by Pamela Clare
“Okay, Chiago. Let’s hear it. What’s your verdict?”
Jason looked from Nate to Jack. “That was the best steak I’ve had—and the best chocolate cake, too.”
Winona dabbed her lips with a napkin. “It was all so good.”
The two men clinked their beer bottles, broad grins on their faces.
Jack took a drink. “Glad you enjoyed it.”
Jason had never eaten outside during a snowstorm. He had expected it to be a cold and awkward experience, but the West family had the art of the winter barbeque down. With big propane heaters placed around the patio, a fire pit, and a canvas shade overhead to keep in the heat and protect them from snow, he’d been toasty warm. There was something about the combination of fresh air and flame-grilled food that provoked and satisfied hunger like nothing else.
“Okay, Emily.” Megan got to her feet, Jackson in her arms, his chubby hands and little face covered with chocolate frosting. “It’s time to wash up and get ready for bed.”
Emily glared at her mother, clearly not happy about this. “Damn it!”
“Miss Emily!” Jack pinned his granddaughter with his gaze. “What have I told you about using those words?”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Don’t cuss in front of Mama or our guests.”
“That’s right—and you’d best listen.”
Jason had to fight not to smile and saw Winona was doing the same.
“Come now, Emily.” Megan opened the rear sliding glass door.
Emily got to her feet. “Can Winona read me a bedtime story?”
Winona picked up her dishes and stood. “How about I tell you a story instead? I know lots of stories that aren’t in books.”
The little girl’s face lit up. “You do?”
“Yes, I do.”
The two disappeared inside with Megan.
Janet handed Lily to Jack and carefully got up from the bench, one hand on Jack’s shoulder to steady herself. She winced as if lifting her leg over the bench were painful.
“You get inside. I’ll bring Lily-bean.” Jack noticed Jason watching. “My wife took a high-caliber round to the hip a few years back while on a protection detail.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Jason was surprised she could walk at all.
“It’s a lot better. I used to walk with a cane.”
Jack kissed his little girl, got to his feet, and followed Janet indoors, his daughter giggling in his arms. “It’s time for you to have a bath, chocolate monster.”
And then it was just Nate and Jason.
“How is Win doing?”
Jason knew why Nate was asking. “That bastard shook her up.”
“I thought so. I don’t know her well, but we all read what happened to her and Lexi in the newspaper.”
“I’m going to help her upgrade her security. She’s afraid that guy knows where she is or will try to find her. He sure seemed to have an unhealthy interest in her. Besides, there are drugs in her clinic that have real street value—anesthetics, narcotics, sedatives. They could attract bad elements.”
“I’ve got a contact in Denver who handles security systems. I’ll give you his card when we get back inside. I’d like to help pay for it if she’ll let me. This happened while she was up here at our request. I need to make this right for her.”
“That’s a kind offer. The clinic is completely dependent on donations, so I doubt she has much of a budget.”
Jason helped Nate clear the remaining dishes off the table, the two talking about horses and ranch operations while Nate loaded the dishwasher.
Then Megan walked into the kitchen, a smile on her face. “Come. You should hear this. Winona has Emily completely mesmerized.”
The three of them walked upstairs and down the hallway, stopping outside what must have been Emily’s bedroom to listen.
“Iktomi saw what Porcupine had done with that hawthorn branch and how the thorns had pricked Bear when Bear had tried to gobble up Porcupine. It gave Iktomi a crazy idea.”
The sweet sound of Winona’s voice put a hitch in Jason’s chest.
“Iktomi took many hawthorn branches and peeled off the bark. Then he put a thick layer of good, sticky clay all over Porcupine’s back and stuck the thorny branches to the clay, making them a part of Porcupine’s skin. What do you think happened when Wolf came that night to eat Porcupine?”
“The thorns poked it, and it ran away crying, ‘Ow! Ow! Ow!’”
“That’s right. What happened when Bear came back?”
