by Diana Downey
She gives me a knowing smile. “He was really a jerk. You know the kind.”
“Yes. Mine was Trevor.” To this day, the memory of my first stinks of vodka.
She gives me a weak grin, grasping my hand and squeezing it. “I was sixteen, and it would’ve been my first, but Shane walked in on us. I was buck-naked, mortified, and he took me over his knee and spanked me. It had been years since the last time he’d done that. But then Shane turned on Kyle. At first he was going to fight Shane, but that just made him laugh. Then Kyle said I wasn’t worth it. That lit a fire under Shane. He took Kyle over his knee and walloped him good. I never heard from him again.” She chuckles. “I love my brothers, every one of them.” More tears tumble down her face, so I hold her. “I can’t believe two of them are gone now.”
She’s bigger than me, so I have to look up. “I still can’t believe a skinny girl like you survived out there. The weather turned to shit this past week. You’re both lucky to be alive.”
Shane walks into the cabin, kicking the snow off his boots. “They’re ready to go.”
Julie grins at me. “I like Cyn. We’ll see you in an hour or two.” After pulling his head down, she kisses Shane on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Be careful, Julie,” Shane says in a deadly serious tone.
“We will,” she says, heading outside. “There’s spaghetti in the fridge.”
Before his dad closes the door, he says, “Mind your manners, son.”
After the door closes, Shane says, “Well, let’s get busy.”
I poke him in the chest. “I think that’s a warning your dad gave us.”
Shane nips my neck, and I lose focus. “He’s yanking your chain because he could see that spark in your eyes.”
I take in a deep breath, inhaling his masculine scent, and all that does is stir hunger deep inside me. “I’ll fix us something to eat first. You need your strength.” I can’t let him sidetrack me because it’s doubtful he’d take care of himself.
He tugs me into his solid chest. “I need to fuck you right now.”
I stumble, letting him hold me up, my resolve crumbling to this overgrown caveman.
“Come to bed with me.”
Though my sex clenches and prickles race through my arm hairs, I say with a deadpan expression, “Later.”
While my stomach growls, I leave him standing there smiling to heat up spaghetti and meatballs. It smells heavenly, and we both haven’t eaten since morning. Holding two plates, I wander through the halls until I find him lying naked on a four-poster bed made from yellow, knotty pine, only a sheet covering his cock standing straight up, like a tent pole. The natural wood bed catches my eye, and when I sit on it, the down molds to me, its softness cradling my butt. “Where did you find this bed? I love it.”
There’s that smile again that wiggles into my heart and nestles between my thighs. “I made it, even plucked hundreds of snow geese, ducks, any white fowl I could find to stuff my bed and pillows.” Shane takes a plate from my hand and twirls the spaghetti onto a fork. “My sister Julie’s a good cook.”
He pats the bed next to him, so I crawl up onto the very cushy bed.
“You’ll let me in your bed?”
“Anytime. Except you need to get naked. It’s a requirement.”
“I may never leave,” I add, kicking off my boots and shedding my jeans.
“That’s the plan.” His cast-iron shoulder rubs against mine while he eats, and as usual, he shovels the food into his mouth, holding the fork like it’s a hammer. It’s grown on me.
“We could live up here, and you could pop out nine or ten kids. What do you think?” The sparkle in his eyes lets me know he’s teasing me.
“Two or three is my limit.”
He sets his plate on his lap to pick up my hand and entangles his fingers into mine. “I want to be with you, Cyn. I have a few social media ideas I believe will make me some serious money, and maybe get me out of this mess.”
I can’t help but let the disappointment creep into my brow. I want my happy ending. If only Mom were here to counsel me.
He licks away the sauce from my lips. “You’re always so impatient, but that won’t stop me from loving you.”
And there are the words every girl wants to hear. I fork spaghetti into my mouth, and after I finish, I tug off my shirt to expose my pink heart bra.
