Trouble In Dixie (33 page)

She quickly arranged the flowers in a pretty
vase, and put a bow on it, then took his credit card and rang up
the purchase. When she handed him his receipt, she told him, "Good
luck, with your lady...she's a lucky woman."

"I'm the lucky one, ma'am...I don't know
what she sees in me, but I'm damned glad she must see something she
likes," he told her with a wink, then walked out of the store, his
mood much lighter than it had been.

Two down, one to go...he needed to order
some dinner for them. He sat the flowers down on the floorboard of
the truck and propped an old pair of boots he had behind the seat
against them, so they didn't tip over, then he pulled out his cell
phone and called Marco at his favorite Italian restaurant, and
placed a to go order.

After he picked up the order, and talked to
Marco, who was an old friend of his dad's, for a few minutes,
because he couldn't get out of it, he headed back for the ranch. He
grabbed his cell phone again and called his home number, and Karlie
answered on the second ring.

"Hey, it's Tommy..." he announced, then
asked hesitantly, "Is Katie doing okay?"

Karlie snorted and he smiled, because it was
a really funny sound. "Yeah, she's pissed at you though...what the
hell did you do now?" she asked.

Tommy figured Karlie must've been upstairs
when he'd yelled at Katie earlier, and he was glad, because he knew
Katie's feisty sister would've kicked his ass right then and
there.

"I was an asshole as usual, but I'm going to
fix it, I promise...can you take Dixie to dinner and the movies? I
need some time."

"Sure, but I don't have a vehicle...Gabe's
gonna pick me up on Friday."

"I'll be home in fifteen minutes, you can
take my truck. Meet me out front," he told her, then
disconnected.

With every mile he got closer to the ranch,
the more excited Tommy got. He was going to do this right this
time, and he was gonna keep doing it right from now on. Katie Upton
was the love of his life, and he was going to prove it to her.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Why the hell was he so nervous? She'd
already said yes once, he knew she was going to say yes again this
time, or he hoped she would. Yeah, she was mad at him, but it
wasn't the leaving kind of mad, was it? Tommy didn't know, but he
was as nervous as the last turkey on Thanksgiving.

When he got back home Katie was in the
bathroom. Evidently, Karlie had helped her in there before she
left. How the heck she was gonna manage a bath, banged up and
one-armed, he didn't know, but she was so stubborn, he knew she'd
give it a try...and might hurt herself in the process.

After turning on the oven to warm, Tommy
slid the tin containers inside, then quickly set the table for two,
and put some candlesticks he'd gotten from the china cabinet in the
center of the table and lit them. He put the vase with her flowers
between them, then stood back to look at his handiwork. It looked
damned good, and he hoped Katie would appreciate the effort.

He assumed she was in the downstairs bath,
because it would have been too damned hard for her to get upstairs,
so he headed into the living room, then down the hallway toward the
back of the house. He saw the main floor bedroom door was open, and
he went inside. Her suitcase was open on the bed, and some of her
clothes were laid out beside it. He heard water running in the
bathroom, and walked across the big room, and tried the knob. It
wasn't locked, and he heaved a relieved breath. If it was locked,
and she hurt herself in there, he'd have to break the door down to
help her.

With a knock, he twisted the knob, and
walked in before she could tell him to stay out. His breath caught,
when he saw her sitting on the toilet, half-dressed and crying.
Walking quickly over there, he helped her stand, then sat down and
pulled her onto his lap.

"Aww, baby...don't cry," he said soothingly,
and hugged her to him, then kissed her hair.

"It's been a crappy day," she sniffled, then
her tears fell faster, and her lip trembled as she finished, "And
it ends with, I can't even give myself a bath...it's just
humiliating."

He looked over at the big garden tub that
was half-full of water and bubbles, then told her. "Everyone needs
help sometimes, baby...you just need to let people help you."

She groaned and he loosened his arms around
her, then she gave him a watery chuckle and said, "It's not fun
eating your own words, you know."

He knew she was talking about him letting
her help him with money to hire a lawyer. "Kind of ironic, huh?" he
said softly, then told her, "Here's what we're going to do...we're
going to take a bath together." Tommy helped her stand, then he
stood too, and pulled her shirt up over her rounded belly. When he
revealed her beautiful breasts, he sucked in a breath and instantly
hardened, but averted his eyes, because this was about helping her
not ogling her.

"Okay, sweetheart, pull your good arm out of
the sleeve," he told her gruffly, and she did as he requested.
Lifting her left arm, he slid the shirt over her head and down her
arm, then tossed it on the ground, and gently lowered her arm back
to her side.

She'd taken the sling off already, and he
saw it on the counter between the sinks. He leaned down and
searched in the cabinet for the box of replacement liners for the
trash can, and pulled one out, then found a plastic zip tie.
Turning back around, he looked only at her arm, as he slid the
white liner over the gauze and splinting, then tied the zip tie
around it at the top. He leaned down and kissed her lips, then
said, "Where there's a will, there's a way, darlin'."

Kneeling down in front of her, Tommy grabbed
the stretchy shorts she had on, and pushed them down her long legs,
and she stepped out of them, then he went back and grabbed the
elastic at her hips and pushed her panties to the floor. He stared
at her belly for a minute, and wanted to laugh at the distorted she
devil tattoo on her hip, but he didn't. Instead he leaned forward
and kissed her belly, then laid his cheek against it.

The love in his heart expanded in his chest
to a point, he thought his heart might explode. He put his arms
around her hips and hugged her, and her belly gave him a one, two
punch in the cheek and he pulled back and looked up at her in
shock.

She giggled, then put her hand in his hair.
"Looks like the boys are roughhousing in there."

"Wow..." he said in awe and put his hand on
her belly again. After a minute, he felt another kick and grinned
from ear to ear. "One of them is gonna be a kicker for A&M," he
told her proudly.

