Down & Dirty (Bundle) (2 page)

Ginny fought not to drop her head back and
offer him her throat. She barely succeeded. “I suppose they don’t
care that I didn’t do anything to them. I’m a woman alone. An
oddity.”

“
An oddity,” he agreed
quietly. “You and Charlotte certainly make my life interesting,
don’t you?”

“
If you told Lottie to do
something, she would. She’s not interested in reminding you that
you don’t own her.” She lifted her chin even more and watched his
eyes. “I am, though. All I want is to be left alone. I like it that
way, Jack.”

His hand dropped away. “You’re nearly out of
options, Ginny. You came to me, and that makes you mine. Mine to
protect, anyway.” He smiled, small and bitter, before turning his
back on her abruptly and striding to the table. “Don’t worry
yourself too much. When you’re safe, I’ll leave you alone, if
that’s what you want.”

“
Will you?” He couldn’t
mean it, not with the way he’d been watching her for
months.

Jack picked up a heavy leather gun belt and
buckled it around his waist. “If that’s what you want.”

Of course it is.
She opened her mouth to tell him so, but what came
out was, “You’re not riding out to Dawson’s spread now, are you?
Alone?”

“
No.” He tightened the belt
and reached for his coat. “I’m going home with you.”

She stared at the back of
his head in disbelief. “I’m sorry,
what
?”

“
I’m going home with you.
You’ll need help rounding up your stock, and you’re not going to be
out there alone until I’ve dealt with them. So you stay here, or I
go there. Your choice.”

He’d be in her home. It was the one place
she knew she could escape from everything, everyone, and Jack would
be there. “But --” She looked at the tense set of his shoulders and
swallowed the rest of her protest. “I don’t have a spare bedroom.
You’ll have to bunk down in the parlor.” She couldn’t help the
challenge that crept into her voice.

He just sounded amused when he answered.
“Bunked down in worse places.”

Ginny wanted him in her
bed. The knowledge should have shocked her, but it had been a long
time since she’d slept any way but alone.
Hard up and horny,
she thought
dourly.
Might fuck anything with two legs
and a pulse at this point. Doesn’t mean anything.
“Let’s go.”

Jack pulled his horse to a stop at the fence
that surrounded Ginny’s property and closed his eyes, letting the
scents and sounds of the night come to him. The moon hung low in
the sky tonight, nearly full, and the call of it tickled at the
edges of his senses as he reached out with his power.

He sensed Ginny first, a
strong, vibrant presence just behind him, and the wolf inside him
paused. The wolf
always
perked up when Ginny was around, always rode him hard and
demanded he lay claim to her. He was alpha, the
leader
, and it was fitting that such a
female should belong to him and no other.

Maybe if it had happened to him before, Jack
would know how to quiet the animal. But single women were a scarce
commodity these days, and available female wolves even more so. Of
the dozen or so in his pack, only two had the sort of strength that
tempted his wolf. Neither had interested the man.

Ginny interested every damn
part of him. The man, the wolf…
My
cock.
The scent of her was enough to make
him uncomfortably hard, but the feeling of her power brushing
against his, so close he could reach out and
touch
her…

No.
He’d been patient thus far. Ginny was a wild creature. If he
spooked her, she’d run so far and fast he’d never catch her. And
now that she’d finally come to him, he could hardly afford to
frighten her away for lack of a little care.

Even if it meant sleeping on her couch and
wishing himself dead.

She pulled her mount alongside his and
sighed. “I only got them all back last time because they ranged
down to the corner of Ollie’s property, where the creek cuts
through. Doesn’t matter though.” She drew up the reins on her horse
and led Jack through a damaged section of fence. “I think maybe you
were right. I think they’re through with warnings.”

“
Ollie will help you round
them up in the morning,” Jack murmured, his eyes still half shut.
He could sense someone in the woods, one of his wolves. One of his
pack. Ignoring Ginny, he urged his horse around and faced the line
of the forest that marked the end of her property. In the moonlight
it would be impossible not to recognize him, but he let his energy
roll out anyway, a warning to anyone in the area.
Mine.

His sensitive ears caught
the faintest sound, a startled noise followed by a rustle of
leaves.
That’s right. Run away.

She didn’t move, just stared down at her
gloved hands. “Dawson, you figure?”

“
Probably.” Jack had to
struggle to regain his calm expression before turning back to her.
“Whoever it is, they won’t be bothering us tonight. Tomorrow we’ll
ride to Oliver’s and ask him to help you while I pay Dawson a
visit.” And as long as she was with Oliver, Jack wouldn’t have to
worry about her safety. If Oliver had been the least bit interested
in politics, he would have been the second or third strongest wolf
in the pack. Ginny’s troublemakers wouldn’t dare cause mischief in
front of him.

Her eyes were inscrutable in the darkness.
“Thank you.”

She rode on.

When they reached her house, Ginny turned
straight for the barn. She must have known better than to suggest
he go inside and wait for her to stable the horses, so they did it
together. They worked side-by-side, in silence, bedding the horses
for the night. The tension arcing off her was palpable,
recognizable.

She wanted him.

“
I have a blueberry pie,”
she told him when they finished, her gloves and hat clutched in one
hand. “Don’t worry, though. I didn’t make it. Lottie
did.”

Jack smiled and followed her from the barn.
“As long as it wasn’t Hazel. Lottie may have given that girl a
passing acquaintance with manners, but she doesn’t seem too fond of
baking.”

