Something About a Lawman

by Em Petrova

  When his phone rang, he stabbed a button and slapped it to his ear. “Amaryllis?”

  “It’s me.” Judd. “I’m two miles out. If I had to guess, I’d say you’re navigating Devil’s Bend right now?”

  “Yeah, little hard to talk. Driving this road’s like being a flea on a dog’s back while he shakes. But I’ll still get there before you do.”

  “Competitive, aren’t we?”

  “Judd, so help me, if I could punch you right now—”

  “Cool it. We need a plan. Whoever gets there first is going to blockade the road. I’ve called for backup, and my closest deputy is five minutes behind me. I told him to step on it and join up.”

  “What the hell’re you guys doing in my county anyway?”

  “Had a bail jumper. We were helping out Wes.”

  “Shit—Wes’ll be crossing our paths too?”

  “Looks like. He’s three minutes away. Now they’ll be coming in hot. How well can Amaryllis handle herself?” Judd asked.

  He thought of her maneuvering that big-ass truck into the small parking spot without a blink of trouble. “Very well.”

  “So we don’t have to worry about her not being able to stop in time and plowing into us.”

  He hoped to hell not, but road chases often ended in wrecks. He set his jaw. “We’ve got this, Judd. Can’t talk now. See you when I get there.”

  * * * * *

  Amaryllis felt high from the buzz of adrenaline running through her system. Her fingers tingled and her face felt hot. She’d had her gaze fixed on the taillights of the car in front of her for what felt like hours. She blinked away the graininess, clearing her vision.

  The car swerved right and left. As if that old trick would throw her off. There couldn’t be another road leading from this gravelly path to hell, and Owens wasn’t going to break away.

  She needed her weapon. If he made a sudden cut and run, trying to escape on foot, as most people did after being chased for a long time, she couldn’t take a minute to grab her 9mm from her handbag.

  She cursed her lack of preparedness, but she had been headed to the coin laundry, where her only threat was dryer lint and someone else’s lost sock left in the corner.

  Pushing a breath out through her nose, she gauged her speed. She’d hit seventy-eight a couple times on a straight stretch, and the truck had felt loose underneath her, like a single stone rolling a millimeter under her tire could send her careening off into the deep ravine. Who the hell decided this road didn’t need guardrails? Fucking Wyoming.

  She grinned and wasn’t sure if she was losing her damn mind or just thinking of the straight-laced lawman who’d claimed her heart. Aiden was Wyoming to her, bigger than the state, larger than life. Every proud inch of the man excited her beyond reason and if that wasn’t telling, she didn’t know what was.

  Without a doubt he was on her tail. She prayed he wouldn’t do anything stupid to catch up to her—this road couldn’t be navigated faster than she already was. And she thanked God for the big, meaty, aggressive treads on the monster truck’s tires. How Owens was staying on the road had to be pure will and dumb luck. The car fishtailed so often that her heart had stopped jumping when it happened, taking it as normal.

  She had to end this soon. Surely there was a way to gain enough ground to run him off the road without killing him. There was a high bank on the left with a drop to the right. In places, she couldn’t see the bottom, and more often than not, the treetops were level with the truck. Again—who the hell didn’t put guardrails on a road like this?

  Her phone rang. Dammit, if she took the call, she might miss an opportunity to gain on Owens.

  It rang several more times before she couldn’t take it anymore and blindly stabbed at a button on her screen. “Long.”

  “I know it’s you. Dammit, what the hell are you think—” Aiden’s angry tone flooded her ear. She abruptly cut off the call and dropped her phone in the cup holder.

  Oh, she’d pay for that one later. He would not be happy with her hanging up on him.

  So she’d let him whip her a little and make him feel in control again. By this time, she knew that was how he dealt with stressful situations and gained the upper hand in life. She was good with it—more than good. Aiden was a damn fine lover, and she never wanted to leave his bed, if she was honest.

  The idea of sticking around Crossroads held an appeal. But what if the county couldn’t afford to keep her on? Or what if Aiden didn’t want her?

