by Lora Leigh
“You’ve lost your mind, Cade.” She bit out. “What would cause you to act that way? Don’t you think I’m old enough to have sex yet?”
She wasn’t expecting his reaction. He flinched as though a whip had been laid to his bare back, his face paling beneath his tan.
“God. No. No. We don’t have sex.” Greg was frantic as he shook his head, looking at Cade beseechingly. “This woman is possessed, Mr. August. On my parents’ graves I swear I’ve never touched her. Never.”
Marly’s eyes narrowed on the fear in Greg’s expression.
“Oh Greg, he’s not really going to hurt you.” She rolled her eyes at his terror.
Cade wasn’t going to really hurt him. He should realize that. If Cade wanted him hurt, he would have been lying on the floor broken and bleeding already.
“Marly, shut up. He already has.” Greg pleaded hoarsely. “Please tell him we don’t have sex, Marly.”
She had never heard him use the ‘S’ word as he called it, so easily. He usually stammered over it for an hour before getting it out. Her eyes narrowed on Greg, then turned to Cade. He was breathing harshly, his fists clenched as he watched her with a dark, violent look.
“I was only joking about being naked and ready, as you can tell.” She held her arms out to indicate her jeans, and long sleeved sweater. As she did so, Cade’s eyes went to the strip of bare belly that the raised sweater was showing. Uh oh. The gold ring in her belly button was clearly visible, as was the slender gold chain that wound around her waist and clasped into the ring.
Cade frowned darkly, his fists clenching and unclenching as though he was going to do physical damage. Rather than scaring her, the look excited her.
“Downstairs.” His voice was harsh and grating, his gaze locked on the small ring and its connecting chain. “Downstairs, now.”
He turned on his heel and stalked from the room as Marly watched him with a frown.
“God Marly, what kind of game are you playing?” Greg was rubbing the back of his neck as he groaned out the question pleadingly. “I’m going back to my sister’s. At least there it’s just words. That man is gonna kill me.”
“Cade won’t kill you,” she murmured, still staring at the door. “Do you think he acted interested, Greg?”
“Interested?” Greg’s voice was incredulous. “Marly, you can’t be serious?”
Marly ignored the rough disbelief in Greg’s voice as she still watched the empty doorway.
“Hmmm, just curious,” she said thoughtfully. “I better go down and see what his problem is. I’ll meet you outside in a little while. Maybe we can go swimming.”
Since there was no longer any need to try to hide the belly ring, she could enjoy the pool. Marly licked her lips nervously as she left the bedroom. Cade had nearly flipped when he saw the ring. It had been there in the flush on his cheeks, the disbelief in his eyes. She liked it, though it had hurt like hell getting it. She especially liked the thin gold chain that went around her body and connected to the ring. It made her feel sexy, even if no one else ever glimpsed it. Until Cade.
He was waiting on her in the study, where she had known he would be. She closed the door softly behind her, watching him as she neared his desk. He was standing at the sliding doors, staring out at the pool. The liquor on his desk was opened, and he was holding an empty glass in his hand.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit, Cade?” Her voice was soft, questioning. “It was just a joke. Greg is easy to tease—”
“So you tease him?” Cade turned to her slowly. “How far do you go to tease him, Marly?”
Marly blinked. He was really furious. She felt a small flare of unease, but mixed with it was an excitement she couldn’t define. It made her knees weak, made the muscles of her stomach clench in anticipation. She could feel the tender portal between her thighs heating, readying itself.
She shrugged uneasily. “I’m not mean to him Cade. And I don’t tease him badly. You know I wouldn’t do that.”
“Do I?” He refilled his glass. “You’ve changed Marly, while at school. How much have you changed?”
Marly licked her lips, trying to ignore the flare of hurt feelings his tone and his look caused within her.
“I’m not a child anymore, Cade,” she whispered. “ I don’t do anything that would embarrass the family, but I’m not a kid.”
