by Chloe Lang
Reed smiled and pointed to the stove in the corner. “That’s the kitchen.”
“You’re kidding.” A stove? After seeing it from the outside, she hadn’t expected much, but she’d thought they would at least have a refrigerator.
“Nope.”
So much for them having women in their lives. No way would any female put up with that. “What about a sink? Washing dishes?”
Reed pointed to the rear of the cabin. “See those two doors on the back wall, Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“Power outages are common up here.” Reed set her bag down on the floor. “The one on the right leads to the backyard. We chose to put in a hand water pump for our well.”
Rustic doesn’t even begin to describe this place. “What about freezing temperatures? Isn’t that a problem here?”
“We built an insulated enclosure around it,” Reed continued. “Dishes, laundry, bathing. It’s all done out there.”
She felt her eyes grow as big as saucers. “The sheriff wasn’t kidding about this place being off the grid, was he?”
“No, Nicole.” Sawyer put his hand on her shoulder. “We’ll do our best to make things comfortable for you. Sorry about this. Our sister is the only woman who has ever been up here before.”
Reed shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about how this might seem to you. Sorry. Erica has never even spent a single night here.”
The sudden softening in both of them caught her off guard. “It’s okay. I’m not like most women. I can make this work. What about sleeping arrangements?” she asked, though nervous to hear what they would say.
“The door on the left is my bedroom,” Sawyer answered, causing her nerves to swing into high gear. “Reed sleeps on the sofa sleeper out here. We always planned to put a second bedroom on the house at some point, but we’ve been focusing our extra cash on buying land.”
No time like the present to get all the cards on the table. “What is your plan for tonight?”
Reed smirked. “What kind of guys do you think we are?”
She gulped. “I didn’t mean that.”
He laughed. “Too bad, because that’s exactly the kind of guys we can be.”
“Damn it, Reed. Stop teasing her.” Sawyer turned to her, his face so tender and sweet. “You get the bedroom. One of us will sleep on the couch and the other in the chair.”
“I call the sofa, bro. It’s mine anyway. Of course that depends on what Chicago wants. Me out here or me in there with her,” Reed said, once again reminding her of a sexy trickster. “The nights can get quite cold at this elevation, even in the summer. My body gives off more heat than you can imagine.”
“Does it?” Just thinking about how the sexy, muscular cowboy’s body would feel next to hers sent a whole bunch of shivers through her body.
“Well? What do you think about my offer, sweetheart?” Reed’s blue eyes sparkled with mischief.
“Does the door have a lock?” she asked.
He sent her a toothy smile. “No.”
“Damn it, stop teasing her. I swear I’m going to bust your chops if you don’t start acting right, Reed.” Sawyer pointed to the chair by the wood stove. “You can take that into the bedroom and prop it up against the knob. Will that work for you?”
“Yes,” she said, though a wicked part of her didn’t seem to agree. Images of being held by Reed floated in her mind, warming her up to a nice, toasty level. “Where should I put my things?”
Both cowboys’ faces softened.
Reed spoke first. “In our mother’s wardrobe.”
“It’s in the bedroom, Nicole,” Sawyer added.
She remembered Reed talking about his mother down in Destiny. The sadness in his eyes was the same as now. Sawyer’s green eyes held similar grief. Was this a family heirloom? Something they’d brought here to honor her?
Nicole thought about asking about their mom but decided against it. Opening up a dialog with them would certainly end up going both ways. They would answer her questions but then would ask her some of their own—some about her own mom. No way she wanted to go down that bitter road again, and certainly not with Reed and Sawyer. They seemed kind, honest, and generous, but they were still strangers to her. Best to keep them at arm’s length.
“The wardrobe will be just fine.”
Chapter Six
Reed felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. Just being near Nicole was impacting him in ways he’d never felt before. “You drove in from Illinois this morning, right?”
She nodded.
