The Rented Bride (Highland Billionaires Book 1) (23 page)

Trent stared out the window of his grandfather’s room. Despite a month in which to prepare, he couldn’t believe the bigger-than-life man who had raised him would never again walk into his office with an idea for a new business venture or a suggestion for dinner. How was that possible? How would he go on without his grandfather?

And how would Brettonwood be home without him? Trent couldn’t count the hours they’d spent watching the snow fall in the winter, the birds and fawns in the spring, the bright stars over the mountains during long summer nights, or the colors change in the fall. Brettonwood belonged to his grandfather, not him. It had taken ten years, but his grandfather had brought Brettonwood from Scotland, stone by stone. The castle had been in their family for three generations. Four, counting Trent. Brettonwood was his grandfather. He hadn’t realized it until now, but he couldn’t stay.

Rebecca had signed his grandfather’s death certificate and had overseen the removal of his body to Woodbury Funeral Home. There was nothing left. Trent would find a place in Denver. It wouldn’t be home, but at least he wouldn’t be haunted at every turn by his grandfather’s ghost. Trent could easily move his business into the city. Speaking of business…He needed to take care of Cassie. His chest tightened. She’d fulfilled her part of their bargain. She hadn’t just played a part. She’d genuinely cared for James. Even knowing the truth, that she was a rented bride, Grandfather had died peacefully, surrounded by family.

Trent thought of his grandfather’s dying declaration that Trent had fallen in love with Cassie. He shook his head and smiled. Trent never could hide the truth from the old man. But it didn’t matter. Once again, he was too late. The story of his life. He’d waited too long and turned love into a business deal. He’d already contacted his attorney and told him to wire twenty thousand dollars into Cassie’s bank account. When he’d thought of all she’d done—had it only been a week?—since he’d known her, he’d wanted to give her more.

And you want more
, a small voice said.

Trent swallowed the lump in his throat.

Cassie had a life she needed to get back to. And he had a life he needed to forget.

***

Heart pounding, Cassie hesitated outside Trent’s room. She’d known he would take his grandfather’s death hard, but the reality was even worse than she’d feared. Why wouldn’t it be? How could anyone truly imagine losing the person they loved most in the world? She knocked on the door. A moment passed and she wondered if he’d heard. She knocked again.

Another moment passed, then Trent called, “Who is it?”

‘It’s Cassie. Can I come in?”

“Of course.”

She drew in a deep breath, entered, then halted. Moonlight streamed into the darkened room. Trent stretched his legs out on the bed, his back propped up on pillows against the headboard.

“I’m sorry to bother you. All my clothes are in here,” she said.

“I’ll get out.” He slid his legs from the bed.

“Don’t you dare move,” Cassie ordered.

He froze.

“I can gather my things and sleep in my old room.”

He relaxed back against the headboard. She went to the dresser, opened a drawer, felt for her cotton pajamas and found them. She grabbed a clean pair of panties from another drawer. Cassie turned, clutching her clothes. She wanted like hell to be anywhere but there, but she didn’t want to leave either. Stupid, stupid girl. Their arrangement had ended. He needed to grieve and she needed perspective. She started toward the door.

“Thank you, Cassie.”

She stopped and turned. “You’re welcome.”

“You made him happy.”

“I think
we
made him happy,” she said, then cursed silently. She should just shut up. “He was a good man,” she said. “I was lucky to know him for the short time I did.”

“He was the best,” Trent sighed. “I remember once; I was fourteen or fifteen. I went snowboarding with friends in the back country.” He snorted. “Young and dumb. Strong. Arrogant. We thought we were invincible. I was the last one to go down the mountain. We triggered a small avalanche. I say small, but I ended up buried under a foot of snow pack. It’s like being buried in cement. None of us were wearing transmitters. Ski patrol started a search, but it was my grandfather who came to the mountain to find me.”

“Since you’re here he must have found you,” Cassie said.

