Chapter Five
Javier listened to the message Alberto had forwarded to him, every word from Caroline drenched with sincerity and heartbreak. She’d given her name as an interview candidate, considering building her life near him.
His brain turned, remembering the words she’d spoken in an effort to get through to him.
He’s not my fiancé anymore. We broke up. I broke up with him.
I want to be with you, Javier.
You’re the only one I belong with.
You complete me.
I told you, I’m not marrying anyone. I couldn’t when I never stopped loving you.
He flinched at the memory of his heartless response. Loving him, Caroline opened her heart and offered him everything. She’d seen the possibilities of them partnering in work and in life. Meanwhile, he selfishly took her body, using her, hurting her. Of course she would leave him after his efforts to prove he didn’t care.
Sprinting from his office, he took the stairs two at a time to the fifteenth floor. “Caroline!” He pounded on her door, his heart thundering and not from the race up to her room. “Querida, I have to talk to you.”
No answer.
He pulled a master key from his pocket and entered. After a cursory glance, he ran back to the bedroom. The bedspread didn’t have a single wrinkle. The bathroom at least appeared used, with wet towels hanging on the rack and a tip for the housekeeping staff on the marble countertop.
Returning to the sitting room, he paused. He lifted her ripped shirt from the wastebasket, and his stomach twisted. Reaching in again, he pulled out her bra, then her pants and underwear, no longer a symbol of the evening’s passion but evidence of something foul and disgusting.
He’d deliberately hurt Caroline, the only woman he’d ever loved. The only woman who’d ever loved him. Dios, what had he done?
He dashed from the room and punched the elevator button. When the doors didn’t immediately open, he ran for the stairwell and down to the lobby.
“Stop the helicopter,” he shouted to a security guard before spinning toward the girl at the front desk. “Did she check out? Which way did she go?”
“Who, sir?”
Who? How many people could possibly have checked out in the past ten minutes? He didn’t waste time answering but strode out the front door just as a taxi pulled to a halt in front of the building.
And he found her, standing next to Alberto. She started to shake his assistant’s hand then wrapped him in a hug. “Thank you. You’ve been wonderful,” she murmured.
Stepping back, her gaze locked on Javier, and the air seemed to whoosh out of her. Just for a moment. Then her shoulders straightened, and she turned toward the cab, as if he were beneath her notice.
The driver reached for her bag.
Javier darted forward, grabbing it first. “Don’t go.”
“I have wedding plans to make and other guys to screw. I don’t have time for you,” she said in a flat tone, her gaze fixed vacantly beyond him.
Stupidly believing so, he’d proved what an ass he was. While his assistant immediately recognized the truth, Javier had been too scared she would break his heart again, turning his Caroline into a woman as heartless as he’d treated her. “Por favor, querida, I want you to stay with me. I’m asking.”
Tracing his finger along her cheek, he ached to draw a response from her. She didn’t lean into him or flinch from his touch. Any reaction would have been better than none. I’ve already lost her.
“Ma’am, do you want me to take your suitcase?” the cab driver asked.
“Please, Caroline,” Javier said again. “I was wrong. Give me a chance to make it up to you. Por favor.”
Caroline dug her fingernails into her palms, trying to forget he only lapsed into Spanish when overcome with emotion. She didn’t have the will to move away from him, but the ache in her throat also prevented her from saying anything to push him away.
“Ms. Sunburst, what can I do to help?” Alberto asked, his voice full of genuine concern.
Tears blurred her vision.
Javier uncurled her fingers. With a hissed breath, he lifted her hand and pressed his lips to each indent created by her nails. “Lo siento, querida. This is all my fault. You told me the truth, I didn’t listen, and I hurt you. Give me a chance to fix it.”
With an achingly sweet swipe of his thumb, he whisked her tears away while Alberto slipped quietly into the building.
Javier lowered his voice to the barest of whispers. “Let me make love to you the way you were meant to be loved. If you still want to leave in the morning, I’ll send Alberto to personally escort you wherever you want to go.”
As much as she wanted to believe him, she wouldn’t let him cast her aside after sex again. “You don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you. I didn’t trust what I felt for you. My feelings for you scared me and I feared if I allowed them to take over, I would end up hurt. But I love you and I don’t want to lose you again.”
Desperate to hear those words, she didn’t trust her own ears. “Say it again. In Spanish.”
He repeated in his native tongue the words she longed for but had stopped believing she’d ever hear, and she knew he spoke the truth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close, needing to soak in the rapid changes and allow the emotional roller coaster to glide to a stop.
After a moment, he pulled back, meeting her gaze again. “I want to show you my house. Will you come with me?”
