Close To Danger (Westen Series Book 4)

by Suzanne Ferrell

  “Because you consider Gage and Bobby your family, and by extension Dylan and me. So that sort of makes us like what? Your sisters?”

  Silently, Wes studied her, his blue eyes growing darker. The air around Chloe thickened and her pulse raced. Slowly he moved closer, taking the glass tumbler from her and setting it on the table behind the sofa.

  “Trust me, Chloe,” he said, leaning in to cup her face in his big, warm hands. “No way in hell do I think of you as a sister.”

  He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her in a decidedly non-brotherly fashion.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Chloe slid her hands up Wes’s arms to grip his shoulders as the kiss between them deepened. Heat, not from the fire, poured through her, creating a need she’d only ever felt when this man kissed her. A little moan escaped her. Then a growl of pure male satisfaction from Wes.

  He gripped her by the shoulder, pulling her closer. With a quick turn, he had her lying across his lap, her chest pressed tight to his. And she wanted to get closer. As he angled his mouth to kiss her deeper, she slipped her hand between them to lay over his heart. It thudded rapidly, matching her own pulse. With a wiggle, she was rewarded with the thickness of his erection pressed against her hip.

  And didn’t that make the woman in her stand up and pump her fists?

  Wanting to feel more of him and the delicious heat of his body, she worked the buttons on his shirt through the buttonholes until she could slide her hand over his chest, the soft hairs teasing her palms. A deep moan from him, followed by “Yes,” delighted her.

  Behind them came a whimper.

  Chloe eased back to look into Wes’s blue eyes, darkened with desire. He leaned his head to the side and she slowly turned her head to follow his gaze.

  Wöden sat watching them, his head cocked to one side as if to say, What are the humans doing now?

  Chloe giggled and let her head slump against Wes’s neck. “Does he always do that when you’re making love to a woman?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She raised up to study his face. “You’ve never heard him do that before when things got hot and heavy? Should we be worried if he might pounce on us?”

  “I don’t know what he would do, because,” he paused, reaching up to brush a stray lock of hair back from her eyes, “I’ve never had another woman here before.”

  “You’ve never had a woman in your home?” she asked, a little thrill that she was the one he let into his private world.

  Slowly he eased her off his lap, stood, then took her hand to pull her up beside him. “You are the only woman who’s slept in my bed.” He punctuated the statement with a quick hard kiss that had her clutching his half-open shirt in her fists. “I’ve never made love to anyone in my cabin and certainly not with Wöden playing chaperone.”

  “And now?” she asked, taking his lower lip between hers for a playful nip.

  “Now,” he said, scooping her up into his arms, “we try out my bed and leave the wolf-dog to listen in the other room.”

  Chloe laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck. Even though she was a self-sufficient woman who could fix a flat tire, manage her finances and even repair a plumbing leak, she could really get used to this man going all caveman for her.

  She closed the door behind them as they passed into the bedroom. Voyeurism was never her cup of tea, even if it was just a half-wolf, half-dog watching.

  * * * * *

  The deputy had the dark-haired woman draped over his lap and things were getting hot and heavy inside the cabin.

  “Adjust the site a little, bring the target into focus. Breathe.”

  The pair in the cabin were going at it hot and heavy. Unaware their lives could end in any minute with one shot from the Remington bolt-action rifle. Wes Strong had already lived on borrowed time. He should’ve died in the dark forest of Bolivia the same time Isaac died almost seven years ago.

  The trigger on the rifle begged to be squeezed.

  “Steady. This is just a reconnaissance mission. Just observing. The time isn’t right. He needs to suffer first. Needs to know he’s being punished.”

  The woman lifted up and the pair stopped their heavy make-out session to discuss something. A few minutes later he carried her out of the line of site. Probably to the bedroom. The drapes to that room were drawn. Just as well. They weren’t going anywhere.

  Laughter floated behind the figure dressed in white as it slowly eased out of the tree copse and back across the snow-covered lane on cross-country skis.

