Brady saddled the mare, leaned back, measured Heather’s legs by sight, and adjusted the stirrups. “There, that ought to be right.”
“Thank you.” She said but her brow questioned his ability to measure so accurately. She put her foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. Her pants stretched tight across her round bottom, and Brady’s jaw went lax. Mentally he shook his head. Mercy.
“Perfect fit.” She broke his spell, pressing her legs out wide to demonstrate the leathers were exactly the right length.
“Uh, yeah. Good.” He had his horse saddled in no time. “Let’s load them into the trailer and go to the base camp.”
“Sure.” She slid off her horse as if she’d done this every day of her life.
“You know horses?” Brady glanced over his shoulder as he guided the two toward the trailer.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” was all she said.
Brady glanced one more time, but she didn’t look like she was willing to share. He shrugged and stepped back from the horses as they plodded into the trailer side-by-side.”
Brady closed the trailer gate while Heather climbed into the truck. They rode in silence. A first response fire truck, two sheriff’s SUVs, and several volunteers’ cars were parked in the scenic-turn-out. Brady pulled in and parked perpendicular so he could off-load the horses without blocking others who might be pulling in. Heather waited as Brady backed the horses out, then handed her the mare’s reins. She leapt into the saddle and was ready to go. Brady nodded, and took the lead. They walked the horses up to the canvas covered picnic table to get instructions. John Brockman spotted Brady and came out from under the cover.
“Glad you’re here, Master Chief.” His mouth twitched at the ends as though he was suppressing his amusement that Heather was with Brady. “Here’s what we know—
“A man in his early twenties, wearing an orange with blue trim Broncos t-shirt and cargo shorts, washed over the side of the raft when it hit a big whitewater chute. His life jacket popped out of the water, but he wasn’t seen. We assume he washed down river with the current.
“Just walk the bank and if you find him, here’s the number to text.” Brockman handed Brady a business card. “This probably isn’t going to be pretty, ma’am.” Brockman glared at Heather.
“I’m a Medical Examiner, Mr. Brockman. I can handle it.”
He jerked a nod. “Glad to have your help, ma’am.”
They turned their horses and headed down the bank to the river’s edge. “Let’s go up here a ways, there’s a bridge. You go on that side and I’ll stay over here. No telling which side he may wash up on.”
Heather nodded.
The bridge was solid concrete and iron. Heather urged her namesake to cross it and continued down the river on the opposite side from Brady. He glanced up from the water to watch Heather ride.
She sat tall in her saddle, her legs tightened, squeezing into the sides of the mare, signaling her to move up and down along the bank to avoid large debris. The mare responded to Heather with familiarity. It was as if she had ridden this horse all this time and knew the distinctions he had taught her. Heather looked good on L’il Dove. Brady liked having her along even though it was a morbid hunt.
Long shadows darkened the sides of the river as they rode. The horses prodded through the large rocks and driftwood debris along the riverbank. If the river hadn’t swept the man out of his orange t-shirt, he shouldn’t be hard to find. Brady scanned the river bottom as well as the bank where the water was deep, clear, and not frothed over with rapids. Even though he knew he was further ahead—
And dead.
The monster picked up a scent of death— human death— on the breeze that whipped back into his face. So Brady reasoned the guy couldn’t be under the water. Still he looked hard into the clear stream for the orange shirt, or bare skin, just to be thorough.
“I think I see him.” Heather shouted over the river’s flow. She pointed to Brady’s side at a large rabbit bush that hung over the rushing water a few yards ahead. Brady lifted his eyes to hers, then turned to follow her line of sight. He wouldn’t have seen it because of the overhanging bank, but the monster smelled it. Orange and dark soil-covered tan skin wadded in a tangle, caught by the spiky, dense bush that jutted out into the river.
“Yep.” Brady rocked his pelvis forward and turned his heels into the horse to hurry him over to the spot. He dismounted, letting Dick’s reins drag on the ground. Brady leapt into the water and leaned over the waterlogged body. The river flowed around Brady’s boots.
