Catie awoke, and for a moment, didn’t know where she was. The soreness between her legs jogged her memory. Chad had taken her virginity last night.

Chad.

She jerked up and looked around the room. He was gone. Well, he couldn’t have gone far. Catie stretched and relished the warmth from the sun’s summer rays entering the bay window in Chad’s bedroom. She looked around. Hadn’t bothered to last night.

This was Chad’s room all right. Shades of hunter green and mahogany veiled his walnut furniture. The beautiful bedstead was ornately carved. Not something she thought Chad would choose. It looked almost antique. She made a mental note to ask him about it. She got up and walked around, still stark naked. On his dresser rested several trophies from rodeo events. She’d known Chad for years, though, and this couldn’t be the extent of his trophies. No doubt he had a whole room full of them somewhere in this giant house.

His closet was open, and she peeked in. The size of a small office, it was filled with mostly jeans and western shirts. She chuckled aloud at the thirty-two pairs of cowboy boots she counted. Who said only women had a thing for shoes? Truth to tell, boots and shoes combined, Catie’s collection didn’t equal near thirty-two. She never was a clotheshorse like her sister, Angie. Give her a pair of worn in boots and jeans, a comfy cotton shirt, and she was set.

She padded into Chad’s private bathroom, took care of necessities, and looked in the mirror.

What a sight.

Hair snarled from the night ride, raccoon eyes from the mascara she’d donned for the party.

Yuck. She rubbed at her eyes. No more mascara. Ever. Even for that damn rodeo queen contest. There was a reason she never wore the stuff. She’d just forgotten for a few brainless moments.

And her cheeks and neck and breasts, all ruddy from Chad’s whisker burn. Her nipples were dark and tender. She cupped her breasts and held them up. They looked, and felt, well loved.

She let out a quick breath. She needed a shower. A long, slow, hot shower to soothe her muscles and the tender spot between her legs. She’d ridden a little while she’d been abroad, but not nearly enough to stay in shape. Two rides on Ladybird yesterday had turned her thighs into throbbing jelly. Her shoulders ached too, and her neck. She shook her head. She should have known better, but she’d missed this life.

And then the ride Chad had taken her on—more muscles she’d never used before. Some were the same she’d used with Ladybird. Others, well, she hadn’t known she had so many muscles.

She opened the door to the oversize shower and turned on the water. When it was good and hot, she stepped in. The water pelted her aching muscles, soothing them. She chose a bottle of shampoo—Mane ‘n Tail? Trust Chad McCray to use horse shampoo—and squeezed some into her palm. As she massaged it into her scalp, she closed her eyes and inhaled the moist steam from the shower, clearing the dust from the night ride out of her nose. When her hair was thoroughly washed, she leaned back into the stream of water and let the shower rinse the lather away.

“Now that’s about the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.”

She opened her eyes and faced Chad, his gaze raking over her. She hadn’t heard him open the shower door.

“Shut the door, Chad. You’ll get the floor all wet.”

“I have a maid, sugar.”

“Go away, then. I need to wash.”

“Not the right thing to say, sugar.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“The right thing to say is, ‘won’t you join me, Chad?’”

“You want to take a shower with me?”

“More than I want my next meal, I think.” He eyed her up and down. “I do believe I’m envious of those droplets of water meandering over your curves like that.”

She giggled. “Well, you can’t come in here like that.”

“Like what?”

“With your clothes on, silly.”

He chuckled. “I can take care of that quicker than a licorice whip.”

“Licorice whip?”

Before she could give his saying another thought, his clothes were in a heap by the bathtub and he was in the shower with her, his body pressing to hers.

“Damn, what you do to me,” he murmured, licking her earlobe.

His arousal grew against her stomach. She smiled to herself. He wanted her again. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around her hips, clamping her mouth to his.

The kiss was as hungry as it had been last night. A full contact, wet-tongued, body-melting kiss. Catie couldn’t get enough.

One of Chad’s hands fumbled with the shower knob, and the water ceased to flow. He stepped out, still holding her, and dragged her to the bed.

“Chad? A towel?”

“Can’t wait.”

He fumbled in his nightstand and pulled out another condom.

“I thought you said we had to wait.”

“Yeah, we should. But I can’t. I don’t seem to have any self-control when it comes to you, sugar.” He looked her in the eye. “I can if you need me to. If you don’t want this, I can go right back in that bathroom and take care of the problem myself.”

“I—”

“It’s okay, sugar.”

“I… I want to do it again, Chad. I’m fine, really.”

He touched between her legs and dipped one finger into her opening. She shivered.

“You’re wet enough. Ready enough. You sure? Because I’ve gotta tell you, I want you so badly right now I can’t think straight.”

“Yes, it’s okay. I want you.”

He turned her around and pushed her onto the bed, so she was lying on her stomach. She heard the rip of the condom package, and then he was pulling her hips forward. The heat of his tongue laved her opening and his fingers slipped in. “That okay?”

She sighed. “God, yes. More than okay.”

“Sugar, my God…” The tip of his erection nudged her flesh.

“Please…”

He plunged into her.

She cried out, but not from pain. From the pure unadulterated sweetness of the joining.

He stilled, and his body tensed behind her. He was worried. Worried that he’d hurt her again.

