Daddy's Girls (44)

“That’s what I mean.” He laughed too. “Fly with me, Kate. Let’s show everyone what we can do. As husband and wife, not me working for you, or even as business partners. I want to go to bed with you every night, and make love to you.” Now that he had said it, he couldn’t contain himself anymore. He pulled her to her feet and pressed his long lanky body against hers, and she could feel the passion he felt for her. It was dizzying, and she didn’t want him to stop or go away. She had run away from most of the men who had pursued her, but she wanted to run into Thad’s arms, not away from them. Suddenly, he felt like the only place she wanted to be. She clung to him, as the sun began to set slowly, and she didn’t want to let go. Without knowing why or if it was right, she looked into his eyes and nodded.

    “Yes…I think we’re crazy, but maybe you have to be a little crazy in life…yes…but let’s take it slow. Let’s get used to it ourselves first. I don’t want everyone to know right away. This is going to surprise a lot of people,” including her sisters, but she wasn’t sure she cared about that either. All she cared about at that exact moment in time was him.

“We can go as slow as you want. As long as we get there in the end. I’ve waited nineteen years. I can wait a little longer. Not another nineteen years though, I hope.”

“I’ll be a hundred by then,” she said with a grin.

“No, you won’t. You’ll probably still be sexy when you’re a hundred. I’ll be ninety-five then.” He kissed her again and they walked through the grass to their horses in the place that was going to be his house one day, their house, if all went well. He gave her a boost into her saddle, and got up on his own horse with ease, and turned to look at her with the broadest grin she’d ever seen. “I love you, Kate, just remember that. I always will.” She nodded. She believed him. He was an honest man, maybe the only one she’d ever known.

    “I love you too.” They rode back to her part of the ranch then, and got to the barn as the sun was setting. It was the beginning of a beautiful life together, they were sure of it. And the end of a perfect day.

They went out to dinner that night to celebrate, and he drove her back to her house afterward. She hesitated on the porch and didn’t ask him to come in. She didn’t want to rush things, and wanted to savor the beginning, and he didn’t press her about it. He just kissed her, and then clattered down her stairs before he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to sweep her up in his arms and carry her to her bedroom. They were both smiling as he drove away.





Chapter 10


Kate and Thad made every attempt to keep their growing attraction from showing around other people. He looked serious when he came to her office. She spoke to him as she always had in the breeding barn. He found a lot of downed fences and grazing fields to show her at the far edges of the property, and as soon as they were out of sight, they dismounted and lay in the grass together, hugging and kissing, and feeling each other’s bodies. They made it through four days after he had declared his love for her, and she couldn’t imagine how she had lived without him in her arms for the past nineteen years. They were cooking dinner together in her house one night, and he put down the fork he was using, grabbed her in his arms, and turned off the flame on the stove so they didn’t burn the house down.

“I can’t stand it anymore,” he said in an agonized voice as he held her.

“Neither can I,” she said, breathless, and they raced each other up the stairs to her bedroom, pulled each other’s clothes off, and made love for the next four hours, as neither of them had made love before. It had all the hunger and passion and desire and hoping and dreaming of everything he had felt for her before, and everything that had been born in her since he first kissed her. And after making love to her until midnight, when he finally pulled himself away from her, all he wanted was to do it again.

    He was starving after that, and they went downstairs and finally cooked dinner, and then went back upstairs and made love again. They hardly slept that night and for several days afterward. Kate was afraid someone would see him coming to her cottage early in the evening and never leaving, with his truck conspicuously parked outside, so he started driving home, and coming back on foot at midnight, and staying until she got up at four-thirty. It made for short nights but some epic lovemaking. By the time Gemma got back from L.A., Kate was starry-eyed and looked dazed.

“You look happy,” Gemma commented when she first saw her. “Everything okay on the home front?”

“Fine. Nothing new. Thad is over the moon that you’re selling him your share.”

“Me too.” Gemma looked pleased.

“He’s going to build a house out there.” She didn’t have the guts to tell her sister that she was going to live there too and they wanted to get married. She was afraid that she’d be shocked that Kate wanted to marry the foreman. She needed time to figure out how to announce it to her, but for now, they had everything they wanted, nights together, and their plans and dreams for his property. She was going to tell her sisters soon. She just didn’t know when.

“Have you talked to Caroline this week?” Gemma asked her.

    “Actually, come to think of it, no, I haven’t. I figured she was busy getting ready to go to Aspen. I think they’re leaving this weekend.”