Wolf Tracker (24 page)

Tami set the comb down and walked the few steps to the door. Tracker’s cheeks didn’t even feel cold when she pulled his head down. “Kiss me, Tracker.”

He did, a gentle, lingering kiss. “I wanted to do that the whole time I was tracking you.”

“What? Kiss me?”

“Yup.” His second kiss was deeper, hotter. “I love kissing you.”

Tami liked it, too. “I can’t feel you very well behind that door. Come in here.”

His eyes looked sleepy, but he was completely alert. He stepped into the stall and closed the door behind him. “Why? Is there a special position just for horse stalls?”

Heat flared in Tami’s cheeks. An answering heat flared between her legs. “I suppose almost any position would work. But there’s not that much room and I don’t know how Freedom would like us crowding him.”

“Mmmm. And it’s cold, too.” Long strong arms wrapped around her and brought her close enough for his cheek to press against her hair. “We’ll wait for tonight. Mind you fill the wood box this afternoon.”

“Yes, sir,” Tami teased. “Which position did you want to try tonight? Aside from the standing one?”

“Surprise me,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head.

He pulled them so their backs were leaning against the wall, shoulders touching. He kept her hand in his. It was a simple thing. How long since anyone had just held her hand? Why hadn’t she known how much she’d missed such uncomplicated intimacies?

“I reckon we got some things to talk about,” he said in his soft drawl.

She opened her eyes wide in teasing disbelief. “You talk?”

“Not much, unless I’ve got something to say.” He considered. “Reckon I’ve talked more since I met you than I ever have. I like talking to you.”

He sounded so serious Tami had to smile. “Okay, what do you have to say now?”

“We need to figure where you—I mean,
we
will live.”

She didn’t have a place for him to move into, unless her room here or her ranch in Colorado counted, but the 2Cs might not even exist anymore. “Where do you live now?”

His shoulder moved against hers in a shrug. “Nowhere special. I travel about mostly. I spend some time with my kin in the Clan, and sometimes I stay here with the Pack. But mostly I travel and sleep on the trail.”

“Oh. What about your job? You find people and things for a living?”

“Nah,” he shrugged. “That ain’t a job. Not official-like. If somebody needs my help and I’m handy, I’ll do it and sometimes they pay me. Maybe five, six times a year. But I don’t need money much. I hunt for my food and trade for other stuff, and I can get everything else from the Clan. See, I just travel around. Don’t really like being with a lot of people all the time.” He tilted his head to look at her. “I’d like to take you with me. But I could leave you here or with my kin in the Clan if you’d rather.”

Living rough with no house of her own at all? “That would be okay. Part of the time, at least,” she said carefully. “But I’d like a place of my own, too.”

“Yeah. I figured that. And when we have kids we can’t be dragging them along with us.”

Kids!
Tami gasped with alarm.

“There’s a couple of things we could do,” Tracker went on calmly, as if he hadn’t just given her a heart attack. “Some of the men in the Clan are building houses in the Black Hills. They won’t live there all the time. Just in the winter. We could do that. Or we could head over to your place over west of here and see what’s up. Maybe we could live there.”

Did her ranch still exist? If it did, was someone else already living there? “I’d like to head out to my ranch in the spring like we planned. But I don’t know about living there. I wouldn’t know anyone there anymore. I think I’d rather try for a house in the Black Hills with your folks.”

He put an arm around her. “Sounds good. Will you ride the land with me in the summer?”

“Sure.” Tami smiled. “There are some positions that are especially fun outdoors.”

He gave that soft laugh that made her want to laugh, too. “When the weather is warmer. A mite too cold to be going without clothes even for me right now. You’d freeze for sure.”

It was getting cold out here. She tugged on his hand. “Come inside with me. Let’s go to my room.”

“Our room,” he corrected.

She grinned. “Our room,” she agreed.

They went back through the yard together, hand in hand, and paused to watch some of the wolves run around on four legs. One of the wolves, a big gray monster, ran up to where Carla stood in the kitchen door and stopped so suddenly he sprayed her with snow.

“Taye!” Carla yelled. “You did that on purpose! And don’t you give me that sloppy wolf grin!” But she petted his head and scratched behind his ears. The wolf stood in blissful adoration for a minute before leaping away and looking back at the Lupa with his head cocked playfully. Carla ran after him in what seemed to be a familiar game. It was just plain weird to think the big gray wolf was actually the same man who had eagerly asked about a list of love-making positions.

