“What if he’s not from here?” Cory suggested. “He could be from Bozeman or any of the surrounding towns.”
“Just going to have to play this out. We’ll find the driver and hopefully that will give us some answers.”
“Don’t want to wait until the next attempt on Sam’s life. Why don’t we try turning the tables and lure him in,” Cory suggested.
“What’re you thinking?” Hank asked, sipping on a beer.
Sheriff Barron mulled over his idea before speaking. “We’re not a hundred percent sure they’re after Sam, or stopping Sam from running the ranch. Either way, the result is the same. If Sam’s not here and Tania moves to the city, the ranch would be sold.”
Tania sat at the table, drying her hands on a towel. “You think someone wants this ranch bad enough to kill for it?” She shook her head. “Momma and Daddy still own the ranch. They come back for July and August and then head south again. The ranch is part of their retirement plan.”
“What if we put the ranch up for sale and see who comes knocking?” Cory suggested.
“Are you outta of your mind?” Sam barked from behind them. “I’m not selling this ranch.”
Cory stood and offered his chair. “Relax. You’re not really selling the ranch. If someone is after this property, and you put it on the market, they may think they’ve scared you off. They’ll stop the attacks until they figure out it’s a setup. By then, we might have a suspect.”
Sam shared a look with her sister.
“It’s good land, but there’s nothing here that any other ranch doesn’t have,” Tania said.
“I’ll talk to Laura. She’s a good friend and the top realtor in this area,” Sheriff Barron explained. “I’ll tell her the girls are interested in selling.”
“Can you trust her?” Cory asked.
“She’s honest, and she can keep quiet about the plan.”
Cory liked the plan. “All right. Let’s see if we reel this guy in.”
He headed upstairs for a shower. Alone, thanks to Bear. Sam’s eyes watched him retreat. Under the circumstances, her safety was his prime directive. Samantha Dougherty was getting under his skin, and he definitely wanted to crawl all over hers.
Chapter Eight
Later that night, after Sam spilled the details about Dee-Dee’s offer, and he took a ribbing from the team guys, everyone retired. Cory lay in bed, arms crossed behind his head, and stared at the cedar strip ceiling. A light knock landed on his door and his heart banged in his chest.
“Come in.”
His nightly fantasy became a reality when Sam slipped into his room and quietly closed the door. He watched her step across the wide plank boards in a white see-through negligee, showing off her mile-high shapely legs. She crawled onto the end of the bed at his feet, and he swallowed thickly. Sitting on her hip, her legs curled demurely under her bottom, she smiled at him. The bed sheet came to just above his assets, but otherwise he slept in the raw. In other words, zero concealment.
The day he’d got out of Hank’s truck and set eyes on Samantha for the first time, he’d wanted her and imagined seeing her exactly like this.
“How’s your leg? I should check to see if it’s healing.”
He kept the grin from splitting his lips. “Whatever excuse works for you,” he said, his voice a low rumble in his chest.
“Seriously, I wanted to thank you for helping me today. I wouldn’t have made it unscathed without you.”
They gazed into each other’s eyes, and he wondered how many excuses she could present before admitting what she really wanted. When she twisted to all fours and crawled a little closer, his entire body tightened. She stopped and sat on her haunches between his legs.
Fuck, don’t stop now.
Cory waited. Barely breathing, but his pulse rampaged through his veins. A test of metal between them. If she touched him first, he’d unleash what stirred low in his belly.
Sam’s finger teased his skin, drawing a line barely a sliver above the bed sheet, and the expected happened. His cock grew harder.
He watched her, wanting to remain in control, but one little finger tracing an invisible line across his abdomen, following the roped muscle across his hip and stopping at the bedsheet was driving him nuts. He didn’t speak. Couldn’t speak, but his chest rose and fell with deep breaths.
“How real?” she asked, remembering he’d said he wanted real.
