Laying Down the Law (3 page)

Colt thrust two fingers into his mouth and issued a piercing whistle, never taking his stormy gray glance from hers.

Hooves pounded on the creek bank, and his horse, Diego, galloped into view. The black and white Appaloosa pulled up in front of them, lifting his head and snuffling his nostrils.

He must have remembered something about her, because he ducked his head and butted it under her tightly clenched fist. She’d always had a carrot or an apple for him in the old days.

Colt stepped past her, climbed into the saddle and bent low to gather the reins. Then he pulled the horse beside her and held out his hand, kicking a boot free from the stirrup.

Just like the old days, she gave him her left hand and placed her left foot atop his dusty boot and let him haul her up behind his saddle.

“Better tuck that shirt under your a—under you,” he corrected.

Wrinkling her nose at the back of his head, she did just that, not wanting the shirt tail to flap once he kicked the horse into motion.

Then she wound her arms around his waist and tried not to grip him too tightly. She didn’t want this to feel familiar, didn’t want him to know she wished she could wrap herself around him and press her face against his hot skin. Too many years and too many mistakes lay between them.

Colt clucked and raised his booted heels, giving a gentle nudge to the horse. They climbed the bank, both leaning forward in the saddle. She finally had to press closer and hold tighter to stay seated, then leaned quickly away when they reached the top.

He waved his hat at his brothers who both stood in their stirrups, too far away for her to read their expressions. But Gabe lifted a hand, and Colt pulled the reins to the side, pointing the horse toward the ranch house.

As he urged the horse into a canter, Zuri hoped she hadn’t made an even bigger mistake than running from the law and David Satterly. As cold as Colt was acting, he might be tempted to turn her in without hearing her out first.

And that was something she couldn’t let happen. Not with some of the cash from the robbery stuffed into the glove compartment of her car, and a flimsy story about a stalker she’d never taken the time to properly report.

Perhaps for now, she’d be better off keeping her secrets to herself. At least until she figured out whether she could trust Colt with the truth.

Chapter Four

Once his bathroom door closed, Colt headed to the front porch to put as much space between himself and Zuri as possible. Riding all the way back to the ranch house with her warm, damp body pressed against his back did things to him he wasn’t ready to face.

He gripped the porch rail and stared out over the yard, watching Eddie Sandoval in the far corral as he walked Diego until he cooled. He wished it could be so easy to cool down his own hot blood. Seeing her again after all this time, on this particular day when he’d been ready to move on and put the past to rest—it was too ironic. God had to be playing him.

Closing his eyes, he could still see her sweet curves as she’d stood in the water facing that bull. Still tall, still reed-thin and supple. Her breasts, crowned with small cherry-red nipples—hell, he could feel the tight little points digging into his naked back.

In the distance, the tattoo of hooves eating up the ground pulled his gaze. Gabe was riding hard for the house.

Colt wondered what the hell had kept him. Knowing his brothers, they’d already figured out who she was and had drawn straws to see who would kick her butt to town.

Gabe drew his horse to a halt in front of the house, threw a leg over the saddle horn, slid to the ground and flipped his reins around the porch rail.

“How many times do I have to tell you that rail isn’t a hitchin’ post?” Colt said, keeping his voice even.

Gabe shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe it’ll take a couple hundred more times for it to sink in. And don’t change the subject.” When he strode up the steps, he pulled a scrap of pink lace from his pocket.

Colt groaned inwardly.

“Not your color, bro,” Gabe said, tossing him the pink panties. “Wasn’t Old Mule’s either.”

“Don’t start,” Colt growled, not liking the way his brother’s face was already wearing his bulldog expression. Not liking the fact that he understood Gabe’s animosity to the naked woman in his shower.

“It’s her, ain’t it?”

“If you mean Zuri, yeah,” Colt said slowly.

Gabe’s cheeks were stained with ruddy color. “Couldn’t you wait to get her to the house to strip her raw?”

“That’s not what happened.”

“Then tell me how the girl who left you high and dry twelve years ago was ridin’ naked behind you.”

“She wasn’t. I gave her my shirt.”

Gabe’s chest rose around a deep breath. “Colt…”

Colt’s cheeks billowed around his own exasperated breath. “I don’t know myself. I found her in the creek that way. Old Mule tromped all over her clothes.”

“Blamin’ it on a bull?”

“No, it’s what happened.”

“Did you know she was comin’ back?”

“Of course not.”

Gabe’s expression lost some of its tension. His narrowed gaze relented, softening. “Damn, seein’ her again knocked you for a loop, didn’t it?”

Colt’s glance slid back to the paddock. “Somethin’ like that.”

Gabe leaned against the porch rail, folding his arms across his chest. “Maybe you should leave her to Tommy and me to handle,” he said, his tone deceptively even and soft. “I’ll take her back to town.”

Run her off for good was what he meant. “She wasn’t stayin’ in Caldera.”

“She was in the cabin?”

Colt nodded and turned to Gabe, letting him see the indecision that had to be written on his face. “With just one outfit and no shoes.”

Gabe whistled silently. “Nothin’ but trouble’s gonna come from gettin’ involved in this.”

“You don’t have to babysit me. I know what I’m doin’.”

“Do you?” His brother snorted. “You didn’t have to live with you after she dumped you the first time.”

Colt grunted and straightened. “Who’s watchin’ over the herd?”

“Tommy and Skeeter. Almost got ’em settled in the new pasture. You think I’m bein’ rough on you, wait until Tommy gets back.”

“I don’t suppose if I tell you both this is none of your damn business, that you might actually butt out?”

Gabe’s lips curved into a rueful smile. “Not a chance.”

Rubbing the back of his neck to ease the tension knotting there, Colt’s gaze went back to the front door. She was probably finished with her shower and wrapping the robe—his robe—around her nude body. Remembering again how incredible it had felt to have her skin sliding along his, he drew a deep breath.

