Rugged Fire [Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 4]

by Edith DuBois

  Michelle held her gaze, and after a long moment, Lianne realized she couldn’t fool Michelle in regard to the Carsons even if she wanted to. She gave a short little nod.

  “Ah,” Michelle said, a warm smile breaking across her beautiful face. “I knew I couldn’t be wrong about this.”

  “But I’d really rather keep it quiet if that’s all right.”

  “Of course, of course.”

  “Not even Marina, please. Not yet.”

  Just then Marina let out a deep-throated laugh and pinched Anya, eliciting a screech followed quickly by high-pitched laughter. Lianne had no idea what they were discussing, but Marina was right in the thick of it.

  “No,” Michelle agreed. “Definitely not Marina. But what’s bothering you? Is it anything I can help with?”

  For a split second, Lianne thought about everything. She thought about when she’d found Will and Seb naked in the creek, how she’d burned for them every day since. She thought about watching them date beautiful woman after beautiful woman, fearing that they would never see her as more than a snot-nosed brat. She thought about how she’d left Savage Valley, how she’d become confident, how she’d found her strength. She thought about how she’d lost her mother and felt so terribly and utterly alone. She thought about how she’d come back to Savage Valley and fallen for the twins all over again, how they’d kissed her, touched her, awoken her. She thought about wanting them now. She thought about how she would settle, how she would give them whatever part of her they would take, even if it were only her body. She would settle. She would settle. She would settle. For that, for anything, if only she got to be with them.

  “I don’t think so,” she finally whispered to Michelle. “I think it’s something I have to figure out for myself.”

  Michelle grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Okay.”

  When she started to stand up, Lianne said, “Thank you, though. Thank you very much.”

  Michelle smiled her heartbreakingly warm smile. “Of course. You know, Lianne. I can’t remember which one it is, but in one of the Jane Austen novels, I read a line once that has always stuck with me. And I’m not sure exactly how it goes, but it’s something like, ‘It’s our imperfections that make us so perfect for each other.’”

  Lianne laughed at the odds of Michelle quoting the very book she was reading. “That’s from Emma.”

  “Yes, that’s right. I like to think about that from time to time.”

  “Michelle!” Marina hollered from the other side of the room.

  She chuckled. “I’d better go see what the diva wants.” Then she darted through all the women to her sister. Lianne watched her and thought about what she’d said. Lianne knew what she wanted now, knew that even if she couldn’t have the Carsons the way she had hoped, she would gladly take what she could get. She didn’t want to be that kind of person. She didn’t want to grovel or beg or give in to them, but she knew if they came to her, she would gladly ignore her better judgment. She would gladly forget every scruple she’d ever believed in. She’d gladly fall into their arms if they asked it of her.

  Oh, god, they were right about me.

  She could never see them again. She couldn’t. She had to avoid them at all costs. Her pride and her business were the only things she had left, and it seemed that even those two things were tenuous at the moment.

  She realized there was only one person who could help her now, whom she’d always gone to for boy advice, and who, when all else failed, supplied her with as much bootlegged liquid courage as she could handle.

  And that person was her cousin, Noah Strong.

  * * * *

  Lianne banged her fist on the door for the fifth time. “Noah, get your ass out of bed! I know you’re here. Your truck’s in the drive.” When he didn’t come, she banged on it again. “I’ll crawl in your window, Noah Strong, and yank your covers off. You know I will. Get! Out! Of! Bed!” She pounded even harder.

  She felt her phone buzzing in her back pocket but ignored it while attempting to rouse her hungover cousin. Usually Noah lived with his older brother, Carter. They had a small, run-down cabin on the other side of the creek from town. The dark wood looked rotted in some places, and the roof dipped down slightly. Rusty pails, skulls of hunted game, old work tools, small machinery, bits of rope, animal traps, plastic tarps, and all manner of clutter was piled and scattered on the porch and across the yard. The place was a mess. It always had been, but Lianne had spent so much of her life at the Strongs’ that it only ever looked like a beautiful, homey mess to her.

