Rock Hard (Siren Publishing Classic) (3 page)

“I’m not,” she said.

“Good. We wait this out. Okay?”

“Do I have a choice?” she asked.

“Not today. You’re stuck with me.”

He took her hand, and they rushed back to the alcove. Browynn went to the fire, where she warmed her hands. “I don’t like storms…I’m usually better about checking the forecast.”

“It happens. I guess we’ll be here for a little while. I’m not so bad to hang with, am I?”

She could hear the playful tone of his voice. “No. You’re not so bad.”

Her teeth started to chatter, and she jumped when another crack of lightning struck nearby. Kade put his arm around her to warm her up. “You really are terrified.”

She nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah.”

Kade pulled her in closer. “It’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.”

Thunder clashed with lightning, and she moaned. Rain beat the earth hard. “It sounds like the cliff is coming down on top of us.”

He chuckled. “It won’t.”

She whipped her head up. “This is not funny.”

She went to move away, and Kade kept her body locked down tight next to his. “No running.”

She groaned. “I can’t stay here. I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Yes, you can. It’s safer,” he said.

“You can’t make me.”

“Yes I can,” he said.

Wynn felt the shock of his hard-muscled legs pressing into her thighs as she was dragged across his lap. His arms locked around her body, putting his face a whisper away from hers.

“Your heart is racing,” he said.

“The storm…I’ve always been terrified of them.”

“You need a distraction,” he whispered.

She chuckled, and the low tone made her voice sound smoky. “What kind of distraction?”

“The physical kind to distract your fear.”

Thunder rumbled through the gorge, and her heart hammered wildly. She shivered. “I don’t know why I’m so frightened of storms.”

“Were you ever caught in one as a child?”

She looked away. She didn’t like feeling so vulnerable in front of someone she’d just met. She was stronger than that. “They were bad where we grew up.”

“Look at me.”

She did. He brushed her hair away from her face. He searched her eyes for things she couldn’t begin to confess to him.

“I feel like I know you, or I’ve met you somewhere in passing,” he said.

Guilt fluttered through her body, and she looked away. “We’ve never met.”

“You feel it, too?” he asked.

Sensations spiraled through her body. She felt wanted, and she liked feeling wanted by him. It was so wrong to feel this for a man she was investigating. She took a long blink, trying to get her conflicting emotions in check.

“Yes.” Her confession slipped out before she could stop it from happening.

“Trust what you’re feeling...trust me,” he said. “Close your eyes.”

The command came from a man who was probably used to giving orders and having them obeyed without question. His hand slid up to the back of her neck, and awareness vibrated through her body. He rubbed his fingers in a sensual circle at the top of her spine.

“Trust me, Wynn. Close your eyes for me.” Slowly, her lashes fluttered down.

Under his touch, she swayed closer. His fingers caressed erotically. It’d been so long since she trusted anyone enough to let them get within touching distance. The thought of handing her body over to Kade, even for a few stolen moments, made her feel breathless and out of control. This was so wrong.

“Forget about the storm.”

There was so much more than the storm she needed to forget about. His voice was a seductive whisper against her ear that she couldn’t resist. The heat of his breath simmered over her skin. The fabric of her cotton climbing pants had gotten pushed up tight against her pussy. The thin fibers rubbed against her clitoris, sending sensations over her sex. Wynn tightened her fingers into Kade’s shirt.

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

Rain punished the ground and the cliffs for being in the way. “We’re not in the middle of a storm.”

“Oh? Where are we?” she asked.

“Outside a shower. You’re waiting for the water to warm up.”

His lips brushed accidentally against her ear, causing her to turn into his touch. She pressed her cheek to his and then shyly brushed it away. What was she doing getting so close to him? She shouldn’t. It was then that she realized she was more frightened of what was happening between them then of the storm lashing around them.

Lightning flicked off the sky, and thunder grumbled in the distance. He nipped at her ear with his teeth, sending erotic shivers down through her breasts. Tingles pulled her nipples into tight buds against her wet clothing. Again, his teeth rolled over her earlobe, and his tongue swirled over the scrape.

