Seducing Zeb (Tarnished Saints Series) (18 page)

“I can’t wait any longer,” his hot whisper came into her ear and she felt her legs going weak beneath her.

“Then don’t,” she said, giving him permission, and she felt one slow thrust to obviously see if she could take all of him. And then when she moaned again it must have put him over the edge because he pulled back and then thrust his full length into her completely.

“Ohhhh, Zeb,” she cried out as they continued to make love.

“Why did we wait?” he said in a low, sexy voice, then pulled out, causing her alarm.

“What?” she turned around quickly. “You’re not going to stop
again,” she said, more of a command than a question. If he walked away from her now like he did last time in the hot tub, she didn’t know what she’d do.

“Are you sure we should do this?” he asked with a playful smile.

“Just try getting away and you’ll find out the answer.”

His eyes bore into hers, smoldering, turning her insides to fire. Then he slowly took a step backwards, and she knew he wanted her to come after him.

“You like the cat and mouse games?” she asked.

“Well, you are a Cat, aren’t you?” He smiled and licked his lips.

“And I’m about to catch me a teasing rat.” She ran to him and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. And he entered her in this position, backing her against the wall.

“Cry out for me, Cat. I want to hear you release your sexual desires.” Then one of his hands played with her breast as they continued to make love. She arched her back and cried out and it felt so good to throw caution to the wind and be free, finally.

Then he carried her to the bed and they made love in so many positions that she lost count. He’d used ways of pleasuring a woman that she’d never even heard of. And each time he did, she had another orgasm. And just when she thought it would go on forever, he found his release, screaming out louder than she had.

Then they became still
in each other’s arms, and she could hear the rapid beating of his heart as she laid her head on his chest.

“Would you say that counted as consummating the wedding?” she asked.

“Oh, I think that definitely counts,” he said kissing her atop the head. “Cat, there is no doubt any more that we are fully married – man and wife.”

Chapter 14

Cat woke up early the next morning, having had the best night of her life. She looked over to Zeb sleeping next to her and thought how lucky she was to have someone like him after all.

They’d had a lot of fun last night, and though she didn’t like the fact he
’d been a stripper and done who-knows-what with any of the girls who’d been to one of his shows, she decided she wouldn’t ask him about it any more. The less she knew, the less it would hurt her, now that she was fully his wife.

She let Zeb sleep and
went and washed up and got dressed. Then she made her way outside to look around. The sun was just coming up and in the distance she saw the barn, a hen house, and a garden up high on the hill. She thought she heard voices and walked toward the hen house to find some of Thomas’s kids collecting eggs.

“Well, good morning,” said Cat to the boys. She remembered the older boy with the limp and that his name was
Sam, but couldn’t remember the youngest boy’s name, the adorable one with the big green eyes and curly blond hair. “How are you doing, Sam and . . . Josh is it?” she asked.

“My name’s Eli,” the little boy said, reaching his hand under a chicken and collecting an egg.
The chicken cackled and tried to peck at his hand but he pulled it away quickly. “Josh and Jake are in the garden and Dan and Zeke are in the barn taking care of the horses.”

“Oh, thank you for telling me that, Eli.”

“Good morning, Catalina,” said Sam with a genuine smile, and Cat thought he was starting to show some of that Taylor charm.

“Just call me Cat, Sam.”

“Zeke has cats,” Eli said, handing her an egg.

“Well,” she said with a laugh. “Then maybe later after school he can show me. What are you boys doing up so early on a school day?”

“Pa makes us do our chores before we go to school,” said Sam.

“He does, does he?” she said, wondering if Zeb would be such a strict father. Somehow she didn’t think so. Not after what she’d seen last night. She started visualizing their kids and wondering
what they’d be like. Between Zeb and her, they were sure to have a wild side.

“Did you want some eggs for breakfast?” asked Sam. “We have plenty.”

“Well, if you don’t mind,” she said and accepted the small basket of eggs that Sam handed her.

“You can have some vegetables too,” came a voice from behind her and she turned to see the twins standing there with their arms loaded down with vegetables.

“Why thank you,” she said, accepting a zucchini a few small colored peppers, a small head of broccoli and an onion, as they loaded the vegetables into her arms. She didn’t want to take too much and wanted to make sure to leave plenty since she knew they had a lot of mouths to feed at Thomas’s house.

“Here’s a few potatoes, some garlic and some herbs too, said one of the twins handing her
yet another small basket.

“Oh, that’s enough, but thank you,” she said with a nod of her head.

“Hi, Cat!” said the eldest boy, Dan walking out of the barn with the red-headed boy with the freckles named Zeke. Zeke was carrying a cat.

“Hi
, boys,” she said, liking the way they all seemed to accept her though they barely knew her.

“There’s not much in the fridge of the cabin,” Sam told her. “But I th
ink there’s some cheese and some cooking oil in there.

“Yes, there’s oil, thank you,” she said, wondering if Zeb had used it all up on his body last night.

“There’s pancake mix in there,” said Dan. “We all love pancakes.”

“Well, then maybe
someday I’ll have to make apple pancakes for all of you,” she said. “But for today, I think I’ll make Zeb a breakfast skillet.”

“Uncle Zeb likes vegetables,” said one of the twins, she wasn’t sure which. “He eats that tomato thing called Getta all the time.

“Getta?” she asked, with a chuckle.

“
Josh, you idiot, it not Getta, it’s called Bruschetta,” said Zeke.

She could tell that a fight might break out over this, so she cleverly redirected their attention.

“So, Zeke, I hear you like cats. Is that one of your pets?” She reached out and ran her hand over the head of the tabby cat.

