Rugged Fire [Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 4] (6 page)

Growing up in Savage Valley, she knew a little bit about all the shifter families. The Kinmans were lawmen. The Ashleys were doctors, and the Greenwoods ran the preservation center. The Carsons were known for their work at the bank, but she knew the rest of the shifters left them alone most of the time. They kept themselves to themselves, which was pretty difficult in a small town like Savage Valley. She wondered if there was something deeper going on with them.

“Why are you so concerned with reputations anyway? The town already loves you.”

“Everyone has their place, Lianne,” Seb said. “You of all people should know that.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’ve lived here most of your life. You know how things work.”

“I’m not sure that I do. I’m beginning to think we have very different ideas about how things work. Maybe you should enlighten me.”

Seb looked at her for a long moment. She thought he was annoyed and that he wouldn’t answer, but then he lifted a “what the hell” brow. “Living in Savage Valley, everything we do is scrutinized, discussed, and dissected. In that type of environment, we prefer to keep ourselves as far away from gossip as possible. If that means avoiding people with questionable histories, so be it. We handle people’s finances, their money, their livelihood, and we take that responsibility very seriously. Does that make sense?”

“Yes.”

“And I didn’t intend to speak poorly of your cousins, but even you must admit that Carter and Noah can get out of control. They’re wild. But they like being wild. They like pushing people’s boundaries and thresholds of tolerance, so I can only conclude that they like being outcasts. I’ve seen nothing that would make me believe otherwise. Do you agree?”

Lianne forced herself to suck in a deep, steadying breath. Noah was her best friend. They’d spent hours and hours together as kids, and in high school, he’d always been the one to cheer her up when her self-confidence sank to the ground. “Seb,” she said, forcing her voice to remain calm. “I’m sorry, but I do not agree. Not at all. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I respect you. I think you and Will manage the bank extremely well, but you are wrong. You are so wrong. I think that maybe, if you opened your mind and lowered your nose a little bit, you’d see that it isn’t the Strongs with the tarnished reputation but with pigheaded people like you.” Well, she’d gotten a little intense at the end, but she was irritated and felt pretty proud of speaking her mind to them. They were so damn attractive, but they didn’t know anything! She tried to yank out of their grip. They held her hands tight. “Let me go!”

“Not until you cool off.”

“I’m not gonna cool off if you insist on insulting every friend I have, damn it.” She tried to twist away, but that made them tighten their grip on her. “Fine, but now you’ve got me good and surly.”

“Didn’t Noah tell you their family history?”

“Bits and pieces. I know little parts of all the families’ histories. But so what? That’s history. This is now.”

“Not in Savage Valley, and you know it, Lianne. Our history is living and breathing. We’re proof enough of that, as well as each of the bear-shifter families, the lion-shifters, and the Shoshones. None of us will ever escape our history.”

“Just because your history is a part of you and a part of this place doesn’t mean it has to shape every aspect of your life. People change. Families change. Even the mountains change, given enough time.”

They approached her small porch, and Seb and Will walked her up to the door. “Well, I was thinking of inviting you two in for a nightcap or something like that, but with all this talk of family histories and friends you don’t approve of”—she dug around in her purse for her keys—“I’m not sure it would be the best idea. And it’s not that I’m not
wildly
attracted to you both, and I mean, it’s not like I don’t know how the bear-shifters and the lion-shifters, how that all works—”

Seb leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, effectively ending her nervous effusions. “Thank god,” she whispered against his lips, grateful for the stop to her nonsense. Standing up on her toes, she pressed her lips deeper into his and grabbed the front of his shirt. It had been so long since she’d kissed anyone, too close to a year for her comfort, and the sensation filled her up from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. Seb’s large hands pressed into her back, making her shirt and sweater bunch up, and his fingers caressed her skin and spine.

When he finally released her, she stumbled back a couple steps, bumping up against her front door. Her breaths came in short gasps. “Oh my,” she whispered, putting her fingers to her lips.

