Breaking the Bad Boy (20 page)

Cassidy looked smaller than she remembered. When Joss looked at her Cassidy sneered and Joss saw that permanent lines were etching themselves in her face. Joss didn’t know quite how to feel about that. She did wonder why she was so hostile to her, and decided the best thing for her to do was get her new corset on and go for a ride. She might even bring Buck, she thought and walked out of the living room and down the hall to Buck’s room with her corset, and then she was ready to ride away some place where Cassidy would not intrude on her peace of mind. She knocked on his door.

“Come in,” she heard his voice and she opened the door and stepped in, closing the door behind her. He put his book down and stood up off his bed giving her that slow smile. He looked so much bigger in the room than he did outside of the hardware store. Her mother was in this house and she was not going to let it get to her. She put her bags on his bed and took off her jean jacket and turned away from him slightly and pulled off her shirt. The pool was definitely off limits, she didn’t want a repeat of the bear episode.

She went for the bag on Buck’s bed. Maybe she’d take the vodka bottle and get a little drunk; if Buck didn’t come with her he would find her later and bring her back safely.

Cassidy wasn’t her real mother, just because she gave birth to her doesn’t mean there was any mothering going on. Fernando was more nurturing than she was, hell; Rex and Fly were, too. She wished she could go to the barn.

“Okay, straight to business. Personally I enjoy a little foreplay, but we can do that naked,” he undid his top button of his pants.

“Buck, quit screwing around, my mother’s in the living room,” she said pulling out the corset from the bag nearly dropping the shirt she held to her. “I just want to have a ride.”

“I can accommodate you, Duchess. And I can be as silent as the grave, are you telling me you are a screamer?” He pulled off his shirt and came to her. “I’m okay with that, but I definitely thought you’d make sounds more like a kitten. For being a bear you have a lot of cat qualities.”

“Never mind, I caught you at a bad time, I see,” she said and opened the door to leave, but he closed it, locked it and leaned against it, blocking her way.

“Hey Duchess, you were the one who started undressing in my room, what am I to glean from that? We want each other; we have since we first clapped eyes on each other. Deny it, Duchess, if you can,” he reached for a shortened tress that curled over her ear and she closed her eyes letting the sensations fill her. Buck’s voice was seductive and she couldn’t deny it at all.

She shook her head and pulled her shirt back on letting him see whatever he wanted for a second while she fought for some protection from him, or from herself, she wasn’t entirely sure. “Why do you do this? Do you have a split personality or something? One minute you are incredibly noble and kind, the next you are…” she put a hand out palm up. “An unmitigated asshole.”

“I thought you liked us bad boys, Duchess,” he said. “Something about Kryptonite.”

“You are riddled with secrets, every time I get too close to one, you become an asshole,” she said. “That is when you’re not out saving people’s lives.”

“It’s no secret that I want you, Duchess,” he whispered. “It’s no secret that you want me, too. Let it happen, let me in.”

“I want thoughtful Buck, not asshole Buck,” she said.

“We’re all part of the same package.”

They stared each other down and he slowly lifted his hand under her hair to the back of her neck and ran his thumb along the line of her jaw. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he said and he stepped even closer to her.

“Yes, dammit, kiss me,” she said and he bent his head to her, his lips coming closer with every wild beat of her heart. The anticipation was exquisite.

There was a knock on the door and she jumped and they both whispered “Fuck.” He dragged his head away from her, exhaling loudly and focused on her huge blue eyes.

“Who is it?” He asked.

“It’s Cassidy. Do you have Joss in there?” Joss silently shook her head.

“She jumped out the window when she saw I was undressed, Cassidy, I think she was frightened by the sheer girth…” Joss pushed him away, unlocked and opened the door to shut him up. She looked at her mother, ready to face whatever came through the door.

Cassidy didn’t even glance at her daughter, whom she hadn’t seen in fourteen years; instead her eyes went straight to Buck’s hairless scabbed and healing chest and put a hand up to touch it. “What happened to you?” Cassidy groaned. He grabbed her wrist and gave her a stern look.

