Authors: J. Rose Allister
“You just ain’t gonna stop on this, are you?”
“No.”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “There’s a motel about five miles up at the Falls turnoff. You can drop us there.” His eyes scanned the sky. “Quick, before night comes. I’ll drive.”
Chapter Two
A short while later, Terra stood in the parking lot of the Shay Falls Inn with her hands on her hips and her nostrils flared with indignation.
“I told you, I’m not leaving,” she said.
Connor shook his head. “And I told
you
why you can’t stay.”
She did a mock imitation of his deep cowboy voice. “‘It ain’t safe’ isn’t a reason.”
“Damn well reason enough, if you’ve got a lick of sense in that pretty head.”
With a scowl, she started past him. She’d barely hit the sidewalk in front of Room 12 when Connor grabbed her arm. “The deal was for you to drop us off and head to wherever you’re goin’,” he said.
“That was your deal, not mine.” She tugged away from his grip. “I’m tired, Connor. I want to use the bathroom, clean up, and maybe rest a while. I can help you with Nash, too. Please.”
“None of those things can happen here.”
She raised her hands in exasperation. “So this is the thanks I get for stopping to pick you up, despite my better judgment, and then helping you bring Nash here?”
A harder, colder look than she’d seen from him narrowed at her. “If you go into that room, you’ll have to deal with things I can’t explain to you right now.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
She flounced past him and pushed the door open. The dim bedside lamp illuminated a pale Nash. He was lying flat on his back, sound asleep on top of the faded floral spread covering the queen-size bed.
Connor loomed right over her shoulder as she snorted and shook her head. “You’re right. I don’t think I can deal with the sight of a sleeping man. It’s not like he’s naked.”
“He will be.” The comment whipped her head toward him, and he pulled her back outside the door. “Naked and worse.”
The action had pulled her up against him so that her palms were flat against his chest. The green T-shirt he’d changed into as soon as they got to the motel felt soft and superheated beneath her hands. Why did her hot flashes flame up whenever she got close to him?
“What’s worse than naked?” she managed.
“For one thing,” he started, and then he lowered his head.
This time, he didn’t stop when their lips were a teasing span apart. He claimed her mouth with a rough, almost brutal intensity that sent her head spinning in all new directions. Her surprised gasp gave way to a moan, one he echoed in a deep, throaty tenor that set butterflies loose in her stomach. Her hands slid along his chest, tingling with the potent magic of his hard body. His hot tongue swept into the cleft between her lips, but when she opened them for him, he dragged his mouth away. To add insult to the abrupt halt to the kiss, he pushed her away from him. Dazed, she stared up at his livid eyes.
“That,” he went on with a hoarse rasp, “is by far the gentlest, least dangerous thing you would experience if you stayed.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but words failed while she watched him brush his fingers over his lips. Whether he was trying to relive the kiss or get rid of it was anyone’s guess.
“Consider that my lesson in why you need to follow directions,” he went on. “Class dismissed.”
Her lip curled at the curt rejection. That he could kiss her giddy and then callously push her away sent stabs of anger through her that burned hotter than the bizarre flashes he claimed were “chemistry.”
A faint prickle started near the corner of her eyes, but she blinked it back. Hell, no, she would not cry over a man she just met—and a crazy one at that.
“What, do you think I’m some stupid little virgin girl who’s never been kissed?” She had the small satisfaction of seeing his eyes darken in warning. “That I’ve never seen pain and bleeding and suffering? I’ve seen it all, trust me.”
His head cocked in challenge. “Yeah? Just how much has the virgin girl seen? How much has she
done
?”
“That’s none of your damn business.” That’s right, she thought at his sour expression. Swallow that news.
In reply, he stalked over and grabbed her again. She let out a gasp as he closed distance. “Have you ever done this?” he whispered into her hair. Then he took her hand and pushed it down the front of his jeans, pressing her palm over a shockingly hard, long bulge.
Outrage at his audacity surged through her veins, but she couldn’t stop herself from running her hand along the length of him and squeezing his cock. God, the rush of power she felt when it jerked at her touch! Wet, hot need filled the gap between her thighs, and the carnival ride in her head began spinning again.
“And if I have?” she whispered back.
His growl was less than human while his hand snaked into her rain-dampened hair, tugging it back just hard enough to feel tingles of pain. “And have you been so driven by animal passion that sufferin’ and pleasure blends into one and the same thing? If you let me push into you while that fever of yours is still on, you will be.”
“I know what you’re trying to do.” She pulled away, pressing her hands against her flaming cheeks. “You’re trying to scare me away.”
“I’m tryin’ to protect you, but you’re so stubborn that seems damn nigh impossible.”
The wavering resolve in his tone seemed clear, and brazen need flared inside her. She held his wild gaze without flinching, totally getting off on the wash of hot energy that arced between their bodies. She felt his arousal keenly, from the glazed longing in his eyes to the fists held taut at his sides. Lust permeated her every sense.