Tami squeezed Tracker’s hand. “I’m glad you don’t have a wolf. I know it’s normal for the Pack and the Clan, but it’s just too weird for me.”

Tracker gave her a strange look, then pulled her into the den. They stopped in the kitchen to get cups of the apple cider simmering over the fire, before going to their room. Tami poked up the banked fire in the Ben Franklin stove while Tracker pulled the two wooden chairs in front of it so they could sit in the warmth and drink their cider. When Tami had finished her cider, she set her cup aside, stood up, and drew the curtains closed.

Tracker quirked a brow at her. “Kinda dark in here for you without the sun.”

“The fire gives enough light for what I want to do.” She quickly stripped off her clothes and slipped her long coat back on over her naked skin. She almost laughed at his shocked expression. “What? We’re on our honeymoon.”

“Our what?” he asked hoarsely, watching her close the coat.

“This is our honeymoon. You know, when newlyweds spend time together getting to know each other and talking… And making love. Making love a
lot
.”

“Uh-huh,” he said dazedly. “You wanna make love right now? What are you doin’?”

“I’m trying to figure out how to get your pants down. It seems like last night was really about me. You were wonderful to me.” She really meant that. When she had frozen beneath him he had been ready to leave her alone rather than frighten her by making love to her. “Now I want to give you something to enjoy.”

His long brown fingers hesitated, then showed her how his pants fastened with ties at the sides. “If you think I didn’t enjoy myself last night, you weren’t payin’ attention.”

She smiled and pulled his pants open, revealing him already erect, as long and hard as the rest of him. “Here, lift up so I can take these off. There.” Leaving his pants clinging to his calves, she pushed his thighs open so she could kneel between them and take his length in her hands. “Any cider left in your cup?”

Tracker made a wordless sound and had to clear his throat to try again. “A bit. It’s not hot anymore.”

“That’s okay. I don’t want to burn you.”

“Don’t want—” He broke off with a gasp when she tipped the cup to trickle apple cider over his penis. When she put her tongue against the base of him to catch the drip running down his length, he squeaked. “Tami! Love, what are you doing?”

She took her time licking the cider off him, enjoying the way her body heated and melted. It knew what was coming. “This is called oral sex. If you want to be polite, that is. There are lots of other names for it. Do you want me to stop?”

“Hell, no.”

The fervency in his tone made her want to laugh. But instead she continued making love to him with her mouth, licking and nipping and sucking until he told her in a desperate tone she had to stop. She stood up, and grabbed her chair. Bending forward over it, she flipped the coat over her back, exposing herself to him.

“You know what to do next, right?” she teased him.

“Uh-huh,” he said. She felt his hands on her hips, then his lips on the small of her back. He pushed the coat further up her back, and settled against her with one of his hands opening her thighs wider and the other guiding his penis into her. He slid into her in a long slow drive that made her moan, and moved in and out with gentle, leisurely thrusts.

“More, Tracker. Harder,” she demanded, then giggled, because she remembered Jelly’s imitation of Carla when Taye was making love to her.

But she stopped giggling to sigh happily, because he did everything she loved, from tickling her clit to moving forcefully inside her, until the volcano inside her erupted and showered her in an orgasm that draped her limply over the back of the chair. Tracker wasn’t quite finished yet. He continued to pound into her with frantic thrusts for another minute until he groaned and shuddered inside her.

In a few moments she felt him slide wetly out of her and his hands smooth up the outsides of her thighs and around to her belly. Obedient to his gentle tug, she straightened and turned to lean against him with her arms around his waist. He was fully dressed in his leather shirt and moccasins, and his pants were still pooled around his ankles. She chuckled against his shoulder.

“What?” he asked lazily.

Her shoulders rolled in a shrug. “That was fun.”

His lips were warm when he brushed them back and forth over her cheek. “Deep down, is it still a mite scary for you? To be with a man, I mean?”

“No.” That was the best thing about this marriage. She loved to make love again. Tracker made it new and exciting for her. “Not with you.”

She could feel his smile when he pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. “Good.”

