Bare Naked: Naked Cowboys, Book 4 (9 page)

“Hell, no.” Cade raked his fingers through his hair. “That will just up their curiosity. Then they really
will
show up here.”

Her laugh was slightly hysterical. “Either I have no friends, no one in my love life, or I have all of that and on opposite sides of the fence, so to speak.”

Cade stared off in the distance. “My being here is really screwing things up for you. Preventing you from having real friends. Establishing yourself in the community. Maybe I should—”

“Don’t even say it.” She touched her fingers to his lips. “I can handle it. I’ve faced tougher people than them in worse situations. And I’ll leave early.” She gave him a shy look. “If I’m a good girl, will I get a reward when I get home?”

Cade grinned at her. “You can have your reward tonight, if you want.”

“Are you sure you’re not too tired?”

He brushed his hand against his jeans before cupping her chin. “I think I’m up to the task.”

“I’m telling you,” Jinx said into her phone, “there’s something she’s not telling us.”

She had set up a conference call with Amy and Reenie and was busy picking over every morsel of conversation from her lunch with Georgie.

“We don’t know her all that well,” Amy pointed out. “Maybe we’re just coming on too strong for her. Overwhelming her.”

“No.” Jinx fiddled with the highlighter she was holding. “It’s more than that. She’s hiding something.”

“What could she be hiding?” Amy chuckled. “She’s not a wanted felon or anything, is she?”

“No.” Jinx tapped the highlighter on the desk. “That’s not the feeling I got.”

“Maybe you should Google her,” Reenie suggested. “She worked for Carlton Enterprises in Dallas. As big as they are, they’d be covered pretty well in the newspapers.”

Jinx made a face, even though they couldn’t see her. “I’d feel as if I was intruding on her privacy.”

“But maybe it’s something she could use our help with,” Reenie insisted.

“Let’s back off a little here,” Amy put in. “We don’t know her well, but she doesn’t seem like a stupid woman. She can reach out to us if she needs help. Saturday night we’ll make sure she feels comfortable enough with us to do that. Let her know we really want to be friends.”

Reenie’s laugh burst into the conversation. “Just make sure you don’t do it with a sledgehammer, my sweet sister-in-law. You aren’t always known for your subtlety.”

“Thanks.” Amy snorted.

“Reenie’s right though,” Jinx said. “We can use Saturday night to help her enlarge her comfort zone with us.”

“I think one of us should pick her up,” Reenie suggested.

“She was very emphatic about driving herself. I think she wants us to know she’s independent.”

“Okay, okay. But—”

“But nothing. Let’s play it by ear.”

But Jinx’s reporter’s nose was twitching. Georgie was definitely hiding something. If she didn’t fess up at the barbecue, then Google it was.

Chapter Six

Georgie was sitting on the big stepstool, using the steamer on the wallpaper in the foyer when Cade came in from outside at the end of the day. He crouched down to ease the slipper and sock from her injured foot and gently checked the toes.

“Much better,” he pronounced. “Hardly any swelling left and the discoloration’s already fading.”

“It’s all that ice,” she told him, grinning. “I think it froze my foot so badly it’s afraid not to get better.”

He laughed. “Joke if you will, but it did the trick.” He stood up and chugged from the bottle of water he’d snagged from the fridge. “I’m done for the day. And it’s time for you to quit too.”

Before she could object, he shut off the steamer, took the instrument from her hand and placed it on the tarp on the floor.

“Wow. Getting bossy, aren’t we?”

“You bet.” He winked at her.

Their relationship was changing and reforming every day, from the tentative efforts after that first night to a more relaxed atmosphere, even joking with each other. For a man who told her his ego had been bigger than the state of Texas, he seemed surprisingly unsure of himself. Of course, no more than she was. She couldn’t get an old adage out of her head—if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

But whatever else they might be dealing with, there was nothing wrong with the sex. Stupendous didn’t even begin to describe it. As a lover, Cade was by turns tender and aggressive, giving and taking. Her body ached in the most delicious places.