He turned to Sawyer. “I bet she wouldn’t mind a bath, and before you say anything, just hear me out.”
His brother’s eyes narrowed. “Okay. Go on.”
Moving his attention back to the raven-haired, curvy police officer, his dick stood up in his jeans and saluted. “Are you like most women where you would prefer a bath to a shower?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. I can make do.” Her long lashes were mesmerizing, her brown eyes beguiling, and her lush lips mouthwatering. But it was much more than her body that held him captive. It was Nicole. Everything about her drew him in deeper and that wasn’t good, not one fucking bit. By her very presence here in the cabin, his and Sawyer’s castle, everything he’d known about the world seemed to be on the line.
“I know you can make do. You’re the most self-reliant woman I’ve ever met.” But he could sense in her a need to be cared for, to be possessed, to be dominated, and that made it all the harder for him to remain detached and emotionless. “We have a shower attached to the well house. We attach a garden hose to the faucet on the pump and to a line that feeds to the shower on the other side of the wall outside. The problem is the water is icy cold even this time of year.”
“I’ll manage.”
“You don’t have to manage, Chicago. We also have a tub that we put on the back porch during the winter. Even Reed and I can’t stand the well water temperature then and have to take baths. We’ll warm the water for you on the stove and fill up the tub.”
She sighed. “I’m not sure taking a bath is a good idea. That’s too much work.”
“Let us worry about that. Trust me, you will love it.” He turned back to Sawyer. “Let’s fire up the stove and get the hot water going.”
“You do that. I’ll get the tub and bring it into the bedroom where she can have some privacy.”
Damn, he knew Sawyer wanted to get a look at more of Nicole just as much as he did but was taking the high road as usual. Unfortunately, he, too, believed the high road was the way to go with her…for now.
“Guys, this is too much. What kind of tub are you talking about?”
“It’s only a metal tub. Easy to move,” Sawyer said.
“Not full of water.” Reed saw he’d hit the mark with his brother by the look on his face.
“That’s it. I’ll take my bath on the back porch like everyone else. I’m sure you have some sheets that could be pinned up to give me a little privacy. Besides, you told me I could trust you. Was that true or not?”
“It’s obvious you’ve got spunk, Chicago.” Hoping to get a reaction from her, Reed sent her a wicked wink. “Might be fun for us to try to get that in check.”
She frowned, but he could also feel a hint of her intrigue. “If you think I’m into what goes on in that club of yours, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
Sawyer glared at him. “We’ll use sheets, Nicole. I’ll handcuff my brother if necessary to make sure you have the privacy you want.”
“I’ll behave. I promise.” He didn’t want to behave, but his brother was right. His dick didn’t seem to want to stay in line though. He didn’t dare close his eyes, knowing an image of Nicole naked underneath him would appear. But she was in trouble with the Russian mafia. He was here to keep her safe. He needed to keep his hunger for her in check and stay focused on the task at hand. “Let’s get Chicago’s bath set up then. We only have a couple more hours of light left.”
“Thanks. A bath does sound nice.”
Sawyer nodded and started loading the stove with wood for the promised hot soak for Nicole.
Reed went out the back to get the metal tub to put on the porch as she went into the bedroom and shut the door.
How the hell was he going to get her out of his head? He wasn’t sure, but he knew he must if he had any chance of steering clear of a certain disaster—his heart crushed. The plane crash that took his parents’ lives nearly destroyed him. Sawyer and Erica, too. If he gave in to his desires for Nicole, he knew what would happen. She wasn’t from Destiny. She was Chicago all the way. No way would she ever agree to stay here. So the best course of action he could take was to keep his desire for her under control. Of course, that didn’t mean if opportunity knocked he wouldn’t answer. That might be the best thing to happen. One tumble might cure him of these strange feelings for her. But what if they didn’t?
