The Texas Millionaire's Runaway Wife (17 page)

“Not very nice, Mrs. Sands.” Reaching down, he cupped her chin then landed a kiss on her nose. His lips moved lower as their eyes locked. “So beautiful,” he whispered.

His soft brown eyes swirled with depths of emotion and Cassie didn’t want to look away. She felt she may never want to look away again. She pressed her fingers through his thick hair and deepened their kiss, tongues swirling, sucking. Each vying for the dominant role. Cassie won out as she grabbed his bottom, pulling him harder against her.

He groaned in response and took a step back. She followed, leading them both to the bed. They fell onto it with a soft thud, her on top and him, deliciously, on the bottom. He moved until he was in the middle of the bed. Cassie straddled his torso and used her hands to smooth his arms above his head. “I like this,” she whispered as she leaned in to kiss his neck. She led a trail of light nips and licks all the way down to his nipples.

As she licked across the first, Stephen growled and tried to push her over. “God, that feels so good,” he hissed.

She wouldn’t let him. Instead, she licked the other and kissed every part of his bare chest. She felt him growing hard beneath her and felt devious as she told him, “Stay.”

He gave a cocky grin as he interlaced fingers and placed hands behind his head. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Casually, she ran her index finger down the length of his chest and landed at his boxers. His hips strained upward in an effort to help her remove them. Somewhere in the hallway she heard his cell phone ring. He tensed for a moment.

“Ignore it,” she said. Her eyes locked with his and he nodded slightly.

With that, she hooked her thumbs around the waistband of his boxers and peeled them away. His erection strained tall, proud and
oh so
thick
as the boxers fell to the floor.

Cassie remembered the first time they’d made love, but her memory didn’t make her twitch with anticipation the way she did now. Heat filled her lower belly and poured down into her sex as she thought of him filling her. It had been too long since they’d been together. Mesmerized, she reached her hand up to touch the already-glistening tip.

He groaned and his thighs flexed on either side of her. Cassie sat up and ran her fingertips from his chest down across his ribs, his hips and thighs, purposefully avoiding his straining erection.

“You’re killing me, you know.”

She grinned in response. “Wouldn’t want to do that.” But she did. She wanted to torture him, make him beg for her. “Should I touch you here?” she asked as she slid kisses along his inner thigh.

“Mmm.”

“Or how about here?” she asked as she landed on his hipbone. His muscles flexed. Her eyes slid over his length and the followed a trail back up to his face. She ran her fingernail down the length of his shaft. “Here?” she whispered as she lay one feather-soft kiss on the tip.

He growled once more and flipped them both. Before Cassie knew what was happening, he had her on her back, pinned beneath him. “I don’t think I can handle myself with you in control, Cassie.”

She grinned as his rough hands settled softly over her breasts. His lips pulled her nipple in and sucked. Liquid heat pooled between her thighs in response. She strained against him, but he held her with his knee. The only thing separating him from her sex was the tiny scrap of her white cotton panties.

Stephen moved to the other breast and sucked her nipple. Cassie squirmed. He’d brought her to orgasm just hours before and that excitement hadn’t left just because he’d finished. She wiggled tried to bring her hands down to his erection, but he wouldn’t let her. Every time she stretched for him, he grabbed her and held her back.

“What are you doing to me, Cassie?”

“I want more.” She’d waited hours. Perhaps a lifetime for this. Her memories of Stephen almost all revolved around how they fit together in bed. In spite of everything, Cassie couldn’t forget how well he fit inside her. “Please.”

The please did it. With a groan, he slid her panties over her hips and down. Cassie kicked them free and moved against his thigh. “Stephen, I don’t want to wait.”

“Really?” He nudged her further apart and slid a finger down the length of her wetness.

Moaning, Cassie arched up, forcing his finger inside. “Stephen,” she growled this time. His hands still held her tight, but she couldn’t wait.

And he seemed to sense that. Moving over her, he knelt between her knees and inched her sex open with his erection. Finally breaking free, Cassie used her hand to guide him into her. The heat from their connection almost made her come right there, but as he slid into her, she did everything in her power to hold off. It’d been too long.

Memories flooded as he filled her completely. She pushed her breasts up to him and moved her hips in unison with his thrusts. They sped up and Stephen kissed her neck, bent over her.

