by Renee Rose
When it passed, I whimpered, my legs shaking.
Rob stood up, eyes—yellow.
Not brown. What the hell? I’d never seen anyone’s eyes change so much in different light.
He cupped and played with my breast with one hand, still pinning me against the shower wall with the other. “Turn around, angel. I want to see that ass again.”
I wasn’t sure I was up for more anal—especially without lube, but the desire to obey Rob’s hoarse commands and see how this played out was greater than any need I had to control.
I rotated to face the shower wall and spread my legs, looking over my shoulder for his reaction.
It didn’t disappoint. Heat burned in his gaze as he stroked a hand down my side and over my ass. “Beautiful,” he murmured. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”
So much pleasure pumped through my system at that moment, I thought I’d overload… and I’d already come.
Rob reached out of the shower and retrieved a condom from the medicine cabinet. I turned my face back to the wet tile, listening as he ripped it open and rolled it on.
“I’m gonna fuck you right here,” he rumbled, appearing right behind me, “so tomorrow when I’m in here stroking myself and thinking about you, I’ll remember exactly how it feels to be inside you.” He rubbed his cock over my slick entrance.
I was so ready for him. The anal had been amazing, and I loved that he’d gone straight to that yesterday—but right now my pussy wanted to be filled by him for the first time. Desperately.
I arched my back and pushed, taking him in.
He groaned as his thick length penetrated me and then inched in, deeper and deeper. My pussy was able to take him easier than my ass, but he was still big, and it was a tight fit. I was wet for him, and the orgasm had softened me up to accept him better. Still… I liked it big.
“This is all reward today, Natalie. You tell me how you like it,” he rumbled.
The name Natalie grated on my ears like a betrayal, even though I was the one lying. I hated that in a moment like this, he wasn’t saying Willow. He wasn’t saying my name. It was as if all his potency, his virility and dominance wasn’t for me. I was an imposter. Fuck, he didn’t even know my name. Wasn’t murmuring it in the throes of ecstasy. Using it to command me into positions.
But I couldn’t think of that now. Not when he bottomed out in me with a slight bite of pain.
“I like this,” I panted, my fingers splayed wide against the tile. I did. Hard. Deep. Rough. Wild. I loved everything he did.
He gripped my hips and glided slowly in and out. Every stroke was a wave of sensation. I panted just to assimilate it all. His size, his angle, how good it felt to have him so deep.
“More,” I croaked when I’d grown used to it.
“Yeah?” He bumped into me harder.
“Yes,” I encouraged. Damn, it felt good. It was hard to believe how good sex was with Rob Wolf. Beyond any other experiences I’d had.
His breath grew ragged, his grip on my hip bones bruising. He shifted his angle, so he could drive up into me, instead of straight in, and I cried out with the pleasure of it.
I loved feeling him so deep in me. Loved the wet sound of flesh against flesh, the feel of him pounding. Driving. Pushing me to take all of him.
Loved it.
“Yes, more,” I crooned, even though it was already quite rough.
He braced his hand on the wall beside mine and jackhammered into me, making my vision go hazy.
“More,” I croaked again. I couldn’t get enough, as if no matter what he did, I needed even more of him.
“Fuck,” Rob muttered. He gripped my nape to hold me still and slammed into me with the upward thrusts that felt so good.
I moaned and sobbed with pleasure that built and built.
“I’m going to come,” Rob warned. “I can’t help it—you feel so good.”
“I’m ready!” I cried out.
"Fates, yes," he roared. I barely registered the strange word choice because I was coming too, my channel squeezing and pulsing around his thick manhood. His breath felt warm on my shoulder, and I felt the scrape of his teeth against my skin before he abruptly pulled out and released me. The hot spray of the shower couldn’t replace the warmth of his body.
“Whoa!” I moaned at the sudden loss of contact.
“Sorry,” he muttered from the other end of the shower. “Hang on a sec, I’ll… get cleaned up and find you a towel.” He was facing away, cleaning up under the spray and disposing his condom.
