by Jenny Penn
“Heather,” GD called out that warning but she didn’t heed it.
Turning as quick as she could, she slammed right into Konor, who had come up silently behind her. Her nose bent against the hard wall of his chest as her cheek plowed into the soft cotton of his shirt. Instantly the heady scent of whiskey and leather flooded her senses, drugging her with a dizzying warmth that had her weaving on her feet as Konor’s fingers curled around her arm and shoved her backward.
“Watch out now,” Konor warned as he set her away from him with a frown that highlighted the rough cut of his features.
God, but he was gorgeous. Heather stared up at him, marveling that a man could look so damn good. She didn’t know what it was, couldn’t have explained it for the life of her, but some people just glowed hotter and brighter than all the rest. That was Konor. He was the flame, drawing Heather to him like a moth.
“Heather? You okay?” GD nudged her hard enough to cause her gaze to dip and break the spell that Konor had woven over her.
“I’m fine,” Heather muttered, flushing with heat as she realized she now had everybody’s attention.
She had to remember not to look up at Konor. Instead, she stared straight over her shoulder as she attempted once again to escape the trap she could almost feel forming around her.
“I was just about leave, though, and—”
“You’re not walking her back to your car alone,” GD interrupted, taking on his stubborn tone, the one that assured Heather that his mind was made up.
“I can walk her to her car,” Konor offered, giving Heather a start that had her heart jack-rabbitting around her chest.
She completely forgot about the rule she’d just laid down for herself and glanced over at him. Almost instantly, she flushed with a renewed heat as her eyes clung to the enticing ripple of muscles flexing through Konor’s chest as he took the hand GD offered him.
“Thanks, man.” GD gave Konor a nod before giving Heather another nudge. “I’ll catch up with you later, okay?”
“What? Huh?—GD!” Heather stared in amazement as the big man walked away, abandoning her to Konor’s care while he and the sheriff fell into deep conversation.
“Don’t worry.” Konor caught her hand in his, weaving his fingers through hers to offer her a quick squeeze. “I’ll see that you get to your car safely.”
With that assurance, he turned and headed for the front of the parking lot, leaving Heather little choice but to follow him or get dragged along.
* * * *
Konor held his grin as he covertly watched Heather skip to keep up with the fast pace he set. It was deliberate, all part of his plan and his plan was moving along perfectly. Although the fight had been an unexpected wrinkle, it had turned out to be just a golden opportunity, one he’d taken instant advantage of.
Not that Konor could have pulled it off without GD’s help. The hand off between them couldn’t have been better executed. Neither could the outcome have been more perfect. Alex was distracted, and Heather was all his…at least for the moment.
Eventually, though, Alex would catch on. He’d pitch a fit, no doubt, and Konor couldn’t blame him. It was natural not to want to get hurt, especially by a woman who had already betrayed him, but that had been a long time ago. Heather had been young and foolish. She’d made a mistake, and now it was time for Alex to forgive her.
That thought fueled the anticipation thickening in Konor’s veins as he considered how long the tension between Heather and Alex had simmered. It was ready to explode, and Konor couldn’t wait to drown in the passion. Instinctively he knew how it would be between Heather and them—wild, hot, and wet. Definitely wet because he planned on making her come so many times she would be dripping with her need.
Dripping and begging, that’s how Konor planned to keep her.
Konor was taking a stand. Even better, he had a plan and the next part was the fun part.
Chapter 3
“It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” Konor asked, finally breaking the silence thickening in the air between them as they ambled slowly down the sidewalk toward the Bread Box. “It’s nice and clear. I bet if you got a few miles out of town, you could see every star in the sky.”
“It’s perfect,” Heather whispered, even though her eyes didn’t stray from the cracked sidewalk in front of them.
The night could have been overcast and bitter cold with a lethal wind that cut through to the bone, and she still would have said the same. Konor Dale was holding her hand. His thumb was gently stroking over her palm in a soft caress. It was like she was living in a dream, only in her dreams she floated alongside him fully engaged in the moment.
In reality, Heather could barely catch her breath, let alone a thought. Her heart pounded in time with the callused brush of his thumb over and over an area Heather had never before considered sensitive. It was on fire now.
The heat was searing up her arm, flushing through her body like a brushfire until Heather knew she was blushing from the intense burn. It felt so good. So good and so wicked, because her palm wasn’t the only thing beginning to throb with a need to be put under Konor’s thumb.
“It could be better,” Konor stated with soft certainty.
“Huh?” Heather made the mistake of glancing up at him, caught by the suggestion in his words much as she was by the mesmerizing whirl of Konor’s gaze.
He had the most amazing eyes. They were ice blue with shards of smoky grays and pure whites shifting constantly within them like a never-ending kaleidoscope. Heather would have been content to simply stare at him for the rest of her days. She couldn’t do that, but she could have this moment.
“I’m just saying, it could be better. I mean, I know of a spot were the grass grows thick and soft, where crickets and frogs serenade us and a whole universe full of constellations waits to entertain us.” Konor cast her a crooked smile that would have charmed a saint into sinning. “If you’re interested?”
