The Outlaw (12 page)

She wanted him, even if it was just for a
night, she wanted to know what it was like to love a man as intense
as Colton Avery.

Inhaling a deep breath, she licked her dry
lips. “How many ways can you imagine?” It was enough to tempt him.
His eyes darkened, the look he gave her heating her skin. He made a
small sound in the back of his throat and lowered his head, his
mouth covering hers. His lips were firm, his tongue forced into her
mouth, searching out her own.

His free arm wrapped around her waist,
squeezed her tight for a moment before he lowered it, cupping her
left buttock in his hand and forcing his erection harder into her
stomach.

Sarah lifted her arm, draping it around his
neck, and leaned up to her tiptoes, molding herself to him and
kissed him back, taking everything he offered.

Her body sang with pleasure as the velvet
warmth of his mouth devoured and stole her breath. She pulled away
with a gasp, her eyelids fluttering open. The intense look on his
face was still there and she gasped when he bent, scooping her up
into his arms and carried her to the grassy area lining the creek
bed.

Dropping to his knees, he laid her down, that
hungry mouth once again finding her own. Sarah nearly drowned in
his kisses, the nerves under her flesh jumping as he ran his hand
over her ribs to cup the underside of her left breast. His thumb
danced along the tender flesh, rasped across her hardened
nipple.

He broke the kiss and nibbled a path to her
ear, his breath hot against her skin. Sarah stared at a shard of
sunlight filtering through the trees and smiled, closing her eyes
again and savored every touch, every hot exhalation of his
breath.

Wet kisses were peppered down her neck and
across her throat. Sarah watched him kiss his way to the soft skin
of her breast. He looked up, his gaze locked with hers as he
extended his tongue, rolling it around her nipple before sucking
the tiny bud into his mouth.

The sensation was overwhelming. Her mouth
opened as she took in more air, her back arched, trying to bring
him closer as pinpricks of pleasure sparked through her body. His
hand held her breast to him, his fingers firm, squeezing gently on
the soft flesh.

He released her, small kisses dotting her
chest before he moved to the other breast, lavishing the same
attention to it as his hand skated down her ribs, to her hip. His
fingers tickled a path to the soft flesh of her inner thigh and she
parted her legs, that throbbing pulse in her center growing fiercer
by the second. The moment he touched her, the tip of his fingers
grazing the soft hair covering her, she cried out. “Colt.”

Lifting his head, he looked down at her. “Has
anyone ever touched you like this before?” He parted her, his
fingers burrowing inside her flesh to find the small bundle of
nerves that seemed to control all those throbbing pulses. Sarah
gasped as tingles raced through her limbs. He lowered his head
again, kissing the valley between her breasts, moving lower to
pepper small, playful bites and kisses on her belly, her hip. When
she felt him kiss her very close to where his hand was, her eyes
widened and she lifted her head to look down at him.

He lifted her leg, threw it over his shoulder
and Sarah was shocked when he buried his face between her legs. She
cried out, grabbed his head and tried to push him away. “Colt! What
are you…” His tongue lapped at her moist center and her eyes
rolled, her head slamming back to the ground. “Oh my sweet
heavens.”

Small jolts of pleasure rippled along her
limbs, her stomach clenched with every swipe of his tongue, his
breath fanned across her heated flesh. His hands soothed the skin
of her belly, tickling a path to her breasts before he cupped each
one, squeezing gently as his lips and tongue teased and tasted her
flesh. Her fingers wound in his hair and it only took minutes
before she was clinging to him, her hips rising from the ground in
search of his mouth.

He made a small sound, the vibration tickling
at her core and she whined as his tongue flicked back and forth,
rolling that small bundle of nerves until she ached with need of…
something. Her fingers clinched in his hair, her nails digging into
his scalp and it wasn’t until her legs started shaking that she
realized something was happening. Sparks shot behind her closed
eyelids, torrents of pleasure rippling through her body so fierce
that she cried out, gasping on the sound as her body convulsed.
Colt held her, his face buried deeper, his tongue and mouth sucking
at her flesh until the last tremor faded.

When she’d calmed, she opened her eyes.
Sunlight danced along the tree limbs above, the sway of the
branches hypnotizing. Colt was still between her legs placing small
nips and bites on the tender skin of her inner thighs.

He shifted, kissing a path up her body and
settled at her side. He was grinning as he looked down at her.

She blinked up at him, and swallowed to
moisten her throat. “Where did you learn to do such a sinful thing
as that, Colt Avery?”

A small chuckle escaped him as he lifted his
hand to push her hair away from her face. “You’ll hate me if I tell
ya.”

“I think I hate you for even knowing. Those
whores down at the saloon teach you such a perversion?” He lifted
an eyebrow and grinned, her hatred of those whores growing when she
realized they too had been on the receiving end of his wicked
tongue.

Sarah pushed the thought away. Dwelling on it
would only drive her crazy. She glanced at his neck, those blasted
“love bites” still visible, and that alone was hard to ignore. If
she thought about the others, all the women he’d more than likely
been with, she’d drive herself insane.

“Nothing happened.”

She focused her gaze back on his face.
“What?”

“In the saloon.” He reached up and touched
his neck, his finger sliding over one of those marks. “I didn’t pay
for no whore in there.”

“So they gave you those for free?” She didn’t
want to talk about this and pushed away from him, suddenly feeling
very exposed. She sat up, pulled her knees toward her body and
wrapped her arms around them to block his view of her. “I really
don’t care, Colt, who you do what with. I’m not your wife. You’re
free to sleep with whoever you want.”

“Do you want to be?”

