Special Ops Cowboy

by Addison Fox

  Reese was still worried about his health, but couldn’t quite muster up the words to ask him to stop. Then he reached for her, pulling her so that she sat astride his body, and she decided he was a better judge of how he felt than she was.

  Opting to put that thinking to the test, she tugged her tank top up over her head, tossing it to the floor. Her bra followed as she made quick work of the clasp. When nothing but desire remained in his eyes at her movements, she reached for the hem of his T-shirt, pulling on the cotton and gently disengaging him from the sleeves before drawing it over his head.

  “So far, so good.”

  “You don’t know what good is.”

  Reese shivered at the promise in his words, but couldn’t resist tossing them right back at him. “No, my sexy cowboy. You don’t know what good is.”

  Emboldened by the heat she saw deep in his gaze, she used the moment to her advantage. Trailing a line of kisses down over the lines of his chest, she lingered over each nipple before carving a delicious path over the thick muscles that corded his stomach. When each tightened in turn beneath her lips, she knew she’d gained the upper hand. But it was that last stretch, after she passed the barrier of his fly button, when Reese knew she’d truly won.

  Hoyt’s stomach contracted on a sharp inhale of breath as she reached beneath his boxers and took him firmly in hand. He fit fully into her palm, hard and ready for her, but she was determined to torture him a bit longer.

  Maintaining a steady pressure with her hands, she bent and took him fully into her mouth, molding her lips to his hard length. His low moans were like music, a resounding chorus of life and desire and pleasure that filled her with a special sort of happiness.

  She’d been so worried for him and so convinced that he’d come to harm because of her. It was gratifying to know that not only was he well, but that she could give him pleasure like this. Pleasure that erased the pain of what had come before.

  “Reese.” Her name came out on a low guttural growl.

  Ignoring the urgency, she pressed on, continuing the slow torture of her tongue against his flesh.

  “Reese.” He added an insistent tug against her shoulders, effectively ending the torture she so willingly gave. “We’ll do this together.”

  “Have I missed something?” she teased. “Because it feels like we’re together.”

  Before she could say anything else, he had her flipped over on her back, his broad frame covering her. With no question as to his destination, he filled her in one long thrust, drawing a scream from her as her body responded to the sensual intrusion.

  She’d had no idea her orgasm was so close, but she came hard in a matter of thrusts as their bodies joined and rejoined. Before she could even catch her breath, another wave built, even higher than the first, her body going bowstring tight as she built toward another orgasm.

  With no other recourse and nowhere else she’d rather be, Reese held on to his shoulders and welcomed him home. And as the pleasure wove in and over and around both of them, she knew the truth.

  She loved him.

  With everything she was and everything she’d ever be.

  * * *

  Although it was hard to argue with an afternoon of lovemaking, Hoyt felt his sour mood return as evening gave way to night.

  Reese went back to school tomorrow.

  He knew he couldn’t hold her back. On one hand, he didn’t want to. She was a grown woman and she’d more than proven herself capable of living her life. It wasn’t his place to suggest otherwise. But damn it, how was he supposed to look at her and not want to wrap her up in his arms and keep her safe?

  Especially when a faceless threat still lurked in the shadows.

  “I think that dish is dry,” Arden said, interrupting his thoughts.

  Hoyt looked up from where he been steadily polishing a dinner plate and saw that his sister was right. “Sorry. Just a little distracted.”

  “I think you’re entitled. And to be fair, I think we’ve all been a little distracted over the past few days.”

  “Understatement of the century.”

  She took the plate from his hand and gestured him toward the kitchen table. “Let’s sit down for a few minutes.”

  He had a unique relationship with each of his siblings. With Ace, it was very much big brother, a smattering of idolizing his oldest sibling and, even to this day, a solid bit of hero worship. With Tate, it was typical older brother–little brother stuff that veered easily from friendship to fisticuffs and back to friendship again.

  With Arden...

  Well, with Arden, the sands always shifted. But no matter how much they changed, he always knew she would lead him to solid ground. His baby sister was not only the most mature of all of them but saw with startling clarity what the rest of them resisted like a plague of locusts.

  “Want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked.

  “You mean besides, as Reese put it, having a barn fall on me?”

  Arden winced. “That’s not funny.”

  “Reese didn’t say it like it was funny. In fact, she seemed rather pissed about it.”

  “Well,” she sighed. “Okay then.”

  He let his gaze drift around the kitchen. The peach colored walls, the feel of the Texas pine beneath his fingers as he drummed on the tabletop and the thick bench seat he sat on, hewn and sanded down by his grandfather’s own hand: all of it was as familiar to Hoyt as his own face.

  It should have brought comfort.

  But all he seemed to find were shadows lurking in every corner.

  “Reese goes back to school tomorrow.”

  “I know. I also know Belle has put extra patrols on and the security office at the school is well aware of the need to look out for her.”

  “It’s a risk.”

  “Do you honestly think it’s a risk? Reese informed everyone she needed to, all the way up to the superintendent. No one has asked her to sit out the semester.”

