Be Mine (17 page)

“Jenny?” He made himself stop teasing her and slide his hand away. She finally looked up, her lips parted, eyes dark. “Where’s your bed?”

Her eyes stayed clouded with lust for a moment, but when they cleared, she smiled. That familiar smile, reminding him of who was half-naked in his arms: cute, maddening Jenny Stone. “Right this way,” she said, taking his hand to lead him toward an abbreviated hallway. “I feel a little silly wearing just my skirt.”

“You should.” He devoured the sight of her naked back and the swell of her breast when she twisted to smile at him. “In fact, you should take that off right now to save yourself further embarrassment.”

Her laugh made him smile like a besotted fool, or maybe that was the way she stopped next to her bed and unzipped her skirt. When she let it drop to the floor, Nate stopped grinning and reached for her hips. He groaned and slid his hands beneath her black panties to grip her ass.

He squeezed her, pulling her close so he could nibble her neck. “I’d like to point out...” he murmured against her skin, “that I came to the saloon before I ever saw your ass.”

Her laugh ended in a small shudder when he sucked just below her ear. “What does that mean?”

Fuck, she was soft and plump and hot beneath his grip. “Because at some point, you’re going to accuse me of being obsessed with your ass, and I’m going to remind you that I had no idea you had the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen, because you were always in your car.”

“You haven’t even seen it yet.”

“Good point.”

He spun her around and slipped her panties off while she laughed a breathless protest.

“Jesus Christ, Ms. Stone. Are you trying to kill me?”

“Yes.” She arched into him when he pressed his hips to her generous backside and cupped her breasts in his hand. “It’s part of my plan to keep you from pulling me over again.”

“Letting me see you naked is not the way to keep me off your ass. Your instincts...” He snuck a hand down her stomach, loving the way her muscles jumped. “Are faulty.” She parted her thighs just as he realized it was all smooth skin between them. Christ. Smooth skin and wetness and...

She cried out when he touched her clit. “My instincts seem pretty damn spectacular right...now.”

He couldn’t disagree. He also couldn’t speak. She was liquid heat beneath his fingers. Slickness. Wetness. He needed to feel that around him. He needed to bury his cock inside her right now, but he was still wearing jeans, still separated from her body by torturous millimeters of denim and cotton. And he couldn’t let her go, because she was working herself against his fingers now, her hand pressing his closer as her other hand rose to grab the nape of his neck.

God, she
needed
this. She was on fire for it. But he felt insane with the need to sink himself deep. To lose himself inside her. He slid his hand lower and drove two fingers into her pussy.

“Ah!” she cried out. “Yes. Just...”

Her fingernails dug into his neck as he held her with one hand and used the other to tug at the button of his jeans. He finally freed his cock and immediately pressed it to the warm skin of her ass. The feel of her body soaked into him, bringing just enough pleasure to make him groan in pain.

“God. Jenny. Please.”

“Don’t stop,” she urged as his fingers slipped out of her.

“Please,” he begged. “I need to—”

“No!” Her hand tightened around his wrist. She needed it so badly. He couldn’t say no. But his cock ached, feeling too thick for his own skin.

“Please,” he rasped. “You want me inside you, don’t you? You need it?”

She nodded.

“Then just give me one second. Please.” Fuck, he’d get on his knees and beg if she wanted him to. “Give me a second and then I’ll fuck you. Deep and—”

She moaned and let his hand go so he could dig the condom out of his pocket and tear the package open. His hands shook, but he managed to get the condom on in record time. He had a brief, frantic thought that he should turn her around. Ease her onto the bed. Kiss her. Take her gently. It was their first time.

But Jenny had other ideas. She raised one foot to the mattress and tossed an impatient look over her shoulder. Nothing gentle, then. Not this time. Nate bent his knees slightly, notching the head of his cock against her. He eased up slowly, pressing in, opening her for his body. When she gasped and swayed, he curved an arm around her chest to hold her steady as he pushed relentlessly in.

