Tied Up, Tied Down (31 page)

Kade stood. “Thanks for patchin’ me up. I’m tired and I’ve gotta be up early so I’m headin’ to bed.”

While Sky paced alone downstairs, pretending to clean the kitchen, wondering why she was such an idiot about this relationship stuff, she heard Eliza fussing on the baby monitor. After she picked her up, she realized Kade wasn’t in their bed. She wandered into the hallway. The door to the bathroom was open, but the door to the spare bedroom was closed.

So, he’d opted not to sleep with her tonight.

Can you blame him?

A loud thump sounded from inside the room. What if he’d hurt himself because he had too much pride to ask her for help?

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You would know about being too proud.

The stupid voices in her head always offered advice way too late.

She took a chance and knocked. “Kade? You okay?”

“Fine. Hang on a second.”

Eliza squawked.

Kade opened the door. His gaze landed on Eliza and he smiled softly. “Hey, baby girl. What’s the ruckus?”

At the sound of his voice, Eliza turned her head.

“She’s probably hungry. She didn’t finish her last bottle.”

“Sorry I didn’t hear her. She okay? Not sick or anything?”

“Not as far as I can tell, besides her crying jags the last couple days. I think you were right. I think she’s teething.”

“I’d offer to take the midnight shift, but I thought she’d shriek if she caught sight of my ugly, beat-up mug in the middle of the night. And to be honest, I’m in more than a little pain right now.”

Sky didn’t respond; she was too busy staring at the duffel bags next to the bed. He stiffened when he realized she’d seen them. Somehow, she swallowed the lump in her throat and asked, “What’s going on?”

“I’m gonna be busy at the ranch for a few days.” He shuffled his feet and looked anywhere but at her. “After what happened earlier today, and now with this, I decided we could both use a break.”

You decided? What about me? Don’t I get a say? Don’t we?
Her hold on Eliza increased.

“You can reach me any time on my cell. I probably won’t check my messages until late, but if it’s an emergency, you can call my mom and she’ll track me down.” Kade stroked Eliza’s cheek. “Gonna miss you bad, sweet thang. Be good for your mama, okay?

I’ll see you soon.”

“You aren’t going to try and take her with you?”

“No.” His pain-filled eyes searched hers. “I’d never take her from you, Skylar.”

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Oh no. What was going on with them? When had they returned to polite strangers?

“I thought…”

“I know what you thought and you were wrong. Some things that were said in the heat of the moment shouldn’t have been said at all.”

Immediately she wondered, things like
, marry me
?

Eliza protested her hungry state and Skylar took a step back. “I, ah, need to feed her.” She started down the hallway. The door closed softly, but it echoed in her head as loudly as if he’d slammed it.

After Skylar got up with Eliza again for her two o’clock feeding, she couldn’t go back to sleep. She paced in the hallway outside Kade’s room, wondering if it was the best thing for him to be sleeping alone. What if he had a head injury? Weren’t you supposed to check on concussed patients every few hours? Rather than risk waking him by knocking, she quietly opened the door and tiptoed into his room just to double check on him.

Kade was splayed in the middle of the bed. His right hand held the bag of ice on his right eye.

Sweat beaded on his skin. She leaned over to place her hand on his forehead. Damn.

His skin was hot to the touch. The poor man was burning up, no wonder he was completely naked. Sky went to the bathroom and returned with two wet washcloths.

She perched on the edge of the bed, which woke Kade up. “Skylar? What’s goin’

on?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I came in to check on you and your whole body is feverish. How do you feel?”

“Like I got the crap kicked out of me.”

“You did. I thought you might like it if I cooled you down a little.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know. I want to. Please. Let me do this for you, okay?”

No answer.

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Well, he hadn’t barked
no
. That was a good sign. “Do you feel nauseous?”

He shook his head and groaned. “Except when I do that.”

“Then don’t do that,” she half-chided. “Hold still. I’m going to move this ice bag aside for a bit.” She sucked in a harsh breath and it froze in her lungs. Oh man. He was on track to a serious shiner.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just relax. This cloth might be cold at first.”

