by Tina Leonard
The thing was, Cameron had said kissing him wasn’t what she remembered. And a man would have to be an idiot to march into battle without a strategy. Right now, his strategy was to give her as much space as possible, not crowd her while she was trying to fit back into Hell.
Nobody liked being crowded.
Especially Cameron. Last time he’d crowded her, she’d disappeared for months.
“How old will Michael be?”
“Six,” Steel said.
He blinked. “Shouldn’t he be starting elementary school?” Hell had no elementary school. The parade and kissing booths had been about making a school happen in Hell. But that was a couple of years away, probably.
Steel nodded. “He’s starting school.”
“A kid can’t go to school by himself.”
“No.” Steel laughed. “Harper’s going to drive him over to the school in Hawk. You know, where you go to buy your beer when you’re suffering out at the creek.” It was twenty, thirty minutes away.
Saint shook his head. “I’ll be at Redfeather’s tonight.”
“Fine.” Steel stood, big and relaxed, his hat making him seem taller than he was. “No hard feelings about locking you up, right?”
Saint shrugged. “I’m still trying to decide about that.”
“Let me know.” Steel went out, his boisterous laughter floating back behind him. Saint shook his head. Life had certainly changed for the sheriff. He’d gone from sufferin’ succotash to a jovial Santa Claus-ian ho-ho-hoer with just a few kisses.
Declan came into the office, took a chair without saying anything.
“Did you know there’s a birthday party for Michael tonight?” Saint asked.
“I just got a text from Harper. I guess it’s pretty spur-of-the-moment.”
So Declan was just as much in the dark as he was, which meant he hadn’t been able to crack Harper’s code any better than Saint had been able to figure out what to do about Cameron. “You’re going?”
“Sure I am. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Saint leaned back in his chair. “Do you know there’s not a single place in Hell to buy a birthday present for a little kid?”
“Huh. That’s never come up before, so it never crossed my mind.” He frowned. “What did our parents do when we were kids?”
He thought about his mom and the burned-out kitchen, and his father, who had died when he was five. “My mom made us a birthday cake. We thought that was damn special. When we got older, she bought me a bottle of hooch.” He pondered that. “As I recall, she bought my sisters a bottle of perfume for their birthdays. Something she picked up in the city when she went in once a year for her dental and doctor appointments.”
Declan nodded. “We got horse stuff, or rodeo equipment. Since Fallon and I are twins, we shared. I always thought that was sort of unfair, since our other two brothers didn’t have to share. But we did fine.”
Not so fine. He and Fallon had never gotten along. Talk about twins who couldn’t stand each other from the day they breathed their first breath. “Have you seen Cameron?”
Declan shook his head. “No. But I know she’s on her way out to the Honky-tonk with Judy.”
Saint straightened like he’d been kicked. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Something about it was time Judy straightened Ivy out for blabbing about her private health concern.”
“Oh, shit, that doesn’t sound good.” He pondered it for a moment. His every urge screamed at him to go perform backup duty. Then again, Cameron hadn’t darkened his door since that kiss. A kiss that had ground him into powder and left him starved for more.
Obviously she hadn’t felt the same things. “Well, let me know how it goes when you hear,” he told Declan.
Declan laughed. “Don’t be such a pussy. I saw your face. You’re dying to hotfoot it out there.”
He shook his head. “My days of playing protector are over. I’ve learned my lesson. I quit cold turkey.”
Declan shook his head. “Come on.”
“We won’t get thanked for it. By now, one thing we know very well is that those gals want to handle their business on their own.”
“I don’t need to be thanked for anything,” Declan said. “And neither do you. We didn’t go into the Navy to get thanked.”
“Yeah, but women and the Navy aren’t the same thing at all.”
“Listen, if she hasn’t been by to see you when you’re not in her business, she’s not going to feel any worse about you if you do poke your nose in it.”
“You make an excellent point. And I might say I look forward to watching you be as brave in your quest for Harper’s heart as you’re encouraging me to be for Cameron’s.”