  They hadn’t, and even Hoyt thought that was strange. “And why is that? A local teacher, with her father’s recent history, who has been the victim of several attacks, and no one even bats an eye?”

  “The way Reese told it, both the assistant principal and the PTA went to bat for her.”

  It still bugged him, but if the Parent–Teacher Association was willing to bring her back, he could hardly complain. Even as the what-ifs rattled around his brain endlessly.

  What if they’d missed something? What if the threat was redirected at her? What if someone got to her before he could stop them?

  “They’re supposed to be looking out for the students,” he finally said, the argument sounding weak to his ears.

  “I’d say it’s looking out for the students when they ensure that one of the best teachers in the state is kept on, as well as watched out for.”

  “Come on, Arden. Why are you taking their side? Aren’t you worried about this?”

  “Worried? I’m worried every day. But that doesn’t mean I can stop living my life. Doesn’t mean any of us can. What sort of example would Reese set for those kids if she turned tail and ran?”

  Hoyt wanted to agree with her—wanted to see her teaching as a higher calling—but every time he got close to accepting the idea of Reese being gone every day, something inside him curled up in fear. Bone-deep, gut-curling fear.

  Arden reached out and laid a hand over his forearm. He eyed her slender fingers and steady palm, the gesture so like his mother’s that it hurt. “Is something else going on here?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m worried about her. I’m worried about all of us.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  While he knew she’d get them to firm footing eventually, at the moment, his sister’s changing moods were rather like quicksand. “Out with it.”

  “It wa
sn’t Reese’s house that was attacked. It was ours.”

  “I know.”

  “Maybe this doesn’t have anything to do with her. Maybe this has something to do with us.”

  While he’d certainly considered it—heck, they’d even all had a family meeting on it—Hoyt still found it odd that the incidents would begin at Reese’s and then move over to Reynolds Station. “Belle has been tugging at that line, too. Hell, Arden, so have all of us.”

  “And nothing’s clicked.”

  “Not a single damn thing.”

  “Then let me go back to the question you didn’t answer.”

  He knew what was coming. He’d been a part of this family too long not to. “When am I going to admit that I’m in love with Reese?”

  Arden rubbed a hand over his arm. “That’s the one.”

  “Hell if I know.”

  Reese sat in the back of the Midnight Pass High School auditorium, pleased and relieved and more than a little touched by the wall of support that flanked both sides of her on a row of uncomfortable metal folding chairs. Hoyt sat next to her, with Ace and Arden on his left and Belle and Tate on Reese’s right. Belle had even worn her police uniform, a visible sign of the law and order she worked so hard to keep.

  When they’d first suggested they were all joining her for the first PTA meeting of the year, she’d tried to convince them to stay home. Yet, here she was with her phalanx of cowboys, a cop and a yoga instructor to boot.

  An ass-kicking yoga instructor, Reese added to herself.

  She’d been back at school a little over a week now and other than the stress of crafting interesting lesson plans that had the power to mow through teenage hormones and getting to know her new students, there hadn’t been any further danger. While she knew she should have been happy about that, a strange sense of hovering high in the air without a net had taken root and wouldn’t quite leave her.

  Nor had the same sensation seemingly left the Reynolds family.

  Everyone was living on high alert, waiting for something to happen.

  At this point, she was spending more time at their house than her own. But on the nights she did choose to stay in her own place, Hoyt insisted on staying with her. Their lovemaking had continued, unabated, and she kept wondering when that would all go away, too.

  And then she’d admonish herself to enjoy the moment and push it all to the back of her mind.

  Which then made room for thoughts of whomever had set fire to the barn and had likely left her a hairy spider on her porch and a bullet hole through her kitchen.

  Vicious cycle, she mentally sighed to herself before returning to listen to the PTA president’s droning voice. A voice she ought to pay more attention to since it was the woman and her board who’d smoothed the way for her to start the school year.

  Once the fire happened in the Reynolds barn, she knew she had to alert the school to what was going on. While she needed her teaching contract, she also needed to feel that her students were safe and secure. Where she’d anticipated a difficult conversation, she’d been amazed to find an old acquaintance in her corner.

  Loretta Green. No, Reese corrected herself. She was Loretta Chapel now.

  Who would have thought?

  She’d never gotten the idea that Jamie’s high school girlfriend liked her, if she paid any attention to her at all. But it had been Loretta who’d defended her to the PTA and stressed her value to the school. This support, just like that from the Reynolds family who flanked her even now, had been as unexpected as it was welcome.

  Of course, who knew how long it would last when the PTA also discovered her pregnancy, but one step at a time, Arden kept reassuring her.

  The discussions of funding, school board projects and student scholarships moved along rather quickly and before she knew it, Reese and her entourage were standing at the coffee table enjoying a bit of Southern hospitality after the meeting.

  “I can’t say the meeting was all that riveting, but there is cake.”

  Belle patted Tate’s back before dipping her fork into a slice of pound cake. “Why do you think I always volunteer each month for this assignment?”

