Texas-Sized Temptation (8 page)

“You get what you want most of the time, don't you?”

“Yes. I suspect you do, too, so it's annoying when we don't.”

“We each intend to get what we want involving the ranch. Let's just hope we can move to a point where the outcome is mutually satisfying and fulfilling.”

“I intend to do that, Caitlin,” he said softly, and she had a feeling he wasn't talking about the ranch at all, but about making love.

In a short time they were airborne. She looked at his ranch below as they circled and headed southeast. “Tell me when we are no longer over your ranch.”

He gazed outside and she studied his profile, looking at the firm jaw, his prominent cheekbones and symmetrical features. His thick brown hair was combed from his face. She was frustrated by her helplessness to sway Jake.

With his recent acquisitions of neighboring property, Jake's
sprawling ranch was enormous. He couldn't possibly need all the land she saw below.

“There,” he said, leaning close to her and pointing below. “Since I bought the Patterson place, that's the southeast boundary now. We're negotiating for wind turbines all along the land you see below.”

She lost track of what he was saying. Jake was only inches from her as he moved closer to point out his holdings. His mouth was mere inches away, his thickly lashed eyes adding to his handsome appeal.

As if he realized her thoughts, he turned to look into her eyes and her heart thudded. Her breathing altered and she tilted her face up to his. When his gaze lowered to her mouth, her heartbeat pounded.

He leaned the last few inches to kiss her. His lips were warm, sensual, moving slowly on hers while his tongue slipped into her mouth.

She kissed him in return, steadily thinking no, no, no, yet unable to resist him. Desire heightened, her breathing altered. Jake was the most exciting man she had known.

His arm slipped around her waist and she placed a hand against his warm, solid chest, feeling his heart racing beneath her touch.

She kissed him until his arm tightened around her waist and she realized he might be moving her to his lap. He raised his head. “Unbuckle. I want to hold you.”

His voice was deep, gravelly and desire filled his blue eyes that had darkened with passion. Her heart raced while she fought her own desire. She placed her hands on his arms.

“Jake, I won't look fit to go out for dinner if I move to your lap. We should stop this craziness anyway.”

“It's not craziness,” he answered quietly. “I want you, Caitlin.” He looked her straight in the eye and barriers around her heart crumbled.

“Don't,” she whispered, placing her fingertips lightly on his mouth, aware of his lips beneath her touch. “You can't become important to me, Jake.”

“Just kisses—that's not earth-shattering.”

She inhaled and bit back her answer. While his kisses had too strong an effect, she had no intention of admitting it to him.

“I'm going to go straighten my clothes. We're cruising now and I can move around according to the pilot.”

As she walked away from him, she tingled, feeling certain he watched her. When she returned, she met his watchful gaze and this time had to get to her seat beneath his scrutiny.

He looked faintly amused, as if knowing that his kisses set her ablaze. “So there's no relationship with anyone right now,” he said.

“No. I'm not into casual relationships. You said you won't marry. Well, I don't want anything casual. It's a fine thing we're not in each other's lives. It would not be a happy outcome.”

“Most relationships begin casually,” he said.

She shook her head. “Nothing I'm involved in because I have to have deep commitment. Which I've never had. Nothing has gone beyond the casual stage so far.”

Frowning slightly, Jake framed her face. “Nothing? I find that impossible to imagine. I intend to get beyond the casual stage, Caitlin. I want to know you. I want you in my life. We have a mutual attraction that is spectacular. You feel it,” he declared.

“Jake, I can't get closely involved with you. I'm not going to, just know that right now.”

“We'll see,” he said softly and she couldn't catch her breath. They were on the verge of kissing, only it was more volatile than before. She couldn't understand her escalating reaction to him, nor could she get rid of it.

She pulled away, gazing at him with what she hoped was a cool composed regard even while he sent her breathing and heartbeat into a scramble. “You keep your distance, Jake,” she whispered. Her faint voice took all the demand out of her words.

“No,” he replied. “I have no intention of keeping my distance because part of you doesn't want me at arm's length. Part of you wants to kiss and make love. You can't stop from revealing it.”

With a sinking feeling, she looked away. He was right. He could easily demolish her resistance. How was she going to keep him under control and at arm's length all evening? Did she want to keep him at a distance? She wanted the old house and the people who had worked for her to stay on more than anything she had ever wanted since she was a small child. The house was a tie to all she loved in her childhood. The people deserved to be able to stay, not uprooted when they were becoming older.

Letting Jake into her life, succumbing to the fiery attraction might bind him to her strongly enough he would sell the place to her. It was like selling herself to get what she wanted, yet there was another argument. Jake was the sexiest man she had ever met. What would happen if she followed her desire and let a relationship develop?

She thought about her own life and her mother. That's what her mother had done and had an unwanted baby she had given up for adoption. Caitlin would never give up a baby, but she didn't want to bring one into the world fathered by a man who had no interest in a family or a commitment.

All her life she had vowed any relationship would have to be lasting, filled with love, not lust. What she and Jake had found was lust, spectacular, sizzling, but with no substance.

All through the flight, she flirted, enjoyed him and stewed about the outcome of the evening.

When they landed, a limo took them to a private club on the top floor of a tower in downtown Dallas.

They sat at a table in a secluded corner with a glowing candle centered on the table. Soft piano music played near the dance floor, while she barely noticed her surroundings. Her focus was Jake.

Desire built, increasing from the moment she had opened her front door to greet him. His kisses, his touches, his flirting, his declarations of how much he wanted her, all of it already had her shivering with need, thinking about his fiery kisses and anticipating being in his arms.

As she looked across the candlelight into his blue eyes, he reached out to take her hand. His fingers were larger, tan against her skin. Calluses on his palm were rough, making her wonder what he had done to cause them because he spent most of time in offices and in cities. When he was on the ranch, she couldn't imagine he did manual labor.

