Rancher Wants a Wife (20 page)

From behind the closed door, she insisted she had the strength to prepare for bed on her own, so Mrs. Dunleigh left for the evening, promising to come back in the morning with her luggage packed. Jack went downstairs with her briefly to say good-night. Crawford told him to go back upstairs, that he’d see to everyone else as they left. Within half an hour, all the noises down below ceased, and Crawford locked the front door as he hollered good-night up the stairs and left, too.

Jack removed his robe and settled onto his side of the mattress, naked between the cool fresh sheets.

He and Cassandra had things to say.

There was a rustle behind the dressing room door, he saw the light of the lantern snuffed out, and then Cassandra entered the moonlit bedroom in a swirl of lace and satin.

Chapter Twenty-Two

R
ich, golden streams of light from the California moon danced over his naked shoulders. Cassandra hesitated at the doorway, as though pausing at the lair of a big grizzly too dangerous to approach, so entranced was she by the vision of Jack and all that made him the man he was. From the stubborn lilt of the jaw, the ache she saw buried in his eyes, the curl of his tender lips, to the faint throbbing of the artery at his throat that told her how affected he was by this moment.

His heated gaze slipped over her face, down the see-through red lace that clung to her breasts, the satin tucked at her waistline—the bandaged, tender ribs—and the long slit exposing her thigh.

“I thought I lost you, Cassandra,” he said in a deep, husky voice. “I thought I lost you on that ridge, and my life was about to end.”

“Jack,” she breathed, her chest tightening with all the unexpressed emotions of the last twenty-four hours. “I was so careless with how I felt...taking for granted that you’d be here and that we’d have all the time in the world to piece together our marriage.”

He inhaled a breath of air and she noticed a steamy mixture of feelings in his eyes.

“I swore to myself I was going to wait. I watched the shadows under the door and told myself that when you came out I’d be a good boy...that I’d keep my hands off you...I’d let you sleep all night and tomorrow, too, if you needed it. And now all I can say when I see you standing there, so beautiful in your lace trappings, is that I would like to guzzle you whole....” The muscles in his jaw flickered. “Are you going to come here so I can kiss you, or do I have to get up on this sore foot?”

He sprang forward like that dangerous grizzly and she readily sank to his side.

“Be careful,” he said. “I don’t want you to hurt your ribs.”

“I took one of those pain pills the doctor left behind. I’m fine.”

She eased herself on top of Jack. He grasped her by the wrists, their faces mere inches apart. She felt the warm heat of his breath on her neck, on her earlobe, then on her mouth. His kiss was needy and urgent, and filled her with such raw desire she felt drunk.

“I’m afraid I’ll hurt you tonight,” he said in a strained voice. “I want you so much, but I’m so afraid if I unleash everything I feel, I’m going to crush you....”

“Do it, Jack...please do it.”

She was giddy and crazy and recklessly head-over-heels as she kissed him with as much heat as he offered. She matched the movements of his lips with her own, the teasing dance, the sweet caress, the flick of his hot tongue on hers.

He yanked off his covers and gently helped her move forward over his bare legs till she was seated near the apex of his thighs, facing him. Her slippery satin gown rode up and anchored at her waist. Hungrily, he slid a large tanned hand over the strap on one side, coaxed it down her arm and let his fingers grip her naked breast.

She moaned and reveled in his touch. He cupped her possessively, bending his head and his soft black hair closer to her body, working his hot mouth on her nipple, then the other.

She abandoned her constraints, allowed him to kiss and suck and lick, letting him press her backward over the bed till they were upside down and she was on the lower end. It was a very comfortable position for her. He kissed along her breastbone, the seam of her body, dragging his lips lower still till he met that mound that was so sensitive and responsive to his tongue....

He brought her to the brink, and she found herself lost in the heat of sexual battle, her bare legs entwined over his shoulders. Found herself lost in the sweet exuberance of his embrace.

Then she halted him, to his groan of complaint, and pulled him upward. He hungrily kissed his way up her body. She danced her fingers upon his belly, grazed his inner thigh and felt him grow rock-hard beneath her touch.

He uttered another eager moan. “Cassandra...”

He lowered his face and kissed her throat, the heat searing through her flesh. Naked, they lay together in yet another position on the bed, limbs sprawled over each other.

“I love you, Cassandra,” he murmured, with lids half-closed. Yet he was very much aware of her, gauging her, watching her. “I fell in love with you in Chicago, and that’s why I had to leave.”

Was he truly saying it? Saying it to her, after all these years?

Her heart trembled and soared like an eagle taking flight.

“I think somewhere deep inside I knew that,” she whispered. “My gorgeous Jack...I love you, too.”

His breath was quick and warm on her cheek, then on her mouth as he claimed it again. His hands—those heavenly hands—slid gently up her arms, then he turned himself so that he was poised above her.

She felt an undeniable rush of heat to that part of her that only Jack had ever touched, and welcomed him when he gently came to her. Her breasts strained forward through the slippery satin and her body trembled with sensations.

* * *

It was a month later when she received the letter.

Cassandra was in the stables shortly after lunch, talking to Jack in his office there, when it arrived. They had just finished an hour-long ride on the ranch. He had generously given her his gentle horse River as a gift, which Cassandra adored, while he handled a more spirited mustang.

Jack’s sexual appetite certainly hadn’t been affected by his injury, and his leg was almost completely healed. She, too, was feeling fine.

They hadn’t spoken much of that horrible night, or all that had led up to it, but privately, Cassandra still continued to read her law books. She practiced target shooting in the pastures, she read the newspapers, she wondered how on earth to approach Jack with the subject of working in the field of investigation again. And while she thought of all that, she got to know her neighbors.