“He saw all of those thorns and said, ‘I’m sure as hell not touching you again, you thorny son of a gun.’”
Winona sounded like she was choking back laughter. “Yes! Bear ran away, too. And that’s why all Porcupines have quills now.”
“Tell me another story, please, Winona?” Emily pleaded.
“I need to rescue her.” Megan walked into Emily’s bedroom. “Can you thank Winona for the stories? Winona and Jason are going up to the cabin, and you need to sleep. It’s a school night.”
“Thank you, Winona.”
It was the saddest thank you Jason had ever heard.
“You’re welcome, Emily. Sweet dreams.” Winona stepped out of the room, the same light on her face Jason had seen when she’d been caring for the animals at her clinic. “That was good practice for being an auntie.”
“Shota is a lucky little boy.”
As they walked downstairs together, Jason wondered what kind of perverse bend in the road had brought him to a woman as wonderful and beautiful as Winona when she couldn’t be a permanent part of his life.
Winona sat in the back seat in the cab of Nate’s truck as he drove her and Jason to the ranch’s guest cabin, snow falling heavily now.
“We built the cabin some years back. We invite friends to stay up here and rent it to hunters. I’ve stayed here with Megan when we needed some peace and quiet. We expanded the deck this summer and added an outdoor hot tub. There’s food in the fridge, as well as beer and wine. I hope you’ll enjoy yourselves and unwind.”
Winona was looking forward to the hot tub after hiking in the cold. “Thanks, Nate. I’m sure we will. It’s very generous of you to have us.”
“It’s our pleasure.” Nate told them how lonely Jack had been after his first wife, Nate’s mother, had died suddenly of an aneurysm. “He lived in that big house and had no one to share it with. I was deployed, serving with a Marine Special Operations Team. When I was nearly killed, it hit him hard, but I think it gave him a new sense of purpose. Then Megan came along and, after that, Janet. He loves having a full house with lots of kids and noise. The more, the merrier.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay now and that he’s no longer alone.”
“Thanks, Win.” Nate glanced back at her. “Do you know why he cooks so well?”
Winona had no idea. “Because he likes to eat?”
“That’s part of it.” Nate chuckled. “Learning to cook with my mother’s old recipes made him feel that she was still with us.”
“Oh.” That put a lump in Winona’s throat.
“I can understand that.” Jason’s voice held a hint of sadness. “There are things my mother made, like her mole poblano, that were special. No one made mole sauce the way she did. I think she sweetened it with sitol—saguaro syrup.”
“If you’ve got the recipe or can get a hold of it, you should give it a shot—or let my old man try to make it. He’d love the challenge, I’m sure.”
“I just might do that.”
Nate drove the truck around a bend in the road. “There it is.”
The cabin wasn’t the small, rustic cabin Winona expected, but a log home, its porch light on to welcome them.
“This is beautiful.” The place was bigger than Winona’s house.
Nate parked near the front stairs, handed Jason the keys. “They brought your bags here earlier. I think one of the men got a fire going in the wood stove, so it should be nice and warm. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at ni
ne for breakfast, and then we can see the horses and do some riding if you like.”
Winona and Jason thanked Nate and climbed out, Winona waving as Nate backed up and drove away. They walked up the stairs through about three inches of accumulation, Winona inhaling the scents of snow and wood smoke, coyotes yapping and howling in the distance.
“It’s so peaceful up here.”
“They call this a cabin?” Chuckling, Jason pushed open the door and stepped back so that Winona could enter.
She flicked on the lights and found their bags sitting in a short hallway just inside the door. “This is nice.”
They gave themselves a quick tour. A leather sofa sat across from a flat-screen TV, a wood stove in one corner, a fire roaring inside. The blinds were drawn back so that she could see the sliding glass door and the hot tub that glowed blue on the deck beyond, steam rising off the water.
