Chapter Six
Aiden’s momma always said that sharing a meal with someone made you friends. He wouldn’t go that far with Amaryllis, but she didn’t look as uncomfortable riding next to him as she had before their stop at the diner.
He was glad of it—he couldn’t take hours on the road with her sitting like she had a stick up her ass.
She sat relaxed, legs crossed, fiddling with her phone. “There isn’t very good service up here, is there?”
“Only service you’ll get in some of these parts is a commune with God.” He glanced at the sky, still a foggy gray from the line of storms that had come in earlier in the week.
They were an hour into the three-hour drive and it was dragging. Maybe because he didn’t know if he should turn on the radio to pass the time the way he always did. Or it could be the fact his gaze kept straying to her crossed thighs.
Her skinny jeans accentuated the lines of muscle. He opened his mouth to ask if she was a runner but thought better of it. She’d know he was looking at her legs.
Suddenly his Wranglers were a little too tight. No denying she was a beautiful woman, but there was something that sucked him in and made him want to know more.
Like how breathy her voice got when he was moving inside her.
And when she was tied spread-eagle on his bed.
He wasn’t going to lie to himself that he didn’t want her that way—the dirtiest, darkest way possible. That he didn’t want to have her bound hand and foot, the complex knots creating the perfect lingerie against her pale body.
Sexually, he hadn’t played that way in a long time, and his cock was all too happy at the thought.
Aiden looked across the cab. Her head was bent, thick hair cascading over her shoulder and down to her breast. He knotted his fist on his thigh to keep from reaching over and seeing if her strawberry blonde locks were as silky as they appeared.
She abandoned her phone with a heavy sigh.
“Are you trying to text someone?” Maybe she had a boyfriend. He didn’t know much about her other than she was impulsive, had a smart mouth and a great ass.
“I was trying to get a list of the breeders going to auction today. I wanted to see the cattle brands. I may have to contact a friend of mine who’s a brand investigator down South.”
“Would he know the brands up this way? It’s a big country with a lot of ranchers. I have the local brands here in my notebook.” He removed it from his pocket.
She grabbed it from his hand. He watched her slender fingers move over the cover and then flip through pages.
“You’re meticulous, I’ll give you that, Roshannon.”
In all things. Wait till you see how I place the stripes of my whip on your ass.
He jerked straighter in his seat, resisting the urge to adjust his dick.
“What’s this?” She ran her fingertip down a page, over the heavy black ink of his writing.
“I can’t exactly read it from here.” Why were his balls aching just from watching her finger touch the pages of his notebook?
“Lime. Shovel.” She peered more closely at the scribbled text. “Does this say honey?”
He chuckled. “You’re reading my shopping list.”
She gaped at him. “Are you burying a body and then having honey on your toast?”
“Nah, that’s stuff for my ranch.”
She blinked at him. “You own a ranch?”
“My family does. My pa still runs things, but sometimes he calls up me or my twin brother to run some errands.” Wes was always on the road and too busy to run for supplies.
“And you needed honey for…?” Her brown eyes seemed to glow with mischief.
His cock hardened to full mast in that one look. “My momma asked for it.” It was damn wrong for a man to have to speak of his mother when he had a hard-on for a beautiful woman, but Amaryllis made him anything but comfortable. He didn’t imagine anything about her was easy.
“I knew it.” Amaryllis laughed, a low, sweet tone that sharpened the edge of his need. The next two hours of their drive were going to be damn difficult unless she sprouted hair all over her body and shriveled into an ugly old woman.
Hell, even then she’d still have that air of confidence that was sexy as fuck.
“And did you get your momma the honey she asked for? What was she making?”
“Cinnamon rolls, as I recall. My brother’s favorite.”
“But they’re not your favorite?”
“No. I like apple pie.” And the taste of a sweet, wet pussy. He ran his tongue over his lips and focused on a point on the horizon. This was going downhill in a hurry. If he didn’t get hold of his raging hormones, he’d have to pull over at the first rest stop and relieve himself of a load of sperm.
“Your twin and you have different favorites?” She directed a lock of hair behind her ear, which only made him harder. The shell inviting nibbles, licks and bites. Her lobe was pierced with a single silver horseshoe-shaped stud.
“Contrary to popular belief, twins don’t do everything the same.”
“But you’re identical. I saw a picture of you.”
So she’d stalked him.
“We are identical, but we’re still two people.”
“Name some of your differences.” The spark of intelligence in her eyes and the eagerness to learn something new, even if it was about him and his twin, lit up her face with a glow.
He had a hard time keeping his eyes on the road. She made a sober man feel drunk. “When we were babies, I loved taking baths and he screamed the whole time.” He swung a look her direction to find her smiling.
“What else?”
“I went to the military and he stayed back to help on the ranch.”
“Was that difficult to be separated from him?”
“No more than any other family member. Though, sometimes…” He broke off, wondering if she’d think he was nuts if he told her about his and Judd’s innate sense of each other. Their connection that felt like a live wire when the other was in trouble. It was how Judd had first known about Aiden’s trouble overseas. After Judd had gotten a whiff of that, he’d found out what flight he was on and met him on base. He’d been there for Aiden during the questioning, though he wasn’t allowed to be present.
There were times Aiden’s link with Judd didn’t end well. Like the time he rushed home to find his girlfriend with her arms around Judd, her lips superglued to his.
After that, they hadn’t spoken for three months. Aiden had been headed to the Marines anyway and Judd had sworn she’d kissed him. But Aiden had been glad he had someplace to go to gain some distance between him and his brother. Having his ass kicked at boot camp had been exactly what he needed to forget the whole event.
He also shared a connection of sorts with Wes. They might not be twins but they had the same tastes—in women and what they wanted from them. Which was how they’d ended up passing Lorna back and forth between them that summer before he’d left for boot camp. She had been more than willing, and Aiden found sharing the burden of a woman’s needs easier than dealing with her on his own. If he didn’t feel up to it, Wes took her out to dinner and pampered her.
He focused on Amaryllis. She was nothing like Lorna. Yet she had a ripe sexuality about her that made Aiden wonder…
She waited for him to say more on the topic of the link with his twin.
“Sometimes we just know when the other needs us. You probably think I’m crazy.”
She shook her head. “I’ve read about things like that. Tell me about one time.”
He pressed his lips together and thought on it. He wasn’t about to tell her about his time in the Marines.
