“What the hell are you playing at?” he demanded.
His mind danced with frustration. Sheathing his knife, he straightened and glanced over his shoulder toward where the voices had abruptly quieted.
The look she was giving him lay somewhere between outrage and betrayal. He knew the damn feeling.
“It was you all along?” she said, her voice trembling with disbelief. “I can’t believe I actually fell for your story.”
“What are you talking about?” He stared at her, simmering with rage. He wasn't about to let her keep him from finding out who the poachers were. “You little fool, give me the damn gun!” In two steps he was on her, grabbing for her wrist.
She jerked away, but he didn’t let go, and the gun flew back and forth over her head. Suddenly, it went off, the boom nearly splitting his eardrum, the bullet going wild into a nearby tree.
He didn’t need his hearing to know the others were hightailing it out of there as fast as they could.
“God damn it!” he growled, and wrested the gun from her hand. “Don’t fucking move,” he ordered, and took off after them.
He gave chase, but after a few hundred yards he pulled up. His ear was ringing from the gun going off next to it, and the poachers had rifles. He wouldn’t have a chance against them like this. A better plan would be to go back and make Maggie tell him who the hell this Dinny was, then call for backup and arrest them all.
He turned and loped back to where he had left her.
And naturally...
She was gone.
Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Six
Maggie could hear Cooper's almost silent footfalls as he stalked her, steadily gaining on her. She stumbled through the silvery darkness, tripping over the hem of her nightgown, grappling with the shawl flying out behind her.
“Maggie!” he thundered.
In answer, she lifted her thin cotton gown and ran even faster. “No!” She surged on. “Go away!”
She wouldn't let him catch her. Couldn't let him catch her. She couldn’t believe he was the poacher. She’d defended him. She’d trusted him—at least, about that. Her heart was sick. How could she have been so wrong?
“Stop!”
“Leave me alone!” She was winded, but didn’t slow her pace.
“I'm telling you to stop!” He shot off a round from her gun, and a branch off to the side splintered.
Oh, God.
She stopped and whirled, sucking air into her starved lungs. She glanced around, desperately seeking a way to escape. He looked savage, like the heartless warrior from her dreams, in buckskin pants, and black slashes drawn across his face and bare chest.
Dressed to kill?
Her heart nearly stopped. This was not the man she knew. This man's expression was brutal, chilling. Like he was out for blood.
Hers?
Because she had found him out?
“I won’t tell, I swear. Please, Cooper.” Her breath came fast and heavy.
“You’ll talk, all right. I could kill you, woman, for what you've put me through.”
Her heart took off at a million miles per hour, but he tucked the gun into the waistband of his buckskins. Thank God.
Then he came after her.
With a scream, she spun away, sprinting blindly through the mist. He raced after her. Even his footsteps sounded sinister as he closed the distance. He caught the end of her shawl.
She flung it away and kept running. But he was too fast. He grabbed her arm, dragging her to a halt at the edge of a small meadow.
“No!” She screamed, striking out, scratching at him.
“Like hell!” He locked an iron grip around her waist, lifting her off the ground.
Her pulse beat out of control. Hanging helpless in his grasp, she kicked out as hard as she could. “Cooper, don't!”
He grabbed her arm and jerked it around to her back. Dropping her, he pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and firmly clamped one side onto her wrist.
“What are you doing?” A sob escaped her.
He roughly snapped the remaining cuff onto her other wrist.
She couldn't believe what was happening. Never before, not for a single second, had she believed he was capable of actually hurting her. Frantically, she tried to collect her tumultuous thoughts. What could she say to make him come to his senses?
“Please,” she said in a whisper, her breath catching on another sob. “Don't kill me.”
He took hold of her upper arms, turned her to face him, and held her well away from his body. He gave her a disgusted look, and said, “Woman, as much as I’d like to, I'm just going to have to make do with arresting you.”
Her pounding heart stopped dead, then started up again with a lurch. She stared at him uncomprehendingly, blinking through her tears, and hiccupped.
“Wait. Arrest me?”
Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Seven
Here it comes, Coop thought.
Maggie's eyes widened. “Arrest me? For what?”
“Poaching,” he said wearily. He was really tired of this. Tired of her lies. Tired of defending her to everyone, including himself.
Her jaw dropped. “Poaching?” She gaped at him. “But... You’re the poacher.”
Now he was just getting mad. “Don't be ridiculous. I work for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. You know that.”
“One doesn’t necessarily rule out the other.”
He just gave her a disdainful look. “It’s not going to work, Maggie. I know it’s you. I was there, remember? At the last kill site.”
“I explained that.”
“Yeah. Let’s go. You can tell me all about Dinny.”
Stunned, she stepped backward, stumbling against a tree, scraping her handcuffed wrists against the rough bark. “I don’t believe this.”
“Frankly, I don't give a damn what you believe. You'll believe it soon enough when you're cooling your butt downtown.”
She faltered. “You mean jail?”
“That's the usual procedure for felons.”
Her gaze fastened on his face, and she let out a laugh edged with desperation. “Is war paint the usual procedure, too, when DFW arrests someone? Or is that a personal touch?”
