Heroes In Uniform (301 page)

Letting her fingers play across his broad chest and down the buttery softness of his buckskin pants, she felt his long, hard cock beneath the supple leather. She stroked it, and he moaned, his lids drooping shut, an expression of delighted torture dancing across his face.

The velvety nap of his buckskins brushed her inner thigh erotically as his knee slipped between her legs. She reached down and popped the buttons on his pants, peeling back the fly and caressing him as she went. By the time she had all the buttons unfastened, he was thick and heavy, and his eyes were scorching with desire.

With her other hand she touched his jaw, then grasped a long lock of his hair that had tumbled over her heart. Slowly, she wound the strand around her fingers, drawing his face down to her.

“I want you inside me, Wolf,” she whispered.

She could see him struggling with his control—and his back pocket—as he quickly slipped off his pants and moccasins, but in a moment he settled next to her. Exhaling a long, measured breath, he looked deep into her eyes, letting his hand travel slowly up her abdomen to her breast. She sighed in pleasure.

He circled the sensitive tip with his thumb, making her gasp and arch into his hand. Leaning over her, he took the hard bud between his lips and tongued it. She rocked into his arms, never wanting to let go.

He suckled her, taking her deep into his mouth, and she fed him with her moans as well as her flesh. He held a breast in each hand, working one nipple, then the other.

She cried out, her body in flames.

“Again,” he encouraged, watching her intently as he twirled his tongue around the peak of her breast, drawing it out between his teeth.

She cried out once more.

Switching to the other tip, he demanded, “Louder,” shocking her body with fresh waves of desire.

“Wolf!” she shouted, and dug her nails into his shoulders.

“Be wild,” he growled, “if you would be a wolf's mate,” and sank his teeth into her neck.

In the distance, a crack of thunder exploded.

She clutched him to her, trembling with the sensual chill of wanting him. She pulled him up and on top of her, unable to wait a moment longer.

“I would,” she whispered.

Holding his face in her hands, she kissed his eyes, his cheekbones, his mouth. She nipped his lips and tongue, then licked away the sting, driving him to grasp her wrists and sweep them above her head.

Holding her helpless with one hand, he slipped between her legs and spread them wide beneath him. He dragged his fingers up her trembling inner thigh, sending shudders through her whole body. Trailing a finger to her center, he explored the soft wetness, making her blossom for him.

He whispered erotic suggestions in her ear, urging her to seek her pleasure in his sensual caress.

She twisted and writhed, her breath coming in gasps. He slid a finger deep into her, and her body bucked against his hand. He slipped in two. Again her body bucked, her response as primal as the forest where they lay.

When he traced her aching clit with his thumb, she closed her eyes and threw back her head, calling into the night. She surrendered to the touch of her Wolf, letting the glorious sensation crash over her in wave after wave. And when she was absolutely sure there could be no greater pleasure on earth to be found than this, he guided his thick, heavy arousal to her and thrust in deeply.

Proving her, oh, so wrong.

A blinding flash of lightening lit the sky over them.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and their tongues and bodies and voices blended in passion, their moans building with urgency. The sky above lit up again and again, until, at last, they shattered together in a tumultuous release.

She lay with him, panting on the forest floor, feeling like two untamed creatures of nature.

From the far distance, she heard a heavy rumble of thunder roll slowly toward them.

He lifted onto an elbow, tenderly brushing a strand of hair from her face. “We are joined now. Part of the great circle.”

She smiled. “I love being with you.” She nuzzled into his neck, glorying in the feel of him still deep inside her body. “It feels so right.”

“
Mmm
. I'll second that.” He kissed her lovingly. “But I must weigh a ton.”

He tried to slide off, but she held him tight, so he couldn't move. “Stay.”

She loved the weight of him on top of her, the musky scent of love surrounding them.

“I don’t ever want to move again,” he murmured.

“Not for a million years.” She kissed his jaw and caressed his neck and back, sighing with joy and contentment.