He bent to retrieve his pants and pull them back up. Then he found her clothes and dressed her like she was a kid. He had a little trouble with the bra, trying to figure out how it fastened, but she helped him, stifling her laughter over the businesslike way he stuffed her boobs into the cups. But she purred, enjoying his leisurely caresses as he buttoned her wool shirt closed. He wrapped her coat back around her and seated her beside him on the hard wooden chairs in front of the stove, one arm around her shoulders to pull her against his side.

“Tell me about your husband in the Times Before,” he whispered. His fingers tightened when her hand jerked in his. “If you can bear it.”

Tami took a deep breath. “His name was Brad. We fell in love when we were just kids in school. We were a couple until I went into the Army. We agreed we’d take a break until I got back home. I dated a couple guys, but I never really hit it off with them. When I got out and went back home, me and Brad picked up where we’d left off. We got engaged and then married.”

“You loved him?”

“Yes. Even at the end, we loved each other. Just not enough to stay married. We were divorced almost a year before the crash.”

He was quiet for a minute, fingers searching out her wedding ring. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her ring finger. “You know we don’t have divorce nowadays. Since we were married by a priest, there’s no way out ’cept death. That gonna be a problem for you?”

She clenched her fist over the white braid she’d been playing with. “No. Is it going to be a problem for you?”

His smile was in his voice. “Naw. I like bein’ married to you.”

She went back to stroking his braid. “Two people don’t always agree on everything. We’ll probably have our share of fights.”

“Maybe. The Grandmother told us men last night that every relationship has problems. Sometimes two oxen hitched together have troubles pulling as a team. Reckon we’ll figure out the best way to pull together. There’s two of us, so that means we can share the load.”

Interesting description of marriage, but not necessarily wrong. “Yeah.” She thought it was kind of sexy, the way he bent his nose against her neck and inhaled. “Do I smell okay?”

“Uh-huh. You smell real good. I love your scent.” He touched his tongue softly to the corner of her mouth. “You dropped my jaw when you asked me to marry you.”

Tami giggled at that. His face had shown nothing at all when she’d popped the question. “Why did you agree to marry me?”

“’Cause you smell good.” He laughed that silent ghost of a laugh. “That’s truth. From the first time I caught your scent on that scrap of shirt Leach gave me, I’ve been crazy about you. Reckon it was love at first sniff.”

“Love?”

“I reckon it’s love. Don’t know for sure, since I’ve never been in love before. Your turn. How do you feel about me?”

Tami kept her eyes on her hands. “I’m going to be painfully honest, here, Tracker. I like you. A lot. And I trust you. Maybe it’s not stars-in-my-eyes, fireworks-bursting-in-the-sky love, but it’s a good start.”

He bumped the top of her head with his nod. “Good enough. Honest feelings that build with time are good. Better a slow spark that builds into a warm fire than a match that flares and dies out right off. Maybe you’ve noticed I don’t talk much.” He fell silent for a second. “But I’ll talk to you. About anything.”

A hint of a tear burned Tami’s eye. He was so damn sweet sometimes. “Thanks.”

“Must be gettin’ close to lunch time. After that, I have to head out to town with the mates. Should be back in plenty of time for supper. What will you do while I’m out?”

That was easy. She laughed and poked him with a finger. “I’ll be getting more wood and planning our next position for tonight. I might take a nap, too, so I’m good and rested for later.”

He smiled his tiny smile. “Sounds like a plan, wife. I’m lookin’ forward to seein’ what you come up with for us tonight.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Tami kissed Tracker good-bye in the rec room. Renee, Connie, Marissa, and Sherry were going back to the Plane Women’s House, escorted by about fifteen of the Pack. The den would be quiet this afternoon. In addition to the large escort Taye sent with the women, other wolves were patrolling to guard against any stupidity on Dick’s part, and Stag and Jelly were taking Father John back to Grand Island. Tami wasn’t surprised to find out Stag was Jelly’s cousin. Just about everybody in the Clan and Pack were related somehow. The teenager turned away to hide his expression of disgust when Taye gave Carla a lingering kiss good-bye. Tami was willing to bet Jelly would be glad to be away from the honeymooning den for a week. Although, with Connie, Marissa, and Renee and their husbands going to live in Kearney, there would be only Carla and Taye and she and Tracker at the den.