Kansas Nights [Kansas Heat 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jenny Penn

  “You read too many of them thriller books, Kat, if you’re worrying about that.” Tony laughed, clearly enjoying her concern.

  “I know. I do tend to be a little…”

  “Paranoid?”

  “I was going to say overly observant.” Kathy didn’t have to fake the flare of indignation in her tone. Despite being Benny’s friend, it irritated her to be lumped in the same category as him. “It’s just that I’ve noticed this black Jeep. It seems to be almost everywhere I go.”

  “Black Jeep?”

  Now she had Tony’s interest. Now she had to lighten it a little and put him on pause, but not before she made sure Collin felt the heat. “Isn’t that what the guy who hit me drove?”

  “Yeah, it was.”

  “And didn’t somebody try to kill Amanda by running her off the road?”

  “More like trying to drive over her car, but yeah.”

  “And I’m paranoid?”

  “A little.” But Tony didn’t sound amused anymore. “Are you sure you’re being followed?”

  “No, but I’d feel better if you told me not to worry.”

  “Don’t worry.” Tony answered too quickly to be a real assurance. “I’ll have a car swing by your place. If you see the Jeep and you’re in your car, just drive straight to the station. Okay?”

  “Sure and thanks, Tony.”

  Bidding him farewell, Kathy hung up and dropped the phone back into the console. Turning to face Collin, she didn’t say a word as he tried to glare her into some kind of confession. Instead, she let her smile say it all for her. Apparently, though, that wasn’t enough for him.

  “And just what did that accomplish?” He tried to sound indulgent, but the words ground to rough rubble as they fell from his tensed lips.

  “It’s called setting up a mark,” Kathy explained, wallowing in her gloat. “You’re on record for running me off the road. Now I have informed the sheriff that you might be following me. Next time”—Kathy paused to shrug and bat her lashes at him—“well, who knows what will happen, but it certainly will be in keeping with your record.”

  “You just don’t know when to quit. Do you, beautiful?” Some of the anger drained away from Collin as he heaved a deep sigh, but thankfully his smug smile didn’t return.

  “And I’m thinking you work for me now.”

  “Is that a fact?”

  It was. No matter how much Collin tried to intimidate her with the dark look glowing in his gaze, he still only had two options. “It’s me or jail.”

  * * * *

  Collin sat watching Kathy’s taillights fade into the distance. The woman had actually thought she could get away with blackmailing him. No wonder she had Jack’s head all twisted around. Hell, she left Collin shaking his head in wonder.

  The woman had no sense of restraint or any concept of caution. Wild and a bit crazy, Kathy Coben was a prize only the bravest man would dare to try and claim. Fortunately for Collin, he didn’t have to have courage because the woman had pretty much claimed him. All Collin had to do was obey. He smiled at the very thought as he turned his Jeep around and trailed after her.

  Collin would be happy to show Kathy the folly of her ways. First on his list would be getting rid of her damn phone. No matter how much Collin might be looking forward to spending time with Kathy, he didn’t like having to ditch his Jeep so far from her house. Nor did he like having to creep through all her neighbors’ yards just to get to her back door.

  The sudden dainty growls coming from the blackened shadows around the edge of the deck warned Collin that he’d chosen the wrong yard to try and cross. He had barely ten seconds before the snarls erupted into earsplitting yaps as a Chihuahua darted from under the wooden eaves and raced across the yard to nip at his heels.

  As small as the dog’s teeth were, they still hurt as they grazed over his ankle. Missing his flesh, the little beast latched onto Collin’s cuff as he went flying over the fence into the next yard. The damn thing landed with him, and by that time lights had started to go on in both houses. With no choice but to make a run for it, Collin crossed the second yard at record speed. This time when he jumped the fence he managed to leave the damn dog behind even if he landed in another yard with another dog—this one bigger, with a much deeper bark.

