The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male (13 page)

And to her surprise, he held out his hand. A warm feeling swept through her, and Beth Ann smiled. She took his hand and glanced around. “Where’s your slicker?” She was still wearing his shirt over her dress, and his chest was still bare. Streaks of mud dotted his skin, and she could have sworn that those were claw-marks from her nails on his back.

She could only imagine what she looked like.

“It’s pretty destroyed,” he admitted, and he glanced over at her, giving her a blade-sharp smile that made the dimple in his cheek appear. “Someone got carried away last night.”

She nudged him with her shoulder, blushing. “Two someones.”

“True enough,” he said with a chuckle.

He was cold, wet, tired, muddy, needed a shower and a shave…and he didn’t want the day to end. The woman at his side held his hand, and her tangle of hair brushed against his arm occasionally as they walked. She looked like a mess, too, but she seemed content. There was a sensual look in her eyes when she glanced over at him and it fired his blood all over again.

Last night had been incredibly hot. This morning had been incredibly hot, too. Here in the woods, she was all his. When they got back to civilization, she’d turn into pink and blond proper Beth Ann Williamson, queen bee of Bluebonnet, and he’d turn back into that white-trash Waggoner boy. She’d thank him for getting her out of the woods and the one-night stand would just be a dirty little secret between the two of them.

And for some reason, that didn’t sit right with him. Maybe it was because he needed another night of sex with her to get last night’s experience out of his mind. Maybe it wouldn’t be as good and she wouldn’t be as responsive, and he’d be done with her and could go back to work with an itch scratched. That’d be all right. But they didn’t have another night. After they got out of the woods, he was going to borrow Grant’s car (since his was supposed to be stranded along with hers), drive her home, and not think about her again.

But he kept thinking about last night, and her, as they walked.

He knew exactly where they were, of course. They were on Daughtry Ranch land, and he knew every acre by heart. He’d crawled over and under every shrub in the area in the past six months or so with their survival classes. And so he deliberately tracked back, circling over to one of the many creeks that cut through the area. The water was high, but not swollen and rushing. They crossed at a shallow point, and after they crossed, Beth Ann shivered with cold, and he pulled her in close to him for a minute.

“You going to be okay?” He could stand to hold her for a little while if she needed. When he pulled her close, he could smell the wood smoke in her hair, and her tight little nipples brushed against his chest.

She nodded, biting her lip. “I’m glad we waited to cross,” she said with relief. “Just imagine how bad it would have been yesterday.”

Still crossable,
he thought to himself, but only drawled a “Yup.” Then, he rubbed her back. “Let’s get going. Not too much farther now.”

The ground began to level out, the trees thinning, and he led her toward one of the trails. She promptly took off her shoes, smiling over at him and wiggling her toes in the still-damp earth. “Thank goodness. Those shoes are killing my feet.”

And here he felt all guilty again. “Almost there.”

It was another hour of walking until they reached the edge of the land, and the trail forked ahead of them. The trees were thick, but the branches overhead were clearing a bit more, and he knew this area by heart now. They were on the edge of the ranch proper, with the cozy group of cabins up ahead. Almost home. Almost back to reality.

“Which way?” she asked, turning to him. He noticed dark circles under her eyes. She was tired. Another thing he had to blame himself for. Damn. He hated feeling guilty, so he ignored it. “If we head left, we’ll run into Dane’s cabin. Mine is on the right fork of the trail.” Straight ahead would take them to the main house, and behind that was Grant’s cabin, and Brenna’s, and the spare that they’d had built.

Her eyes brightened at the mention of his cabin. “You mean we’re almost out of here?”

“Almost,” he said dryly, hating that enthusiasm in her voice.

“Could…could I borrow your shower? I hate to impose.”

Beth Ann wet, naked, and sudsy in his cabin? “Impose.”

She grinned. “Lead the way.”

Everyone that worked at the survival business had a small cabin built for themselves. It was one of the perks of being employees, and Grant had insisted. They were always nearby if needed, though the occasion hadn’t happened often. Dane’s cabin was the most remote, and he didn’t have electricity running to his cabin. If he wanted electricity, he’d explained to them, he’d have gotten a place in town. Dane was just intense about the survival stuff like that. His shower and water was hooked up to a well, too.

