Rocky Mountain Cowboy (22 page)

“It’s time to hit the sack, anyway,” Hank injected with a brief laugh. “We’ve got an early start tomorrow, right, boss?”

“Yeah, we do.” Hawk pushed out of his chair. “I’m going to check on the herd.” At the door, he grabbed his quilted parka off a hook, zipped it up, then slapped on his hat. “See you all in the morning.”

He didn’t even spare Jenny a good night glance, and she was crestfallen.

After everyone climbed the stairs to the loft, she was left alone. Wandering
through the now empty room, she blew out the kerosene lamps, then sat on the couch and stared into the flames of the potbellied stove through the open cast iron door. With the extra wood Hank had put in before going to bed, the fire would burn all night, heating the entire cabin.

She wasn’t really tired, and she wanted to wait for Hawk. She wanted him to sit with her by the fire, in the quiet hush of the cabin, and have some hot chocolate with her. When the tea kettle whistled, she got up and set the kettle where the water would stay warm. Then she got the cups out of the cupboard and poured packets of instant cocoa into them. With the addition of a few marshmallows, she sat down at the kitchen table to wait.

After a half hour, when Hawk still didn’t return, she went outside to look for him. She could hear the cattle shuffling and making soft noises, but they were just dark shapes in the distance. A coyote howled. It was quickly answered by another. She shivered, then looked up and gasped in awe at the pitch black, moonless night sky. It was filled with thousands of diamond bright stars. Not just the dozens of far-off dim twinkles she usually saw under the city lights, but a glittering array of so many, they seemed to create a lacy blanket across the velvety black sky. And they looked so close. It must be the elevation, she concluded, transfixed by their awesome splendor.

“What are you doing out here?”

Startled, she swung around to face Hawk as he walked up to her. She hadn’t heard him coming, and that surprised her. “Looking for you.” She laughed and tilted her head back again to gaze up in wonder. “Actually, I was star gazing. Look at all those stars. They’re so spectacular! I haven’t seen a night sky like this for so long, I’d forgotten they existed. My God, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Go inside before you freeze.”

He sounded angry. She pulled her eyes from the stars and settled them on his shadowed face.

“Go.” With his hands on her shoulders, he turned her toward the cabin and gave her a little push. “I’ll be in soon. Go get in bed. It’s late. We have a hard day tomorrow.”

“We always have a hard day tomorrow,” she protested sulkily.

“Go,” he repeated.

Hawk watched her stomp off. Even in the dark, he saw the gentle swing and sway of her hips. He took his hat off, raked a hand through his hair, and turned his face to a cold gust of wind. Before he went inside, he made sure he was in control again.

The cabin was completely dark, except for the faint glow from the potbellied stove. Hawk sighed, relieved that Jenny had apparently gone to bed. After disposing of his coat and hat on one of the pegs by the door, he headed into the kitchen, pushing the long sleeves of his quilted white undershirt up to his elbows to wash his hands and face before going to bed.

When he was done, he headed for the staircase that led to the loft. As he came around the stove in the center of the living room, he stopped. With her legs curled up beneath her, Jenny was seated on the sofa, holding a cup of something in each hand. Hawk rolled his eyes in exasperation. Uncoiling in one long graceful move, she stood up, smiled, and handed him a cup.

“I thought you might like a cup of hot chocolate after being outside in the cold.”

He grabbed the cup from her fingers and took a sip. Over the rim, he stared at her. She was standing inches from of him, smiling up at him sweetly, wearing that soft fuzzy lavender sweater that had driven him crazy all evening. It wasn’t tight, but it clung to her figure in ways that seductively revealed the exact shape and size of her well rounded breasts. He’d watched Steve flirt with her and look directly at her breasts every time he said something to her all evening. By the time the wrangler had made that comment about her beating the pants off him, he’d been ready to fire him on the spot.

