Dane's Return Read online

  "Did you mean it?" she asked. "Do you really love me, or do you just want to be a part of Jayden's life? It's okay if you do, Dane. I won't keep you from him. I just don't want you to feel like you can't have one without the other."

  Dane felt his heart unclench, and he exhaled in a long, controlled breath. He padded over to the bed and got in beside her, turning her so she had no choice but to face him, and her fears, head on.

  "I meant every word. I've always loved you. I want to be part of Jayden's life too. But I want you both."

  "It's not going to be easy on you. Jayden's not going to understand why you left. Why you stayed away. It'll be hard on him at first to have so much of your attention. He hasn't had any male influences in his life except for my dad."

  "We'll take things slow, baby. All of us. And I'm sure once Jayden meets my brothers he'll get more male influence than you can imagine."

  Charlie groaned and laughed at the same time. "That's what I'm afraid of."

  He brushed a stray strand of hair back from her face and kissed her softly. "I want to give Jayden my name," he said. "I want to give you my name. Marry me, Charlotte."

  "Wow, that's not exactly taking it slow," she said nervously.

  "We'll have a long engagement. Let Jayden get used to having me and my brothers around."

  She was quiet for so long that panic began to settle in his chest. Maybe he'd pushed things too far. When she pushed her hands against his chest, he scooted away, trying to give her some room. But when he turned to his back, he was surprised to see her follow him over. She straddled his thighs and propped her arms on his chest. He felt his cock stir against the damp heat of her pussy and groaned. He was going to be sore if things kept up as they had.

  Charlotte took his face between her hands and kissed him. Her tongue licked along the seam of his mouth until he opened for her and she slipped her tongue inside. It was sweet and full of promise. Full of the future.

  “I’m not saying no to marriage,” she said. “But ten years is a long time. We’ve both changed, and we have a child. We need to get to know each other again. And not just our bodies.”

  Dane knew what she was saying made sense. She was right, they’d grown up together and they’d always have that history. But they’d spend the last ten years in different parts of the world and doing a lot of growing up. As much as he wanted to rush things just so he didn’t risk the chance of losing her, he understood the need to take things slow.

  “I must be maturing,” he said, pushing a loose tendril from her forehead. “I’m not even going to argue with you. What do you propose?”

  “I propose dates,” she said. “A lot of them. And Jayden deserves our honesty and to know what our goal is as a family. Let’s just take it day by day. In the meantime,” she said, nipping at his chin. “We can keep doing this as much as you’d like. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

  “Baby,” he said, chuckling. “You know you turn me on like crazy, but even I have my limits. I don’t think I’ve got another round in me without taking a little break.”

  “Aww,” she said. “Poor thing. Maybe I can help you out.”

  She kissed her way down his chest and he felt his eyes cross and his lids flutter closed at the pleasure. And then her hot mouth was wrapped around him and he thought she might have a shot of bringing him back from the dead after all.

  He’d be lying if he said there wasn’t an emptiness and disappointment inside of him. He wanted the commitment. To know that they’d be together for the rest of their lives. To make the family both of them had always desired. But for now, for now, he’d love her as best he could.

  Chapter 7

  Five Months Later…

  The snow gleamed bright in the darkness under the full moon, but the shadows kept Dane well hidden. His adrenaline surged and his blood pumped at the realization that he might be caught, but that didn’t deter him from his quest.

  He left the cover of the barn and his boots sunk into the fresh snow—silent—as he approached the house. There would be more snow before morning—at least another foot or more—and even as he had the thought, white flakes drifted lazily from the sky.

  The ranch style house sprawled about fifty yards in front of him. The windows were dark except for the large picture window that displayed the Christmas tree—the colorful lights and the mishmash of ornaments like a beacon leading him toward his goal. Everyone was fast asleep. At least he hoped they were. Otherwise, he was about to look like the biggest kind of fool, and he’d have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.

