Drew (The Cowboys) (25 page)

He stopped and pulled her to face him. “I don’t think you know what you want. Or maybe you
do,
but are afraid of it.”

“Now you’re the one not making any sense.”

“It’s your fault. I used to be extremely logical.”

“So you gave up being a gentleman to become a drifter. That’s not a sterling example of logic.”

“It’s as good as liking a woman who’s determined never to like me in return.”

“I like you. I didn’t want to at first, but I do.”

“What caused you to change your mind?”

“I’ve been trying to figure that out. It worries me that I can’t.”

“Is it my handsome face, my sparkling wit, my manly physique?”

She couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

He looked disappointed. “I wasn’t.”

“You’re handsome enough, but I’ve got several brothers who’re better looking. As for manly physique, Sean has more muscles in one arm than you have in both.”

“I never realized what a problem it would be to court a woman with ten brothers, all from different gene pools.”

“Are you courting me?” The word had stopped her in her tracks.

“Maybe that wasn’t exactly the right word.”

“Good, because I don’t want any man courting me.”

“Okay,
liking
a woman, wanting her to like you. It’s difficult when you can’t measure up to her brothers. Isn’t there anybody in that corner of Texas who’s an ordinary mortal?”

“Sure, but—”

“Not in your family.”

“You might be better looking than Pete. And I suppose you have more muscles than Will. He’s the most trifling child you’ve ever met, but—”

“Don’t strain yourself trying to compliment me.”

“I was going to say you have a kind of charm and persuasiveness that none of them have. You keep talking me into things I don’t want to do. I can’t even stay mad at you. And there’s something very nice about your smile. I keep thinking of the innocence of a little boy who’s about to get into mischief. He knows he shouldn’t do something, he knows he’s going to get into trouble, but he can’t help himself.”

“Is that it, I’m like a little boy?”

“No. You lie beautifully. If I were the least bit impressionable, you’d have me believing I was beautiful, that men were practically standing in line for a chance to spend a few minutes in my company.”

He muttered something she couldn’t understand.

“And the attention you’ve given to improving my act is very flattering. Zeke and Hawk tell me I haven’t been very gracious about it, that I ought to thank you for—”

Without warning, he grabbed her and kissed her, hard and fast. She felt the world spin, throwing her completely off balance. He broke the kiss, held her at arm’s length.

“That’s what I want from you, not thanks. I don’t want you to think of me as a cross between a priest and a choir boy. I’m a grown man made of flesh and blood, with all the wants and needs of any other man. Call me dangerous. Call me ugly if you must, but don’t call me boyish and charming.”

Drew had never expected anything she might say to Cole to unleash such a fierce reaction. She’d tried to say things she thought would please him, but she couldn’t tell him the truth.

If she were to tell Cole how powerfully he affected her, she’d have to admit it to herself. She didn’t want to do that. He had already weakened her resolve to have nothing to do with men. He’d managed to make her revise her opinion of kissing. She dreaded to think what else he might be able to do if given free rein. She had already learned if she gave Cole an inch, he’d take a mile so fast it made her head spin.

“I didn’t say you were boyish or innocent,” she said, trying to sooth his bruised ego. “I just said you made me think of a boy.”

He growled something inarticulate.

“I can’t help it if you’re charming and gentlemanly and thoughtful.”

He growled again, but this time she had no trouble understanding the curse he uttered.

“You’re just like my bothers,” she said. “If you can’t be rough, tough, and completely without sentiment, you think you’re a failure.”

His expression lightened a little. “Maybe not quite that bad, but men do like to feel they’re at least a little bit dangerous. Hell, how can we protect our women if we’re powder puffs?”

“I can protect myself. You, too, if it comes to that.”

He sagged, like a defeated man. “That’s even worse. No man who needs to be protected by a woman can call himself a man.”

“That’s ridiculous. If you care so little about society’s rules that you choose to be a drifter, why do you subscribe to such a silly notion?”

Instead of answering, he picked her up.

“What are you doing? Put me down!”

“Not until you admit I’m bigger and stronger than you.”

“Don’t be absurd. Put me down.”

“I can run faster, throw farther, and climb higher.”

“Cole, put me down. People will stare.”

“Admit it I’ll hold you off the ground until you do.”

She couldn’t tell whether he was joking or serious, upset or fooling her.

“Okay, you’re bigger and stronger.”

“What else?”

“All the rest. Faster. Anything you want. Now let me down.”

He lowered her until they were nose to nose, but Drew wasn’t thinking of her nose. She was thinking of her body touching his along its whole length, of her breasts pressed hard against his chest, of the churning sensation that suddenly turned her belly into a roiling sea.

“Put me down this minute.”

“Only if you kiss me.”

“I’ve kissed you twice already.”

“No,
I
kissed
you.
Now it’s your turn.”

“This is blackmail.”

“It’s your punishment for reducing my ego to the consistency of cornmeal mush.”

The comparison struck her as funny. “Surely not that bad.”

“I’ll probably need several kisses to restore it to health.”

The churning sensation increased. She could flatly refuse and demand he put her down, but she wanted a chance to try it again. It really didn’t make sense to argue with him. He was bigger and stronger. He could hold her off the ground for as long as he wanted, and she couldn’t do anything about it without making a scene. It would be much more logical to do as he wanted.

“I’m only doing this because you’re forcing me to,” she said.

“Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“I’ve never kissed a man before, so you can’t blame me if it’s not very good.”

“I’ll just keep holding you until you get it right.”

She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips. She’d expected him to do something. He didn’t. His lips remained perfectly still.

“You’ve got to help,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

She kissed him again, but this time she put a little more energy into it, made it last a little longer. Cole’s limbs quivered in response. Maybe she’d learned more from watching Jake and Isabelle than she thought.

Then she bit him.

Not hard. Just a nip. It wasn’t planned. She didn’t even know what she was going to do until she did it. It surprised her as much as it surprised Cole.

With a deep-throated growl, he let her slide down his body until her feet touched the ground. Then he wrapped his arms around her body, pressed her to him so hard she was afraid she couldn’t breath, and kissed her ruthlessly.

Drew discovered kissing wasn’t a difficult skill to acquire. She didn’t even have to try hard. Cole seemed more than anxious to do all the work. Which was just as well, as she was having a very difficult time keeping up with what he was doing, as well as its effect on her body.

She liked the feel of his mouth on hers. He was a little rough, and he was making strange groaning sounds. It was difficult not to be pleased when you could have such an effect on a man. He seemed to be trying hard to prove something. She didn’t know what just yet, but she was willing to hang around until she found out.

She tried very hard to keep her mind on his kiss, but her body was acting up in ways it never had before. Her stomach was in full flight, doing dips, twists, figure eights, and just plain churning itself into a state. Her muscles seemed weak, flabby, unable to support her weight or control the movement of her limbs. Her legs threatened to go out from under her at any moment. To protect against that, she slipped her arms around Cole’s neck.

That produced a satisfactory arrangement for her, but it resulted in Cole making a whole series of louder and more urgent noises. It also resulted in his pressing his body more firmly against hers. She hadn’t spent the last nine years surrounded by boys growing into young men without anticipating what happened very soon thereafter. What she hadn’t anticipated was its effect on her.

In the welter of sensation that engulfed her, she gradually became aware that her nipples had become extremely sensitive. Being pressed hard against Cole’s chest had turned them into two points of boiling sensation that sent sparks and shivers radiating throughout her body. She yielded to the urge to press even harder against him and was rewarded by another groan.

Drew was finding it harder and harder to get her breath. She felt swept away, sucked into a maelstrom—

She felt Cole stiffen. The click of a cocked gun was unmistakable.

“Get your hands off her, or I’ll drop you where you stand.”

Chapter Fifteen

The feel of cold steel against his temple caused Cole to go rigid. The sound of Zeke’s voice only partly reassured him his life wasn’t about to come to an immediate and messy end. Having Drew to himself for a whole evening, having her in his arms, kissing her, had caused him to forget that Zeke and Hawk had been sent to be her watchdogs.

Breaking their kiss, releasing Drew, stepping away from the warmth of her body, he felt as though part of him were being torn away. It didn’t help that Drew stared up at him with a combination of surprise and bemused wonder in her eyes. She might have spent the last several years trying to convince herself she wasn’t interested in men, but the last minute or so had knocked that notion right off its foundations. And clearly no one was more surprised than Drew.

“You can put your gun away,” Cole said, without turning to face Zeke. “I didn’t force your sister to let me kiss her.”

“I don’t believe you,” Zeke said, keeping the gun hard against Cole’s temple. “Drew never lets anybody kiss her. It took Buck forever to get her to let him kiss her when he comes to visit.”

“This wasn’t exactly a brotherly kiss.”

“I noticed. I also noticed you kissed her out in the open, where anybody could stand and stare. Drew would never do that. She hates being stared at.”

Drew didn’t say a word, just continued to stare at Cole, her eyes wide with wonder.

“You’d better say something to your brother,” Cole said. “He seems to think I forced you to kiss me.”

“You did.”

Cole cursed Drew’s habit of responding with the literal truth. He cursed it again when he felt the gun press harder against his temple, heard Zeke’s angry growl.

“If you hurt her, I swear I’ll kill you on the spot, no matter how many people are watching.”

“Drew, for God’s sake, speak to your brother before he does something all of us will regret.”

“I won’t regret it,” Zeke said.

“I’ll regret it enough for both of us,” Cole replied.

Drew seemed to snap out of whatever trance she’d fallen into. “Put that gun away, Zeke,” she said, sounding like her old self. “You’ll have everybody staring at us.”

“As if you standing here kissing Cole, your bodies wrapped together as tight as vines, isn’t going to be noticed!”

Drew blushed. “I forgot where I was.”

“Forgot where you were!” Zeke repeated in tones of disbelief. “Do you happen to remember what you were doing?”

Drew turned her gaze back to Cole. Her expression went all soft and dreamy. “Yes. I remember what I was doing.”

“You said he forced you, but you don’t look like it,” Zeke said.

“He said I insulted him by comparing him to a boy. He picked me up and wouldn’t let me down until I kissed him enough to restore his self-respect.”

“That was a damned stupid thing to say. I can’t believe you fell for it.”

“None of you ever liked being called a boy. I can remember—”

“This isn’t the same, Drew. You’re grown up now, and this man was kissing you in public. That’s practically the same as saying you’re engaged.”

“It was just a friendly kiss,” Drew said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Zeke looked from one to the other, an expression of disbelief crossing his face. “Lord, nobody’s going to believe this. Drew has fallen in love. And with a drifter. Isabelle is going to kill the three of us.”