And then I felt his cock hardening against my ass. And I became very aware of his strong arms, wrapped around me not so very far from my breasts. And suddenly, the heat of the water paled next to the heat throbbing through me. I resisted for a good few minutes, drinking in the feel of his hard body against me, but eventually I couldn’t take it any longer.
I twisted around in the tub and pushed myself up against him, my glistening breasts pillowing against his chest. My head tilted up, seeking his mouth.
“Well, hell,” he said in delight. “Now ain’t you eager tonight?” And he leaned down to kiss me, tipping his hat back out of the way.
Yeah, he kept his hat on in the bath. This was Bull.
I let out a long groan as his lips met mine. I needed him so much. It was the first time I’d been the one to initiate things and it felt fantastic.
We gasped and groaned as we kissed, kneeling up in the water and running our hands up and down each other’s gleaming wet bodies, the steam wrapping around us. When we couldn’t take it anymore, he lifted me out of the bath and laid me down on the grass next to the tub and entered me with such slow, tender care I wanted to weep with joy. It became fast and then frantic, his muscled ass rising and falling between my thighs, the stars above us and the cool grass below as our bodies cooled and then warmed again.
I came, arching my back and thrusting my breasts up as he bent to kiss them. And in the afterglow, I hugged him tight. I finally felt that things were all going to be okay.
I was wrong.
Down in the town, the photographer from the fair was getting a call from the state newspaper. We’re running a piece about the town fair, but our editor just nixed the picture we were going to use. Says he doesn’t want another goddamn greased pig this year. Do you have anything we can use?
Why, yes, I surely do. Got a lovely photo of a sweet young couple, her in a scarlet dress, and him in a sheriff’s uniform. And the guy’s a minor celebrity around these parts, too, a rodeo rider.
Well, that sounds just perfect. Please email it right over. We go to press in an hour.
Lily
For three days, I lived an idyllic life with Bull. I’d wake up each morning in his tiny trailer and we’d have slow, sensual morning sex. He’d go off to the ranch to work and I’d drive my Toyota to the bus so that I could work. It was weird—the work wasn’t any different to before but now I practically whistled to myself as I did it. It was the knowledge that this wasn’t all there was in my life.
And when I did step out of the air-conditioned cool of the bus, the sun felt good. The heat felt good. I let it soak into my bones instead of fighting it. I’d finally acclimatized to Texas.
In the evening, we’d venture into town...or, more often, just cozy up in Bull’s trailer. Long summer evenings filled with good food: steaks cooked outdoors, sticky ribs you ate with your fingers, corn that was perfectly barbequed and dripping with butter.
And the sex. Oh, God, the sex. Up against the wall of the trailer. Bent over Bull’s bed. Twice, in the stables again (I don’t know what it is, there’s just something about stables). I’d fall into bed pleasantly exhausted with Bull spooning me from behind.
We were disgustingly happy. And the nagging voices in my head, the ones that said it was wrong to keep my past from him, seemed very small and far away. How could it be wrong, when it felt this good?
Besides, I found out lots of other things about him. I found out that he liked his coffee not strong and black but milky as all hell. I found out that his dad was in oil and that he was considered the family misfit because he’d wound up riding horses. His brother, who had followed in his dad’s footsteps, was seriously rich.
So we were getting to know each other...even if it was a little one-way. He didn’t need to know about my uncle.
Right?
Lily
The next morning, Bull had to pick up rope for the ranch from the hardware store, so we figured we might as well grab a coffee in town. We took both cars so that I’d be able to head back to the bus when we’d finished, and I bought the coffees while he bought the rope.
I was dumping huge amounts of cold milk into Bull’s Americano when it happened.
“Miss?” A voice that didn’t belong in Texas. A voice as out of place as my own. I spun around to look.
Big. As tall as Bull, although not quite as massively built. He was clean-cut where Bull had stubble, his hair neat where Bull’s was tousled. Even his face was refined, with high cheekbones to offset the strong jaw. He could have been sculpted by some Renaissance artist, cast in marble for ladies to drool over. The sort of smart, good-looking guy who could have been a banker or a stockbroker.
But his suit and his shoes didn’t say banker or stockbroker. They said three letters that I’d been half expecting to hear for the last two years. Letters he was going to say any second, right after his name.
“Samuel Calahan,” he said with a smile. Then he opened his mouth again.
Time seemed to slow down. I felt my body locking up. It didn’t matter that I’d been preparing myself for years for exactly this situation. I knew I had to run, but I couldn’t fucking move.
“F—” said Calahan.
I looked behind him, towards the coffee shop door. He’d catch me before I got anywhere near it.
“...B…” said Calahan.
I picked up Bull’s coffee..
“...I,” finished Calahan.
I swung my arm, squeezing the cup as I did so to pop the plastic top off. Twenty ounces of hot coffee hit Calahan square in the chest and he staggered back, cursing and flailing at himself. I bolted past him and crashed through the door. I was panicking too much to think clearly. He’s going to take me back to New York! He’s going to make me testify and—
Outside, the blinding sunlight restarted my brain. All my planning kicked in and I knew exactly what I had to do. I ran across the parking lot.
