The mattress shifted and Skylar sat up. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I liked havin’ you next to me, no matter what your motives were. Don’t matter right now.” He fluttered his fingertips up the inside of her thighs. “Spread your legs wider for me, sweetheart.”

Kade caught a whiff of her arousal. Thick. Sweet. Warm. He wanted to taste her so damn bad his mouth was watering. Keeping his hands gripping her thighs, he leaned over and put his mouth on her belly button.

Her stomach muscles rippled beneath his lips.

He dipped his tongue into the indentation, then dragged it down to the top of her pubic bone. He blew softly across her damp curls.

Goose flesh broke out across her legs and she softly gasped.

“Any objections about me kissin’ you down here?”

“Ah. No. Please.”

Kade chuckled at her polite eagerness. After a couple of gentlemanly licks, he buried his face in her pussy, found her pulse with his tongue and began to suck her clit.

She moaned his name. His. Kade.

Oh yeah. This is what he wanted. Needed. Just Sky. Just like this. Pliant. Eager, and his.

Skylar’s hands stripped the sheet from the mattress. She ground her wet sex into his face as she started to come, gasping, thrashing against him and the bed, trying to suppress the sounds of her orgasm. He kept sucking her sweet pussy until she sighed contentment and her legs stopped twitching.

“God, Kade, you make me crazy when you do that.”

“I know.” Grinning, Kade rose to his knees. He reached for the condoms, ripped open the box and tore a package free.

“Let me.”

“I remember how to do this part, although Eliza’s existence might convince you otherwise.”

“I don’t regret anything about her, Kade. Not a single thing.”

That shocked him into stillness.

“I didn’t get to touch you anywhere last time. Let me. Please.”

Couldn’t say no to that. He admired her silhouette as she opened the package with her teeth. Sky smoothed her left hand up his thigh and he withheld a shiver at her tender touch. Placing the latex over the head of his cock, she rolled it down to the root. She curled her hand around the girth and stroked.

His cock jerked hopefully in her hand.

“You were pulling pretty hard and fast in the shower. Doesn’t that hurt?”

“No. Another time I’ll teach you the secret to a great handjob. Right now, lay back.”

As soon as she was horizontal, Kade levered himself over her—his legs brushing inside hers, his palms flat by her shoulders, matched pelvis to pelvis.

Sky touched his face with the tips of her cool fingers and passed her palms over his chest like she was sculpting him from memory. “You have such an amazingly hard body.”

“Some places are harder than others.”

“Show me.”

“It’s been awhile. This probably ain’t gonna last long.”

“Been awhile for me too, cowboy.” She whispered, “Kiss me. I love the way you kiss me. Like I’m the only thing in the world.”

“When I’m kissin’ you, sweetheart, you are the only thing in my world.”

Poised at the entrance to her body, he eased in as he took her mouth. He lost his mind in the glove-tight feeling of her pussy closing around his cock from tip to root.

He broke the kiss. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“That wasn’t very convincin’.” Kade noticed she wore a strange expression. “What?

Am I hurtin’ you?”

“No.”

“Skylar, what’s wrong?”

“This is going to sound so stupid. Embarrassing.” In a rush, she said, “Does it feel different for you?”

“Different how?”

“You know. Looser?”

“Looser?”

“Well, I did push an eight pound baby out of there. And I’ve heard the vaginal walls loosen and it doesn’t feel as tight for men afterward—”

“You are a fuckin’ perfect fit.” He pulled out and pushed back in. Three, four, five hard, deep thrusts that bumped her cervix and made her bow into him with absolute abandon. “Perfect in every way.” He shortened his strokes. “Jesus. You feel so goddamn good.”

“Not half as good as you feel to me.”

“You pick lousy times to have a conversation, Sky,” he teased.

She groaned, “I deserved that.” Then she bit his earlobe.

A shudder worked through him. “I don’t know if I can go slow.”

Pressing her lips to the hollow of his throat, she said, “So don’t. It’s not like we haven’t done this before.”

“Not like this we haven’t.” Something akin to a snarl burst from his mouth as he hammered into her. Pounding hips, flesh pounding flesh, his heart matched the rhythm of it all.

Sky arched her back, tilting her pelvis, allowing him a deeper angle. “Yes. Like that.”

With her nails digging into his ass and her mouth sucking at his neck, Kade shoved hard, stayed buried balls deep and came with a long groan, sending her into another orgasm.

