Heroes In Uniform (288 page)

“Sorry, couldn't resist.” He gave one last whistle for good measure. “Didn't want to arrive unannounced. Shall I come up, or do you want to come down and fetch it?” He hoisted the plate up and down on his palm.

She ran a hand over her hair. My God, he'd been serious. No way did she want him up in her cab.

“I'll come down.”

When she got to the bottom and saw the aluminum camp plate he held out to her containing a five-star meal of trout, vegetables, and fry-bread, her mouth watered. “Cooper, It looks wonderful! Thank you. I don't know what to say.”

He cocked a hip. “Say that next time I ask you to dinner, you'll come.” His voice held just the barest edge of irritation.

She quickly scanned his face. It betrayed none of the anger she suspected lurked behind it. Evidently, he had plotted a dinner for two and she had spoiled his plans. Her skin prickled. What ordeals had she spared herself by declining?

Or pleasures
...?

Her gaze dropped for a split second to his lips, then landed nervously on the plate he handed her. “You shouldn't have gone to so much trouble.” She forced a lighthearted smile. “But I'll enjoy every bite. I'm starving.”

He took a step toward her. “Well, I'm off to Gina's. Feel like coming?”

She retreated and shook her head. “Not tonight. Besides, I haven't eaten yet.” She tried to ward off the sudden chills that ran up and down her body.

Taking his gloves out of his back pocket, he slowly pulled them on. The edge in his voice sharpened just a shade. “I can wait.”

“No. You go ahead.” She took another step backward and bumped up against the truck.

“Why is it I get the feeling you're avoiding me?” He closed the distance, leaving just the width of the plate between them.

“Why would I do that?” she asked breathlessly, knowing full well they both knew the answer.

He took the plate from her and carefully set it on the truck's roof, his body lightly brushing hers. Then he reached out and traced her jaw with his gloved fingers, all the way to the back of her neck. “Maybe because you are afraid of this.”

His face slanted over hers and hesitated. The fine hairs on her cheek tingled seconds before their skin touched. The tip of his tongue glided up the bow of her lip, then retreated.

Oh, God
.

She whispered a final supplication before the explosion she knew was inevitable.

“Oh, God, Wolf.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Thirty-Seven

Cooper's lips hovered over hers, and his one spoken word jolted her senseless.

“Open,” he demanded softly.

She trembled violently between the cold metal of the truck and the solid fire of his body. She swallowed. And obeyed.

Then his tongue was inside her mouth. All over. Searing, drenching, plundering, taking.

She moaned, unable to fight it any longer, surrendering, bunching the anchor of his shirt in powerless fists. Finding exquisite pleasure in the raw, primitive need to yield beneath his masculine power.

She was instantly lost in his long, burning kiss. His fingers kneaded the back of her neck, holding her tight as the textures of their tongues clashed and blended. His other hand roamed the edges of her body, testing, withdrawing, probing, receding.

Coveting
.

His mouth broke contact, leaving them both gasping for breath. He dove in from the other direction, mounting her lips, joining them, surrounding them. His hands slipped down to her backside. He bent his knees slightly and lifted her between them, grinding her close, center to center, for an eternity. She awoke to the long hard length of him pressing imploringly into her.

Their lips parted, panting for air, swollen with passion. He eased her down and she leaned back on the truck to support her liquid knees. She felt one of his hands settle quietly on the glass and metal beside her ear.

“Before I go, there's just one thing I'd like you to know.” He stroked down the column of her throat with a buttery soft glove.

She rested her leaden head back against the door frame. She couldn't sort through the gamut of emotions raging inside her—need, desire, terror—she could only feel that glove.

“Wha...?” Her eyes fluttered closed.

A smooth point of leather followed the movement of her throat as she swallowed, then alighted whisper-soft on the pulse that throbbed out of control in the hollow above her collar bone.

Her lips parted involuntarily.

The point tensed, then skipped up to her chin. It pulled down ever-so-lightly, opening her mouth just a shade more.

