by D. D. Ayres
Forearms. Elbows? That’s what Georgie was concentrating on when there were all those acres of hard-sculpted physique in between?
Yardley felt a decidedly unwelcome stirring down low between her legs. As if! But really, well, yeah. She wasn’t lustproof. Only Kye McGarren–proof.
Completely at ease, Kye lifted Lily onto his bare shoulders. “When we’re on SAR winter patrol she rides like this.”
“While you’re skiing?” Georgie was totally into her shots.
“Yeah. She’s a great little balancer.”
“You’re so going to be Mr. December. Great gift to open under the tree, right, Yard?”
She knew Georgie was teasing her but she couldn’t be a good sport about it. Not when Kye McGarren was the banana peel on which she was supposed to slip and fall.
She hooked her friend’s elbow and pulled, ruining her next shot. “Can we talk?”
With a big sigh, Georgie lowered her camera. “I’ll be right back.”
Once in the kitchen Yardley turned on her friend, whispering angrily. “You can stop now. This isn’t funny.”
“Speak for yourself.” Georgie chuckled. “Oh my God! He’s like made from the best parts of every hot dream I ever had.”
“I can’t believe you asked him to take his clothes off.”
“I can’t believe you’re acting like you weren’t thinking it was a good idea.” Georgie glanced back toward the other room. “He’s obscenely gorgeous. Shouldn’t he come with a warning label or something?”
“You’re drooling.”
“And you’re being unreasonable.” Georgie lifted her camera, but this time Yardley’s expression made her change her mind about taking a shot. “I’ve never seen you ruffled by a man.”
“You’re not seeing it now. He’s just so, so…”
“Yes. He is.” Georgie made a big production of wiping her mouth on her sleeve, but mostly she was smothering laughter.
“What about Brad? Is he better than Brad?”
“You really don’t get it, do you? The guy in there is like a front-row seat at the hottest concert in town. It’s fun, it’s thrilling, he makes you sweat and feel faint. But it’s not real because it’s not personal. The feelings I have for the man I’ll be in bed with tonight are real. Now I better get back in there and get some shots before my camera melts. Are you coming?”
Yardley rolled her eyes. “I’ve already seen everything he has to offer.”
Georgie’s jaw dropped. “How long has it been since you two…?”
“More than a decade.” Yardley put up her hand. “That’s all I’m saying on that subject.”
“Fine. Now, about that hunka-hunka burning Lava Love in the next room. I’m glad he’s here. No, seriously. I don’t like one bit that threat you opened last night. It’s not nothing. You’re in possible danger. The man in there doesn’t look like he’d be scared of much. Having him about until your staff returns couldn’t be a bad idea.”
“You have no idea how bad that could be.”
“Why? What are you afraid of? Oh. You’re still into him, aren’t you? Don’t give me that look. I saw your face when he stripped.”
“Okay, I’m not dead.”
“No, you aren’t. You’re flushed and wiggling your left foot like you’ve got restless leg syndrome. You’re feeling something. Do you even know what it is?”
“Anger, irritation, annoyance, exasperation, aggravation—should I go on?”
“You’re scared. Kye McGarren scares you.” Georgie smothered her laughter as she glanced again toward the doorway. “I wish I could stay and see how this plays out but I’ve got to go. I’m meeting Brad at the airport.” She gave Yardley a long look. “Unless you need me.”
“What, with that hunk of burning love in the next room? I’ll manage.”
Georgie grabbed Yardley and kissed her on both cheeks. “Love you. Happy New Year.” She paused and gave her friend a serious look. “Please ask this man to stay until your staff gets back. There’s a whole empty bunkhouse to put him in.”
“I promise.”
“Your fingers are crossed, aren’t they?”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate your concern. Give Brad my love.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Yardley waited until Georgie’s car was heading down the drive before turning her attention to the man still standing shirtless in the living room. “I want you to leave. Now.”
Kye hadn’t forgotten what pissed-off looked like on Yard. He’d just forgotten how hot it was.
