Wrecked (21 page)

God, she’d been a welcome sight. Like a mirage in the desert, her red hair a halo of gold beneath the glare of the afternoon sun.

He hadn’t believed it was her. He’d had false alarms before where he’d imagined he’d seen her only to be disappointed.

But this time she was very real. Her lips against his, her body beneath his hands, were proof of that.

Wade pulled away from the kiss to say, “Damn, I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Her breathless confession, on top of the high he was riding from the kiss, had Wade ready to tear her clothes off right there in the truck.

“Good.” He groaned as he raked both his hands and his gaze down her body. “You have a hotel room?”

“No. I can get one—”

“No, you will not. You’re coming home with me.”

“Home with you?”

“Yup. To the ranch.”
 

Her eyes widened. “Won’t your family be there?”

“Don’t worry, beautiful. I have my own house far enough away from the others ain’t nobody gonna hear you. No matter how loud we get.” He grinned. Not wanting to waste any more precious time, he put the gear into drive.

“You have your own house?”

“I do.” He loved that she was interested, but he’d far rather have this conversation naked and in his bed, preferably after a nice long round of sex.

Though he’d wanted her so much since he’d seen her last, he doubted he’d last long at all.

With the image of CeCe in his bed, Wade broke a few speed limits as he headed for the ranch.

“So how big is it?” she asked.

“Oh, darlin’, you know the answer to that.” He shot her a sideways glance just in time to catch the face she made at him.

“I meant how big is the ranch?”

“Oh, that.” Wade smirked. “About twenty-five thousand acres or so.”

“Twenty-five
thousand
acres?” Her mouth fell open.

Wade shook his head at her reaction. “Spoken like a true city girl. You can’t raise a decent-sized herd of cattle on much less than that.”

What she probably didn’t realize is that all those thousands probably cost less than her place with its postage stamp of a yard.

That was okay. He could educate her about everything she needed to know about ranching . . . and a few other things.

He’d gladly teach her all kinds of things. They’d only scratched the surface during their time together.

God, what he wouldn’t give to have more time with her now. “Do you have to leave tomorrow?”

She angled her position in the passenger seat so she faced him. “Why?”

“I thought, maybe . . .” Why was this so hard? It shouldn’t be. He sighed and opted for something he didn’t usually go for. Complete and total honesty. “I’m not ready for you to leave so soon.”

She was silent for long enough he glanced in her direction, holding his breath, afraid of what he’d see in her expression. What he saw was hesitation, but if he wasn’t completely mistaken, she was tempted to stay.

Finally, CeCe asked, “What would your family say?”

He let out a short laugh. “I really don’t care.”

“But I do.”

“I’m sorry. I know you do.” He drew in a breath. “I don’t think they’ll care.”

“Why not? Because you bring home so many women?”

He heard the jealousy clearly in her tone and damned if it didn’t make him want to pull over and take her right there in the passenger seat.

“No. Not at all.” He didn’t like to have women in his home.

It made it too easy for them to assume things. Like that they’d be there a lot more than he wanted them there. Funny how he couldn’t get CeCe there fast enough and he was starting to suspect he’d be damned happy if she never left. He pushed that thought, which was much too deep for here and now, aside.

“The truth is, I’m not around as much as the family thinks I should be.”

“You’re traveling for work though. Right?”

“Yup. And that’s the problem. After my choosing to work the pro circuit rather than dedicate my entire life to the ranch full time, I think they kind of stopped caring what I do.”

 
“I’d love to see your home.” CeCe laid her hand on his thigh.

The heat of her hand penetrated the thin fabric of the shorts he hadn’t taken the time to change out of after the rodeo.

“And I’d love to show it to you.” Especially his bed. But they couldn’t stay in his bed the entire time where he could easily distract her. What would she think of the rest of his place?

The famous model millionaire, CeCe Cole, in his little ranch house . . . This was going to be interesting.

Good thing he’d cleaned up before he’d left this morning. Still, no amount of cleaning was going to make it compare to her place.

Oh well.

At least he knew she liked him for him and not for what he owned—what little of that there was.

Had there ever been two more different people?

He had to be crazy to think he could hold on to her for more than a night or two.

“I’m excited to see the cows.” She left her hand on his leg and squeezed. “Ooo, are there horses too?”

Wade raised a brow. Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all.

CHAPTER 23

“Close your mouth, city girl, or bugs are gonna fly in.”

Out of the corner of her eye, CeCe saw Wade shoot her a sideways glance and a grin as he steered the truck onto the drive for his family’s ranch.

The entrance gates might have been made of wood rather than wrought iron like the houses in her neighborhood, but CeCe hadn’t been able to keep her mouth from gaping as she saw his family’s place.

Meanwhile, he had acted as if it was nothing.

Only twenty-five thousand acres
, he’d said.
Can’t raise a decent herd on less than that
, he’d said.

Maybe she was a city girl, but this wasn’t what she’d expected from a man who, the night she’d met him, had been staying in a hotel that cost less a night than she paid to get a pedicure.