Of course, he
’d been looking at her assets all night, too. And holy cow! Here she was, within arm’s reach, alone with him, tempting him almost beyond his resolve to not touch her anymore until she made her damn mind up about the partnership. Hot chocolate, hell! What he needed was a stiff drink.

He was just thinking how he was going to be up half the night tossing and turning in his sleeping bag, when she lifted her fingers to his mouth.

“You’ve got marshmallow on your upper lip,” she laughed softly. As she went to wipe it off, his tongue curled up to lick it. Her fingertips touched the sensitive underside. A shudder rippled through him.

Grabbing her wrist, more tightly than he intended, he pulled her hand away. “Damn it, Jenny, go to bed.” His directive was short and curt, and he hated the surprise, then the hurt that flared in her eyes. “Thanks for the chocolate,” he added in atonement as she slowly turned, set her cup on the table, and walked away.

After placing the cups in the kitchen sink, he checked the wood in the stove, then headed for the loft.

Jenny was sitting on a wooden chair in the dark downstairs bedroom when she saw his shadow approach her open door. Damn it, she’d had enough of his restraint! She guessed it probably had something to do with her being Tom’s daughter, but she’d made up her mind that she was going to try to change his tonight, although his self-discipline was proving quite an obstacle.

When he passed by her door, she got desperate. “Hawk, could you help me get my boots off? I’m having trouble with them. Damp socks, I guess.” Lame excuse, more like it.

“Jenny....”

“Please.” If he told her no, she was going to throw the damn boots at him!

Instead he came into the room. She breathed a silent sigh of relief and presented him with one booted leg. He pulled. She resisted, but the first boot came off far too easily. She could see the skeptical lift of one dark eyebrow as he looked at her in the dark room. She gave him a quick smile and shrugged.

When she presented him with the second booted foot, she tried really really hard not to let it come off so easily It took a couple of hard tugs, but eventually it, too, slipped off her foot. His long fingers curled around her socks, and she realized he found them quite dry.
That discovery, of course, made a complete liar out of her. Luckily, the darkness hid her guilty embarrassment.

With a murmured ‘good night,’ he turned to leave.

Jenny wondered frantically what she could say or do next, short of throwing herself into his arms. “Stay a while,” she tried, sounding much too desperate. “I’m not very sleepy.”

“Well, goddamn it, you should be,” he retorted sharply, casting her a brooding look over his shoulder. “You worked hard today.”

“Thank you.” Encouraged in spite of his tone, she smiled, then got up and took a step toward him. “Hawk....” The needy little catch in her voice mortified her, but it was there, unable to be suppressed.

To her utter humiliation, though, he turned to her and thrust his arm out, as if to ward her off. “Jenny, go to bed.”

She watched him turn away from her, head to the door, and grab the knob. In the utterly dark room, she could only hear the door shut behind him.

Furious with herself for being so forward, and even more angry at him for rejecting her, she walked toward the bed, ran into a small table in the dark, and cursed. Using it for balance, she unzipped her jeans, yanked them off, twisted them into a ball, and threw them petulantly across the room to hit the wall on the other side of the bed.

“Damn you, John Red Hawk Larson!” she swore vehemently. “Damn you, damn you, damn you! I am
never ever
going to let you kiss me again!”

“Never, ever?” a deep husky voice asked from behind her in the dark.

Jenny jumped and screeched. But before she could spin around, Hawk gathered her in his arms and pulled her back up against him.

“I can’t let you
never ever
kiss me again,” he whispered against her hair, his nose nuzzling to find her ear. “I want you too much to let you deny me your kisses.” His mouth nudged aside her long curly hair so his teeth could nibble on her earlobe and the gold stud there. After making an erotic swirl with the tip of his tongue, his mouth moved down the long arch of her throat as her head fell backwards onto his shoulder. Gently, he sank his teeth into her neck, sucking on her soft skin, licking any sting away with his tongue.

“
Can’t you feel how much I want you, pretty lady?” he growled so that she felt the vibration of his words all along the arch of her throat.

