Cameron, Paige - Commando Cowboys Reclaim Their Love [Wyoming Warriors 4] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Polyromance)

Wyoming
Warriors 4

PAIGE CAMERON

Copyright © 2012

Chapter One

Cassandra Venitia parked her car, after returning from Ellen, Sahale, and Jack’s wedding. Her insides still quivered from the sight of Lang and hearing his beautiful voice. For ten years she’d pushed the thought of the two men she’d left behind down deep inside her. Since she’d been home she’d gone out of her way to visit her mother on the ranch when she thought Lang Connor and Nick Kenric would be working. Until today, she’d managed to avoid seeing them.

She climbed the back stairs of the wooden building to her apartment. The first floor was her shop. She’d rented the space when she moved back to Lovettville, Wyoming. Entering her small apartment, she went to the cubbyhole kitchen and put on the teakettle. Her mother had given her some of Nanna’s teas during her last visit. Nanna, Lang and Sahale’s grandmother, created teas for various ailments. This particular one was suppose to have a calming effect. The way Cassandra’s insides felt right now, she definitely needed to relax.

She slipped out of her dress and heels and put on a faded pair of jeans and a T-shirt, leaving off her bra. Might as well be comfortable. Her friend, Cindy, enjoyed working in the shop and didn’t expect her back for at least another hour or so.

The teakettle whistled. Cassandra poured the hot water into the small china teapot and left it
to
steep for a few minutes. She walked across her living room and stared at the small town and in the distance to the snow-covered mountains. Just looking out at the natural beauty made her feel better.

After living in crowded metropolitan areas, Cassandra had been ready to return home. Funny, when she’d lived here, she had never thought of it as her home, had in fact rejected the ranch and the town.

Her tea was ready. She poured a cup and sipped the sweet liquid. The warmth spread into the cold parts of her body. When the doorbell rang, she jumped.

Who could be at her door? She never had company. She tiptoed cautiously across the room. She didn’t have a peephole. Keeping the chain lock in place, she cracked the door open.

“You rushed away from the reception and didn’t give me a chance to say hello.” Nick, sunlight shining on his golden-brown hair, leaned his tall body against her doorframe. “Aren’t you going to ask me inside?”

“I didn’t see you at the wedding.”

“No, you were too busy looking for Lang and trying to decide how to get out of there before he joined the group at the reception.”

“How do you know what I was thinking?” She frowned at him.

“Honey, I always could read you like a book, except for that last time. We didn’t expect to not see you again for ten years. Can I come in to talk?” he asked again.

She started to tell him no, to say she wasn’t feeling well. But she’d never been a coward. There was no need to start now. She shut the door and unfastened the chain, then opened the door to him.

“Come in. Do you want a cup of tea?”

Nick strolled to the kitchen and sniffed her cup. “Ah, one of Nanna’s famous brews. I think I’ll pass. I don’t guess you’d have a beer in that tiny box.” He nodded to her refrigerator.

“It is small.” She smiled. “No beer, but I do have an open bottle of wine.”

“No thanks, I’ll pass.” He strolled around her living room, looking at the paintings on the walls and the view outside. “Nice little place, Cassie. Not what I’d expected, nor is your shop.”

Inside Cassandra’s nerves were jumping and her heartbeat tripped double time. His particular scent filled the air, and he was even more handsome than she remembered. The ten years had refined the young man’s looks. His shoulders were broader, tight abs were defined under his blue T-shirt, and snug jeans hugged lean hips and long legs. She wet her dry lips and caught a flash of lust flaring briefly in his summer-blue eyes.

“When did you visit my shop?” she finally managed to ask.

“One day last week. You were out.”

“It must have been the day I took my mother to the city for her treatment.”

Nick’s eyes darkened. “How is she?”

“Not good. The treatments for her cancer aren’t working as well as we’d hoped.”

“I’m sorry, Cassie.” Nick stepped toward her. She backed away.

No one had called her Cassie in years. She hadn’t allowed it. The name reminded her too much of the way it sounded when Nick or Lang said “Cassie” in their deep, husky voices.

“How is Lang?” she asked.

“Lang doesn’t change. He’s the immovable object, calm, cool, able to deal with any emergency.”

“It always surprised me that you two were such good friends,” Cassie said. “He had all the patience in the world and you had very little.” Seeing Nick reminded her of their uniqueness and how she’d admired and loved them. At least in the way an eighteen-year-old loved. She’d been full of angst, lots of emotion, and incredible lows and highs. She’d walked away from the feelings and the men.

Nick sprawled on her sofa. “Sit down, Cassie.”

“Is that an order?”

“Still have that chip on your shoulder?”

She grinned reluctantly. “No.” She sat in the chair across from him.

“Why did you leave? We waited for a message.”

His eyes pierced into her. She looked down at her hands. “You didn’t look for me.”

“Yes, we did.”

Cassie glanced up and saw the truth in his facial expression, one of regret and sadness.

“But you didn’t contact me.”

“We searched to make sure for ourselves and your parents that you were all right. But it was always your choice to come back, not ours to bring you.”

