by Wendi Darlin
“I apologize for my brother.” He reached for her hand. “You’re welcome to stay and finish the movie. I’d like for you to.”
“Don’t apologize. He’s right. I tend to make myself at home wherever I go. And I should call and check on my sister tonight anyway.”
“If you really don’t want to stay I’ll make it up to you at dinner tomorrow night.” He gave her hand a squeeze and let it go.
“You don’t have anything to make up for, but you can walk me back to my cabin if you want.”
Their feet didn’t make a sound in the damp grass. Rebecca held her boots in one hand and Gavin’s arm in the other. At her door, he pulled her in for a hug. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his back. He pressed his lips into her hair. There was so much more she could experience with him, if she could just let herself go, let herself believe that everything would be okay if she did. He made her want to do that.
“Thanks for everything this week,” she said into his chest.
“Don’t thank me, it’s…”
She braced herself. It was his job. She knew it was his job.
“…been the best week I’ve had in a long time,” he finished. “Sweet dreams,” he said before backing away.
“Gavin?”
He waited for her to speak, but no other words came. Her mouth had jumped ahead of her brain.
“What?” he prompted her.
“I’m really not a prude or a tease.” She fumbled for the words. “I mean, sex is very important to me. Something I need a lot of.”
“It’s important to me, too.” His eyes were laughing at her. “What are you trying to say?”
“I was thinking it would be fun to play a game.” She licked the dryness from her lips hoping he would go along.
“What kind of game?”
“Wait here.” She went inside and scribbled on a piece of ranch stationery.
“In fifteen minutes, dial this number.”
He studied the paper and folded it into his palm. “What kind of game is this?”
“One I think you’ll like.”
* * * *
“What the hell was that for?” Gavin asked from the doorway of the family room. Garrett had written the book on customer service, he should know how to treat a guest. At the very least he should have the courtesy to respect anyone Gavin brought into their home. And he didn’t need a book to tell him how. He was raised better than that.
Garrett looked up from the movie. “I think you need to ask her to leave,” he said.
What the—
“One minute you’re telling me not to let Taryn fuck up the rest of my life, and now you’re telling me to get rid of the first woman I’ve even considered getting involved with in years.”
“I think you should ask her to leave the ranch, then pursue whatever you want to pursue with her. I wrote out a refund check for her today. It’s on your desk.”
The movie score reached a crescendo and another scream zipped through the surround sound in the room.
“I’m not asking her to leave.” What was he supposed to do, send her back across the country and flirt with her over the phone while some other man kept her warm at night? Long distance relationships might work fine for Garrett, but that wasn’t the way to love somebody. Not the way Gavin could love somebody, if he could love somebody again.
“I got a call today from a Detective Scott Evans in Charleston, South Carolina,” Garrett said. “He was asking questions about our standard operating procedures, and insinuating he didn’t believe we were running anything short of a brothel.”
“Why would a detective in South Carolina give a damn about us?”
“He’s her brother-in-law.” Garrett set the popcorn bowl on the table and dropped his feet to the floor.
“According to Rebecca, the man’s a jerk. You didn’t have to take it out on her.”
“A jerk with a badge, the best kind.”
“I haven’t done anything illegal,” Gavin reminded him.
“For how much longer?” Garrett swept the popcorn Rebecca had spilled into his hand.
“It won’t happen this week.” He gripped the paper Rebecca had given him.
Garrett dumped the mess into the bowl, and pushed on the remote. The screen went black and the room fell quiet. “I think she’s the undercover.” He put his hand up before Gavin could argue. “Has she been asking a lot of questions? Or snooping around anywhere she shouldn’t be?”
“She’s not the undercover,” Gavin said, but even as he said it, his stomach twisted. “And even if she was, she’d have nothing more than a kiss to use as evidence. I expect you to trust me more than this.”
“I do trust you. Just don’t let your emotions get ahead of your brain.” He held his hand up again anticipating Gavin’s argument. “The last time we talked about this, you said it would be business as usual from here on out. But what I saw in here tonight didn’t have anything to do with business. And now I’m not the only one worried about it.”
“You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Fine. But while she’s here, play by the rules. If you don’t, I’ll ask her to leave myself.”
“You’d better not even put the idea in her head,” Gavin said before heading to his room. He’d be willing to bet the ranch Rebecca wasn’t a cop, and he wasn’t a betting man.
* * * *
“I might have seen something.” Marge chewed on her bottom lip and rolled the stem of her wine glass between her fingers. “Earlier today, one of the guests came back to her cabin with her shirt unbuttoned, and she didn’t look too happy about it.”
“You know her name, or the name of the man she was with?” Excitement was evident in Chet’s voice. There was no doubt he’d be at the ranch, sirens blaring, if he thought he’d have half a shot at making an arrest. “Please tell me it was Rebecca Ryder.”
“Why?”
“Her brother-in-law’s a detective. He called the department before she even stepped off the plane. He’ll do whatever it takes to nab any bastard that lays a hand on her.”
