Sarah's Surrender (Ranchers of Chatum County 2)

He pushed her hair over her shoulders in a caressing motion. “You’re so sweet. It never occurred to me how sweet you’d be when I first met you. All I could think about was one thing, and I’m ashamed to say that your sweetness wasn’t it.” His hands caressed the satin smoothness of her flesh. He ran them around her back and hugged her to him.

She clung to him and he felt her soft breath ruffling his hair as she laid her cheek against the top of his head. He closed his eyes and let the feel of her encompass every inch of him. She took a ragged breath and whispered, “You make me feel things I have no right to feel.”

He clenched her butt in his hands. “How’s that? What things?”

“Things. Things that women hide and send men running for the hills.”

Pleasure shot through him at the intimation. “That’s all good, baby. I can handle it. Lean on me, and I’ll take care of everything. I’ll take care of you.”

Sarah let the feel of his hands, his touch, glide through her and land in a pool of warmth that surpassed just sexual awareness. He pulled her toward him. The kiss they shared was breathtaking, enthralling.

He broke away, stood up and stripped out of his clothes and then took her back in his arms. He pushed her pants down her legs, and they clung together, kissing, caressing, learning each other in a deeper, newfound way.

When he laid her back on the bed and claimed her with one quick thrust, Sarah closed her eyes as a profound warmth and intimacy flowed between them. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before, even in her ill-fated marriage, and the knowledge that he could induce such strong sentiments both terrified her and escalated her to the heights of smoldering temptation. She refused to allow fear to ruin the communion of their minds and bodies and pushed it away and concentrated solely on the affinity they were sharing.

Each stroke brought a surge of pleasure, anticipation, and a fevered emotion she refused to name. He wrapped his hands around her face and lifted her chin. “Open your eyes.”

Sarah did and found exactly what she was feeling radiating from his eyes. Sharp, undeniable relief surged through her and blended with the heady pleasure pulsing through her loins.

He took another stroke as their eyes clung. “I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want you to go back to Dallas,” he said in a raspy, desire-laden voice.

Shock and a shaft of temptation went through her at his tender declaration . She tried to find an answer through the haze of passion that clouded her brain, but he didn’t wait for one and his lips closed over hers again.

He pushed into her again, and as their bodies strained together looking for the ultimate release, she gloried in the raw emotion that pulsed from his body and filled her with a reassuring sense of euphoria for what tomorrow might bring.

Chapter Nine

The hot days of summer fled too quickly for Sarah’s comfort. By unspoken agreement, neither she nor John talked about the summer ending or the fact that Sarah was still planning on leaving. Except for that one time in bed, he never mentioned her staying again, and she was too scared to bring the subject up. She tried to live for each day, to enjoy the hours at her house during the day before John came to pick her up each evening.

Since the day they had driven into San Antonio to be tested, Sarah had spent every night with him on his ranch. He didn’t seem to want her to drive at night, and she didn’t really care either way and just let herself relish being chauffeured around by him. Working for his foundation didn’t take more than an hour or so of her day, and she had a huge, niggling feeling that she was taking advantage of him. She desperately wanted to ask him when they could discuss the retirement home but didn’t want to rock the boat. He was paying her such a ridiculous amount of money already, and she didn’t want anything to get in the way of the easy companionship that was slowly developing between them. She realized that she was, indeed, trying to play by the rules he had set out early on; she was trying to keep the two issues separate.

She began trying to think of other ways to accomplish her goals for Top Hill, but as before, she kept coming up blank.

He had taken her to eat at the diner in town several times, and slowly, he began introducing her to his friends. She first met Janie and Brian Canton. Brian was tall and quiet and the complete opposite of his sparkling, vivacious wife. When Janie came face to face with Sarah and John the first time, she had a look of such interest in her expression that it was almost amusing to Sarah. The woman stared for a moment, and then beamed a smile at her and promptly invited them to a party she was having the next weekend.

Sarah thanked her and after the other couple had left, John took her hand in his. “Janie’s always having parties. It’s her thing. We don’t have to go.”

