Double the Trouble (Texas Trouble 3) (24 page)

"Get your clothes off, cowboy...now," she ordered as she shucked off her boots and jeans.
  Gabe's eyes widened then he grinned, "You don't have to tell me that twice, darlin'," he said and
pulled his t-shirt over his head then
started unbuttoning his jeans.
  Karlie walked over to him and helped him, because dammit he wasn't going fast enough. 

She wanted him and she wanted him
now
.
 
Shoving
her hand in his front pocket
, she fished around
, and he stepped back with a grin, "Whoa there...you're gonna get more than you bargained for if you keep digging around in there."

"That's what I'm hoping for...I was looking for a condom
,
" she
told him with a smug smile, then
added, "One that isn't dry-rotted, because you're so hard up you can't get a cowgirl in a hayloft."

His smile faded, and he looked insulted, then he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and flipped it open,
and
threw a foil packet at her.  "I restocked, and threw the others out," he told her
indignantly
.
  "And I'm not hard up...just
hard
,
baby
,
" he said pushing his jeans and underwear off.

"You got more than one?" she asked slyly
and moved in front of him to grab him in her hand and stroke him
.

"I put three in there...you think
that'll be enough
?"
he asked
her
smugly.

"I don't know...I'm
really
hard up, cowboy, so I'm not sure
,
"
she purred the dropped to her knees
. 
"We'll work it out though,"
she said
then she put her mouth on him and
sucked in a shocked breath, then
shoved his hands in her hair.
  Moving her hand in tandem with her mouth, Karlie brought him to
a
point
where
he was panting and his muscles were tight then
,
she released him
to stare up into his passion-glazed eyes and flushed face.

"I want you inside of me when you come...I need you inside of me, Gabe."  Picking up the condom, she tore it open
and
rolled it down his hard length
, then stood
up and led him over by the window
.  She pulled out a quilt she'd seen up here the other day when she was getting hay for the horses
, and spread it on the ground then laid on it.  He knelt down over her and then flipped her over on her stomach.  She pushed up on her hands and knees then he was behind her kneading her ass, and her desire ramped up ten-fold.

When he positioned himself at her opening and shoved inside a keening wail escaped her and she pushed back against him.  "Mmm...that is so damned good, Gabe..." she panted as he set a steady rhythm and leaned over and moved his fingers over her core. Swiveling her hips against him,
Karlie
panted
and her inner muscles contracted against him.  She groaned, when he pulled out of her and then moaned when he plunged back inside. 

He did it again,
and again, then
massaged her bud
, which sent her
barreling over a cliff toward a cataclysmic release.  It felt like she'd left her body for a moment the
sensations
coursing th
rough
her we
re
so intense,
then
she heard
Gabe howl her name, before he
plunge
d
one final time
then tensed, and s
topped
to just hold h
er to him
,
breathing hard.

They stayed that way for a full minute, trying to recover, then he eased out of her and laid down on the blanket beside her and held his arm
s
open
and she laid down with her head on his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her
.
"I love you, Karlie...I can't live without you, baby," he
told her in a gruff
emotion choked
voice.  She
lo
oked up into his
glittering
blue
eyes
, as he finished,
"I'll do whatever it takes to make things work.
..p
lease help me."

"All it's going to take, Gabe, is for you to let go of all that guilt you're hauling around with you.  You need to talk about what happened, and get it all out.  Until you do that, you're not going to be able to move on.  Did
n't
the police department make you get counseling after it happened?"

"They tried, but I quit the force...I was a mess then
,
"
he admitted then looked away from her.
  "My sister was mad at me, blamed me
for getting her husband killed
, but not more than I blamed myself.  We didn't talk for eighteen months after the funeral."

She moved her hand over his heart and told him quietly,
"You're a mess now, sugar...you just hide it better."

"You're right...I just don't know what to do...how to get rid of it.  Those dreams scare the shit out of me.  I'm worried one day, I won't be able to wake up from it
,
"
he told her in an agonized voice.

"I'll help you find someone to talk to, Gabe...if you're willing to go.  Uncle Jerry took Kate and me to a counselor after our parents dumped us on him when were nine
.  He wanted to
make sure we were okay.
  I
t helped us sort things out.
..well it helped Katie
," she told him then added with a watery chuckle, "
I was sort of a lost cause
, and n
othing short of an ass whipping behind the woodshed was gonna help m
y bad ass
.
"

He put his finger under her chin and tipped it up to look into her eyes, then growled
angrily,
"Your parents abandoned you?"

