Texas Kissing (35 page)

“I can stop them! I’m with the FBI guy—we can fix this!” I was panting with fear, now. I knew I was about to lose her forever. “I love you!”

“I love you, too,” she whispered, and my heart felt like it was going to explode. “But this isn’t some movie where you can ride in and save me.”

I thumped the wall, leaving a dent in the plaster. “Let me try!”

“No. I made that mistake once.” She was sobbing, now. “You know me, Bull. I’m not the schoolmarm who needs saving, remember? I’m the goddamn saloon girl. I’ll be just fine on my own.”

“No you won’t,” I growled.

“No I won’t,” she allowed. “Goodbye, Bull.”

And she hung up. I called her back but she’d already turned the phone off.

Calahan stormed out into the lobby. “He’s still not talking,” he told me. Then he saw the phone in my hand. “Was that her? Where is she?”

I didn’t answer him.

I didn’t even know her—not really. Hell, I hadn’t even known her real name until a few hours ago. She wanted to leave and she was begging me not to follow her.

But the idea of losing Lily scared me more than anything I’d ever known.

I had to get her back.
How?

“Bull?” asked Calahan.

I’ve never been much of a thinker. My whole life has been about the physical: fucking, drinking, getting thrown around on a horse. But, ever since Lily came along, all that stuff felt less important. The way she made me feel...that was the only thing that mattered. So maybe it was time to start using my head.

Where would she go?
Think!

It came to me instantly.
Mexico.
Close enough to run to but out of easy reach of the mob and the FBI. And out of reach of me. She’d hidden from the authorities for years. What chance would I have?

If she went to the nearest border crossing, maybe I could intercept her in time. But my pick up was still at Calahan’s motel.

Calahan’s sedan, though, was sitting right outside the police station. And it was plenty fast.

“Sorry,” I muttered to Calahan.

He frowned. “About what?”

I slugged him right on the jaw. He went down hard on his ass. “Oh, you
motherfucker,”
he croaked.

I was already rifling through his pockets. I grabbed his car keys and ran for the door.

Lily

It took me several hours, two hitched rides, and God knows how many miles walking in the pouring rain to reach the border. By this point, I was so wet that there was no sense in trying to keep dry. I just trudged down the street with the rain soaking me to the bone, wondering if I’d ever feel warm again. The rain was really pounding, now, hitting the sidewalk and bouncing straight back up again to hit my legs. It was so heavy that it was difficult to see.

I knew that the best thing to do would be to get into Mexico and keep right on going, to put as much distance between myself and Gold Lake as I could. But the sun was coming up and I was so dog tired, I wasn’t going to make it further than the first hotel on the Mexican side.

“I don’t even care if it has roaches,” I said to myself. “I just want a roof.” I’d gotten so used to the drumming of cold rain on my scalp that it was difficult to remember life without it.

At this time in the morning, there was only a short line of cars waiting to cross into Mexico and the foot traffic entrance was completely clear. I could walk straight up to the border guards, show one of my fake passports and I’d be—

“Buenos fucking Dias,” said a voice as low as thunder.

I spun around, squinting through the rain. Bull was leaning against a wall, as wet as I was. The water was spilling down off the rim of his hat in a thousand little waterfalls. His shirt was plastered to his skin.

He looked amazing. He looked so good, so welcome, that my chest ached. But I shook my head and backed towards the border.

He took a threatening step towards me. “Don’t make me chase you, Lily,” he growled. “You know what happens when I catch you.”

I took one quick breath...and broke and ran, sprinting for the border post. Hot tears were prickling my eyes, mixing with the rain. If I could just get across, I could avoid all the pain. I could avoid saying goodbye. I could avoid—

A huge hand gripped the back of my blouse and lifted me a foot off the ground, then hauled me back. I gasped and kicked, spluttering against the rain. A second later, I was pushed up against the wall of an alley. The rain was lighter here, blocked by the alley’s narrow walls, and I could see properly again. I gasped and panted and looked up into Bull’s face.

“Now don’t you fucking move,” he told me.

I didn’t fucking move.

“I got a few things to say,” he growled.

I swallowed and nodded. I didn’t have much choice. I was sandwiched between his massive, hard body and the rough brick wall. I looked up into those clear blue eyes and saw that they were full of anger...and something else that made my heart skip beats.

I waited...but he stayed silent.

“Give me a damn minute,” he grunted. “I ain’t fucking rehearsed it.”

I nodded again.

“Okay,” he said. “
Look.
I love you.”

The way he said it made me suck in a little gasp of freezing air. I’d never heard anyone be so certain of anything my entire life.

“You should have told me who you were. But now that I know, I want to be there with you.”

I shook my head. The tears were winding their way down my cheeks in silent, hot rivers. “I can’t let
you do that.”

