Temptation: Reckless Desires (Blue Moon Saloon Book 2) (9 page)

A whip cracked in the air, and Cole flinched as if another opponent had appeared, ready to flay his hide. A glance up showed Rosalind, high on the top rail of the fence, cracking her old leather whip at the bull like a geriatric version of Indiana Jones.

“Hey! Hey!” she hollered at the top of her lungs.

Cole ran for the fence in the millisecond that the bull paused. He didn’t dare look back, just sprinted for his life, the way Janna and Rosalind screamed for him to do. The ground behind him shook like there was a whole herd of bison hot on his heels. A tiny whoosh sounded — the lift of the bull’s horns, aimed at his back.

He leaped for the fence with every muscle in his body. Stretching his arms, straining forward an inch ahead of those horns.

And
bang!
He smashed into the top rail just as Rosalind cracked the whip, making the bull wheel away an inch before it barreled into the fence.

“Jesus, Cole.” Janna’s eyes were huge.

A couple of strong hands grabbed his shirt and hauled him over to the sane side of the fence, and people started smacking him on the back. Some of those smacks were of the
what-the-hell-were-you-thinking
type, while others said,
Good job.

“Damn good job,” Rosalind murmured as he coughed and hacked and sneezed, hunched over with his hands on his knees. Not quite shaking inside, but close.

“Oh my God, oh my God…” The mother all but crushed the boy to her chest while Janna calmed her down.

“It’s all good. It’s all right.”

Cole drank in the sight of that mother, holding her son. Rocking him. Crying in nerve-rattling fear but smiling at the same time. And when she looked up with gratitude pouring from her eyes — the most sincere kind of gratitude that never quite made it to the tongue — Cole held his breath.

That gratitude was aimed at him.

You saved him,
Janna’s look said.
You saved a future. You did that, Cole.

Her proud gaze stayed on him, determined to knock the message into his thick head.

“Thank you. Thank you so much,” the father said again and again.

Thank you. Words a man heard a thousand times in his life, but not always that waterlogged with emotion, and not always for all the right reasons. But today…

Cole tilted his head back, looked at the sky, and gulped a couple of times. He replayed it all in his mind but got stuck on one part over and over again. The image of the bull, heading straight for Janna.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the hysterical voices, away from the pacing bull still looking for a way through the fence. Over to the shade of the barn, where he ran his hands over her shoulders again and again.

“Are you okay?” He said it a thousand times, not quite ready to let the fear for her go.

“I’m fine. Cole, I’m fine.”

Didn’t seem to matter how often she said that, though. He needed to be sure. He smoothed her hair, touched her face. Held her smaller, softer hands in his and checked them, too, until he buried her in a hug he wasn’t about to let her out of anytime soon.

“I’m okay, Cole. You’re the one who was nearly gored.”

He shook his head. Didn’t she know how little his life mattered and how much hers did?

“You could have been killed,” he murmured.

“Believe me, I’m hard to kill.” When she laughed and pulled back, her eyes sparkled with some private joke. But then again, Janna’s eyes always sparkled. She ran a hand over his cheek before submitting to another full-body crush.

“I’m fine, Cole.”

Her voice was muffled. Her hands slid around his waist, and finally, finally, his heart slowed down a little bit. Fear gradually slipped back and gave way to warmer, calmer things. Like how nice her hair smelled. How good it was to feel her heart beating against his. How perfectly her body fit against his. Not too small, not too big. Just right.

So right that, before he knew it, he was touching her again, and in a whole different way. Nuzzling her ear. Sliding his hands over her body, tracing her perfect curves instead of checking for broken bones.

She tilted her head up, and the second their lips met, he knew that was only the start.

Her fingers tightened on his shirt, and her eyes had that feral shine they got sometimes.

“Cole,” she whispered in a husky voice.

The scent of arousal filled the space around them, and for once, he didn’t wonder how the hell he knew what that was.

“Janna.” He held her hand tighter and tugged her up the stairs.

Janna wrestled with her inner wolf as they started up the stairs.

We came to talk to him, not screw him!

But her protests were halfhearted, and her wolf knew it.

Not waiting a second longer to bond with my mate!
the beast growled back.

Bond. Screw. Fuck. Whichever term she used, the danger was still there. Sleeping with Cole would bring his wolf closer to the surface — a dangerous proposition. But doing so would also bring their souls closer, which might help save him when the transformation began.

Exactly,
her wolf agreed quickly.
And besides…

Janna tightened her grip on Cole’s shirt, knowing just what the
besides
was. She was hungry for her mate. Starving. Craving him in a way she’d never craved any man.

“Janna,” he whispered in her ear.

The little control she had left went into making sure her nails didn’t turn into claws and rip off his shirt. Just seeing him at work on the fence from across the property had set her off. There was a brooding kind of animal energy coming off him. And watching him confront the bull tipped her right over the edge.

A good mate! A brave one, who protects what is his!
Her wolf nodded eagerly.

If she were in a clearer frame of mind, she might have shrugged the thought away, because she didn’t need anyone’s protection. She could take care of herself.

Except, of course, Cole had rescued her twice now.

Time for us to rescue him.

She let her tongue tangle with his and her limbs give in to his insistent pull. Tasting the animal in him for the first time made her inch a little closer to the end of her wolf’s leash. The voice she’d strained to hear back in the saloon was shouting in her ear, banishing her last doubts.

This man is your mate. Take him. Care for him. Hold him…

Oh, she’d hold him, all right. Wrap her legs around him and care for him like she’d never cared for anyone before.

“Cole.” She meant it as a gentle whisper, but it came out hungry and hoarse.