Marge couldn’t help but remember the look in Gavin’s eyes and the peaceful contentment on Rebecca’s face at dinner. They looked like they had found everything she’d ever wanted. And she had the power to take it all away. Giving Chet the means to destroy a budding relationship didn’t do much to raise her worth. “I don’t think it was what it looked like though.”
“You let me decide what it was! Just tell me exactly what you saw.”
“That’s all. She…she came back with her shirt undone and mad. But tonight at dinner she was with her cowboy. They looked like they were having a good time. She seemed happy.” Marge raised the glass to her lips. “Maybe she fell off a horse or something. Anything could’ve happened. I don’t think the cowboy did anything.”
“You don’t know either of their names?”
Marge gulped a mouthful of wine. Then another. “I haven’t gotten a chance to meet most of the other guests or the cowboys.”
“Dammit! It’s your job to find out what the hell’s going on there. Now quit acting like you’re on vacation. If I don’t get promoted to detective, I’ll hang onto every dime of the money Mama left you, and you’ll shrivel up in a nursing home sucking green Jell-o through a straw! Don’t think for a minute I owe you anything. I promised Mama I’d look after you, but if she knew the kind of person you were she’d roll over in her grave!”
Marge shook so violently the glass fell from her hand and shattered to the floor. Chet had met Harold, caught them, so to speak. He’d come to Philadelphia unexpected, saw Harold, saw the ring on his finger, and did an investigation into her private life that reaped more information than she’d ever shared with anyone. She begged him not to tell, and he hadn’t, but he held the secret over her head like a bell jar. Ready to imprison her with it unless she did what he wanted her to do.
“Call me tomorrow. And give me something I can use!” He slammed phone down. The dial tone hum
med in her ear, but she didn’t move.
* * * *
Melinda didn’t answer her cell phone, so Rebecca tried her home number.
“Hello?” Scott answered.
Shit. “I thought you had a new residence.”
“I still pay the mortgage here.” He was as cocky as ever. She could picture his smug smile. He was probably strutting around in his t-shirt and socks with his gun still holstered under his arm. Looks had never been more wasted on a man. He thought just because he turned heads, he had an obligation to sleep with everything that moved.
“Is my sister there, or did you put her on the street and move your girlfriend into her house?”
“You just missed her.” Nothing fazed the man. He would act cool as Kojak if the bowels of the earth opened up and sucked him inside. “By the way,” he said. “I checked up on your little pay-by-the-hour boyfriend, today. His brother’s a real ass.”
“I’m sure you left a fine impression on him, too.” At least she knew why Garrett was pissed at her. She could only imagine the kind of not-so-subtle intimidation techniques Scott had used.
“Come on back home before you get any more mixed up in that mess out there. I know a skunk when I smell one.”
“Worry about your own mess. I can take care of myself.”
“I always told Todd I’d keep an eye on you, and I mean to do it. They’ve been in a little bit of trouble out there lately. The local cops don’t think too highly of them. You call me if any of them so much as brushes up against your ass, and keep your door locked.”
“Spend some time worrying about your wife.”
Obviously he and Melinda had been talking or he wouldn’t have had all the information on Gavin and the ranch, like the two of them didn’t have more important things to discuss.
“We’re still family. You and me,” he said.
“Go talk to your wife about family.” Rebecca snapped her phone shut and fell back on the bed. Creep.
Maybe she was just as wrong about men as Melinda, and maybe Gavin was more like Scott than she wanted to admit. He definitely capitalized on his looks, spent day after day pouring out charm on women he didn’t care anything about. Maybe his marriage failed for the very same reason Melinda’s was falling apart.
What made her think she could believe everything he said? Because she did. She believed him, ate up everything she thought she saw in his eyes, and lived for the moments their bodies so much as brushed one another. God, she couldn’t let herself be that stupid. He had a job to do, and this week she was that job, even if he was attracted to her. No matter how much she was attracted to him.
Friday morning she’d be back on a plane, and Gavin Carter would just be one sweet memory. She could do whatever she wanted with him, as long as she didn’t forget that. Her phone rattled on the tabletop. She turned off the lights and placed it to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Rebecca?” Gavin’s voice was low.
“Is that who you wanted to call?” She pulled the comforter down on the bed and plumped her pillows into place.
“It sounds like I got the right number.” His voice was sexier than ever in the darkness of the room.
“Are you in bed?” she asked, licking the dryness from her lips, hoping he was calling her from some place private, that he hadn’t misinterpreted the game.
“Yeah. Are you?”
“Not yet. I need to undress first.” Her stomach tensed. This was the moment of truth. Was he going to play along? He was silent, not giving her any indication he was onboard yet. She swallowed the lump in her throat and lowered her voice to just more than a whisper. “What do you sleep in?”
“Nothing.” His laughter was soft, deep in his throat. “What about you?”
“Usually more than that, but tonight I think I’ll try it your way.”
“I bet you’d look great in nothing.” His voice spurred her on, made her want to please him, to let him please her.
“Close your eyes and picture me. I just untied the robe and now I’m slipping it over my shoulder.” She switched the phone to her other ear. “And my other shoulder.”
“Where is it now?” The urgency in his voice heated her.
