Cowboy & the Captive (16 page)

Mason was growling from Melina’s arms, staring down at the huge canine with a smug feline expression. Luc almost believed the wolf just wanted Melina’s attention rather than a chance to harass the cat. Not that he blamed him.

“Lobo, you’re as aggravating as your owner,” Melina laughed as she pushed the animal back when he made a mock lunge at the cat in her arms. “Mason is not lunch. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

Neither was warm, willing woman, but Luc had taken her for lunch before he ever got around to the sandwiches and soup she had fixed. She was addictive, he thought, watching the bunch and sway of her sweetly curved ass beneath her jeans.

Her laughter echoed around the ranch yard as Lobo grabbed at her jeans leg, growling playfully as he stared up at her.

“Luc, call this monster off.” She turned to him, laughter sparkling in her gem-bright eyes as she tugged back on Lobo’s hold. “He’s going to snack on Mason.”

Her laughter was like an echo of light and beauty. Luc couldn’t help but grin at the sappy thought. He stood to his feet, intent on joining the play, when Lobo suddenly released her, his body going instantly alert as he stared down the road.

“Get in the house.” Luc moved quickly for Melina, ignoring the confusion on her face.

“What?” She stared down the curving ranch road before turning back to Luc.

“Get in the house now.” He gripped her arm lightly and drew her to the porch as anger began to glitter in her eyes.

“Don’t want anyone to know you kidnapped your houseguest?” she snapped, jerking away from him and stomping to the door. “Don’t worry, Luc, I have a better revenge planned for your arrogant ass.” She slammed the door behind her as Luc breathed out roughly and moved quickly to where Lobo stood in a guarded stance at the road.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the vehicle came into sight. The unfamiliar Jeep was the reason Lobo had reacted so quickly, not the driver behind the wheel.

“Luc, dammit, I was within a day of a killer sale.” Jack jumped from the new vehicle, his long blond hair tied at the nape with a strip of leather, his white silk shirt clinging to his shoulders. “What the hell could be so important that you called me back on an emergency?”

Irritation flashed in the other man’s brilliant blue eyes; his tall, corded body was tense with it.

“Good to have you home, Jack.” Luc grinned. “Let’s go to the barn and we’ll talk.”

“The barn?” Jack didn’t move from where he stood. “Fuck the barn. It’s over a hundred in the shade here and I need a cold drink. What the hell is wrong with the house?”

Luc adjusted his Stetson carefully. “This involves an explanation.” He sighed. “If you want to get out of the sun, we’ll go to the barn. But you’re not stepping into that house until we talk. So are you coming or not?”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. They had known each other for a lot of years. Hell, they had nearly died together. There was a trust, a bond that flowed between them when danger threatened the other. They weren’t brothers but they might as well have been.

“Hell. Fine.” Jack sighed wearily. “But this one better be good, Luc. Damned good.”

* * * * *

“You did
what?
” Jack’s question rose in volume until he was almost yelling the last word.

Luc leaned back against the frame of the barn’s entrance and restrained his smile. For a man who had been in more scrapes than Luc could ever hope to dive into, Jack was amazingly incredulous at Luc’s daring.

“Are you aware kidnapping is a federal crime?” Jack growled furiously. “Doesn’t matter the reason…”

“Yeah, well, so is stealing cars, but I remember helping your ass when you decided to try your hand at it,” Luc reminded him.

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “It was my fucking car,” he snapped. “They stole it from me.”

Luc shrugged. “They had the papers; you didn’t. That makes it grand theft.”

Jack grunted in irritation. “I can’t believe you got messed up with that damned family again,” he finally snarled. “Son of a bitch, a fucking twin sister. Just what the hell we needed.”

Luc frowned at his friend’s tone of voice. Jack could rage over Maria for hours and Luc would be more than happy to listen, but Melina was another matter.

“She’s my woman, Jack,” Luc said softly, his voice deepening. “Watch what you say.”

