KIDNAPPED COWBOY (17 page)

“Caitlin, I was only teasing you.”

She took a step back, propping her hands on her hips.  “Dalton Barnes, I never figured you for a chicken.”

He arched a brow.  “Chicken?”  That was all it took.  He was already shirtless, so his hands went to the buckle at the fly of his jeans.  “Not this man.”

She couldn’t believe they were actually going to do this.  See where their playful teasing had taken them.  Caitlin couldn’t take her eyes from his large, sun-browned hands as he unzipped his jeans.

Her mouth went dry. 

He paused in his task to look at her.  “Turnabout’s fair play, Caitlin.  If you get to watch, I do, too.”

Her mouth snapped shut and she spun away, throwing up a hand.  “I’m not looking!”

His husky laughter followed her as she walked away and slipped behind a nearby tree to undress. 

“I’ll give you to the count of a hundred,” he called after her.

When she got down to her underwear and bra, she considered stopping there.  It would be no different than wearing her bikini.  But she had already razzed Dalton about being a chicken.  She couldn’t be one either.  Truth was she wanted to do this.  It had been a long time since she had allowed herself to do something wild and crazy.  Well, aside from kidnapping Dalton.  And that hadn’t turned out so bad.

She hurried to remove her bra and panties and prepared to make a dash for the water.

“Time’s up.”

Letting out a shriek, she spun around to find Dalton standing there.  Heart stopping, pulse pounding hunk in the flesh kind of glory.

“You said a hundred.”

“I count fast.”

She braced a hand against the tree to steady herself, the sight of him in all his glory made her legs weak.  Unable to help herself, she took in those broad shoulders and perfectly sculpted chest.  His muscular arms were mouthwateringly defined by all those years of riding.  Her perusal didn’t stop there.  Pushing aside the urge to turn away, she continued her visual tour, taking the narrow waist that framed Dalton’s taut, touch-me-now, abs, and then lower to the erection that jutted out quite impressively from the thatch of dark curls between firm, muscular thighs.

“Dalton...”

His blue eyes held an undeniable spark of desire.  His gaze traveled down her naked form making her shudder.  “You’re every bit as beautiful as I’d imagined you’d be.”

Her heart leapt.  He’d been thinking about her.  “I...I thought we were gonna swim.”

“We are, but first I have to do this.”  He stepped forward, drawing her into his arms and then lowered his mouth to hers.

Hot flesh against hot flesh.  The feel of it was unbelievably arousing.  She slid her hands up his broad chest and then around to his back and the corded muscles she’d been admiring when he’d been up on the roof.  The sensitive peaks of her breasts brushed against the crisp hairs on his chest, sending a rush of warmth down between her legs.  Her breath caught. 

“What you do to me,” he groaned.  Cupping her bare backside, he drew her up against him.  Against that thick, impressive arousal. 

She closed her eyes, melting into a puddle of need as his lips moved down the curve of her neck.  Closer to where she wanted them to be.  Needed them to be.  Threading her fingers through his dark hair, she urged him to an aching breast. 

He took his sweet time getting there, making her hips writhe wantonly against his erection.  Finally, his mouth settled over a heaving breast, making her whimper.  And when he drew the extended nipple into his mouth, suckling it with exquisite tenderness, she nearly went over the edge.  What was it with this man that made her a walking orgasm-ready-to-happen? 

“The swim,” he muttered in a voice husky with need as he lifted his head to look at her.

“Can wait,” she finished for him as they sank down to the soft, green grass below.

For this single moment in time, Dalton Barnes was hers and hers alone.  It didn’t matter that they came from two different worlds.  That he had grown up surrounded by wealth and family, while she had grown up alone on the streets.  All that mattered was feeling alive, feeling wanted.  And he gave that to her.

He lowered her back slowly onto the springy grass.  “So much for not kissing,” he muttered with a grin as his lips brushed over hers.

She smiled up at him.  “It was a dumb rule anyway.”  Slipping her arms around his neck, she pulled him to her.

It took every ounce of strength Dalton had not to sink into the welcoming heat between Caitlin’s legs.  He had never wanted any woman as badly as he wanted her right now.  But this was different.  She wasn’t just some rodeo circuit conquest.  She was...Caitlin.