There were two bedrooms. One was off the living room and had a queen-sized bed and an en suite bathroom with a large tub. The other was off the kitchen and had a bunk bed and a leather recliner. There was a second smaller bathroom near the back door.
“These Wests don’t do anything halfway, do they?” Jason picked up his duffel. “You can have the big bedroom. I’ll take the bunk.”
Before they could debate the issue, he disappeared into the back.
Winona carried her bags to her room. “I don’t know about you, but I’m heading straight for that hot tub.”
She set her bags down on the bed, closed the bedroom door, and changed into her bikini. She’d forgotten to bring a towel, but there were plenty of those in the bathroom. She tucked one under her arm and stepped out of the bedroom.
She stopped mid-stride and stared.
Jason stood there in a pair of black swim trunks, a towel in hand, his torso beautifully bare from his muscular shoulders to the rounded slabs of his pecks and his well-defined abs and obliques. The man was a walking anatomy lesson. Could he possibly be any sexier?
His gaze slid over her, pausing on her breasts and belly, sending a trill of excitement through her. It had been such a long time since she’d been with a man, so long since a man had made her feel desired or even desirable.
You’ll be sorry if you sleep with him.
Yes, she probably would. But she might regret it even more if she didn’t.
“You ready?”
Yes. Yes, she was.
Chapter 11
Jason had only himself to blame.
He could have turned down the Wests’ offer of a night at the ranch and gone back to McBride’s. He’d be shooting the shit with Zach over a couple of beers now instead of wondering how he was going to keep his hands off Winona.
God, she was perfect. Everything about her made him want her—the gentle curves of her breasts, the flare of her hips, her slender legs, the way her gaze moved over him. But he’d been down this road before, and it led nowhere.
None of those women were Winona.
They sure as hell weren’t.
Winona started toward the door. “This water is going to feel so good after hiking in the cold wind.”
“Yeah,” he managed to say, following her, his eyes drawn to the irresistibly sweet mounds of her ass, which shifted enticingly as she walked.
She opened the sliding glass door and stepped outside into the snow without the slightest hesitation.
Jason had never walked barefoot in snow before. “That’s cold.”
“Don’t tell me a little snow is too much for a Desert Person,” she teased. “In the winter when we do the inipi—our name for the sweat lodge ceremony—we often have to walk barefoot through snow. When I walk from the lodge to the women’s tipi to change afterward, my hair and clothes freeze almost instantly.”
He couldn’t imagine that. “Don’t you worry about hypothermia?”
“We’re so warm from the lodge that the cold feels good.” She held the handrail and stepped down into the hot water, her sigh of pleasure as she sank up to her chin sending a rush of blood to Jason’s groin. “Oh, this is wonderful.”
Jason did his best to hide his growing erection as he made his way down into the water, the heat sending tingles of pleasure up his spine. “Is now the time to tell you I’ve never been in a hot tub before?”
She gaped at him. “Never?”
“Never.”
Snow fell steadily from the sky, melting on the surface of the water and landing in their hair and on his bare shoulders, the forest around them silent. Even the coyotes were quiet now. Overhead, storm clouds hid the stars. It felt magical.
Or maybe that was Winona.
She moved toward him through the water and ran a finger over the scar on his shoulder, concern on her pretty face. “Is this where you were shot?”
His pulse tripped.
He looked down at the line of heat her fingertips traced over his skin. “Yeah. A trafficker took a shot at me from behind some rocks. It wasn’t bad—just a deep graze.”
“I bet it was painful.”
“At the time, I was just pissed.”
“Did he get away?”
Jason shook his head. “The Wolf pack surrounded him and brought him in.”
She ran her fingertips over his tattoo. “Does this mean something?”
He watched her as her fingers explored the maze, his blood hotter than the water now. “It’s the Man in the Maze. The little guy here is I’itoi, who helped Creator make our people. He’s a bit of a trouble-maker. We call him Elder Brother. The maze represents the journey of life and death—the choices we face, the unexpected turns, the dead ends. The center represents your dream, the purpose of your life, the end of your journey.”
