Undeniable (7 page)

Shep's narrowed gaze swept over her, and Kate's blush deepened.

Danny strode toward her, glancing from her unbound hair down her rumpled clothing. He gave her a pointed look, and Kate knew he disapproved. His loyalty lay with Sam.

She lifted her chin, daring either of the men to say a word.

“Missy, I hope you know what you're doing,” Shep muttered.

Her throat tightened. She'd known them all her life, but this wasn't something she was willing to talk to them about. She shrugged. “Not really. Not yet. But I need to find Ty so I can get a few things cleared up.” And this time, she needed to make sure their conversation didn't involve hands and lips, or she'd never get to the bottom of it.

She found him standing in the darkness on the front steps of the church, talking to the Hispanic man she'd seen with him earlier. They both grew silent as she approached.

She ignored the other man, turning her back slightly to him as she faced Ty. “I thought we might talk about what's going to happen tomorrow.”

Ty nodded. “Let me introduce Diego Salazar,” he said, tilting his head toward the dark-haired man next to him.

She didn't really want to meet him. Something about the way his gaze slid over her body, made her feel like she was the butt of a joke and only he knew the punch line.

Kate returned his stare, taking in his darkly tanned skin, black hair, and Spanish features. Too handsome for her to trust or even feel comfortable standing beside.

“Diego's my next in command.”

Her back stiffened, but she nodded, reluctantly acknowledging the introduction. So this was the man Ty wanted to command her in his absence? When Hell froze over!

Diego lifted one sardonic eyebrow as though he could read her irritation. The slight smile curving his lips infuriated her.

Kate lifted her chin and glared.

“You two know each other already?” Ty said, a hint of laughter in his voice. His arm slid around her waist, and he leaned to whisper in her ear, “He'll grow on you. Promise. I only want to kill him twice a day.”

She snorted and drew away.

“There's not much left to discuss,” Ty continued. “When we get to your place tomorrow, we'll need everyone to pack up their belongings, and we'll load them all into the deuce-and-a-halfs.”

Kate stared at him blankly.

“The transport vehicles,” Diego murmured, his deep voice a silky murmur.

“We'll leave so soon?” Kate asked, feeling suddenly cold.

“It's not safe for you there and you know it, and I didn't like leaving a skeleton crew behind at Fort Davis. How many people do you have now at the ranch?”

She shivered, fighting the urge to offer a protest. Ty was right. Much as she hated the thought of leaving Sanctuary ranch, she had to. She drew a deep breath and dropped her gaze as she forced herself to count. “I have my foreman and six ranch hands. Three families—thirteen total there. Another nine stragglers who showed up at the gates.” Her voice grew fainter toward the end, and she realized she was close to tears.
What the fuck?
She never cried. “Oh, and Cass the cook.” Wishing she'd never sought him out, she half-turned, ready to escape back into the church.

“Do you have horse trailers?” Diego asked.

“I have three—big enough to load all the horses.” It hit her then. She raised her gaze to Ty. “I won't be able to bring my cattle will I?”
A McKinnon without a ranch or a herd.

“No,” he said quietly.

She nodded, pretending to take it all in stride. “I'll have to leave them on the open range to graze,” she said faintly. They'd be fodder for the wolves. Feeling chilled to the bone, she asked, “How long will it take us to get to Davis?”

“About ten hours. We'll leave in daytime—lowest wolf activity.”

“So, we'll spend one night at the ranch, then leave the next morning?”

He nodded.

“And when we get to your post, what happens?”

“There are officer billets standing empty. The families can be split out there. They'll be comfortable, but there's no running water. They'll have to use outhouses and get their water from the central well. The single men can bunk in one of the barracks.”

“What about the women?”

She didn't miss the charged glance he shared with his next in command. “We'll see what arrangements they prefer when we get there.”

Kate nodded, once again going with her gut to trust him. She wanted to ask where she'd stay, but he saved her the embarrassment.

“We'll have our own quarters off the operations building.”

