At the far end of the great room was a staircase, which led to a group of bedrooms. The landing was lit with tiny night-lights and as Matt led her along, she got a vague sense of the splendor of the house. Glimpses of varnished cypress floors and crystal doorknobs were a reminder of just how much their lifestyles differed. Yet the warmth of Matt’s hand around hers felt real and right.
Near the end of the landing, Matt pulled her through a partially opened door, then shut and locked it behind him. The realization of being secluded in a dark, private space with him was enough to heighten her senses even more, and by the time he led her to the bed, her skin was tingling, her heart beating so fast she was very nearly breathless.
“Is this your room?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
He left her for a moment and then a tiny lamp in a far corner of the room suddenly shed an arc of dim light around them and across a king-size bed covered with a maroon comforter.
She didn’t have time to see more as he returned to her side and drew her back into his arms. He kissed her lips, then moved on to plant rows of kisses down her throat and onto her shoulders. As he tasted and teased her heated skin, his hands began to work on the zipper at the back of her dress.
When it fell in a heap around her feet and his hands reached for the front snap of her bra, she moaned with desperation and began to fumble with the buttons on his shirt. After that, their movements became hurried and reckless. Clothes dropped to the floor and fell onto the bed, until both of them were undressed and their heated bodies tangled in a heap in the middle of the mattress.
Over and over Matt kissed her lips and face while her hands raced up and down his back, over his lean hips and broad shoulders. His bronze skin was smooth and hot and she touched her lips to every available spot she could reach.
“I’ve wanted you like this for so long,” he murmured, once he lifted his head to look down at her. “And now—I can’t get enough of you. I don’t know if I’ll ever get enough of you.”
His words caused a flood of emotion to pool in her heart and Juliet looked up at him with misty eyes. She wanted him to say he loved her. She wanted to hear him promise the two of them would be together like this for the rest of their lives. Those earnest wishes were something she could admit to herself now. But not to him. Not yet. Tonight it had to be enough that he wanted her in his bed.
Her face full of yearning, she reached up and traced a finger along his hard cheekbone. “After you kissed me at the wedding, I spent more than a week telling myself I didn’t like it. But I was lying to myself. Because I knew—I was sure that—”
His head dipped and his lips began a lazy foray upon one breast. “You were sure about what?” he urged in a whisper against her satiny skin.
Thrusting her fingers into his thick hair, she slid them against his scalp and guided his head so that his lips were at the center of her breast. As soon as his teeth closed gently around the already hardened nipple she groaned as pleasure shot through her like a sweet arrow.
“That you—would never take a second look at me,” she said, her voice husky with need.
He chuckled and the sound vibrated through her body to warm her heart.
“You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on,” he said as his lips explored the valley between her breasts. “Why wouldn’t I take a second look?”
“Because you hated me—or should I say hated what you thought I stood for. But, Matt—”
Lifting his head, he placed a shushing finger over her lips. “I made assumptions that were wrong, Juliet. But none of that matters now. I’ve come to realize this is where you belong.” Bending back to her, he rested his forehead against hers. “And I think you feel that way, too.”
The gentleness of his words was unexpectedly tender and it swept her up on a golden cloud as she clasped his face between her hands and whispered, “Oh yes, Matt. This is where I belong.”
Lifting her lips to his, she kissed him slowly, sweetly as she tried to express the fullness of her heart, the indescribable need she had for him. But after a moment a fire began to build between them and Matt took control with his tongue and his teeth as they nipped and searched and teased her mercilessly.
Juliet was breathless and on fire with longing when he finally eased his head back far enough to gaze down at her, and as he looked deep into her eyes, she thought how easy, how right it felt to be lying here with him.
“I hope you’re protected with some sort of birth control because I don’t have any condoms around here,” he muttered wryly. “Maybe if I rummaged around in Cordero’s room—”
He broke off as she began to shake her head. “That isn’t necessary,” she assured him. “I’m on birth control. No need to worry. But Matt—” Her brows puckered with confusion, she raised up on one elbow so that she was facing him. “Are you telling me that you don’t keep condoms because—” Knowing she wasn’t phrasing her question quite right, she stopped and started again, “When you said you didn’t involve yourself with women, you meant that literally?”
