Books by Linda Conrad

by Conrad, Linda

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” Grabbing his head with both hands, she jerked him back down to her lips.

  Sunnie’s brain took a holiday and let passion and heat replace all control. To hell with it. To hell with putting off what they’d both craved.

  She didn’t care if she died killing Skinwalkers. But she suddenly did care if she died before having sex with this ornery man who sometimes looked at her with rage—but more often looked at her with such sensual ardor that he took her breath away.

  It was time to get what she’d hungered for.

  And what she wanted…wanted her back. Cisco’s mouth was relentless. Hot and mindless with the rush, she dived into his mouth as he opened for her, and their tongues tangled as their bodies and minds had only moments before.

  Digging her fingers into his hair, she yanked his head back, then beat on his chest. “Get out of those clothes,” she demanded, already out of breath.

  He studied her a second, but then reared away and pulled the shirt and sweater over his head in one move. The flesh and hair on his chest was so perfectly masculine, so athletic and dynamic, for a moment she was stunned.

  Just enough time for Cisco to reach for the hem of her sweatshirt and rip it over her head. The slightly chilled air touching her heated skin drove her nuts. Shoving at him, she rolled them both off the couch and onto the floor below. She wanted to consume him, needed his body so badly she wanted to shout and cry in sheer desperation.

  Straddling him, she raked her nails down the muscles on his arms hard enough to draw blood. But he didn’t seem to notice any pain as he rose up and ripped her bra right off her body. The sound of the cloth ripping spurred her to a higher, crazier plain.

  As he clamped his mouth on her breast, she moaned, letting her head fall back to give him full access. He was using tongue and teeth, and she panted like an animal in response. Sucking, blowing heated breaths over her tender tips, he feasted on her until her brain was aflame and her body strung impossibly tight. More, she thought. All of it. Everything. Now.

  Collapsing against him, she bit into his shoulder to stem the curse that threatened to explode from her mouth. The next thing she knew, she was under him and he was dragging her boots and jeans off and pitching them aside.

  Cisco was breathing hard, but the breath stilled in his lungs when he saw her lying perfectly naked below him. He’d thought there would be one more layer, but she was suddenly bare to his eyes. And writhing with desire. He straddled her and bent to take her mouth in a fierce assault. But when her hips came up and ground against him, he knew things had to move faster.

  Scrambling off, he used one hand to shove his jeans down his hips while using the other hand to cup her. She was hot. Wet. Then burning up and drenched as he probed the fiery spot he’d hungered to touch. A deep, keening moan left her lips. It was all the sign he’d needed to move him in a blinding madness to go deeper.

  When his fingers entered her core, her eyes rolled back in her head as the orgasm took her over. It was a sight like no other and momentarily stopped him. She was beautiful, stunning in her passion.

  But she was also wild. In another instant she jerked up and came for him like a tornado. Biting, clawing, crying.

  “Now, dammit. I want you inside me now,” she begged on a ragged scream.

  Losing it all in the raging delusion of pure madness, he pinned her hands above her head and dived right in. She gasped and squirmed. Clenching her legs around his waist, she took him to the hilt. Her urgent madness plunged him headlong into a crimson haze of desire. He bit down on her neck to hold her still, then let his body thrust.

  Pounding into her, he drove higher and higher, mindlessly frantic and absent of any hesitations. The crash of release began to thunder in his ears. Cisco raised his head and kept her passion-filled face in sight as both of them exploded in a blast of fiery madness.

  As Sunnie caught her breath, she tried to roll out from under Cisco and sit up. But he held on tighter, keeping her pinned beneath his body. Still shuddering in his arms, she felt his primal force reverberating along her nerve endings.

  What on earth had she done? She’d certainly never done anything like that before. Something had apparently clicked in her brain and driven her a bit mad. Something feral, primitive…savage.

  She hadn’t given a thought to using protection and especially hadn’t considered the consequences. What such an amazing coupling would mean to her in the end.