While she stood beside him, his hand rested on the small of her back, his thumb circling. It probably wasn't even something he was aware of doing.

But she noticed. She'd never considered herself an affectionate person. She and Sam had kept their relationship pretty much under wraps for years. The few gestures of affection they shared were relegated to the bedroom.

But when Ty slipped his arm around her shoulders while he continued talking to Diego, she leaned into him and slipped her arm around his waist.

His answering squeeze warmed her.

How had she come to crave his touch so quickly? She hadn't the example of a mother and father sharing physical affection, her mother having died shortly after she was born. Her father had raised her the best he'd known how, but his was a gruff sort of love and he hadn't known exactly how to raise a little girl. She'd known he loved her with the obvious care he took with her education and the pride he displayed with her accomplishments, but he hadn't been easy with physical signs of love. A kiss had been a rare thing.

Ty's hand came up behind her neck and he tilted back her head. “Why don't you go ahead and get some shuteye. I'm going to make the rounds, and make sure everything's closed down tight for the night.”

“You don't want company?” she asked, not caring that the other man listened to their conversation.

“Tomorrow's going to be a big day. Get some rest. I'll join you in a little bit.”

She understood he probably wanted to talk privately with Diego and his men. She wished he were more open, but again her instinct told her he was there to help. She knew there was something they weren't sharing, but she was tired. She'd worry about it tomorrow. For tonight, she'd lay her trust in his hands. She glanced at the parking lot and realized with a start that the pickup with the body slumped at the wheel—the one she'd been responsible for—had been removed. His men had been busy with cleanup, although she wondered why they'd bothered.

Other than the drying pools of blood on the ground, all other signs of the earlier battle had been removed.

“I'll see about cots,” she said quietly.

Diego shouted over his shoulder to the men inside, “Don't bother bringing a cot in for Ty, he's found something soft to sleep on.”

Kate fumed, really beginning to detest Diego. The way he looked at her with dark amusement gleaming in his eyes annoyed the hell out of her. He could mind his own damn business.

She escaped into the pastor's office, and closed the door to the noise of the men's laughter. Hanging her hat on the doorknob, she removed her coat and gun belt and dropped them on the desk. Then she sat on the edge of the couch and removed her boots. She laid down fully clothed and pulled her coat over her to chase away the chill in the air.

Strangely, for the first time in longer than she could remember, she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

 

 

Ty stalked through the darkness toward the man kneeling in the center of a ring formed by his soldiers.

The man smelled of sweat, sharp and acrid despite the cold—and fear.

And well he should.

“He was their leader,” Diego murmured. “The smartest among them. He ran.”

The man stumbled to his feet, whimpering. “Please. Let me go.” He reached out a hand.

Ty knew he couldn't see a thing, so thick was the cloud cover that the full moon above it was completely shrouded in darkness. He strode toward the man and reached behind his head to grasp his thick hair. He pulled him close, grimacing when the man released urine that leaked down his pants leg and filled the air with the sour odor.

He leaned close to whisper in his ear. “Say your prayers.”

“Make me one of you. Please,” he begged, his breaths hacking with his sobs. “I don't wanna die.”

“You frightened my woman. Why would you think I'd spare you?”

The man trembled like a leaf on a windy day. “I didn't know… I wouldn't have hurt her. I swear, I'm sorry.”

Ty jerked back his head, baring his throat. “You're gonna give me a bellyache, aren't you?” He shook his head, letting loose his beast with a roar and bit deep into the man's throat.

Blood surged inside his mouth—rich, young, but tainted with the sour bite of alcohol. The man struggled, a gurgling sound issuing from the gaping wound in his neck.

When at last he quieted, Ty released him, letting him drop to the ground. With his bloodlust sated for the moment, he threw back his head and howled.

 

 

Ty found her sleeping on the sofa, fully clothed and unaware someone watched. He doubted she'd slept so soundly in a long time. Satisfaction warmed his heart—she felt safe. This was one thing he could give her.

Only with a full belly was he able to stand being this close to her. Even now, his hunger rose thick to choke the back of his throat. Soon he'd have to taste her sweetness.