In my car was my Go Bag. A simple little backpack stuffed with clothes, money and enough fake IDs to get me into almost any country I wanted, plus a Taser, water, energy bars and an encrypted USB flash drive with a backup of all my work. That was Plan B - get in my car and drive.
There might still be time for Plan A, though. Plan A was to drive back to the bus and pick it up. Most people make the mistake of thinking that because the bus has been parked in the same spot for two years, it can’t move. But I keep it fully fueled and even give it a little test run every few months. Everything I cared about could come with me.
And that was when I realized my plans were out of date. I froze, standing beside my car, for fatal seconds.
None of my plans had ever accounted for a hulking cowboy I was crazy about. Shit! What was I going to do? I couldn’t ask Bull to come with me to Mexico (my first choice) or Canada (my second). He had a whole life here. He had family and—
A hand landed on my shoulder and whipped me around, keeping a tight hold of me.
Calahan’s shirt was still steaming and the soaked, brown fabric was sticking wetly to his skin, showing off a muscled chest.
“That,” he said tightly, “was not polite.”
I tried to wriggle out of his hand, but he had a grip like a vice.
“I just want to talk, Tessa,” he said. “Just talk.”
Just hearing that name again brought it all crashing back. I hated him for that. I glared at him and tried to yank my shoulder out of his hand again.
“Do you want me to put cuffs on you?” he asked. “I’ve got some.” He patted a pocket. “They may be a little damp, but they’ll work.”
I glanced around. A few passers-by had noticed us, but so far they were studiously pretending they hadn’t. Just a woman arguing with her boyfriend. That would all change as soon as the cuffs went on. Everyone in town would know my secret in about thirty seconds.
If I talked to him, it gave me options. I stopped trying to wrestle out of his grip. “Talk,” I snapped.
He cautiously took his hand off my shoul
der, ready to clap it back on again if I tried to run. When I stayed where I was, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. It was limp and soggy with coffee, but I recognized the image as soon as I saw it: Bull and I in period dress, at the fair. A screenshot from a newspaper’s website. “What the ever-loving fuck?” I whispered.
“I’m kind of surprised,” said Calahan mildly. “You’ve stayed off our radar so completely. Not a Facebook photo, not an Instagram...and then this pops up. What were you thinking?”
I slumped against my car in defeat. I’d been so careful. All my paranoia hadn’t been paranoia. It had been working...until I’d fallen for Bull and gotten soft.
“Two years!” Calahan said. “When the facial recognition software flagged the photo, they had to blow the dust off the file to figure out who to call. And that would be me. I’ve been working your uncle’s case for five years, now—long before you ran away. I watched you growing up.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s not creepy at all,” I muttered.
He gave me a look. “We were worried about you. For a while, we thought your uncle had murdered you. But he was pissed off as hell when you disappeared, so that didn’t make any sense.” His voice softened a little. “I’m glad to see you’re okay.”
I looked at my feet. I’d been lectured by my uncle about the evil, manipulative FBI for years. Then I’d lived in fear of them showing up and dragging me back to New York. I hadn’t figured on one of them being...human. It occurred to me that it was lucky Bull took so much milk in his coffee, or I would have really scalded the guy. I shrugged, embarrassed. Then I nodded at his shirt and mumbled, “Sorry.”
He shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said breezily. “Didn’t even feel it.” Jesus, he was as much of a determined hard-ass as Bull.
Calahan took a deep breath. “There’s going to be a trial.”
Immediately, I turned to run.
“Wait! Relax. I can’t make you testify.”
I turned back to him suspiciously.
“I’m not even here officially. Technically, I’m on vacation. My boss thought the chances of tracking you down were so slim, he wouldn’t authorize it. But I wanted to give it a shot.”
I folded my arms crossly. Why did he have to be so nice? “Why?” I asked.
“I want to take down your uncle. I know what he did to a lot of people. Including Annette.”
Now I did meet his eyes. I looked up and glared at him, enraged that he’d use such a low blow. But almost immediately, my eyes were filling with tears. It was the first time I’d heard anyone say her name in two years. Her memory had only been kept alive in my own head.
And the most annoying part was, when I checked his expression, he wasn’t just using her murder to persuade me. He actually gave a shit.
But that didn’t change anything. I couldn’t face my uncle in a courtroom, not on my own. And I would be on my own—going into witness protection with the FBI would mean I’d never see Bull again. “No,” I said. “I can’t testify.”
“If I found you, they can too. They’ll be looking for you, Tessa. You’re a crucial witness. Your testimony could swing the whole case.”
He was right. I’d watched him murder someone, right in front of me, not to mention all the other beatings and bribes and contract killings I’d heard him order over the years. I sniffed, blinking back tears. “Without me, will he go to prison?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe not for as long. What I do know is, if they get you and force you to testify in his defense, he’ll walk.”
I knew he was right. My uncle had men like Antonio, men who were good at making people do things. If I was back in that house in New York, I didn’t kid myself that I’d be able to resist them. “They don’t have facial recognition software,” I said, pointing at the newspaper picture. “They’re not going to see it.”
