Wolf's Vengeance (After the Crash) (4 page)

“Aren’t you going ask me how many husbands I’ve had?”

The corner of his mouth twitched as if he were suppressing a smile, and that confused her too. The way he looked now, dressed in jeans and a cotton button-down shirt, with his long, wavy hair hanging down his back in a casual tail, he just didn’t seem like a werewolf. She couldn’t quite reconcile his wide mouth hiding a smile with the wolf’s muzzle dripping with Fosse blood.

He shrugged a broad shoulder. “Sure. How many husbands have you had?”

“Counting Jim Fosse back in Ellsworth?”

The ghost of a smile left Snake’s mouth, leaving those luscious lips flat and hard. “No. We don’t ever need to count him.”

Luscious
lips
?
Mel mentally kicked herself.
Well,
she admitted in her private thoughts,
Snake’s lips are perfectly shaped, plump, and almost pouty when he sleeps.
She’d had a daydream or two of taking his lower lip between her teeth and biting down gently. His mouth was almost girlish, but his muscular body was anything but. She kicked herself again. Daydreaming about her confusing new husband was preferable to discussing Danny, but Danny was who she needed to be thinking about now. Snake would hear it eventually.

“I married Danny six years ago, when I was almost eighteen. About a month after we were married, he was hurt while unloading a wagon.” The memory of his crushed legs gave her an inward shudder. “He died just before our fifth anniversary. I came back to the ranch after he died and lived here for a few months before we decided I’d need to get married again to someone rich enough to give us the money we needed for Mama.” She forced herself to stop rubbing her hands up and down her thighs and folded them over the rim of the sink. “Rob Fosse was the oldest of the Fosses, and their family was well off. The Leaning F is as big as the D, and the drought didn’t dry up their water as much as ours. I married him last December, right about Christmas time.”

After a minute of silence, Snake spoke. “When did you come back home?”

The edge of the sink cut into her palms. “You mean, when did I shoot him?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s what I mean.”

“February fourteenth. Valentine’s Day.” She tossed a defiant glare over her shoulder at him. “You want to know why?”

How could he look so calm while her stomach was churning? He lifted a shoulder again in another shrug. “If you want to tell me, I’m listening. But I don’t need to know. You must have had a reason, and that’s good enough for me.”

“I had a damn good reason.” She hesitated, teetering on the edge of telling him the full truth she never told anyone, but slumped back against the edge of the sink. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

“Okay.” He reached for her hands and held them. “Is that when the other Fosses threatened to burn the place, kill your brothers, and rape you?”

A shiver worked its way down her back. “Yeah. There were seven Fosse brothers, and they have half a dozen hands, besides their foreman, Rick Avon, so they could have done it. I killed Rob, and you got Jim, Dave, and Randy, so they’re down to only three now, but that’s still enough. That’s why we’ve never been able to follow the man who collects the ransom for Mama. We never leave this place totally undefended in case the Fosses use the chance to take the ranch.”

He nodded again. “I wondered why you hadn’t followed him to find your mother. Makes sense. What about before you killed Rob Fosse? Why didn’t you follow him then?”

“The first few years, Marc didn’t want to leave us younger three alone. He was only twenty, and I was thirteen, Mike was ten, and Mord was only seven. Even later, Mike and Mord were too young, and Marc didn’t want to leave me without enough protection. Everyone in the area knew I was here, and lots of men will behave when a girl’s brothers are around, but if she’s alone or undefended…” She shrugged. “Well, you know what could happen.”

The faintest shadow of rage colored his expression for a moment. “Yeah. You don’t need to worry about that anymore. I’ll see to it you’re protected.”

“I can take care of myself.” Mel swept her thumb over the butt of her pistol. “Dad taught me to shoot before I was ten, and I haven’t taken my gun off since. I’m never unprotected.”

His laugh surprised her. “Glad to hear it.” He glanced over at the pot of wash water on the stove. “Looks like the water’s warm. Let’s get going on these dishes.”

Mel let out a shaky laugh. “Okay. I’ll get started if you’ll bring the dishes from the dining room.”

After he went out to collect dishes, Mel braced herself with her hands against the sink’s rim for a long breath. Her husband was a stranger. His attitudes threw her off stride, but she thought she liked him. He didn’t push for details she’d rather forget.

