The Cain Casey Series

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I’m going to take a shower, Uncle Jarvis. Just send someone up if Emma calls.”

“Cain, I’m sure she’s fine. She has Merrick and Walt both with her.”

“Did I say I was worried?” Cain asked as she left the room feeling like she was about to jump out of her skin.

The hot water felt good against her skin, and she stood there with her head down and her hands pressed on the side of the tiled wall, letting it hit her shoulders and the back of her neck. Thinking about the coming night, she didn’t hear the glass door open. As she felt two arms slide around her waist, she smiled.

“Miss me?” Emma asked. She had almost started stripping on the stairs when Jarvis had told her to hurry before Cain rattled apart.

Cain pressed Emma to the opposite wall. “Just a little. Did everything go all right?”

“I got a dress and some other things the salesman talked me into, but Merrick gave me the thumbs-up, so I’m sure you won’t mind. As for our friendly agent, I’m sure she’s off somewhere thinking of ways to take you away from me.”

Moaning when Cain’s lips started up the side of her neck, Emma let her head fall back farther.

“No one’s going to take me away from you.” Cain pulled back as she got to the curve of Emma’s shoulder. “God, you taste good.”

“I’m the best appetizer going, honey. I don’t care what everyone says about the restaurant we’re headed to tonight. Let’s go lie down for a little while.” Emma’s knees felt weak, and the lower Cain’s hands slid along her body, the harder it was to calm her breathing.

When Cain accepted the invitation and led them out of the shower and to the bed, Emma’s nipples instantly became stone hard in the cool air. But the feel of Cain’s body covering hers as soon as her wet body hit the bed added the mix of excitement she’d been craving all day. The exhilaration of all that skin coming into contact with hers made her wrap her legs around Cain’s hips and pull all of her weight on top of her.

“I want to feel you,” Emma said when Cain tried to roll off. It was hard to find words with the muscles of Cain’s abdomen pressing against her sex. Adding to that, the muscles in Cain’s shoulders were flexed and looked even sexier with the droplets of water from the shower beading on her skin.

“I want to feel you too, and I can’t if I don’t have room.” The wound in her side ached a little, but Cain ignored it and concentrated instead on the puckered nipple so close to her hand.

For Cain, touching Emma had always been about love. It had been beautiful to watch the shy farm girl evolve into a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it. Both facets of Emma’s personality were equally beautiful to Cain because, as adventurous as her wife became, a bit of that young woman she’d first met was still locked inside her.

“I used to think about you like this,” Cain said. Her palm covered Emma’s breast, and she could feel the small nub pressing against her palm.

“Like what, baby?”

“When we first met, I’d take you out and talk to you and maybe dance, but on the way home I used to imagine what it would be like to have you stretched out like this with my skin touching yours. What it would be like to touch you because that’s what you asked me to do.” Cain moved her hand and wrapped it around Emma’s breast so she could lower her lips and suck gently on the neglected nipple.

Cain had been forced to exercise tremendous self-control the day Emma had called her back to that small apartment. When she walked in and saw Emma naked from the waist up, with only her arm covering her chest, Cain had wanted to devour her whole. The memory of the first time Emma pulled away from her and exposed herself to her hungry eyes would forever be one of Cain’s favorites.

Women were something Cain knew and enjoyed, but Emma had been worlds apart. From her first look Cain had just sat and stared so hard that Emma had grown nervous and asked if something was wrong. “You’re just so beautiful,” Cain had told her.

“Please, I want you to touch me now,” Emma said.

Cain let go of the nipple in her mouth and dragged her hand farther down Emma’s body. Long fingers parted Emma and found her wet and ready, but Cain didn’t go inside.

Instead, she stroked from one end of the heated flesh to the other, until Emma pushed her leg between Cain’s.

“Look at me, Emma.”

When she opened her dark green eyes she looked like a woman lost in the passion Cain was creating.

“I want to see you while I’m loving you.” Cain’s fingers slid up and separated as they came to Emma’s clitoris.

“Please, baby.” When the fingers stopped and squeezed, Emma’s hips surged off the bed. “Go inside, Cain. I need you.”

Emma tried to keep her eyes locked to Cain’s as Cain slid her fingers where Emma most wanted them, but it took all of her concentration to not just lie back and enjoy the fire consuming her body. No words could describe how Cain made her feel as her fingers stroked away Emma’s worries and the walls of her sex did their best to keep Cain inside.

The battle was lost when Cain lowered her head and sucked on her pulse point. Emma closed her eyes and moved her hips in time with Cain’s hand, trying to make the moment last as long as she could. With an impressive show of strength, Emma pulled Cain’s head up and pressed their lips together. The tongue in her mouth drove her blossoming orgasm to the point of no return.

“Don’t stop,” Emma demanded as her head fell back to the bed and she arched into Cain. Emma dragged her nails up Cain’s back, trying to keep their bodies together. The rush of pleasure peaked, and Emma grew taut as a scream ripped from her throat. “Whoa.”

“Whoa?” Cain said after Emma’s tremors subsided. “My lass has been on the farm a little too long.”

