by Billi Jean
She smirked and walked over carefully on her bare feet. She had red toenail polish on and yeah, he liked how cute that was.
“Aren’t you cold?” he asked.
“No, why? Are you?” She tiptoed to kiss him.
All right he was a goner because he liked that—how she just did what she wanted—scolded him, ignored his grumbles or kissed him. It worked. Besides, he curled his arm around her waist and drew her closer to deepen the kiss. He got the best of it all—her. He bet on being one of very few that did. Can I be the last?
“Dinner, huh? Where is dinner?” she asked after making his day all worth it with a kiss that warmed him from his head to his toes.
“There’s a place two towns over. They have nice pizza.”
She drew her delicate eyebrows down adorably. “You want me to drive for how long to get pizza?”
“Oh, about an hour,” he calculated, watching her expressive face turn astonished.
“For pizza?”
She made that sound insane.
He shrugged and smiled. “Well, it’s good.”
“I have good frozen pizza—”
“Hell, that sounds better,” he said and bent and before she could stop him, he picked her up so he could carry her in his arms. “You sound even better, though.”
“Cody!” She hit his shoulder, but half-heartedly. Jasper barked and Blue joined in. “See what you did? You’ve scared the dogs with all your macho-ness.”
Macho-ness? “Is that so?” he asked and walked her to the door, the dogs playing all around them. “They’re fine. We’ll feed them, too, after.”
“What about your horse?” she asked, staring over his shoulder at his gelding.
“He’s fine. I’m the one that just got his ass chewed. I think I deserve some attention, don’t you?”
She twisted her lips and gave him an assessing stare that must work to scare off most men. He simply waited. “I didn’t tell you to leave.”
“You didn’t ask me to stay, either,” he reminded her, walking in and shutting the door with his foot right before the dogs could come in and cause trouble.
He got an oddly calculated glance at that, then she sniffed and made a face. “You need to shower.”
“Deal. Come with me,” he tacked on and set her down on her feet.
She sighed as if put upon and rolled her eyes. “I’m not dirty.”
“Oh, I hate to correct a lady, but you, firecracker, are very dirty,” he whispered the last behind her ear and squeezed one lush cheek of her ass, walking her backwards with his bigger body. Hell, he liked how she teased. She was quick, so smart he couldn’t pull anything on her.
“Cody!”
He laughed, but as she’d done last night, he didn’t take no for an answer. This wasn’t about sex, but it was about fun and he saw the way her eyes glowed with happiness at his teasing. She was enjoying herself and that, he hoped, was one way in past that wall she was attempting to keep between them.
He’d secure this then those damn cows, if need be.
Once in a lifetime… She was a once in a lifetime chance.
Chapter Eleven
Sonya stared at Cody. The light of the new day just peeked in from the windows and he finally slept soundly. His amazing body was relaxed. His penis was finally flaccid, still big, but not nearly as large as he’d been all night.
Well, almost all night. When he had gotten soft, he’d just gone down on her until he was primed again and after driving her crazy with oral, tossed or turned her however he wanted so he could make love to her again.
Not just sex, either. Nope, she knew, it wasn’t sex. Cody had been making love. And that was the problem.
A big, big problem because I liked it. I liked it so much I want to curl up in his arms even now and hold him close, brush back his blond hair off his brow and kiss him there while he sleeps.
So. Not. Cool.
Blue made a puppy whimper when she walked by him but the pup stayed sleeping, no doubt exhausted from her trip yesterday. Jasper lifted his head to watch her while she penned a note to Cody asking him to feed and let Blue out then added that she’d be gone a few hours.
She debated over the last, but in the end she added it in the hopes that he would come back.
Bad move, but I don’t seem to know how to make good ones anymore.
Whether or not he came by again shouldn’t really have mattered, but it did. She’d missed him yesterday. It was the way he had such fun—usually at her expense, she noticed, but not always. The pillow fight, the dirty talk, the just plain fun way he enjoyed himself. He’d wolfed down the pizza, then made more, complaining the entire time about how much she’d eaten. Really, she liked being around him, which freaked her out. She liked to be alone. Right?
She adjusted her backpack straps and glanced around in the pre-dawn light. Cody’s horse was tethered to a stake in the ground, sleeping, judging by the way he had his head down. Her SUV was locked up tight and she could sense that no one had been around, not that she’d been paying attention. She still buzzed happily from the sex. If someone had been to the house, she doubted she’d have known even if they’d yelled.
When have you ever let go so much that you weren’t aware of what was going on?
She couldn’t think of a single time since she’d first learned how hard this world could be that she’d been so completely unaware of her surroundings.
That was one reason her departure was vital. The soft, warm way he’d caressed her after doing things to her body that most certainly rocked her world also made this hike necessary.
Cody was an amazing lover. He went for it all out, as if he was just as hot to come as she was. And when he did reach orgasm, the sounds he made… She shivered just remembering his uninhibited groans and grunts. But he was a lover, not a casual sex, see you later guy. Last night he’d opened the door to the wood stove and they’d curled up on the couch to watch the flames. He’d played with her hair until he’d fallen asleep. It had felt so odd resting with him and enjoying that as much as, if not more, than the way he made love to her.
