by Francis Ray
“If you weren’t Kane’s brother, I’d ask you to leave. I’ll wait for Kane upstairs.” She started past him.
“In your own solitary bed no doubt.”
Surprise stopped her as effectively as if she had run into a glass wall. Words of denial formed in her mind until she saw the derision in Matt’s eyes, heard it in his voice.
“I just discovered why Kane was so insistent that I not return with him. There’s only one guest bedroom and you’re sleeping in it. The others are full of unfinished antiques. He’s too good to get kicked in the teeth like this.”
“I wouldn’t hurt him.” Even as Victoria spoke the words, she knew that was exactly what she had done over and over.
“You don’t think sleeping in the guest bedroom would hurt him? What kind of wife are you? You wouldn’t even give him that little of yourself.”
She flinched.
Unrelenting fingers grabbed her arm. “Name your price.”
“Let her go, Matt.” Kane ordered.
Chapter 12
Matt neither moved nor did he take his cutting gaze from Victoria’s uplifted face. “I hope no one uses you the way you’re using Kane.”
Without thought Stephen came to Victoria’s mind. Bile rose in her throat. My God! Had she treated Kane the same deplorable way Stephen did her? The realization that she had, struck her with the force of a physical blow. By trying to protect herself she had hurt Kane with the same selfish ruthlessness Stephen dealt her.
Matt’s fingers slowly unclamped. Stepping back, he faced his brother. “I’ll sleep in the bunk house.”
Kane kept his gaze on Victoria until he heard the front door open and close.
“Please forgive me. I didn’t know,” Victoria cried, anguish in her voice.
“Like you said, we have to get used to each other not being around.” He walked past her and up the stairs.
Not knowing what to say, Victoria went to her room. Restless, she paced the floor. She knew from experience the pain Kane must be suffering. Even when she no longer cared about Stephen, the idea that he thought she wasn’t woman enough, intelligent enough, beautiful enough, hurt. A caring man like Kane didn’t deserve to be hurt because she was a coward.
Trembling fingers opened the door connecting their bedrooms. What she saw made her heart constrict. Kane, his elbows bent, his bowed head resting wearily in the open palms of his hands, sat in an overstuffed chair in the far corner of the room. “Kane.”
Abruptly his head lifted. For a moment he looked like a wild animal trapped in his lair, then his expression became guarded. “What are you doing in here?”
Knowing she was to blame for the bleakness in his once-tender voice, she took a tentative step toward him. “Trying to apologize again.”
“If you don’t mind, I’m tired.” Pushing to his feet, he pulled the dangling black bow tie from around his neck and flung it toward the bed. It missed. So did the black tuxedo jacket that followed.
For once he didn’t appear concerned with neatness. Victoria was all too aware of the reason why. “Matt told me you won the Man of the Year Award. You must be very proud.” She glanced around the room she had always been afraid to enter. She wasn’t surprised by the antique mahogany furniture, but she was by the massive sleigh bed. Then she remembered the yearning she heard sometimes in his voice, saw in his face. Kane was a romantic. He still dreamed, and she had taken one of his dreams. “Where is your award?”
“In the car.” His shirt landed in the vicinity of the other discarded clothes. Unbuckling his belt, he stared at her. “Do you mind?”
Victoria looked into his drawn face and felt his misery and need as if it came from her own body. Kane needed her just as she needed him. “Of course not.” Pushing his hands aside, she pulled the belt from the loops.
“What are you doing?” Kane yelled as he staggered back.
“Helping you,” she said, hoping she sounded braver than her shaking knees indicated. “I know I haven’t been very good at it before, but I had you confused with someone else. I don’t any more.”
“That’s not what you’re doing,” Kane told her. “I heard what Matt told you and I don’t need your pity.”
“I’m not giving you any,” Victoria answered softly.
Kane was not convinced. “Then what do you call your sudden need to come in here?”
“I hurt you and—”
“I thought so,” Kane interrupted, his eyes blazing. “I can do without you offering your body on the sacrificial altar just because you’re feeling guilty.”
