’t question why she was locked in a dream, why she was so tired she didn’t lift her eyes and look at him. She was in the dreamy in-between state, just as he had been.
God, how he’d missed this woman. He’d been...lost without her. The admission didn’t make him angry, didn’t make him go running out to the woods, as she’d accused him, afraid of his emotions, afraid to admit how he felt.
He stared down at her. It was time he admitted how he felt about her...how she made him feel. To show her that he trusted her with his life.
The grin grew wolfish. And time to give her something to really dream about.
He peeled the sheet down, away from her, exposing her body to his hungry stare.
The moonlight beaming down through the skylight gleamed on her pretty brown body, her plump breasts arched, her nipples tight...begging for his touch.
He could do nothing but oblige.
He lowered his head and swiped his tongue out across the crest of first one breast, then the other, before pulling one thickened nub deep into his mouth. Simultaneously, he lowered one hand to lift her butt, and the other slid down between their close bodies to find her center.
He toyed with it. Played with and teased it...made her squirm around his fingers.
Before ripping her panties away from her body.
“Oh...mmm...” Her strangled, garbled moan brought him satisfaction. But it wasn’t enough. He needed to give her more. He needed more from her.
He pulled away from her spot despite her protests, while he withdrew his fingers from her clenching heat.
“No, please don’t go... Ooh,” The rest of her sentence was garbled and one long cry as he immediately went back to work, loving her.
He knew she referred to his lovemaking, but he planned to show her, in detail, that he was never going away again. This was his woman. And he was going to do everything in his power to let her know how much he needed her.
Lifting her bottom in the air, high, he brought her center to his mouth and swiftly, smoothly, stabbed her heat, suckling her deep into his mouth, immediately lost in the glorious scent, taste and feel of her.
* * *
The orgasm began low in Sonia’s belly, rolling and crashing in on her in one glorious tidal wave, on and on and on....
Her body shot up, eyes open as she stared down at the dark head buried between her thighs.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God,” she cried, her body no longer hers to control, yet the reality that she was not dreaming beating against her, just as the incredible orgasm was.
“How...” She stopped, panting. Drew in a breath. “Why, wha—” Her incoherent babbling was cut short when his long, thick fingers stroked into her heat at the same time that talented tongue circled and hollowed, suckling her clit into his mouth with a sweet ferocity that was nearly painful in its intensity.
When his finger slanted deep inside her channel, he slowly, oh, so slowly released her clit, and the orgasm she thought was over swelled and crested, nearly drowning her in its intensity.
She fell back on the bed, allowing the incredible sensations to simply...devour her.
When he applied direct pressure right above her mons, his fingers still playing her, his mouth opened wide and clamped down over her entire center, and she screamed.
The orgasm broke completely free when he lifted her bottom high in the air and continued his sensual assault.
The feel of his tongue, teeth and fingers against her aching sex in alternating sensual strikes was her undoing. Her body went up in flames.
As she crested the peak and she felt unable to give any more, her spread her lips and added yet another finger.
“No, no, no,” she babbled and begged, the pleasure too intense for coherent speech. “Baby.” Her strident cry ended in one long wail of release and her entire body slumped down on the soft mattress, every bone in her body useless.
She kept her eyes closed, allowing her body to calm. Eventually she felt her heart return to a beat that didn’t make her afraid she was in the throes of a heart attack, yet she was too sleepy, too listless...too satisfied to open her eyes.
“We’re not done, baby.” Key’s deep-voiced pronouncement brought Sonia back to full wakefulness. She inhaled deeply and opened her eyes.
Her eyes roamed over his beloved features one by one. Although it was dark, the light from the moon the only light, she could make out his features. But she really needed to see him. There could be no mistakes this time.
Memories of how badly she’d misjudged the situation with him once before echoing in the recesses of her mind.
She slowly rose, scooting up on the bed until her head hit the padded headboard.
