Too Close To The Fire/Too Hot To Handle (Montana Men 3)

by Jaydyn Chelcee

  “Relax, Rafe. It was a joke.”

  He nodded, but he didn’t think Danger had been joking.

  “What are we doing tomorrow?” He twisted the cap off his second beer and tossed the lid in the fireplace. He’d never in his life had a man give him permission to fuck his wife. Maybe he was wrong—maybe he was reading more into his friend’s words than was there, because it was what he wanted to hear.

  The image of Lacey sitting there in front of the grate, all that glorious hair falling around her shoulders, lingered in his mind. It had felt so soft and alive between his fingers. Jesus, he’d never get enough of touching her.

  He pictured her seated in front of the fireplace on his ranch in Texas, brushing her long hair, her breasts full and ready to nourish their first child. If he was lucky enough to win Lacey’s love, he didn’t think the honeymoon would ever wear off.

  “We aren’t doing anything. Sorry.” Danger took a swallow of beer, frowned, and set it aside.

  “What?” Rafe blinked, jerked out of the mental image of Lacey heavily pregnant with his child. He rubbed a hand down his face. God. At this rate, he’d be insane before Christmas came and went.

  “I planned for the three of us to go riding tomorrow, thought we might spot a cougar or bear, something interesting.”

  “But?” Rafe turned up his beer and took another deep pull on it.

  “I received a call from the Havre Sheriff’s Office just before I arrived at the airport to meet you. I have to pick up a prisoner there tomorrow and take him to Missoula. It’s going to be an all day trip there and back, possibly longer. You’ll have plenty of time…”

  Shit! Rafe scowled at Danger as the man’s words trailed away.

  Plenty of time? His brows furrowed with confusion. Danger planned to leave Lacey alone in the house with him? What the hell was the matter with the man? Not that he was complaining. Hell, he’d willingly spend all the time alone with her he could, but this didn’t feel right.

  How would Lacey feel about her husband abandoning her, leaving her alone with another man at Christmas? No, it didn’t feel right at all. “Tomorrow’s Christmas,” he said sharply. “And it’s snowing. Don’t you have deputies who can do it?”

  Danger flicked steel-gray eyes on him. “Half my deputies are off sick. The other half have already left to join families for the holidays in other states. The prisoner has to be in Missoula in Federal Court in time for his trial first thing Monday morning. The feds want him there tomorrow.”

  “But isn’t he Havre’s responsibility?” Rafe grabbed a handful of popcorn and chewed on it. “Lacey’s pot roast sounds more inviting and filling than this popcorn.”

  Danger laughed. “Come on, I’ll dig out the roast and heat it up. Thank God for microwaves.” They headed toward the kitchen laughing.

  “Actually,” Danger continued, “the prisoner is Rimrock’s responsibility. Havre has been holding him for me because Rimrock’s Sheriff’s Department is getting a much needed facelift. I’m sorry about the change of plans, but Lacey and you can ride anyway. No reason why you shouldn’t. Take a rifle. You never know what’s out there.”

  Rafe accepted the plate of roast and assorted vegetables Danger handed him, shoved it in the microwave and set the timer. “I can go with you in the morning. Ride along as shotgun.”

  “It’s the holidays. I don’t want you to spend your off-time riding around with me, hauling a prisoner from one end of the state to the other. Besides, I have a deputy riding shotgun. No room for you.”

  “I don’t mind. Let the deputy stay home.” The timer dinged on the microwave. Rafe opened the door and snatched a bite of roast and groaned. “This is good.” He slipped the plate out and slid in the next one.

  “Yeah, Lacey’s a great cook. You two go have fun tomorrow.”

  Rafe swallowed his food and sliced off another chunk of the roast. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear Danger was handing Lacey over to him, no muss, no fuss.

  Damn it, he knew the man loved her. He’d seen how Danger looked at her, like he was mentally stripping her every time she walked into a room. His eyes always softened when he saw her. So why the hell was the man willing to go off for an unspecified amount of time and leave her with another man and actually encourage the other man to sleep with his wife?