  Apparently almost every yard came with a damn dog. The hairy beasts caused Collin to ping-pong around Kathy’s neighborhood until he finally managed to make it to her back door. She stood there waiting for him, a hand on one hip and the other holding a phone, a dour expression muddling her delicate features. Collin didn’t need a roadmap to know he’d pissed her off. The sharp bite of her tone told him clear enough she blamed him for the current situation.

  “No, Tony. There’s nothing going on over here…It’s probably just some idiot teenager trying to sneak back into his house.”

  Collin ignored Kathy’s glare and pointed comments to push past her into the kitchen. It was like stepping back into the 1960s. The range was yellow and so was the counter. Yellow with metal ribbing along the seams and flecks of silver twinkling all over its surface, the only positive thing that could be said about the countertop was that it was clean. The same could be said for the dark, chocolate cabinets even if some of the doors sagged and two of the drawers were clearly held together by duct tape.

  “No…I swear, Tony. It’s just me. I’m just tired and cranky.” She turned with him, keeping her heated gaze pinned on him as he looked around. It didn’t shock him that the sheriff had a hard time buying her bullshit given she snarled almost every word in Collin’s direction. “…yeah, okay. Good night.”

  Kathy smacked a button on the phone at the same second she kicked the back door closed. Barricading it with her body, she managed to speak volumes without saying a word. Unfortunately instead of feeling intimidated or ashamed or even the slightest bit worried by her obvious agitation, Collin couldn’t help but be a little turned on.

  “Well?” Kathy broke into Collin’s musing with a tart tone that proved his point. Her hands fisted on her hips as she stalked forward, clearly intent on trying to make him feel threatened. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  “I can’t help it.” Collin shrugged, his gaze drawn downward to the full breasts making her shirt shift and sway with her heavy breaths. “I’m a man. We stare at pointy nipples.”

  “What?” Kathy’s chin dipped a second before she growled and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s cold.”

  “It’s ninety degrees outside.” Collin contradicted her, still feeling the slight stick of sweat keeping his shirt molded to his back. “And if you don’t want to be ogled, wear something more padded than lace.”

  Kathy’s eyes narrowed on him. A moment later her hands went to her hips, and she purposely thrust her chest out at him. “I don’t care, and don’t think you’re going to take control of this conversation. I want to know what the hell you were doing trying to wake up every one of my neighbors.”

  “You’re the one who said not to park on the street,” Collin reminded her. “I believe you were worried that the sheriff would be sending somebody by to keep tabs on your place. And strangely enough, they’d be looking for a Jeep just like mine. You don’t know why that is, do you?”

  “Yeah, well, the sheriff’s real relaxed with constant calls of a trespasser coming from almost every house around mine. So mission accomplished,” Kathy shot back. “And for the record, I didn’t tell you to go all cloak-and-dagger and try to sneak up on my place.”

  Collin watched the dainty tip of her finger wag closer and closer, tempting him to lean forward and take a taste. He’d lick, nip, and suck his way right over her palm and up her arm. By the time he got to those luscious tits, Kathy would be putty in his hands.

  “Are you listening to me?”

  “No.” Collin shot her a grin. “Eventually you’ll get over it, shut up, and realize I’m not here to be bitched at.”

  “You’re here because you work for me now,” Kathy reminde
d him with enough arrogance to assure him that if he didn’t do something to set her straight, he’d soon find himself leashed and trained.

  That wouldn’t be happening. Not again. Not in this lifetime. When Collin sank himself balls-deep into Kathy’s suckling, little cunt, there would be no mistaking who was getting screwed and who was doing the screwing.

  “Now here’s the way this is going to work.” Completely oblivious to the danger she was in, Kathy began prattling off her list of demands. “I’m going to let you follow me around, provided that you don’t get in my way or attempt to involve yourself in my business—”

  “Your business?” Collin smirked at that expression, needing the sudden lightness of his amusement to ease the painful ache in his balls.

  “Yes,” Kathy snapped back, stepping forward without any concern of getting within grabbing distance. “My business. It’s not yours or Jack’s. Speaking of, I know you’re going to be telling him everything I do. That’s fine, but that street runs both ways. I want to know what Agent Crankyass is up to.”