Her voice edged into breathlessness. She whimpered his name, but Nate didn’t stop. He pressed deeper into her tightness, nearly dizzy with relief and pleasure and animal satisfaction as she squeezed around him. But when he was as deep as he could get, the satisfaction turned immediately to clawing hunger.

He pulled her tight against his chest and slipped his fingers along her slick flesh until he found her clit again. When he withdrew and thrust into her, Jenny cried out so loudly it was nearly a scream.

“Is that what you wanted?” he growled into her ear.

“Yes,” she panted, the word pushed out by a hard thrust of his hips. “Yes.”

“God, you feel so good,” he groaned, and then he couldn’t say more, because it was too much. Too good. Too hot and tight as she arched her back to take him deeper. He tried to concentrate on his fingers, determined to get her off and fully aware that if he focused on the exquisite slide of her body around his cock, he’d lose it. He’d come fast and hard, and he needed that, too, but what he absolutely couldn’t live without was getting her off. Hearing her scream. Feeling her shudder around him.

God. Please.

She said his name then. Her body went taut. She threw her head back.

Please. Yes. Come for me.
He pressed his mouth to her ear. “Come for me, Jenny.”

She cried out then, her hips jerking against his hold, against his cock. Nate closed his eyes, determined not to come yet. Determined to let her ride every spasm as it shook through her. She sounded just as he’d imagined she would, desperate and wild and beautiful, her voice breaking into little bits of joy that burned straight through him.

He drove himself into her, finally, over and over, until his own climax crashed into him. He clenched his teeth against the painful wave of pleasure, biting back a ragged cry. When he was spent, he eased Jenny down to the bed before he slid free of her body and collapsed to the mattress.

Thank God they’d been at the bed, or he might have simply fallen to his knees like a dying man. He felt as if his soul had been scooped out. Jenny looked similarly weak, from what he could tell past the mess of golden hair that had fallen over her face. Nate reached to the table to grab a tissue and get rid of the condom before collapsing again.

He turned toward her and tried to ease some of the hair from her face. “Are you in there?”

“Sorry,” she whispered before she shoved her hair back. “Here I am.” Her cheeks were flushed already, but they turned pinker as he watched, and her eyes slid down to focus on his chest. “So.”

He tipped his head to try to catch her eye. “Are you okay?”

“Sure.”

Nate suddenly recalled the moment when he’d thought of being slow and careful. Then he recalled that he’d tossed that thought away and fucked her hard. “Jenny? I’m serious. Are you okay?”

“God!” She turned her face to the mattress and shook her head, spiking his alarm into the red-alert zone. He was reaching carefully toward her when she squeaked. “I don’t know what to say. I’m not usually so...”

“So, what?”

“So...
dirty?
Oh, God. That was dirty, wasn’t it?”

Relief slammed through him with a force that knocked the air from his lungs. When he could breathe again, he agreed. “Yeah. It was. Filthy, even.”

“Stop!” Her shoulders shook, but he could see from the line of her jaw that she was laughing.

“If you were trying to throw me off, you went about it all wrong. That’s no way to shake a tail.”

“Nate!”

He cupped a hand over her shoulder and turned her toward him. She only resisted for a moment before rolling to her side. Still, she refused to open her eyes.

“Hey.” He dragged a finger along her jaw, then over her lips. Her eyes finally fluttered open. “Did you mean that?”

“What?” she asked warily.

“That you got especially dirty for me?”

Her eyes glittered past her lashes as she watched him. “Maybe,” she finally said.

Pride swelled so quickly in his chest that Nate worried it might press too tight against his heart and cause trouble. It certainly felt as if it was doing damage. “I like that.”

She smiled. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

Actually, it surprised him. Not that he liked intense sex with her, but how
much
he liked it. His chest still felt strange, warm and woolly with the idea that she’d given him a glimpse of her that others didn’t get. But he let her think it was as simple as she thought it was.

“Jenny...” He swept her hair back again, but this time he let his hand trail over her shoulder, her arm, then her hip. God. Her beautiful hip.

