by BJ Wane
“Not since high school, and I went parking with Rob Mahoney after our senior homecoming game,” she returned with a chuckle.
Turning off the highway, Drake drove around back. “I bet you gave your parents fits as a teenager.”
Roz pulled her hand from his as he stopped, reaching for the door handle before he cut the engine. “It was just me and my aunt, and no, I made every effort not to cause her any grief. She was all I had.”
No family? He couldn’t imagine growing up without siblings and cousins, let alone his parents. There was so much he didn’t know about the only woman meant for him, he pondered, getting out and coming around the truck with his hardened heart taking another hit. Her startled gasp reached him seconds before he saw her car’s flat tires. He made out the slashes in the rubber and reacted with gut-clenching fury and concern.
“Get inside.” He grasped her arm and dragged her to the door.
“What…? Damn it, Drake, let go of me! I need to—”
Whirling on her, he held out his hand under the meager light above the door. “You need to give me your key and get inside while I check this out. Don’t even fucking think of arguing, Roz. You can just stow your feminine outrage until I make sure whoever did that is gone.”
She must have read his implacable determination correctly because she fished her key out of her purse with an exasperated huff and didn’t argue until she slapped it into his hand.
“We’re going to discuss this tendency you have of turning into a bossy caveman when it suits you.”
“Fine, later.” He opened the door, ushered her inside and slammed it closed in her annoyed face.
Drake’s anger escalated to fiery rage as he examined each tire, confirming the slashes of deliberate knife cuts in each one. Teenagers could have committed the vandalism. He and his brothers had certainly caused their share of mischief around these parts, but even at their most daring and reckless, they wouldn’t have destroyed property or deliberately caused such trouble and expense for anyone.
With unease still twitching between his shoulder blades and his anger intensifying his continued state of arousal, he scanned the dark woods behind the clinic one more time before striding to Roz’s door. She opened to his two sharp raps, her annoyed scowl tempting him to take her to the floor and fuck her senseless.
“Did you catch the bad guy, Mr. Macho Man?”
“Not yet, Ms. Sarcastic.” Pinching her chin, he stated with grim determination, “But I will.”
Rolling her eyes, she pivoted to close the door, her mouth turning down as she looked out at her damaged car. “Just what I need, something else to worry about.”
That muttered comment gave him something else to get rattled over. “What do you mean? What else has happened?” When she tried sidling around him, keeping her face averted, he stepped sideways, blocking her without touching her. “Tell me,” he insisted, keeping his voice at a low rumble instead of issuing a loud demand like he wanted.
“It was nothing nefarious,” she assured him, clutching her hands together in a rare show of rattled nerves as she cut her gaze toward the door.
He preferred her snapping at him, or flirty. Those traits didn’t make his heart trip. Calling on his hard-earned control, he remained quiet, his eyes never leaving her face, fisting his hands on his hips to keep from hauling her against him until she answered.
Roz finally caved with a resigned, heavy exhale. “Fine. I didn’t get the door shut tight before leaving this afternoon, even though I could swear I heard it lock. Scruffy got out, and the poor guy was wandering out on the road when I returned from your ranch, scaring the crap out of me.” She shook her head, her face reddening with a look of chagrin. “Dr. Dennis pulled up the same time as me. It was embarrassing and upsetting to have him witness a neglectful lapse that could have gotten Scruffy hurt, and I don’t embarrass easily.”
Alarm bells went off in Drake’s head, and he reached out to open the door, bending to get a closer look at the latch. The lock was the same standard, rinky-dink mechanism that came with most door handles, a snap to pick as evidenced by the minuscule scratch along the door frame only someone with extraordinary vision could likely detect.
Straightening, he started to tell her she wasn’t at fault, but she stopped him with a quick, negative shake of her head that sent her rich brown tresses dancing around her shoulders and her bangs fluttering across her forehead.
