Laying Down the Law (11 page)

“I liked having something to do. If you like it hotter, there are jalapenos on the table. And I made cornbread muffins.”

His stomach growled loudly and Tommy and Gabe laughed.

Gabe pushed up from the table. “Guess we’ll head on out and see what needs to be done before everyone beds down for the night.”

Chairs ground on the Saltillo tiles and booted heels tapped as they fled the kitchen, leaving Colt alone with Zuri.

She set a bowl on the table and a basket with muffins beside it. “You sure know how to clear a room.”

Colt grunted. The men had thought he’d want her to himself, and he did.

He hung his cowboy hat on the coat tree next to the door, took a seat at the table and tucked into the meal. The first bite had him groaning. “Where’d you learn to cook like this?”

“Always had to make my own meals and Jed’s, after Mama died. You just never knew because we didn’t have a kitchen at our disposal.”

We’d only cared about a bed.
But he kept that to himself.

“You like it?” she asked, her hands twisting together.

“Mmmm,” he groaned around another bite.

Her cheeks glowed with pleasure.

“Never would have taken you for the domestic type.”

Her brown gaze narrowed. “Just because I don’t like fast food or TV dinners, doesn’t make me a domestic goddess.”

“Just tryin’ to make conversation, baby.”

“You don’t have to,” she said, a little snip to her honeyed tones. “I’m fine when you’re quiet.”

He finished the bowl, broke a muffin and used it to clean the bottom of his bowl. When he glanced up she was smiling softly. “Didn’t want to waste it.”

“I can see that,” she drawled.

He pushed back the bowl, but when she reached for it, he grabbed her hand and pulled her down to the chair beside him. “We need to talk.”

Her chest rose around a deep breath. “You find out anything today?”

He nodded. “I called my buddy at the bureau. He’s gettin’ hold of the team in Houston.”

Her throat worked around a swallow, but she nodded, her gaze not shying from his own.

“And we had a visitor to town. Detective David Satterly.”

All color drained from her face.

“He gave me his card. Said he was real worried about you. That if I see you, I should tell you to call him.”

Her head angled away. “Are you tellin’ me to call him?”

“Hell, no. I don’t trust him, Zuri.”

Her forehead wrinkled when she frowned. “I can’t be sure it’s him. The cologne. The fact he knew my routine. Maybe it’s not him at all, and he’s just tryin’ to be a friend.”

“Don’t believe it. No one comes that far for a friend who’s gone the wrong side of the law. Not unless he’s in love with you. And he’s not. My gut says he’s mixed up in this. First thing in the morning, I’ll call his department and see if they have any idea he’s up here, and whether there’s been anything funny with him before.”

“Did he mention anything about me bein’ here?”

“I didn’t tell him you were at the ranch. Figured if he’s not the one who took that potshot at us, he doesn’t need to know anyway.”

Suddenly, Zuri leaned toward him, cupped his cheek and kissed his mouth.

Colt blinked then slowly smiled. “What was that for?”

“Not dismissing me. Even if you have reservations that I’m tellin’ the truth, you protected me today.”

Colt held the back of her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “I won’t let anything happen to you. We have dishes to do?”

She shook her head. “Everyone pitched in. Let me put your bowl into the dishwasher and we’re done.”

“Hurry it up.”

She gave him a blinding smile and bustled around the kitchen to cover the pot warming on the stove and toss the muffins into the oven.

When she came back to him, he took her hand and pulled her behind him, straight down the hallway to his bedroom.

She dug her heels in and pulled on his arm. “Don’t you have to talk to your brothers?”

“Later. The guys are on alert after what happened today. They know the terrain. If anyone comes sneakin’ in, they don’t stand a chance.”

He pulled her straight into his bedroom, closed the door then shoved her gently against the solid oak.

His kiss was swift and hard, but she didn’t seem to mind. She wound her arms around his neck and stood on her toes to deepen it. The tips of her small breasts hardened, and he felt them dig against his chest as she scraped upward.

She tasted like apples and cinnamon. “You make pie?” he murmured.

Her mouth stretched. “I did. Want to go back for a piece?”

“Hell, no.” Again, he kissed her, tasting her until she sucked on his tongue and his cock hardened in sympathy to the steady pulling pleasure.

Hands smoothed over his back, fingers pinching as she grabbed for his shirt and shoved it up. Then she was gliding on his naked skin, and he wanted the same as fast as he could manage it. He thrust his fingers under her shirt, shaped her slender middle then moved up to mold her small, firm breasts.

“Kinda like that you don’t have any bras,” he growled.

“All of the guys kinda like that too,” she said, her eyes nailing him.

He cleared his throat. “I’ll be sure to fix that tomorrow.”

“Do that. Only man I want ogling me is you.”

He leaned back and dragged her shirt over her head, his gaze falling to the soft cherry cones topping her pretty breasts.

“Oh no. Not so fast,” she whispered when he started to move down her body. She raised his shirt and pulled it off once he lifted his arms. Then before he had a chance to go to work on the rest of her clothes, her fingers got busy opening his belt, sliding down his zipper then reaching into his pants.

The feel of her warm hand around his shaft was pure heaven. Already hard, it swelled inside her fist as she gently pumped up then down, staring down between them.

“Just gonna look?”

Zuri flashed him a devilish grin and pushed on his shoulder to make him back up a step. She went to her knees, and he found he had to reach out an arm to lean against the wall to keep from falling because her soft, warm mouth went straight to his cock, swallowing him down.

“Baby…”

“Better keep quiet. We’re right by the door. Everyone will hear.”

He didn’t give a damn if they did. He thrust his fingers into her hair and dragged on her scalp to hold her right where she was. His toes curled inside his boots as she gripped his shaft and swirled his cockhead around and around inside her mouth while her tongue lavished him with licks that made his balls harden like river stones.

She came off him then licked him up one side and down the other, wetting him. Her hands surrounded him and began to pump. Her head tilted back and her lashes fanned downward. “Used to think cocks were ugly, ’til I met yours. Those first times at the cabin, when you felt me up under my clothes, it gave me the courage to explore. When we finally did it, I had this wonderful new play toy.” She stuck out her tongue and swabbed the soft cap. “I liked playin’ with it, watchin’ it fill. I mapped every vein with my fingers, then my mouth.” She pointed her tongue and licked beneath the ridge surrounding the cap, flicking then laving it.

When she pulled him inside her mouth and suctioned, he cussed under his breath because he knew he wasn’t going to last long, not the way she was warming him up with her firm grip sliding on his shaft. “Baby, come up. Let me get the rest of your clothes off. Get you on the bed.”

She palmed his balls, wrapping her fingers right around them, and gave him a gentle tug. “Want to spoil my fun?”

“I want to make sure you’re there with me when I come.”

Only Zuri wasn’t paying him any mind at all. She sank on him, taking him all the way to the back of her throat.

He reached down and ringed the base of his cock, squeezing to stop him from shooting into her mouth. “Uh uh. Not like this. Get those clothes off now.”

He backed away from her, pulling from her mouth although it nearly killed him. She shoved down the sweatpants she wore and walked toward the bed, glancing behind her as she crawled atop the mattress, her soft white ass wagging in an invitation he couldn’t refuse.

Following, he palmed both cheeks and bent to give her lush backside nips that had her gasping and giggling. He pushed her face down, leaving her legs dangling over the side.

Then he stripped quickly and came behind her, touching her between her legs and finding her so wet he couldn’t resist the urge to kneel beside the bed and take her with his mouth.

He slid his tongue between her folds. His fingers traced the length of her slit, tucked into the crease between her thigh and thickening labia, teasing her before he dove in for a taste of her salty cream.

When he suckled at the bottom of her folds and found her little clit, he latched on and thrust his three fingers inside her pussy, filling her.

Her bottom lifted and held, and he smiled and sucked harder, enjoying the way her body shivered and her thighs and ass grew tight.

When he stroked his thumb over her tiny asshole, she grew rigid. “Colt! What are you doin’”

“Playin’.”

“Play somewhere else.”

Only he was just getting started. Because he wanted her pliable again, he returned his attention to her clit and vagina. The lush wet heat he sank inside had his dick pulsing, but he didn’t stop, adding a finger and cupping them together as he thrust inside her tight sheath.

She mewled like a kitten, her hands fisting in the sheets, her back sinking and her ass rising higher.

At last satisfied she was ready, he rose behind her, urged her to her knees at the edge of the mattress, spreading them wide until she was at just the right height. Then he pressed into her, gliding straight inside until his groin met her sweet cunt.

When he was as deep as he could go, he placed a hand beneath her and circled on her clit, licked the fingers of his other hand and slid them between her cheeks.

This time, air hissed between her teeth, but she didn’t complain. Instead she held still as he swirled over her tiny hole. When he pushed and sank a fingertip inside, her head dropped to the mattress and her breaths came faster.

His cock was swollen, getting impossibly harder because her pussy was clamping down on him, moisture spilling from deep inside. Slick, wet heat surrounded him, and then her inner muscles began to convulse.

He sank his finger deeper then began to move it and his dick, forging in then pulling out, slick heat surrounding him. The lush sounds adding to his ragged gasps and her shaky moans.

Zuri came up on her arms and began to push back every time he plunged forward. They found a rhythm that pleased them both and rocked together and apart while sweat coated their skin and the smell of sex wafted in the air.

“Colt,” she gasped.

“Baby?”

“God, please, please. Can’t hold up.”

He withdrew, flipped her over then climbed onto the mattress and shoved her up until they both lay in the center.

Then he climbed over her, found her center again and pushed inside.

She drew her legs up, bent her knees and gripped them to hold them high and out of the way as he braced on his arms and began to power into her.

Her face was red, her features tight. When she bared her teeth, he felt just as savage, plowing into her, over and over, until she tossed back her head, digging it into the mattress and gave a keening cry.

Colt leaned back, kneeling between her legs and cradled her buttocks. He gave her shorter, sharper strokes, faster and faster, while her channel heated all around him. He came, giving a roar, not caring how far the sound carried, because his body exploded, balls emptying their tension in successive surges of come.

When he slowed, which he had to because he was gasping for breath, he opened his eyes to find Zuri staring, a lop-sided smile quirking up one corner.

He pushed deep then came down on top of her, not wanting to give up the connection or the feel of her hands smoothing over his back. With his breaths evening, he got his elbows beneath him and lifted his chest slightly. “Breathe now?”

“I was breathin’ just fine,” she said, her smile wider now.

“Happy?”

She sighed, her fingers playing with the curve of his ear. “Incredibly so.”

He bent and kissed her smiling lips until they softened and suctioned against his, sealing them together.

Chapter Eleven

Zuri woke slowly. Something tickled her nose and a bad, bad feeling snaked down her spine.

A shout sounded from the yard in front of the house, Scout’s excited barks punctuated the air. Her eyes fluttered open. Even though it was the dead of night, light chased across the walls of Colt’s bedroom. Bright red light that flickered and waved. The smell of smoke filled her with dread.

“Fire!” came more shouts. Boots thudded on the porch.

Instantly alert, Zuri pushed up from the bed, heart racing. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and ran to Colt’s chest of drawers, found another tee and too-large pants and dressed. She put on socks to protect her feet, then ran out the bedroom and down the hallway toward the front door.