Marly had always been very conscious of the family’s good name. She had always fought to make certain she brought no shame to it. To Cade. She didn’t want him to be ashamed of her, yet he was acting as though he was.
Cade didn’t answer her. He threw back the liquor as though it were water, causing her to swallow tightly. She had never seen Cade so upset.
“Are you having sex with that incompetent little prick?” he finally asked her harshly, refusing to look at her.
Marly swallowed tightly, suddenly nervous in Cade’s presence. She had never seen him like this, enraged in this way. His emotions seemed to pulse just under the surface, ready to erupt.
“I haven’t had sex with anyone, Cade. And Greg is a nice guy. He’s very lonely, and he’s my friend.” Marly heard the tremble in her voice and hated being so weak in front of him.
The pupils of his eyes dilated at her announcement. A hard breath racked his chest and his hands clenched.
His gaze speared into hers. “Never?” He asked her harshly.
“Never, Cade.” She shook her head.
“Are you going to have sex with him?” He turned away from her as though he couldn’t bear to look at her.
Marly felt tears well in her eyes. He was so handsome. His jeans rode low on his hips, belted with wide leather, and emphasizing his hard stomach and broad shoulders. His legs were long and muscular, and he had a smooth, rolling walk that made her crazy. She needed him, wanted him, but he still saw her as a little girl.
“I’m a woman,” she whispered again, ignoring his flinch. “I don’t know how to answer your question. If I fall in love with him, yes I will. Do I love him now? No, I don’t, except as a very dear friend.”
Cade sighed deeply, running his hands through his hair as he turned to her. The look on his face was agonized.
“Marly, don’t cry,” he groaned, and only then did she realize the tears were running down her face.
She was dying. Marly knew she was. She wanted him so desperately she couldn’t stand the ache. She wanted him to touch her, hold her. How much longer did she have to wait? She had waited a lifetime already.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she wiped at her cheeks, shaking her head. “Maybe I should go back to school. I don’t cause any trouble there.”
She had been causing trouble at home since she had started dating. As though Cade expected any minute to walk into his home and encounter an orgy.
“God no. Baby, I’ve missed you so much.” He pulled her into his arms, and the pain of needing him was like a physical blow to her stomach.
Her arms wrapped around his waist, her hands holding tight to his back. He was so warm and hard. So male she wanted to scream out her need for him. His scent, a combination of spice and pure male heat wrapped around her, infusing her. She felt her breasts swell beneath the lace cups of her bra, her nipples hardening. She held onto him tighter, knowing how desperately she had missed his rare hugs in the past two years, the feel of his hands stroking over her head.
“The belly ring was a surprise,” he whispered at her ear, his lips barely caressing the lobe, making it nearly impossible to suppress her shiver. “And that chain is decadent, Marly.”
Cade’s voice was husky and deep. It pierced her stomach, and beyond, making the ache all the more sweeter. His hands caressed her back slowly, his fingers running over the thin gold at her waistline. His hands were hot, setting fires along her body wherever he touched her. She needed. God help her, how much longer could she live with this aching need?
* * * * *
Marly was soft and warm in his arms, her hands
clenched at his back, her breathing rough as he tried to calm her. Slowly, he stroked her back with one hand, then both. His palms smoothed easily over the soft material of her sweater. He could feel the chain at her waist, and the sight of it flashed before his eyes. The glitter of gold against pale skin, the waist of her jeans riding low, the little gold ring drawing his gaze as surely as a bolt of lightning would have.
Cade had become so enraged, so furious that she would have bared her stomach for a stranger, endured having such a sensitive area pierced, that he had barely been able to contain the violence already flowing through his system.
Her soft, husky voice inviting that little turd of a boy into her room, where she was naked and ready, had already brought red to the forefront of his vision. He had wanted to kill that boy. Slowly, surely. And Marly’s confusion, the hot flare of excitement in her eyes as she saw him, had been nearly more than he could bear. Why had she been looking for a fight with him? And there was no doubt she had been. Her eyes had glittered with her own battle-ready senses as she stood up to him, where she never had before. She was pushing him, and he didn’t think he could take the pressure.
