Dillon's Claim (8 page)

Incredibly, the spark of
arousal reignited inside her. With each caress of his tongue it grew hotter,
coalescing into a tight, achy knot in her pussy. She wanted all of him, right
here and now. Filling her, stretching her, taking her however he wanted. Anything,
as long as it made her
his
.

Her hands found the seam of
his shirt and yanked the snaps open, baring the sculpted planes of muscle to
her hungry gaze. She kissed his jaw, his throat, nipping and licking down to
his chest as the hunger roared out of control. But when her hand slid down to
find the bulge in his jeans, he covered it with one of his and stopped her.

Frustrated, she looked up at
him. His eyes glinted with amusement and an unmistakable sexual heat that made
her breathless. “Want more already, sweetness?”

“Yes,” she breathed, tugging
against his hold as she attacked his mouth. A startled squeak escaped her when
he suddenly rolled her beneath him and settled his weight over her. Oh, God.
That show of dominance, the controlled power of him made her crazy.

She moaned and arched into
him, winding her legs around his hips to let the ridge of his cock settle
against the damp ache in her pussy. He felt so good, so hard and heavy and hot
atop her. Her fingers sank into his hips, urging him on as she opened eagerly
for his kiss and sucked at his tongue.

All too soon he pulled away
and bent and covered a throbbing nipple with the moist heat of his mouth. “Ohh,”
she cried, lifting toward his mouth. Every delicious pull, every stroke of his
velvet tongue resonated in her pounding clit.

He switched to the other
breast, pleasuring its hard center until the sensations made her tremble and plead
for relief. Finally, he raised his head and stared down at her, his chest
rising and falling in rapid breaths. “I’m going to hold you down while I fuck
you,” he warned in a dark voice.

The words made her shudder in
an agony of anticipation. “Yes. Hurry.”

He let out a low growl and sat
up on his haunches to drag her jeans over her hips.

The shrill bleating of a cell
phone shattered the air.

Dillon froze for a second as
the sound slowly registered through the haze of lust clouding his brain. When
it rang again, he cursed and grabbed for his jacket. Fucking ironic that he got
reception now, way out here in the middle of nowhere, when he couldn’t seem to
get it in most other places on the ranch. Even as he thought it, a knot of
unease bloomed in his chest. It was after midnight. Something must be wrong. He
glanced at Charissa, who’d sat up and wrapped her arms across her naked breasts.
The fact she covered herself told him he hadn’t yet made the kind of progress
he’d hoped for. Regret sliced through him. “Sorry, I need to take this.”

“No, go ahead.” She began straightening
her clothes.

When he pulled out the phone
and Deke’s number glowing on the call display, his heart skipped a beat. He
flipped it open. “You okay?”

“We’re fine.”

“We?”

“Jessie and I. Black luxury sedan
ran us off the road a couple miles from the ranch. Most likely drunk. Bastard
made the truck behind us run into a tree before they took off. Stacey was in
it.”

One of their neighbors. “Shit.
She all right?”

“Nope, but she’ll be okay.
Being transported by ambulance right now. Collapsed lung, probably a
concussion. Baby was with her in the backseat.”

“Damn.” Dillon dragged a hand
through his hair, thankful Stacey’s injuries weren’t worse. Thank God Deke had
been there to help. As a former Air Force Pararescueman, he was better than most
paramedics. “You need me to do anything? Contact her husband?”

“No, just wanted to let you
know and find out if there were any wild parties going on that you knew about.
I want to tell the sheriff something besides the plate number to help him
along.”

“The Silver Star was hosting
some kind of fundraiser tonight for some folks from the Country Club.” A swanky
sports car would have fit in perfectly with that crowd.

“I’ll pass it on. We’re on our
way back now.”

“Okay. Keep me posted.”

“Will do.”

