“Living on the street doesn’t make you smart, Josie,” Kellen said gently. “It’s hard and rough and dangerous, and you’re cold and wet and hungry a lot of the time.”
Josie studied her through narrowed eyes. “Then how’d you get to be so smart?”
“I don’t know that I am, but whatever I know, I learned by studying and reading books. Every kind of book I could get my hands on. Especially books about nature and how to survive in the wild. About plants that are good to eat and how to build shelters.”
“And how to fish without a fishing rod?” Josie added.
“Yes,” Kellen smiled. “Even how to fish with just my hands, which taught me an even more important skill. Patience.”
“Why patience?”
“It takes an incredible amount of patience to stand perfectly still in a river or stream until dinner swims your way.”
“So you’re saying I should read books and study?”
“Exactly. And the next time I take Cody and Ren into the woods for a real-life lesson, perhaps Meg will let you join us.”
Josie’s eyes widened and her smile could have lit up the room. “That would be so—oh God, Meggie? Can I go with them? Please?”
“As long as you promise not to cause trouble and to do everything Kellen tells you to do.” Several seconds passed and then Meg spoke again. “Kellen, I hope you weren’t upset by Josie’s question. She didn’t mean any harm. You’re all she’s talked about since you saved her. And just so you know, I knew…I’ve known for a long time you’d lived on the street.”
“And to think you still named that beautiful baby girl after me,” Kellen said with a grin.
“Damn right I did,” Meg replied. “When I look at everything you’ve accomplished, and everything you’re doing for our community, it makes me proud to name my baby after you. So thank you. Thanks for saving all of us.”
Maybe not just one case of hero worship, Dana thought wryly, wrapping her arms around Kellen after the others left. “Are you done for the day?”
“Grant and his boys are finished with me for the moment, if that’s what you’re asking. With all this fresh snow, they want to take a chopper up tomorrow and see if they can spot anything that may indicate where Broussard is hiding.”
“What else did they want to talk to you about? You were gone a long time and you seem, I don’t know, on edge, I guess. Tense.”
Kellen shrugged. “They also wanted to discuss security for the grand opening. They seem to think because I know both the clinic and Haven better than most and by nature am always looking for escape routes, that I might be able to help them. With things like lines of sight and where to post sharpshooters.”
“Oh, shit.” Dana looked at her more closely, looking for signs of fresh damage. “Are you okay with all of this?”
“It wasn’t exactly a comfortable conversation, but it involves everything and everyone I care about, so yeah, I guess I’m willing to try anything.”
“Anything?”
The change was instant. Kellen responded with a devastating smile, having clearly not misunderstood Dana’s tone. “Tell me what you need, and I’ll do my best.”
“I just want you,” Dana said softy. “Let’s go home so I can have my way with you.”
*
Kellen couldn’t remember getting back to the cabin and lighting a fire, let alone getting out of her clothes. All she had was a vivid, visceral recollection of Dana unzipping her own jeans, letting them fall to the floor, and stepping out of them before pulling her sweater off and standing in front of her. Naked and perfect.
The glow from the fire provided just enough light for Kellen to see the gold flecks in Dana’s eyes as she caressed her. She could feel her body respond to Dana’s touch in a way it hadn’t responded to another woman. Ever. She’d never felt so alive.
She reached for Dana’s hand and drew her onto the bed where she could adore her with her hands and mouth. She was surprised by how much she needed her. Something she hadn’t been able to admit to herself. Until now.
It was crazy. Incomprehensible. But her entire life had changed since she’d met Dana.
“I want you, Dana,” she murmured. “More than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my life.” Her kiss this time wasn’t gentle. It was hard and demanding.
She couldn’t get enough of her. Couldn’t touch her enough. Couldn’t taste her enough. Couldn’t kiss or lick her enough. Couldn’t do anything fast enough or deep enough or long enough.
Not enough for Dana either, apparently, because she cleverly turned the tables, rolling Kellen onto her back and straddling her hips.
Heart pounding, breath ragged, body trembling with pent up longing, she sensed Dana’s need to take control. So she gave it to her and hoped she showed her this wasn’t just about a physical connection.
