Ivy checked the GPS on her phone once more and sighed, reminding herself that she had wanted this job desperately as she took another turn onto another unpaved road, her third in a row. She was seriously in no-man’s country, and if Dr. Phillips hadn’t assured her that Thomas Jameson and his goat were regulars when it came to needing veterinary care, she would have turned her truck around ten winding miles ago.

“Where the fuck am I?” she muttered yet again as the trees closed in even closer to a road that looked more like a walking path than something she should actually be driving a vehicle on. “And who the hell calls a vet for a damn goat?”

The goat was her last patient of the day after a fairly grueling morning schedule. Ivy was amazed that Dr. Phillips had been able to keep up with his workload before she’d come on to work with him. Of course, when she made that comment, he’d assured her this sudden rash of so-called sick farm animals had more to do with the pretty new vet, and that things would settle back down once everyone in Casper had gotten a look at her.

She’d been amused by his joke. Ivy kept waiting for Casper to feel like home, but so far, she hadn’t managed to warm up to the place much. And that was all her fault. She kept comparing the town and the people to Compton Pass. It wasn’t measuring up.

Finally, after three more hairpin turns, she broke through to a clearing and found what appeared to be a rundown hunting cabin. She had grown up in the West, so she’d met more than her fair share of backwoods people who preferred a life of solitude, living in houses well off the beaten path, but Jesus. This was pushing that concept to the limit.

She parked her truck, then reached for her bag. According to Dr. Phillips, this call had just come in this afternoon. Mr. Jameson’s goat had eaten something he shouldn’t have and now he was sick.

Climbing out of her truck, she shouted out, “Hello?”

The place was deathly quiet, and as she walked around the cabin, she started to worry about hearing banjos playing. The place was like something out of Deliverance. It belatedly occurred to her that there weren’t any vehicles here. Jesus. Mr. Jameson lived too far up in the mountains to walk. Was he away from home? If he was, she was going to get pissed. It had been a hell of a drive and she’d—

That was her last thought as someone grabbed her from behind, a large hand covering her mouth.

Ivy reacted on instinct, kicking back in an attempt to shake herself loose.

“Shhh, Ivy. It’s me.”

She stilled instantly as the hand disappeared and she was suddenly free. Ivy whirled around in a state of fury. “What the fuck are you doing? You scared the shit out of me!”

James looked at her with an unrepentant scowl on his face. “Do you seriously walk up to places that look like this alone?”

“I’m here on a call. Dr. Phillips assured me that Mr. Jameso—” She stopped short on the name. “Thomas Jameson. James Thomas Compton! A call you obviously made.”

James nodded, clearly considering that, but he still didn’t calm down. “Yeah. I know, dammit. But I didn’t realize until just now that this is what you do for a living—drive up to random houses. Do you have that pepper spray with you?”

She did. But it was in her car. “This is my job, Jamie.” And even as she said it, she had to admit he had a point. She hadn’t felt safe, and yet, she’d still gotten out of the truck. It was a stupid thing to do.

“Promise me the next time you get a call that’s in the middle of nowhere, you’ll grab me first.”

She frowned as she shook her head. “That is so,” she sighed, “not happening.”

“Ivy, I’m serious—”

She cut him off. “Do you really need me to explain why? Number one, because we’re not dating, and number two, because you live two hundred miles from here. This is my job. I’m going to do it. And number three, how freaking hypocritical are you, Mr. Smokejumper?”

“Don’t know what the hell was wrong with the clinic,” he muttered.

Fine. He didn’t like her answer. It didn’t matter because she wasn’t going to keep debating it, mainly because this was the first time she’d ever felt scared at work. “I’ve been here a month or so, and all my calls have been in well-populated areas, big ranches with lots of people around. And if there had been any concerns about this appointment, Dr. Phillips would have made the run out here. But he knew it was you, right?”

James nodded, his face finally clearing a bit. “Yeah, he knew it was me. Doc Reynolds helped me set this meeting up.”

“You could have just stopped by the clinic.”

He didn’t reply to that, and some of the unease that had vanished when she’d realized it was him started to reappear.

“Why are you here? Fire season doesn’t end for a couple more weeks.”