  He didn’t feel the cold or the occasional flake that slithered down the collar of his jacket. Truth be told, he was so hot he was surprised the snow didn’t melt beneath his feet. It had been almost a week since he’d had Charlotte soft and begging beneath him, and desperate times called for desperate measures.

  Dane circled the house until he came to the French doors that led into the master bedroom. It wouldn’t do to scare her half to death and wake up Jayden or the ranch manager in the little house across the way. She’d take it out of his hide if he did. Charlotte had been known to throw things when she lost her temper. Just the thought of the fire in her emerald eyes when she got her back up was enough to have him going rock hard.

  He kicked the snow off his boots and moved across the wooden deck, his footsteps not making a whisper of sound. It hadn’t been so long since he’d been in life or death situations in the middle of civil wars or hostile territories that he’d forgotten how to move as if his life depended on it.

  His hand rested lightly on the doorknob, but before he could test it, the door opened on silent hinges and he tumbled into the room. A small, warm body clamped around him like a vise and he stumbled back against the wall.

  “It’s about damn time,” Charlotte whispered against his mouth. “I’ve been waiting forever.”

  Her teeth nipped at his bottom lip and her hands tangled in his hair. And then he somehow found his balance and he opened his mouth over hers. His fingers dug into her hips as their tongues mated. There was no gentleness here, only hot, clawing need.

  Charlotte moaned into his mouth, and he drank in her taste as she assaulted his senses. It happened every damn time. He kept waiting for the touch of her mouth against his to stop making his heart race and his blood pump through his veins, but each time they touched it was just as potent as the first time he’d taken her almost a dozen years before.

  His arms tightened around her, bringing her closer, so he could feel the very heat of her core pressed against the denim of his jeans. His tongue delved deep into her mouth and her fingernails bit into his shoulders.

  She was dressed in ugly flannel pajamas that looked like they’d had a lot of years behind them, but he didn’t care. His hands roamed over her soft curves and he knew she wasn’t wearing anything beneath the threadbare flannel. The temptation was enough to drive a man crazy.

  He was about thirty seconds from ripping the pajamas from her body and plunging into the gripping wet heat of her when he remembered they weren’t alone in the house, and that there were rules to be followed for Jayden’s sake.

  He broke the kiss, but didn’t put her down. “Get a hold of yourself, woman,” he managed to get out, his voice raspy with desire. “What about the rules?”

  Her laugh was long and low and pure sex, and his eyes almost rolled back in his head when her hot little hand slipped into the front of his jeans and wrapped around his cock.

  “It looks like I’ve got a hold of something right here. What are you going to do about it?”

  The primal part of his brain that wanted nothing more than to mate with his woman was in charge now, and he looked toward the bed sitting in the middle of the room, tempting him to throw her down and claim what was his. He could picture it perfectly, and he took a step forward before he could stop himself.

  Dane looked to the bedroom door and saw it was unlocked. Jayden’s room was just a wall away, and rules were rules. They’d agre
ed Jayden had enough to get used to without having a man he considered a stranger sleeping over with his mother. At least, not until Charlotte decided on a wedding date, but that was a whole other battle. They’d been following these rules for the last several months, and it hadn’t been easy working around family, Jayden, and work to find time for themselves.

  Lust warred with reason, and finally common sense prevailed. Dane took hold of Charlotte’s wrist and removed her hand so he had access to a few working brain cells. And then he did something he knew he’d probably pay for later. He kissed her once—hard—then picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

  Her squeal of outrage brought a grin to his lips. “Ssh, you don’t want to wake Jayden.”

  She immediately stilled in his arms and growled. “I swear you’re going to pay for this, Dane MacKenzie. Put me down.”

  “You know I always look forward to your punishments, baby.”

  Charlotte snorted out a laugh and then gasped as his hand smacked her ass hard enough to sting. She turned into a wildcat, bucking against his shoulder and kicking with her legs.