Heather zig zagged Li’l Dove at the bank on her side, antsy to get across and examine the body. “It’s him.” Brady stood. He pointed downriver. “Go a quarter mile further, there’s another foot bridge, you two can cross there.”
Heather jerked a nod and lunged her horse into a run up the bank and along the grassy edge of the embankment.
Brady squatted down next to the body. “Poor guy. This wasn’t how you imagined your day ending, was it? Well, mine hasn’t exactly been the way I expected either.” He lifted his phone and texted the number on the card.
“Body found.” He thumbed his GPS app and texted the coordinates. Taking a deep sorrowful breath, he stepped deeper into the water, and placed two fingers below the guy’s ear for good measure. Nothing.
Brady nodded. The beast already knew the man was very dead.
A distant siren sounded, as Heather on Li’l Dove clopped closer to where Brady still stood in the water. He didn’t want the man’s body to accidentally dislodge from the bush and trek on down the river. Heather slid from the saddle and rushed to Brady. Li’l Dove immediately lowered her head and munched on wild grass along with the gelding. “Did you—”
“Check for a pulse? Of course.”
“May I?” She pushed past him and tested for a carotid pulse anyway. “Time of death…” She stood back and lifted her phone. “Well, I’ll call it as now, but he obviously died an hour or so ago, we’ll know better when I can examine the body.”
“You?” Brady grimaced. “What makes you think you’re going to examine the body?”
“I’m here. Why not?”
“This isn’t your… jurisdiction. And besides, shouldn’t you be back at the hospital relieving your sister? It’ll be dark soon.”
Heather opened her mouth, looked around, then slammed her lips together. The ambulance pulled close as they could to the embankment and medical personnel spilled from their boxy vehicle.
“You found him!” a female EMT hollered. Two men ran to the back of the ambulance and pulled out the gurney. One guy laid out a black body bag on the bed while the other joined the driver next to the body. Brady stepped deeper into running water and helped lift the corpse from the entangled bush and lay him out on the prepared vinyl mattress.
They checked his vitals despite the obvious, then zipped the bag over his face and strapped him down before lifting it and crawling up the steep side. Soon he was in the ambulance and the EMTs were talking the Heather. She signed a piece of paper on a clipboard and handed it back to the driver. They drove away unceremoniously with no emergency lights or sirens.
Heather walked over to Li’l Dove and swung back into her saddle. “You ready?”
Brady stared at her Jeans stretched across her shapely backside. “You’re really going to stay and do the autopsy?”
She smiled. “No. Those guys told me Fremont County’s Medical Examiner was standing by.”
He tilted his head. “Okay. So, you going back to the hospital?”
“Yeah. I suppose I should.”
“Okay.” Brady mounted his horse and they rode back to the trailer, loaded the horses, and drove back to his place. The silence was unnerving. As was the exhilarating aroma wafting from Heather. She obviously loved her work and finding this body amplified her thrill from the discovery.
Brady clinched his jaw. Why did every emotion she felt excite the beast?

Once he pulle
d into his drive, he parked the truck next to his barn. “You don’t have to help with the horses. I’m sure your sister is wondering where you are?”
“No. Actually I texted her several times. She knows I helped with the body search.”
“And she’s not worried about you?”
“Brady. She’s got more important things to worry about than where I am.” Heather smirked.
He peaked one brow. “I thought that was why you came back to the Springs. To help relieve her.”
“Why are you so worried about my sister or me for that matter? Seems we’ve been doing just fine for the past twenty years without you worrying about us.”
Brady leaned back glaring at her. The angry tone in her words sparked something scintillating inside him. Or was it the beast? “Fine.” I don’t want your family more mad at me than they already are.
He yanked the door open and lunged, but the safety belt held him in his seat. He huffed aggravation and unbuckled the belt, then leapt out of the truck. Stomping to the trailer, he opened the tail gate. “Dick! Come on boy.” The horse backed out. Li’l Dove reacted to her equine partner and backed out too. Hudson plowed through the oversized dog door and ran to Heather. He circled Heather and leapt in the air on his hind legs, begging for her attention. She giggled and rubbed his cropped ears.