He shook his head and stepped off the back porch to get the first buckets of water, when he spotted movement up the mountain to his left. Turning his head the direction of the motion, he pulled out his pistol and focused on the spot. Nothing. He didn’t move. He’d learned long ago to trust his eyes. They hadn’t failed. Continuing to stare at the area where he’d seen the activity for what seemed longer than it actually must’ve been, he finally saw the source of the disturbance up the mountain. It was Connie, his favorite big cat. Two sightings in one day? That was a record.
He remembered how excited Nicole had been when they’d seen the old girl in the middle of the road. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about Nicole? He’d better figure out how soon or he might never be able to.
* * * *
Watching the steam rise from the water, Nicole stood by the metal tub on the back porch.
She grinned at the makeshift room of cotton sheets that Reed and Sawyer had fastened to the posts. The white fabric billowed slightly in the warm breeze. The table the brothers had placed next to the bath was filled with items they’d brought out here for her. It had a glass of iced tea, a plate of Hostess chocolate cupcakes, cloths and towels, shampoo and soap, and one of those iPod docking stations.
They’d even folded a big white cloth towel on the edge where her head would be once she got into the tub to make her more comfortable.
“Thank you so much for this,” she told them. “I’m all set. If you’ll be so kind as to leave, I can get undressed and into this inviting tub.”
“One more thing, Chicago.” Reed placed three birthday candles into one of the cupcakes. Then he lit them.
She was curious why he’d done that. “This isn’t my birthday. That’s in April, which has already passed.”
“Good to know, but that’s not what this is for, sweetheart,” Reed said. “We don’t want you thinking we’re barbarians. A woman likes candles with a good soak, right?”
The twinkle in his eyes made her grin. “Yes.”
“These are the only kind we have in the cabin. We have some lanterns we use when the electricity goes out, but he didn’t think that would be the same,” Sawyer added. “I told him it would be better to nix the candle idea and bring out a lantern instead.”
“No. I think it’s sweet.”
Reed smiled. “Told you.”
“Yes, you did,” Sawyer said, also smiling. “Let’s give the lady her privacy.”
As they walked out of the space, she held her change of clothes and gun in her hands and listened to the country music coming out of the docking station’s speakers.
Even though she’d lived her whole life in the Windy City, she’d been a fan of that genre of music just like her granddad. Lots of his fellow officers had teased him about it. She grinned recalling one time she’d heard him rebuff them for their jokes in his thick Chicago accent. “I was going ta take one of you ta see da Bearsss wid me. You forgot dat I won doze tickets on the fiddy-yard line from the radio station didn’t ya? I’m gonna take Nicky instead—at.” It was always funny how Granddad had often ended his sentences with extra words, mostly prepositions, that didn’t quite make sense.
God, she missed him. Suddenly, the old guilt swept through her. For the first year after he’d been diagnosed, she’d done her best. The next year—and the last of his life—she’d done her worst.
Sawyer paused, the sheet he was pushing aside still in his hand. His left eyebrow shot up. “Everything okay?”
She was normally better at keeping her poker face on. She placed her clean clothes and gun on the table by the tub. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
“We’ll be inside if you need anything, Chicago.” Reed’s voice came from the other side of the cloth dividers.
“All you have to do is yell,” Sawyer instructed. “We’ll leave the door propped open so we can hear you.”
“Thank you. I will,” she said.
Sawyer nodded and lowered the sheet, leaving her in the outdoor retreat they’d created for her. She listened to their departing footsteps as they entered the cabin. With a big sigh, she plunged her fingertips below the water’s surface. The temperature was just right, nice and warm. She looked up into the pale blue sky, which was populated with puffy white clouds. Chicago had a few days with this kind of sky—but just a few—and could only be really viewed best on Lake Shore Drive, miles from where she and her grandfather had lived. There, up above the mid-rise buildings, only a strip of the heavens could be seen by the masses below.
She thought about pinching herself to make sure all of this was real. How long had it been since anyone waited on her?
Never.