When he came in, holding a pile of dishes that would have taken two of her brothers to carry, she was busy at the sink. He set the dishes on the counter and took the washrag himself. “I’ll wash, and you dry and put away. You know where things go better than I do.”

How odd that a werewolf washed dishes with deft hands and hummed while he scrubbed. Again, that domestic image clashed with her memory of his snarls and growls in the hotel room. Which was the real Snake?

“Oh,” he remarked, as if the thought had just come to him, “I won’t be sleeping on the floor tonight. I’ll be joining you on your bed.”

A plate slipped from her hands to shatter on the floor. She blinked down at the scattered shards for a moment before realizing her mouth was gaping wide. She closed her mouth and stared at him. This shouldn’t be a surprise. They were married. Her uncle had performed the ceremony yesterday. Last night she had expected him to claim his marital rights, but he had only lain down on the floor in her bedroom. She swallowed now, her breath oddly cold in her lungs, and bent to pick up the pieces of the plate.

Snake stopped her with a wet hand on her wrist. His eyes were shadowed by thick stubby lashes, and it seemed to Mel they were carefully blank. “Was that such a shock?”

“Well, ye—I mean, no. Well, sort of.” Mel inwardly cursed herself for fumbling her words as well as the plate. She drew in a calming breath and tried to smile at him. “We’re married. You’ve been pretty patient, but I know you want to, uh…” She waved the dishtowel. “You know.”

He took a step closer, so close she could make out each individual eyelash that shaded his eyes. “Do you want to?”

Did she? In her mind’s eye she could see through his clothes to the thickly muscled body beneath. During their trip to the ranch, she had seen him switch from man to wolf and from wolf to man often enough to have memorized how he looked naked. There was nothing about his physique that turned her off. What kind of lover would he be? Sweetly fumbling like Danny? Viciously aggressive like Rob? He was strong, stronger than a normal man. He could do serious damage to her without even meaning to. Her heart slowed to sluggish thumps, as if it were beating in a vat of icy molasses.

Fingertips rough with calluses grazed her cheek. “Mel?”

Her heart magically leaped free of the molasses to take off at a gallop. Staring at Snake, she jerked her head from side to side. “No, I don’t want to.”

His hand fell away. “Okay, we’ll wait until you’re ready.” He turned back to the unwashed dishes and spoke quietly. “Please don’t be afraid of me.”

She touched the butt of her pistol. “I’m not afraid of you.” She went to the closet the broom and dustpan were kept in and came back to sweep up the broken plate. “Just cautious, that’s all. You and me, we’re still new to each other.”

“Okay.” Suds dripped from his fingers when he turned to face her. “It might take some time, but you’ll learn that I won’t ever hurt you. Tonight we’ll sleep together in your bed. Just sleep,” he said, raising his voice slightly to override her unspoken protest. “We won’t make love until you want to.”

Wanting to and being happy about it were not the same thing, but Mel didn’t tell him that. Part of her was curious about making love with him. The rest of her wasn’t so sure. Sex with Rob had soured her on the experience. She poured the broken fragments of the plate into the garbage and went back to drying the dishes he washed with what she hoped was a serene face. Sleeping next to him. How hard could it be?

* * * *

Mel hurried to strip out of her clothes to take a hasty sponge bath in the washbowl on her dresser. Normally, in this kind of muggy heat, she slept in just her panties and a loose tank top whose armholes gaped nearly to her waist, but she wasn’t going to wear that with Snake sleeping beside her. Instead she chose a sleeveless button down shirt she’d inherited from Marc. The hem was almost long enough to cover her ass. She tugged it as low as she could, but it still barely covered her, and when she was lying down, it would ride up. She sent a quick glance to the door and dug out a pair of shorts and put them on too.

Just in time. A knock sounded on the door. She swallowed, took a steadying breath, and called, “Come in.”

