Reaper's Justice (23 page)

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Authors: Sarah McCarty

Tags: #Werewolves, #Paranormal, #Fiction, #Romance, #Fantasy, #Western, #Historical

BOOK: Reaper's Justice
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“What?”
“No.”
Cole drew his revolver. “I was hoping you’d be difficult.”
Addy stepped away from Isaiah. “Shoot away.”
Cole snorted. “Looks like she’s not that fond of you.”
Isaiah growled. “She’s fond enough.”
“Addy,” Reese asked. “What are you doing?”
“I’m calling Cole’s bluff.”
“I’m not bluffing.”
It was Isaiah’s turn to smile. No, he wasn’t.
“What the hell do you have to smile about?” Cole bit off.
“It’s my lucky day.” Isaiah relaxed his muscles and his hold on the beast. It growled and stretched with anticipation. “I get to kill you after all.”
“I’m the one with the gun.”
“And I’m the one who can get to you before you can pull the trigger.”
“Shit. Put your gun away, Cole,” Reese said.
“The hell I will.”
“The hell you won’t,” Reese snapped. “The weather’s been miserable for grave digging.”
“No law says we have to bury him.”
“But it’d look bad if we didn’t bury you.”
Isaiah stepped to the side.
Addy sprang forward. “Oh my God. Isaiah, don’t.”
“Goddamn it, Addy!” Cole shouted and jerked the barrel up.
“See, even Addy knows he can do it.”
“Even
I
know?”
Isaiah sighed and pulled Addy out from between him and Cole. “Don’t do that again.”
She turned on him. “I hired you. I give the orders.”
“Not in this,” Cole snapped.
Addy yanked at her arm. “Let me go!”
“No.”
Her braid slapped across his arm as she spun back to Cole. “Since when do you side with him?”
“Since he makes sense.”
“A minute ago you were going to kill him.”
Cole took aim again. “I still might.”
Isaiah snorted.
“You might want to give up on that idea, Cole,” Reese said.
The muzzle didn’t waver. “Why?”
“Remember my telling you about those men I’ve been studying up on.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s one of them, and trust me, he can do what he says.”
“You’re a goddamn Reaper?”
This was getting out of hand. Protecting was a lot messier than killing. “Whatever I am, I’m going to rip your heart out before you can pull that trigger.” Isaiah was used to men cowering when his beast showed its presence and he knew it was showing. He could feel it in the ache in his bones, in the intensity of his focus. Cole didn’t twitch. He might even have been described as “intrigued.”
“You really shouldn’t put it like that,” Reese said. With a motion of his hand, he indicated Cole. “The man is completely unable to resist a challenge.”
So he could see. Isaiah tightened his hold on Addy’s arm again. “I’m beginning to get that impression. He might even carry it to the point of stupidity.”
“I wouldn’t say stupidity, but it’s been close a time or two.”
“Why aren’t you afraid?” he asked Reese out of curiosity.
“You’re not threatening to rip out my heart.” Reese shrugged. “And besides . . .” A hammer cocked. “You might be able to get to him but you can’t get to me, too.”
“I thought of that. The way I figure I’ll handle it is, while I’m ripping his heart out, I’ll slice your jugular.”
“With what?”
Isaiah smiled. He wondered if it looked as cold as it felt. “That would be telling.”
Abby’s nails dug into his hand. “These are my cousins!”
He ignored the outburst. This was between them, and it needed to be settled, but maybe not right now. The scent of Addy’s fear and distress was strong.
“Now, gentlemen, if you’ve satisfied your curiosity as to whether I can protect your cousin or not, I need to get back inside.”
“Why?”
That “why,” combined with the implication of Cole’s frown, was insulting. And he wasn’t the only one who picked it up.
“Not for what you’re obviously thinking!” Addy gasped.
Isaiah steered Addy toward the door. “I have bread to bake.”
“Bread? Shit!”
Reese broke into laughter. “Son of a bitch. She’s turning him into a goddamn baker.”
Cole pulled back on the reins. His bay tossed his head and pranced. “Sometime in the future, you’ll have to decide, baker or bodyguard.”
Isaiah shrugged. “When the time comes, I’ll make up my mind, but in the meantime, I have apples that need to be peeled, and Addy has orders that need to be filled.”
“You’re opening the bakery tomorrow?” Cole asked.
Addy nodded. “I want my life back to normal as fast as possible.”
Reese swung down off his horse and untied his pack from the back of the saddle. “Understandable.”
Isaiah nodded to the porch. “You can make your bed here.”
Reese cocked an eyebrow at him and then looked at Addy. If he was looking for a softer response, he was doomed to disappointment. “I hope you brought a bed roll.”
On that she turned and went in the house. The screen door slammed behind her. Isaiah stayed a couple seconds longer, just to enjoy the cousins’ consternation, and then he smiled. Guarding Addy was turning out to have some unexpected benefits.
 