His hand flew to his cheek, and felt grease. Ah, hell. He’d completely forgotten about the spirit markings. “That has nothing to do with this.” He hardened his expression...and his heart. “Maggie Johansen, you're under arrest. You have the right—”
“My God. Wait.” She looked at him in horror. “You can't be serious! You really think I’m—? That I—
“Please. Save it for the judge. The right to remain silent—”
Her eyes widened in dismay. “Oh Cooper, I would never, ever. I love bears. It was me who turned in the battery with the fingerprint, remember? I told you all that. I've been trying to find the poachers.”
Her heartfelt sincerity penetrated his skepticism. His fury slowly, reluctantly melted. He’d fallen for her Academy Award performance once before. But... Jesus. Was she actually being honest with him? Could anyone be that good an actress?
“Are you telling me the truth?” he asked, watching her carefully, torn. “That you're not involved in this? At all?”
She shook her head, her eyes once again filling with tears. “I swear to you, I'm not. I would never hurt animals. Not for a million dollars.”
“Then why the hell are you out here tonight?”
“I told you. Trying to catch the poachers.”
He hiked his brows. “In your nightgown?”
She shrugged, biting her lip. “I was in a hurry.”
Cursing, he paced back and forth, then stopped and dragged a hand through his hair. If he was wrong about her, those poachers might as well just shoot him—he’d be done with instincts, and done with women. Forever. But...
“God help me. I believe you.”
Barely Dangerous: Chapter Seventy-Eight
Maggie’s eyes sought Cooper’s, and their gazes melded, first sha
ring anguish, then a dawning joy. Happiness flooded through her.
“You're not a poacher,” he said, his voice filling with relief.
She saw her own smile mirrored on his lips. Gradually, she felt it spread to her whole body. She wanted to throw her arms around him, but the handcuffs bit into her wrists when she tried.
“Thank God for that.” He crossed the distance between them in less than a second and pulled her close. He pressed his lips to her forehead, trailing kisses down her cheek until his mouth reached hers. Taking her face between his hands, he crushed his lips to hers.
She opened to him, hungering for his taste. She leaned into him and matched his passion with her own. Her body filled with the pent-up desire she had denied herself since her first glimpse of him. She chaffed in frustration against the handcuffs, wanting to explore him the way his hands were roaming over her.
She broke the embrace and stepped back. “This isn't fair.” Her breath came in hot bursts.
His face fell. “Don't do this to me again, pup.” He closed the gap between them, the warm mist swirling around their legs. “There's only so much I can take.”
“You can take all you want, Wol— um, Coop.” She pitched her voice low and inviting. She held up her hands as far as she could behind her back, with the jingle of case-hardened steel. “Just take these damned things off first.”
His gaze shot to the handcuffs. His mouth curved into a sly grin that transformed his painted face into the very essence of his namesake. “It's okay, baby. I think this means you can call me Wolf again.” He gave her a sultry once-over that melted every bone in her body.
A wave of desire swept through her and it was all she could do to keep herself from pulling him down onto the fog-enshrouded wildflowers and begging him to take her right then and there.
She licked her lips and cocked her head coyly to one side. “I'll make it worth your while, Wolf.”
Slowly, he poked two fingers into the shallow pocket in the front of his buckskins and retrieved a small key, dangling it casually in front of her. “Anything I want?”
She nodded slowly, filling her eyes with promise.
He stepped closer and his body brushed up against hers. She shivered, surrounded by his delicious male scent. Circling her with his arms, he grasped a cuff behind her back and inserted the key. Slowly, he turned it, drawing out the movement, all the while lightly rubbing his bare chest back and forth over her flimsy nightgown.
Small shocks of excitement coursed through her breasts each time his body dragged the cotton across their sensitive peaks. His lips grazed hers as the first cuff sprang open with a snap. He ran the tip of his tongue slowly over her lower lip as he felt for the other keyhole.
Her blood pooled thick and heavy in her limbs. Powerless to do anything but let the sensations take over, she closed her eyes, parting her lips, tasting his tongue as it circled and darted over them. Her body started at the sharp click of the second lock jumping open.
The cuffs fell to the ground, her last restraint finally removed. She felt as if her soul had been set free in that one swift motion. Free to hold the man she loved. Free to love the man she held.
“Wolf,” she whispered, and reached up, pulling him closer, reassuring herself he was real. She opened to him with a needy sigh, and her whole body shuddered at his answering moan. She dug her fingers into his long, midnight hair, tangling in it, grasping and tugging in her urgency. “Wolf,” she breathed into his mouth.
“Maggie,” he returned softly, filling her with warmth.
She felt as dizzy as the curl of mist left in their wake as they spun a languorous circle around the meadow, each pursuing the other in an endless spiral of hungry, passionate need. She could smell the damp earth and the piquant pines, mingling with the mellow, dusky scent of Cooper's desire. She gave herself over to him, to the spirit of the forest, and surrendered to the touch of the man she wished would claim her as his alone.
She wanted to crawl inside his sheltering love and never come out. In his arms she felt a sense of belonging she had long given up finding.
