Montana Actually (11 page)

You miss real conversation
.

I don’t miss being told what to do.

Now he was single, he had a choice. It made no sense to put up with difficult women, and Katrina ticked every single box on the “difficult” spectrum.

You’d have sex with her in a heartbeat.

I was the one who said no.
He gave his subconscious the metaphorical bird.

And that was the dumbest thing you’ve done since you got here.

Not wanting thoughts of Ashley or his father to intrude on his day, he focused on the sun instead, which was just peeking over the horizon and spreading its orange and gold fingers across the sky. The morning star was still visible—it’s white light bright and refusing to be dimmed by wisps of cloud.

He automatically turned toward the mountains—their craggy grandeur always made him look and tempted him to start walking. He really must arrange to get to Glacier National Park now summer was only a week away. What was the point of enduring Bear Paw if he didn’t use the one advantage this godforsaken place had over Chicago?

As he stood gazing at the snowcapped peaks, it took him a moment to realize there was no wind. God, he’d forgotten what it was like to stand outside without needing to lean forward, and he found himself grinning.

You used to get excited about the opening of a new restaurant and now you’re excited about lack of wind?

Irritated by the thought he might be starting to obsess about the weather like every other damn person in this town, he turned at the rumbling sound of Katrina’s pickup, happy to channel all his disgruntled energy onto the person inside.

The old rust bucket pulled to a stop, and to add insult to injury, she jumped out all perky and fresh after a full night’s sleep. She grabbed a wire cage out of the truck. “Morning, Josh.”

He dispensed with pleasantries. “There are rodents having a rave party in my roof.”

“I do believe you mentioned that at five thirty-two,” she said, her very kissable mouth twitching at the corners as her foot hit the first porch step. “Alliteration before seven in the morning. Well done.”

“I’ve had hours to think about it,” he said grumpily, resisting the sneaking temptation to smile at her teasing. “Be grateful I didn’t call you at one oh-five, three twenty-seven or four fifty-six. Do you have any idea how loud the scratching and scurrying is?”

“Haven’t had our coffee yet, I see.” She handed off the toolbox to him before walking into the house.

“I need sleep, not coffee.” He followed her inside, feeling hard done by. “It was bad enough being called into the ER for a tourist who’d decided that despite putting up with the pain of an infected toe for one entire week, she couldn’t wait another eight hours to see me at the clinic but had to have it treated at midnight.”

A flash of sympathy crossed her face. “I’m sorry you had a lousy night, Josh, but I didn’t purposefully release rats, raccoons or opossums in your roof just to piss you off.”

He didn’t want to be placated. “So you say.”

In stark contrast to Ashley, who was always impatient with him when he was overtired, Katrina laughed. A full-on, body-shaking laugh. In the face of that, his chagrin started to fade.

She continued to stand in the kitchen and eyed his coffee machine. “Poor Josh. It’s a crappy start to the week. Let’s have coffee first.”

He shook his head. “No way. All I want is for you to commit mass murder.”

“Oh. Okay.” She didn’t move and all her teasing suddenly vanished.

“Come on. Chop-chop. They’re breeding up there by the minute.”

Slowly, she pushed off the counter and headed toward the stairs.

Was he imagining it or was she dragging her feet? She usually did everything at top speed. He followed her, not complaining at all about the fact she wasn’t bounding up the stairs but walking them very slowly. It gave him more time to enjoy the view of her sweet behind. “So how come you’re up so early, anyway?”

She took each step one at a time. “You mean apart from being woken up by you? I’ve got a lot going on with work and getting ready to go to Ecuador.”

“Ecuador?” Unexpected disappointment rolled in his gut. “As in South America Ecuador?”

She threw a grin over her shoulder. “There’s more than one?”

“Very funny. Be nice to the guy who got no sleep. Why are you going there?”

“To be useful.”

“Can’t you be useful here?”

But she didn’t reply. She’d cleared the landing and was walking into his bedroom. She stopped in front of the small door that led into the roof space, and putting down the cage, she opened the door and handed him a flashlight and a container. “This is the bait. Put it where you see scats.”

