Taking Catie: The Temptation Saga: Book Three (13 page)

T
he meeting
with the Bakersville alderman had been uneventful. Now Catie was loading her clothes into the closet in the guestroom where she had spent the night in Chad’s house.

She had no idea where Chad was, and she didn’t righteously care.

What a big ol’ lie. She cared. She’d cared for seventeen years, and she wasn’t about to stop caring now. She sighed, sat down on the bed, and touched her tummy.

“It’ll be okay, little one,” she said. “You’ll have a mommy and daddy who love you. And a mommy who loves your daddy, even if he’ll never love her back. I promise.”

The phone rang. A football phone. This was her room now and that would be the first thing to go. She picked it up. Chad’s home phone. Heck, her home phone now.

“Hello. McCray residence.”

“Yes, hello. I need to speak to Chad McCray please.”

“I’m sorry. He’s out right now. May I take a message?”

“Who’s this?”

The woman’s tone was a bit on the snotty side. Well, Catie could give it right back.

“This is Chad’s wife. Who’s this?”

“Wife?”

“Yes. I’m Caitlyn McCray. And you are?”

Click.

Stupid football phone didn’t have caller ID. Catie raced to the kitchen where she hit the history button.
Rhine, L.

Well, Rhine, L., whatever you wanted Chad for, forget it. He’s mine now.

C
atie sighed
as she drove out to the nearest stable, where Ladybird had been housed.

“Hi there, ma’am.” A dark and handsome man tipped his Stetson to her. “Can I help you?”

“I’m just going to visit my horse.”

“I’m Rafe Grayhawk, ma’am, foreman in charge of this particular stable. You the owner of that pretty new mare brought in this morning?”

“If you mean the dark chestnut, yes, that’s Ladybird.”

“That’s some mighty fine horseflesh, ma’am.”

“Please,” Catie said, “you don’t have to call me ma’am.”

Rafe’s black eyes burned into her. His skin was a light bronze color, and when he took off his Stetson, she saw that his pitch-black hair was pulled back into an untidy low ponytail behind his neck. Strands of ebony silk flitted about his chiseled face in the summer breeze, gleaming with sapphire highlights in the afternoon sun.

“Then it would help if I knew your name, honey.”

He smiled, and she could almost see him wearing a Native American headdress, and…not much else. He was a beautiful man.

Catie swallowed, but didn’t answer.

“If we’re boarding your horse here, you and I’ll get to know each other quite a bit better.” Rafe said. “I’ll be the one making sure she gets what she needs. What’s her name?”

“Ladybird.”

“Well, she’s sure a beaut.”

“Yeah.” Catie nodded. “That she is.”

“So, sweetheart…”

Despite her love for Chad, Catie’s heart lurched at the endearment. Nice to know there might be a man around here who wanted her. One who wasn’t stuck with her out of some misguided obligation.

“Yeah?”

He chuckled. “You still haven’t told me your name.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. It’s Catie.”

Rafe moved closer and pushed a strand of dark hair out of Catie’s eye. His touch was warm and pleasant. Not hot and passionate, like Chad’s.

“It’s this wind,” she said. “My hair won’t stay in one place. It’s a real pain.”

“Not so much a pain,” Rafe said. “You look real pretty, Catie. All rosy-cheeked and windblown. I bet you want to take your horse on a ride, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I’d like that.” A ride with Ladybird would be the perfect salve for her ailing heart, to take her mind off of Chad and Rhine, L. and this farce of a marriage she had agreed to.

“Well, then, Miss Catie,” Rafe said, holding out his hand to her, “I’ll be right glad to take you into the stables and get her saddled up, for a small price.”

Price?

“Uh, what do you want?”

“Your name, honey.”

“I told you my name. It’s Catie.”

“The last name, pretty lady. Catie what?”

The husky voice that came out of nowhere surprised her.

“Catie McCray.”

“Hey, Chad,” Rafe said. “Where’d you come from?”

“I get around, Grayhawk.” He draped his arm possessively around Catie’s shoulders and pulled her close, jostling her so hard that she winced. “From now on, keep your paws off my wife.”

“Your wife? Hell, I didn’t know, Chad. Since when do you have a wife?”

“Since yesterday. If I see you sniffing around her again, you can find yourself another job.”

“Chad,” Catie said, “he was just going to help me saddle Ladybird for a ride.”