Shock rippled through her. He’d invited her to his house, the one that he didn’t allow others inside. With anyone else, the intimacy might have happened too quickly, but her need and love for Javier had been building and simmering her whole life. She didn’t hesitate.
“Yes. I’d be honored.”
“So, you don’t need a taxi ride?” the driver demanded.
“We do need one,” Javier said. “Fast as you can, down the employee path, over the dirt road, along the fence line, and behind the corral. A hundred bucks if you can do it in less than three minutes.”
Two minutes later, they arrived.
The cab sped away, a thin layer of dust covering Caroline and her suitcase. The oversized front porch and the whimsical ranch design loomed instantly recognizable despite being encased in darkness offset only by the light of the moon.
“This is our house,” she whispered.
Beginning as a cheesy high school class assignment, they’d worked on the plans together until perfecting their dream house down to the children’s bedrooms and the colors of the towels in the bathrooms.
“I need you to make it a home. Can I take you inside?” He shifted, the moonlight reflecting the vulnerability in his brown eyes.
She nodded and looped her arms around his neck. “Please.”
He scooped her up in his arms. More than simply bringing her to his house, it seemed he intended to sweep her off her feet to carry her over the threshold. She hugged him tighter and kissed his neck, delighted by the romance and the emotion behind it.
Carrying her up the front porch, he kicked the front door open. The sign, “Home is Where My Horse is,” tilted to one side. She tried to adjust it, but he didn’t pause. Neither did he stop as he strode through the living room, kitchen, and down the hall, not giving her time to take everything in.
“This is not how you give a tour.”
He paused in the doorway to the bedroom. “Is that what you want? A tour?”
Lifting her gaze to his face, she knew whatever she requested he’d move heaven and earth to provide it for her. At the same time, material possessions ceased to matter. She didn’t care if they lived in the bed of a pickup truck.
“I want to make love. I want to create an equal partnership. I want us both to believe our love will last forever.” She touched her forehead to his.
“Sí, I want those things, too.” He lowered her to her feet, sucking her lower lip between his.
Her eyes drifted closed, savoring the sweetness of the gesture. She caressed his sculpted cheek, then skimmed her tongue over his mouth, sighing as he opened, welcoming her.
He took his time unbuttoning her blazer before sliding it from her shoulders. Pressing his lips to the hollow of her throat, he repeated the process with her blouse, massaging and exploring each inch of skin he uncovered. As tenderly as if he was unwrapping the most precious of gifts, he unhooked and peeled away the lace of her bra.
She opened his well-worn cowboy shirt, exploring his muscled chest as reverently as he’d touched hers before tugging the cuffs from his wrists. Encircling him with her arms, she fit against him, reveling in the warmth of their half-naked bodies together, his heart beating steadily in time with hers.
Reaching between them, she pushed his jeans down his thighs, filling her hand with his hot erection. He gasped then moaned as she stroked his impressive length.
He laid her back on the bed, removing her slacks with tender care. Returning to her chest, he lavished attention on each breast, trailing kisses down to her navel.
For a moment she closed her eyes, savoring his touch, but she wanted him to be with her, a part of her. Half rising from her prone position, she tugged him next to her on the bed. “I don’t want things to be one-sided this time. I’m going to give to you, too.”
“I didn’t give last time,” he said, regret etched in the small lines at the corners of his sensuous mouth. “I took. This time I’m going to give. Let me show you how much I love you.” He shifted to kneel between her thighs, kissing and licking her to the brink of orgasm.
Oh, yes. He’d pledged his love in English and Spanish. Her doubts melted away at his words. She rose to a sitting position and helped him shift his legs so he sat as well. As much as she could have lain savoring every drop of pleasure he wrung from her, she wanted something else. “I want us to come together.”
She straddled him, wrapping her legs around his waist. Threading her fingers with his, she sank onto his straining cock. They sat unmoving, palm to palm, chest to chest, bodies pulsing, hearts pumping in unison.
Staring into his soulful brown eyes, she connected more deeply and completely than she’d dreamed possible. “I love you, Javier Alvarado. I always have.”
His cock lurched inside her. “Dios, querida. I never stopped loving you. God knows I tried, but I couldn’t.”
She trembled and shuddered around him when he came in a hot burst of passion, filling her, sealing their love.
They stayed together long after the last moments of orgasm shuddered through them.
Finally, Javier gathered her in his arms and shifted until they lay together, still intimately joined. “Home isn’t where the horse is. It’s where you are, Caroline.”
She snuggled contentedly. “Even though I won’t be leaving, you can welcome me home like this anytime.”
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