The Cowbear's Christmas Shotgun Wedding (Curvy Bear Ranch 3) (4 page)

After flashing a slight smile, he picked up the stitching kit. He selected the smallest needle and surgical thread. Although he wasn’t a surgeon, his medical training had included the basics. He had no doubt that he’d be able to sew her up with minimal scarring.

“Do you have anything to dull the pain? A bottle of bourbon, maybe?”

She glared. “No. The first thing I did was dump all the booze down the drain. As long as I own this place, there won’t be any alcohol in it. Consider it a dry house.”

“Whoa, I didn’t know I’d hit a nerve with that one.”

“Like you didn’t know my daddy was the town drunk,” she snapped.

“I had my suspicions, but you never let me get close enough to you to find out more about your family.”

“Can you blame me? You ruined the one place… you know what? Never mind. Just stitch me up so I can get back to work.”

The tremble in her voice wrapped around his heart and squeezed. He didn’t have to guess that she was referring to the prom. He’d been such an ass that night. As soon as one of the other guys had mentioned her tattered old dress, he’d spearheaded the merciless teasing. He should have known better than to make fun of her. He cringed when he thought about the things he’d said to her that night.

“Kate, I’m sorry—”

“Ancient history.” She cut him off with a wave of her hand.

“But I want to—”

“Just wrap it up and I’ll drive into town.” She pulled away. “I’m sure someone will be around to help me. There has to be an emergency number on the clinic door or something.”

“No.” He grabbed her wrist. “I’ll do it. Just let me lick it first.”

“What?” She stepped back as if he’d suggested cutting off her head. Apparently she didn’t know about his unusual talent.

“I’m a shifter…”

“I know that,” she snapped.

“And I have a gift. My saliva will help dull the pain and it will help you heal faster.”

She burst out laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Do you think I’m a complete moron? That is such bullshit.”

Before she could protest again, he grabbed her arm, pulled it up and lashed his tongue along the length of the cut.

She shrieked and yanked her arm back. “What the hell?”

He waited a few seconds. The expression on her face melted from one of insulted rage to wonder.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“Some shifters have gifts. Do you have one?”

“No.” She cocked her head to one side. “Do your brothers have special gifts too?”

“Not that I know of.” He picked up the needle and surgical thread. “Maybe you’d be more comfortable if you were lying down.”

Her gaze dropped to the needle before returning to his face. Her normally peach complexion turned whiter than snow. Yeah, she needed to lie down.

“Come on,” he said as he led her to the bedroom.

After she lay down on the bed, he grabbed a towel from the bathroom and laid it under her arm.

“What have you been up to since you left?” he asked in an effort to distract her.

“Not much. I got my design degree…” As he pierced the skin for the first time, her voice clicked up an octave. “…and I’ve just been working.”

“I’m guessing you’re not married.”

“Why would you say that?” she asked defensively.

“No wedding ring. You’ve also never mentioned needing to call your husband.”

“Oh, right. No. Never married.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“Shouldn’t you be concentrating? I’m not a pin cushion you know.”

“I’m concentrating.”

“On what, my arm or my love life?”

“I can multitask.” His flippant answer drew a huff. “Any hobbies?”

“No.”

He stopped trying to talk to her. She clearly wasn’t in the mood. He didn’t really blame her. Even though she was lying down, sweat dotted her brow. Her arm didn’t move, but her belly quivered every time he tugged to tighten a stitch.

After carefully sealing the wound, he set the surgical instruments on the nightstand. She gazed up at him with an imperceptible expression. What he wouldn’t give to know what she was thinking in that moment.

Outside, the wind’s skeletal fingers tore at the shingles on the roof. He noted a sudden drop in temperature which coincided with the first few snowflakes.

“Is your heater on?” he asked.

“It is, but it’s not working very well.”

“Do you want me to start a fire?”

She shook her head. “I just need to rest.”

He swallowed. As if on its own accord, his hand reached to push a lock of chestnut hair from her eyes. She flinched as if he’d hit her.

“He hurt you, didn’t he?” Logan asked.