  He had to be mistaken. It was his imagination. It was what he wanted, so ergo, he heard what he wanted to hear in Danger’s words.

  Slow down. Think before you do or say something you’ll regret the rest of your life.

  He believed he’d been very discreet with the way he felt about Lacey, but even so, if she was his wife, he’d never leave her alone with another man for an indeterminate number of hours. If it was him, he’d never abandon her on a holiday or leave her to open presents with someone who wasn’t family. It was crazy. His good luck, but crazy all the same.

  Lacey joined them in the kitchen. Grinning, she grabbed a slice of roast from the platter, smeared a generous dab of mayonnaise across two slices of wheat bread, added lettuce, a slice of tomato, and dill pickle. She slapped it all together and took a healthy bite. Around her bite, she said, “So, from the scowl on your face, I guess Danger told you you’re stuck with me tomorrow?”

  “Yeah.” Rafe chugged down another hit from his bottle and finished off his plate of food. He couldn’t think of another woman he’d rather be stuck alone with than Lacey Blackstone.

  “The roast is too salty, Lacey,” Danger snapped. He set his plate of food aside, barely touched. “It’s overcooked and too damn dry. I hope you manage to get the turkey right and not ruin Christmas dinner for Rafe.”

  Lacey glanced uncertainly at Rafe, then back to Danger, and swallowed hard. “I…yes, of course, it should be fine.” She turned a watery smile on Rafe. “If the roast tastes bad, you don’t have to eat it, Rafe, just to be polite. I’m so sorry. I haven’t tasted it before now. I didn’t know it was too salty or dry. ”

  “The roast is delicious, Lacey,” he said gently. “I cleaned my plate.”

  “The man was starving,” Danger put in, “he’d have eaten a raw dog and not complained.”

  Lacey’s mouth gaped. She turned to Rafe, her eyes watering. “Thanks. We don’t have to go riding tomorrow if you don’t want to.” She made a nervous little gesture with her hands. “We can hang around here, play checkers, drink hot chocolate, and roast marshmallows. Danger should be back before dark tomorrow night, and we can open gifts then. Won’t you, hon?”

  Danger shrugged and offered Rafe a slab of pecan pie. “Lacey was stingy with the pecans, but it’s almost as good as store bought.”

  Rafe eyed the man carefully. Danger had to know he was embarrassing her. He clenched his jaw to keep from taking a swing at the sheriff. “It looks good to me, plenty of pecans.” He took a bite of the pie and moaned. “Delicious. You’ll be back by tomorrow night?”

  Danger locked eyes with him. “Depends on the highways and how clear they are. I might have to stop off and get a room.”

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Lacey sounded stunned. “It’s Christmas. I thought you said you’d be back before dark tomorrow night.”

  “Don’t nag, Lacey,” he said sharply. “It’s just another fucking day. You and Rafe can go ahead and open presents. I’ll open mine when I get back. No big deal.”

  Rafe choked on a pecan. What the fuck? Was Danger insane? He didn’t much sound like a man who planned to return home by tomorrow night.

  Danger locked eyes with him again, gave a slight nod toward Lacey, and Rafe knew then, nothing had been his imagination. Danger was making it clear he had no intention of coming home in time to open gifts.

  Rafe mulled the information over in his mind. Lacey and he would have the day together and the night, uninterrupted.

  What the hell—he decided to push forward phase two of his campaign to seduce her. Not much seduction required when the husband simply handed her to him on a silver platter. If he managed to get things right, by this time tomor
row night, she’d be his.

  And he damned well intended to get it right!

  Chapter Six

  We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

  ~Maya Angelou

  Two Months Earlier

  December 25, Thursday

  4:30 p.m.

  Danger wasn’t coming home.

  As soon as Rafe knew for certain the sheriff had no intention of returning home Christmas night, he should have left, no matter how bad the weather, no matter that Danger practically gave him a green light to sleep with Lacey.

  The entire picture stank. His nerves jangled. On the one hand, he knew he should go, leave Lacey alone and not force his way into her life any more than he already had. It wasn’t too late to back off.

