Tied Up, Tied Down (4 page)

Skylar melted a tiny bit at his immediate acceptance and interest in his daughter.

“She’s always hungry when she wakes up.”

“I imagine.” He kept stroking Eliza’s face, staring at her with an expression resembling awe.

“You wanna hold her?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe.”

“You have held a baby before, right?”

“Not for a long time. And never mine.”

Sky shifted sideways and gently placed Eliza in his arms.

28

www.samhainpublishing.com

Tied Up, Tied Down

Kade stiffened.

“Relax.”

“Am I doin’ this right?” His panicked gaze sought hers. “Or am I squeezin’ her too tight?”

“You’re doing fine, Daddy. Just make sure you support her head.” Sky fussed with Eliza’s blanket and murmured,” She likes to be snuggled close to your body.”

“Like this?”

“Uh-huh.” She studied his rapt face, bowled over by the raw emotion he didn’t bother to hide. “Be warned. She is squirmy.”

“She don’t weigh much, does she?”

“You won’t be saying that when you’ve been walking the floor with her all night because she won’t stop crying. Those fifteen pounds feel like a hundred.”

He smiled and brushed his thumb across Eliza’s plump cheek. “I can’t wait. I can’t wait to do it all. Good Lord, she’s so beautiful.”

Not the response Skylar expected and it brought a lump to her throat. “I’ll warm up a bottle.”

That terrified look returned. “You’re leavin’ me alone with her?”

“I’ll be in the back if you need anything.”

After grabbing a bottle from the mini-fridge, Skylar heated a pan of water on the hot plate. She considered Kade’s suggestion of moving in with them. Much as she’d been inclined to argue, it made sense. Not only could she use his help, she’d never intended to deny Kade contact with Eliza. She’d been too startled by his mother’s unexpected appearance in the store this morning to ask Kimi McKay her oldest son’s whereabouts.

But she’d been thinking about it ever since. Wondering how she’d react when she saw him again.

Skylar remembered every little detail of the last time she’d seen him on that sultry evening last summer, sadness from a family tragedy had been weighing on him. They’d been on their way to dinner and the heavy silence in his truck had gotten too much for her to bear. She’d said, “Will you think I’m pandering if I say I’m worried about you?”

www.samhainpublishing.com 29

Lorelei James

“No. It’d be nice to have someone worry about me for a change.” He’d shot Skylar a sheepish look. “Sorry. Just feelin’ low. Never thought I’d be thirty-one, single, and livin’

back at home, wonderin’ if my future is as bleak as it looks right now.”

He seemed embarrassed by that admission as he parked at the far edge of the lot at the restaurant. “Hang tight. I’ll come around and help you out. The damn interior light is broken. It’s awful dark out here for you to be stumblin’ around in them ankle breakin’

shoes.”

He opened the door. Skylar swung her legs to the running board, but didn’t hop right out.

“What?” His hands tightened on her waist.

“You look like you could use a hug.” She wreathed her arms around his neck.

Scooting forward, she trapped his hips with her knees, which brought them pelvis-to-pelvis, chest-to-chest and almost mouth-to-mouth.

“Skylar—”

“Ssh. It’s okay.” She kissed him, wanting to chase away his melancholy. He relaxed into her like she’d given him exactly what he’d needed.

He was so sweet. So big and solid and sturdy. Such a contradiction with his hungry kisses and tentative touches. And he smelled like a million bucks. If she could bottle that elusive manly scent, she’d be filthy rich. He tasted of tobacco and toothpaste and Sky decided she could stay right there pressed against his firm body, secure in his strong arms, all night.

The kiss intensified. His rough palms slid up her thighs. She didn’t bat away his roving hands. Neither did she protest when he cupped her breasts and stroked his thumbs across her hard nipples.

He kept touching her. Kissing her. God. She was dying for him to put his mouth to good use everywhere on her body. His lips tracked moist kisses down the sensitive line of her throat.

The stretchy material of her top gave way when he tugged. Her breasts popped free with one flick to the front clasp of her bra. Her bared skin was putty in his oh-so-capable 30

www.samhainpublishing.com

Tied Up, Tied Down

hands. He sucked her nipples, one after the other until she couldn’t think beyond the next thorough curl of his tongue around the puckered tips.