Her face was flushed, her legs braced in anticipation of trouble. Her breath came in little hard gasps that made her breasts tremble. Her expression alone should have had him diving for cover in expectation of a verbal grenade. But now that he was alone with her, all he could think was how damn fine she looked. And that the look in her black eyes was of a woman in jeopardy. Even if she didn’t own it.
He made his living assessing and evaluating people in danger. What they said and what their eyes told him often weren’t the same. Even if they didn’t know it.
That wasn’t only anger and uneasiness in her glare. There was a heightened awareness of him. A feral female–male awareness. He saw it as her gaze traveled over his torso. He’d never been body-conscious. He’d grown up living on the beach in shorts and nothing else. But her gaze had his stomach muscles contracting, as if touched. His belly trembled. And his dick. Hell. He hoped his shorts were doing their job down there because it felt like he had a prizewinning hard-on in his pants.
Then he saw her eyes widen just before they jerked back up to his face. He didn’t have to wonder why. Wardrobe malfunction.
“Don’t you dare.” The fire in her gaze clocked back to caution as she moved her fists off her hips in purely instinctive anticipation. Did she think he’d jump her? The idea shocked him.
“No worries.” He lifted both hands in the universal sign of surrender. But, damn, she shouldn’t blame a man for what he was thinking. Of course, he was accustomed to being able to control whether or not he revealed those thoughts.
Turning, he headed toward the smell of coffee brewing. She followed, her boots making angry sounds on the wood floor, and intercepted him before he could step over the dog gate.
“I asked you to get out. Now I’m telling you.” Her expression doubled down on the anger. “I’m not interested in your dog’s problems or you. Get out of my house, you no-good, turn-tail-and-run, worthless piece of shit.”
Well, that left no uncertainty about her feelings for him. She still hated his guts.
When Kye didn’t move, she moved in on him, turning her face up into his, chin thrust forward like a drill sergeant. It caused an adrenaline dump. Only for very different reasons. No non-commissioned officer in his experience ever had such luscious lips.
“Get. Out. Of. My. House.” She poked his bare chest with a finger as she said each word. “Out!”
Kye blinked. Every time her finger touched him, he felt a corresponding jerk in his dick. Didn’t she understand she was dealing with a man? One with a moral compass, but still a man who needed her to stay a respectful distance away. She was up in his face, crowding his breathing. Her chest was heaving. Her eyes were dilated and reckless. He saw a bead of perspiration form in that sweet cleft above her upper lip. It made him want to lick it off and keep on licking. To taste what she was offering.
Grab and hold. Oh yeah, he was in trouble.
His jaw locked with the effort to hold still. “Don’t touch me again.”
“Oh? Really?” Her dark eyes flashed, sending out sparks from the amber flecks he hadn’t noticed until she was close enough to kiss. “Why? What are you going to do?”
She was poking him again, little jabs that his body reacted to like injections of testosterone. Her mouth was only inches from his, still forming words he no longer heard.
He snaked a hand behind her head and hauled her in until only an inch separated their lips. “You better stop that.”
But he was quicker. His other hand moved quickly behind to her cup her butt, hauling her hips in hard against his so that her knee jab struck halfway up his thigh, useless. Then he was locking them together. Chest-to-chest. Stomach-to-stomach. Groin-to-groin. It felt sexy as hell to stand like this with a tall woman. Through his board shorts his dick just naturally found the grove at the apex of her thighs. With shorter women, his dick invariably poked into less productive territory, like an abdomen. This time there was no room for her to maneuver without giving him more access. No room to escape his arousal, hot and hard and arching against her mons. But she moved anyway, unthinkingly rubbing her sex against his arousal as she tried to break free.
“Dammit, Yard.”
Yardley stilled. He’d said her name in a rough whisper. It went through her like summer lightning, swift and piercing. No, she didn’t want this. Alarmed, she raked her nails down from his shoulders onto his pecs, fingers curled to deliver pain. Only she couldn’t. The feel of his firm warm skin and the contraction of the heavy muscles beneath was gloriously satisfying.
