Catherine's Awakening (3 page)

was coming through clenched teeth. Yup, still pretty angry.

“Through Christ, our Lord, Amen,” he said, and the men fell to their food hungrily.

Nobody seemed to notice that the stew was burned, or if they did, they weren’t saying

anything. One of the things she’d learned as the daughter of a ranch hand was that a

hungry man hardly cares what he eats. If it’s hot, that’s good enough after a long day of

work.

Wade wasn’t eating, though.

“I hear that they’re looking for a teacher in town,” he said, the words a gauntlet

thrown across the table. “I can’t imagine what kind of woman would want a job like

that. A real woman wants to get married and take care of her man.”

“That’s definitely true,” John Masters said, dipping his biscuit in the gravy. “Too

many men, not enough good women to tame ‘em. I don’t know who they’ll be able to

find to fill the position—all the local girls have kids to watch. And no Eastern woman is

going to come out here, not unless they’re prepared to pay a whole lot more. The last

time they had a man take over he wasn’t worth a damn. It’s not men’s work, anyway.”

The ranch hands nodded sagely, as if they cared one bit about the teacher’s job.

Catherine took a deep breath, and then spoke.

“I put my name in for the teaching position,” she said. Like a row of startled

puppets, the men stopped eating and turned to look at her. “After all, it’s not like I have

a husband or children. You’ve been very good to me here, but it’s been a year and it’s

time for me to move on. There’s a house in town for the teacher, and I think I’d do very

well there. I was always good in school, you know.”

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Catherine’s Awakening

“That’s a damn fool idea,” John said, sounding so much like Wade it startled her.

“You belong here on the ranch, you’re one of us. And the work you do here is

important. We can’t keep this place running unless all of us do our part.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but to her surprise, Wade jumped in first.

“I agree, it’s a damn fool idea,” he said. “But the reason Catherine should stay isn’t

because of the work. We can hire someone to keep house if we need to. She should stay

here because we’re a family, and this is where she belongs.”

“Beside that, you’ll be marrying soon enough. They’ll take your wages if you leave

before the school year ends,” John said, speaking to her directly. “It’s about time you

and Wade tied the knot.”

“What?” she gasped, even as Wade spoke forcefully.

“Dad, keep your mouth shut.”

Silence fell over the table, and Jim, one of the ranch hands, coughed nervously.

“Maybe we should be getting out to the bunkhouse,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Wade said. “I’ll help Cat with the dishes, and we can talk

about things privately. You finish your food.” Wade stood up, walked over to Catherine

and took her elbow, all but dragging her into the kitchen.

“What the hell is your father talking about?” she demanded as soon as they reached

the kitchen. Wade clicked his tongue in mock reproach.

“Teachers don’t use language like that. You definitely belong here on the ranch

with us.”

“Don’t tell me what kind of language to use,” she said, glaring at him. “What did

your father mean? I’m not marrying you.”

“He wants us to get married,” Wade said, letting go of her arm, and leaning back

against the kitchen table. “And I think he’s right. You’re a good woman, the kind of

woman who can help me build this ranch into what it should be. We have the chance to

make our own empire here, Cat. I’ve been making contacts, studying the markets. They

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Joanna Wylde

need beef back East, and we can give it to them. Maybe not this year or the next, but

we’ll figure out how to get our cattle to one of the railheads up north. When that

happens, men like me will become cattle kings, we’ll make our own destiny. You’re the

perfect partner for someone like me.”

“You’re insane,” she said. “I don’t want to marry you. I don’t want to marry

anyone. I want to live my own life. And it’s Catherine,” she added absently.

“If we got married, this would be your own life,” he said, his tone reasonable. “You

have as much to gain as me. We can do it together, really create something for our

children to inherit.”

“I don’t think
 
we
 
is the right word,” she said. “You and your father own the ranch.

The men get paid. All I do around here is work, and while I appreciate the room and

board, I want more in life. If nothing else, I’d like to be able to buy material for a new

dress someday. You know, clothing that hasn’t been mended a thousand times?”

He looked startled, and then ran an assessing eye over her body. She shivered,

wishing she wasn’t so sure he was picturing her without any clothes at all.

“If you want a pretty dress, we can get that for you,” he said slowly. “We can even

order something if you’d like, so you don’t have to make it yourself.”

“I don’t want you to buy me a dress,” she said. “I want to buy my own dress. I

don’t want to be dependent, Wade. I want to take care of myself. And I definitely don’t

want to be married ever again.”

He took a step close to her, reaching out and touching her cheek softly. Tendrils of

desire shot through her, and she crossed her arms over her chest protectively. She

didn’t need him touching her, confusing her senses any more than he already had.

“You feel it between us, I know you do,” he said, his voice low. “There’s always

been something there, but you were too young before the war, and when I got back

you’d already married Ryan. Why the hell did you do it, Catherine?”