Dillon hung up and turned to
Charissa. She looked so gorgeous, her lips shiny and swollen from his kisses, long
hair mussed and tousled about her shoulders. “That was Deke. He and Jessie were
in an accident.”

She gasped, hands tightening
around the edges of her shirt. “They okay?”

“Yeah—” His phone rang again.
He opened it immediately, expecting Deke, but it was one of the ranch hands.

“Spotted a couple bonfires
burning in the upper pasture,” Bill said, “and some sections of fence are
busted there, too.”

Ah, shit.
“Teenagers again?”

“Yes sir, near as I can
figure. I think we might have lost some of the longhorns.”

“Yeah. I’ll take care of it.” Sighing,
he hung up and offered an apologetic smile to Charissa.

“More trouble?”

“Just another headache for me
to deal with.” But he wasn’t going to haul her up to the problem area in the
middle of the night while he checked things out. The kids were likely drunk and
possibly armed so they could take drunken potshots at their empty beer cans. Hell
of a way to spend a Saturday night. “I have to take care of this.”

“Of course.” She hurriedly
buttoned her shirt and jeans. Dillon watched her in silence, regretting every
inch of skin being hidden from him. He’d been so close to having her, to making
love to her the way he’d dreamed of for so many months.

“When are you planning to
drive home tomorrow?” He hated even saying the words out loud, but he needed to
know. After this, she had to trust him with her body, but he wanted so much
more than that. A one-nighter with her wasn’t part of the plan, though he wasn’t
going to blurt out everything he wanted and risk rejection right now. He was
still smarting from the last time.

“Early afternoon. My dad’s
already helping the contractor with the renos at my place. I promised to be
home Sunday night to go over everything with him.”

That left only a few hours for
them tomorrow morning. Damn it. He wanted to growl in frustration. “Sorry about
this.”

Her smile was understanding, full
of regret, and turned him inside out. “Not your fault.”

No, but that didn’t make it
any better. He’d rather take her back to his place right now, but it wasn’t
fair to make her wait there for him when he didn’t know how long he’d be or if
he’d even return until morning.

“Come on,” he said, helping
her to her feet as the frustration clawed at him. “I’ll drive you back to your
cabin.”

Chapter Five

Holding his cell phone to his
ear, Dillon rubbed his fingers over his tired, gritty eyes and waited for the
call to connect. If his damn phone couldn’t get a signal now, he’d lose it. Bad
enough those phone calls had disrupted his time with Charissa last night, but
he’d gone all night without sleep. The fatigue pulling at him reminded him of
his days in the military. At the moment he just wanted this taken care of so he
could go home and grab a shower then see her again. The sun was already peeking
over the tops of the eastern hills, bathing them in a reddish glow.

“What’s wrong?” Deke answered
after the third ring, voice sharp with concern.

“I need you to do a perimeter
check with me.”

A startled pause. “Why, what
happened?”

“Someone’s been trespassing
again. I found some fences cut, some cattle missing. A couple poorly tended bonfires
and plenty of empty beer cans.” They were lucky things weren’t worse. Though it
was only early May, the ground was so dry those bonfires could have sent the
entire ranch up in flames.

“Shit.” He made out the
rustling of sheets in the background, a feminine murmur, and guessed that Jessie
was probably in his brother’s bed.
Lucky bastard
. Deke had obviously spent
the night getting laid while Dillon had been out corralling missing longhorns
and looking for drunken teenagers.

“Why the hell didn’t you call
me?” Deke growled.

“I just did.” The last thing
he needed right now was to be bitched at by his younger brother. A younger
brother who was no doubt more than sexually satisfied, while Dillon’s whole
body was rigid with pent-up frustration. He could feel the minutes slipping
past him, the window of opportunity he had with Charissa closing right before
his eyes and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it until this was
taken care of.

“Jesus
Christ,
you’re a
stubborn bastard.”

