Secret Cravings (2 page)
Kate walked out of the barn, and Troy was forced to follow and watch as she shut its doors, and then headed back to the house.
She hesitated, slated him a considering stare. “Okay. When?”
“As you can tell, I’ve got to take a shower. I can get back here in twenty minutes, then we can make it to the city limits in a half hour from your Gran’s house.”
She grinned. “Breaking the seventy miles per hour speed limit.”
“You’ve been away too long, Kate. Unofficially, it’s more like eighty-five or ninety for locals. Folks passing through the county going five or ten over are the only ones that the sheriff gives tickets.”
“And as I recall, you hit the gas until you reach a hundred or more. I’m not even dressed for dinner.” Rance’s truck came into view. “Is that your brother?”
“Yep.”
The Super Duty pulled right next to them. Rance jumped out of the cab, keeping his hand on the door. He speared Kate with a glance. His gaze widened, his nostrils flared. “Hi, Kate. Ready, Troy?”
“No time to stay and catch up with an old friend?” Kate folded her arms over her chest.
Rance clenched his jaw. “Not really.”
“You haven’t changed a bit. Way too busy. Why don’t you guys come inside and I can see what Gran has in the way of snacks?” Kate obviously was trying to peel back Rance’s hardened layers.
Could she really be ready to forgive them for the cruelty they’d dished out to her all those years ago? “Bro, what would it hurt? I know I need a break.”
Rance glared at him, then turned to Kate. “We really can’t. Thanks to Gran’s fucking
horse chasing our livestock back to the bluffs. Troy and I will have to work half a day to get the herd back to the pasture we want them in. That bag-a-bones is lucky I don’t take him to the glue factory tonight.”
Kate winced. “It’s my fault. I’m the one who didn’t make sure he was locked up.”
“Rance, enough.” Anger pushed Troy close to his wolf nature, now nearly ready to form.
His twin must’ve sensed it. “Fine. You coming, or do you want to walk? It’s only ten miles back to your truck.”
“Give me a minute.”
Rance snorted. “I’ll be seeing you around, Kate.”
Kate glared back at him. “Don’t make promises you’re not willing to keep, Rance Keekoti.”
His brother didn’t respond, but got back in the cab of the truck, slamming the door harder than necessary.
“Kate, don’t worry about him.”
“He hasn’t changed since high school. You’d think he would have matured at least a little by now.”
“He has…you just can’t see it now.”
“I doubt that, Troy.”
“And what about dinner? We could be eating steak in San Angelo in an hour, if we hurry.”
“You’re not going to let me out of this, are you?”
“No way, Kate.”
“I need to unpack and make some calls before I get ready. Give me a couple of hours. Plus, no steak. Since Mertzon is closer, we can eat at the café there. That way we can get finished in time to get you on your way home. I’m sure you still have to get up at the crack of dawn to get your chores done on the ranch.” She wrinkled her nose and grinned. “Besides, you’re right. You do need a shower.”
Thrilled with her agreement, he wanted to meld her body into his in a proper goodbye, but didn’t. Instead, he held out his hand. She took it and squeezed, sending pulses of heat tearing through his veins.
Kate smiled. “See you at six.”
He would face the music, tell her everything, no matter how difficult, and then he’d use every seductive weapon at his disposal to claim her for good.
“Yes, you will.”
Chapter 2
Rance looked at Kate through the windshield of his truck. Holy hell, he’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. She’d been physically attractive as a teen. Now, she bypassed inconceivably gorgeous to some other state previously unknown to him. Desire filled him up to the brim. But it wasn’t just her body that called to his core nature. She was the only woman he’d ever wanted for a mate, but that could never be. The tribe would never allow members to mate with outsiders.
Driving to find Troy, he’d smelled her scent and mating pheromones a mile from Gran’s house, and his cock had immediately hardened in his jeans. Another inhalation of her odor would’ve driven him wild and opened up his primal lust. Getting back in the truck was his attempt to keep a fingernail hold on his will. Any closer to her, and he would have her naked underneath him, lapping up her pussy’s nectar with total abandon.
Fuck!
As she walked up to Gran’s front door, Rance imagined what a tumble in the hay would be like with her. Off the fucking charts! Images of kissing her lush lips, teething her tasty nipples, licking her clit and swollen folds, filling her pussy up with his dick whirled in his head. It would be so easy to give in to his cravings. Too easy.
Damn!
Troy got into the cab, shut the door and waved at Kate.
Rance shifted into reverse and drove backwards at full-speed for half the length of the long dirt drive.
“What the hell, Rance! You trying to piss her off?”
He turned the steering wheel hard to the left, and hit the brakes. The truck spun to a stop, facing Gran’s gate. “You don’t like my driving, then why don’t you jump out of the truck and shift into wolf form? You’re on the verge of it right now.”
“Fuck off, bro.” Troy glared at him.
“You’re treading dangerous ground with Kate.”
“You, too. I can tell your wolf is itching to come out.”
Rance turned up the radio, trying to keep a handle on his anger and something else long forgotten that he couldn’t keep hidden from his brother. He craved Kate as much as his twin did.
Troy snapped, “We’re not kids anymore.”
He didn’t answer.
