A Hero’s Haven Read online

  He kissed her again, reverently, as if she were his most precious treasure. Her heart filled to bursting. She caressed his jaw, reveling in the smooth feel against her palm. The difference in him was stark, and not just in feel. If she hadn’t witnessed him shedding the beard, she might not have recognized him. The beard had hidden his chiseled jaw and full mouth. Without it, his dark eyes drew her attention. No doubt about it, Cash was one of the best looking men she’d met. She loved the beard, but could get used to this softer, smoother face, too. Heat pooled in her center at the thought of what it would be like when he feasted on her.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Kate.”

  “You won’t. And I’ll tell you if it’s too much.”

  After all he’d been through, she needed to show him how she felt. That she understood his pain. Her own problems seemed petty by comparison. If Cash could survive death and mayhem, persevere through nightmares and anxiety, she could find a way to deal with her overbearing mother and move on to a new career.

  She reached for the top button on her shirt, but his hand covered hers. “Wait.”

  Worry fluttered in her belly. Was he going to say no? Give her some platitude about how she should save her virginity for someone better? For someone who cared? But he cared for her. She could tell, even if he hadn’t said it explicitly. It came out of his pores, the way he was so gentle with her, so considerate, the way he held himself in check while he pleasured her. And she was ready. No matter what happened, she wouldn’t regret making love to Cash for one second.

  He cleared his throat, a pink cast to his cheeks. “I haven’t… I haven’t been with someone since… well, it’s been almost two years. And I got tested for everything when I went to work for the security agency.”

  Kate’s cheeks heated. “I’ve been on the pill since my mom caught me kissing Trent Ridley.”

  Cash nodded, digesting the information. “I have condoms. I’m happy to use one if you want.”

  She shook her head, cheeks on fire now. “No.” Her voice turned to dust. “I… I want to feel you,” she whispered.

  He rose, bringing her to her feet, and picked her up, carrying her with ease to his bedroom. “I want to do this proper, Kate. I promise I’ll make you feel good. We’ll go as slow as you want. And if you’re not ready, say the word, and we’ll stop.”

  “Cash.” She turned his face to her, making sure he was looking right at her when she spoke. “I’m ready.” Arching up, she pressed her mouth to his, ending the kiss with a little nip to his lower lip. “I want this. With you. And I want to make you feel good, too.” Her chest burned with the admission. Lately, when she wasn’t with him, she kept having these… thoughts. Wicked thoughts of ways she’d like to touch him.

  His eyes lit. “You already make me feel good, sweetheart.”

  She chewed on her lip, searching for the words. “But… you know… I want to, I want to…” Oh man, she was going to combust.

  “Touch me? Oh babe, you can touch me any way you like. I promise you, I’ll love it.”

  She couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah?”

  He nodded, gently placing her back on her feet. “Yeah. Here.” He quickly shucked his boots and jeans kicking them aside so he stood before her in nothing but his boxer briefs. Her eyes zeroed in on the significant bulge in his shorts. “Touch me anywhere you like.”

  Her eyes snapped to his. The anticipation in his dark eyes mirrored her own. She traced his body hungrily as her gaze dropped back to his enormous cock.

  “Like this,” Cash cupped himself and brushed his hand upward. “Wanna try?”

  Hesitantly, she reached out, tracing the outline of his cock through the fabric. Cash stilled, holding his breath. She pressed harder as she rubbed back and forth, growing more confident with each stroke. “Like this?”

  “Yeah,” he grunted, muscles tense.

  This time she moved her hand lower to cup his balls. As she moved over his cock, he thrust his hips, pressing himself harder into her palm. She brushed her mouth across his pec, tasting him, loving how his chest hair prickled her face. Standing on tiptoe, she gently suckled his neck and flicked her tongue across his collarbone, continuing to rub his cock.

  His hand came to rest on her head, fingers lightly massaging her scalp. His encouragement worked like a drug, loosening the last of her inhibition. She slipped her hand inside his briefs and clasped him. He groaned, deep and guttural in his throat. It acted like fire in her veins, shooting liquid desire straight to her center. His cock was thick and hard. Hot and like velvet under her fingers. God, she could touch him forever and not get enough of it.