"Yeah, when we were nine.
..t
he
y
said we were too much trouble, and they couldn't take care of us anymore
, so they
dumped us on my dad's brother, Jerry
,
and took off."

"Jesus, I'm sorry, honey," he said and hugged her to him.  "That had to be awful...you never heard from them again?"

"Not once...don't want to either," she told him.  Her parents had made their choice nineteen years ago, and they'd have to answer for it on judgment day, it wasn't for her to forgive them
.  It was a good thing too
,
because
she couldn't.

"Okay, I'll make you a deal...if you go, I'll go," he told her seriously.

"Why do I need to go?  You're the one with the guilt, the one having the bad dreams," she told him.

"
I think the reason you reacted the way you did when you thought I was dumping you the other night, you totally shut down on me and wouldn't talk, was because you were damned and determined to abandon me, before I could do it to you.  You can't run out on me like that Karlie, and expect us to work things out."

Karlie snorted, then told him, "I was leaving, because I thought you were a player and a one-night-stand man, and that's why you never had women at your apartment in
Mesa
...I was wrong, and I'm sorry, Gabe."

"There's also the abuse that you went through with Jackass Johnson...that had to leave you with some open wounds.  I just think it would be a good idea for both of us to go...deal?"

Karlie nodded then scooted up a little and placed a gentle kiss on his lips to seal their deal.  "I love you, Gabe Kelley," she told him softly.

***

Gabe and Cole were sitting with Luke at the Blue Bird, waiting on Sabrina to bring their lunch orders.  The place was packed as usual, but Sabrina and her waitress were like bunnies hopping from table to table, making sure everyone was taken care of.  Gabe worried about her, because she was pregnant and dealing with the stress of running the Blue Bird.  She seemed to be coping, but he'd like to see her take it easy more, but that wasn't the way his sister worked.  If she wasn't busy, she wasn't happy.

It had been a week since he'd made love with Karlie in the hayloft at the Double B, and he found out yesterday when he went to see her for a repeat performance, that she definitely wasn't pregnant.  It was a relief, but it saddened him too...he'd kind of hoped she was, so he would have a tie to her for the rest of his life. 

That was a coward's thing to think, he knew, because if he really wanted her with him for the rest of his life, he'd ask her to marry him.  He'd seen the counselor a couple of times now, but hadn't brought up his mother yet.  That was something that would take some working up to.
..and was probably why
at thirty-two years old,
he
still
got cold chills when he thought about marriage.
He'd told Karlie she had abandonment issues, well he had them too.

Between him and Karlie, they were probably a psychiatrist's worst nightmare.
  He was afraid the man they were seeing, would quit his job to write a book when he was done with them.
  He on the other hand didn't seem to think they were all that unusual, and that he could help them in a short while
, with twice weekly visits, and a sizeable check at the end of the month
.
 

Gabe was paying for both of them to go, since the bastard, Jake Johnson, had practically bankrupted Karlie.  He wasn't letting her sell her horse, which was the first thing she said when they talked about how they were going to pay for the therapy sessions.
 

The payments to care for Sarge should kick in from the lawyer's soon, and she told him she'd pay him back then.  That wasn't happening, but Gabe wasn't going to argue with her now about it.
  He looked up and realized their food had been delivered and Sabrina was still standing at the table with a thoughtful frown on her face.  Easing his focus back to the conversation, he heard that Luke had just asked her if she'd heard about or knew anyone they could hire as the ranch manager at the Double B.

"I got a call from Kenny's brother
,
Wade
,
the other day, and he's quitting the rodeo for good...said his old bones can't take it anymore," she snorted then said, "He's thirty-four years old and he's talking about his bones being old.  They're only old in relation to a young man's sport, which he definitely needs to quit."
 

Gabe watched Cole's face pinch, and his fist tighten on the fork he held.  Because of what happened when Cole took his sister to the rodeo in
Dallas
to tell Wade she was getting married, Cole couldn't stand Wade Roberts.
  He tolerated Wade for Sabrina's sake, but Gabe thought Cole would never really like Kenny's brother.
  Gabe liked Wade, had never had a problem with him, although they'd never hung out like he and Kenny had, because he was older than them.

Luke looked up at her hopefully and asked, "What events did he ride again?"

"Bronc riding and individual roping.  He'd be good to help with the horses
and
the cattle, I think."

"
Probably would be, but he doesn't have the ranch management background I was looking for. 
Give me his phone number
though
, and I'll talk to Cassie and Carl about it.  Maybe he can come down, so we can talk to him."
  Sabrina nodded then wiped her hands on her apron, then pulled out her cell phone and rattled off the number to Luke.