Disgraced Cowboys (Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 3) [Siren Publishing Ménage Amour] (7 page)

Excuses aside, Manny wasn’t painting a very flattering portrait.

“I’m not picking out china with the guy,” she said. “I just need to give him this message.”

The skeptical look was back in his watery blue eyes. “If you say so. And just between you and me,” he added, leaning close over the bar to drop his voice somewhat, “there’s something not right about those boys. The way they look at you, for one thing. They all have the same bizarre gleam in their eyes at times. Doesn’t even look human. Gives me the creeps.” He shuddered as if to prove the point. “Just be careful.”

“Always am.” Brandi hopped off the stool, smoothing the legs of her tight jeans.

Angel was finishing up her set as Brandi left, and she felt those icy green eyes stalking her all the way to the padded front door.

“Good riddance to you, too,” Brandi bit off under her breath as she pushed through the padded front doors into the night air.

The cold would have been biting if not for the quilted nylon jacket she’d tossed over her sweater on the way out. The chill nipped at her nose and feet, though. She’d have to remember to stop wearing loafers in this new climate.

She pulled out her car keys as she got to her car door, then promptly dropped them. When she bent in half to pluck them back up, a voice froze her into place.

“I distinctly recall the pleasure of that view a couple nights ago,” the man quipped. “Sure looks a mite different all covered in denim, though.”

She whipped around to find Seth standing close by. His arms were crossed, and his head was cocked at the same angle he’d used to gawk at her ass. His smile shot through her in a most inconvenient, annoying manner. How had he gotten there without her hearing his boots crunch through the gravel?

“What are you doing here?” she asked, glaring at him through white puffs of her breath.

Her sour expression did nothing to abate the sensual smile. “I reckon I’m doin’ the same thing you are.”

“Checking out stripper’s asses? Not hardly.”

The smile erupted into a boyish grin. “Just one ass, thank you. But unlike most the guys here tonight, that’s not why I came. I’m lookin’ for Marcus.”

She sighed. “Well in that case, I guess we do have the same reason. What do you want with him?”

The smoldering look that followed sent her pulse skipping around in her chest. “I could ask you that.”

“And we could play ‘you first’ all night.”

“I think I like the sound of that.”

She pressed her lips into a tight, disapproving line.

He didn’t say more, though his dark blue eyes—which were currently flecked with noticeable sparkles of gold—began a slow and disarming simmer. “Me and Marcus had ourselves a slight difference of opinion the other night,” he said. “Figured now that he’s had a couple days to simmer down, I’d try to talk some sense into him.” He leaned his body lazily against the car beside hers. “So what’s your excuse?”

“I’m supposed to give him a message.” She stopped, regarding Seth for a moment.

“What kind of message?”

A sigh escaped as a puff of white breath in front of her. “I guess I should tell you. The message is from Kade.”

The smile was gone in an instant. “You saw Kade?”

“You could say that.”

Glittering eyes narrowed, and in a flash he bridged the gap between them and had her ass pressed against the car. His hands were on either side of her, resting on the car roof. “Is he here now? Inside?”

She shook her head, swallowing down a rush of sudden alarm at his proximity. “He showed up at my motel room. Busted his way in uninvited. Pushy bastard, isn’t he?”

“Son of a bitch.” Seth pulled her away from the car and into his arms, though it was more of a shielding gesture than a hug. “Did he hurt you?”

Seth was wider than Marcus and shorter, just about her exact height without her high heels. Every inch was thick, solid muscle. Automatic protest over his sudden grab disintegrated at his clean scent, a heady male aroma that stretched like an invisible cord between her nose and pussy. Anyone who assumed werewolves smelled like wet dog had a whole other surprise coming. In Marcus and Seth’s case at least, their scent was downright
naughty
. Intoxicating.

“Did he?” he asked again, pulling back to find her gaze and take hold of her upper arms.

“No, not really. He just freaked me out.”

“I think you’d better tell me exactly what happened. But not here.” He glanced around again, his eyes wild and churning. “It’s not safe.”

Without warning, he let her go and rounded to the other side of her car. “Get in,” he commanded, standing by the passenger door.

“And where am I going?”

“
We’re
goin’. You’re drivin’.”

She rolled her eyes and fumbled with her keys a moment, finding her fingers numb and quivering from more than just the cold. When they both slid into the front seats, she paused over the ignition. “I suppose you want to check out the motel.”

He’d pulled off his hat since he was too tall to keep it on inside her modest sedan. He raked a hand through sexy, golden-brown hair. “Too dangerous. We’re goin’ to my place. It’s not far.”

Something whispered to her that his place might be just as dangerous, but she fired up the car and drove.

The sounds of the forest around her grew fainter with each wobbly step they took toward the monstrous roar of Shay Falls. Rather, with each wobbly step Brandi took. Seth, on the other hand, seemed quite at ease as he led the way through the dark woods, his boots crunching deftly through stones and pine needles and whatever all else was waiting to trip her.

“Damn it!” she said, stumbling yet again over an unseen pinecone.

She shifted the strap of her purse on her shoulder, blinking at the ground. It was too hard to see her numb feet in the middle of wherever the hell Seth was taking her. The tree canopy darkened the forest floor, and the only illumination came from the silvery sheen of the moon that hit the churning water visible not too far ahead.

She sucked in a breath and winced at the sharp sting of cold air in her lungs. “Are we almost there yet?” she asked irritably, nearly twisting her ankle when she failed to negotiate a pesky stone. “I’d like to get to your place while I’m still in one piece.”

“Sorry,” Seth said, and his large, warm hand closed over hers. “I forgot you’re, well, never mind.”

“What?” She glowered at him. “A woman?”

“A human. And not used to this terrain.”

“Oh.”

