Cowboy Cool: Book 5 (Cowboy Justice Association) (36 page)

Reed simply looked at her for a long time not saying a word, but there was a hunger in his eyes that matched her own.

“I love you, Kaylee.”

She took a long, shuddering breath and felt relief sweep through her body. Finally.

“I know. I love you too, Reed.”

His lips turned up at the corners and her heart pounded in her chest for this one man. “I know that too. If you didn’t I wouldn’t have the power to hurt you. And you trusted me. Even tonight. I could feel how angry you were and then suddenly you weren’t mad. You remembered how you felt.”

She couldn’t deny it and didn’t want to. “I did. I remembered how you saved my life and how you protected me. I knew you wouldn’t hurt me.”

He looked down at the floor and then back up. “But I did hurt you by walking away, didn’t I?”

She shook her head, not wanting him to beat himself up over something he couldn’t control. “It hurt because I loved you, not because I thought I’d done something wrong or not been enough. I knew you had work to do and I couldn’t help you with it. You had to do it on your own.”

He nodded. “It’s not done but I’ve made progress. I talked to my father-in-law about things we’d never discussed before. I’m also attending a grief counseling group.”

Kaylee tried to hide her shock but didn’t quite succeed by the grin on his face. She’d suggested he see a counselor but never in a million years did she think he would do it. He’d been serious about getting better and that fact made her heart squeeze painfully.

“Do you still believe you betrayed Julie?” she asked softly, scared of the answer. Their entire future hung in the balance.

“No, I don’t. After talking to Sonny, my father-in-law, I think you’re right. Julie wanted to live, ultimately. She was angry and scared and she took it out on me mostly, but now I see that she took it out on others when I wasn’t around.”

Tears of relief, love, and hope slipped down her cheeks. “I’m so glad. I think Julie was a lucky woman to have you love her that much.”

He hadn’t touched her yet, not really. But he reached out and cupped her face in his hands so she was looking deep into his hazel eyes, almost gold with passion.

“Yes, I loved Julie. As much as a man can love when he’s a callow, untried youth who doesn’t know shit about life and death. But what I feel for you…dammit Kaylee, it goes so deep…so painfully rooted…aww hell, I just love you so damn much that it hurts. I want to build a life with you if you’ll have me. I want my future to be you. If I can have that, I’ll be happy for the rest of my life.”

More tears but these were most definitely joyful. “Damn, cowboy, you have a way with words. Yes, I want a future with you. Yes, yes, yes. I’ve waited for you not just these last weeks but my whole life.”

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a tiny black velvet-covered box. She sucked air into her lungs and tried to calm her racing heart.

It was actually happening.

He flipped open the lid and pulled out the ring but to her surprise only half of it came out. “I saw this in a jewelry store this afternoon and knew it was perfect. The ring is made in two parts that fit together, each one a gold band with a diamond. The two can be soldered together so it makes one seamless ring. No one would ever know that it had been in two pieces.” He slid the ring on her finger and her heart fluttered in her chest. “I’m offering this as a promise and a vow that I’m going to do everything in my power to lay to rest the past and be worthy of you. When you feel ready, you can wear the second part and we’ll consider ourselves engaged. But in my heart we’re already husband and wife.”

Two parts brought together as one. It was perfect.

Emotion too powerful for words clogged her throat so she simply nodded as her vision blurred with tears. “I feel like I’m always crying with you,” she laughed shakily. “It may not look like it but I’m happy.”

“Are you angry with me for leaving, honey? I’m so sorry, but I had to.”

“I know you did. It didn’t make it any easier but I knew if we were going to have any chance together that I had to let you go.”

He leaned back against the chair and tugged her into his arms, her head resting on his chest. Her favorite place to be. “You could have told me you loved me before I left, you know.”

“You already knew from the looks of things,” she teased. “I didn’t want to burden you with all my emotions when you could barely handle your own. Besides, you didn’t tell me either.”

“Did you know?”

She stroked his arm and then clasped her hand in his. “You may not have said it but you showed it. It’s what gave me hope all these weeks we were apart. I was beginning to get worried. When Logan called and said that Ava had been put into the hospital I jumped at the chance to come here. I was pretty desperate to see you, especially after the wonderful Christmas gift you sent.”

“I know the feeling.” His hand slid down her back, his touch urgent. “Now I’m just desperate.”

Pressing her palms to his chest, she straddled his thighs and bent to capture his lips with her own. There was no sound but their ragged breaths as they explored one another, his hands urgently delving underneath her heavy sweater. Her tongue traced his chin and then along his jaw before pausing to nibble on his earlobe.

“I’m pretty desperate myself,” she whispered. “I missed you, Reed.”

With one tug her sweater came off and she was rolled over onto her back with a grinning, gorgeous man on top of her, his weight delicious. “I missed you too, baby, and I’m fixin’ to show you how much.”

She could feel how much, his cock hot and hard against the softness of her belly, even through the thick denim of his jeans. Her fingers moved to the buttons on his shirt, plucking them open one by one to reveal golden flesh stretched taut over muscle.

Sliding his shirt down his arms, she yanked at the fabric tucked into his pants. He laughed and tossed the shirt away before reaching down to unbutton his fly, his gaze never wavering from hers. Down to his boxers, he did something she didn’t expect. He levered to his feet and padded over to the table where the strawberries and champagne were laid out and waiting.