Incensed, Victoria gave him glare for glare. “How dare you say I’d go to bed with you out of guilt.”
“It’s the truth. Nothing else has prompted you to approach me first.” Kane shouted back. “I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve willingly touched me. Now you think I’m fool enough to believe you can’t wait to crawl in bed with me? Well, I’m not that hard up or that stupid.”
Grabbing her arm, he started for the connecting bedroom door. “I’m doing us both a favor. In the morning you’d feel sorry you ever let me touch you and run like hell.”
“Not if you did it right,” she blurted out.
Kane went deathly still.
Knowing she finally had his attention, she looked at his hard face and rushed on. “I know I haven’t had much experience in these matters, but it seems reasonable that if a man can make a woman scream in pleasure, she wouldn’t be sorry afterwards or in a hurry to leave.”
Kane’s fingers tightened on her arm, but he made no other move one way or the other. Victoria decided to push him a little. “Or was it just a cowboy bragging?”
His eyes drilled into her. Victoria lowered her gaze to the middle of his wide naked chest. “I might have known. In all the risqué discussions I’ve heard at the beauty salon about a man’s prowess in bed, I’ve never heard of a man making a woman scream.” She sighed dramatically. “You probably can crimp a lot of toes though. Ethel, my beautician, says if her toes don’t crimp, she feels cheated.”
Victoria glanced up at Kane’s scowling face. “Oh, well, it was an interesting thought.”
Powerful hands clasped her arms and jerked her to him. Nose to nose, eye to eye, he snarled, actually snarled, at her. She had the feeling that Kane fought the urge to shake her. With her feet dangling in the air, he started for his bed.
“So you think I was bragging. So you think you might like to scream. Well, Victoria Elizabeth Chandler Taggart, you pushed this cowboy too hard this time.” He tossed her on the bed.
Victoria bounced up, her arms flailing out to maintain her balance. Once equilibrium was achieved, she brushed her hair out of her eyes and wished she hadn’t. Hands on hips, feet spread apart, Kane looked dangerous, yet he didn’t move from his threatening position. Then she remembered that this was Kane. He would hurt himself before he harmed her. He wanted her to run.
“If your intention is to make me scream by glaring at me, it won’t work. As much as I enjoy looking at your magnificent body, I’d much rather have it next to mine.”
“You’re asking for it, Tory.”
She tilted her head. “Am I going to get it?” she asked, her voice husky. “I want to be able to touch you without debating the wisdom of doing so. I’ve been running from you all week because I knew if I didn’t, I’d run to you. I had stopped thinking of you as my business partner and started thinking of you as a man I cared about, a man I wanted to be intimate with.” She took a deep breath.
“Despite everything I know about you and our agreement that I be there for you, I ran. I disregarded your feelings in an attempt to protect mine.”
“Tory, don’t—”
“Even now, you’re trying to spare me. Not this time. I was wrong. It was utterly selfish of me to run out on you yesterday. I . . . I know that nothing I can say or do will erase the pain I caused, but I am sorry. The odd thing is, running only made me more miserable.”
Hope and tears gleamed in her eye
s. “I want to stop being afraid of my emotions. No other man can give me that freedom except you. I know I’m asking a lot after the way I behaved, but . . . but I thought since I was giving this time too, and I’m a little scared how this is going to turn out, it might count for something.”
For a long time, Kane simply stared at her, then his hands moved to his side. “It counts for a lot.”
“Oh, Kane.” Victoria scrambled to her knees and into his arms. His lips took hers in a kiss filled with passion and long-suppressed hunger. She trembled, loving the feel of his warm muscled flesh beneath her seeking fingers. Their mouths clung as if both were starved and were finally feasting at a banquet.
“Please be sure. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t give to be buried so deep inside you that there would be no beginning and no end. To hear your cries of passion and know I pulled them from your lips.” His hands trembled. “I’m not sure if I can stop once we start or if I could survive if you turned away from me.”
