McKettricks of Texas: Austin (32 page)

She felt his pulse, strong and steady.

“That show sort of reminded me of high school,” she said. Although she'd never been in a fight like that herself, she'd helped break them up in the girls' locker room a couple of times.

Austin chuckled, but she felt him tense up, too. “Seems to me,” he said slowly, “that a
lot of things
remind you of high school.”

Paige sat up awkwardly. “Was that a dig?” she demanded.

She saw his shoulders move slightly, as if he'd meant to shrug but didn't want to expend the effort.

“I'm just wondering when you plan on
graduating,
Paige.”

Her temper sizzled. “Are you calling me immature?”

Austin raised himself onto an elbow. He looked damnably casual for a man who'd just started an argument that might end in nuclear warfare. “I'm saying all that happened a long time ago. I've been as honest as I could be, telling you why I did what I did, and I haven't just said I was sorry, I've proved that I still care about you. And that I'm not that boy who hurt you anymore, but a man who can care for more than just himself.”

Paige blinked, picturing him with Calvin and Audrey and Ava. With the little mare, Molly, so terrified of human beings, and with such good reason. And with Shep—he'd taken that bedraggled stray straight to his heart, made a real commitment to the animal. And Paige knew he would keep that commitment, come hell or high water.

She began to cry. “You're right,” she admitted, between sniffles.

He massaged the back of her neck. Grinned, his teeth flashing white, and cupped a hand to his ear. “Hold it,” he said. “I thought you just said—”

Paige turned to him. “You were
right,”
she repeated brokenly.

“Would you mind repeating that statement in front of a witness?” he asked.

She pushed at his chest. “Stop teasing,” she said. “It's over. You've changed and so have I. It's time to move on.”

Austin drew her down, so her head rested on his good shoulder, and he kissed her temple. “I'm not sure I like the sound of that,” he said. “The part about moving on, I mean.”

“Who are you kidding?” Paige countered. “As soon as you've had time to heal up, you'll hit the road again.”

“What makes you so sure of that?” He spoke easily, his voice husky in the darkness, and he wound a finger loosely in a strand of her hair as he waited for her answer.

“It's your pattern,” she said.

“It might have been, once,” Austin allowed. “Like you said, Paige, I've changed. Tate and Garrett wanted to keep me out of the game for a while—you don't have to defend them, I know their intentions were good—and that brought me to recognize a home truth. I love this ranch. It's as much a part of me as my blood and bones. As much a part of me as—” He paused, swallowed, changed course, leaving Paige to wonder what he'd stopped himself from saying.

As much a part of me as you are?
It was too much to hope for.

A girl could dream, though.

Presently, Austin went on. “Anyhow, I want to do my share to protect the Silver Spur, Paige. See that it thrives, so it will be here for all the McKettricks who come after my brothers and me.”

They were both silent for a while, and that, too, seemed right.

Paige thought about his words, thought about the boy Austin had been when he loved her, and the man he was now.

As a teenager, Austin had been fearless, popular, everybody's friend—the geeks, the jocks, the rebellious misfits, the boys and the girls. He liked them all, and they liked him right back. The parents liked him, the teachers liked him.

Paige had been as smitten with the youngest of the McKettrick brothers as any other girl in her age group, but they hadn't had much in common. She was bookish and took pride in her high IQ, while Austin had trouble concentrating on any endeavor that required him to sit still longer than five minutes.

She was shy; he'd never met a stranger.

She saw the world as a place to be taken seriously and approached with caution; he saw it as a playground.

And perhaps, for him, it had been.

After all, Austin had been born a McKettrick, part of a large and confident clan, with land and money and a proud family history.

Paige had been the third daughter of a poor school-teacher. Her own mother hadn't cared enough about her or Libby or Julie, or all three of them put together, to stick around and be a regular mom.