  She pushed him toward the bed, and he sat on the edge, laying back on his elbows, eyes glazed with lust. Seeing him like this did something to her, tapped into some ancient understanding of what it meant to be a powerful woman. She stepped between his legs, and reached for his waistband, giving a pull. He lifted his hips and helped her remove his shorts. She swallowed, mouth going dry at the sight of him. In a word, he was magnificent. Every muscle defined and sculpted. A broad chest with a smattering of hair that thickened below his navel and pointed her to his cock, erect and swollen. His legs were like logs, muscles corded as he waited patiently for her to finish her perusal.

  She dropped to her knees, hands on his thighs, stroking up the insides and stopping at his torso.

  “Kate,” his voice came out strangled. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “I want to.” Oh, Lordy did she want to. She’d been imagining this for days. She took his balls in her hand, gently massaging while she circled his cock with her other hand, stroking up firmly.

  Cash dropped his head back with a groan. “You have no idea how incredible that feels, babe.”

  “Yeah?” His praise sent ripples of anticipation straight to her clit. It surprised her, how touching him turned her on as much as his hands and mouth on her body. She stroked up again, pausing at the top to smear the wetness over his swollen head. Her heart kicked at the realization he was as wet as she was.

  Rising, she leaned over him and licked him from root to head. He tasted sharp. Salty. Musky. The scent of his arousal touched off a wild woman inside her. Liquid rushed to her panties as her pussy throbbed. Cash let out another animal sound that had her smiling. So she licked him again, this time encircling the head over and over.

  His hand came to her head again, fingers threading through her hair.

  She swirled the head of his cock, then opened her mouth and took him in, gently sucking. Cash’s breath was coming in harsh rasps, and his legs trembled. “Babe,” he gritted. “If you don’t want me to come, you gotta stop.”

  Why would she stop?

  She answered by taking him into her mouth again, as much of him as she could, and using her hand to make up the difference. He thrust with a groan, and she matched his rhythm, nerves on fire. Her nipples pulled tight as she moved with him, sucking and licking until his muscles seized and he came with a shout. Jets of hot come hit the back of her throat. She blinked hard, swallowing, unable to keep from grinning as he pulled out.

  Cash raised his head, eyes full of wonder.

  Worry fluttered through her. “Did I do okay?”

  He laughed. A giddy, joyous sound that made her heart swell. “Holy smokes, babe. I don’t think I’ve ever come that hard in my life. You okay?”

  “Never better.”

  She crawled up on the bed with him, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Thank you,” he murmured. “That was amazing.”

  Cash sat. “Be right back.”

  He rose, and she shamelessly ogled his perfectly shaped ass as he stepped out of the bedroom. A minute later he returned with two glasses of water, holding one out for her. She accepted it gratefully.

  “So we have a problem.”

  Her eyes jerked up, but there wasn’t concern in his eyes, only heat.

  “Somehow, you’re still fully clothed.”

  Kate set the glass on the bedside table and broug
ht her hands to her shirt buttons. “I think we can do something about that.”

  Holding his gaze, she slowly unbuttoned her shirts and let it slip off her shoulders. Reaching an arm behind, she unsnapped her bra and shrugged it off, baring herself to him. The air crackled between them. She snuck a gaze at his cock. There was no denying her effect on him.

  “Take off your pants.”

  With a wicked smile, she worked the zipper and shimmied out of everything. Lying back on the pillows, she tossed her hair and arched a brow. “Better?”

  “Much.” He tilted his chin, then came to lie beside her, cupping her hip.

  He ran his hand lightly over her side, and leaned in to take her mouth. With a sigh, she opened, seeking his tongue and stroking against it, losing herself in the sensation. He brought a hand to her breast, skimming over her already hard nipples. He gave a little pinch, and she gasped at the jolt of electricity that zipped straight to her clit. “Do that again.”