She had a brief glimpse of his eyes flaring with desire before he crushed her into another kiss. His hand slid up her ribs, grazing her breast just enough to send flames shooting through her soul. But then he yanked away, muttering to himself.

She could sense his inner wolf wrestling for control, though it was still deeply submerged. The battle would turn into full-blown war eventually, but for now, Cole was beating it back. Which gave her hope. If he could keep his balance now, maybe he could hang on to his sanity when the worst of the Change set in.

She grabbed his hand and put it right back where it had been. “I want you to touch me,” she whispered. “To want me. To take me.”

I want you,
her wolf echoed with an inner growl.

The tight muscles of his face relaxed slightly, and she nearly cheered. The inner voice was right; she could help his two sides mesh.

And he can help us,
her wolf sighed.

How she and Cole didn’t trip over one another, tangoing up those steep stairs, she didn’t know. But somehow, they made it to the landing, stepping from blazing sunlight to the shade of the overhanging roof. A place where they could hide from harsh truths for a while.

Cole was the one who kicked the door open, but it was Janna who dragged him inside. She yanked his shirt right over his shoulders the minute they stepped on the braided rug by the door, then got to work on his pants.

“Janna…” he growled in warning.

“I want this.” She laughed out of the blue. “It’s crazy how much I want this.”

“Crazy…” he muttered, cocking his head at her. He shook his head silently, then backed her against a wall. “Crazy enough to want a guy like me?” He squeezed every hard inch of his body against hers and pinned her arms above her head.

She slid a leg around his and reached out for another kiss.

“Wanting you is the only sane part of all this.” She didn’t expand on
all this
, because explaining was the hard part, but she could get to that later.

Much later,
her wolf agreed.

She started the kiss, but he took over and made it all his. Let her know just what kind of loving he’d be subjecting her to. Hard. Fast. Greedy, but indulgent, too, like the way his hands rushed over her breasts, then slowed down to tease and toy.

“Is this shirt a favorite of yours?” he mumbled.

She shook her head breathlessly.

“Good.” He tore down the front of it, sending buttons flying. He leaned away just long enough to unclip her bra before pushing forward and capturing her once more.

Mine,
his glowing eyes said the second before he dipped down.

Mine,
she nearly squeaked, but he sucked a nipple into his mouth, cutting the sound off to a muffled moan.

Mine, mine, mine!
she wanted to chant, over and over as he worked her harder, then eased off to scoop the flesh of her breast in his hand. Her all-too-small breast in his all-too-powerful hand, yet it felt just right. So, so right.

She dropped her hands to his head. Tangled her fingers in his hair just the way she’d done in her dreams. Made helpless little kitten sounds as he spread his fingers, letting the nipple peek out just far enough for him to pull it into his mouth and suck.

Then his hands fell away to pop the button on her jeans, and it was just his mouth on her breast. His very capable, very talented mouth, moving from one side to the other.

She thumped her head back against the wall, pushing her chest out. “So good…”

“About to make it better,” he murmured out of the side of his mouth.

He slid her jeans and panties down together, freed her from the tangle, and dropped to his knees before her like a penitent man who hadn’t worshiped at the right altar for a long, long time.

“Janna…” he murmured, then leaned right in, pushing her legs apart.

She teetered over him. Teetered in every sense of the word as his thumbs spread her slick folds and his tongue slipped in.

The mewing sounds she’d been making went to all-out bordello songs, and she vaguely wished they’d closed the door. But a closed door would have shut out the clean desert air, and that wouldn’t be right. Not with her wolf so close to the surface. Not with her dusty cowboy, who seemed a part of the outdoors. A tiny sliver of fresh breeze whispered in, carrying a thousand scents and sounds. The buzz of a bee around the flowers on the sill. The quiet snort of horses in the stables below.

“Cole… Yes… Ah…”

It seemed that every time she tried to communicate how good it felt, he lapped deeper, trapping her words into gridlock that couldn’t budge forward or back. Her body was about as useless, too. A good thing for his hands clamped over her hips and the bulk of him parked in front of her boneless limbs.

Cole had two fingers inside her before she knew it, and the dual rhythm of his tongue and the drive inside pushed her closer and closer to the edge. She grabbed his shoulders and let her head roll to the side as her wolf dreamed of a mating bite, and she barely held back her cries as he took her higher…higher…

Cole moved like a man who knew everything about pleasuring a woman and wanted to try it all out on her, A to Z.

“God, Cole,” she cried as muscle after muscle clenched. A total meltdown, and he was nowhere near done with her.

“Come for me, Janna,” he growled.

“Cole!” she squeaked, then bit her lip to keep the sound from traveling too far. She choked down all the desperate, animal noises building inside until she came with a deep, husky moan. “Cole,” she murmured as her knees buckled.

He slid up her body as if commanded — slid easily, like he’d done it all his life. Over her mound, between her breasts, and up along her neck until his chin was tucked over her shoulder and his arms held her tight. His fingers stroked her hair like it was the finest, most exotic silk, and his chest lifted in a sigh.

She’d never felt so cherished. So special. So…renewed.

“Cole…” She guided his chin left and met his lips in a kiss. A kiss that tasted of passion and desire and…and…her. He tasted of her, and just like that, she was on fire again.

“Got a bed in this bunkhouse, cowboy? Or are we going to screw right here on the floor?”

For a second, his look was pure danger that turned on every aching nerve in her body, but then a cheeky cowboy grin came over his face again, and he was all Cole again, all charm.

“Lady’s choice.”

She laughed. “What if I say both?”

His eyebrows shot up in a surprised look her mind captured and parked among the greatest memories of her life: the most blazing sunsets, the most sidesplitting laughs, the biggest, warmest smiles.