With a self-mocking twist of his lips, he rose up on the side of the bed and gave her a sidelong glance. “That’s exactly what I meant. Since Erica’s death, I haven’t been with a woman in any respect. I haven’t wanted to be with one. Until you.”
For a moment she was overcome by his confession as she tried to grasp what it all meant to him and to her. And then with a little cry, she scrambled to her knees and flung her arms around his neck.
“Oh, Matt,” she whispered fervently as she smattered kisses across his face and down his neck. “Let me make love to you. Let me make this special—as special as I can for you.”
With a hand against his chest, she nudged him back to the mattress and once he was lying flat, promptly draped herself over him. Instantly, his arms came around her waist to hold her tight, while he buried his face into the curve of her shoulder, where he mouthed against her, “You already have, my darling.”
His words were like precious diamonds dropping into Juliet’s heart, plugging the holes of lonely uncertainty that she’d carried for so long. Matt wanted her and no one else. The fact filled her with an incredible glow that filtered out through her lips as she kissed him, through her fingers as she stroked him.
Like dry kindling on a rain-starved desert, the contact of their bodies sparked into flames and driving need quickly took control of their movements.
When Matt finally rolled her onto her back and entered her with one hard thrust, Juliet’s senses soared to a higher place where there were no sights or sounds, only golden clouds enveloping them with delicious heat.
For Matt, he couldn’t touch her enough. His lips couldn’t stop kissing hers or tasting her soft skin. His hands kneaded her breasts until other places called, like her hips and thighs and the concave beneath her belly button. And each place his fingers explored was followed by the hungry search of his lips, the seductive glide of his tongue. Until the burning need in his loins took complete control and the only thing he could focus on was driving himself deeper into her heated body.
His thrusts grew desperate and frenzied. Sweat rolled down his face and onto his chest. Beneath him, he could hear her soft cries of pleasure, feel each rise of her hips as they met his to give him more. And then more.
Matt tried to pause the need clawing at his body, to keep the incredible fire between them burning forever, but it was impossible to hold back the storm raging inside him. He’d drunk and drunk from her, filling his thirsty soul; now all he could do was pour everything, even his heart, back into her.
Long moments passed before Juliet realized she was back on earth, lying in the middle of Matt’s bed. The heavy weight of his warm body anchored her to the mattress, making it impossible to move. But even without it, she couldn’t have found the strength to lift her hand. She was drained. And yet she’d never felt happier or more complete in her life.
As her breathing slowed, so did Matt’s, and eventually he rolled off her. Lying on his side, he reached to push the tangled blond hair from her face.
“I hope I didn’t hurt you,” he said.
She opened her eyes and with a drowsy smile summoned enough strength to roll toward him. “I’ve never felt so wonderful.”
Her hand rested on his chest just as he was releasing a heavy breath and she realized he’d been anxious about her response. The notion made her marvel that he could doubt himself or her reaction. He’d filled her with so much joy she’d thought she might burst from it.
With a groan of relief, he pulled her toward him and she slipped her arm around his waist and cuddled the front of her body next to his.
“Neither have I,” he said as he rested his cheek against hers and stroked the back of her head.
“Then you’re not—sorry about this?”
With a comical frown wrinkling his face, he eased his head back to look at her. “Now why would I be sorry?”
As she gazed upon his dark features, she realized he’d become everything to her. All her hopes and dreams had somehow slowly wrapped around this man and it was impossible to separate them. And Juliet prayed she would never have to. Because she loved him. There was no use trying to deny what was already in her heart.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you waited so long and I—”
She broke off as doubts trickled through her mind like slow-moving molasses. Yet her expression must have conveyed some of her concerns, because he placed a comforting hand alongside her face.
“Juliet, my sweetheart, don’t ruin the rest of our night with questions. Morning will be here soon enough and I want us to enjoy the time we have left.”