He recoiled. “I’m not crawling in there.”

“Why not?”

“It’s dark, full of cobwebs and God knows what.”

Her green eyes lit up with a dare. “Oh, so you called a girl to do it?”

The memory of her lush and curvaceous body pressed up against him sent his blood pounding. “No, I called a very capable woman.”

“So you’re happy for me to let it slip at the bar that you’re scared of a few rodents? You do realize that the men of this town will never drink beer with you again.”

“They love me now for saving Sam, so they’ll forgive me my weak city ways.” He grinned, enjoying the fact that for once, he was ahead in the game. “Besides, there was a case of bubonic plague in Oregon not that long ago and that’s a bit too close to Montana for my liking.”

“Oh, right, but you’ll let me catch it?”

She definitely didn’t want to go into the roof space, and hell, he didn’t blame her one little bit, but he was having too much fun teasing her to let her know that. “Should you get the plague, I’ll be happy to treat you with antibiotics.”

“So reassuring,” she murmured, looking at the door and chewing on her thumbnail. “Are you sure you’re not feeling at all emasculated by letting me go in there?”

He shook his head. “There are many ways to be a man in the modern world, Katrina. Saving lives is my thing, and that’s pretty heroic.”

“So is going into that roof. What if we flip a coin?”

He laughed at the hope on her face. “There’s no deal to make here, Katrina. You’re my landlord, so face it: You have to go in there. And you know it because you came wearing your glasses.”
Glasses that make you look incredibly sexy.
Somehow, he stopped himself from reaching up and tucking some stray hair back behind her ear. “By the way, good to see you’re being so OSHA compliant because there’s likely a lot of dust in there.”

Her in-charge demeanor faded and the totally together woman who faced down anything cracked. “But it’s dark, and full of cobwebs and things that go bump in the night.”

Her sudden vulnerability caught him tight, like a lasso, and he had a crazy need to let her off the hook. “So just call someone. Surely there’s a pest control guy in Bear Paw.”

Horror streaked across her cheeks. “I can’t call Ralph. Only townies use pest control. Ranchers bait and trap and I’d never live it down.”

“I swear this town has more crazy rules about who does what than anywhere on the planet.” He took in her woebegone expression and, as much as he hated the idea, knew what he had to do. “What if I come in with you? I have no clue how to set up the cage, but if you do that, I’ll spread the bait.”

Her face filled with gratitude. “You’d really do that?”

“I’m as shocked by it as you are,” he said, wanting to see her smile.

“Thank you. You’re a good guy, Josh.”

“Not that good,” he said, putting on his best Mafia-style voice. “This is a favor I can call in at any time.”

A scurrying noise made them both look down, and a mouse ran between Katrina’s legs. She screamed and jumped onto him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and locking her legs around his waist. “Close the door,” she squealed. “Close it now.”

He staggered at the unexpected weight but managed to keep his balance as he kicked the attic door shut against other wandering rodents.

“Where did it go?” Katrina asked anxiously, lurching sideways to look.

Her abrupt movement, in the exact opposite direction from his, sent him tumbling backward onto the bed, bringing her down with him in a tangle of limbs.

Still clinging to him like he was driftwood in a choppy sea, her huge, green eyes stared at him from behind those sexy librarian glasses. “Sorry,” she wailed. “Are you hurt?”

He did a quick mental inventory of pain and drew a blank. “Given our track record, surprisingly, no.” He could still feel her heart beating hard and fast in fear against his chest, and he automatically wrapped his arms around her for reassurance. “What was all that screaming like a girl about?”

She bit her lip. “Sorry. I’m fine with mice in the barn or outside even, but inside they freak me out. There was a field mouse plague when I was a kid, and they were everywhere, including in my bed. Ever since then—” She shivered again and her body rubbed his from chest to thigh.

He groaned as delicious sensations thrummed through him.

She stilled. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

“Not how you think,” he managed to grind out as he went hard, his erection pressing determinedly against her thigh.