 
ISAIAH came in as silently as he did everything, a whisper of sound stilted by motion, but this time Addy heard him. Her nerves were so jangled that everything seemed louder. Outside she could even hear her cousins talking. They didn’t sound as if they were shouting but they had to be for her to hear them all the way in the kitchen.
She poured a bit of water into the basin, scooped up some soap, and washed her hands, scrubbing them over and over. Isaiah came up behind her. His scent reached her first, that purely masculine, musky, addictive aroma that just pleased her to the core.
“I’m sorry they put you through that,” she murmured.
His arms came around her and his hands covered hers, separating them. Before she could protest, he took up the washing, except his efforts were softer than hers, gentler and focused more on the muscles in her palms, relaxing them.
“It wasn’t anything I didn’t expect.” The soft rumble of his drawl blended with the soothing massage.
“They threatened to kill you, for heaven sakes.”
“And I threatened to kill them back. Seems to me that makes us even.”
She gave in to the urge to lean back against him. “Cole’s not usually so unreasonable.”
“He feels guilty, and worse, there’s nothing he can do. Plus you called his bluff and blocked his play. That’s pretty much guaranteed to get a man riled.”
She closed her fingers around his hand. “They’ve got to let me go.”
“They can’t.”
“Their love suffocates me.”
He lifted her hands from the water, and poured some fresh water from the pitcher over them, rinsing the soap clean, then he pulled her back against him and held her. She should protest, because instinct told her that her cousins’ possessiveness was nothing next to Isaiah’s, but she couldn’t. It felt so right. The spot on her shoulder burned and tingled. She put her hand to it.
His lips touched her hand. “What’s wrong?”
“It feels funny.”
“Where I bit you?”
“Yes. How did you do that?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Do what?”
“Bite me and not make it hurt.”
“I don’t know, but however I did it, I’m glad.”
“Me, too. I’m even hoping you’ll do it again. It was . . . exciting.”
Her gaze was butter soft, her lips parted, her scent tempting.
Shit
. The one thing he could never do was that again.
“I think I’ll keep my teeth to myself.”
“That was our deal.”
He turned her in his arms and backed her against the sink. He heard her breath catch. He scented her desire. His cock went hard, and when she spread her legs that little inviting bit, he nestled between them. “But I’m making no promises about my mouth.”
“Our deal was only for one night.”
“Then maybe we’ll just make a new deal.”
“My cousins will kill you.”
“Your cousins already think we’re sleeping together.”
“We are.”
“But it was just that one night.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
No, it didn’t. She was a woman grown. She slid her hands up his chest. His wonderfully hard chest with that light covering of hair that felt so delicious against her nipples.
“My fiancé might not like it.”
“You’re not marrying that dolt.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“I know, if he was any kind of man, you wouldn’t have been begging me to make love to you.”
Shame started in her toes and worked its way up, one humiliating inch at a time. She shoved at him. He didn’t move. She shoved again. He blinked and frowned. “You’re mad?”
“Of course I’m mad. You just called me a whore.”
“The hell I did. I called you more woman than that man that you think to marry could ever satisfy.”
She shook her head. “I don’t need to be satisfied.”
“Really? Then what was last night all about?”
“Knowledge.”
“Bullshit. It was about satisfaction. For you and for me. For us.”
She pushed him again, wiggling against him, moaning when his cock nudged her clit. It might be wrong, but it felt so good.
“And what is this about?” she demanded, furious.
He shook his head and she suddenly understood that he didn’t know any more than she did what it was about and he was just as helpless as she was when it came to the emotions between them. And somehow that made it right, that they were lost together in it.
“I don’t know.”
“But it’s good,” she said, because she had to hear him say it, too.
She didn’t get her wish. Instead, there was a flash of something in his blue-gray eyes, and his hands on her shoulders broke the intimacy. “It is, but it won’t end well.”
She didn’t try to hold him when he stepped back. There was no point. She recognized determination when she ran up against it even when she didn’t understand it. Licking her lips, she stood there, feeling awkward and exposed, not sure what she wanted to say, just knowing the urge was strong to say something that would bring him back again. And he just stared at her while she struggled. He stared at her with the same intensity, yet he took a step back. Where did he find the strength?
The mark on her shoulder heated to uncomfortable. The one on the inside of her thigh burned with the same erotic fire. In her mind she remembered the moments when Isaiah had placed those marks upon her and her knees almost buckled. His nostrils flared. His eyes narrowed. She took a breath. As she did, she noted his scent was different, spicier somehow. Better, more addictive. She licked her lips again. Isaiah stopped breathing. The spicy scent intensified.
A knock came at the door. Addy jerked. Her hand bumped the pan on the stove. It rattled loudly in the silence. The door opened and Reese stuck his head in.
“I’m settled out here. Do you all need something?”
Addy shoved her hand in her pocket. Her worry stone was there. Like a friend, it settled into her palm. Rubbing it between her fingers, she waited for the coolness to become warm. Isaiah didn’t move, but somehow he had managed to give the impression that he was between her and Reese. How did he express so much with so little effort?
“We’re fine, thank you,” Isaiah answered.
Reese’s didn’t miss a beat as he ignored Isaiah and focused on Addy. “How about you, Addy girl?”
Isaiah folded his arms across his chest and waited for her to answer. Forcing a smile to her dry lips and words past her tongue, which felt too thick to hit a consonant, she said, “I’m fine.”
Reese gave her a dubious look. Isaiah shot him a dirty one. “She said she’s fine.”
“Nevertheless, you need anything, you holler. Don’t you be worrying about any repercussions, you just holler.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded again. “And Isaiah, I know how to take out a Reaper.”
Addy could tell from his start that that was news to Isaiah.
“You think you do.”
“Do anything to make my cousin uncomfortable, and you’ll find out the truth of it.”
The door closed. Addy rubbed her hands up and down her thighs. “I’m sorry again.”

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