Snake came in and closed the door quietly before leaning his back against it. The sun was just setting, and even with the curtains mostly closed it was light enough to see him clearly. Mel swallowed while looking him up and down. He was wearing only a pair of baggy shorts that belonged to her brother Mike. She recognized them from the many times she washed them. The faded blue cotton seemed to barely cling to his lean hips. She thought a sudden movement might send them sliding down those long muscular legs, and she wasn’t sure if that would be a bad thing. From his casual lean against the door, he smiled at her. It wasn’t a leer, or a suggestive grin, but just a small gentle curve of his lips. At that moment, he appeared to be the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

“I’ve waited all my life to have a mate of my own.” His voice was low. “From the time I was ten until I was twenty, I barely ever saw a woman up close, but I always wondered what it would be like to have a mate. I dreamed of it. In my dreams, my mate loved me, and I would do anything for her.” His dark eyes looked directly at her. “I would do anything for you, Melissa, and I would never hurt you.”

She hated being called her full name. “I believe you.”

“No.” His hand lifted and swayed from side to side as if to disperse her words like campfire smoke drifting in his face. “You’re afraid of me. I smell it on you from time to time.”

Mel resisted the urge to hunch her shoulders. She also forced her instant denial back. “Maybe I am. But I know I don’t need to be. You’ve been really decent to me. All your friends have been nice too.”

“Then why? Is it my wolf?”

Her shabby bedroom faded to be replaced by a hotel room. Randy Fosse’s hard hands dug cruelly into her shoulders to hold her down on the bed while Jim yanked on her shirt. The bruising pressure on her shoulders suddenly lifted, and a huge gray wolf tore into Jim Fosse, slinging saliva and blood over her…

“Yeah,” Snake said in a near whisper. “There’s that scent. It
is
my wolf, isn’t it?”

“No.” She curled her fingers to hide their tendency to shake, but she couldn’t quite keep her breath slow and steady. “No.”

“My wolf would never hurt you, either. He cares so much about you, he’d rather be killed in a trap than do anything to harm you.”

White fangs dripping with blood, shreds of flesh stuck between them. That’s what she saw in her mind’s eye when she stared at him. “I know that. Really. In the hotel room in Ellsworth you—he—could have torn me apart. But he just stood in front of me to make sure no one else could get to me to hurt me. So I know he doesn’t want to hurt me.”

His hands went to the waistband of the shorts. “You need to meet him. When you know him you won’t be so afraid.”

“What are you doing?”

“Getting undressed to let my wolf out.”

She held a hand up, palm out, and stepped back so sharply the back of her knees hit the bed, and she almost fell on the mattress. “No! I’ve already seen the wolf. Not just at the hotel, but lots of times on our trip here.”

“That’s not the same, Mel. You haven’t had a chance to pet him or scratch behind his ears. When you get to know him, you won’t be so afraid.”

“Not now! It’s getting late, and I’m tired. I want to get some sleep, okay?” She hated the whining note in her voice on that last word and forced calm into her tone. “Snake, really, we have plenty of time for that.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “Okay. Which side do you usually sleep on?”

Relief crept into her stomach. “I usually take the middle, so it doesn’t matter. Which side do you want?”

He looked at the bed, glancing from it to the window, and then from the bed to the door. “I guess I’ll take the side by the door.”

Mel nodded and took the gun belt she’d draped over the headboard to shift it closer to the window side. “Hope you don’t mind sleeping with Alfie.”

One of his thick black brows arched up. “Alfie?”

She stroked a thumb over the butt of her pistol. “Alfie, meet Snake. Snake, meet Alfie.”

“You named your gun Alfie?”

The incredulity in his voice was exactly what she’d wanted. “Of course. He’s my best friend.”

Snake shook his head slightly. “If Alfie keeps to his side of the bed, I’m fine with him sleeping with us.”

Mel had to force her lips from a smile. She tossed the sheet back. “If you keep to your side, Alfie’ll keep to his.”

Snake stretched out on the bed, pulling the sheet up to his waist. “Alfie doesn’t need to worry. I’ll behave myself.”

Somehow their banter lightened her heart, and she climbed into bed, careful to keep a little distance between them. “Good night, Snake.”

She thought she’d go to sleep pretty quick, even with a near stranger lying beside her. She was tired after days of travel, safe in her own bed with her brothers down the hall, and her pistol only inches from her hand. Maybe she would have drifted off if her stupid mattress didn’t sag in the middle from so many years of holding her body in its center. Gradually, inevitably, she and Snake slid toward each other in the middle. She shifted on the mattress to hold her position on the left side, but gravity was inescapable. She found her shoulder pressed to Snake’s arm.