The Lone Rancher (13 page)

He cupped her face in both hands and lowered his dark head. “No strings, maybe, but there might be consequences,” he warned. “Just ask Leanna, who maybe went to a man for comfort and consolation and bore him a child he won't claim.”

She looped her arms around his neck and leaned closer, aware that he was aroused. That did wonders for her self-confidence. For once, she was desired for herself, not for her name, her social status and her fortune. “Are you going to kiss me, or keep trying to talk me out of this? I'm all talked out after hosting the party. I'd much rather kiss you, Cahill.”

And so she did. She wanted Quin to forget about the frustrations they'd both experienced tonight. She wanted
to feel his masculine body pressed familiarly to hers and to appease the erotic dreams that continually hounded her sleep.

“Are you absolutely sure about this, Boston?” He devoured her lips, scooped her into his arms, then grinned. “This is your last chance at sanity. Don't come whining to me later.”

She returned his teasing smile and traced his sensuous lips with her index finger. “I almost never whine, Cahill.”

He tumbled with her onto the bed, then braced himself on his arms to loom over her. He chuckled wickedly and said, “Perhaps not, but I wouldn't mind hearing you
beg
.”

“I don't do that, either,” she insisted loftily.

One thick, black brow elevated and he flashed a devilish grin. He was so playful and endearing that she nearly melted on the spot.

“No? We'll see about that,” he purred.

Then he kissed her so tenderly, so seductively, that she considered
begging
for a dozen more tantalizing kisses. But she couldn't speak or think or breathe when his warm lips skimmed her throat. She gasped in anticipation when he unbuttoned her blouse, then cupped her breast.

Desperate need coiled inside her when he flicked her nipples with his tongue. She arched instinctively toward him to align her aching body with his, but he bent his leg over her knees to hold her in place.

“Patience,” he murmured, then suckled her breasts. “This might take all night. In fact, I'm counting on it, Adrianna….”

She loved the way her name rolled off his tongue with that husky Texas drawl.

“Then I need someone who moves a lot faster than you because I won't last the night. You're burning me up already,” she rasped.

When Quin raised his head, something fierce and unfamiliar blazed through her chest and lodged in the vicinity of her heart.
Oh, for heaven's sake,
she thought.
I'd better not be falling in love with him.
Adrianna had come to Texas for limitless freedom and independence. She had wanted to take complete charge of her life and prove she was as business-minded as her father. She wanted to avoid restricting ties. And look where that had got her!

“I'm not giving you up to anyone else who moves fast, slow or anywhere in between,” Quin said hoarsely, jolting her back to her previous remark. “I want you all to myself, Adrianna. I won't be satisfied with anyone but you tonight….”

Q
uin meant exactly what he said. He wanted to be flesh to flesh and heart to heart with Adrianna so badly that he ached from his eyebrows to the soles of his feet. Nothing was going to make that ache go away except being as close as he could get to this green-eyed beauty.

Quin peeled off her blouse, kissing every inch of satiny flesh he exposed. Each time she whimpered his name—first Cahill, then Quin—he smiled in satisfaction. He watched her blush in the lantern light as he cast aside her blouse, then her breeches. He couldn't recall a time in his life when he'd found himself in bed with a woman that he wanted to spend so much time admiring. Her luscious curves and swells intrigued him to the extreme. She was erotic perfection and he wanted to know her soft body better than she knew it herself, wanted to discover what made her moan in pleasure and what made her writhe with urgent need.

“Give me your clothes,
now,
” she demanded as she grabbed hold of his open shirt.

“They're too big for you,” he teased, then splayed his hand over her belly and slid his fingertips lower, making her groan in torment.

“I want you out of them,
damn it,
” she rasped shakily.

“Tsk, tsk,” he chastised in a playful tone. “That's no language for a blue-blooded lady to use.”

Then he lowered his hand to trace the hot folds between her legs and she nearly came off the bed.

“Quin…” she panted breathlessly.
“Please…”

“Now, was begging so hard?” he murmured, then dipped his head to trace her moist flesh with his tongue.

He heard Adrianna struggle to draw breath as he eased her legs farther apart to glide his fingertip inside her. He felt her burning around him and he kissed her intimately again. She dug her nails into his shoulders—and ripped the seam of his shirt in her impatience to undress him.

Quin made a feast of her supple body, amazed at how much pleasure he derived in pleasing her. But he became sidetracked when she stroked him through his breeches, then unfastened the placket to curl her hand around his throbbing length.

He wasn't even sure how and when she eased him to his back to remove his trousers but he looked up to see her cedar-tree-green eyes twinkling with triumph at having him stark naked. She nearly finished him with erotic pleasure when she lowered her head and let her long hair caress his heaving chest while she took him into her mouth and suckled him.