A frown snapped into place over Jack’s eyes as he stared back at him. That was Jack. He could be a mean gutter fighter when he had to be, but he could also be a hell of a strategist. Right now, he would be carefully considering the information he had, as well as the fact that Maria was now searching for her twin.

“So we protect her.” Jack sighed. “Have you managed to locate the bitch yet?” he asked, obviously meaning Maria.

“Joe’s working on it.” Luc shrugged. “My main concern is Melina and keeping her safe. She’s spitting mad at me right now, but she seems to like the ranch well enough. Until her sister is apprehended, my main concern is keeping Melina undercover here.”

Jack released the leather tie that held his hair back while sighing again, roughly.

“This one could be a mess.” He shook his head tiredly. “Maria is a viper, Luc. We both know that. I’ve kept up with rumors over the years, too, and there are a lot of them. The woman doesn’t have a conscience. All she has is a hunger for drugs. She won’t be easy to catch. And if she suspects her sister is here, it might not be that damned easy to keep her away.”

Luc smiled coldly. “As long as I catch her,” he said softly. “That’s all I care about, Jack. Keeping Melina safe and making certain her sister never has a chance to use her again. These are my top priorities. Now, are you in?”

Jack stared back at him in surprise. “Of course I’m in, dammit. I don’t have to like it to go along with it. I just have to be able to bitch about it. And don’t you think I won’t be bitching later, ole son. Hard and long. You can take that one to the bank.”

And likely draw interest on it, Luc thought in amusement. Jack wasn’t a man who kept his thoughts to himself until the situation required it.

“Come on to the house then. I’ll introduce you. Remember, you don’t know she’s not Maria,” he reminded Jack.

Jack grunted. “Like I could have made that mistake. I think you just didn’t want to know. You weren’t yourself after that meeting with her and her parents after the shooting. I had a feeling something was wrong then. I think, my friend, you might have known all along.”

Luc restrained his smile. He might have. He knew damned good and well that even before the plane landed that day he had no intention of taking Maria Angeles up on her sexual offer. The desire to do so just wasn’t there. She was a mean little cocksucker, but that was about it.

Melina was pure sweetness, though, head to toe. Soft and delicate, passionate. His.

He stepped to the porch, heard pots and pans rattling loudly and chuckled before opening the door. She was pissed too, which suited him fine. If she stayed a little mad for a while, then she wouldn’t catch on nearly as easily to the fact that he had fallen so completely beneath her spell that he knew he would never recover from it. Now, all he had to do was convince her that she shared the madness with him.

Chapter Twenty

Jack’s arrival was a surprise to Melina. She stood in the kitchen, fighting back a sense of guilt as she watched the amused friendliness in his eyes.

“You’re a sight prettier than the last time I saw you,” he said, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled down at her. “Being sober is good for you, Maria.”

She clenched her teeth and shot Luc a hateful look. “I guess you neglected to inform him of exactly who I was,” she snapped.

Luc grinned back at her. “No, I didn’t. I told him exactly who I thought you were.”

Melina sniffed sarcastically before turning back to Jack. “I don’t answer to that name. You can call me Catarina or Melina, your choice. But call me Maria and you’ll be taking your life into your own hands.”

Jack scratched his ear thoughtfully. “Hell, darlin’, I think just being around you would be a danger. But you’re damned sure worth looking at.”

“Cool it, Jack.” Melina glanced over at Luc, seeing the irritation that filled his expression.

“Sorry, Jack, Luc thinks he’s the only one who has the right to be ill and rude,” she said with wide-eyed innocence. “Personally, I’ve decided it’s just a part of being a cowboy. I mean, neither of you are actually sporting any
manners.
” She stressed the last word sarcastically before turning away from them and heading toward the living room.

“Cat, you’re forgetting dinner,” Luc growled.

She turned back to him, smiling sweetly. “No, Luc, I didn’t forget, I just decided to quit. Fix it your own damned self.”

He caught her before she left the kitchen, his lips quirking as he fought a smile, his gray eyes hooded, but the amusement in them wasn’t hidden.