He settled onto the ground beside her, propping himself up on one elbow as he lay looking down at her.  Lord, she was beautiful, even with those tiny smudges of red paint on her face. 

Pressing his lips to her hair, he dragged in a long breath.  “I wanna love every inch of you.”

She ran a finger along his jaw, then over his lips. “I’d like that.  A lot.”

That was all he needed.  Lowering his head, he nipped lightly at a puckered nipple while his hand skimmed down the smooth, feminine flesh to the thatch of red-gold curls between her thighs. 

Her quickening breath urged him on. “Open for me, Caitlin.  Let me pleasure you.”

She looked up at him with dazed green eyes as she parted her legs, welcoming his touch.  The evidence of her arousal greeted him as he slipped a finger between the silken curls. 

He groaned.  “You’re so wet.”

She nodded, blushing.  “And we aren’t even in the water yet.”

“And we aren’t gonna be anytime soon.”  He pushed to his feet.

She rose up on her elbows.  “Dalton?”

“I’ll be right back.  We need protection.”  He walked back to where he’d left his clothes lying and scooped them up.  Then he hurried back to where Caitlin lie waiting for him.

He pulled a foil packet from the pocket of his jeans and then tossed his clothes aside.

“You came prepared.”  

“Boy Scouts usually do.” 

She shook her head, both desire and amusement reflecting in her eyes.  “You’re not a Boy Scout.”

With a chuckle, he ripped open the foil packet and quickly sheathed himself.  “Lucky for you, I’m not.  Otherwise, I’d be off somewhere helping old ladies across the street instead of doing this.”

He moved over her and captured her mouth in a long, hungry kiss.  He could feel her heat beckoning him as his erection pressed between her parted thighs. 

Her nails bit into his back.  “I need you.”

Her passionate plea was his undoing.  He sank into her with a low groan and then stilled, fighting for control.  “So tight.”

She responded by raising her hips and taking him in even deeper.

Each and every thrust was a mixture of pleasure and torture.  Breath ragged, he made love to her with an abandon he’d never known before.  And when he felt the beginnings of her climax, he fought to hang on to his own. 

Two more firm strokes and she cried out, her body quaking beneath his as she clung to him.  With one final thrust, he followed her over the edge.

CHAPTER NINE

The most incredible thing to ever happen to him in his life, making love with Caitlin, had become the biggest secret Dalton had ever been forced to keep. 

He watched as she paced the gravel road at the entrance to Stoney Brook, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the troubled teens.  She had no idea how sexy she looked in those curve-hugging jeans and clingy cotton T-shirt.

Too good.

His thoughts went back to that afternoon by the lake when they’d made love.  He’d been with other women in the past, but that time it had been different.  It had nothing to do with the sparks that flew between them and fly they had, but everything to do with the fact that for the first time in his life his heart was involved.  

He fought the urge to frown.  He’d been so ready to let the world know he had more than a passing interest in Caitlin, but she had begged him not to.  She was afraid of how Brandon would react to the news.  Of what it might mean for the retreat.  No amount of reassuring had convinced her otherwise.  So for now, there was no ‘them’.

He was trying really hard to respect her wishes, but damn if this wasn’t the first time a woman had pushed him away.  On the circuit, they flocked to him and the other riders like flies to honey.  You couldn’t pry them off with a crow bar. 

Had he lost his touch? 
This was worse than taking a fall just before the buzzer in a championship rodeo. 

The sound of stones crunching under tires distracted him from his troubled thoughts.  The camp bus had arrived.  He headed over to stand next to Caitlin.

“You can finally stop your pacing.  The troops have arrived.”

“I wasn’t pacing,” she argued stubbornly as they walked out to meet the arriving bus.

“Tell that to the trench you left in the road back there,” he muttered as his gaze slid along the windows lining the bus.  The faces looking back were not ones of smiling, happy-go-lucky kids.  They were hard, angry, hateful stares that seem to bore right into him and Caitlin.  Not that she even noticed.  She was a bundle of smiles and excitement.  More than ready to get started helping these troubled kids work through their problems and learn to deal with life in a more positive manner.

The bus shifted slightly to one side as several more kids gathered at the bus’s windows that faced the camp.  Maybe he’d been wrong.  A few of the teens looked genuinely excited to be there.

