The Texas Millionaire's Runaway Wife (18 page)

She reached forward and untied his robe. “I bet you’ve never spent much time in this kitchen, have you?”

“Just at the bakery,” he said, his thumbs grazing over her nipples. “But I think I might want to spend some more. My past experience and my experience today have taught me they can be more fun than first imagined.”

Blushing, Cassie remembered their time in the bakery. It was only once, but it had been amazing. Excited by the memory, she arched her breasts into his hands and raked nails down his back. “I’ve always enjoyed them,” she breathed, inches from his ear. She nibbled the lobe and tightened her hands around his neck. “Something so...raw...about a room like this. All these knives. The cold metal pots and pans. Sterile surfaces.”

“God you’re so hot.”

Leaning down, she bit his nipple, pulling it back between her teeth.

He let out a hiss and forced her legs further apart. “Lay back, Cassie.”

She did what he asked, anticipation flooding the entire time.

“You’re so wet.”

“You make me that way.”

He ran his fingers up and down the length of her dewy sex and pumped them into her a few times. His thumb grazed her nub making Cassie arch into his hand. She wanted more. She always wanted more. “Stephen,” she breathed.

His robe fell to the ground and he nudged the tip of his erection between the folds of her sex. “This what you want?”

“Yes,” she hissed.

He slowed down. Barely nudging, never quite entering. Cassie felt she may die right there on the block as she waited for him. The hard wood beneath her felt smooth and sexy. He parted her and ran his finger over her a few more times. If he kept that up, she’d come before he ever entered her. “Stephen,” she bit out, feeling raw.

He pressed the head into her and waited. “Say you love me.”

His words made her grow hotter. Wetter. She didn’t want to think. She only wanted to feel. “I love you,” she whispered.

“Say it again.”

“I love you. God Stephen, I love you.”

He pressed in hard, filling her with his entire length. His body leaned over hers and he pulled her into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his midsection as he walked them both. They landed hard against a wall. Cassie raised and fell on him. The cool wall pressed against her back, his fingers dug into her bottom.

“Say it again,” he urged.

“I love you. I love you.” He pressed in deeper and they moved back to the block. In a flurry of quick thrusts he brought them both over the edge. Completely spent, Cassie closed her eyes and barely felt as he carried her back upstairs.

Chapter Fourteen

Say I love you
. Those four words rocked Cassie to her core. Not in the middle of it. In the middle she would have agreed to rob a bank had he asked. But after, once her sex-muddled brain had a chance to think, she realized what an odd request. Say I love you. From a man who acted so much as if he hated her. Perhaps they were just words.

Or maybe he really had feelings for her.

“Listen,” he said, “we need to talk about something tonight.”

Stephen was fully dressed, ready to go into the office. Cassie was lying naked and not the least bit ashamed in his bed.

“This whole marriage thing.”

Had he been reading her mind? She waited for him to continue.

“I don’t think we made a good enough impression at the Travis Building, so my brothers and I discussed it, we’re throwing a party next weekend.”

“What kind of party?”

“A wedding party, of sorts. My family, cousins, about five-hundred of my closest friends.”

Cassie’s jaw dropped. It seemed a party that big would take more than a week to pull off. Then again, when you have unlimited resources they way the Sands family does, she supposed you could pull anything off. “So what’s going to happen?”

“Mostly a lot of greeting people, letting them see us together, making sure there is no doubt we are well and truly married.”

Cassie nodded. Not exactly what she’d had in mind, but for Stephen’s sake perhaps it would be enough. Maybe if people saw them together at the party, they could get a quiet divorce and move on with their separate lives.

Who was she kidding? She’d seen gossip TV before. In the age of the internet, no one with even the smallest celebrity status got a quiet divorce. Someone would dig it up. Some clerk at the courthouse would be paid the equivalent of a car payment or maybe even a little more, and then their quickie divorce would be out for the public to see. Scandal aplenty. Then, if they dug only a little deeper, they would find their marriage hadn’t happened the way they’d presented it to the world, either.

“You’re awful quiet.”