  “Crankyass?” Collin did laugh at that. “You call him that to his face?”

  “You’re not taking any of this seriously, are you?” Clearly, Kathy was.

  “No,” Collin answered honestly. “But then again, at the end of the day, I can pack my bags, go home, and leave this mess behind me. You on the other hand are trapped here, mired in this mess. So keep pushing, sweetness.”

  Instead of fighting back instantly, Kathy studied him for a moment before nodding her agreement. “Okay. Then how do you think this is going to work?”

  Collin grinned, hearing the invitation he’d been waiting for. Without a word of warning, he stepped right into Kathy’s personal space to catch her chin in his palm. He lifted her lips right up to his kiss, pressing his mouth down over hers with enough force to have them breaking apart. Before she could even murmur an objection, his tongue invaded the sweet depths of her mouth to tangle with hers.

  That’s all the encouragement Kathy needed to let go and press herself against him as she dared to challenge him for control of the kiss. What had started as an attempt to prove a point to her ended up spiraling quickly out of control as Collin lost himself in the addictive taste of her kiss.

  Pinning her against the counter, he held her captive as he ravaged her mouth, egged on by Kathy herself. Raking her fingernails through his hair, she pulled him further and further into her embrace. Collin wasn’t just losing control. It was being stolen from him with every sexy moan purring in the back of her throat.

  Kathy lifted herself against him, teasing him with the luscious fullness of her tits flattening against his chest. She bent her leg around his and ground the sultry heat of her cunt into the rough denim of his jeans. She was hot and wet and ready for him to whip out his dick and plunder the sweet, suckling depths of her pussy.

  He wanted to give in to that moment so bad it hurt. That pain was just the sliver of sanity he needed to realize that this wasn’t what he wanted. This was what she wanted. She wanted him out of control, a slave to his lusts. Soon enough, Kathy would be the one enslaved. Then, and only then, would Collin give free rein to his desires…that is, if she didn’t break him right now.

  Pulling on the last bit of self-control he had, Collin still had to shove back fast and hard to make sure he broke not only Kathy’s hold, but her spell as well. Stumbling away from her, his concern gave way to amusement as Kathy blinked in clear confusion. Flushed and wavering, she didn’t look like a woman in charge, but more like she’d fallen victim to the same passion he had. That changed everything.

  “The way I see it, sweetness, you got two choices.” Straightening up and acting like his heart wasn’t pounding a million times per second, Collin managed to offer her a smile as he kept his words even and unrushed. “You can agree to work with me or you can agree to work beneath me. It’s your call.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Kathy either didn’t have the talent or the desire to hide her difficulty in recovering. Breathing deep in an obvious attempt to recover her breath, she matched his grin with a frown. “But I somehow think you’re offering me only one real choice.”

  Collin was, but he needed to focus on something besides sex before his dick exploded. It throbbed painfully behind the confines of his jeans, and he didn’t intend on embarrassing himself by having it go off there. Forcing his gaze up from the tits straining beneath Kathy’s shirt, he decided they both needed to start with something simple.

  “Why don’t we try this, you make me a sandwich to make up for the dinner I missed?” Even as Collin made his suggestion, new lewd thoughts flooded his mind, though he kept his intentions well hidden from the woman finally starting to recover before him.

  “A sandwich?” Kathy repeated as if the very idea confused her.

  “It doesn’t have to be anything fancy,” Collin assured her, not all that concerned about the actual food as getting Kathy to finally obey one simple command. “Peanut butter and jelly will do.”

  Kathy stared at him as if he’d asked for the moon and the stars, obviously unconvinced that she should bother feeding him. Collin had already prepared himself for a smartass retort when she finally shrugged. “I guess you kind of had a bad day, huh?”

  “It sucked.” Collin confessed to another lie. All said, he’d actually had a damn good day. It looked like his and Jack’s friendship was back on track. Better yet, he’d met Kathy, which had to rank as one of the best damn things to happen to him in years. “I got bit by a Chihuahua. See?”

