How to Rope a McCoy (Hell Yeah!) (13 page)

“God,
yes,” he moaned as his fist found his cock and began to work it up and down. If
Cato didn’t realize she had an audience, he was just one blessed man. And he’d
turned her down? God, help him.

“Patient,
be patient, my love. I’ll give you what you need.” Cato pinched her nipples
through the lace, whimpering at how good it felt. Heath was behind her, she
could almost feel his heat as he slid his hands around her waist and lifted her
breasts, pushing her hands out of the way so he could massage and lift them,
rolling her nipples between his fingers. His breath would be hot against her
neck and the rasp of his beard would leave its mark behind. “
Hmmmm
, I need to be fucked.”

Shit.
Heath almost came off the bed. He had never been this turned on before—not even
when he had a willing woman under him.

Oh,
it felt so good, Cato threw her head back, baring her throat so Heath could
kiss and tongue her. “Come around,” she implored. “I need your mouth.” The man
in her dreams obeyed, moving to face her, sitting on the bed and pulling her
close so he could consume her lips and blaze a trail of heated kisses down her
throat, his tongue licking down into her cleavage. “Suck me!” Oh, how she
longed to feel a man’s lips on her nipples.

Heath
wanted to comply more than he wanted to breathe. “Show them to me, baby. Show
me where you need my mouth.”

As
if she could hear and obey, Cato unhooked her bra, baring herself to his sight.
As if he were with her and she was whole and normal. His growl of approval rang
in her ears as her breasts were unveiled.

Fuck.
Heath ratcheted up his strokes as he saw what that sexy bra had been hiding.
Cato was delectable—round, firm, plump and perfectly natural. He itched to get
his hands and lips on her. Licking his mouth, his hips bucked helplessly as he
imagined framing those tits and pushing them together,
laving
those nipples and taking them between his lips to suckle to his heart’s
content. Lord, how he’d love on her.

Unaware
of the show she was putting on or the result it was having, Cato slid her
panties down and off her legs. Her fingers sought out her cleft, sinking in and
testing to see how wet she was. “I’m so creamy for you, Heath. My pussy wants
you so much. I’m so empty. Please, please…” she chanted as she swirled her clit
and pushed her fingers up inside of her tight sheathe. No man had ever taken
her, but if Heath didn’t claim her soon, she would combust from sheer need.

Would
he go down on her? Would he bow at her feet and rub his face on her mound, part
her thighs and give her what no man ever had? “Lick me, Heath,” she begged. Not
able to stand anymore, she went to the bed and lay down, opening her legs wide
and playing with her pussy in earnest. God, when she got this excited, she had
to have it. Cato loved to make herself cum. Fingers working between her thighs,
she let her hips undulate, seeking and begging for the man of her dreams to
cover her, come unto her, fill her up and fuck her till she screamed. 
           

“God,
baby.” She was fuckin’ unbelievable. Heath jerked off as he watched her writhe
on the bed, fingering herself to ecstasy. He couldn’t believe his eyes. She was
everything he’d ever wanted—wild, wanton, and seemingly desperate—for him.

Spreading
herself wide, she frantically rubbed her clit. “Please, please, I beg you,
Heath. Take me, fuck me. God, I need you!” She literally screamed the last few
words as an orgasm hit her so hard that her hips lifted from the bed and a cry
of wild abandon rose in the room. “Heath!”

“I’ll
give you what you need,” he promised as Heath let go, helpless to hold back his
own explosion as he watched the woman on the screen fly apart, his name on her
lips.

They
both came down slowly, him caressing his cock with languishing strokes and her
massaging her vulva as aftershocks still made her jerk and quiver.

And
God knows, Heath was about to go to her. Surely she knew he was watching.
Surely he had been treated to a magnificently staged performance—after all,
she’d told him the game was on. If this woman was innocent, he’d eat his black
Stetson. Patrick O’Rourke had been wrong, he had to be. So Heath waited,
convinced she’d sit up and ‘meet’ his eye, admitting with a saucy wink that she
knew he was watching.

But
that wasn’t what happened.

Cato
let out a long breath, tugged up the sheet and curled up like a kitten. “Heath,
I wish you were here. I want you so much.” The whisper wasn’t loud, but he
heard it and he knew that what he’d witnessed had been real, un-staged and
erotic as hell. And instead of putting him off, her sincerity only made him
want her more.

