Bind Me Close: 3 (Knights in Black Leather) (8 page)

“It does.” He watched her mouth, his dreamy gaze growing
stormy with desire, her mind telling her she mustn’t notice, mustn’t want to
tear his clothes off here. “And yes, this is where Bull Elk paused on his
journey north with his captive white woman.”

She clasped her hands together, ecstatic, and so suddenly
overcome with joy that she hugged him.

He clamped his arms around her as if he had just clapped her
in a vise. Her legs wedged between his, her mound against his bulging thighs,
her cunt pulsing, demanding this marvelous hunk of man come inside her.

“Oh, Wade. I didn’t think…I wasn’t sure…”
Any man like
you existed.

“What, that this place exists? Of course it does. It’s where
he first embraced her.”

“And kissed her,” she said as if she were sleepwalking in a
different time, aware of this man’s strength, this man’s arms, this man’s lips
coming closer to hers and—

“Oh, baby. Do not move.”

“What?” she asked, his lush lips more enticing by the
second.

“Listen to me now,” he said in a low, stern voice. His eyes
became stones. “You will just stand there like a good girl. And let me do
this.”

Fear, bright-red and hot, washed through her veins. But she
stared at him and—

He grabbed her by the nape with one hand while the other
whisked up high and hard. He flung something away, grunted. “Got him. Hold.
Still.”

Oh shit. She clamped her eyes shut.

He grabbed at something on the crown of her head. “Damn!”

She winced.

“And again,” he growled as he sent his fingers through the
hair over her left ear.

“Turn around.” He frowned and spun her, ripping her shirt
out of her waistband. “Take this off!”

“What? Why?”

“Scorpions.”

She froze. “Scor—” She scrambled to work the buttons on her
shirt. Damn, damn, damn. She stripped. “See anything?”

She felt his fingertips skim her flesh. Goose bumps rose.
She shivered.

“No more.” He spun her around and hauled her close. “Got
’em.” He petted her back and made consoling little noises like those he would
to comfort a hurt child. “Got ’em.”

“You’re sure?”

“You’re good, darlin’. I never should have let you roll in
the dirt.”

“Oh, Wade!” She threw her arms around him. He cradled her
close, like a treasure. “I hate bugs. Bees. Ants. Wasps. I can’t—”

“Hey, hey, look at me.” He looked her over once again, his
hands to her shoulders as he smiled. “All clear now.”

“Am I? I feel all creepy-crawly.” She wiggled her arms and
head.

“A normal reaction.”

“Is it?” She twisted one way and the other. He ran his open
palms down her back. “I might have—did they bite me?”

Worry lined his forehead. His jaw tightened. “Are you
allergic?”

“I don’t know. Do scorpions make you itch?”

“When they bite their sting burns. Do you burn, honey?”

She stilled. “I am kind of…giddy.”

“Hey.” He felt her head then put a hand to her wrist. “How’s
your breathing? Pulse is fast. You feel okay?”

“Sure. Wonderful.” She smiled at him, woozy and suddenly
just not…caring…any longer…about bugs as she slid to the dirt.

“Oh, hell.” Wade caught her to him as she swooned. She had
been bitten and gone into shock because he’d been an infatuated puppy. He
should beat himself silly with a dead porcupine. Striding with her to his
horse, he dug in his saddlebag for his cell phone. Coverage in the hills could
be damn spotty but he prayed for a good patch. Fishing out his phone, he hit
9-1-1 and shut his eyes in thanks when he heard a dial tone and friendly voice
at the other end.

“Hey, Mo!” he barked at his dispatcher. “Get the EMS team
out to me pronto.”

“Sheriff? Copy that. What is your emergency?” Mo was always
after him about his diet, eating too much beef and heading for a first-class
heart attack. Whenever he called like this she was quick to assume he called
for himself.

“I have Miss Turner with me out here at the Bull Rock, off
Highway 46. She’s been bitten by scorpions and she may have gone into
anaphylaxis. I need cortisone and fast.”

“Yes sir. How long since she’s been bitten?”

“A minute, max. But her reaction was fast. Too fast.”

“I hear you. Let me patch you through.”

