Heroes In Uniform (300 page)

And found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol.

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Five

“Don't even think of moving!” Maggie called. “I don't want to shoot you.”

Cooper clamped his teeth together in fury. Really? She was using both hands to steady her semi-automatic as she trained it on him. Or tried to. She wouldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with that thing.

“What the
hell
are you playing at?” he demanded.

His mind danced with frustration. Sheathing his knife, he straightened and glanced over his shoulder toward where the voices had abruptly quieted.

The look she was giving him lay somewhere between outrage and betrayal. He knew the damn feeling.

“It was you all along?” she said, her voice trembling with disbelief. “I can’t believe I actually fell for your story.”

“What are you talking about?” He stared at her, simmering with rage. He wasn't about to let her keep him from finding out who the poachers were. “You little fool, give me the damn gun!” In two steps he was on her, grabbing for her wrist.

She jerked away, but he didn’t let go, and the gun flew back and forth over her head. Suddenly, it went off, the
boom
nearly splitting his eardrum, the bullet going wild into a nearby tree.

He didn’t need his hearing to know the others were hightailing it out of there as fast as they could.

“God
damn
it!” he growled, and wrested the gun from her hand. “Don’t fucking move,” he ordered, and took off after them.

He gave chase, but after a few hundred yards he pulled up. His ear was ringing from the gun going off next to it, and the poachers had rifles. He wouldn’t have a chance against them like this. A better plan would be to go back and make Maggie tell him who the hell this Dinny was, then call for backup and arrest them all.

He turned and loped back to where he had left her.

And
naturally
...

She was gone.

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Six

Maggie could hear Cooper's almost silent footfalls as he stalked her, steadily gaining on her. She stumbled through the silvery darkness, tripping over the hem of her nightgown, grappling with the shawl flying out behind her.

“Maggie!” he thundered.

In answer, she lifted her thin cotton gown and ran even faster. “No!” She surged on. “Go away!”

She wouldn't let him catch her. Couldn't let him catch her. She couldn’t believe he was the poacher. She’d defended him. She’d
trusted
him—at least, about that. Her heart was sick. How could she have been so wrong?

“Stop!”

“Leave me alone!” She was winded, but didn’t slow her pace.

“I'm telling you to
stop
!” He shot off a round from her gun, and a branch off to the side splintered.

Oh, God
.

She stopped and whirled, sucking air into her starved lungs. She glanced around, desperately seeking a way to escape. He looked savage, like the heartless warrior from her dreams, in buckskin pants, and black slashes drawn across his face and bare chest.

Dressed to kill?

Her heart nearly stopped.
This was not the man she knew
. This man's expression was brutal, chilling. Like he was out for blood.

Hers?

Because she had found him out?

“I won’t tell, I swear. Please, Cooper.” Her breath came fast and heavy.

“You’ll talk, all right. I could kill you, woman, for what you've put me through.”

Her heart took off at a million miles per hour, but he tucked the gun into the waistband of his buckskins.
Thank God
.

Then he came after her.

With a scream, she spun away, sprinting blindly through the mist. He raced after her. Even his footsteps sounded sinister as he closed the distance. He caught the end of her shawl.

She flung it away and kept running. But he was too fast. He grabbed her arm, dragging her to a halt at the edge of a small meadow.

“No!” She screamed, striking out, scratching at him.

“Like hell!” He locked an iron grip around her waist, lifting her off the ground.

Her pulse beat out of control. Hanging helpless in his grasp, she kicked out as hard as she could. “Cooper, don't!”

He grabbed her arm and jerked it around to her back. Dropping her, he pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and firmly clamped one side onto her wrist.

“What are you doing?” A sob escaped her.

He roughly snapped the remaining cuff onto her other wrist.

She couldn't believe what was happening. Never before, not for a single second, had she believed he was capable of actually hurting her. Frantically, she tried to collect her tumultuous thoughts. What could she say to make him come to his senses?