  “You poor baby,” Kathy shot back without any sympathy or even bothering to look where he held his ankle out. “I guess that entitles you to a certain amount of peanut butter.”

  “And jelly,” Collin reminded her as she brushed past. Tipping his head to watch the sway of her ass, he smiled as he considered all the good things to come. “You can’t have a sandwich without jelly.”

  Chapter 12

  A small voice warned Kathy that the sandwich would end up being the forbidden fruit that lured her into the serpent’s clutches. Only it was hard to imagine Collin as a cold-blooded reptile. With the hungry glint in his eyes and the sensual curl of his lips, he looked a hell of a lot more like a warm-blooded predator closing in on its prey. How badly she ached to be taken down seemed like a secret best kept to herself. After all, she didn’t want to ruin his gloat.

  “Make it three sandwiches.” Collin adjusted his order, sounding so indulgent it made Kathy’s stomach quiver. “I think I’m going to need the extra fuel.”

  Kathy didn’t doubt she knew what for, but left that loaded comment alone. It was strange that Jack and Collin could be so alike in their need to dominate and yet draw two totally different reactions from her. With his rough, blunt manners, Jack stirred the bold, aggressive side of her personality. There was nothing hotter than trying to force Jack to give in to her passion, but Collin was totally different.

  With that slow, Southern drawl and those twinkling eyes, Collin tempted a woman to give in to anything he might demand. He was smooth and easy, seducing that which already wept to be spread out before him in a feast waiting to be devoured. Kathy squeezed her knees together, trying to hold back the cream that flooded her cunt as that thought crystallized into a vision.

  The heavy, heated press of Collin’s chest gliding across her back brought a whimper to her lips as she flushed with a need nearly overwhelming. She didn’t mistake the touch as accidental, even if he only teased her with the barest of brushes.

  “You got anything to drink?”

  Half tempted to offer her pussy up, Kathy held her tongue, unsure if such a pointed come-on would work on Collin. Something in her gut warned Kathy that Collin punished the eager by making them wait. Not that he waited for her answer. Appearing completely unaware of his effect on her, Collin opened her fridge and started rooting through her shelves.

  “I might have some milk.”

  “That’s about two weeks old.”

  Kathy s
miled at the disgust in his voice. “Noticed that, did you?”

  “I’ll just take a soda.”

  The refrigerator banged closed behind her, and Kathy held her breath, expecting another heated brush as Collin moved back to the table. She hadn’t anticipated him lingering, though. Pressing into her enough for her to make out the hard feel of his erection against her ass, he leaned against her, making her mind go blank with a heated rush of longing.

  “Where’re the glasses?”

  The soft wash of his husky breath against her neck melted Collin’s words into her skin, leaving it tingling with a mind-numbing pleasure. Kathy would have sunk to a puddle at his very feet if she hadn’t hung on to the counter. Forcing herself to remember what was at stake, she managed to get an answer out.

  “In the cabinet.” Despite the break in her voice revealing the need his closeness sent clawing through her, Kathy managed to reach for the door of the cupboard with a steady-enough hand.

  “I’ll get it.”

  “No…”

  Collin didn’t listen, and she didn’t have the breath left to object as he pressed harder against her, stretching an arm over her shoulder to reach for the door. Trapped between the steely feel of his muscles and the sharp edge of her counter, Kathy found herself paralyzed by the sudden brush of Collin’s chin scraping along her temple.

  “Mmmm.” The purr rumbled out of his chest and up her back, sending chills of delight racing down her spine. “You smell delicious. Like a feast ready to be eaten.”

  Kathy’s heart stopped at the very suggestion she’d been thinking not moments ago. Her pussy spasmed as a violent shudder of lust clenched her muscles tight. As if he didn’t recognize the effect his words had, Collin pulled a glass down and turned to saunter off, leaving Kathy intoxicated and dizzy in his dust.