Amidst teasing bites to her mouth and throat, he rubbed his face over her neck and breasts, marking her with his suckling kisses and scratchy beard.

Reluctantly, he retreated to brush his lips across her hair. “Sorry for maulin’ you. But you are so damn sexy you make me lose my ever lovin’ mind. Give me a sec to clear it and we’ll go in, okay?”

“I don’t want to go in.”

His head snapped up. “Then what do you want?”

“You. I want you. Right now. Like this.” She whispered, “Please. Touch me. Don’t stop this time.”

He kissed her hard, as he eased her flat on the bench seat and slid her silky skirt up to the curve of her hips. He reached between her thighs and found her soaking wet, practically growling his pleasure. “I want my mouth on you.”

“Next time.”

“No. Now. Right now.”

Never had a man been so forceful, so demanding of her submission. Never had she dreamed she’d…love giving in.

He twisted her panties in his fingers and yanked aside the flimsy cotton. No easing her into the intimate kiss. His wet tongue lapped her slit from top to bottom. Swirling.

Tickling. Tasting. He tongued her relentlessly, jamming deep in her pussy, returning to flicker the very tip across her clit until her whole body shook. When he finally sucked that bit of protruding flesh, she came in a throbbing rush against his mouth.

As she attempted to regain her sanity, he feathered unbearably gentle kisses across the tops of her trembling thighs. He breathed heavily and muttered against her slick flesh.

Skylar lifted up on her elbows and looked down at his dark head nuzzling her.

His hot gaze met hers across the clothes bunched around her middle. “If I don’t get inside you I’ll go crazy.”

“Then you’d better hurry up, huh?”

www.samhainpublishing.com 31

Lorelei James

In record time he’d stepped up on the running board, unbuckled, unzipped, shoved his Wranglers to the tops of his boots and levered himself over her.

Skylar circled her legs around his waist and canted her pelvis for easier and faster entry, mindful of not nicking him with the razor-thin heels of her red stilettos. Her fingers dug into his tight, muscular ass.

Witnessing the ecstasy on his face as he slowly sank inside her to the root was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen.

He pressed his forehead to hers. “Do you know how perfect you feel? Tight. All creamy wet, soft and hot for me? Do you know how long I’ve been achin’ to be with you like this?”

“Oh, so
now
you wanna talk, McKay? When we’re naked?”

He laughed, if a bit shakily.

“Talk later. Sex me up me first. Kiss me. God, your kisses undo me.”

He kissed her with the same vigor as he made love to her. The heat in the truck expanded, making for a sticky, hot and intense coupling, yet, retaining the balance of comfort they both needed.

His thrusts became more frantic. Deeper. Faster. He pulled away from her mouth to whisper, “Skylar. Take me with you this time.” Lifting her hips higher, he slammed home three more times.

When she came in a series of juicy ripples, he buried his face in her neck, repeating her name, and followed her over the edge.

She frowned. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t said
his
name. She’d taken to calling him McKay on their previous dates. About an hour after that fateful incident, she’d learned the truth about who he really was.

Wrong. His name may’ve been different, but the man was the same.

Eliza cried, jarring Skylar back to the present.

Kade entered the small backroom. “Is that bottle ready yet?”

32

www.samhainpublishing.com

Tied Up, Tied Down

Damn. She’d been so lost in the vivid memory of him, of them, of heat and sex and need and lust, she’d forgotten all about the bottle. She popped it in the pan. “Just about ready.”

He took one look at her flushed cheeks and bright eyes and somehow knew she’d been reliving their brief—but glorious—naked past.

Defiant, she raised her chin a notch. “What?”

Kade’s look held more steam than the pan of boiling water. “I think about it all the time too. Some days that’s all I can think of.”

“Do you want to feed her?”

“Later. I’d best get back to my folks’ place and pack up my stuff. What time will you get home?”

“Around five-thirty.”

“I’ll be there earlier than that.”

“Wait. You’ll need a key.” She removed the front door key from the massive key ring and set it on the counter. Skylar watched as Kade kissed Eliza’s wrinkled forehead and murmured, “Later, sweet baby,” before he awkwardly snuggled her back in Skylar’s arms.

Then he did the strangest thing: he kissed Skylar’s forehead and whispered, “Later, sweet baby,” to her, snatched the key and took off like a shot.