She must have felt him because her eyes darkened to the color of moss.

Weeks of sexual frustration peaked, overruling every logical argument about Katrina that he’d been telling himself.

“Don’t look at me like that unless you want me to kiss you, and believe me, I desperately want to kiss you. And when I say kissing, I mean I want to start with kissing and finish with sex. That’s sex without questions, no changing of minds halfway through, no talking unless it’s ‘oh yes, that’ or ‘do this’ or ‘don’t stop.’ Just two adults giving in to this insane attraction that’s sparked between us from the start and finally doing what we should have done days ago.”

He heaved in a breath. “Or not. The choice is yours and I’ll respect it whatever it is, but decide now and decide fast, because right now you’re killing me.”

I
t took Katrina less than a minute to decide. She was lying sprawled on top of Josh with the evidence that he wanted her badly pressing into her thigh. God knows, she wanted him, and she was utterly exhausted by fighting it.

She’d never had sex without the relationship part, but as she wasn’t looking for a relationship and neither was Josh and she was leaving for Ecuador, it guaranteed there’d be no postsex awkwardness.

And the mouse had disappeared from the bedroom.

And he’d offered to go into the roof space with her, which was the sexiest thing he’d ever done.

She wound a finger through one of his curls. “Do you have condoms?”

He grinned at her and the next minute she was on her back and gray eyes full of desire stared down at her. “You’re not the only person who’s OSHA compliant, you know.” He reached for her glasses.

She put her hand on his. “I’m totally blind without them.”

“You don’t need to see me,” he said, his voice hoarse with need. “You only need to feel me.”

Her entire body liquefied and she pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. His now familiar mouth fitted against hers perfectly and she unexpectedly sighed. Crazy relief-filled sensations streamed through her, devoid of all urgency. She’d thought that with the weeks of sexual tension that had vibrated between them, she’d want him hard and fast, but right now, she didn’t want to rush a thing. She could lie here for hours luxuriating in the touch of his mouth romancing hers, and just let him kiss her.

She continued exploring his head, running her hands through his hair and loving the soft way his curls captured her fingers. His peppermint and pine scent circled her, and she breathed in deeply, imagining they were outside in a forest of trees. His lips slipped from her mouth and she tilted her head back to give him plenty of access to her throat.

He pressed a series of featherlight kisses along her jaw and down her neck, making her feel as if she were floating on air. Her hands fell away from his head as if they didn’t have the strength to hold themselves up, and it was like being in a pleasure cocoon and she never wanted it to stop. His hair tickled her face as he reached the hollow at the base of her throat. He kissed it gently, reverently, and then he swept it with the tip of his tongue.

Every cell in her body snapped to attention with an electrifying whoosh of need. It vanquished every particle of blissful lethargy and she bucked underneath him.

He laughed and traced an X with his fingertip. “Erogenous zone number one.”

“I think it’s time I found some on you.” She reached for the buttons on his shirt, her fingers trembling as she tried to unbutton them in the small space between their bodies.

He sat up and whipped the shirt off over his head, and she immediately pressed her palms to his chest, loving the solid feel of him against her skin. “Let me see . . .” She walked her fingers from his diaphragm up his sternum and across to his nipples. She flicked them with her thumbs.

He jerked and his eyes darkened to charcoal gray.

She laughed. “Score. Now where else . . .” She skimmed his skin with the tips of her fingers, but when she reached his navel, he gently circled both her wrists and pinned them over her head with his left hand.

“One erogenous zone at a time, Katrina.” He pushed up her T-shirt and grinned at her bra. “Now, there’s a nice surprise.”

“What did you expect?”

He traced the line of lace that sat on the swell of her breast. “With the whole tool belt and work boot thing you have going on, which by the way I find incredibly sexy, I figured it would be plain.”

Brent had always insisted she wear lacy bras and thongs. In fact, many of his gifts had been just that, to the point she no longer owned any plain underwear. Most of her had wanted to throw it all away, but the practical country girl in her had settled on replacing each item as it wore out.

