Outlaw (20 page)

“We can get it removed or covered over if that’s
what you want.”

She didn’t know how to answer that. She didn’t know
how she felt about that. She’d only known Cole a few days, and already she
didn’t want to think about leaving him. But she guessed he wasn’t looking for
anything long term. “Is that what you want?”

He turned her to face him. He brushed the hair back
from her face. “Hey, I like having you around. I do. And I don’t want this to
end, but…I’m not very good at this shit.”

She frowned. “Good at what?”

He looked off at the coast, and then at her. He
shrugged. “Relationship stuff.”

She looked down, and nodded.

“Can we just take this one day at a time?” he asked.

“Sure. Whatever.” She pulled away.

He sighed, catching her arm, and pulling her back.
“Look, I’m not brushing it off. I just..” He looked away. “Try to understand
me, baby. I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t want to lie to you either.” His
eyes came back to hers. “You and me? I don’t see how it’d ever work long term.”

“Why?”

He shook his head.

“Tell me,” she insisted.

“I don’t know. Maybe because you looked like you fit
in better with that group tonight, than with me.”

“Maybe you’re wrong,” she whispered.

He looked off at the ocean, and smiled. “Yeah.
Maybe.”

She stepped closer, and ran her hands up his chest.
“Maybe I could change your mind.”

His eyes came back to hers. The way she was looking
at him made him murmur, “Maybe you could.” He cupped the back of her head in
his hand. His gaze dropped to her mouth. “You do have some persuasive lips,
girl. The kind that can make a man go crazy.”

“Is that a fact?”

“That is a fact.” He nodded, running his thumb over
her bottom lip. “Bet you could persuade a preacher man to lay his bible down.”

She closed the distance, melting against him. She
tilted her head back, and stretched up to press her mouth to his. Her kiss
started soft, barely touching.

That didn’t satisfy him for long. He wrapped his
arms around her, pulling her closer, and deepened the kiss. They were oblivious
to all around them, including the truck that roared past them, until the gust
of wind blew over them in its wake. The air horn sounded, and broke the spell.

He pulled back. When the sound and wind died away,
he said, “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

A few minutes later, Cole was pulling her through
the cabin door. Without a word, they came together. His hands tangled in her
hair, tilting her head back for his kiss. He couldn’t get enough. He backed her
into the bed, and pushed her down on top of it. The bedsprings squeaked under
their weight. His mouth moved over hers, delving, hungry, devouring.

She loved the feel of his weight pressing down on
her. This time there wasn’t the tenderness of the last time. This time it was
all aggressive male, claiming a female, and she wanted it that way. It stirred
a fire in her blood that had her responding with as much passion, tearing at
his clothes.

Cole lifted off of her, and stood, shrugging out of
his cut. She lay there, and watched as he reached to pull the shoulder holster
off. His eyes held hers as he wrapped the straps around the holster, and set it
down on the bedside table. Then he ripped his tee shirt off over his head. His eyes
never left hers as he tossed it aside, and he reached for his belt.

Angel’s eyes ran over his chest and arms as he
unbuckled the belt. The primal look in his eyes touched something in her. Her
breathing quickened. She watched as if hypnotized as he reached down, and
grabbed her ankles, and pulled her toward him. She gasped as she slid across
the bed.

He leaned over, and undid her pants, and yanked them
off her legs. His soon followed in a pile on the floor. His hands hooked in her
panties at either hip, and pulled them down her legs as well.

She sat up, and peeled her shirt up over her head.
She reached behind her, unhooking her bra, and pulling it free. She tossed it
aside.

His stood motionless, his eyes gliding over her, and
his breathing accelerated. And then suddenly his big palm was flat on her
breast bone, and he was pushing her back onto the bed, his body coming down on
top of her, the urge to take her, to dominate her, surging through him. He took
her hands in his, lacing their fingers together, and pinned them above her
head. He watched as her eyes widened, flaring with desire, her mouth fell open,
her breath panting. It excited her, his dominance, his aggressive, all male
side. He thought he’d seen it before, it had been in her eyes briefly that night
in the desert before the fear had taken over.

Their eyes locked, and something shot through him.
This is the one, a voice in his head said. He lifted his head back an inch as
the realization crystallized in his brain. And then something made her break
eye contact, and look away. Maybe it’d been the look on his face, he didn’t
know, but he couldn’t let her get away with it, with hiding from him.

His right hand released hers, and slid to her
throat. He pushed up, just enough to bring her jaw back up and her eyes back to
him. He held her like that, his hand around her throat. Just enough pressure to
have her complete attention, to show her he was in charge. He felt her pulse
beating under his thumb, watched as her eyes dilated further. Then he lowered
his mouth to hers. He kissed her for a long time. She tried to move, but he
wouldn’t let her. His mouth moved along her neck, from her collarbone up to her
ear, nipping, licking, kissing.

Gradually, he felt her relax under his hold, melting
back into the bed in total submission. “Tell me you’re mine, baby. Say it,” he
whispered in her ear.

She moaned, his name escaping on her breath, “Cole.”

“Say it,” he demanded softly.

“I’m yours, Cole. You know I am.”

“You want my cock, baby?”

She nodded. “Yes, baby. You know I do.”

His hand slid from her neck, returning to her hand,
lacing his fingers back with hers. He held her pinned to the bed as he pushed
between her thighs, and plunged into her in one thrust.

She reared her head back, her hips lifting to meet
him.

He slid his hands between them, and played with her,
stroking her exactly as she liked, not giving her any respite until she was
thrashing beneath him.

“Oh, Cole, baby.”

“Want to see you come, sweetheart. Show it to me.”