So, this was what it felt like to have sexual power over a man. Why she should discover it here, now, with a total stranger, she had no idea. All she’d wanted was to get free of the house and her non-life for a while. And now, the wild, feral excitement rushing through every molecule was the most freeing thing she’d ever felt.
She stepped closer and ran a hand over his chest. Her nipples puckered right along with his. “Do you really, honestly want me out of your life?” she asked, letting her voice dip down into her best seductive simmer. Not that she had one. “Because it seems to me that every time you try to shove me away, your dick gets harder.”
Hunger rose in his unwavering stare. “I never said I wanted you out of my life. Just away from here tonight.”
Her hands rested on her hips. “And how do you figure that would have worked if I’d agreed and left? I have no way to find you, and you have no way to find me.”
“That’s not true. You found me already.”
“Because of a random impulse to go for a drive.”
“Was it random? Tell me, just what sent you on this sudden impulse?”
She frowned at that. “I don’t know. I just felt so imprisoned all of a sudden. Like I couldn’t stay in my own skin. I had to get out of there.”
“And I was gripped by the sudden and overwhelmin’ compulsion to leave town and sit by the roadside right at the precise moment you decided to drive up the mountain. And you were somehow compelled to stop for me, despite your ‘better judgment.’” He took a step toward her and shook his head. “I suppose it’s also why you won’t leave now.”
“Because I’m tired now.”
“That ain’t the only reason.”
“What other reason do I need?”
“In my world, that compulsion is how we find one another. It’s how mates are driven to meet.”
“Mates?” She took a step back. “In
my
world, which is a little place called Earth, you’re a hot enough cowboy and all, but I was just out for a drive. Not seeking a
mate
.”
The knowing smile slid up his face again. His gaze moved off beyond her, scanning the sky that had deepened to a rich, azure blue behind the still-looming clouds, and the smile faded.
“I guess it’s inevitable,” he said. “You and I are gonna have to do this.”
“Do what?”
He glanced at the still-sleeping Nash. “He don’t have much time left. I have to go now.” He pulled the door closed quietly and turned back to her. “Come on.”
Connor strode down the sidewalk, toward the end of the long, one-story row of motel rooms. Her eyes fell to the way his ass twitched with a hot swagger, and then she launched herself after him.
“Where are we going?”
“We have to hunt before he wakes up.” She sped up, and Connor shot her a sideways glance. “And when I say ‘we,’ I mean
me
.”
“Hunting? I don’t know how to hunt. Wouldn’t it be better if I stayed in the room? Nash might need something.”
“Oh, he’ll need somethin’, but he ain’t gettin’ it from you. You’re safer with me.”
“The man’s sleeping and hardly in any shape to try anything. Besides, you don’t even have any weapons.” Except for the extremely lethal one she’d groped beneath his belt.
“That nap Nash is takin’ won’t last much longer. He’ll wake when the night comes, and matters will be much worse than what you saw by the roadside.”
“You really have an issue with nighttime, don’t you? Are you afraid of the dark?”
They rounded the end of the building, and Connor strode with purpose toward the woods behind the motel.
“What happens at nightfall?” she persisted.
“Full moon.”
She crunched through rocks and dirt, half running to keep up with his long strides until he stopped suddenly just outside a line of pine trees. “So?”
He sighed. “If you insist on stayin’ here for this, you may as well understand right now what you’re dealin’ with.”
For the second time that day, Connor peeled his shirt over his head, and she felt the moisture in her mouth evaporate.
“Okay,” she said with more of a dry croak than she’d have liked. “What am I dealing with?” Besides a hormone invasion that could take down a high school gym.
He shot her a grim smile. “I’m not what you’d call your average cowboy. Nash is about to join the club. There’s no easy way to tell you this, Terra. I have to show you.”
Her thoughts toggled between pornographic and medical possibilities for what he was about to reveal. How bad could it be, really? True, he certainly couldn’t be accused of being “average.” Ruggedly movie-star beautiful, maybe. Bizarre and puzzling, definitely. But average? Hell, no.
She clutched herself around the middle. “So, hit me with it already. Give up your mystery.”
He eyed her. “One condition first. If you’re gonna run, do
not
run to the room.”
She snorted. “You may have noticed I don’t jump and run easy, either.”
“Yeah. I’m gettin’ that.” His eyes failed to reflect the humor she was trying to inject. “I’m serious, though. That’s not where you wanna be.”
An odd, faraway expression crossed his features. “You didn’t find me by accident, Terra. You’re special, too, in your own way. You were meant to be a part of this secret and to keep it. Don’t be scared of me. I won’t hurt you.”
“I’m not scared.” Which was probably one of the crazier admissions she’d made today.
Still, something in the way he said the words prompted her to step back and hug herself tighter around the middle. She
could
run, if it came to that. Maybe not as fast these days, but her car was close by, and the keys were in her pocket.