  “I’m going to murder you in your sleep. Put me down or it’ll be a cold day in hell before I let you in my bed again.”

  “At least you’ve got the cold part right,” he muttered.

  Dane grabbed the comforter from the top of her bed and tossed it over her, wrapping his arms tight across the back of her legs to keep her still. Then he stepped back out into the frigid air and sucked in a deep breath. Nothing cured lust like freezing temperatures.

  “Holy shit, it’s cold out here,” she wheezed.

  “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll warm you up soon enough.”

  She snorted again. “Idiot.”

  It didn’t take him long to get to the barn. He’d left the heavy wooden doors open a crack so he could get back inside easily.

  “You’d better be quiet,” he whispered. “You don’t want the horses putting up a fuss. Burt would come running to see what’s the matter, and that could be pretty embarrassing.”

  Burt was the manager Charlotte had inherited after her father had died and left her his ranch. He was pretty spry for a man pushing eighty.

  “I’d prefer to keep that sexy body all to myself. Though Burt looks like the kind of guy who’d be into voyeurism now that I think about it.”

  Charlotte pounded against the small of his back with her fists. “Murder, Dane. Murder. And I’m going to make sure it hurts.”

  “If you’re still saying that in ten minutes, then I deserve whatever punishment you can come up with.” He flipped on the flashlight he pulled from his pocket and headed toward the ladder that led to the hayloft.

  The scent of fresh hay and horses was strong, but the barn was as nice and comfortable as any home, with dark polished woods and a stone floor. The occasional whicker and snort from the horses was the only sound to accompany his footsteps. Heat blew from the vents above, but he felt Charlotte shiver beneath his hand.

  “I’m going to be pissed if you drop me.” Her words were muffled against his back, and he tossed the flashlight up into the loft ahead of them.

  “That wouldn’t be very romantic of me.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realize me hanging upside down with my face banging against your ass was supposed to be romantic. How silly of me. Please continue your seduction.”

  Dane’s lips twitched and he grabbed one of the ladder rungs. “It’s a good thing I find that viper’s tongue of yours a turn-on. Most men would be shaking in their boots by now.”

  “Lord knows you’re not most men. A perverse creature if I’ve ever seen one.”

  “You’re not showing the proper appreciation for my strength and manliness. This isn’t easy, you know. You weigh a little more than you did since the last time we did this in a barn.”

  “I was sixteen. And bringing up my weight is also not romantic.”

  “I’ll make a note for next time. Though I should say I really like where you’ve filled out.”

  He’d been carting bales of hay and other things into the loft since he was a boy, so a package as light as Charlotte, even with a few extra curves that hadn’t been there when she was sixteen, was no trouble at all.

  “Now tell me how my rippling muscles and prowess turn you on, and that you’re impressed by my show of strength. Don’t you know you’re supposed to stroke a man’s ego?”

  She snickered. “Sorry, I didn’t know we were to the stroking part yet.”

  “Smartass.”

  He felt her sigh and knew without looking that she was rolling her eyes. “I’m very impressed by your strength and manliness,” she said dryly. “Can you put me down now?”

  “And tell me this is romantic.” Dane made it to the loft and dropped her to her feet, steadying her when she swayed.

  “Yes, it’s very ro—” Her words cut off as she turned and saw the scene he’d set.

  A soft feather mattress sat in the middle of the loft. It had been hell to get up there. God knows he couldn’t have asked his brothers for help without being ridiculed for the rest of his life, so he’d managed to do the task on his own, cursing and nursing bloody knuckles the entire time.

  Soft sheets and a thick down comforter covered the mattress and red rose petals were scattered over the stark white of the blankets. The hayloft door was open just enough to let the moonlight in to bathe them in a soft glow.

