Hot on Her Tail

by Karen Anders

  IT WAS NOON when they drove into Taos about three and one half hours away from Albuquerque and another eight hours to Sedona. Maxie immediately liked the narrow dusty streets. She noticed the interesting men and women who walked the streets as if they had gotten caught in some kind of time warp. The people of Taos looked like they hadn’t wanted to give up their hippie days.

  Yet the numerous art galleries caught her eye and she wished she had a chance to visit them. The town’s adobe structures were also distinct landmarks of the southwest.

  Although the town was interesting, the scenery was breathtaking. There was the high desert mesa, broken in two by the six-hundred and fifty foot chasm of the Rio Grande. Wheeler’s Peak, New Mexico’s tallest crest, was situated in the impressive Sangre de Cristo Mountain range. Taos was a feast for the eyes from the forested uplands to the sage-carpeted mesa.

  When Austin pulled over into the parking lot of an inn set around a courtyard marked by an eighty-foot-long portal, surrounded by pine and fruit trees, Maxie said, “Austin, what are you doing?”

  He didn’t look at her, his hands tight on the wheel. She reached out. He turned and pulled her into an embrace, kissing her mouth with a longing she felt all the way to her heart.

  When he broke the kiss, he looked down at her. “I thought about what you said. You’re right. All we have is now. We could stay here, at least a little while?”

  She reached up and cupped his face, her insides turning to mush. “Yes. I’d love to.”

  He opened the passenger side door, and helped Maxie out of the car. She asked, “Can I come in with you, to check in? It’s too hot out here to wait.”

  He just looked down into her face as if he was immune to her charms, but Maxie knew better. She could feel his heart beating hard against the tough wall of his chest. “I’m not cuffing you to the steering wheel anymore.”

  He took off her handcuffs. “I can’t let you go, but I…can’t treat you like that anymore.”

  She was supposed to be keeping him off his guard, but she was the one losing her focus. This new, sweeter Austin might make it easier for her to escape, but the same sense of guilt surfaced at the thought of duping him now. “Don’t tell me you’re loosening up a little,” she teased.

  He smiled and Maxie took a quick intake of breath. She should care more about getting away, but she couldn’t concentrate on that right now.

  “Don’t tell the other bounty hunters, it’ll ruin my reputation.”

  She laughed and his smile widened. “Austin, you have a sense of humor. I’m stunned. I could have sworn you’d had it removed.”

  “Lady,” he growled. “I do have a sense of humor or I’d be in the loony bin right now with all this traveling back and forth.”

  Maxie took advantage of the closeness and his sparkling eyes to study him. The feeling that he was two different men struck her once again. There was a hard edge to him, and don’t-touch-me-I-bite signs bristling all around him. But that soft look that sometimes came over his face drove her crazy, and made her want to goad him until he revealed what she’d only glimpsed.

  He stepped away from her. “Let’s get inside.”

  “If you ask me, we just keep walking toward the fire.”

  He gave her a startled glance, but chose to keep on walking.

  AFTER CHECKING IN and getting the room key, they returned to the car. Austin opened the door and extracted their belongings.

  They walked over to the inn and found their room. He handed Maxie the key and she opened the door, then closed it after they’d entered.

  She surveyed the room. “Now we’re talking.” The room was sumptuously decorated. The walls had hand prints and petroglyph motifs, and a comfortable couch along with a fireplace. She walked into the bathroom and said, “Austin, they have a jet tub in here with bubble bath and candles.”

  She returned, unzipped her bag and pulled out a clean shirt. She turned her back to Austin and stripped off both the shirt she was wearing and the silk camisole underneath, dropping both garments on the bed. She quickly donned the other shirt, but she could feel his eyes boring into her back.

  She hungered for more than his body and that, she knew without a doubt was probably the most dangerous thing she’d ever wanted. It jeopardized her plan to get away from him and be true to her sister and their plans, which were blowing away as quickly as the sands of the desert. Making love with Austin wouldn’t be a good idea. Giving him her heart would be even more stupid. Yet, she felt one was inevitable and the other—well, the other one she didn’t want to think about.