“Wh...”

The dusky scents of man and woman, fear and desire mingled in her nostrils, impossibly erotic. She longed to feel that glove slide over her bare skin.

He stood close to her and whispered in her ear, as though whispering endearments. “I know you were there. At the kill site.” The glove traced slowly along her lower lip. “I saw you.”

Wait. Her eyes squeezed shut. What was he saying...?

She tried to ignore the sensual feelings and emotions that were paralyzing her determination to push his hand away. She fought to get her brain to work again.

He continued to move his finger over her mouth. “I could force you to talk, make you tell me what I want to know, where that evidence you took is.”

God
. He
had
seen her.

The feeling she’d had at the kill site, that someone was watching her—she’d been right. She’d felt him, even back then, even before they’d met.

She tried to lick her parched lips. Her tongue collided with leather, lingered for a brief moment, and tasted danger.

His glove slid down her arm to fasten on her quivering wrist. His body pressed hard against hers, menacing and arousing at the same time. Her knees were so weak, if he weren't crushing her against the truck she would slide right down to the ground.

“But I won't,” he murmured. “I'm not into forcing women. Not even to tell me the truth.” He reached up behind her and gathered her hair into his hand, wrapping it around his palm until her head was pulled back, her face tilted up to his. “I'm going to wait until you come to me, all by yourself.” He stroked along her cheek with his lips. “I'm a very patient man.”

“And wh— What if I don't?” she heard herself ask.

He said quietly, “I'll be watching every move you make, little pup. Or...maybe I should ask your friend, Dinny? Should I do that, Maggie?”

“No!” Her eyes flew open in a panic and met his simmering, heavy gaze. “No.”

It drilled through hers, and a heavy layer of smoke seemed to pour forth from his eyes, swirling into her head, emptying her mind of all thought but him.

Was she losing it?

She tried to fight the smoke that was wrapping itself around her brain, but instead felt her determination slowly ebb away, joining the dim fog, until there was nothing left of her willpower.

She surrendered.

Like the caribou, she welcomed the warrior Blue Wolf into her mind, where he swept away her fear, and her strength. His threat pierced her heart like an arrow, but the fear was nothing compared with her craving for the man looking deep into her soul.

Gripping her face in one powerful hand, he invaded her with his gaze, sliding farther and farther into her mind, leading her in a shared erotic vision.

Bare skin melded, copper against white, hearts and bodies twining in a sinuous dance of love
.

Slowly, she wound her arms around his neck and pulled him to her. His hold on her face loosened. She ran her tongue lightly over his lips, his cheeks, his eyes, gathering passion, ever more eager and abandoned.

“Wolf,” she whispered. “My Wolf.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Thirty-Eight

Cooper groaned in ecstasy. He wanted Maggie.
Sweet God in heaven, how he wanted her
.

Sexual need slammed through his body. Her hands and lips and tongue were pushing him fast toward the edge.

But he knew in his heart he had to stop what was happening.

He understood what he'd done to her, and honor would not allow him to take advantage of it. As much as he longed to make love with her, he would not take her like this—after he'd stripped away her will to resist.

With the last shred of his own willpower, he tore himself away from her. “Baby, stop. Not like this.” He shook her lightly. “Maggie! This isn't you.”

She gazed up at him uncomprehendingly. “Please, Wolf, make love to me.” Slowly, sensually, she slid her hands down his body. “I want you so much.”

Her breathless plea made him feel powerful and dominant. He shuddered a breath out slowly. “I know.” He put his arms around her and licked his lips, tasted her on them and almost weakened. “I want you, too.” He brushed over her hair with his cheek. “God, how I want you, pup. More than I've ever wanted anyone in my life.”

She made low, feminine sounds of desire, and fitted her soft curves into his tense body, tightening her arms around him. “Then take me.”

“I know you want this now. But there was always something holding you back before. I took that away.” He eased her away from him and held her at arm's length. “Try to remember. Try, pup.”