She was wriggling in anticipation as he grinned wickedly. “This is one of my fantasies. But first we need to get you totally naked.”

Jeans slid down her legs and her bra and panties disappeared into a clothing pile right after. “Lie down and put your hands over your head.”

With a shuddering breath, she lifted her arms over her head only to be shocked when he snagged the cuffs she’d worn earlier from his jeans pocket and snapped them on her wrists again fastening her to the leg of the couch.

“Not too tight?” he inquired, those dimples making another appearance. She shook her head, too excited and aroused to speak. He lifted a strawberry from the plate and dipped it in the bowl of chocolate that was kept liquid by the flame underneath. “Stay very still.”

Reed ran the chocolate covered tip of the fruit down her abdomen and up her ribcage before dipping it again and making perpendicular lines across her belly. His tongue snaked out and lapped at the sweet confection making her arch and sigh in contentment.

Dipping the berry again, he let the chocolate dribble into a pool in her belly button, the elixir warm as a drip tickled her sensitive skin. She giggled and he rewarded her by licking and sucking the chocolate from her quivering flesh and then finally biting into the fruit. The red juice was cold on her skin but he dashed it away so quickly with the warmth of his tongue all she could do was gasp in response.

He continued teasing and tickling her until she was panting with arousal and begging for relief. He reached out a callused finger and ran it around a puckered nipple. “I’m just getting started on this fantasy and you want me to go faster. Don’t you like this?”

She loved it and hated it all at the same time. Apparently it was a rhetorical question as he didn’t bother to let her answer, instead dipping another strawberry in the liquid chocolate and bringing it to her lips. Biting into the firm flesh, the flavors burst on her tongue and she hummed in appreciation even as the juice ran down her chin.

“I’ll get that for you.” He lapped at the sticky skin before pressing his lips to hers in a long kiss that seemed to go on forever. He tasted sweet and tart and all Reed. She whimpered when he dragged his own mouth from hers even as he drizzled chocolate on her nipples, the heat only serving to make them harder. He dabbed at her quivering rose-tipped breast until she was squirming underneath him.

“Now, Reed,” she urged but he had already turned his attention to her other breast, giving it the same torturous treatment that left her gasping for air. Her thighs were covered in her own honey and he positioned himself between her legs so she couldn’t close them, leaving her open to his gaze yet again.

“Reed,” she moaned, wondering if she would ever get used to his molten expression when he looked…there. So intimate but so hot too.

This time he didn’t bother with the strawberry. Dipping his finger into the chocolate, he painted the folds of her pussy before bending his head and licking it off in long strokes of his tongue. Flames rippled over her skin and a tight bar of arousal filled her belly. Her hands tugged at the cuffs and he had to pin her legs to the floor as his mouth closed over her clit and sucked gently.

She cried out his name as she tumbled over the cliff. Wave after wave of pleasure suffused every pore as he kissed his way up her body and ensnared her lips with his own. The room was still spinning when he pulled away and rolled on a condom he’d fished from his pants pocket.

His large, muscular body hovered over her own as he pressed forward slowly, taking his time and drawing out the bliss. It had been weeks since she’d last been filled by him but her spirit remembered the pleasure he gave so lavishly. Her hips swayed as his thrusts sped up, his breathing coming in harsh gasps. Moving quickly back to the pinnacle, she whispered hot dirty suggestions into his ear that only spurred him on to fuck her harder and faster.

“Now, baby.” Reed’s voice was deep and dark, triggering her climax. The world bubbled and sparked as Reed’s orgasm overtook him as well. His body strained and his head was thrown back; he was so incredibly beautiful. Masculine yes, but there was tenderness as well.

There was love.

Chest heaving, he rolled onto his back when it was over, eyes closed as he dragged air into his lungs. She lay next to him feeling peaceful and content knowing that tonight was the first of many nights they would share. She wasn’t alone anymore.

Eventually the sweat on her body cooled and Reed reached up and with a click her arms were free. He massaged her shoulders and planted kisses on her ears and cheek until she giggled and batted at his fingers that were tickling her tummy.

“I love you, baby. Thank you for saving me.”

Kaylee rubbed her palm against his stubbly jaw. “I didn’t save you, you saved yourself. But you’re welcome anyway.” She looked around the comfortable living room and smiled. “Does this house have a back porch where I can write? Or maybe a room with a big window so I can see outside?”

Reed smiled and her heart danced with happiness. “It does, but if it didn’t I’d go out there in zero degree weather and build you one. Are you really okay with moving here, honey? I’ll move if you don’t want to.”

Smiling contentedly, she shook her head. “I know you would but moving here means I get not only the sexiest man alive but also my best friend. Ava’s going to need a hand when the babies come.”

“I’m going to want it all,” Reed warned. “Marriage, babies, a dog, and a picket fence. And those cookies you bake too. Run away now if that’s not what you had in mind.”

“I can’t think of anything I want more.”

All her stories and heroes paled in comparison to this man. He was everything and all she could ever want. She couldn’t wait to build their future together on the firm foundation of love.

Epilogue

R
eed slid several cans of soda down the table before popping open his own. Sunday morning at the roadhouse for the sheriffs’ monthly meeting. It had been hard to get out of a warm bed with an even warmer and very willing body in it this morning. Hopefully the snow would hold off long enough to get this meeting over with and get home. While he was here Kaylee was tapping away at her laptop trying to get as much done as she could so they could spend the rest of Sunday together.