The road stretched before them, and they had plenty of time to get to know each other. So why was he only thinking of finding out what her naked body looked like?
“When we were ten, Judd started hanging out with this kid from school. I never liked the punk, but Judd said he was a nice guy when other kids weren’t around. He went back to his friend’s place with him after school one day and I went on home. About seven o’clock I started getting this bad feeling.” He shifted his shoulders, that crawling sensation overcoming him all over again.
Amaryllis twisted in her seat, legs drawn up and to the side, listening to his story.
“I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I told my mother I didn’t feel well and she dosed me with Pepto Bismol. But it didn’t do any good. By eight o’clock I felt like my skin would burst. I just knew I had to go find Judd. I made the excuse I was checking on my new pony and ran straight to Judd’s friend’s house. When I got there, I don’t know what made me look up into the trees, but there he was, stuck high in the branches, too scared to come down.”
“Oh no.” Amaryllis’s whispered word tore through Aiden.
“The jerk friend of his had bet him who could climb higher and then Judd was on an unsteady branch and his buddy climbed down and left him there.”
“Oh my God.”
“He’d been sitting in the tree for hours, and when he saw me, he started crying.” Aiden’s voice was thick.
“What did you do?”
“Climbed the tree and guided him down.”
“And Judd’s friend?”
“Next day Wes and I cornered the kid outside school and let Judd rough him up. After that, we sort of stuck to ourselves. The three of us had some friends in school but we kept it tight. We all grew up on the ranch, lived under one roof.”
“Your cousin too?”
He nodded. “His dad was out of the picture and his mom ran off. Don’t know many mothers who leave their kids, but she must have had her reasons.”
“You never found them out?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Times were hard. Probably figured my parents would do a better job raising a baby, seein’ how they had a home and steady income.”
“That must have felt like growing up with two brothers.”
“Definitely. We’re close. Still meet up at least once a month on the ranch for dinner or to stay the weekend and put up hay.”
She smiled and sat back in her seat. “Sounds like my family. I’ve got two older brothers.” She looked like she wanted to say more but didn’t. After a long minute, she said, “I could use a drink. Is there someplace to stop?”
He threw a half-smile her way. “There’s water in a cooler in the back. I’ll pull over so we can get some out. Told ya there aren’t many stopping points around here.”
“I’m glad we ate when we did then.”
He pulled off the road and got out. The breeze whispered through the high grasses alongside the asphalt as he walked to the back and reached into the cooler. With two bottled waters in hand, he started back to the driver’s side.
Something made him circle to Amaryllis’s side.
His boots crunched gravel at the roadside as he opened her door. She looked up in surprise. He moved close, and she reached for a bottle. When he passed it to her, their fingers brushed. Electricity zapped up his arm, shooting with lightning speed through the rest of his body. Pressure built in his groin.
Their gazes met. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt that sensation when he touched her. Earlier, when he’d grabbed her arm, his knees had nearly buckled. He chalked it up to worry about her barging into that home. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
He uncapped his water and raised it to his lips, watching her from hooded eyes do the same. The way she pursed her lips against the bottle and the movement of her throat as she swallowed shouldn’t smack a man with lust this way.
When she lowered the drink, she gave him a long, appraising look. Her hair glinted red-gold, completely at odds with her dark brown eyes. Her plump lips, without a hint of lipstick, called for deep kisses and gasping cries of pleasure.
He found himself stepping closer. “We’ve got a couple more hours. You good?”
She nodded. Her gaze seemed to be fixed to his jaw. Then she flicked her eyes up and met his stare.
Fuck, it was there—that deep attraction that he needed from a woman to gain her complete trust. Which led them both down the slippery slope to his raw hungers, a dark room and a safe word.
Did she feel the stirring too? He had no way of knowing what was going on behind those beautiful baby browns. She bit down on her lower lip, spiking his need more.
“We’d best get on the road. I want to look at your notebook for those brands, too.” Her words cut into the moment, reminding him that he could not start this up right now.
“Yep. On the road.” He stepped back and closed her door, draining his water and tossing the empty bottle into the truck bed as he rounded to his door. Two hours to go.
Two hours he had to sit there with a woody thinking about binding Amaryllis’s pale white wrists together and kissing every inch of her sweet, curvy body.
* * * * *
If she’d seen one cattle auction, she’d seen them all. Amaryllis folded her arms over her chest and surveyed the sea of cowboy hats. Her mind worked at record pace, taking in the cowboys’ body language one at a time. She’d taken down enough rustlers that she knew what to look for.
Shadiness was number one in her book. The guys who didn’t speak to the others, who stood off on their own. She’d long ago learned that ranching was a solitary business and ranchers were accustomed to working alone. But when they got a chance to shoot the shit about cattle, they took it.
Second on her list was anybody who looked out of place. Jeans that were too nice or any jacket besides a Carhartt attracted her attention. Back in Texas, she’d seen plenty of city folk trying to pass themselves off as ranchers, but their designer clothing gave them away if their polished grooming didn’t.
Aiden appeared at her elbow, standing so close his body heat waved over her. It made her clothing seem thin and useless. Under her plaid top and jeans, her skin prickled.
She threw a glance at him. Damn, had his beard sprouted even more in the ten minutes he’d been away from her? His jaw was shadowed with stubble that seemed to be darkening by the second.
His attention was on the crowd as well, and she’d love to hear his thoughts. If he knew hers, he’d be grabbing her and slamming his mouth over hers, not scribbling in that notebook of his.
“Auction’ll start in a few minutes,” he said.
“Time enough for us to inspect brands. Let’s go.” Without waiting for his response, she turned and dived into the crowd. She had to nudge her way through all the broad shoulders, and more than a few men tipped their hats to her.
“Hey, sugar.”
A growl sounded behind her, and she tossed a look over her shoulder to see Roshannon pushing his way after her.
“What can I do for you, honey? Are you looking for the little girls’ room?” a cowboy asked as she moved by.
She narrowed her eyes at him. She wasn’t a little girl and she sure as hell wasn’t only here looking to find a toilet. Hot words lay on her tongue, but she gulped them down and kept walking.
When she reached the back where all the corrals were located, she fished in her back pocket for her ID. A brick wall of a man was obviously standing guard, and she flashed her badge at him.
“Special Ranger Amaryllis Long. I’d like to have a look at the cattle.”