People didn’t go around touching other people’s chests, and that action could only mean one thing. Joss fell in love with the wrong man.

“Fuck,” it was a guttural inhuman sound Joss made when she realized Buck was not the man she thought. He had slept with her mother, and then come to work for her father, and seduced her. Cassidy looked up at her curiously.

“What’s wrong with you?” Cassidy asked her then she turned to Buck and hissed at him. “You weren’t supposed to sleep with her.”

Where had he been when Fernando was murdered? When the barn went up in flames? When the fence went down? Where had he been when her room was trashed? He’d been distracting her, seducing her, and all the while he was in league with her mother. Her own eyes huge with surprise she looked into his eyes and the truth was clear to see.

The sexy grin was gone. His playfulness and kindness, even Buck the asshole; they were completely gone. He was unreadable, a sphinx. She needed to get away from him because she was going to be sick, and she was going to cry. But first she needed to hurt him. She hit him as hard as she could in the gut, and he simply took it. Buck knew it was coming and he took it because he knew it was deserved.

“Joss,” he said so very quietly, she barely heard him. It was the first time he’d said her name, and it sounded so beautiful on his traitorous lips.

“No,” she said and stumbled down the hall past Brent and out the front door. She ran across the yard, her eyes filled with tears, her hand was surely broken and she looked down at it as she stumbled away from him, and from her mother. Everything was a blur, she had somehow fallen in love with him and he had been playing her the whole time. She was mortified and just needed to be as far away from them as she could be.

Shouting began behind her in the house, but she couldn’t spare the effort to turn around to see what they were yelling about. Maybe Brent was kicking him out. Joss turned to look, hating that she cared, but they made no sense. They weren’t shouting at each other, they were shouting at her.

That was the moment when she walked straight into the ginger haired chest of her bear.

Chapter Seven

He was the biggest bear Joss had ever seen. Most of the bears around were the much smaller, yet still formidable black bears, topping out at 300 pounds or so. Linebacker sized, she thought. Several linebackers could fit in this mature male grizzly, with room for their equipment.

He put his arms around her, just as Buck had done in the hospital that day, and he looked down at her with those small bear eyes and sniffed at her again. He was devastatingly thorough; the sniffing went on for some time. He must know she was the one, the same person he almost ate the other day, the owner of the trail of blood he followed to find her. It was meant to be. Just as Brent predicted he followed her scent straight to her and came to finish the job. She had delivered herself to him and stood unmoving in his embrace.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. Joss wasn’t sure if she was telling the bear to relax, there was no need to get excited about anything, or that it was all right if he needed to kill her. Was she ready to give it all up over some guy she hadn’t even kissed? No, she certainly wasn’t, but the bear might have different plans. “Don’t eat me.”

The bear inhaled for what seemed a very long time, and then he roared and it was the most terrifying sound she had ever heard, his massive head jutted forward and tilted to the side. Her death was imminent and his spit was flying in her face but she couldn’t move if she wanted to, she remained completely still, and stared at his face, looking at the implement of her own death.

It was going to hurt, she thought, he was going to eat her, and there was nothing she could do but watch it happen. With any luck he would start at her neck, and she’d bleed out before he ripped too much more flesh. Poor Brent, he was probably watching, this would kill him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay,” she said as soothingly as she could, but there was little chance he heard her over the roar.

This was when her life was supposed to flash before her eyes; she was looking her brutal gruesome death in the mouth. The very large mouth, filled with teeth the size of her fingers. There was no space in her mind for anything but very large, bear.