All around, he was not good. Not good at all.
She had this drug to wear off, a man after her who wanted to kill her as painfully as possible and a life to work out now that she was no longer in the Sentinels.
Walters was a concern. No matter what Ace said, or Tazz, or even Commander Carson, Walters would know she’d sent Tazz in there to kill him, and he’d know Duke had been fully behind that decision—because of her. Walters wouldn’t let that go.
A shiver raced up her spine. The instinctual agreement just affirmed what she already knew. She was in danger. Even here, she wasn’t safe. The huge mountains, and big, open sky were beautiful but she could think of hundreds of locations where a man with a rifle could end her time here without giving her even a second’s warning. That, she imagined, would be how Walters did it—from a distance, watching her through his scope and killing her like some mark. Nothing more. Nothing less. Unless he wanted to torture her first.
She had to think smarter than him, be smarter and not lose focus or she would be dead.
None of that had room for a sexy cowboy named Cody Johnson who also was a wonderful lover and a war hero. A man who made another pizza and fed her bites while he grumbled about how much she didn’t look as hungry as he was. Or brought her pup back to her and let her rant at him while he tried not to grin. That kind of man was a keeper.
There wasn’t room for that in her life right now. Is there?
The mountain hike and hopefully a climb, would give her time to find some distance to put him in a position where she could deal with him. Obviously, she needed it if a man she had just met had her worried about what he meant to her.
The jagged, rough rocks she was going to climb would help settle her mind and body. She’d discovered that rock climbing with its danger, plus the amount of energy she dispelled, was nearly as good as sex for calming her fidgets.
Maybe that wasn
’t so true any longer. She thought of how many times Cody had brought her to climax effortlessly with his fingers and mouth—something that usually took a man a long time, too long for most men to bother with—and wondered about the truth in that statement. She’d rather have Cody than rock climbing any day, and that was a problem.
A girl had to be cautious with a man who settled her next to him on the bed and told her she had the most beautiful hands he’d ever seen, while he held hers up to his.
The man was going after something else here and it wasn’t just sex.
The high peak of a cliff slowly came into view, providing a challenge and an opportunity to get a break from her worry over Cody’s motives. Climbing took all her concentration, so maybe the solution to Cody would occur to her after. Right now, she needed a break from the constant buzz of her thoughts.
She’d borrowed climbing equipment from Ace, but she’d also brought her own ropes, shoes and harness.
Sitting on a rock, she sighed deeply then took a drink as she admired the mountains around her. The sun was up much higher. By now Cody was probably up. She doubted he’d sleep for long, especially with her gone.
He seemed like the kind of man that nothing would pass him by without his notice. Not an inch of her body had, that was for certain. She still tingled in all the right places and they hadn’t even gone down some roads she’d wanted to travel. She liked that…how he took his time to learn what turned her on. Not that he seemed to need time. He’d found almost all her triggers within hours of knowing her.
The skill he had with his tongue and fingers was truly gifted. He knew exactly what she liked. When he brought her to climax with his fingers, Cody didn’t merely accomplish that feat—he knew to leave his fingers inside her so she had had something to bear down on when she clenched.
Most men didn’t know shit about making love. They just thought grinding against a woman until they were hard then fucking in and out was it. Why do more?
Cody had done that—Oh yeah, had he!—but with him it had just been different. Every time, too. But that didn’t mean she should want to sleep all curled up to him and make him pancakes in bed. Or coffee. Or pick up his clothes. She didn’t even know how to make pancakes.
But she wanted to learn so she could surprise him, which was…a problem.
“Enough, Petrok, just let it go.”
She put her water away, took her hiking boots off and put on her climbing shoes. Her heart rate was already increasing, fueling her for the high, hard climb. The rock face appeared solid, but there was always a chance of a piece crumbling off or a chunk giving under her weight. She’d go freestyle until it got tricky then rely on her equipment. Once at the top, she’d see what else she wanted to do. It might be enough of a climb to get her brain right, or she might need more.
She wondered if Cody climbed. His leg would be difficult but they made prosthetics for climbers.
“Ah, God,” she muttered and took her first hand hold on the cliff. “No more Cody.”
Climbing required all her concentration, which was perfect because she couldn’t stop wondering if Cody had found her gone yet and if he had, what he’d done.
Halfway up the cliff she ran into her first serious trouble. The climb had been pretty solid granite but now she was on a tricky area where the cliff turned a bit crumbly. She reached for a ledge with her hand and pulled. It broke free, as she had expected, and tumbled down the side of the mountain. The echo of it crashing down made her heart rate increase. She examined her upward choices. Not too many. If she was going on, she’d need to either pull out some rope, or go down, then maybe over.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Cody’s angry shout caught her by surprise. She had solid rock under her toes, but up this high, any distraction, let alone an angry cowboy hollering at her, wasn’t good.
“Shit, ignore me and just go left!” he yelled almost immediately after his first shout.
She examined the area on her left and sure enough, there was a good-sized overhang she’d missed at first glance. She reached for it, tested it firmly and found it sound. She pushed up with her feet, gaining the upward path easily enough to make it for several more minutes before she had to stop. The next bit was easier, only a long stretch for her, but she carefully took the step, aware the entire time of Cody below her.
