There were days, or nights in this case, Cade thought, that he wondered if Sam was right all along. Surely to hell he could pay someone to put up with this shit.
* * * * *
They dragged into the house long after dawn, dusty and tired, with nerves fraying at the ends. Entering the kitchen, he found Marly and Greg seated at the kitchen table, laughing at some joke as they finished breakfast. Eggs, ham, biscuits. He was starved.
“Well, at least the two of you are comfortable,” he snapped, eying them suspiciously.
Once again, Marly was dressed in only one of his shirts and a pair of his socks. Her legs were crossed, in the boy’s line of vision and it infuriated him. Especially considering the fact that it was all the James boy could do to keep his eyes off them. Marly blinked in surprise.
“Um, I need to shower, Marly.” Greg jumped to his feet, uneasy in Cade’s presence anyway, the sight of his anger was enough to leave him scurrying.
“What’s your problem?” She frowned as she rose to her feet.
“What could be my problem?” he growled, stomping to the coffee pot. “You leave your balcony door open all night then awaken me screaming like a banshee. Some moron let the cattle out, and I walk in here to find you two cozying over breakfast. At least be good enough to do it in private.”
He watched the surprised hurt that crossed her face.
“I don’t have time to baby-sit you today either,” he bit out. “I have work to do.”
“I didn’t ask you to.” Her lips trembled, but she held her tears carefully in check. That made him even angrier. Damn her. He’d had her screaming out into the night with her orgasm, and here she was the next morning acting as though it had never happened.
“Make sure you don’t,” he growled.
“Damn, Cade, go get laid or something. You’re an asshole,” Sam bit out. “Leave Marly alone.”
Marly paled, blinking in shock as her gaze flew back to Cade.
“Maybe that’s just what I need,” he said furiously. “A woman for a change.”
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He didn’t wait to see the tears building in her eyes fall to her cheeks. He turned and stomped from the kitchen, disgusted with himself, furious at Marly, and unable to make sense of any of it. He knew if he didn’t get away from her, before he took her, then it would kill him later to see the fear in her eyes. He stalked through the house, his body trembling with lust, fatigue and fury. She was too young, too innocent and the wrong damned woman. Dammit, when was he going to convince himself of that?
“Ahh hell, Marly, he didn’t mean that.” Sam grabbed her as she made to run out of the kitchen in tears, pushing her head against his chest as he rubbed her back soothingly. “You know what an ass he can be when he’s stressed.”
Marly’s breath hitched as she fought the tears. She knew why Cade was attacking her; she just didn’t know it would hurt so badly. She held onto Sam, feeling his hands at her back, petting her through the silk of Cade’s shirt. He was warm, comforting. She liked the way he soothed her, holding her. She blinked, sighed. She was so hot for Cade that even Sam’s touch was turning sexual. His big hands roamed her back, pressing her against him.
She moved away nervously. Rumors, sexual and otherwise reared their ugly heads, but didn’t terrify her as they should have.
“I’m okay.” She rubbed her arms quickly, fighting back the ache between her thighs.
She had been waiting on Cade, hoping to tempt him, to experience the breathtaking heights of pleasure he had taken her to once again. Instead, she was allowing Sam, her beloved friend and confidant, to only stoke the embers higher.
“Sure you are, honey.” He hugged her close, his arm wrapped around her waist, his fingers lying below her unbound breasts. “And you will stay just fine. Just you wait. Cade will get over his little mad spell and everything will be fine.”
Had his fingers accidentally raked over her nipple as he moved away, or had it been deliberate? Suspicion raised its ugly head even as she beat it back ruthlessly. Cruel rumors, that was all they were. Wasn’t that what Cade had assured her years ago when she questioned him about it?
“I need to go.” She shook her head; fighting the insanity Cade was filling her with.
“I’ll see you guys later.”
She rushed from the kitchen, her head down, her body rioting. Maybe she was the one that needed to get laid, and quickly, before she did something stupid. Lora Leigh
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CHAPTER SEVEN
“Did I ask you to think, Devon?” Cade’s voice echoed through the house on a note of rising anger.