That last thought lasted for about three seconds.  Because when he looked again, he saw twenty some hands shooting him the ‘bird’. 

“Why those little...”  With an angry growl, he started toward the closed doors of the bus. 

Caitlin grabbed onto his sleeve, stopping him.  “Don’t,” she said, somehow without her mouth ever moving.

“What do you mean don’t?”

“They’re testing you,” she whispered, her eyes pinned on the kids peering out of the bus.  “Just smile.”

He turned to her in amazement.  “We’re being flipped off by a couple dozen kids and you’re gonna let it ride?”

Still smiling, she replied, “Yes.”  Then stepped past him to the opening doors of the bus.

He stared after her.  Incredible.  These kids were going to run all over her.  It was a damn good thing he was there.  If a bull couldn’t get the best of him, these snot-nosed kids sure as hell weren’t going to either. 

First off the bus were the four energetic, young, college students Caitlin had hired on to act as camp counselors.  Two young men and two young women who, according to Caitlin, worked summers there to help pay for their tuition.

The young counselors wore matching neon yellow T-shirts with the words CAMP STONEY BROOK COUNSELOR printed on the front, and their names on the back.

Caitlin turned to him.  “I’d like you to meet our summer counselors.  This is Kelly, Zach, Leah, and Billy.  They worked here last year.  And this is Mr. Barnes,” she said with a smile as she introduced him. “He’s gonna be helping me run the retreat this summer.”

“Dalton,” he corrected with a grin.

“Barnes?” Leah replied, her eyes widening.  “As in the Mr. Barnes who own this place?”

He nodded.  “Reckon you could say that.”

There was no missing the tension that filled the air after his announcement.  He looked questioningly to Caitlin.

“He’s not
‘that’
Mr. Barnes.  He’s Brandon Barnes’ brother,” she pointed out. 

Sighs of relief echoed all around him.  Dalton had to wonder what his brother had done to make so many people cringe whenever they heard his name.

“Nice to meet you all,” he told them, ending the momentary silence.  “While my brother and I might own Stoney Brook, I want it made clear that Miss Myers is still the person in charge here.”  The last thing he wanted to do was undermine Caitlin’s authority with the kids.

They nodded in understanding.

“So how was the trip here?” Caitlin asked with an anxious glance towards the bus.

              “Let me put it this way,” Zach replied.  “It’s gonna be a long summer.”

Tell me about it
, Dalton thought.  If he was supposed to keep his distance from Caitlin, it was going to be one very long, hot summer.

“Why do you say that?” she replied.

For a moment, he was afraid he’d spoken his thoughts aloud.  But Leah’s reply assured him he hadn’t.

“We’ve got a couple of real hotheads on our hands.”

“Yeah,” Billy joined in.  “We broke up two fights just on the ride here.”

She gave her employees a reassuring smile.  “I’m sorry you had to deal with that.  I’ll have a talk with them once they’ve settled in.”

Once introductions were complete, the counselors returned to the bus and began unloading the teens.  The kids were instructed form a single line along the side of the bus where they were to wait for their bags to be unloaded.

“Where’d you find the cowboy wannabe?” one kid called out from the back of the line. “Toy Story?”

Dalton stiffened.  He’d show the kid just how
‘cowboy’
he was!

“Almost,” Caitlin replied without breaking her smile.

He swung round her way and mouthed, “Almost?”

“I kidnapped him.”

The kids laughed, not believing a word of it, but it had certainly broken the ice.

“Kids,” she went on, “this is Dalton Barnes.  He’s a professional rodeo rider and a
real
cowboy.”

“No way,” one kid said.

“For real?” another joined in. 

The murmurs grew louder and the questions shot at him faster than Dalton could answer them.

“There’ll be time to get to know Mr. Barnes once you’ve all settled into your cabins,” Caitlin announced.  “Girls, you’re to go with Kelly and Leah to your assigned cabins.  You’ll find your names posted on outside of the cabin doors.  Same goes for the boys.  Just follow Billy and Zach through those trees over there to your cabins.”

Dalton watched them go.  “Sure, send them away just when they were talking about something I really like to talk about.  The rodeo.”