by Kaliana Cole
“Emma and I aren’t real close. I’ve had more to do with her in the past two weeks than I have my whole life. I’m not going to upset what she’s found with tales about her lovers’ pasts.”
“That’s pretty noble of you.”
“Stirring up shit for the sake of it isn’t my way, Luke.”
“Okay, then, I’ll tell you, but it stays between you and me. Brody doesn’t need to know I told you either.” He halted next to the gate fixed shut with overzealous intent. No fewer than ten hitches of heavy-gauge fencing wire held it closed. She raised her eyebrows questioningly. “When Brode does something, he does it properly. Particularly when he’s a touch cranky. ”
He swung down from Checkers and handed Casey the reins. “So what got Brody in a knot to start with?”
“A woman. What else would it be?” His milk chocolate eyes sparkled with mischief when she gave him the look that comment deserved. He pulled a pair of pliers out of his pocket and started clipping wires. “We were all young and dumb. I was still doing my apprenticeship. Brody had this girlfriend he’d brought back with him from a trip down to Texas. Cherry, her name was.” He dropped to his knees to cut the lower wires, and Casey had trouble staying coherent. In fatigues his ass has been great. In worn, old Wranglers it was fucking spectacular.
She had to run her tongue around her dry mouth before she could talk “So what happened? Did she find out you two like to tag-team?”
She expected Luke to startle at her knowledge of him and his brother’s proclivities, but he just laughed. “No, that wasn’t it at all. We went strictly solo back then.” He unlatched the gate and swung it experimentally a few times. It screeched like a tortured cat but loosened up after a bit. “You won’t be able to sneak in, but you won’t have to climb it anyway.”
He tucked the pliers back into his pocket and reached for the reins. The brush of his hand against hers sent pulses of sensation shooting up her arm. Casey resisted the urge to wiggle in the saddle like a shameless hussy, but the corner of his mouth kicking up told her he hadn’t missed her reaction. He swung back into the saddle with lazy grace and turned northwest toward the head of the gully he had pointed out earlier.
“I’m still listening eagerly,” Casey assured him when he made no effort to resume his story.
“You’re not going to give up, are you?”
“It’s not likely.”
Luke shook his head, and his lips tightened down on a grin before continuing. “Brode had taken Cherry to the spring for a little private time so she knew where it was, but he hadn’t told her that our neighbors used it, too. It turned out Cherry preferred two men rather than one. Zach and Colby had come up for a soak after work, and to hear them tell it, she all but threw herself at them. Brody turned up to see his little Texas cutie being double-teamed by the pair of them.
“She told him two was always better than one. Brody pinned the blame on Zach and Colb rather than on the faithless little bitch, Cherry, and I lost two of the best friends I’d ever had.”
“But since then you two started sharing, I guess?”
“Oh, yeah. Brode was adamant that we would never lose another woman for that reason. He signed up for membership at the Kat the very next day, right after he packed the little bitch off. I had to wait nearly twelve months ’til I was twenty-one.”
“I bet you’ve had some fun since then.” Casey watched the smile light up his face as he looked sightlessly at the far horizon. It was full of sinful knowledge and more mileage than his thirty-one years should have shown.
“We’ve had our share.” His eyes met hers, his gaze weighty. “You’re not blushing or stammering, Casey. Most newcomers to Liberty Springs that don’t move here for the alternative lifestyle at least show a little reticence about what goes on around here. What’s your story, Case? Too worldly for that or just intrigued?”
“I was braced for it when I moved here. Emma didn’t hold anything back when she told me about her little town, much to my earlier discomfort. But I have to admit a little healthy curiosity.” She cursed the blush that crept up her cheeks as she made that admission.
Luke just winked and turned his horse to a rail stretched between two pines at the edge of a steep descent. He dismounted and wrapped the reins securely around the hitching rail before unnecessarily holding Spot while she climbed down.