  A low laugh rumbled in his chest, and he kissed her deeply, gently pinching one nipple, then the other, until she was squirming and clenching her thighs together trying to make more friction where she wanted it. Cash trailed kisses along her jaw, then his tongue blazed a path down her neck until he took one tight peak into his mouth and flicked at it. She bowed into him, urging him to take her deeper. Her pulse raced, but her limbs felt liquid, languid. She could only focus on the ache building between her legs.

  Anticipation rocketed through her as he continued to kiss lower, pressing a kiss on her navel and licking a path to her mound, stopping at her curls. “So perfect,” he murmured, placing a kiss on her inner thigh, his breath warming her skin. He pressed gently, and she dropped her thighs open, inviting him to touch her.

  She quivered as he slid a finger through her slick folds. And then his tongue followed the same path, sending electric shocks spiraling from her center through her limbs with dizzying intensity. It was so different without the beard. He continued to lap at her, brushing her clit until she shook. She clutched at his hair, flexing her hips, grasping for some kind of purchase as he drove her higher and higher. He slipped a finger inside her and paused. “You okay?”

  “Yes,” she gasped tightly.

  “Does it feel good?”

  “Oh yes. I want more of your mouth.”

  He chuckled, slowly pulsing inside her as he resumed the lightest feather touches on her clit. “Do you want to come or do you want to wait?”

  “Make me come, Cash.” She didn’t know what in the heck he was doing with his fingers, but it was launching her into the stratosphere. “It’s so good I can’t stand it.” Her hips took on a rhythm of their own and when he dropped his mouth to her again, she shamelessly pressed into his mouth, begging for release. A moment later, her orgasm ripped through her with blinding intensity, flooding her in white hot light. He continued to pulse into her, mouth working its magic as she floated back to earth. Then he crawled back up to her, taking her in his arms and covering her face with butterfly kisses. “I want to make love to you, Kate.”

  “I want to feel you inside me,” she confessed in a rush, heart swelling at his gentleness, his care for her. She tilted her chin, offering her mouth for a kiss. When his tongue swept across her lip and she joined him, she tasted herself on his tongue, musky and sweet. Desire for him began to build and she wrapped a leg over his hip, pressing against his erection, long and hard. His cock slipped through her folds, touching on all her sensitized nerves and sending delicious ripples of pleasure through her.

  Clasping her hip, Cash rolled onto his back. “It might be easier this way.” He gripped her hips, positioning her entrance over his cock, teasing through her folds with the head. Then slowly, he helped her sink onto him. “Tell me if it’s too much,” he gritted, obviously holding back. She loved him for that. Loved that he cared enough to make sure she was okay.

  She nodded, hair falling forward. “I’m fine. I want this. Want you.”

  “It might hurt,” he reminded her, concern filling his voice.

  Fear flashed through her momentarily as he began to push into her. But he moved so slowly, so gently, that in a second it dissipated. Slowly, he filled her. She gasped at the slight burn, but her body quickly stretched to accommodate his size. And the sensation of him filling her, completing her, overwhelmed her senses chasing away all other thought. He touched the deepest part of her, and as she started to rock against him, she saw stars.

  “You okay?” he grunted, hands stroking her back, squeezing her ass.

  “God, yes.”

  He rolled his hips, bringing a whole new round of sensation to her insides. She couldn’t even begin to describe what was happening, except that it felt so damned good.

  “Yes,” she gasped. “Do that again.”

  He chuckled low. “Like this?” He pumped a little harder this time, again touching the deepest part of her and sending her to the moon.

  “I had- I had no idea.”

  “Me either, sweetheart. Put your hands here.” He guided her hands to his shoulders, then continued to stroke her back as he moved slowly within her. Then he lifted his head, capturing her breast in his mouth.

  She cried out from the ecstasy of it, senses overloaded. Tingles cascaded down her body. She couldn’t focus on anything except the heat building inside of her, the gentle friction that made her want more and more. Dropping her head, she sought his mouth, his tongue, his taste. He groaned and took her mouth with the same gentleness he’d touched the rest of her. As his tongue mated with hers, his hips continued their slow undulations, each sensation entirely new and wonderful.