Dipping his head back to hers, he began to nuzzle a row of kisses along her throat and across her chest. The enticement was enough to distract her and hardly a moment passed before desire, low in her belly, began to resurge with a vengeance.
Wrapping her arms around him, she said, “I want the same thing, too, Matt. Very much.”
By noon the next day Juliet thought her head would be falling against her chest from the lack of sleep, but when she left the newspaper office to walk down to the Cattle Call, she felt like skipping and singing. There wasn’t a tired bone in her body and the radiance must have shown on her face when Angie came to take her order.
“Wow! Did you get some sort of new makeup or something? You’re positively glowing today,” the waitress remarked as she pulled an order pad and pencil from her apron.
Propping her chin on a fist, Juliet gave the other woman a wide, dreamy smile. “No new makeup. I just feel good today.”
After a furtive glance around the busy diner to make sure another customer wasn’t waiting, Angie slid into the chair opposite Juliet. Leaning over the table, she said in a low voice, “All right, tell me what’s happened and don’t try to say it’s nothing but a happy day. I’ve never seen you looking like this.”
Juliet’s smile turned a little wicked. “Sorry. I can’t do that. It’s too personal. Let’s just say things are changing for the better.”
Leaning back in her chair, Angie rolled her eyes. “Oh God, you must be talking about a man. Now I’m actually getting worried.”
A frown replaced Juliet’s grin as she placed her handbag under her chair. “Don’t start getting all cynical on me, Angie. Women do need the male race once in a while. Even you.”
The other woman’s head wagged thoughtfully back and forth. “Maybe. But usually wherever a man walks, trouble walks right behind him and then a woman has two things to deal with.”
Trying not to let Angie’s dour attitude get to her, she pointed a finger at the waitress. “You need to get out more. And by the way, how’s Melanie doing?”
At the mention of her daughter, the waitress’s expression went soft. “Fit as ever,” she said fondly. “And if I haven’t thanked you before for giving us Doctor Saddler, then I’m thanking you again. I’ve never been one to ask for charity and I—”
“It isn’t charity to ask for help once in a while,” Juliet corrected her. “Especially when the asking is for a loved one rather than yourself.”
Thoughtful now, Angie began to draw doodles on the edge of the small order sheet. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. And Doctor Saddler is really, really nice. She didn’t make me feel belittled in any way. I was surprised. I thought with her being from that family on the Sandbur that she’d have her nose in the air a bit. But maybe they’re just regular folks like we are, Juliet. Isn’t that a thought?”
No, Matt could never be a regular man, Juliet thought. Even if he didn’t have a dime, he’d be special in her eyes. He’d driven her home this morning in the wee hours before the crew began to stir out in the ranch yard. And though the two of them had been alone in the house, she’d known he’d ended their time together because he’d wanted to protect her reputation and not have the wranglers seeing her leave the ranch at an indecent hour. In many ways he was a gentleman and that thought curved her lips with a faint smile. The first time she’d met him, she’d believed he was a heathen. How much her image of the man had changed since then, she mused.
“Well, the Saddlers and Sanchezes might be regular folks in lots of ways, but they’ll never be like us, Angie.”
Her expression a little weary, the waitress rose from the chair. “You’re probably right about that. And I’ve got to get back to work. Better tell me what you want to eat. A salad?”
Juliet waved a dismissive hand at her. “No way. I want a big greasy cheeseburger with potato chips on the side.”
Angie looked as though she’d been struck with a two-by-four. “Have you gone crazy?”
Chuckling, Juliet said, “No, I missed breakfast and I’m very hungry.”
Shaking her head, Angie pointed an accusing finger at her. “There’s something wrong with you and sooner or later you’ll tell me about it.”
The only thing wrong with Juliet was a desperate yearning to be with Matt again. But this morning when he’d dropped her off, he hadn’t mentioned calling her or even when the two of them might get together again.
Still, she couldn’t believe their time apart would last for long. Not if he’d felt anything close to what she’d experienced in his arms.
“Maybe in our golden years, Angie. When all we have are our memories.”
Later that afternoon, Matt was in one of the barns gathering ear tags and vaccination equipment when Lex walked up behind him.