She only lasted a few more strokes before the
torrent he was building in her burst free, and she gave him what he wanted, her
head falling back, her breath coming out in half sigh, half moan.

He let her settle a moment, and then he pulled out,
and rose up on his knees. “Turn over, babe.”

“What?” she asked still dazed from her orgasm.

“Babe, turn over,” he repeated the order.

She rolled, and his arm slid under her stomach
almost immediately. She gasped as he yanked her up to her hands and knees.

His arm still locked tight around her stomach, he pushed
her forward. “Grab the headboard.”

She rose up, and did as he said.

His knees moved between hers, pushing them wide, and
he slid back into her, his palm resting on the wall near her head. He slammed
into her, holding her tight with his arm around her stomach.

She gasped, readjusting her grip on the headboard.

“Hang on tight, babe,” he growled in her ear as his
hips thrust against her sweet, round ass.

She tilted her ass up, giving him better access,
letting him in deeper.

“Fuck, baby doll. You take my cock so good. Every
time. Every damn time,” he growled, powering into her again and again. The arm
locked around her waist dropped, and his hand moved between her legs, his
fingers delving, finding her sweet spot.

Her head fell back against his shoulder, her mouth
falling open. “Oh, God, Cole. Don’t stop.”

“Not a chance, Angel. Not a chance.” His mouth moved
along her exposed neck as he worked her into a panting frenzy. When he felt her
reaching for it, he clamped his mouth down where her neck met her shoulder.

It pushed her over the edge, and she screamed her
pleasure as she came again, hard.

Her response snapped his control, and before he
could stop himself, he was pounding into her, exploding his own release inside
her. He slid his other hand up on the wall, his shoulders trembling, his chest
heaving as he tried to slow his breathing.

Angel arched back against him like a cat, her head
falling back on his shoulder again, and one hand coming up to stroke the side
of his neck.

Cole dipped his head, and kissed the mark on her
shoulder he’d made. His arm returned to her waist, and he slid out of her.

She moaned, not wanting to loose him.

He grinned, pulling her back down to the bed. “Don’t
worry baby. I’m not done with you yet. Not by a long shot.” He rolled her to
her back, and came down on top of her, nuzzling her neck. He whispered in her
ear everything he wanted her to do to him, promising her everything he was
going to do to her.

Her eyes slid closed, and she moaned.

He kept every promise.

Cole jerked awake, breathing hard. It took him a
minute to separate the nightmare from reality. He looked at the woman in the
bed with him, and he had to shake the cloudy feeling away, and realize where he
was.

He slipped her arm from his chest, and got out of
bed. He slid into his jeans, and grabbed his pack of cigarettes from the
bedside table. He walked to the door, and opened it, staring through the screen
door at the rain pouring down. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A cool breeze
blew in through the screen, carrying with it a spray of mist that fell on his
chest and arms, cooling him off.

He lit a cigarette, his hands shaking. His heart was
still pounding. He had lived with death these past few years, and lately the
demons of those deaths had infiltrated his sleep and plagued his nightmares.
Battling those demons had become a burden he knew he couldn’t escape. He knew
he wouldn’t sleep again tonight.

He leaned against the door jam, and breathed in the
fresh scent of rain. He only wished it could cleanse his soul, like it cleansed
the earth. Sometimes he felt like his sanity was hanging by a thin wire, like
he was just waiting for that one thing that was going to come along and make
that wire snap.

His gaze drifted back to the bed. Angel lay curled
up in the sheets. She had given herself to him with such sweet surrender,
soothing the beast in him. He would have liked to take away all the pain she’d
suffered. He wanted to protect her, care for her. Keep her.

He shook himself. He couldn’t let her in. He was a
shell of a man with a black hole for a soul. He had nothing to give her. He
could only cause her misery and heartache. He denied the feelings she was
stirring in him, pushing them down. It was easier and safer not to feel
anything. She was just another lay, he told himself. What he felt for her was
desire, nothing more. Even as he thought it, he knew it was a lie.

He looked out through the screen, and took a hit off
his cigarette. The tops of the tall redwoods swayed with the wind. There was a
bright flash of lightning in the distance, lighting up the dark sky. Thunder
cracked with a boom. He heard the bed creak behind him, but he didn’t turn
around.

Angel sat up, and saw Cole standing by the open
door. She wrapped the sheet around her, and walked over to him.

He felt her arms slide around his waist, her face
press against his back. He closed his eyes, trying to deny to himself how good
it felt.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered.

“Nothing,” he responded, shaking himself free of the
feeling. He looked out the screen door.

“Is something troubling you?”

He shook his head, taking another hit off his
cigarette.

“Cole, please. I know something’s bothering you.”

“A lot of shit bothers me. Some of it comes out in
my dreams. Don’t worry about it.” The screen door creaked as he opened it, and
tossed his cigarette out into the night. The downpour was tapering off to a
light rain.

“Dreams or nightmares?”

He turned to look at her then. “I told you before,
don’t go trying to get inside my head. You won’t like what you find.”

“What’s behind those guarded walls you put up,
Cole?” she whispered.

He shook his head, and thought, ‘you don’t want to
know, baby’. Whatever she might say about his silence, it would be better than
if he actually opened up to her.

“Is it what happened with Chuck? What you did for
me?”

“Stop! Stop all the questions, Angel. I mean it,” he
said sharply.

“Why? Why can’t I ask questions?”

“Because you won’t like the answers!” he snapped. He
saw the way she looked at him, believing there was good in him. She’d change
her mind quick enough if she knew the truth. If she knew all the things he’d
seen, all the things he’d done. She’d run then. She’d run like hell. He was
torn between wanting to drive her away, and wanting to hang onto her like a
drowning man.