Lips he wanted to kiss curved in a smile. “I like that.”
Then she touched the scar above his left nipple. “Were you shot here, too?”
Jason sucked in a breath, his control dangerously close to shattering. Was she doing this on purpose? If she was, it was working.
“That was a knife.” Jason fought to remember what had happened, his thoughts scattered, his senses and his mind focused entirely on her. “I was cuffing a guy. He went for my throat. We fought. His blade got beneath my body armor.”
“God, Jason.” Her fingers caressed the ridge of puckered flesh, her body mere inches from his now. “I’m so sorry.”
Jason knew he shouldn’t do this for both their sakes. He’d be leading them both down a path that went nowhere. He couldn’t abandon his people to be with her. She would never leave Chaska and her family. If they turned this corner, they would both pay for it later. But, God, he wanted her.
He cupped her face between his palms, touched his forehead to hers. “I want you, Win. I want to kiss you. I want to go back inside, strip off that bikini, and do all manner of things you. But there’s no way we can be together, and I don’t want to hurt you. Tell me to keep my hands to myself, and I’ll back off.”
She moved closer, ran her palms over his chest, and looked straight into his eyes. “Kiss me.”
Winona felt Jason’s heartbeat quicken beneath her palm, saw the heat in his eyes, sensed the battle inside him. Her heart was beating fast, too, her body shaking.
His gaze searched hers, a big hand coming to rest on her hip, then sliding slowly up her back, the heat of his touch making her gasp.
“Jason.”
He brushed his lips over hers, again and again, burning little hints of kisses, the contact sending shivers up her spine, making her lips tingle.
He drew back and exhaled, a slow, shuddering breath. “Tell me to stop, Win.”
“I don’t want you to stop. Can’t we have tonight?”
He moaned and drew her hard against him, strong arms enfolding her, his lips at last claiming hers.
God, yes.
He didn’t rush her, but took his sweet time, exploring her, tasting her tongue, nipping her lips with the sharp edges of his teeth. She gave herself over to his kisses, sliding her hands up his chest and over his should
ers, arching against him, reveling in the hard feel of his body against hers. Her pulse thrummed in her ears, her heart racing.
Oh, he was so good at this.
She’d never been so turned on by a kiss, heat pooling in her belly, her body already aching for more. She shifted to straddle his thighs—and took control.
His eyes flew open as she ran her tongue over his upper lip, nipped his lower lip, and then claimed his mouth with hers. But it wasn’t enough.
Hungry for him, she pressed kisses to the side of his throat, tasting him, teasing him, the scent of his skin filling her head, his pulse pounding against her lips.
In a heartbeat, he turned the tables, sliding his fingers into her wet hair, turning her head to reclaim her mouth with his.
Oh, it felt good to surrender.
He tilted her head to the side, his lips leaving her mouth to trace a path along her throat just as she’d done to him, kissing, licking, nipping, the sharp edges of his teeth raising goosebumps on sensitive skin. Then one hand moved to the ties of her bikini top, and with two quick tugs, her breasts were bare.
Anticipation made her belly clench.
He gazed down at her breasts, his brow furrowed. “Winona.”
He cupped one breast with his hand, rubbed its puckered nipple with his thumb, tremors of pleasure shivering through her.
Winona couldn’t help but moan.
He nuzzled her throat. “You like that.”
“Yes.”
Owooooo!
Winona froze, chills skittering down her spine. “The wolf. It’s here! He must be here, too—the poacher.”
The two of them were exposed and vulnerable. If the poacher was here....
Jason drew her closer, his gaze moving over the forest on the other side of the deck railing before meeting hers. “On the count of three, I’m going to get out of the water. You climb out after me and head straight inside. I’ll be right behind you.”
She grabbed her bikini top out of the water, held it against her breasts, her heart pounding. “Okay.”