It turned out that most of them were rather charming. Some of them came right out and apologized to her for what Elise Beacon had attempted to do. They’d asked Cassandra not to judge the town by the behavior of a few.

Thornley had been arrested for Jack’s shooting and attempted murder. Since there were so many witnesses, he’d already been sentenced and taken away to state prison.

Hugh and Lucille were becoming good friends with Cassandra and Jack, dropping by for dinner and arranging swimming dates and dancing nights as couples. Cassandra found their friendship invigorating.

All the horses and cattle that had been affected by poor health a month ago had fully recovered. Jack had discovered a small strain of suspicious wildflowers in the pastures that he suspected was the cause, and he’d since had them destroyed. The stallion with the possible hairline fracture had fully recovered, too. They would never know for certain if it had been a fracture or a very bad sprain, but Cassandra knew it had healed only because of the caring patience of her husband.

Now, she tossed the new cowboy hat he’d bought her, tan in color and a special order from Lucille’s dress shop, onto his desk and smoothed back the hair from her face.

Jack was leaning in the doorway, watching her in that lazy, sexy way of his.

“Jack? Is your wife here?” Mr. Crawford, with his wide black mustache, inched around Jack’s bulky shoulders. “There you are, ma’am. Mrs. Dunleigh says you might be waiting for this.”

Jack stepped aside while the foreman handed her the cream envelope.

“Much obliged,” she told him as he left. She rubbed her palm on her skirts, and looked down at the return address.
Mrs. Pepik’s Boardinghouse.
A tremor of anticipation fluttered to her throat.

Jack seemed to know what she was waiting for. “A letter from your friends?”

She stared at the pretty, cursive writing.
To Mrs. Jack McColton.

Would she ever get enough of looking at that name?

“I recognize the writing,” Cassandra said as she ripped the envelope open. “It’s from Natasha.”

“What does she say?”

Cassandra skimmed the lines, eager to hear news of her friends and her former home. “Mrs. Pepik recently acquired three new boarders. She appreciates the wedding gown I returned....two more ladies have happily gotten married as mail-order brides. The timing doesn’t work out for Natasha to use the same gown I wore, so she’s borrowing another. She’s next to be wed!” Breathless, Cassandra read on, so very delighted for her friend. “Oh, Jack, could we please send a new gown? We could have it delivered by express train, straight from Lucille’s dress shop.”

“Absolutely. Who is she going to marry?”

“She’s deciding right now. She said she received over twenty offers and doesn’t want to make the wrong choice.”

“I can understand that.”

Cassandra was involved in reading the last bit of the letter, and didn’t see Jack reaching behind his desk for a large wooden plaque, until he was holding it in his hands. “Cassandra, when you write your friends back, you’ll have to tell them about this.”

It looked like a flat, varnished board. Perplexed, she smiled quizzically. “What is it?”

“Well, something I’ve been giving an awful lot of thought to. Something that I think you’ll enjoy...and that you’re good at. Something that Hugh and I were talking about a few days ago.”

“Hugh?” The curiosity was getting to her.

“He came to me and asked if you might be available for an important job he needs done.”

“What type of job?”

“He’s working on a case that involves an elderly woman in San Francisco. She inherited a small fortune years ago, and now she’d like Hugh to draw up a will. But the thing is, she doesn’t trust him. She says she doesn’t trust any man with her money. So Hugh thought it might be something that requires a woman’s touch. He was wondering if you might like to help him discuss the documents with her, and search for her long-lost son. Apparently, they had a terrible row years ago and he moved away. She’d like to make amends with him.”

Cassandra was so wrought with emotion, she could scarcely speak. She swallowed past it all and tried to convey how much this meant to her.

Jack turned the plaque around. It was a small, burnished sign saying Mrs. Cassandra McColton, Private Detective.

“I think you can handle yourself quite well, Cassandra. You proved it to me that night with Elise. I didn’t realize how good you are with a gun. And, hell, everyone in town—the sheriff, the doctor, Hugh, not to mention me—is impressed with how you pieced together the clues involving Dunleigh. You were the first to rightfully suspect murder. You even said you suspected Elise Beacon’s involvement, but we tried to convince you otherwise.”

He
had
given it a lot of thought. He truly had.

“But please, Cassandra...could we go slow with this? It’s going to take me some time...”

“We’ll take it real slow, Jack. I’ll be careful.”

“I objected before only because I wanted to protect you. I couldn’t bear the thought of...of anything. Not after we finally found each other. Not after what you went through with losing Mary and your father.”

“I know,” she said softly. “I know now how much pain and sorrow you felt, too, at their passing.”

He placed the sign in front of her on the desk.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

“You can set up an office in the house, next to mine. That way, when people call on you, they’ll know if they mess with you, my guns will come blazing.”

He rested his palms on her shoulders, swooped down and nuzzled her neck. With an insistent hand, he tugged the letter out of her pinched fingers and set it on the desk. Then he lowered his hands over her arms and pulled her to her feet.

He turned her around and kissed her on the lips, a slow soft burn between them. His deep brown eyes took her in. She never felt as beautiful as she did when she was in his arms.

“Now don’t you think, since I’ve been such a good boy, that I deserve a reward?”

“Oh, a very special one,” she teased. “All day and all night long.”

He kissed her neck and she loved the thrill he gave her.

She inhaled long and deep, feeling so content with Jack staring at her like this that she didn’t ever want to break the spell. “It’s you, Jack McColton. It was always you I was wishing for, ever since Chicago.”

* * * * *

ISBN: 9781472043498

RANCHER WANTS A WIFE

© Katherine Haupt 2014

First Published in Great Britain in 2014
Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, including without limitation xerography, photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

This ebook is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the prior consent of the publisher, in any form or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this work have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II B.V./S.à.r.l.

® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk