Lady of the Gun (11 page)

Standing up, he walked quietly to the window and looked
around the yard, wanting to make sure no one was snooping around. The moon was bright and illuminated the night very well. He could see the barn and other outbuildings clearly. He could see his horse in the corral, along with Cass’s and several others. They were calm. No sign of any trouble. He then looked toward the trees beyond the yard. The trees where Cass's family had been murdered. A shiver of apprehension brushed his soul. Something moved out there. Something ethereal seemed to float through the shadows of the trees.

Brett blinked several times, then squinted, trying to make
out what he was seeing. A voice somewhere inside his head said ghosts, but his common sense argued otherwise. Reaching for the doorknob, he turned it silently, determined to find out who or what was moving around outside in the middle of the night.

Cass sat on a little stone pile in front of what was left of
the fireplace in her family's burned-out home. She let her mind wander back to the days before the murders. Back to the days before she'd held a gun for any reason other than to hunt game with her father and brothers. Back to the days when she could still let her tears fall freely because she wasn't afraid she'd never stop crying if she got started.

Taking a deep breath of the wonde
rful fresh night air, she remembered her mother and how she'd laughed at her children's antics when they were up to mischief. She remembered one particular incident when she was about ten. Her brothers had bet her she couldn't get their new bull into her bedroom and back out to the barn without either of her parents finding out about it. She'd managed to get the bull through the house without doing too much damage, but the stubborn animal refused to leave her room once he got there. She chuckled as she remembered the panic she'd felt as she pushed with all of her ten-year-old strength against the huge back end of the smelly animal, and the look on her mother's face when she walked in and saw what was going on.

Her mother had stood stock-still for a
moment, horror registering on her pretty face, then calmly told her that if she didn't get the bull out of her room before bedtime she'd have to sleep with it. Cass laughed softly again in remembrance.

Brett stepped softly through the trees, peering around
them one at a time to ensure his concealment. He didn't want whatever was out here in the dark to know he was coming. When he finally reached the edge of the stand of tall pines, he could see the burned-out remains of what had once been a large house. Scanning the broken, charred timbers, the blackened stones of the foundation, and the precariously leaning chimney, he searched the area. Then he saw it. Huddled near the fireplace was  something small and white. He remembered Sheriff Jackson telling him that Cass's little sister had burned to death in the house, and an eerie shiver sliced through him. Just then he heard a sound. A soft whimper.

Stepping from his hiding place in the shadows, Brett
moved toward the ghostly apparition. Moving stealthily over the bare ground, he made his way to the foundation and stepped silently over it. He heard another sound floating on the night air, and moved closer still. It wasn't until he was standing only a few feet from the specter that it moved and he realized with a jolt to his senses that it was Cass, curled up with her head on her knees. His heart rocked with pity as he heard her whimper once more. This is where she does her crying, he thought. No longer concerned about his silence, he took one more step toward her.

Cass jumped at the sound behind her. Dam
ning herself for not bringing her guns along with her, she rose to face her attacker. "It's you." She let her breath out when she recognized Brett in the moonlight. "What the hell do you think you're doing sneaking around out here in the dark?" she demanded.

"I wasn't sneaking," Brett said defensively. "At least not
once I saw it was you out here."

"Who did you think it would be?"

"I didn't know. I thought I heard a noise, and when I looked out the window to investigate, I saw something white moving through these trees." At his words, Brett looked more closely at Cass. She was wearing nothing more than a filmy cotton nightgown. It was what he'd seen in the moonlight, and now that he knew it was no ghostly apparition, it struck him hard that she was barely clothed.

Cass, too, responded to Brett's words about something
white in the trees. She swallowed, suddenly self-conscious. "As you can see, it's only me. You can go back to the house now," she told him without meeting his gaze.

"I thought you were crying," he said softly.

Cass raised her eyes to his. "I don't cry," she stated simply.

"Never?"

"Never. Now please leave me alone."

Her insistence that she never cried bothered him more
than if he'd found her weeping uncontrollably. He took a step closer to her and saw her cross her arms protectively in front of her, a move that pushed her breasts up against the soft cotton of her gown and caused his blood pressure to raise measurably. "I heard . . ." He was certain he'd heard her sobs.

"I was laughing," she explained. Standing so close to Brett
with nothing but her nightgown covering her body was terribly unnerving. Why hadn't she grabbed her robe before she'd left her room? Because before tonight she'd never had a strange man around the place, she answered her own silent question "Will you please go back to the house?" she asked him, shivering slightly.

"You're cold?" Brett took another step nearer, near
enough to smell the sweet fragrance of her hair as a light breeze caught and lifted it in the moonlight. His senses reeled at her scent.

"I'm not cold," she answered quickly. How could she explain
that it was his nearness that caused her to shiver, not the night air.

Brett studied the curve of her cheek in the soft, silvery
light of the moon. He gazed into the blue of her eyes, made dark as sapphires by the night's shadows. He let his gaze fall to the fullness of her moist lips, and could feel his need for her grow as he indulged himself in her beauty. He saw her shiver again. "Cass?" he whispered.

Cass wanted to step back, but the rock pile was in her
way and the hem of her gown had somehow wrapped itself around her ankles. She felt trapped. Trapped by a man who'd already made his intentions known earlier that day. "Marshal, I think we should both go in to bed now," she murmured. She was surprised at the timbre of her own voice as she spoke. Her tone was soft and husky, breathy, as though it took great effort to speak.

Brett knew her statement was innocent, but he also heard
and felt the tone of her voice. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about what it would be like to fall into bed with her. To feel the soft, full curves of her body as she writhed beneath him. To pull her over to ride him astride and wild.

Cass could see Brett making no move to leave. If anything
he'd managed to get even closer to her without even taking a step, and he was such a big man that looking up to see his face caused her to tilt her head back at a sharp angle. It was unusual for her to find a man who could look down on her the way he did. She was so tall herself that most men merely met her eye to eye or looked up at her. It was strange to feel small. Strange and somehow nice.

She found herself staring up at Brett's handsome face. His
startling gray eyes seemed to glow with a silver light of their own as he looked down at her. His nose was straight, the nostrils slightly flared. His cheekbones were high and complemented the strength of his jaw. All of these things made him stunningly attractive, but his mouth drew her more than any other feature. The width suited her perfectly, his lips, smooth and firm, the lower just a bit fuller than the upper. She knew what those lips felt like. She knew how they demanded a response. She felt herself leaning toward him.

Brett's eyebrows rose slightly in surprise as Cass seemed
to drift his way. He'd been fighting the urge to reach out and touch her; now she swayed into him. Surrounding her with both arms, he held her tightly against him, her head on his chest. His heart beat madly, shooting blood throughout his body in great gushing jolts, pulsing hotly in his desire.

Cass relished the feeling of being cocooned in the strong
embrace of Brett's steely arms. She felt warm and protected. She felt safe. Something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Then she began to feel something else: she felt the desire so evident in the hardness of Brett's body. Her own body responded passionately, heating up and becoming liquid, melting against him, molding itself to fit the strong planes of his body.

Brett sensed the change in Cass. He felt her breasts, full
and ripe, crushed to his chest. He savored the feel of her smooth stomach muscles pressed close to his own. And he could feel the tilt of her hips and the push of her femininity where she nestled against him. He was nearly knocked to his knees when she began to swing her hips in a rhythmic motion over this manhood.

Cass didn't know what force was driving her to move
against Brett. She could only feel the pulsating beat of their hearts, pounding together as they seemed to play a forbidden rhythm in her head, a rhythm her hips were matching. She swayed into him over and over again, the bulge between his legs growing larger with every rock of her body into his. Her pulse raced out of control. Her nipples hardened against the heat of his chest. She wound her arms around his back and pulled him even closer. The heat they produced seemed to engulf her very soul, swirling around them in a blazing fire of desire.

B
rett could barely stand the sweet torture Cass was inflicting on him by merely moving slowly, methodically against him. He shivered with the need to complete their union, bringing one hand up to catch the heavy weight of one tender breast. Touching its firm, thrusting peak sent new spasms of desire spiraling through him, downward to center in that most heated part of him. "Cass . " ." He rasped her name. Lowering his head, he nuzzled her cheek, tasting the smooth skin there with the tip of his tongue. “Cass," he whispered again. As she turned her head, he claimed her lips in a fierce, possessive kiss.

Cass opened her mouth to Brett's kiss. She let him taste
her, let him thrust his tongue against hers in a rhythm that mirrored the dance of their hips. She matched his exploration with her own, biting gently on the tip of his tongue, then not so gently on his lower lip. She heard him moan her name and felt his hands move down to her buttocks to pull her even closer to him. She stood on tiptoe, wantonly thrusting her femininity upward over the length of his manhood, then slowly lowering herself, shuddering with the wild sensations that pulsated through her. Her heart nearly stopped beating with the wonder of what she was feeling. She had to get closer. The fabric that separated their bodies was an obstruction she had to be rid of. She had to feel this man as she'd felt no other.

Chapter Six

Stepping away from Brett slightly, she brought her hands up between them and began to unbutton the bodice of her nightgown. She could see the heated glaze of passion in Brett's eyes as he watched her, and she gained a feeling of self-confident power as she opened the neckline of the gown very slowly, exposing herself to his gaze. As the night air caressed her heated flesh, she reveled in the coolness, but felt no cooler for its touch.

Brett watched Cass's fingers deftly unfastening her gown.
He was mesmerized by her movements, captivated, as inch by inch, the luscious curves of her chest were revealed to him. As she neared the buttons still protecting the full mounds of her breasts, he reached up to assist her, needing to see the glorious globes of femininity that jutted upward to his touch.

Cass brushed his hands aside. She was enjoying this moment.
She liked what she was doing to him. Carefully she held the gown up to cover her breasts as she eased her arms one at a time out of the long sleeves. Then, leaning forward, she rose up on her toes again to nibble gently on his lower lip, taking care not to let their bodies touch. Hearing him groan sent a rush of liquid desire to her core. Stepping back once more, she dropped the nightgown, and stood before him nude, her skin glistening in the moonlight, her hair blowing gently in the soft breeze.

Brett gasped at the sight of her. She was glorious, beautiful
beyond anything he'd ever seen before. She seemed to glow from the inside, warm and passionate. He had to have her, to possess her, body and soul. Reaching out with both hands, he cupped her breasts, marveling at their perfect size and shape, their rosy crests puckered and wanting, like two perfect rosebuds pouting in the morning dew. He stepped closer, lowering his head as he lifted her breasts to his mouth one at a time. He heard her gasps as he suckled her, gently at first, then more roughly, tugging each deep into his mouth in turn, tantalizing with his tongue.

Cass arched her back as Brett ravished her breasts. She'd
had no idea such sensations were possible. Jagged spasms of delight danced through her, shooting from her nipples to the moist center of her being. She couldn't help but push herself against him again, her hips swaying in a search of the unknown. Brett thrust his hips forward to meet hers, his pulsing manhood huge inside his trousers. She wanted it. She wanted him.