Flames of Attraction

chapter 6



“You make a good mom, Cheyenne.”

Quade’s strong, husky and sensual voice seemed to float across her skin like a soft caress reminding her of that night he had touched it all over. She inhaled, not wanting to go there. Instead she tossed a thank-you over her shoulder and kept walking toward the living room, knowing he was following close behind.

The babies had been fed and put back to sleep, but not before she had given Quade a quick lesson in diaper changing. He had even helped while she had given them a bath and dressed them in new sleeping attire.

And then Quade seemed determined to sit and hold Venus for a while, actually rocking her to sleep. From the questions he’d asked, Cheyenne knew he was concerned with Venus’s weight. Although Cheyenne had tried to sound encouraging, she had to admit she, too, was worried about Venus. During their last routine doctor’s visit, Dr. Poston had said if Venus’s weight wasn’t up to what he considered a satisfactory level, he would be putting her in the hospital’s special-care baby unit for a week. There she would be fed by nasogastric tube.

Cheyenne hadn’t told anyone of what the doctor had said, and had even led her family to believe the babies would be okay to travel home to Jamaica within a month’s time. She hadn’t actually lied because she wanted to believe that would be the case. But her youngest child seemed less inclined to take her breast milk, and no matter what Cheyenne did, Venus seemed unresponsive to any feeding stimulation.

“Are you okay?”

Quade’s question cut into her thoughts and she glanced over at him before she took a seat on the sofa. “Yes, I’m fine, just a little tired. My family was right. Taking care of all three of them isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I had a schedule prepared and thought it would be a piece of cake. I guess I’ve been proven wrong.”

Quade came to sit in the chair across from her. “Did you really think you were a superwoman?”

She chuckled. “I wanted to believe I was. I guess starting tomorrow, I’ll begin my search for a nanny while I’m here.”

“Are you planning to go someplace?”

Cheyenne felt the weight of his gaze on her and glanced up and met his eyes. They locked on hers. “Yes. Charlotte isn’t really my home. I’ve been living in Jamaica for the past couple of years. I have a home there. I wanted the babies born in America, so I came back here for their birth. It was never my intent to stay.”

“Oh, I see.”

She shrugged, thinking no, he really didn’t see. Neither did her family. Her mother meant well and so did her sisters, but while they were here to help her, they had preferred doing practically everything for the babies and leaving her with nothing to do other than breast-feed them. Tonight, she had gotten her first real taste of motherhood by handling the babies on her own. Quade had offered his help, but hadn’t forced it on her and she appreciated that. Tonight she had felt in charge, sure of herself and her abilities. She closed her eyes, thinking that if she could only get Venus to be more responsive to her feedings and gain weight, everything would be perfect.

“You’re sleepy. Why don’t you go on to bed.”

She snatched her eyes back open and looked over at Quade, embarrassed that she’d almost fallen asleep while sitting. “No, I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. You’ve done a lot today. Motherhood is no joke. I have an all-new respect for my cousins’ and brothers’ wives who are new mothers.”

She smiled. “You make it sound like there are a lot of them.”

He chuckled. “There are. Seems like an epidemic hit and pregnancy swept through the Westmoreland family like wildfire. But it has made both my mother and my aunt Evelyn happy since they’d always wanted a bunch of grandkids.”

She nodded. “Do you plan on telling your family about the babies?”

A smile touched his lips. “Yes, but not yet. You think your family is bad. If I were to tell my mother she had more grandchildren somewhere, she would be on the first plane out of Atlanta.”

“Atlanta? Is that your home?”

“It’s where I was born and raised. I haven’t actually lived there since I left for college.”

“And what college did you attend?”

“Harvard.”

She blinked in surprise. He was a Harvard man? For some reason that didn’t surprise her. “That night that we met, you said you weren’t married. Have you ever been married?”

“No.”

“Any other children?”

He shook his head. “No. The triplets are my first and I feel blessed to have them. Thank you.”

She knew why he was thanking her. “There’s no reason to thank me. When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted them and never considered any other option.” She didn’t add that she’d known they would be a constant reminder of him and their one night together.

“Okay, that does it. You’re falling asleep on me again,” Quade said.

Before Cheyenne could catch her next breath, Quade had stood up, crossed the room and swept her into his arms. “Hey, put me down!”

“No. Not until I get you into bed.”

Her heart jumped in her chest with his words. If only he knew the picture his words suddenly painted in her mind. “I can’t go to bed yet, Quade. I have a lot of things to do.”

He looked down at her. “Like what?”

She rolled her eyes. “I had my sisters over for dinner so there’re still dishes in the sink that I need to load in the dishwasher. Then the babies’ clothes that I washed earlier need to be folded and I need to take out the trash for tomorrow morning’s pickup.”