Casey could feel his gaze rake the length of her, and she contained a small thrill. She kept telling herself Luke Marshall was just a good-time guy who wasn’t worth a second look as she followed his lead and untied the towel from her saddle, but her libido disagreed. Her mind was in league with it, too, coming up with more and more reasons to forgive his earlier transgression. It might have been the day-after-a-heavy-night lassitude imbuing her, but to be honest, she was finding it impossible to hold the sins of his brother against him.
“If there’s a horse, an ATV, or a snowmobile here, I’d advise giving a holler before heading on down. But otherwise just head straight down. Be careful at the top bit. It gets a touch slippery.” Luke jumped down atop a large boulder and reached up, offering his hand.
She didn’t need it, but Casey took it anyway, wanting to know if the electricity of their earlier touch had been a one-off. It wasn’t, but this time his firm, dry grip kept hold of hers while the shivers played up her arm and over her body. He hadn’t been immune either, if the intensity that crept into his eyes was any indication. He loosened his hold on her with obvious reluctance, and her fingers trailed from his grip.
He followed the steep path, and she fell into step behind him. They skirted a precarious-looking monolith perched on the side of the mountain and the spring came into view. Casey caught her breath at the sheer beauty of the hidden jewel. Nestled amid craggy, gray, lichen-covered rocks was a small pool colored a clear, vivid aqua. “Wow! What makes the water so blue?”
“It’s something, ain’t it? It’s the dissolved limestone in the water. That’s also why your hair will go all stiff and scratchy if you get it wet. It sits at eighty degrees all year round at the bottom. In summer it feels cool, but in winter it’s so warm.” Luke stepped down the last ledge and threw his towel over the branch of a scrubby-looking pine struggling for existence between the rocks.
“It would be amazing to be in there in winter.”
“Oh, it’s that, all right, but getting out is a bit of a shock to the system.”
She watched as an involuntary shiver shook his body. “A bit shrivel-inducing, huh?”
“You have no idea.” He kicked his boots off and started on the buttons of his shirt. “Are you coming in, or are you going to stand there and watch?” More than a hint of a dare colored his words.
In answer Casey unbuttoned her own shirt. She looked down to toe her boots off and heard a splash. She turned in time to see Luke rising up through the surface, water streaming down his hard, burnished torso. Curls were plastered back to his head, leaving his face unsoftened. The lines that normally showed a roguish handsomeness were brought into stark relief, conveying a startling male beauty that she had completely missed. He shook his head and water sprayed as his curls sprung free.
He blew out his breath noisily, “Lord, it feels a bit chilly today.” He moved to the other side of the small but deep pool. “If you’re gonna jump in, do it right in front of where you’re standing. It’s about eight-feet deep there.” He settled against the rocks on the far side in the now-opaque water and didn’t even have the good grace to look away when she reached for her jeans. Casey lifted her eyebrows imperiously, but he just grinned. “I told you this morning I’m not a prude. You have already used your ‘get out free’ card today. Get ’em off and get in here. I’m not going to molest you.”
Casey was trying to work out if that was a good thing or a bad thing as she made short work of slipping out of her jeans. A rattle of pebbles cascading down the rock face to the left had her looking about, but she shrugged it off as subsidence from their descent. She left the shirt on until the las
t moment, dropping it to reveal the black racer-back crop top that matched the boy-leg bottoms she wore. Studiously avoiding Luke’s face, she held her breath and plunged in feet-first in the spot Luke had indicated.
* * * *
“Holy shit!” Luke cursed as Casey disappeared beneath the surface. He knew his face must have been white as a ghost because every red blood cell in his body was trying to fit into his cock at once.
Casey Buckley had the body of an Amazon goddess.
The pale skin, dusted with freckles, did nothing to detract from the sculpted body beneath. The woman had a fuckin’ six-pack for Christ’s sake!
Luke ran his hand over his face, trying to recover from the mule-kick of pure desire that had caught him hard and low before she came up.
She broke the surface and pushed water off her face. Big blue eyes blinked rapidly before fixing on him. “This is eighty-five degrees? It feels fucking freezing.”
He coughed to clear his throat before answering, but his voice was still thick with lust. “It’s all about the ambient temperature. If you come here on a cool day it feels warmer.”