“No, I don’t want to hear it.” Going to her knees, Roz reached for his belt buckle, looking up with one of her flirty smiles replacing her distressed frown. “You came in to fuck, and we’ve wasted enough time since we both have to get up early in the morning.”
Drake shoved her fumbling hands aside and released his belt buckle, unable to deny the desperate plea shining in Roz’s sky-blue eyes. If the two happenings were connected and deliberate attempts to get to her in some way, he would find out. He hadn’t fought their connection so hard before succumbing to the inevitable just to turn his back on her when trouble came calling.
Roz lowered his zipper, licking her lips as Drake shifted his booted feet apart. His cock jutted forward, and he caught the base, tightening his hand to rub the damp crown over her soft, plump lips.
“If this is what you want right now, go for it, baby.”
****
Roz swiped her tongue over the smooth mushroom cap of Drake’s cock, desperate to return this relationship to the sex-only column of her wish list. She coveted his overprotective, caring side way too much for her peace of mind. With Patty’s latest threats still replaying in her head, she didn’t need anything else to muddle her thinking, like her heart thudding and her blood heating from the promise of redress darkening his face.
Inching closer to his muscle-bulging thighs, she wrapped her arms around his lean hips, shoving his jeans down far enough to grip his bare buttocks as she slid her mouth down his steely length. Taking charge helped get her mind in the game she’d started and off the possibility someone was deliberately causing trouble for her and questioning who would do such a thing, and why. The very idea someone in this warm and welcoming community disliked her so much produced a painful cramp in her stomach.
Instead of dwelling on yet another upset in her life, Roz put her mind and mouth to work on pleasing Drake. Her lips bumped against his knuckles where he held his erection, stopping her from trying to engulf his entire length. Swiping her tongue around his rigid girth, she thought that was a good thing since his size already stretched her mouth wider than any of her previous lovers. She shook, recalling the pleasure of his rock-hard, silk-covered flesh filling her pussy, and ached to have him possess her again.
Kneading his firm buttocks, she dragged her lips up his cock, savoring his taste as she lapped the plump veins pulsing with his heavy blood flow. Drake twisted his free hand in her hair, his low, guttural groan vibrating above her bobbing head, the slight tug on her scalp eliciting tingles down her spine and between her legs. Roz grew warm, mewling against his unyielding flesh, unable to get enough of him.
“Fuck, baby.” Pressing his shaft down on her tongue, he rocked his hips, the deft move sliding his cock along her appendage, bumping the back of her throat but going no farther. “Stop now,” he insisted, his breath harsh, his eyes burning with a hot flame of lust when she glanced up.
Roz shook her head, not wanting to give in to him or relinquish her hold. Closing her eyes, she caressed his length, nipping her way down, tasting as much of him as her stroking tongue could reach. She waited until he relaxed and thrust into her mouth, accepting her refusal to stop, before releasing him with a laugh. Sitting back on her heels, she looked up at his narrow-eyed glare and jumped to her feet.
“I’ll get the bed.” She dashed across the room, unfolded the Murphy bed with one tug then pulled her top over her head before spinning around to find him right behind her, his swollen cock still protruding from his pulled-up pants. Her breasts swayed as she bent and slithered out of her skirt, her pussy spasming w
ith damp expectation that quickened her breathing.
Roz no sooner than kicked her clothes aside before Drake gave her a light nudge, sending her sprawling onto the bed with a bounce. Shucking his jeans, he eyed her pebbled nipples and plump labia with a look of such carnal intensity she almost climaxed. Stripping off his shirt, he came down on top of her without giving her a chance to ogle his bare chest, but she could still see the eagle tattoo that covered his right shoulder and upper arm. Lifting her hand, she traced over the wide-spread gray-and-black wings and the American flag background.
“Nice. In honor of your military service and sacrifice?” He’d never brought up that time, and from his shuttered look, he was no more willing to discuss his hardship than she was to tell him about her stupidity in marrying Dean, or how badly her marriage had ended.