After several more steps, she pulled out her line and secured it with a camming device to the rock. She fed the rope through her draws and belay for the trip down, then she gained the ledge using the last of her strength to clamber up over a rough patch and beyond. Once on the ledge, she let the light breeze cool her face before she rolled onto her stomach to where Cody had yelled at her.
He was on his big gray, of course, and even from where she was, she could tell he was pissed off.
She grinned. When had a man not been angry with her for taking risks? It seemed men could and did jump into the line of fire, but women weren’t allowed—so she waved.
“Hey, you’re up early,” she shouted.
He shook his head and took his Stetson off and whacked it on his leg, turning his handsome face away from her. It was so cute that she laughed, but softly so he wouldn’t hear. His blond hair had that ring around it he got from wearing the hat. She was glad he wasn’t still in the Rangers because she liked his hair. It wasn’t long by any means, but it reached his collar and enough got on his forehead for her to brush off. Plus, she loved to pull on it when he hit that spot with his erection—kinda like directing him with the hold.
“What the hell are you doing up there and, hell, while we’re at it, out of bed? Did you even sleep?” he demanded. His husky voice rose a bit high in his indignation with her. “I expected—”
“You know, I’d love to have this conversation, but I’m not good at yelling,” she said, then went ahead and asked what was bugging her, “How did you find me?”
She thought he cursed but she wasn’t sure. He set his hat back on his head and pointed to her right. “Go that way. I’ll be there in half an hour. We need to talk. And I tracked you, that’s how!”
“Impressive,” she whispered. Not many could, even when she wasn’t trying to hide her tracks.
Blue barked and ran circles around his dog. Cody didn’t glance up again, but he whistled and his dog fell in line as he started his horse up a trail she assumed would meet up with where he’d told her to go.
If she went.
Well, I have to. He has Blue.
She shouldn’t have felt a burst of happiness at that.
She dug out a protein bar and ate it while she rested. It was past noon, more near two in the afternoon and finally she had a firm grip on her anxiety. Not so much on Cody, but she’d see what transpired in ‘half an hour’ and go from there.
She’d never been in a situation like this with a man. Oh, she’d had lovers, but they’d been weak, eager to have her by their side men, not tough as nails cowboys who’d been wounded saving lives. And she’d never really spent time with them. Not really. In bed, sure, and out on the town, but not real time, time. More going out time. Yesterday and the day before had flown by when he was there.
Maybe she should tell him she had once been a spy—and not for the US. He’d not blinked over her being raped. Oh he’d been pissed off at that, but he’d not been disgusted by her. Working as a spy for another country might get him all worked up.
For some reason she doubted it. She wasn’t a spy now, after all. She guessed with Cody the here and now mattered more than what had happened to her over a lifetime ago.
What am I going to do then? Can I just wait out here and allow someone else to take care of Walters and see what happens between Cody and me?
She brushed her hands on her climbing pants and stood. She had no idea. See where this went maybe and just settle her anxiety down.
How bad could it be to like and respect a man I have sex with? Maybe even want more than sex?
The next bit of climb appeared
to be easy, so she packed her equipment away and resettled her pack on her back. Less than half an hour and she was sitting topside, sipping her water when Cody came into view.
She caught the relief on his face before his expression turned into a scowl. She glanced away to hide the immediate funny burst of happiness she got from that.
Blue raced for her, so happy that the puppy wiggled and kissed her repeatedly.
“Hey, Blue, you sweetie. Did you get a walk with this mean ol’ man? Was he nice to you? Did he feed you at least, you poor baby?”
“Of course I fed her,” he snapped. “I’m not mean. What are you saying?”
“Well, you look a bit mean with that scowl.”
He blinked, taken aback by her comment, she guessed, but he quickly narrowed his eyes warily. “Don’t change the subject.”
“Change the subject?” she asked, watching him get down off his horse and shoot her another dirty look. “I wasn’t aware we were discussing a topic that I had suddenly changed.”
“You know what I mean. Why did you come up here? And up that?” he demanded, pointing to the cliff.
“I like to climb.”
At her easy statement, he widened his eyes. He also waited, as if she had more to say or would say, then shook his head at her.
“You like to climb? That’s a load of— Hell, you’ve sliced your leg!” He was by her side and down on his knee before she even knew what he was talking about. Sure enough, on the back of her calf there was a slice. She’d smeared the blood along her leg and over to the front from the climb, she assumed, but it wasn’t a bad slice.
“Oh, it’s not bad—”
Cody didn’t seem to agree. “Shit, this is deep. How could you not feel this? Let me get my bag. I don’t—”
“Cody,” she stopped him when he made to rise to his feet. “It’s okay. It’s not that deep. I must have scraped it. All that blood makes a mess, but I’m okay.”
She hadn’t felt it, or she had, but the pull on her leg hadn’t hurt, more an annoyance, but she remembered now. There’d been a rock she’d gone for and her leg had swung out and smashed into a jutting corner when she’d gained her upward climb.