They shouldn’t be fooling around. Wynn knew she was walking a dangerous line with a man she didn’t know. How could she do this?

“The water’s still cold,” he said.

“What color is the tile?”

“Blue art deco from the sixties. It’s a small shower. The kind you find in cheap hotel rooms.” She moved her head closer to his, losing herself in his story.

“Am I getting in by myself?” she asked.

“Do you want me in there with you?”

“I don’t know what I want.”

“It’s just a story,” he whispered. “Please let me come in the shower with you.”

His right hand moved up her leg and settled on her hip. She felt his fingers flex tight. She tried to move away, but he wouldn’t let her go. She should push him away, but her body wanted and was now in control. “Kade...”

“I want to kiss you.”

His tongue swirled over her ear, making her forget how wrong it would be to kiss him. “We shouldn’t.”

“You need a good tongue lashing.”

“How do you know what I need?”

She sensed his smile rather than saw it. “A man knows what a woman needs when it comes to loving.”

Loving? This was pure, raw animal lust spiraling between them. Before she could even deny him, Kade brushed his mouth over hers to steal a kiss. A gasp of surprise had her mouth opening to him. The slight part of her lips had him taking advantage of the situation. Kade’s tongue flicked over her lips and rolled seductively against hers. His hand moved around her neck to tilt her head, taking their kiss deeper.

Wynn reached up and ran her fingers through his silky, black hair. His kiss was full of hard-bitten experience that came from a man kissing a lot of women. The thought of Wynn just being another had her pushing her palms on his firm chest, but he wouldn’t move.

His tongue pushed in and out as though he were sexing her pussy. She moaned. His hand moved up between her legs, brushing the back of his fingers against her sex. Wynn’s reaction was fast and shocking. She let her legs fall open, giving him what he wanted. Kade rubbed her pussy into a frenzy. Wynn felt her sex wet her climbing pants as her hip slid over the edge of his hard cock.

Wynn’s heart was pounding in her ears as her body climbed higher, reaching for release. It’d been so long since any man wanted to get her off. Most of the men she worked with couldn’t get past the fact that she worked with internal affairs. They just stayed away from her like she was Typhoid Mary.

His thumb padded up to circle her clit. Her moan of pleasure echoed through the alcove, and Kade groaned in encouragement. He was keeping her balanced on a sharp edge of wanting to orgasm all over him. He would go fast and back off, changing the tempo so that her body was being strummed hard. His knuckles pushed between her pussy lips, sending the cotton erotically deeper. His pinky knuckle played over the rim of her anal pathway, sending sensations over her sex. Wynn felt totally out of control, and she didn’t care. Kade broke his lips away and pressed his lips to her ear. His heavy breathing brought her closer to falling off the mountainside. Her hips bucked roughly against his big hand.

“Let go, Wynn. Let go for me. I want to feel you come.”

His breathing was heavy, matching her own. Her orgasm started in her toes and raced up to hit her hard in her pussy. Spasms rocked through her body. Kade groaned his approval. He whispered sexy words she didn’t understand in a language she couldn’t place. It sounded almost like Dutch.

“Central to 43-50.” The crackle of his radio in her ear had her orgasm vanishing away.

Their eyes locked. “Don’t run from me.”

Kade reached for the radio on his shoulder. “43-50, go ahead.”

“43-50, be advised we’ve got reports of downed power lines off exit 33 Williamson rest area. State Highway is on the scene.”

“10-4, copy that. We’re still taking shelter up at Arrowhead.”

The worst of the storm was pushing off to the east. Wynn eased off Kade’s lap and found a stick to poke at the dying embers of the fire. She couldn’t meet Kade’s gaze as he went to stand at the edge of the alcove. She closed her eyes at the memory of his thick cock pressed against her thigh.

He lifted his hands at the mouth of the alcove and pressed the heels of his palms against the stone. Wynn took the opportunity to look at him from behind. He was all thick muscle. She’d been wrong about how lean he was. Kade’s thighs were thick, cords of muscle that led to an athletic backside. She was staring at his ass when he turned around.