Her cold, damp palm warmed to his reassuring touch, and she actually let out a sigh of relief when he kept her in his grasp to lead her nimbly around obstacles.

“How can you see where you’re going?” she asked, impressed despite herself. “It’s hard to make out much of anything here.”

“I know the way.” Still, when he turned to flick her a gaze, she saw the real reason. Those eyes of his were lit with an inner glow, like cat’s eyes in the dark.

Or a wolf’s.

They stepped into the clearing along the riverbank near the base of the falls, and Brandi froze in wide-eyed awe. She leaned against a monolithic boulder and stared at the beauty before them. White plumes of water cascaded gracefully yet powerfully down the face of the mountain, landing with a roar she could feel vibrate through her being. The force of the water stirred the air around them, lifting strands of her hair. The moon rested just on top of the falls, almost as though it were the source of the silvery water pouring over the edge.

“Oh, wow,” she said, her mouth open wide.

Seth gave her hand a squeeze and pushed his hat back farther on his head. “Yeah.”

They stood there, hand in hand, taking in the mesmerizing view for several moments. Brandi cast a sidelong glance at her companion. While she’d been taken in by the sight of the falls, Seth seemed utterly entranced by the moon. Possessed by it, even. She supposed that wasn’t far from the truth.

A shiver washed over her as she watched the glowing eyes stare at the moon with a fiery hunger, as though he were gazing upon a naked lover for the very first time.

He must have felt her shudder, because his gaze snapped toward her. “Come on,” he said, tugging her away from the boulder she rested against. He tried for a casual smile, but she saw the power of that moon churning in the depths of his blue-gold eyes.

“How much farther?” she asked as he practically pulled her behind him along the riverbank.

“We’re here.”

“Where?”

A few feet more and Seth stopped. The falls were loudest here, where they crashed into the water not ten feet from where they stood.

“Hop on my back,” he half shouted over the din of the rushing water. He dropped her hand and pointed behind his neck. “I’ll take you in.”

She frowned. “
In?
In where?”

He nodded toward the falls, and her eyes widened. She shook her head vehemently, backing up a couple of steps. “Oh, no. You can’t be thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

“I won’t let nothin’ happen to you, I promise. Trust me.”

The last thing she should do is trust a near stranger, especially one of the male persuasion.
Most
especially, any one of the local cowboys who happened to have wicked, golden-flecked eyes. Yet as she met that gaze and felt the tiny flip of recognition in her stomach, she knew that she did, somehow. She trusted Seth.

She took a step closer and sighed. “I must be out of my damn mind.”

Before she could chicken out, she shifted her purse around in front of her, pressed herself to his back and gave a half-assed hop. He hefted her up, hooking his arms around her dangling legs. Her hands automatically flew around his neck, but she had to lean away from him to keep the perilously wide brim of his Stetson from poking her in the face.

“Your hat’s in the way.”

“Grab it and hold onto it for me, darlin’.”

She pulled it off and somehow managed not to give into the fleeting urge to rake her fingers through the damp, tousled hair that brushed his shoulders. Now that she was pressed against him, his spicy scent and hard, heated muscles created some interesting friction between her immediate concern for safety and her flaring libido. She squirmed against him to find a comfortable spot, and the tingle of her breasts and crotch rubbing against him almost diminished her fear over what he was planning.

“Now hang on!” he cried out, and she felt his muscles tense.

She clutched his hat in front of his chest, grabbing on tight for support as he took off without further warning—in a single leap that took them straight out over the water.

“Shit!” she yelped, squeezing her eyes shut and bracing for the ice-cold impact. Instead, she felt the soft jar of his landing, and peeked out to find he’d gracefully perched them on a large, flat rock that was jutting out of the foamy, churning water. That’s when she spotted their “path” over his shoulder—a zigzag line of rocks that ran behind the falls.

The overspray showered them both with frigid water, but Seth took them across with a frighteningly adept footing considering his size, her added weight, and his cowboy boots. He jumped them across the stones until his next landing was in a soft span of dirt several feet behind the center of the falls. He jogged her in under cover until they no longer felt the icy spray.

Fast as he’d been, both of them were fairly wet by the time the jaunt was finished. Brandi’s ass, pant legs, and back were soaked, and she’d nearly lost a shoe along the way. Her front, however, and purse were bone dry from being pressed to his hard, warm body. Seth was just plain drenched from his hat down, save for where she’d been squashed to his back.

He slid her down until she was on the ground, and she again found herself blinking in relative darkness. He’d brought her into some kind of cave hidden behind the falls. At least, she assumed that’s what it was, considering she couldn’t see much aside from the light of the moon still visible at the mouth of where they sheltered.

“Great,” she muttered. “Must be nice to have supersonic vision or whatever it is your kind has.”

The little laugh he gave was sexy as hell, but the shiver she gave was from the chill seeping into her bones. A moment later, the strike of a match lit up in front of his face, the glow competing with the warm amusement in his eyes.

“Now be patient with me for just a lick,” he said in a teasing tone. “I’ll fix it so you can see.”

His voice echoed profoundly, seeming to bounce back off the falls, which were markedly quieter in the cave. In any case, something about the way he said “lick” ignited a little flame in her crotch, which was already tingling from having been given a ride on Seth’s wide, toned back. Still, her shivering grew more intense, and thoughts of licking specific areas of his body gave way to internal debate on whether or not to peel off her jacket.

The crinkle of newspaper drew her notice, however, and soon she saw what he was up to. Seth lit a fire inside a stone pit close to where he’d set her down, a spot close enough to the mouth of their shelter so the smoke could vent out harmlessly without water spray from the falls damping out the flames. Soon, in crackling firelight, she could see their shelter more clearly. It really shouldn’t be considered a cave, strictly speaking. The depression in the mountain was more of a glorified alcove.