“I won’t be, so don’t hold your breath. But it’s a little trickier to catch a single mom. They’re hardwired to be protective of themselves. I know she needs me, though. And Cameron needs you, buddy.”
Well, it was as good a plan as any, he supposed. Saint grabbed his Stetson. “Did you come to tell me about the birthday party, or that Judy and the girls were stirring up trouble?”
Declan grinned. “Come on, lover boy. I’ll ride shotgun.”
Chapter 22
Cameron knew it the moment Saint was at her back. She felt his strong, hard body against hers, in his usual protective stance. But this time she smiled.
“What’s the plan?” he asked, near her ear, and Cameron wanted to turn and throw her arms around his neck and tell him how much she’d missed being with him.
But she couldn’t do that.
“This is one time I don’t have a plan,” she said, glancing back at him. “I’m just keeping an eye on Judy.”
“Does she know you’re here?”
Cameron nodded. “She said I could tag along, but that I’d be bored. Supposedly it’s just a simple business discussion, like they have on occasion.”
“No such thing.”
“Tell me about it.” Cameron turned back around, scoping out the ballroom, trying to find Judy. She saw Ivy’s girls eying Saint, but it didn’t bother her. She knew she came out here more often than he did.
Anyway, he was backing her up. And even if that was all they ever offered each other, wasn’t that enough?
Of course not. Cameron knew in that split second that just friendship wasn’t enough for her. She wanted Saint, had wanted him for a long time. She’d just wanted him to be sure he wanted her.
Somehow, she knew he did. He just didn’t say it in so many words. He wasn’t talkative like Declan; he wasn’t a pleaser like Steel. He wasn’t a hardheaded rascal cut from the same tough-minded cloth Trace was. Saint was a stoic, silent man—tall, dark, handsome, his heart held close to his vest.
She was in love with him, and if he never told her the same, that was okay. There was enough talk in Hell without him feeling like he had to do it, too.
“So now what?” Saint asked.
“There’ll either be fireworks or there won’t. Either way, we have a birthday party tonight to go to.” Cameron grinned about that. “I got Michael a soccer ball.”
Saint nudged her. “Look.”
She saw Judy coming out, tall and blonde and confident. No problem at all. They’d all walk to the exit, and another business meeting would be concluded without incident.
That was the plan, until the lights went out. Saint grabbed Cameron, dragging her toward Judy. Customers and Ivy’s girls alike burst into a babble of “Who turned out the lights?” and other similar sentiments. Someone screamed, and Cameron’s blood suddenly felt like ice running in her veins.
Then the lights came back on. Judy strolled toward them like nothing had happened. “Let’s go,” she said to Cameron, and Cameron followed in a hurry, with Saint at their back, providing cover.
They made it to Judy’s big-ass truck, hopping in. She let the engine roar to life, then began giggling.
“Judy, what did you do?” Saint asked.
“What I should have done all along. I snatche
d that wig right off Ivy’s head!”
“That was a wig?” Cameron glanced at Saint, who shrugged.
Judy was in such a fit of giggles she could barely hold the steering wheel. “Here,” Saint said, “I’ll drive you into town.”
He got out of the truck, walking around to the driver’s side as Judy slid across the seat, laughing uproariously. Cameron saw a faint smile on Saint’s face, though it seemed he was trying not to laugh.
“Do you want me to drive your truck back, Saint?” Cameron asked.
“We’ll come get it after we drop Judy off.” He looked at their ringleader. “I always thought that was Ivy’s real hair.”
“I didn’t. And it serves her right for all her customers to see her bald as a baby’s butt after blabbing my personal business all around!” Tears streamed down Judy’s face as she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. “She made a few cracks about how nice my wig looks tonight, and I’d had it to my back teeth with her. It was the final straw. I cut the lights on the main breaker, went right up to her, and snatched that two-toned wig right off. Bald as a baby’s bottom!”