“Please,” she said in a whisper, her breath catching on another sob. “Don't kill me.”

He took hold of her upper arms, turned her to face him, and held her well away from his body. He gave her a disgusted look, and said, “Woman, as much as I’d like to, I'm just going to have to make do with arresting you.”

Her pounding heart stopped dead, then started up again with a lurch. She stared at him uncomprehendingly, blinking through her tears, and hiccupped.

“Wait.
Arrest
me?”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Seven

Here it comes
, Coop thought.

Maggie's eyes widened. “Arrest me? For what?”

“Poaching,” he said wearily. He was really tired of this. Tired of her lies. Tired of defending her to everyone, including himself.

Her jaw dropped. “Poaching?” She gaped at him. “But...
You’re
the poacher.”

Now he was just getting mad. “Don't be ridiculous. I work for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. You know that.”

“One doesn’t necessarily rule out the other.”

He just gave her a disdainful look. “It’s not going to work, Maggie. I know it’s you. I was there, remember? At the last kill site.”

“I explained that.”

“Yeah. Let’s go. You can tell me all about Dinny.”

Stunned, she stepped backward, stumbling against a tree, scraping her handcuffed wrists against the rough bark. “I don’t believe this.”

“Frankly, I don't give a damn what you believe. You'll believe it soon enough when you're cooling your butt downtown.”

She faltered. “You mean
jail
?”

“That's the usual procedure for felons.”

Her gaze fastened on his face, and she let out a laugh edged with desperation. “Is war paint the usual procedure, too, when DFW arrests someone? Or is that a personal touch?”

His hand flew to his cheek, and felt grease.
Ah, hell
. He’d completely forgotten about the spirit markings. “That has nothing to do with this.” He hardened his expression...and his heart. “Maggie Johansen, you're under arrest. You have the right—”

“My God. Wait.” She looked at him in horror. “You can't be serious! You really think I’m—? That
I
—

“Please. Save it for the judge. The right to remain silent—”

Her eyes widened in dismay. “Oh Cooper, I would never,
ever
. I
love
bears. It was me who turned in the battery with the fingerprint, remember? I told you all that. I've been trying to
find
the poachers.”

Her heartfelt sincerity penetrated his skepticism. His fury slowly, reluctantly melted. He’d fallen for her Academy Award performance once before. But... Jesus. Was she actually being honest with him? Could anyone be
that
good an actress?

“Are you telling me the truth?” he asked, watching her carefully, torn. “That you're not involved in this? At
all
?”

She shook her head, her eyes once again filling with tears. “I swear to you, I'm not. I would never hurt animals. Not for a million dollars.”

“Then why the hell are you out here tonight?”

“I told you. Trying to catch the poachers.”

He hiked his brows. “In your nightgown?”

She shrugged, biting her lip. “I was in a hurry.”

Cursing, he paced back and forth, then stopped and dragged a hand through his hair. If he was wrong about her, those poachers might as well just shoot him—he’d be done with instincts, and done with women. Forever. But...

“God help me. I believe you.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Eight

Maggie’s eyes sought Cooper’s, and their gazes melded, first sharing anguish, then a dawning joy. Happiness flooded through her.

“You're not a poacher,” he said, his voice filling with relief.

She saw her own smile mirrored on his lips. Gradually, she felt it spread to her whole body. She wanted to throw her arms around him, but the handcuffs bit into her wrists when she tried.

“Thank God for that.” He crossed the distance between them in less than a second and pulled her close. He pressed his lips to her forehead, trailing kisses down her cheek until his mouth reached hers. Taking her face between his hands, he crushed his lips to hers.

She opened to him, hungering for his taste. She leaned into him and matched his passion with her own. Her body filled with the pent-up desire she had denied herself since her first glimpse of him. She chaffed in frustration against the handcuffs, wanting to explore him the way his hands were roaming over her.

She broke the embrace and stepped back. “This isn't fair.” Her breath came in hot bursts.