  She looked at the old truck parked in the mud. Technically it was Carter’s truck, but ever since Bohagande Young had taken away Carter’s bear-shifting abilities, no one had seen much of the elder Strong and Noah had been using the truck. Lianne couldn’t say that she was sorry about Carter’s absenteeism, either. He had tormented her and Noah both while growing up, and if she were honest with herself, he still scared her a little.

  Renewing her door pounding, she shouted several more insults until at long last, she hear Noah’s slow, drowsy tread approaching.

  “It’s about time, you lazy jerk,” she said as the door was ripped open.

  When she saw who it was, she nearly screamed.

  He shoved the screen door open, forcing Lianne to stumble backward toward the porch steps.

  “Carter, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you were here.”

  “I live here, don’t I?” he said, his voice a low growl. “What the hell do you mean, beating on my front door like that?”

  “I—I…was only looking…”

  “Are you dumb, girl? Spit it out.”

  “Is Noah here?” she managed to squeak out.

  “That fucker took off hours ago with the little Sullivan shit. Probably fucking each other in the woods somewhere. Goddamn fairies.”

  “Okay, well, sorry I woke you up.”

  “You didn’t. I was taking a dump.”

  “All right,” she said a little too brightly. Her heart was racing, threatening to pump itself right out of her chest, and she wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there. “Well, I’ve got to be going.”

  Carter scratched himself in an indelicate area, and a little too late, Lianne realized he was only wearing some tighty-whities. Against her attempts to appear as calm and cool as possible, she let out a shocked squeak as her hand flew to cover her eyes.

  Unabashed, Carter laughed at her discomfiture. “Come in. You can wait for him here.” He held the screen open for her.

  “Oh…” She quickly searched her mind, trying to come up with a viable excuse to make her escape. “I don’t know. I’ve truly got so much to do today.”

  “Get your ass in that door.”

  “Okay.” She scurried inside, intimidated by his harsh tone.

  A few moments later, he held a beer out to her, one of the Yeatses’ bootlegs, no doubt. She started to resist, but Carter glared at her without taking the beer back.

  “What the hell?” she muttered, popped it open, and took one of the largest swigs of her life. “Ahhh.” She licked her lips.

  “Feels good, huh?” Carter followed suit, getting almost half of his down in that first swallow.

  They sat together for a while, drinking and flipping through shitty television shows. Lianne had just popped open her third beer, Carter his seventh, when Lianne realized Noah probably wasn’t going to be back for a while if he was out gallivanting with Bryce Sullivan. She peeked over at Carter, wondering if now would be a good time for another escape attempt.

  He looked scraggly.

  The Strongs had always looked a little bit like scrappers next to the rest of the bear-shifters, but Lianne lovingly thought of them as the underdog family, the one people had to work a little harder to care about. But looking at the dark circles under Carter’s eyes, his sallow skin, his patchy, unkempt facial hair, she realized his family’s alienation from the rest of the clan had gone deeper in him. He would never, ever, not in a million
years, admit it, but she thought he probably felt like less of a man since Bo had suppressed his shifting abilities. She could make out dark spots on his ribs and abs that looked like faded bruises, and she imagined he’d gotten them fighting. They certainly looked fist-sized.

  Taking another large gulp of the Yeatses’ brew, she realized he wasn’t scary at all.

  “Keep staring at me and you’ll find my boot up your ass.”

  “You’re not wearing boots, cuz.”

  “I could find one if I needed to. And don’t call me cuz.”

  “Why not? That’s what you are, aren’t you?” She wasn’t sure, but she thought her words sounded a little bit funny, a little bit sloshy. Her phone buzzed in her back pocket again, and she giggled, the vibrations tickling her butt cheek. Pulling it out, she read Will Carson’s name on her phone’s screen. “Fat chance, bucko!” She pressed a button to send the call to voice mail and then stuffed the phone back into her pocket.

  She could feel Carter’s eyes on her but didn’t offer an explanation. A moment later, however, her phone buzzed again. When she looked at the screen, this time she saw Seb Carson’s name. “Sorry. No one’s home.” She pressed the voice mail button again.

