Rugged Fire [Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 4]

by Edith DuBois

  They approached her small porch, and Seb and Will walked her up to the door. “Well, I was thinking of inviting you two in for a nightcap or something like that, but with all this talk of family histories and friends you don’t approve of”—she dug around in her purse for her keys—“I’m not sure it would be the best idea. And it’s not that I’m not wildly attracted to you both, and I mean, it’s not like I don’t know how the bear-shifters and the lion-shifters, how that all works—”

  Seb leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, effectively ending her nervous effusions. “Thank god,” she whispered against his lips, grateful for the stop to her nonsense. Standing up on her toes, she pressed her lips deeper into his and grabbed the front of his shirt. It had been so long since she’d kissed anyone, too close to a year for her comfort, and the sensation filled her up from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. Seb’s large hands pressed into her back, making her shirt and sweater bunch up, and his fingers caressed her skin and spine.

  When he finally released her, she stumbled back a couple steps, bumping up against her front door. Her breaths came in short gasps. “Oh my,” she whispered, putting her fingers to her lips.

  “Lianne,” Seb said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. That was…I wanted that…you don’t have to—”

  “Not for the kiss. I plan on doing that again. I meant for tonight, for how we treated your friend. We didn’t think about what we were saying, and in the process, we insulted both you and her. That is never acceptable. Please accept our apology.” He grabbed her hand and ran his fingers over her knuckles, staring deeply into her eyes. Her pussy was so wet and tingly she thought she’d crumple to the ground, reduced to a pile of wanton nerves and moans.

  “But what about everything else? Do you understand what I was talking about? We’re all part of this town. Both of you are, and me, too. We have to help each other. We have to accept each other. Does that make sense? Can you understand where I’m coming from?” She touched Seb’s face. She so wanted to fall against him. She wanted to lean into him and let him hold her. “We’re all connected. Whether we want to be or not.”

  Seb sucked in a deep, ragged breath. “You are remarkable, Lianne. I hope you know that.” He put his hand over hers and placed another gentle kiss on her lips.

  Well, he hadn’t answered her question, but he hadn’t downright refused to listen either.

  She’d take it.

  For now at least.

  When he broke the kiss and stepped back, Will slid into the empty space he’d left behind. “Will,” she murmured, a thrill of desire skipping up her spine.

  The whole night, Will had been the quiet one. He’d watched her interact with Seb and kept his silence. His dark eyes kept her nervous and on edge. She wasn’t sure if he felt the same attraction that Seb so obviously did or if he was merely going along for his brother’s entertainment. She’d had feelings for both the brothers since she was a young teen, and she simply could not handle it if this was only a flirtation for them, some small dalliance that they could easily let go of if they wanted. She wanted to kiss him, wanted to taste his arousal to see if it met that of his brother’s.

  At her beckoning, he stepped closer, placing one hand on the wood next to her head and trapping her against the door. With his free hand, he put his thumb against her bottom lip, swollen and tender from Seb’s heated kiss, and rubbed it back and forth in a slow, mesmerizing pattern. “You’re an enchantress. I liked seeing you wrapped up in my brother’s arms.”

  Lianne sucked in a breath.

  Slowly he leaned in. Lianne thought his lips would never reach her. She watched him, not daring to breathe, not daring to move, until at long last, he whispered, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” He hovered, waiting, and when she nodded, his warmth captured her. With a deep sigh, she settled into the kiss. His lips were firm yet gentle in their insistence. He moved with an assured and easy leisure, tasting her without haste, dipping his tongue in and swirling for a moment before retreating. He sucked her tongue into his mouth and welcomed her into him, pulling and rolling against her. He held her throat with his hand and ran his thumb over her chin and jawline, tilting her head up so that his tongue could go even further, even deeper.

  She slipped her hands around to his backside and then into his back pockets, grabbing his ass and pulling him closer. She gasped when his hard length pressed against her stomach. She’d never felt a cock so big or so stiff. It ignited a primal response in her gut, and she felt herself pushing harder against his mouth, felt her teeth scraping against his flesh. His shaft moved up her stomach as he rolled his hips into her. She squeezed her fingers around his firm ass cheeks as the lust licked through her veins.

