Promises Keep (The Promise Series) (40 page)

The kitchen door swung open. Asa walked in.

“That’ll keep them busy for awhile.”

Cougar handed Asa a glass of tea. “Good.”

A quick glance down his body and Asa’s grin kicked in full bore. “So you’re happy with her?”

“Yeah.”

“Better than with Emily?”

Cougar winced, and shrugged, accepting the other man’s amusement. “Emily was what I thought I wanted.”

“And Mara?”

Cougar poured two more glasses of tea. “Mara is what I need.”

Asa leaned against the counter, and took a sip of his drink. “She know about Cecile’s yet?”

“No.”

“You planning on telling her?”

“No.” A little of the tea spilled, and he smothered a curse.

“She’s going to be hurt when she finds out.”

“I know.”

“She will find out.”

“I know.”

“It would probably be better if she found out from you.”

“Probably.” But she would leave him then. No way could a woman ever forgive him for what he’d done. He was living on borrowed time, but he wasn’t going to bring it to an end any sooner than he had to by telling her.

“It was nice of you to bring her the dresses,” Cougar said, changing the subject.

Asa shrugged and smiled. “Elizabeth was quite scandalized to hear Mara only had two dresses.”

“Actually one.”

“I thought the Reverend bought her one?”

“That one met with a mishap.”

Asa laughed outright. “He is a good-looking son of a bitch.”

“Yeah.” The type of guy Mara might turn to when she found out about him.

“Well,” Asa drawled, “truth be told, I should be thanking you.”

“Oh?”

“Elizabeth’s been bored to tears this last month.”

Cougar raised a brow in sympathy. “Elizabeth’s about unlivable when bored. Has a real tendency to get into trouble.”

“Tell me about it,” Asa drawled, shaking his head as he took a long pull from his glass. “About the only thing that saved my sanity was when Dorothy mentioned to Elizabeth about Mara needing clothes.”

“Elizabeth’s a stickler for propriety.”

“Yeah. About shocked the hell out of her to hear you had a young woman holed up here without underthings or a proper wardrobe. Sent me straight to the closet for all those new clothes I bought her before she started to show.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

Asa waved away the offer. “You already did.”

The sound of a wagon rounding the house interrupted the conversation.

“Sounds like Doc and Dorothy are here,” Cougar said, filling the rest of the glasses and putting them on the tray.

Asa held the door open for him. “Yup. We’d better hurry up if we don’t want to miss Doc laying down the law to Dorothy.”

Cougar smiled. “Again.”

Chapter Nineteen

Mara stood on the porch, waving goodbye to Asa, Elizabeth, Dorothy and Doc, laughing as Doc’s “Goddammit!” floated behind them when the battered wagon hit a rut in the path.

“He really should just break down and buy Dorothy a decent carriage,” she mentioned to Cougar who stood behind her.

His moccasins made no sound as he took a step closer, his hands sliding around her middle, pulling her back against him. “What would be the fun in that?”

She titled her head back to see his face in the soft twilight. “Then they wouldn’t have to keep arguing about it.”

He bent over, his long hair falling on either side of her face surrounding her with the scent of sage and the faintest hint of smoke. “You’ve got to get over this hitch that says there’s something wrong with a discussion now and then.”

She slid her hand up his neck and over his cheek. His beard pricked her palm. “Does this mean you want me to mention the fact that you’ve been smoking again?”

“Nope.”

She smiled to herself as she rubbed his cheek with her palm, liking the rasp of his beard on her flesh. He turned his head until he could kiss her palm.

“You thinking how good those whiskers are going to feel against your pussy in about five minutes?”

“No!” Shock had it coming out more of a gasp than the calm response she would have preferred.

He turned her in his arms, his hand under her chin bringing her gaze to his. “Now isn’t that a shame?”

She knew she was going to regret asking, but she had to anyway. “Why?”

He smiled, able to read her mind. “Because then, you’d be plenty wet for me when I tend to you like I promised.”

Who was he kidding? She was always wet for him. “Oh.”

“That all you got to say?”

He bent down and slid an arm behind her knees and the other across her back. She relaxed into his grip as he swung her up in his arms. Cougar would never let her fall.

He didn’t move after picking her up, staring at her with those deep gold eyes. She realized he wanted an answer. “Yes.”

The hint of a smile deepened the laugh lines by the corners of his eyes. “Can’t say I’m not disappointed.”

He headed for the front door.

She slid one arm around his neck. “Why?”

She slipped her fingers between the buttons of his shirt until she could touch his chest. His flesh was hot and smooth beneath the curling chest hair.

“I had a hankering to hear how you wanted my mouth on your cunt, nibbling on your clit, lapping at your pussy, and swallowing all your sweet cream.”

Her fingers tightened convulsively on his chest, wrenching the hair there. She could just imagine it. His moist tongue, his hot breath, his prickly beard. Her vagina convulsed as pure lust speared through her.

He tossed her a bit to open the door. “That death grip you’ve got on my chest hair mean you’re interested?”

She would have thought she was past embarrassment by now, but apparently, she wasn’t. The best answer she could come up with was a squeak.

He pulled the door shut behind him and dropped the bar. The room was dark compared to the outside. More intimate. More conducive to love talk. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“You would.”

He let her slide down his body, his right eyebrow kicking up as he asked, “Is there something else I should be taking it as?”

“Maybe an indication that you’re just hungry in general?”

He slipped his knife from its sheath; the blade gleamed in the faint light. “What made you think that?”

