Rescue in the Smokies (Durham Wolves) (9 page)

When she turned back around, she was surrounded by testosterone. The smirk she’d seen frequently on Sergius’s face was reflected in his brothers’ as well.

What’s with these Durham men?

They all three looked like they held a deep secret.

The brothers glanced at each other, their faces turning rapidly in every direction, occasionally toward her even, without speaking. Their expressions changed frequently, as though they were engaged in a heated discussion.
What the fuck?

Finally, Serg spoke. “Juliana, these are my brothers, Jaxon and Micah.” He nodded at each in turn.

After a pause, the two scrambled to remove their cowboy hats and both reached at once to shake her hand, bumping into each other in their efforts.

“Welcome. Make yourself at home. We, um, don’t get many guests out here, but I’m sure we’ll be able to tidy up enough to make your stay as comfortable as possible.” Jaxon smiled at her.

Micah took her hand next and continued, “It’s kind of a bachelor pad, but I hope you like it. We’ll catch up later this evening.”

As the brothers hustled back toward the barn, Sergius reached for her hand and tugged her toward the long porch stretched across the entire front of the house.

He pulled her into his embrace—dragged her really—until his forehead met hers. His arms wrapped around her middle, his large hands warm where they seemed to burn her through her shirt. She licked her suddenly dry lips.

“I have so much to tell you, Juliana. But first I want to say that whatever happens here, I-I’m just… I had a great morning…getting to know you. I’m really attracted to you and I’d like to see where this thing could lead us.”

Warm breath wafted over her face as he spoke, the scent of the mint he’d picked up on the way out of the diner mixed with the taste of him she could sense on the tip of her tongue from earlier.

What was it about this man that drove her to forget the entire world around her?

“I don’t think your brothers are very pleased you brought me here.”

“Ah, don’t worry about them. They’re surprised is all. We don’t—”

“What? Don’t tell me you three never bring women out here.” She gave a sharp laugh at her joke. “I’d never believe a line like that.”

Sergius closed his eyes briefly and smiled. “I’ll let you figure it out for yourself.”

What was that supposed to mean?

“Come on. I’ll show you around.” Serg let go of the cocoon he had wrapped around her. He laced his hand with hers, grabbed her bags from the ground next to him and headed for the house.

The inside had the same modern yet rustic-looking feel as the outside. And it was astonishingly tidy for three bachelors not expecting company.

Everything was in line with the cabin-in-the-woods look, but clearly expensive and up-to-date underneath the façade. The great room was decidedly masculine, nevertheless Juliana liked the tones of browns and coordinated dark colors that made the house a home.

“You like it?” His words jerked her from her examination. His expression was apprehensive as though her impression mattered to him a great deal.

“Love it.”

“Thirsty?” He let her hand go and headed for the kitchen area. The entire space she stood in was one giant great room—kitchen, dining area, family room all in one.

“I’m fine, thanks.” She wandered toward a lush, beige, suede couch, thinking if she could just lie down she could sleep for ten hours without moving. She needed a shower and a change of clothes first, but God she was tired. Whatever adrenaline rush she’d been running on was crashing fast.

“You’re exhausted. Come on.” Serg nodded his head and she followed his lead. “The house is divided into three wings, this living space in the center connecting each personal space.”

Huh, interesting. So planned out.
What if one of them gets married?

Down a short hall to the left of the kitchen, Sergius opened a set of French doors and backed up a step to let Juliana through.

She sucked in a breath.
This is his bedroom?

The space was enormous and so inviting. Deep navy blue and forest green were the dominant colors. A king-sized bed graced the back wall. The only sign the place was even lived in was the mussed sheets and blankets, the clothes scattered next to the bed.

“Sorry,” he began when he saw where her gaze landed. “I left in a hurry this morning. Didn’t make it back into the room to tidy up.” He scrambled around grabbing jeans, socks and T-shirts from the floor and disappeared through a side door before returning empty handed.

