COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) (165 page)

Chapter Two

              “Based on my analysis of the historic records, we should find at least nine more graves,” Jason said as he trotted to keep up with Cat and Liam.  “We’ve been searching for a week and have turned up nothing.”  He popped a piece of gum in his mouth.  “Maybe you should seriously reconsider my suggestion to move north.”

“We know The Reaper took his final known victim from a chicken farm in Crystal Valley,” Cat told him.  “He also spent his final winter in this immediate area.  He’d have no reason to lug the bodies north before he buried them.  The ground freezes here, you know.”

“My family is from Montana,” Jason told her with great dignity.  “In fact, my great-grandfather used to own a pig farm not five miles from here.  So yes, I do know.”

“Then you should know back then it was virtually impossible to bury anyone during the winter,” Cat said.  “He would have kept them and waited until the spring thaw to dig the graves.  Can you put it here, please, Boone?” 

Liam carefully set down the big case with the portable ground penetrating radar unit.

“Jason, would you run back to camp and see if Nina and Sally finished excavating grid six? If they have, help them set up grid seven.  Thanks.”  She crouched down to open the case.

Liam watched the small man stalk off before he began clearing dead brush from the patch of ground inside the flagged stakes.

“You think I hurt his feelings,” Cat said as she came to help him.  “Don’t you?”

“Can’t say.  They’re his feelings, not mine.”  Although her hands were almost as callused as his, Liam took out his spare work gloves and offered them to her.  When she scowled at him, he said, “Snakes don’t care how tough you are, Doc.”

She took the gloves and pulled them on.  “But you do think I’m mean to Jason.”

“You’re meaner to me,” he pointed out.

Instead of laughing Cat walked a short distance away and then came back at him.  “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be a woman working in male-dominated field?”

Liam studied Cat’s face.  “I bet I will in a minute.”

“Don’t be cute, Boone.”  She picked up some fallen branches and lugged them outside the stakes.  “When Jason looks at me, he doesn’t see my PhD.  He sees my blonde hair, pretty face, and nice body.  No matter how many successful digs I run, or ground-breaking papers I publish, that’s all any man ever sees, Boone.”

Not all.  Whenever she got angry her skin turned rosy, and her eyes gleamed like dark sapphires.  Sometimes, like now, it made Liam want to pull her close, and smell her skin, and kiss her mouth until she sighed into his.

Instead of doing any of that, he shrugged.  “Jason’s a kid.”

“Excuse me?  He’s almost thirty,” she countered, and helped him pick up a huge branch.  “Every other guy on the team feels the same way.  You’ve seen how they talk to my breasts – except you.  You don’t like me very much, do you?”

Liam straightened and frowned at her.  “What?  Why would you think that?”

“Because you behave like someone who dislikes me – or is it my father?”  She took a step closer to him as she studied his face.  “Did the general slap a no-trespassing sign on me, Boone?”

Liam pushed back his ball cap.  “Of course he didn’t.”  He’d done that himself.

Cat made a frustrated sound.  “So what is it?  Why do you treat me like I have a contagion?”

He could blame how much he wanted her.  How he lay awake at night just to listen to her breathe.  How tough it was getting to keep his hands off her.  But if he did, she’d boot him off the site. 

“You don’t like Jason or the other guys dogging you, but you’re mad at me ‘cause I don’t?”  He shook his head.  “Can’t have it both ways, Doc.”

She turned her back on him.  “Maybe you should go back to camp, too.”

“And leave you alone with the snakes?”  Liam made a negative sound.  He stepped back to survey the area they’d cleared.  “Why are you digging out here anyway?”

“Unmarked graves change the chemical composition of the soil.  Disturbing the ground can also significantly alter the growth patterns of native plants.  Look around at the botanical development.”  She made a sweeping gesture.  “Plenty of mature trees and bushes with deep root systems.”  She nodded toward the long rectangle of now-bare ground.  “Except here.”  

Liam smiled a little.  She might be pretty, but Cat Merlin had earned that PhD.  “How did you spot it?”

“With my big baby blues, while I was out walking this morning.”  Cat went to retrieve the portable scanner from the ground penetrating radar cart.  “You’ve got a good eye.  Will you watch the monitor and describe what you see?”

Liam nodded and went over to turn on the viewer.  As Cat slowly moved the scanner wand over the soil, opaque images began to appear on the monitor. 

“Looks like rocks,” he called out to her.  “Dirt.  Roots.  More dirt.”

