Free Tonight You Belong to Me by Cate Masters Page B

he’d waited all his life, but now he knew the truth of it. He could never love anyone the way he loved her.
    “Right. Nice setup.”
    Even quirked in a scowl, the soft pink sheen on her lips made him yearn to taste its cotton candy sweetness.
    “Tonight you belong to me.” His chest tightened when he pulled her against him, and she looked up at him like he was a snake coiling to strike.
    “But who do you belong to?”
    If she meant to torture him by moving her body like foreplay across his, she sure knew how to make him want to beg for more. He swayed with her across the dance floor. “Jilly, I know you think you know what happened, but you’re wrong.”
    She squirmed in his embrace, but not enough to break it. “My cow died last night, so I don’t need your bull.”
    “You never let me explain.” He could never convince her that what she saw was the real setup, intended to break them up. He’d bet money on it. If I had any money .
    Her eyes searched his. “If you can still lie to me, knowing what I know, how can I ever trust you?”
    “Forget everything. Let’s start over.” Even as he said it, his hopes dwindled. Why in the name of everything that’s sacred would she ? According to her, he wasn’t worth the gunpowder it would take to blow him away. Or some such nonsense. Sometimes he had difficulty following her Southernisms, but the meaning came through clear enough that night. Each day proved to be a worse hell without her. He might buy her the gunpowder if she wouldn’t take him back.
    Hope sank when she lifted her chin defiantly. “Fine. One night. And don’t get your hopes up either.”
    “I won’t.” But his irrepressible grin kept widening, and his hopes soared.
    “I mean it. After tonight, I’ll be rid of you for good. So quit grinning before you sprain your smile muscles. It’s not like we’re going to an Elvis chapel.” She wore a slight pout—coupled with a hint of disappointment?
    “Right, absolutely.” How he wished now that he’d followed through one of the times they’d dared each other to marry. As if it were a game. “If you say so.”
    “I do.” From her wince, she gave herself a mental forehead slap.
    “But you just said you don’t.” His hands teased her, swiveling her hips against his.
    “Stop right now.” But she hooked her arms around his neck, her curves fitting against him as if made for his body.
    His hands trembled with the effort of restraining them from wandering down the delicious curve of her ass, outlined so well in her dress. He scraped his cheek against hers. A light scent, cherries and vanilla, filled his senses, driving him wild imagining tasting every inch of her.
    “All right, baby. You say when.” His whisper fluttered the wisp of hair at her ear. He let his tongue explore its outer rim. Her skin felt so smooth and soft, he lost himself in the ridged whorl, leading deeper. He needed to go way deeper. Inside her. To feel her pulse race, her breaths grow more and more shallow with excitement. To hear her moan his name, teasing him to fuck her. Just thinking of the sweet release of entering her warmth, his cock thickened, hardened. Mouth trailing her neck, he heaved a ragged breath, tightening his embrace in a silent plea. The breathy sound she made ignited his blood.
    “Baby.” Her fingers threaded his hair, taut with wordless urging.
    His hands roamed, greedy for all of her, from the small of her back to the tight mound of her ass, to her smooth outer thigh. The smallest thread of rationale reminded him of the people around them, or he’d take her down right there.
    “Jilly.” Everything he’d wanted to say— I need you, I miss you, I love you —hung in the air.
    “Shit.” She pulled away, trembling hands cupping his cheeks, glaring green eyes shooting poison darts into his heart.
    He wanted to die in that moment. She was about to dump him again, and he’d never survive it. Might as well just lay down right here and never get