“I don’t usually kiss women I’ve just met when I’m on duty,” he said.

She felt like saying the same, considering she was on duty, too. Wynn wasn’t a woman that spoke of her feelings so openly. Often times, she didn’t know how to express how deeply she felt to those around her, so she usually didn’t. She lifted a shoulder and let it drop as she kicked sand over the fire to put out the embers. Both knew this wasn’t ever going to happen again, and she was okay with that. Kade stamped the dirt into the embers.

“I was freaking out,” she said.

“You’re okay, then?”

“I’m good.”

“All right. Let’s try to make it out of here before it cuts loose again.”

By the time they hiked it back to her Wrangler, both were a muddy mess. The access road was washed out by a roar of rushing water, too. They were trapped on the beach until the flash flood receded. The possibility of being stuck overnight with Kade was very real.

Unless she wanted to risk it with the Wrangler. Right now, she didn’t.

“I think we’re stuck overnight,” he said.

Annoyance flexed through the hard line of his muscled body. Wynn wondered what his problem was. There was no way they could get over this river without a fight. “I think you’re right.”

He turned, and their gazes locked. Lightning flashed across the sky. There was something predatory in the way he regarded her so closely.

He wanted her. The realization made him feel out of control.

Kade didn’t want to think about how he crossed the double yellow line and was about to hit the guardrail in a spin he knew he couldn’t recover from. The woman standing beside him wasn’t like any he’d ever met before. Her vibrant green eyes stared up at him as though she cautiously expected everything to be taken away from her.

She did not trust men. Something dark and deeply male crept up and took hold of his rational side. He wanted to know who had hurt her and go hurt them.

Her yellow-blonde hair was plastered to her head from the rain, giving her a sexy, tussled look. Kade wasn’t sure why he suddenly felt so possessive of the woman, but he did. There was something exotic about her that made him want to protect her with his life.

It was as though he found something special he didn’t even know he was looking for. Everything before and after didn’t matter, as long as she was at his side.

What the hell was wrong with him? He had no claim on this woman he’d just met. That annoyed the hell out of him. Why her? Why now? He was obviously caught up in the moment and in the kinetic energy of the storm.

He wasn’t looking for love. He was satisfied with the few dates he had now and again.

Kade ran a frustrated hand through his hair as she wandered over to the cliffs that edged up against the beach. She was earthy and erotic as hell with her simple style. Kade couldn’t ever remember noticing what a woman wore that wasn’t short or spilling out.

She’s different.

The words whispered through his head as though someone else had spoken them.

His mouth went dry as she smoothed her hands over the wet rock, making envy reach up and grab him by the balls. He wanted her hands on him, and he wanted his hands all over her.

Kade wanted to run his hands through her wet hair and make love until the sun came up in the summer grass.

He froze. He wasn’t a possessive man, but right then the desire to know everything about her struck him so hard it left him feeling stunned.

There were secrets in her gaze when she looked at him, as though she was trying to figure him out. The kind of secrets that could get a man in trouble if he let it go there for too long. She smiled, and it made him forget all about what he was out there supposed to be doing.

His job.

Browynn South was reported missing by a man that wanted her back. Kade didn’t want to make that call reporting that he found her, not until he knew what was going on, not until he knew she wanted to be found. Sometimes women ran from men due to domestic violence. Kade was not about to offer her up to an abusive lover until he knew everything was okay. That meant he had to do his job.

“The break in the rain isn’t going to last long,” he said.

“No, probably not.”

She paced the jagged rock line. Kade wanted to talk about everything and anything else that wasn’t his job. Once he went into work mode, he knew he’d destroy everything that happened between them. He knew he’d ruin the trust he worked so hard to gain from her when they kissed under the alcove.

“Have you always worked for the Forest Service?” she asked.

“I’ve had other law enforcement jobs.”

Kade watched her pace away from the cliffs and across Pebble Beach to the raging water. Instinct had him hurrying over to her side as she got close to the edge. His hand came up around her wrist, and she startled.

“Not so close to the edge. I don’t want to have to do a water rescue tonight.”