She skirted the rectangle as she continued scanning and muttered under her breath when she stumbled.  “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”  Liam waited for the monitor’s jumbling images to settle down.  “Dancing rocks.  Jumping dirt.  Roots playing Twister.  Wait, something else.”  He leaned closer to peer at the long object.  He would have called it a buried branch, if not for the distinct, knobbed ends.  “Femur.”

#

That night after Cat sat at the camp work table going over her notes and planning her next step.  Since she’d discovered the century-old grave Jason had been sulking and had left for the motel early.  Sending him in the morning to the county coroner’s office to file the remains discovery report would be salve for his wounded pride.  The rest of the team were scheduled for a much-needed day off, so she’d have to draft Boone to help her survey the area around the grave. 

A long shadow fell over her map.  “We scouting for more burials tomorrow, Doc?”

She nodded and showed him the section she’d marked on the map.  “The Reaper always buried his victims close to each other.  If this was his work, there will be others out there.”  On impulse, she asked, “Why do you call me Doc?  I’ve told you at least a hundred times to call me Cat.”

He gave her a narrow look.  “Same reason you call me Boone instead of Liam, I expect.  Because we like each other so much.”  

“One of these days, Boone.”  Her phone rang, but when she checked the display, it showed the caller as unknown.  Cat set it on the table and answered it one speaker.  “This is Dr. Merlin.”

“You bitch,” a woman shrieked, along with a string of obscenities, and then the line clicked.

Liam took the phone and tried to reverse call the number.  He shut it off a moment later.  “Automated voice mail.  Probably a throwaway.”

“Do you mind?” Cat took her phone from him and stuck it in her back pocket.  “This is none of your business.”

“Then why did you put the call on speaker?” he countered.  When she didn’t reply, he asked, “This isn’t the first time she’s called you, is it?  Who is she?”

“I don’t know,” Cat told him as she collected her notes.  The shrieking voice seemed to echo in her head.  “At first when I answered, she’d just hang up one me.  Now she calls me names and swears at me.  I don’t even know how she’s getting my number.  I’ve changed it three times.”

“You need to talk to the police,” Liam said.

“And tell them what?” Cat demanded.  “Calling someone a bitch isn’t against the law, Boone.  Neither is cursing.”

“Stalking is.”  He followed her back to her tent.  “Doc. 
Cat
.”

“I’m going to bed,
Liam
,” she told him, and zipped the tent flap shut.  “Good-night.”

She dropped onto her camp bed, and watched his shadow until it retreated.  The light in his tent went out a few minutes later, and she reached over to switch off her own.

Thinking about the angry phone call kept her awake for the next hour.  Finally Cat rose and slipped out of the tent.  Liam had warned her not to wander around alone at night, but she now knew the site as well as her backyard in Barstow.  She also needed to walk off her restless nerves, or she’d be completely useless tomorrow.

Her feet led her back to the newly-discovered grave, which she had carefully covered with a waterproof tarp tied to the perimeter stakes.  If the woman buried six feet beneath the surface had been one of The Reaper’s victims, she had likely been young, attractive, blonde, and unmarried.  She would, like all the others, be found with the rope he used to hang her tied around her neck.  The author funding the dig theorized that The Reaper had hated all women, but Cat wasn’t so sure.  It all seemed too specific for a murderous misogynist.

Something rustled in the brush to her left, and she saw a shadow too big to be a critter move through the brush. 

“Boone, are you following me?”  Determined to put a stop to his over-protective nonsense, Cat strode around the brush.  “I told you, I’m—“

A scream left her as the earth fell away and she plunged down.  Wheeling her arms wildly, she grabbed onto a thick root and clamped her fingers around it, crying out again as the weight of her body wrenched her shoulder.

“Cat.”

Boone appeared at the edge of the pit, his face drawn and tight as he looked down at her.

“Don’t move,” he told her and stretched out on his belly to reach down.  “Okay, grab my hand.”

Cat shook her head, and then gasped as the root began to slip through her fingers. 

“Take my hand, Catriona,” he said again, his tone soft and reassuring.  “I won’t let you fall.  I promise.”

Cat shook all over as she slowly reached up, and then had to strain the last inch to touch his fingers.  He took hold of her wrist a heartbeat before the root slid out of her other hand.

“I’ve got you,” he told her, reaching down for the front of her shirt.  He used it and his grip on her wrist to lift her up and drag her out, rolling away as he did so that she landed on top of him.