“I wrote to Mom.” Her body stiffened in resentment to his unspoken accusation.

“You did later. At first, she was worried sick, so we checked on you. It wasn’t difficult to find where you’d gone. Once we knew you were safe, we respected your decision and left you alone. But you didn’t answer my question about why you left?”

“I’m not sure. I was eighteen and overwhelmed by all the new emotions flooding over me. You two were ready to marry and settle down at twenty. I didn’t believe it would last, or that I was ready for that kind of responsibility. And you know I never felt I belonged on the ranch.”

“That was all in your mind, Cassie. Our people accepted you and your mom wholeheartedly.”

“Perhaps I was too young to know what I wanted.” She stood and walked across to stare at the mountains again.

* * * *

Nick admired her slim body. Faded jeans clung to her sweet ass, and her T-shirt emphasized those lush breasts. He doubted she remembered she was braless. Her pert nipples had pushed against the soft, cotton shirt, pointing right at him when she opened the door. Hot desire had flooded his system and went straight to his dick. She had soft curves, long legs, and full, rosy lips that begged to be kissed. It had taken all his restraint not to grab her, kiss her, and hold her tight against his hungry body.

“Neither of you two has married?” she asked, still standing with her back to him.

“No. We plan to marry the same woman, as we told you before. But I finished getting my degree in architecture and worked away from the ranch for about five years. I just returned a few months before you.”

She turned, and he savored her sweet, heart-shaped face. Her crystal-clear, green eyes shone like jewels guarded by long, dark eyelashes, a contrast to the light-blonde hair falling across her shoulders and down her back.

“You were gone that long?”

“Unlike you, I visited often. I was never completely happy living in a big city, in another state, far from Wyoming. The land is more a part of me than I realized.”

Cassie moved closer to him, a puzzled look on her face. “But you’re an architect and a good one. I saw a few of the buildings you designed in a magazine. What job are you doing on the ranch?”

“I’m in charge of all the construction, and I have other duties.” He shrugged, not giving her the full answer. She didn’t need to know he worked with Mitch and Daren, the leaders, when they went out on assignments.

He stood and reached for Cassie. She tried to move out of his way, but he pulled her into his arms before she had time to put space between them. Feeling her curvy frame against him sent pleasure shooting to his brain and to his cock. He was hard instantly.

His hand tipped her face upward. Her eyes were full of confusion and, though she tried to hide it, hunger. Lowering his head, his mouth covered her lips.
Dear sweet heaven. I’ve missed her more than I thought.
With his other arm, he moved her abdomen hard against his throbbing cock.

“Feel how hungry I am for you, Cassie. My body recognizes you by touch, scent, and taste.” She opened her mouth to speak, and his tongue slipped inside to ravish the sweet interior.

Damn, he ached to bury himself inside her so deep she’d never be able to forget him or leave them ever again. He wanted his scent on her, claiming her as his, warning others to stay away. The feelings rioting through him were more savage than the cultured man he’d thought himself to be.

He picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. Then he threw her onto the bed and followed her down, covering her body with his. Before she could protest, his mouth was on hers. He ran his fingers along the outline of her earlobes and his lower body rubbed across her abdomen.

She moaned and moved her body closer against his. Her fingers ran through his hair. His heart pounded in his chest.

“Mine,” he whispered against her lips. “Mine.”

One hand slipped inside the waistband of her jeans and panties to rub the tiny nub. Her body jerked with desire.

Nick raised his head. “You want me.” It wasn’t a question. He saw her flushed face, her dark-green, hungry eyes, the pulse beating against the fair skin at her neck.

He unfastened the button at her waist and yanked the jeans and her panties off. Spreading her legs, he licked her tender petals hiding the opening to her pussy. His mouth covered her swollen nub. He licked and sucked, bringing a low moan, and she whispered his name.

Nick sat back on the bed and undid his jeans. He pushed them down and removed his boots and pants. He felt her eyes on him the entire time. Quickly he pulled a condom from his jeans pocket and rolled it onto his hard dick.

Straddling her again, he grabbed the bottom of her shirt and whipped it off. Her full breasts and rose-colored nipples taunted him. His mouth closed over one, and he suckled the sweet taste of her while his other hand moved to her pussy.

The scent of their hunger filled the room around them. His dick pulsed with the need to take her, to pound into her.

He positioned his cock at her opening and watched her expression as he slid in to the hilt. Damn, she was tight. He tried to go slow, but his hunger wouldn’t let him. Moving faster and faster he pounded into her hot, wet pussy. She rose to meet his every thrust, taking him in as deep as he could go.

Her inner walls began to pulse and quiver around him. Her body tightened, and she shouted his name as her eyes went dark and her head tipped back. Her pussy clamped tight and her inner walls rippled around his cock, draining him dry and spiking his body with intense pleasure.

His heart almost exploded at climax. It had been years since he’d felt this kind of release. Even then, the feelings had not been this overwhelming. He rolled to the side, keeping her close against him. She’d closed her eyes and lay breathing deep and fast. A fine sheen of perspiration covered her creamy skin.