  “Carter,” she barked out.

  He took a tranquil swig but held her gaze.

  “Why are men so damn complicated?”

  She imagined the Carson twins, their dark eyes, deeply tanned skin, and perfect lips. She wanted, oh how she wanted, to kiss those lips until hers were chapped and raw, until she could no longer feel her face. She wanted their cocks to do to her pussy what their tongues would do to her mouth, over and over and over and until she no longer felt her legs or her feet or her toes. She wanted them to dissolve her into a puddle of warm, thick goo, into a pulsing mass of desire, until they swam in her, bathed in her, drank her all up. “Carter, why does everyone have to get their panties all in a twist when it comes to love? Why do nasty, complicated, unreasonable emotions insist on getting themselves tangled up in everything? Why can’t I just be myself around them? Why can’t I just go for what I want? I mean, I do it with my business. What makes them any different?

  “Why shouldn’t I just go over there and tell them what I want and demand that they give it to me? I’m twenty-three years old. I need to quit being afraid. I’m not a freak. I’m not going to die alone…or maybe I will, but it won’t be because I’m a coward.” She took another deep gulp of her beer and then relaxed into the couch cushions. “I want them,” she whispered. “I really, really want them.”

  Closing her eyes, she let the alcohol leak through every vein in her body, every thought, every breath. She wanted the twins. That was true, but she still wasn’t sure she could actually go through with offering up her body to them. Apart from the terrifying idea that they would reject her once again, how could she manage something like that without it being cheesy or cheap or lame? Even if it didn’t mean anything to them, she’d want it to be special, just for herself.

  “You know,” Carter said with his gravelly voice, “that reminds me of this one time. I was in the back of my truck with these three chicks. And we were horny as all get out. And so I started messing around with one of ’em, but then the other two wanted to get in on it, so I was trying to work on them at the same time, all three of them. Now, I don’t know if you’ve tried anything like that before, but it’s not easy. A man only has so many things he can use, and then you have to think, where did that leave me? But I kept going because I was trying to be a gentleman. It went on for a while, and I was getting pretty tired. No one was getting anywhere, but then I just grabbed myself and got busy. And those chicks liked that so much they started working on themselves, too. And pretty soon we had all four gotten off and were feeling pretty damn good.”

  Lianne knew her mouth was hanging open, knew it had been since he first mentioned the three chicks, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to realize she should shut it. “What the hell, Carter?” she finally managed to ask. “Who tells stories like that? No! Better yet, who tells stories like that to their cousin? Is that supposed to make me feel better? Or teach me some kind of warped, fucked-up Carter lesson?”

  “That’s up to you. It’s in your hands now.” He snorted. “If you get my drift.”

  She glared at him for a long moment but then, unable to stop it and perhaps aided by the beginnings of her fourth beer, she erupted into laughter. A little bit later, as she walked down the porch toward her car, Carter called out from behind her.

  “Hey, cuz.”

  “Yeah?”

  “If things don’t go well tonight, I’ll keep a couple cold for you.”

  She grinned up at him, still in his undies, hair greasy and shaggy, scratching an armpit. “Thanks, cuz.”

  Chapter Eight

  Seb stretched up on his great hind paws. His bear-muscles trembled and shivered as he scratched his back on the bark of a majestic evergreen. Brother Will sniffed the earth-ground a few bear strides away. They came out to the forest before the sun sank below the mountains. Brother Joseph and Brother Caleb caught the scent of the stupid-ones-that-work-for-the-bad-one, the ones who attacked the Brothers Kinman’s tawny-haired-Elena. The sour odor had blown through the sharp cold-time wind across their land. Now they patrolled. A foul scent like that did not bode well for the land or its people.

  Seb scratched the earth-ground. The air tickled his sensitive bear-snout. But nothing was sharp. The scent was old and washed away. He could not catch it in his lungs and follow it. In his bear-mind, Brother Will sent him an image of home, and Seb grunted. They turned back toward the place where two-legs lived, away from the great forest, away from the wild. Seb kept his bear-nose to the ground. He hoped to catch one strong stupid-ones-whiff, but nothing came.