  Never had she responded so powerfully to a man, much less a kiss. Her body was on fire, and she knew only Will and Seb had the power to quench the hungry flames.

  This kiss ended way too soon. She wished it would stretch on into eternity, but Will pulled his lips from hers. She wanted to invite them in, wanted to be the same kind of bold she was when dealing with her business, when she haggled over prices for raw materials or chewed out a supplier when a shipment was late. But she had never had sex, much less invited two men to come into the dark quiet of her bedroom, never invited anyone to spend the night.

  She was still debating on her course of action when she heard a familiar voice coming from down the road. Peeking around the twins, she saw Jamie hanging on the shoulders of two men, stumbling down Wicket Way toward the house belting out a bawdy tune Lianne had never heard before. As the three approached, Lianne could make out the faces of Ezra and Cleve Yeats. “Oh goodness,” she muttered under her breath. “Looks like I’ll be putting her to bed.”

  She glanced up at Seb and Will. A wave of longing swelled inside her, making her wish she could be irresponsible, pull them inside and up to her room, and then forget everything else for the night. “I’ll see you both again soon?”

  Seb leaned in and kissed her. “Of course,” he said against her lips.

  When he’d moved away, Will pressed his mouth to hers for one hot, thought-shattering moment. Then they both slipped away, their tall forms disappearing into the darkness only moments before Jamie and her questionable escorts stumbled up the porch.

  Lianne crossed her arms and quirked a brow at her friend.

  “Lianne!” Jamie squealed, wrapping her arms around Lianne and squeezing her.

  “Let’s go inside.”

  “We can put her to bed for you,” Ezra said with a slight slur, leaning in just a little too close.

  “It’s okay, boys. I got her from here.”

  Lianne maneuvered and got her front door open.

  “I think I’m in love,” Jamie sighed as they stumbled into the house.

  “Whatever. I expect some friggin’ ginormous blueberry pancakes for this.”

  Waving at the Yeats twins as they stumbled off the porch, Lianne closed her front door and locked it. Trudging up the stairs to her room a few minutes later, she could hear Jamie snoring off her drunken rebellion. She shook her head, knowing Jamie would be groaning about her debauchery and blaming it all on her father in the morning, but it wasn’t long before Lianne’s annoyance faded.

  As she crawled into the bedcovers and sleep crept closer, the curl to her lips came back. She drifted off, dreaming of front-door kisses, knowing she’d be a smile machine for days.

  Chapter Three

  “Boys, boys! Surely you don’t mean to go out?”

  Seb continued drinking his protein shake while Will answered, “Good morning, Mother. You’re up early.”

  “The sun hasn’t even risen yet, boys. Houses aren’t built so that you may leave their warmth and comfort before the dark has lifted. What sort of mad shenanigans are you two up to? I swear you get more and more like your fathers every day.” His mother shivered, and Seb felt like reaching out to her, but then she pulled her robe tighter around her frail shoulders. “Those two couldn�
�t stand to be off the water. Every morning it was the same. I don’t know how many times I warned them away. I thought they’d fall in. I thought they’d both suffer hypothermia and then pneumonia and then leave me here to raise you two alone. And I told them several times that all that rowing couldn’t possibly be good for their bodies. Too much strain on the shoulder and the back. Once a month, perhaps, would have been acceptable, but every morning. I never could fathom such a thing. No doubt it weakened their bodies and left them unable to battle the cancer as they should have.”

  Seb licked the shake off his upper lip and peered over at his mother. She was staring into the fridge, the yellow light casting odd shadows across her face. “Did you having trouble sleeping?” he asked.

  He’d heard this same rant countless times, and he’d heard hundreds of variants of this same rant just as many countless times. He loved his mother dearly. That was never a question. But every time she went into the subject of their fathers, he couldn’t help thinking that she was angry. Angry that she’d tied her life so completely to theirs. Angry that she could never leave Savage Valley as long as they were alive. Angry that now they were gone, she was too afraid to go on her own.