Brady took the horses reins, but Heather’s hand slid over his to take Li’l Dove’s from him. A wave of heat rushed up his arm at her touch. Goose flesh rippled across his back. His hair stood on end. The beast awakened.
Brady cleared the growl from his throat. “I’ve got this.”
Heather frowned. “I know you do. I can help. I know how to brush down a horse after a good run.”
“Suite yourself.” Brady stomped away, leading his horse into the barn.
Heather followed with Li’l Dove close at her heals. She held the mare’s reins loosely in her hand because she was following without force. Brady glanced back at her with a frown.
“Great,” he muttered under his breath.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.” Both my dog and my mare are traitorous heathens, that’s all.
Heather chuckled as she unstrapped the saddle, and pulled it from the mare’s back. Brady did the same with the gelding.
“I keep the saddles over there.” He pointed with his elbow as his hands were full of saddle but didn’t make any attempt to take the saddle from her.
She carried it and the blanket to the pony wall and laid them both out. She seemed to take in the aroma of the blanket as she laid it out flat. Did she inhale the musty scent of Li’l Dove’s blanket? Brady loved the smell of his horse after a good day’s ride. But he’d always assumed it was the beast in his blood. Could it be possible that humans enjoyed that aroma as well?
Brady picked up a brush and began brushing out the sweaty, musky coat of his horse, all the while suppressing the beast who wantonly inhaled drafts of the entangled scents of horse and Heather. Anger blended with the sweet aroma of arousal.
Where was that coming from? She looked angry. Acted impatient and agitated. Was he misinterpreting her emotions? The animal’s interest burned in his blood. Brady’s bones ached.
Not now. He begged the curse to go back to sleep. The last thing he needed at this moment was for her to see him in his true form and pass out from shock.
Then again, if the monster did show himself, it would make things easier to explain as to why he had left all those years ago.
No! He didn’t want her to ever know the truth. Dick side-stepped from the rough strokes Brady was applying as he brushed the gelding down. “Hold still!”
Heather’s hand gently, softly came over his, slowing his movements with the brush. “It’s not his fault.” She purred. Her nostrils flared.
Brady stilled, inhaling her luscious scent. His body hardened. Her nearness had always affected him like this. But this was keener. “Heather, I—”
He turned. Her pupils dilated as her gaze pierced him deeply. He swallowed against an arid throat. “Heather—”
“Shut up.” She leaned into him, pressing her body against his. Her eyes closed, as her lips parted, inviting him to kiss her. He lowered his lips to hers. Devouring her mouth. His tongue slipped across her lips and she willingly granted him access. Their tongues teased and danced in a passionate, frantic need to conquer the other. Heather’s hands grabbed his shirt, shoving it off his shoulders. He wriggled out of the burden and pulled her up into his arms. She leapt with his urgency and wrapped her long legs around his hips. He cupped her round bottom with both hands, holding her against him. His jeans drew tight across his arousal. He staggered forward pressing her against the stall wall. Her body molded into his. They were a perfect fit. His body longed for her.
Heather’s fingers entangled in his hair, pulling him harder against her mouth. Ahhh! Her hunger for him put his mind in a fog where there was nothing but him and her and this feeling of their bodies melding, as one lost soul finds another and becomes whole again.
“Wait!” Brady panted. It took every ounce of steel in his marrow to say it.
Heather pulled at the belt buckle at his waist. “No waiting!”
Brady gnashed his teeth with a groan. “No. Heather, wait.”
She lifted her head with an enormous gasp for air. “What?”
“We-we can’t do this.”
Panting, she breathed the words, “Why not?”
She kissed his jaw, trailing kisses to his ear. “Give me…” Her teeth scrapped against his ear lobe. Fire trailed down his spine, exploding in his loins.
“One good reason…”
His knees nearly buckled. “Ahhh, Heather. Because…” He swallowed against a Sahara dry throat. “I don’t— you can’t get pregnant.”