She couldn’t wrap her head around what Josh had just said. “You find my work clothes and tool belt sexy?”

“Oh yeah.” He dropped his head and closed his mouth around her aching breast, sucking her through the red lace.

Her body exploded with a shower of bliss. “Take it off,” she panted. “Please.”

“In a minute.” Still imprisoning her hands, he moved his mouth to her other breast and lazily tormented her a little longer.

She bucked and writhed underneath him and eventually he pulled her forward. In a flurry of hands and fingers, they tugged and pushed and pulled at each other’s clothes and shoes until they were both naked. Gloriously naked.

She stared at him, soaking him up from the delineated muscles of his chest across the toned six-pack of his abdomen and down to his impressive erection. Pushing at his shoulders, she sent him backward and flung her legs over his. “If I didn’t think it would give you a swelled head, I’d tell you that the reality of you naked, even fuzzily out of focus, far outshines the fantasy.”

He grinned at her with dimples dancing. “I aim to please.”

“So do I.” She closed her hand around him, loving the hot and silken feel of him in her palm.

“Jesus, Katrina,” he moaned as his hands reached for her. “Too much of that and I won’t be pleasing you for another twenty minutes.”

“Where’s your self-control?” she teased.

“I lost it the moment I met you.”

She didn’t know what to say to that, and she didn’t want to acknowledge the traitorous quiver in her heart, so she kissed him. Hard. Hot. Deep.

His need for her exploded in her mouth, and all that existed for her was him. His heat. His need. The thrust of his tongue dominating her mouth, the feel of his fingers sliding inside her slick and ready body and the pressure of his thumb doing duty on her throbbing clitoris.

After spending days in a state of constant arousal, her body didn’t need much help. Sensation built on sensation and her muscles clenched desperately around his fingers, riding them, forcing them against that special spot sobbing to be rubbed. Pleasure became pain became pleasure, the difference infinitesimal, and she craved it all. Her nipples screamed, her lungs ached, her toes curled and she thought she’d explode with the sheer ecstasy of it all. Pulling her mouth away from his, she threw her head back and heard herself cry out as bliss rained through her. She collapsed in a boneless heap on his chest.

“A definite erogenous zone,” he said before kissing her hair. “Although I think there are still a lot more I need to find.”

She smiled down at him. “I hate to say it but you’re really good at that.”

“Yeah. I’ve still got it.”

She thought she heard a thread of antagonism under the joking, but it skated past her orgasm-fogged mind. “I have a few skills myself.”

He stroked her face. “Is that so?”

Her hand moved down to touch him again. “So name your poison. Hand or mouth?”

“You.” He wrapped his legs around hers and commando-rolled them over. “I want to bury myself inside of you.”

She shivered with joyful anticipation as he leaned sideways and grabbed a condom from the bedside table. “I can do that for you.”

“Maybe next time.”

He quickly rolled it on, but instead of entering her as she’d expected—as she craved—he kissed her thoroughly.

She nudged him. “Josh, I’m good to go.”

He ignored her and turned his attention to her breasts. The final vestiges of her postorgasm torpor vaporized. “Josh, seriously, I’m so ready now.”

“Katrina, you know better than that.” Glittering eyes stared down at her and his forehead wore a fine sheen of sweat. “You know I don’t like being told what to do.”

“Sorry,” she said with faux contrition. “I forgot.”

“This might make you remember.” He nipped and licked and kissed his way along the length of her belly until she was sobbing and writhing in desperation. Her muscles twitched against empty, desperate to feel him deep inside her, driving her to the point of insanity.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, tilting her hips toward him as her hands pummeled his back. “Dear God, Josh, you’re killing me.”

“Welcome to my world, sweetheart.”

As he leaned down and swiftly kissed her lips, he entered her aching body.

Thank you.
She closed around him, taking him in, urging him forward, wanting him so badly.