She looked down. “Please, don’t ask me about the past.”

“If I’d known…”

“You would have just used it against me.”

“No.” He sat on the edge of the bed and gently pulled her into his arms. “I would have protected you.”

As he pressed the voluptuous woman against his chest, she trembled. The brush of her breast against his arm was enough to drive his bear crazy with need. When he’d thought about getting her into bed, he hadn’t pictured this.

He was drawn to her vulnerability. Maybe he wasn’t any better than that real estate shark, taking advantage of her when she was hurting, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to take away her pain and he only knew one way to do it.

He tilted her chin up. “As long as you own this place, I’ll protect you.”

The deep blue color of her eyes drew him in. His gaze dropped to her lips. Plump, pink, and sexy—just like her.

As he leaned closer, her lips parted. Her breath quickened. As if asking permission, he rubbed the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip. When she didn’t move away, he cupped her face and brought his mouth down. The first brush of skin on skin sent tendrils of desire throughout his entire body.

Chapter 4

A low moan escaped her throat as he parted her lips with his tongue. The hot, possessive quality of his mouth brought on a new wave of desire. His hands slid from her waist to her full hips. She was drowning in the ecstasy of being in his powerful arms.

For a few minutes she didn’t want to think about her father, about the pain in her arm, or about the betrayals of the past. She only wanted to think about the scrape of stubble across her cheek, and the brush of calloused hands across her back.

She’d lost track of when he’d pulled her shirt out from her jeans. All she knew was that his hands were pure magic. As he caressed and kneaded the knots out of her back, she surrendered to his sensual kisses. Unable to catch her breath, she moaned into his mouth and whimpered when his roaming hands unhooked her bra with practiced ease.
Of course he’d be good at that.

After pushing the unwanted thought away, she laced her fingers into his hair. Somewhere along the way, he’d lost his cowboy hat, and with it, a layer of intimidation. Maybe if she unbuttoned his shirt, he’d lose his cocky arrogance too. There was only one way to find out.

Without stopping to wonder why she’d suddenly grown so bold, she reached for the top button on his flannel shirt. He leaned back and watched her through a sexy, hooded gaze. The way he stared at her brought on a rush of uncertainty. What if this was all a joke to him?

“Keep going,” he whispered.

Her fingers trembled as she unhooked the second button to reveal another few inches of his impossibly ripped chest. He belonged in a bull rider’s magazine. As she released another button, the smattering of hair on his chest gave way to the tightest, hardest six-pack she’d ever seen.

She licked her lips. He was magnificent. A god among men. What the hell was he doing in bed with someone as plain and boring as her? And what did she think she was doing? She had very little experience with men. Maybe she’d been watching too many soap operas, or reading too many steamy romances. She couldn’t fool a man as experienced as Logan. He’d see right through her and know she had absolutely no idea what to do next.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to mind her hesitation. He finished unbuttoning his shirt and slid it off his broad shoulders. She reached up to run her fingertips across his biceps. Fascinated, she couldn’t reconcile the silken smoothness of his skin with the hardness of his muscles. It was like velvet over steel.

“You’re staring,” he murmured.

“Oh, I just…”

“It happens.”

There was that smug grin again. If she’d been in her right mind, she would have thrown him out of her room, but he’d captured her with his piney scent and rippling abs. Even if she’d wanted to, she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for him.

He leaned over her and brought his lips down to just a breath away from her neck. Poised to kiss the hollow of her throat, she arched for him, offering herself in the most vulnerable position a shifter could ever be in. In her human form, she’d be incapable of stopping him from ripping out her throat if he wanted to kill her.

But she had no doubt about his intentions. He wanted to lavish her with pleasure, nothing more. And she hated wanting him as much as she did, but she couldn’t deny her impulses. Her bear thrashed with the need to mate. She’d never given into her base instincts before, so why now? Why him?

“This is crazy,” she murmured.

“Is it?”

As his lips blazed a trail of liquid heat down her neck, his hands pushed her shirt up over her head. With the exception of a single second of lost contact, his mouth teased and tempted her flesh until she writhed with lust. She’d never been so wet in her entire life.