“I want to go outside and see what it looks like.” Pushing herself up from the stool, she tested her weight on the bad foot. So far so good. Nothing more than a bad twinge. That she could deal with.

But Cade had other ideas. He swooped her up in his arms, carried her through the bedroom to the bathroom and set her down on the vanity.

“Shower first.” He winked. “Painting’s hot, sweaty work, and I’ve been thinking about this all day.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Taking a shower?”

“With you.” He bent down and pressed his mouth to hers in a light, gentle touch. Then the expression on his face turned serious. “Is that okay? I’m so afraid of doing the wrong thing here.”

“Remember what we said? There is no wrong thing. One day at a time. Take it as it comes.”

He rubbed his jaw. “I still don’t understand how someone who was as big an asshole as I was, who fell into the gutter, landed with someone like you and got a second chance at life.”

Georgie reached for his hand. “There are always second chances. Not everyone wants to look for them or take them when they pop up. You had to want to do this, Cade. I think that says a lot about the real person who’s been hiding inside you all this time. Now.” She tugged her T-shirt over her head. “How about that shower?”

“Coming right up.” He grinned at her as he pulled three condoms from his back pocket.

Georgie quirked an eyebrow at him. “Optimistic?”

He winked. “Confident.”

First adjusting the shower spray and the temperature of the water, he shucked off his own clothes before undressing Georgie. Then he lifted her into the shower stall with him and leaned her against the wall so she didn’t have to keep all her weight on her still sore foot.

He poured a generous amount of scented shower gel into his hands and worked it into a soapy lather. With infinite care, he stroked the soapy solution down her neck, leaning toward her to nibble at her earlobe and lick the shell of her ear. Coasting his hands along the slope of her shoulders, he massaged her muscles with his lean fingers, down the length of her arms to her wrists. With his gaze locked to hers, he kneaded every muscle, even those in her fingers and wrists.

She had never had anyone make such slow, tender love to her. As wild as he’d been the night before—and wild barely described it—he was that gentle now.

Pouring more gel, he fused his mouth to hers as his fingers worked their way across the upper swell of her breasts. He licked the seam of her lips, demanding entrance, while his fingers teased and tweaked her taut nipples. Heat sizzled from the pebbled buds straight to her cunt, setting up spasms in her inner walls. She squeezed her thighs together in a vain attempt to still the tremors working their way upward through her body. Cade’s lips curved into a smile against hers when he realized what she was doing.

“I can’t believe how easily I make you hot, Georgie.” His mouth still touching hers, he took one of her hands and drew it down to where his erection was pressing against her body. “But you do the same to me. Feel that.”

She gasped, the intake of breath sucking his tongue into her mouth as she wrapped her fingers around the thick, heavy shaft that felt so good to her touch. As he continued to move his hands over her body, covering every inch of skin with the fragrant, soapy bubbles, she slowly stroked his cock, her thumbs sliding back and forth across the velvet head.

“Easy,” he murmured. “You know you have me ready to go just by touching me.”

She laughed deep in her throat. “I know it, and I love it.”

Lifting her hand away, he knelt to soap her legs, his touch light and feathery as he rubbed her inner thighs and the crease where thigh and hip joined. Georgie steadied herself by clutching his shoulders and he drew soft teasing strokes over the lips of her pussy and the pink flesh that was wet from much more than the shower.

Her legs threatened to collapse when he pinched her clit between thumb and forefinger and then pulled and tugged on it. At the same time, he slid the lather-covered fingers of the other hand back toward her ass, rubbing that sensitive skin in a tempo calculated to drive her wild.

She threw back her head and closed her eyes, the spray from the shower cascading over her as Cade rubbed and teased and played until she was shaking with need. But instead of doing anything to satisfy her, he turned her and placed her hands flat against the shower wall. Then he went to work on her back with the same slow, methodical, teasing strokes. She heard a soft moan and realized it was coming from her mouth.

