ROMANCE: Lion Protector (Paranormal Shifter BBW Military Romance) (Shapeshifter Alpha Male Short Stories Book 2) (18 page)

II.

There was no doubt that Karissa was fighting the battle on Buck’s behalf with every ounce of her skills brought to bear. The divorce proceedings were drawn out for months, even after it looked like they were about to reach a settlement. Though they were both frustrated that things weren’t moving more rapidly, or even in their direction, neither of them ever gave up hope until the final declaration was reached and the judge signed the final order.

Buck had lost. More surprising to him than losing, was the way that Karissa had abruptly packed up her things in her briefcase and strode rapidly out of the courtroom. In fact, while Buck was still sitting at the counsel table with his eyes closed and sorting through the words that the judge had just spoken to the court, Karissa was already through the doors of the courtroom and on her way back to her office.

Buck snapped to attention when he realized that Karissa was already gone. He stood, looked around the room and then toward the door. “Damn,” he muttered, mostly to himself. “She got outta here like she’d been shot from a rifle.” He looked across the room toward Denise who was hugging her lawyer and peering over his shoulder am Buck with a satisfied sneer on her lips. “I guess I ought to have taken Karissa’s cue and avoided seeing that.” He turned away from her with his hat in his hands and started toward the back of the courtroom and out the door.

In the hallway outside, there was still no sign of Karissa and Buck began to wonder if she’d run off to the lady’s room or something. That was the only explanation that made sense to him. Why else would she disappear so quickly? He waited around for another ten minutes or so as the hallway cleared and he and the bailiff were the only ones still hanging around outside the doors of the courtroom. It was then, that he decided that she wasn’t in the lady’s room, she’d simply hightailed it out of there. “Not even a ‘fair thee well’,” he whispered.

The fact that Karissa had blown the case, and then sprinted out of there without saying a word to him, began to rub on the raw edges of his already irritated nerves. He went through the doors leading out to the wide steps at the front of the courthouse with his anger beginning to grow by the second. By the time he was seated behind the wheel of the Dodge 350 dually with which he pulled the stock trailers on what “used to be” his ranch, he was mad clear through. He was working very hard at pushing down violent thoughts that kept popping into his head regarding all of the possible things that might prevent Denise from enjoying a single red cent of his money as he turned the key in the ignition and listened to the Cummins engine rumble to life.

After backing out of the four parking spaces that his large truck took up in the parking lot, Buck turned out of the lot on squealing wheels as he gunned the motor and started in the direction of the ranch. He’d only gone a half dozen blocks before he changed his mind and whirled his truck around in a U-turn.

“No, by God, that shyster lawyer charged me plenty and she damned well needs to face me,” he announced to the windshield.

Karissa’s office was a couple of miles further along the main drag of the county seat and it took him only a few minutes to cover that ground. He wasn’t really concerned about his speed or how he was driving. If somebody wanted to stop him and give him hell about it, that was just fine, he was itching for a fight anyway.

Karissa heard the motor of the heavy diesel truck as it pulled into the parking lot outside her office. She had expected him to come after her. No doubt, he was very angry, she certainly would have been too. Who could really blame him? He’d just lost the most precious thing in his life to the person that he’d once loved, but grown to hate more than anything else. Worse than that, it had all happened because of her failure. It hadn’t been just one failure, but a string of failures. Her mind had gone over each of them several times as she was driving back to her office. Her guilt hadn’t let up even after collapsing into the chair behind her desk.

She’d felt the tears threatening to spill over her eyelids when she was still in the courtroom. Since it would have been completely unprofessional of her to cry at that point, she had rushed out to her car and drove back to her office. In the private comfort of her office, she had allowed a few of the tears begin to flow, in spite of doing her very best not to allow them to. The sound of Buck’s pickup, however, was a stark reminder of her failures and holding back her tears in was no longer possible.

Typically a laid back and easy going guy, Buck’s temper had reached its boiling point by the time that he got out of his pickup and started toward Karissa’s office with long, determined strides. Losing the case and the ton of money to Denise had been bad enough. In fact, he was probably going to have to sell the ranch in order to make it all work out. Having Karissa walk out on him without saying a word had pushed him beyond his senses.