She looked over at him, taking in his casual
position. He was lying on one side, flaunting everything god gave
him. He didn’t even try to cover himself, which spoke of his
confidence. He was staring at her, an intense look in his eyes.
Seeing him was a distraction and she wasn’t sure what he was
talking about now that she realized he’d actually asked her
something. “Do I want to be what?”

“My wife.”

The horses shifted nervously, stomping as if
agitated. Colt looked over at them before sitting up. He lifted his
head, his gaze roaming the clearing before he stood. Sarah was glad
for the distraction. She couldn’t have answered his question if her
life depended on it.

“Put your clothes on, sweetheart, we’ll have
to finish this at a later time. Those horses aren’t twitchy for the
hell of it.”

She watched him walk to his pile of clothing
before dressing quickly. She stood and did the same. Whatever had
those horses restless, it had spooked Colt as well. Either that or
regret had slapped some sense into him. A wife was probably the
last thing a man like Colt wanted and him throwing it out there was
probably something he wished he’d never said.

* * * *

What the hell was wrong with him? Why would
he ask her such an idiotic thing? Did she want to be his wife? He
almost laughed at the mere thought of it. He’d never wanted a wife.
A good woman to shack up with and fuck on a regular basis, yes, but
a wife?

He’d seen how whipped a man became when he
had a wife. His brother had been led around by his cock until the
day his young bride had died, leaving behind a baby girl none of
them knew how to care for. He also saw how lost Holden had been
once she was gone. He’d been devastated and that was something he’d
never wanted for himself. To be so attached to a woman that he’d
wander around lost for years without her.

The mountains were just visible in the
distance. Another day or two and he’d be home. He could put Sarah
on the stagecoach and send her on her way. She wasn’t the type to
take up with him without a promise of something more and he wasn’t
sure he could promise her that. His wanderlust had a way of
sneaking up on him. The need to be out on the range, doing as he
pleased with no one depending on him, drove him away from home at
eighteen and he hadn’t regretted it a day since.

Seeing Sarah out of the corner of his eye, he
turned his head to look at her. Her hair was still down, the ends
dancing around her hips with every step the horse made. The sun
glinted off those golden strands and damn him if he didn’t want to
reach out and touch it. To gather it in his hands and inhale the
scent attached to it. He wanted her in his arms, too. He should
have never indulged in his little fantasy of having her. Now that
he’d seen her, and tasted how sweet she was, he wanted more. He
wanted to bury himself inside her so deep he wouldn’t be able to
tell where she began and he ended.

His horse danced nervously under him and he
tore his gaze away from Sarah, calming the horse and scanning the
horizon. He’d yet to see anything since packing up and setting out
again but something was out there. He could feel it. The eerie
sense of being watched had filled that small shady area and it was
still there.

The thought of Virgil and the others being
behind them didn’t escape his notice. They’d lingered in that
little clearing long enough for them to catch up but as of yet,
there hadn’t been a sign of them. He knew Virgil to be a sneaky
bastard when he wanted to be but knowing Sarah stole his horse,
he’d be spitting mad and loud about it.

The air was calm, not a sound carried on the
breeze other than the occasional bird. It was almost too calm. A
new fear crawled up his spine as he searched the hills. He’d ridden
through these parts enough to know that even if you didn’t see
them, they saw you, and as the feeling of being watched grew, his
horse dancing under him, Colt knew, they’d been spotted.

“Sarah, if I tell you to go, I want you to
strike out in a straight line as fast as you can drive that horse
and don’t look back or stop for anything, got it?”

She looked over at him, one eyebrow raised.
“What?”

He didn’t look at her, instead, focusing on
the direction they were going. “I don’t think we’re alone.” She
turned to look behind her. “Don’t look back,” he said, louder than
he wished to. She turned to look at him and something in his face
must have given him away. Fear filled her eyes moments before they
darted from one area to the next.

“What is it, Colt?”

“I don’t exactly know. Just a feeling.” He
smiled at her, trying to ease her tension. “Just do as I say. Act
natural and keep your eyes open.”

She turned back to the road, her face
draining of color. “You’re scaring me.”

“I don’t mean too, sweetheart, but if we’re
being followed by who I think we are, you need to be.”

She lowered her head, all that glorious hair
fanning out around her shoulders and he saw her peek through the
strands to survey their surroundings. He did the same by tugging on
the brim of his hat, his arm shading his face.

The trees still lined the road on the left
side, the rocky hills on the right in the distance, he was sure,
held the most threat. He had no choice but to stay his course.
Turning back now would take them days out of the way and he barely
had enough jerky left to feed them as it was.

Sarah gasped softly and he turned to look at
her. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open. She was staring toward the
rocky hills. When he looked, he saw it too. A flash of light, the
sun glinting off something. It wavered, disappeared and returned.
Half a dozen times he watched that light appear and disappear. A
signal. A signal that spelled their demise, he was sure.

The war cry came moments later, that warbling
echoing across the plain. He saw them then, the Indian war party
spilling down from the rocks like locust, others coming from behind
on horses.

“Damn it.” Riding closer to Sarah, he reached
out, and slapped her horse on the rump. “Go, Sarah. Don’t
stop!”

Her horse bolted, she let out a small squeal
but leaned over the horses back as he followed behind her.

He pulled one of his pistols, pulled the
hammer back, and waited for one of them to get close enough. Of all
the damn luck. First Virgil, the pudgy marshal, and now Indians.
What the hell else could go wrong?

Chapter Nine

Sarah saw them but her mind refused to let
her believe it. Indians. They were being chased by Indians!

Colt was behind her. She could hear his
horse, see it’s brown nose out of the corner of her eye, but she
would have preferred him to be right by her side.

He’d been acting funny ever since their
little interlude back by the creek. She knew why now. He’d been
waiting for this. He knew something wasn’t quite right and now she
knew it too.