Accept
her proposition?

Hell
yeah!

*  *  *

“Where
were you last night?” Tennessee rode up beside Heath, wiping the sweat off his
brow.

“I
slept up at the house. There was some paperwork I needed to get done.” Which
wasn’t a total lie. Before he’d gone to bed he had gone over one of Philip’s
affidavits with Zane. Zane and Presley had arrived late to the BBQ and seemed
to bring good news. Dalton Smith’s bank accounts showed an influx of money a
few weeks before he was murdered and Zane hoped to trace the source of the
funds in hope that it would lead them to the real killer.

“Look.”
Tennessee pointed to Jimmy and Judah as they galloped across the pasture right
in behind two bull calves who were doing their
damndest
to avoid getting roped. And who could blame them? Today they would be giving up
their balls and have a rocking H burned on their hindquarters. “Those two are
having a blast.”

“I
presume you’re talking about our friends and not our cattle.” Heath laughed.

“Yea,
I am.” Cutting and branding was a hard job, but having everyone work together
in a party atmosphere made it easier. “I got the paternity test.”

Heath
pulled his horse up short. “And?”

Tennessee
sighed. “I’m
gonna
be a daddy.”

“Damn,
I don’t know what to say.” Congratulations should be in order, but he knew
Tennessee’s wife had broken his heart. Women. And here he was about to walk
right into the sweetest kind of trap. Common sense told him he should keep Cato
at arm’s length, but after what he’d seen the night before—what he’d felt as he
watched her pleasure herself—the decision was taken out of his hands. He was
thinking with his cock now, Heath couldn’t deny it.

“There’s
nothing to say. The baby is mine. I have to deal with it.”

Heath
hated that Tennessee had to go through this. Every child should be welcomed
into the world and this one would be—it would be a McCoy. “Do you plan on
seeing Molly?”

Tennessee
backed up his horse to avoid several cattle coming their way, all trying to
avoid the horsemen who chased them. “I think I’ll have to, don’t you?”

“It’s
probably wise,” Heath agreed as he watched Jaxson waving his arms to head off a
couple of calves. He still couldn’t ride, but he was doing what he could.

“Hey,
Heath!” Philip yelled at his brother as he and Jimmy rode up beside them. “Have
you seen
Arness
?”

Just
the name got Heath’s nose out of joint. “Nope, and I’m not anxious to. I just
can’t cotton to him. You know some folks are all right till they get two pairs
of britches.”

Philip
smirked. “Anytime you start talking in Texas colloquialisms, I know there’s
fixing to be trouble.”

“He’s
trying to throw a wide loop with a short rope.” Heath continued, disgusted at
the thought of Caesar
Arness
, especially after seeing
him talking to Cato.

“Will
you speak American, please?” Jimmy lamented. “I’d like to be able to follow the
conversation.”

Tennessee
interpreted for his brother. “Heath has never particularly cared for Caesar. He
started out as a wildcatter but got lucky on some land he acquired. After that
he started buying up property right and left. When his wells struck oil, he
changed. Money made him mean and hungry for more. He’s always up to something
and Heath thinks he’s trying to be something he isn’t. In other words our
brother doesn’t trust him.”

Jimmy
frowned at his friend. “Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

“I
did.” Heath rubbed his forehead. “He’s always driving around in that big one
ton with the welding equipment on the back. I wouldn’t be surprised if he
wasn’t out cutting fences or gates with that torch. It’s like carrying around a
pair of wire cutters in your pick-up truck, which is against the law in Texas,
by the way.” Taking his canteen from the side of his saddle, Heath took a swig
of water. “Why would you think
Arness
is here? I
thought he left last night.”

“I
did too,” Philip leveled a look at his brother, “but one of the hands said they
saw him riding down toward Sandy Creek with a man he’d never seen before.”

“Shit.
What is he up to?” Heath didn’t need this, not now. “Get a couple of our men to
ride down that way to see what’s going on. He
ain’t
got no business just roaming around. It’s just like him to take advantage of a
party invitation to stick his nose where it don’t belong.”