“Are you okay? You’re looking a little pale.”
He could feel the flush creep up his neck as his cheeks heated. “I’m fine. Just some blood-supply issues for a moment or two.” He mumbled.
“Sorry?”
“Nothing. I’m fine, really.”
“That’s good. I’d hate to have to haul your heavy ass up that trail if you passed out on me.”
The way she was built, she probably wouldn’t even raise a sweat, but he kept that comment to himself. “If you want to sit down rather than tread water all afternoon, there’s a ledge that runs along this side, and one flat-topped rock just there.” He pointed to the submerged boulder two feet from where he was sitting.
He was hoping she would take the boulder. It was shallower than the ledge, and he was betting her breasts would sit at the right height to bob distractingly at the surface. She reached for her straw hat lying on the edge, all curled and worn, and popped it on her head. “I bet you have to be careful of the sun with your skin.”
“I turn a nice shade of lobster if I don’t cover up. I’m resigned to being white. Even expensive fake tan makes me look like a candidate for a liver transplant.”
“Instant jaundice?”
She settled on the rock. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”
Luke had been right. Her Lycra-covered breasts were buoyed by the mineral-rich water, exaggerating their surprising fullness. He had never seen a woman as toned and trim as Casey have such lush breasts. They weren’t overly large, just two good handfuls he ached to feel against his palms. Suspicious, he squinted and looked for the telltale outer edge of implants.
“They’re real.” Her voice was dry and mocking.
“I thought so, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure,” he drawled, brazening it out. Luke braced himself for a tirade. She had caught him out fair and square.
But to his surprise she only laughed. “You’re not the first one to question them. Other women even ask me where I got them done. One girl didn’t believe me. She had to feel them.”
And there went all his blood southward again. “Would that work for me?”
“It might. Your big, rough hands would feel heaps better. Hers were soft and smooth. It just felt like I was touching them myself.”
Yep, every last drop was once more trying to fit in his cock.
Her blue eyes sparkled from under the brim of her hat as she leaned back against the edge of the pool. The wench was daring him. He knew it, but he wasn’t sure if she was baiting him just to shoot him down in flames or if she would actually follow through.
Some things were worth taking a gamble on.
“How ’bout it then? Can I conduct my own appraisal?”
“That would depend. If you’re trying to get yourself laid, then no, but if you just want to play with my boobs, go for it.”
“You’re serious?”
“You’re offering to give me pleasure that I don’t have to return—that’s a no-lose situation for me, Luke. Do you always look a gift horse in the mouth?”
Fuck! He’d never had an offer like it waved under his nose. Certainly not one offered by a redheaded Valkyrie with a body to die for. He slid off the ledge and stood between her knees in the water that came nearly up to his shoulder. He watched her carefully as he reached for the straps of her top, waiting for her to break and run, but she watched him right back from beneath hooded lids as he slid them down her shoulders. “Brody might turn up.” He warned
“I told you I wasn’t shy.” A purely feminine smile touched her lips as she bent her elbows and slipped her arms free before leaning them on the rock ledge at her back. Her lips parted softly as her breathing heightened. Luke found his own breath coming faster as he ran his fingers across the edge of the top clinging faithfully to the twin mounds.
Hard points pressed against the material, begging to be touched, and he had no intentions of disappointing them. His thumbs grazed across the insistent peaks, his calluses catching faintly on the damp fabric. Her breasts swelled before his eyes, pressing more firmly into his touch.
“Do you always play with your presents before you unwrap them?” Her voice was breathy, but he could detect no censure.
“Are you complaining?” He dragged the tip of one finger along the sensitive underside of her still-covered breast.
“Hell no. Just surprised.”
Luke couldn’t help but give a chuckle at the genuine astonishment in her voice. “I’m not some quick-on-the-trigger lad, Casey. I like to savor life’s little pleasures. You told me I could play, so by God, I’m gonna play, sweetheart.”