  “That’s what you do over here?” Tate asked.

  “You bet.”

  “I feel so swindled.” Tate pulled his fiancée close. “But now that I know your secrets I may have to tag along. These meetings are open to the public. And I am a good, honest, upstanding taxpayer, as you all know.”

  Despite the congenial air, Hoyt had remained quiet, saying no to the cake and sipping on his disposable cup of coffee. She moved closer to him, careful not to make too big a personal display that others might notice as too intimate. “You doing okay over here?”

  “I’ll be better when we get out of here.”

  Panic fluttered through her, putting the nerves that had settled throughout the evening back on edge. “Did you see something?”

  “No. But this place doesn’t sit right with me.”

  Reese thought back over the evening and struggled to understand what was bothering him. There hadn’t been any contentious moments. Nor had there been anyone out of place or unexpected attending the meeting.

  “I hate to break it to you, but this was about as run-of-the-mill and boring as these meetings get.”

  “Do you have to stay much longer?”

  She waited a beat, looking deep into his green eyes. Not a single hint of humor or ease reflected back at her. “Let me just say a few goodbyes and we can get out here.”

  She nearly made it over to Jake, determined to thank her assistant principal once again, when Loretta found her.

  “Reese. It’s been so long.”

  Loretta pulled her close for a hug and Reese hung on, touched by the warm greeting. “It has been. How old are your boys now?”

  “Ten and eight. Ben and Charlie.”

  Reese saw the pride and delight as Loretta said her sons’ names and marveled at the fact that she’d be doing the same in a matter of months.

  “How is your mother doing?”

  “She’s doing well. It’s nice to see her start to have something to look forward to.”

  “Oh?” Loretta’s eyebrows lifted, clearly excited by fresh gossip. “What is she excited about?”

  “Um. Um, well, she’s been thinking about selling the house,” Reese improvised, the fib tripping off her tongue. “Already got word she may have a buyer.”

  Damn, what was wrong with her?

  She’d nearly spilled the beans about her pregnancy to a board member of the PTA. Was she trying to get fired? Add on that now she had to try to explain to her mother why the Midnight Pass grapevine was suddenly expecting her house to go up for sale, and she was doing a fine job over cake and coffee. When Hoyt glowered at her from the corner, she figured it was her cue to wrap it up. “Listen, I hate to run, but it’s going to be an early morning tomorrow. It has been so nice to see you.”

  “You, too, Reese.”

  Fully aware her evening was at an end, Reese made eye contact with Jake and gave him a quick wave and nod before following Hoyt and his family out the door.

  And for no reason at all, she felt a strange chill run the length of her spine.

  It’s been too long.

  The words rumbled over and over in her mind as Loretta did her level best to tuck Charlie into bed. He’d been a demon for the sitter—at least according to the sitter—and now she was stuck peeling him off the ceiling because the idiot girl had given in and allowed him an advance dive into the candy she’d bought on sale and hidden for Halloween.

  Charlie had found it.

  He always found it. If it was candy, soda or cookies, the child had a nose like a bloodhound. Too bad that same sense of discovery didn’t work on broccoli, carrots or anything else green, yellow or orange.

  “Mommy?”


  “What, sweetie?” She brushed his hair off his forehead with her index finger, pleased to see his eyelids getting droopy.

  “What’s love?”

  “Love? It’s how I feel about you.”

  “No.” Charlie shook his small head. “Love-love. Like grown-ups have.”

  Loretta was curious what had prompted the question and didn’t have to wait long as Ben hissed from the single bed on the opposite side of the room, “You’re not supposed to ask that, Charlie.”

  Her interest grew sharper as it was obvious something had started the line of questions. “What’s this about?”

  “Nothing,” Ben said before rolling over on his side to face the wall.

  “No. It’s not nothing,” Loretta probed. “What’s with this question?”

  “Daddy has a girlfriend.” Charlie came out with it first, despite Ben’s protest to shut up from the other bed.

  Loretta fought the heavy rage that seemed to build from the very center of her being. Forcing a calm she didn’t feel, she opted to leverage the more chatty of her two children. “When did this happen?”

  “Last time we were there,” Charlie said, eager to share the details he had now that he knew the cat was out of the bag.

  “Did you meet Dad’s new girlfriend?”

  “Uh-huh.” Charlie nodded his head. “Her name is Casey.”

  “She’s nice,” Ben said, chiming in. “She’s twenty-six.”

  Loretta had no idea how her children knew that or why the very thought bothered her so much. She’d been young once. Not that long ago, in fact. She even still remembered what it felt like to be young and hopeful and looking toward the future. “Good for her.”

  “Daddy told us not to tell you,” Charlie said.

  “Well, that’s just silly,” Loretta reassured him. “You can tell me anything.”

  “Anything?” Ben asked.

  Loretta got up, crossed over to Ben’s bed, taking a seat beside him. “Of course you can. I’m your mom. You can always talk to me.”