Forged in Ash (37 page)

A splash of warmth touched his face and his eyes softened. He laughed softly at her recital of his injuries. “Don’t forget the scrapes and cuts and bruises.”

His gaze dropped to her face, and then lower, lingering on her lips.

Kait felt her muscles heat and her blood awaken to pulse through her veins.

Her nipples tightened, and she basked in the sultry, spicy heat he was suddenly emitting.

After a moment he took a breath so deep, it lifted his chest. He shook his head. “I’ll live, and you’re exhausted. Go take your shower and hit the sack.”

The soft
click
of a door opening caught their attention. They both turned as Wolf backed through the first door in the hall and closed the door behind him.

“It’s the first bedroom,” Kait said. “He must have given it to Jillian.”

“You know your way around this place,” Cosky said, only he didn’t sound admiring and that peculiar sharpness was back in his voice.

His tone sounded almost jealous. Which was crazy. He’d made it all too clear he had no interest in pursuing a relationship with her. Before she had a chance to confront him about that weird tension, Wolf joined them.

He glanced at Cosky and jerked his head toward the hall. “I’ll take first watch; you catch some shut-eye in the last bedroom.”

Cosky stiffened slightly, his face cold, eye even colder. “I’ll take the couch.”

Wolf tilted his head, studied Cosky’s flat face. “I’ll relieve you in four hours.”

“Don’t bother,” Cosky said, without softening.

Another long moment of testosterone flaring and masculine aggression followed.

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Kait stepped between them, caught Wolf’s arm, and tried to steer him down the hall. “If he wants to sleep on the couch, let him sleep on the couch.”

For a second Wolf resisted, but then he chuckled and slung an arm over her shoulder. “
Ooxonouubeiht.
”

“Hey,” Kait said indignantly, recognizing the word. “I’m not crabby.”

He laughed and gave her a one-armed hug.

“You’ve been studying,” he said in a voice of pleased indulgence.

“I’m trying.” She smothered a huge yawn behind her hand. “But it’s a lot harder to learn without my tutor.”

Chuckling, he followed her through the open door of the second bedroom. “Everything you need is in the bathroom. You know where—” He broke off and swung toward the open door behind them. “Problem?” he asked, his voice suddenly full of chilly threat.

“No.” But Cosky didn’t budge from the middle of the door. Pure ice sculpted his face.

Kait stared dumbfounded between the two men.

“You’re taking the couch.” It wasn’t a question, and Wolf’s voice was very soft. Full of command.

“And you’re taking the third bedroom.” Cosky’s voice matched her brother’s for softness and menace.

Abruptly furious with the pair of them, Kait threw her arms up and then pointed at the open door. “You’re both leaving,
now
, so I
can go to bed. You want to kill each other? Fine. Just close my door before you start whaling on each other so you don’t wake me up.”

Wolf looked surprised. “
Nebii’o’oo—
”

“I mean it, Wolf.” Kait tried to shove him toward the door.

He let her shove him out the door, and she closed it empathically behind him. Then stood there listening for the muted thud of fists striking hard flesh.

Several seconds passed before footsteps sounded in the hall. A few more seconds and then Cosky said softly, “Go to bed, Kait.”

She took his advice and headed for the shower, where she took the fastest one on record and fell into bed, instantly falling asleep.

Wearing the navy-blue sweats his reluctant host had shoved at him, with his hair still wet from the shower he’d taken in the bathroom adjacent to Kait’s, Cosky folded one of the colorful blankets thrown across the back of the couch to use as a pillow and stretched out across the cushions. He checked the hall and immediately lurched to his feet again.

He shoved the couch across the hardwood floor a foot or so, and checked the hall again.

All three bedroom doors remained closed. Once his temporary bed was in position, he turned off the living room light and stretched out again, angling his head until he had a good view down the hall through his good eye.

The hallway was illuminated by a light shining in the kitchen. If any door opened during the night he’d see it. If anyone tried to sneak into someone else’s bedroom, he’d see them.

It didn’t matter how many times he reminded himself that he’d walked away from Kait—the mere thought of her entwined in that bed with anyone and the urge to maim seized him.

She deserved better than him.

But she deserved better than that bastard sleeping in the room beside her too.

There was no question that son of a bitch was Special Forces. No doubt he pulled the same kind of dirty, dangerous duty as ST7. Damn it. Kait deserved better than that.

Better than them.

She deserved a man she didn’t have to worry about dying in some foreign rat hole. She deserved a husband who returned every night and spent weekends by her side.

Goddamn Wolf couldn’t offer her that anymore than he could.

His gaze fixed on her bedroom door, Cosky fought the pull toward her. The impulse to get up, walk over, open her door, and bury himself in her heat and softness again.

At least until Wolf dragged him away and buried him somewhere in this pristine wilderness he called home, because there was no doubt the bastard had his ears tuned to her room, just as Cosky had his eyes locked on that hallway door.

So he spent his time listening to the quiet. Although it wasn’t truly silent. In fact, the damn place sounded alive. The logs creaked and moaned around him. The wind in the trees outside sounded like whispers against the windowpanes, like eerie, raspy breathing.

It had been too dark when they’d arrived to get much of a layout of the place. But he’d recognized the huge, wavering shadows arching into the night sky as trees, the metallic sheen behind the
cabin as water. Some kind of lake, or a pond. There was no trickle of rushing water, so it couldn’t be a river.