His huge shoulders were bunched up in tight knots. I took a moment to admire him from the back—so muscular. Perfect.
I hadn’t known I had a type, but I realized now, I did. And he was it. A big strong cowboy. Manly but discreetly gentle. Rough in bed, cocky and dirty talking, but still kind and level-headed. Ridiculously smart, quietly observant.
At least that was my impression of him. I didn’t know him that well yet. His sister-in-law’s praise fit that view.
He turned off the water and left the shower without looking back.
It seemed strange, but I couldn’t figure out why the sudden distance. Maybe he’d gotten dizzy with his orgasm too, and he was too much of an alpha male to admit any weakness.
That was probably it. He had stumbled back quite quickly. I could relate.
He reappeared in a moment with a towel spread wide for me. I stepped into it and let him wrap me up like a burrito.
Funny. I didn’t usually let people take care of me. But with Rob, it didn’t make me feel vulnerable. Maybe it was the sex that was making me weak. Making me… gasp, a girl.
I needed to get out of here. Sex with Rob was turning into more than a distraction. It was dividing my focus from why I was here. Not in Rob’s bathroom but in Cooper Valley. Vaughn wanted me over at Markle’s trying to get more information, and I’d already been screwing around—literally—with Rob for too long. I dried off and pulled on my clothes.
“Thanks.” I stood on tiptoe to brush my lips across his. “I gotta get back to the house. Can I see you tomorrow?”
His eyes clouded at my manlike post-sex behavior, but he nodded. “Yeah. Tomorrow, when?”
“Um.” I rubbed my lips together. I really needed to keep my schedule open for the investigation. It was my job, what I was being paid to do. Making social commitments would be a big mistake. “Can I call you?”
“Sure.” Something in his tone told me he understood he was getting the brush-off and didn’t much like it, but he took my phone when I handed it to him and entered his digits.
I texted him back, so he had mine—something I didn’t usually do. I didn’t want to be a jerk, so now he at least knew he could call me, too. I really did want to be with him. Hell, I wanted him to tug me to his bed right now for round two. I had to be level headed, at least for a little while. Focus on something besides mind melting orgasms.
“See you later, then.” I picked up my bag with the pistol in it and left to find my way out.
Rob followed me down the stairs and out the door, being the perfect host and gentleman. He’d gone silent, but I got the feeling that he wasn’t a man of unnecessary words. Except when it came to dirty talk. Then, he wasn’t a gentleman at all.
“Bye.” I turned around one more time to give him a kiss, and he snatched me up against his body and kissed me hard. It felt like a warning. Or punishment for leaving. Or… something.
A promise.
My toes curled in my shoes, and I came away breathless.
“See you later—tomorrow.” Dang it— I sounded like a teenager. This guy was getting to me in a big way. I definitely needed some space to get my head back on straight.
I was here for a job.
A job.
Not to fall in love with the sexy cowboy next door.
15
WILLOW
I blow-dried my hair and freshened my lip gloss before I headed down to Markle’s. I wanted to get a look in his outbuildings, but I dou
bted that was possible in broad daylight. I’d have to sneak back at night to see if I could get in although my plan was to watch for a pattern in the trailer shipments. Once I had enough intel, I could ask Vaughn for a warrant and bring in a team to search the place, but until then, I could find out more undercover. And that meant pandering to Markle’s ego while my pussy ached from the pounding Rob gave it.
Rolling my eyes at myself in the mirror, I gave up. I was trying to keep him interested but not too eager that he’d think I wanted sex. I frowned as I went down the steps. He’d think I wanted sex with him because his ego was a mile wide.
This time, instead of cutting across the field, I drove. I wanted an escape route in place and not on foot. It left me vulnerable to Jett’s whims, and I liked having my Glock in the car.
Taking a deep breath and pasting on a fake smile, I rang his doorbell. The fancy sound of Pachelbel’s Canon came through the door. Figured.
