The Taylor Ranch: Cade (7 page)

Once
inside, the rain fell harder and a clap of thunder sounded directly overhead.

“Let’s
set everything over there by that that bale of hay,” said Cade.

When
everything was set up again, they both leaned up against the wood paneling and
finished off their meal. Beads of water slid down the window pane and thunder
struck overhead again.

“Is
that Bert Taylor’s old tractor?” asked April. She pointed to the other end of
the barn where the almost antique-looking vehicle sat collecting dust.

“Sure
is, but now it’s mine.”

“I
remember him driving around on it when I was kid. His children used to sit on
his lap and he’d give them rides around the ranch.”

“I’m
thinking of cleaning it up and getting it running again,” said Cade. “I found
another tractor in the barn down by the lake too. Did I tell you I’m going to
pull that one down so I can have more grazing ground and buy more cattle?”

“You
are going to be bigger than dad’s ranch soon.”

He
touched her on the nose. “We’ll all be one big ranch once you and I get
married.”

She
leaned on his shoulder. “I’m going to get some brochures from the university
law school in Missoula. You want to come with me?”

“Law
school?” asked Cade.

“Yep,
I think it’s what I want to do.”

“You
do know that lawyers can be wives too.”

“I
do…so are you coming along or not?”

“
Sure,
and why don’t we go on one of those art crawl evenings
to all the galleries? Just to show you this cowboy has cultural and artistic
leanings.”

“As well as being such a romantic.”

She
handed him the empty plate and he placed it in the cooler. “That was wonderful…
the wine has made me sort of sleepy.”

April
rested her head on his shoulder and Cade slipped his arm around her. She looked
up at him.

“What
are you thinking?”

“That
I’m so lucky to have a second chance with the woman who drives me crazy.”

He
kissed her as she slipped her warm, soft hands inside his shirt. He placed his hand
on her thigh, giving it a squeeze and she did the same to his leg, making him
go instantly hard.

“Touch
my cock,” he said.

April
straddled him and pulled down the fly on his jeans, quickly easing her hand
inside his boxers. She tickled his balls, cupped them, and then ran her finger
up his shaft.

No
one made him feel the way April did. She kissed him, nibbling on his lower lip
as she continued to run her hand up his shaft.

“I
want to fuck you so bad it hurts me,” he whispered.

She
unzipped her own jeans, removed her hand from his boxers and proceeded to take
off her jeans. She stood. Cade looked up at her as she wiggled out of them and
then seductively pulled down her panties. She put her foot on his thigh, giving
him a glimpse of her pussy as she did so. Cade almost came there and then and
fought to control himself.

Putting
his arm around her leg, he kissed her thighs. She smelled so good and he wanted
to taste her. It would be his dessert. He stood up, picked April up and carried
her over to a mound of straw and placed her down upon it.

“You
have a glint in your eye…what are you planning, Mr. Mallory?”

“Just
you wait and see.”

****

When
Cade had stripped off and knelt in front of her she assumed he was going to
slip his cock inside her. She wasn’t prepared for his lips to make contact with
her pussy entrance and tease her with his tongue as it flicked in and out of
her opening.

Bunching
up the straw with her hands, she groaned as he went to work on her clit,
nibbling on it with the very tip of his teeth, not hurting it but making it
come alive. She lifted her hips up, pushing his face down into her folds where
he continued to flick and nip at her.

She
almost wanted to cry, not from pain, but the sheer pleasure of the sensation
running up her legs and into her pussy. She flexed her toes and gripped a
handful of straw, grinding her butt into the roughness of the barn floor as her
climax reached its crescendo.

Cade
kissed her mound and worked his way up her belly.

“Turn
over, Mademoiselle Dubois.” She loved it when he called her that. It made it sound
like she was his mistress and so, so sexy.

“With pleasure, Mr. Mallory.”

She
got up, turned around and went on all fours.

Cade
took some straw and dragged it over her butt. It was rough but strangely felt
good.

Next
he ran his hands over both her ass cheeks.

“The softest derriere this side of the Continental
Divide.”

He
parted her cheeks, running his finger from her anus upward. Cade slipped his
cock inside her and held her hips still as he began a steady thrust. She closed
her eyes, feeling him slide one of his hands over her hip, down over her thigh
and pushing his finger into her folds, finding her clit and massaging it,
harder and harder to match the now urgent thrusting of his hips.

April
licked her lips and brought her head upward, hearing the rain pelt against the
wood as she let go and enjoyed the orgasm of her life. She heard Cade groan and
pant and then felt warmth explode within her as the two of them stayed locked
together and clung to one another like they’d never let the other go.

Chapter Nine

“What
would you say was my greatest strength?” April asked her father, her fingers
poised over the keys of her laptop.

He
sat down the newspaper he was reading and looked over at her.
“Persistence.
Ever since you were a little girl you’ve
always known what you wanted and gone after it.”

“Really?”

He
nodded. “You get it from me and not your mother.” He winked at her. “So how’s
the application coming along?”

“Slowly,
but it’s coming together.”

She
was determined enough that she was going to start law school at the University
of Montana in Missoula in the fall and nothing would stop her. She typed a few
more sentences and then stopped, tilting her head to hear the sirens wailing in
the background.

