Disobedient Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (21 page)

The bathroom featured earthy marble, a walk-in shower, and double sinks with polished and graceful swan-neck faucets. Once inside, Stephen shut the door.

“I’m sorry about the whole Hawaii thing,” she stammered before he had a chance to start in. “I was just so damn mad when Jo kept talking like my career was ruined. It just blurted out before I knew what I was saying.”

He set the seltzer bottle on the gleaming countertop and heaved a sigh. “Thank God. I thought for a minute you were really leaving.”

Her eyes flared wide. The next words came through a bitter taste in her mouth. “I am leaving, Stephen. I wasn’t lying. I just didn’t mean for you to hear that way.” She stared at the wine-stained white tank reflected in the mirror, unwilling to meet his eyes.

Stephen folded his arms. “And when did you mean for me to hear it? When you mailed me a postcard of sandy beaches?”

“Of course not. I was planning to tell you before we left here.”

“Look at me, Rose.”

She shook her head.

“You don’t really want to leave.”

“Says who?” She wandered up to the sink, wondering how to tackle the wine spill with Stephen standing right beside her. The stain was large enough that the shirt would have to come off.

He took her upper arm. “Says the one who can sense what you’re feeling.”

She pulled away from his grip. “You’re not the only one who can sense feelings now. Want to know what I’ve sensed from you? Nothing but your desire for Caleb.”

“What are you talking about?”

Anger flared in her chest again. With a stubborn set to her jaw, she yanked her shirt up over her head. What the hell.

His eyes dipped immediately to the swells of her breasts and lacy, white bra, but he made no move toward her as she held the shirt over the sink and poured soda on the stain.

“Let’s not make this into something it’s not,” she said. “I gave up my virginity after too much wine, and you were gracious enough to let me walk away from that mistake. No need to pretend otherwise in here. None of your colleagues can see us.”

“A mistake,” he repeated slowly. “You think making love with me was a mistake.”

“You know it was.” She started working on the stain, though her heart was pounding so hard she couldn’t focus on “blot-don’t-rub.”

“I had no idea what I was in for when you sank your teeth into me. I wasn’t making a real choice.”

“I didn’t force myself on you,” he snapped.

“I’m not saying that. I don’t blame you. It was my doing.” She dumped more soda water on the stain. “But I wasn’t in possession of all the facts about what letting you mark me would mean. I thought it was just something kinky. I never should have agreed to it.”

He flinched noticeably. “There’s just one problem with your theory,” he said in a low, threatening tone that drew her gaze to his. “My mark wouldn’t have taken on you if you hadn’t embraced the desire to be mine—
ours
—wholeheartedly.”

Her heart thudded as she thought back to that moment. The burning need to be one with a man had consumed her, true. She’d been eager to know what it was like. The moment it was over, however, the power of it overwhelmed her. Frightened her.

“The heat of the moment was genuine, obviously,” she said, feeling little relief when the stain faded. “But afterward, I realized I’d given the wrong impression. I told you as much, Stephen, and I thought you understood. You let me go, and I haven’t felt so much as a flicker of distress from you about it since.”

“I didn’t let you go.” His eyes searched hers, and his were beginning to glitter in a way that would need resolving before he rejoined the group. “And you didn’t feel my distress because I didn’t have any. I thought I was giving you time to adjust, not formulate an escape plan.” He leaned closer. “So tell me. Now that I know otherwise, how do you sense I’m feeling about it?”

She shivered at the brewing storm in his emotions. “You knew this was inevitable,” she said, blotting the shirt dry with a fluffy gray towel. “I’m a nurse, and you helped cost me a job in the only hospital up here.”

“So this is about money.”

“It’s about my life.” She noticed her nipples were stiff, and she hurried to finish toweling her shirt. “I had plans before I came here, you know. You can’t expect me to toss everything over five minutes after meeting you.”

She turned away to pull her still-damp shirt back on. “Don’t pretend I’m at the center of this, Stephen. You’ll still have Caleb.” And she would have nothing, same as always. “From the fireworks I’ve felt shooting off the two of you day and night, he’s all you need.”

Stephen cocked his head. “Are you jealous of Caleb?”

A twinge in her stomach tried to answer, but she shook her head. “I’m just being practical.”

They stared at one another for a long moment.

“You’ll change your mind,” he said, as if trying to convince himself. “You won’t be able to go when you realize what you truly want.”

“I know what I want.” She paused. “I’ll keep in touch, if that’s all right.”

He snorted. “Like there’s any choice, since you
accidentally
agreed to become a werewolf’s mate.”

Stephen stared at the mark on her shoulder, and then he turned and opened the door.

“I need a few minutes,” she said. “Tell them I’m still working on the stain.”

Rose held onto the edge of the sink after he’d gone, staring at her haunted expression in the mirror.

Was she jealous of Caleb?

“Yes,” she whispered.

She
was
, by God. Jealous of the bond the men felt. They tried to share that bond with her, but how could she give herself over so completely? She wasn’t her mother. They were strangers to her. Plus, she was human. Caleb jumped right in because he was a werewolf. He acted on animal instincts she did not possess. He seemed blissfully happy, damn him. Yet she didn’t dare operate under those rules.

So yes, she envied him. Envied them both for what she couldn’t give herself over to.

Several minutes passed with her rubbing furiously at her shirt to dry it before giving up. There was no use delaying the inevitable. One werewolf down, one to go. She’d face Caleb when she got back to the table, probably hear several choice words from him in private later, and then it would be over.

With a sigh, she flipped off the light and left. She didn’t glance down the hall as she wandered out of the bathroom, so when a hand grabbed her arm, she let out a shocked gasp.

“It’s high time you and I had a talk,” Caleb said. “Right now.”