Cassie turned to him. “Just thinking.”

He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. “Anything I can help you with?”

She didn’t think so. Not unless he knew how to change history. “No.”

“Annie’s going to be fine. I’ve worked with Magnolia Bransford for a long time. They have tremendous success. You’ll be surprised by the difference.”

Cassie smiled painfully. “It’s not Annie.”

His eyebrow quirked, waiting for her to elaborate. Instead, she turned away and glanced out the window. A party.

How was Cassie supposed to ask him for a quiet divorce if he planned to have a party to celebrate their marriage?

She sighed and tried not to think about it. They’d just have to face that when the time came. She’d talked with Charles Sands last night; she didn’t think it would be too surprising to the old man if their marriage ended quickly.

But what consequences would Stephen face?

After he left, Cassie sought out Abigail. She needed to do the right thing, but she needed to talk to someone. She hadn’t found the courage to talk to Stephen, and that left only one other person in the house.

It took some convincing, but Cassie finally got Abigail to sit on the couch with her. “I know you’ve been with him for a long time, and you’re very loyal. I know you’re probably the only other person I can go to who can help me,” Cassie implored.

A mixture of guilt and determination settled on the woman’s face as she talked. “I shouldn’t be doing this, but I think for you to better understand Stephen, you should understand about his mom.”

“His mom?” He’d never really talked about his mother. Only his father. Cassie already knew what a bastard Charles had been. Not to mention the string of ex-wives.

As Abigail unfolded the story, Cassie’s heart broke for the little boy Stephen had been. At ten years old, after the William and Andrew were born, his mother left them. Stephen had never told her. “She never came back? Never tried to contact the boys?”

“No,” Abigail said. “Not even once. When Stephen was twelve he got in trouble and his dad had to pick him up from school and take him to the office. After that, he spent every afternoon there. Stephen told me several years ago it was Gayle who finally told him the truth about his mother.”

“You mean—”

“Charles never told the boys.”

Cassie shook her head in amazement. She couldn’t believe the man would be so cruel to his own sons. “Why would he do that?” she whispered. Her heart broke for all four boys. No wonder they didn’t have normal relationships.

“He didn’t know how.”

Biting her lip, Cassie decided to go ahead and ask the question lingering between them. “So when Stephen married me like that, out of the blue, what did he hope to accomplish?”

Abigail shook her head and put her arm over the back of the couch. “That isn’t how Stephen thinks. He loved you and didn’t want to give you a chance to leave. If you ever did leave, I imagine it would feel like his world was crashing all over again. He doesn’t bounce around between women, not as much as the tabloids would make you believe. Most of the women in those pictures are friends, or acquaintances. There must be something truly special about you for Stephen to have wanted to settle down.”

It felt like a hole punched into her heart. She had left. She couldn’t have known about his past, and he’d certainly given her reason to go, but he’d given her a piece of himself and she threw it back. It made her ache, and it made her angry at all the time they’d wasted lying to each other. Her by holding back so much of herself, him for pretending to be anyone other than who he truly was.

“I shouldn’t have told you any of this. But you’re his wife, and I love him. He’s like a son to me and you’re right, I’m protective of him. But it’s only because no one else has been.”

Cassie nodded.

“So, take good care of him, Cassie. If you’re in this for the wrong reason, you need to end it before this has a chance to get any muddier.”

“I will,” Cassie said. She didn’t know what else needed to be said and she sensed Abigail was finished, so she stood.

“I know you aren’t a bad person, Cassie. But Stephen’s not had a chance to be with a good one, so please just be careful.”

She smiled again and pulled Abigail into an impromptu embrace before leaving.

So quickly everything had changed. Cassie had believed they’d been drunk and that’s what prompted the marriage. The ring always threw her but now she knew. Stephen had loved her.

And, Cassie realized, she loved him. Not only then, but now. She’d been so wrapped around the thought of leaving him that she’d not stopped to consider she might actually love him.

Love. How had that happened? Worse still, she didn’t want the divorce. It hit her suddenly leaving her breathless. This whole relationship they had going was set up to get them the divorce they should have gotten long ago.