  He didn’t know what to do to help her. He tried to be patient and understanding and never get upset with her incessant worrying.

  But underneath it all, he couldn’t stop thinking that she regretted everything. Her marriage, her sons, her life, her sacrifice. What woman should be forced to live like that? How could he ever ask it? He couldn’t. He never would. Neither him nor his brother. They’d already discussed it, and each time his mother went off, he was sharply reminded of why he could never condemn a woman to a life like hers.

  “Of course not,” his mother answered. “I slept normally. I merely wanted a warm glass of milk.” She blinked her eyes, grabbed the milk carton, and bustled over to the counter, her slippers scuffling across the tile floor of the kitchen. “I see you two have your wetsuits on. Are you going to the lake?”

  “We’ll only be a couple hours. You don’t have to worry about us,” Seb said.

  “At least have a boiled egg. You can never go wrong with a hard-boiled egg, my boys. And whatever are you slurping down over there, Sebastian? Is that one of those shakes with god-knows-what in them? They are much too rich. They can’t possibly be good for the constitution on such a brisk morning as this and you planning on such a rigorous form of exertion. Here. Take one of these eggs.” She held out a carton, and Seb obliged. “A small one, mind you. If you get one that’s too large, it may not settle well, but I don’t see the harm in one small egg.”

  Their mother continued extolling the merits of hard-boiled eggs as they finished their breakfast. After they got her settled in her favorite chair beside the window with a book and her knitting needles, they headed out to the back. Their fathers had built a large work shed many years back, and they kept a few canoes, various tools, and yard-work machinery in it. They hauled one of the canoes down from its hanging pegs and placed it over their shoulders. Seb was in front, Will in back, and they began walking toward Brown Trout Lake.

  The lake was a good ways out of town, and they had to walk down Main Street to get there, but the walk through town didn’t bother him. In fact, hardly anyone was out and about, and Seb liked the feeling of being the first ones to greet the roads and familiar buildings of Savage Valley. Despite its faults and shortcomings, it was his town and his home. Whether he wanted it or not, his footsteps would always belong on these roads.

  As they neared the center of town, he looked over at the bundle of shops—the thrift store, the diner, the newspaper—and was surprised to find Lianne standing in front of The Ninth Time, bundled up and bouncing from foot to foot.

  “Seb?” she asked. “Is that you? Will?”

  “Hold up,” he said to his brother. He lifted the canoe, and Will did the same. They rolled it off their shoulders in a fluid motion, popped it over their heads, and then set it on the ground in front of the resale shop. He could hear frost crunching under its hull as it settled onto the ground.

  “Whoa,” Lianne said. “What—oh my—why are you two dressed like that? What are you doing?”

  “The canoe didn’t give us away?” Seb asked, walking toward her. He noted her small step back as her eyes swept up and down his body a couple times in quick succession. He’d left the top of his wetsuit unzipped, and the sleeves were hanging around his waist. The only thing he wore on top was a white T-shirt, and he’d broken a small sweat carrying the canoe. The thin cotton clung to his chest, and the wetsuit clung to everything below his waist, and he could tell the sight was having an effect on Lianne. It had been a couple days since their steamy kisses on the porch, and the feel of Lianne’s plump lips on his, the way her body pressed into him with desperate wanting, her breath mingling with his—these things kept pounding and pounding through his mind. He couldn’t get them out, had thought of little else since that night, and finding her here that morning felt serendipitous. He’d planned on seeing her again that day, one way or another, and circumstances had brought them together as if the fates approved of his decision to pursue her. He had to wonder, though, what it was exactly that had her out in the close-to-freezing temperatures.

  “What are you doing here? It’s barely seven in the morning.”