Frowning, she turned toward him and shook her head in confusion. “Why didn’t you tell me you owned all this?”

“I don’t own it. My eighty-year-old grandfather does.” He cocked one brow high. “And thank God for that or my ex-wife would have owned half after the divorce.”

Wade made a sharp right down a dirt road that came into view shortly after they’d driven through the gates. He drove slowly, maneuvering over bumps and around dips in their path. All the while, the truck’s tires kicked up a cloud of dust behind them.

A couple of minutes later, a building came into view. CeCe squinted through the haze to make it out in the distance. The closer they got, the more details she could distinguish.

The building was small, but in a charming sort of way. A saltbox roof slanted down over a covered front porch where two wooden rocking chairs sat.

The yellow house with white trim was surrounded by mature foundation plantings and larger trees that would no doubt cast a nice shade and protect from the worst heat of the day. That told her this was an older building, though it looked very well kept.

He stopped the truck in front and cut the engine. After unhooking his seatbelt, Wade turned in his seat. “So this is it. What do you think?”

“I love it.”

“You do?” he asked.

“Yes.” It was unexpected but not at all in a bad way.

“Well, I seriously hope you’re not going to be after me for my money now that you’ve seen my family’s spread.” He cocked up one brow, but his serious act broke when a smile tipped up his lips.
 

“Don’t worry. I’m not after your
spread
.” CeCe unhooked her seatbelt as well, turning to face him more fully.

Nothing about her attraction to Wade made sense. Even if he had owned the twenty-five thousand acres himself, it wouldn’t make their situation any more logical. She was a city girl living in California. He was a country boy from Texas.

On top of their many differences, their lives were separated by thousands of miles between them.

The millions of dollars separating them was pretty far down the list of why there was no way they should be together. The money probably came somewhere after the reality that they both had disastrous marriages in their pasts. Only superseded by the fact they had absolutely nothing in common—except for in bed, of course.

Then there was the decade difference in their ages that she was conveniently ignoring.

“Well, that’s good because my father and brother are probably going to inherit it all anyway. I’ll count myself lucky if I’m even in the will.”

“That’s okay. I’m actually after you for the sex.” Joking seemed CeCe’s best course of action in this conversation, which had taken on a strangely serious undertone.

She reached out and ran a finger over the jersey covering his chest before she glanced down to the shorts and fluorescent sneakers. “And for your keen fashion sense, of course.”

His gaze dropped to take in her finger as she snaked it beneath the fabric of his shorts and trailed one nail along the bare skin of his leg. “Thank you, but it’s about time I got out of my work clothes. Come on inside.”

“All right.” Her voice sounded breathy to her own ears.

Damn man.

She wouldn’t admit he literally took her breath away, but she would concede she wanted him, more than she ever had any other man in her life.

Why was that?

Wade opened his own door and then ran around the nose of the truck. He had her door open before she’d had time to gather up her purse. He was still acting the gentleman.

“So no one else lives here with you?” she asked when he’d offered her his hand.

“Just me. It was the house my grandfather built right after he and my grandmother got married. When they had kids, he decided to build a bigger one farther from the road. My father built his house close to that one. My brother built himself a place on the other side of the property.” Wade shrugged. “This one was empty and starting to fall apart. I guess it wasn’t good enough for any of them to want to bother with, so I decided to make it mine.”

It was a crazy yet amazing tale.

Her grandparents had died when she was young and she didn’t speak to her parents much. Not since she’d been a teenager and broke away from them, replacing her father as her manager.

That was a time in her life she didn’t like to remember.

Luckily for her, Wade was here to help her forget. Standing on the front porch, he opened the front door, grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.

The living room had what looked like hand-hewn beams in the ceiling and wide board flooring. It was construction that would be hard to duplicate today.

She took a step forward and laid her hands on his chest, even as she glanced around her. “I like your house. There’s history here. It’s good you saved it.”

“Glad you approve.” He settled his hands on her hips.

“I do. I want a tour.”

He backed her up, moving them both slowly down a narrow hallway. “Okay. How about I show you the bed first.”

“If you do that, it will be a long time before we get to the rest of the house.”

He lowered his head closer to hers. “Is that a problem?”

“No, I’m just surprised. A bed has never been a requirement for you before. Not in the truck, or the elevator, or in my kitchen.”

“Yeah, well, that’s not going to work here. My family has a tendency to waltz in unannounced. My brother doesn’t deserve to see what I consider mine.” His gaze dropped to the buttons of her shirt as he deftly worked to unfasten them while still walking her backward.

She drew in a sharp breath. “Yours? Really. So now I’m your property?”

“God, I love it when you’re pissed off at me.” His eyes narrowed before he crashed his mouth against hers.

Eyes closed from the intensity of the kiss, CeCe didn’t see the room or the bed they tumbled onto. She only felt the bounce of the mattress beneath her and the weight of Wade’s body on top of her.

She smelled freshly laundered pillowcases combined with Wade’s scent. It made her crave his bare skin against hers on top of the smooth, cool cotton.