“I know how these hands are, Catie. They can’t keep their hands to themselves around a beautiful woman. You stay clear of them.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I grew up around ranch hands. They’re fine.”

“Look, Chad. She’s your wife, I get it. I was just gettin’ to know her, that’s all.”

“Go on and do your job, Grayhawk. I’ll saddle Catie’s horse.”

“As you say, boss.”

Once Rafe had left, Chad dragged Catie into the stable and pushed her against the wall. The faint smell of horse manure mixed with the fresh scent of hay assaulted Catie’s nose. Until Chad’s face came within an inch of hers, and then all she could smell was him. Spicy Chad. Musky Chad. Manly Chad. Her husband. She inhaled deeply.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

His cheeks reddened and his nostrils flared. Catie flinched. He was angry. Really angry. Possibly more angry than when she’d told him she was pregnant.

“I… I was going to take a ride. I’m…a little stressed Chad. I—”

He silenced her with a punishing kiss. His lips clamped onto hers, forcing her mouth open, his tongue thrusting inside. She gasped, trying to breathe through her nose, but he was holding her so close, so tight. She pushed at his chest and tried to free herself, but it was no use. He held her against the wall, against his body. She was trapped.

Chad finally ripped his mouth away, and they both took deep breaths.

“What…is wrong…with you?” Catie’s words came out between gasps. “I just wanted to see Lady—”

“Shut up!” He crushed his mouth to hers again.

The kiss was gentler this time, though not by much. He swept into her mouth like a tidal wave, thrusting with his tongue and then retreating, while he simultaneously thrust his hips and ground them into hers, mimicking what he was doing to her mouth with his tongue. What she instinctively knew he wanted to do with his cock.

Would
do with his cock. He was already unsnapping her jeans.

She tried to escape his kiss, but to no avail. He held her fast. Her slim form was no match for his musculature. He held her fast against his broad hard chest as he unzipped her jeans and plunged his long, thick fingers inside. She gasped into his mouth, and he groaned. She felt, more than heard it, a faint rumble in her mouth, against her breasts. She began to writhe as he touched her, grinding into his hand.

He broke their kiss with a loud smack.

“God, you’re so fucking wet.” He shuddered against her. “You like it when I touch you there, don’t you, sugar?”

Catie’s breath puffed against Chad’s cheek. His words were a husky whisper against her sweaty neck.

“Don’t you?” he said again.

“Y-Yes. You know I do.”

“Why’d you leave my bed this morning?” He nibbled on her neck. Tiny little nips that turned into bites. They stung. A little bit pleasure, a little bit pain.

“I…”

“I woke up and you were gone.” He bit her earlobe. “I wanted you next to me.”

“But this isn’t…”

She lost her train of thought for few seconds as he sucked on the spot below her ear that made her crazy. She sighed, and then gasped as he bit her neck again. Still his fingers worked her. She squirmed as tiny sparks erupted on her skin.

She inhaled, and then answered his question. “It’s not a real marriage.”

He backed off a little at that. He looked straight at her, his dark eyes scalding hot. He grabbed her hand, led it to his crotch, and rubbed it over his denim-clad arousal. “Does this feel real to you, sugar?”

“It… It was never a question of that.” She closed her eyes he slid his fingers through her folds and pushed one inside her. She gasped. The invasion was so sweet, so right.

“Tell me, sugar. How does
that
feel?”

“Good, Chad. So good.”

He pushed his finger farther into her. “That?”

“Heaven.” She rasped against his cheek, kissing it, letting the day’s growth of his beard prickle her lips.

“Let me tell you something, Catie McCray.”

He helped her unbuckle and unsnap his jeans. Nibbling on her ear, he pushed her jeans down, and then his own. When the hard head of his cock pressed against her wet flesh, she shuddered.

“You’re mine. All mine.” He pushed his cock into her wet channel. “You’re not for Grayhawk or anyone else around here, you got that?”

She gasped as he withdrew and pushed into her again.

“Answer me, damn it.” His voice was raw. Untamed.

“Wh-What?”

“Who do you belong to, Catie?”

“You, Chad.”

“Whose bed are you going to sleep in from now on?” His thrusts became faster, more urgent.

“Y-Yours. Only yours.”

He plunged into her again, at the same time as his mouth came down on hers and assaulted her. They kissed in a frenzy of tongues and teeth, devouring each other, as though they’d been starved for years, centuries.