“I’ve actually been home a couple weeks. Left early.”

She tilted her head, concerned. “Is everything okay at home?”

She’d taken this job even though Doc Anderson’s offer at the memorial service had been more tempting—financially and in the long term. In Casper, she was merely one of four associates at the practice, and Dr. Phillips’s son was lined up to take over the business when his father retired. Doc Anderson had offered to make her a full-fledged partner and, upon his retirement, the practice would have been hers.

However, saying yes to a job in Compton Pass would have been the height of stupidity, so she’d turned it down and pointed her truck toward Casper.

“Everything is fine at home. You know, I meant to ask you before, when we were at Compass Ranch together, why did you turn down Doc Anderson’s job offer?”

Ivy tilted her head, shooting him an incredulous look. “Shouldn’t that be obvious? I kind of thought Casper would be far enough away, but now…”

“Two hundred miles is too far away.”

She lifted her hand and gestured to him standing in front of her, making it abundantly clear that didn’t appear to be true.

“Look. We’re both adults, Jamie, and before we added sex to the mix, we were really good friends. I’m not going to lie. I keep hoping that maybe after some time, after our feelings settle down, you and I could be—”

“Wait,” James cut her off. “Are you giving me the ‘we can just be friends’ speech?”

Ivy blew out a long, hard breath. “Yeah. Too soon, right?”

James chuckled. “Ivy, darlin’, it’s always going to be too soon for that line of bullshit.”

She was tired, and her heart was still beating just a little too fast—from her fright and his sudden appearance. All she wanted to do was go home and nurse her broken heart.

“You can’t just show up here, Jamie. I purposely took a job for less pay and with fewer prospects for the future so that you and I wouldn’t run into each other. All of that is for shit if you keep popping up to Casper. Can you just please promise me that you’ll stay away from now on?”

“No.” James shook his head. “I won’t.”

She dug deep, trying to find a way that would convince him to give up on them. “It’s over between us. My feelings for you…aren’t there anymore.” Her attempt was lame at best.

“Wow. You’re zero for two, sweetheart. We’re not going to be friends and you’re not over me. Want to take another stab at it?”

Ivy knew she had hurt him with her continued refusal, but she’d thought he had understood her reasons. It appeared she was wrong. “I don’t get it. You want me to quit this job? Go somewhere farther away? Is this still too close?”

He rolled his eyes. “Three strikes, you’re out. Come on.” He took her hand, leading her back around to the front of the cabin and up the three steps to the front door. James gently pushed her inside before he stepped in behind her and closed the door.

She hadn’t managed to see much of anything before she heard the lock snick into place. Ivy twirled to look at him. “What is this place?”

“Hunting cabin owned by one of the families in the area. Austin makes the occasional run to their place with cattle. He called in a favor. Borrowed it for me.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer.

She took a different approach. “You still haven’t told me why you left Yellowstone early.”

He grinned, but damn if it wasn’t a wolfish look that made her feel very much like prey. She wished that scared her. Instead, she was tempted to offer the sexy hound her throat.

“I figured that was obvious, Doc.”

Ivy frowned. Nothing was obvious to her at the moment, but she wasn’t surprised by that. Standing with James always managed to short-circuit her brain waves.

“Explain it to me.”

James closed the distance between them. Or at least he attempted to. For every step he took toward her, she took one back. His eyes narrowed as he continued the chase. It ended about halfway across the room when the back of her legs hit a table. With half the room in front of her now, she snuck a quick glance around. To the left was a tiny kitchen. To the right, a small seating area with a short couch and two other chairs that had seen better days, all surrounding a battered coffee table.

She didn’t dare turn her head too far around as she tried to keep James in her peripheral vision.

“Why are you here?” she repeated.

“For you.”

Ivy shook her head. She’d expected the answer, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear. He’d done the one damn thing she’d told him not to do.

“Go back to the squad.” She’d meant the words to be forceful, but they’d come out more whisper than sound.

“No.”

“I told you—” she began.

“I know what you told me. You don’t need to repeat it.”

“Jamie—”

“I quit, Ivy. I’m not going back. Not this season or next. Or any of them. I’m moving home to stay, taking my place on Compass Ranch. And you’re going to be there with me.”