“Very sexy,” he says, setting his plate down. “You’re one hot princess.” He kisses my nose. “Cyn, I’m not on the rebound if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m old enough to know what I want, but you have to figure out if you’re willing to live on the Kenai with me. It’s a big commitment.”
“Is it like here?” There’s no way I could live in a town with a pseudo grocery store.
“No. It’s about three hours from Anchorage, and it’s much more populated and packed during the summer. It’s the best fishing. I’ll take you there, so you can see for yourself.”
Could I really do this? I glance across the room at photos of people lined up to fish on the banks of a river and an aerial showing acreage with a large house and cabins on a river.
“That’s the place I want to buy, and the other is a photo of Red, Julie, Sky, and me fishing on the Kenai.”
Shane has a salmon fighting on his line, and they all wear big smiles.
“Summers I could probably handle.” Maybe. It’s just that I had this picture of the ranch with lots of kids, but I’ve always had the wrong man until now. Why can’t I look at it that way?
I get out of bed in only my panties and bra to examine the photos more closely. They look happy.
His gaze rakes over me, like I’m dessert, and that sends delightful shivers into my clit now aching for him. What he does for me. “Don’t be shaking that sweet ass in front of me.”
I swivel around to face him and slink up onto the bed like a cat. My hand reaches under the sheet, gliding up his good leg, his soft, curly hairs tickling my fingers. Squeezing his eyes shut, he groans.
My hand reaches further up his thigh until it firmly caresses his balls. Shane fists the sheets. I want to please him, like he’s done for me. My tongue follows my hand, licking along the shaft until I lap the crown where a white pearl spills onto my bottom lip. I lazily lick around the head, breathing life into his enormous cock that steels in my grasp.
“Fuck,” Shane whispers, clawing the sheets then my hair, my dull blonde strands tangling in his long, scarred fingers. “I love your hair black, so that it matches those fiery eyes.”
“I’ll dye it back,” I say.
“Good. I like it when my woman listens.”
I poke his granite-hard chest. “Don’t get use to it, O’Flannery.”
He draws in a breath as I inhale his cock. I’d read how in Cosmo, and from the ecstasy lowering his eyelids, it’s working. I suck on him, using my palm to glide up his hard-on, keeping it well lubricated.
His breaths quicken, and my panties melt at turning him on. He growls out his pleasure while my mouth slides up and down along his cock. It’s throbs underneath my palm, the veins bulging out. His half-lidded gaze lands on me. “I’m going to come.” He shudders, and his ass muscles clench as he thrusts into my mouth.
I don’t back down but lick up the hot seed spurting into my mouth.
He blows out a breath. “Oh fuck, Cyn. You are so damn good. Come here.”
I take a drink of water to swish out my mouth, then I curl up beside him. He pulls me into him and kisses me long and deep while he unhooks my bra. It falls off onto him, and he tosses it aside. His fingers twirl around my breast before they pinch my nipple, its hot point triggering current into my sex. I’m so wet for him. Unlike the first time, he hardly has to do anything at all. It’s like he’s trained my pussy to come on his command, and it certainly wants him.
“What do you want?” he breathes into my ear.
My heart ramps up, beating fast. His thumb pushes back a lock of my hair while his gaze probes my eyes.
His lips descend onto mine, his tongue roaming my mouth, my lips, my neck. His kisses spark delightful shivers that settle into my breasts and nipples.
Shane nibbles on my neck, firing smoke signals to every erogenous zone in my body. “Do you want me to reciprocate?”
Having all of him inside me is what I like best. “I want you to make love to me.”
He fingers me through my soaked panties. “That’s easy for me to do.”
My sex physically longs for him as he rubs his cock against it. He winces, and I realize his leg is bothering him.
“Roll over,” I order.
He leans over and rifles through his pack to retrieve a condom. “I bet your pills are in your pack, so what are you going to do to me, Princess?”
I snatch the condom from his grasp and tear it open with my teeth. He whistles out a long breath, his eyes coasting along my body.
I unravel it onto the length of his hard cock. “All kinds of bad things.”