“There you are. I’ve been hunting everywhere for you,” his blond cousin said. “What are you doing in here? I thought we were going to ride out to range five and look over that herd. Williamson, that buyer in Clovis has been ringing my phone off the hook. I’ve got to ship him something just to shut him up.”
“I forgot,” Matt said. “And I told the boys we were going to work the cattle here at the ranch yard before we moved them out to pasture. They’ve been penned for three days. They’re losing weight and I want them on grass as soon as possible.”
Shoving the supplies into a duffel bag, Matt turned to face the other man, then wished he hadn’t when Lex started to whistle under his breath.
“Hellfire, you look like you’ve been run over by a steamroller.”
“Thanks, cuz,” Matt quipped with sarcasm. “You always were a real charmer.”
Lex leaned in closer to inspect the lines around Matt’s eyes. “What’s the matter? Didn’t you get any sleep? I thought—” His words suddenly broke off as something suddenly registered with him and he grinned with pure mischief. “Oh yeah, how could I forget. Gracia stayed at the house last night. She said you had a date with the newspaperwoman. How did that go? From the looks of you, not good.”
Growling with frustration, Matt bent to zip the duffel bag closed. “Even though it’s none of your business, it went fine. Just fine.”
Lex began to chuckle and Matt lifted his head to cast him a hard glare.
“Oh. I’m beginning to see the light. And thank God you have, too.”
“Lex, I’m warning you to keep that big trap of yours shut or you’re going to be eating dirt and plenty of it.”
The other man was still chuckling when Matt’s cell phone began to ring. He pulled the small instrument out of his pocket and answered, “Matt here.”
“Matt, it’s Geraldine. I’m sorry to disturb you and I won’t keep you but a minute. I just wanted to give you an invitation to supper tonight. Nicci is actually going to come home early for one evening and we—the two of us—thought you might like to bring Juliet with you.”
Matchmaking from his aunt? If it weren’t for Lex being present, he could have laughed out loud. If only his family knew just how matched he’d already been with Juliet.
“Geraldine, Juliet and I already had supper together last night. Surely Gracia told you.”
“She did. But what does two nights in a row hurt? I’m sure the woman will have to eat somewhere and Cook is grilling rib eyes tonight.”
He turned a droll look on Lex. “Is your son going to be there?” he asked his aunt.
The woman chuckled. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him.”
“I won’t bother,” he muttered, then in a more serious tone, added, “Okay, count us in. That is, if Juliet can make it.”
“I’m sure you can persuade her, honey. See you at seven,” she said happily. “And don’t worry about Gracia. She’ll be staying over with me again tonight.”
His family was obviously maneuvering him. But why should that bother him when being with Juliet was the only thing his mind wanted to contemplate. Talk about having it bad, he thought wryly. He was worse than a lovesick bull separated from his herd of heifers.
“All right, Geraldine,” he said. “We’ll be there.”
He punched the off button and slipped the phone back into his shirt.
Lex studied him with a keen eye. “All kidding aside, Matt, I want you to be happy. I’ve wanted that for a long time. And I’m hoping this woman turns out to be everything you need.”
Matt wiped a weary hand over his face. “I don’t know, Lex. I wasn’t looking for this to happen. But it has and now she’s gotten a hold on me. If she isn’t right for me—then I’m in for a hell of a time.”
Seeing the anxious shadows in Matt’s eyes, Lex reached over and gave his cousin’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze. “Come on, cuz, let’s get to work.”
Later that evening, as the sun began to dip behind the mesquite-covered hills, Juliet found herself once again in Matt’s truck and on her way to the Sandbur ranch. Only an hour earlier, she’d arrived home and walked into her kitchen to prepare herself a snack. When the telephone rang and it had been Matt inviting her to have dinner with him, she’d been taken by surprise. She’d been thinking, even hoping he’d be calling her soon, but she’d never expected to hear from him this quickly.
It had taken her only a few split seconds to assure him she’d be ready to go. The idea of hemming and hawing, as some women did just to keep a man wondering, had never entered Juliet’s mind. After last night, it would have been stupid to try to hide her eagerness to be with him. The intimacy they’d shared was beyond petty dating games.