“Fine.” Wade shifted Willow in his arms and looked at her
face. Out cold. With her head flung back, her lips parted, she looked as though
she was sleeping. God, she was lovely and too damn precious to lose like this.
Hell, if only he’d been more careful of her and not tried to—

“Wade?” A male voice crackled through the static. “Doc
Benedict here. You have someone in shock?”

“I do, Doc. Scorpions might have gotten her. Three maybe.
Not sure.” In the background Wade could hear the rev of the EMS truck and the
barking signal of an alert at the firehouse on Main Street in Bravado.

“Is she allergic?”

“I had just asked her that but she passed out before she
answered. Bottom line, I have no idea.”

“Okay. Let’s see.” The doc sounded as though he was walking,
opening a door, slamming it. “Maureen says you are off Route 46 near Bull
Rock?”

“Yeah. If you don’t encounter any traffic holdups on the
road it’ll take you fifteen minutes to get here. “

“Are you in your truck?”

“No. Horseback.”

“Can you ride with her to the main road?”

He’d dead-carried many a GI to sickbay, many a drunk to the
dry-out tank. She weighed nada compared to those dudes. “I’ll do it.”

“Go at a walk. Not even a canter. She could convulse, you
could lose hold of her and she’d fall, break a bone.”

“Don’t worry, Giles. I won’t drop her.”

“Better not,” he said with humor. “You’d have a few
bachelors in Bravado mighty upset if you killed her.”

Smart-ass. “Do not sass me, Benedict.”

“Sheriff, you can’t arrest me.” The new guy in town was
having a hearty chuckle at Wade’s expense. Too bad, Wade didn’t have the heart
for humor at the moment.

“I damn well can, doctor or not. I’m off the line now.”

“Wait! Is she breathing heavily?”

Wade bent down to put his lips close to hers. Poor baby, she
was so gone to la-la land. “Seems normal.”

“Take her pulse.”

“Can’t.” Wade clicked his tongue at his horse to move to one
side so that he might mount the animal from the top of the rock.

“You must!” Benedict slammed a car door.

“I am not setting her down on the ground again, Benedict, so
get that straight. We got a nest of scorpions out here and they love her. No
dice.”

“Okay. Cool off! But listen, if she begins to pant or the
opposite, if she heats up and doesn’t look like she’s breathing at all, you’ll
have to do mouth-to-mouth.”

“Got it. I know emergency procedures.”

“You’re up on that?”

Wade ground his teeth. “I am up on that, Doc.”

“Good. Okay, Shannon, you ready?”

“Sure thing, Doc.” Shannon O’Donnell was Giles’ driver
today?

Wonderful. Just what I need. My ex-wife’s sister
broadcasting what I do on my off hours.
Shannon never missed a trick and
never failed to report it to the world. Even though the fire chief had warned
her often that she’d be dismissed for unprofessional conduct, she gave out
gossip as if she were the anchor on the ten o’clock news.

“Benedict, look for me along the path of the Duck River. I’m
on a quarter horse.”

“Will do. Take it slowly.”

“I will,” Wade said and signed off then called Mo again.
“Call my bunkhouse and get my foreman to come meet me and take my animals. I’ll
be going with Miss Turner to the ER and I need my two horses taken to my barn.”

Signing off with Mo, he crooned to his horse about how they
were going to cooperate and do this little trick nice and easy. One foot in a
stirrup, he swung himself up and his other leg over, settling Willow into the
curve of his arms. Careful of how she lay against his torso he cradled her
close. Shuddering in fear, he nestled his nose into the soft hair at her temple
and uttered a little prayer she’d be fine. As he raised his head, he trained
his gaze on the plush center of her lips and pressed his mouth there.

She nigh unto purred. “If you think you can kiss me,” she
drawled, “and I won’t know it, you’re wrong.”

He drew away, his lips curling in delight that she was back
with him. He kneed his horse to begin a walk and heard the other mount
following behind. “I’m trying to save your pretty hide. Can you breathe? How’s
your heart rate?”

“Breathing is good. Heart rate, not so.”

“No?” He glared at her, his blood pumping in fright.

“Looking at you?” she said, laughter in her wispy voice.
“Makes me want to jump out a window.”