The man blinked down at her, a befuddled smile on his face. Amaryllis’s pulse pounded in her temples. She didn’t want to bust this guy’s balls but she would if he didn’t stop looking at her like she was only good for looking pretty.
An arm, lightly furred, extended next to her face with another ID. “Roshannon.”
The guard swung his stare to Aiden standing behind her. “She with you?”
“No,” Amaryllis snapped. “He’s with me. Thank you very much.” She breezed by the guy, battling the urge to kick his shins with the sharp little toes of her boots. She mumbled under her breath.
“What was that?” Aiden’s tone said he knew exactly how ticked off she was to be treated lesser, to be put below him.
“Watch yourself, Roshannon.”
“Why? Do you know Kung Fu? Are you gonna take me and that guard back there out?”
She paused to give him a once-over. “The guard for sure. You’re pushing your luck, but I’ll give you another chance. I need your help. Get out your book.”
She’d memorized many of the brands, but he had several pages of them drawn in a careful hand.
He opened the notebook to the exact page as if he practiced it on a daily basis. Probably did. She huddled close to inspect the drawings.
“Got it?” he asked, his head bent close.
Pine and man. Dammit, why couldn’t she stop noticing these things about him?
“Yes.” She moved to the corral where a group of a dozen black angus crowded. She reached between the bars and smacked one on the rump to move it around to the side where she could see the brand.
“Two Forks,” Aiden said beside her.
“Not on the list of cattle we’re looking for.”
“Nope.”
On some level searching the auction for stolen cattle was like finding kidnapped persons. The animals were just as vulnerable, and the people who wanted them back just as desperate. Which was what made her job—and Aiden’s—so important.
The next group Aiden identified right away. They moved on to the next and the next. She kept her eye on the cattle in the pens and various chutes waiting to go on the auction block, but also on the men milling around the area.
One kept glancing at her, which wasn’t anything new. Weren’t many women that came to auctions. The occasional rancher’s wife. But Amaryllis stuck out like pink unicorn.
She’d tried wearing her hair in a ponytail and baggy tops to disguise her curves. But it hadn’t taken long to realize she was going to be recognized for what she did for ranchers and not what she looked like.
“Hey, sweetheart. You look mighty familiar,” one guy called out.
Aiden slowed his steps, his gaze trained on the man. Aiden’s arms might be swinging loosely at his sides, but they ended in fists. He adopted a slow, predatory roll to his walk, and she imagined he’d used it quite a bit during his years in the military.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” The guy ignored Aiden and tried to get her attention.
She kept walking, aware that Aiden wasn’t following. She did a mental eye-roll. She didn’t have time for chest-thumping males. She’d worked with enough of them to know men would be men. They claimed top spots as friends or work colleagues and they didn’t like to be pushed out.
She groaned and left them to sort their differences while she edged up to a trailer. It held just four beasts, some young bulls by the looks of them. Two of the Owens’ bulls and one other had gone missing in the past two weeks. In her experience, thieves usually waited a few weeks before turning the animals at auction.
If they were smart, anyway.
She went right up to the trailer, catching sight of a fresh weal on the side of one bull. A brand over a brand.
A guy eyed her from about ten paces away, and she kept him in her radar as she tried to see the second bull’s brand. It wouldn’t move enough for her to get a good look without boarding the trailer. Far too dangerous. She didn’t want to be crushed in a small space by thousands of pounds of flesh.
“Back off, asshole,” she heard Roshannon say.
Just as she spotted the fresh brand on the next rump.
She looked up at the guy. He slid his eyes down and to the side as he turned slightly away.
Shadiness? Check, motherfucker.
She started toward him. “Hey, these your animals?”
He took a big step back, not forward like a man selling cattle would do if asked. Wait—was he sporting a ball cap with a brand on it—same as the newly scorched ones of the cattle she’d seen?
“You need to open the trailer and let me have a look at them.” Command sounded in her tone.
Behind her, she caught a low thump and a grunt of pain. Either someone had just gotten kicked by a rogue hoof or Roshannon was involved in a fight. Let’s hope it’s this cattle thief’s cronies. AND that Aiden doesn’t get another black eye.
“What do you know about those double-branded cattle?” Roshannon barked.
A scuffling noise as the man he questioned obviously tried to make a run for it.
“On your knees, hands up.”
A thud.
She had her sights trained on the man before her, the one looking right and left as if searching for escape. “Get on your knees,” she called to the man.
“Your woman’s got a… great ass,” the man Roshannon was handling said. Several thumps and grunts followed, and the man in front of her took off.
She lunged forward, relying on her speed and years of chasing greased pigs at the county fair as a kid. She threw herself at him and struck with a body-shaking blow. They fell to the ground, rolling. He jerked a shoulder back, bashing her own. Pain ricocheted up into her neck.
She had enough experience under her silver belt buckle to use her wits. She ground a knee into his spine and used her weight to pin him as she got her handcuffs around one of his wrists.
He fought. He was strong, she’d give him that, and mad. But she was madder.
“Jesus Christ!” Roshannon’s deep tone reached her just as she managed to hook the guy’s second wrist into the cuffs.
She sat atop him, breathing hard. Her hat had been knocked off in the fall and her hair dangled into one eye. Aiden’s gray gaze met hers.
“Hell, Amaryllis.”
“At least two stolen animals in that trailer over there.” She jerked her head and fresh pain hit the muscles of her neck. She’d definitely be sore later. The man she was sitting on was no lightweight and that jerk of his shoulder had been the equivalent of being hit by a smart car at least.
On the ground a few yards away lay the guy Roshannon had cuffed, his hat fallen off, his face scraped and what Amaryllis figured was a black eye from Roshannon’s fist after the comment about her ass.
“Hey, I’ve been a bad boy too. Cuff me!” called a cowboy to her left where a group was gathering.
Amaryllis pushed off the guy and he groaned.
Aiden moved so fast that he was a blur. He went from a crouch to a full stand and twisted at the same second. He took two steps toward the group of guys, who were talking among themselves about who would get cuffed next by the pretty cowgirl.
“Shut your mouths and show some respect,” Aiden ordered.
“Let’s get these two into the truck fast in case there are others. We don’t want them to find out what happened to their buddy.” Amaryllis spoke close to his ear.