“Don’t hold back,” she urged. She wanted him to fill her, completely.

And he did. The final thrusts pushed her over the edge and Cassie clawed at his back to pull him in deeper. She bit his shoulder as he came inside of her. The sounds of their heavy breathing filled the room as Stephen rolled over to his back, pulling her atop. “I missed you, Cassie.”

She laid her head against his chest as he pulled a blanket over them both.

“I missed you, too, Stephen.”

****

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but Cassie now curled warm and vulnerable in the crook of his arm. He leaned up onto his hip and moved a bit of hair away from her face so he could see her better. Her soft breathing, the way her lashes lay across her cheek. The pink tint of her well kissed lips. The whole look made Stephen hard as a rock again.

Not wanting to wake her, he instead gently pulled his arm free and worked his way out of the bed. His cell phone had rang while they’d made love. He knew he should leave it be, but with multi-million dollar deals hanging in the balance, Stephen couldn’t very well just pretend the world stopped around him.

He gathered it, and their clothing from the hallway, then stopped outside the door to check messages. One. He gritted his teeth when he discovered it was from Tatiana. She wanted her money or she was going to reveal the truth. So close to the end and he couldn’t get a break. His thoughts went back to Cassie.

Unquestionably, she was the best lover he’d ever had. He glanced down and realized he’d stay hard unless he did something about it. A devious smile formed across his face as he closed the phone and went back into the room. Moving barefoot across the carpet, he knelt onto the bed and slid his hand down Cassie’s side, landing on her bottom. She had the softest bottom. So sweet and warm beneath his hand. Pulling the covers free, he placed a kiss on her hip, then one on her cheek. She stirred as he parted her thighs and kissed the apex of curls. She smelled like sex. He nudged her legs further apart and touched the tip of his hardness against her moist slit.

She moaned. “Not even going to wake me first, were you?”

He grinned wolfishly as he buried himself in her.

He moved slowly, this time. The urgency of their earlier union had come from a desperate, primal place. Now, he wanted to take his time.

“More,” she urged.

Stephen smiled. He was in control, and he’d take as long as he wanted.

****

Finally spent, emotion welled in her chest as Cassie relaxed in his arms. She wished she could will this night to last forever. For a few hours it felt as if her world wasn’t crumbling around her. As if Liz and Annie didn’t need her, as if Stephen didn’t hate her. For a few hours, she got to just be Cassie. Sexy Cassie, sure, but at least without the worry of her day-to-day life. She stroked his belly with her hand. In only three days her entire life had turned upside down. Everything felt different.

She couldn’t keep him like this. Couldn’t make him wait this thing out. He might not love Tatiana, but he deserved to be with someone he loved. No matter how she felt for him. She was selfish coming back. She didn’t want to lose her business to save her family, so she dragged him into a problem that wasn’t his own. It wasn’t right. And he deserved better.

He deserved a chance to find true love. She’d leverage the bakery, that’s what she should have done in the first place. This was her problem, not his.

But how would she convince him to let her out? She’d be the bad guy, no way around it. And that’s what she deserved. If doing the right thing made her look bad, so be it.

Now the biggest question was trying to figure out how to be okay with herself once this was all done.

“You’re awful quiet.”

She pressed her lips against his chest and looked up at him again. “Just thinking.”

“About Liz and Annie?” His arm pulled her tighter and he brushed a strand of hair away from her face.

She rubbed his back as she said, “Them, and other things.”

His eyebrow quirked as he waited. But she didn’t say any more. Instead she asked, “Are you hungry?” A lecherous grin formed on his lips. Laughing, she slapped his backside and said, “No. No more of that. I’m exhausted. I mean for food. Are you hungry for food?”

He looked like a sullen child as he shifted and sat up next to her. “I could eat. Should I call Abigail?”

Cassie rolled her eyes. “We are capable of feeding ourselves, you know.”

He leaned against the headboard and crossed arms behind his head. “I wouldn’t know. I stay away from the kitchen.”

“You’ve never made yourself a sandwich?”

“Not since college.”

She shook her head as she sat up and got out of the bed. “Where’s your robe?”

He motioned toward the closet door.

“Come with me. Food can be very sexy, you know.”

He arched his brow again as he sat at the edge of the bed. “I’m guessing almost anything you do is sexy.”