  If she got any closer to him, she would find it much harder to carry out her plans, but on the other hand, she didn’t want to waste this small, precious time with him. How would she find the strength to escape him again if her heart softened any more towards him and his family? If she could convince him to let her go, it would be easier on both of them. And if Jake got the evidence, she would be home free.

  He walked up to her and grabbed her upper arm. “You are the most immodest woman I know.”

  She jumped, his touch setting off firecrackers in her blood. She was reeling from the thought that she was losing her heart. No way was she close to falling in love with him. Was she?

  She couldn’t be, she told herself as she looked up into his face. Please no.

  “Why couldn’t you have stayed that guy?”

  “What guy?”

  “The guy that believed if he couldn’t fight it or handcuff it, he was stumped. Why did you have to change?”

  “You don’t want to stay here with me? I thought this would give me time…give us time to…I don’t know. Just more time.”

  She wanted to scream, even as she breathed a sigh of relief. She turned away from him and headed for the door. Suddenly, she felt too confined and edgy, feelings she didn’t like. It took Austin a moment to catch up with her.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “I need to walk. I’m antsy. Do you mind?”

  AUSTIN SIGHED and fell into step with her. She felt as if they’d left more than just the hotel behind. Maxie looked up at the sky. “I wish it would rain.”

  “You’re in luck. It may look dry and sunny here, but afternoon thunderstorms are common.”

  “Rain in the desert always seems so exotic.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it rarely rains there. When it does, it seems otherworldly, amazing…”

  “Impossible. Yeah, like what’s between us.”

  “It’s nothing but hormones between us, Austin.”

  “Who are you trying to convince? Me or you?”

  “It’s the situation, the danger, heightened senses. If we were ever to get into a regular relationship we would probably be bored out of our skulls.” Maybe if she said this over and over she would believe it.

  “It’s true that nothing about all this is regular, but I doubt that I’d be bored with you.”

  “Believe me.”

  “Especially if I was the guy to turn you over to the law.”

  “Then don’t do it. Just let me go.” Slowly, her gaze rose to his.

  “Let go. Easy words, Maxie. Two simple, little words.”

  “But they’re not easy for you.” She touched his forearm, curling her fingers around his heat.

  “No.”

  “Because you take your job seriously.”

  “Yes, I take my job seriously.”

  “Of course you do. I’m not saying that you don’t. It’s a bizarre situation, like you said. I’m innocent of all the charges and you believe me.”

  “That’s all true, but it’s not really the point. My job is to track you down and bring you in. I’m not a judge or a lawyer or even law enforcement. I’m just a bounty hunter and my part in your situation is straightforward.”

  “Would it be hard for you to look the other way?”

  “Yes. It would.”

  “So you want what with me here?”

  “Time, Maxie. I wish
I could put it into better words, but I know that you’ll hate me when I turn you in and I just want time.”

  “Sex? Do you want that too?”

  “I want what you’re willing to give. That’s all. I can’t explain why I stopped, even to myself. It seemed like everything was getting out of control.” He reached down and picked up her hands. “Look at your wrists. It kills me to put those cuffs on you now, seeing what they’re doing to your skin. I can’t imagine what it’s doing to you on the inside. Bringing you in seems wrong to me, but I have no choice in the matter. I took an oath.”

  She clasped her hands around his wrists. He might tell her he wanted time with her. He might say that her situation was hard, but he was also saying that he was honor-bound and on a quest, somewhat like the knights of old. “Duty is important to you. You showed it to me by your dedication to your family. The moment they needed you, you dropped everything, your dreams and hopes. You supported them without strings attached. I can’t fault you. That’s my dilemma. That’s how I feel inside. I just can’t fault you.”

  The truth of the matter was that the time he wanted would give her the time to find a way out of this mess. She could escape from him the moment his guard was down. She would play along. It wouldn’t be hard at all to pretend to care for him. But her priorities hadn’t changed. She wasn’t going back to Sedona. Not for him, not for anyone.