He gave a stiff nod, which was better than she could do. Her neck was really hurting. He bent and gripped the guy she’d just caught by the scruff and hauled him to his feet.
“Hey, what’d he do? Is hitting on you against the law, sweetheart?” one guy called.
Amaryllis flashed her ID, which silenced the group. “He’s wanted for questioning. That’s all you need to know.” She stomped up to the other guy and nudged him in the leg with the toe of her boot. “Get up.”
Without the use of his hands, he struggled, and Amaryllis had to assist him. She passed him off to the guard who was looking at her with a bit more respect now.
Aiden shoved his guy forward into a walk. While he and the guard whisked the men out of sight, she got the trailer open and shooed the cattle out. Sure enough, two fit the description of Owens’ stolen cows. Judging by the crisscross of two lines, the original brand was Owens’ too. He’d be happy to get a few of his animals back, and the others might be somewhere around here.
She waved at a cowboy working the auction to help her get the animals corralled into a safe place while she made a call. “Latchaw, send Owens up here with a trailer to collect two of his cattle.”
“You found them? Holy shit.”
“Yeah, and we’re sending two guys to the local station for questioning. If Aiden lets them live that long.” When he’d looked at the man Amaryllis had struggled with, his expression had scared even her. Cold, calculating fury. The gray of his eyes turned to steel. She didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his anger, but she sure as hell wanted to hear him unleash it on that asshole.
She got off the phone with Latchaw and spoke to the market inspector. She ordered him to have every single animal unloaded for her to look at before the auction began.
Then she headed off to find her partner, feeling stiff as hell but satisfied. Aiden had the guys at the truck. One in the back seat cuffed to a length of chain connected to the door. And the other at the tailgate with a similar bit of chain.
She cocked her brow in question.
“Tire chains. For bad weather. Guess you don’t have them in Texas.”
“Seems like they come in handy.”
They stared at each other. While she was dusty from her roll in the dirt, feeling disheveled and bruised, Roshannon managed to look like he’d just stepped off the pages of Cowboy Magazine.
“You got your man, Amaryllis.” Aiden’s voice was rougher than usual but when she looked at his face, he was wearing a smile.
She circled the truck to speak to both guys they had in custody. “Some women like diamonds and pearls. But I love seeing my metal cuffs on the wrists of a rustler. So shiny.” She shot each of them a wink and heard Aiden’s low rumble of amusement.
* * * * *
Aiden didn’t know if he’d recover anytime soon over the jolt to his heart when he’d seen Amaryllis and the rustler hit the ground rolling. She was tiny, and this guy wasn’t a tanked-up Marine, but he had some weight on him and he hadn’t held back in their fall.
She’d been steamrollered and Aiden’d seen her head knocked aside. She hadn’t blinked an eye before she’d gotten the man down in the dirt, her knee in his back.
What Aiden wouldn’t give to have her sitting atop him. Damn.
Part of him was seething that she hadn’t waited for his backup before calling out the guy. He’d tried to run, and that had to mean he was guilty of some crime, even if it wasn’t stealing cattle.
And part of Aiden was proud as hell of her.
Maybe he’d tell her that right after he got done telling her off for not playing by the rules. There had to be order to making an arrest, but she was impulsive. Reckless, even.
She wouldn’t listen to him. He didn’t think she knew how to think before she acted. Twice now he’d seen her take careless steps. One of these times she’d end up in trouble for it. He just hoped to hell he was there to protect her when it happened.
Speaking of protection… He wasn’t so sure she wasn’t a walking victim with a bulls-eye on her back. She attracted attention wherever she went. Men couldn’t keep their damn grubby eyeballs off her. Hell, the guy he’d knocked around had muttered about taking her sweet little ass for his own as she walked away. And then there were the ones who’d asked her to cuff them.
Fuck. Aiden wanted to sink his fist into an eye socket or two right now.
The local sheriff had their suspect in the back seat of his cruiser. He approached Aiden and Amaryllis. “We got this, Roshannon, Ms. Long. We’ll be in touch with you later. Will you be sticking around town? Be happy to spot you a beer.” He was an older guy who was buddies with Judd and often exchanged favors with him. Aiden had no doubt his brother would be hearing about this—and Amaryllis’s role in catching the guy.
“Thank you, Sheriff Mead, but we’ll be heading back to Crossroads.” Her casual stance, arms crossed, exuded that air of confidence that had Aiden’s cock sitting up and begging every time.
But he still wanted to turn her over his knee and paddle her ass for scaring the fuck out of him.
“Thank you for your help, Sheriff. We’ll be by the station later to ask him some questions,” Aiden said.
The sheriff took his leave with a parting, “Say hello to Judd for me.”
“Will do.” Aiden tugged his hat brim in farewell.
He and Amaryllis watched the sheriff drive away.
Aiden rounded on her and caught her by the arm. She gasped, eyes wide. “Dammit, you should have waited for me.”
She tugged free and moved her hand to her neck. Pain creased her brow before she dropped her hand.
“You’re hurt.”
“Am not. Why should I have waited for you anyway? I’ve done this a time or two hundred, Roshannon.”
He kept getting flashes of her rolling under that fucker, and he was getting riled again. He really needed to punch something now.
“We have ways of doing things around here, Amar—”
She cut him off. “And I have ways of doing things of my own. Just because I didn’t consult a notebook before taking action doesn’t mean I did it wrong. I got the job done. Isn’t that the objective?”
He dragged in a full breath and counted to ten before releasing it. “There is a reason that rules are put into place. So people don’t get hurt.”
“I’m not hurt. Are you hurt? Oh yeah, your knuckles are bleeding. Why did you punch that guy, anyway?”
He ground his molars together, burning to grab her and silence that sassy mouth of hers with a kiss. “Shutting someone up is different than apprehending a suspect alone when he outweighs you by a hundred pounds.”
“I didn’t find it a problem.” She examined her fingernails and rubbed at one perfect oval-shaped nail with her forefinger. “Oh, I did get a small chip in my clear coat. Guess I’d better head over to the beauty shop and get a mani. Maybe put on a pretty dress and pantyhose too.”
“I know what you’re doing, Amaryllis. You know damn well we’re not having this discussion because you’re female. If they’d sent me a male partner who acted this way, barging into houses unasked and unannounced and hurling themselves at big guys—”
She spun and walked away from him, unwilling to listen to a laundry list of her supposed broken rules. If he wanted to play some boring game of chess, let him. She wasn’t here to be nice—she was here to catch cattle thieves.