“Be careful, Colt. She’s not the stayin’ kind.”

And because he knew it was true, Colt squared his shoulders, drawing on invisible armor as he walked back through the house, down the hallway to his bedroom door. With his face set in stern lines, he twisted the knob and stepped inside.

Zuri looked up, her hands pulling the belt tighter around her waist, grateful that this time she was covered neck to mid-calf. Still, she was hyper-aware she was naked underneath it and only one knot away from making another big mistake.

“You find everything you needed?” he asked, his tone impersonal.

Oddly, she thought she might actually prefer that ragged edge of anger he’d blistered her with by the river. “Yes, thanks.” She dropped the ties and smoothed her hands down her sides, nervous beneath his unblinking stare. “I don’t suppose you have anything I might wear, besides this robe, that is.” She flushed at how awkward this felt, how ridiculous her situation was. A closet full of clothes hung waiting for her six hundred miles away.

“You’re pretty skinny. I might have some sweatpants and a T-shirt, but you’ll have to cinch in the pants at the waist to keep ’em from fallin’ off.”

Skinny?
Once he’d likened her slender frame to a filly’s, and she’d taken it as the highest compliment. She lifted her chin. “That’d be fine.”

She jerked when he strode for her, but he edged around the bed, headed to his dresser and pulled out a pair of gray sweat pants and a navy tee. He tossed both on the bed, and then stood with his hands fisted on his hips.

Zuri bit back a complaint, wishing he’d quit hovering because he was keeping her on edge. But when he didn’t budge, she dragged her feet to the bed, scooped up the wash-softened cotton and turned toward the bathroom.

“Uh uh,” he said, tsking softly. “My house. My clothes.
My rules
.”

She glanced over her shoulder, not knowing if she’d heard him right, but that same hard challenge he’d issued when he’d demanded the kiss was stamped all over his granite features.

She knew she ought to ignore him and lock herself into the bathroom to dress and gather her scattered wits, but the underlying tension riding the edge of his jaw excited her.

Colt had never been this dominating…except when they had sex. She’d loved it then. Her body seemed to crave it now. Heat bloomed again, winding around her core. A delicious little thrill accelerated her heartbeats.

Without a saying a word, she walked back to the bed and tossed down the clothing. Then keeping her gaze glued to his, she slowly untied the belt and let the robe fall open. With a sexy shrug, she let it slide off her shoulders and pool behind her on the floor.

Colt blinked first. His gaze trailed downward. His throat worked around a tense swallow, and Zuri couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. He might think he was in charge, but she knew better. Colt liked what he saw.

His quickening breaths were the first clue. The curving of his fists the second. When he opened his stance, just a few inches, she nearly crowed.

Reaching for the cotton pants, she wished she had something sexier to slide inside, then wondered if she’d lost her good sense to think that way. She had enough problems on her plate. But how could she dress and prevent him seeing what this was doing to her? Bending and opening her legs to step into the sweatpants made her feel vulnerable, exposed in a way that just standing there naked hadn’t. “I don’t understand you, or why you’re doin’ this.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I guess that’s true. It’s been a long time.”

“You didn’t know me then.”

She pulled the pants upward, over the curve of her bottom, feeling a little less off-center now that her lower half was hidden from his view. The waist of the pants settled on her hips and she rolled the band to gather up the excess fabric. “Guess that’ll have to do,” she muttered.

As she dragged the T-shirt over her head, she reminded herself why she was here. Definitely not to play games with her ex-boyfriend. She needed a safe place to stay. And she needed to keep Colt clueless until she had a chance to find her car and get rid of the damning evidence before the police found it. Her story might sound a little more believable then.

When she’d pulled the fabric down, fully covering her body, only then did she raise her glance to Colt’s again.

His brows pulled together. “Gonna tell me what’s going on? Why you’re here?”

“I’m a little hungry,” she said, knowing her attempt to stall was completely transparent. “I don’t suppose I could eat first?”

Colt dropped his fists and stepped closer, forcing her chin higher to hold his steady gaze. “If you’re in trouble…”

What? He’d help? She didn’t think so. Colt appeared to be the same inflexible cowboy. He’d always judged a person’s actions as either black or white, right or wrong. No interesting muddying of the colors accepted. She’d forgotten that about him.

She pondered telling him part of the tale, but worried he’d use what he learned to play with her some more. He seemed to like that fact he held the reins.

Zuri licked her lips. “I need a place to stay. Just for a little while.”

His gray eyes, once so warm and open, narrowed. A muscle flexed alongside his jaw.

She waited him out, knowing he wasn’t satisfied with her response. The longer the moment stretched between them, the more uncomfortable she grew. Still holding his steady gaze, she shifted her bare feet, supremely conscious of the fact she wasn’t wearing a stitch of underwear and that his clothing, while freshly laundered, still carried the hint of his unique scent. She was at his mercy. Completely.

Colt inhaled deeply, and then issued a soft, masculine grunt. He reached down and closed his hand around hers, then tugged her closer to the bed. He sat on the edge, staring at their hands before he looked up. “If you stay…you’ll sleep here,” he said, his voice tense and ragged.

Zuri wet her lips with her tongue because her mouth had suddenly gone dry. What he proposed sounded both so…wrong, yet incredibly tempting. She couldn’t get words past her tightening throat. If she could have, she didn’t know whether she would have told him to go to hell or given him a breathless yes. Instead, she squeezed his fingers.

So many thoughts swirled in her mind. Their past, her impossibly complicated present. It sounded so simple. She’d sleep beside him. Make love with him. Maybe she’d even find out that her memories of their being together were painted in rosy hues because she’d been younger, and he’d been her first.