by Billi Jean
She bit her lip, more relieved than she could understand as she nodded.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Of course,” she managed and tugged his hair gentler this time. “Just hungry again.”
“Now that I can help with. Here,” he said, handing her a foil wrapped lump.
She pulled at the foil and discovered a chocolate chip cookie. He snatched one and kissed her quickly, walking his horse on again ahead of her after. “I make ’em up and freeze them. One for you and one for me. Come on, firecracker. Keep up.”
The sharp pain in her throat caught her by surprise, but then again, maybe it didn’t. Cody. He was digging himself in so deep into her heart, what was she going to do when she had to leave him behind?
She watched his back as he rode and his broad shoulders blurred before she got her emotions under control. Maybe she needed to be more cautious, but how could she do that when everything he did just felt…right? Felt as if she never wanted to get off, let alone let him.
Chapter Fifteen
Cody could tell that Sonya was going to give him a run. She was full of secrets, too many for him to know even where to start. After two days and two more incredible nights with her, he still knew next to nothing about her.
She wasn’t US born, but that didn’t mean much. He didn’t care. But he had a feeling that where she was born had a lot to do with what she was doing now. And what she was doing now was a secret. He thought she was hiding out. It fit but didn’t.
He’d also taken Sonya with him all over, still hunting for Troy’s missing heifers. She’d spent the day asking all kinds of questions about ranching, cattle, life out here and how it was to grow up in one place. He’d answered, giving her everything on him, in the hopes she’d do the same. She hadn’t. But then, he’d not wanted to spoil the two days of riding with her by his side so he’d not asked much.
“How are your legs doing?” he asked, grinning when she stuck her tongue out playfully. Last night, after the second day of riding, she’d been tender in places she’d made sure he massaged thoroughly. He had and for once, she’d fallen asleep without them making love. He’d been so pleased he’d simply watched her sleep until he, too, had fallen under. She’d woken him with one hell of a blow job, which, of course, had pleased him even more. He swore if that’s what he got for a massage, he’d always want her happy ending.
She’d laughed and tried to tickle him again. If he had to pick what he liked about her best, it was her—all of her. He was in deep, much too far gone now to pull out.
Today he’d finally given up on the cows and had called and left a message for Troy that he had to take care of some things, but would call him later. For one, Sonya couldn’t have taken another full day of riding.
“I’m doing fine, thank you,” she said and wrapped her small arms around his neck, from behind, leaning into him to kiss the side of his head. “Where’s my lunch? Aren’t those done yet?”
“Demanding woman,” he grumbled but quirked his eyebrow at her when she waltzed over to sit next to him. “So tell me about your leg.” He handed her a plate full of two hot dogs, beans and a salad. “That enough for you?” he asked watching her smile turn to a grin.
“Thank you,” she murmured politely.
“You like hot dogs?”
“I love hot dogs. These look incredible.”
He snorted but she sounded so serious he got all silly happy about it. “You’ve made them before?”
“No way,” she said with a smirk. “I really am of no use in the kitchen.”
“I disagree,” he argued firmly. She’d been of use all right. He’d liked her there, and that was use enough. She’d tried to help, but even forking the potatoes for baking them, she’d had trouble. He could care less if she could cook or not. He liked to cook. He always had, since he’d been a teen and first learned the only thing between him and a good meal was how to read a cookbook.
Grandpops had shown him how to make a few things, but the younger Cody had found a few more until he’d had quite a few good meals under his belt. He wasn’t some kind of chef, but he liked to make what he liked, and Sonya had seemed pleased over his skill. She’d been curious, too, about everything he’d done and why. It was like she’d never spent time in a kitchen or with anyone that cooked.
I leave the past in the past.
That seems to include her parents.
“My leg,” she repeated and he blinked back into focus on her.