  On the other hand, he wanted to fuck her. He simply couldn’t summon the willpower to walk away. To leave her untouched. Rafe knew in his heart he should have insisted Lacey drive him to the airport, remove him from temptation’s path, but he’d never been the kind of man who gave up what he wanted or surrender what small advantage he had.

  Allowing Lacey to take the risk of sliding off a steep mountain pass in this icy weather wasn’t something he’d consider, either. Too many perils on an icy mountain highway waited in this part of the country. The ice and snow, herds of deer on narrow curves at the edge of the highways was only a couple of things. Longhorn mountain sheep lumbered down from the higher elevations to the lower ones in search of food. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be on the highways along the passes.

  Too many things. Too many risks.

  He had a toehold on Lacey, a small one, but he was so in—

  “Look,” Lacey said, excitement brightening her face. She pulled back on the reins of the black-and-white spotted mare she rode and pointed to the snow-laden tree limb several yards ahead of them. Grabbing the binoculars hanging around her neck, she raised them to her eyes. “Do you see it?”

  Rafe smiled. He saw only her, but he didn’t say it.

  The snow stopped earlier in the day but was beginning to drift down again. Big flakes peppered the ground in utter silence, peppered them. A veil of quiet surrounded everything. Crystal snowflakes fell lightly on her hair making it look as if it were powdered by fairy dust. Her hair lay tousled and tangled about her shoulders in wild disarray. Her nose glowed like Rudolph’s, and her cheeks looked as if they’d been kissed by red roses.

  To him, she looked like an angel. He wanted her so badly he could hardly stand the knot twisting in his gut.

  They’d been riding for at least three hours, but Lacey had been his exclusive property all day. The intimacy of being alone in the house with her had played hell with his libido. His body raged with need, worse than if he was a hormonal teenage boy, but he wouldn’t trade a single second of their time spent together. He’d been granted a few hours of learning what it’d be like to live under the same roof with Lacey, and he liked it. Hell, he loved it. Any man would.

  Now he wanted to know what it’d feel like to have the right to touch her as a man touches his woman, the rights of a husband or lover. He wanted to know what it would be like to kiss her all over, to suckle her breasts, taste her intimately, to plant his cock in her silken channel and ride her until they were both spent and breathless.

  Laughing together and playing checkers and rummy all morning, he’d savored the sound of her girlish giggles every time she shamelessly beat him at both games. They squabbled over who got the fattest marshmallows. They roasted them, pressed them onto squares of chocolate and squished it all together on graham crackers.

  Cups of hot chocolate passed between them. His fingers brushed hers each time he pressed one of the squares in her hand. Eyes met, but her gaze quickly flickered away. They’d had a pillow fight. She’d beaten him mercilessly until he tackled her and took her to the floor. He’d fallen on top of her and paid her back by tickling her until she begged him to stop.

  He’d held her as close as he dared and danced with her to slow Christmas tunes he couldn’t recall the names of and really didn’t care. Touching. He’d done a lot of touching, but it had all been subtle, in fun, a brush of his thumb along her wrist when he handed her back a mug of cocoa, his lips against her temple while they danced, his hard thighs cradled against hers, light airy brushes to her shoulders, spine and throat.

  He’d rested his hands at the base of her spine, and they’d slowly swayed to the music—a long, slow seduction that made his dick hard and kept him so horny he could hardly breathe. He held her close and savored the feel of her full breasts against his chest, and the occasional bump of his hard cock against the slender notch of her feminine cradle.

  She hadn’t pulled away from his touches, but neither had she acknowledged them. He knew she was aware of the hardness of his body from the way her breathing increased, her soft gasps every time his cock brushed against her—quality seduction at its finest—nothing better to heighten the senses or titillate the nerves than a slow tease of the senses. She was his. It was just a matter of wearing her down and knowing the right moment to claim her.

  When she suggested they get out of the house awhile, saddle up, and go for a ride, he was itching with cabin fever and more than ready to escape. It had been something of a relief to get out in the open air. He’d needed the breather. While the foreplay felt utterly delicious, at the same time, it was killing him. Another thirty minutes in the house alone with her, and he knew he’d blow everything—literally.