“Where are you taking me?” Rose demanded as Caleb half dragged her up the hallway. “Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Stephen gave me the grand tour before you got here.”

He pulled her into a room partway down the hall. There were hand-carved wood furnishings and a fluffy double bed, but compared to the rest of the house, it didn’t seem grand enough to be the master suite. A guest bedroom, no doubt.

Caleb, who’d ditched his hat somewhere before ambushing her in the hall, raked a hand through his hair as he leaned his back against the door. He reached behind him to twist the lock, as though she might run for it. Good guess.

“Are you out of your mind?” she whispered loudly.

“Funny, I was about to ask you that. And there’s no need to whisper. Everyone’s still outside.”

He strode up to her, and she backed away until she realized she was headed straight for the bed. She veered off and held her ground in front of a tall chest of drawers. Caleb stopped a few inches from her and slipped a finger beneath the strap of her tank, dragging it away from the scar on her shoulder.

“Here you are, flauntin’ Stephen’s mark for the world to see without the faintest clue what it means,” he said. His eyes sparkled in the dim light spilling in from a tree-shaded window.

She shrugged the strap back into place. “I’m not flaunting anything.”

“That scar ain’t only meant as a warnin’ to keep other werewolves away from you, you know.”

She eyed him warily. “His mark can do that?”

“It alerts other wolves so they know that you’ve been claimed. Too bad it doesn’t seem to have alerted you to that fact.”

“It alerted me to plenty of things I had no idea I was agreeing to at the time.”

He tried to move closer, but her hand shot out between them. As soon as her palm was against his hard chest, she regretted it. Longing flooded her. Longing and warmth.

“I’ll tell you what I just told Stephen,” she went on, dropping her hand and breathing through her mouth in a feeble attempt to avoid his heady, male scent. “I’d planned to let you know about Hawaii before I left the barbecue. I only blabbed it out in front of everyone because Jo was making me so angry. I’m sorry I let you find out that way.”

His nostrils flared. “That ain’t what you should be sorry for.”

“You’re right. There’s more I’m sorry for.” She hugged herself and stared at the tempting flesh visible around the neck of his open collar. “Starting with that picnic at the falls.”

“You ain’t sorry about that. I felt you give in to us, Rose. And I’ve felt how badly you’ve wanted to ever since.”

She frowned. “I can’t help having certain physical reactions when I sense the two of you going at it like animals. But the rest of what you expect, well, it isn’t fair to ask.”

He sighed. “I take back what I said before. I’d rather you thought with your heart and not your head.”

“I don’t. I can’t flip a switch and be eternally linked to a werewolf pack. I’m not like you.”

“That switch flipped the moment we met.” While he hadn’t inched any closer, his presence somehow loomed much nearer. “You’re just scared.”

“Of course I’m scared.” She sidestepped him and headed for the door, but he grabbed her arm and spun her around. “I barely know you. I didn’t even know your kind existed. Now you can feel everything I feel, and I can feel you. It isn’t natural. It isn’t right.”

“Runnin’ away ain’t gonna change that. You could take a job in China, and you’d still sense us.” He loosened his grip but still held on to her arms. “But I don’t think you’ll be able to leave. You’ll realize that the farther you leave us behind, the harder it will be to stay there.”

“Stephen already tried saying I wouldn’t be able to go. It didn’t work.”

“Then I bet he didn’t say it like this.”

Their lips met gently, sending sparks shooting through them both. She could feel the chemistry bouncing in his body as readily as her own. He groaned and slid his arms around her, pushing his tongue into her mouth. She could taste tangy barbecue and the male heaven that she’d missed desperately.

“Don’t,” she whispered. “We should get back. People will wonder why we disappeared.”

He trailed kisses along the side of her neck. “They think I’m checkin’ a problem with Stephen’s car.”

“You’re just trying to change my mind,” she said, gripping his bulky, flexing shoulders as his lips set fire to her need. “But it’s already set.”

“Let me make love to you, Rose.” His tongue traced a wet, tingling line along the scoop neck of her tank. “Then you can decide whether you really intend on sayin’ good-bye.”

Her nipples hardened into long buds. “You already made love to me.”

“No, I haven’t.” He straightened, and golden fire undulated in his eyes. “Stephen claimed the right to bed you first, and he made me watch while he took you. Then you climbed on me like a wild temptress and rode me like I’ll never forget.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and sensually tasted each fingertip. “I don’t regret a second of it. But I reckon it’s my turn to show you what I’m capable of.”

The feel of his tongue on her sensitive fingertips jump-started a hot throb in her clit and a trickle of fluid between her legs. Her breath caught in her throat.

“Let’s settle this the way we started it,” Caleb murmured. “Just the two of us.”

“What, now?”

“Now’s all we’ve got.”

He tried pulling her toward the bed, but she yanked away. “We can’t get on the Jarvis’ guest bed and do that. They’ll know.”

He glanced at the expensive-looking, puffed comforter that was a fair match to the violet in his eyes. “All right. Let’s not muss up the finery.” But when he turned to her, it was clear that she hadn’t talked him out of his plan—just the venue.

Caleb pushed up the front of her shirt by running his hands underneath, and his seeking fingers slipped beneath her bra as well. He skimmed her hard nipples, moaning at their stiffness while he rolled them between his fingers. All the while, he was walking her backward. With so many sensations flooding her body, she was barely aware of the motion until she found herself against a wall. He leaned over to flick her hardened buds with his tongue.

Her gasp signaled the end of her protest.

He tugged at her skirt, gathering the long, wispy fabric until he could slide a hand along her bare, trembling thigh. His werewolf-enhanced body heat couldn’t match the fire his touch ignited in her.

When his fingers dragged over the crotch of her skimpy panties, her legs weakened.