Was she ever, and if she didn’t have a son waiting for her at home, Heather might have given into temptation. Taylor came first, though. Konor wasn’t the type of man a woman brought home to meet her son, and Heather had vowed long ago not to subject her son to her deplorable taste in men. That meant her answer had to be ‘no’.
“You don’t really expect me to fall for that obviously well-rehearsed line, do you?” Teasing him with a soft smile, Heather knew she was playing with fire but couldn’t help herself. Besides, she rationalized, she didn’t have time to get burned. She could already see the sign for the Bread Box up ahead.
“No,” Konor admitted with a devilish glint sparkling in his eyes. “But a man can always hope, can’t he?”
“Dreams are free.” Unable to hold his gaze, Heather turned her attention back down the road as she fought hard to keep the quivering flutter of the butterflies filling her stomach out of her tone. “But reality should always be questioned...especially when a woman is dealing with a Cattleman.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The hint of gloating smugness in Konor’s denial assured Heather her accusation had amused him. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
“About?” Heather asked cautiously, not daring to hope that he’d make her own dreams finally come true.
“Alex.”
She should have known better than to be so foolish. Some dreams were too good to come true and others were nightmares Heather couldn’t wake up from. Alex had the rare distinction of being both.
“About Alex, you, me, and our future,” Konor qualified, as if that made any sense.
“Future?” Heather repeated with doubtful confusion. “We don’t have a future.”
It was like she hadn’t even spoken. Konor completely ignored her, continuing blithely on as if she hadn’t just turned him down. “I know things are probably going to be difficult at first, but I think we can overcome all obstacles if we established and followed a few rules to our courtship.”
“Uh…Konor? You feeling all r
ight?”
“Me?” Konor shot her a surprised look as he shook his head. “I’m fine. Actually better than that, I’ve already come up with a short list of things that should be easy enough for you to agree to.”
Heather blinked, still lost on what he was talking about but beginning to get a grim idea. “You want me to agree to…follow? Rules?”
“Of behavior.”
“Uh-huh.” Heather eyed Konor, not liking the sound of that at all.
She knew just what it sounded like. It sounded like obnoxious Cattlemen arrogance. After all, the Cattlemen were notorious for loving to control women, right along with sharing them, and, most importantly, disciplining them.
There couldn’t be punishment if there weren’t rules to be broken.
“And the first rule is the most important rule.” Konor drew her to a stop at the corner of the parking lot that served both the Bread Box and the rest of the Main Street shops. “There is only you, me, and when he comes around, Alex, in this relationship. No straying. You won’t like the consequences.”
Like the lash of a whip, Konor’s hardening tone cut through Heather’s mirth, going deep enough to have her stiffening as the pain of that unjust accusation sparked her temper. That quickly, her fantasy died as the nightmare that had been haunting her for yeas rose to take its place.
She knew just why Konor felt the need to issue such a threat, knew he thought she’d cheated on Alex once already. That’s what everybody thought, what Alex let everybody think, and what Heather wouldn’t waste her time trying to correct. Everybody who counted knew the truth.
Everybody but Konor and Heather already knew where his loyalties lay.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Heather shot back, jerking her hand free of his as she stepped pointedly back. “But the first rule is that there are no rules because there is no courtship, there is no Alex, you, and me, and there is absolutely no chance of a future.”
With that line drawn, Heather pulled herself up tall and proud as she put an end to both the dream and the nightmare with a polite farewell.
“Thanks for walking me, but I think I got it from here.”
She didn’t bother to wait for him to agree or disagree, but turned and walked away. It was one of the hardest things Heather had ever done. It was for the best, though.
* * * *
Konor smiled as he watched Heather walk away. The woman couldn’t possibly believe she could escape him that easily. If she did, then she had a lot to learn. Her education was about to begin.
That thought had Konor sauntering forward, though he checked his pace so that he followed behind Heather, allowing him to admire the pure locomotion of her walk. God, but the woman was a temptation, and all he really wanted to do was walk up right behind her and bend her over. There would come a time when he’d have the right to do just that, and being out in pubic wouldn’t stop him.
That time was not tonight, however. Tonight they just had get through the rules. He started with the very first one.
“Rule number two—” Konor stepped up behind Heather to slam her car door shut before she could pull it more than an inch open. “—there will be no running away.”
“Konor?” Heather started, spinning around with a gasp. “What—”
“Rule number three,” Konor said, cutting Heather off, pressing in close to keep her pinned against the car. “There will be no hiding behind your son.”
“Excuse me?” Heather jerked back as a blush flared across her cheeks.
The heat could have been from the anger he could see flashing in her magnificent hazel eyes, or it could have been from the arousal that had the soft mounds of her breast swelling against his chest, their peaks puckering into hard points that all but begged for his attention.
Right then, Konor didn’t know and didn’t care. All that mattered was testing Heather’s limits and discovering if she was really the woman for Alex and him.
“Rule number four, never lie.” Konor kept his tone hard, hiding the laughter tickling at the back of his throat as he watched Heather’s perfectly pouted mouth fall open in shock. He had her off guard now, and he didn’t intend to let her find her balance any time soon.
