Wyoming Bold (Mills & Boon M&B)
Page 26
He smiled at her. “You think so? Why don’t you slide over here next to me?” he added with a raised eyebrow. “We can discuss cattle.”
“I’m driving.”
“Oh.” He blinked. “Okay, I’ll slide over next to you...” He started to unfasten his seat belt.
“You do that and I’m calling Cody Banks!” she told him, digging out her prepaid cell phone and showing it to him. “You wear a seat belt when the truck is in motion. It’s the law!”
“The law.” He scoffed.
“Yes, well, you unfasten that belt and I’m calling him, just the same.”
He made a face but he stopped fiddling with the belt. He stared at her, his face hard, his black eyes snapping. Actually she only had about five minutes of phone time left on the device, and she didn’t want to waste it calling the sheriff when she might need it for emergencies. Cane could afford a high-tech cell phone and a plan to go with it. Bodie was lucky to have even a cheap one.
“What happened this time?” she asked, not sure she really wanted an answer. But at least it would keep him talking.
His jaw tautened.
“Come on,” she coaxed. “You can tell me. You know I won’t repeat it.”
“Most of what I tell you, you wouldn’t dare repeat,” he muttered, averting his eyes.
“Yes.”
She waited, not pushing, not prodding, not even coaxing.
He seemed to sober a little. “I had on the damned prosthesis. Looks real, right? At least, until you get close up.” He looked out the window at the passing dark silhouettes of bare trees and pasture. “I took her up to my room. It’s been a long time. I was hungry.” Fortunately for Bodie, he couldn’t see the brief anguish that skirted across her face. “I started to take off my shirt and when she saw the straps that held the prosthesis in place, she stopped me dead. She said it was nothing personal, she just couldn’t do it with a man who was crippled like that. She had to have a whole man.”
“Oh, Cane,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry. Yes. She was sorry, too. I took off the damned prosthesis and threw it at the wall. Then I flew home.” He laid his head back against the headrest. “I couldn’t think about anything else. The look on her face, when she saw that thing...haunted me all day. By sundown, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to get that memory out of my mind. Had to!”
She bit her lower lip. What could she say? Of all the things to happen. She hated knowing that he had women. That wasn’t even her business. But for a woman to treat him that way, after all he’d been through, as if he was less than a man because he lost part of his arm fighting in a conflict sanctioned by his country. It was unthinkable.
“I can’t live like this!” he burst out. “I can’t go through the rest of my life being half a man, being pitied...!”
She stopped the truck. “You stop that!” she said harshly. “You’re not half a man! You’re a hero! You ran right over the damned IED, knowing it would blow up, to save the medics in the jeep behind you! You knew your vehicle had better armor, you knew the bomb would explode when the column went past. You made a sacrifice, saved God knows how many lives by saving those medics. And some stupid woman makes a remark out of ignorance, and you throw away that heroism, that act of gutsy courage, like a used tissue. Well, I won’t let you do it! I won’t!”
He gaped at her through a drunken haze. He shook his head.
She started the truck going forward again. Her face felt hot.
“How do you know that, about me?”
“Tank told me,” she said gently. “The last time I had to go get you from a bar. He said it was tragic, not only what happened to you, but that you wanted to forget something that won you a silver star.”
“Oh.”
She drew in a long breath. “Why do you date women like that in the first place?”
“Most of the women around here are married or ugly.”
She glared at him. “Thanks, from the ugly brigade, I mean.”
“I didn’t mean you,” he said easily. He pursed his lips and studied her. “You’re not ugly, but your breasts are too small.”
The truck almost ran off the road. “Cane!” she exclaimed.
“Don’t worry about it, a lot of men like small breasts. I just like nice big ones. And a soft, sweet belly to sink against when I get inside all that delicate, wet...”
“Cane!” she exclaimed again, flushing.
“Oh, come on, you know about that,” he said, leaning his head back. “Nothing so cushy as a woman lifting to you on cool sheets, feeling you thrust into her, swelling and swelling until you burst and she cries out with the pleasure.”
“I get sex education in school!”
“Well, you get the basics, but they don’t tell you how good it feels, do they? Or that men come in different sizes and shapes. I’m well-endowed myself. Not too big, but I can...”
“Will you please stop?” she raged.
He glanced at her. “Getting aroused, are we?” He chuckled in a deep, soft, sensual tone. “You’re not really my type, kid, and you’re too young, but I could make you get off like a machine gun firing.”
She swallowed, stepping on the gas.
“But I don’t think your grandfather would ever forgive me. That’s probably why you go to college out of state, so he won’t know what you’re up to. How many lovers have you had?”
“Can’t we talk about the weather?” she asked, trying not to sound desperate. She was aroused, unbelievably aroused. He wouldn’t know it, but she was still a virgin. Despite that, the imagery was giving her real problems.
He stretched and grimaced. “Sure. It’s cold.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you like the man to get on top, or do you like to get on top? I can go deeper that way,” he said as easily as if he was discussing the weather.
She groaned.
“Real deep, in fact,” he murmured, getting drowsy. “I remember this one woman, she was small and I was afraid I’d hurt her. But she got on top and pumped me like a shotgun, screaming the whole time. We went all night long.” He grinned. “She liked to try new positions. So one time...”
“I don’t want to hear about your sexual acrobatics, Cane!” Her voice was high-pitched and desperate.
He rolled his head against the headrest so that he could see her face. “Jealous?”
“I am not jealous!”
He smiled. But the smile faded. “You’d have to get on top,” he said coldly. “I don’t have two arms to prop on anymore. I don’t even know if I could do it now. I wanted to find out. I wanted to see if I could still be a man....”
“Cane, there are men all over the world who have lost arms and legs and who can still have sex,” she pointed out, trying to restrain her embarrassment. “People find a way!”
He drew in a long breath. “I won’t have the nerve to try again,” he said in a haunted tone. “She said I was a cripple.” His eyes closed. “A cripple. She wanted a whole man....”
She pulled up at the front of the house and blew the horn. She almost jumped out when Tank came onto the front porch.
Copyright © 2012 by Diana Palmer
ISBN: 9781472054494
WYOMING BOLD
© Diana Palmer 2013
First Published in Great Britain in 2013
Harlequin (UK) Limited
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