While his lips caressed her neck, his hands slid beneath her cashmere sweater and settled over her stomach. His splayed calloused fingers created heat and friction against her sensitive flesh, sending shivers of delight and anticipation along every nerve ending. In an erotic foray, the tips of his fingers slipped just inside the
Lacy edge of her low-cut silk bikinis.

Her knees turned to jelly, and she drew in a sharp breath at the sudden leap of desire that surged through her. She heard the ragged increased pace of Hawk’s breathing. His arms tightened around her, then his hands changed direction and traveled slowly up her mid-section to finally reach her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra. His work-roughened hands cupped her, then lifted her, testing the weight of her. He pushed her breasts together and molded their full round shape with long sure fingers. A low sweet moan crawled u
p her throat, parting her lips.

“Oh, Hawk....” The throaty timbre of her voice startled her. She sounded as she felt— a woman in the throes of unraveling passion.

A short laugh rumbled in Hawk’s chest. She felt that, as well as the entire length of his hard body behind her. “Whatever you want, princess. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You,” she confessed shamelessly. “I really want you tonight.”

Her breath caught sharply again as one magical hand gently squeezed her breast while the other traveled slowly downward, into her panties.

His middle finger penetrated slowly, so slowly and deliberately, making exquisite circular motions that drove her wild. “Hawk, you’re driving me crazy!”

With wicked skill, he timed the motion of the hand kneading her breast to the finger moving in and out and around her pelvis.

On the brink of orgasm
already, she pressed her hips backwards, into his, rubbing herself against his jean-clad erection. The hand on her breast moved to her jaw and gently twisted her head sideways so he could kiss her, swallowing her strangled cry of pleasure as he brought her to a shattering, standing climax. Trembling from the force of it, Jenny turned in his arms and reached for him.

“I don’t want to take my hands off of you,” Hawk protested. “Unbutton me.”

Eager fingers went to the metal buttons on his jeans. In spite of her haste, Jenny finally managed to work all of them free. Next, she reached for the hem of his quilted thermal shirt. With palms that skimmed hungrily over his warm skin, she pushed it up over his smoothly sculpted chest, his wide muscled shoulders, then over his hatless head. It was too dark to see the wide expanse of bare skin she exposed, but she let her fingers indulge themselves freely. Irresistibly, her lips followed the exploration of her hands. With the tip of her tongue, she traced the flat male shape of his nipple, then leisurely wandered to the other and gave it that same tactile treatment, gently biting, tasting and suckling.

A deep-throated groan emerged from him, encouraging her. In response, she pushed his jeans down over his hips, taking his briefs with them. When his erection sprang free, she cupped it in her hand, stroking him, squeezing him, her fingers kneading the entire length of him, from smooth
velvety tip to softly haired base.

Hawk trembled and inhaled sharply, then moved her hands aside and pushed her sweater over her head. Before it fell to the floor, his mouth found her breast again. While he flicked the nipple with his tongue, his hands pushed her panties down over the soft round curve of her buttocks, all the way down her long slim legs. Jenny stepped out of them impatiently when they slid to her ankles. Holding onto one another for balance, they rid themselves of their socks, dancing on one foot then the other as they used their toes to push them off.

Naked finally, they moved to the bed. With the bedroom door closed, blocking out the heat from the stove, the air had grown cold quickly. Hawk kept Jenny close, one arm locked around her waist, while he reached down to pull the quilt back. With a whirl that brought the back of her knees up against the bed, he gave her a gentle push onto the sheets. In a fluid fall, he came down on top of her, pulling the quilt over their heads to keep them warm and enclose them in a black cocoon.

Jenny looped her arms around his neck, and opened for him as he knelt between her legs, his erection brushing against her damp nest of curls, lightly touching her, poised to enter
. Oh, he felt so good against her! She wanted to see him better— to look into those incredible blue eyes! She was trembling, and so was he. She felt the subtle quiver of his muscles. Braced on his arms above her, he searched her expression, her face. Jenny met his look expectantly.