He slammed his hand into the wall beside my head. “Goddamn it, you selfish bitch! You don’t get to decide that!”

I blinked at him.
Selfish?
That’s what I’d been trying to avoid!

“You let me fall for you and then you decide
for me
I’m not allowed to be involved? I don’t fucking think so!”

I shook my head. “Bull, we’d have no life. Look at how I was, before you found me. Living in fear. Looking over my shoulder. Too scared to have friends in case my uncle catches up to me. We both could have died tonight! It’s no way to live.
”

He nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “That’s why you’ve got to take Calahan’s deal. Testify against that bastard.”

My heart sank. It was exactly what I’d known he’d say. “Bull, that would mean going into witness protection. I’d never see you again.”

“You would if I went in with you.”

It took me a few seconds to process what he’d said. When it finally clicked, I just stared at him in amazement.

He nodded.

It couldn’t be true; I had to check. “You’d come with me?” I asked. “Bull, they’d move us away. They’d change our names. You have friends here and family. You’d never see them again—
ever.
”

He looked into my eyes and nodded again.

“I...can’t let you,” I whispered. In some ways, it would be even worse than letting him put himself in danger. It was totally—

I squeaked as he lifted me off the ground, his warm hands around my waist. He pinned me to the wall again with my feet kicking in the air. “Where do you get this idea,” he asked, “that you
let
me do anything?”

I stared down at him and slowly stopped kicking.

“I’m Bull,” he told me. “And I do what I want. And what I want is to be with you so either accept me or shoot me ‘cause I’m not going away.”

I gaped down at him...and then flung my arms around him. It felt as if my whole soul was glowing, lit up by a blinding white light in my heart. We twisted all the way around until his back was against the wall, our soaking bodies pressed hard together. My lips searched for his and then found them, kissing the rain off them, and then our tongues were dancing together.

I ran my hands over his cheeks, feeling the rasp of his wet stubble. I was panting in the scent of him, snuggling my crotch against his—
God, I missed him so much!
Our kisses became open-mouthed and desperate as we ate each other up.

“I don’t think I can walk anymore,” I gasped when we stopped for air.

“It’s okay. I have my car. Well, Calahan’s car.”

I put a hand on his chest, marveling at the valley of his pecs, the way my hand could nestle between them. “
Or,”
I said, feeling like a shameless slut, “we could stop in at a hotel. Just while I get my energy back.”

He was panting too. His arms tightened around me. “A hotel?”

“Yep.”

“Just while you get your energy back?”

“Exactly that.”

I could feel his cock hardening against me through his jeans. “Good idea.”

Lily

He didn’t even bother to put me down. He walked with me still wrapped around him towards the nearest hotel. He didn’t lower me to talk to the desk clerk or to sign the guest register. Nor even when we walked up two flights of stairs because the elevator was out.

Only when we got inside our room did he set me gently down on my feet. The room was tiny—made even smaller by Bull’s huge size—and basic as hell, just a bed, a TV, and a bathroom. It was made for backpackers, not amorous couples. But it was safe and warm and dry and he was there, and that was all that mattered.

He pulled me into the bathroom, wrapped his arms around my soaking body from behind, and said, “Shower or tub?”

He was right—my body was numb with cold and even his big, warm form was chilled. “Tub,” I said decisively. I twisted gently out of his grip and cranked the hot water on full, then dumped in the whole little bottle of bath foam. As the tub filled with steaming water and suds, I started to peel off my clothes, wincing as I pulled the cold, clinging fabric from my skin. Behind me, I heard Bull doing the same. But I didn’t turn around to watch. I wanted to get the full effect.

Only when my panties hit the floor and I was completely naked did I turn around, shivering and wrapping my arms around myself for warmth. Bull was standing there, the top of his hat close to brushing the ceiling, his body damp and hard and perfect.

I glanced down at myself. It was the first time I’d been naked in front of him since the skinny dipping. And for the first time, I wasn’t self-conscious. I didn’t have to wonder if he liked my body. I
knew
. And, if I needed any confirmation, I saw his cock swell and steadily rise until the tip of it brushed my thigh. A deep, smoldering heat started to throb through me. I towed him over to the tub.

I was so cold that the water felt scalding on my toes. But I bravely stuck my whole foot in and then, wincing, I lowered in my ass and then the rest of me. As I hunkered down, the water closed over my shoulders, I groaned with relief, feeling the heat soak into me and my shivers start to die down.

I allowed myself a few seconds of shameless indulgence with my whole body immersed before I scooched forward and allowed Bull to climb in behind me. He would have stood there waiting for me all morning if I’d wanted him to, too tough to complain about the cold. But when he climbed in and warmed his chilled limbs, he gave the same groan of relief I had.