“I think...I think we need to talk first, Key,” she began, her eyes scanning his face for any signs of residual anger...mistrust. A mistrust she knew she had every right to see. But one that if she did see, if he still felt that way, she knew that despite the good sex, their sexual chemistry would do nothing for them in the terms of a relationship. She wanted it all.
“Home. I want to go home,” she whispered.
“Is that what you want, Sonia?”
Chapter 23
His question brought her up short, and her gaze flew to his. She hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud. She swallowed the lump of anxiety down. Embarrassed, yes, yet she knew it was all on the line now. They were past the getting-to-know-you stage. Way past that.
The fact that he knew what she meant by saying she wanted to go home confirmed what she already knew—that they were on the same wavelength as well as the same path. Fate had decided that long before they’d ever met.
And after all they’d been through, honesty was the only way to go. No more hiding away, not for either of them.
She tugged the sheet up on her body and forced herself to keep his gaze. “I won’t settle for anything else, and if that’s not what you want, I’m okay with that. But if you want a relationship, I won’t be happy with anything, Key, but the real thing.”
A small smile played around his sexy lips, and she felt her heart skip a beat. Yet his next words brought her up short. “You know that just about killed me when I thought you had betrayed my family...betrayed the trust we were developing.” He spoke bluntly, straight to the point, and although his voice was low, modulated, Sonia heard the catch in it and felt her heart react at what she knew was pain.
Did he still mistrust her? After what they had just shared?
She kept her eyes shut, afraid of what would be reflected in them should she look his way. Silently she nodded, waiting for him to continue. Maybe that had been his way of saying goodbye, she thought, squaring her shoulders and preparing for whatever he had to say.
She couldn’t stay there and take his anger. She couldn’t take going through the pain she had endured over the past two weeks. She felt indignant. She was not going to wait for him to lower the boom.
“Been there, done that. Got the heartache ribbon to go with it,” she said aloud, and gathered the sheet around her body.
She turned to face him, tears running down her face. “Look, I know I was the cause for your father having to go to the hospital, and that is something I will never, ever, forgive myself for. If he had...” She allowed the sentence to dangle, not wanting to put voice to the fear.
“I would have never forgiven myself for the pain it would have caused you and your family. I don’t know what else to say. If you still don’t believe I had nothing to do with it, there’s no point in any of this. I—I only came back to speak to your family and give a personal apology on behalf of the studio for what Patricia did.”
She turned, with tears clouding her vision, to leave, not sure where she was going, on
ly knowing that she had to get out of the cabin before she completely lost it and broke down. She ran toward the door, grabbing her clothes along the way.
“Wait, damn it, woman!” he shouted, close behind her. When he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her, turning her around to face him, his face was red with anger.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” he demanded as he held her by her waist, suspended in air inches from his face.
“I let you get away from me once, and that was enough,” he said, and lifted her higher, throwing her over his shoulder and spinning back around.
He swatted her on the backside and she yelped in surprise.
“What the hell was that for?”
“Never again will you leave me,” he said, and tapped her bottom again. She squirmed against him. The swats weren’t hard enough to hurt, but hard enough that she felt their slight sting against her sheet-covered bottom. Embarrassed, she felt her body react and had to clench her legs together.
He swatted her a third time, this one softer, his hand caressing the slight sting. She moaned against the sweet sting.
“And never again will you leave me alone,” he said, and turned with her, laying her on the bed.
“You said that one already,” she said, staring up at him. Her breath caught at what she saw in his light blue eyes, the sheen of tears too real, the stamp of emotion so raw on his face it brought an answering emotion.
She swallowed and said nothing. She couldn’t say anything. She waited for him to continue.
He sat next to her on the bed, slowly unwrapping the linen from her body. With his voice neutral, stripped of emotion, he began to speak.
“After you left, I went and talked with my father and my brother. Although the shock wasn’t good for my father, it wasn’t the reason for the infarction. He didn’t suffer a second stroke, just what the doctors called an infarction,” he began, and she drew in a breath, guilt washing over her anew.