Shaking fingers smoothed the frown from his brow. “I’m sure. The lack is mine, not yours.” Her gaze fell. “I-I’m not very good at this.”
Kane snorted. Hard fingers lifted her chin and pulled her closer. His hips moved. Victoria gasped as she felt the frank hardness of his desire. “If you were any better, I don’t think I could stand it. Last chance to run for the door.’
She kissed him, giving him everything, holding back nothing of the hunger she felt. She was tired of being afraid. Need shimmered through her. She leaned back and Kane followed her down into the waiting softness of the mattress. His body against hers felt glorious, but she wanted to know how it would feel if there was nothing between them.
Her breath caught when he started to unbutton her blouse. He released the front fasteners of her lacy blue bra. Air rushed over her lips in a ragged sigh. His callused hand cupped her aching breast. She wanted to moan with pleasure and scream with impatience at the same time. “Kane?”
“We waited so long, Tory. You feel good, too damn good,” Kane growled, his mouth closing over her nipple. Then his hand swept up her skirt, over her legs, between her thighs. Instinctively, her knees clamped together. But as Kane’s gentle finger stroked her inner softness, she arched against his hand in pleasure. A moan slipped past her lips.
“You were made to be loved by me,” Kane half-groaned, half-growled. Quickly, he dispensed with her clothes, then tore open a foil package. Finally she was beneath him, feeling the heat and hardness of his body. Their eyes met a second before he eased into her.
Kane wanted to keep his eyes open, to watch the emotions sweep across her face, but the pleasure was too exquisite, too intense. His lids fluttered. Her long sleek legs wrapped around him, drawing him deeper inside her satin heat.
When the scream came, neither knew whose it was.
Victoria woke slowly, savoring the delicious way she felt. Opening her eyes, she saw Kane, his elbow bent, his chin propped in his open palm, staring down at her. Sunlight flowed over his broad shoulders, bronzing his skin. He looked beautiful and glowing. She had put that look on his face. She was wildly pleased.
She smiled shyly. “Good morning.”
Leaning over, he brushed his lips across hers. “Now it is.”
“I-I planned to be up first and serve you breakfast in bed,” she said, her voice quaky as his thumb stroked her rigid nipple through the sheet.
Kane’s eyes shimmered. “Exactly what I had in mind.” The sheet slid away. His mouth closed over the pouting point.
“K-Kane” Victoria’s voice broke; she tried again. “I need to go to the kitchen . . . oh, goodness.” His head moved across the flatness of her stomach, going steadily lower. Understanding dawned. “Kane, you—” Victoria sucked in her breath as Kane found what he sought.
Victoria’s last coherent thought before pleasure overtook her was that besides making her scream, Kane was probably the best toe crimper in the world.
Much later that morning, hunger drove Victoria and Kane to the kitchen. Kane had on his jeans; Victoria wore his white shirt. Kane had personally put it on her and rolled up several inches of dangling sleeves, saying she wouldn’t stay dressed long enough to bother putting on anything else.
Arms folded, Victoria leaned against the counter and shamelessly studied Kane’s hips as he bent to pull out a package of giant blueberry muffins from the refrigerator. To think, she had once been afraid of showing her emotions around him. She felt freer and happier than she had in her entire life. Closing the door, he turned to see her appreciative smile.
“You have a nice set of buns, cowboy.”
Kane gave her a crooked grin. Setting the muffins aside, he pulled her into his arms and nuzzled her neck. “You think so, huh?”
“Hmm,” Victoria almost purred as she arched her neck. “If you don’t stop doing that, the bacon will burn.”
“I might consider it, provided you stop moving against me as if you have an itch only I can scratch.”
“One of us has to be sensible,” Victoria said, then nipped his shoulder.
His hands cupped her hips and fitted her softness against his hardness, his lips searching for hers. “I don’t think it’s going to be me.”