  The thoughts hurt, but she refused to consider why. Instead she assured herself that she and Austin were adults. They were completely capable of appeasing their physical needs without becoming tangled in a snare.

  He grabbed her arm, making her stop in mid stride. “Where do we go from here?”

  Maxie shrugged. She so wanted to say nowhere. They were at an impasse. “Let’s just walk.”

  “All right.”

  She slipped her arm through his and continued walking, trying to ignore the feel of his hand on her skin, the intense look in his eyes. He would be wild in bed, out of control. She knew it. She’d already held him in her hands.

  She closed her eyes briefly. He would be magnificent.

  The sudden sound of gushing water made Maxie glance at Austin, then at the sky, but there was no rain, although clouds were gathered thick and menacing. As Maxie turned the corner with Austin right at her heels, she saw the source of the water.

  Some neighborhood kids had turned on a hydrant. They were cavorting in the stream that plumed straight up to feed the thirsty asphalt of the street, raining big fat droplets on the foliage of the sheltering park just behind the hydrant. The sign in front read Kit Carson Park.

  Someone flipped on a boom box and sultry salsa music burst into the gloom of the afternoon. Doors opened and people began to emerge and dance beneath the water.

  Maxie took Austin’s hand and headed toward the water, but he held back. She finally let go and went into the spray alone.

  The music fired her blood as she danced with the others, kicking up water, twirling around and shouting with laughter into the night.

  Austin watched her as he squatted on his haunches, using a palm tree for support while an edgy, gripping need churned inside him. He had tried to resist her charm. She wanted nothing more than to escape him and she would use anything to do it, including her tantalizing femininity. Why had he stopped in Taos? He was at a loss to understand it himself. He had no intention of giving in to her request to let her go. This act of insanity had seemed like such a good idea when he’d pulled over and it was true what he’d said. He wanted time, but it would only serve to make what he had to do harder. He was willing to embrace that. It was already worthwhile as he watched her move in the dusky, surreal afternoon. Not ditsy, not stupid, as he would liked to have believed, but a beautiful woman who loved to sing, dance and laugh.

  A sudden savage need overcame him, swirling through him with a devastating effect. Her high, firm breasts were exposed through the white shirt she wore, her nipples tight and puckered and his mouth ached to taste her skin. The untamed craving intensified as his eyes traveled down her exquisite body, lingering on her hips as they swayed to the now soft and sultry music.

  Maxie ran her hands through her wet hair, slicking it back. Suddenly, she felt a thrill of apprehension brush her skin. She turned her head slightly and found Austin’s dark eyes staring at her. She had never seen such a wild look in his eyes. Wild in bed. That thought surfaced with a rush of passion so intense that Maxie had to bite her lip.

  The velvet depths burned with such powerful desire that she shivered, held immobile by his heavy-lidded gaze. Fiery heat began to build in the pit of her stomach. Although he lounged against the tree, she could see the tautness of his muscles as he suddenly pushed away, the muscles of his chest thick and rippling with the movement. When he rose in such a beautiful flowing motion, she was reminded of a rising tiger. She watched in wonder as he started toward her, the movement of the corded muscles of his thighs holding her attention like a fine piece of art. Magnificently he stalked in her direction as if she were prey. His dark eyes never left her face. She couldn’t have moved even if she had been threatened, so captivated was she by the primitive need she sensed in his body. The need was intensified and abundantly answered by her own body, her skin prickling with a sudden wild desire she saw mirrored in his eyes.

  As he moved into the stream of the water, everything about him seemed to deepen and intensify as if an ephemeral light glowed from within. The blackness of his hair got blacker, the blue of his jeans a deeper, mesmerizing blue, the white of his T-shirt starker in the night. He reached her. Stretching out one steely hand, he caught her wrist and drew her into the alluring realm of his powerful embrace. His hands slid slowly, sensuously, down her back, pulling her hips against his, so she could feel the hard heat of the desire that flared inside him. She quivered violently at the shock, involuntarily bucking against him, only to find herself further electrified by the closeness of his face.