She should be used to his heavy-handedness by now, should have put him in his place for it right from the start. “No. I won’t.”

“Take the job in Compton Pass. Work with Doc Reynolds. I know the people who live there. I know you’ll be safe. I can’t believe you really drove up to this godforsaken cabin alone and then got out of the truck.”

“If I hadn’t, what would you have done?”

“Gone to your apartment and driven you here.”

She closed her eyes, rubbing them wearily. “I’m leaving.”

“No. You’re not.”

Ivy’s temper spiked. “There’s nothing more to say, Jamie! Nothing that we haven’t said a million times before.”

“Then we won’t talk.”

Her eyes opened slowly, her body responding to his tone. That tone.

James reached out, gripping her waist and lifting her until she was sitting on the table. She started to get right back down, but strong hands on her knees pushed them apart, and then he was there, between her legs. He lowered his head to kiss her.

Ivy pressed against his shoulders, a weak, token effort at shoving him back. She tried to twist her head away from him, but James was a firefighting cowboy, made of pure muscle. He wasn’t letting her go. Not anytime soon, anyway.

“Jamie,” she said, the sound muffled by his lips on hers.

Her mouth opened and he ran his tongue over her lower lip, seeking a taste. James growled when her tongue stretched out to meet his, deepening the kiss. He stroked her tongue with his, nipping it and her lips with his teeth.

Ivy was lost.

James pulled away and looked at her.

“I can’t be smart with you,” she admitted.

He lifted her from the table. “I know you don’t believe me right now, but this, today, right now, is the smartest thing we’ll ever do.”

James started carrying her toward a doorway she assumed led to the bedroom.

“I should leave,” she said, though there was precious little conviction to the words.

“Darlin’, I’m going to absolve you of all guilt there. You couldn’t leave if you wanted to.” He dropped her down on a large bed covered by a beautiful handmade quilt.

“Why do you say that?” Ivy glanced around as she asked the question, her gaze landing on the long pieces of rope secured to the center of the headboard and trailing over the pillows.

“Because I’ve kidnapped you.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right. Funny joke.”

When she glanced at him again, she noticed he wasn’t smiling.

“I didn’t laugh when I said it.”

Ivy narrowed her eyes. “You can’t kidnap me.”

He lifted her a little easier than she cared to acknowledge, moving her to the center of the bed before climbing over top of her. He had her wrists in his hands before she even realized his intent.

She fought back as he tied the first hand, and then the other together, above her head, leaving her in a pose of complete surrender. Ivy tried to tug herself loose.

“I’m a cowboy, remember?” he teased, when the knots held tight.

She remembered. This wasn’t their first foray into bondage, and while she was annoyed at how easily he’d managed to subdue her, there was a part of her that hoped to God this wasn’t the last time James Compton tied her to a bed.

Horniness was a huge deterrent when it came to intelligence.

“So I’m your captive?” Her voice came out too sultry to convince him she was anywhere other than exactly where she wanted to be.

“Yep. You’re gonna stay tied to this bed until you agree to be my girlfriend. No,” he said, frowning. “Fuck that. I’m not letting you go until you agree to marry me.”

She laughed, but once again, the seriousness in his eyes told her this was no joke. Ivy studied his face more closely, looked deeper into those chocolate-brown eyes, and recognized his solemnity for what it was.

Fear.

He was afraid she was going to reject him.

“Jamie. Smokejumping—”

“Was a big part of my past. I don’t regret my time on the West Yellowstone squad, and I’m happy for the experience. But that’s done now.”

She started to shake her head, but he cupped her face in his large, calloused palms, forcing her to hold his gaze.

“All this time, I’ve been looking for my place in the world. I’ve found it, Ivy. It’s with you. Wherever that is. We can stay here in Casper or go home to Compton Pass. Hell, I’ll move to the damn East Coast if you decide that’s what you want. I’m completely in love with you, and the idea of living anywhere you don’t isn’t something I can do.”

She couldn’t have stemmed the tears if she tried. She didn’t even want to.

“I love you so much,” she said, tired of holding back the truth and pretending it would fade in time.