“Yeah, there’s not even a scar.” He’d checked it when he’d massaged her last night and there was nothing there. He’d not overreacted. She’d hurt herself pretty bad. He’d used butterfly bandages for a reason. Now there wasn’t a sign of scarring, let alone the gash from her climb.
She put ketchup, relish and mustard on her dogs, just like he liked them, then took a big bite, chewing with a sigh. She surprised him. Most women didn’t wolf down food. She finished her hot dog before he finished his. She’d eaten everything he’d made her and not surprisingly, he liked that. He’d felt comfortable with her over their meals and had enjoyed himself more than he could ever remember enjoying a dinner with another woman.
After dinner each night, she’d get up happy as can be, and try to clean all the plates, even trying to make him sit and relax instead of helping. He’d insisted because he wanted to kiss her every chance he got. They’d put on some surprisingly nice music, relaxed by the fire and watched Jasper and Blue play. The first night, she’d gotten up with a mischievous grin, fed and locked the dogs in a room, and come back in wearing nothing but a smile and holding a pint of Ben and Jerry’s strawberry ice cream.
He still thought he had some of the sticky stuff on his chest hair and lower, and that had been two nights ago. Not that he’d stop her from giving him that for dessert again.
“It was part of a program I signed on for with the government,” she said, pulling him out of his thoughts on time with her. “A project that was supposed to improve performance by reworking a person’s DNA strands. Kinda super soldier stuff. They needed men and women. I was one of the women.”
She made that sound as if she was an idiot.
He set his plate down with a hand that felt numb. This was more than he’d ever thought she’d share. DNA was not something to mess with. “DNA? That sounds like some dangerous shit. Why would the government get you on something that wasn’t perfect?”
“Why does the government do anything? Needless to say, I’m off the program. We all are. It was a fail all around.”
“A fail,” he repeated, swallowing before he could think of which question to ask first. This was secret. More than secret. She was tense, and by her body language this wasn’t an easy topic.
‘If I told you I’d have to kill you.’
He’d bet his left nut that was the truth, but he also understood he’d moved into territory with her that suggested she trusted him. Hell, of course she did. She knew he wanted more, knew he was not in it for something to help pass the time. He examined her profile and weighed what to say.
She glanced over at him and rolled her eyes. “Eat your hot dogs, then we can talk, as long as I don’t disturb the fish,” she added.
He snorted at the reminder. “I can listen and chew.”
“But I can’t talk and eat. You’ve worn me out, lover, so let me eat.”
The hell he had, but he loved that shit about her. She was not a shy woman when it came to sex. She loved it, clearly gave it her all and him, too. Besides, lover… Damn he liked to hear her call him that. He ate, though, not willing to push her now she was talking.
She ate her salad, then took a sip of the iced tea he’d brought for them and rolled her eyes at him when he didn’t eat quick enough, he assumed. He was probably thinking more than eating, but damn, super soldier DNA shit? He knew she was a badass, but was extreme. She was just too…pretty to do that kind of thing.
“Sonya, you don’t have to tell me this,” he finally said. She lifted her gaze to his an
d seemed to study him. “I want to know everything about you, true, but if you can’t,” he offered, “I understand.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said, after narrowing her eyes to scan his face. “You’ve answered all my endless questions.”
“I liked all your questions, and you didn’t ask me my service record.”
She tried to hide a smile at that, but he saw it in her eyes. “I’ll get to that. Don’t worry.”
He reached over and took her hand in his to kiss her wrist where the pulse warmed her skin. “Ask away, then, but go on, if you can. You hafta know I’ll keep it to myself.”
“Of course, lover,” she whispered softly. “I trust you, Cody,” she added, with an odd seriousness in her eyes. Before he could comment on that amazing fact, she cleared her expression and said, “It’s really not all that exciting. I was offered a spot with a new agency. Along with it came the trial drug.”
He dropped her hand and settled back against the logs he’d set up in a circle around the campfire.