  “I forgot that I’m hosting a book club with a couple friends in two days, and I haven’t even bought the book or begun to read it. I’m just freaking out. I have to read that and get a fresh batch of lotion samples whipped up today because I thought I had enough, but I don’t, and anyways, I’m just trying to see if the Abbotts had one here before having to make an emergency trip to Denver.”

  “First of all, breathe.” He sucked in a breath in illustration and then another. Lianne caught on and began to breathe with him, rolling her eyes and grinning at him. “Second of all, what book is it? We might have a copy.”

  Her regulated breathing came to a halt. “Oh no, I highly doubt that.”

  Seb noticed she looked more uncomfortable than usual. “Give us a try,” he said. “We’re pretty well read. You might be surprised.”

  She laughed nervously. “No, really. I don’t think you’ll have the book I’m looking for.”

  “What is it?” Will asked, leaning against the railing outside of The Ninth Time.

  Biting her bottom lip, she looked back and forth between them. “I don’t think you’ll have it. In fact, I’m certain you won’t.” She definitely sounded nervous, and Seb felt his curiosity growing.

  “Lianne, spit it out. You never know unless you try.”

  She shot them a hopeless look and then shrugged. “It’s called Bound.”

  “Bound? Hmm, that does sound kind of familiar. Who’s the author?”

  “Her name’s Sophie Oak.”

  “Sophie Oak…Sophie Oak…I think we might have it. It sounds so familiar.”

  Lianne’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? It sounds familiar?”

  “What’s it about?”

  Shooting him a smirk, she crossed her arms over her chest and said, “It’s fantasy.”

  “We read fantasy. Right, Will? You like fantasy.”

  Will nodded.

  “My favorite book of all time is War of the Worlds,” Seb continued. “Admittedly, that’s more on the sci-fi side of the spectrum, but still, it’s pretty close. What kind of fantasy is it?”

  “It’s very visceral, you know, really graphic stuff.” There was an odd note to her voice that Seb couldn’t quite place. “And it has Celtic mythology and goblins and stuff.”

  “Yeah? That sounds like something we might read.”

  The front door to The Ninth Time creaked open, and Jack Abbot glared out at all three of them. “No soliciting,” he grumbled.

  “Are you open?” Lianne asked, perking up.

  “I’ve unlocked the door, haven’t I?”

  “Perfect.” Lianne shoved her way in, and Seb followed her, shooting Jack a wide grin. The li
on-shifter muttered something under his breath. As Seb walked by him, though, he caught a whiff of his lion scent, and the sharp, over-heady aroma all but singed his nostrils.

  “Whoa,” he said, choking on the thickness of the smell.

  “What?” Jack asked in a gruff voice.

  Seb felt his eyes watering and shared a look with his brother. “Nothing,” he said, rushing past and away from the lion-shifter. The lions were very sensitive about their musk, and Seb didn’t want to stir up trouble by mentioning its unpleasant potency. He soon realized, though, that the whole shop had an underlying aroma of lion musk, so he went over to Lianne with the intention of hurrying her up.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, delighted. “This is a treasure trove! Jack, where did you get all these?” she called out, still rummaging like a gleeful child.

  “What do you—” He cut himself off when he noticed the books she was happily pawing through. She’d found a large cardboard box tucked away in a corner in the back of the store chock-full of used romance novels. And from some of the covers he saw tumbling around as she dug her arms deeper into the books, these weren’t the fireside romances he’d seen his mom reading on occasion.

  These were erotica.

  “This is what your book club is reading?”

  “Where on earth did the Abbots get all of these?”

  “Agnes Bird donated them.” Jack spoke from behind them, and when Seb turned to look, he had to refrain from jumping back. The lion-shifter was less than a foot away. “Are you finished?” Jack focused his menacing look on Seb, which wasn’t all that menacing in fact, but Seb grabbed Lianne under her arms and yanked her up. Lion-shifters were always uptight around the bears, but the Abbotts took it to the next level. Jack was practically breathing down his neck.

  “Come on. It’s time to check out.”

  “But hang on a sec. I haven’t picked everything out. There are still dozens of—”