Disobedient Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (22 page)

“I hope you ain’t too attached to these,” he said. Before she could wonder, he gave her underwear a violent yet exciting tug. She heard seams tear as he stripped the flimsy nylon off her.

“God, feel how wet you are for me,” he said, dipping a finger inside her. Her body practically convulsed with pleasure, and she opened her mouth in a silent cry that he further squelched by covering her lips with his.

“I can’t wait,” he said, his hand moving to his zipper. “You were in such a hurry for me to take you by that waterfall. I was a fool for puttin’ you off. Not this time.”

With that, he dropped his jeans around his knees and lifted her up, pressing her harder against the wall. She was high enough that he could lightly bite and tease her nipples without bending over, and she held onto his shoulders for support. She slipped down along the wall slowly, and she thought he was losing his grip on her until she realized he was lowering her on purpose.

He took hold of his hot, hard cock and slipped it inside her as soon as her cunt was where it needed to be. And oh, yes, she couldn’t pretend it wasn’t right where it belonged. The low, feverish moan they both let out as he sank deep into her attested to that.

“Feel how much I want you, Rose,” he said as he gripped her hips and thrust himself into her. “Feel how I can’t live without this. Without you.”

She pushed him back enough by the shoulders for her to see into his glowing eyes. “But you have been living without me. You and Stephen are so into each other that every time I turn around, you’re making love. I barely see how you would find time to miss me.”

He grunted in frustration and shoved himself inside her harder. “Don’t kid yourself, darlin’. We ain’t been the ones drivin’ each other into a frenzy.” He fucked her with deep, animal gyrations from his hips that grew faster and harder with each sentence—and so did her throbbing need. “You’re the one we’re thinkin’ of. The one who possessed us, body and soul. You asked for time alone, but we couldn’t stop actin’ out our need for you. We’ve tried to recapture that perfect moment when you were between us, but it’s no good. None of it works the same when you ain’t part of it.”

Caleb’s voice broke slightly on the last, and when he looked up at her, the gleam in his eyes wasn’t only from their golden depths. They were glossy with the emotion she felt swirling around them both, the longing and frustration of a man who was baring his soul. He believed every word he was saying.

And so did she.

A pang shot through her chest when their gazes locked. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer, eager to get as much contact between their bodies as possible. He had hold of her ass now, bouncing her on his cock while he showed her just how much he’d missed being with her. Pressure soared in her clit until she was ready to explode with pleasure, not to mention the sense of completion she felt pouring out of him. Yet the thought of giving in completely, of crashing over the edge as she’d done the last time, frightened her in a way she’d been naive to before. Now she knew what was at stake.

Caleb must have sensed her hesitation. “Let go,” he murmured. “Let me in.”

In the end, it wasn’t the relentless, expert grind of his hips, or even the sweet, tender kiss he pressed to her lips. It was those words that undid her, shoving her into the abyss where she knew nothing but total surrender to her body and his. Pure, romantic passion filled the air. His love for her shimmered in the midst of that chaos, twining around the invisible cord of connection between them that she hadn’t wanted to face.

Somehow, impossibly, she loved him too. She loved them both.

Climax shook her, but the realization of the feelings she’d buried pierced right through to her core. They rode it out together, her arms tight around his neck while he kissed her and gave her his cum. Her closed eyes burned as tears of release squeezed out. By the time Caleb finally stopped pumping against her, her cheeks were wet.

“What is it?” he said tenderly, brushing a tear away with his thumb. “Did I upset you?”

“It’s not that.” She couldn’t explain more, though. She just sniffed and held on while he lowered her to the floor.

Caleb cradled her to his chest, stroking her hair and rocking her gently while she let the inexplicable tears flow.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a couple of minutes. “I don’t know why I’m being so ridiculous.”

“You ain’t nothin’ of the sort.” He lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes until she felt dizzy. “Thank you for lettin’ me show you how I feel.” He paused. “And how you feel.”

She let go of him and tugged her shirt down into place. “I can’t deny that I want to be with you and Stephen, even though I’m not sure I’m ready. But I love being a nurse. I don’t want to lose this job. I have to go.”

“You don’t have to figure anythin’ out right now.”

“Yes, I do. I’m supposed to leave in three days.”

“Fate has a way of findin’ solutions.” He bent down and picked up her ruined panties. She gave him a shy smile as he folded the small thong and tucked it away in his jeans. “Better wash that beautiful face and get back outside. I’ll wait a spell before joinin’ you.”

She nodded and headed for the door, her legs wobbly and her mind full of tangled and conflicting thoughts.

“And Rose?”

She turned to him while she twisted the door lock.

“Don’t be shocked if Stephen’s a little tense when you get out there. I’d wager he’s had a rather interestin’ time tryin’ not to let on that he was just thrown in the middle of an uncontrollably arousing sex-o-gram.”

She grunted as she walked out. She definitely knew the feeling. Lucky for her, she’d been able to weather those storms without an audience. Poor Stephen.

By the time Rose had tidied up her tear-stained face and returned to the deck, daylight had dwindled. Everyone had left the table except Stephen. He sat alone, practically shooting sparks from his eyes as he watched her return to her cold plate. His expression made it clear that Caleb’s warning had been an understatement.

“I had you alone in a bathroom,” he whispered to her under his breath, “and I managed to act like a gentleman even after you stripped off your top. Caleb has you for ten seconds, and I’m treated to such a raging hard-on that I didn’t dare try to speak, let alone stand up.”

She poked at the remains of her food. “I’m sorry. But welcome to my world the past three days.”

He watched her closely. “Why are your eyes all red? What else was I sensing?”

“Nothing.”