“I’m not going anywhere, Sam. But I can tell you this, even though I’m having a hard time concentrating on anything other than you making me harder than I can remember, whatever happens next won’t be for one night.” He slowly raised a brow. “The second my mouth tastes your heat, I’m staking my claim.”
Her finger continued to tease until she hooked her index finger on the sheet and drew it down an inch, enough that the crown of his head was revealed.
“You are perfect,” she breathed.
She rolled onto her hands and knees and leaned forward, her cheek brushing the thick, hardness of his shaft. When her blue eyes connected with his again, her beautiful lips hovered just above the bulb of pre-cum on the tip of his cock.
“Samantha.” His body constricted in need.
“Yes.”
Her warm breath heated his skin, and he lifted his hips ever so slightly. “God, woman.”
His body wove into a tight knot. And when her sweet tongue licked the top of his crown, his head pressed into the pillow and a hiss escaped his mouth. Her lips slowly took him in and his body bucked with pleasure. Her tongue flicked the top of his cock as she swallowed him deeper.
“Fuck.”
Sam’s warm palm circled his shaft, and she swallowed him to the back of her throat then sucked hard when she retreated to the tip. Over and over again. Slowly. Deliciously. Until he was in a place he’d rarely been. Euphoric. Pure pleasure. Her kisses drove him wild. Her wet mouth kept him floating above reality, his body jerked taut…and then his release came. Pulsating. Intense.
He couldn’t stop from calling out her name, his hands buried in her soft locks.
Finally, he opened his eyes, heart racing in his chest. Before she could escape, Cory gripped her around the waist, pulled her long body over his, and kissed her.
Tonight he would taste her. Fuck her and make love to her. While he pleasured her body, he’d rejuvenate, and they’d start all over again.
“You,” he paused as she withdrew and smiled down at him. “You came to me.”
Her brows perked. “You were taking too long.”
Encasing her in his arms, he rolled, positioning her under him, and slipped the straps from her negligee down her arms to reveal her breasts.
“Amazing,” he said before sucking on a peaked nipple. Sam moaned and her head turned to the side, her beautiful neck too much of a draw to not kiss his way to the beating pulse in her throat. He wondered whether she’d ever been kissed into oblivion before, because he wanted to be the first while his fingers found her warm, wet core.
They had hours to surrender to each other. He wanted her to forget every man who’d ever touched her, except him. He reached for his wallet, and she stopped his hand.
“Clean,” she said, staring up at him with eyes he’d never forget.
“So am I.”
When his cock entered her hot channel, he found the way to heaven, and he stroked her from tip to hilt until they reached it together.
The first rays of light shone through the window and wakened Cory enough to realize Sam was still beside him, her back tucked against his chest. His hand caressed her hip, waking her slowly and then he raised her thigh to lay over his and entered her from behind. She moaned with pleasure and stretched her amazing body, her core slippery and so hot, she hardened him instantly. Wrapping his forearm around her body, his finger sought out her clit and brushed circles while plunging in and out at a languid pace.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed, turning her head so he could own her mouth as his shaft drew their desire to new he
ights.
Fuck, he was going to come already! He pulled out and rolled Sam onto her stomach, lifted her gorgeous hips into the air and plunged into her while he toyed with her bundle of nerves.
She gasped and thrust her forehead into the pillow, her body a wreathing image of beauty. She was his pleasure and every desire he’d ever had.
A few minutes later, cuddled in his arms, her soft hair laying across his panting chest, he listened to the sounds of the house, but couldn’t ignore that damn rooster who’d started crowing an hour ago.
Wrapping her arm across his stomach, she closed her eyes and said, “Have you decided what you’ll do now that you’ve got options?”
“As in?”
“You know, supermodel or security specialist? Did Dee-Dee offer you the moon?”
He grinned and kissed Sam again. It was kinda hard to stop with her in his arms. “The moon and a few planets. Told her I’d consider her offer. My priority is you right now.”
Their palms slid together and they forked fingers.
“I feel a little vulnerable. I’ll admit that,” she said.