  Her arms went around his neck, the sultry music moving both of them in the suddenly hushed night. Her heart beat hard when he stepped away from her and slid his hands down her arms to her hands. He tugged and drew her into the sheltering trees and dense foliage of the park. Once inside its dim lush interior, he drew her against his body.

  “How I want you,” he said against the sensitive shell of her ear, sending a multitude of chills down her back. He thrust his hands into her wet hair, almost savagely, clenching the thick, spiky strands between his fingers, easing her head back, tilting her face up to his. With a low growl of animal lust, his mouth descended to her waiting lips as he fervently kissed her over and over, until her mouth was on fire from his burning lips.

  “She was right.”

  “Who,” he rasped against her lips.

  “That nice old lady in Mesa Roja, Mrs. Granger. She said you were a roller coaster.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You know when you ride a roller coaster how you get that breathless anticipation when you’re climbing to the pinnacle and then you drop suddenly.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I bet that’s the way you make love, Austin, a breathless, sudden sense of falling.”

  “You want to find out, Maxie?” he said with such crushing need inherent in his voice that her name rang with his possession.

  She could hear the word mine threaded into and around the sound of her name. Taking what he believed was his, knowing that he would not be denied. It was true, she was his. She’d been his from the moment they’d met. “Yes, I do.”

  With his mouth locked to hers, his hips moving rhythmically in his fevered passion, he demanded her response, commanded her to reply. Her lips were soft and yielding. He searched out every hidden place within, leaving no part of its dark moist cavity unexplored, unclaimed. Her head spun as he continued his fevered onslaught upon her senses. Her nostrils were full with the musky scent of his powerful body moving against hers. Her blood pumped strongly through her veins, her ears hearing the sweet music of his
uncontrollable groans, her hands moving over the thick, pronounced muscles of his shoulders and back, kneading him. She was his woman—body, heart, and soul, aching with a need only he could fulfill.

  He clutched for the hem of her shirt, raising it, releasing her breasts to his plundering mouth. She exulted in her own feminine power to get him to respond to her in such an obsessed and overwhelming way. She reveled in her ability to enthrall him, cage the restless, growling tiger inside of him, to hold him as much a prisoner as she.

  With the suddenness of storms in the desert, thunder rolled overhead. It was as if he were part of the powerful storm rolling in untamed uncontrolled passion. Lightning flashed overhead, followed closely by a loud crash of thunder. The heavens spilt and a deluge poured from the skies, pelting their bodies with the warm, cooling water. She gasped at the sultry sensation of the plummeting drops of water against her breasts, as well as his warm, hot mouth, encompassing the tip of one breast, then the other. His tongue teased the rosy crests into stiff hard peaks that trembled and quaked with each intimate touch of his velvet lips. Rapturous tremors coursed through her body as moans of pleasure escaped her lips at the sweet sensations, hungering for more. Her hands came up against each side of his head, pulling his mouth closer to her, arching her back in wanton abandon as the storm raged overhead and inside of her.

  Thunder boomed overhead with such a loud crash that it reverberated through her body. She gasped in one long moan of ecstasy as he slipped his hands between her clothing and her flesh, driving his finger into her so suddenly and deeply that it took her breath away. She inhaled sharply, raggedly, her breath catching on a pleasured groan. She heard him sigh, his gasp of pleasure at being inside her, even as he aroused them both to a feverish pitch by deliberately, tantalizingly withdrawing, then swiftly entering her again. His breath was hot against her throat and upon her breasts as his mouth devoured her, sucking her nipples greedily and laving them with his tongue. Frantically she arched against him as he moved against her.

  The storm built, raging and churning into a turbulent fury. Her mind reeled with the pleasure as he rhythmically pressed against her desire-swollen nub. Her hips arched and bucked, wringing unrestrained cries from her until the pleasure was too much, too intense and it released in her with explosive force. She tangled her fingers in the black silk of his hair as she came powerfully around his fingers.