“It’s good that you took control. Thanks to you, what’s left of my blood has rushed to my dick.”
When a laugh escapes my lips, his fingers touch them while they quiver. It’s so sensual that it fires a needy urge deep inside me.
I straddle him and slide my clit along the length of his shaft while his hands caress my breasts and fingers pinch my nipples into stiff peaks. I tug off my boy shorts and throw them by my discarded bra.
“You are so beautiful, Cyn.”
His hands fall down to my hips then to my ass where he kneads them, the electricity firing between my legs. My vulva rides on his crown, letting it sink into the soft flesh. The feeling intensifies as I slide down the long shaft, letting him fill me, and when his cock presses against the top I whisper, “Oh, Shane.” He is the man for me.
I slowly drag his cock into the tender pink of my sex, closing my eyes and letting the pleasure fill me. I pull Shane’s hands up to my breasts for him to squeeze them harder, transferring shock waves to my core.
“You feel so damn good, Cyn.”
I ride him until my sex convulses, and I’m completely drenched by multiple orgasms pulsing deep inside me. He shoots off, his cock quivering within my walls. I puddle onto him, my breathing rapid, his earthy scent filling my nose.
“Is there a bathroom?” I ask, wondering if it’s outside in the blistering cold.
“Down the hall and on your right.”
I pick up the soft grey flannel shirt Shane wore earlier, pad to the bathroom, and study my wind-burned face in the mirror. I don’t look like the same girl who left Texas a week ago.
The pelting snow smeared the makeup I had on, so I remove the rest with soap and water. I don’t even have a brush to drag through my hair. I comb it out with my fingers and tie it back. He told me I was beautiful, but I’m a mess. I’ve judged him, yet he doesn’t judge me by seeing the surface dirt oiling my skin. I think he likes it.
Other than Shane and the clothes on my back, I literally have nothing now. The strength I held while hiking across the interior has slowly whittled away. I want to sit down and cry or at least try and get my mother’s ring back.
I wander back to his bed and nestle under his arm.
As I listen to his steady heartbeat, I realize we’ve avoided the inevitable long enough. “We should call the police.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Shane
Cyn and I shower together before using the VHF radio. The hot water soaks into my achy muscles. I can only imagine how she hurts after the strenuous trek through the interior. My long arms wrap around her naked body that only stirs desire in my loins. I don’t just want her sexually I want all of her, so I’m not looking forward to speaking to the police because she’ll probably want to return to her comfortable life, and for that, I don’t blame her.
After we shower, Cyn puts on one of Julie’s shirts and a pair of her jeans while I throw her clothes into the laundry. Cyn takes a seat next to me, and I set the VHF channel to the one monitored by the Fairbanks Sheriff’s Department.
I go through everything that happened, even the parts about my brother and the truth I learned about Cyn’s husband. Muting the mic, she gives me a surprised look.
“Red told me,” I say. “Blake wasn’t involved.”
Pain over her dead husband crinkles those sugarcoated lips. “And you didn’t think that was important to tell me?”
I did. “We’ve been a little busy, and does it matter? He was fooling around with Julian.”
Before turning on the mic, she smacks my wounded shoulder and a tear rolls off her cheek. Does she still love him? And what am I to her?
“Ow,” I say. “Quit abusing me, Princess.”
From her expression, she’s very upset, and I didn’t really mean to do that.
“Fairbanks isn’t that much farther from the cabins than Tonakwa,” the sheriff says. “Why did you take her through rougher terrain?”
I snort out a laugh. “Because my gear was a few miles north of the cabins and it made no sense to go back past the men shooting at us and further endangering myself or Cyn. And besides, my bear was in the other direction.”
The sheriff chokes on what I’m guessing is coffee. When Cyn reaches to smack me again, I scoot out of the way. From the fire in her eyes, she’s looking for blood, and I smile at that.
It’s my turn to mute the mic. “I wasn’t going to let you ruin my vacation. Hell, I thought you’d be dead after a few miles.” I like getting a rise out of her.