He woke her and pulled her up, then lay on the sofa and dragged her body over his.

Her legs intertwined with his and she sighed, murmuring sleepily as she fell quickly back to sleep with her head resting over his heart.

Ty gritted his teeth against the urge to rut against her. His cock was full to bursting, but he embraced the ache, thankful he'd finally found the woman he thought might be strong enough to be his mate. She'd taken his rough loving, even reveled in it. When the time came for a deeper, harsher joining he knew in his gut she'd survive.

Holding her,
breathing
her in, felt natural and right. He willed himself to relax. With his hand settling on the curved small of her back, he too fell into a deep slumber, lulled by the soft, warm breaths that gusted against his chest and the steady beating of her heart.

Tonight, he'd let her rest. If he could stand it.

Chapter Six

Kate awoke to find herself pressed against the back of the sofa as Ty rolled out from underneath her. Just as quick, she felt her jeans give at the waist and heard the zipper rasp as he yanked it down. He quickly peeled her pants off her legs.

“Ty?” she asked, knowing what he intended since he left her top completely alone.

She quickly found herself sitting at the edge of the sofa, her legs draped over the tops of his shoulders.

The inky blackness that surrounded them leant a feeling of unreality—like she was dreaming. The sounds of his breaths and the creak of the leather beneath her bottom seemed louder, filled with a ripening tension that brought her past dreamy pleasure straight to the blackest, hottest sense of eroticism she'd ever felt. Fear heightened her sensitivity so that when his thick thumbs parted her outer lips, she jerked and released a startled cry.

“Ty?” she repeated and reached between her legs to grab his hair. “Talk to me.”

“Can't. Have to taste,” he said, his voice so gravelly it was almost unrecognizable.

“Jesus,” she gasped when his tongue, strangely wide and roughened, lapped between her legs from asshole all the way up to her clit.

When he repeated the action, again and again, she moaned, sure she was going to burst out of her skin she was so aroused. Hot, thick cream gushed from deep inside her and she arched, digging her heels into his back.

His hands gripped her hard, holding her hips steady as he growled and lapped the liquid pleasure smearing her thighs and his face. His tongue tunneled into her, twisting to reach as far as he could, seeming to search for every drop her body offered.

Kate gripped his hair hard and tilted her hips to grind her pussy into his face, wanting him deeper, needing his attention on her hardening clit. Her belly trembled and her thighs widened—splaying to give him better access to every part of her that ached.

When one thick thumb sank into her ass, she keened long and loud. “Ty, oh God. Please. Suck my clit.”

Instead, fingers, thick and calloused, crammed into her cunt, fucking in and out, twisting to screw her hard.

Ecstasy slammed through her, gripping her body in a convulsion that shook her belly and thighs and had her whimpering endlessly as it built.

When at last his lips closed on her clitoris and he sucked—air whooshed from her lungs and her back shot off the sofa as a pulsing coil of heat tightened her womb. She rode his mouth and fingers, tightening and slackening her inner muscles to hold onto the rapture a moment or two longer.

When his mouth moved off the throbbing knot, she sighed in relief and slumped against the cushions as the aftershocks rippled through her vagina. He lapped her like a cat—rasping, soothing motions, now—licking over her swollen lips and clit, delving to either side to trace the crease between her thigh and her pussy.

Her pulse throbbed against his tongue where he paused at her inner thigh, licking until the spot burned then grew oddly numb. A faint pricking sensation registered on her mind a second before she was thrust suddenly back into the maelstrom—her body awash with another deepening orgasm.

All the blood in her body seemed to flow toward her cunt in a rush, drawing to the spot where he mouthed her inner thigh. Hot and cold all at once, she writhed as his fingers thrust deep inside her ass and cunt. Her inner muscles clamped hard around him, milking him—lush, wet sounds quickening to the rhythm of his strokes.

Beyond words, almost beyond breath, her fingers clawed at his hair as her body undulated, riding out the storm that never seemed to wane.