She looked up at him and smiled. From the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw a large shape loom out of the fog. It came lumbering toward them.

She turned her head to look, her eyes going wide.

Oh, my God!

Her throat constricted around the only word she could manage. “Bear!”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Nine

“Wolf, little pup, my name is Wolf,” Coop murmured lazily into Maggie’s hair, oblivious to anything but the woman in his arms.

“Wolf,
bear
!” she rasped, gripping his shoulders.

He laughed wickedly. “Okay, I get it. We can be bears next if you like. Just give me a minute, sexy lady.”

She gave him a sharp pinch in the arm.

“
Ow!
What the—” He lifted up to look at her.

And saw the bear. It sauntered up to within a few yards of them, and sat down on its haunches, its nose waving in the air. Its head was silhouetted against the huge full moon, looking like a wild, furry cameo.

“Holy shit!” he quietly exclaimed, and scrambled off her.

It was the same bear he’d run into earlier. Jesus, was it
stalking
him?

“Brother-in-law!” he said as calmly as he could, cautiously sitting up. The bear had been friendly before, but Coop knew that wild animals were neither predictable nor consistent in their behavior.

It regarded them with a look he would swear was amusement. It seemed to be waiting patiently for him to do something. There was something really peculiar about this bear.

Next to him, Maggie slowly sat up and pressed close against his side as he kneeled up on the ground.

The bear's eyes were on Maggie now. Coop scowled. He had heard stories among the Cree about bears stealing women for wives. Myths. Allegories for marriages sometimes forced upon women by strangers from other bands, no doubt. The bear stories weren't real.

He told himself.

Even so, it did seem to be perusing Maggie's naked body with too much interest.

“Brother-in-law,” he repeated more edgily, using the less formal greeting than he’d used in their first encounter. Playing to the myth.
Just in case
. “Would you look upon your sister like that?”

The bear shifted its gaze back to him. “Cover yourself, Maggie,” he said quietly.

Giving him a look halfway between fear and incredulity, she slowly reached over and pulled her shawl to her body. Thank God, for once she kept her sarcastic comments to herself.

The bear continued to wait.

Coop had no clue.

“
Do
something,” Maggie whispered.

No pressure, or anything
.

So he went with instinct. As irrational as it seemed. He sat down and started to chant.

He sang the bear.

By his side, Maggie relaxed against him. After a while, she laid her head on his shoulder. The bear seemed entranced by his low, rhythmic melody. It closed its eyes and swayed back and forth. Coop's own lids drooped, and he went into himself, into the song.

He slid an arm around Maggie and pulled her close. And once again, a feeling of great peace descended upon him.

Along with a certainty that, somehow, his life had just become complete and filled with meaning.

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Eighty

Maggie awoke from a misty dream.

She looked around at the dimly-lit meadow. She and Cooper were still on her gown where they had made love. He was sitting, and she had sprawled across his lap. He was silent.

The bear was gone.

She raised up, and as she looked at his face, softly illuminated by the hazy moon, he opened his eyes and returned her gaze.

“I am full, little pup,” he softly said.

“Full?” she asked.

He smiled. “Full inside, for what we have shared. I feel good.”

She smiled back. “I am full, too, Blue Wolf.”

His lips met hers in a long, warm kiss.

He broke away with a wink. “We better go, before I fill you again.”

“I probably have a little room left,” she said, “and I know just where.” She wound her arms around his neck.

“
Mmm
. I've given you enough bruises tonight,” he said, sprinkling kisses over her face and shoulders. “And we're both covered with pine needles. Let's go find that fancy shower of yours, and then a nice, soft bed.” He pulled her up with him.

She didn't protest. A bed sounded really good.

Turning in his arms, she kissed him deeply. She laced her fingers with his. “Okay. I'd just as soon not run into that bear again. What was that all about, anyway? That stuff about it being my brother?”

Cooper smiled, hugging her naked body to his. “Bears like to kidnap pretty women for their wives. I had to trick it into thinking you were its sister, so it would leave you alone.”

