The Tycoon's Secret Child (Texas Cattleman's Club: Blackmail 1)

Isabelle was quiet for so long, Wes half wondered if she’d just zoned out. But then she reached up and ran the tip of her finger across his lips. “You surprise me, Wes.”

“Yeah?” He kissed her fingertip. “How?”

“That’s an excellent compromise from a man not known for making them.”

He gave her a wink. “I’m a great businessman. I know how to make deals that everyone can live with. Ask anyone.”

“I don’t have to ask.” She gave him a wry smile. “I’ve seen you convince people to do things they had no intention of doing, and it looks like you’ve done it again.”

“Yeah?” He smiled. Wes wasn’t trying to fast-talk Belle into anything, but he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t going to do everything he could to help his child, either.

“Yeah,” she repeated, a

nd turned, bracing one arm across his chest as she looked at him. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. Somehow I convinced myself it was all or nothing, but it’s not. We can ease into the implant situation and see how Caro responds.”

“Exactly.” Wes pulled her over to lie on top of him and skimmed his hands down her back to her behind. She sighed and briefly closed her eyes before looking at him again, and he thought he’d never seen anything as beautiful as this woman.

“We can’t get into the specialist until next week.” He stared up into her eyes and watched as a layer of frost dazzled their surface. Belle never had been an easy woman, and he could see clearly that she was willing to dig her heels in.

“We won’t be here next week,” she said quietly.

“You could be. Stay.” His hands gripped her hips to hold her in place, because he could tell she wanted to slide off him. Hard to argue with a man when you were both naked and pressed together. Which was exactly why he was keeping her right where she was.

“We’ve been through this already, Wes,” she said. “Why should we stay?”

He watched those eyes of hers, felt himself drowning in them, and every instinct he possessed warned him to take a huge mental step back. To ease away. Let her slide off his body and put some distance between them. But he couldn’t do it.

He knew he had to give her a reason to stay, and so he offered the only one he had. “I’m not ready for you to go.”

She went still, her hands on his shoulders, her mouth no more than a breath away from his. He waited what felt like forever for her to speak. When she did, he released a breath he hadn’t realized had been caught in his chest.

“Okay,” she said softly. “We’ll stay a few more days. To see the specialist.”

A few more days wasn’t forever, but it would do for now.

“Deal,” he said, then rolled over, taking her with him, holding her body beneath his as he bent to take her nipple into his mouth.

She trembled and he felt like a damn king. She sighed and it was like music. Night after night, they came together, and it was always good. Always right. Always better than the time before. He couldn’t get enough of her and didn’t think he ever would.

Five long years without her had taught him that no other woman could compare to her. And he wasn’t ready to lose her again just yet.

Her hands slid from his shoulders down his arms, and Wes felt every stroke like a line of fire dissolving into his bones. Sliding his hands along her body, he laid claim to her in the most intimate, ancient way. Every line and curve of her body became his as he tasted, touched, caressed.

Moonlight speared through the windows, bathing the room in a pale, silvery light. Her eyes caught that light, reflected it and shone like beacons, drawing Wes in closer, deeper. He felt himself falling and couldn’t seem to stop it. Didn’t know if he wanted to stop it.

At this moment, all he knew was that he needed to lose himself in the woman with him. She brought him confusion, laughter, warmth and the near constant need to be inside her. Wes ached for her night and day. The longer he was with her, the more that need intensified. That alone should have worried him, he knew. But the simple fact was, he didn’t care what, if anything, it meant. All he could think about was her.

She arched into him, and Wes smiled against her skin. She moved against him, shifting her hips, letting him know that the ache inside was building. He loved that she felt what he did, that she wanted as desperately as he did. Loved. He blanked his mind at that wayward thought and gave himself up to the moment.

Wes skimmed one hand down to her core and cupped the heat nestled there. Instantly, she lifted her hips, rocking helplessly beneath his touch.

“Wes,” she said on a sigh, “don’t tease me...”

“Teasing’s half the fun,” he murmured and took first one nipple then the other into his mouth, tugging, suckling, relishing the tiny gasps and groans she made. He dipped one finger into her center, then another. He stroked her inside and out, while his thumb traced lazy, relentless circles over that most sensitive bud at the heart of her. She twisted in his grasp, moving her hips, arching her back, as her breath came faster, faster. He suckled at her breast, felt her tremble and knew it wasn’t enough. He wanted her mindless, defenseless.

Sliding down the length of her body, he knelt between her thighs, scooped his hands beneath her bottom and raised her high off the mattress.

“Wes—” Her eyes were burning. Her hands fisted in the sheet beneath her as her legs dangled off the bed.