Her long strides ate up the distance between Aiden and the cattle. One by one, she inspected them before letting them go to auction. After a few cows, she felt Aiden at her side, checking along with her. He didn’t speak and she had nothing to say.
When they were finished, they watched the auction. It went long into the evening. By then, Owens showed up to collect his stolen bulls. Which meant standing around talking specifics for an hour or so. By the time they wrapped up, she was ready to call it quits for the day.
“Think it’s worth sticking around for day two of the auction?” she asked Aiden. She didn’t exactly like the silence or tension between them. He’d hardly spoken a word or glanced her direction since telling her off for breaking the rules.
“That rustler might not be the only one in town. Coulda gotten wind of what went down here today and will run scared. But maybe not. He could be arriving tomorrow. We need to stay in town and be here bright and early in the morning.”
“I agree.”
“At least we agree on somethin’.”
So, he was going to be stubborn about things. She’d had a hell of a long day with him, and for a first day on the job together, they’d argued a lot. But it would soon be over. They’d get rooms in town and she could sink into a hot bath and soak her sore neck muscles and the bruise she felt rising on her hip. Plus, she was starving.
“Let’s get outta here.” He twitched his head in the direction of the parking lot.
They grabbed a bite to eat at the pizza joint, and she was so hungry that she wasn’t even embarrassed to pig out. “I can see why you had that big platter this morning.”
A man of few words, he only nodded and tucked into his third slice of deep dish pepperoni. After their meal, they stopped at the only two motels in town and learned they had no vacancies because of the auction. “We’ve got one more option,” he said, hopping behind the wheel.
They drove a short distance up the road and down a long lane to a bed and breakfast. She offered to go check on the rooms, but he jumped out and practically ran into the quaint home with cabin-like details. She couldn’t ignore the feeling he wanted to get rid of her for the night, and quick. Well, the feeling was mutual. He was arrogant. He had a stick up his ass when it came to rules. And his beard had grown in entirely too much during the course of the day, leaving him looking dastardly and sexy as hell.
She rubbed at the sore spot on her neck but as soon as he yanked the door open, she dropped her hand to her lap. She didn’t want him to know she was feeling like she’d been run over by a bull.
His face was grim, mouth set. He didn’t get into the truck, though, so it must not be a complete fail.
“What’s the verdict?” she asked.
“They have space.”
“Oh good.”
“But only one room.”
Her high hopes for that hot bath bottomed out somewhere in the dust on the soles of her boots. “What does that mean for us then?”
His gray gaze settled on her, and that deep electric tingle took up residence in her belly. How odd to think that she’d only met him in person this morning. A lot had happened in one day, and she felt as if she’d known him months.
“Could mean a couple things. One, you take the room and I’ll sleep in the truck.”
She twisted her lips. As much as she wanted to relax alone for the night, she didn’t want to think of Aiden out here alone in the uncomfortable truck.
“What’s the other option?”
His gaze speared her to the seat. “We share the room.”
“Is there only one bed?” she hazarded.
He gave a brief businesslike nod like he was making a deal with the devil. It amused her that he was so rattled by the thought of sharing a room with her.
“Is there a sofa or something one of us can sleep on?”
He lifted a shoulder in a shrug, looking as uncomfortable as a cat in a cattle stampede. “Dunno. We’ll find out if we take the room.”
“Okay then. Let’s go. I’ll pay.”
“Not necessary. The department puts us up for the nights we’re on the road.”
“All right.” She got out of the truck. Neither of them had luggage and that meant Amaryllis was going to have to wash her underthings in the sink. Wait—scratch that. Where would she hang them to dry if they were sharing a room? She couldn’t exactly leave her panties hanging on the shower rod for Aiden to see.
She pushed out a sigh. She’d been in stickier situations in her years but today was up there on her list of the more difficult ones. But she’d live through it, same as she persevered through everything in life.
She wasn’t afraid of a grumpy ex-military lawman who needed a shave and had beat up a man who’d made a comment about her ass.
She was more afraid of how her body reacted to him.
* * * * *
When Aiden opened the door of the room, once glance told him it was the worst case. One bed. A pair of wing-back faux leather chairs with a small table between them in one corner. Maybe a child could scoot those chairs together and find a night’s sleep on their combined cushions, but not him.
She stepped past him and blew out a breath. “I’ll take the floor.”
He bit off a groan. The woman was driving him crazy with her need to man up. He had nothing against strong women. In fact, he preferred them to whiny princesses. But did she really believe he’d let a woman sleep on the floor while he sacked out in comfort?
“I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you to bring a bag.” Actually, he figured she’d know better than to head out with no essentials. He always kept a backpack with a spare change of clothes, a toothbrush and a razor.
“I carry one in my truck back home. Guess I’m a bit out of my element here.” She went over to the window and pushed aside the curtain. He’d never stayed in this particular place but figured the window must face over the back of the B&B and a big deck.
The days were long at this time of year, but the sun was setting and shadows laying across the land. She turned from the window and met his stare.
Her arms were folded over her sumptuous breasts, and he wondered what the hell she wore to bed. She didn’t look like a woman who’d don a nightgown but probably fell into bed in much less.
Great. Now his cock was stirring again. Just what he needed—for her to wake up in the night to spot his dick tenting the covers.
“Should be extra blankets in the closet. Pillows too.” He tipped his head toward the closet he spoke of.
She dropped her arms to her sides, looking way more defeated than any woman who’d ever been alone with him in a bedroom. Damn if that didn’t irritate the hell out of him.
“Why don’t you take a turn at the bathroom first. I want to write some things down.”
“Then I’ll stay and help you.”
“You gonna hold the pen with me?” He gave her a crooked smile.
She blinked at him and then stuttered, “No. I just thought—”
“I know what you thought. Sorry for the teasin’. All right then. Let’s write out what we learned today and then create a plan for tomorrow and beyond.” He took a chair in the corner and drew out his notebook.
Amaryllis hesitantly seated herself next to him. He could tell by her pose that her muscles were sore. She held her shoulders stiffly and once in a while reached up to massage her neck. His guess was that guy had hit her hard, and being crushed under him on the solid earth hadn’t done her body any favors.
Aiden threw a look at the bed, feet away. It was soft, piled with country quilts and fat pillows. Plenty of comfort for rollin’ around.