Reed and Sawyer had a rugged charm that was compelling. Wondering what it would be like if they didn’t keep their promise and leave her alone, she felt a naughty shiver shoot through her body. But despite Reed’s wicked talk and Sawyer’s steamy stares, she believed they would be true to their word and give her privacy.
Chapter Seven
Reed sat on the sofa next to Sawyer. They’d popped in a movie, his all-time favorite John Wayne flick True Grit, but strangely it wasn’t holding his attention. Something else was. Actually someone else was, and she was taking a bath on the back porch right now. Nicole was more than beautiful—she was drop-dead gorgeous. Tough, too. She had more guts than most men he knew.
God, this wasn’t good.
Sure, one day he and Sawyer would choose a woman to share. He’d known that his whole life. Destiny was special that way. Actually, it was the women who were special that way. A lone mortal man couldn’t even come close to giving what these angels deserved. He’d seen what a loving family could be in his mother and two dads. Dad Gene and Dad Gilbert had doted on their mom with such joyous abandon. It had been such a loving sight to behold. Before the plane crash he’d even believed he and Sawyer would one day find a woman to love. Before. But he knew the risk now that letting your heart take the lead over your head would do. Pain, crushing and horrific. He’d been fifteen when his parents had died. He wasn’t a child anymore. He didn’t want to ever risk that kind of hurt again. Ever. There were two people in his life that he allowed himself to love. His brother and sister—Sawyer and Erica. There wasn’t room for anyone else. Once Sawyer and he were ready to settle down, he would agree to a new wife so that they could add to the Coleman name by making babies. He would be happy to have fondness for the woman they chose, but not love. Love meant ceding his control.
But why the fuck couldn’t he stop thinking about her? Every second since she’d been with him and Sawyer—from the moment she’d walked into the playroom in Phase Four to now, on the back porch behind those goddamn sheets washing her naked body—his mind wouldn’t back down and latch onto logic. Damn it, I need to get a fucking grip.
He refocused his attention back on the television. The movie was at the part where John Wayne’s character was on the horse looking down at Robert Duval’s character—Ned Pepper, who was calling him fat.
Now, I can settle into this.
“What are we going to do about Nicole?” Sawy
er asked, jerking him out of his resolve to concentrate on the movie instead of their guest.
“What about her?” he snapped.
“She’s stubborn. I’m thinking we can get her to stay put another day, maybe two, but no more. She’s in real danger. You know Jason. He wouldn’t have asked us to keep an eye on her if she wasn’t. He’s too practical and too by-the-book to do that normally.”
“That’s true. Jason doesn’t veer from his convictions.” The sheriff had a clear sense of right or wrong and he’d suffered from his unbending nature. He’d lost Phoebe because of it, and his brothers had never really forgiven him. The four of them were beginning what looked to be a serious relationship when Jason, just a deputy at the time, caught Shane with drugs. Mitchell and Lucas had begged their brother to go easy on Shane, but Jason had refused. His hard-boiled testimony got the book thrown at Shane, who received the most severe sentence allowable for a first-time offender. Phoebe hadn’t been able to forgive Jason for sending her brother to jail.
Sawyer shook his head. “I can’t believe the Russians might be coming back to Destiny after all that happened with the Stones.”
Remembering Jason’s words about Nicole being in the center of a deadly mess got Reed’s guilt to crawl out of the shadows and chilled his blood. He’d been so wrapped up in his own crap, making sure he didn’t fall for her, that he’d forgotten why she was here in the first place. That was what happened when someone like him let his emotions get the better of him. Time to kick logic, which he could understand, into a full-on gallop.
“She needs us, Reed.”
“Of course. That’s why she’s here.”
Sawyer shook his head. “I’m not talking about you and I being her bodyguards. I’m talking about the hurt she’s carrying. Can’t you feel it every time you look at her? Her pain is deep and heavy. She’s been carrying it for some time.”