Resting her forehead on the tiles, she gave herself over to the movement of Cade’s hands down her back, her hips and her legs as he swept them back up to cup the curve of her buttocks. When he slid his soap-slicked fingers into the hot crevice between the cheeks of her ass, she curled her fingers into the palms of her hands and bit down on her lower lip. He rubbed the tender skin, the tip of one finger rimming the tight pucker of her anus again and again.
God
, that felt so good.

Placing his mouth next to her ear, he whispered, “The next time we’re in bed, I want to take you here, Georgie. Will you let me?”

The heat rushing through her body robbed her of speech. All she could do was nod her head.

“You’re so fucking tight.” He pushed his finger into the opening, breaching the tight ring of muscle. “And hot. Jesus, you’re so hot here.”

He eased his finger inside her a little more and then a little more, twisting it and brushing the heated tissues. “I want this so badly. Sometimes when I think about it during the day, it’s a wonder I don’t fall off the ladder and break my dick. Next time, Georgie. Keep thinking about it.”

He moved his hand away and turned her back to face him.

“My turn,” she insisted, although she was so aroused she could barely stand.

“I don’t think so.” His voice was rough with desire. “If I’m not inside you in the next couple of minutes, I might explode.”

Lifting her out of the shower, he tugged the big bath towel from the rod, wrapped it around her and sat her back on the vanity.

“Don’t move.”

Georgie didn’t think she’d ever seen a man shower and rinse off that fast. It seemed like barely seconds before they were on the mattress, a condom sheathing his dick, her legs over his shoulders the way he liked them, opening her to him completely.

“Jesus, Georgie, you are so fucking beautiful. Every inch of you.” He nudged her opening with the head of his dick. “You look so good, feel so good, taste so good. When we’re naked together, I don’t know what I want to do first.” He slid in partway. “Do I want to suck your nipples? Your clit? Slide my fingers into your wet little cunt?” He slid in a little more. “Or run my tongue over every inch of you inside and out.”

Okay, she was now officially so aroused she could feel her release starting to unwind deep inside her body. She reached for him, wanting to pull him closer to her. Needing to feel his chest against her breasts, the fine chest hair pleasantly tickling her skin.

He braced himself on either side of her, lowering his upper body until she had what she wanted. In one smooth move, he thrust fully inside her and slid his tongue into her mouth.

Oh God!

Automatically, she linked her ankles at the back of his neck and thrust her hips upward so they were sealed together. She loved the feel of him buried deep inside her body, the two of them almost one person. His tongue scoured the inside of her mouth, licking every surface, twisting with her own tongue in an erotic dance.

Then, lifting his head, he began the familiar sensual rhythm that already felt so familiar to her. He looked into her eyes, his gaze locked with hers.

“I want to know what you’re thinking,” Cade told her in a husky voice. “I’m totally sober, and what you give to me, you give so freely. That’s a gift, Georgie. I want to know that I’m pleasing you because you have no idea how much I appreciate it.”

This time she saw things in his eyes that sent a tide of emotion racing through her. Desire mixed with a need and a hunger that had nothing to do with sex. It was almost as if she could see clear to his soul. And maybe he could see to hers. Something coursed through her body and the entire tenor of what they were doing suddenly took on a new significance.

She reached her hands for his face again and pulled his head down to her, rubbing her fingers against the soft hair at the nape of his neck. Beneath that softness were hard, corded muscles and a tension radiating through his body. The same tension that engulfed her. The overwhelming need for each other.

The slow in-and-out glide of his cock rubbed the slick walls of her pussy as her muscles clenched around him. Almost imperceptibly, he picked up the pace, increasing the tempo as he read the heat she knew he could see in her eyes. Then he moved faster still, until he was thrusting into her harder and harder.