  Tomorrow was the anniversary of Isaac’s death. It was also the day Wes Strong was going to pay for his sins. Best let him enjoy himself tonight.

  * * * * *

  Wes set her down on her feet by the bed, reaching up to cup her face once more and dropping his lips to hers. Heat sizzled straight through her. She pressed closer, her hands holding onto his hips.

  Finally, he broke the kiss and reached behind her to pull back the quilt, blankets and sheets. “It’s going to get freezing cold in here quick since we had to close the door.” He pulled the thick sweater over her head, then reached for the buttons of her shirt, quickly slipping them through the buttonholes.

  Chloe didn’t waste any time protesting modesty as she reached for the snap of her jeans. With a flip of her fingers, the waistband was loosened. She slid the zipper down, slipped her fingers into the band of it and her panties, pushing them down with one good wiggle over her butt, then braced her hand on his shoulder to step out of them. She shrugged out of her shirt and then pulled the bra off, too.

  Wes had been just as hurried and his clothes landed on the floor with hers in a pile. She laid her hand upon his chest, loving the heat of him and the feel of his muscles beneath her fingers. Before she could explore more a shiver shook her.

  “Best get under the covers before we both die of exposure,” he said with a grin at his own pun, quickly helping her into the cold bed, pulling her in close to his body and burying them beneath the layers of bedding.

  Shivers wracked her body and his arms tightened around her. Twisting his body, he slid one muscular thigh over her legs, melding them together, every inch of her front pressed tightly to his warm skin.

  “Give it a minute, you’ll warm up,” he whispered just above her ear, sending a whole different kind of shiver through her.

  To emphasize his words, he stroked his hands up and down her back. Slowly, his heat and the comfort of being held so tightly to him, relaxed her body. Spreading her hands on his back, she worked them up the long planes of his muscles, her fingers touching the fissure where the ridges of his spine sat. She let one hand stay there to stroke up and down, the other sliding lower and lower, until it could cup one of his firm ass muscles.

  “Mmm, counselor I believe you’re moving into dangerous territory there.

  She wiggled her hips, moving closer. “Deputy, I believe that large erection pressed against my stomach suggests you’re closer to danger than you care to admit.”

  He lifted his head and nibbled on the lobe of her ear as he pressed one hand to her buttocks and drawing her in tight. “I’ve been imagining you like this in my bed since I stripped you down to your underwear two weeks ago.”

  “Mmm,” she moaned, arching her neck to give him access to the erogenous zone there. “Sounds like a confession of first degree lust to me.”

  “Guilty as charged,” he growled before latching onto the pulse point joining her neck and collar bone.

  Heat soared through her and she felt herself growing moist with a desire to connect completely with this man—a need she’d never felt this deeply before with any other. Slowly she shifted onto her back, spreading her legs as her hands urged him to follow her. Settling his pelvis between her thighs, he splayed across her like her own human heating pad, working his way down to capture a nipple in his mouth.

  “Oh yes,” she murmured, enjoying the exquisite pleasure coursing through her.

  “Like that do you?” he murm
ured, his lips barely millimeters from the taut tip of her breast. The heat of his breath teased her flesh.

  “Yes, please,” she whispered, arching her back to beg for more. “The other one is feeling a bit neglected.”

  “We can’t have that.” He chuckled and kissed his way over and up her other breast to the nipple. First, he lathed it with his tongue, sending delightful shivers from it straight down her spine. Then he latched on and sucked just enough to cause her a little tension that felt more delicious than painful. She scratched her nails down and up his back as she parted her legs further, the length of his cock pressed against her own moist folds.

  He released his hold on her nipple and slid up until he stared down in her eyes. “I’d love to keep you naked and feast on every inch of you, but you’re too tempting and it’s much too cold to keep either of us naked out of these blankets.”

  “I could think of worse ways to die,” she said, tipping her hips and reaching down to push his buttocks forward, causing a wonderful friction of his cock on her.

  “Woman, I have only so much control,” he said, pulling her arms from behind him and stretching them up until her hands touched the wooden spindles of the oak headboard. “Hold on here.”