  She shook off that personal train of thought and racked her brain for ways to end this fucking chase. Perspiration ran in rivulets down her spine and she didn’t even have a clean shirt to put on because they were all in the laundry bag.

  “Think, Amaryllis.” Usually chases didn’t last long before the runner got too stressed and bailed. But Owens had a lot at stake. If he was heading this huge operation, and she believed he was, then he was looking at a big sentence. A lot of years behind bars. Cattle thieving was no slap on the wrist.

  The taillights of Owens’ car swerved far to the right. She sucked in a gasp, seeing her moment. She stomped the gas and hit the same patch of gravel that had made him lose it. Only her tires were better and she had more determination.

  Gaining precious ground as he lost it skidding on gravel, she used the pit maneuver that would bring this whole chase to an end. Using the front of her vehicle, she tapped the corner of his. Metal screeched over metal. She rocked forward at the impact. Owens’s front end whipped to the side and up the bank to wrap around a thick tree trunk clinging to the mountainside.

  “Crap!” She braked before she rolled over the car. She did not want to kill the man, just stop him. The car came to a stop, and she lunged for her bag. Luckily, her hand landed on her 9mm and she didn’t need to upend her purse to find her weapon.

  She yanked it out of her bag and threw open the door.

  * * * * *

  “Holy fuck.” Aiden came to the intersection and didn’t see any trace of the chase. No ruts in the gravel, not a breath of wind coming his way. They had to be wrecked on Mountainside.

  He took the turn, gritting his teeth as gravel shifted. Damn Amaryllis. Behind him, he caught the whoop of a siren and glanced in the rearview mirror. Judd was on his tail with a deputy’s cruiser and Wes’s truck behind that.

  Setting the example, he took off at a speed the devil himself couldn’t keep up to. But Judd stayed on his tail. Ahead was a curve and warning bells went off in his head. He hit the brakes, slowing slightly as he rounded the bend.

  There they were. The red monster truck on all four wheels and a silver car with the front end wrapped around a tree on the bank.

  Amaryllis stood there looking like an avenging angel, legs braced apart, her weapon trained on the car window.

  Time slowed as Aiden seemed to take ages to reach them. His ears were ringing, and he was sure his blood pressure was over the roof. He spun gravel with his abrupt stop and barely registered the other car doors slamming as his brother, cousin and one of Judd’s deputies followed him.

  All he could see was Amaryllis. She was alive, on her feet, her expression fierce.

  “Get out of the car!” Her demand echoed through his bones, uniting his brain with his body again, and he launched forward to aim his weapon at the passenger window.

  “Get out! Hands up!”

  Amaryllis glanced over the car at him, and he felt his heart lift. He fucking loved her and no way was he losing her.

  She also wasn’t getting away with this. Tonight he’d turn her over his knee—right after he kissed her senseless and held her until the shaking inside him stopped.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Damn, Amaryllis, you musta been flying down this road. How fast were you going? Seventy? Eighty?” Judd’s question made Aiden’s eyes roll back in his head, and Amaryllis knew she had to answer carefully.

  “Something like that.”

  Aiden’s hands clenched into fists at his sides.

&n
bsp; “Great driving.” Judd’s comment had all the other lawmen gathered around Owens’ wrecked car bobbing their heads in agreement.

  “Your timing was perfect. If you’d tried that maneuver any sooner, you would have both gone over the ravine.”

  “That’s enough.” Aiden used his shoulders to barrel through the group. He grabbed Amaryllis by the forearm. “I need to talk to you.”

  His warm, strong fingers grounded her. When she looked into his eyes, she saw all the things he wasn’t saying.

  He drew her away from the wreckage and didn’t stop walking until they were out of earshot. Turning to face her, eyes dark, jaw grim. “You scared the fuck outta me.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry for it. I was doing the only thing I knew how to do. If I’d hesitated, we would have lost Owens. He would have gone into hiding and who knows when we would have nabbed him?”

  “Would it have been so bad if we didn’t? If you would be staying in Wyoming longer?”