“I was lucky. I had a pocket of air. But if it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have made it.” He gave a small laugh. “God, he was angry. Grounded me for a month.”

“Did you ever snowboard again?” Cassie asked.

“Absolutely—but after nearly killing myself, I’d gained a little more respect for the mountains. I also realized what it would do my grandfather if something happened to me.”

“I can’t imagine how scared he must have been,” she said.

Trent went silent and she realized he was crying.

“Oh, Trent.”

Cassie tossed her clothes onto the dresser and hurried to the bed. She crawled onto the mattress, wound her arms around him and pulled him close. He hugged her tight and she stroked his hair as his shoulders shook in silent tears. She could no longer stop her own tears.

“What am I going to do without him?” Trent asked in a husky voice.

“Take each day as it comes,” she hiccupped on a sob. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Trent drew back and pulled her against his chest. “He fell in love with you the moment he saw you.”

“I’m supposed to be comforting you,” she said.

He grunted. “We make a helluva pair.”

She nodded and buried her face in his shirt. His heart thumped a steady, strong beat and the comforting warmth of his body seeped through his shirt into her cheek.

This was wrong, so wrong. He needed her, but she couldn’t hold her emotions together long enough to help ease his pain. His fingers absently caressed her arm. Cassie curled closer and he rested his chin on the top of her head. Lying next to him, sharing their grief—god, she hadn’t expected to need his comfort as much as he needed hers.

He pressed a soft kiss to her temple. She returned the kiss by nuzzling his neck. Tears bathed her face and it seemed a great weight bore down on her heart as if to crush the life from her. Trent had asked how he would go on without his grandfather and the truth was, she didn’t know. Just as she didn’t know how she would blithely go her own way knowing that Trent lived in pain. He’d lost James. But she’d lost both of them.

His traced the curve of her spine. Gooseflesh raced up her arms. Cassie shivered and he hugged her closer. A cocoon of intimacy surrounded them. Trent shifted his head so that his breath fanned her ear. Her mind tangled with grief, need…desire.

“Cassie.” Her name almost sounded like a plea.

Touching her tongue to his flesh, she tasted the saltiness of his skin.

Trent placed a finger beneath her chin and tilted her face upward, then grazed his thumb along her cheek. “I need you.”

“I’m yours,” she whispered.

Trent kissed her, tenderly at first, then moved his mouth over hers with an urgency that heated her to the core. God forgive her, she did need him. Cassie threw her arms around his neck. Trent splayed a hand on her lower back and rolled onto her, pressing her into the bed.

“Don’t tell me to stop,” he said.

She choked back more tears. “I’m begging you not to stop.”

Hands on his shoulders, she parted her thighs. Slowly, she followed the contours of his torso to the pleat of his shirt, then fumbled with his buttons and, at last, loosened the last one. Finally, she touched his hot, bare flesh. Tomorrow, the pain of loss would crush her, but right now she needed this man—flesh to flesh, heartbeat to heartbeat, his body joined with hers.

Cassie pushed him off her, then lifted the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Trent grazed the swell of her breasts with his knuckles. Her areola tightened and sent a frisson of desire into her sex. She unfastened the front clasp of her bra, tossed it aside, then lay back on the mattress. Trent braced on his arms and closed his mouth over her nipple. She groaned and arched her breast deeper into his mouth. He shifted to the other breast, rolling the pebbled tip between his lips.

Cassie raked her nails over his shoulders, pushing at his shirt. Trent reared back into a sitting position and stripped off the shirt. As he removed his clothes, she tugged down the zipper of her slacks, shoved them and pushed her panties past her hips, then sloughed them off with her feet. Trent stretched out alongside her, dragged his fingers across her arm, and kissed along her flesh until his warm mouth closed over the sensitive spot where neck met shoulder.