  Her eyes widened. Was he going to tie her up? She’d never been into BDSM, but with Wes, she might consider it. “Why?”

  “Because, I asked you to.” He lowered his mouth and kissed her long, slow and deep. When he pulled back his eyes were dark indigo pools of desire. “Trust me.”

  Reading both passion and a sense of honor in his face, she gripped the spindles in her hands.

  He rolled to one side, drawing the quilts over her naked body. Before she could ask what he was doing he swung around to sit on the side of the bed and open the bedside table. In the moonlight shining into the window, she saw him pull out a box of condoms.

  “I thought you said you hadn’t had any other women here?” she regretted asking as soon as the words out of her mouth. Could she sound any less sophisticated?

  “I haven’t,” he said as he opened a foil pack and slipped the condom over his erection. A moment later, he slid back into the bed and between her legs, holding himself back from entering her. “I bought the box the day after you left.”

  “So you planned to bring me here?” she asked, feeling both suspicious and thrilled.

  Leaning on his elbows, his lower half nestled tight against hers, the tip of his penis teasing her entrance he smoothed strands of her dark hair away from her face. “No. But I knew if you ever came here again, I’d definitely need protection. Because you are just way too tempting.”

  “Me? Tempting?”

  “Yes. All those brains, the sassy mouth and confident attitude all wrapped up in such a beautiful package? I knew making love to you would feel this hot, this fast and I wanted to be prepared.” Stretching upward, he ran his hands up her arms to meet her hands around the spindles of the headboard. His body entering hers in one long, slow thrust, until he was locked in tight to the hilt.

  “Oh. My. God,” she moaned at the fullness.

  He dropped his mouth on hers, pulling slowly back to the tip and thrusting in even slower. She moaned around his tongue. Bending her knees, she slid her sock-covered feet up the backs of his calves to rest on his thighs, keeping him tight inside her. He gripped her hands tighter, repeating the slow back and forth rhythm, never increasing the speed, even when she tried to move faster.

  The coil of passion deep in her constricted with each of his thrusts.

  Building.

  Tightening.

  Pushing her closer to the brink.

  One more thrust and her body clenched him to her as her orgasm ripped through her. She broke the kiss to scream, “Wes!”

  Slowly the trembling eased and still he kept her hands clenched in his around the bedframe, his thrusts beginning to pick up speed, and with it her passion. It was as if she were caught up in the blizzard winds from the day before and all she could do was hold on tight and ride out the storm of pleasure he was taking them both on.

  Faster he drove them.

  Each thrust taking them deeper.

  Finally, his body started to shudder his own orgasm as he claimed her mouth once more, swallowing her cry of the second release.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Despite nearly two feet of snow covering the Westen area, the Peaches ’N Cream was lit up like a neon beacon in the darkening winter evening and packed with people when Daniel pulled his truck up in front of the entrance.

  On the way into town, he’d wondered where Lexie’s mother was. He suspected she’d ventured out before the storm to find a fix for her drug habit and either hadn’t made it home or hadn’t bothered to try, leaving her daughter to starve or freeze death. Now he was glad she hadn’t been at the house, because right now, he wanted to put an end to what life the miserable creature was living.

  It was a miracle that he’d gotten to Lexie today. What if they’d waited to go out and check on the rural residents of Westen? What if he hadn’t double checked to be sure no one was inside?

  The idea that this little girl could’ve died alone out there sent a wave of nausea through him. He glanced at his companion. Lexie, still bundled up in her blankets, her bear peeking out the top, stared inside, eyes wide with fear.

  “It’s okay, Lexie,” he said in his kindest voice. “You’ve been to the Peaches ’N Cream before, remember?” he said gently.

  She nodded.

  “And you liked the food Miss Lorna and Pete make, right?”

  Again, she nodded.

  He leaned a little closer. “So what’s making you so scared?”

  “All the people,” she whispered.

