Buckhorn Brothers: Casey Part 24

"No, but I kept quiet about it. That's a crime in itself."

"You were a kid, d.a.m.n it."

She raised a hand. "No, Casey. Don't coddle me by making excuses. I'm fine really. Just... exhausted."

Christ, she'd been seventeen years old, burdened with more than most adults could handle. He had no intention of letting her wallow in guilt, but he let it go for now. "We'll go to bed early," he promised her.

That had her laughing again. "We will, huh? Does it bother you that your whole family will know I'm with you?"

Casey gave her a long look before stepping out of the car. B.B. jumped out with him and followed him as he circled the hood. Emma had already opened her own door before they could reach her. With Casey and Emma both carrying bags, they started toward the garage apartment. B.B., now very familiar with the Hudson household, followed along.

Finally Casey couldn't keep his mouth shut, and he said, "It's been a long day for me too, Emma. Don't p.i.s.s me off."

She abruptly stopped, but since he and the dog didn't, she hurried to catch up. "What are you talking about?"

He'd kept his turbulent emotions tamped down all day a not an easy feat when he d.a.m.n well loved her and it killed him to see her hurt. Now it felt as if he was imploding, his auger shot up so fast. Dropping her luggage, he whirled on her and gripped her shoulders. "I d.a.m.n well want everyone to know you're with me, Emma. The whole town, preferably."

Eyes huge, she asked, "There's going to be so much talk. You have to know that Lois and Kristin and probably a dozen of their friends are saying awful things-"

Casey gave her a tiny shake. "I remember being behind the garage with you eight years ago. You were tempting me, driving me nuts, and you even accused me of being a virgin, then had the nerve to act surprised when I didn't deny it."

Her eyes softened. "Any other guy would have, especially since it wasn't true."

"I told you then that I didn't give a d.a.m.n what people thought. So, why should I care now, especially when the alternative is not having you nearby? I'm not going to suffer a single moment of discomfort over it."

Some of the tension eased out of her and she gave him a genuine smile.

He pulled her into his chest. "h.e.l.l, Emma. I'm so proud of you. Don't you know that?"

"Proud?"

"G.o.d, yes." He held her back a little. "Look at you, at everything you've dealt with, all that you've accomplished. I don't know another person who could have handled that scene at Mrs. Reider's with so much grace and dignity."

"It was all I could do not to cry."

"Even if you had, so what? You sure had reason enough. But you didn't. You didn't cave in either. You've taken every rotten thing that's been thrown at you and somehow..." His own eyes grew damp, making him curse, making his voice hoa.r.s.e. "Somehow you've stayed one of the most beautiful people I've ever known."

Breathing a little shakily, Emma moved back into his embrace. They stood there like that a long time, until Emma finally whispered, "Thank you."

Laughing with exasperation at the way she was forever thanking him for one thing or another, Casey locked his arms around her and hugged her right off her feet. "Baby, it wouldn't matter to me if your mother had burned down three buildings. She's not you." He nuzzled her ear. "I'm just glad that you're home."

Once he said it, Casey was afraid she'd again deny that Buckhorn was her home, so he kissed her, making any reb.u.t.tals impossible. It wasn't a l.u.s.ty kiss, though he was more than ready for one of those too. Instead, he tried to kiss her with all the love he felt. It had been a day of emotional upheavals. She wasn't ready to have him start an overflow of declarations. Soon, he'd let her know how he felt. For now, touching her, holding her, having her close, would be enough.

"Come on," he said against her mouth. "We'll get you settled so you can get some rest."

Emma didn't argue, but when they turned around, they saw that B.B. had run off. They located him quickly enough, on the porch with Sawyer and Shohn. Both Hudson males wore wide, satisfied smiles.

Sawyer yelled out, "He was scratching at the door. Seems he wants to come in."

Emma started to apologize, but Casey cut her off. "He can visit with you for a while if he wants."

Shohn gave a whoop. "Can he sleep with me tonight? I'll take good care of him."

Casey said, "Dad?"

"Sure." Sawyer put one hand on Shohn's shoulder. "Fine by me if Emma doesn't mind."

Emma laughed. "He likes to hog the middle of the bed."

"That's okay." Shohn hung on the dog like a long-lost friend.

"He's liable to want to find me before the night is through," Emma warned.

Sawyer rubbed the dog's ears. "If he does, I'll walk him over to you. But you never know, so we might as well let him try it."

Since Casey wanted Emma to himself without the dog in the middle of them, he wrapped up the discussion and hurried Emma on her way. Once they were in the garage apartment, Emma dropped her luggage. "I can unpack tomorrow."

Casey glanced up at her. She'd gone straight through to the bedroom and stood next to his bed, her arms at her sides, her expression watchful. "All right." He smiled. "Are you hungry?"