“Consider them all done. I’ll handle it.”

She glared up at him. “No, I can do it myself.”

He glared back. “The only thing you have to do is take care of yourself, so you can in turn take care of my babies.”

She frowned. “Your babies?”

A softening flickered in the depths of his dark eyes when he said, “Yes, my babies.”

She held his gaze and swallowed deeply, knowing there was no way she could deny what he’d said. They were his babies. Quade’s babies.

“Now are you going to be easy or will you be a troublemaker like our son?” he said, smiling.

She wished he wouldn’t smile like that. Whenever he did, it stirred things up within her that she preferred to keep still. “Steeles aren’t known to be troublemakers, so he must get it from your side of the family, the baby-making Westmorelands.”

He chuckled. “We can do more than make babies. We can also be great husbands once we put our minds to it.”

She rolled her eyes upward. “Spare me.”

“Wish I could, but I can’t,” he said with a wry smile. “In fact, I plan to do just the opposite. Starting tonight I’m going to lay it on thick.” After a brief pause, he asked, “Do you know what that means?”

She looked away from him and then said. “No.”

He knew she was lying. She knew. “Well, then I feel obliged to tell you. By the time I’m through with you, Cheyenne Steele, you will be falling into my arms and agreeing to do anything I want.”

She snatched her gaze back to him, curled her lips and said, “Why are you so arrogant?”

“Am I?” he asked as he began walking toward her bedroom with her nestled in his arms.

“Yes.”

“Never noticed.”

Cheyenne released a sigh, refusing to say anything else. She doubted it would do any good anyway. When he stopped walking, she glanced around and saw she was in her bedroom.

“Here you are,” he said, angling her body to slide down his. Her sharp intake of breath was a dead giveaway that she had felt his arousal as her feet slid to the floor. Some things she figured just couldn’t be hidden. And, she thought further, the heat simmering between them was another thing neither of them could hide. It was just like that first night. She had wanted him then and she hated admitting that she wanted him now.

When her feet touched the carpeted floor, she still held on to his shoulders and it seemed her body automatically swayed closer to his as if it needed the contact. She studied his features. “Troy favors you.”

He smiled as he tightened his hands around her waist. “Yes, he resembles a Westmoreland. And the girls look like you.”

She nodded. “We did good, didn’t we? We make beautiful babies.”

“Yes,” he said huskily. “The result of perfect lovemaking.”

She gave a little pleased smile. “You think so?”

“I know so. Close your eyes for a moment and remember it.”

Cheyenne could feel the heat of his gaze on her the moment she closed her eyes. And then she remembered. It was the same dream she’d had earlier, before he had arrived. She recalled everything. The wanting. The desire. But most of all, the sensations she felt the moment he entered her and how he had mated with her with an intensity that even now could change the level of her breathing.

“Remembered enough?”

She slowly opened her eyes. It seemed his face had inched closer to hers. His lips were just a breath away. “No memories are as good as the real thing,” she said.

“You think not?”

“I do,” she responded.

“And what do you want me to do about it?”

Oh, she knew exactly what she wanted him to do about it, although she knew better. It was an insane thought, but no more insane than the night they had met on the beach. And although he had appeared on her doorstep that afternoon, the first time she had seen him in nearly a year, her body knew him. Her body wanted him. And her body was making her realize that she had never gotten over him.

Knowing he was waiting for her to say something, she leaned up on tiptoe, shifted her hands from his shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck. “What I want is to relive our perfect lovemaking all over again.”

She felt his erection—large, hard and throbbing—pressed against her. “You sure that’s what you want?” he asked, leaning in closer and using the tip of his tongue to taste the sides of her mouth.

“Yes,” she whispered, now almost too weak to stand.

“Then go ahead and lie on the bed while I run out to the rental car to get my gear. My condoms are packed in there.”

She eased even closer to him, cradling his hardness between her thighs. “They didn’t work so well the last time,” she decided to remind him.

He chuckled softly. “Yeah, I noticed.”

“I’m on the pill now.”

Quade had been surprised to learn that she hadn’t been before. But then on that night he’d also discovered she hadn’t made love to a man in a long time. “I need to bring my stuff in anyway and now is a good time to do it. I might not have the strength for it later,” he said, seconds before lowering his head to kiss her.

He felt his arousal thicken the moment he entered her mouth. He had intended for this to be a gentle kiss, but the moment his tongue took hold of hers, he began sucking hard, needing to do to her tongue what he couldn’t do to her breasts. He heard her moan and the more she did so, his body became filled with ardent need. His kiss went deeper and became far more demanding. Every cell within his body began to tingle and he knew if he didn’t take control of the situation, he would be making love to her right here and now.