“No windows here.” He massaged her shoulder and cuddled her
close while the horse clip-clopped on down the dirt path.

“Off this horse, then.” She beamed at him, dreamy-eyed and lolling
in his arms.

Wrapping her more firmly to him, he grinned at her as he
examined her. “Are you with us? Or dopey?”

“Dopey.” She snuggled against him, burrowing her nose into
the fabric of his shirt, rubbing against his nipple and making his cock jump.
“Love how you smell.”

Love how you feel. All soft and warm and cuddled in my
arms.
He gulped. She made him feel young again, stupid and infatuated.
“How’s that?”

“Leather and dust. Yum.”

Now he was hard, curious and oh so wary of her mental state.
Driving his fingers into her hair, he pressed a kiss to her ear. “Do not move,
honey. You might be really sick.”

She whimpered and tried to push away from him. “You’re not
comfortable.”

Don’t I know it.
“No squirming. Uncomfortable or not
we’re walking to the main highway.”

One of her hands lay flat against his ribs, the other was
tucked under her. She tried to turn to look at him. “You’re very determined,
Sheriff.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Why are you?” she asked, dazed, her umber gaze an
appreciative caress of his features.

“Because I’m to blame for you getting bitten by scorpions. I
never should have let you roll to the ground. I must have my head examined.”

“Whoa there. No more.” She waved away his words. “We don’t
do apologies here. You wouldn’t let me yesterday. You can’t now.” She wiggled.
“Why can’t I get up? I’m not an invalid.”

“You do sound better,” he said as he grasped her wrist and
flung her arm over his shoulder. “Now come on up here.”

The way he swung her around had her mound pressed right
smack dab to the bulge that strained his sensitive crotch.

“That is,” she said, her eyes drifting shut and her mouth
dropping open, “wonderful. Oh. My.” She arched, her head falling back, her
straight black hair streaming like a river of silk into his hands.

If she rubbed his cock and balls any harder he was going to
lose his wad right in his pants. He swallowed. He hadn’t done that since he was
sixteen, grinding away in the backseat of his father’s Jeep. It had been where
all his troubles began. Shooting his cum, losing his mind over a woman who was
fine and lovely and willing to spread her thighs for him. Was he deluding
himself into thinking that this one was worth more than a good roll in the hay?

“Kiss me,” she beseeched him, her eyes wistful, her words
whispers on the wind.

Enchanted, he held her tightly. “You’re a damn tease.”

“Mmm. Think of it as therapeutic.”

“If kissing calms you down then either I’m doing it wrong or
we have no business locking lips.”

“Bet none of that will happen.” She splayed her fingers in his
hair, drawing him down to her. “Where’s your hat, sweetie?”

“Lost it,” he told her as he let her rub her hot lips over
his. “Yours too.”

“Along with my mind,” she said on a sigh as she drilled her
nipples into his chest, grabbed him close and kissed him as though she might
never have another chance.

God. What was he going to do with so much woman? She better
remain eager for him for at least another four or five hours until he got her
home and recovered from the bug bites.

He tore away from the kiss. “No more.”

She pouted, her gaze sultry and downright woozy. She pushed
against him, trying to get away.

“Hold on there.” He grabbed her.

“You don’t want me to kiss you?” She was angry, insulted.
“Let me down.”

“You think you’re leaving me? Here?”

She glanced around, frowned and swayed against him.

He wrapped her close, the feel of her supple body the solace
that calmed him. “You, my hardheaded Willow, are befuddled by those scorpions.
You’re not going anywhere. We’ll let Doc Benedict check you out then I am taking
you home with me.”

“You are?” she asked, as enchanted as if the idea was the
only comfort she had ever wanted.

Speechless, he nodded.

She hugged him so hard he went weak as a calf. The steel in
his swollen cock told him he could be strong as a bull.

“I am not leaving you alone tonight.”
I’ll play nurse…and
hell if I won’t be a real good boy.

Willow opened her eyes to the long shadows of dust seeping
through the drawn curtains. The bedroom was big and strange. A dark oak armoire
stood along one wall, and an elaborate Spanish silver-rimmed, floor-length
mirror in one corner. The bed had to be a king size with six-foot carved
spindles. A big playground for a big man.