“I don’t mind. It sounds like fun.”

****

And it did sound fun until Sarah was actually at the party, holding a glass of wine and surrounded by Janie and Janie’s grown niece, Elaina Vega. The two women had quite literally ‘shooed’ John off, and now they were not so subtly interrogating her.

“You’re only here for the summer?” Elaina asked.

“Yes. I teach math in Dallas.” Sarah looked between the two women who were both studying her not with any kind of animosity at all, but with a speculation they couldn’t quite hide.

“Well this is a first. John’s never brought a woman to one of my parties before,” Janie said with a smile.

“Really?” Sarah knew the other women could hear the surprise in her voice.

“Really. Where’d y’all meet?” Elaina asked.

“The convenience store in town. He helped me pump my gas.”

“I hate pumping gas,” Janie said.

“I haven’t had to pump gas since Raul and I got married,” Elaina added with what looked to Sarah to be an evil little grin. She couldn’t help but smile back.

Sarah took a sip of her wine and enjoyed the volley between the other two women, before offering a little more information. “I’m running his foundation now.”

“What foundation?” Elaina asked.

“He set up a philanthropic foundation and I’m the manager.”

“He put you in charge of his money?” Janie asked as she turned toward her niece and a look passed between the two women.

“What?” Sarah wanted to know what they were thinking.

“No, it’s nothing. It’s just that John—he’s well, he’s—”

As Janie floundered for words, Elaina piped in, “women don’t get close to John. He doesn’t date—exactly— and Janie and I are probably the closest thing to women friends that he has. And that’s just because he respects our husbands. It’s a shock for us that he actually brought you here, that y’all are in—” Elaina’s words came to an abrupt ending as she, too, obviously couldn’t voice what she was thinking.

“That we’re in a relationship?” Sarah asked.

“Yes,” the two women said in unison. And then Janie asked for clarification, “Y’all are, right?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Elaina and Janie both smiled at her response. “Girl, you’ve accomplished what no one else ever has, I’d say you’re in a relationship. He brought you to one of my parties, and he’s trusted you with his money. And don’t look now, but the guy can’t keep his eyes off you.”

At Janie’s words, all three women looked over to where John stood talking to Elaina’s husband and Sarah saw that Janie was right. John watched her as he stood listening to Raul, his glass suspended in mid-air as if struck by a thought he couldn’t quite shake.

&nb

sp; Sarah gave him a tiny smile as shivers of anticipation lanced down her spine.

****

John’s eyes left Sarah for a moment and he turned back to face the man who was the closest thing to a true friend that he had. “What’d you just say?”

“I said you ought to marry her.”

John couldn’t help what he was thinking. He knew what he felt for Sarah was strong. He knew she felt the same say he did. But marriage? He’d already fucked that up once before and evidently, so had Sarah. Could they try again? Should they try again or would it totally fuck up what they already had? Even as he thought it, he felt a river of pleasure and a goddamn feeling of contentment. And now here was Raul Vega of all damn people, telling him to marry her. Who would have ever thought it? “Why would you say that?”

Raul studied John and attempted an explanation. “Because I recognize the look in your eyes. I recognize the obsession running through your blood. I recognize it because I see it everyday when I look in the mirror.” Raul shot him a look that said it all. “You’ve got it bad, just like me. Sooner you accept it, sooner the agony will go away.”

“The agony goes away?” John acknowledged to himself that it was an agony. The thought of her leaving him was pure pain, being hundreds of miles away, possibly dating someone else, sleeping with someone else. He gritted his teeth.

“Yeah, the agony goes away. The minute she’s living under your roof for good and you get your ownership papers back and notarized from the State of Texas,” Raul said in a deadly serious voice.

John felt his mouth quirk into a half-grin. “Ownership papers? I could blackmail you with that one, bud.”

“Nah. Elaina knows who she belongs to. Don’t you doubt it.”

“Right. I’m fairly certain I know who owns who,” John said.