His own needs, fury and fears would destroy him. Cade admitted that silently as he enjoyed the feel of her smooth flesh as her sweater rose a scant inch over her waist. He was drowning in the scent of her, wild and sweet. His blood was still coursing through his veins, and he wanted nothing more than to pull her tighter into his arms. He had missed her. He had missed her too damned much.
He missed holding her, watching her laughter and feeling the warmth it brought to him. He hadn’t known how much she filled him until she had gone away. How much her presence alone soothed the ragged, wounded edges of his soul.
His fingers played with the chain that ran around her back, strumming against her skin, feeling soft satin flesh beneath the thin, cool band of gold. Warm satin, so damned soft his fingers relished the touch of it. Over and over again, he stroked it, until his hands were running beneath the sweater by a hands width as he soothed her. Her breath was still hitching, her breathing harsh. He hadn’t meant to upset her so deeply. He had gone crazy. Driven past any limit he could handle at the thought of her naked, inviting, smiling up at him as he moved over her. Wedging between her thighs. Her hips arching to him. Her voice a husky murmur as she pleaded—
Marly moved against him, and Cade felt the erection growing stiffly behind the fly of his jeans. She moved against him slowly, feeling the hard length pressing into her soft belly. Cade knew she felt it when he heard the low, needy whimper that came from her throat.
“No, Marly,” his protesting whisper was a breath of sound as he felt her lips at his chest, her hot little tongue stroking his skin. “Son of a bitch…” His head fell back as his hands pulled her closer, his knees bending as he lifted her nearer, driving the cloth-covered erection against the vee of her thighs helplessly.
He couldn’t believe she was doing this. That she was reacting this way, reaching for him, needing him. He couldn’t let her. His control was already shaky at best, and he had to protect her. He had to protect himself from the hatred she would surely feel for him later. But right now, he had to fight for breath. Her lips were warm, her little tongue moist and hot against his skin.
Cade gritted his teeth, fighting the compulsion to take over. To pull her against his body tight and hard, and show her what she was asking for. His cock was pulsing, so tight and hot beneath his jeans he was in agony. The need coursed and rose inside him, drawing his body so taut he felt as though he would shatter at any moment.
Marly rubbed against him, a little sigh of desire, of want whispering over his skin as he gripped her hips, pulled her closer and bent to press his erection between her thighs.
“Cade.” Her hoarse, lust-filled cry made his brain explode with the furious need to fuck. To slam his cock inside her, to feel the ripple of soft wet velvet encasing, gripping him.
“Is this what you want, damn you?” he growled down at her fiercely, watching her eyes glaze with shock as he rocked against her. “Is this what you want Marly, because I swear to God, I’m within an inch of driving it into you.”
He was angry. Angrier than he had ever been. She was teasing him, tempting him, pushing him past reason. Or was she? Lust, hot and carnal clouded his brain as he watched her nipples peak beneath her sweater. He pulled her against him harshly once again, grinding his flesh into her as her eyes closed on a ragged whimper. Need or fear?
Shock, hot and remorseful seared his very soul. His hands dropped from her and he turned away quickly, going instantly for the bottle of liquor at his desk. His hands shook as he poured the drink, his chest heaved. He felt like screaming in frustration.
“Cade?” He closed his eyes as her voice speared through his body.
Hot, husky, needing. God, he was so far over the edge that he was lending to her his own unnatural desires. He had raised her for God’s sake; he had no business acting this way. He had no business stealing her innocence and drawing her into his nightmares.
“I’m sorry I—” Cade lowered his head, watching desperately as the liquid filled the glass. “I promise, I’ll not jump so quickly to conclusions from now on. You’re right, you’re a woman…” he couldn’t go on.
He downed the whisky, welcoming the burning that tore into his gut and almost replaced the other heat searing him from the inside out.