His cock throbbed and for a second, he couldn’t focus on the notebook page in front of him.
“9:45,” Amaryllis said.
He glanced at her. “What?”
“The time when that happened. 9:45. When we checked out the shed.”
His mind had blanked, and all he could think about was giving Amaryllis a nine minute, forty-five second orgasm.
He wrote the detail.
“At eleven you were eating your second pancake. Make note of that.” Her tone was completely serious as she gestured to the page.
He issued a low growl. “You might think it’s fine to keep track of everything in your head.” He tapped his temple the way she had when he’d asked how she remembered details. “But some of us do it this way.”
Her brown eyes twinkled with a smile long before her lips quirked upward. His breath punched out of his lungs. Seeing Amaryllis smile, in all her disheveled beauty, only made him want to pick her up and taste her sweet lips.
Right before he tore off her clothes and taught her how good it felt to let go, to give up some of her stronghold on her control and allow him to make the decisions for her.
Like how many times she came. And how far to spread her thighs.
“I’ll finish up here. Why don’t you have a shower?” he asked.
“Um. Do you think they have an extra toothbrush at the front desk?”
“You may find a toothbrush in one of the drawers under the kitchen sink.”
She gave a wry smile. “Wonder if they have a T-shirt for me to sleep in too?”
His cock hardened to full length in one breathy word. T-shirt. Or maybe the word was sleep. Either way, all he could see now was Amaryllis, strawberry-blonde hair tousled, wearing a loose T-shirt with her long legs bare.
And him gliding his hand underneath to find her pussy, hot and wet and begging for a good tonguing. Then a hard fucking.
He grunted to cover his arousal and got up. “That I can help with. I’ve got a couple in my backpack.” He crossed the room to get it. After fumbling with the zipper—his hands were shaking, for God’s sake—he pulled out a well-worn T-shirt.
He turned to see her staring at him. A knife of want sliced open an even bigger hole inside him.
He tossed her the shirt and she caught it one-handed. “Thanks.” She held it up to read the logo.
“Eagle Crest Ranch.” The eagle logo stretched under the arching name of the place he, Judd and Wes had run like wild Indians. They still did.
Amaryllis’s warm brown gaze heated him in another way. Fuck—was there a connection between them now? He knew he shouldn’t have punched that guy for commenting on her ass. The action had linked his brain in a way he didn’t want.
“Is this your ranch you talked about?”
He gave a nod. Trying like hell not to envision her wearing that shirt. Or how horny he’d be next time he wore it, knowing her silky skin had touched the fibers.
“Grew up there. We meet every few weeks if we can get away.”
“Where is the ranch located?”
“Sweetwater County.”
She tilted her head as if conjuring a mental map of Wyoming. “An hour away?”
“From here, yeah.”
She nodded and crumpled the T-shirt against her chest. He never wanted to be a T-shirt so bad in his damn life.
“Guess I’ll grab that shower.”
“Okay.” He shouldn’t watch her walk in and close the door. Should not think of her stripping out of her skinny jeans and unbuttoning her top.
To distract himself from the sound of the running water and images of warm spray over Amaryllis’s pale skin, he wrote out more notes. He flipped on the TV and then turned it off again. He stared out the window at the deck below. The owner had turned on a set of string lights that ran the perimeter of the deck, making it a magical space. Fireflies twinkled along with them.
Dang, why was he thinking about shit like this?
Because he wanted to take Amaryllis down there and share a beer with her.
A faint crack of the bathroom door opening sounded, and he whirled from the window. Steam rolled out and she emerged. Long hair, wet and dangling over her shoulder to dampen the Eagle Crest T-shirt.
He dropped his gaze to her breasts, free and ripe, unhindered by a bra. Fucking hell.
His pulse thundered in his ears.
Dipping his gaze lower, he skimmed over the hem that hung mid-thigh on her. Above that was sweet, sweet heaven. And below, curvy thighs tapered down to muscled calves and dainty ankles.
She made a noise and he snapped his gaze back to hers. She had her clothes bundled in a neat stack, and he wondered if he’d find her panties in there.
Need gathered inside him like a storm, clouds banking for a huge explosion of thunder and lightning.
“Your turn.” Her voice was throaty.
He nodded and went to gather his backpack. She hotfooted it to the bed and stripped back the covers. The last glimpse of her before he closed the bathroom door was her backside, the hem riding higher on her thighs as she bent to arrange the sheets.
* * * * *
This was the worst idea Amaryllis had ever gone along with. She should have slept in the bed of Aiden’s truck. Anything had to be better than this awkwardness of sharing a room with a man she was far too attracted to.
And, if the smolder in his gaze was anything to go by, he was too.
She was wearing his damn T-shirt, for Chrissakes. It held a piney scent just like the owner, and she’d nearly chickened out about putting it on. But her own top wasn’t long enough and no way was she wearing constricting skinny jeans to bed.
Her panties had presented another problem. She couldn’t wash them out and wearing them again after getting a shower didn’t feel right. In the end, she’d left them off. But that was a huge mistake too, because her inner thighs were damp with need.
Plus, she worried if he could see through the thin fabric and detect she wasn’t wearing any underwear.
She eyed the bed. She could be primly snuggled beneath the covers when he came out of the bathroom. Her mind fogged. What did he wear to bed?
With a sigh, she turned from the bed and walked to the closet. She gathered the bedding folded there and carried it to the floor in front of the window. She spread out two quilts on the floor for padding and fluffed the pillows before laying them down. Finally, she unfurled a quilt over the whole thing and folded it neatly for him to slide under.
She looked between his bed and hers. No denying she felt bad. Would it be so awful to share the bed? He wouldn’t take up much space.
Who was she kidding? He’d eat up every inch of the bed, leaving her clinging to the edge. Maybe she should offer at least.
The door opened. Steam flooded out. Aiden’s shower had to go down in the record books as the quickest ever. The man’s bathing habits were as no-nonsense as the rest of him.
“Looks inviting,” he drawled from the doorway.
She spun. Did he mean… her? No, he had to be talking about the bed on the floor.
She lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I hope it’s okay. I’m really sorry.”
“Well, I was gonna say you should have called ahead and gotten us two rooms. But I didn’t want to mention it.” His grin accompanied his sarcastic words.
“What would we have done if this place didn’t have a room open?”