Cassie pulled him down on top of her. His mouth crushed hers and she breathed him in when his erection rode hard against her sex. Her heart raced.
Yes.
By all that was unholy, she’d never needed this—Trent, sex, comfort—so badly. She widened her thighs, gripped his ass, and arched into his cock. Trent growled. The sound vibrated through her. She needed him
now
. Forget tender touches and long, drugging kisses. She wanted him hard, forceful and out-of-control. The same way she felt inside in this whole crazy mess…and she wanted them both to forget, if only for a little while.

Cassie reached between them and curled her fingers around his erection. His kiss faltered then deepened when she lifted her hips and fit the crown of his cock to her entrance. He thrust hard, filling her and grinding into her depths.

Cassie cried out.

Trent froze. “Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she said on a breathy exhale. She dug her heels into his ass. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

He gave a strangled laugh and thrust again. And again. Cassie wrapped her legs around his waist as he continued to drive deep into her. She shivered, riding the precipice of release with each plunge of his cock. Dropping her legs, she braced her feet on the mattress and lifted her hips to meet his thrusts.

“Trent,” she whispered.

Cassie fisted the sheet. Shudders of pleasure rippled through her and she shattered. Bright light blinded behind her closed eyelids. Her orgasm stole her breath. Her only thought was of the man in her arms, the man who’d found a way into her heart.

“Cassie,” he rasped. She grasped his shoulders and shivered when his muscles bunched beneath her fingers. He thrust hard into her quivering core. Once, twice. On the final plunge, he hit hard and deep. He growled as he erupted.

She banded her arms around him, holding him close. Finally, Trent collapsed on top of her. His heart thundered against her breasts. She drew a deep breath.

His hands roamed over her. He gently kissed her lips, then slipped from her body, rolled to his side and pulled her flush against his chest. Cassie relaxed into the calming tempo of his even breathing. Her eyes grew heavy. She’d just close them for a moment. She needed this…she needed him.

***

Cassie woke warm, protected, and wrapped in Trent’s arms. For a blissful moment, she remembered only the passion she and Trent shared. Then reality crashed over her in a suffocating wave. Last night had been intense. Trent had woken in the night and made love to her a second time. Unlike the fiery sex earlier, he’d made slow, sweet love to her. Had they made
love
? James had said that Trent loved her. Could he have been right? Did she dare risk her heart to stay a few days and find out?

Trent’s even breathing told her he slept deeply. She didn’t want to wake him. He needed sleep, needed time to distance himself from the shock of losing of his grandfather. Carefully, Cassie eased from his arms and slid off the bed. She gathered her clothes, tiptoed to the bathroom, and quickly dressed. When she emerged, Trent had shifted onto his back, one arm thrown over his head. He looked so peaceful. Quietly, she headed to the door and slipped out of the room.

Cassie reached the kitchen and found coffee waiting. Doris sat at the table in the breakfast nook. Well, hell, she was going to know where Cassie spent the night. Embarrassment warmed Cassie’s cheeks. Trent’s close staff knew the marriage was a ruse. What if they thought she’d taken advantage of him in his moment of crisis?

Doris smiled. “Good morning, Cassie. Did you sleep well?”

Cassie filled one of the coffee cups. “Better than I expected. I think I emotionally overloaded.” She added cream to the coffee, then took the cup and sat next to Doris. “It seems strange that I can miss him so much when I barely knew him.” She smiled, remembering James. “He made an impression.”

Doris nodded. “I knew him for over twenty years. It won’t be the same around here.” She sighed heavily.

Cassie’s blinked back tears. “He said our loved ones are always with us and that we’re never truly apart. Do you think he’s right?”

A speculative light entered Doris’ eyes. “I know that this life is short. That when we love someone, we should let them know.” Doris laid a hand on hers and squeezed. “And when they’re gone, we keep them in our hearts and in our thoughts.” She rose. “I need to get busy. The funeral service is tomorrow.”

“So soon?” Cassie said.

Doris nodded. “It’s the last thing I’m going to be able to do for that man. I loved him, and I’m going to make sure he’s smiling down on us.”