At the end of Gran’s drive, he stopped the truck. Troy jumped out, opened the gate, then Rance drove off of Gran’s property onto the county road. In the rearview mirror he saw his twin pull the gate closed. He couldn’t fight his urges anymore than Troy could. Not with Kate. But somehow they must. The accident and what happened had poisoned the friendship between her and them. Only he and Troy knew what really happened that night, and it had changed everything.
He’d played up the sour act with Kate ever since, when instead all he wanted to do was cover her in kisses, hold her tight, and never let go. But the longer time went on, the more settled into their mutual act of distancing they became.
He continually had to remind Troy what they’d promised each other. It was the only way to keep his twin from going to Kate and breaking his vow of secrecy.
Kate still cared for Troy but couldn’t stand him. That was clear. No sense in trying to pretend she didn’t. He needed to keep her at arm’s length…for his own sanity and for Kate’s protection. Troy had to remember why they’d made their pact together. The risk to Kate was too great.
Troy placed both hands on the dashboard. “Bro, slow down.”
Rance looked at the speedometer, now pegging one hundred five. He eased off the accelerator and the truck slowed to eighty.
“Thanks. Not in the mood to be killed tonight.” Troy rolled down his window, letting in the cool air. “I know what you’re thinking, but I can handle it.”
“Can you? Have you forgotten what happened that night?”
“There isn’t a day that goes by without me thinking about that.”
“Keep it that way.” He hated what he had to say next. “You know she can never be our mate.”
Troy shrugged. “It’s only dinner, bro.”
As Rance thought about what Kate would look like out of those tight jeans, his lust clawed at his insides for release. “Bad mistake.”
* * * *
“Sweetie, I wish I’d known you were coming home.” Gran sounded disappointed.
Kate clutched the old black rotary phone’s receiver while pacing back and forth in her grandmother’s kitchen as far as the curled cord would allow. She was glad her grandmother had called her, hearing her voice normally calmed her down. Not this time. She was still shook up from seeing Troy and Rance Keekoti.
“I just can’t believe that you’re really in Peru.” Images of the men troubling her appeared in her mind.
Troy was always the more relaxed of the two brothers, easy-going. Rance was brooding and tense. Physically, they were nearly identical. Few could tell them apart, but she’d always been able to. They both had cut their dark hair just the way she liked, short but not razor-short. Their strong jaw lines, full lips, high cheekbones, and yellow eyes worked together to create downright handsome faces. And their bodies? Oh my God. Dark skin, muscled frames…built for sex.
What shocked Kate more had been her involuntary arousal at seeing the brothers again. Nothing like that had ever happened to her before. She’d gotten her initiation to sex by a short-term boyfriend in college who was amazing on the football field but a total fumbler in the bedroom. She suspected that the twins knew exactly how to pleasure a woman. Just being next to the two brothers had her nerves on edge and her pussy wetter than ever before.
The psychology of sexual responses was something she’d studied at Columbia University. Her strong urges caused by seeing Troy and Rance again she knew must have some logical explanation. She just couldn’t put her finger on it this moment.
On a whim, Kate had agreed to dinner with Troy.
What the hell was I thinking when I said yes?
He would be back to pick her up in less than ninety minutes.
“I’ll be home on your birthday, sweetie.” Gran’s soothing tone took the edge off of Kate’s nerves. “I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“I’m not upset with you. Never could be.”
Made sense that her grandmother had asked Troy and Rance to take care of her property while she was away. Gran was an honorary member of the Loneekawa Tribe, and the Keekotis were one of its prominent families. Though recognized by the government, the Native American tribe hadn’t been given a reservation. Instead, the families of the tribe had acquired some of their old native lands through traditional real estate purchases over many years. Now, the Loneekawas held ninety-five sections in the county.
“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s my fault, not yours.” With her free hand, Kate took the lid off the snowman cookie jar on the counter but found it empty, causing her stomach to grumble. “I’ve never been very good at setting up surprises. If I hadn’t lied at my graduation and told you that I was headed to Hawaii for a month, you wouldn’t have left.”
“You know it, sweetie.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were going to South America?” Placing the ceramic top hat back on the snowman, Kate remembered her last meal was over fourteen hours ago.
“Just decided on it last week. My running buddies, Esther and Cecelia, are here with me. You remember them? There’s another ten that you don’t know of the silver-haired set with us.”
“Thirteen wild women in South America sounds fun. Why Peru?”
“There’s been a report about a rare herb being found near Machu Picchu.” Her grandmother sounded giddy. “Witches like us can’t resist getting our hands on some of it. We’re headed up in the morning.”
Gran loved adventure, feared nothing, and never faltered from pretending to be a sorceress to lighten the mood.
“What does this mysterious spice do?”
“Lots of things, sweetheart. It adds to the potency of any potion.”
Kate grinned. “I’m sure that it does.”
“Plus, its flavor is perfect for beef, pork, or chicken dishes.”
Gran had started the witch act the very first day Kate and her two younger sisters, Heather and Megan, and her mother had come to live with her. The divorce had been hard on all of them, but Gran helped them all heal with her pretense. To this very day, she never let up on the ruse. An amazing cook, Gran would always hum and mumble over pots and skillets to enhance the illusion for her granddaughters, now all three in their twenties.
“Kate, there’s not much in the icebox and the pantry is pretty bare. Go into Mertzon and get anything you want. If you don’t recognize whoever is running the register, just tell them that you’re my granddaughter. They’ll put it on my account.”