“Driven on. I got a few good hours left in me.”
She looked closely at his face. Lined with fatigue and sporting half-moons under each eye. He’d been running on no sleep for almost two days. How was the man even standing?
That was when she noticed his arms. In a short-sleeved T-shirt, the inky lines of tattoos roped around each bicep and disappeared upward out of sight.
Her breathing picked up. What were the tattoos? She never would have suspected he sported those under his clothes. He seemed so straight-laced, old-fashioned almost. But he had been in the military, and it was commonplace for men who served to get tattooed.
She swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.
“Well, you must be tired.”
“You too.”
She rubbed at her neck. The cords were tense, bulging with the strain her neck had taken earlier.
Aiden took a step in her direction, drawing attention to his fresh pair of jeans. Perfectly worn, molded to his body as if made for him. “Your neck hurts. Sit down on the bed.”
His commanding tone shouldn’t send pangs of sensation between her thighs. Her pussy grew wetter.
She looked into his eyes.
“Sit,” he said more gently, softly.
She moved to the bed and perched on the corner. He came to stand in front of her, big body crowded so close that heat wafted off his body and scorched through the thin shirt she wore. She kept her knees together, though it would be easier for him to stand between her legs.
He reached out and brushed her damp hair over her shoulder. When his warm, rough fingers enveloped her sore muscle, she moaned in pure delight.
Aiden went still but she swore a shudder ripped through him. Was he feeling the same attraction and unadulterated desires she was?
This was her work colleague, her partner. They were tossed together to solve the crimes in the area. After she’d done that, she’d be on her way back to Texas and hopefully to her dream of a small farm. Which reminded her—she needed to text her brothers and let them know she’d made it fine.
The small circles Aiden traced on her neck with his fingers made thoughts of her brothers fly out her ears. She angled her head to give him better access. He moved up and down the column of her throat, dipping his fingers into the hollow of her shoulder.
She groaned.
“That’s sore too?”
She breathed out. “Yes.”
“Relax. Let me do this for you.”
She wanted to look up at his face but was afraid she’d see the want burning in his eyes. If she saw it, she didn’t know if she’d deny him. It would be so easy to let him tumble her into the sheets, open her thighs and invite him in.
Enough. I have to stop this.
“That’s good. I’m better now. Thank you.” Her words came out choppy, no gratitude in her tone.
He dropped his hands immediately and stepped back. She tested her neck by looking up at him. His chest heaved, and his square jaw set so hard it looked capable of flaying open an enemy.
“Glad it helped. I’ll hit the floor now.”
“Roshannon—” She broke off before the words escaped to ask him to sleep there next to her where it was more comfortable.
He arched a brow but said nothing.
“Good day on the job today. Goodnight.”
A spark died down in his gray eyes but they appeared even stormier than before. “Night.” He crossed the room to the pallet on the floor, shutting off lights on the way.
Had she really just praised him for a good day on the job? After their hours together, she felt there was more between them. A friendship almost, though he didn’t agree with her methods.
Aiden Roshannon was a hard man with a set of ironclad rules. She’d obviously broken most of them today. With a smile as she crawled under the covers, she realized tomorrow she might do even better at bucking his system.
As his snore hit her almost immediately, she lay staring into the darkness, her mind going a mile a minute and her body still tingling from his touch that had gone way beyond her neck.
* * * * *
Aiden started awake, eyes wide, staring into the blackness. His heart raced, pounding against his chest wall painfully as the remnants of his dream faded from his consciousness.
The village spread out below, tiny and vulnerable. Packed with innocent people. And one big building, the rooms filled with enemies.
One choice. One blast.
The order he’d refused to take. The one that had gotten him hauled home to the States and questioned for hours until he’d felt he’d crack under the pressure.
I couldn’t follow orders, sir. I couldn’t kill innocent people.
That building was full of five of the most wanted criminals on our list. They’ve kidnapped and tortured US citizens, Roshannon. What don’t you understand about that?
But the houses around that building would have been blown off the map in the blast. I couldn’t do it, sir.
And on and on.
He stood, the covers puddling on the floor. Disoriented, he turned in the dark toward the only light source—moonlight streaming in from the curtain nearby.
Everything flooded back to him—the B&B. What the hell was it called? His mind was still back in fucking Iraq. He concentrated and conjured a name.
Silverblossom. The name of the B&B where he and Amaryllis had stopped for the night.
Amaryllis.
He sought out the chairs in the corner and made his way to one. It faced the bed and by now his eyes had adjusted to the darkness. He sank into one and dropped his head into his hands, breathing evenly to dispel the anxiety inside him. That sensation of his skin bursting open to let the bad stuff escape wouldn’t leave him for a long time, he knew. He’d been dealing with it for a year now.
The outline of Amaryllis on the bed drew his gaze. He made out a shoulder, a soft hip rising up under the quilt. He wanted to turn on the light and see her hair scattered across the pillow, her face in repose.
A beautiful woman, so close. Invitingly close. He could crawl into bed with her and gain the comfort he needed.
Fuck that—he was a goddamn Marine with years of combat in his past. He didn’t need comfort from anybody.
Except she looked so good lying there. He could just put his arms around her, draw her body back against his.
He scrubbed his hands over his face and worked on his oxygen consumption. Too much and he’d get that dizzy, spinning feeling. If he held his breath, he only felt worse.
Sweat trickled down his bare spine, all the way to his jeans.
Five feet away, Amaryllis was wearing his T-shirt.
He must have made a noise, because she sat up suddenly. Through the darkness, they stared at each other.
“Roshannon?”
“Yeah. It’s okay. Go back to sleep.” His voice was gruff.
The covers rustled and he realized she was getting out of bed. He tensed. If she came close enough wearing only his T-shirt, he couldn’t account for his actions. The dream, his hungers and Amaryllis were all mixed up in his head. A cocktail for disaster.
Her footstep on the carpet made his fucking skin prickle. Behind his fly, his cock stirred. Fuck, he wanted her to beg for him, to hear her cries of pleasure-pain and give him all the control inside this bedroom that he craved.
She stepped up to him. He locked his hands on the armrests of the chair and sat all the way back. “Go back to bed, Amaryllis.”
“What’s going on? You don’t sound okay.”
Because I’m not. I want to fuck you so hard that you’ll never be fit for another man the rest of your life.