She shook her head, then licked her lips. "I'd just like to take a quick shower."

Visions of her naked, wet, teased through his mind. "Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Let me get you a towel."

Ten minutes later, he was stretched out on the bed with his back propped against the headboard. He'd removed his shoes and socks and unb.u.t.toned his s.h.i.+rt, but he was still uncomfortably hot. And uncomfortably aroused.

Yet, he knew s.e.x wasn't what she needed right now.

He tried turning on the television, but he couldn't block the sounds of running water in the bathroom. He felt tortured. Even after the s.e.xual excesses of the past week where they'd spent several hours a day at the cabin making love, the need he felt for her hadn't diminished. h.e.l.l, if anything, he wanted her more now than ever.

When the water stopped, that only heightened his awareness. But when Emma stepped out with her hair pinned atop her head and her sweet body wrapped only in a towel, he nearly groaned. She was home. She was with him. She was his.

In the face of so much progress in their relations.h.i.+p, he would be patient.

"Don't get up," she told him as she strolled toward the bed and seated herself on the side of the mattress, near his hip.

Casey stared at her, unsure what she wanted at that particular moment, unwilling to do anything that might make her ill at ease with him.

"Your apartment is fabulous." She stared at his abdomen as she spoke. "I knew Jordan used to live here, but I didn't know it was so nice."

Casey nodded absently while noticing the water droplets that clung to her shoulders. The apartment was open and s.p.a.cious, located directly over the three-car garage. The kitchen, breakfast nook and living room all flowed into each other, with only the bedroom and bath private. "It suits me."

She rested one slim hand on his naked abdomen. "Will your folks expect to see us tonight?"

Casey almost choked on his indrawn breath. She had to have noticed his erection, given that his c.o.c.k strained against his jeans, leaving a long ridge beneath the material. But the little tease said nothing. "No. That is, they'll understand if we wait till morning."

"They don't object to me being here?"

His dad had probably already figured out that Emma was special to him. As to that, everyone might know, since he hadn't exactly tried to keep it secret. "No, they're glad to have you here."

Using just her fingertips, she traced the line of hair from his navel down to the waistband of his jeans, making him shudder. "Did you lock the front door?"

With Shohn used to visiting whenever he chose, and all his young cousins forever underfoot, he'd taken care of that first thing. "Yeah."

"Good." She unsnapped his jeans and slipped her soft, cool hand inside.

Casey groaned. "Emma..."

Without a single reply, she freed his erection from the restriction of his jeans. Casey s.h.i.+fted, then groaned again when she leaned forward and brushed her cheek against him. He put one hand on her head, racked with mixed sensations. l.u.s.t was prominent because he could feel her breath on the head of his c.o.c.k. But he also felt tenderness, because this was Emma, and with every second came the realization that she was his other half, the one woman meant for him.

She made a small hungry sound, and licked him from the base of his shaft to the very tip.

His hand clenched in her hair, his control fast evaporating. "Babe, wait."

Lifting her head, her dark eyes soft and heavy, Emma said, "Mmm?"

Could a woman possibly be more appealing than Emma was at that moment? He'd never get used to the way she looked at him with so much love in her eyes.

Love? G.o.d, he hoped so.

Casey closed his eyes and struggled for a deep enough breath so he could be coherent. "Let me get out of these jeans, okay?"

"All right." She agreed readily enough, stood a and then dropped the towel.

Casey lost it.

"Ah, d.a.m.n, Em." Catching her about the waist, he tumbled her down into the bed and moved over her. The touch of her naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s on his chest, her belly on his abdomen, had him in a frenzy of need.

"Your jeans."

"In a second." h.e.l.l, if he shucked his jeans off now, he'd be inside her in the next second. He took her mouth, long and leisurely and deep until they were both panting, then slowly worked his way down her body. Kissing wasn't enough, and he indulged in a few gentle yet hungry love bites that had her gasping and squirming under him. She smelled of his soap, and strangely enough even that enticed him. He suckled her nipples until they were tight and straining, put small kisses on her ribs, dipped his tongue in her navel...

"Casey."

Where seconds before he'd been desperate to sink into her, to feel the clasp of her body tight around his shaft, now he wanted her to be desperate. Kneeling between her thighs, he growled, "I want to taste you."

Offering a soft moan for reply, Emma braced herself, legs stiffening, hands knotted in the sheets. Smiling, Casey bent and nuzzled through the springy curls, breathed in her rich scent, and after carefully opening her with his thumbs, covered her with his mouth.

They both groaned, Emma with a sinuous twisting of her body, Casey with the need to take more and more. He moved her legs to brace her feet against his shoulders, cupped her hips in his hands, and held her still for the thrust of his tongue, the careful nipping of his teeth. He found her small, swollen c.l.i.toris and drew it gently into his mouth for the softest suckling, the demanding rasp of his tongue.