She sighed and settled in the rocking chair. “He’s in for it now, girlie girl. We’ll see how long he lasts in this parenting gig.”

But part of her knew Kade McKay wasn’t a short-term kind of guy. He was the type to stick around for the long haul.

That scared her far worse than him not being around at all.

www.samhainpublishing.com 33

Lorelei James

Twenty miles from Moorcroft, Kade turned off the main highway onto a gravel road.

He motored past the gigantic steel building, noticing an open gate to the parking lot.

Being a lifelong rancher, leaving gates open drove him crazy.

He passed through another wide-open gate, which separated the Sky Blue factory from Skylar’s private residence. The old ranch house was blocked from view by a row of scraggly trees.

Unlike most Wyoming residents, her front door was locked. Kade set his bags next to the staircase in the cool, dark foyer. He looked at the pictures lining the hallway, a mish-mash of snapshots, artwork, formal studio poses and old-time sepia toned groups of photos from a century past.

The items on the opposite wall were hand-stitched family samplers. Mini-quilts, needlepoint, delicate doilies; all fussy female handiwork encased in glass and gilded frames. He wouldn’t have pegged Skylar’s decorating taste as old-fashioned, Western and homey.

He didn’t snoop beyond checking out the rooms on the main floor. Baby stuff had overtaken the antique dining room table. Didn’t look like Skylar did much entertaining, which filled him with an odd sense of relief.

The formal feeling of the front room—matching floral couches, heavy velvet drapes, tasseled pillows, elaborately carved antique end tables—was completely overpowered by 34

www.samhainpublishing.com

Tied Up, Tied Down

more baby paraphernalia. A swing. A stroller. A half-barrel shaped thing camouflaged with a lace canopy. Piles of pastel-colored clothes were stacked on the coffee table next to every baby book imaginable.

Kade cringed when he finally caught sight of the tiny TV shoved in the corner by the dust-covered piano. After a year of no television, a big screen would be his first contribution to the household.

On impulse he picked up a pink, fuzzy one-piece outfit with snaps from the top down to the feet holes. The scent of soap and baby powder wafted up and his stomach clenched.

It smelled like Eliza, clean, soft and powdery-sweet. As much as he’d loved just holding her, he couldn’t wait to do all the corny things like count her fingers and toes, blow raspberries on her stomach and rock her to sleep.

His cell phone trilled in his shirt pocket. No big mystery who was pestering him.

“Hiya, Grama. Look, I know you wanna see Eliza, but you hafta give Skylar and me time to work some things out first.” He held the phone away to keep it from blistering his ear.

“No, I don’t know how long. I’ll be drivin’ to and from the ranch everyday startin’

on Monday. Absolutely not. Kane and Dad can handle it for a couple days without me.

Because I’ve been gone a year and they’ve done fine. Three more days ain’t gonna make a difference. I’ll keep in touch.” He clicked the phone off. She’d be too busy bragging about her granddaughter to everyone in Crook County to call him back, for at least a day, and sad to say, few others had his new number.

He glanced at the grandfather clock. Skylar and Eliza would be home in roughly two hours. Picking up a stray blanket, he returned to the kitchen.

Kade unfolded the blanket on the table and placed the twenty-pound bag of russet potatoes in the center. He stared at it for a good long time before he sighed and wrapped the fleece around it. “Goddamn I hope nobody sees me doin’ this.”

The potato baby didn’t answer.

Gently, Kade picked up the bundle and tucked it in the crook of his arm. He paced the first floor from room to room, keeping hold of the spud baby, bouncing it, rocking it.

Performing all the motions he’d seen women doing with their infants—short of crooning www.samhainpublishing.com 35

Lorelei James

a lullaby. He felt like a darn fool, slinking around, hugging a plastic bag that smelled like dirt, but he was determined Skylar wouldn’t know just how much of a greenhorn he was when it came to holding babies.

A loud crash out by the barn startled him. He tripped on the rug in the foyer and right before he hit the ground, his “baby” squirted out of his arms like a slippery bar of soap.

The bag busted open and potatoes flew everywhere.

Damn. That didn’t bode well. His face burned with shame as he gathered up the potatoes. First thing he’d do was confess his ineptitude in the baby arena rather than risk hurting Eliza because of his stupid pride.