She stood inches away, long hair floating around her torso in a riot of waves. A bead of moonlight on her bare thighs.
She reached out and skimmed a touch over each of his biceps. He jerked.
“Your tattoos… All day, I never knew they were there.”
“Well, now you do.” And if you don’t get your hands off me, you’ll be sorry. We’ll both be sorry, woman.
“Can I turn on the light?”
“No,” he said at once. If he got one clear look into her eyes, he’d be a goner. He’d pick her up, toss her on the bed and spear her with his cock. Fucking away all the pain and hunger burning inside him.
But she wouldn’t like him in the morning. Hell, she didn’t like him now.
And he’d hate himself.
She continued to stand there, touching him. He swallowed hard, his throat dry and itchy.
“We’ll catch the rustlers, Roshannon.”
A noise broke from him. Christ, she thought he was sitting up worrying about the job. But now that she’d mentioned it, his mind hit the ground running, covering the ground of the case they’d been following the previous day and what might come on day two of the auction.
Amaryllis stroked her fingers over his arms, shooting sparks of liquid desire through his entire body. He felt like he’d been dunked in an electrified pool of water, helpless and sinking by the minute.
She moved her hands up to his shoulders, rock-hard with tension. She kneaded the muscles.
He shrugged her off. “Stop.”
“Sometimes I hate traveling. Waking up in a strange room, wondering where the hell I am and what I’m supposed to be doing.” Her whispered admission slammed him. “Do you ever feel that way?”
“Fuck, woman. You need to go back to bed.”
She didn’t move. Contrary woman that she was. Spirited, stubborn. And everything he fucking wanted, if he was honest with himself.
One day and he wanted her. He’d met her face-to-face less than twenty-four fucking hours ago, and he was ready to claim her in ways that neither of them could never go back on.
“Aiden…”
The sound of his name on her lips did him in. He caught her by the hips and jerked her down on his lap. Her ass fit his body perfectly, cradling his cock, now hard at the first contact.
She made a noise of surprise, and he found the point of her chin in the darkness. Pinching it lightly, he tipped her head up to meet his gaze. Her face was mostly in shadow, her eyes shiny.
“I can’t put my hands on you, Amaryllis.”
“Then why are you?” Her tone held that note of sass that had driven him nuts half the day. Now he understood why. It was fucking foreplay to him. She mouthed off, and he wanted to shut her up with long, deep kisses.
“Why are you touching me, Aiden?”
“Stop asking questions I can’t answer.”
“I think you can answer.”
“Because I’m selfish.”
“I don’t think that’s true.” She stared deep into his eyes, leaning nearer by the fucking second. He felt the heat of her breath on his jaw. All he had to do was move half an inch and he’d have her lips under his.
Because until this afternoon when I punched that man for commenting on your ass, I didn’t know what I needed in my life to make me feel like a man again.
He’d spent a year trying to make his job with the sheriff’s office into his whole life the way the military had been. He was dedicated to the ranchers, would do anything for them. All this time, he’d smoldered with anger—at the command he’d been given, at himself for not being the Marine he should have been. If he’d taken action, five less monsters would be walking the earth right now.
But he’d refused the order and the men had fled the bunker through underground tunnels before Aiden’s commanding officer realized he wasn’t going to make the move.
That time of his life had sucked, and he’d spent the past year feeling lost.
Amaryllis had walked into his life and in less than twenty-four fucking hours, he knew exactly what his purpose on this planet was.
To pick her up and seat her on his face, make her scream for him.
He moved his hand to her lower back, feeling the slipperiness of her skin under the cotton of his T-shirt.
“Aiden.”
“Time like this, I wish you’d call me Roshannon.” At least then he could take an order to back off, let her go.
She issued a choppy breath. Hell, she still smelled like toothpaste.
“Fine. Roshannon, why do I want you to kiss me?”
“Goddammit, Amaryllis. Why do I want to?” He cupped the back of her head, sinking his fingers deep into her hair, and claimed her mouth.
The first crush of her lips under his sent him whirling. Yet he had complete control. He pulled her closer, molding her to fit his form as he probed the seam of her lips with his tongue.
On a whimper, she opened for him, and he plunged deep inside. One pass, two. His fucking cock was hard steel digging into her backside. She clutched his biceps, fingers over his semper fi tattoo that said Saint Michael Protect Us. And the American flag rippling on his left arm, surrounded by stars, one for every friend he’d lost.
He nibbled at her lower lip, pulling a harsh cry from her. More of that and he wouldn’t stop until every hunger inside him was sated. She dug her blunt nails into his skin and raked them back to his shoulders.
The searing sensation of her scoring him had him locked and loaded. He gripped her by the hip and wrapped her hair around his fist simultaneously. Levering her down into his cock as he tugged her strawberry-blonde locks and ravished her mouth.
She scrabbled at his shoulders, matching his kisses stroke for stroke.
He broke the kiss and yanked her head back, biting into her throat as he worked his hand up to cup her breast.
She jolted.
“Aiden, stop.”
Ice water struck him in the face, and he jerked his hands from her. She didn’t move off his lap.
“I’m sorry.” His voice sounded like tearing cloth.
“I-I did it too. Got carried away.”
Yeah, but he’d scared her. When he’d gotten rough with her, she’d ended the play. She’d never accept what he was, even if she knew more.
“Go back to bed, Amaryllis. We have to get up early.” Though he’d never sleep now, and she probably wouldn’t either. She’d lie in bed and he’d toss and turn on the hard floor, wanting her with everything in him.
He pushed out a breath and when she didn’t get off his lap, he gave her a little push onto her feet.
She stood there, arms wrapped around herself, which only made his T-shirt ride up almost to her crotch.
He swore from the heat he’d felt through his jeans that she wasn’t wearing panties. But he couldn’t find out.
“I’m sorry for touching you,” he said.
“I… don’t do this. I wanted you to know. Not ever.”
Meaning what? She didn’t sit on the laps of men she’d known less than a full day? Or didn’t accept the womanly needs that had obviously pounded through her only seconds before?
He gave a harsh nod. “All right.”
She stood there for another long heartbeat. He clamped his jaw so tight that his molars met with a clack.
Then she turned and moved back to the bed, her feet soundless. She crawled under the covers and turned her back to him.
He sat there longer until he thought he heard Amaryllis’ deep breathing of sleep. Then he lay down on the floor and tried to find some damn peace.