“This is Zebby,” said Zeke. “I named him after Uncle Zeb. Zebby likes to chase mice.”

“Oh, I bet he does,” she said, feeling her cheeks flush at the thought of the little cat and mouse game she’d played with Zeb last night.

“Come on guys, we’ve got to get back to the house so Angel and Gabby can cook up breakfast,” said Dan. “They’re waiting for us.”

“Little Gabby cooks?” asked Cat, impressed with everything these kids could do.

“We all cook,” said the other twin that she knew now was Jake.
”

“Well, I don’t want to make you late for school, so you’d
better get along now,” she told them. They all said goodbye to her and made their way to Dan’s car.

After they left, she turned back to the house and felt
a warmth inside her that had nothing to do with one of Zeb’s sexual games. She felt the comfort of being part of a family. She loved all of Zeb’s brothers and their wives and all the kids. And they all seemed to like her as well. This felt right. This was where she belonged. And now that they’d made love, she was sure Zeb would feel the same way.

There was no way he’d wan
t to go through with the annulment now. She headed up the stairs to the cabin to make breakfast for Zeb, feeling anxious. Because every time something good happened in Cat’s life, it seemed to be followed by a huge disaster. And she had that queasy feeling in her gut that maybe things weren’t going to end the way she wanted them to after all. God, she hoped she was wrong, because she didn’t know what she’d do if Zeb decided that he still wanted to be a bachelor.

* * *

Zeb woke to the most wonderful aroma of fresh coffee and something cooking in the other room. He walked naked to the bathroom, coming up silently behind Cat as she bent over, peeking into the oven. She was wearing a cooking apron with flowers on it and had oven mitts on her hands. He loved how domestic she looked. He’d never seen this side of her before.

He pinched her bottom, making her jump. She turned around and hit him with her oven mitts.

“You scared me, don’t do that,” she scolded.

Zeb laughed and took a step backwards. “Slow down, slugger,” he said. “I already have one shiner, I don’t need another one. It’s not going to fare well with my new clients
nor when I show up in court.”

“I’ll put some makeup on it, and it’ll look better,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. He took her in his arms and kissed her.

“I’m not sure about the makeup part,” he said, kissing her again.

“Why not?” she asked, looking up into his eyes innocently. “I thought we were done with that silly contest. So now I can wear makeup again, right?”

“Yes, but even tho you may be wearing makeup, I’m not going to be caught with that stuff on my face. I’ve got a reputation to uphold you realize.”

“
Hurry up and get in the shower,” she told him. “I’ve got breakfast almost ready.”

“I was hoping we’d have time for a little game of cat and mouse,” he said, nibbling on her ear.

“Maybe tonight, in our new house,” she told him. “But you’d better get some clothes on quick because Angel and Laney are coming over as soon as they get their kids off to school.”

“What for?” he asked.

“We’re going to look at the cabins today so we can pick out the one we’re going to live in.”

“About that,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “Maybe it’s not such a good idea.” Zeb was thinking about the whole situation last night and how much he was going to miss his condo. He couldn’t picture himself living in one of those moldy old lake houses and was going to try to talk Cat into living in Benton Harbor with him and forgetting about the whole crazy lake idea.

“Oh, I’m burning my biscuits,” she said hurrying over to the oven. “Now hurry up and shower because I’ve invited the girls for breakfast and I think I see their car pulling up now.”

Cat’s biscuits weren’t really burning, as she’d just popped them out of the can she’d found in the fridge, and put them in the oven. But she’d told Zeb that in order to keep him from saying that he wanted to end the marriage after all. She knew he was slated to be an eternal bachelor and she wasn’t sure how he felt about staying married, so was afraid to bring up the subject to ask.

But she could see the way he’d hesitated when she’d told him they were going to pick out their lake house today. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea. And she needed to change his mind before he had too much time to think about it.

“Knock, knock,” she heard Laney’s voice at the door as the women peeked their heads inside.

“Is everyone decent?” asked Angel, looking around.

“Zeb’s in the shower. Come on in,” she told them, meeting them at the door. “Oh, you brought the baby!” Cat looked down to see the baby carrier in Laney’s hand.

“Yes, it’s my turn to watch little Matthia
s while J.D.’s at school,” Laney explained.

“How is your daughter coping with being a mother at such a young age?” asked Cat.

“She’s made a lot of changes in her life, but she really enjoys being a mother.” Laney took the baby out of the carrier as she spoke.

“She sure has matured in the last month,” said Angel, walkin
g over and peering into the pan on the stove. “What are you making? It smells good.”

“It’s a veggie skillet
,” she told them, taking off the oven mitts and setting them on the kitchen table. “I’m hoping Zeb likes my cooking.”

“Zeb’s been a bachelor for so long that I’m sure he’ll love anything that is home
cooked,” said Angel walking over to sit on the couch.

“Well,
I can’t say the same for Judas.” Laney tried to jostle the baby who was starting to fuss. “After all, the man still likes junk food over anything fresh.”

“That’ll change,” said Angel. “Even Thomas has learned to cook
, and the kids actually enjoy eating his concoctions now.”

“Did you want to hold the baby?” asked Laney, holding him out to Cat.

Cat didn’t know the first thing about babies and really didn’t consider herself the mothering kind. But she had no choice, as Laney pushed the baby into her arms. Little Matthias was crying, but as soon as Cat held him, his crying stopped.

“That’s amazing,” said Laney. “You stopped the baby from crying.”

“I didn’t do anything,” she said, not even really sure she wasn’t going to drop him.