“You believe me when I say I have no regrets?”

She lifted one shoulder. While she wanted to believe it, she wasn’t quite there yet. “I’m just afraid th—”

“I’m scared too, Doc. But it’s a good fear. We’re heading into uncharted waters. I’ve never really been in love. Expended a lot of time and effort on lust, but love? Believe me, what I’m feeling right now is a hell of a lot scarier than jumping out of a plane into flames. But I’m still going to do it. Because I can’t not do it. Come with me?”

She smiled. “Leap into the fire? Is there a parachute at least?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Just my hand and a promise that I’ll make sure the fall feels very, very good.”

“It’s not the fall I’m worried about. It’s the crash.”

He ran his fingers through her hair, grabbing a handful of it before tightening his grip. She sucked in an excited breath of air.

“We’re going to crash into each other. And, darlin’, I’m going to make sure it hurts real good.”

“Kiss me, Cowboy.”

James didn’t resist. The time for talking had passed. At this point, she was giving in and going where her heart led her, trusting that James was telling her the truth. That he was happy with his decision.

He kissed her long and deep, taking her mouth the way she hoped he’d take her body.

While she missed the use of her hands, she couldn’t deny the impact of being helpless to the strong, sexy man who was doing incredible things to her libido.

James slowly unbuttoned her blouse, sucking one of her nipples into his mouth, not bothering to remove her bra. The wet silk between her skin and his mouth added yet another dimension to her arousal.

Everything he did pushed a button. The right button.

Glancing at her bra, and then at the rope binding her hands, he grinned. “I was in such a hurry to get you tied up, I might have forgotten to think through a couple of things.”

She shot him a sultry look. “You can take a chance and untie me if you want. But I don’t promise to make it easy on you.”

“Is that right? As tempted as I am…” James tugged her bra down until it was bunched up beneath her breasts. He clearly liked the effect, and took advantage of the way it pushed her breasts up. The bra was tight, and it added another layer of feeling bound, captured.

“Oh yeah,” he murmured, sucking one of her turgid nipples into his mouth. “Total nudity might be overrated. Because, darlin’, you look sexy as hell right now.”

He moved from breast to breast, treating her to every kind of delicious torment he could cook up. The temperature in the cabin grew hotter as Ivy struggled to take a deep breath.

She was too excited, too ready for the next part. If she weren’t tied up, she would have pushed the sexy cowboy to his back ages ago and hopped on board for a ride.

As it was…all she could do was take every sensuous suck, kiss and nip.

“Please,” she whispered.

James lifted her head and studied her face. His usual affable grin was gone. Replaced with something almost feral.

Fuck. Her arousal was off the charts.

“Please, Jamie,” she said again.

He shook his head just once, then bent to continue playing with her breasts some more. She arched her back, twisted, wiggled like a kid in church, but he wouldn’t be dislodged or dissuaded.

“Not rushing this, Ivy,” he said after a few minutes. “So behave.”

His last two words were laced with just enough warning that they triggered another desire. Something she’d never wanted prior to meeting him, but she remembered that night in the motel. Recalled his hand on her ass.

She wanted to be punished, spanked. Badly.

She upped her game, twisting and turning even more. Every time he took one of her nipples into his mouth, she jerked to the side quickly, making him lose his grip. The third time it happened, he rose to his knees, looming large and threatening and beautiful.

“I warned you.”

Ivy grinned. “I told you I wouldn’t be a good captive.”

He moved to one side and, with strong hands, managed to flip her to her stomach. While he might not have considered disrobing her with the rope in the way, he’d obviously thought through the positions he wanted to be able to achieve with her bound. He’d left just enough slack in the rope that he could take her from the front or behind.

James pushed her shirt up and over her head, so that it was out of his way.

She shivered when he ran one finger along her spine. All the way down and then halfway up again. He snapped the clasp on her bra, baring her back. She hadn’t realized how tight the constriction was until she was free from it. She drew in a deep breath.

James straddled her thighs once more, placing his elbows on the bed next to her head. His lips touched the shell of her ear, his breath hot.

“Bad girls get spanked.”

She closed her eyes and groaned, the sound giving her away.