Skylar began with his forehead. Avoiding his swollen eye, she sponged the sharp planes of his face, cheekbones, temples, his generous mouth, lingering on his strong jawline. She wiped the long line of his neck.

He sighed deeply.

She continued across his collarbones and shoulders. Down his pectorals. He hissed, not with pain when the nubby washcloth drifted over his nipples and the disks hardened into little points. Skylar realized since she’d handed Kade control of their interludes, he’d never allowed her to spend much time exploring his beautiful, strong body. She hadn’t lingered on learning how he liked to be touched above the waist. She hadn’t traced the delineated muscles of his abs and stomach with her tongue. Which was a damn crying shame, and a situation she’d rectify pronto.

Skylar admired his meaty biceps and thick forearms as she ran the washcloth along his brawny arms. The back of his hands were scarred and scabbed; the palm side of his hands were callused and rough. The hands of a working rancher. She knew these strong hands could rein in a thousand-pound horse, or fix barbed wire fence or even knock a man out cold. But she also knew how unbelievably gentle these powerful hands could be on her body. On her face. On their child.

She switched washcloths and finished his torso, his rib cage, the flat belly and his narrow pelvis, spending time on that sexy, sensitive strip of skin stretching from hipbone to hipbone. Skylar circumvented his groin even when his full erection indicated he enjoyed her ministrations.

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Kade’s legs were dusted with dark hair and were all sinewy muscle. She swept the cloth down his thighs, repeated the process for his ropy calves, but she avoided his feet.

When she finished, she half-expected he’d be watching her intently, but his eyes were closed. His breathing wasn’t slow and easy, but choppy, restless. She knew he wasn’t asleep.

Sky angled over his mouth and very very softly kissed his swollen lips. Then she followed the exact same path with her hands and mouth over his body that she had with the washcloth. Just as slowly. Just as thoroughly.

By the time she finished, his cock was weeping for her attention. Using the slick fluid leaking from the tip, she wrapped her fist around hot, rigid shaft and began to stroke.

“Skylar. You—”

“Let me do this for you. Please. I can’t stand that you’re hurting. Let me make you feel good. Let me give you back some of what you always give to me.” She flicked her tongue down the corded muscles in his throat. When she reached his upper chest, she began her sensual assault.

Kade arched into her and his left hand twined in her hair.

She drove him crazy, went a little crazy herself, licking and playing with his nipples.

Digging her nails and her teeth into his warm, pliant flesh. She suckled and bit every inch of skin on his pecs as she jacked him off. Building from a slow steady pace to a fast one that elicited his near growl of impatience. His hips bumped up, his balls were walnut tight at the root of his sex. And when that thick cock jerked in her moving hand, she bit down on his left pectoral, sucking with enough force to leave a hickey. A big hickey. Sticky warmth poured over her fingers and Kade groaned long and low, slightly pulling her hair, as the pulses intensified and then, tapered off. Then stopped.

Still squeezing every drop of come out of his cock, she sought his mouth, trying to convey without words what was in her heart. Still kissing him, she used the washcloth to clean them both up.

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Sky untangled from his embrace and replaced the ice on his eye. His breathing slowed, but he didn’t reach for her. She tiptoed out. He needed his rest, and whatever they needed to say to each other could wait until morning.

But the next morning, when Sky woke up, Kade was already gone.

For Kade not being able to see out of his right eye everything in his life was finally crystal clear.

When Skylar had come to him so sweetly the previous night, it’d been all Kade could do not to demand her submission, mount her like a crazed beast and fuck her senseless. But he knew her taking the initiative in offering him loving comfort cemented the bond between them.

Especially after he’d seen love bites she’d left all over his chest. Suck marks. Teeth marks. Indentations from her fingernails. By showing him her ferocious, possessive side, she’d been marking him as hers.

Time to return the favor on a more permanent level. He called his cousin Colt, knowing he was up with the damn chickens these days, and Colt happily gave him the phone number he needed.