When he broke the kiss, Catie drew a deep breath, her passions rising, her skin tingling.

“That’s right, sugar. Come for me.” Chad’s fingers touched her swollen flesh as he continued to pound into her. “For me. Only for me.”

At his command, she shattered, her body quaking as the rapture took her through a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. From somewhere outside her body, she heard her own voice—or a husky, low imitation of it—echoing Chad’s name.

As she started her descent, Chad pushed harder, stronger, flooding her with new and vibrant sensations.

“Damn, you’re even tighter after you come, baby. Give me one…more…ah!”

He thrust into her so deep, that for a moment she thought they’d become one being. His whole body trembled against her, perspiration trickling down his cheeks and neck, dripping onto her neck, trailing down between her breasts. He stayed there for a precious moment, holding her, leaning into her, before he pulled away and pulled up his boxers and jeans.

He pulled a blue bandana out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here,” he said. “Clean yourself up.”

Then he left the stable.

What?
Catie stood dumbfounded, her jeans and panties still around her ankles, Chad’s hanky hanging limply from her fist.

This was really it?

Her cheeks heating, she wiped the evidence of their lovemaking from herself with a few quick swipes, pulled up her jeans, and fastened them.

Again, he’d taken her to the stars.

He’d made love to her with a passion so fierce, she wasn’t sure it was real. In her inexperience, she had nothing to compare it to. Was it always like this?

He’d said she was his.

His
.

But he hadn’t said the three words she so desperately needed to hear. Instead, he’d left her, like always.

She slid down the wall, the splintery wood scraping her back through her cotton shirt, into a sitting position. Pulling her knees up, she wrapped her arms around them and fell to the side, onto the hay-covered floor. She lay there, in a fetal position, waiting for the tears to come.

They didn’t. Was she truly all cried out over Chad?

She didn’t know how long she stayed in that position. Eventually she felt a nudge on her arm. “Hey there, Ms. McCray.”

She opened her eyes and stared into the black orbs of Rafe Grayhawk.

“You need any help with anything?”

Catie bolted upward, sniffing. Thank God, the tears hadn’t come, or her face would be pink and splotchy.

“I think your husband can afford a better place for you to nap, sweetheart,” Rafe said, extending his hand.

Catie took his hand gratefully and stood up. “I must have fallen asleep. Chad and I… We had a long day yesterday.”

“Thought you were gonna take that pretty mare on a ride?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I am.”

“I’ll saddle her up.”

“Chad said—”

“I know what Chad said, Ms. McCray.”

He winked, and she couldn’t help smiling at the handsome ranch hand.

“I’ll mind my Ps and Qs, don’t you worry.”

“Please.”

“Okay, I’ll leave. No harm done.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I meant, please call me Catie.”

“Not sure the boss would approve.”

“I don’t care. I didn’t ask for his opinion on the matter.”

Catie brushed the dirt and hay off her thighs. To hell with what Chad said. She and Rafe weren’t doing anything wrong. He was helping her, that’s all. She touched his forearm—as hard and sinewy as Chad’s, though it didn’t induce the sparks on her skin the way Chad’s did.

“I’d love your help saddling Ladybird, if you don’t mind. After all, you need to get to know her now.”

“True enough,” Rafe said with a cocky grin and walked toward Ladybird’s stall. “If I had an hour or two free, I’d saddle up my bronc and go along with you. Course we know the boss’d frown on that.”

Catie smiled. This young man was kind and easy to talk to. So much easier to talk to than her distant husband, who wanted to love her body, but not the rest of her.

“No doubt he would,” Catie agreed, “but I’ll tell you what.”

Rafe turned back around and met her gaze. “What?”

She winked. “We’ll just keep it between us, okay?”

His lazy grin lit up his handsome features. “Darlin’, that’s about the best idea I’ve heard this year.” He turned and continued saddling Ladybird.

C
atie rode Ladybird
to Annie and Dallas’s house. Later, sitting with Annie over herb tea, Catie spilled her guts.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said, after pouring out the story of her and Chad, the baby, and the bedroom situation. “He seems to want me, but yet he doesn’t. This whole baby thing—” She patted her belly. “I want this child. More than anything. But as much as I love Chad, I never wanted it to be like this. It really was an accident, Annie.”