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“Is it,” he said, after a minute.
“You sound just like them. Even your voice has the same timbre.” She smiled and touched the tip of her nose to his. “So?”
“So?”
“So, I’ve told you about me. Now I want to hear about you.”
A muscle knotted in Tyler’s jaw. “There’s not much to tell.”
Caitlin grinned. “Mr. Kincaid is the founder of Kincaid Incorporated,” she said smugly, “which is based in Atlanta, Georgia. He serves on the board of several major corporations and he is honorary chairman of—”
To her absolute delight, Tyler blushed.
“Hell,” he muttered, “you read that stupid brochure my PR department put out.” He drew back, glared at her from under his brows. “How’d you get your hands on that?”
“Never underestimate a country girl, Mr. Kincaid.” Caitlin laughed softly. “I turned on my computer, went out on the internet and looked you up.”
He grinned. “Did you,” he said softly.
“Yes. Yesterday. After you almost gave poor Leighton apoplexy with one look, I figured it might be a good idea to know just who I was up against, Kincaid.”
She caught her breath as he slid his hands under the blanket and stroked them over her flesh.
“What a fine idea, McCord.”
“Looking you up on the net?” she said, and shuddered as his fingers brushed over her breasts.
“Being up against me,” he murmured, and cupped the back of her head. “Come here, McCord, and kiss me.”
She did, and before her heart could take a second beat, the kiss went from soft and gentle to passionate and exciting.
“Tyler,” she whispered.
“Cait.” He turned her in his arms so she was facing him. The blanket slipped, unnoticed, from her shoulders. Sunlight bathed her skin with gold. Travis felt as if a fist were clenching around his heart. “Cait,” he whispered, “take me inside you.”
He watched her face change, watched her eyes darken, her mouth soften as he sought entrance. She smiled, a smile as old as Eve: “Yes,” she sighed, “oh, yes.”
Slowly, slowly, she impaled herself on his rigid length, taking him deep, filling herself with him, feeling her womb constrict as her soul took flight.
I love you, she thought, Tyler, I love you…but his mouth was on hers, his hands were on her hips, he was guiding her in this slow, lush dance, in steps her blood had always known.
And she lost herself in his embrace.
Afterward, he held her close while his breathing slowed and the earth steadied on its axis.
She was warm in his arms, as warm as a kitten basking in the sun, and just as pliant.
He stroked her hair and tried to make sense of what was happening to him.
He’d always been successful with women. There was no boastfulness in admitting it to himself. The simple fact was that there’d never been a woman he’d wanted that he hadn’t been able to have.
But something else was happening here.
Each time he looked at Caitlin, each time he touched her, he felt…Tyler closed his eyes. That was the problem. He didn’t know what he felt. It was as if something were stretching and stirring inside him.
And it scared the hell out of him..
He was thirty-five years old. He’d built an empire with nothing but his own sweat and skill; he’d run the rapids on Alaska’s wildest rivers. He’d skydived, skied mountains without trails and gone spelunking in caves that stretched for miles—and he was terrified of whatever it was his heart was trying to signal to him about a woman he’d only met a week ago.
A woman who was the stepdaughter of the man he was determined to destroy.
Tyler looked down at Caitlin, nestled so sweetly in his arms. He had to tell her the truth. Who he was. Why he’d come here.
What he was going to do.
His mouth thinned.
God, he couldn’t. It was too soon. How could he lay his life out to her that way? “I’m not Tyler Kincaid,” he’d say. “I’m a man named John Smith. My mother is dead, my father is Jonas Baron but he refuses to admit it, and when I was younger, I did some things…”
His throat closed.
He’d never told those things to anyone. Those things had happened to John Smith. He was Tyler Kincaid. How could he even consider dumping all that on Caitlin? They’d only known each other for a short while, been lovers for a night.
And yet—and yet, if miracles were real, if magic could happen, if she felt what he felt…
“Tyler?”
He smiled, gathered her close as she sighed and stirred in his arms.
“Yes, love.”
“Tyler.” Her breath whispered against his throat; she kissed his damp skin, tasted it with the tip of her tongue. “I just wanted to say your name.”
Tell her, he thought fiercely, tell her it’s a name you created…
“And—and to tell you that I’ve never—I’ve never been so happy.” She gave a little laugh and tilted her head back, so she could see his face. “If I had any feminine wiles at all, I’d know better than to tell you that.”
He bent his head, caught her mouth with his and kissed her. “Cait,” he murmured.
“I like it when you call me that. No one ever has.” She smiled against his lips. “You know how I feel, Tyler?”
“As if your life is just beginning,” he said, sliding his thumbs along her cheekbones. “As if this dawn is the start of the rest of your life.”
“Yes! Yes, that’s right. Oh, Tyler, I want—I want—”
“I know you do.” Tyler framed her face with his hands. “But first, sweet Cait, I have things to tell you.”
“Me, too.” She sat up in his lap, her eyes glowing. “Something wonderful happened last night.”
Tyler chuckled. “It certainly did.”
Caitlin laughed and pu
t her hands on his shoulders. “I mean, before I got here. Jonas called me into the library. He said he had something to tell me. That’s when he told me you were going away.”
“Now the woman admits it,” he said softly, teasingly, filling his soul with the sight of her. “The old man told you I was leaving, and that made you happy?”
“Hush.” She kissed him again, sat back and gave him a worried look. “Don’t even joke about it. That part almost tore my heart out.”
Tyler took a deep breath. “That’s what I need to tell you, Cait. About why I came to Espada—and why I’m not leaving.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
“I don’t?”
“No, of course not. You bought a home here. You wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t intend to stay in Texas. And no matter what Jonas pretends, I know you’re not the sort of man who’d knuckle under to his bullying.” Caitlin moistened her lips. “I don’t know what the trouble is between you, but I do know you won’t run away from it.”
Tyler linked his hands together at the base of her spine.
“That’s right, Cait. I won’t. I can’t. I have business to settle with Jonas Baron, and until I do, I’m not going anywhere. Sweetheart, I know you think he’s been good to you. Well, maybe he has, in his own selfish way, although how you can still believe it after he’s told you, bluntly, that you’re, hell, I don’t know, less valuable to him because you don’t carry Baron blood—”
“That’s what I have to tell you. That’s all changed.”
“Changed?” Tyler repeated. “How has it changed?”
But he knew. Even before Caitlin said the words, he knew.
“Jonas changed his mind. He’s decided to will Espada to me.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FOUR days.
Four days had gone by since she’d spent the night in Tyler’s arms.
Caitlin knew how much time had elapsed not only to the hour but to the minute, just as she knew how many times she’d thought about Tyler, wanted him, longed for him.
Now, she was starting to know how much she hated him.