He fought back the need to follow her tongue’s path across her bottom lip with his own. Kissing her would be too intimate. She was seeking some lighthearted pleasure, a chance to let her hedonist out to play, nothing more. When he finally tasted her it was going to be her chasing his kiss, her demanding the touch of his tongue, and it would be happening sooner rather than later if he had any say in the matter.
“Well stop teasing and start playing, cowboy. I’ve only got so much patience.” It was obvious she’d tried for a demanding tone, but a certain breathiness that was more sex-kitten than woman-of-the-world kind of spoiled it. Luke smiled at her sassiness. The women he and Brode had been playing with at the club were all submissive to the core. Biddable little things that simpered and went along with whatever they desired. Casey was brazen, cocky, and full of fire. Luke loved it.
He tugged the material down in one go, watching her blue eyes smolder and her mouth open on a gasp at his sudden move. He held her gaze as he settled the stretchy material beneath the freed globes. Silken skin caressed his fingers, tempting him sorely to look at what he had unveiled. He managed to keep their gazes locked for a staggering ten seconds, hungrily soaking up every nuance of expression that crossed her face, before he broke and just had to look at what he had revealed.
Lush, creamy perfection. Hardened strawberry tips. A dusting of golden freckles upon the upper curves. Luke’s mouth watered as he reverently cupped Casey’s breasts. “Oh, fuck. Remind me to breathe every now and then, sweetheart. These are enough to take a man’s breath away.”
He weighed them in his palms and tested the firm resilience with a gentle squeeze. Christ, a fantasy rack! If he didn’t get them in his mouth he was going to go insane. He glanced up and the heat in her eyes scorched him. Her lower lip was caught between her teeth and her blue eyes fairly blazed. “Are you going to restrict me to hands here, Casey? Or am I allowed a taste?”
“You can do whatever you like, cowboy. Just remember—you ain’t getting your end in.” The corners of his mouth lifted as the carnal predator within him exulted. Five minutes is all it would take to change that stance. He would make sure she was the one regretting the laws she was laying down.
“Ever come from having your boobs played with, Casey?”
�
�That’s a myth. It’s not physiologically possible.”
“I do like a challenge.” Luke bent his head and rasped his jaw from the upper slope of one breast through her deep valley to the other. She shivered beneath the assault of his three-day-growth. He nuzzled down between them with his hands holding the perfect orbs captive. A flick of his tongue against the warm, satiny skin between the lush mounds made her gasp.
He was dragging out the anticipation for all he was worth, but the insistent throb of his tongue aching to taste the strawberry-colored nipples became more that he could bear. He flicked one with just the tip of his tongue, gauging her response. The tightly furled bud grew tighter before his eyes and she pushed her chest closer, demanding a heavier touch. Perfect, he thought, nipples sensitive enough to feel the slightest touch but an appetite for so much more.
He captured the whole areola in his mouth and drew harder and harder on the firm little bud, waiting for her to cry off. He worked the peak against the roof of his mouth with his tongue as he rolled his eyes up to search her face. Casey’s head was thrown back, mouth open and slack. Russet lashes hid her eyes from view. His dick surged to greater dimensions as every effort to increase the pressure on her nipple only heightened the all-pervading ecstasy on her face. Closing his teeth gently, Luke nipped at her before going for the other breast.
Fucking hell! Brody was going to be in heaven if ever he got his hands on Casey. He liked a rougher edge to his loving, giving out a little pain with the pleasure, and by all signs, Casey would lap it up and look for more. He fully suspected his brother was perched somewhere on the canyon face watching them anyway. Rocks seldom fell without the help of a hapless foot.
He suckled the other side in earnest, taking deep rhythmical pulls that her body began to writhe in time with. His fingers rolled and pulled at the other nipple, doubling her pleasure. He slid his free hand up along her spine and tugged on her hair, encouraging her to lay back with his arm protecting her delicate skin from the harsh rock. She melted into his arms like the sweetest candy, offering her breasts up for his touch. Strong fingers kneaded her scalp, drawing her whole body into the rhythm set by his pillaging mouth. The carnal beat with an ever-escalating tempo stoked the fires of her arousal ever higher.