“You like saying my name,” she said with a coy smile.

“It’s because I had to say ‘Ms. Stone’ for so long. It felt like torture.”

“Poor Deputy Hendricks.”

Her sweet, teasing words caused a niggling in his brain. Then a tense tug. And then he remembered. What he’d meant to ask her about. The complications he’d meant to avoid. And now... What had he done?

Shit. This had been a mistake. The knot in his stomach couldn’t make his body regret it, but his brain was a twisting mess.

He had to figure her out before he screwed everything up.

CHAPTER SIX

“T
ELL
ME
SOMETHING
about yourself,” Nate said.

Jenny smiled at the odd request. After all, they’d just bonked like crazed rabbits.

Her face flamed again. It wasn’t that she was repressed. She’d had a decent sex life. Sometimes she even had a great sex life. But she’d never
needed
sex that way.

She usually let sex happen to her. Wash over her. But this had been something clawing out from her own soul. Something new inside her. The smell of him. The feel of his skin and hair. It had called forth something desperate.

What if she told him that? How would he respond? She smiled wider at the idea.

“Where are you from?” he pressed.

“Idaho. A town about an hour west of Pocatello.”

“How did you end up here?”

She shrugged, not wanting to get into details. She’d ended up here by running. First from home, and all the chaos there. Then from Ellis, and the life she’d jumped into without thinking. And again, from a life she’d started to build in Montana and then grown tired of. She didn’t want to tell him any of that, but her heart swelled with the knowledge that he wanted to know her. He wanted
her.

Swallowing hard, she decided to tell him a little. “I left home the moment I turned eighteen. I married Ellis. Then I wandered for a while. That’s all. Now I’m here.”

“Why’d you leave home at eighteen?”

Because I couldn’t handle taking care of a pill-popping mom, so I abandoned my dad and my sister and drove out of town as fast as my Camaro would take me.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on the weight of his palm against her hip. “You know, same old story. My grandfather left me his car when he died. I couldn’t wait to get out on my own. I thought it would be all fun and games.”

“And then there was Ellis?”

She smiled. “And then there was Ellis. Believe it or not, I thought he was a knight in shining armor.”

“But he wasn’t?”

She sighed. “I don’t want to talk about Ellis.”

“I’m still worried. What’s he doing here? Hanging around? Bothering you?”

“Nate.” She opened her eyes to his worried frown. “I can see why you became a cop. You’re protective. Overprotective. But I don’t need that. I can take care of myself. I always have.”

His eyebrows twitched. “Always?”

“Well. You know. For a long time.”

“That’s not what you said.”

Jenny felt like squirming, caught under his silver gaze. “You know how it is.”

“I don’t, actually. I was raised right here in Jackson Hole. My parents and sister still live here. Sunday dinner once a month. And much bigger gatherings for holidays. That was my cousin Luis you saw with me at the bar. None of us went very far at all.”

“Maybe...maybe I just like to run.”

“Maybe you need to. What are you running from, Jenny?”

She pulled her chin slowly in, eyes narrowing at the strange focus of his gaze. She felt a sudden desire to curl tighter. To cover her nakedness.

“Why is he here? You must know.”

Now she did cover herself. She folded an arm across her breasts as she pushed onto her elbow. “Wow. I can’t... Wow. I thought you wanted to learn more about me. But you want to know about
him?
What is this? Some weird jealousy kink?”

His intense gaze finally flinched to alarm. “No! That’s not what I meant. Look, I saw him. Today. I was looking into another issue and I saw Ellis’s van. I called you about lunch so I could ask you about it. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” Whatever energy she’d lost to the sex, Jenny quickly regained through mortified rage. She leaped from the bed. “I thought you wanted to have sex with me!”

He reached for her, and she jerked away, trying not to notice his beautiful body. She hadn’t had time to look, and now she refused to. “I obviously wanted to have sex with you,” he said as he followed her slow retreat across the room. “Come on. We
had
sex.”