His control vanished and he thrust deep and hard, panting fast. She met each thrust with one of her own, her legs holding him tightly inside her, and the rhythm drove them both upward, spiraling toward release.

She felt him shatter and a moment later she joined him as their bodies flung them out of their lives for a moment of magic and wonder.

They fell back to reality in a sweaty, panting heap.

—

JOSH
rolled onto his back, his body limp with satiation, and he reached out his hand to find Katrina’s. “You good?”

“I’m good. You?”

He rolled over to face her and kissed her on the nose. “Way more than good. Thank you, it’s been a while.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Something about her expression worried him. “You’re not going to go all weird on me, are you?”

“Weird? No. Of course not.” She swung her legs out of the bed and tugged hard, stealing the top sheet. Wrapping it around her, she started searching quickly for her clothes.

He had an inexplicable feeling of sadness that she’d gotten out of bed so fast. “So this isn’t you acting weird and desperate to get out of here because you’re regretting we had sex?”

“This is me being late for work at the diner.” She threw his boxers at him. “And if you don’t want to be running behind all day, you’d be acting weird, too.”

He looked at the clock. “Shit. How did it get to be seven thirty?”

“I know, right,” she said, pulling on a scrap of lace that barely qualified as underwear. “I’d expected a quickie, but you’re not so quick.”

He caught her around the waist and pulled her back against him, burying his face in her neck. “But I’m thorough.”

She half laughed and half sighed, and her body slackened against his for a fraction of a second before she leaned forward and pulled on a sock. “You are so full of yourself.”

“Only with the important things.” His phone rang and he had to let her go to answer it. “Josh Stanton.”

As the night nurse from the hospital gave him an inpatient report, Katrina finished dressing and plonked the rest of his clothes on the bed. She mouthed the word
bye
.

Before he could say anything, she’d run down the stairs. By the time he’d gotten off the phone, she’d left the property. His phone rang again. It was time to face Monday, and hell, for the first time since arriving in Bear Paw, he was looking forward to it.

—

SHANNON
hadn’t worked the early-morning breakfast shift at the diner since Katrina had starting working for her, but this morning, she’d been late. So late that Shannon had opened up and started cooking. Katrina had arrived forty minutes later, flushed, flustered and profusely apologetic. Since then, she’d worked solidly and without a break for the next three hours.

Now that the rush was over and the morning coffee seniors had left, Shannon took advantage of the lull and made coffee for them both.

“I’m really sorry,” Katrina said for the tenth time. “I know you like to be home in the mornings to see Hunter out the door.”

Shannon waved away her apology. “Hunter wolfed down your pancakes and got to school on time, so stop apologizing.”

“I’ll try.” She sipped her latte and sighed. “The last eight days have been crazy.”

“I know, right? I feel guilty that Sam Duckett’s accident has been the best thing that’s ever happened to the diner. I think everyone in the district has bought a coffee and a slice of pie just to talk to you about it and ask questions. You’re my star attraction.”

“Not anymore. It’s a new week and Bethany was all over Twitter this morning with a photo of a bright light she saw in the sky last night, so now the town’s on UFO watch.” Katrina sipped her coffee. “With working opposite shifts, I haven’t really seen you to ask, but did you have a good time at your first branding?”

Embarrassment seeped into every cell, and Shannon worked hard at not burying her face in her hands. Every time she thought about her ditzy behavior that seemed to come out of nowhere whenever she spoke to Beau McCade, she burned with shame. Heaven help her, she’d sung a television theme song.

She had no idea what the heck was wrong with her, but all it took was one glimpse of his serious but handsome face, his wide shoulders and rippling muscles, and she not only developed verbal diarrhea, she sounded like a total blonde. Granted, she was blond, but with everyone else in town she was a sensible woman—a business owner and the responsible mother of a teen. But with Beau, she sounded vacant, and his short responses confirmed he thought so, too. She’d blabbed on so much at the branding lunch that the poor guy had offered to help Hunter out just to get away from her. She’d consoled herself the rest of the afternoon by stealing surreptitious glances of Beau on horseback.