  Emotion welled up inside her chest, the beauty of their coupling moving her nearly to tears. She never wanted this to end. Raising her head, she stared down into his eyes, bringing her hand to his cheek. “I always knew it would be you,” she murmured.

  “Touch yourself, Kate,” Cash whispered, keeping his eyes on hers. “Do what makes you feel good. Tell me how to make you feel good.”

  “I want slow, wet kisses.”

  “Baby, I can give you that.” He skated his hands up her back, and pulled her close, mouth seeking hers in a slow, wet, kiss. His hips moved in time with his tongue, and there came a moment where a fire grew within her, and she began to move with him, rocking her hips to a beat as timeless as life itself.

  “Yes, that’s it, hon,” he murmured, squeezing her ass, before bringing his hands to her front, lightly caressing her breasts and moving lower to the point of their joining. His thumb found her clit, needy and swollen, and brushed over it as he pulled away. Not heavy or hard, but light as a feather. Soft as a spring breeze. Helping the fire build inside her.

  “I can feel you,” he rasped. “You’re close, sweetheart. Let go. Don’t be afraid to fly.”

  With a cry, she shattered, breaking into a million shards of light, and still he moved slowly, guiding her deeper, until he went rigid beneath her and followed her into the light with a guttural cry. In that moment, their souls were entwined in a brilliant explosion of stars and color.

  She collapsed onto his chest, utterly spent, a happy smile curving her mouth. Cash stroked her back lightly as they came back to earth. Total peace stole over Kate as she drifted on a sea of bliss.

  “You’re amazing, Kate,” Cash murmured, toying with her hair.

  “Mmmmm. You too,” she answered snuggling deeper into his embrace. Then she lifted her head, staring deep into his brown eyes, soft with contentment. “Can we do that again?”

  CHAPTER 22

  Kate sat on the porch of her little cabin, feet perched on the rail, strumming her guitar, letting the breeze dance across her cheeks. Spring had arrived on the Flint Hills with a joyous burst of sensuality, mirroring the joy that grew in her heart with each day she passed in Cash’s bed. The aroma of freshly cut cedar mixed with the scent of warm dirt and wildflowers, sent words tumbling through her head as her fingers flitted across the frets.

  You saw me through my brokenne
ss, reached through like sun after rain…

  She’d never had a creative streak like this. And it was all due to Cash. There was no other explanation. The deeper she let herself fall for Cash, the faster the words came. Being with him gave her a whole new understanding of lyrics she’d previously penned. And a whole new perspective on what it meant to fall in love.

  The whine of a power saw cut through the air. Cash and Sterling worked a stick’s throw away, madly constructing another cabin with a day crew. They were halfway to their goal of constructing ten cabins, enough to house the first class of veterans who would be showing up mid-May to work with a fresh crew of mustangs and then make the six-hundred-fifty-mile trek along the Santa Fe trail to Santa Fe.

  Her heart clenched at the thought. By the time the trek rolled around, she’d be gone. She slid a guilty glance over at her cell phone. She owed her mother a call. She’d been putting it off for weeks, clinging to every scrap of enjoyment she could while she thought long and hard about what she wanted next for her life.

  What she wanted was Cash. But she didn’t see how that could happen. They both knew she couldn’t hide out on the ranch forever. It had been hard enough missing out on the charity baseball tournament a week ago. How much worse would it be in three weeks when they opened Resolution Ranch to visitors?

  With a sigh, she struck a minor chord. They didn’t talk about it, but she and Cash both knew she needed to be gone by May 1st. On the rail, her phone buzzed.

  Cheyenne: Are you ready to stop avoiding your mother???!?

  Kate huffed out a laugh, and typed back.

  K: That bad, huh?

  Cheyenne: You have no idea.

  K: I do. Believe me. She inserted a flat-faced emoji.

  C: Just remember, I’m your best friend.

  Kate laughed at the next entry which was nothing but crying smiley faces.

  K: I was thinking of calling her anyway.

  C: Subject change. How is Cash?

  This was followed by nothing but googley-eyed emojis. Kate laughed again, feeling the blush creep up her face as she quickly typed back.