“I’m pretty clear on that!” Boy, was she. She was absolutely aching with that knowledge. Inside and out, her body reminded her with every move that she’d had sex with Nate Hendricks. And he’d come here to
investigate.

But...investigate what?

The thought added another layer of awfulness to the moment. A nice, thick layer of guilt. Ellis was up to no good, and now Jenny was helping him.

Oh, God.
“Get out,” she pushed past clenched teeth.

“Jenny, please.”

She snatched up her skirt and tugged it on. Her heart beat so quickly it felt like nothing more than trembling. “I thought you came here for
me.
”

“I did!”

“You did not! Last night, you came to the saloon about my
driving.
Today, you came here about my ex-husband. Well, let me reassure you, Deputy Hendricks, you don’t need to worry about me anymore. I called about the class. I start next month. And Ellis Stone is starting a landscaping operation, so there’s everything I know. I hope all this important information was worth going that deep undercover!”

He reached for her again, and she shook off his hand, looking frantically around for a sweater that seemed to have disappeared. But Nate was still naked, and though she tried to avoid his eyes, she couldn’t avoid the feel of his skin against hers when he finally caught her and pulled her close.

“I’m asking about those things because I’m trying to figure you out.”

The feel of his hands on her naked back infuriated her. Because they felt good. So damn good, even while she was pissed and humiliated. She felt such a rush of fear and hate at the thought that she was able to shove him hard enough to get free.

“Then there’s something seriously wrong with you. If you want to get to know me, try asking me about myself. You know, the old standards. ‘What’s your favorite movie? What do you do for fun?’ Most men find that more effective than ‘Can I see your license and registration?’ or ‘How’s your ex-husband these days?’ or ‘Tell me all about your fucked-up childhood.’”

The silence that rang through the room after her last words made clear just how loudly she’d shouted. The shock on Nate’s face was another clue. Jenny pressed her fingers to her mouth as if she could erase the echo of her own voice. “You should go,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve handled this really badly. I wanted to talk to you about it. Christ, Jenny. I meant to talk this out with you, and then I saw you, and I forgot what I was worried about.”

“So you fucked me and then got right back on the job?”

“That’s not... I just wanted...”

She felt a brief moment of triumph that she’d reduced him to stammering, but that was the most pitiful, stupid victory she’d ever embraced in her life, and it threw a little water on her fiery rage. “I don’t know what this is about, Nate. I don’t know what Ellis has done to draw your attention, aside from pissing you off, but I can’t help. He showed up to see me after ten years, and I sent him on his way. End of story. Now please go.”

“Jenny, I’m sorry. My brain wasn’t working right after I came. I mean, after we made love. You were just so... God, I couldn’t fucking think.”

She wanted to melt into the floor. Disappear. Cease to exist. Yes. She’d been
so.
For him. She retreated into the living room and tugged her sweater roughly over her head, desperate to cover herself. “You need to go. Please.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, but he dressed quickly. “I’ll call you tonight.” When she didn’t answer, he left without another word, closing the door carefully behind him.

There was that ringing silence again. Jenny turned in a slow circle, taking in her apartment in a daze. What the hell had just happened? She’d invited a cute guy over for lunch, and less than an hour later, she’d been fucked within an inch of her life and then treated like a witness to a crime. Or an accessory.

Oh, Jesus, what was she was an accessory to?

She raced to her bedroom to snatch her phone from the table, then call the number she’d entered just last night. She should have checked inside the boxes he’d brought over.

“Hey, Jennybug,” Ellis said.

“Ellis, what the hell is in those boxes?”

“I told you. Landscaping stuff.”

She slammed her door open and rushed down the stairs. “Where are you? I need you to get over here right now and get these boxes out of my garage.”

“What? I just unloaded them last night! What in the world is wrong with you?”

Jenny stomped over to the old building that was fronted by four dented, beat-up garage doors. It wasn’t attached and it wasn’t fancy, but in a mountain ski town, garage space was a treasured luxury. One she shouldn’t have so easily ceded to Ellis. “Get over here, Ellis. I’m not kidding. I want them out. You’re involved with something. I know it.”