“Lianne,” Seb said. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. That was…I wanted that…you don’t have to
—”

“Not for the kiss. I plan on doing that again. I meant for tonight, for how we treated your friend. We didn’t think about what we were saying, and in the process, we insulted both you and her. That is never acceptable. Please accept our apology.” He grabbed her hand and ran his fingers over her knuckles, staring deeply into her eyes. Her pussy was so wet and tingly she thought she’d crumple to the ground, reduced to a pile of wanton nerves and moans.

“But what about everything else? Do you understand what I was talking about? We’re all part of this town. Both of you are, and me, too. We have to help each other. We have to accept each other. Does that make sense? Can you understand where I’m coming from?” She touched Seb’s face. She so wanted to fall against him. She wanted to lean into him and let him hold her. “We’re all connected. Whether we want to be or not.”

Seb sucked in a deep, ragged breath. “You are remarkable, Lianne. I hope you know that.” He put his hand over hers and placed another gentle kiss on her lips.

Well, he hadn’t answered her question, but he hadn’t downright refused to listen either.

She’d take it.

For now at least.

When he broke the kiss and stepped back, Will slid into the empty space he’d left behind. “Will,” she murmured, a thrill of desire skipping up her spine.

The whole night, Will had been the quiet one. He’d watched her interact with Seb and kept his silence. His dark eyes kept her nervous and on edge. She wasn’t sure if he felt the same attraction that Seb so obviously did or if he was merely going along for his brother’s entertainment. She’d had feelings for both the brothers since she was a young teen, and she simply could not handle it if this was only a flirtation for them, some small dalliance that they could easily let go of if they wanted. She wanted to kiss him, wanted to taste his arousal to see if it met that of his brother’s.

At her beckoning, he stepped closer, placing one hand on the wood next to her head and trapping her against the door. With his free hand, he put his thumb against her bottom lip, swollen and tender from Seb’s heated kiss, and rubbed it back and forth in a slow, mesmerizing pattern. “You’re an enchantress. I liked seeing you wrapped up in my brother’s arms.”

Lianne sucked in a breath.

Slowly he leaned in. Lianne thought his lips would never reach her. She watched him, not daring to breathe, not daring to move, until at long last, he whispered, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” He hovered, waiting, and when she nodded, his warmth captured her. With a deep sigh, she settled into the kiss. His lips were firm yet gentle in their insistence. He moved with an assured and easy leisure, tasting her without haste, dipping his tongue in and swirling for a moment before retreating. He sucked her tongue into his mouth and welcomed her into him, pulling and rolling against her. He held her throat with his hand and ran his thumb over her chin and jawline, tilting her head up so that his tongue could go even further, even deeper.

She slipped her hands around to his backside and then into his back pockets, grabbing his ass and pulling him closer. She gasped when his hard length pressed against her stomach. She’d never felt a cock so big or so stiff. It ignited a primal response in her gut, and she felt herself pushing harder against his mouth, felt her teeth scraping against his flesh. His shaft moved up her stomach as he rolled his hips into her. She squeezed her fingers around his firm ass cheeks as the lust licked through her veins.

Never had she responded so powerfully to a man, much less a kiss. Her body was on fire, and she knew only Will and Seb had the power to quench the hungry flames.

This kiss ended way too soon. She wished it would stretch on into eternity, but Will pulled his lips from hers. She wanted to invite them in, wanted to be the same kind of bold she was when dealing with her business, when she haggled over prices for raw materials or chewed out a supplier when a shipment was late. But she had never had sex, much less invited two men to come into the dark quiet of her bedroom, never invited anyone to spend the night.

She was still debating on her course of action when she heard a familiar voice coming from down the road. Peeking around the twins, she saw Jamie hanging on the shoulders of two men, stumbling down Wicket Way toward the house belting out a bawdy tune Lianne had never heard before. As the three approached, Lianne could make out the faces of Ezra and Cleve Yeats. “Oh goodness,” she muttered under her breath. “Looks like I’ll be putting her to bed.”

She glanced up at Seb and Will. A wave of longing swelled inside her, making her wish she could be irresponsible, pull them inside and up to her room, and then forget everything else for the night. “I’ll see you both again soon?”