Quin squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on
not
passing out from the indescribable sensations assailing him. His entire body pulsated as she glided her thumb
and forefinger up and down his shaft, then followed the titillating motion of her fingertips with her moist lips.

“Mercy!” he croaked, surprised at the odd sound of his own voice.

“My name is Adrianna, not Mercy,” she whispered against his throbbing erection.

“Adrianna…” he repeated on a wobbly breath. “Come here.”

She didn't stop caressing him and he swore he would explode. He clamped his hands on her hips and turned her sideways. Then he braced himself on his forearms above her. Breathing hard, he stared down into that enchanting face and sparkling eyes that had invaded his dreams more times than he could count.

Quin angled his head to kiss her at the same moment that he pressed intimately against her. She was so hot and tight that he had to battle to prevent plunging recklessly into her. He moved slowly, gently, though it nearly killed him. She tensed slightly when he came into her, then she relaxed as he penetrated deeper. He savored the feel of her moist flesh closing around him until they were one pulsating essence.

When Quin lifted his head to make sure she was all right, she stared intently at him. Then she arched upward, moved restlessly against him, and he nearly lost his tentative grasp on his self-control.

“Adrianna…”

He didn't know what he'd intended to say, but having her name roll off his tongue as he buried himself to the hilt said enough. He felt the fragile barrier give way, assuring him that he was her first experiment with passion. He liked knowing that, though he suspected this
feisty, independent beauty would scoff at that possessive sentiment. She resented men's restrictive expectations for women, he knew. She refused to be restrained in any manner and he wasn't foolish enough to blunder into saying something like,
Now you're mine
.

But he
thought
it as he moved rhythmically against her, feeling the scintillating sensations building one atop the other until the heated pleasure became so intense he swore he had burst into flame.

Her body quivered beneath his, around his. He heard her draw in a frantic breath as she clasped him tightly in her arms. Spasms of her climax echoed from her body into his, unleashing the passion he'd tried to hold in check.

Quin groaned as he shuddered helplessly against her. He buried his head in the silken strands of her chestnut hair that splayed across the bedspread, then he collapsed above her, holding her as tightly as she held on to him.

The frustration and tension that had clamored through him over the past few hours melted away with the rain pattering against the window. The storm had broken—the one outside and the one inside—he realized with a contented sigh. He was at peace for the first time in two years, though the world around him was still in exasperating turmoil. But here in Adrianna's encircling arms, they were one body, one soul. Nothing could conquer him…except his obsessive fascination for her.

Honestly, Quin couldn't understand why he'd settled for occasional, meaningless trysts with other women, because being with this spirited, alluring female was so much more satisfying in every way imaginable. Sure
as hell, she was going to ruin him, for he couldn't be satisfied merely scratching the proverbial itch again.

When she shifted beneath him, Quin eased away to give her space. When she tried to inch off the bed, he draped his arm over her hip.

“Stay with me, Adrianna…
please…
.”

He could feel her smile against his lips when she kissed him and said, “Now was that so hard, Cahill?”

Then she settled down to sleep beside him all through the night and Quin couldn't recall being so utterly content. The room he'd left untouched for two years became
his
room, and having Boston here with him felt right.

He wondered what she'd say if he told her that? Quin grinned drowsily. She'd probably call him a sentimental sap…and—God forbid!—he'd have to
agree
with her.

 

When Adrianna awoke the next morning, she was alone in bed, as she had been all twenty-five years of her life. She stretched leisurely, remembering the amazing sensations she had experienced with Quin. A blush crept up her neck to stain her cheeks when she recalled how wild and reckless she'd been with Quin. Something had changed last night, she mused.
She
had changed. Drastically.

Furthermore, she didn't care what rumors were chasing each other around Ca-Cross now that she had taken up residence at 4C until her home aired out. She was close enough to her ranch to oversee the rebuilding of the new addition and the breeding operation of her prize cattle. If she moved to town, she'd waste time traveling back and forth.

Besides that, she'd miss sleeping with Quin.

Rolling from bed, Adrianna freshened up, then dressed in her breeches. She was grateful the hall was empty when she strode toward the stairs. Although her entourage had taken up the rooms once used by Quin's two brothers and sister, Adrianna didn't hear any movement behind the closed doors. However, she did hear furniture scraping against the wood floor as she descended the staircase.

Puzzled, she poked her head around the corner of the parlor to see Quin scooting his father's leather chair to a new position, allowing space for the sofa and chair he had transported from
her
house. The styles of furniture clashed but that didn't seem to bother Quin.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she entered the room.

His silvery gaze ran the length of her body, reminding her that they had been as close as two people could get the previous night. She would have described his look as possessive, but she knew Quin didn't think in terms of possession just because he'd slept with a woman.