“I should look at the menu,” she said, taking her gaze from him and reaching for the black menu that had been given to her.

During the time wine was poured and they ordered, conversation became impersonal, revolving around dinner choices and she relaxed.

“What's your next project, Caitlin? Will it take you away from Texas or Santa Fe?”

“No. I have appointments in Houston toward the end of October. I took plenty of time off because I've been working a long, intensive schedule the past two months and I've been in Europe taking pictures for a book project.”

Steak and lobster dinners arrived. While they ate, she asked Jake about his life and childhood, discovering that he had lived on the ranch year-round the first six years of his life before the Bentons began to spend more time in Dallas.

After dinner Jake said, “Let's dance, Caitlin.”

She nodded, standing when he took her hand, and they moved to the dance floor. She stepped into Jake's arms to dance to an old ballad. Jake was warm, tall, agile. Everything about him was appealing except the most important things: his family, his ownership of her home and ranch, his avoidance of commitment.

The contact from dancing with him fanned her desire. She wanted him and she was vulnerable. There hadn't been any man in her life in a long time and none she had ever been serious about. This fascination with Jake remained a constant danger to her well-being and her determination to avoid the wrong relationship.

When a fast number followed, their gazes locked while they danced. He was sexy, light on his feet and each touch sizzled, combating her efforts to cling to caution.

As he twirled her around, she turned to see blatant lust in his blue eyes. He wanted her and his desire made her heart drum. He pulled her tightly against him. “I want you, Caitlin,” he whispered, saying what she could read in his eyes. He spun her away and she danced, feeling desired, seductive, knowing she was flirting with temptation again. The whole evening was building toward seduction, in an unwanted escalation of their relationship.

Later, slow dancing in his embrace while they barely moved around the dance floor, he whispered in her ear, “I have a condo here. Let's go there so we can have some privacy.”

This was the moment to say no and go home. As she danced, held close against him, after a dream evening, she didn't want to say goodbye. As if watching a puppet in a play, she nodded. “Very well, Jake. For a while. I still want to fly back to the ranch.”

“Whatever you want. All you have to do is tell me.”

When the number ended, he took her hand and they returned to their table where she retrieved her purse.

“Now I can show you where I live in Dallas. We'll pass the office, too.”

She was familiar with Dallas and had a general idea where they were going. When they reached a suburban area, Jake pointed to a twenty-story building on a business campus with a complex of buildings. “There's the Benton campus. We have a lot of diversification. I'm in the main building. Gabe is in the ten-story one next to the tallest building.”

“Will you lose anything concerned with the business if you don't do what your dad wants in the coming year?”

“I'm risking all of this, although so far, Dad has simply threatened my inheritance and what he has in his will. I'm not worried. I'm setting up my own business. Dad can do what he wants.”

“I can't believe you would give up such a fortune. You could marry and live the kind of life where you and your wife would never have to see each other.”

“No. The day I marry, I will be so in love I can't think straight. I'm not ready for that. I haven't ever had a serious relationship or considered marriage and I'm not about to get into a shallow relationship to please my father. He can have his money, his business and everything else. I'll walk away still being my own person.”

“That's amazing. You must have incredible willpower.”

“Incredible stubbornness is what he'll call it. I don't care. Here's my condo,” Jake said, turning into a gated area. He punched a code and tall iron gates swung inward.

Helping her out of the car, Jake took her arm. “I'll give you a brief tour,” he said, leading her into a kitchen that made her ranch kitchen look the age it was. Dark wood was softened by the lighting and splashes of color in plants, jars and copper-bottomed pots. An adjoining sitting room was inviting with plaid-covered furniture.

The central hall held a fountain and pool. The living area
was another inviting room with leather furniture and walls of books. As Jake shed his coat and tie and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt, her mouth went dry and she forgot his condo.

He glanced at her, then focused more intently and she looked away, moving around the room to look at shelves holding books, vases and pictures. There were pictures of Jake with his brother and sister.

“Even though your father meddles in your life, you had a family with a brother and sister and that's wonderful.”

“You at least had your grandmother.”

“That I did and I had more in Cecilia, Altheda and Kirby who were like family to me. No, I will always be grateful for my grandmother who gave me a wonderful life.”

“All evening I have wanted to do this,” he said, reaching up to take the clip out of her hair. While locks tumbled on her shoulders, he placed the clip on a shelf and ran his fingers through her hair. His gaze held hers and it was difficult to get her breath again.

“This is the way I like you best.”

Her heart drummed because he stood only inches from her. His gaze was on her mouth and his fingers still combed slowly through her hair. His arm circled her waist, drawing her closer and then he kissed her, his mouth covering hers while his tongue slipped into her mouth.

Her heart pounded. Unable to resist, she stood on tiptoe, put her arms around his neck to hug him as she kissed him in return. “This wasn't going to happen to me,” she whispered, looking up at him and meeting blue eyes filled with desire.

“It's happened and it's fantastic,” he said. “Stop fighting me and yourself.”

“I don't think I've ever fought you,” she whispered in return, lost in a spiral of yearning and hot kisses as she clung to him and returned his kisses.

Desire enveloped her, driving away all reason. She wanted only Jake, running her hands across his broad shoulders and feeling his warm skin beneath the fine cotton of his dress shirt. Then her fingers were at his buttons and she twisted them free to run her hands over his chest, tangling her fingers in his thick mat of chest hair.

He tightened his arm around her waist, kissing her hard while his other hand slipped down her back and over her bottom. She gasped as sensations bombarded her. He shifted while he tugged down the zipper of her dress.

Cool air brushed her heated skin, but she barely noticed, thinking about Jake and his kisses, his hard, muscled body pressed against hers, his sculpted chest.