Seb leaned in and kissed her. “Of course,” he said against her lips.

When he’d moved away, Will pressed his mouth to hers for one hot, thought-shattering moment. Then they both slipped away, their tall forms disappearing into the darkness only moments before Jamie and her questionable escorts stumbled up the porch.

Lianne crossed her arms and quirked a brow at her friend.

“Lianne!” Jamie squealed, wrapping her arms around Lianne and squeezing her.

“Let’s go inside.”

“We can put her to bed for you,” Ezra said with a slight slur, leaning in just a little too close.

“It’s okay, boys. I got her from here.”

Lianne maneuvered and got her front door open.

“I think I’m in love,” Jamie sighed as they stumbled into the house.

“Whatever. I expect some friggin’ ginormous blueberry pancakes for this.”

Waving at the Yeats twins as they stumbled off the porch, Lianne closed her front door and locked it. Trudging up the stairs to her room a few minutes later, she could hear Jamie snoring off her drunken rebellion. She shook her head, knowing Jamie would be groaning about her debauchery and blaming it all on her father in the morning, but it wasn’t long before Lianne’s annoyance faded.

As she crawled into the bedcovers and sleep crept closer, the curl to her lips came back. She drifted off, dreaming of front-door kisses, knowing she’d be a smile machine for days.

“Boys, boys! Surely you don’t mean to go out?”

Seb continued drinking his protein shake while Will answered, “Good morning, Mother. You’re up early.”

“The sun hasn’t even risen yet, boys. Houses aren’t built so that you may leave their warmth and comfort before the dark has lifted. What sort of mad shenanigans are you two up to? I swear you get more and more like your fathers every day.” His mother shivered, and Seb felt like reaching out to her, but then she pulled her robe tighter around her frail shoulders. “Those two couldn’t stand to be off the water. Every morning it was the same. I don’t know how many times I warned them away. I thought they’d fall in. I thought they’d both suffer hypothermia and then pneumonia and then leave me here to raise you two alone. And I told them several times that all that rowing couldn’t possibly be good for their bodies. Too much strain on the shoulder and the back. Once a month, perhaps, would have been acceptable, but
every morning
. I never could fathom such a thing. No doubt it weakened their bodies and left them unable to battle the cancer as they should have.”

Seb licked the shake off his upper lip and peered over at his mother. She was staring into the fridge, the yellow light casting odd shadows across her face. “Did you having trouble sleeping?” he asked.

He’d heard this same rant countless times, and he’d heard hundreds of variants of this same rant just as many countless times. He loved his mother dearly. That was never a question. But every time she went into the subject of their fathers, he couldn’t help thinking that she was angry. Angry that she’d tied her life so completely to theirs. Angry that she could never leave Savage Valley as long as they were alive. Angry that now they were gone, she was too afraid to go on her own.

He didn’t know what to do to help her. He tried to be patient and understanding and never get upset with her incessant worrying.

But underneath it all, he couldn’t stop thinking that she regretted everything. Her marriage, her sons, her life, her sacrifice. What woman should be forced to live like that? How could he ever ask it? He couldn’t. He never would. Neither him nor his brother. They’d already discussed it, and each time his mother went off, he was sharply reminded of why he could never condemn a woman to a life like hers.

“Of course not,” his mother answered. “I slept normally. I merely wanted a warm glass of milk.” She blinked her eyes, grabbed the milk carton, and bustled over to the counter, her slippers scuffling across the tile floor of the kitchen. “I see you two have your wetsuits on. Are you going to the lake?”

“We’ll only be a couple hours. You don’t have to worry about us,” Seb said.

“At least have a boiled egg. You can never go wrong with a hard-boiled egg, my boys. And whatever are you slurping down over there, Sebastian? Is that one of those shakes with god-knows-what in them? They are much too rich. They can’t possibly be good for the constitution on such a brisk morning as this and you planning on such a rigorous form of exertion. Here. Take one of these eggs.” She held out a carton, and Seb obliged. “A small one, mind you. If you get one that’s too large, it may not settle well, but I don’t see the harm in one small egg.”