Marly stopped just inside the hallway as she exited the staircase, watching as Cade pulled the door open for the furious cowboy.
“All I asked you to do was to get the new foals in. I didn’t ask you to think, and I sure as hell didn’t ask you to contradict my orders. Do you think you could manage that much?”
“I sure as hell can, boss.” Devon shoved the hat back on his head as he stalked to the door. “And I sure as hell can leave as soon as I do. I didn’t sign on for this shit.”
The cowboy stomped from the house, and Marly flinched as the door slammed harshly behind him.
“Another one get fed up with your temper?” She leaned against the wall, crossing her legs slowly as he turned to her.
His eyes were narrowed, heavy lidded and brooding as he watched her. It had been almost two days since he had nearly taken her in the bedroom. Two long, torturous days where his temper raged alternately cold and silent, or hot and loud. Even Greg avoided him, staying at the stables with Sam or Brock when he wasn’t studying, but rarely venturing anywhere near Cade. Marly was the only one brave enough. It made her feel guilty for pressuring him to stay. She had honestly thought he would enjoy the visit.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” he growled, his gaze darkening as it went over her body.
Marly glanced down at the short bronze dress and matching high heels. Silk thighhighs completed the outfit. She knew she looked good. Knew the dress would make him notice her.
“I am dressed, Cade.” She smiled up at him, slowly, daring him to notice her. “Why aren’t you in a better mood? You keep stomping around like a mean old bull and I’m going to go back to school where it’s peaceful.”
“You hate school,” he growled. “I don’t even know why you enrolled. You could have taken classes here. At home.”
He neared her slowly, his jeans riding low on his hips, and from the brief glance, with a steadily growing bulge beneath the cloth. Marly’s knees weakened. The white cotton button down shirt he wore and the wide leather belt that encased his hips emphasized his hard stomach.
Marly felt her mouth go dry, then moist. She wanted to taste his skin. Badly.
“Still playing games?” he growled, as he stepped closer to her. Lora Leigh
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Marly raised her gaze, arching a brow in way she knew would only infuriate him.
“Still horny? What, your little black book missing?”
His lips tightened. He stared down at her, the gray of his eyes darkening, the color swirling like thunderclouds ready to burst.
“It’s a fine line you’re treading, Marly,” he whispered, staring down at her, his expression dark and dangerous. “If anyone in this world knows me, it’s you, and you know you aren’t ready for what I’d dish out to you.”
Heat slammed into her stomach, making her knees weak.
“I’ve dreamed about you dishing it up, Cade,” she whispered, touching his chest with the flat of her hand, feeling his heart thunder in his chest, much as hers was. “I’ve waited for it for two long years.”
She watched his jaw clench.
“You don’t know, Marly,” he growled. “You can’t know.”
“I know how hard you like it,” her voice was husky, smoky and raw with desire.
“Rough and hard, your women on their knees, submitting to you. I know you like things most women would run screaming from. I don’t run easily, Cade. You know that.”
His hand covered hers, his fingers pressing them against the shirt, to feel the heat of her flesh sinking into his skin.
“Then you know I don’t do little girls.” Ragged and tense, his voice belied the anger he tried to project.
She laughed richly, then shrugged. “I’m still a virgin, but not stupid. I know you want me, Cade.”
His eyes narrowed, his lips thinning ominously.
“It would terrify you.”
“It might at first,” she admitted. “But just think, you could teach it all to me. How you like it, where you like it, when you like it. I haven’t had any other lovers, Cade. No one else has taught me how to do that.”
“What have they taught you?” His voice was low, curling through her like a flame. She licked her lips. She was treading on dangerous ground, and she knew it. Cade was like a volcano, ready to erupt. When he did, she knew he would burn her alive with his touch. But she didn’t want his anger. She wanted him to need her, to accept that need. She didn’t want him angry over it.
“You’ll just have to find out I guess,” she told him, smiling secretively.
“Experiment, so to speak, and see if you can find out what’s been taught to me, and what hasn’t.”
It was a challenge. She knew what a challenge did to him. He may not take her up on it now, but he would. She knew he would.
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He was breathing harshly. It turned her on to watch him struggle for breath, to know she was doing to him the same things he did to her.