She eyed the big knife warily. “All that emphasis on nibbling and tasting.”

He caught her wrist in his hand and turned her palm up. “I aim to do plenty of tasting and nibbling.”

He put the tip of the blade under the sleeve of the old dress. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Preparing my meal.” He caught her eye. “Don’t move.”

The command was unnecessary. As soon as that big knife started cutting through the worn material, she’d stopped breathing altogether. As the shoulder seam gave with a pop, he smiled and said, “Breathe.”

She did, but only until he set the knife to the other sleeve. As smoothly as the first, he slit this one from sleeve to collar. As the remains of the bodice slid to her waist, leaving her torso bare to his gaze, he shook his head at her. “Angel, when it comes to me and knives, you’ve got no cause for concern.”

“So you keep telling me.”

He put the knife back in its sheath, those dark eyes wickedly amused as he asked with apparent innocence, “Have I nicked that sweet pussy once while shaving it?”

She could feel the blush rising as she answered. She didn’t know if she’d ever be at ease with talking about the things they did together. “No.”

“So why are you sweating one old dress?”

“Because it’s a damned big knife!” she burst out.

He unbuckled his knife sheath. “And I’m the man holding it. That’s all you’ve got to remember.”

“So you keep telling me,” she muttered, flitters of anticipation shivering over her skin as he began to unbutton his shirt.

“And what else did I tell you?”

He shrugged off the shirt, baring the wide expanse of his shoulders and the slabs of muscle layering his abdomen, the scars here and there doing nothing to diminish his beauty. She stared a little helplessly. Lord above, he was gorgeous.

He closed her mouth with the tip of his finger. “What else did I tell you?”

“That I should trust you.”

“And if you didn’t?”

Oh damn, she’d forgotten about that. “That you would punish me.”

Suddenly, all that muscle wasn’t so inviting. She took a step back.

He caught her by hooking his hand behind her neck. “Now that makes two things I’ll be punishing you for.”

She swallowed. “Two?”

“Yup.” His fingers massaged the back of her neck, sending tingles down her spine. His voice was a husky growl. “The second for thinking I’d break my promise not to hurt you.”

She closed her eyes and went with his tug, her “Oh God” breathed against the firm muscle of his chest. His laugh rumbled beneath her ear.

“No. Cougar.”

She swatted his forearm in retaliation and then gasped as he dragged her sensitive nipples across his upper abdomen. Every ridge and hollow seeming to grab at the swollen points, sending weakening jolts of pleasure radiating out from her chest. Her knees were the first to succumb to the assault. She fell against him, trusting him to catch her weight, to see her through. His cock throbbed, solid and heavy against her abdomen.

“Steady,” he murmured, his hands on her shoulders.

“I can’t when you do that.”

“You will if I tell you to.”

She glanced up, loving the way his face hardened with his desire. For her. Only for her. “Are you?”

“What?”

“Ordering me to stand up?”

He smiled slightly, stretching his thumb up so he could stroke the corner of her mouth. “Nope. I want you to walk.” He turned her around and gave her a little push toward the kitchen. “Go.”

She looked at the swinging kitchen door, remembered what had happened there before, and took one shuddering step and then had to wait for the bursts of arousal to fade to take another.

Cougar’s low, dangerous, sexily drawled “Is there a problem?” had her creaming her thighs with her juices and picking up her pace. She didn’t need to turn around to know he was behind her. She could hear the whisper of his moccasins over the wood floor as he stalked her through the door and into the dim interior of the big square kitchen. Once there, she didn’t know where to go, so she stood still in the middle of the room, and waited as he crossed to the door. The thunk that the wooden bar made as it hit the cradle made her jump.

Her heart thundering in her ears, she watched as he stopped at the drawer by the stove. His teeth gleamed white in the gloom as he fished out a familiar round jar.

Her ass clenched and her knees buckled. His low laugh as he closed the distance between them let her know he’d seen the slight dip before she’d caught herself. He whispered, “Glad to see you approve,” against her ear.

Mortification mixed with the burn of arousal until she didn’t know where one left off and the other began. She didn’t know what to say, or what to do. She just held still and waited. He didn’t give her any clues. He just stood there, the heat of his skin teasing hers, his scent wrapping around her the way she wished his arms would. She was never comfortable with silence, worrying that it existed because she’d failed to do something expected.

Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore and blurted out, “Am I supposed to be doing something?”

He pulled back and looked at her a moment. His expression considering, his eyes unreadable shadows in the gloom. “Is there something you wanted to do?”

It was all she could do not to shift under his gaze. “You were just standing there…”

He touched her cheek lightly. “Just thinking on where to start.”

“Oh.”

Now she felt stupid.

“You worry a lot, don’t you?” His finger slid down her neck to her chest. He drew a figure eight around her nipples with his finger.

She bit her lip as the circles drew closer and closer to the center of her breast with each pass.

“I wouldn’t say a lot,” she finally admitted.

“But you’d rather know the lay of the land?”

“Wouldn’t everyone?”

He flicked her left nipple with his finger. “Maybe.”

She absorbed the sensation, controlled it, trying to concentrate on the conversation. “But you’d rather I be more adventurous.”

He paused, his finger mid-flick of her right nipple. “More adventurous?”

She glanced up to see the wry smile flash across his face. Her lip slid between her teeth as he took that finger and pressed it dead center of her nipple and pushed down. “Angel, I don’t think I could keep up if you were.”

She caught his wrist in her hand, halting the distraction of his touch. “Maybe adventurous was the wrong word.”