His hands tugged her bra down over her shoulders and off of her arms while carefully avoiding the gash on her forearm. Naked from the waist up, she fought the urge to cover her breasts with her hands. They’d always been so big that she couldn’t walk down the street without having a few men leer at them. She hated being so busty, but she couldn’t hide them. It was as if she walked around with two neon arrows pointing to her breasts.

When she moved to cover herself, he gently grabbed her wrists. “I want to see you. You look like a Grecian goddess, like Aphrodite.”

“She was the goddess of love.”

“It makes sense then,” he said.

She didn’t understand the connection. What they were doing wasn’t about love. She knew enough about men to know this was nothing more than unrestrained lust. But why not? After next week, she’d never see Logan again, so why not have sex for the first time with someone as irresistible as him? If nothing else, she wouldn’t be so intimidated by men in the future.

Maybe the blood loss had been enough to make her lose her mind. The more she tried to understand why she wanted to melt into him, the harder it became to form a rational thought. The stress of having to return to her family’s home had to be the reason she couldn’t keep her lips away from his. That had to be it. Because if it wasn’t, there was something seriously wrong with her.

He trailed his hand down from her wrist, along the side of her neck and down across her chest. When he reached her breasts, he gently cupped one in his palm. The rasp of his thumb across her nipple sent shivers of delight straight to her core.

Without a point of comparison, she didn’t know if every man could make her feel this good, or if Logan possessed exceptional skills in bed. She didn’t want to think too hard about it. If she did, then she’d start to wonder how many other women he’d pleasured in the past.

As he bent to suck one nipple into his mouth, she moaned. His tongue flicked along the underside of the taut peak before circling around to capture it completely. She dropped her hands to the sheets and held on as he left a wake of wet kisses between her breasts.

When his mouth grazed her belly, she tensed. She was too round, too doughy. Nothing like the skinny girls.

“I love your curves,” he whispered.

“You do?”

“Hips should be soft and round, not sharp and pointy.”

She relaxed against him. “Not everyone thinks that way.”

“Not everyone knows what it’s like to be with a real woman,” he countered. He looked up. Their gazes locked and an arc of understanding passed between them. “Don’t you know how sexy you are?”

Mute, she shook her head from side to side.

“You’re stunning.”

His lips drifted closer to the edge of her jeans. When he reached the coarse fabric, he unbuttoned her pants and slowly tugged them over her hips. He pulled them off, then ran his flattened hand over her white cotton panties.

She dug her nails into the sheets. Oh God, it was really going to happen.

As he hooked his fingers into her panties, she could hardly draw a breath. He slid the undergarment down, revealing the one part of herself she’d never showed to any man. Completely exposed and totally vulnerable, she trembled against the sheets.

“Shh, just relax,” he murmured.

Her mouth went dry as his lips brushed the top of her pussy. Tendrils of desire unfurled as his mouth closed over her slick heat. He sighed against her, sending a rush of hot breath against her plump lips.

When his tongue met the apex of her slit, her hips jerked involuntarily. Embarrassed by the sudden shock of energy, she pushed his head away.

He flashed an amused smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.”

As he interlaced his fingers with hers, she lay back. With his free hand, he gently pushed her thick thighs apart. She angled her head to watch as he dipped to rake his tongue down the length of her pussy. Twinges of erotic need sparked along her turgid flesh. The rasp of his breath against her lips and the way he spread her with his mouth broke something inside her.

The animalistic need she’d held at bay her entire life surged forward. Her bear panted with lust, silently begging his bear to claim her. He reached for her other hand and pinned it at her side. The sensation of falling pushed her down into the bed. She cried out as his tongue pierced her delicate lips.

He licked and sucked the delicate folds of her pussy until her eyelids fluttered shut. Tension coiled in her sex. Thick with need, she arched toward him, pushing against his wicked mouth. God, the things he was doing. She never knew a man could move his tongue with such exquisite precision.

She panted, unable to take a deep breath. But he didn’t stop. Determination radiated from him in ever increasing waves of intensity. He wouldn’t stop until she shattered.