She grinned but lost it in a heartbeat when she bet that the
to-die-for sheriff spent few nights single in his nice broad bed.

She blinked, forcing her mind to recall the afternoon.
Wade’s ranch foreman had arrived at the rock first with one of his wranglers,
waiting to depart with the two horses until after the ambulance arrived with
Giles Benedict and his female EMT driver. Those two had met Willow and Wade at
the edge of the Duck River path. The woman had been quiet, almost too much so,
her eagle eyes eating up Wade as though she’d have him for breakfast and sizing
up Willow as though she’d prefer to peck her to death.

Giles, on the other hand, had offered a breath of fresh air
and assurances Willow would recover. Willow had been scared by her reaction to
the scorpions. Bugs, she had never liked, but she hadn’t ever fainted when
she’d been bitten. Giles explained that her reaction was a cumulative one.

“You should have an Epi-Pen and carry it with you all the
time,” he advised as he shot her up with cortisone, taking her blood pressure
and temperature then pronouncing her fit as a fiddle.

“Still feel fuzzy in the head,” she told him as she settled
against Wade’s chest with a sigh. Wade hadn’t let her out of his arms since
she’d collapsed, even holding her in the back of the ambulance while Giles
examined her.

“That’s normal. But you need rest,” Giles told her.

“She’ll get it,” Wade assured him.

Giles had shot a nasty look at Wade. Giles, no doubt about
it, had been jealous. She also had no idea what to say to sooth Giles’
feelings. She liked the doctor.

But Wade had a sharp edge of danger to him that drew her
like good old-fashioned sin. His embrace had been one of three finest
experiences of her visit to Bravado to date. And his kisses had been the next
best with the feel of his rigid cock against her pussy by far the greatest
experience of her two days in Texas.

“I’ll be good,” she had told Giles when he’d ordered her to
drink lots of fluids and take a long nap.

“Take these pills too.” He had pressed a prescription into
Wade’s hand. “You need them. They have the proper dose of cortisone in them for
the next few days. And stay off your feet until you see how you tolerate them.”

“I’ll take her home with me, Giles,” Wade had been quick to
tell him.

Giles had locked eyes with Wade. “If you’re on duty I’ll—”

“Not a problem,” Wade’d bit off. “My deputies are on duty
this weekend. Willow will be well taken care of.”

Giles had checked Willow’s gaze. “Sound good to you?”

Had there been some reason Wade and the good doctor seemed
to have a conflict? Whatever it was, it wasn’t Willow’s business.

“Absolutely fine.”

“I’ll call you to check how you’re doing.”

“Thanks. Give him my number, would you please, Wade?” She
watched Giles fight a smile and Wade clench his jaw. Never having had two men
vie for her, she thought this was either great fun or she was goofy on Giles’
meds. But Giles packed up, patted her hand and stood.

Wade led her to his truck while his foreman and wrangler
mounted the two horses and headed down the trail back to Wade’s ranch.

That had been hours ago, clearly, by the light from the far
window. A tiny light flickered from her phone on the nightstand. Smiling, she
reached for it. Her head spun a little as she pushed the button and saw that
Giles had called three times. Not really up to talking to him and possibly
encountering some of the conflict she had sensed between him and Wade she
texted him back.
I’m awake. Sorry for delay. Woozy here, but good. THX for
coming to fix me up!

Footsteps had her turning her head toward the door.

“You’re awake!”

Willow smiled at the dark shadow filling the doorway and put
her phone down. “I am. Hi!”

Wade sauntered in, his hulking form silhouetted in the
golden light behind him. “Hungry?”

“Starving and thirsty too.”

He leaned over her, a satisfied smile tipping up the corners
of his generous mouth. “I can fix all that.”

She raised her head, the better to inhale the rich aromas
from the kitchen. “A lawman who cooks. I am impressed.”

He gave a short laugh, extending a hand to help her sit up.
“Don’t be until you taste it.”

“What have you got?”

“Steak, beans. Salad. And pie.”