“My turn.” He closed the gap, their lips meeting.
She gasped in surprise and he took full advantage. His tongue swept into the gap and touched hers. As he ran his tongue over hers, heat and desire hammered in his temples. Her mouth was hot and delicious. He’d wanted to do this since the moment he saw her.
On the other end of the kiss, Yardley fought not to lose control completely, though her grasp of his pecs altered. Her fingers gently curled on his chest in neutrality, she told herself. Not surrender. But it felt like surrender.
He kissed her like he was out to make an impression. She didn’t know if it was for his benefit or hers. Whatever. It was working.
His mouth seemed to melt every angry unhappy thought in her mind until her arms were sliding up his neck again, this time to hold on. Readying for what came next.
It didn’t happen.
Kye groaned and suddenly he was free. Whether he had moved back when he released her or the other way around, all he could do was be grateful the chill air of the room was once again between them. His skin felt hot, as though burned by the sun. No, scorched from the inside by Yardley Summers’s kiss.
He looked at her, an accusation in his expression. She was staring back at him like she’d never been kissed before. More likely she was reacting to the tsunami of feeling that had swamped his better nature. His dick was in charge of both his head and his heartbeat, and he knew she knew it.
Shut it down, McGarren.
He put up his hands, sending her a dark glance. “Now we both understood why we need to be careful around each other.”
Careful. Yardley held the word in her mind as she stared at the raw scratches on his chest. Shame slammed into her. She had done that. Scratched him like a frightened child instead of using any of the many self-defense skills she’d learned and kept honed.
He’d warned her. She’d been reckless in her anger. She took full responsibility. And really, what did she expect after her provocation? If he hadn’t fought fairly, she hadn’t, either.
Kye swallowed, the effect of which revived the taste of her in his mouth. He’d had too much, and not fuckin’ enough of her.
He took another step back, shaking his head when he meant to nod. “It’s okay. We both got a little caught up. Won’t happen again.”
He looked around, seeking a toehold on the cliff of good intentions crumbling out from under him. If it did, Law would be on his tail for putting his hands on his sister.
He spied Lily standing behind him, her tail wagging but clearly in defensive mode as she gazed toward the kitchen. Only then did he realize that Oleg, fully alert judging by the ridge standing on his back, was growling, low and deep from behind the gate. How long had the dog been doing that? Lust had made him deaf as well as a dumbass.
Kye’s action directed Yard’s attention to the ready-for-action growls of her Czech wolfdog. She gave him the command for silence.
Oleg instantly fell silent. Yet his slanted gaze held both humans in focus.
Yard turned back to Kye and folded her arms, waiting. Ball in his court.
Kye had reached down and scooped Lily up, holding her high against his chest to comfort her. He stroked and whispered calmly to his partner. Which gave him an excuse not to look at Yard again. He was pretty certain he’d had a plan when he arrived here an hour ago. Time to calm things down until he could piece it back together.
He glanced up. “What do you know about conditional reinforcers?”
“Why?” He watched her cross her arms over her very nice rack. He knew he shouldn’t be thinking about how moments before it’d been pressed nicely against him.
He dragged his gaze away. What was he saying? Something about reinforcers. Right.
“Lily works wilderness and urban SAR most of the year. This winter we tried our hand at SAR at a ski resort. We did avalanche prevention and guest rescue. I noticed behavior in her I need to have—modified.”
He watched Yard’s eyes narrow as he babbled. “You’ve got five seconds or I’m calling the law.”
The law. Not Law. Kye thought fast. First imperative: Buy time.
“Okay. Let me just get dressed.” Covering up would help. So would a cold shower.
Yardley’s gaze flicked to the dog Kye lowered to the floor. Lily really was a pretty little thing, with a white blaze on her chest and the tops of her paws.
Smiling, she slapped a hand against her leg. “Here, girl.”