Quade slowly pulled his lips back from Cheyenne’s, thinking he could keep right on kissing her, but was too eager to get inside her. “Lie on the bed. I’ll be right back.” And then he was gone.

* * *

He was only gone long enough to get his gear out of the car and quickly headed back inside toward Cheyenne’s bedroom, only to stop suddenly in the doorway. She had gotten in the bed like he’d said, but was curled up in a fetal position, fully clothed and fast asleep.

He inwardly pushed away the disappointment to replace it with compassion. More than anything, she deserved her rest. There would be other opportunities for them to make love. He would see to it. Dropping his gear pack on the floor he crossed the room and grabbed a blanket off the chair to cover her.

She made a sound when she snuggled into the covers, but didn’t wake up. He gazed down at her, she was sleeping peacefully. He then remembered another night she had slept peacefully, as well...in his arms after he had made love to her.

Deciding if he didn’t leave her alone now, he would be tempted to remove his clothes and join her in bed, he left the room, taking his gear with him and headed toward the guest room. She’d said the babies would probably sleep through the night and if they did, that was fine. If they didn’t, that was fine, too, since he was there and he could take care of them.

A half hour later, he had checked on the babies and Cheyenne for the third time, loaded the dishes in the dishwasher and folded the babies’ clothes. He glanced around, wondering what was there to do next and then decided to give his cousin Chase a call.

Quade pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and punched in Chase’s phone number. Chase was the cook in the Westmoreland family and owned several soul-food restaurants in Atlanta, as well as in other parts of the country.

“Hello.”

“Chase, this is Quade.”

“Hey, what’s going on with you, man? You said you would call if you found her.”

Quade rubbed the back of his neck. Yes, that’s what he’d said to Chase, his brothers and the rest of his cousins before leaving Montana. All of them had known that he was on a woman hunt. “I found her, but things are kind of complicated.”

“In what way? I felt you worrying about something.”

Quade paused a moment and said, “Cheyenne was pregnant.”

“Cheyenne?”

“Yes.”

“That’s her name?”

“Yes. It’s Cheyenne Steele.”

“Oh, okay. And has Cheyenne delivered yet?”

“Yes.”

Chase waited as if he’d expected Quade to say something else and when Quade didn’t, he said, “Hey, don’t keep me in suspense. Is the baby yours?”

A smile touched Quade’s lip. It was a very proud smile. “No, the baby isn’t mine, but the babies are mine.”

There was a slight pause and then Chase said, “Babies?”

“Yes.”

“More than one?”

Quade couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, more than one.”

“Twins?”

“No, triplets.”

Chase whistled. Moments later he said in an astonished voice, “The woman had triplets?”

“Yes. Two daughters and a son.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks,” Quade said with pride nearly bursting his chest.

“How is everyone doing?”

“Mother and babies are doing fine. But...”

“But what?”

Quade struggled to keep his emotions in check. They were emotions he wasn’t used to having. “The youngest of the three is the smallest. She’s such a tiny thing and I worry about her.”

Chase paused once again. “You sound like your entrance into fatherhood is going to be a challenging one. You’re worrying already and she hasn’t started first grade,” he said.

“I know, man. But you’ll see how things are one day when you get there.”

Chase chuckled. “I’m already there. Jessica informed me this morning that she’s pregnant.”

A huge smile spread across Quade’s features. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks. When will you tell the family about your babies?”

“I’m working on the mother to marry me and don’t need any interference until then.”

“Okay. As far as keeping silent, you know you can trust me.”

“Yes, I always have.”

Moments later, as soon as Quade ended the call with his cousin he heard the sound of the doorbell. He moved quickly toward the door, not wanting the sound to wake up Cheyenne or the babies. He snatched the door open to find four men standing there. They were as surprised to see him as he was to see them. But he figured out quickly who they were—Cheyenne’s four cousins—the Steeles.

The one who appeared to be the oldest of the four lifted a brow and asked, “Where’s Cheyenne?”

“She’s asleep.”

“Asleep?” the one he figured to be the second oldest asked.

“Yes.” Quade leaned in the doorway. He could tell the four had gone from surprised to cautious to curious. “I take it you’re her cousins—Chance, Sebastian, Morgan and Donovan,” he said, appreciating the fact that he had a very good memory.

“Yes, that’s who we are,” the oldest one said. “Who are you?”

Quade smiled. “We haven’t met, but you’ll be seeing a lot of me,” he replied. He extended his hand to the men. “I’m Quade Westmoreland, the father of Cheyenne’s babies. Would you like to come in?”