Buck and Karissa hadn’t really developed anything between them, in spite of the fact that there was something always lingering around the edges of their conversations or their meetings; something that, if provided with the tiniest of sparks, would burst into flame. Buck wasn’t sure what it was that he wanted from Karissa, but he damned sure didn’t expect for her to run away. He shoved the door open and strode directly toward Karissa’s office door.

“Mister Kaufman,” the secretary called out to him. “She doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

“Humph,” he replied and continued on his path.

“Mister Kaufman, you can’t go in there.” She considered blocking his path, but as the mountain of a man moved closer and she looked up at his determined face, she decided that she didn’t get paid nearly enough to become Karissa’s bodyguard. She tailed along behind Buck as he pushed open the door.

Up until that very moment, he’d had plenty of things to say to her, but once he stepped through the door and saw her face, he simply froze. It was obvious that she had been and was still crying. He had a response for nearly anything she threw at him; anger, excuses, lies or any other response from her, except crying. He wasn’t exactly sure how to handle that.

“I tried to stop him,” the secretary announced from behind Buck’s large frame.

“It’s okay, Sandy,” Karissa said, turning toward her intruder and swiping at her tears with a linen kerchief. “I’ll be fine. Why don’t you just go on home? I’m pretty sure there won’t be anything else to do today.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Just turn on the machine to catch the calls. I’ll see you on Monday morning.”

“I can stay…”

“Sandy, please, just go home,” she interrupted.

III.

Buck continued to stare at her without speaking while he watched her compose herself. The boiling anger that he’d had only minutes before had all but dissipated at the sight of her tears. Had the case meant that much to her? Had she fled the courtroom because she didn’t want anyone to see her crying? Maybe he’d gotten her all wrong.

“Have a seat, then,” she said, waving toward the leather sofa in front of the fireplace. It was more of a decorative piece, as was that entire part of her extensive office. She used it occasionally to take a nap when she pulled an all-nighter or wasn’t feeling well, but most of her work was done either in the conference room down the hall or at her desk. She didn’t see any need for either of those locations at that moment.

Buck still hadn’t spoken a word from his mouth, but his face was telling her plenty. He was confused by her tears. Evidently, he wasn’t sure how to react to them. How could she possibly explain to him what it was that was making them flow? In her mind, she had pictured the two of them celebrating a victory. Along with that vision, she had seen herself ending up in his arms. There was, of course, no way that he would know that she had gotten wrapped up in him as much as she had the case.

She’d visited the ranch several times and fell in love with the wide open space, the fresh air, the feeling of the horse underneath her and the quiet, easy, manly confidence of Buck Kaufman beside her. It wasn’t until the case was finished and they had lost, that she had equated the case and Buck as one in the same.

“You’ve been crying,” he whispered, moving slowly in the direction that she’d indicated with his hat in his hands.

“Yes,” she responded, moving toward the sofa as well. “I must apologize for running out on you that way, but, well, this isn’t exactly the type of behavior a professional demonstrates in public.”

“I got that,” he replied, still standing in front of the sofa, but not starting the motion toward taking a seat on it.

Karissa tried to force a smile onto her face as she watched the dumbstruck rancher. She reached for his hat and placed it, brim up, on the coffee table, just as he had instructed her at some point when she had moved his hat during one of their previous meetings. “If you place it brim down,” he’d told her. “It will ruin the shape of the brim.” He’d always spoken to her in that kind, yet authoritative manner when he gave her instruction. And, he’d taught her a lot. The stereotype that typically went along with his type, just like all stereotypes, wasn’t at all true. He carried a great deal of wisdom under that hat. That thought brought the tears flowing again.

She sat down on the sofa and tapped the space beside her as she drew the linen cloth to her face again. What she really wanted was to feel herself wrapped in his arms, just like she’d imagined. With the loss that they’d just endured, however, that didn’t seem to be likely. To be completely honest, Karissa wasn’t sure which loss hurt her the most.

Buck finally found some words that would come together into a sentence. He waved a hand toward her tearstained cheeks while he lowered himself timidly onto the sofa. Neither the motion nor the words fit his character. “Is this about the case?”

“Of course,” she responded, she tried to soften the words with a smile. How could he think that it was about anything else? After all of the time they’d spent together, had he not seen that she was getting more and more wrapped up into both him and the case? Men could be so blind.