He could see her puzzled, then grasping at the threads of her will, struggling to wade through the need and retrieve the strength he had stolen. He saw the exact moment when his spell shattered and the smoke was banished from her mind.

She collapsed against the truck and turned away from him, covering her face in her hands. “
My God
! What did you do to me?” Her voice quavered violently.

He shook his head in amazement. “I,
uh
... I smoked you.”

He was just as stunned as she was. For a few moments, he had actually been inside her mind, controlling her thoughts and emotions. “It's a shaman's trick. A form of hypnosis, I suppose.”

She looked at him incredulously. “You
hypnotized me
?”

“I
smoked
you. And believe me, I have no idea how I managed it.” All the times he'd tried to smoke a woman's power before, he'd never even gotten close. “An old medicine man taught it to me a long time ago. But I’ve never actually succeeded before.”

Not that it had stopped him from trying—when he was young.

Now, with Maggie, when things were already much too complicated, he'd unconsciously called up the ancient powers and smoked her. In her opened mind, he'd seen what she wanted—him. And gotten a glimpse of her fear.

The woman was stone cold scared. But not of him.

She tried to push past him.

He didn't budge. “Listen to me—”

“No!” He grasped her arm, but she yanked it back. “If you think your hocus pocus will frighten me, Cooper, you're sadly mistaken.”

But she was frightened, and he knew it. How could she not be? She’d been on the verge of giving him everything. Her body. Her heart. Her very soul.

She turned toward the stairs. “I’m outta here.”

“Maggie, please. Talk to me!”

She covered her ears. “No! Let me go.”

He reached out to her. “I'm sorry I smoked you. But when I was in your mind, I saw how scared you are. Please let me help you. So we can have a chance to be together.”

She stared at him, hugging herself. She looked so hurt and confused. So vulnerable. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He knew she did. He also had to believe she wanted to tell him everything.

But something was stopping her, and he hadn’t been able to break through that barrier. Not even when he’d smoked her.

She took a deep breath, lifted her chin, and said, “You threaten me. You have to
hypnotize
me to get me to kiss you. And you think I want a chance to
be
with you? Are you completely out of your mind?”

He reeled back as if she'd struck him.

Apparently so
.

He curled his hands into fists, anger sweeping through him. Once again, she’d gone too far, gotten too personal with her insults.

Why did he even bother?

“This time, it's you who's got the chronology all wrong, baby,” he gritted out. “You were kissing me and liking it plenty, way before I smoked you.” He clamped his jaw hard. “But it
damn
well won't happen again. Not until you start trusting me.”

She just stood there defiantly.

Fine
.

He spun toward the Indian and grabbed his helmet. “It's all or nothing, Maggie. Decide how you want it.” He jammed on the helmet and mounted the bike. “Before it's too damn late.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Thirty-Nine

Maggie watched Cooper ride away, her heart shattering into a million pieces.

She’d actually thought she'd been in love before, thought she’d known what love was. But the visions of love that Cooper had shown her in the shadowy smoke went beyond anything she'd ever felt, or even imagined.

She closed her eyes and pain slashed through her. What would it be like to feel that way about a man, all day, every day? To trust him with her life, and with her whole heart?

If only it were possible...

But it wasn't. Cooper didn't know what he was asking when he'd demanded her trust.

Besides, how pathetic did he think she was? Using her feelings, making her want him like that...when he didn’t really want her. Not for anything more than to help solve his damn poaching case. He’d made that pretty clear. More than once.

An ironic laugh escaped her. Hell, maybe that was the solution. Tell Blue Wolf Cooper she loved him. Then watch how quickly he packed up his tent and slipped away in the night, safely out of her life.

In all possible ways.

She eyed the plate of food on the roof of the truck. She’d totally lost her appetite. But she couldn’t leave it there to attract bears. So she reluctantly picked it up.

Wearily, she climbed the tower stairs. What the hell. All this angst might be over nothing, anyway. The way he'd looked at her driving away, he’d probably never speak to her again.

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Forty