  Rafe leaned close to her now, his hair touching her face and throat, and took the binoculars from her.

  She looked around at him, surprised.

  “You mind? I left mine in Texas.” He hadn’t. He had a pair in his duffle, but she didn’t know that. He had a new box of condoms, too, but she didn’t need to know that either—yet—or know that within the next twenty-four hours, he intended to make a damn big dent in the box of two dozen.

  “Sure. Help yourself.”

  He leaned closer, allowing his warm breath to feather her cheek, and lifted the binoculars to his eyes. Rafe nudged his horse closer to hers. Yeah. He’d help himself—very soon.

  In the meantime, he wasn’t about to let up hammering her senses with the feel of his body against hers. His left thigh rested against the curve of her right hip. He slid one arm around her waist as though to steady himself and leaned just that much closer. His fingers touched the soft underside of her left breast. In spite of the cold, his cock swelled and pressed tautly against his zipper. He shifted in the saddle to ease the pressure.

  “Do you see it?” she whispered.

  Rafe swallowed hard. If she turned her head a quarter-inch, their lips would touch. If she did that, he didn’t know if he could stop from taking her mouth completely and owning it. His body vibrated like a tuning fork. His dick pointed straight up, ready to fire.

  He couldn’t wait much longer. He wouldn’t wait much longer. Her time was running out—the hunt almost finished.

  Soon, he’d make his play.

  Let the chips fall where they fell.

  There had to be a loser. A winner. He intended to win.

  Her fresh scent filled his nostrils. She smelled like the forest, the snow, and all things clean. His gut clenched. Rafe ached to drag her into his arms, tilt back her face, and bury his mouth against hers—show her how he felt, how he wanted her. Given the chance, he’d lift her off the mare she was astride, set her on his lap, free his hard shaft and impale her. He’d let her ride him until they were sated.

  “Look-look!” She pointed, laughing.

  Her excitement captured his heart. The sound of her soft, melodious laughter held his attention like nothing ever could or would again.

  “There’s an elk a hundred yards past that large boulder. See it?”

  He caught the sweet scent of her breath. It smelled like the chocolate they’d shared at the house, chocolate, and the sweetness of melted marshmallows. God, he wanted to taste her. The need wrapped around him, so urgent
he had to clench his fists to keep from punching through the barriers, and yanking her against him, to keep from molding her mouth to his and never letting her go.

  “Jee-sus.” The groaned word had nothing to do with the cougar she’d spotted or the elk, and everything to do with the tight ache in his groin. He wondered if she ached for him as much as he hurt for her. Surely he wasn’t alone in his desire.

  “Rafe?”

  “Huh? Oh. Yeah,” he choked. “The cougar’s a beauty.” He lowered the binoculars and eased back from her. Hell, at this point, he didn’t know any longer who was seducing whom. “I…uh, missed the elk, though. It probably caught a whiff of the lion and took off. Big cougar, though. Glad he’s not hungry.”

  “He?”

  “Or she.” He shrugged.

  Lacey smiled and glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late. We’d better head back. The turkey’s waiting. I need to pop the dressing in the oven.” She looked at the sky and frowned. “Looks like more snow. Maybe Danger will make it back before it starts to get heavy.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  He didn’t have the heart to tell her that her husband had all but abandoned her to him and that Danger wasn’t returning. Not tonight, maybe not even tomorrow night. Rafe suspected he and Danger were enough alike that one of them would get hurt, physically hurt, before this all ended. They were both strong, dangerous males, both territorial, both alpha, and both held what they claimed.

  He also suspected Danger wasn’t spending the night alone, but he didn’t know it for certain. Rafe frowned. He didn’t want to know. He might suspect that for some crazy reason, the lawman was pushing Lacey away and into the arms of another man, but when the final showdown came, Danger would fight for her. It wasn’t going to be pretty.

  Rafe kneed his horse and rode a little ahead of her, giving Lacey a breather from his close proximity. He hadn’t wanted to, but he backed off because she looked flustered and a little wary when he took the binoculars from her. It didn’t mean he’d given up. He wasn’t giving up. The seduction scene was set. Now it was just a matter of timing and action.