She’d never felt closer to anyone in her life. And this was about telling her without words what a miracle she was in her life. About how she couldn’t imagine anyone else in the world that would ever come close to meaning as much to her as Dana did.
She lay beneath her, forced her hands to stay still, and watched her move in the flickering candlelight that bathed her in gold. She groaned when Dana ground her pelvis against hers. Sighed as she felt the heat and wetness between her thighs. Stopped breathing when Dana planted her palms on the bed on either side of her shoulders and kissed her. Open mouth seeking, hot and hungry, while her tongue was sweeping and bold.
When her amazing mouth moved lower, nipping and kissing her jaw and her throat, flicking the tip of a pebbled nipple with her tongue before lightly biting, Kellen writhed and let her know how much she loved it.
An instant later, Dana’s mouth and hands were everywhere. Feverish. Arousing. Demanding. Moving lower, she briefly slipped a finger inside Kellen and then her tongue replaced her finger, stroking her, her mouth open and feasting, while her hands cupped Kellen’s buttocks, holding her in place.
A feral groan escaped Kellen. “God, I love when you do that to me.” She arched her back, pressing her head against the bed and her pelvis against Dana’s mouth, asking for more. Demanding more. She was insatiable. Determined to lose herself in Dana and equally determined to bring Dana with her.
She heard a low keening sound in the stillness of the room and recognized it as her voice. Her unarticulated moans of passion. But further sounds became strangled in her throat as Dana sent her free-falling over the edge.
She was dimly aware of Dana’s arms tightening around her, holding her as the next wave hit. Then she felt the sudden rigidity and trembling in Dana’s body as she joined her in release. Kellen welcomed her with her arms, her body, her heart, and her soul. With the last of her strength she called out Dana’s name. And then everything receded into a velvety blackness.
*
Sated and floating on a soft cloud of lassitude, Dana lay on her back, waiting for her breathing to return to normal and the world to slip back onto its axis.
She assumed Kellen had fallen asleep. Her body was still. Her eyes were closed. And her face was surprisingly tranquil with a small, almost dreamy smile, while her silky dark hair was damp with sweat and plastered against her forehead.
Watching her, Dana felt something tighten in her chest. She loved her passion. Loved her taste. Loved the strangled, desperate sounds she made and how she called out her name when they made love. Loved her—beyond anything she might have imagined.
She lay motionless, transfixed, as a deep, heavy heat coiled through her. Did she still want her? God, yes.
She could feel the aching need building once again. But she couldn’t stop staring at the picture Kellen made lying there. Her lips were swollen from Dana’s kisses. Her skin was flushed from her touch. Her breathing was slow and deep. Slowly, carefully, she rose on one elbow, leaned over, and gently kissed her forehead, then tenderly kissed Kellen’s lips, lightly tasting them.
“I love you,” she whispered.
She had just settled back on the bed facing Kellen and closed her eyes when she felt Kellen shift beside her. Felt her warmth draw nearer, followed by the pleasure of her lips as they skimmed along her jaw, while her hands roamed the length of her back and down to her hips. Dana made a humming sound of approval and offered her mouth as they shifted on the bed, a tangle of limbs.
Kellen’s taste, hot and wild, infused her mouth and stirred her as it always did, made her want more than she’d known there was to have. She opened for her, both invitation and demand. In response, Kellen’s tongue dipped, tasted, savored, while her long, skilled fingers began arousing her mercilessly until she was mad for more.
Incapable of thought, Dana attempted to pull her closer still. Kellen immediately stilled, then took Dana’s hands and placed them over her head. “Don’t move,” she murmured.
It was unquestionably an order, but unable to refuse Kellen anything, Dana did as asked. And then Kellen opened her even more and took it all. Lingering in all the tender places, the hidden places, the secret places. Her hands caressing Dana as her mouth tasted, hovered, tasted again. Unraveling her in a loving that was both passionate and tender.
“Do you want me, Dana?” Kellen’s voice was smoky, intimate. Demanding an answer.
“Yes,” she whispered. There could be no other answer. “Oh God, yes.”
“How?” Kellen murmured as she continued to stroke hot, delicate skin. “Gentle? Hard? Fast? Slow? Tell me what you want, Dana.”
“All of the above. I want you—in every way possible.”