She shrugged and sipped her drink again. He’d seen her face go from happy, surprised, to passionate, but now it was as if he couldn’t read her at all. She was blank. Not blank, exactly, but removed. Removed from the topic and perhaps the memories it brought up.
‘I leave the past in the past.’
“The drug proved to heal us quickly, but the downside to that was people would get harmed and ignore their wounds then die from loss of blood or dehydration.”
“What? Shit…” He rubbed his neck and thought about that. “So the warnings your body gives you naturally to slow you down were missing.”
“Exactly. It didn’t grow back limbs either,” she added.
“No, I guess not.”
“It really was a fouled up situation,” she muttered then sipped her tea again—he guessed more to gather what to say than because she was thirsty. She drank a lot of water. A soldier did that, stayed hydrated, and ate what they could, when they could. An agent would do the same thing, especially when on a mission.
“Yeah, wouldn’t that be something,” he remarked. “But you said it was DNA altering. How is that?”
She grimaced. “I don’t really know other than it forms new links, adding on to what’s there so that it enhances it in a way, if that makes sense?”
He nodded. It did and didn’t. What would they enhance on Sonya?
“Anyway, it does speed up healing and make your body react quicker, almost like you would say to yourself I want to jump that twenty-foot crevice, and the next thing you knew you were across, standing on the other side.”
“Damn,” he murmured. “And they discontinued this? Why?” He didn’t bother asking who they were. She probably wouldn’t say.
“The side effects were much more dangerous than the benefits.”
He believed that, too. A DNA altering drug that sped up a body’s reactions, but also took away the triggers that would normally slow down a soldier so that he’d recover, didn’t sound good. It had to be worse than what she was saying.
“And you signed up for this?”
She was so…womanly, he couldn’t picture her doing anything so dangerous. Yesterday flashed through his memory, how she’d looked hanging, without ropes, on that cliff face. She was small, but strong. A few times she’d broken his hold, not that he’d ever held her down, or would, but she’d twisted like someone who knew how to break free from another.
“At the time I had nothing to lose. Anyway, I’m not on it any longer. No one is, but some of the stuff lingers.”
“What kind of side effects are we talking? Like headaches, shit like that?”
“Yeah, aches, all that.”
She’d sidestepped nicely. It was a talent, but he also guessed she was trained. Her expression remained blank, and he sensed she’d stop talking soon. In case she did, he went on. “You were—or are—an agent? For who?”
She blinked and set her plate down. “It’s not important, is it? I’m not any longer. I’m kinda here to…” She took a breath, held it and let it go on a deep sigh. Her green eyes turned a little warmer and she gave him a half smile. “I guess get my life back together. Get back to being the way I was before.”
Just like me.
They sat in silence for a while after that. He was too stunned by all she’d said and revealed to ask more. The details she’d shared were a huge act of trust on her part. An agent, and for someone she wasn’t willing to talk about, so that meant only one thing—deep undercover ops. By the size of her, he’d guess spy, but he could be wrong. Knowing her, she trusted him because she’d done a background check on his service record.
“What about you? Ranger, huh?”
He grinned because he knew she’d researched much more and now she was digging—just like he had—but with the knowledge to go with the questions.
Good for him he wasn’t about to lie to her.
“Yeah,” he said, suddenly embarrassed at the admiring shine in her green eyes.
“Why Rangers?”
He shrugged. “My dad was Army. I went Army. Rangers? Well, I liked the challenge. Bit too much, though,” he added and stretched his leg out.
“Yes, a bit too much,” she agreed. “And you were engaged. She left you because of this?” she asked, gesturing to his face and leg.
His neck heated. “Yeah, she did.” He didn’t ask how she knew. Rangers were trained, highly trained, but an agent like Sonya would have been able to pin a man in seconds. He’d given her days.
She was a puzzle to him, though. He had her pegged for late twenties, but that might’ve been off by ten years. She had a young face, with very few wrinkles, so there was no telling her age. With a drop dead gorgeous figure Marilyn Monroe would’ve envied, she would have been a spy or something like that—intelligence, or recon, much like him.