“And you don’t dismiss yourself,” Konor informed her, knowing he was stoking both her indignation and her desire as he leaned down to growl right against her lips. “You wait to be dismissed, and I’m not done with you just yet.”
He gave her a second, allowing her one chance to tell him to go to hell before he claimed what he already considered his, but Heather hesitated. Trembling against him, her breath caught in the back of her throat before rushing out in a sigh that trembled with confusion and want.
“Konor?”
The painful ache simmering in his blood thickened at the soft, submissive question hidden in her tone, and it tempered the hard pulse of lust driving him to ravish instead of seduce. Reaching out with a gentle hand, he brushed the hair back from her cheek before allowing his fingers to curve around her neck to tip her head up and meet the teasing brush of his lips as he peppered her face with soft butterfly kisses. Between each delicate caress, he made his position clear.
“From this point on, sweetness, you belong to me.” Konor hesitated, lifting his head enough to capture her gaze with his. “And I take care of what belongs to me.”
“I don’t belong to anybody.”
Konor loved that bit of fight that rallied in her, but it was the husky want in her whisper that stroked over him like a velvety caress, arousing his need to dominate. He didn’t hold anything back when he leaned down to rub his cheek against hers and whisper right into her ear.
“I know how you look at me when you don’t think I’ll notice.” That had her stilling, tensing beneath him as he slowly continued with his revelation. “I know how you go to your back office on Wednesdays just so you can watch me wash the fire truck. I can feel your gaze, hot…hungry…devouring. Just like it was in high school.”
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Heather stuttered over her words as her fear betrayed itself, but she didn’t let that stop her. Bravely, she dared to deny him. “I didn’t even know you existed until tonight. What was your name again?”
Konor tipped his head back and laughed, enjoying the challenge she presented. She was smart, smart enough to watch him with a cautious look that warned Konor she was getting ready to try to bolt. Clearly she’d already forgotten rule number one. He planned on punishing her for that fact, and planned on her enjoying every minute of it.
Shifting to settle his weight more firmly against her, Konor made damn sure she felt every thick inch of the erection trying press its way through his zipper, wanting her to know exactly what she did to him, exactly how hard she made him, and how badly he hurt.
“You know what I think, Miss Lawson? I think you’re a pretty little liar.” Konor narrowed his gaze on her, watching her blush brighten as he studied he with an amused indulgence. “And do you know what I do to pretty little liars?”
“Konor—”
“See, you do know who I am.”
“I—”
“—am a liar,” Konor finished for her. “And now it’s time to take your punishment for breaking rule number four.”
Sealing whatever objection was forming on Heather’s lips with the heavy press of his own, Konor sank his tongue into the sweetest paradise he’d ever tasted. For long, tentative seconds, he savored the moment, slowly discovering the hidden flavors of her kiss until he was drunk on her taste and mindless in his need for more.
Over and over again he plundered the warm, moist recesses of her mouth as the kiss turned so hot, so consuming, that Konor felt in danger of losing control for the first time in his life. He couldn’t get enough of her. His mouth slanted over Heather’s again and again as he sought the perfect fit, the deepest penetration as his tongue stroked and claimed, mastering Heather even as his arms wrapped around her and locked her to him.
God, he could
n’t seem to get enough of her, to get close enough to her. He was burning alive with his need. It had become a painful, searing demand that damn near drove him insane before he felt Heather soften against him. Suddenly she was pressing up against him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back with a passion that matched his own, soothing the panic and desperation that had nearly stolen Konor’s mind.
Beneath his thumb he could feel the frantic pound of Heather’s pulse. Konor knew that he was not alone in the storm of wanton need growing between them. Heather was there with him, whimpering as she clung to him. Soft and vulnerable, she needed him, and he knew just what she needed.
Konor deepened their kiss, mating with her tongue in an endless duel that left Heather shaking in his arms. She didn’t have the strength to stop him and probably didn’t even realize that he’d fisted a hand in her skirt. With a slow, steady motion that belied the burning impatience thickening in his balls, Konor pulled her hem up until the silken feel of her skin teased the tips of his fingers.
God, but she was so soft. So soft and so firm…and wet. Konor’s eyes rolled back into his head as he traced the curve of Heather’s thigh to the molten flesh already weeping for his touch. The thick proof of Heather’s arousal dampened her panties and perfumed the air with an intoxicating mix of honey and musk.
Konor broke off the kiss, trying to gain a second of clarity, but the luring scent of Heather’s pussy flooded through him with each ragged breath he drew in. It clouded all other concerns, leaving him at the mercy of a hunger greater than any he’d ever known. It blinded him to everything but two simple facts.
Heather was his, and he meant to taste her. Here and now.
* * * *
Heather was on fire. She was burning up. From the inside, and the outside. The flames scorched her flesh, trailing behind the tantalizing slide of Konor’s callused tips as they slid up her leg to come to a rest at the elastic edge of her panties. They hesitated there, holding her heartbeat still as he paused to lift his head and snarl at her in a rough, sexy growl.