“So I can sleep with whoever I want?” Cade knew he was imagining the bitterness in her voice. A bitterness seeping into his soul.
“I can’t stop you.” He shook his head, taking another drink desperately, praying to God that something, anything would wipe the sight of her welcoming some bastard to her bed, out of his head.
“What if I want you, Cade?” Her whispered question seared his skin.
His hand shook. Cade had to take precious moments to control the instinctive reaction in his body to her soft question.
“No, Marly.” He shook his head tightly. “You don’t want me. Not really. You just think you do.”
There was silence behind him now. Tension flowed around him, choking him, making his stomach rebel at the amount of liquor he was consuming. Surely to God he would drink enough soon to drown this awful ache.
He needed a woman, Cade told himself desperately. That’s all it is. A woman. He wondered how long it had been since he had taken one to his bed? Years, he knew. He couldn’t remember the last time he had tested the wet heat of a woman’s desire. He had been busy; he excused the lack of desire in the past years. The ranch, Joe’s illness. There were a million details to go over every day and he just hadn’t had time. And once again, in his mind’s eye he saw Marly, inviting, open. But it wasn’t the pale little puke of a boy upstairs moving between those slender thighs that he saw. It was him, covering, moving over her—God help him, it was time to get laid before he did something stupid.
“I have work to do, Marly.” His voice was harsher than he meant it to be as he sat down at his desk and began riffling through the drawers for his address book.
Surely it hadn’t been so long that he couldn’t find a willing woman.
“Sure, Cade.” There was no mistaking the anger in her tone now. “I wanted to go swimming anyway. Sorry I put you out.”
“Marly.” He stopped her before she could turn away.
Turning slowly, breathing harshly, he fought to explain.
“I didn’t mean—” he didn’t know what the hell to say. “I’ve been without a
woman—” he shook his head. Dammit.
“You’re just horny and I was just here. Right?” She nearly snarled the answer for him. “I’m the same as your niece, and please don’t read any more into it than that.” Her voice was mocking and cold. “Save it, Cade. Because it’s not something I want to hear.
She turned and stalked from the room as he finally raised his gaze. Good thing she didn’t want to hear it, he thought morosely, because it sure as hell wasn’t what he wanted to say. As she stalked
from the room, he had a perfect view of her round buttocks and lithe, jean-clad legs as she left the room. He closed his eyes tightly, fighting for control, fighting to halt the visions rolling through his head. If he didn’t do something soon, the steel hard erection in his jeans would take control for him.
His father’s accusations haunted him now. The old bastard had known how much Cade wanted her, had seen it when no one else had. Seen it, and tormented him with it.
Cade felt bitter fury churn in his stomach. God, he couldn’t be as demented, as depraved as that old bastard. He wouldn’t allow it. The past had almost destroyed him once before, he wouldn’t let it finish the job now.
Chapter Five
Marly laid a hand to her trembling stomach, the imprint of Cade’s arousal still burning her flesh. And he had been aroused; there had been no mistaking it. She felt alternately giddy and furious that he had pushed her away at the exact moment she felt it. As though it were dirty, she thought with a frown, her fingers running lightly over the flesh of her stomach. She trembled, remembering his fingers on her back, his calloused flesh running warmly over her skin. His fingers playing with the chain as though he couldn’t help himself. She shivered again.
It was the first time he had touched her in any way other than a child. The first time his own breathing had been harsh, his heart thudding roughly beneath her cheek. She had wanted so desperately to turn her face up to him, to tempt him to lower his head, to touch his lips to hers, but she knew he wouldn’t, and she hadn’t wanted it to end. It had ended much too quickly the way it was.
“Hey Marly, are you okay?” Greg knocked at her door again, his voice softly questioning.
Walking over to the door, Marly pulled it open. Looking past Greg she checked the hallway quickly, then stood back for him to enter.
“Get in here.” She gripped his arm and pulled him into the room.
Greg’s eyes widened in surprise as he moved past her.