“It’s landscaping,” he said with a firmness that betrayed him. As if he was trying to convince himself. As if he was bolstering an argument. But if it was the truth, why would he need an argument?

“Damn it, Ellis! I was trying to
help
you.”

“You are!”

She grabbed the handle and pulled the heavy door up. “Not anymore. Come get these boxes or I will put them out in the parking lot.”

He must have heard the enormous rattle of the door, because his voice lost its helplessness and turned serious. “Don’t put my stuff outside. Please. You’re the one who said I could leave it there.”

She moved into the shadows of the garage and stared down at the boxes stacked next to her car. “I changed my mind. I’m hearing rumors. Whatever the hell you’re up to, I can’t be involved. This isn’t a bluff, Ellis. And it’s not a tantrum. Come get the boxes now.”

“Fine. Just shut the door, all right? I’m down at Hoback. It’ll take me a few to get there.”

“Okay. You’ve got one hour. And whatever you’re doing, stop it. Just stop it and leave.” Jenny hung up and glared down at the first box. The flaps were folded over each other to secure the top, but it wasn’t sealed. She reached toward it to free a corner and peek in, but changed her mind before she’d exposed the contents. Better if she didn’t know. Better to have deniability. She jerked her hand back and wiped it on her sweater.

The cold hit her then. Her feet came alive with a twist of pain that shot up her legs. She’d forgotten to put on shoes and the cold was seeping from the cement into the soles of her feet. And the air snuck beneath her skirt to chase away every last vestige of sated relaxation. It whisked away even the memory of pleasure and left her with ice.

“Shit,” she cursed, crossing an arm over her chest as she bit back a shiver. She reached up and pulled down the garage door, wincing when it landed with a crash. It sounded as if the day had broken in two, and that was exactly what it had done. One part had been searing and delicious and frighteningly good. The other part? Well. The other part was a jagged, broken stump. Jenny put her head down and raced up the stairs on numb toes.

* * *

N
ATE
WATCHED
WITH
weary eyes as Jenny ran back to her apartment and slammed the door. He let his head fall back and stared at the roof of his truck, too stunned to do more. A gust of wind shook the vehicle, rocking it on its axles.

When she’d come out, he’d thought she was coming after him, and he was glad he’d hesitated. Glad he’d sat in his truck in the parking lot like a fool, trying to plan an apology. He’d screwed up, but she would forgive him. This thing between them was too damn good, and she could feel it, too. This strange urgency to be near her. To get closer. After what they’d just done, it was even more powerful. An unseen tattoo glowing beneath his skin, pressing him toward her.

She’d see him waiting, and she’d ask him to come back, and he’d try to explain what he felt, and what he’d meant to say.

But she hadn’t looked up when she’d reached the parking lot. Instead, she’d been talking on the phone, and Nate had eased his door open and shamelessly listened.

The cold had wiped that hot tattoo from his skin, thank God, because it was the mark of a fool.

Jenny Stone wasn’t a sweet, innocent bystander to a criminal operation. She was involved. At the very least, she was actively protecting her ex-husband. Warning him. Tipping him off. At worst, she was participating in this whole operation. Maybe even orchestrating it.

But no. He had good instincts. Good enough that he’d managed to collect his wits even after a bout of the most intense sex he’d ever had. He’d asked what he’d needed to ask, clumsy as he’d been. And now he had his answer.

He was a fool, but he wasn’t an idiot. Jenny Stone was lying to him. Hell, she might even be playing him. But she was only on the edges of this. And if she wasn’t, then she’d pay the price, and this time it wouldn’t be only a suspended license.

But the investigation wasn’t the least bit interesting to him anymore. He didn’t want to pursue it further, and now that he’d slept with one of the players, he couldn’t. He’d call Luis and give him the rundown, and then he’d go to his supervisor. If there was going to be a stakeout tomorrow, it’d be done by another deputy. Nate couldn’t damage the investigation by putting himself in the middle of it. Plus, he had his hands full with damaging himself.