  “I guess I won’t murder you after all.” Her voice was raspy with emotion and he pretended he didn’t see the moisture clinging to her eyelashes. Charlotte hated to cry, and she liked having a witness to her tears even less. Her strength was only one of the reasons he loved her, but that core of vulnerability she tried so valiantly to hide made him want to protect and coddle her even more.

  She hadn’t had anyone to take care of her over the last ten years, and God knows she didn’t need it. Charlotte worked hard and was as stubborn and independent as anyone he knew. It was that independence that made him want to give her what she’d gone without for so long. Maybe he needed to give it to her to make up for what he’d done.

  “I’m relieved to hear it,” he said.

  Her black hair had a bluish tint in the moonlight and he moved it away from her neck, kissing her softly on the nape. The blanket he’d wrapped around her dropped to the floor and he felt her tremble beneath his lips.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “Always.”

  He felt her sigh as his hands came up and cupped her breasts. Her head fell back against his shoulder as his fingers worked at the buttons of her pajama top. The fabric parted and his hands touched warm flesh.

  “Touch me,” she whispered.

  He weighed her breasts in his hands, feeling them swell beneath his touch, and his thumbs skimmed across her rigid nipples.

  “Like this?” he asked.

  “More.”

  The pajama top slipped from her shoulders and down to the floor, leaving her bare to the moonlight. He trailed his fingers down her belly, feeling her quiver beneath his touch, as he skimmed the elastic waistband of her pants.

  His heart thudded in his chest and his blood pumped with the anticipation of what was to come, but he moved slowly, despite his need to bury himself inside her. His hand slipped beneath the elastic and down lower to the bare folds of her sex.

  She went liquid beneath his touch and cried out as his finger pressed against the swollen bud of her clit. His fingers moved in slow, lazy circles, building anticipation toward the climax he knew she was so close to.

  “Jesus, you’re already so wet. How am I supposed to keep control knowing that I could slide deep inside of you in one smooth stroke?” His finger dipped lower and penetrated the tight sheath of her vagina, and he felt her muscles clamp around him. He groaned, knowing full well what that would feel like around his cock.

  “Who says I want you to have control?” she panted.

  Charlotte turned in his arms, dislodging his fingers from her slippery warmth, and she tugged at h
is sweater until she managed to pull it over his head, leaving him in his undershirt.

  Her eyes were glazed with lust and her breathing heavy. He knew every subtlety of her body. The way her eyes dilated when she was close to coming and the way her nails would dig into him when she wanted him to go deeper—harder. She bit her bottom lip as she worked at his belt buckle and he knew she wasn’t in the mood for the romantic setting he’d envisioned. She wanted hot and fast, but he wasn’t going to give it to her. She’d be begging by the time he finally took her.

  His motives were selfish. He’d set the scene for a reason. She’d finally agreed to marry him, but she kept putting it off, never committing to a date. She told him she loved him, and they spent as much time as possible together as a family without legally being a family. He wanted to give her his name. He wanted Jayden to have his name. He wanted to be a husband and a father in the truest sense of the word.

  But Charlotte was being stubborn, and when she thought he wasn’t looking he could sometimes see the worry in her eyes that maybe he wasn’t really going to stay after all. She was giving him time to choose freedom over family, and it just wasn’t going to happen. It shouldn’t have happened the first time he’d left her, and there wasn’t a day that went by he didn’t regret it. But he knew in his heart neither of them had been ready the first time around, and who knows how they’d have ended up without having that time to grow up a little.

  Dane realized between one thought and the next that he’d lost the upper hand, because somehow he was completely naked and Charlotte was kneeling before him like a goddess, her hair tumbled around her shoulders and her vivid green eyes gazing up his body like he was her last meal.

  Charlotte licked her lips once and he groaned before he could help it. “Have mercy, sweetheart.”

  Her sultry laugh made his blood run hotter and his balls draw up tight with anticipation. She ran her nails up his thighs and grinned wickedly as he shuddered beneath her touch.

  “Just remember that payback’s a bitch, love.”