“Remember?” She lifts her brows. “I made it better.”
“I’m the one who gave you what you were waiting on when Buddy couldn’t deliver.”
She grits her teeth. “It’s Blake. If we’d gone back to Fairbanks, Red would’ve been going in the wrong direction.”
“Actually, if he figured out we’d gone south, he would’ve doubled back and waited for us. It would’ve been longer for us on the other side of the river but not for them.”
Given no one is after us, Cyn finally has time to mourn her dead husband, which I really don’t like. The anger reddening her face makes her adorable though. I believe we’re going to have our first fight, and I look forward to the makeup sex.
“Calm down, Princess. I saved you.”
“Why did you shoot Julian Lake?” the sheriff asks.
“Because they were shooting at Cyn and me,” I say.
Cyn mutes the mic. “Was he even shooting? You took him out with one shot.”
“Who knows? Apparently, I’m a better marksman than Julian or Loki.” Red wasn’t shooting at us, and I wanted to even the odds.
“What about your brother?” the sheriff asks.
“He shot me twice in the shoulder.” He did worse things to me when we were kids, like throwing me into an icy river where I almost drowned and froze to death. “If he’d wanted to kill Cyn or me, he would’ve.”
“I know,” the sheriff says. “I’m sorry about his death, though if he was alive, he’d be facing serious jail time.”
“Thanks.” I’m nothing like my brother. I don’t have a police record. Hell, I don’t even have a speeding ticket.
“Why didn’t you take out your brother earlier?” the sheriff asks.
“I think you know why. Look, why am I being interrogated? Are you going to charge me or not?”
“Not if Cyn verifies your statement.”
I grin at her. “You aren’t still mad, Princess.”
Her face flames, her ire growing hotter by the minute. God, I love to fight with her. She better not make up shit.
“I wasn’t with Shane when the bear attacked them, but everything else is correct,” she says. “Someone was paying Loki to kill me.”
“That right?” the sheriff asks. “The feds will look into it. We spent quite a bit of time searching for Oki’s plane. Our deputies went through the cabins and didn’t find anything, but we’ll send back our CSI team and dredge the lake. The feds have already become involved because of the kidnapping across state lin
es…and Shane?”
“Yes.” Nothing good can come from this.
“Special Agent Banks is here, and he’d like to speak to you in private.”
I laugh because the sheriff knows anyone can listen in on these channels. It’s Alaska’s favorite pastime, but maybe I should filter whatever Cyn hears. “Is this about the kidnapping?” I ask.
“Have no idea, Shane. They’ve been bugging us for the past week to find you, and we knew you were hunting the grizzly. Damn feds. They’re a pain in my ass.”
Cyn crinkles her nose. “Does everybody in Alaska know?”
“Pretty much,” I say.
“Are you alone yet?” a new masculine voice asks.
Cyn lets out an irritated breath before leaving the room, giving me the finger. She’s a pistol.
“What do you want?” The IRS wanting me I can understand, but the feds I don’t.
“My name is Special Agent Banks. We need your help in an investigation.” He has one of those nasally voices, which grates on my nerves.
“I have other obligations.”
“This involves your current tax debt.”
I better give him my full attention. “I’m listening.”
“It appears that Nikita Harper may have been involved in embezzling money from several firms. You weren’t the only person she was seeing.”
And Cyn said she was too stupid, and what the fuck? She was cheating on me? “So what do I need to do to get back my money?”
“That may be long gone, but if you work with us, we’ll put in a good word with the IRS.”
“Fuck you. Goodbye.”
“Wait. We can reduce your bill significantly.”
“My lawyer can do that too.” I don’t know how much yet. “You don’t need me to catch one woman.”
“She was working with another entity,” he says. “If we recover any money, we’ll take a percentage and keep you out of federal prison. We’ll get you a better deal than your lawyer.”
“Okay. What do I need to do?”
“We need you to resume your relationship with Miss Harper.”