He’s sorry? The man saved my lost ass in the forest today and didn’t make his bed first…and he’s sorry?
She laughed out loud, covering her mouth with her hand. She was feeling a bit hysterical and this was all so surreal. She really needed sleep.

With one side of his mouth crooked up in a confused expression, he motioned for her to follow him through the door where he’d just hastily taken his dirty clothes. His retreating butt made her mouth water. His jeans were the same ones from earlier, obviously, but for some reason they were getting better and better, hugging him to perfection, the well-worn denim molding itself expertly around the firm globes of the fine ass she’d managed to grab this morning.

She felt like she’d taken some sort of sex drug, unable to control her ridiculous reaction to him, and part of her wished he’d just strip her down and take her right here and now. They had unfinished business. On the other hand, she was practically sleepwalking. She needed rest more than sex right now.

As she rounded the corner she found herself in a luxurious bathroom, the likes of which she’d only read about. The kind of bath in which a person wishes they might be able to spend one night of their honeymoon if they splurge and spend a month’s wages for the opportunity.

Not the sort of place she’d ever expected to find herself relaxing.

Words wouldn’t come. Sergius, the man every woman conjures up to masturbate to, busied himself dashing around the tile floor, his feet bare. When had he taken off his hiking boots?

One wall was covered with a large walk-in closet she could partially see into through the open door. A
family
could keep their clothes in there. Heck, a family of four could
live
in there. The opposite wall contained a glass-enclosed shower and a side room with a toilet. Dual sinks dipped into the long counter on the wall across from her.

But the best part of all was the huge whirlpool tub in the center of the room, sunk halfway into the floor and currently filling with steamy water.

Serg glanced up from where he leaned over to adjust the temperature. “I’m sure you won’t turn down a warm bath after the day and night you’ve had.”

“Never.” She inched forward. How was this going to work?

When Serg turned to stick a hand in the water, broad shoulders and an impressive muscular back presented themselves a few feet away. The black T-shirt he wore stretched tight across the expanse of firm male body, and her hands itched to explore him again.

“Here. Sit.” Serg reached back with a gentle hand and pulled her onto the wide edge of the tub.

A shyness she hadn’t encountered earlier grasped her around the middle. Was he expecting her to take her clothes off and climb in with him? Sure, they’d already been almost as intimate as two people possibly could, but that was different. Extenuating circumstances and all. Not to mention it had been pitch dark. There was no guarantee he was going to like what he saw in the light of day.

Juliana had no illusions when it came to her body. She was small, fairly muscular for a woman, and had small breasts. Her mother always told her they’d be the first to grow if she’d put on a little weight and stopped her incessant exercising.

She’d never had an occasion to care very much, until this moment. It was as though their relationship was ass-backwards. First the sex—well, almost sex—and then the introductions, meal and nudity. No wonder her hands were shaking.

“Relax. I’m not going to jump you.” He laid a hand on hers to still them. “In your state of sleeplessness, it’d be like pouncing on a drunk woman.” A wry grin met her gaze. “I think you’ve got everything you need here. I’ll leave you be. Yell if you need me.”

She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath until she watched him retreat, closing the door behind him. On a long, deep exhale she stripped off the attire of the last two days and piled it all up on the floor before gingerly sticking first one toe and then a leg into the perfect water.

“Ahhh.” Nothing had ever felt so good in her entire life.
Hope I don’t fall asleep and drown.

Easing the rest of the way in, she took stock of her surroundings again. Shampoo and conditioner sat on the opposite edge of the oval tub, next to it a bar of soap. Utilitarian, not girly, but what would she expect in a bachelor pad? If they made her smell like him and she could spend the night breathing in his scent, she’d have the best dreams of her life.

Thirty minutes later, she reluctantly climbed from the tub, dried her body, wrung out her hair and wrapped the giant, fluffy, white towel around her. She had nothing to put on, but at least one of the benefits of her size was she was covered from under her armpits to practically her knees.