Close, so close. She strained against the wildness in her heart. On the verge of losing control, her bear clawed at her ribcage in an attempt to be free. But just before it could escape, an avalanche of explosive bliss burst from deep within her, releasing tremors of ecstasy.

She screamed as rolling waves of pleasure twisted her into a thrashing mess of orgasmic euphoria. There was nothing pretty about the way she clamped her thighs around his face, effectively smothering him. But he didn’t move away. Instead, he wrapped his hands around her thighs and kissed her quivering flesh.

When she finally collapsed into the bed, she brought a trembling hand to her forehead. She’d come so hard that her neck ached from the strain.

Logan didn’t waste any time. He crawled out from between her legs and stood next to the bed. As he shed his pants, a huge erection poked out from his boxers.

She gasped. How could it be that big? It would never fit.

He pulled off his boxers and stood next to her, completely naked. Thick veins ran down the sides of his rigid shaft. The mushroom-shaped head stood like a crown on his cock.

She couldn’t stop staring.

“Lie back,” he whispered.

She obeyed, enraptured by his massive cock. It wasn’t until he was leaning over her, poised to enter, that she snapped out of the enchantment.

Her voice wavered. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“What?”

“I’ve never done this before.”

***

“What?” Logan reared back, stunned by her revelation.

“I’m a… I’m a virgin.”

“Holy shit. How is that possible?” he asked.

“I guess I just never had the chance,” she mumbled.

“But you’re so incredibly hot. I can’t believe it.”

No fucking way, she couldn’t be a virgin. Jesus, he’d almost taken her virginity in a sex-crazed moment of weakness. Damn him for letting his bear take over.

“It’s true.” She looked away.

“How could you go so long and not have sex?” He rolled onto his side and propped up on one arm to look at her.

“No one ever wanted me.” The tremble in her voice brought a wave of compassion into his heart.

“That’s not true. I wanted you.”

“What?” Her gaze snapped to his face.

“I wanted you when we were in high school,” he said.

“You were a complete jackass to me.”

“When you’re popular, you’re expected to be a dick to anyone who doesn’t fit in.”

“You made my life a living hell.” She yanked the sheet across her body.

“I know. And I’m sorry. If I could go back and do things over, I wouldn’t have been such a coward.”

“A coward?”

“Yeah. Only cowards mistreat people. I was a coward and I’m very sorry.”

“Is that why you wanted to help me fix up the house?” she asked.

“When I heard you were back in town, I wanted to find a way to make up for the terrible things I said to you in high school.” He hung his head in shame. “I especially want to make up for the prom.”

She sat up and pushed back until she was sitting against the headboard. “I only owned one dress—one—and you turned me into the laughingstock of school.”

“I know.”

“I had nothing else to wear. It was my senior prom. I had to go alone because no one wanted me, but I wanted to go to one dance.” Her voice cracked. “I’d been dreaming about going to the prom my whole life and I’d finally gotten up the courage to go alone. And then you ruined it.”

“I had no idea how much it meant to you.”

“That was my mother’s wedding dress. It was the only dress we owned. I had nothing else.”

“I never knew.” A pit of sorrow developed in his gut.

“We were poor. We had nothing. That’s why I wore the same two pairs of pants and three shirts all year. It’s all I had.”

“I never really thought about what life was like for you.”

“That’s because you were a typical, self-absorbed, high school jerk.” She sighed. “That was years ago, Logan. I’m over it.”

He wanted to ask if she was really over it. Had she left town because of him, or was it because of her family?

“I’m tired. I need a nap. Go home.” She rolled away from him.

He reached for her shoulder, then stopped in mid-air. What was he doing? He’d already tried to take advantage of her when she was in physical pain. Was he really such a jerk that he’d try to take advantage of her emotional pain too?

As he slid off the bed, he silently cursed himself for being such an ass. He didn’t deserve a woman like Kate. He should have known better than to jump into her bed. If all the one-night stands had taught him something, it had been that relationships were less messy that way. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. That had been his MO for years. Why change it now?