But now, Cassie didn’t want it. Love. She loved him.

Without warning, without any plans of how to protect her own heart, Cassie realized once and for all that she loved Stephen.

She wouldn’t let him go. Not without a fight. His mom might have left him all those years ago. Cassie knew she’d left him, probably making him feel just as unloved as his mom, but now she knew the truth. She’d left because she loved him.

She hadn’t known what to do with those feelings then, but she knew now. She would fight for Stephen Sands. She’d convince him, somehow, that they truly were meant to be together.

With that thought in mind, Cassie stood a little straighter.

****

It was two hours before Stephen came through the front door. Cassie joined him in the main foyer. “You look happy.” She helped him take his coat off.

“He finally gave in.” Stephen’s eyes shone with excitement. “It took some negotiating, and a few pretty deep concessions, but Jordan Giles finally signed over that land.”

Cassie nodded. “Great.”

“Great? Great? Do you know what this means?” He grabbed Cassie by the hips, lifted her and twirled them both around the entrance. “This means the deal is done. I can move on. This means…” He leaned his head over for a kiss. “That the Fairview project is a go.”

He put Cassie down and she held her hands clasped in front of her as she asked, “But what does that mean?”

“The mommies. When I told them I’d build them a playground, I meant it. The Fairview district was industrialized over fifty years ago, but it shouldn’t have been. The land is right next to the river. Beautiful land, there used to be all these trees, all this wide open space. Then it became nothing but polluted air and cement. Now…” he threw his hands wide. “Now it can be whatever we want it to be. William and I have been discussing, we want to bring it back to its former glory.”

“I thought William did architecture.”

“Architecture and land development.” He kissed Cassie again. “God, this feels great. Do you know how long I’ve been working on this project?” He looked around. “Where’s Abigail? She usually greets me at the door when I come home.”

“I gave her the night off.” Cassie took a step back and Stephen finally seemed to see what she’d put on. A black baby doll nightgown and black robe. He swallowed a couple of times before curling his fingers over the collar of the satin robe. “The night off, huh?”

Cassie nodded and took a step further back. “I wanted to have you all to myself.”

He licked his lips then took another step toward her. “What are your plans, Mrs. Sands?”

She started up the stairs but kept her eyes on him. “I thought you could give me a tour of your house. I’ve seen the kitchen.” She let the robe fall to the ground halfway up the stairs. “The master bedroom, one of the guest rooms.” She faced him and asked, “How many rooms do you have here?”

He dropped his suit coat and loosened his tie. “Twelve altogether.”

She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “I don’t know then...”

“Yeah?”

She stepped out of one of her heels and made it to the top of the stairs. “I don’t know if you have the stamina.”

He dropped his tie over the banister and she watched it slide partway down before fluttering over and onto the bottom floor. “I’ve got more than enough stamina,” he assured. He unbuttoned his shirt and drew closer. Stephen clasped her face in his hands. “Can you handle me, Cassie?”

Warm tendrils of desire snaked into every erogenous zone on her body. Some she hadn’t even realized existed. She took a few steps back and opened the first door. “How about we see?”

Inside, she found a library. Leather furniture, books on floor to ceiling shelves, a fireplace against the east wall. “Very cozy, Stephen.”

He nodded and ran his hands up beneath her nightgown. “I always thought this room would be a great place to make love. Surrounded by books, smell of leather. Fire blazing in the winter.” He kissed her neck and cupped her barely clad bottom in his hand.

“I don’t know if I can wait until winter, think we’ll be warm enough without the fire?” she whispered.

He licked across her collarbone and let his thumb graze the already tightened nub of her nipple. “I think we can make our own heat.”

Cassie grasped the edge of his shirt and pulled it the rest of the way over his head. “So, eleven rooms to go?”

Devilishly he walked her backwards to the leather sofa. “Nine, actually. We’ve already seen the kitchen and master bedroom.”

“Mmm, nine.” Their lips met and tongues swirled together as Cassie undid the clasp on Stephen’s pants and he worked her nightgown above her head. “You can manage?”