Within minutes she was ready to come, but like him, she wanted more. "Casey, wait."

Her breathless plea barely reached him with the taste and scent of her pus.h.i.+ng him over the edge. He felt her silky thigh on his jaw, felt her heels pressing into his shoulders...

Her fingers tangled in his hair. "Casey, wait. I want you inside me. Please."

Breathing hard, he looked up the length of her body. Their eyes met, his glittering, hers dark and vague.

He took one last, lingering taste of her, then lunged to his feet. After hurriedly stripping off his jeans, he found a condom in the bedside drawer and rolled it on. All the while, he watched her, appreciating the sight she made sprawled in his bed, how right she looked there.

Emma came up to her elbows, but fell flat to the mattress again when he moved over her, hooked her thighs in his arms to spread her legs wide, and slid smoothly inside her body. He felt her tightening with that first stroke and pushed her legs higher so that he was deep, so d.a.m.n deep. She couldn't choose the rhythm, couldn't alter the depth of his thrusts or change the angle. He was in control.

He heard her broken cry on the second stroke, and shuddered at the sharp bite of her nails on his shoulders as she tried to urge him even closer. On the third stroke, harder, deeper, he relished the start of her release. "That's it, Em. Come for me, sweetheart. Come for me."

Her body arched beautifully, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s s.h.i.+vered with the strength of her o.r.g.a.s.m, her expression was arrested, her breath low and guttural.

Teeth clenched, muscles straining as he held himself deep, Casey joined her, and as they both went boneless, he found the strength to murmur, "You're mine, Emma. Now...and always."

To his relief, she didn't deny it.

But then Emma was already sound asleep.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

DAMON HAD BECOME as much a regular fixture around the Hudson household as Emma. For two weeks now, he and Ceily had been almost inseparable, which meant when Damon stopped in to visit, Ceily was there too. And more often than not, their visits seemed to be at dinnertime.

It was the first time Emma could remember seeing Damon so taken with a woman. That he should be taken with Ceily was nothing short of supreme irony. But she was happy for him, and for Ceily.

Honey and Misty had grown up with an austere father, which meant their dinners had always been rather subdued events. Now they both relished the boisterous, busy meals spent with friends and family. Since they lived so close, with Morgan and Misty just up the hill, and were best friends as well as sisters, they were often together. They claimed to enjoy the extra rational female company in Ceily and Emma, which Emma took to mean a woman not mooning over the brothers or Casey.

Certainly, Ceily was too straightforward to moon, but Emma? She merely hid her mooning. Truth was, she couldn't go five minutes without thinking about Casey a and smiling in absolute happiness. He occupied her every waking moment. The past month spent with him had been, well, the stuff of dreams...because she loved Casey with all her heart.

The more time she spent with him, the more she accepted that she'd actually fallen in love with him as a teenager, and never really stopped. Neither time nor distance apart had lessened the emotion one bit.

But being with him, making love to him every night, waking with him every morning, had strengthened that love until she couldn't imagine how she'd survive when she had to leave him.

Yet she knew that eventually she'd have to do just that.

While Casey was at work, Emma visited her parents at the hospital. Her father was now much improved, and her mother was, if not pleasant, at least sober. Dell had been thrilled to find out his wife had willingly gone into rehab for help. As far as Emma was concerned, that, more than anything, had helped revive his spirit. Her mother was allowed to visit him, and they'd talk for hours. Most of their conversations centered around her mother's complaints, but in his commiseration, Dell's speech had gotten much better, as had his motor control.

Her mother was determined to be there for him. It wasn't easy, and she had a lot of difficult times, but she was trying. Losing her daughter hadn't done the trick, but the possibility of losing her husband was too much.

They were both healing and, for once, Emma thought she might be able to be part of her own family. It would never be the ideal a it would never be the Hudson household a but it was an improvement.

She'd spoken with them about the future, and because they both relied on her now, they were willing to adjust.

Casey had gotten home a half hour ago and, after greeting Emma with a kiss, went straight to the apartment for a shower. With Damon and Ceily visiting again, he knew they'd have dinner with the family, rather than slipping off to the cabin with sandwiches, as they often preferred.

He'd just stepped back into the kitchen, hair still damp, casual clothes now in place of his suit, when Honey announced the fried chicken was ready. Morgan stood to call in the kids, but Casey said, "I wanted to tell you all something first."

Into that breaking silence, Emma's phone rang. She jumped, considered ignoring it, but Casey gave her a crooked smile. "Go ahead. This'll wait."

A little embarra.s.sed, she made her apologies and answered the wireless phone while stepping out of the kitchen for privacy. With so many people in for dinner, the buzz of conversation still reached her.