No strings,
she reminded herself. Last night was about desire and erotic pleasure. She was not the kind of woman who needed commitment from a man. She was a free-spirited adventuress, after all, and Quin Cahill was devoted to the success and expansion of the family ranch.
Married
to it, you might say.

“This furniture wasn't too smoke damaged so I'm including it in the room…to make you feel at home,” he added belatedly.

She observed him for a long, contemplative moment. This man, who strenuously objected to change, was
making marked changes in here? Just as he had taken up residence in the master suite last night? Good heavens, who knew what this hidebound traditionalist might decide to do next!

“Yoo-hoo! Breakfast is ready,” Elda called from the kitchen door.

Adrianna scurried to the dining room. “I've missed Elda's delicious meals,” she told Quin, then added confidentially, “Her attempt to spy on you wasn't very informative, anyway. I'm ready to have her back.”

He grinned and another chunk of her heart crumbled down her rib cage. Honest to goodness, Quin Cahill could become a ladies' man if he really tried, she decided. His boyish smile could warm the coldest of hearts—and Adrianna had packed hers in ice the past few years so she wouldn't become susceptible to the ploys of gold diggers and greedy adventurers. But now she was in danger of losing her heart to Quin.

Be sensible, Boston,
she lectured herself sternly, unaware she had referred to herself by the same name Quin used. She wasn't playing for keeps, she mused as she took her seat at the table. She'd had her fun with Quin and he'd had his with her. This was her temporary residence. She would enjoy him, then walk away. It's what Quin expected—and she had better not let herself forget that.

 

Later that afternoon, Adrianna and Quin investigated the site of the fire. Unfortunately, they couldn't tell if it had been set deliberately or if it was the result of a lightning strike. True, the peak of the new addition was the highest point on the hill and had yet to be equipped
with a lightning rod. The storm could have ignited the fire, she supposed. However, instinct warned her that something else was going on that had nothing to do with Mother Nature hurling random lightning bolts at the earth.

“Should we contact Marshal Hobbs?” she wondered aloud.

“No, not yet,” Quin murmured pensively.

“Then the next order of business is to question my ranch hands,” she declared as she spun around to head to the barn.

“I questioned my men already,” Quin reported. “They said they saw the fire from the bunkhouse and came to lend a hand.”

Adrianna received the same information from her cowboys when she interrogated them. Everyone on hand had grabbed buckets to douse the fire, they claimed. No one had spotted her former foreman or other suspicious characters skulking around the house.

“That doesn't mean someone wasn't sneaking around here.” Quin fell into step beside her while she checked her Herefords and the black shorthorn bulls that had arrived recently.

“The timing was too convenient. With the party in town, and only a few cowboys on hand, it would have been easy to start the fire and duck out of sight during the gathering storm and darkness.” Adrianna frowned speculatively as she veered toward Buckshot's stall in the barn. “I want to check my longhorns and my other herd of Herefords. Maybe the fire was a diversion for more rustling.”

“I need to check my livestock, too.” Quin grabbed
her saddle and tossed it on the dapple-gray gelding's back for her. “Take Rocky with you, in case you have trouble. I'll meet you at 4C after I check my pastures.”

He dropped a hasty kiss to her lips, turned away and then wheeled around to kiss her again. Then he walked off.

Adrianna brushed her fingertips over her mouth, surprised by Quin's impulsive display of affection.
Affection? Is that what it is? Or is this how a man behaves after bedding a woman?
Adrianna didn't have a clue, since this was her first clandestine affair.

“Blast it, there should be an instruction manual for handling affairs properly,” she grumbled to Buckshot as she stuffed her booted foot in the stirrup.

She could name on two hands various women in Boston who flitted from one tryst to another, while juggling their loveless marriages. It was all so pretentious. Adrianna was glad her Western-style affair with Quin was uncomplicated. Especially considering the complications life kept tossing in her path while she faced the challenges of establishing herself as a credible and successful female rancher.

“Rocky?” she called to her new foreman. “Will you ride north with me to check the herds?”

The cowboy, who was about Quin's age, set aside the block of hay he was tossing to the penned Herefords. He ambled over to mount his horse. Then he raked his hand through his sandy-blond hair and set his straw hat in place.

“Are we looking for anything in particular, ma'am?”

“Counting heads to see if someone stole a few cattle while we were distracted by dousing the fire.”

His pale blue eyes narrowed in self-deprecation. “I should've thought of that early this morning.” He waited a beat, then glanced questioningly at her. “Is Cahill upset with me for taking this job? He was always fair with me. Don't want hard feelings if I can help it.”

“No, he got Elda in the swap.” Adrianna grinned broadly. “Cahill is in culinary paradise and I acquired the best foremen in the state.”