They'd had some heartfelt talks, back then during high
school and the summer after graduation. Austin worried that they were moving too fast, that they were in too deep. He wanted to follow the rodeo for a while, instead of going to college, and he'd had a few go-rounds with his folks over that. Jim and Sally McKettrick had thought Austin and Paige were too serious and, God knew, they'd been right.

Paige, naive and starry-eyed, had firmly believed that love conquered all. She would go to nursing school. Austin could follow the rodeo during the season. Somehow, they'd make it work.

It wasn't to be.

Paige closed her eyes, remembering how shattered she'd been. Her face was wet, and Austin smoothed away her tears with the sides of his thumbs. His blue eyes glowed in the combination of shadow and moonlight.

“If you've got to cry, Paige,” he murmured gruffly, “then you go right ahead. I just don't want you crying over me—not ever again.”

With her broken heart and her fractured ankle and all the rest of the physical and emotional damage, Paige felt a lot like Molly in those moments. She craved Austin's touch, strong and at the same time, heartrendingly gentle.

“You said—” She paused, bit her lower lip. “You said if we were going to make love tonight, it would have to be my choice—”

He grinned. “That's what I said, all right.”

“Make love to me, Austin.”

He just looked at her, without speaking, for so long that Paige began to worry that he'd changed his mind. That he didn't want her after all.

But then he lowered his head, and their mouths joined,
and then the kiss deepened until heat blazed through Paige like fire from a flame thrower.

This was the kiss of a man, not a boy.

And it left Paige so shaken that she could only lie there, gasping and yet wanting more, when it ended.

“If you're going to change your mind,” Austin told her solemnly, “then you'd better be quick about it. Because I'm fixing to have you, lady, and once the ride begins, it won't be over 'til it's over.”

A sweet tingle of anticipation sparked inside Paige. She answered by plunging her fingers into his shower-damp hair, craning her neck to nibble at his mouth.

Austin groaned, and then stretched, reaching across her, and she heard the drawer of the nightstand open. Dazed, she remembered the box of condoms.

“What about your foot?” he asked after some fumbling on his part and a telltale snapping sound.

Paige was breathless, but she managed a giggle. “I didn't think we'd be using my foot,” she said.

He laughed, and he kissed her, gently at first, and then with power, with need, with a passion that was almost a consummation in itself.

The kissing went on for a while—just that made Paige feel as though she might climax—but then Austin got down to business, so to speak.

He slid her nightshirt up and off, over her head. Threw it aside. He kissed her neck, nibbled at her earlobes, traced the ridges of her collarbones with the tip of his tongue. When he drew one of her nipples into his mouth, she arched her back and cried out, glorying in the sensations as he suckled.

Austin took his sweet time, pleasuring Paige. He tasted and teased, he whispered and tempted. Time and again,
he brought her to the verge of satisfaction, then left her trembling on the precipice. Each time she fell away moaning, having come so very close.

Finally, when she could bear the waiting no longer, when not having him inside her would have been like holding her breath for too long, she pleaded and her hips rose to meet his and in a single masterful stroke, he took her.

The pleasure, already almost beyond her tolerance, grew and grew. With every plunge of his hips, he possessed her more thoroughly, and then more thoroughly still. Their bodies rocked together, slowed, rocked again. Paige began to fidget and fret, frantic in her need, but Austin's self-control was formidable. At one point, he even withdrew entirely, though he continued to caress every part of her with his hands.

She tossed her head from side to side on the pillow, repeating his name over and over again, pleading.

After a very long time, Austin finally relented. He moved his hands beneath her buttocks and raised her high to receive the hardest, deepest thrust yet.

She came apart in his arms, crying out his name, her body flexing and buckling like a thin cable in a high wind.

Not long afterward, Austin let himself go. With a hoarse shout, he conquered her and surrendered to her, both at the same time.

She quivered, arched beneath him, still straining as the seemingly endless orgasm clenched within her, relaxed, clenched again. Finally, exhausted, sated, jubilant, she sank into the mattress, gasping for breath.