  Her breath caught. “What are you saying, Aiden?”

  “Dammit, woman, I’m saying I’m not ready for you to go. I don’t want you to go.” He grabbed her by the upper arms and yanked her close enough that his piney scent gripped her and her body stirred with the want to feel him moving inside her.

  Heart pounding, she met his gaze. The steely gray of his eyes intensified by his strong emotions—anger and worry and something else. Something that sent liquid heat pooling in her core.

  “I don’t have to fly out tomorrow just because we think we’ve got the leader of the ring. There’s a lot left to investigate.”

  “It’s more than that.” His gruff voice sounded with irritation, as if he was annoyed with himself for not putting his thoughts into words better. “I don’t want you to go at all.”

  “Aiden…”

  “Tell me how you feel, Amaryllis. If you don’t feel what I’m feeling, I have to know now.” His grip tightened until she came onto tiptoe flush to his body.

  She leaned into him, searching his gaze. “I don’t know what you’re feeling, so how can I say?”

  He worked his jaw. “I was out of my head knowing you were on this road, taking risks. Your life in jeopardy.”

  “I got the job done. Not a scratch on me.”

  “I know that! You’re a capable, strong woman and I love that about you but at the same time, it drives me crazy.”

  She’d never seen him this way, so uncontrolled.

  “If I stick around I’m bound to do something else you disapprove of. Against the rules.”

  “Dammit.” He swooped in and kissed her soundly. His lips hard and unmoving over hers. When he drew back, she gaped at him.

  “Everyone can see us.”

  “I don’t give a damn. Let them look.” He cupped her face and kissed her again, his tongue hot and urgent inside her mouth. She returned his kiss stroke for stroke until she was shaking for more.

  Aiden broke free, panting. “I’m saying I care about you, Amaryllis. You make me feel things I never have.”

  “Like stomach cramps?” Her tease died on her lips as his gaze pierced through her.

  “Exactly like stomach cramps. The kind you get when you’re in love with a reckless woman.”

  Her lips parted on a gasp. He loved her? Aiden Roshannon had actually just told her that he loved her?

  He slid the pad of his thumb down her cheek to her jaw. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “I’m thinking I don’t know how I feel about being compared to stomach cramps.”

  “You said it first.”

  “But I’m thinking I love you too.”

  A sound in his chest, part rumble, part growl made her nipples squeeze into hard pebbles. Aiden hauled her against him again as he slammed his mouth over hers. This kiss was no tender, we-just-admitted-our-love-mingled-with-stomach-cramps kiss. He kissed her with an insistence that was almost an oath.

  “You’ve been driving me nuts for weeks.”

  “I won’t apologize,” she whispered as he nibbled her lips.

  “You will if I get you on your knees with my paddle on your bare ass.”

  “Nope.” She ran her tongue over his lower lip, drawing another primal noise from him. “Then I’ll only beg.”

  “Damn. Go get in my truck. I’ll tell everyone we have to go talk to Owens about his nephew and they can handle clearing the vehicles here.”

  Dazed, she blinked up at him. He loved her and she wanted to show him how strong her feelings were. Right now.

  Shirking her duties for once couldn’t hurt, could it? After all, there was a capable force on the scene in the other Roshannon men.

  She nodded, and he let her go with a gentle nudge. “Go to the truck.”

  After she’d climbed into the passenger’s seat, her knees let her know that her adrenaline rush was over. In minutes, she’d gotten her criminal and her lover had admitted what was in his heart for her.

  Watching him through the windshield, she admired everything about him. From the way his hat perched in that cocky way atop his head to the jeans hugging his carved ass. He spoke with the group for a while. Judd slapped him on the back and Wes nudged him with a shoulder. Judd’s deputy threw his head back to laugh at something they said.

  When Aiden started back, he met her gaze through the windshield. Need shot through her. She pressed her thighs together, her body on high alert.

  She loved this man, and no way could she return to Texas and leave him.