His scream was deafening, and she felt it rumbling through his body, the body she was pressed up against; large, hot and thick with fur. He abruptly stopped screaming at her and she watched as his right eye went from a small black orb to a large red hole and he fell backwards, with his arms still embracing her, clutching her against him. The massive bear pulled her right down on top of him; her arms flew up around his neck to help her break the fall, and they lay there unmoving like lovers in the afterglow. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

The bear’s breath whooshed out of him and she could smell the fish he’d had for dinner, and she wondered why he didn’t just finish her. But his head was thrown back and his tongue, his incredibly long tongue, the tongue that licked her open back, was lolling out of his mouth, and she knew he was dead. “I’m so sorry,” she said, and she wept into his ginger chest. She heard tentative footsteps behind her.

“Joss, honey, are you okay?” Brent. Brent was safe, he wouldn’t hurt her.

“Yes,” she breathed. “My bear’s dead.” Brent knelt down next to her and helped her up off the bear and hugged her hard to his chest. Her back caught fire from the stitches he ripped out, but she didn’t say anything, he had stitches popping open, too.

“Joss, I can’t lose you, too,” he said, tears streaming down his face.

She nodded and stepped out of his grasp and stumbled away from him, back to the house. She passed Buck who was standing on the deck holding a still smoking rifle looking like he’d lost his best friend. “You killed my bear after all.” He closed his eyes. She stumbled past her mother standing just inside the screen door, with one pretty eyebrow arched, and finally went past Belle still sitting at the table, and staggered back to her room where she stripped off her clothes and got in the shower and cried until there was no hot water left. She cried for the bear, and she cried for Brand and she cried for herself. For the first time in eight years she had let herself fall in love and it was such a shockingly bad choice she had to give up on ever finding anyone, because she no longer cared.

There was a tentative knock at the door at some point, but she didn’t answer it and whoever it was went away. She couldn’t face anyone yet. Maybe she should just pack and go back to
Denver
. The more she considered it the more she decided it was the right thing to do. It took no time at all to pack since she came with nothing. She ticketed for a flight out at eight the next morning and tucked her computer in her portmanteau and climbed into bed.

Joss wished she thought to bring the bottle of vodka with her on the way back to her room, as she waited for sleep to come. Too much time and emotion was being spent on Buck, and it was killing her. Maybe she should give Billy a call, it might make her forget. What was she trying to forget? Buck hadn’t even kissed her properly. But God, it was milliseconds away from being the best kiss of her life, she was fairly sure.

Cassidy had said he wasn’t supposed to sleep with her, and she looked at Joss with jealous venom. It wasn’t to protect her daughter from his advances, but to protect Buck from hers. Joss suddenly knew without a doubt why Brent was so upset about Joss’s sexuality; Cassidy must have cheated on him, and he was afraid the apple wouldn’t fall far from the tree. Cassidy would have cheated on him with the hands, too, undermining his authority on the ranch, cuckolding him for all to see.

Buck slept with her mother.

Why had she sent Buck here? Asshole, yes, but Buck was not the one who slit Fernando’s throat, she wouldn’t ever believe it. Somehow she could believe it of Cassidy.

And Buck slept with her.

The Frenchman’s gold. Cassidy must think there’s a chance in hell of getting her hands on it. The man Buck recognized was probably working with him to get their hands on her so she’d tell them where it was. If that were the case why didn’t Buck simply take her away, he had ample opportunity.

Buck slept with Cassidy.

He’d saved her life three times, that’s the only reason she was hung up about him. He had never been anything other than an asshole to her.

If you discounted the kindness that kept showing under the veneer of the assholeishness, you would have a textbook asshole/hero character, if indeed, there was such a thing. She had finally lost her mind. Vodka. She got out of bed and padded quietly down the hall to the kitchen.

She opened the freezer door and the floorboard squeaked behind her. Did she want it to be Buck, finding her in her ankle length silky gray negligee? Yes, of course she did, she wanted him to have an excellent, reasonable excuse for sleeping with Cassidy, beg her to run away with him and treat her to the most mind blowing sex she had ever had in her life. It was, after all, the reason she wore this slinky negligee in the first place if she was honest with herself. But Buck wouldn’t have made a sound, she knew that much. She turned, resigned to be coddled by Brent, when the back of her head split open with searing pain and the vodka bottle fell from her fingers to the floor.