“You can’t quit. I kidnapped you, remember?” he reminded her.

“Then you better reconsider not just the crime but the punishment.” She jerked her arm from his grip, furious with him now. “Because I’ll be damned if I’ll put up with this much longer.”

His brows lowered to a frown as he blocked her way, his hands gripping her hips, jerking her to him, ignoring Jack’s covered laugh as he lowered his lips to her ear.

“Punishment, my love, definitely comes later,” he growled. “And I promise, you won’t forget it when it does.”

He nipped her ear, smiling into her furious face before looking over at Jack.

“Come on into the living room and we’ll discuss those sales you made. I think Cat might need a break from us irritating cowboys.”

“Hmm,” Jack murmured. “Maybe it’s just you. You go pout in the living room and I’ll keep her company.”

“In your fucking dreams,” Luc growled, frowning heavily at Jack. “Get your ass in here and tell me how cheap you sold my horses for. And keep your damned eyes off her. Not to mention your hands.”

Jack sighed as though disappointed. “One of these days, I’m gonna bring my own woman. You’re starting to get downright unfriendly, boy.”

* * * * *

Men were just strange, that was all there was to it. Luc had to be a Gemini. The alternate personalities of the zodiac sign made perfect sense. It was the only explanation for…this. He had gone from surly jealousy that evening to one of the most amazing lovers she could have imagined later that night.

Melina clenched her teeth to hold back a scream of pleasure as she felt Luc’s cock sink slowly back inside her well-lubricated behind. She had never, ever, been taken anally. She had never considered it. But there she was, on her knees, her butt in the air, her shoulders to the mattress as the big cowboy pumped his dick up her ass.

Her pussy was sizzling. She could feel her juices literally dripping from her vagina as he held her tight, fucking inside her with slow, careful strokes that stretched her impossibly, sending streaks of fire blazing up her anus as pleasure tore at her very core.

“You’re so tight.” His voice was rough, so deep and dark she shivered at the sound. “So hot and tight around my cock it’s all I can do not to come inside you now.”

Melina moaned in rising lust. Yes, that was what she wanted. She wanted him to come now, to feel him shuddering against her, pumping his seed inside her.

“You like this, baby?” he asked her; the eroticism of his voice had her pulse rate jumping. “God, I wish you could see the way your tight little ass stretches open for my cock, sucking me in…” he groaned roughly. “I’m going to come up your ass, baby. I’m going to fill it so deep with my come that you’ll never forget the feel of me inside you.”

She never would anyway.

She had to be in shock, she thought as she moved against him, taking him deeper inside the forbidden little hole, glorying in the pleasure/pain tearing through her. She had awakened to his fingers smoothing through the cleft of her ass, his hot voice whispering his intent to fuck her there.

She had shivered at the threat, believing he only meant a bit of hot foreplay. She had more than a bit of the foreplay. She had more than an hour of it. And each touch, each lick, each nip was designed to drive her higher, make her hotter as his fingers stretched the nether hole. Until finally, she was begging him to fuck her there. Pleading with him to drive his cock inside her, take her, anywhere, she didn’t care. Now, she was within a second of begging again.

Her clit was a swollen mass of torturous lust; her pussy was sobbing in its need and she could feel…something. An edge of dark coiling need gathering in the pit of her stomach with each stroke of his cock up her ass.

Melina’s fingers tightened in the already bunched sheet beneath her, a mewling whimper escaping her throat as he ground his erection deeper inside her. She could feel every inch of his cock boring through her sensitive flesh. Every throb, every pulsing vein as it tunneled through the tender tissue.

“Luc, I can’t stand it.” She could barely speak, the need was so great. “Fuck me harder. Do something, please.”

She was writhing beneath him, or trying to. His hands held her hips tightly, keeping her in place, refusing to allow her to increase the pace of his thrusts.

“Easy, baby.” He was fighting for breath; his voice was deepening further. “Patience. Just a little more. You’re so fucking tight I can’t stand it much longer.”