“Pie,” she crooned, allowing him to lead her to perch on the
edge of the bed. She had changed out of his daughter’s clothes and into her own
long summer dress before she had lain down. Pushing aside the crumpled blanket,
she stretched her muscles and circled her neck around to get the kinks out.
“What kind of pie?”

“Rings your chimes, huh?” He sat down next to her. Dressed
in a plain white tee-shirt, faded jeans and no shoes, he seemed relaxed but
distant.

“Does a bear do it in the woods?” She rolled her eyes,
attempting to warm up his mood from kind to interested. “Love pie! Apple,
blueberry, strawberry. Makes my day.”

“I made peach. You like peach?”

“You bake?”

He nodded. “Rolling dough soothes the savage beast after
chasing bad guys all day.”

She put a hand to her heart. “The domesticated sheriff.”

“In some things.” He arched his brows at her, grinning like
a gleeful lion.

“Not going there. No sir.” She chuckled. “Did you have a
chance to call Cara and Samantha to cancel this afternoon at the shop?”

“I did. They understood and were concerned. They want me to
call with an update on your condition. Said maybe you would feel better
tomorrow. Cara’s there doing her bookkeeping.”

“Thanks for telling them. I’d like to go tomorrow.” I have
to get started on my research.

“Good.” He tugged at her hand. “Stand up. Let’s see if you
have your sea legs back yet.”

Getting to her feet, she was glad she went slowly. “Whoa,
Captain. The world is tilting.”

He had a hand under her elbow and slid another around her
waist. “Take it easy,” he urged her as he led her toward the door.

“Um. No. Have to go that way.” She nodded toward the
bathroom. “All that iced tea you poured into me is having its way with me.”

He helped her pivot. “Let’s go.”

Within minutes she was refreshed, her hair combed and a
gargle of mouthwash finishing the job. They walked together to his kitchen,
where he deposited her at his breakfast bar and put a tall glass of water
before her.

“I’m going to sprout gills if I drink any more.”

“You know what Giles said,” Wade warned her with squinty
little eyes.

“Hey, no worries. I’m drinking. See?”

“How do you like your steak?”

“With a good merlot.”

“Forget that. No alcohol with the cortisone. Doctor’s
orders.”

“Nasty man.” She spotted the beautiful mound of pastry on
the island counter. “But you can redeem yourself in my eyes if we have dessert
first.”

“Like sweet things. Do you?”

She tipped her head at him, her gaze falling over his
gigantically appealing form. She shivered, her mouth watering and her pussy
dripping in her ridiculously tiny thong. “I often have my dessert before my
entrée.”

He saw her shiver in excitement, his eyes flaring wide with
blue-white heat. But he tsked, sounding like a futzy parent as he flipped the
raw steaks in a pan of marinade. “Bad for you.”

“It won’t rot my teeth.” She bared them for him,
cartoon-style.

He looked away, shaking his head as if he were pained. “You
might get a sugar high.”

You are avoiding me? The sparks that fly between us?
Don’t go. Don’t.
“I have one just looking at you.”

He locked eyes with her. Stunned, hesitant, he swallowed
hard while his gaze seared her. “Me too.”

“Oh, cool.” Far gone now, she rubbed her hands together and
wiggled her brows at him, struggling to inject more fun into their
conversation. Okay, so she could go for the gold, make a complete fool of
herself and in desperation seduce him.

“I’d be a bastard to take you and hurt you,” he said, his
voice a hollow wreck.

“Especially after the day I’ve had.” Had she said that? Oh,
yeah. But sharp visions of how he’d look without his clothes flashed through
her brain in a kaleidoscope of X-rated pictures. She wanted him dressed only in
his skin, his delectable body weighing her down as he had this morning at the
rock.

He was frozen in one position, holding a pair of tongs in
midair as he stared at her. The flames in his uncommonly handsome eyes flared
higher.

She savored his tension, recognized passion and longing in
his gaze. Could she do such a good job of keeping the bold sheriff on tenterhooks?
“Cut the pie. I need a piece.”

Dropping the tongs, he let them clatter on the countertop as
he rummaged through a drawer and came up with a pie cutter. In two strokes he
had a chunk of dripping peaches and crust in one hand as he reached for her
with the other.