Buck just nodded. In truth, he was just numb. He was still unsure about what feelings to have. On the one hand, the divorce was final and he wouldn’t have to worry over it anymore, but on the other, he’d lost everything. He was sure that once it all sunk it that he’d be a complete wreck. However, what was even harder for him to swallow, was trying to figure out why Karissa was so broken up over their loss. Had it really meant that much to her?

“I keep going over it in my mind again and again, trying to see where I made the mistake…” she started out.

“That won’t do you any good,” he broke in. Her words had penetrated through his numbness. “What’s done is done. It is what it is. We just have to figure out how to deal with it.”

“I don’t know how to deal with it,” she replied. “I screwed up. My screw up cost you what your family has passed down to you through three generations; the one thing you love the most. I don’t think I can live with that.” Her tears began anew as she made her confession.

“Ah, hell, Karissa,” he said, reaching out with a firm hand to grasp her shoulder. “That ole ranch has drawn more blood, sweat and tears out of me than it ought to have. Maybe it was time to get rid of the damned thing anyway.” He just spoken a boldfaced lie, however, with things being the way they were, then maybe it was time to start thinking differently. For the moment, he had to help her deal with it.

“That’s bullshit, Buck,” she countered. “That place means more to you than anything else in the world.”

“Yeah, well.” What else could he say? He wasn’t doing much to console her. He took his hand off of her shoulder and leaned back into the back cushion of the couch.

“Buck.” She placed a hand on his knee. “You can’t imagine how sorry I am.” She wasn’t sure what more to say, though she felt a thrill go through her as he placed his hand upon hers.

Though it took a moment, that touch was the spark that finally set the two of them aflame. For Buck, her touch had gone beyond words to let him know that she felt the same emotions as he did. For Karissa, that confirmation was all she needed to know that the two of them were in exactly the same place.

As odd as that moment was, it also felt extremely natural and Karissa moved her mouth close to his, hoping that he would respond. He looked up into her eyes as she paused, only inches away and he closed the distance, meeting her lips with his own.

That first, tender kiss between them lingered for some moments and then, as their passion began to grow, the two of them became more aggressive. The tension and the hunger that had built up between them over the past months began to flow out of them. The stress of the day multiplied passion’s effect and their mouths eagerly explored each other. Within moments, Karissa’s hands were on his chest, caressing the muscular form beneath his shirt.

One of Buck’s hands was on the small of her back pulling her against him while the other caressed her smooth, firm thigh. His touch pushed her beyond rationality. She wanted him with the deepest passion that she’d ever possessed. Her fingers left his chest and began working at the buttons on her blouse, suddenly wanting to feel his caress directly on her skin.

The moment her blouse was laid open and his hand slipped inside of it, she gasped. The thrill of him touching her skin was nothing compared to the kisses that began to travel down her neck and work their way along the lace edge of her bra, only inches away from aching nipples. To her great relief, he had worked the hooks of her bra loose and she slipped the lavender, lace bra from her shoulders.

His hunger consumed him and he could no longer contain himself as he began to devour every exposed inch of her. Her shapely breasts, which had only been a part of his imagination before, were even better in reality. Her smooth skin and her scent was even more intoxicating to him. With their passion raging, it was only moments before she was slipping out of her skirt and wore nothing more than the lavender, lace thong over delicately curving hips. He hurried out of his shirt and pants to catch up with her.

Karissa was out of her mind with a savage desire for the strong, confident man before her. With her nearly naked body exposed to him and his reaction to it, there was no stopping her. Reaching for the waistband of his briefs, she pulled them past his knees in one swift move, setting a thick erection free. She began to devour him as though she had been starving in the desert for weeks.

The way that Karissa was consuming him had Buck reeling for a moment. He had never expected such a wild response out of the reserved attorney. Who could have guessed that beneath that well-dressed, conservative and business-like exterior was such a savage woman waiting to be set free. He reached down, grasped her shoulders and guided her to her back on the sofa.

His strength, as he forced her onto her back on the sofa only excited her even more than she had already been. With her hips in the air, she put her fingers under the waistband of her thong, passing it toward his eager fingers who slipped it the rest of the way from her legs. He was wasting no time. With her naked before him and eagerly awaiting him, he grasped her knees and pulled her to him, guiding the thick head of his swollen member inside of her.