“If you know so damned much, then you know I like my women submissive,” he growled. “I don’t like to be challenged, not in sex or in life. Jump when I command, fuck when I want.”
“I never said I would be just like them.” She moved against him, her body brushing his, feeling the heat coming off of it. “I said I know what you like. And most of it, I can accept. But I won’t be a submissive, Cade.”
“You come to my bed and I’ll enslave you,” he swore darkly. “Is that how you want it Marly? A sexual slave, begging for me, and learning to love the degradation I inflict on you? Is that how you really want it?”
He grabbed her roughly, pushing her into his study, then against the wall behind the door. He held her there, her stomach and breasts pressed into the wall, his hips pinning her tightly. The dress was jerked to her hips, his hand clamping on the bare cheek of her rear as he groaned harshly at her ear.
Then he smacked her. Marly cried out, bucking as the stinging flare of heat seared her butt.
“Spread your legs.” He didn’t give her time to comply; he simply jerked her legs apart, then smacked the other cheek lightly, yet hard enough she knew to redden the flesh.
“Take your panties off.” He smacked her again, making her jerk, making her body hum with an arousal she hadn’t expected.
Dear God. This wasn’t what she had expected. Thrown into arousal so hot and intense she was ready to come now. His hands, hard but not hurting, held her still. His breathing, harsh against her neck, had her trembling in painful awareness of his strength.
Moving awkwardly, she slid her hands in the waistband of the thongs and pushed them over her hips and thighs. She stepped out of them slowly when they pooled at her feet.
His hand smoothed over her rear, hard and warm, his fingers running slowly down the crack, pausing at the tight pucker lower, then dipping quickly into the heated, slick crease of her female channel. Marly cried out, her head falling back on his chest as his finger pushed forward slowly. He gathered the slick essence, massaging it from her crease back to her tight little rear then back again. She was so wet, so slick and hot he had her lubricated quickly.
“You don’t know me, Marly,” he growled at her ear. “Not like this. Not sexually. No matter what you’ve heard, no matter what you think, you don’t know.”
His finger rasped over the pucker again, slick and hot as he drew the moisture from her cunt.
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“I’m hard and thick, baby, and all I want in this world right now is to hear you scream in pleasure as I slide my cock up your tight little ass. I’ll take you there. Do you know that? Are you ready for it?”
She flattened her hands against the wall; her back arching as his fingertip slid in then retreated.
“I want you. However you want me, Cade. Wherever you want me.” Her head tossed. She knew he would want this. Knew it was a favorite sexual practice of his. Marly’s heart was thundering in her chest, her breathing ragged, almost a cry as he kept moving, lubricating both areas slowly.
“Take a deep breath,” he commanded harshly. “Now.”
She breathed in deep. She knew how to do this, made certain her body would be ready for it when he wanted it. But still, her eyes flew open, her mouth opening on a gasp, then a cry as his finger slid deeply into her anus. She heard him moan harshly behind her as her muscles eased around him, accepting him, then gripping tight. It was so good. She couldn’t stop the need to push back against him, or the strangled cry as the fingers of his other hand moved to her clit. She was on fire. So hot, so ready for him, she didn’t know if she could survive it.
“Who’s fucked your ass, Marly?” There was fury ringing in his voice now. “That little prick upstairs?”
She shook her head, unable to speak as she felt him pull back, then add another digit.
“Who?” He growled.
She shook her head again, gasping as he pushed deep now.
“Tight. So damned tight.” His voice was tortured, ringing with lust now. He thrust inside her again, causing her to cry out at the pleasure, to buck in his arms and to need.
Cade stilled behind her. His fingers were lodged deep, then sliding smoothly away from her, leaving her aching, almost begging for more. She cried out in protest, on the edge of oblivion and gasping to fly into it. And he was denying her. Again, he was denying her.
“I don’t like this game you’re playing with me,” he accused her roughly, his mouth at her ear, low and furious. “Stop it Marly. Stop it now, before I do something else we’ll both end up regretting.”
He jerked her dress down, and she felt him turning away from her. She stayed where she was, hiding her disappointment and her tears.