Wrecked (23 page)

“Wade?”

“Mmm?”

“Think about what I said about your brother.”

“I will. Tomorrow.” He pulled back and she saw the desire in his eyes. “Come back to bed.”

“Okay.”

CHAPTER 25

“Sure you can’t stay another night?” Wade knew the question was pointless but it was worth a try.

They were at the airport. The pilot had already confirmed that he and the plane were ready when she was. There was no way CeCe would turn around and stay now.

She smiled indulgently. “I’ve got nothing but the clothes on my back and my purse.”

He lifted one shoulder. “So? You looked pretty good in my T-shirt.”

“You have work to do. Remember? There are heifers to be moved and . . . other stuff.”

His lips twitched at her trying to talk like she knew what she was saying. “Yeah. I remember.”

What Wade remembered was the feel of CeCe’s hair against his cheek when he woke this morning. And the sound of her losing control when he drove her to heights even he hadn’t thought he was capable of last night.

Fuck
.

He didn’t want her to go but he couldn’t expect her to stay. A woman like her had a life to get back to, and like it or not, that life was far from him.

But he could kiss her now while she was still here. Wade intended on doing exactly that and he had no intention of stopping until she made him.

He pressed his mouth to hers and she melted into his kiss.

God, he was going to miss that.

He angled his head and kissed her deeper, plunging his tongue between her lips. The soft moan he heard from her nearly had him crawling out of his clothes.

Making out in front of the airport had its problems. Mainly, airport security knocking on the window. He pulled away from CeCe and glanced at the guard.

“Buddy, you gotta move.”

Wade nodded and turned back to CeCe. “I can park the truck in the lot and—”

“No, don’t bother. I should go.”

With her lips plump from his kisses and her eyes not quite focused, CeCe looked too tempting for Wade to want to let her go, but she was right.

“Okay.” Under the watchful eye of the security guard, Wade swung open the driver’s side door and then went around to open CeCe’s side.

She stepped down from the truck and glanced up at him. “Thanks for the hospitality.”

Hospitality. He’d fed her cereal for dinner between rounds of sex. They’d spent most of the time tangled up in his bed. Not knowing when he’d see her again, he had no complaints about that.

He snorted out a short laugh. “Sure. Anytime.”

“I’d better head inside.” She tipped her head toward the building, but he wasn’t ready yet.

Wade grabbed her head one more time and—security guard be damned—kissed her hard and deep.

Finally, somehow, he forced himself to break away. “Let me know when you get home so I know you’re safe.”

He wanted to hear her voice again, to have some sort of contact, but concern for her safety was the excuse he chose to go with.

“Yes, sir.” A smile twitched up her lips.

He yanked his gaze from her too-tempting mouth and dropped his hold on her. “Okay. Safe flight. I—uh—I’ll talk to you later.”

Damned, if the words
I love you
weren’t right there on the tip of his tongue. He felt the blood drain from his face from the shock of that realization.

It had to be because he’d just seen his daughter. Every time they said good-bye it was followed by an
I love you
. Wade decided to go with that theory before he passed out from shock and fear that he might be in love with a woman he had no future with.

“Talk to you later.” Oblivious to the drama playing out inside Wade, CeCe treated him to a tiny smile and turned toward the building.

He stood and waited until she was through the door. Then he waited longer until he couldn’t see her inside through the glass, all while knowing he was pushing his luck with the guard.

His wait had been worth it. She’d turned and glanced back at him, wiggling her fingers in a small wave before she disappeared. He lifted his hand to return her gesture but she was already gone.

Her backward glance had his throat tightening. He forced himself to turn around and get in the truck before he lost all sense and ran after her.

Fuck. He needed a drink.

Instead, he drove back to the ranch. He didn’t dare stop by his house where the memories of CeCe were everywhere. He drove directly to the barn and parked.

Wade had just swung the barn door open when his grandfather pulled up behind him.

When the old man had made his way out of the truck and over to him, Wade said, “Hey, Gramps.”

The older man nodded. “Mornin’.”

His grandfather didn’t mention the lateness of the hour or the fact Wade was just now pulling in for work.

It wasn’t quite noon yet so technically it was still morning, but Wade still felt the guilt of his late arrival. Because of that, he needed to get right to work. He moved inside the barn and toward the saddle racks as his grandfather followed.

Wade pulled his saddle off the rack on the wall and carried it to the stall where a Paint Quarterhorse watched him without much enthusiasm.

“So Buck says you got a super model stashed away at your place. That true?”

The question had Wade pausing. He had no choice but to answer. “It was.”

“Really?” His grandfather lifted one bushy gray eyebrow.

His grandfather was not an easy man to impress but he obviously was now. That’s what it took to impress the old man? A supermodel?

Wade had to laugh. “Yup. But don’t get too excited about it. I just dropped her off at the airport. At her private jet.” He threw that last tidbit in knowing it was over the top but enjoying his grandfather’s reaction anyway.