“Will
do.” Philip took off and Tennessee did also, heading over to help a few of the
guests as they began the cutting operation.

“How’s
it going with his case?” Jimmy asked when Philip was out of earshot. “Well, we
thought that thumb drive Noah found would be more help than it actually has
been so far. What it did was show Dalton’s interest in the mine and that part
was beneficial. The evidence they supposedly have on Philip is circumstantial
but finding out who really pulled the trigger would make us all feel better. The
problem is figuring out a motive, for sure. If it wasn’t jealousy, like the
prosecution wanted to say it was, then what was it exactly? No one thinks it
was a random killing. There was a definite purpose behind it and we need to
know what that purpose was.”

Jimmy
could sense Heath’s frustration. “Do you need to hire more investigators?”

Heath
let out a long breath. “I don’t guess it would hurt. What I need is a direction
to send them in. They ask us for guidance and I have a hard time giving them
any.”

“I
have a couple of special men I can put at your disposal.”

Special?
He didn’t have to ask. Jimmy knew ways of finding out information that the FBI
envied—literally. Smiling at his generous friend, Heath replied, “Thanks, this
time I think I’ll take you up on it.”

“Good.”
Jimmy seemed better satisfied. “I’m trying to make up for hitting on your
woman.”

Heath
snorted. “Jimmy, I told you she isn’t my woman. She’s a family friend who I’m
trying to protect.” After last night, those words weren’t exactly true anymore
and judging by the look on Jimmy’s face, Heath wasn’t really fooling him any.

“And
who are you protecting her from, exactly?”

Damn.
“You see too much,
Dushku
.” Jimmy was right. Mostly
Heath had been trying to protect Cato from himself.

“She
was the woman you were thinking about the night we were at Iron Cactus, the one
you tried to take off your mind with Silver.”

“Yep.”

“I
was thinking of inviting Silver and Cher to join us this evening.”

“Not
a good idea.” Heath was fast to inject. Then when he saw Jimmy’s expression, he
knew
Dushku
was just giving him a hard time. “Ass.”

Without
missing a beat, Heath chucked his canteen at Jimmy, who caught it deftly with a
laugh. “Remember, I want to be best man at your wedding.”

“Don’t
hold your breath, Jimmy. I don’t give CPR to men.”

*  *  *

Meanwhile…back
at the ranch house, Cato was busy helping Pepper and Ryder get ready for lunch.
“This is a lot of food!” At last count, Cato had determined there were
seventy-five people in attendance, counting the Highlands ranch hands who ate
with everyone else. Last night the prime rib had been cooked on a big open pit.
Today there was a different theme. Big vats of hot oil were being readied to
fry shrimp, French fries and several other delicacies, some that Cato couldn’t
readily identify. Big oysters, maybe?

“The
McCoy men are all big eaters,” Ryder said.

Cady,
Joseph McCoy’s wife, laughed light-heartedly. “They all have healthy appetites
in several areas, for which their women are very grateful.”

“I
bet.” Cato sighed wistfully. After Heath had turned down her offer the night
before, she was a bit depressed and not exactly sure how to proceed.

“The
men are coming!” Ryder announced and Cato looked over to see several dozen
horsemen all riding up. Some of them carried coolers which they took over to
the big fry pots. She wondered about that, but the sight of Heath took her mind
off the menu.

“I
see who you’re watching,” Cady spoke to her, one hand soothing her pregnant
belly. 

“Just
watching is all.” Cato took her eyes off Heath long enough to speak with the
beautiful Cady. “I feel like a kid looking through the window of a candy store.
Heath isn’t interested in me for some reason.” Probably for several reasons.
The longer she was here at Highlands, the more she realized this was a
different world than she was used to. They were all very kind to her and made
her feel welcome, but deep inside Cato knew she didn’t quite fit in. Despite
that epiphany, the offer she made to Heath was still good. She was gambling for
high stakes, willing to give it all she had and accept from Heath what he was
willing to give in return.

“Don’t
be so sure.” Cady had a mysterious look on her face. “I understand from Avery
and Harley that you know Nana Fontenot.”

“Yes…”
Cato answered slowly. Everyone from south Louisiana had heard of Nana Fontenot.
She had thought about her not long ago, how she’d predicted Patrick and
Savannah’s marriage.