“
She makes a good rum
cake.”

“
She
is
fond of the booze.” He glanced up
at the stars and fought the urge to ask Ginny’s advice on dealing
with Hazel and the trouble that surrounded her in the pack. That
her answer would be succinct and to the point just made it harder.
He
wanted
to ask
Ginny’s advice. He wanted to talk to her about pack problems, to
seek her counsel and ask for her help. He wanted her as a partner
almost more than he wanted her as a lover, though her proximity was
sheer torture on his self-control.

Of course, judging by the strength of the
arousal drifting off her, he’d have no problem getting an
invitation to her bed. And if that was all he wanted…

But it wasn’t. And something told him Ginny
would welcome him as a lover long before she considered him for a
mate.

Jack opened the door for
her and let his gaze drift over the curves of her body as she
preceded him into the house. Maybe sex wasn’t the most important
thing he wanted from her, but he’d be a liar and a fool to pretend
that wasn’t part of it.
So make the sex
part of the hunt.

He rather liked the irony of using sex to
seduce her into considering love.

She paused at a table by the door and lit a
lamp. “Do you want any of the pie, or some coffee? Tea?” Her voice
dropped an octave. “I have a bottle of whiskey. Not the finest, but
smooth enough.”

If he went to her bed, he
wanted them
both
sober. “Coffee would be nice.”

A flash of irritation quirked her brow, and
he knew he’d been right. She’d have drank just enough for the
alcohol to shoulder the blame when she woke beside him, naked.
“It’ll take a few minutes,” she murmured as she moved past him
toward the kitchen.

He reached out and caught her arm, curling
his fingers tight enough to hold but not trap her. She tensed under
his touch, and he rubbed his thumb along her skin in a soothing
gesture without thinking about it. “I wouldn’t want to put you out,
Virginia. If you’d rather go to sleep, I can see to my own
coffee.”

“
I can do it.” She didn’t
move for a moment. “I want to, Jack.” It sounded like a confession,
and she pulled out of his grasp and walked into the
kitchen.

He heard her stirring up the coal stove and
the rattle of the coffee pan. Then she took a single long breath
and leaned against the open doorway. Watching him. “You didn’t have
to come all the way out here tonight.”

The opening presented itself, and Jack
maneuvered the conversation in the direction he wanted as deftly as
any hunter. “I don’t mind. But maybe you could pay me back with a
little bit of insight.”

“
Insight about what?” She
rubbed her left calf with the toe of her right boot.

That wasn’t a no.
Jack crossed the room and leaned against the wall
a few feet away from her. “Hazel. She’s already past due for her
first mating. The young wolves in town are losing their grip on
their common sense, but Hazel ignores every reasonable, safe option
that Lottie and I have put before her. If she hasn’t chosen a mate
by the time she goes into heat…” There was no reason to finish.
Ginny knew as well as he the sort of chaos that was likely to
cause. “You’re friendly with the girl. What is going on in her
head?”

She started grinning
halfway through his speech. When he finished, she threw back her
head and laughed. “Reasonable and safe. Sounds like what you know
about women could fit in your coffee cup with room to spare, Jack.”
The accusation was saved from being harsh by the low, honeyed tone
of her voice. “’
Reasonable’
doesn’t make our hearts seize up.
‘
Safe’
doesn’t make
us dream about you.”

He moved before he had time to consider the
wisdom of his actions. Two steps and he had her trapped against the
doorframe, his body pressed along hers. He braced his hand above
her head and leaned down until his lips almost touched hers. “You
don’t need to be a dangerous fool to know how to make a woman pant
for you. To make her beg for your touch until her voice goes hoarse
and she’s come so many times she can’t stand it anymore.”

“
That’s one thing I never
doubted about you, Jack.” Lust darkened her eyes. “You could make
me see stars, I bet. The question is what comes after
that.”

A lifetime.
He eased his knee between her legs and rocked
against her. “We do it again?”

Her hands slid up his chest, and she ground
down on his thigh with a harsh moan. Then she pushed him away and
took his hand. “Come to my bed.”

Anticipation raced through him as he lifted
her hand to his lips. He bit the inside of her wrist lightly and
smiled when she shivered. “Yes, Ginny. A bed is a good idea.”

Chapter Two

Ginny paused in the doorway of her bedroom.
Moonlight shone through the curtains, splashing over the faded
quilt on her bed, and she shuddered. Though she wasn’t celibate,
not by a long shot, she’d never invited a man into her bedroom
before.

So why now? Why Jack?

Her hand pulled free of his, and she crossed
to the bed to remove her boots. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Jack pulled off his boots
and set them next to her door in silence. When he straightened, he
lifted his fingers to his belt. “Are
you
comfortable?”

His hands hovered over the buckle, and Ginny
caught herself staring. She tore her gaze away and rose, dragging
her shirt from her pants. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“
I’m the alpha, Ginny. You
can’t fool me.” He dropped his hands and crossed the room, stopping
in front of her. His hands covered hers and his knuckles brushed
her stomach, a light touch that gave her a taste of the restrained
energy inside of him.

Heat blazed through her, and she started
unbuttoning her shirt under his hands. “I didn’t plan on this,
that’s all.” Which was true enough.

He moved with such speed that she didn’t
realize he’d spun her until her back hit his chest. One hand
gathered her hair and held it away from her ear as the other
splayed across her bare stomach. “Do you plan everything?”