The Taylor Ranch: Cade Read online

  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 a
nd 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.”

  “So is every part of me intact? My leg feels like it’s burning.”

  “That’s because it’s broken in three places and you’ve got fifteen stitches in your head, but the doctor said you were very lucky.”

  The only lucky thing was having April back and by his side.

  “I told the doctor I can take care of you and that you’ll come to stay with me and dad until you’re all healed. That means I can make a fuss over you and it also means you have to do exactly what I tell you.”

  She grinned at him. His ranch…

  “Who’s going to take care of the ranch?”

  “Dad and I are going to take turns making sure everything’s running smoothly.”

  He suddenly realized she had dark circles under her eyes and that her clothes were crumped like she’d been in them for days.

  “Is it still Tuesday?” he asked.

  “Nope, it’s Wednesday afternoon.”

  “Have you been here all the time?”

  “Almost. Dad sat with me for most of the night while you were in recovery.”

  “Then you go home and get some rest.”

  “I’m fine here with you.”

  “April, go home. I’ll still be here when you get back.”

  “Okay, but I’ll be back this evening.”

  ****

  April stopped by the bookstore and bought Cade a bunch of magazines and some paperback books by an author she knew he’d always loved. She wasn’t sure if he’d be allowed beer or if it would be a bad mix with the pain meds he was on, so instead she took him a six-pack of root beer. He was watching TV and eating a bowl of what looked like rice pudding when she went back to his room later that evening.

  “Hi,” she said, leaning over and kissing his forehead, being careful not to disturb the dressing and stitches on his head.

  “I have root beer, magazines and books for you.”

  “Anyone ever tell you that you’re one fantastic fiancée?”

  He’d heard what she’d told the paramedics. My little white lie.

  At first she’d told them so she could be with Cade to make sure he was taken care of because he didn’t have any other family, but when she’d ridden in the ambulance with him, waited while he was in surgery, she’d realized she didn’t have to wait a year to know that marrying him was the right thing to do. It would never be a decision she’d later regret. If April had to choose between being an attorney and being Mrs. Cade Mallory, the ‘Mrs.’ title was one she wanted more.

  “Cade, I don’t know what I would have done if you’d died and yes, you could have easily been killed.”

  “So what about law school, and your independence?”

  “I can be a wife and go to school. Independence, well I think you’re going to be the sort of guy who’ll give me lots of that.”

  “Fall wedding. Is that what you want?”

  He’d even heard that too. “I do, but I don’t think you’re going to be ready.”

  “Sure I will. I have you as my bride and I have to be in shape for the honeymoon. In fact, you want to give me a little preview now. Little hand massage would take my mind off the pain in my leg.”

  “You’re in the hospital, what if someone walks in on us?”

  Cade lifted the blanket. “I’m in such pain you wouldn’t believe it. I need some loving.”

  “You are a bad boy, Cade Mallory.”

  She sat on the bed and pushed her hand under the bed clothes and up under the robe they dressed him in.

  “Cade, you’re more of a bad boy than I thought.”

  “Okay, so I already have a hard-on. What guy could look at you and not get one of those?”

  She moved her hand up and down his shaft.

  “Mmm, I feel better already.”

  “You know I’ll make you return the favor when…”

  He pushed his hand up under her shirt and pushed her panties to one side.

  “Cade, what if a nurse or the doctor walks in here?”

  “It makes it all the more exciting, don’t you think?”

  He massaged her clit and she no longer cared if someone walked in.

  “Let’s see who comes first,” said Cade.

  April ran her fingers around the tip of his dick as he pressed harder on her nub.

  “Baby, get used to this because this is all it’s going to be until my leg heals.”

  “Damn, I’ll have to dig out that vibrator again.”

  He swirled his finger around and pushed it into her pussy.

  April groaned and guessed she’d be the first to have an orgasm.

  Now barely able to hold onto his cock, she moved her hips and rode Cade’s finger as he plunged it in and out of her channel.

  “How many kids are we going to have?” he asked her.

  “Enough to run a ranch when we’re old and grey.” She’d barely managed to get those words out when the room spun and she climaxed.

  “Something tells me, you won,” said Cade. “Was it a good one?”

  “You have talented fingers, cowboy.”

  She ran her hands up his shaft again, seeing him relax his head back into the pillow.

  He gripped the blankets and groaned as he found release. April leaned over and kissed him.

  “Wow, Mrs. Mallory-to-be, you also have some talented hands. I’m going to enjoy that feeling for the rest of my life.”

  Mrs. Cade Mallory. She liked the sound of that.

  The End

  www.vanessadevereaux.com

  Other Books by Vanessa Devereaux:

  www.evernightpublishing.com/vanessa-devereaux

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