Lily gave her a bored look then glanced away, as if Yardley hadn’t spoken.
Yardley crouched down to make herself smaller and less intimidating, and used her friendliest doggy voice. “Come on, sweetheart. Come, Lily.”
This time Lily refused to look at her. Yardley frowned, surprised that Lily was snubbing her. Dogs loved her. They came up to her unsolicited in parks, in grocery stores, on the street.
She glanced up at Kye, about to ask about his dog’s attitude toward strangers. He was tucking his T-shirt into his pants. She did not stare. It was just impossible not to notice how his indrawn breath brought his six-pack into high relief behind the tight fabric. Or how his hand diving into the waistband of his board shorts was far more sexy than it had any right to be. Maybe that was because she’d just been all up-close-and-personal with what lay behind them.
She jerked her gaze away and stood up. Why was he still here after the way she’d behaved?
“McGarren.” She waited until he looked up at her. “Why are you here?”
Instead of answering, he ran a hand through his hair. Distracted? Distressed? No. Determined. She recognized the dogged expression of a man who just wasn’t going to back down, or explain himself. Had seen it enough times. On her brother’s face.
“Law!” She didn’t even need Kye’s sudden alertness to confirm it. “You’re here because of Law!” One wild guess to figure out the reason why Law had sent someone here. Law didn’t trust her.
Fury pushed up through her every other emotion, and it was a crowded field. “Law put you up to this. Don’t bother to lie. Tell him for me that I can take care of myself. Now get out of my house.”
“Can’t do that.” He shook his head as he bent to offer some love to a very confused Lily, who had taken refuge behind her alpha’s legs. “Like it or not, I’m here to keep you company for a few days.”
“Like hell.” She swung away and marched into her bedroom, slammed and locked the door.
She reached for her phone. Oh, right, it wasn’t there.
Without thinking twice, she opened the door, walked up to Kye, and held out her hand. “Your phone. I need it.”
“Why?”
“You’ll get it back. Undamaged.” When he’d handed it over she said, “Code?”
“Don’t go trawl
ing through my messages. And don’t delete anything.”
“I wouldn’t dream of destroying your porno collection.”
When he’d given the code to her she turned, went back into her bedroom, and locked her door.
Sure enough, Law’s number was McGarren’s most recent call. She punched the number, not waiting for the word hello to be spoken when someone picked up. “Call him off, Law. If you don’t I’ll never forgive you for this. Never!”
“Yardley?”
The woman’s voice startled Yard for a second. “Jori? Put Law on.”
“He’s in physical therapy.”
“What?” No one had said anything about therapy to her. Law had lost a leg in Afghanistan and wore a prosthesis. Yard felt the anger drain out of her. “What happened?”
“He’s fine. A minor setback. I would have called but you know how your brother is. He never admits he’s got any problems, ever.”
“That’s true.” Even more reason she was glad Law had Jori in his life. She was good for him.
“Can I help? I know Law called someone to keep an eye on you. I don’t know what all this is about, but if the guy isn’t working out I can relay the message.”
“No. It’s okay.” Yardley swore soundlessly for having to tell that lie. “Only Law should have warned me.”
“Men, right? And yet we don’t want to live without them.”
Yardley didn’t reply to that. Jori was the second woman in twenty-four hours whose voice had gone all soft with emotion when she talked about her man. Had hers done that when she’d mentioned David Gunnar to Georgie last night? She doubted it.
“Tell my brother I don’t need a babysitter. Unless he’s heard something about Dr. Gunnar that I should know.”
“Don’t know anything about that, Yard. I did overhear him say something about the FBI but he clammed up when I asked. Maybe the guy he sent can tell you.”
Yardley slipped the phone into her pocket and glanced back at her closed door. Her biggest problem stood on the other side. How was she going to get rid of McGarren? No, first she needed to know what Law had told him about David. She’d bet it was some version of how she’d been kicked to the curb by a boyfriend and couldn’t accept his silence for “see ya” and had called the FBI.