Sweet Texas Fire (18 page)

When his hands gripped the hem of her top, she relinquished her hold on him so that she could lift her arms up to allow him to remove it.

“Oh yes.” The words hissed out of her as Gage palmed her breasts. He rolled her nipples between his thumb and forefinger. Heat built up inside of her, and her hips moved against him. She needed to feel him, skin on skin. Her hands to went to the waistband of his shorts and pulled them down. His erection sprang out and bumped against her thigh.

He was right. This was what she’d been wanting since their first kiss.

“You’re so beautiful, Red.” He interspersed his words with kisses on first one breast then the other, playing and sucking on her nipples. She moaned in pleasure. If he kept this up, she’d orgasm just from him playing with her breasts.

Her own hands set out on their adventure, tracing the bumps of his spine until she reached the curve of his ass.

As she went to squeeze it, Gage moved, removing the taut flesh from her reach. “Not fair,” she complained and bit his shoulder.

“Ouch. You’re going to pay for that, Red.”

“Really, what are you going to do, Cowboy?”

“This,” he said, licking his way down her body until he found the top of her curls.

Her stomach muscles clenched in anticipation of his first touch at her core. As his tongue swiped her slick folds, she cried out. All coherent thought left her mind as he pleasured her with his tongue, stroking in and out of her, building the tension inside of her body. She gripped the sheets and lifted her hips to give him better access.

“Please, Gage,” she whimpered as he stopped.

“What is it you want?”

“Oh God, I want you, Gage. Inside me. Over me. I need you.”

He reached over and opened his bedside table drawer. “Your wish is my command.” He pulled out a condom, ripped the foil, and rolled it on. He changed his position so that he rested his hard cock between her thighs. He nudged at her entrance. “Look at me.”

She raised her eyes to connect with his. He leaned down and kissed her. She could taste herself on his lips. It only turned her on more.

Charlotte lifted her hips, feeling his head nudging her entrance. “Now, Gage.”

His response was to start a slow, torturous slide into her. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out at his possession. He then pulled out and entered again, this time all the way.

“Oh yes. Yes. Yes.” It became her personal mantra as he increased his rhythm. Her orgasm built until it burst through her with a force she’d never felt before. She called out his name to mingle with his cry of “Charlotte” as he came inside of her.

When he collapsed on top of her, she welcomed his weight. He quickly rolled over, taking her with him. He feathered her face with soft kisses.

“You okay?” he asked.

She snuggled into him. “Mmm-hmmm.”

“Sleep, Red.”

Yes, she could sleep now. Lying in Gage’s bed, in his arms—it was the perfect place to be.

• • •

Charlotte tried to move but couldn’t. She stretched open an eyelid and came face-to-face with a black face and a little pink tongue lapping at a paw. She became aware that Oil Slick was only part of the reason she couldn’t move. A heavy, hairy leg rested over the top of one of hers and an arm firmly anchored her around her waist.

Gage.

She and Gage had made love. Not once, but three times. Her body ached deliciously, but her mind ached in a completely different way.

What have I done?

As wonderful as it had been exploring Gage’s body and allowing him to explore hers, as she’d feared, it added another complication to their already-complicated relationship. What happened in this bed had changed the parameters of their arrangement. They couldn’t go back to having just a business arrangement. How on earth was she going to go back to sleeping on her own now?

Charlotte normally prided herself on her levelheadedness, but last night she had been anything but reasonable.

“I can feel you thinking,” Gage muttered against her neck, his breath tickling the fine hairs. Her nipples peaked and heat suffused her body.

She was in so much trouble.

She needed to get out of here. Charlotte made a move to first get Oil Slick off her and then to pull the covers back so she could slip out.

Gage had other ideas, though, and he pulled her back until she curved into his body, his morning erection nudging her butt.

“I don’t regret anything that happened last night,” he started. “But I have a feeling you do.”

What could she say? She could try to deny it, but what would be the point? It was the truth. She did regret sleeping with Gage—even though it was the best sex she’d ever had in her life.

“We shouldn’t have done this, Gage.”

His fingers began to draw patterns on her belly, causing her muscles to jump with every touch. There was no way he couldn’t feel it, too.

“Why not? We’re husband and wife.”

“Yes, but it was supposed to be in name only. A business transaction. You get the land, I get a green card. No sleeping together to blur the lines. Now those lines are completely blurred.”

“We agreed on that before we knew we had to be married for at least two years.”

Indignation made her roll around and pull herself out of his embrace. “Are you telling me you slept with me because you’re stuck with me for two years now?”

He ran a hand through his hair. She recalled the texture of it from her own exploration of it last night.

“No, I slept with you because I want you. Because I’ve wanted you since before we even got married. With us being married for at least two years, would you have been happy to sleep in separate rooms the whole time? And you do realize that as part of the process to obtain your green card, we could be interviewed here, in our condo, by the Immigration Department? What are they going to say if they see we’re sleeping in separate rooms, or even are awkward around each other?” He shrugged his shoulders. “This way, when and if they do a home visit, there will be no awkwardness between us. All things considered, sleeping together actually enhances our chances of convincing the Immigration Department that our marriage isn’t a scam. We all win in the end.”

While his words made sense to her, Charlotte didn’t know how she was going to be able to keep her heart out of the relationship. His flippant attitude about it all annoyed her, as well. It hurt to think he could approach this change in their relationship so casually. Of course, for a man it wasn’t hard to separate emotions from sex. How many times had she heard girls in the office in Sydney bemoaning the fact that the guy they were currently seeing wouldn’t take that next step and commit to them? The guys were happy to have a warm body in their beds but then still go out with their mates. She’d never pegged Gage to be a sleep-and-run kind of guy, and she’d hoped she was right.