An instant later, Dana was unable to do anything but feel, as she was captured by the searing demands of Kellen’s mouth and the world came apart around her. Kellen tasted her lips, feasted on the hollow of her throat, and on her breasts. Eyes open, wild and blind with a hunger she didn’t fully understand, Dana felt consumed as Kellen lingered, touched, tasted, and caressed, learning and memorizing the very pulse of life beating within Dana as she slowly moved down her body.
Nearly drowning in waves of pleasure, Dana writhed while Kellen moved in calculated slowness. Never wavering, she continued to explore. Taking, demanding, giving, worshipping. Desperate for release, Dana gasped for air. And then Kellen drove her over the top on a wave of rapture and she came until she couldn’t even draw a breath to whisper Kellen’s name.
Urgency mellowed into tenderness.
Kellen reached out a strong arm and drew her closer. Caressed her before putting her hand under her chin and kissing her slowly. Gently. Thoroughly. And then she softly murmured, “I love you too.”
Dawn was still an hour away.
In the soft light, Kellen focused on tuning out the familiar sound of the helicopter’s rotor as Sam lifted off, taking a couple of FBI agents with her. She watched the chopper briefly hold at one hundred feet and then begin the search pattern Grant had mapped out, knowing that in addition to providing the spotters with a bird’s-eye view, they’d be using the three new cameras the FBI had installed: two standard cameras equipped with powerful zoom lenses, and a thermal-imaging camera, which would enable them to detect heat signatures.
This was not how she’d wanted today to start. But then she’d all but forgotten she’d agreed to do this—to be out tramping through the woods in the chilly pre-dawn air with Grant instead of being cuddled under a duvet, making love with a beautiful woman. What was worse, although Bogart wasn’t alerting, apprehension prickled along her skin and it felt as if even the forest was holding its breath.
Kellen suppressed her impatience and remained motionless in the shadows a minute longer. Finally, the helicopter moved on and the silence returned.
Slowly she allowed her gaze to move around, looking for signs in the shadows. She hunched down lower and concentrated, tried to detect anything out of the ordinary, any visible disturbance indicating someone had come this way. Scrapes, broken branches, or marks of any kind.
But it was hard to still her mind when the skin between her shoulder blades itched as if Broussard had painted a target on her. She could feel him, like a wolf stalking his prey. He was close, but not close enough. Not yet.
She retraced her steps, examined the ground again, looking at the snow more closely. Time seemed to slow down and finally she detected what she’d been looking for. What she’d known she’d eventually find. Faint shadowed shapes leading into the bowels of the forest, marking someone’s passage. “He’s been here—sometime after last night’s snowfall.”
Grant came up and stood beside her, staring at the snow-covered ground. “I don’t see anything. How can you tell?”
Kellen pointed to a spot. “The snow here’s been disturbed where he brushed it to cover the tracks left behind by his snow shoes. It has to be Broussard. With your sharpshooters maintaining watch along the path, only someone with his skill could have gotten this close and not given himself away. And if it was anyone else, they wouldn’t have bothered covering their tracks.”
Grant didn’t say anything but drew his weapon, sweeping it around in a wide arc.
She frowned. “What the hell, Grant?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Would this be a bad time for me to tell you I’m not a big fan of having guns that close to me?” Aware he was weighing her words, Kellen remained still and waited.
He stared at her for a few seconds, then slowly shook his head. “You’re something else, you really are. Do I need to remind you there’s a man out here somewhere who wants to kill you? And do I have to remind you the reason I’m here is because it’s my job to protect you? That I promised Senator Parker I’d look after you?”
Angry, feeling cornered by life, something tightened in Kellen’s chest. She knew there were things from her time on the street that would never leave her. Not completely. Like her innate distrust of authority.
Grant’s words had her squaring her shoulders, folding her arms across her chest, and lifting her chin as she turned to face him. “I can look after myself.”
“Kellen,” he responded softly, “I don’t doubt that. In fact, if anyone can, my money’s on you. But this guy Broussard? He’s damn good. He’s proven it time and time again by having already killed too many people, and he’s made it clear he’s coming after you. You’re the only target that really matters to him now. The rest were practice so he could come back and correct his failure.”