  Trying not to think too much about it now, either, knowing she was bound to pay a price for forgetting who and what she’d become, Sunnie cleared her throat and found a steady voice.

  “Well. That was sure something. But you’re crushing me now.”

  Cisco leaned up on his elbows above her, lessening the strain on her chest. But he remained connected to her. And where they were connected began tingling once again as he stared down into her eyes.

  So soon? This would never do.

  Lightly touching her shoulder, he murmured, “I bruised you. I…I…”

  “I’m fine. You’re probably in much worse shape with what I did to you.” She wanted to say that she’d never been so wild with anyone before. She wanted to tell him he was only the second man she’d ever been with at all. And that for however long she lived no other man could ever measure up.

  But she couldn’t. Talking about it seemed pointless. They were not some normal couple who would cuddle and discuss the future after sex. So far, they hadn’t even managed to fully discuss their pasts. And tomorrow or the day after, one or both of them would probably be dead.

  So whatever had just taken place was an anomaly. A onetime occurrence. Best to leave it at that.

  “Are you tired?” he asked as his fingers tenderly touched her cheek. “It’s been a helluva day. I think we should talk. But if you’d rather sleep, we can discuss things tomorrow.” He smiled at her, ran his thumb over her lips.

  “Don’t know about you,” she mumbled, trying not to notice what his fingers were doing to her, “but I don’t need that much sleep. And I can’t imagine what we would talk about, anyway.”

  He took a breath. “We just had unprotected sex. I don’t usually do that sort of thing. I want to know how you feel about it.”

  “No sweat. It’s not important. I don’t want to discuss feelings. I can’t. Feelings tend to make you sloppy. I’d rather not feel anything at all, thank you just the same.”

  This time he grinned down at her. “So…” His fingers ringed a nipple. “You’re not feeling this, then?” He rolled the tip with his thumb and forefinger.

  Bending his head, he took the other nipple between his teeth and tugged. The sensation shot between her legs, and a tiny bead of sweat leaked down her temple.

  His chin came up as his eyes searched hers. “Or that?”

  He caught the bead of sweat with a finger and looked concerned. “All sweaty?” “Uh…”

  Moving faster than the electricity zinging in her veins, Cisco stood up and plucked her off the floor. Before she knew what hit her, he’d swung her up in his arms and headed down the hall.

  “I’d guess Ben has a shower in this place. Let’s see if it’s big enough for two.”

  Sunnie shrieked and kicked out at air. “Cheater. I can’t get decent leverage. Put me down.”

  “Don’t want to wrestle, mi amor. I have something else in mind. Relax.”

  The shower stall was plenty big enough for two, Cisco was pleased to note. He kept her close to his chest while he turned on the taps and adjusted the temperature. No cold showers for them this night.

  “I don’t need a…”

  He cut her words off by crushing his mouth on hers. The flame of her lips brought the heat back to his blood. She lifted her head, drew in a startled breath and kissed him back. Her arms went around his shoulders as she wiggled, trying to get closer.

  Stepping into the shower with her still in his arms, Cisco turned his back to the heated water spray and let her slowly slide down his body
. Chest to breast, then lower still as he bent to set her feet on solid surface.

  “I think we’re in need of some soap here, míja.”

  Keeping one hand busy steadying her, he reached for a bar of soap with the other. He moved aside just enough to let the shower water splash her body. She closed her eyes to the spray, and he took the opportunity to run the soap bar over her chest, making her slick and sudsy and delectable. Mmm.

  He leaned her up against the tile at the end of the stall so he could use both hands on her. Sliding the bar down her belly, he watched the expression on her face turn from wary and tense to relaxed and sensual. Not able to stand just watching and not tasting, he inched closer, capturing her mouth again as his hands and the soap moved lower.