His face fell. “Don't do this to me again, pup.” He closed the gap between them, the warm mist swirling around their legs. “There's only so much I can take.”

“You can take all you want, Wol—
um
, Coop.” She pitched her voice low and inviting. She held up her hands as far as she could behind her back, with the jingle of case-hardened steel. “Just take these damned things off first.”

His gaze shot to the handcuffs. His mouth curved into a sly grin that transformed his painted face into the very essence of his namesake. “It's okay, baby. I think this means you can call me Wolf again.” He gave her a sultry once-over that melted every bone in her body.

A wave of desire swept through her and it was all she could do to keep herself from pulling him down onto the fog-enshrouded wildflowers and begging him to take her right then and there.

She licked her lips and cocked her head coyly to one side. “I'll make it worth your while,
Wolf
.”

Slowly, he poked two fingers into the shallow pocket in the front of his buckskins and retrieved a small key, dangling it casually in front of her. “Anything I want?”

She nodded slowly, filling her eyes with promise.

He stepped closer and his body brushed up against hers. She shivered, surrounded by his delicious male scent. Circling her with his arms, he grasped a cuff behind her back and inserted the key. Slowly, he turned it, drawing out the movement, all the while lightly rubbing his bare chest back and forth over her flimsy nightgown.

Small shocks of excitement coursed through her breasts each time his body dragged the cotton across their sensitive peaks. His lips grazed hers as the first cuff sprang open with a
snap
. He ran the tip of his tongue slowly over her lower lip as he felt for the other keyhole.

Her blood pooled thick and heavy in her limbs. Powerless to do anything but let the sensations take over, she closed her eyes, parting her lips, tasting his tongue as it circled and darted over them. Her body started at the sharp
click
of the second lock jumping open.

The cuffs fell to the ground, her last restraint finally removed. She felt as if her soul had been set free in that one swift motion. Free to hold the man she loved. Free to love the man she held.

“Wolf,” she whispered, and reached up, pulling him closer, reassuring herself he was real. She opened to him with a needy sigh, and her whole body shuddered at his answering moan. She dug her fingers into his long, midnight hair, tangling in it, grasping and tugging in her urgency. “Wolf,” she breathed into his mouth.

“Maggie,” he returned softly, filling her with warmth.

She felt as dizzy as the curl of mist left in their wake as they spun a languorous circle around the meadow, each pursuing the other in an endless spiral of hungry, passionate need. She could smell the damp earth and the piquant pines, mingling with the mellow, dusky scent of Cooper's desire. She gave herself over to him, to the spirit of the forest, and surrendered to the touch of the man she wished would claim her as his alone.

She wanted to crawl inside his sheltering love and never come out. In his arms she felt a sense of belonging she had long given up finding.

He slid his hands down the curve of her bottom, and she reveled in the feel of her body reacting to his touch. He stroked and massaged her, pressing her against his rock hard arousal to the rhythm of his probing tongue. Small sounds of pleasure skipped from her throat at the peak of every sensual assault.

Planting his feet, he took the kiss deeper and deeper, until her body screamed for release. She raked her nails over his shoulders and down the rigid muscles of his arms, then up again, as she twined her arms around his neck.

He worked the hem of her nightgown up and slipped his hands under it, slowly moving his fingers up the back of her naked thighs. She moaned as he pulled the fabric up and over her head. The lacy gown fluttered to the ground behind her and he lifted her off her feet, settling her gently onto the soft fabric.

Kneeling in front of her, he pulled off her boots, then sat back on his heels, looking as if he were literally drinking in the sight of her nude body. Bathed in a pool of mist and moonlight, overcome with yearning, she waited for him to come to her.

“Woman, you are so damn beautiful.”

She raised her arms to him. “You’re the beautiful one. Come here.”

She was spellbound by the worshipful look in his eyes as, for a moment, he held himself suspended over her, then lowered himself down. The warm fog curled around their bodies like a blanket.