The comment made Emma start laughing, and she had a hard time stopping. “No, don’t go,” she said, still chuckling when Cain began to move off her. “I like being pinned down by you almost as much as I like being teased by you.” With gentle fingers Emma traced Cain’s face before she cupped her cheek.

“Yes, but just think of where all the pinning and teasing lead.” Cain kissed her one last time before sliding off. “However did I live all this time without you?”

Emma’s eyes filled with tears. She was the only one who got to see this side of Cain, the woman so many respected and more than a few feared, who could with just a few words express all that was in her heart. “I’ve been asking the same question about you for a long time.”

“Don’t cry, love. Sometimes I look at you sometimes and feel like there isn’t enough air in the room to fill my lungs. I never imagined a woman could so completely own me. Then I met you.” She placed her hand along Emma’s jawline and wiped the few tears away with her thumb. “Will you let me know if I ever do something to disappoint you? I don’t want to be without you ever again. Four years was a long time not to know true happiness.”

“Honey, you never disappointed me.” Emma leaned into the strong hand, then draped herself over Cain’s body. “I disappointed myself. I’m your wife, and I shouldn’t have believed anyone but you.”

She put her lips to Cain’s forehead. “I love you. That means for better or for worse.” Her lips moved to Cain’s eyelids. “In sickness, health, and gunshot wounds.” Emma whispered the last part into Cain’s ear before she placed a kiss just below it. The laugh that it caused in Cain shook her body a little.

“For richer or for poorer”—the other ear was given equal attention—“till death do us part.” Emma finished the vows with a kiss that left no room for doubt about how she felt or how strong her love was for Cain. “I belong to you and will have no other in my life except you.”

“That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever told me, but I don’t want to own you, love.”

Emma quit smiling and started to roll off, thinking Cain still wasn’t ready to fully commit.

“Don’t go. I like being pinned down by you,” echoed Cain from what Emma had said earlier. “Do you trust me, Emma?”

“With my life.” She answered without hesitation and didn’t try to hide anything from Cain.

“Then don’t worry when I say things like that. I didn’t mean that I don’t want you. Nothing could be less true.”

Emma relaxed, and she tried another smile.

“I don’t want to own you. I want to know you’re my equal in every way.”

“Can I tell you something and not have you think I’m crazy?” Emma put her head down on Cain’s shoulder, and her hair fanned out across her lover’s chest.

“It’s just us here, and I’ll never think you’re crazy.”

“I like that you’re stronger than me, Cain, and not just physically. You give an order, and people obey because they want to, not because they fear you. I love that about you, and I’m happy you’re the one who protects our children and me. I feel safe. What I meant was, I don’t want to be treated like a prized cow. I want people to look at me and know that I belong to you, that I’m your responsibility as well as your partner.”

She went willingly when Cain flipped them over and hovered over her. “I want them to know that I’ve chosen to belong to you. I want all that…but is that what you want?”

Cain took a deep breath and released it slowly, as if trying to organize her thoughts. “I’m not sure why this talk has become so serious, but perhaps it’s a good thing.” She slid off Emma again and, this time, off the bed.

After taking something out of the small desk, and before Emma could panic, Cain returned and knelt next to the bed. “When all this is over I want to give you something I was remiss about before.” She held a small green velvet bag tied closed with a tiny cord.

“Soon we’ll stand before God and our friends, and I’ll claim what’s mine. And I want you to do the same. We belong to each other. I love my children and my family, but all that’s incomplete without your love and belief in me.”

“I do love you,” Emma said.

“I know you do.” Cain had a little trouble getting the bag open, but when the contents slid out into her hand, Emma put her hands up to her mouth in awe. “You lived with me all that time, and I never gave you a proper ring.”

Cain held up the first ring, and the diamond sparkled in the waning light from the window. “The jeweler told me the stone is flawless. To me it represents my love for you. Perhaps my life isn’t perfect, but I try very hard to make you feel cherished and loved as flawlessly as I know how. When you look at it I want you to remember that.”

She held it up close to the ring finger on Emma’s left hand. “Emma, will you have me?”

The question was barely out of Cain’s mouth when Emma said simply, “Yes.”

Cain held another ring, a simple gold band with two sapphires embedded in the metal. “This ring is a partner to the one I just gave you. Two more stones in honor of the most precious things you could have given me, our children.” The second one slid home, and Emma gave in to tears.

“Can the guy who sold you this add more to this one?” Emma pointed to the second ring.

Cain didn’t answer the question verbally; she just handed Emma the bag, then kissed the tip of her nose. The bag weighed just enough for her to know it wasn’t empty. When she tipped it over, another two sapphires rolled out into her palm, to be added to the ring if they had more children. “You do want us to work, don’t you?”

“That I do, lass, but before you go planning something, you might want to hear what I have to say.”

Emma pressed her hand to Cain’s lips and stopped whatever was getting ready to come out. “Later.” She looped her other hand around Cain’s neck and pulled. “Much, much later.”

Again Cain just grunted when Emma pressed her thigh between her legs. In retrospect Cain had chosen a rather strange way to propose, naked and just after making love, but Emma wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Whatever confessions Cain had would have to wait.

This was an occasion Emma didn’t want marred by anything.