“Sounds
like they’re getting closer,” said her father, getting up to look out of the
window.

He
put his glasses up on his head and April could tell whatever the emergency
vehicle was, it was heading their way. She got up to join him and saw an
ambulance heading up the hill to Cade’s place.

“Dad,
you think someone’s hurt on Cade’s ranch?”

“Looks
like it…let’s go see if we can help.”

April
and her father left the house and headed up the hill and then down over the
rocks, which was the shortest route to their neighbor’s property. The ambulance
looked like it was heading to one of the barns. She went cold all over because
she remembered Cade telling her he was going to begin tearing it down in the
next day or so.

“I
have a horrible feeling that it’s Cade or someone who’s been helping him tear
down that barn.”

“Come
on,” said her dad, grabbing her hand.

She
didn’t know he could run so fast. She didn’t know she could run so fast either.

April
spotted one of Cade’s workers covered in dirt and dust, looking like he was
about to burst into tears. April tried to run past him to get to Cade, who she
knew was the injured person, but he stopped her.

“Honey,
you don’t want to see anything until…”

April
put her hands on her mouth. Now she could see that the entire left wall of the
barn had collapsed in on itself.

“It’s
Cade, isn’t it?”

“Honey,
he’s getting the best help, so you just stay here because more of that barn
could topple at any minute.”

“He’s
right, honey, you stay here,” said her father, catching up with her.

She
couldn’t just stand there and do nothing, and once again that persistence thing
kicked in and she took off toward Cade.

“Honey,
it’s not safe, don’t go any farther,” called her dad.

She
wasn’t listening because she had to get to Cade and help out in any way she
could.

When
she arrived at the edge of the barn, two paramedics knelt around someone that
she knew was Cade. She’d recognize the brown leather cowboy boots anywhere. She
walked over to the area, but one spotted her, stood and held her back.

“Miss,
just stay here so we can do our job.”

“Is
he going to be okay?”

April
glanced over. He wasn’t going to be okay because now she could see that he
wasn’t moving and his face was covered in blood.

“I
have to see him, please, let me see him.”

“Miss.
Let us do our
job.”

No
one was getting in the way of her and Cade ever again. She pushed a paramedic
to one side and ran over to where Cade lay, still and looking like he’d been
beaten with a baseball bat.

“Miss,
we’re taking him to the hospital so you need to clear the way,” said the
paramedic who held an IV drip up above Cade’s body.

“I’m
coming with him.”

“I’m
sorry, but only family can…”

“I
am family. I’m his fiancée.”

He’d
asked her to marry him, she just hadn’t accepted yet so technically it wasn’t a
lie.

“Okay,
but you have to let us do our job.”

She
stood back, so wanting to hold his hand as they loaded him onto a gurney, but
knew she might be hurting more than helping him.
 
Her dad walked over to her as they wheeled
Cade toward the waiting ambulance.

“They’re
going to let me ride with Cade…me being his fiancée and family.”

He
winked at her before hugging her. “Stay strong and I’ll ride behind because
you’ll need someone at the hospital to wait with you.”

She
kissed his cheek and then got onto the ambulance and sat by Cade’s side.

“Can
I hold his hand?”

They
looked at one another and then one nodded to her.

She
scooted over and put his hand between hers. It was so cold and bloody. She
didn’t think she could even feel a pulse in his wrist.

She
brought it up to her mouth and kissed it, tasting awful metallic tinge, but she
didn’t care. She’d let him down once, and she hadn’t thought about it until now,
but making him wait for them to get married was like letting him down a second
time. There definitely wouldn’t be a third time.

“Cade,
I love you.”

“When’s
the wedding?” asked the paramedic.

“In
the fall,” said April without giving it any thought.

It
wasn’t a lie because if Cade pulled through this they were going to be married
in September, even if she had to push back starting law school. Cade was all
she wanted now.

Chapter Ten

Cade
didn’t remember much other than the pain in his leg and April’s voice talking
to him. Telling him that she loved him, which was the best news he’d heard all
day. However, the icing on the cake had been hearing her tell someone she was
his fiancée and that the wedding was in the fall.

He
liked the sound of both those things. It was what he’d clung onto when they
told him they were taking him into surgery. Images of their wedding danced in
his mind as the
anesthesia
 
took
effect and closed down his
thoughts.

Now
he was awake and his first waking thought was of April. He managed to open his
eyes, seeing an IV stand beside his bed. He must have made it through the
surgery because this didn’t look like the afterlife. He licked his lips longing
for a drink. A nice cold beer would be a treat right now.

“Cade.”

It
was April’s voice.
His fiancée
.
How long have I
waited to call her that?

She
leaned over him. She truly was the most beautiful woman in the world.

“How
you feeling, or is that a stupid question?”

“Feel
like shit,” he said, realizing his voice was hoarse.

“The
guys said you tried to take down the barn all by yourself.”

He
took a deep breath. What the hell had he been thinking?

“One
side of it collapsed before I realized what was happening. The wood was rotted all
the way through. It’s my own fault for not checking the main beams.” He coughed
but it hurt his chest.

“Lucky
the guys acted so fast and called 911.”