“About spending the night with me, or someone trying to cause trouble at the ranch?”
She traced a circle around his naval then followed the line of hair to the base of his shaft, stirring his embers to life.
“Both,” she whispered.
“If I had my wish, I’d take you away from here.”
“But I’m the cheese to draw the rat.”
He shook his head. “You’re the woman who’s about to take a shower with me.”
She chuckled and leaped from the bed. And he followed, because that ass of hers was worth following for the next fifty years.
****
While eating breakfast, every time Cory looked away, Tania popped her eyebrows at Sam. She shrugged and grinned at her sister. Nearly finished, an unexpected visitor drove into the yard. Mrs. Ackerson, Mackenzie’s mother, struggled to get out of the truck. She walked with a cane, but according to the ranch hands working on the Ackerson Ranch, her vocal chords worked just fine.
Tania opened the door and greeted her. “Cup of coffee?”
“Always room in my belly for one more cup.”
Her aging eyes strayed to Sam and Cory.
“Have a seat, Mrs. Ackerson,” Sam offered.
Mrs. Ackerson toddled over to the table and sat with a harrumph. “And who might you be?”
“Cory McGregory, ma’am.”
“Good,” she said spritely. “Just the man I want to talk to.”
Cory nodded for her to go ahead.
“Sam, Cory. I need to apologize on behalf of my son. He acted like a fool. Mack gets as stupid with the liquor in him as his father did. It’s taken me two weeks of talking to myself to get up the nerve to come over here.”
Sam quickly figured out what this recon visit was all about. “Mrs. Ackerson. We didn’t tell Sheriff Barron that Mack actually shot Cory. We don’t intend to. The bullet grazed his leg, but no permanent damage was done. You can rest easy.”
Even if Mack was an idiot, his mother was a good, hard-working woman.
Mrs. Ackerson stared at them, her face a testament to too many hours spent under the Montana sun, and at seventy, looked more like a shrivelled apple. “Since my wild son isn’t in jail, I figured that was your decision, but I had to come anyway.”
The woman didn’t need more worries on her plate. Letting Mack off the hook wasn’t for his benefit. Sam had spoken to Cory about it already, and they’d both decided to let it go.
“I was in town this morning, and I heard gossip that you’re thinking of selling this place.”
Word moved fast in small towns like Eagle Rock, and that’s what they were hoping for.
Sam drew on her one semester of drama from junior high. “Yes, ma’am. Tania is getting married, and I’m considering going back to nursing.”
“You did a mighty big service to this country, young lady. I can’t imagine what you seen over there where those idiots can’t settle a fight with a good bottle of whiskey and couple hours of poker. What does your momma and daddy think?”
“They’re happy in Arizona, and plan to stay there.”
Last night Tania called their parents and then Sam got on the phone as well, fessing up to what was happening and the plan. Her parents considered coming home, but she and Tania assured them they were safe and the Brotherhood Protector Agency was on the case, as well as the sheriff.
“I also heard this morning that your truck was run off the road last night.”
“Who’d you hear this from, Mrs. Ackerson?” Cory asked.
“Ran into Martha Gulliver. She told me you haven’t been staying at the B&B and that Sam had an accident. Run off the road or some such thing. The tow truck was pulling your vehicle outta the gulley this morning when I came back. You weren’t hurt, were ye?”
“No, ma’am,” Sam answered.
“Well, I’m gonna miss ya as neighbors if you do sell the place. I understand ranching isn’t for everyone, and you’ve got a profession. That gas man didn’t come sniffing around here too, offering money if ya sold, did he?”
“No, not that I know of.” Sam looked at Tee.
Tania shrugged. “Not that I know of.”
Mrs. Ackerson pulled a Kleenex from her pocket and swept it across her nose. “William—that’s my late husband,” she offered for Cory’s benefit. “He always said never trust a man in a suit from the city. He’s either selling you somethin’ you don’t want or trying to steal what ye have.”