Kade dialed. No hello, no niceties, he just said, “I’ve got a brilliant idea how I can prove it to her.” He held the phone away from his ear. “Yeah, I know what time it is. I don’t give a shit if you’re not a mornin’ person, you said to come talk to you when I figured it out. Hey, you’re the one who said,
no pain, no gain,
so can’t blame anyone but yourself for stickin’ your nose in this. I’m takin’ you up on your offer. Yep.” Pause.

“How the hell should I know? You’re the expert. You’ve got roughly ten hours. I’ll be there after work.”

He called Colt back. “Hey, cuz. Remember how you’re always sayin’ if I need anything, just holler? Well, here’s your chance. I’m gonna be hollerin’ real loud tonight and you’ve been elected to hold my hand.”

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Day One of Kade’s absence from her life was bad.

Day Two of Kade’s absence from her life was worse.

But Day Three? Day Three was absolutely intolerable.

Eliza was beyond cranky. Skylar suspected the baby missed her daddy and decided to make mommy pay for it by disrupting the entire daycare. Disrupting it to the point Skylar had to sequester Eliza in her office all day, which meant she hadn’t gotten a damn thing done. For three days.

Not only that, Nadia had called in sick for the last two days, which threw Sky Blue’s schedule off. The other employees were grouchy because they had to pick up the slack and work on a Saturday. Even India had snapped at her, babbling nonsense about nice guys finishing first, recognizing a good thing, and ending with India threatening to put a boot in her ass if she was too stupid to know she had to fight this time. And all she’d called for was to check on the stock.

Skylar couldn’t concentrate and screwed up the quarterly sales figures four times before she closed the file. Needing a mindless task, she spread out a blanket on the floor, plopped Eliza down with her favorite toys, and waded through the boxes of junk while keeping an eye on her fussy daughter.

Annie barged in. “Glad to see you’re finally takin’ care of that stuff. It’s a fire hazard.”

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“Something you need?”

“Two things, actually. Where’s the purchase order for the bottles?”

“Which bottles?”

“The hand lotion bottles. The plant in Cheyenne says they never received the order.”

“Bull. I sent it three weeks ago.”

“Well, they never got it. And the original order form is not in the file.” Annie braced her shoulders against the doorframe. “Is it possible with all that’s been going on, you only think you sent it?”

Yes
. “No.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“What are my options?”

“Send another purchase order and pay the rush charge.”

Skylar shuddered. That’d put a big dent in the already small profit margin. “Or?”

“Or wait until you get through those boxes to see if you accidentally tossed it in there during your rant about the ridiculously high prices of plastics and were looking at switching bottle manufacturing companies.”

“Funny. Pay the damn rush charges. What was the other thing?”

“Nadia wants to talk to you after lunch break.”

Skylar looked at Annie. “Thank God she actually showed up today. Do you know what she wants to talk about?”

“I have an idea.”

“Something you’re going to share with me, Annie?”

“No. But as long as you’re already in a pissy mood, I might as well tell you I heard what Kade said the other day and he was right about external safety issues around here.”

When Sky started to protest, Annie stopped her. “Don’t bite my head off. We’ve talked about this. I oughta say, I brought it up and you ignored me. As the owner you make sure all the internal safety equipment surpasses OSHA standards. All the MSDS are up to date. But, that’s not all there is to creating a safe work environment. Most of your female employees have been in bad situations with men, including myself, which you knew www.samhainpublishing.com 253

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when you hired us. So, I don’t understand why we have a security gate we don’t use and no alarm system whatsoever.”

“Um? Hello? Because we’re out in the middle of nowhere?”

“Sweets, you’re a great boss, but you have the attitude bad things don’t happen in Wyoming. Bad things do happen here, less frequently than in LA, but we’re still somewhat untamed in the Wild West. In some respects, cowboys are like them gangbangers, never backin’ down from a fight, always lookin’ for a way to avenge themselves when they think someone done them wrong. Especially if they were wronged by the woman in their life. Like Nadia’s husband. Are you denying that is a potentially volatile situation?”