The door opened thirty seconds later. The cloying cologne preceded Jett.
“Natalie,” he said. His smile wasn’t as warm as before, so I laid mine on a little thicker.
“Hi. I wanted to say thanks for dinner the other night and wondered if you’d help me. I don’t have a bottle opener.” I held up a Chardonnay I’d found at the grocery store when I first arrived. I didn’t take Jett for a beer drinker, and while he probably drank scotch, it was the expensive kind and my expense report probably wouldn’t look good with a twenty-five-year-old bottle as a line item. Wine it was.
He studied the bottle and sniffed, not as if he was smelling it, but as if it were rancid. “Wolf doesn’t have an opener?”
My heart thudded in my chest, but I’d been trained to keep my smile from slipping. “Wolf?”
“Rob Wolf.” The words were followed by a sneer.
“What… what about him?”
“He should have a corkscrew… or is the only thing you’re interested in getting from him a screw?”
“Jett… I don’t know what you’re—”
He held up his hand, and I instinctively stepped back with my right foot to make myself narrower, but also in readiness. He was an alleged middleman with connections to an international drug kingpin. On paper, Markle was clean. But he had a lot of land, though, to bury bodies. “Stop. Cooper Valley’s a small town. We’re neighbors. There are no secrets here.”
Besides the drug running he was doing after hours.
“Rob Wolf is just a friend,” I admitted.
“Call it what he really is: a fuck buddy.”
My cheeks burned hot from his insults… and the truth in his words. Rob was a fuck buddy. We hadn’t stated we were anything more and, really? What else could he be? He thought I was someone else, and when he found out, he’d kick me out. That totally worked because I was leaving anyway, right after Jett was in handcuffs. Still, that stung.
“Rob means nothing. I’m here with you, now, aren’t I?” I gave him a coy smile.
He looked me over. “I don’t take sloppy seconds from a Wolf.”
Stepping back, he slammed the door in my face.
Oooooookay. That went badly. My target, who I was supposed to get all hot and heavy with, thought I was a slut.
I walked back to the car realizing I probably was. No, I wasn't sleeping around—I liked sex, and I liked it naughty—but I was monogamous. Markle saw it differently. Starting the engine, I slapped my hand on the steering wheel and groaned. I’d fucked up. Whatever the beef was between Markle and Rob had messed with my plan. No, I’d ruined it all by myself. I’d made an attachment. I had no idea what kind, but there was something between me and Rob. Admittedly but unsaid, something more than just unbelievable sex. I’d felt it and ran with it.
I should’ve steered clear and kept my eyes on Markle.
“Stupid hormones and sexy cowboys,” I grumbled as I turned out of Jett’s driveway and onto the dirt road. I pulled over to the side. The sun hadn’t set yet, but it was behind the mountains, and the evening sky was soft and muted. Crickets chirped through the open car window. The perfect Montana evening, and I was alone in a car on the side of a rural road.
I was such a fuckup. Behind me was the case that I’d probably blown. Vaughn had okayed the job because I matched the real Natalie Shefield but also because I could become friendly with Jett. Get on his property. Get close. Get him.
I grabbed my cell.
“Vaughn.”
“Small problem,” I said, staring out the windshield at a falcon circling high overhead on an updraft.
“What?”
“I’m not Markle’s type.”
I heard his sigh. “You’ve got to be shitting me. You’re pretending. It’s not the dating game. Fake it.”
“I did. He’s not interested.” I wasn’t telling him the reason why. What I did with Rob was none of his business. Vaughn was single. Who he fucked wasn’t anything I wanted to know.
“I’m going to watch the place again later. We have the lead on the animal hauler.”
“Canadian customs confirmed the eighteen wheeler you spotted passed the border crossing north of Shelby. There are a lot of rules for live animals headed to Canada, words like breeder cow and brucellosis came up in the report.” He sighed again. “All I know is the transport happened as you suspected. Find a repeat.”