Cameron held back a smile, but it was hard. Saint’s gaze met hers in the mirror. “I didn’t see a thing, did you, Cameron?”
“I certainly didn’t.” But she’d been focused mostly on how good Saint felt standing behind her, right up against her back. No, she hadn’t been paying much attention to her mentor at all.
“It’ll be all over town, and a lot of other places, by tomorrow,” Judy said, pleased. “My cousin is going to learn one day that what you sow, you reap.”
They’d made a clean getaway, and for that Cameron was relieved. No one was coming after them. If the worst thing that happened was that the Honky-tonk queen had her crowning glory snatched away for a few moments, Hell would survive. Oh, there’d be more bad blood added to the bad blood already flowing, but that was Hell, wasn’t it?
And one thing she’d learned in Colorado was that she loved Hell and just about everything about it—especially the man driving her and her boss into town.
A police cruiser behind them flashed red lights in the darkness. “Drat,” Judy said. “Who told Steel I was at the Honky-tonk?”
“It’s probably common knowledge,” Cameron said. “There aren’t really any secrets in Hell, are there?”
Saint stopped the truck, pulling to the side of the road. Judy got out and, to Cameron’s surprise, ran and jumped into her sheriff’s arms. “Steel’s going to take me home!” she called back. “You two go on without me!”
Saint met Cameron’s gaze in the mirror. “Come ride shotgun.”
She smiled and got out. Jumped up in the seat, closed the door, and scooted over next to Saint. “We have two hours until Michael’s party,” she said. “Judy is safely out of trouble. Whatever should we do in the meantime?”
“We should go back and get my truck.”
“We should,” Cameron said, “but I can think of more interesting things to do.”
He looked at her, seeming interested but wary. “You told me it wasn’t the same as before when you kissed me. So what else do you find interesting?”
“Taking off your clothes.” She kissed him, enjoying his quick, surprised intake of breath. “What would you find interesting?”
“Taking off yours.” He groaned. “You’re driving me crazy.”
“We’re on a road into town. How about you drive me someplace so you can drive me crazy?”
“Wait.” He held her back for a second. “What did you mean, it wasn’t the same as before?”
“That I’d missed you,” Cameron said simply. “It just wasn’t the same.”
“I don’t know exactly how to take that.”
He kissed her, showing that he did know exactly how to take her. He explored her mouth, and his hand slid down the back of her jeans just a couple of inches, just enough to make her arch toward him. “I meant,” Cameron said on a gasp, “that it wasn’t the same once I fell for you.”
He drew back, stared into her eyes. “You’ve fallen for me?”
She nodded. “Yes, I have. I did, a long time ago.”
“Well.” He sounded pleased. “And yet you stayed gone.”
“Yes. I figured you needed time to make up your mind.”
“I needed time to make up my mind?” He snaked his hand a little lower in her jeans. “I think you’re just telling me all this to get me to make love to you.”
She smiled. “I certainly hope you’ll do that.”
“Oh, I’m going to do that. In fact, you’re lucky I’m not the kind of guy to romance you in this big-ass truck.”
“Judy would have something to say about that,” she said.
He undid the top button of her blouse. “Judy has something to say about everything.”
“Time’s wasting, if we’re going to get to the birthday party on time.”
He shook his head. “Oh, you’re not getting a quickie, beautiful.”
Her lips parted involuntarily. She was all hot and bothered, and he knew it. “So you’re not going to make love to me?”
“We have two hours until Michael’s party. You’ll have to wait.”
He was doing this deliberately, teasing her because he knew how much she wanted him. Now that he knew she’d fallen for him, he felt in control.
And she noticed he hadn’t bothered to say he’d fallen for her, too.
“So, we’re going back to get your truck?” she asked.
“Sure. We’ll park Judy’s at my place. And hope no tires go missing, or the mayor’ll yell at you.”
“Me?” She laughed. “I think she’ll yell at you.”