Still breathing with difficulty, he lifted his head and reconnected their mouths for another slow kiss. Then he whispered in her hair, “Marry me, Skylar.”

She whispered back, “No.”

“It was worth a shot.”

Chapter Nine

Somehow in the following week Eliza settled into a routine, which made Kade happy. He and Skylar settling into a routine didn’t make Kade happy. Not one iota.

Wasn’t that why he’d moved in? What he’d wanted?

No. Not like this. Every night was the same. They’d put Eliza down. Skylar would sneak into the guest bedroom, strip, and wait for him. They’d make careful love, only face to face, only in the absolute darkness, only on the bed.

While they were in the moment, it was damn good. But, afterward, when Skylar immediately got up and dressed, he questioned why she bothered with a sexual relationship with him. After they both got off, she’d disappear, leaving him…lonely. At bedtime she’d curl up on her side of the bed and he on his. They’d take turns getting up with Eliza. Business as usual. Sky probably saw nothing wrong with the way things were going between them.

As the week progressed Kade became frustrated with the situation with Skylar and his incompetence in changing it. Or in his ability to be completely honest with what he needed from her. He’d had enough empty sex in his life…well, to last a lifetime. He wanted more with her…for both of them.

For years, Kade had acted in the same manner as Sky did, confusing sex with intimacy. Now that he’d learned there was a difference, he’d hoped to take their relationship to the next level, beyond parenting partners and mattress monkeys.

So what was the problem?

From what he could tell, Skylar wasn’t interested in them becoming more intimate on any level.

Had they taken advantage of Eliza’s sleeping hours by spending time talking, beyond the basic chitchat? No. Had they cuddled up on the front porch swing to gaze at the stars and moon? No. Had they plopped on the sofa to watch TV? No. Hell, he’d’ve been happy as a pig in shit cleaning the damn house and folding laundry.

They did none of the normal couple things. She’d allow him to touch her body within certain parameters, but it never ventured beyond the surface.

At some point, Kade realized his brother hit the nail on the head with his observation about Skylar’s behavior. He’d swallowed his embarrassment and asked to borrow the pop psychology book Buck had spoken of and it just confirmed his suspicions.

It was all about Sky’s need for control. When it came to their relationship, she controlled the where, the when, and how much time they spent in the bedroom. And, she controlled the amount of time they spent out of the bedroom. She controlled…everything.

That didn’t surprise him so much because as a successful businesswoman everything in her life was laid out. Scheduled. He’d be damned if they’d schedule sex. If he was just another thing she’d mark off on her “to do” list.

In her tidy world was Eliza a constant reminder of the consequences of Sky throwing caution to the wind?

Maybe Kade could use that mindset to his advantage.

Eliza squeaked. She studied him somberly with those big blue eyes. His heart was a pile of mush when she looked at him like that. “You got me wrapped around your little finger, girlie, and you know it.”

She blinked.

“Like mother, like daughter, eh?”

She appeared to be listening, so he kept talking.

“I won you over, and I’m gonna win over your mama too. It may take some doin’.

Think Aunt Indy is right in the no pain, no gain school of thought? No? Me neither. But your mama ain’t gonna like nothin’ I do to force her hand, so I might as well start out balls to the wall. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And between us, sweet thang, I’m desperate to make that woman mine. Body, heart, and soul. Just to make it interestin’, I do believe I’ll start with her body first.”

In the last week Kade had taken to dropping by the shop on his way to the house.

Skylar found herself looking forward to hearing his gruff voice bouncing off the rafters.

Today he’d meandered in and flirted with Dee, played a quick game of tic-tac-toe with Josie and the daycare kids, talked horses with Bonita, and checked the alternator in Vickie’s truck. He tried to engage Nadia in conversation, but she went out of her way to avoid him.

Kade was unfailing polite with Skylar, never hinting that anything but a parental bond existed between them in front of her employees, which is what she’d wanted.

So why did she secretly wish for his public display of affection? For that hunky cowboy to swoop in and kiss her madly? Spirit her up to her office, sweep everything off the desk and screw her silly on her day planner?

Probably because she was suffering from sleep deprivation. Passion like that only happened in the movies. Real life for her was spread sheets, diapers, sleepless nights and if she was lucky, a quick bout of nookie before the baby woke up.