  Soap went into every crevice, teasing, cajoling, incensing, while the hot water set torches of desire to every place it flowed. He reached over to smear soap up her neck, but she was quicker and captured his hand. She dropped the soap and drew his fingers toward her lips, slipping his forefinger inside her mouth. And then she sucked. Sucked his finger in deep while all the while she kept her dreamy, sexy eyes trained on his.

  It was quite possibly the most erotic thing that had ever happened to him.

  If he’d wondered about her mood or readiness, all such thoughts flew out of his brain. In fact, every single thought disappeared, leaving him nothing but a mass of quivering need.

  Pulling his finger free, Cisco slid both his hands under her hips and lifted. “Hold on with your legs,” he managed. “Around my waist.”

  She did and he entered her in one mighty move. He pressed her back against the tile to steady them both. When she moaned and dropped her head, he propelled himself deep inside her.

  He nipped his way along her jawline and down her neck as she moaned louder.

  “Now. Now,” she stuttered through the haze budding around them.

  The sounds of her pleading drove liquid fire pulsing through every part of his body. Every inch burned with need and pure pleasure. He felt the sting of her fingernails as she clutched at his shoulders, but there was no pain. Her touch only added fuel to the flames.

  Trembling and too near his own release, he waited until he felt the shudder begin rumbling through her again. He thrust deeper as her body began tightening. This time his own moans echoed off the shower walls right along with hers as they followed the same path.

  It took him a few seconds to begin breathing again, but when he did, he loosened his grip and let her ease down his body until she seemed steady. He flipped off the water while steam fogged the bathroom. Pulling a towel off the bar, he wrapped her up tight and kept her close.

  Then he lifted her off her feet again and went in search of a bed.

  When Cisco awakened to morning sun, he was smiling. Until…he turned to find Sunnie not in bed beside him. It had been a short night. But one of his best.

  Though he felt her absence as though he’d lost an arm, he lay there a second, telling himself to tread carefully here. Last night he’d misplaced his perspective. In fact, he must’ve lost his freakin’ mind.

  Unprotected sex with a woman he didn’t know well had been totally unexpected. Especially since there were still a few condoms in foil packs waiting in his pants pocket. He had figured from the start they would end up having sex. And had been prepared. But he’d never imagined he would lose himself entirely to such hot sweaty desire.

  But he had. Lost himself. And now he wondered if he could ever again find the person he’d once been.

  Or if he even wanted to.

  As a young man, he’d changed his life. Gone from a kid buffeted and bruised by family circumstances to an adult who needed no one. An adult who wanted no ties and shunned everything that might remind him of his bitter and embattled youth. He’d had no family, no friends. His employees were loyal but not friends. No one close that might disappoint him as his own parents had. He’d come to the decision long ago that he wanted things to always be that way.

  Now he was beginning to feel a connection to Sunnie. One like he had never known before. At first he’d thought the odd emotional link to her was just some misplaced sense of being her guardian. She seemed so all alone and in dire need of someone to stand beside her during her fight.

  Since waking up from the lust-filled night, he was seeing things in a different light. He’d quit envisioning his own life as an unbroken line of solitary days and inconsequential nights. But where life went from here was still unclear. After being inside her, after the first taste, he’d felt as though a curtain had been lifted—but only high enough to give him a peek at what might lay beyond.

  He needed to step back from this edge of the unknown—and from her. For long enough at least to let these strange sensations begin to sink in. The only thing he couldn’t, wouldn’t, step back from was the possibility that he and Sunnie had created a new life during their crazy night of lust. But he needed to let that play out. Let Sunnie be the one to take the lead there.

  Scrubbing a hand across the thick stubble on his face, Cisco left the bed and headed for another shower. Distance and time to think was what he really needed. Unfortunately it was also imperative that he stick with Sunnie now. She was heading for big trouble. Last night had shown him that much. She didn’t have the sense to know when to duck.

  And as much as he wished for some space, the need to keep her safe was stronger than ever.

  Sunnie stood by the toaster, waiting for the bread to pop. She’d made coffee. But that and toast were the extent of her culinary breakfast talents. Hearing the shower running, she knew it wouldn’t be long before Cisco appeared in the kitchen.