  Ah. He couldn’t blame her. He didn’t like walking into a room full of strangers much himself. Thinking quickly, he pulled out his phone and dialed the café’s number.

  “Peaches ’N Cream,” the young voice of Lorna’s teenage daughter Rachel answered.

  “Rachel, it’s Daniel Löwe.”

  “Hey, Daniel. Pete’s got your special request tomato basil soup all ready to go. Hold on,” she said and he could hear her talking to someone in the background.

  “Pete says the grilled cheese will be ready in a few minutes. How far out are you?” This was Lorna.

  “Look out the front window,” he said.

  A moment later the middle-aged, rather sassy owner of the local hang-out stood at the plate glass window. He waved and she shook her head at him.

  “Daniel, you get that little girl inside out of this cold.”

  “My date is a little nervous about all the people.”

  “Ah, I see. How about you bring her around back. Kyle and his friends shoveled most of the lot earlier, so you won’t have much trouble getting back there. I’ll set up the table in the staff room.” The café had an extra room off the back where Lorna’s employees could sit and have their meals in peace when on their lunch breaks. She said eating in the café while working was like giving birth while on duty.

  “Good idea. We’ll be there in just a few minutes.”

  When he pulled the truck around back, Lorna was standing at the door waiting for them. He hurried around the truck, scooped Lexie, her bear, and all the quilts up and carried them inside, only sliding on the slick spots once.

  “Hello, Miss Lexie,” Lorna said with a smile.

  “Hi, Miss Lorna,” the little girl said, her returning smile a little hesitant.

  “We have a special table for you and Deputy Daniel,” Lorna said, leading them through the stockroom, past the huge industrial refrigerator into a room painted cheery yellow that looked out into the kitchen area which was popping with food sizzling on the grill, Pete dishing up food and the waitresses picking up trays of food for the customers. “You can sit back here and watch everyone while you eat.”

  “That’s really special,” Daniel said, placing the bundle of little girl, blankets and bear down in one of the chairs. “People pay lots of mo
ney in fancy restaurants to watch the cook make their food.”

  “That’s silly,” Lexie said, wiggling back in her chair so she could see into the kitchen. “My Nana used to let me watch her cook all the time. I didn’t have to pay.”

  “You’re right it is pretty silly. But it’s still fun to watch Pete cook.”

  The lean man with his long grey hair tied back in a red bandana turned at that moment and grinned at Lexie, holding up his flat spatula. “Got your grilled cheese cooking right now.”

  Lexie giggled and hugged her bear, her hand still covered by the pink socks.

  “How about we get those thumb-less gloves off so they don’t get dirty while you eat.” Daniel reached across the table and tugged first one then the other off, folding them up and setting them on the side of the table.

  “Got you some milk, Miss Lexie,” Lorna said, glancing at the socks on the table and then at Daniel, who shook his head as if to say don’t ask. She nodded, then set the glass of milk next to Lexie’s plate and a mug of hot coffee by Daniel. Then she turned back to Lexie, one hand on her hip. “I hear tell you’ve never had tomato soup. Is that right?”

  Lexie’s eyes were as big as saucers once more, as if she thought she was in trouble for not having experienced tomato soup. She nodded and clutched her bear tighter. Daniel’s heart ached that she should be so afraid of something so innocent.

  Lorna smiled at the little girl. “Well, you’re in luck, because Pete’s heating up some of the tomato soup he and I made last fall. It’s my own special recipe.”

  A moment later she returned with a tray containing two plates with grilled cheese sandwiches and two bowls of tomato basil soup. Daniel had to admit it looked delicious to him.

  “Now before you dig in, how about we get you out of some of those blankets,” Lorna said, moving the covers back, revealing the frail body beneath. She quickly glanced at Daniel, the anger and sorrow he felt at the near skin and bones condition of the little girl beneath the paper thin, dirty clothes mirrored in Lorna’s eyes. She picked up the napkin and tucked it in the collar of Lexie’s pale pink shirt. “There, now you’re ready to try the soup and we won’t have to worry about any dribbles.”