“It didn’t hurt, Chad,” she said. “It felt good. That’s why I”—embarrassment flooded through her—“made that noise.”

“Sweet heaven,” he said, as he pulled out and thrust into her again.

Her hips moved backward, meeting him thrust for thrust.

“Catie, you’re so beautiful.” Chad’s voice was rough, primal. “I wish you could see this, how I come into you. It’s beautiful. Just beautiful.”

She didn’t need to see it. The beauty of the act melted her heart, opened her soul. Joining with him was a dream come true. Her skin began to tingle. “Chad—”

He reached under her and rubbed her swollen bud. “Yeah, sugar, yeah. Let yourself go. It’s okay. Come. Come for me.”

At the command of his words, she shattered as her climax exploded, her body soaring into euphoria.

“That’s it. Make it feel good. So good.” He continued to thrust into her. “Ah, I can feel you coming, baby. Coming all around me. So tight.” He thrust hard one more time, so hard he pushed her down against the softness of the bed, his body covering hers. He kissed the back of her neck, her ear. “So good, sugar. Never this good with anyone else. Never.”

He released her, lay down next to her, and pulled her into his embrace. Their slick bodies—wet from the shower, or from the perspiration from such joyful lovemaking?—melted together.

“What the hell have you done to me, Catie Bay?”

“I-I…” A tear trickled down her cheek. A tear for the sheer beauty of the experience they had just shared. Might share again. But wouldn’t share forever.

“Hush. S’okay.” He kissed her forehead. “Just let me hold you.”

Catie breathed in the spicy masculine scent of Chad. She remembered the words he had spoken to her in the black of night, under the veil of sleep.

I’ve waited so long for you.

In a few moments, she drifted into slumber.

---

She awoke again when Chad’s cell phone rang.

He disentangled himself from her and answered it. “Yeah?” Pause. “Okay, give me a few minutes.”

He hung up and flung the phone onto his dresser. “Sugar, I need to go. They need me at one of the barns. A cow’s gone into labor. Could you do me a favor and call Annie? Tell her to meet me at the south barn? She’s number five on my speed dial.” He pulled on a pair of jeans—no boxer briefs—and a clean pair of socks. Then he walked into the bathroom—to get his boots, she presumed.

Course he could have gotten one of the thirty-two pairs out of his closet. Catie smiled. Who’d have thought Chad McCray would have a thing for boots? Every fact she learned about him was a gift, a present she was unwrapping layer by layer. She had discovered some wonderful layers last night.

She hummed a happy tune under her breath.

As expected, he came out, boots on, and headed to the closet where he donned a denim shirt.

“Please, Catie?”

She jerked slightly. “What?”

“Call Annie? South barn?”

“Oh, yeah. Of course.” She had been listening. Hadn’t she?

“Never mind,” he said, picking up his cell. “I need my phone with me. I’ll call her on the way over. What I should do anyway. Don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I don’t mind helping.”

“I know, but I do this stuff by myself all the time.” He grabbed his cell from the dresser and rushed toward the door. “Don’t wait around. I’ll likely be a while. I… Hell, I’ll see you later, I guess.”

And he was gone.

Nothing about the magic they had just shared.

And it had been magical. At least it had for her.

Catie’s heart fell. Well, what had she expected? He’d made his position clear.

She decided to take another shower since the first one had been interrupted. Her hair was tangled again, this time wet, so she went to the bathroom and borrowed a brush she found on the counter. After combing out her snarls, she started the shower and entered, letting the hot water ease her tired body.

Unfortunately, it didn’t do anything for her tired heart.

For that’s what it was. Tired. Damn tired of loving Chad McCray.

After a fifteen minute soak under the soothing showerhead, Catie dried off and found her clothes. She put on her jeans and bra, but had a quick thought. Chad wouldn’t be back for a while yet, and she had a strange urge to put on one of his shirts. Just to feel it next to her skin, as if she really belonged to him, lived in this room with him. Was his woman.

She chose a white cotton with pearl snaps. It hung on her, but when she inhaled the clean crispiness of it, she felt like she’d come home.

She walked out of the bedroom and decided to look around the house. Huge, as she’d realized last night, but in broad daylight, the Colorado sun streaming through the windows, it was gigantic. She walked through the living room, the dining room, all the time fantasizing about being mistress of this manor, showing guests in, smiling and laughing, Chad by her side, his arm draped possessively around her shoulders. She waltzed into the shiny kitchen and imagined preparing a hearty ranch breakfast for Chad and their children, shuffling them off to school, and then going about her daily chores. Chad would come home at noon for a hot lunch she’d prepare, and then, before he went back to work, he’d take her to the bedroom and love her because he couldn’t wait until the evening.

Yeah, that’s how it would be.

She shook her head. Damn, Chad was right. She was a silly little kid. Playing house like a schoolgirl.

She headed back to the bedroom and replaced Chad’s shirt in his closet.

How was she going to get home?

Chad had brought her on Eclipse, and the walk back to her house was ten miles at least. She sighed as she slipped into her own shirt.

A piece of garbage caught her eye by the wastebasket, and she reached to pick it up. Chad’s condom.

Her heart skidded to a stop.

There was a tear in it.