When she wandered into the adjoining bedroom, she found her bags from the hotel sitting beside the bed. Thank God she didn’t have to tiptoe out into the living room to hunt for her stuff. Geez, the man was thoughtful. When was the other shoe going to fall?

Juliana grabbed her case and made quick work of brushing her teeth before slipping into an oversized T-shirt and panties. She stared at the door, but when drowsiness won out over curiosity, she climbed between the disheveled sheets of Serg’s bed and sunk into the scent that was all him. Moments later she was sucked into oblivion.

“Goddamnit.” Keeton paced between the trees where he’d left his dainty redhead and cussed loud enough to scare the leaves into shaking. He kicked at the dirt until he stubbed his big toe on a tree root. Hobbling on one leg, he cursed another blue streak and gritted his teeth against the throbbing pain in his foot.

She was gone. No trace of her anywhere. She’d have been too exhausted, confused and under his spell to have wandered out of the forest on her own.

The only way she could have roused enough to be missing from this spot would be with outside intervention.

He raised his nose, took a deep breath of the air. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened. Those fucking wolves had happened. The scent of one of them was everywhere, along with his woman. And by the way her waning fragrance had started to dissipate, the redhead was long gone.

He should have known, been prepared. Those bastards rescued every fucking damsel in distress on the entire mountain. Couldn’t they have been a bit tardy for the save just this one time?

That redhead was soft and sweet and smelled like nectar. And she was his.

His mouth watered remembering her skin, all white, pale and unblemished. And her hair, a deep red that would match her passion.

One damn day. That’s all he’d needed to get himself refreshed and get her into hiding. Once he lured her into a cave he’d have been able to smother her scent and take off without a trace.

“If you assholes think I’m going to give her up without a fight, you’re sadly mistaken.” He spoke only to the rustling leaves in the trees.

Keeton tugged his black shirt down over his hips, smoothed his hand through his hair and followed the mixed smell of his lovely redhead now intermingled with that fucking wolf.

She’d surely be in town by now. Probably at the sheriff’s office.

He’d find her. It was only a matter of time.

Under the waning light of evening, he followed her scent.

Three hundred years he’d wandered this earth alone. It was time he took a mate.

There weren’t many of his kind. He’d had frequent contact with several over the decades, but tended to go it alone. What he did know was that any vampires he’d encountered were near his same age. All seemed to have been created during some violent historical act, awakening alone to find the rest of their people slaughtered around them.

In his case, his village had been wiped out during a smallpox epidemic in 1738, leaving him as the sole “survivor”.

He’d awoken lonely, thirsty and confused, his last vivid memory that of his brother easing him into bed with a high fever.

Surrounded by dead carcasses, it didn’t take long to realize something very unnatural had occurred. The ghost town had clearly been without a living soul for several days, judging by the degree of decomposition. And Keeton McKinney thirsted for living, flowing blood, not water.

Now, Keeton stalked through the forest as the sun dipped behind the mountains. He didn’t have any more answers as to the cause of his plight today than he’d had nearly three hundred years ago. However, he didn’t intend to spend another three hundred years alone.

Chapter Ten

“Shit, Serg. I can’t believe it.” Jaxon paced a path in the floor of the barn.

Sergius leaned against a stall, chewing on a piece of straw, trying not to grin like a schoolboy. Micah was just as stunned, hands on his hips, head shaking back and forth.

“How did this happen?” Jaxon continued. “Don’t answer that.” He looked at the ceiling. “This wasn’t in the plan.”

Serg would give his brothers a minute to wrap their heads around this new development. It wasn’t as though these thoughts hadn’t occurred to him. It was just that he’d had more time to adjust to the idea. And furthermore, he had no choice. The decision was made for him first thing this morning when he climbed into the passenger side of James’s cruiser and smelled his sexy mate all over the back seat. There was no way he could deny the pull, the attraction, the intense need to mate with her.

“The idea was to live out our lives not involving others. We agreed to help
find
missing people, not
mate
with them.” Micah leaned against a post, put his hands on his knees and lowered his head to catch his breath.