“On the floor around my feet.” She could tell by the way he exhaled he had painted a nice image of her in his mind. “Where’s your hand?” she asked.
“On the phone.”
He was going to make her work every step of the way, but that was fine, she didn’t want to rush. “Your other hand?”
“Around my cock.”
Oh yes, he was ready to play this game and the abandon of his words spooled her. She moaned softly, letting him know how much she liked the image he gave her. “If I was in your bed that’s where I’d be. That’s exactly where I’d be.”
“Around my cock?” He wasn’t finished with her yet, not ready to let her hurry past this, or get away with vagueness, and she didn’t have any intention of letting him down.
“I’d be all around your cock. Warm and wet. My whole body so soft against the hardness of yours. I love how strong you are, how safe that makes me feel, like I can fall apart and you’ll hold me together.” Her voice was husky full of breath, the same tone that used to melt Todd. “I want to please you, make you need me as much as I need you.”
“You’re so sexy, so wild,” he said. “I’ll make you come so hard. Are you ready for that? Will you let me do that for you?”
“I’m so ready. I’ll do anything you want me to do.”
“Where’s your hand?” he asked.
“On my stomach. Waiting for you to tell me which way to go with it.”
“Are you in bed yet?”
She lay back on the mattress, made herself comfortable. “Now I am.”
“Take your hand to your breast. I love the feel of your breasts.”
“Umm.” He wanted control and she wanted to give it to him, to let him take her where she wanted to go. “How would you touch my breast right now?” she asked.
“I’d cradle it. Feel every curve. The weight of it. The softness. It’s so soft, so tempting I can’t resist a taste. I have to taste your nipple. Do you like that?”
“I do like that,” she said, wetting her fingers with her mouth then circling the hardened peak. She brought her knees up. “I like that so much. You have me so wet.”
“Slide your hand down your stomach, that soft flat stomach of yours. Don’t stop until you can tell me just how wet you are.”
She gasped when she reached her slick heat. He responded with a groan. “I’m so wet,” she said. “And oh my God, I’m so swollen. My fingers. They…they slip in before I can stop them.”
“How many?” His voice was strained. She was having the exact effect she wanted to have on him. Doing as much for him as he was for her.
“Two.” She arched her back, pushing her breasts in the air, wishing he was there to take them, to take her.
“Are they in you now?” His breath was heavier than before.
“Uh hum. I wish it was you. I want you inside me.”
“Make it three,” he demanded.
“It’s three,” she responded, her breath in her throat.
“Go deeper.” His voice was lower, so close to ear.
“Oooh…” she moaned. “Oh my God.”
“I want to be in you,” he said. “To feel how hot and wet you are.”
“I feel you in me.” She licked her lips, reaching deeper.
“Do you feel how hard I am?”
“You are so hard. So. So. Hard.”
“I’m so far inside of you.” His breath was heavier still. “Stroking so deep into you.”
“I want more,” she begged. “Please give me more.” The phone nearly slipped from her hand.
“I’m as far as you want me to be. As deep as you want me to go.”
“Don’t stop,” she whimpered, moving her hand to a rhythm that was soon going to take her over the edge.
“I’m not stopping,” he prom
ised. His breath was coming as fast as hers. “I won’t stop.”
“Harder,” she begged. “Harder and don’t stop. I’m going to…”
“Ohhh. Oh Rebecca. Ooh honey…” He lost it.
“Oh my God. God. My God…Gavin!” She followed him. Crying out as spasms shook her. One delicious tremor after another. It took all her strength to hold onto the phone to not miss a second of his breath coming together with hers, quieting slowly. She waited to see if he would speak first.
“I want to kiss you,” he said. “You’ve got the sexiest mouth.”
She closed her eyes and bit her lip. “I want you to kiss me,” she whispered.
“If I come over there right now, I will. I’ll kiss you, hold you all night long. Really make love to you.”
Her body froze. She brought her hand to her stomach in response to the knot that suddenly clenched it. “Don’t,” she said louder than she meant to. “This is enough for now.”
“It’s definitely a start,” he said softly. “So much more than I expected.”
“Sweet dreams,” she told him and closed the phone in her hand before he could say anything else.
Chapter 7
“You’d druther wait outside in the rain, than come inside my cabin where the coffee’s ready and everything’s all nice and dry?” Rebecca said, arching her brow and eyeing Gavin suspiciously.
He pulled her through the threshold and met her lips with a kiss that shot straight to her toes. “It doesn’t matter what I’d druther do. After last night, I’d better wait out here,” he said.
She would have completely melted into him right then and there if he had given her a chance to. Instead, he held her at arms length and handed her a bag used to keep her clean laundry dry in the downpour. Rebecca smiled. She wasn’t sure what to expect after their phone rendezvous, but he was behaving perfectly. He wasn’t pushing her, or expecting more and he wasn’t running away either. He was taking it slowly, just as he said he would.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, pushing her hair away from her face. “I love your smile.”
God, it sounded good when he said that.
“So you go for the phone sex thing?” she asked.
“It definitely beats the way I’d been having my way with you.”