Heather leveled her eyes with his. “I know.” She blinked. “How did you know?”
Confusion clouded his brain. “What?”
“I can’t get pregnant. How did you know?” She unwrapped her legs, and he let her slide to her feet.
“How did I know what?” His brow knitted, as he searched for understanding in her amazingly warm eyes.
Heather turned her head slightly, her eyes remaining on his. “I cannot get pregnant. We tried, Justin and me. The doctor said something about heavy scaring in my Fallopian tubes? I don’t know what caused it. Something is wrong with me and I can never get pregnant.”
“But— our ba—”
“Yeah. I know. But now…” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m broken.”
“You’re not broken!” He engulfed her mouth into his, lifting her into his arms. Her legs wrapped around his hips, like before, and he shed his shirt completely. She unbuttoned hers and shrugged it away.
“You’re perfect.” Brady growled as he walked with her clinging to him, to a cot in the tack room next to the stalls. He kissed the soft skin between her mounds that were conveniently in front of his mouth as he carried her. Her head dropped back as a moan escaped her throat. The scent of heightened arousal rose from her pores like a musky perfume as Brady breathed in her pleasure.
Gently he laid her on the Indian blanket and stood. Pressing his boot toe to heel he removed the wet boots, and peeled out of his wet socks, then he unbuttoned his jeans. He watched her undo her jeans and shove them over her curvy hips. She giggled as she kicked them to the floor, just as his hit the ground beside hers. He stepped out of the denim. Placing one knee between her long legs, he paused before crawling on top of her. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, God. Yes, Brady! Make love to me.”
Her breast teased his senses under the lacy bra as he looked up from kissing her belly button. He trailed slow kisses toward the beautiful mounds. She arched her back and pressed her head back with a moan of ecstasy. Her short-trimmed fingernails squeezed his bulging ribbon of shoulder muscles.
Reaching up to hook one finger on her bra strap, he pulled it down, revealing what he sought. He kissed one taut bud, then the other, suckling and swirl
ing his tongue around its marble-hardness. She whimpered and writhed under his touch.
Sliding his hand behind her back, he pinched the bra clasp, releasing it and shoving it aside. Cupping and kneading her breast, he trailed kisses to her neck. Taking her earlobe into his mouth, he nibbled gently and pulled the lobe between his teeth. Her hips arched against his and he closed his eyes. He couldn’t hold off any longer. His mouth enveloped hers, their tongues sought each other with eagerness as their bodies merged in a rhythmic passion like he never knew with anyone but Heather.
She was his only weakness.
His blood surged against his eardrums nearly drowning out her passionate groaning. Their love entangled and fused together like hot metal becoming a new and different alloy. A guttural growl rose from her chest. Her fingers curled, digging into his flesh on his back as her body went taut. A silent scream caught in her throat.
The pulse of her ecstasy squeezed Brady, causing him to release his fervor. Their passion waned slowly, settling into exhaustion. They laid together, panting. Her heartbeat pounded against his. He kissed her neck and jaw, then her mouth. She sighed with contentment and opened her eyes. Gently, she pushed a moist tendril of hair from his forehead and smiled. “I’ve missed you, Brady Armstrong.”
He buried his face against her neck. “Oh Heather. You have no idea—
Her smile faded. She tilted her head. “Then… why didn’t you…” She pushed him aside and sat up, pulling her clothes into her lap. “Never mind.”
Quickly she dressed.
“Heather. Wait.” Brady pulled his clothes on. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah. You said that. What I want to know is why. Why? That’s all I want to know, Brady. Why did you leave me to bury our son… alone? Why did you disappear?” She grabbed her boots and slipped them on. “Just why— did you let me think I did something wrong?”
“No.” Brady touched her shoulder, but she jerked away. “It isn’t you. Heather, it’s me.”
She turned, brow peaked, hip cocked out and fist planted. But she was listening. He dug his fingers into his hair. “I-I can’t explain.”
His Only Weakness Page 5