She choked out a laugh. “Are you kidding?”

“Hey, it worked, didn't it?”

“No. You drove it away with your singing.”

“Next time,” he said, “I'll let it have you.” Then he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her till her toes curled.

Once again, they heard the low echo of thunder. She glanced up. Menacing clouds were visible above the darkening horizon. “Looks like a storm’s coming.”

“And we've got a half hour hike home. We'd better hurry.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Eighty-One

By the time they reached the tower, Cooper had told her his version of the past few days, and Maggie had told him hers.

Well. Most of it. She couldn't tell him the most important part—about the trial. And about her being in hiding. Because it turned out he didn’t know any of that. He’d only learned Dinny’s name because of the package at the post office. The blue sedan guy was his partner, Jack.

She swallowed her feelings of guilt and regret. Not for what had happened between her and Cooper. Never that. But regret that things were so complicated, and guilt that he could so easily get hurt because of her. She pushed away the unhappy thought and grasped his hand tightly.

The first drops of rain were already falling by the time they ran up the hill to the base of Tower Eight. She shed her nightgown and he peeled off his buckskins.

“Come on!” she called, and jumped into the shower, turning on the water. It was about the same temperature as the warm rain pelting them in the roofless enclosure. He grabbed the bar of soap and began lathering her up before she could protest. After a few seconds, any thought of protest had been washed away with the pine needles.

She pulled the soap from his hand and began rubbing it over him, cleaning away the last traces of his war paint.

He sighed contentedly, and pressed his back against the wooden enclosure, eyes closed. “Your hands feel so good on me.” He stood there, an expression of pure bliss on his face, looking for all the world like a wet Cheshire cat tacked to the wall.

His grin wasn't the only thing growing bigger as she pushed the suds around, working down his chest and abdomen, and lower still. She ran the soap over herself again, then leaned onto him, sliding their slippery bodies together erotically.

It was raining harder, now, the fat drops blending with the stream from the shower.

He moaned in pleasure, wrapping his arms around her. “I think you missed a spot.”

“
Mmm
.” She licked at the water cascading off his nose. “Better check,
huh
?” She eased a hand between them and ran it up his hard length, smiling provocatively. “
Hmm
. Maybe a little more soap.” She glided the bar over his cock, and caressed him till he throbbed in her hand.

With a strangled groan, he grabbed her wrist. “I think you got it.”

She gave him a sultry pout. “All clean?”

“Spotless.” He reached over and shut off the shower, soaped up her breasts again and backed her against the wall, kissing and licking her drenched lips.

The rain ran down their skin in rivulets.

Catching her thighs in his hands, he lifted them onto his hips, wedging her between his body and the wall.

He grinned wickedly. “Let's get dirty again.”

Barely Dangerous: Chapter Eighty-Two

The next morning, moisture from last night's rain rose from the ground in long tendrils of vapor as the bright sun streamed through the pines. Maggie and Cooper didn’t hear the car that rolled quietly up to Tower Eight, nor its engine die and the two front doors ease open. Everything seemed peaceful.

She screamed, “
No!
I'll
never
tell you!
No-o
!”

Cooper’s sinister voice growled, “You'd
better
tell me, woman, or I'll let you have it!”

Suddenly, two men burst through the cab door, cop style, one covering the other, and halted, pointing their guns.

“FBI! Hold it right there!”

Omigod!

Maggie gasped at the Beretta aimed at her. It was the blue sedan guy! Her gaze whipped to Cooper's shocked eyes, then back to the gun.

She was kneeling on the bed, her wrists handcuffed and suspended over a window latch above her head. She was dressed only in a jeans skirt and a Forest Service uniform shirt which hung open, revealing her breasts.

Clad in buckskins and wild long hair, Cooper loomed over her.

Oh. Migod.

Everyone froze. A split second passed.

“
Jack?
” Cooper quickly lowered the object he was holding threateningly to her chest.