She opened her mouth and he gave her the pastry but she
caught his fingers between her lips and held on.

He grunted.

She swallowed then caressed his fingers with her tongue. As
he withdrew with painstaking care, she gulped. He drew her flush to his body,
his cock a ridge of steel, her breasts as hard as rocks, her pussy pounding.
She rose on her toes. Jesus, he was so tall, so magnificent, so perfect for
her. She rubbed her peach-sticky lips against his. “You need a nibble too.”

He opened his mouth and licked hers all over then he broke
away to grin. “My pie never tasted so good.”

“No?”

“Never ate it off any woman’s lips.”

“I want to be the first. I want to be the only.”

“The best,” he said as he devoured her mouth. “I’ll eat it
off every inch of you.”

Her eyes flared wide.
Would you eat it off my pussy?

At her own X-rated thoughts she burst out giggling.

“Scamp.” He hugged her tighter, the mind reader. He knew
which lips she hoped he’d eat. So now that she was in this far, why not go all
the way to home plate?

Admit it.
She wanted to be more than his first
anything. She wanted to be his. His someone. His for tonight and maybe
tomorrow. Most of all, for him, with him, she wanted to be bad. Very bad.
Turning on her heel, she seized his hand and led him toward his bedroom. “We’re
going to bed. Bring the pie. I want to see how peaches look on your skin.”

He stopped and hauled her around into his embrace. One hand
sunk in her hair, he brought her lips to his as he rasped, “We go in there, I’m
doing more than eating pie.”

Yippee.
“We go in there, I’m doing more than letting
you.”

He inhaled, his nostrils flaring. “I’m teaching you how I
want you all the time, every time.”

She shuddered. “There’ll be more than once for us?”

“So much more that you’ll feel me inside you, even when I’m
not there.”

“And you?” She had to know if he could miss her, want her,
yearn for her—or was he simply a phantom lover? Was he here with her now, gone
for good when the fucking was done? “It wouldn’t be fair—”

“I wouldn’t hurt you, make you care for me and pull away. I
see what you need.”

Her heart stopped. “What?”

“A man to take control. To be your leader, your comforter.
Come to bed and let me love you, Willow. Let me inside of you. To your blood
and your nerves, your spine and your mind. Let me love every inch of you.”

“How can I let go like that? Trust you? Surrender everything
I am to you?”

“If it’s too soon to say you want all of me, if you fear you
don’t know me yet, then come to bed anyway, Willow. Sweet Willow. Learn me.
Take me. Have me. Use me to your own ends.”

She marveled at him. “You could give yourself up to me like
that?”

“I can’t take what I’m not willing to give.”

Tears sprang to her eyes. He was so sweet.

“Come to bed. Let me make love to you all night long. Maybe
all day tomorrow too, if you think you might like that.”

She clenched his hand, laughing. “Like it? My god, Wade! I’m
holding you to it.”

“All of it.” A glance down her body and he caught her up in
his arms as easily as if she weighed a feather. He strode from the kitchen and
she clung to him, just as she had earlier, just as she had wanted to pretty
much since she met him only yesterday.

At the side of the bed he let her slide to her feet as he
whisked down the covers. He hovered over her, a giant guardian, a movie hero,
cowboy, sheriff, careful lover all rolled into one yummy body. Kissing her, he
seduced her in tiny enticements. Lost in his spell she let him brush the straps
of her dress down her shoulders, let him pull it over her breasts and down her
hips. She cried out as he found her aching nipples in her lacy bra and pinched
them. The enchantment she’d welcomed from him opened like a door to a new world
and her whole body throbbed with arousal. She rubbed her thighs together. He
went too slowly and her desire to have him inside her burned too high.

She stepped out of the pool of her dress and reached her
arms around his shoulders. “I’m not easy. Not usually. Not like this. But
you’re—”

“You are special.” He nibbled on the bow of her lower lip.
“I’ve wanted to hold you, kiss you since yesterday.”

Since forever. She arched as his hands cupped her breasts.
“Wade, hurry up.”

She tried to lie down but he caught her around the waist.

“Not yet. Let me undress you. God, please let me before I
fly around the room like a windup toy.”