“Where the hell you meet her?”

“The Cole Shock Absorbers Invitational in California a couple weeks ago. She’s CeCe Cole.”

The old man’s eyes widened more. “You better marry that girl before she gets away.”

Wade let out a snort. “Yeah, because my first attempt at marriage went so well.”

And that was just one of the many reasons why the suggestion was ridiculous.

The old man adjusted the faded
U.S. Navy Veteran
baseball hat on his head. “When life gives you a reride, boy, you take it. Keep your eye on the road ahead, not in the rearview worrying about what’s behind you.”

His grandfather was chock full of philosophy today.

Wade didn’t argue, even if he did think the words were just that. Words. “I’ll remember that. So, I better saddle up and get out there before Dad and Buck get any more pissed I missed half a day of work.”

“I was about to jump on the four wheeler and ride out myself. I got some news. Maybe if you deliver it, they’ll forget about you getting here late.”

Doubtful. “Sure. What’s the news?”

“I got an interesting call just now. From some cowboy relief fund. They supposedly help out guys hurt while rodeoing.”

The mention of the organization—the one CeCe had just begun to sponsor—caught Wade’s attention. “Yeah. I know of ’em. What’d they have to say?”

“Apparently the ranch qualifies for some sort of grant for a work program they got.”

“We do?” Wade gave up on saddling the horse and turned his full attention to his grandfather.

“Yup. This woman, Parks, I think her name was, was a little sketchy on the details but from what I can figure, they’re sending over a guy for us to try out. If we like him, he’ll work here as many hours as he can handle and this organization will pay him.”

This sounded too convoluted to be true, until Wade took into account his conversation with CeCe last night. Her solution to his family trouble was to just hire more help. It was too much of a coincidence that hot on the heels of that talk with her, this offer comes through from the very organization she’d recently written a no doubt sizeable check to.

His grandfather continued, “So we get free labor. He gets a job to help get him back on his feet financially after his injury. Seems like a win-win to me.”

“Yup. It sure does.” Wade had no proof CeCe had any hand in this but damned if it didn’t seem like it.

If she did have a hand in this, when the hell had she accomplished it? He’d been with her all night and all morning.

Then again, she was the owner of a huge corporation with a company full of employees dedicated to doing her bidding. One phone call and she could have any number of staff working on it.

All because he’d mentioned they needed more hands to help out on the ranch.

The woman never failed to surprise him. As if he hadn’t liked her too much already, now he liked her even more, just when he feared he was already veering into territory well past
like
.

Loving CeCe Cole was the dead last thing he should do, no matter what his grandfather said. Wade knew first hand that more often than not taking that reride just got you thrown in the dirt with no score on the board.

He made short work of saddling the horse and turned to his grandfather. “I’m gonna head out.”

The old man tipped his head. “Don’t forget to tell them the news. The guy is coming first thing in the morning.”

“A’ight.” With a lot more on his mind than any man should while on the back of a horse and surrounded by thousands of acres Wade headed out at a gallop.

He found his brother and father easily enough. Not that they were going to make things easy on him.

His father made a point of glancing at his watch before saying, “Wade.”

“Dad.”

The older man glanced at the horizon. “There’s a group of stragglers over past the ridge. You two go round them up.”

“Yes, sir.” Wade drew in a breath to brace himself for the shit Buck would surely give him the moment they were alone.

“So, your supermodel fly away home?”

And there it was.

The last thing Wade wanted to do was answer Buck’s question but he had no choice. “Yup.”

Buck let out a snort. “I’m surprised you didn’t go with her.”
 

“For one, I promised I’d be home during this break.”

“Pfft, you’ve broken that promise before.”

Wade grit his teeth but didn’t argue the point given he’d spent nearly a week with CeCe in California rather than come home. “The truth is she lives in her world and I live in another.”

A world where the herd had to get moved, though it seemed Buck was more concerned with Wade’s personal life.

Buck snorted. “Hell, Wade, if you think that’s true, then you’ve taken one too many shots to the head. You’ve had at least one foot in her world—that greedy corporate world—for years now.”

Wade scowled at his brother. “I do not.”

“No? Then how come I can’t turn on the TV without seeing you, larger than life on that damn giant screened television my wife insisted on buying? You getting interviewed by the reporters. You wearing the Cole name all over your jersey. You holding that energy drink up to the camera and grinning for all the world to see, acting as if it didn’t taste like shit just because they pay you to.”

“For what the sponsors contribute to the circuit for no guaranteed ROI, that’s the least I can do.”

His brother’s eyes popped wide. “ROI? Can you hear yourself, Wade? That’s exactly what I mean. You’re more CeCe Cole’s people than ours nowadays.”

His brother’s words were meant to wound but all they did was point to a truth Wade hadn’t fully realized until this moment. He was straddling two worlds, and had been for a while.

It was no wonder he felt so stretched half the time.

More importantly, maybe it wasn’t so out of the question for him to make it in CeCe’s world.