She laughed. “That’s me. Pure, raw, sex appeal.” She walked closer to the bed, carrying a second robe, but his hands reached out and snaked around her middle.

She landed back on the bed with a soft thud and laughed. “What are you doing?”

His eyes had darkened and his fingers moved down her arms. “Cassie, you are one of the sexiest women I know. Purely passionate. I don’t think you even realize it. Earlier you told me you don’t fit in with those blondes. You’re right.”

She didn’t need to hear this. Pushing against him, she tried to get back up. “Move, Stephen.”

“No. You’re right. Those women have nothing. Tatiana? The one who keeps calling and trying to reach me, she’s nothing. She’s this young thing that I thought was beautiful. But I was wrong. You’re beautiful. You’re sexy, passionate, loving, you’re thoughtful. Hell, you even invited the local Mommy’s Day Out group over for lunch. Tatiana would have never done something like that. Those blondes would never do something like that.”

Heat filled Cassie’s cheeks as she confessed, “I only wanted to upset you.”

He leaned over and asked, “What do you mean?”

“I thought the mommies and all those kids would push you over the edge. That you’d decide I wasn’t worth the effort and you’d let me out of this.”

“How do you feel now?” he asked, voice deep and too sexy by far.

“Right now I don’t want to feel anything.”

He pressed his lips against hers, kissing his way across her mouth and down her neck. “What about this?”

She moaned and moved her body in rhythm to his kisses. “I always want to feel this.”

“Still hungry for that sandwich?”

“Yes.”

He laughed. “I could still call Abigail.”

“No,” she urged as she pushed up from the bed. “C’mon.” Grabbing his hand, she led him to the kitchen.

“Now, the key to a good sandwich,” she said, “is that it’s all about the bread.”

He sat on a stool at the counter and waited for her to continue. “Typical for a baker to say such things.”

She rolled her eyes. “If you want a nice tomato sandwich, but put it on soft bread, you’ll end up with a gooey mess.”

“What if I like gooey messes?”

She laughed. He looked like a little boy on that stool. Attentive and listening to her every word. She loved it. Pulling some hardy bread from the breadbox, she then searched the refrigerator for what she needed. “Gooey messes are great in some instances, but never in a sandwich.”

“Should I take notes?”

“No.”

She slathered some mayo onto the bread, followed by mustard then cheddar cheese. “Next, the meat.”

“Mmm, meat and gooeyness. I think I like this whole sandwich making business.”

“You’re such a pervert,” she laughed. Taking some pastrami from a container, she layered it onto the bread, followed by lettuce, tomato and a sliced avocado. She pressed the bread together and placed it on a plate. “There, Mr. Sands, you have the perfect sandwich.”

He looked at her skeptically. “I don’t know. I’ve had some pretty amazing sandwiches in my time. Davalo’s, over off of Broadway, for instance. So what makes this sandwich different?”

She stepped around the counter and faced him. “It was made by me.” Picking up the sandwich, she held it to his lips. He opened his mouth and took a bite, chewing slowly, his eyes never leaving hers.

Somehow, Stephen even made eating a sandwich into a sexual experience. Heat flooded her belly sending tendrils of excitement coursing through her veins. She tried to ignore the sexual sounds coming from his mouth.

“Davalo’s doesn’t have anything on you,” he said finally, taking the sandwich from her hands. “Where’s yours?”

Grinning, Cassie nipped at his palm before moving to make one more. They ate in silence, well, almost silence. He wouldn’t stop making those noises. “You don’t have to be so sexual when you eat, you know.”

“No?” he asked, looking at her innocently.

“No, you don’t.”

He moved around the counter and traced his finger across her forehead. “You have a little mustard.”

Her heart beat faster as he leaned in. Softly, he licked the corner of her mouth. “Did you get it?” Her voice sounded husky, even to her. And her knees felt wobbly as she leaned her hip against the counter.

“I got it.”

His mouth pressed over hers and she leaned further into the counter. He lifted her, effortlessly, and walked her backwards to the wooden cutting block. Cassie couldn’t help but notice that the block was the perfect height for them to make love. She untied her robe and let it fall from her shoulders. The fabric whispered against her nipples as it fell away and the cold air mixed with Stephen’s animalistic stare made her tingle in anticipation.