Glancing over at him, she said, “I have to admit that I was surprised to hear from you this evening.”
A wry twist to his mouth, he said, “I wasn’t going to call you. I figured you were tired. But I could tell Geraldine was eager for us to come.”
Juliet was tired all right. At the most she’d gotten three hours of sleep and her body was sore in places she’d not even known existed. Yet none of that mattered. Just looking over at his rugged profile and tough, lean body was enough to fill her with excitement and longing. She knew the evening was going to be a long one until she could be alone with him again.
“I’m glad she wanted us to be there,” Juliet told him. “Does she invite you over to her house very often?”
Matt shrugged. “Oh, three or four times a month probably. It gives Lex and I, and sometimes Cordero, a chance to talk about the business side of the ranch. And Geraldine enjoys having family around her for any reason. Nicci is so tied up at the clinic that she’s rarely around and her younger daughter, Mercedes, is in the air force. So my aunt has to mostly settle with us hairy old guys for company.”
Smiling wistfully, Juliet gazed out the passenger window. “I’m sure you men make her happy. Especially since she’s a widow. If I might ask, what happened to her husband?”
“Paul?” A frown tugged his brows together as he stared ahead at the highway. “He was killed in a boating accident down on the gulf near Corpus. He’d gone out with some of his old cronies that he’d worked with at Coastal Oil. Somehow he went overboard without anyone seeing. By the time they turned the boat around to go after him, the waves had sucked him under.”
Shocked by his brief account, she turned her head to look at him. “Did they ever find his body?”
His frown deepened as he tossed her another glance. “Yes. Why would you ask such a thing?”
Realizing she must have sounded like a lawyer, or even worse, a nosy journalist, she said, “I’m sorry if I sounded heartless, Matt. It’s just—my mind is trained to assimilate facts and the story somehow sounds flimsy. But if the incident was ruled as an accident, then I guess there’s no reason to consider it suspicious.”
His expression turned to wry admiration as he focused his gaze back on the highway. “You’re sharp, woman. Funny that you should be so quick to come to that notion. Geraldine has always thought there was more to Paul’s death than what the police released in their report.”
“Was an autopsy done?”
Matt nodded grimly. “The coroner said it looked as though Paul had suffered a heart attack and that’s what had caused him to fall over the edge of the boat. But Paul had never had any sort of heart ailment. He went for regular tests and checkups with his doctor. He didn’t smoke and exercised regularly. It didn’t make sense. But then God has his own ideas about when a person’s time is up.”
Juliet’s thoughts turned to Geraldine as she tried to imagine the unbearable loss she’d suffered. If Matt was suddenly taken from her, for any reason, how would she, could she go on? He’d already become too much a part of her to be able to survive without him.
Turning her mind away from the uneasy thought, she said, “You’re right. But sometimes evil people intervene.”
“Hmm. Well, Geraldine thinks it odd that two of Paul’s old buddies later ended up making millions selling their shares of the oil company. There were rumors that insider trading had gone on, but that fact was never proved, so a case was never opened and Paul’s was closed and marked accidental death.”
She stared at him with something like horror. “Matt! A good investigator should have been brought in. Geraldine—”
“Was worried,” he said with a shake of his head. “At that time she said Paul had been behaving oddly. Something had him greatly distracted. She’d started to think it might be another woman, but after his death, she feared it had something to do with the company. She believed Paul was a good, honest man, but when he refused to discuss anything with her, she couldn’t help but wonder and worry. Then when he died so suspiciously, she decided it would be best not to drag up what might best be left buried with him.”
Juliet nodded thoughtfully. “I can understand that. He was gone and loving memories were all she had left. She didn’t want to lose them, too.”
He looked at her with surprising tenderness. “You’re thinking like a woman now, Juliet. Instead of a reporter.”
Her heart swelled as she reached across the seat for his hand. He readily gave it to her and she squeezed his fingers.
“You might not believe it, Matt, but the woman in me wins out every time.”
“I’ll try to remember that, honey.”