“Well, if you want my opinion,” she said, after another space of silence.
He nodded. He wanted to know what Sonya thought. She wasn’t telling him half of what made her tick, but neither was he. Not really.
“She probably regretted it. If she didn’t?” Sonya shrugged. “You are better off without her because anyone that selfish to throw away something not ‘perfect’ would have found another reason to leave you.”
She sounded like she’d experienced that before—someone leaving her because she wasn’t perfect. But she was. He’d seen every inch of her, he knew she was perfect. Every bit of her glowed with healthy toned flesh and what wasn’t lean with firm muscles wasn’t meant to be. The pillowy softness of her breasts was a blessing and one he enjoyed completely. There was no way she was someone he would ever leave. He’d known that after the first day. Now she had him hook, line and sinker.
Today she’d stunned him with another pair of baby blue jeans, a pink and gray button-down cowgirl shirt that gaped beautifully at her breasts. She’d tucked her jeans into a pair of cute cowboy boots and had braided her hair again. He liked the way she’d let some of her red hair fall to frame her face. He leaned over and brushed his lips to the warmth of her forehead. Her hair smelled amazing, and was that bright red, a true redhead, color that did something odd to him. What about her doesn’t?
“What?” she suddenly murmured. “What’s wrong?”
“Not a thing,” he assured her. “You’re just so damn pretty sometimes I get caught up in it.”
She shook her head slightly and gave him that half smile. “You’re a nut.” But she reached out and brushed his hair off his brow. Her green eyes warmed up to that point that he knew what she wanted—and he was on board with that.
He grinned and pulled her so that she straddled his lap as if she’d been doing it for years. He cupped her jeans-covered butt and rubbed down the cleft of her ass as he pulled her in. “I think it’s my turn to eat you for dessert, darling,” he warned her.
“Oh, do you think so?” she teased and slid her hands up to the back of his neck and played with his hair. Settling firmly on him, no doubt getting a thrill
from his hard-on, she leaned in close and pressed her ripe breasts right under his nose. “I thought I’d give you a ride, cowboy, while you give my breasts the attention they deserve from that mouth of yours, instead of just your eyes.”
He laughed. Busted. He’d been unable to think properly for half the ride. “Hell, I was just waiting for this”—he slipped the top button of her shirt free—“to pop open the whole ride.”
She laughed happily and shimmied her breasts so that they bounced right against his face. He swore that his cock nearly ripped through his jeans. He didn’t pass up the offering and dove in, kissing every soft, quivering inch he could reach.
Jasper suddenly barked and Cody glanced over to see their fishing poles jumping.
“Shit, we got one!” he yelled, standing quickly.
“We do?” she asked, so excited that he reached out and steadied her so that she didn’t fall down on her butt. “Settle down, firecracker. Here, take this.” He grabbed the pole and handed it to her, then grumbled, “Does this mean my dessert is postponed for some fish?”
She gave him a confused frown as if he’d lost his mind and tried to give it back. “It does, but you get it! I don’t know how to use that—”
“No, just here.” He pulled her against him and circled his arms around her, trying to ignore how her lush butt bumped into his full erection. “Trust me and I won’t steer you wrong. Now, just do this,” he said, indicating how to reel the line in, then put her hands on the right spots and held her while she tried.
She laughed delightedly and gasped when he helped her to pull the trout out of the creek. It was a big one, too—a nice size dinner, easily.
“Good, that’s it. Now pull this.” He showed her the right way to ensure that the line didn’t break and she gave him a big smile over her shoulder. “See, I told you it was fun.”
She didn’t argue but she was so damn cute trying to reel the fish in that he laughed.
“What? Am I doing it wrong?” she demanded.
He shook his head. “Nope, you got it. That’s it. Just go easy. Be careful or it will break free.”