  Then what?

  What would they say to each other? She’d rather not talk about what had happened last night. It had been amazing. Confusing. She’d expected sex between them to be beyond anything she’d ever experienced—and it had been.

  But she hadn’t expected to feel…joy. There was no other way to describe this feeling. How could something like that have happened? She’d been working so hard to suppress her sorrow and grief, to become numb. But joy had snuck in and captured her spirit when she’d been otherwise occupied.

  How could she explain it to herself, let alone to Cisco? She couldn’t. Wouldn’t.

  She didn’t want this…this…lightness in her mind. It was almost like stepping out from the shade and being blinded by sunlight.

  Damn him, anyway. Darkness and its sister Disaster were the tools she’d been using to keep her edge. Somehow she needed to get that edge back. So Cisco Santiago had just better not expect a soft, cuddly morning from her.

  “Good morning,” he said in that impossibly sexy voice as he strode into the kitchen. “You made coffee. You’re an angel.”

  An angel? Certainly not in this lifetime. And since Navajo tradition didn’t include belief in an afterlife, she would likely not be receiving her wings anytime soon.

  “I’m making toast, if you want to join me.”

  “Sure.” He sat down at the tiny kitchen counter and studied her. “You’re up early. And I see you’ve pushed back all the window coverings to let the sunshine in. I’m glad to see the sun again, but do you think the Skinwalkers are still outside the house? Will they be waiting to ambush us as we come out?”

  She shrugged a shoulder. “They might have been. But I called Hunter Long this morning and he promised to send someone to check it out. The Brotherhood knows how to get rid of any of evil ones that might’ve been willing to brave the daylight.”

  Sunnie hadn’t even noticed the curtains were pulled back. Why had she done that? Leaving them drawn and the house in shadows was much more like her normal self.

  “Also, there’s another way for us to leave without being seen,” she continued as his toast popped and she put it on a plate before him. “A back way that will get us up in the mountains faster. Without a snowstorm it should be a cinch.”

  “Good. The sooner we get started, the sooner you’ll be out of that open Jeep. I�
�ve been thinking…”

  “It’s not me the Skinwalkers are trying to ambush. I’ve already told you they think I’m dead.”

  “Yes, you have. But I was thinking more along the lines of ravages of weather.”

  “Don’t worry about me and cold weather. I can take it. In fact, I can take it and still cause plenty of trouble.”

  “You can say that again,” Cisco muttered under his breath.

  Chapter 11

  S unnie crept just beyond the invisible line drawn around Ben’s mobile home to keep out the Skinwalkers. Standing perfectly still, she sniffed the air and listened for any disturbance. Nothing. Whoever had been stalking them was obviously gone.

  “It’s cool,” she said to Cisco, who was waiting right outside the door. “We should be good to go.”

  Saying nothing but with an irritated scowl on his face, Cisco gathered up their few things, dumped them in the Jeep and slid in behind the wheel. Sunnie buckled herself in the passenger seat and folded her arms over her waist.

  If he was going to be all annoyed again just because she hadn’t wanted to be warm and fuzzy this morning, then so be it. At the moment she wanted nothing more from him than a silent drive to the Plant Tender’s cabin.

  She directed him out the back way and leaned against the seat back as they passed the ginger-colored hills she had loved as a child. Turning left, they drove down a gravel road that skirted a goat farmer’s fields. The sun, sparkling against leftover patches of snow, dazzled her eyes, so she flipped on her sunglasses. Still, the colors of her homeland seemed brighter this morning, almost the same as they had when she’d been a kid.

  The purple sage looked nearly magenta in the sun’s glow. The junipers and piñons gleamed in shades of emerald instead of their usual sage-gray. The broom snakeweed still had blooms of brilliant gold that by all rights of nature should’ve been long gone by November. Even the coat of the small black goat they drove past was a shiny ebony color today.