The Price of Passion (Texas Cattleman's Club: Rags to Riches 1)

Another defensive move?

Everything in him urged him to tumble her back onto the bed, where they could work out whatever problems they had in the one way that had always worked for them. But he didn’t. Because sex—even spectacular sex—couldn’t build the bridge they needed between them.

For years he’d been a husband. He hadn’t cheated. He’d been loyal and had eventually come to love his wife.

It was different than what he had had with Beth, but no less important. Still, now that he’d been with Beth again, he could admit that he was finally letting Julie go. And that bothered him enough that his voice sounded colder than he might have intended.

“I can’t tell you what’s coming. Who the hell could?” Irritation clawed at his throat and fought with the desire already pulsing inside him again. “All I know is I want you. Always have. Always will. What we do with that...”

“Right.” Beth took a deep breath and lifted her chin when she looked at him. “I might never be okay with what you did.”

“I didn’t ask you to be,” he reminded her.

“I can’t trust you,” she said.

That slammed into him, and he didn’t like the feel of it at all. “I didn’t betray you.”

“From your perspective.”

“That’s the only one I’ve got.”

She smiled briefly, and even that slight curve of her mouth sent a charge through Cam’s system that almost stole his breath. How had he forgotten what it was like to touch her? To be inside her? Had he deliberately forgotten so that he could survive the years without her? Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter now. She was here. With him. The long time without her had only made the hunger that much more overpowering.

“Anyway,” Beth continued as if he hadn’t spoken. She walked around the end of the bed and stopped just a foot or so in front of him. A slash of sunlight bathed her in a soft golden glow that made her shine even more than she usually did.

“You said it yourself. That was fifteen years ago.” Her gaze locked with his, and in the shadows of her eyes he read a fire that they’d rekindled only minutes ago. “We’re not kids now, Camden,” she whispered. “And I don’t believe in hearts and flowers and happily-ever-afters anymore.”

She said it so simply that he believed her, and he hated it. Cam had always loved Beth’s ability to believe in good things. To see the best in everything and rush to meet it. Until that last night.

“What I do believe in is what happens when I’m with you,” she said. “And I want to feel it again. Now.”

Cam didn’t see a future for them, either. Hell, maybe a part of him had never believed in it. He was the son of a couple of horse trainers. He was the poor son of ranch hands and she was a damn princess—or as close to it as Royal could get. When that night had happened, he’d been crushed, but a silent, observant voice in his head had whispered, There it is. The end. Just like you thought it would be.

And really? What had changed? She was still out of his reach. But they did have the present and maybe they’d spent enough of it talking. Without another word between them, he hauled her in close, kissed her until he thought he’d die from it and then whipped up the hem of the shirt covering her.

Her hands moved over his bare back, nails scraping, leaving marks as if branding him, and he was okay with it. As long as she was in his arms, he’d figure out the rest. He lifted her off her feet, and she wrapped her legs around his hips as he spun to brace her back against the nearest wall.

They crashed into it, both of them losing their breath but not their will to join. To be locked together. He looked into her eyes as he pushed himself into her heat, and he saw the flare of wild need electrify her eyes.

She kissed him then and tangled her tongue with his. Her breath slid into his lungs, and he let her fill him as he filled her. His hands at her hips, he held her as he rocked in and out of her body, giving himself up to the fire within. Again and again he claimed her, took her, giving as much as he got. Needing her more with every passing second.

He felt her body tighten. Felt the first stir of completion when it took her and he gave her more, pushed her higher, faster than he had before, and when she tore her mouth from his to shout his name at the ceiling, he felt her body convulse around his.

Cam watched her face as she came and realized he’d never seen anything more beautiful. She was what had been missing from his life. And for this moment at least, she was back. She was his. He was hers. For this one stolen piece of time, there was no past, no future. Only the now.

And when his own body shattered, he felt his soul go with it.

Eight

By the following afternoon, Beth was in the middle of the Fire Department Open House and watching the money add up in the giant glass barrel she’d set on the catering table.

They’d already collected enough money through donations and the sale of raffle tickets to fulfill the fire station’s wish list for new equipment. But these last-minute donations, given by the people stopping to pick up sandwiches, ice-cream bars and soda or water, were creating a nice bonus. And it was fun, watching the bills and change in the barrel mount up.

This half of Main Street had been blocked off by Nathan Battles and his deputies, allowing people to stream back and forth across the street wi

thout keeping an eye out for cars. The crowd was huge, but then Beth had counted on that. People in Royal could be depended on to show up for a good cause—and keeping their own fire station well equipped served all of them.

Her whole family was there, and she grinned to see Piper out on the dance floor with old Mr. Martin as he led her in a slow, dignified Texas-style waltz. Piper caught her eye and smiled back, just before the country and western band switched it up from slow to fast and new dancers took the stage.