***

“I know you’re awake, precious, there’s no use pretending,” she heard the singsong voice but she couldn’t quite understand the words. She had been in and out of consciousness, she didn’t want to be conscious; there was too much pain. Was she supposed to understand? Was she supposed to be able to see? Her head was throbbing now, but she couldn’t move her hands to feel the damage. And she was so tired; couldn’t they just let her sleep?

“Her eyes aren’t focusing; you hit her too fuckin’ hard.” Another voice said, suddenly in English, she understood this time. This one sounded concerned for her wellbeing, she liked him; maybe
he
would let her sleep. “She sure is pretty, though; can we fuck her when they’re finished with her?”
Okay, never mind, they are both monsters.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus.

There was a heartbreaking sound, she looked around hazily, and she realized the heartbreaking sound had come from her. They did hit her too hard; she was now incapable of speech she thought distantly. She’d heard an article on NPR about the huge portion of the brain it took for speech and something about strokes, blah, blah, blah, she was going to die again, and Buck wasn’t around to shoot the bear in the eye to save her this time. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take, and then she thought this was when she found out what her limit was. Right after a nap.

As soon as she arrived in
Montana
she’d had the worst luck. Her poor body was never going to be the same. Her heart was irrevocably damaged, but she could live with the bear claw scars; they marked her as one of them, like a brand.

Oh God, Brand. If her bad luck continued she was going to die, probably this night. If there was any kind of merciful God, she’d meet up with Brand. Maybe the bear would be there, too. Then she could apologize properly; she couldn’t help but think it was all her fault. Sleep came to her and though it was not a good sleep it was a relief nonetheless.

Her back was killing her, she noticed, it was the first thing she perceived when she woke and became aware of her surroundings. Her arms were tied behind her and she was on her back. She rolled to her side to take some of the pressure off, but this would only be a temporary measure, she could tell already. No position seemed to help her head, it was a lost cause. Oh, there was tape over her mouth, that’s why she couldn’t speak. There was only a slight comfort she took from that.

The henchmen were talking in the corner in subdued tones; it could not bode well for her future. Were they doing rock, paper, scissors?

“Wahoo!”
 
The skinny one yelled while the other looked bothered. “Go in the other room, I’d like a little privacy.” He said as he came toward her.

“Wait, two outta three,” the other man said. He was the man in her sketch she realized with a frightened sigh.

“Fuck off,” the guy coming toward her said over his shoulder to him.

“You sure, it’s the boss’ daughter?” The other man said.
Brent? You have something to do with Brent
? Joss couldn’t wrap her brain around that, Brent loved her. Oh God, Cassidy. These were Cassidy’s henchmen. She was going to be gang raped by people paid by her mother.

“I’m sure. It’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission. Fuck off already,” he said.

Fuck.
She thought as he unbuckled his pants coming toward her like she was a skittish horse. Where did he think she was going to go? The other man stepped out of the room and closed the door quietly behind him. She heard the heartbreaking moan again when he put his hands on her thighs, pushing up her carefully chosen negligee, and climbing on the bed. Joss was shaking her head and saying “No,” but it didn’t sound right through the tape.

“You sure are pretty. Relax, I don’t want to hurt you, let’s just have some fun,” he said.

Outside the room she heard something that sounded like a door slamming shut. Maybe the other guy left.

The soon to be rapist had his dick in his hand and he was coming closer to her when the door opened. She could smell the man’s breath; coffee and a rank decay. “You just sit back, now.” The door opening made him stop immediately and turn to it, blocking her view. “I told you…” he started, but that’s as far as he got.

He was looking at the door and Joss looked up when she heard another bang, and the back of the rapist’s skull opened up in front of her eyes and wet and bloody pieces of his brain matter flew out covering her neck and chest, followed immediately by the rest of his body slumping on top of her.