But beyond the vague sense that they were somewhere south of Yosemite National Park, he had no idea where they were. If he’d had his cell phone, he could have checked the GPS locator.

But the only cell phone available was Wolf’s.

Yeah, like he’d hand that over.

Sighing, Cosky tried to relax. But every single inch of him throbbed or burned—with the exception of his knee. Not even the handful of aspirin he’d taken earlier eased the pain in his hands or face or ribs. But his leg felt better than it had in months. Better than it had any right to feel considering the hell he’d put it through recently.

He’d checked it out while he’d showered, and he could swear the scar from his surgery looked fainter, less ragged and raw—less red.

Kait really had healed it. Possibly it was even still healing.

Too damn bad he couldn’t say that about the rest of his injuries. Although none of them were career threatening, and while they weren’t exactly comfortable, they’d eventually heal on their own.

When lying there became unbearable, he roamed the interior of the cabin, familiarizing himself with the layout of the place. The walls were rough-hewn, notched logs, varnished to a high gloss. The same wood plank floor in the living room continued down the hall and into the kitchen. Black granite with flecks of white graced the kitchen counters. Stainless steel was everywhere—in the stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, and gas grill fitted into the middle of the kitchen island, as well as in the washer and dryer tucked into the corner of the kitchen, next to the freezer: which was also stainless steel and huge.

He checked out the freezer and fridge.

They didn’t have to worry about starving.

Trying to keep awake, he checked out the walls as he passed. A variety of pictures hung from them: water colors, pastels, a couple of oils. The subjects were as varied as the medium: everything from majestic mountains to pristine lakes, local animals, and flora. His favorites were the birds. There were only a couple in the house, but they caught the eye. So colorful and vibrant they seemed to be hovering there, ready to flap their wings and take flight.

Then again, maybe he was just punchy.

Daylight slowly seeped through the windows, lightening the interior of the cabin with ghostly fingers of silver and haze. On the front porch, he took a few seconds to breathe in the crisp, pine-scented air.

He’d been right about the trees. Although Wolf had cleared out the space immediately in front of the place, and layered it with gravel, monstrous trees bowled the cabin in. Towering overhead, they reached for the sky with giant boughs of emerald.

Yosemite National Park claimed that the area’s weather pattern and deep, alpine soil grew some of the most massive trees in the world.

He could believe it with these suckers as evidence.

It wasn’t long before he heard a door open inside the cabin, and the creak of footsteps on the plank floor. Wolf joined him on the front porch.

Leaning his arms against the rough log that formed the top rail, Wolf closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. His split lip was more swollen than ever, scabby with dried blood. The bruises on his cheeks and chin were a vivid yellowish blue. But his body and face were the most relaxed Cosky had seen them.

“I can smell the stink on you,” Wolf said, with his eyes still closed, and while his face might have been relaxed, his voice sure as hell wasn’t.

Cosky straightened, knowing the bastard wasn’t talking about body odor.

“It rolls off you in waves. The stink of lust. The stink of jealousy. The stink of possessiveness.” He opened his eyes, his gaze flat and cold. “You make no claim on her; you have no right to her. Remember that.”

Turning, Wolf vanished back in the house.

Cosky stayed put, his hands clamped around the top rail, practicing some deep breathing exercises.

Hours later, the smell of bacon wafted through the house. From his position on the couch, he saw Kait’s bedroom door open. She stumbled into the hallway like she hadn’t quite awakened. Her bruised and scraped face was rosy and blank with sleep. She started for the kitchen, but some instinct kicked in and she stopped to glance over her shoulder. When she saw him, she turned and headed his way.

He didn’t question the satisfaction that she’d come to him first, rather than that bastard cooking in the kitchen.

Slowly, he sat up as she approached, his gaze lingering on the golden, fluffy rope of hair spilling down from the shining cap of pulled-back hair. She was wearing sweats, like he was, but hers were purple.

“Did you sleep okay?” she asked on a yawn.

“Yeah.” He tackled the urge to taste her mouth, taste that yawn, taste her blurry-eyed sleepiness.

“Wolf makes a mean breakfast if you’re hungry,” she said around another yawn. Turning, she padded back toward the kitchen.

He checked on Jillian as they passed her room, but she was still asleep, swallowed by the gigantic, four-poster log bed.

Wolf glanced up as Cosky entered the room. The granite island in front of him was overflowing with platters of crisp bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast. Wolf went back to filling the plate in front of him, picked up a piece of toast, and plastered it with what looked like strawberry jelly. Without saying a word, he picked the plate up and disappeared into Jillian’s room.

“Help yourself,” Kait said, pouring a cup of coffee.

Cosky took one of the ceramic mugs sitting beside the coffeemaker and one of the plates stacked on the kitchen counter. After pouring himself some coffee, he filled the plate.

The silence was companionable as they ate. Wolf returned to the kitchen with an empty plate, rinsed it, and stuck it in the dishwasher. After heaping another plate full of bacon, eggs, and hash browns, he carried it out to the back porch. All without saying a word.

Sighing, Kait pushed aside her empty plate and followed their host out to the porch. Cosky followed, feeling like a third wheel.

Wolf looked up from the bench he was sitting on and frowned. “It’s cold,
bixoo3etiit.
There’s a
hookoubiixuut
next to the door.”