"I was kinda thinking UT," she teased.

Blood rushed up to his face and he growled,
"Don't curse woman," then got to his feet and hugged her to his
chest. "Let's get nekkid, and bathe, so we can go eat our
dinner."

She slid her arm around his waist, then
rubbed her face against his chest, and mumbled sexily, "I wish we
could get nekkid and do something other than bathe."

Tommy groaned then sucked in a breath trying
to control the effects her words had on his body. "Me too,
sugar...but that's gonna have to wait until those ribs heal."

She huffed a breath then said, "I know...but
a girl can dream, can't she?"

"Yeah and a man can too, but that's all
we're going to be doing for a while," he told her gruffly, then
kissed her forehead. "Now, wait a second and we'll get in the tub,"
he told her and quickly shed his clothes.

The heat in her eyes as they roved over him
ramped up his already barely controlled urge to take her right here
on the floor of the bathroom. For a bedroom only kind of guy, his
fantasies about Katie sure included a lot of places he'd never
considered before. The kitchen counter, the breakfast bar, the bed
of his truck on a starry night...the bathroom floor. That creek
experience had totally opened his mind to all the
possibilities.

"Stop looking at me like that, you're
torturing me..." he told her in a low tone, then took a step toward
her and pulled her to him. He groaned when his skin touched hers,
and she put her hand on his ass and squeezed. He sucked in a breath
and told her, "Maybe this wasn't a good idea."

"It's a great idea," Katie purred then
licked a spot at the base of his throat.

He stepped back, his breathing erratic and
then leaned down and put an arm under her legs and swooped her up
into his arms. "Now behave, or I'm gonna spank your ass when you're
feeling better," he said gruffly and gave her a quick kiss.

"Mmm...promises, promises, darlin'," she
said, then kissed the corner of his mouth and flicked her tongue
over his bottom lip.

In ten kinds of sexual hell, Tommy walked to
the tub with her in his arms then stepped up and into the tub.
Easing down slowly, he settled them then pulled her back against
him and told her, "Put your arm up on the side of the tub,
sugar."

Because he couldn't help himself, he pushed
her hair to one side, and kissed her neck, reveling in the slide of
her body against his in the water. He put his arms around her and
slid his hands over her belly and up to her breasts.

Katie moaned and said in a breathless
whisper, "Now who's being bad?"

Tommy swallowed hard against the insane
desire that was marinating his brain, and sucked in a breath and
put his forehead to the back of her head. "I am...I'm sorry,
darlin'...let's get this over with," he told her and grabbed the
washrag and bar of soap from the wide ledge of the tub.

"You could slide inside of me and we could
make love without moving around," she suggested with a desperate
edge to her voice. "I need you, Tommy."

"Oh, god, baby, I don't want to hurt you,"
he moaned and threw his head back against the tub. She was
temptation incarnate, and he was her victim.

"I'll let you know if it hurts me, I
promise..." she said cajolingly and slid her butt against his
erection.

"It's hurting me that's for sure," he told
her then gently lifted her hips and positioned himself at her
opening. Slowly, he slid her down on him inch by inch, clenching
his teeth against the urge to push up inside of her. Once she was
fully seated on him, he eased down in the water a little more and
savored the exquisite feeling of being inside of her again...tight,
wet and so damned warm. He sighed and ran his hands up her sides to
her breasts and cupped them.

Katie leaned back against him and mewled,
then her inner muscles clamped around him. "This feels so damned
good," she said breathlessly, then gasped when he flicked his
thumbs over her nipples.

She arched her back and moaned, not in
pleasure. His hands stilled, and he told her gruffly, "Just be
still, or we're gonna call off this experiment...I'm not letting
you hurt yourself."

When she nodded against his chest, he teased
her nipples again and she moaned and he kissed the side of her
neck, then moved one hand down between them to find her center. Her
breath stopped in anticipation, and he ran his hand along her thigh
instead of touching her there, and licked her earlobe. "You taste
so damned good...feel so good, baby...I've missed you so fucking
much," he hissed.

"Oh god, Tommy, please," she begged then
slowly rotated her hips.

With a strangled moan, he moved his hand to
her core and massaged her slowly, lifting his hips so their bodies
were flush, to keep her from moving around. With every rotation of
his fingers, he felt her inner muscles working around him and
tension built inside of him.

When the contractions got faster, more
intense, he increased his rhythm and hen rolled her nipple between
his fingers, and pulled. She groaned his name loudly and her body
tensed, then he felt her vibrating around him, and her body pulled
him over the precipice with her into a slow, delicious orgasm that
floated over him like the waves of the water around them. He put
his arm around her waist and held her to him, so she didn't move,
as he waited for the tremors in his body to cease.

She was breathing heavily, and he saw her
cheeks were flushed. With a kiss to the side of her face, he asked
her gently, "You okay, baby?"

"Better than okay," she told him
breathlessly, then turned her head to kiss his jaw. "That was
incredible...um, did you..."

"Oh, yeah...that was different, but
amazing," he told her with a squeeze. "Now, let's get you cleaned
up...I've got some surprises for you."

She sucked in a breath then leaned to the
side to look up at him with excitement in her eyes, "Really?"

"Yeah, I've got a lot of making up to do for
my stupidity...and not just today, either" he told her
ruefully.

She grinned at him, then purred sexily, and
nipped his jaw, "Well, you're off to a good start...I can't wait to
see how you top this."

Tommy growled and fished in the water, until
he found the wash cloth and bar of soap he'd dropped, then he
lathered it up and smoothed it over her body, then rinsed her off.
He pushed her downward to sit further down his legs and propped her
against his bent knees, then said, "Lean your head back," then he
wet her hair, shampooed and rinsed it.