“Something like that.” He grabbed the condom he’d tossed next to them and ripped it open with his teeth, her pulse jumping at the urgency reflected in his tense muscles and swift sheathing of his cock. “We’ll take it slower next time around.”
“Okay,” Roz gasped as he powered into her grasping pussy. She really got off on his accelerated fervor, so much so, it was difficult not to wish she was the only one he’d fucked with such keen neediness.
Burying her face in his neck, she shoved that last thought aside with a whispered, “Yes,” against his perspiration-slick skin as he drove into her with a steady barrage of deep thrusts. Arching like a bow under his pistoning body, her sheath clamped around his cock tight as a vise as she embraced his rough possession with the same desperate need he’d just portrayed.
“Are you with me?” he muttered close to her ear, his breathing harsh from his exertions.
“I’m good.” More than, she mused as a firestorm of pleasure erupted inside her. Their sweat-dampened skin slid together, his chest hairs tickling her nipples, his heavy body pinning her hips as he increased his tempo. “Don’t stop,” she demanded, wrapping her legs around his lower back as her inner muscles convulsed around his cock.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he rasped. “Now, Roz.”
The demand was so like him she would have laughed if she hadn’t burst into a fiery torrent of heated pulsations. Digging her fingers into his arms, she rode through the stormy pleasure, abandoning herself to the whirl of sensations engulfing her entire body.
By the time Roz regained her senses, Drake had already removed the condom, his breathing not nearly as labored as hers. With a dry laugh that took her by surprise, he executed a quick twist, rolling and flipping their positions, his big hands spreading her thighs, straddling her over his hips.
“I like looking at you, all of you. You’re so soft”—he plumped one full breast—“and squeezable,” he added, massaging a buttock with his other hand.
“It’s called extra weight.”
She panted, trying to catch her breath and stifling her annoyance at his steadier composure. Until this moment, Roz hadn’t wasted time lamenting the pounds she’d put on after her divorce. For the first time since setting her sights on Drake, she wondered what body type he preferred, and how many women with that preference had come and gone before her.
With a rude scoff, he said, “Only women envious of your curves would agree.”
He flicked one nipple with his thumbnail, the light scratch spreading a heated zing straight down to her pussy. She still throbbed with lingering pleasure, yet one touch from him and she dampened anew. “Oh, yeah, do that again.” Roz sighed at his steely-eyed glare. “Please.”
“Better. What else do you like?”
Anything you do, anything you say. Shit, she had to quit thinking like that. This couldn’t go anywhere. Her future would stay in limbo until Patty gave up on getting revenge for Dean’s condition, and Roz wasn’t holding out hope her ex mother-in-law would ever do that.
Narrowing her eyes, she shook her hair off her face and reached for his already semi-hard erection. “Less talk, more play.”
“Doesn’t work that way, baby. You wanted me, and now you have me.”
She squeezed his cock. “I just wanted your body, remember? This is sex, and that doesn’t require much conversation.”
Clenching his jaw, he went taut beneath her, his eyes darkening before he released his pent-up breath. “You would try the patience of a saint, girl, and I’ll say this once. I’m no saint.” His eyes on hers, he released her buttock and trailed his fingers between her cheeks, stopping to press against her anus. “Sex with me includes everything eventually. Still want to continue after tonight?”
Roz quivered, whether from excitement or trepidation she couldn’t tell. Maybe a little of both. She only knew if any other man had insisted on taking her there, she would have walked away without a second thought. With Drake, her body had gone damp, her nipples puckering even tighter, and her increased heartbeat sent her blood pumping faster and hotter. She’d enjoyed his finger penetration but had shied away from wondering about more until now.
Could she go that far, give him a liberty she’d never allowed someone else, and still be able to walk away?
Drake reached up and drew her down for a slow, thorough kiss then said against her damp lips, “Quit fretting. That won’t happen until we clear the air between us of all our clutter, and we both want it. Now, I promised you slow and easy, didn’t I?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“We’re coming up on the south ridge now. Got it. We’ll let you know if we spot him.” Gavin ended the call with Park Ranger Gibbons as Drake pulled to a stop at the base of a low mountain range. “They lost track of him about two miles from here.”
