When he starts to move towards me, I still can’t seem to bring myself to move. Then he’s on me, his mouth coming down onto mine. I stay still until I feel his tongue lick the seam of my mouth and I open for him. My body does as he commands. One of his hands snakes into my still-damp hair, the other grabbing my hand, locking his fingers with mine.
I melt into him, my eyelids falling closed. His kiss is just as intense as he is. I have no idea what I’m doing as he devours my mouth like he’s starving. When I hear a throat clear, I jump back, having completely forgotten we’re in a room full of people, but when I look over at the dining room table it’s empty and only Earl is standing there eating a piece of bacon. We cleared the room. It’s like one embarrassing thing after another around here.
“I can’t believe you did that,” I say, my hand going to my mouth. My voice is all breathy.
“What, kissed my wife?” He looks down at me like I’m crazy. That it’s normal. Like we’ve been kissing forever. That this wasn’t my first kiss ever.
“First off, I’m not your wife.” I take a step towards him, pointing up at him. A half smile forms on his face like he thinks it’s cute I’m getting all up in his face.
“Yet,” he adds, but I just ignore him.
“Secondly, as of last night this thing wasn’t totally on.” I motion between us. Then I stop when I see a ring on my finger.
It’s stunning. A big circular diamond sits in the center, surrounded by smaller diamonds in a halo. It looks antique.
“It was my mother's.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal.
“I can’t take this.” I go to pull it off, but he grabs my wrist to stop me.
“You’ll wear it,” he says, using the same tone on me he does his men.
“It doesn’t seem right,” I try to protest. This is his mother’s ring. It’s something I’m sure was given in love. I’d seen a picture of his mom and dad last night in his bedroom. I knew it was them. Cash has a mix of both of them in him. His mother had dark hair and gray eyes, but he is built like his father. The look on his father’s face as he’d looked down at Cash’s mom was full of so much love. It was so beautiful and hurt to look at. I wanted a marriage like that.
“You’re going to be my wife.” He pushes back.
“It’s not the same.”
“You’ll wear it and that’s final.” His words are hard. He’s clearly upset that I’m pushing against him, but then he places a kiss on the palm of my hand before releasing my wrist. The action is so soft and sweet. It doesn’t match his hard words.
I just nod. There’s no point fighting with him. I’m here to marry him, and if this is the ring he wants me to wear, I guess I’ll wear it. It just feels wrong. Like I’m tainting it. I know this marriage probably won’t last.
“And I’ll kiss you anytime I like. Even more so to make a point to my men.” With that, he turns, leaving me standing there while he goes over and starts eating the plate I’d left on the kitchen counter. It’s as if he knew I made it for him.
He glances at the table, then at his own plate, stopping mid-bite.
“You eat?”
I just nod again and he goes back to eating the plate of food. It warms me that he was concerned that he was eating the last of the breakfast and he wanted to make sure I’d eaten before he finished it off.
“How is everything looking?” Cash asks Earl.
“Another fence is down and we can’t find Sammy anywhere.”
Cash drops his fork. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“Nope. Something is starting to stink,” Earl adds, taking a drink of his coffee.
“I’ll get dressed and be out in a few.” Cash takes a few more bites of his breakfast, then heads down the hallway. I follow behind him, but not before catching anther wink from Earl.
“I need to go to the city to go shopping,” I tell him when I enter the room. He drops his pants, and I turn around quickly, giving him my back. I hear him chuckle.
“I’ll take you tomorrow, and we’ll get our marriage licenses then, too. I planned today, but it looks like I got another mess to clean up.”
I want to protest, but I know he’s got enough on his plate. “Okay,” is all I say as I leave the room, heading back to the kitchen to clean up.
“Even your coffee is wonderful, ma’am. There anything you can’t make?” Earl says, pouring himself another cup.
“Well, that’s all I have until I can make it out to the store,” I tell him as a thought hits me. “If any of your men aren’t too busy, do you think they could take me into town? I’d love to get it out of the way and not bother Cash with it. I can tell he’s real busy and he doesn’t need to spend hours in town getting supplies.”
“I think I can do that. I’ll send Brandon back to take you. Just go grab some petty cash out of Cash’s office. Bottom drawer of his desk in a metal box. Take what you need. We’re done spoiled and would love to come home to a dinner like last night.”
“Thank you. I’ll make sure I set you aside something special for dessert tonight.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it all day.”
Just then Cash comes back into the room, coming right at me and planting another one of those kisses on me, leaving me breathless.
“Lock the door.”