“Everything all right?” Jo asked, wandering back to the table from a group chatting nearby. “Thought maybe you’d fallen in.”

Oh, for the love of Pete, Rose thought. Would the woman never give up?

“The stain took a while to get out,” Rose said coolly, “and my shirt took a while to get dry enough to put back on.”

The woman stared at her the same way Stephen had when checking out her puffy, bloodshot eyes. “Delores has a backup plate of food warming in the oven,” she said in a tone that dared Rose to refuse.

“How incredibly thoughtful. I’ll get it right away.”

Rose bolted for the house before Jo or Stephen could get in another word, and Delores happily handed over the fresh plate. Rose managed to eat at the island counter in the kitchen, nodding to several of the couples as they wandered in to bid Delores farewell. An attempt to help with the mound of dishes, however, won Rose a quick shooing.

On her way back through the great room, where the few remaining guests stood chatting, she inconveniently managed to bump simultaneously into Jo and Caleb, who had converged from opposite directions.

“What happened to
you
now?” Jo asked, but for once, she wasn’t picking on Rose. She was talking to Caleb.

He and Rose both glanced at the spot on his shirt that Jo pointed at—a dark stain that Rose had undoubtedly left behind when she’d cried on his shoulder like an idiot.

Caleb had the good sense not to flinch guiltily like Rose did. “I got somethin’ on my shirt when I had my head under the hood of Stephen’s car.”

Jo took in Rose’s puffy eyes, then his shirt again. If she put together anything fishy, though, she didn’t mention it.

“Everything okay with the car?” Rose asked, proud of herself for asking in a smooth tone.

“Shipshape. Things were runnin’ so rough I wasn’t sure the engine would make it. But I think the timin’ was just off.”

His smile set her pulse at a dizzying rate, and she knew it wasn’t Stephen’s car he was referring to.

The two of them left Jo and walked outside together, where Stephen had finally managed to get on his feet. Everyone else was inside, except for Ted. He was still fussing around with the smoker and grill.

Rose sipped some wine while the three of them found a corner on the deck.

“I won’t bother to mention it would have been counterproductive to my cause if you two had been caught fucking in my boss’s house,” he chided.

“Funny how the way you don’t mention it sounds pretty much the same as you mentionin’ it,” Caleb said.

“I’m sorry,” Rose said with a hot rush to her face. “It just happened. We tried to be discreet.”

“Discreet to some, maybe,” Stephen said to her. “Overwhelmingly apparent to others.” He shifted the bulk in his slacks to make his point. “So I take it this means you’ve changed your mind about leaving.”

She shook her head. “Caleb asked for a chance to be with me again, and I gave it to him. But nothing’s changed. I still have to go.”

She flinched at the awkward, weighted shift in their senses.

Caleb gaped at her, and the strain in his voice made it clear he was struggling to keep the volume down. “That’s bullshit. You make it sound like you gave me a mercy fuck to get rid of me.”

Her mouth fell open. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

His eyes flashed. “After what we just shared, you’re gonna stand here and say nothin’ changed? That you didn’t almost fall apart in my arms?”

She swallowed. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be. You know how I feel. But you also know I have a career to think of.”

“Which apparently matters a lot more than the men you casually take to bed,” Caleb said, and while he kept his volume low, the edge in the words struck her sharply.

Rose turned to Stephen. “What if a complete stranger walked up to you and told you that you had to commit yourself to them—and that it meant giving up your medical practice?”

“No one is asking you to give up your career,” Stephen said.

“It’s implied by what you
are
asking,” she said. “If I stay here, I can’t go where the agency wants to send me. I’m stuck.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “Stuck with what? The fact that I love you—and that I damn well can feel you love me back? Or isn’t that important enough to weigh in your decision?”

“I wonder whether that hasn’t been the problem all along,” Stephen said, searching her eyes. “Knowing two men are in love with you after only a matter of days has obviously shaken you up. Especially when you let go of the tight grip on your heart long enough to admit you feel the same.”

“It isn’t logical to talk about love,” she said. “Not at this point.”

He nodded. “You’re right. None of this is logical.” He dropped his voice even lower. “But not everything has to be. The existence of werewolves involves a magic that has no logic to it at all. It just is. Our mate bond is the same way.”

The tears she’d defeated earlier threatened to return. “So I’m just supposed to throw away everything that I am in order to play my part in some magical fairy tale?”

“Yes, damn it,” Caleb said. “It’s called compromise. People in love do that.”

“Caleb,” Stephen snapped under his breath.

Rose shook her head. “Then I must not be in love. Because throwing everything I value to the wolves, pardon the pun, for two men I barely met is something I vowed I’d never let happen to me. It’s wrong. I can’t be like that.”

You can’t be like her
, she corrected herself mentally.
You won’t become like her.

“So that’s it, then,” Caleb said. “You let me make love to you knowin’ full well you were still gonna leave me.” The stab of betrayal in his sense shot through her.

She didn’t answer.

“Fuck,” he said, and he turned on his boot heel and stormed off.

“Rose,” Stephen said almost too quietly to hear.

She felt the vibrations of hurt pulsing around him, a pain that was reflected in his eyes when she forced herself to meet them.

“Don’t do this,” he said, taking the wineglass from her and setting it on the wide railing. “Don’t leave things this way.”

He kissed her then, and while the contact between their lips wasn’t as hard and punishing as normal, the desperation in it circled her tightly and took her breath away. Stephen held onto her upper arms while he explored every inch of her mouth, and soon there was far more than frustration and disappointment raging around them. Spears of lust she thought Caleb had satisfied fully drove through every inch of her, and she pictured herself dragging Stephen off to the guest room the way Caleb had done her.