  He got into the truck and looked at her. “Latchaw’s holding two other guys thought to be involved with the thefts back in Crossroads. Judd and the others are taking Owens and we’ll meet them there.”

  Damn. So they wouldn’t have their time alone.

  He planted a hand on the back of her seat and twisted to back up. He turned around and started down the road where he’d come. When he rested a hand on her thigh, his eyes were warm, his touch solid. “I don’t intend to take you back to the station yet.”

  A thrill hit her belly. “Seems like there’s plenty of back roads to get lost on.”

  He gave a single nod, lips curling. “That’s right.” He walked his fingers up her thigh and nestled his hand against her crotch. Her pussy throbbed at the contact, her panties damp in an instant.

  “I’m going to take you down this road a ways. Stop the truck, spread your legs and take you the way you need, doll.”

  “Yes…”

  He took the turns faster.

  “This road’s even twistier than the one I drove. And you made it here plenty quick. So how fast were you going?” she asked.

  “You tell me first.”

  “No way.” She wasn’t getting chewed out for doing her job.

  “Then you’ll never know.”

  “Let’s see if this makes you talk.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and moved so she could lean across the console and rest her head in his lap. With her breath fanning over his fly, his cock bulged in seconds. She worked at his belt, and he scooted down in the seat to give her better access. By the time she had his shaft free, she was burning to take him in her mouth.

  And boy, was he ready. His cock head purple, shiny with precum. She snaked out her tongue and lapped it. Around and around the head until his groans became more urgent.

  He suddenly slammed on the brakes and threw the truck in park. One hand on her nape, he drew her down over his cock, forcing her to take him deep. Her lips brushed the short pubic curls at the base of his length, and she inhaled his spicy clean scents.

  “Fuck, you’re so good at that. Suck my cock and show me what a good sub you are.”

  She shivered at his words. He ran his hand down to her breast, cupped it too gently for her tastes. She wanted that roughness, needed him to show her with his body how much he wanted her.

  She hollowed her cheeks and sucked his length while running her tongue around his shaft.

  “Damn. Stop. Get up here.” He dragged her up and pulled her across the console completely to si
t in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “I want you, Aiden. Take me.”

  His eyelids lowered over his smoldering stare. He opened the door and got out with her balanced in his arms as he walked to the back of the truck.

  One-handedly, he popped the tailgate and lowered it. With the skill of a real lover and country boy, he climbed in with her still in his arms, hardly jostling her. When he lay her on a blanket, she looked around in surprise.

  “You planned this.”

  “Not exactly. Been carrying it around for days, hoping to get you alone on a back road.” He settled between her thighs, pushing his erection against the V of her legs.

  Passion rolled through her as she held him close, her face buried against his neck. “I don’t want to leave Wyoming, Aiden. What do you think Latchaw’d say to making me your permanent partner?”

  He pushed back enough to look down into her eyes. Happiness made his glimmer and his rugged smile cut through his cheek like a lazy river through granite. “I’d say he’ll be pretty damn happy to have one of the best rangers in the US here in Crossroads.”

  She smiled. Aiden was man enough not to be threatened by her strength and skill—he embraced it. After she’d figured that out, falling in love had been easy.

  “Now.” He stopped nibbling her neck long enough to fix her in his gaze. “You scared the hell out of me. And that means you have to do everything I say right now.”

  Excitement had her trembling. “I agree to those terms.”

  “Good. Because I want you happy. And naked.” He reached for the hem of her top. His callused fingers burned over her flesh as he worked to her bra clasp. In seconds, her breasts were free and he cupped them. His cock bulged against her, and her pussy pulsated in answer.

  “Unbutton your jeans.”

  Holding her gaze, she did his bidding.

  “Zipper too.”

  She felt the vibration of each tooth as she eased it down.

  “Bet you’re hot and wet. Slide your fingers into your panties and feel your pussy for me.”

  Need exploded inside her. To the beat of her heart and the rumble of his voice, she sank her fingers into her panties. A gasp hit her lips. Juices coated her hand, and her clit throbbed.