“But you knew that, right? You like it. Like my hand coming down on your naughty ass.”

Ivy didn’t dare respond. James was definitely in a playful mood, determined to draw out the foreplay until she couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted the spanking, but she was afraid to let him see that. Afraid he’d tease her some more before giving in.

“Lift your ass, pretty girl.”

He shifted off her, but made no attempt to put her in the position he wanted. He waited for her to follow his command. Not that he had long to wait. She heard him chuckle when she quickly raised her ass. It took all the strength she had not to wiggle the damn thing at him in invitation.

He reached around her and unbuttoned her jeans, sliding down the zipper. She lurched toward his hands a couple of times, hoping to find some sort of glancing stimulation, but James knew her plan and made sure to touch only her clothes.

He tugged her jeans and panties off with skill, adding her shoes to the pile on the floor. Then he returned to his previous place next to her, his hand gently caressing the globes of her ass. Over and over, he simply stroked the skin, softly, like he would pet a kitten.

It was maddening. Infuriating.

“Do it!” she demanded after too many minutes of anticipation.

James continued his gentle touches, acting as if he hadn’t heard her at all.

She parted her lips again to blast him, but the sound was cut short when he lifted his hand and smacked her. It was harder than she’d expected, but holy mother of God, it was exactly what she needed.

She cried out—at the sting, and at the way her empty pussy clenched.

“Yes,” she hissed, when he placed five more firm smacks on her ass. A couple hit dead center on the fleshiest part, two more landed on her upper thighs. The fifth landed right along her slit and ended with his fingers curving inward, the tips flicking her clit in a way that had her seeing stars.

Ivy jerked roughly at the shock of it. He’d managed to hit—literally—so many hot spots at once. She bit the pillow, but he gripped her hair, pulling her head up.

“Don’t hold back anything, Ivy. I want to hear you scream.”

He repeated the same soul-stealing smack, his fingers finding her clit again. This time, they lingered, played.

Ivy’s body seemed to move of its own volition, her hips rising and falling. Her inner muscles tightening, seeking something. Anything.

“I need,” she gasped. “Need…”

“Shhh.”

If James was trying to soothe her, he was falling really fucking short. His fingers pressed harder, moved quicker over her clit. Twice, he pinched the sensitive bud, but he still didn’t give her what she really needed.

“Fingers,” she said. “Jesus… Dick. Something. Inside me.”

Ivy was a fool to waste her breath. James had his own agenda and there obviously wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. She fought harder against the rope binding her until he placed his hand over her wrists.

“Stop, Ivy. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“I don’t care!” God, she could hear the whine in her tone, but she didn’t care about that, either. “I already hurt. Please.”

He kissed her cheek. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are right now? Your hair all tangled around your pretty face, your sweet little ass glowing pink from my hand. I’ve never seen anything hotter.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

James chuckled again, and she scowled.

“You’re always in a hurry, always trying to rush to the next part. I’m not doing that tonight. Tonight, I’m going to worship every single inch of you. Make sure you know, all the way to your bones, that I love you.”

She already felt that way. “I know that.”

“Oh yeah? You know it enough that it will wipe out the damn worry I’ve given up something I can’t live without?”

She didn’t reply. That fear was holding tight. “I just…”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought. There’s only one thing I can’t live without, Ivy, and she’s tied to this bed. Until you understand that, until that damn anxiety of yours is gone, I’m going to keep doing whatever I can to convince you.”

His fingers returned to her clit—only her clit—and he played with her once more.

Ivy moaned, turning her face to the pillow as she moved in time with his too-soft strokes.

“I can’t…” she cried when the minutes continued to tick by. “Please!”

Finally, James gave in, pressed two fingers inside her, slowly but oh so deep—and she gave him what he wanted too.

She screamed as she came, her body convulsing roughly as the orgasm shook her. James didn’t still, didn’t stop thrusting. His motions were steady, lethal. He curved his fingers and found her G-spot, firing off a second orgasm.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “I was just looking for my golf ball.”

She laughed even as her body trembled from the intense pleasure.

Ivy collapsed facedown on the bed, replete, exhausted, only one thought penetrating her sex-fogged satiation.

He hadn’t even made love to her yet.