Austin eased down beside her, his own breath coming hard, sawing in and out of his lungs.

They were still for a while, except for the violent struggle for air, and then Austin got out of bed, rolling to his feet, disappearing into the darkness.

He was back within a couple of minutes. “Close your eyes,” he said. “I'm about to turn on the light.”

Paige pulled the covers over her head. “Why?” she complained, her voice muffled. She could see a dim, golden glow through the weave of the sheets and the blanket and the bedspread. “Why do we need a light?”

“Because I want to find my sweatpants,” Austin said.

Paige stuck her head out, blinking at him owlishly. “Well,
that's
romantic,” she said.

He grinned. “It was a trick,” he said, pulling back the covers. Except for her cast, which hardly counted as clothing, Paige was completely naked—and in full view.

“You're beautiful,” he said.

Paige tugged at the covers. “It's cold,” she protested.

“So I see,” he agreed, touching one of her rock-hard nipples. But then he let her pull the blankets up.

“You
did
use a condom, right?” she asked.

“Talk about romantic,” he teased. Then he produced the empty wrapper, showed it to her.

Well-being suffused Paige. She stretched. “Why do you need sweatpants?” she asked.

“I'm headed out to the barn to check on Molly and the other horses,” he said. “Baby, it's cold outside, and pants are bound to come in handy.”

“I'm going with you,” Paige said, sitting up.

Austin eased her back down. “No,” he said. “You're not.”

“But what if—”

He kissed her forehead. “Shep will look out for me,”
he said, as the faithful dog rose and stretched, instantly alert.

Paige imagined all sorts of things happening while Austin was out of her sight, and none of them were good.

Finally, when she could stand the waiting no longer, she got up, found her nightshirt and pulled it back on, used the crutches to get to and from the bathroom and was just about to head for the barn when Austin came back.

They met in the kitchen.

Seeing her, Austin laughed and shook his head.

He looked fairly comical himself, Paige thought, taking in his work boots, those gray sweatpants he'd worn to bed and the misbuttoned flannel shirt beneath his denim jacket.

“Going somewhere?” he asked mildly, arms folded, one eyebrow quirked up a little.

Paige blushed. “I was getting hungry,” she lied.

Austin laughed again. “Why can't you just admit that you were worried about me?”

“Okay,” Paige allowed. “I was worried about you.”

“And that you were lusting after my body.”

“You're pushing it, McKettrick.”

Austin stood his ground, looking smug. “Are you or are you not lusting after my body?”

Paige's cheeks ached as the heat intensified. “Okay,” she said. “I might be lusting after your body. A little.”

He came to her then, slipped his arms around her waist, neatly bypassing the crutches. “Only a little?” he muttered. “I'm going to have to see what I can do about that.”

She smiled a sultry smile, because he was back in the house, because he was safe, because he was about to
do his damnedest to make her want him
a lot,
not just a little.

“I'll be interested to see what your strategy is,” she said.

Austin cupped her face in his hands, smiled down into her eyes. “You're going to be way too busy,” he murmured, about to kiss her, “to be concerned with my…strategy.”

“Is that so?”

He turned her around, pointed her in the direction of the guest quarters, but gently, and slowly, because she had to wield the crutches.

As turned-on as Paige was, the care Austin took moved her deeply, made her throat ache and her nose burn.

Shep, as loyal as ever, came along, settled himself on the hooked rug in front of the bureau once they'd reached the bedroom and sank back to sleep.

“Molly was all right?” Paige asked, standing next to the bed.

Austin took the crutches from her, one by one, supporting her easily the whole time with a hand under her elbow.

“Molly,” he replied very slowly, “is just fine. All the horses are fine.”

Paige trembled with anticipation, with need, a little daunted because she knew the lovemaking would be more strenuous this time. There would be more foreplay, for one thing, and Austin wouldn't be satisfied until he'd driven her crazy.

Still holding her up, Austin tugged the nightshirt up—and up. And off.