  As they neared the shimmering, moon-glittered lake, he let his man return, pushing his bear down. He shook. His muscles quaked violently as if suffering a tremendous cramp. He felt his fur pulling itself back in and his great paws compacting and then stretching out to long fingers. He shuddered, the shift back to human always leaving him feeling slightly queasy. He grabbed a pair of black sweatpants from a box nailed to a tree near the back of the Greenwood’s preservation center.

  He and Will walked home without saying much. Their stint out in the forest that night had been a request from Joseph Kinman, Sheriff of Savage Valley. One of the mountain lions had reported the scent, and the Kinmans wanted the bear and mountain lion land thoroughly searched. If those two goons working for NormCorp did come back to Savage Valley, they had a long line of shifters waiting to be the first to rip their heads off.

  As they neared the house, Seb caught an odd scent floating delicately through the brisk night air. From beside him, Will took a deep breath and then shot a glance over at him. “You smell it, too?” Seb asked.

  Will nodded.

  “Perfume, do you think?”

  Will didn’t answer, but Seb noticed the slight increase in his brother’s pace. He knew it was only wishful thinking, but he half hoped Lianne had come by their house. They’d been trying to call her all day to no avail. Most likely it was some high schooler using their hot tub while they thought no one was home. They’d caught kids out there more than once. Savage Valley didn’t boast many pools or hot tubs. Only a few of the houses had them, and he couldn’t really blame the kids for seeking an exciting form of entertainment in such a sleepy town. Still, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t scare the living daylights out of them if he ever caught them.

  He had to have his fun, too.

  The sweet, honeysuckle scent grew stronger, lurking and twisting up through his nose and into his brain, getting stronger with each step closer to the house.

  “Do you hear that?” he asked Will.

  His brother offered one abrupt nod. Just as he expected, his ears picked up the low rumble and gurgle of their Jacuzzi. No lights were on. The shape of the house was dark against night sky and thin moonlight. The Jacuzzi was built in to their deck,
and with the wooden awning they’d built over the whole deck, it was cloaked in deep shadow. He kept waiting for a teenage giggle or some sort of noise from the hot tub’s occupants, but only the water could be heard.

  He and his brother exchanged a look. They’d gone through this routine enough times to know it by heart. Will would walk around to the side of the house and wait for Seb to pad silently up the deck. When he was only a few feet away from the tub, Will would turn on the floodlights. Then it was up to Seb to put on a show, ripping the kids a new one as they frantically gathered their belongings and ran away.

  Hopefully, he wouldn’t catch anything untoward going on. That had happened a few times, and it ended up being more awkward for him than it was for the kids.

  Making his way silently up the wooden deck steps, he moved along its edges, trying to make out the shapes in the Jacuzzi. Whoever was in there was hunkered down low, and he could only make out the top of one head belonging to a person facing the opposite direction. Will would turn on the lights any moment.

  He waited without breathing.

  A tiny moan came from the direction of the hot tub. It was definitely feminine. It almost sounded like she was…

  And then he realized he recognized the sound of that voice.

  The floodlights came on, splashing blinding whiteness over everything.

  The woman in the hot tub screamed and jolted up.

  “Lianne, what are you do—” His voice went suddenly dry.

  In her frightened state, she’d sprung up and away from the edge of the hot tub and had then spun around at the sound of his voice.

  She wasn’t wearing a thing.

  Seb stared openmouthed at her bare chest. Her long hair, darkened from the water, stuck to her skin and reached below her breasts. Her nipples were peeking through the strands though, dark and pebbled as the cold night air chilled the water on her body.

  Her eyes were locked on his face, and he wondered why she hadn’t ducked below the surface to hide her body—not that he wanted her to. He just expected that she’d be embarrassed. Instead, she held his gaze and thrust her chest out even more, daring him to look away.