The back door opened. Through the half slit of her eyes Victoria saw Matt, his jaw slack, poised in the doorway. With a shriek, she tried to hide behind Kane, who had turned toward the door.
“Morning, Matt,” Kane said, his voice strained. “Can you come back in a little while?”
Matt shook his dark head. “Just wanted to let you know, Pete is driving me to DFW to catch a flight home.”
Kane nodded. “Have a safe trip. I’ll call you later.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Matt asked, his probing gaze searching his brother’s face before going to the tousled head of black hair that had momentarily popped from behind Kane’s back.
“Yes.” Kane spoke without hesitation.
He nodded in resignation. “Then I’ll see you at Addie’s graduation ceremonies next weekend.” The door closed.
“I don’t think he likes me,” Victoria said. “But then I haven’t given him much reason to.”
Kane stroked her face with his knuckles. “He’ll come around. He had a bad experience with a woman and he doesn’t want me to do the same.”
A look of shame crossed her face. “I never intended to hurt you, but I did.”
“You were afraid to trust. You’ve taken a big step and we’ll take one day at a time.”
“Is that what you want?”
Kane brushed her hair away from her face. “No. I’m a greedy man, I want it all. But like I told you once, I’d settle for a lot less.”
Victoria breathed a little easier. She wanted it all too, but she learned long ago that wanting wasn’t enough. In time, maybe they would learn what was enough. “I think I’m a little greedy too.”
“I aim to satisfy all of your needs.” A flick of his wrist cut the burner off, then he pulled out a chair. Victoria gasped softly to find herself straddling Kane’s legs. “Scared?”
With her knees on either side of his waist, she was exposed and vulnerable. Her hands clamped on his shoulders felt the heat of his flesh even as she felt the tender way his hands held her waist. “Not me. Are you?”
“I like a sassy woman.” He devoured her lips. When he lifted his head, both were breathing a little harder. “I was a fool to start something I’d have to wait to finish.”
“One of us is crazy.” She moved against the obvious proof of his ability to finish what he had started.
He laughed wickedly. “Me.” Standing with her in his arms, he left the room. “Breakfast will have to wait.”
“Why are we going back upstairs?”
“Birth control. I told you I’d always take care of you, and that means no unplanned pregnancy,” Kane said. “I’d be the happiest man on earth to have a child with you, but I don’t think you’re ready for that big of a step in our relationship.”
S
he blushed and buried her head between his neck and shoulder. After all the things she had done with him and to him, the subject of birth control shouldn’t have embarrassed her. But it did. It also reminded her of how caring Kane was of her. She just wasn’t sure if this time she agreed with him.
“If they don’t stop ringing the doorbell, I’m going to strangle them,” Kane growled, positioning one jean-clad leg between Victoria’s bare ones.
“M-Maybe it’s important,” she said, her voice breathless and thick.
“Nothing is more important than this.” Kane’s tongue swept inside her mouth. Instantly her tongue sought his. Her arms tightened around his neck. Her body yielded. Desire rocked through him.
He pressed her deeper into the mattress. Restlessly, his hand swept over the silken skin of her stomach to the soft inner flesh of her thigh. Blunt-tipped fingers lifted the edge of her panties.
The chime of the doorbell was suddenly accompanied by what sounded like a fist pounding against the door. With a muttered expletive, Kane rolled from atop Victoria and snatched his shirt from the floor.
“I have to go to work anyway,” Victoria said huskily. Sitting up, she fumbled with the clasp of her lacy red bra. “Mondays are always hectic at the store.”
“Don’t you move from that bed,” Kane ordered. Shoving his arms into the shirt, he reached for the doorknob. “For their sake, I hope they have hospitalization.”
Kane recalled few times that he had been so angry. He had finally managed to get Victoria to change her mind about going to work, and now some nut was making a nuisance of himself. During their lovemaking, she held nothing back and came to him with a passion and need that equaled his own. She cared about him, and soon she would learn to love him. She was his wife in every sense and she was going to remain his wife.
