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

When he dropped his free hand to the clasp of her slacks, then dipped his fingers beneath the elastic band of her panties to drive deeply into her heat, Beth exploded with an orgasm so shattering it stole her breath. She hadn’t meant to come so quickly. Hadn’t expected to. But her body had been starved for him for so long that his barest touch had driven her over the edge.

He held her while she trembled and rode the wave of the sensations claiming her. When she finally drew a breath again, she looked up into his eyes and found hunger stamped there so blatantly she almost came again.

“Upstairs,” he said tightly.

“Yes,” Beth answered. “Quickly.”

“You read my mind,” he admitted. Grabbing her shirt off the table, he swung her into his arms and headed for the stairs.

“I can walk,” she told him, looking up into the harsh, taut planes of his face as he took the stairs two at a time.

“Not

fast enough.” He kept his gaze fixed ahead and she watched him, feeling her stomach swirl with the overwhelming reactions he caused in her. Seeing the blatant need on his features only inflamed her own.

Beth tore at the buttons on his shirt, and when two of them popped free she slid one hand across his chest as he made a left turn at the landing. He hissed in a breath at her touch and she smiled, knowing that she affected him as strongly as he did her.

Her fingers defined his hard, muscled chest, and all she could think was she wanted to be lying on top of him. To feel their bodies pressed together. Then he stalked into a room at the end of the hall and Beth took a quick look around.

The huge square room was as deliberately masculine as the great room downstairs. A massive four poster bed covered in a bloodred duvet took dominance and, frankly, was the only piece of furniture she was interested in at the moment. And still, she noticed the two chairs pulled up in front of a brick fireplace. The dressers, the bookcases, and the flat screen television on the wall facing the bed.

Then her mental tour was over as Cam dropped her onto the mattress and stood looking down at her. He wasted no time tearing his shirt off and tossing it aside. Beth kicked off her heeled sandals and squirmed out of her slacks and panties, all the while watching Camden remove his boots and jeans. And when he was standing beside the bed naked, she took a moment to just enjoy the view.

His body was hard and muscled, speaking more of years of hard work than a gym. As he stared down at her, she saw his eyes flash with the same raw desire peaking inside her. Gazes locked, he reached into the bedside table drawer, pulled out a condom and, ripping it open, sheathed himself in seconds. Then he moved so quickly she hardly saw the action. He caught her legs in his hands and pulled her to the edge of the mattress.

“Camden...”

“We agreed,” he reminded her. “No more talking.”

“Yes, but—”

He knelt before her and lowered his mouth to her center. Instantly, talking was the last thing on Beth’s mind. She gasped at the sensation of his mouth and tongue working her most sensitive flesh. Again and again, he licked at her, suckling at the center bud until Beth thought she would lose her mind. She tried to twist and writhe on the bed to ease the ache, the tingles of expectation building inexorably inside, but Cam held her fast to the bed. She was caught in his grasp, and there was nowhere else she wanted to be.

The only sound was the soft purr of the air conditioner. The duvet beneath her felt cool and silky on her skin. Her breath wheezed in and out of her lungs as Camden drove her quietly insane.

His hot breath brushed against her as his tongue stroked her into a frenzy of need so wild it made that first shattering orgasm feel insignificant in comparison. He took her to the very brink of explosion time and again and, each time, pulled her back before allowing her to fall.

She reached down, threaded her fingers through his hair and tugged, making him look at her, making him see what he was doing to her. “Don’t stop, Camden.”

“Need to be inside you,” he muttered, and this time when he pushed her to the very edge of oblivion, he pulled away, shifted her on the bed and then covered her body with his.

This was what she’d craved, Beth thought wildly. This melding of bodies, this press of his flesh to hers. The feel of his heart pounding against hers. And when he drove his body into hers, Beth lifted both of her legs, wrapping them around his hips as she tried to take him more deeply.

His body pounded into hers and she rocked with him, riding the rhythm he set, breathless as she scored his back with her fingernails. She tucked her face into the curve of his neck and bit him as the first explosion roared through her.

He groaned and pumped faster, harder, driving them both in their frenzy to finally at long last feel the crash of release they both needed so badly. Her insides coiled, tighter, tighter, building toward something earth-shattering. Cam raised his head and she shifted to take his mouth, to tangle her tongue with his, to draw his breath into her lungs and give him hers.

But when her climax hit her with the force of a hundred orgasms at once, Beth pulled her mouth free and screamed out his name. Head back, eyes wide, she felt herself splinter into a million pieces and didn’t care. Tremors rattled her body as he drove her on and on, never stopping.

Beth wrapped her arms around his neck and held on to him as the only stable point in her suddenly spinning universe. She was still clinging to him when Cam’s body exploded into hers, and together they took that fall.

* * *

A few minutes later, Cam was still trying to catch his breath. With Beth tucked into his side, he stared up at the beamed ceiling and fought his own internal struggle. Being with Beth again had soothed corners of his soul that he hadn’t even realized had been ragged and worn.

And he didn’t feel even slightly guilty about that. Which made him feel a pang of guilt. Hell, he’d been married to a woman he’d come to love, and he’d never once experienced anything like what he’d just survived with Beth. His heart was still racing and his dick was ready to go again—in spite of what his mind was currently torturing him with.

“Camden?”