Neither Colt nor Grant was quite so fastidious about that sort of thing. Grant’s cabin was twice as big as anyone else’s, and full of luxuries. They’d even built a spare cabin for another instructor, should the need arise, and Brenna was currently staying there. Colt had the smallest cabin of the lot, but fully wired for electricity. His cabin was one large square room, but that was fine, because he didn’t need much.

The grass was slightly overgrown in the area—since it was a
wilderness ranch, they didn’t bother with mowing except around the main cabin. Trees loomed overhead—he’d insisted on some shade. He knew it looked small from the outside, though, and wondered what Beth Ann was thinking.

He walked up the three short steps and opened the door, flicking on the light. Hard, bright lights shone and he moved to the side, gesturing for Beth Ann to enter. “Here we go.”

She stepped in, looking around. “Wow.” She blinked, then looked back at him with a smile. “You sure you live here?”

He looked around at his small cabin. The kitchenette was clean, all the dishes neatly put away in their places. He had a compact fridge off to one side, and across the room was his bed. A chair sat in one corner, and the TV perched atop his dresser, though he didn’t watch much here. If he wanted to watch TV or play video games, he’d go to the main lodge. They all hung out there. “There a problem?”

She laughed lightly and stepped farther in, her arms crossed over her chest. “Where’s all your stuff?”

He frowned at that little laugh. “Put away.”

She continued to pace inside, smiling as if amused. “This is how you live?”

He glanced around, then back at her. What was she getting at?

She gestured at his bed. “You made your bed?” She moved to the sink and peered in. “No dirty dishes. If I look in your sock drawer, are they all organized by color?”

He scowled. “I like things neat. Tidy. In their place.”

She chewed on her lip, studying the room. “I almost feel bad for trailing our dirt into here. We’re going to mess up the cabin.”

“It’ll clean,” he said gruffly.

Her gaze wandered to the fridge, where he had two pictures stuck there with magnets. She moved toward it and peered at them. “Who’s this?”

He knew what she was looking at, pushed down the ache in his throat. The only picture he’d kept of his time in the marines. Him and his buddies in his regiment, standing in front of a Humvee in Iraq. They’d all posed with their guns and helmets while in wife-beaters, just being a bunch of idiots, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. “Just a bunch of Devil Dogs.”

“Devil Dogs?” She turned to look at him and smiled. “Is that what you called each other?”

He nodded.

“Which one are you?”

“I’m the one in front. With the sunglasses.”

She smiled with delight, leaning in to squint at the picture. “You look so cute and young in this picture. Did you smoke back then?”

“Nah. Just for that picture.”

“You keep in contact with any of your friends?”

“Nah,” he said again.

Her face fell. “Are they…”

“Nah,” he said again. “They’re fine. Just scattered to the four winds. When I left I sorta fell off the radar. Spent some time in Alaska.”

Her face brightened and she turned back to the other picture. “Is this where you were?”

He moved to stand over her shoulder, staring down at the picture of the small log cabin with its plume of smoke rising from
the chimney. It was a little blot of humanity tucked into the wild, nearly covered by the lush pine trees. In the distance, tall mountains rose. “Yup. I stayed there for over a year. Dane stayed with me for a while. That’s him in the picture.”

Beth Ann peered. “Wow, check out that beard.”

He smiled a little. “ZZ Top would have been jealous.”

“Did you grow one, too?”

“Nah. Kept it neat and clean.”

“Just like when you were in the military, I take it? I noticed you still wear your dog tags.”

“Once a marine, always a marine.”

She smiled over at him, and continued her tour of his cabin, turning toward the corner of his cabin that held the vanity. Beth Ann froze at the sight of herself in the mirror. Her hand went to her cheek. “Lord have mercy. I look awful.”

She looked beautiful. But at least now they were talking about something other than his past. He stepped forward and knelt in front of the vanity and pulled out a fluffy white towel, handing it back to her. “Shower’s through that door.”

She took the towel with gratitude, then hesitated. “It’s your place. Did you want to shower first?”

“Go ahead,” he drawled, and thought it was worth it to see her face light up with pleasure. She stepped inside the door and disappeared, and a moment later, the water started.