“When did this guy appear?” Cory asked.
“Ways back. Been a few months now. I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t give him much time to talk on my doorstep.” She brought her weathered hands together with a little clap. “So, onto other matters. We’re holding the Rock Spring party again this year, and I wanted to come and invite ye all personally.”
“When?” Tania asked, sitting down with them.
“It’s gonna take some planning, and we’re a little behind this year, but I’m thinking June. I’d like to meet this doctor you’re marrying, young lady.”
Tania smiled. “I’ll mention it. If he’s not on duty, we’ll both be there. Can we bring the usual?”
“Your momma’s warm potato salad is the best in the county. I was also wondering if you might have slaughtered any of your beef yet this year?”
Sam could see the woman’s pride was hanging from a small string. “We did and we’d love to donate one of them for the party,” Sam offered. They hadn’t, but they would.
They spoke a couple more minutes and then Mrs. Ackerson excused herself.
“Gosh, they must be in tough times,” Tania said. “I’d heard they weren’t running anymore cattle. The quarter horses bring in most of the revenue. She’s been trying to breed more of her herd.
“Maybe she should consider selling out.” Sam said, watching Mrs. Ackerson’s truck disappear down the drive. “She could buy a small place in town and then her son would have to get a real job.”
Cory leaned over and kissed her brow. “I’m going to call Hank before I head to the barn. Sounds like word is spreading.”
Sam was left to face off with her sister after the screen door thwacked shut.
Tania spun a spoon in her fingers. “That smile on your face isn’t because you got a good sleep last night,” she teased. “I know this, because I barely got any with all the moaning coming from Cory’s bedroom.”
“Shut up.”
Tania broke out laughing. “I’m happy for you, Sis. Cory is an awesome guy and beyond hot.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “He’s been giving you hungry stares since he got here. I figured he’d break the ice around your heart eventually.”
“He is a great guy.”
“He’s more than that. He’s the one.”
Sam shook her head. “Doubt that. He’s probably going to take Dee-Dee’s offer and head to New York. Who wouldn’t? He’s got nothing to los
e.”
“He’s got you to lose, and something tells me he won’t let that happen.”
Sam stood and stretched, her body ached a little. The memory of Cory’s hands on her skin making her smile. His kisses torched her desire into ecstasy. “I’m going to take the tractor and tiller out to the front quarter and start digging up some dirt. With all this craziness going on, I forgot to order the seed.”
“I ordered it. Be here next week.”
Sam hugged her sister, standing at the sink washing dishes.
Tania, patted her wrists with wet fingers. “I want you to find happiness, too. I don’t want to leave you here by yourself.”
“I’ll be fine. You’ll make a new home with Tucker, but this place will always be here if you need to find your balance.”
She turned her big blues on Sam. “Is that why you came back? To put balance back in your life?”
Sam dug her hands deep in her jean pockets. “Yeah, it was. Some people might think working in an OR or being a nurse is the same no matter where you go.” She shook her head. “It’s not. Life in a war zone is very different. The civilians are the ones who suffer the most. It’s bad enough to see our military forces torn to bits from roadside bombs or digging bullets from flesh and bone, but the children, Tee. The kids are the victims. We talk to them in a language they don’t understand. They’re frightened. They suffer injuries no child should ever suffer. And many times, too many to count, those little bodies never got off the table alive.”
“What happened?” Tania asked. “What happened to make you come home? You love healing people.”
Without hearing him approach, strong arms wrapped Sam’s body from behind and he held her tight. Cory rested his cheek against her hair, his voice a low rumble when he said, “Because one day your soul can’t carry the burden any longer. It refuses to accept there’s a reason for that much death and suffering. When you serve, you don’t regret your actions. You regret that there’s no end in sight.”
Sam slowly turned in his arms and stared into eyes like her own. Eyes that understood. Had seen what she had seen, and she nodded.
Cory palmed her head, and she rested her cheek against his chest. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I get it.”
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