“Yes, sir.” I wasn’t going to argue. He was technically complimenting me in a bassackwards sort of way.
He hung up. It was my turn to sigh as I headed toward my house. Natalie’s house. The case was going to hell. At least I didn’t have to kiss Markle again. As for Rob, I had no answers there. I wanted to be with him, to see him smile. To make him smile because I knew I could do it, and I had a feeling it was a rare thing.
As if my thoughts had conjured him, Rob was on the porch, leaning against the rail as I pulled up. I couldn’t help a smile of my own at the sight of him. A crisp pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. A simple, but lethal, combination.
He took his hat off as he came down the steps and met me.
“Hi,” I said, going up on tiptoes and kissing him. “I didn’t expect you.”
He didn’t kiss back, only sniffed. Once, then again. “You left this at my place.” He held up my earbuds for my phone. “I thought I’d return them.” There was no smile on his face. “You were with Markle again.”
Markle had confronted me about the same thing only minutes before. With him, I’d been a little worried I might get shot. With Rob, I was worried I might get my heart torn out. I wasn’t sure which would be more painful.
He looked down at my hand.
“With wine.”
Shit.
“What happened? He fuck you and forget about it?”
Okay, that pissed me off.
I wasn’t a slut and two guys just accused me of being one.
“That’s unfair,” I snapped.
“You were riding my dick, at my house, a short while ago. I wasn’t enough for you?” His jaw was clenched, every muscle in his body taut. It didn’t matter whether I’d fucked Jett Markle six ways to Sunday or not. Rob thought I did. It looked like I did.
The way Rob had sniffed when I’d gotten close, I smelled like I did.
“It wasn’t a date. I went there as a neighbor,” I said, trying to smooth things over.
“With wine.”
“Nothing happened. He didn’t even invite me in.”
“I told you, I don’t like the guy. I don’t think he’s safe. I wouldn’t let Audrey or Marina near him.”
I was glad to hear that.
“I told you I can handle myself.”
“Right.” He stared at me, then shook his head. “Okay. You do that.”
He didn’t say anything else, only cut across the field that separated our land.
Shit.
I wanted to tell him the truth. That I wanted nothing to do with Markle, but I had a job to do. Rob might hate the guy, but I wanted him behind bars. We were on the same side.
It didn’t m
atter. I couldn’t tell him. I’d already fucked up the case enough. It would be blown wide open if Rob knew. I’d be on the next flight to Phoenix to clean out my desk, and Markle’d be on the next flight to a country without extradition to the US.
While something inside of me ached for me to call out to Rob, to follow him, chase him down and climb him like a tree, I couldn’t.
This was the wakeup call I needed. I was Willow Johnson, DEA agent. I was assigned to find evidence to arrest Jett Markle and a connection to Murrieta.
And I knew better than to get involved with people under false pretenses. It only led to hurt. I never should have started anything with Rob Wolf.
Trouble was, now that I had, I didn’t want it to end.
16
ROB
I woke in just as shitty a mood as I’d gone to bed. It had been two days since I discovered Natalie had gone over to Markle’s house with a bottle of wine, I’d had to shift and run off my aggression on the mountain. I’d never been possessive of a woman before, but the pendulum swung the other way now. I was obsessed with her to the point of insanity, with moon madness tearing at me. She was my mate. What the fuck was she doing with Markle? He’d put his cattle on Natalie’s land. Big deal. He’d even shot one of the pack. James had healed. But I wasn’t going to recover if my mate ended up choosing Jett Markle over me.
I’d pushed myself hard, my wolf trying to burn off some of the anger, running until my paws ached, then crashed in my bed long after midnight. Yesterday, I’d thrown myself into work, rearranging all the hay bales in the barn just to keep my body moving. I’d been at it until late, then had gone straight to bed. This morning, I still had enough rage in me to snarl at anything that got in my way.
After showering in the place that reminded me way too fucking much of her, I dressed and stomped down the stairs to the kitchen. The house smelled sweet—Marina must already be up baking.