They drove back to the Honky-tonk, and Saint pulled alongside his truck. Handed her his keys. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you can drive my truck. Please treat it like you would a baby. It is my baby.”
She got out, closed the door. Walked to his truck, opened the door. Undid the buttons on her shirt he’d left untouched, teasing him. He got the message, his gaze wide. Slipping behind the wheel, she drove very slowly, so slowly his truck was crawling along the two-lane road. She could practically feel his impatience. She drove slower.
By the time they’d parked both the trucks in his driveway, Cameron wasn’t surprised when Saint pulled her door open, swept her into his arms. Carried her to his house, slung her over his shoulder so he could unlock the door. Gave her fanny a brisk round of swats, enough to make her squeal and beat his back lightly.
“That’s for teasing me,” he said. He set her on her feet, closed and locked the door behind them. “Not right now, Lucky, I have something to say to this little redhead.”
She stared at him. Waited.
“I think you and I make a good team,” he said.
She gasped as he pulled her to him for a fast, hard kiss that told her how much he wanted her. Released her to stare down in her eyes. “I do, too.”
“So I’m not looking for a Saturday Night Special. Just in case you were wondering. I need something more permanent in my life.”
He kissed her again, just so she’d know he really needed that permanent thing to be her.
“You realize I’m not giving up bulls,” Cameron said, her knees weak. “I’m going to be leading the team, along with Harper.”
His eyes were dark on her. “I know. I’ve prepared my gut. Plan to put lots of ginger in the freezer for the stomachaches you give me, and keep plenty of whiskey on hand for anesthetizing my other pains.” He leaned in to make a hot, searching investigation of her neck with his mouth. “I just want you to be happy. If bulls make you happy, I’ll just hold my breath when you’re in the ring; if the police academy makes you happy, I’ll shine your star when Steel pins your badge on you,” he said, unbuttoning her blouse with tantalizing slowness.
“Saint,” she murmured.
He raised a brow, and he was so handsome, so sexy and strong, it was all she could do not to beg him to make love to her.
Oh, heck. Be
gging’s fun when you’re in love.
She looked into his eyes. “I’m crazy about you. I’ve never been in love before, and it scared me, but I’m not scared anymore. Make love to me, Saint,” she whispered.
He didn’t even bother to drag her to his room. He kissed her up against the door, leaning into her body. Cameron gasped as Saint pushed her shirt down, shoved down her jeans, kissed her belly before going lower.
“Saint,” she gasped, reaching for him, but that was all she said, because he pushed apart her legs so he could taste the tender part of her that ached for his touch. His tongue did to her what he’d done to her mouth earlier, and Cameron exploded in a burst of pleasure, crying out his name.
She didn’t have to wait long. He carried her to the sofa, shoved down his jeans, and buried himself inside her. Cameron arched against him, holding him tight, so glad to have him inside her again she wasn’t sure she could form it into words.
“God, Cameron,” he said, “you’ve driven me mad for months. I’ve just about gone out of my head thinking you were never coming back.” He ate her mouth, her neck, her breasts, cradling her and slowly rocking in, out, stealing her breath and her ability to concentrate on anything but him. “Don’t ever leave me again,” he said.
“I won’t,” she gasped, squeezing her eyes tightly together as she felt the pleasure gathering again. She held on as he teased her, enjoying her cries of pleasure.
“You realize you’re going to have to make an honest man out of me,” he said on a growl, squeezing her ass tight against him as he kissed her neck, bit gently at her lips, sucking them inside his mouth, tantalizing her.
“And you’re going to have to make an honest woman out of me.” She held him tighter, drawing him deeper inside her.
“I don’t know if I can, but I’m going to give it my best effort. I promise,” Saint said, clearly determined to hold on until he’d pleasured her once more, a sexy realization that pushed Cameron over the edge all over again. He held her tight as she climaxed and held on to him with everything she had. Finally he let himself go so that their pleasure mingled, turning white-hot and then gentle with the joy of being together.