For a long while all Cat did was lay there shuddering and listening to the hammering thud of his heart.  “Liam, if you hadn’t followed me . . . thank you.”

He lifted her up onto her knees, and examined her hands and shoulder before he helped her stand.  “Let’s get back to camp.”

“Wait.”  Cat turned back to the pit, which was smaller than she’d thought, but very much deeper.  She looked over the edge and saw something glitter at the bottom.  “Do you have a light?”

Boone clicked on his flashlight and directed the beam inside the pit.  A large mound of brand-new razor wire glittered brightly in the light.

Cat’s heart turned to ice as she slowly backed away.  “If I’d fallen on that, would I have survived it?”

“You didn’t.  That’s all that matters,” he said, and tried to put his arm around her.  When she resisted, he sighed.  “Probably not.”

Chapter Three

Cat sat on the edge of Liam’s camp bed as he finished cleaning the abrasions on her palm.  “Why did you follow me out there, anyway?”

“I’m nosy.”  He wrapped a length of gauze around her hand and taped it off.  “How’s the shoulder?”

She lifted her arm, rotated it carefully, and lowered it.  “Sore, but not bad.  Nothing I need to go to the E.R. for,” she added before he could suggest it again.  She touched his arm.  “You saved my life, Liam.  Thank you.  I mean that.”

He started to say something, and then eyed her filthy shirt.  “You need a shower.”

Cat brushed some of the soil off his sleeve.  “So do you.”

They both used a nearby creek for regular bathing, but Liam had rigged a shower in camp for anyone who wanted to rinse off after excavating.  The thought of using it alone, however, made Cat shiver.

Liam helped her to her feet.  “It’s okay.  I’ll stand guard.”

“This is where I should assert my independence,” Cat told him as they walked out to the curtained shower rig.  “Tell you I’m fine, and that I don’t need you to watch over me.  I don’t think I’ll be doing that.”

“Go ahead.”  Liam scanned the surrounding area.  “I’m not leaving you alone.”

“Works for me.”  She stepped inside the curtain and began to strip.  “I’m really not a man-hater, you know.”

“Yep.”  He kept his back turned toward her.  “Try not to get that bandage wet.”

Why did he sound so testy?  If Cat didn’t know better she would have thought Boone was angry with her.

“My dad really wanted a boy.”  She tugged on the chain that released the water from the overhead sprayer and gasped as the cold liquid streamed down her body.  “He never treated me like a disappointment, but sometimes I think he would be happier with a son.”

“Your father adores you,” Liam told her flatly.  “Every time you wrote him he would carry it with him and read it over and over until the next one came.  He lived for your letters and cards.”

Cat felt her heart twist.  “I never knew that.”

“Soldiers learn keep their feelings to themselves.”  He sounded distant now.  “But not because we’re ashamed of them.  We treasure the people we love and hold them in our hearts.  They’re our shield against all the evil in the world.”

“Is that what you do, Liam?”  Cat wrapped the towel around her and stepped out of the curtain.  “Hide all your feelings in your heart?”

He spun around and took hold of her arms.  “You want to know how it felt to see you hanging over that hole?  How scared I was?  How close you came to dying tonight?”  He gave her a little shake.  “That pit could have been your grave, Cat.”

“I know.”  She gripped his forearms.  “I just didn’t know how much you cared.”

Liam, who never swore, walked away from her as he used every curse word she knew, and a few she didn’t.  He strode back to her and pulled her against him.  “I care this much.”

Cat uttered a muffled yelp as his mouth came down on hers.  Then his lips parted hers and he was kissing her, hard and deep and hungry, his tongue stroking in and out.  When he hoisted her up off her feet, all Cat could do was hold on.

Somewhere from the shower to the tents her towel fell away, so that when Liam put her down on her camp bed she lay naked under his hot gaze.  He began to reach for her, and then remorse darkened his eyes.  He turned and pulled her blanket up over her nude body.

She stopped him.  “No.”  She shoved the blanket away.  “Look at me.  I want you to see me.”

He closed his eyes for a moment.  “We can’t do this.  I owe your father too much.”

“This isn’t about you and my father.”  She sat up and reached for his belt buckle.  “We’re adults.  This is about us.”  She glanced up at him.  “I can’t do this one-handed.  If you want me, you have to help.”

He still looked doubtful.  “You really want me?”

She nodded slowly.  “I’ve been burning for you since the morning you walked into my camp.  Take off your clothes, Liam.  Come to bed with me.”