Reaching above him, Drake lifted down his rifle and flung open the door. “Then, let’s go hunting.”
“Hold up, Drake,” Cody called out from the rear seat as he hurried to join them. “You running off half-cocked won’t nab that wily cat any sooner.”
Drake shouldered the gun and kept walking, his frustration with putting the menacing cougar out of its misery, and everyone else’s, was compounded by the unease plaguing him over the mishaps Roz had suffered yesterday. His feelings for her continued to escalate at a fast pace, something he should have been more prepared for after witnessing the same rapid responses from his brothers. And here he’d prided himself on possessing the willpower Gavin and Cody were lacking.
He was morphing into a worrisome sap just like his siblings. Now he’d given up the fight to remain aloof, there was no changing course, and no choice but to act when Roz was threatened.
“What’s up with you today?” Gavin asked as he and Cody caught up to him. “I thought your disposition would improve now that you’ve hooked up with Roz.”
“She’s got troubles. How is that supposed to improve my disposition.” Pausing in a clearing, he pointed to the ground with his rifle. “Tracks. Looks like they lead up the incline.”
“He’s not moving as fast as he was. The last carcass tests came in positive for both rabies and feline immunodeficiency, the combination rare but not unheard of in cougars.” Cody eyed Drake. “What troubles?”
Drake shrugged, wishing he could accept the likely possibility bored teenagers were responsible for the vandalism at the clinic. “Signs someone jimmied her locked door and left it open so her dog could get out. Four tires slashed while we were at dinner. Let’s keep heading south. Circle around the ridge.”
Gavin frowned, his voice turning hard as they trudged single file along a narrow winding path. “Those aren’t harmless pranks.”
“I don’t think so. Her ex was abusive, at least once.” There was a lot Drake didn’t know about Roz, but he was certain she would have walked away from any relationship following one aggressive incident. She wasn’t the type to suffer fools, and anyone who would lift a hand to her was the worst kind of fool.
“If she left him in Ames, then that means someone from around here has chosen the wrong family to mess with.”
“Careful, Gavin.” Drake swiveled to taunt both brothers. “As a former sherif
f’s officer, Cody might take exception to that mild threat.”
“Not hardly,” Cody replied. “You do remember I joined in on putting the fear of the McCulloughs into the pissant framing Aislyn, right?”
Grabbing hold of a sturdy tree branch, Drake boosted himself up the steep rise then reached down to give Cody a hand. “I remember.” He grunted as his brother swung up next to him. “You need to quit eating your cooking. You weigh a ton.”
Cody grinned, slapping him on the back. “No, I don’t, but I understand why you’re out of sorts.”
“I do, too,” Gavin huffed, joining them before scanning the hilltop from their higher perch. “But we can discuss protecting our girls later. The temperature is on its way down already, and I prefer being home before dark.”
The echo of a wild cat’s cry reached them. Lifting his binoculars, Drake searched across the ridge and trees for a sign of the cagey mountain lion that had stalked the ranches in the valley for weeks. If he didn’t have Roz to worry about now, he would stay out tonight and let his wolf continue the hunt. But he intended to stalk another prey first, not willing to take the chance whoever had vandalized her car and let her dog loose was harboring a hidden agenda, not without knowing more about her.
Drake was used to living with bouts of anxiety, moods of frustration, and with demons riding him so hard sometimes he struggled to cope. During the last ten years, he’d tutored himself in electronics as one escape mechanism, and his computer expertise made him the logical choice to design and maintain their security system. He could ferret out anything he wanted to know about Roz using his computer skills, but given his own secret he had yet to reveal, he wouldn’t betray her in such a way. Besides, odds were it was someone from close by who was out for kicks he intended to set straight when he caught him.
“Nothing.” Lowering the binoculars, he handed them to Gavin. “Let’s head back.”