Chapter 10
Caleb peeled off his wet shirt, pried off his boots and socks and fell face first into the pool. Damn if the Floridians didn’t have it worked out. Spend a blistering hot day working on the ranch and come home and ease the heat in a nice cool pool. He’d have to remember to suggest that to Charlie when he and Conn got back home.
Jack and Alana had provided him and Conn with the use of their guest house so they could have their privacy and Caleb had enjoyed every moment of it. But there were times when he missed home.
He’d ended up spending longer in Florida than he’d planned. It was a whole new world. Ranching was pretty much the same no matter where you were, but the climate and landscape provided different challenges and the breed Jack raised was different from the stock raised on the Circle R.
And getting to know his uncle had proven to be fascinating. Jack and Charlie were like night and day. Charlie was big boned, stocky, and bellowed when he talked. By contrast, Jack was tall and wiry and rarely raised his voice.
Conn walked out onto the patio and spotted him. “Well, what have we here?” she asked with a grin and dove fully clothed into the pool.
Caleb grinned when she slithered up his body, her hands sliding over his skin to end up clasped behind his neck. She wound her legs around his waist and captured his lips in a kiss hot enough to rival the Florida sun.
“Ummm, salty,” she murmured when the kiss ended. “Have a good day?”
“Yeah, it was good. How ‘bout you?”
“Good. But Alana’s a little down about us leaving.”
“And you? You want to go back home, don’t you?”
“I want to be wherever you are,” she replied and nibbled his ear. “But I do feel bad for her, Caleb. With her boys gone…well, you know.”
Caleb carried her over to the edge of the pool and climbed up to sit beside her, dangling his legs in the water.
“It’s still kind of hard to believe. The part about her and Jack letting Pandora send their sons back into the past. I mean doesn’t that set up some kind of paradox or something?”
“Apparently not. At least not from what I’ve learned from Azarth. As odd as it is, if they hadn’t gone back into the past, then your—let’s see, what is it? Your great, great, great, great, great grandfather wouldn’t have left Florida to head west and start the Circle R.”
Caleb shook his head. “Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?”
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“Horatio?”
Conn chuckled. “From your English playwright, William Shakespeare, in Hamlet. Act one, scene 5.”
“Been in Uncle Jack’s books again, have you?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “He has a marvelous library.”
“Yeah. Who would’ve thought that a rancher would have such a love for classic literature? But still, that whole time travel thing. I don’t know if we want to tell the rest of the family that part.”
“I think that should be up to Jack and Alana,” she replied.
“Right you are. And right now, I don’t want to think about time travel or ill-tempered bulls or anything except getting clean and getting you in bed.”
“What about dinner?”
“Dinner can wait,” he said as he stood and took her hand to pull her to her feet.
“Hmmmm,” she murmured as she rose slowly, working her way up his body, kissing and licking until her tongue traced its way up the side of his neck and she captured his ear lobe between her teeth. She moved her hand to cup his crotch “Hmmm doesn’t even come close,” Caleb said as he took hold of her hair to pull her up to meet his lips. He’d never get enough of the taste of her. She writhed against him, allowing him to take her mouth, her hard nipples raking across his chest, creating trails of fire on his skin.
His lips left hers and moved down the side of her neck and over the top of one shoulder. The scoop necked gauze top she wore was easy enough to slide down off her shoulders, baring her breasts. His mouth gravitation to the tantalizing bud of her nipple. Conn purred and arched back when his lips closed around the sensitive tip. He supported her with his arms, bending her back like a bow.
The blast of energy that sizzled from her mind to his nearly weakened his knees with its power. Uninhibited, raw, and primal, it was like a live wire in his mind that sizzled throughout his body. And it was an offer he wasn’t about to refuse. He continued to torture her breasts, his hands moving down her body to peel off her shorts.
When one hand moved between her legs, his fingers spreading her sex and dipping into the silken wetness she spread her legs, pressing against his hand, riding his fingers as he penetrated deeper.
The throaty moan that came from her announced that he’d not only found her secret spot, but that it was so alive that only one stroke had her working toward orgasm.
Caleb held onto her and stroked his fingers inside her, each movement driving her closer to the edge. A rush of wetness preceded a vibration that ran through her body. Her hands gripped his upper arms, fingers digging into his skin as the climax rolled through her.
It was like an aphrodisiac. Everything about her was. He wondered if he’d ever get enough of her.
“Please,” she gasped as the climax started to subside. “More.”
Caleb didn’t hesitate to comply. He pulled her over to a large round lounge, lay back and pulled her on top of him. “Take it, baby,” he said, watching her eyes for reaction. “Let me see how much you want me.”
As always, their lovemaking was possessed of something magic. How long it lasted he had no idea. It could have been a moment or an eternity. He didn’t know or care. He was lost in sensation, a climax that claimed both body and soul. He felt Conn with him, her passion, and her love.
And as always, it shook him to his soul. He felt the claim he had on her and her acceptance of it. Moreover, he realized the claim she had on him. They were joined in a way he’d never dreamed possible.
When she sagged, melting down on top of him, her breath still fast and her heart pounding against his chest, he wrapped his arms around her, feeling complete.
For a long time, they lay on the lounge, letting the last of the dying rays of the sun bathe them. Finally, she sat up. “I’m starving.”
His stomach rumbled and they both laughed. “Well, I guess I’m not the only one,” she said and got off him. “What say we take this inside and get something to eat?”
“Did you cook?” he asked as he got to his feet.
“Why I’ll have you know that I fixed fresh squash, a roast and—”
“Let me guess. Potato salad.”
“I love that stuff,” she said with a laugh. “But I also made you rice and gravy.”
“Well damn, come on then. We don’t want good food like that going to waste.”
She grinned and started for the door, but he took her arm and stopped her. “Conn?”
“Yes?”
“I just want you to know that I love you and I promise we’re going to have a good life.”
“We already do,” she said and stood up on tiptoe to graze his lips with hers. “And we will. One day at a time.”
“Works for me,” he replied and licked at her lips, parting them with his tongue.
“Hmmmm,” she murmured, sinking against him for a moment then pulling back. “Damn, cowboy, you sure know how to make it tough on a woman.”
“You ready for round two already?” he asked teasingly.
“Don’t tempt me. At least not until I get some food in me. Then we’ll see how much round two you have left.” She turned and headed for the door. Caleb laughed and smacked her lightly on the bare behind.
“Then get ready, honey, cause once I get refueled, it’s on.”
She laughed and tossed him a towel. “Promises, promises. Are you nervous about going back? To the Circle R, I mean?”
“Actually, I think I’m ready. I miss my family. And I want them to know our son.”
He reached over and put his hand on her belly. “Still hard to believe. Your stomach’s flat as a fritter. You sure you’re pregnant?”
“Positive,” she said with a smile.
“Then all the more reason to go back where we belong,” he said.
“As Constance Zane,” she reminded him.
“Soon to be Constance Zane Russell.” He said and grabbed her to pull her into a tight hug. “This is going to work, isn’t it? This identity switch?”
“Absolutely,” she assured him. “We’re safe, Caleb. Safe to live our lives, raise our children and be happy.”
“Then bring it on,” he said and swept her up into his arms. “In fact, let’s celebrate.”
“But what about dinner?” she asked as he carried her through the kitchen and toward the bedroom.
“Later darlin’. Right now, we got some more world class loving to do. That’s got to beat out potato salad.”
“Hands down, cowboy. Hands down.”