Cat didn’t have to ask twice.  Five minutes later Liam stood naked beside her bed, the lantern light gilding his big, muscular body.  His erection sprang thick and heavy from a patch of dark hair, the dome glistening with a pearly drop.

Unable to resist, Cat propped herself up to curl her fingers around his shaft and bring the bulb of his cockhead to her lips.  Licking away the small bead of semen, she took him in her mouth and sucked lightly.

Liam’s big thighs bulged as he gently withdrew and pressed her back onto the sheets.  “I need to be inside you,” he said, his voice shaking a little. 

She spread her legs to welcome him, tilting her hips as he fit himself to her.  As he pressed in she felt it like a whole-body caress; the brush of his muscles making every inch of her skin came alive.

Liam’s face tightened as he stroked into her, his penis sinking deeper and deeper until he’d filled every inch of her softness.  Only then did they let out the breath they’d both been holding, and he drew back to thrust in again.

“Oh.”  Cat gripped his upper arms as the stroke of his hard shaft sent a jolt of dark delight through her.  “That is . . . so good.”

“You want more?” he murmured, watching her face as he pumped in and out again.   “That why you’re squeezing me like a fist?”

She nodded and wriggled under him as she tried to match his thrusts.  “Like that. Ah, yes, Liam.  Oh, please, more.  I need more.”

He gripped her thighs.  “I’ll give it to you, sweetheart.  I’ll give you as much as you can take.”  He plunged in hard, his shaft almost bruising as he filled her again and again.  “Yeah, there’s what you need.  Does it feel good to have my cock inside that hungry little pussy?  You are burning me up now, Cat.”

They were both too excited for it to last long.  Cat exploded first with a sharp cry, her body writhing under him as she came with a burst of dark delight.  Then Liam stiffened and plowed impossibly deep, groaning as his shaft pulsed and poured into her. 

He carefully drew out of her, and propped himself on his elbows while he took her mouth with a slow, hot kiss before he said, “It’s been a while for me.  Usually I do better than that.”

“Me, too.”  She caressed his lean cheek.  “I guess we’ll just have to practice until we get better.” 

He chuckled.  “Nothing throws you, does it?”

“Life is too short to waste on nonsense.”  She pushed him over onto his back and straddled him.  “Just to be sure, I can do anything to your body that I want, right?”

He grinned.  “If that works both ways, sure.”

“Good.  What to do next.  Hmmmm.”  Cat ran her hands over his broad chest, savoring the resilient feel of his muscle.  “There’s just so much of you to play with, William.” 

He groaned as she bent her head and licked his nipple.  “That’s a good spot.”  He reached between them to caress her hard-tipped breasts, his hands massaging her slowly.

Cat worked her way down his chest and across his tight six-pack to his navel, which she explored with the tip of her tongue.  She pushed her hair back to rub her cheek against his shaft, which had already grown swollen and hard.

              “Hello, there.”  Cat gave his straining, satiny tip a kiss.  “I remember making out with you a little before we were so rudely interrupted.”

              “You can’t have a conversation with my dick,” Liam advised her.  “It only ever has one thing on its mind – and it has a very dirty mind.”

              “Funny, my lips don’t agree.”  She kissed her way down his shaft, and then nuzzled his crinkly body hair as she nestled between his legs.  She glanced up to see him watching her, desire blazing the blue fire in his eyes.  “I think we might need to have a long talk.”  She gripped his thick base as she rose over him.  “Another night.”

              Liam made a hard, low sound as she pressed his shaft between her breasts, and pushed them together, moving up and down to caress him.  He seemed both amused and mesmerized by her teasing.  “Look at you.  You are so damn pretty me, Catriona.”

                “Keep watching.”  She held onto her breasts and tucked in her chin so she could lick the head of his penis each time she stroked her breasts down on his shaft.  When he moaned softly, she enveloped him with her lips and released his shaft to work her mouth over him.

              Sucking Liam gave Cat a powerful sense of commanding his pleasure, and she took her time with it, teasing and licking him between long, slow forays.  As she felt his muscles bunch under her she abandoned the playfulness and bobbed her head, taking as much of him in her mouth as she could as she sucked firmly.

“I’m going to come,” he told her through his clenched teeth, and then shuddered and groaned as he jetted into her mouth.  Cat held on and swallowed his cream until he went boneless beneath her.

She gave his slick penis one last kiss before she curled up on his chest with a sigh.  “You know, we might not have to talk at all.”