All his brothers thought he
was a hard-ass, so Deke’s remark didn’t bother him. “Yeah, it’s genetic. Meet
me at the corral in ten.” On horseback they could cover the remaining areas he
hadn’t been able to access in his pickup or with ATVs.

Dillon had Deke’s horse
saddled and ready by the time his brother got to the corral.

“You shoulda called me last
night.” Deke shook his head in reprimand as he stalked over.

Dillon shoved the reins at him
and looked away, ignoring the censure in his brother’s expression. “Ready to do
this?”

“Hell, yeah.”

Armed with rifles in case they
ran into any trouble, they began the security sweep and Dillon finally filled
him in on all the details. Including the part when he’d found a bunch of bullet
casings amongst all the empties around the bonfire sites.

Deke was obviously pissed at
Dillon for not calling him for backup, but he’d just have to get over himself. While
he’d been getting busy with Jessie, Dillon had rounded up the missing longhorns
they kept as a novelty for guests, then fixed the breaks in the fence by
flashlight, knowing all the while drunken trespassers were out there with
loaded weapons. Not that he blamed his brother for being otherwise occupied.
Given the choice, Dillon would much rather have spent the night as deep inside
Charissa as he could possibly get.

Deke clenched his jaw so tight
Dillon could practically hear his brother’s teeth grinding. He sighed. “Before
you say it, I wasn’t going to call you in the middle of the night over some
punk teenagers,” he muttered.

Deke glared at him. “Yeah.
Drunk,
armed
teenagers.” He shook his head.

Dillon shrugged. “I figured
you and Jessie had already had enough excitement for one night. I had the
situation under control.” His tone was clipped, making it clear the
conversation was over. For once, Deke didn’t make a smart-ass reply, and he was
thankful. He had enough on his mind to deal with.

They rode the fence line in
silence for a while until Deke finally spoke again. “So. How are things with
you and Charissa?”

Dillon’s hands bunched around
the reins, and his horse tossed its head in protest at the increased tension on
the bit. Immediately he relaxed his grip. “Fine, I guess.”

“Oh, that good?”

Dillon nailed him with a hard
glare. “Leave it alone.”

“Okay. Sorry, man,” Deke muttered
quietly.

The sun was climbing steadily overhead,
beating down on them with oppressive force and creating waves of shimmering
heat on the ground. Sweat trickled down Dillon’s spine, over his ribs. He
raised his hat to wipe a forearm across his soaked brow. There was nothing out
here to suggest the teenagers were still around, and there were no more breaks
in any of the fences. The perimeter check was taken care of, but smoothing his
brother’s ruffled feathers wouldn’t be as easy.

Deke had always had a chip on
his shoulder, but since his career-ending injury during his last tour in
Afghanistan and his subsequent divorce, he’d been like a grizzly bear with a
sore paw once he came back home. It was against company policy for any of them
to get involved with guests, but since Dillon had broken that rule this weekend,
too—he wouldn’t stoop to hypocrisy and call Deke or his other brothers on it.
Dillon was actually glad Jessica had somehow managed to break through his
brother’s gruff exterior.

“You and Jessica seem to be
pretty intense,” Dillon commented as they headed back toward the corral. He’d
never seen Deke so tangled up over a woman.

Deke was silent a moment. “Yeah.”
When his shoulders lost their stiff posture and he seemed to settle easier in
the saddle, Dillon knew the verbal olive branch had done its job.

Unfortunately, he was still frustrated
and restless as hell. This perimeter check had already cost him precious hours he
didn’t have. He knew he’d made headway in terms of earning Charissa’s trust
last night, but their time apart gave her yet another opportunity to put her
defences back up between them.

All he wanted was to go to her
and finish what he’d started so he could lay the final bricks in the groundwork
of their relationship. The one he hoped she wanted as much as he did. It drove
him nuts that he had to wait. Even at a trot, the horses seemed to plod along
at an annoyingly slow pace, their coats streaked with sweat and their hooves
thudding against the parched ground.