She couldn’t deny how tempted she was to throw caution to the wind and agree to the change in their relationship status. But then she’d end up being like those girls she’d rolled her eyes at as they’d cried into their coffee in the break room. How was it that guys could so easily compartmentalize their lives? Sex and emotions in separate boxes in their minds and their hearts.

“I don’t know, Gage. I don’t think it’s the best idea.”

His response was to lean over, push her hair to the side, and start to nuzzle her neck, to kiss her in the spot under her chin she’d had no idea was so sensitive.

A moan escaped her, even though she tried to bury it.

“You don’t play fair.”

He chuckled against her neck. “When I want something, I do everything necessary to get it.” He kissed her softly then. Her insides churned in anticipation of what might follow.

She ripped her lips away from his and looked into his desire-laden eyes. “Yes.”

“Yes to what?” he asked. He was making her say the words out loud.

“Yes to altering the terms of our marriage. Yes to moving into your bedroom. Yes to making this marriage more than one on paper only.”

“Good.” He grinned wildly, setting her heart to fluttering in five different directions.

Oh boy, she was in so much trouble.

Gage studied the wooden box that sat in the middle of the coffee table. He hadn’t looked at its contents since the night he and Charlotte first made love, even though she’d told him he should. He kept putting it off and distracting Charlotte with a kiss that always led them to his bedroom. It had been incredible to share his bed with her during the past week. Tonight it would be lonely in his bed without her there.

He looked down when something nudged his leg. Oil Slick was pacing in front of him, brushing up against him with every turn she made. He no longer took her to work every day, as she seemed to have gotten used to the condo and no longer tried to destroy it. He would deny it loudly if anyone said anything, but he did miss having the cat in the office. Maybe he’d take her to work with him tomorrow.

“You missing Red, too?” he asked the cat as it jumped up on the couch next to him. “She’ll be back tomorrow. Shall I cook a special dinner for her? Dinner for two in bed? No cats allowed.”

The cat meowed plaintively as if she knew she was not being included.

His cell rang and Charlotte’s face lit up his screen.

“Hey there, Mrs. Cooper. You giving them all sorts of hell?”

His body went from zero to aroused in less than a second when she chuckled at his comment.

“I save my hell-giving for you,” she responded.

“I can believe that.”

“I can always hang up if that’s what you really want.”

“And break Oil Slick’s heart by not talking to her? You wouldn’t do that.”

He could envision her shaking her head and rolling her eyes at his antics. “Are you sure it would be Oil Slick who would be upset?”

He sobered up, all humor gone. “No, I would be upset if you hung up. So, how about you tell me what’s happening. How’s Shreveport? How’d the meeting go?”

“Shreveport is fine. The meeting went well. They seem to be open to my suggestions, but then again, what people say in a meeting is often different from what they follow through with.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think back on what you said to me when I first proposed the changes to the way you prepared your Midland site for drilling. You didn’t think it was necessary to consider a different entrance point to protect the expanse of trees that had stood there for over a hundred years. You just about bit my head off through the phone line with your adamant refusal to follow my suggestions.”

Gage laid his head against the back of the couch. Yeah, he’d been a total dick when he’d first come in contact with Charlotte. “True, but I am learning that your suggestions and ideas won’t compromise my operations too much.”

“This is new. You haven’t mentioned to me you’re reconsidering.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to say anything until I’d spoken to the surveyor and confirmed that the new entrance point would be viable.”

“I told you it would be. I even said it would save you money, if you remember.”

“I remember. I should learn to listen a bit more, shouldn’t I?”

“Yes, you should.”

Oil Slick jumped off the couch, and Gage swiveled so he could stretch out on it. He’d had enough of talking about work. Instead he used his sexy bedroom voice, or so Charlotte called it, to say, “What are you wearing, Red?”

His shorts tented a little more in anticipation of what he hoped would come next. “I’m wearing my navy suit, sans jacket and shoes.”

Gage bit back a groan. He knew exactly what outfit Charlotte was talking about. The jacket nipped in at her waist, emphasizing the curve of her generous bust. The skirt was snug over her ass and stopped just above her knees. He’d taken one look at her putting it on earlier in the week and hadn’t been able to control himself. They had both been late for work that day. But for him, it was totally worth it.

“No wonder you won everyone over. You look so hot in that suit. I wish you were here, though. I’d help you out of it.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, he heard a groan. “You wouldn’t get any argument out of me. In fact…”

Gage heard some rustling and then what he thought sounded like a zipper sliding down. He closed his eyes and let his free hand go to his shorts, stroking his hard length through the fabric.

“I’m now sans skirt,” she whispered. “And I’m on the bed.”

“You want to do this, Red?”

“How about we Facetime? I need to see you.”

Oh yes, now they were talking. She might not be lying next to him. He might not be able to touch her. But he could still make her come, and it was going to be one of the hottest things he ever did.

• • •

Gage climbed into bed, well sated. Who knew Charlotte could be so wicked and wild? He liked it. He liked her. A lot.

Getting through the two years of marriage to help her get a green card wasn’t going to be an issue. And when the two years were up and she had her residency, they could think about their next step then. There was no point planning beyond that. Who knew what tomorrow would bring?

But tonight, after finishing his conversation with Charlotte, he knew it was time to read a couple more letters.

He settled himself comfortably in the bed and reached for the box. He suspected the letters had been placed in the box in the order of when they’d been written and received. But he’d procrastinated enough. It was time to stop pussyfooting around and just open the next damn envelope.

Like the first letter, the scent of perfume tickled his nostrils.