She shook her head, denying his version of events.

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Catherine’s Awakening

“All I remember between us was you teasing me,” she said tartly. “You pulled my

braids and called me ‘kitty Cat’. That’s not a connection, that’s bullying.”

“Well, you were too damn young for me to do this,” he said, pulling her forward in

his arms suddenly, taking her mouth with his and chasing all the thoughts right out of

her head. Ryan was the only man who’d ever kissed her, and his touches had been

fumbling and moist, nothing like Wade’s.

His mouth mastered hers and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. His lips were hard,

controlling, and his tongue pushed into her opening with a fire she couldn’t fight.

Didn’t
 
want
 
to fight. Her entire body sagged against him, the firmness and strength of

his arms holding her up. They pressed together, him lean and long; her soft and

yielding. Every part of Catherine screamed that she should give in to him, to spread

herself and let him thrust between her legs with the same fervor he was thrusting his

tongue into her mouth.

He stopped the kiss, pulling away from her slowly as she gasped for breath.

“That’s between us,” he said, his eyes dark in the barely lit kitchen. The sun was

setting outside, and the last pale reflections of light making the room intimate and close.

She swayed, wiping her hand across her mouth.

“You can kiss, I’ll give you that,” she said. “But kissing is only one part of life. I

learned something from my time with Ryan—a woman can’t afford to give in to her

heart. I’ve already been charmed by one Masters man, I won’t fall for another. It doesn’t

matter how much you kiss me, Wade, I won’t be marrying you. Ever. I’m going to be a

schoolteacher.”

With that, she turned away from him, deliberately pretending she couldn’t sense

him looming behind her. In fact, she could hardly hold herself upright, she was so

unnerved, but that was the last thing she wanted him to know.

“Cat, you’re a stubborn woman,” Wade said. “I like that—I don’t need some silly

girl who doesn’t have a mind of her own. They’re not worth a damn out on the range.

But you’re wrong about us. We belong together, and I’ve known it since you were

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Joanna Wylde

thirteen years old. You got away from me for a while, but Ryan was stupid enough to

get himself killed and give me another chance. I won’t make the same mistake twice.

You
 
will
 
marry me.”

He strode out of the kitchen, his words hanging heavy in the close kitchen air.

Catherine took a deep breath, stretched her arms above her head, and forced herself to

release some of the tension she’d built up.

“Some help with the dishes he is,” she muttered, picking up a pot and slamming it

down on the table. The thud it made was satisfying, so she did it again, this time

banging so hard that a spoon fell off the table and rattled to the floor.

She should have banged it against his stubborn head.

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Catherine’s Awakening

Chapter Two

Wade sat back on his bed, turning over the small velvet pouch he held in his

fingers, toying with the drawstring.

He’d really screwed things up this time. Or rather, his father had. Wade wasn’t a

subtle man, never had been, but even he knew better than tell a woman who she should

marry in front of a roomful of ranch hands. He’d always wanted Cat. Coming home

from the war to find her hitched to his brother had been one of the worst days of his

life. And the day Ryan died? He’d decided to marry the new widow within an hour of

getting the news. He still felt guilty about that—a man should be angry to learn his

brother’s dead, not happy. But Ryan had been broken inside, twisted in a sick way that

only Wade seemed to have noticed when they were kids. In adulthood, Ryan’s behavior

had been so God-awful that nobody could miss it. Fighting in the war had made it

worse, and Catherine had been foolish to marry him as soon as he came back.

She’d definitely paid the price, and then some, poor woman.

Wade had waited patiently over the past year, even though sometimes he’d wanted

her so badly he’d had to leave the ranch house, joining the men on the range for weeks

at a time. The smell of her hair haunted him, the quirk of her mouth when she smiled,

the way her head tilted when she looked off into the distance. He hadn’t seen that smile

for a long time after Ryan’s death, but it was back again these days. When he’d found

her watching the horses, something inside him just snapped. He knew he should regret

what he’d done, but he couldn’t. That one touch of her body was the most heavenly

thing he’d ever experienced. He’d be damned if he regretted anything about it.

Wade opened the little bag and tilted it, allowing the star sapphire ring and

matching sapphire eardrops inside to slide out. They were exactly the same color as her

eyes. He’d been carrying them for four years, ever since a grateful Georgian woman had

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Joanna Wylde

given them to him when he’d saved her husband’s life. He’d known they were for

Catherine even then. Hell, he’d known he wanted her since she was thirteen and he was

seventeen. She’d always been part of him on a certain level—when he’d come home to

find her married to Ryan, it was like one of his arms had been cut off.

The ring glinted in the candlelight, the star within shining bright. Bright as her

gaze. He thought of her lips, the way she’d fallen under his spell the moment he’d

kissed her. She wanted him every bit as badly as he wanted her, there was no question