Colt sat back in his chair, scratching his chest, his gaze fixed on the line of light underneath the bathroom door. By now she’d have stripped off his shirt. She would be sliding out of that slippery, spangled dress, letting it pool around her feet. She’d kick it to the side and step into the shower, naked, and let the water slide
down her body. She’d raise her arms to push back her hair, and those tight little breasts would raise up. And the look on her face would be ecstatic.

And fuck all if he didn’t want to go in there and shove his way into the shower. Roll on a quick condom, brace her hands against the tile wall, and fuck her all over again. His cock twitched in response at the thought, and he brushed his hand down the front of his pants, then stopped.

And if he did that, she’d think he was a fucking psycho pervert that couldn’t keep his hands off of her. He’d scare her off, jumping her every time she turned around. She deserved to have a goddamn shower in peace, didn’t she? Christ, he was a Neanderthal. He ran a hand down his face and groaned.

She just wanted to borrow his shower. She hadn’t indicated that she wanted more sex. Hell, he’d more or less pressed it on her this morning. If he jumped her now she’d think he constantly walked around with a goddamn boner.

He’d control himself. He’d let her shower, clean up, change into something warm, and then he’d go and shower, too.

And then he’d jerk off to the thought of her soaping up the slick lips of her pussy, of her fingers skimming over her breasts.

He was going to take a nice,
long
shower.

W
hen he came out of the shower, she sat curled up on the center of his bed, dressed in one of his T-shirts, her legs tucked against her chest. Her wet hair tumbled over her shoulders and her face was scrubbed pink and clean. “I borrowed some clothes. I hope that’s okay.”

“Fine with me.” He’d have been fine with her remaining naked, too. He stood there for a moment, towel wrapped around his hips, and glanced at the neat stack of clothes she’d placed on the vanity for him. “Thanks.”

Beth Ann gave a shy little smile, reminding him a bit of a skittish colt. “Least I can do.”

He took the clothes and moved back into the bathroom to change, lest he alarm her by dropping his towel. It was too warm in the small cabin for a shirt, so he skipped it and pulled on briefs
and a pair of pajama pants instead. Odd that she hadn’t picked out jeans for him.

Odd that she hadn’t taken the pants for herself.

He reemerged from the bathroom and found her leaning into his fridge. Her shirt—his shirt—had ridden up, revealing her curvy ass cupped in a pair of his briefs. They were a little tight over her rounded buttocks. He approved of that. “Hungry?”

She jerked up at his voice and gave him a sheepish look. “Starving. Your fridge doesn’t have much.”

That was because he normally didn’t eat in. “Suppose I’d better drive you home, then.”

She bit her lip.

“What?”

Beth Ann gestured to the bottle on the counter, then sauntered toward him, running her fingers down over his chest in a blatant gesture. “I kinda hate to get drunk for the first time all by myself.”

“You propositioning me?”

She looked up at him, tilted her head. “Maybe.”

His hands slid to her hips, grasped her ass, and pulled her tight against him so she could feel the erection that was returning even though he’d stroked one out in the shower. “Now’s not the time to be shy.”

Her thumbs brushed over his nipples and she bit her lip again. “I just thought, you know…I don’t have anywhere to be until tomorrow. And even then, it’s my day off. If you’re not busy…”

Damn but she was having a hard time spitting out what she
wanted. He decided to supply her with the question. “You mean, if I’m not busy, could I please toss you down on the bed and lick you until you scream my name?”

Her jaw dropped a little.

“Again?” he reminded her. “Repeat of last night?”

Her eyes gleamed and she grinned, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning in to lick his tattoo. “Something like that.”

Well hell yes, he was all about that. “Anyone going to be missing you tonight if I keep you here and fuck the daylights out of you?”

She sighed and lay her head against his chest, her fingers trailing up and down his back in ticklish motions. She was a cuddler. He liked that. More opportunity to press her body against him. “I guess I should check my messages.”

“Me, too.”

She reluctantly pulled from his arms and crossed the room to where she’d left her tiny purse. “It didn’t have service out in the woods, so I’m not sure if it’ll have service here.” She pulled it out of the purse and water dripped from it. She wiped the screen with a finger, then sighed and dropped it back into her purse. “Or I could need to replace it entirely.”