He slid his hands down the curve of her bottom, and she reveled in the feel of her body reacting to his touch. He stroked and massaged her, pressing her against his rock hard arousal to the rhythm of his probing tongue. Small sounds of pleasure skipped from her throat at the peak of every sensual assault.
Planting his feet, he took the kiss deeper and deeper, until her body screamed for release. She raked her nails over his shoulders and down the rigid muscles of his arms, then up again, as she twined her arms around his neck.
He worked the hem of her nightgown up and slipped his hands under it, slowly moving his fingers up the back of her naked thighs. She moaned as he pulled the fabric up and over her head. The lacy gown fluttered to the ground behind her and he lifted her off her feet, settling her gently onto the soft fabric.
Kneeling in front of her, he pulled off her boots, then sat back on his heels, looking as if he were literally drinking in the sight of her nude body. Bathed in a pool of mist and moonlight, overcome with yearning, she waited for him to come to her.
“Woman, you are so damn beautiful.”
She raised her arms to him. “You’re the beautiful one. Come here.”
She was spellbound by the worshipful look in his eyes as, for a moment, he held himself suspended over her, then lowered himself down. The warm fog curled around their bodies like a blanket.
Letting her fingers play across his broad chest and down the buttery softness of his buckskin pants, she felt his long, hard cock beneath the supple leather. She stroked it, and he moaned, his lids drooping shut, an expression of delighted torture dancing across his face.
The velvety nap of his buckskins brushed her inner thigh erotically as his knee slipped between her legs. She reached down and popped the buttons on his pants, peeling back the fly and caressing him as she went. By the time she had all the buttons unfastened, he was thick and heavy, and his eyes were scorching with desire.
With her other hand she touched his jaw, then grasped a long lock of his hair that had tumbled over her heart. Slowly, she wound the strand around her fingers, drawing his face down to her.
“I want you inside me, Wolf,” she whispered.
She could see him struggling with his control—and his back pocket—as he quickly slipped off his pants and moccasins, but in a moment he settled next to her. Exhaling a long, measured breath, he looked deep into her eyes, letting his hand travel slowly up her abdomen to her breast. She sighed in pleasure.
He circled the sensitive tip with his thumb, making her gasp and arch into his hand. Leaning over her, he took the hard bud between his lips and tongued it. She rocked into his arms, never wanting to let go.
He suckled her, taking her deep into his mouth, and she fed him with her moans as well as her flesh. He held a breast in each hand, working one nipple, then the other.
She cried out, her body in flames.
“Again,” he encouraged, watching her intently as he twirled his tongue around the peak of her breast, drawing it out between his teeth.
She cried out once more.
Switching to the other tip, he demanded, “Louder,” shocking her body with fresh waves of desire.
“Wolf!” she shouted, and dug her nails into his shoulders.
“Be wild,” he growled, “if you would be a wolf's mate,” and sank his teeth into her neck.
In the distance, a crack of thunder exploded.
She clutched him to her, trembling with the sensual chill of wanting him. She pulled him up and on top of her, unable to wait a moment longer.
“I would,” she whispered.
Holding his face in her hands, she kissed his eyes, his cheekbones, his mouth. She nipped his lips and tongue, then licked away the sting, driving him to grasp her wrists and sweep them above her head.
Holding her helpless with one hand, he slipped between her legs and spread them wide beneath him. He dragged his fingers up her t
rembling inner thigh, sending shudders through her whole body. Trailing a finger to her center, he explored the soft wetness, making her blossom for him.
He whispered erotic suggestions in her ear, urging her to seek her pleasure in his sensual caress.
She twisted and writhed, her breath coming in gasps. He slid a finger deep into her, and her body bucked against his hand. He slipped in two. Again her body bucked, her response as primal as the forest where they lay.
When he traced her aching clit with his thumb, she closed her eyes and threw back her head, calling into the night. She surrendered to the touch of her Wolf, letting the glorious sensation crash over her in wave after wave. And when she was absolutely sure there could be no greater pleasure on earth to be found than this, he guided his thick, heavy arousal to her and thrust in deeply.
Proving her, oh, so wrong.
A blinding flash of lightening lit the sky over them.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and their tongues and bodies and voices blended in passion, their moans building with urgency. The sky above lit up again and again, until, at last, they shattered together in a tumultuous release.
She lay with him, panting on the forest floor, feeling like two untamed creatures of nature.
From the far distance, she heard a heavy rumble of thunder roll slowly toward them.
He lifted onto an elbow, tenderly brushing a strand of hair from her face. “We are joined now. Part of the great circle.”
She smiled. “I love being with you.” She nuzzled into his neck, glorying in the feel of him still deep inside her body. “It feels so right.”
“Mmm. I'll second that.” He kissed her lovingly. “But I must weigh a ton.”
He tried to slide off, but she held him tight, so he couldn't move. “Stay.”
She loved the weight of him on top of her, the musky scent of love surrounding them.
“I don’t ever want to move again,” he murmured.
“Not for a million years.” She kissed his jaw and caressed his neck and back, sighing with joy and contentment.
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