“Something else, then.”
“I’m careful.” I turned to my car.
Calahan put his hand on the door to stop me. “We’re not done.”
“Yeah,” said Bull’s voice from behind him. “You are.”
Bull
I figured he must be one of Lily’s clients. Another criminal getting pushy with her. From the few words I’d caught as I approached, he sounded American—a city boy. Drug dealer, maybe. I didn’t much care what he was; what mattered was that he was hassling my girl.
“Now hold on,” the guy said, straightening up. “I was just—”
“Leaving,” I told him. “Leaving is what you were doing.”
I stepped an inch closer to the guy. “The girl in the coffee shop said Lily threw coffee over some guy.” I looked at his shirt. “That’d be you.”
“Luckily,” said the guy, straightening his tie, “I’m fine.”
“What makes you think I gave a rat’s ass about you?” I growled. “That was my coffee she threw at you. You owe me three bucks.”
The guy squared up to me. “You want to try and take it?”
“You sure you want to get that fancy suit dirty?” I looked again at the coffee stain. “Dirtier?”
“You think you’re a hardass because you play cowboy?” asked the guy. “Yeah, I know who you are, ‘Bull.’ Let’s go for it, I’ll show you how we do things downtown.”
I lifted my chin a half inch. “You know why they call me Bull?” I asked. “‘Cause when I get mad, there ain’t no stopping me.”
“Enough!” Lily’s voice made us both turn around. “Bull, let’s go.” She looked at the guy in the suit. “And you—you have my answer.” Then she grabbed my hand and pulled.
I resisted for a second, just long enough to glare at city boy, and then let myself be led away. I slipped my arm around Lily’s waist and pulled her hard against me, crushing her softness against me as we walked.
“I’ll be in town a couple of days,” the guy called after us. “I’m staying at the Stallion Inn. In case you change your mind.”
Neither of us turned around, but I saw Lily bite her lip at his words. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up, my whole body going tense with rage. No one upsets my Lily.
But if she wanted me to leave it, I’d leave it. For now.
We climbed into my pick up and I pulled out of the parking lot, heading towards the ranch. But as soon as we were out of town, I pulled off the road and turned to Lily.
“It’s time for some goddamn answers,” I said. “Start talking.”
Lily
“About what?” I knew it wouldn’t work to throw him off; I was just trying to buy time to come up with a convincing story.
I didn’t expect how badly it would work, though. With a sort of snarl, he rose as far out of his seat as the cab roof would allow, swung around to face me and put his open hand against my breastbone, pinning me back in my seat. “Goddamn it, Lily!” he roared. “Quit it!”
I gulped. It should have been scary—was scary, in a way. A huge guy like Bull, angry as hell, pinning me to my seat in the middle of nowhere. And yet….
And yet I knew he’d never, ever hurt me. I knew it in the way I knew the sun would rise in the morning. We stared at one another, both of us panting. The hot throb of his hand through my t-shirt, the way my breasts pressed softly against the heel of his hand. I could see the need in his eyes, only just restrained by his anger. The thought that I was doing that, that I could defuse even a raging Bull’s anger, made me swell with pride. But at the same time, I could feel myself melting and weakening inside—when I was this turned on, lying was impossible. I was ready to tell him anything if he’d just move that hand down and left a little.
“His name’s Calahan,” I said. “He’s FBI.”
Bull gripped my upper arm with his other hand. His anger was gone, replaced with concern. “He’s after you for the passports?”
I stared at him. Of course he’d assume that. Why else would an FBI agent be hounding me? Calahan didn’t have any idea what I did for a living, but Bull didn’t know th
at. My heart lifted. Here was exactly the explanation I needed!
Unless...unless I told him the truth. I bit my lip, hesitating for a second...
No. If I told him about my uncle, he’d want me to do the right thing and testify. He’d do the noble thing and send me off to witness protection and never see me again, just so that I could finally stop running.
Well, the hell with that.
“Yeah,” I lied. “The passports.”
His gaze hardened. “Ain’t no man on earth gonna put my girl behind bars.”
My heart gave a frantic little boom-boom. His sheer, hard-headed stubbornness was endearing—he was ready to take on the world for me. “Thank you,” I told him. I tried to make it light, but it came out a little choked. What happened to badass, independent Lily? This guy just turned me to mush every single time. “But it’s okay. I made a deal with him.”
He nodded, relieved.
My brain was working overtime. If I can just keep the two of them apart...Calahan would go home and Bull would be none the wiser.
And somewhere, far away, maybe my uncle would go free. That’s not my fault! I can’t go back there—I just can’t! I pushed the guilt down inside and thought hard. Calahan didn’t know where I lived, but he’d have no problem finding Bull’s trailer. And if he came round that evening to try to convince me again, he might say something to Bull before I could stop him. “Could we maybe get out of town for a night?” I asked. “I don’t want to run into him again.”
Bull nodded and then smiled. “I know just the place. It’s perfect.” His mood was picking up and I realized it was because he thought I’d finally told him the truth. The guilt welled up inside me again. It’s for his own good, I told myself. It didn’t make it feel any better.
Texas Kissing Page 16