Wind River Wrangler

by Lindsay McKenna

  Roan tucked her head beneath his jaw, holding her tightly. “I’m on this, Shiloh. I’m not going to let you be hurt by this bastard. I’ve not gotten black ops training for nothing. Tomorrow, when I drive into town, I’m going to see Sheriff Sarah Carter. She’s in charge of the Lincoln County sheriff’s department. I’m going to talk to her, get ideas, maybe some intel.” He kissed her hair. “But you and I need to have a plan.”

  She roused, feeling safe for the first time since the stalker had entered her life. “A plan?”

  “Yes. We each carry a cell phone on us at all times. I want you, if you EVER get that threatening warning again, to call me immediately. But as you call me, go to John’s office. And he’ll call the sheriff. We need to catch this guy. If you get that warning, it means he’s nearby and most likely on ranch property. After John makes that call, he’ll take you to their house and you’ll remain out of sight and safe until a deputy arrives.”

  Shutting her eyes, Shiloh felt a quiver of fear. “He’s really here. God . . .”

  “It’s different this time around, Darlin’. I’m with you. You have every employee on Wind River Ranch who will be told what’s going on and we’ll have a lot of people watching this situation. More eyes, more chances to nail this son of a bitch.” Roan pulled her back enough to look at her. “That’s the plan. Does it sound good to you? Anything to add to it?”

  A chill worked through her even though Roan was holding her. No place was safe from her stalker. “It works,” she agreed quietly, resting her head against his shoulder, wanting the world to go away as it had before in Roan’s arms. “What am I supposed to do in the meantime, Roan? Am I prisoner in this house? Do I go over and spend most of my time in John’s office, instead?”

  He slid his hand down her arm. “No. Continue what you’ve been doing, Shiloh. Just be more aware. Know the situational area and who is in it. That’s all. The rest will take care of itself.”

  “Sometimes you’re miles away, Roan. You’d never get back to the main ranch in time.”

  “That’s why it’s important to go to the main office as soon as you can,” he said. “It’s the safest place. John always keeps a firearm in his desk drawer. He’s licensed to carry a concealed weapon and he sure as hell knows how to use it if things got out of hand. Most stalkers aren’t that brazen, Shiloh. They sneak. They hide in the shadows. And most likely, this one isn’t going to be bold, either.”

  “Okay, that sounds doable. I just don’t want to become a prisoner like I was in my apartment, Roan,” she said, and she looked up at him, pleading with him because she hated those six terrible months where she felt like a convict.

  Roan kissed her brow. “I’ll always be nearby, Shiloh. I’ll talk to Maud and request that she utilize me closer to the headquarters area for now. I won’t be that far away. I think she’ll agree to the plan without a problem.” He searched her face. “Does that make you feel a little better?”

  She moistened her lips. “Yes, a lot better.” And then she blurted, “But what if he kills you?”

  Roan smiled a little and squeezed her tightly for a moment. “If he’s a black ops dude, I’d be concerned, but I’m sure he’s not. That doesn’t mean I’ll underestimate him, Shiloh. But there’s damn few men who can get a drop on an operator. It would really have to be a special set of circumstances. And I am on guard, Darlin’. I have your back.”

  “That makes me feel good,” she admitted. Just being in Roan’s arms, against his powerful, warm, hard body, gave her a sense of safety she’d never felt. Shiloh had never felt happier.

  He eased her out of his arms. Adjusting the pillows, Roan lay down. He brought her on top of him, settling her thighs against either side of his hips. “Come here,” he growled, folding her against his length. “Your turn to be my blanket.”

  She smiled warmly, eagerly stretching out, her breasts lightly grazing the hair across his chest. “Mmmm, I like this.” As she settled her core against his growing erection, her smile increased and she drowned in the glittering gray in his eyes. “You know what? I think you’re a consummate strategy-and-tactics kind of guy. There’s more than one reason for you wanting me as a warm blanket across you.” She saw a feral look cross his shadowed features and she gloried in the sensation of his thickening erection against her moist core. Already, heated signals were racing up through her.

  “I told you: surprises.” He tangled his fingers through her hair, nudging it across her shoulders. It barely crossed Shiloh’s mind that Roan knew she was a worrier and that by distracting her with his delicious male body, it would focus her on something else. Something positive. And oh, so good.

  Roan drew in a deep, ragged breath as she moved like a sinuous cat against his hips, engaging his erection, feeling her wetness claiming him already and he wasn’t even inside her. “You’re a worrywart, Darlin’. We’ve talked about the situation. We’ve come up with a plan. You need to let it go.” He slid his hands down her sides, feeling how warm and velvety her flesh was beneath his fingertips.

  Shiloh gave him an amused look. “You do know that men’s and women’s brains are created differently? That we think differently?”

  He shrugged, hands settling on her hips, anchoring and firmly bringing her down upon him. “What? You gals have a worrywart brain?” he teased, chuckling.

  She grinned, moving slowly up and down his growing length, watching the reaction in his face, the way he drew in a sharp breath, desire for her burning in his narrowing eyes. “Very funny, black ops guy.” Her eyes closed as Roan arched, reaching, stroking her entrance. A sweet quiver moved through her. “Ohhh,” she whispered, a purr slipping from her lips. “You feel so good in me. . . .” and her mind melted as he thrust fully into her slick depths. Her back arched and he gripped her, holding her as he began a slow, deep campaign to have her focus only on the burning, building pressure between them.

  He expanded her, filling her, the sensations intense and making her exhale as scalding heat throbbed pleasurably throughout her lower body. Roan had barely touched her; merely teased her and she was so wet. So ready. Her body was aching for relief. That was amazing to Shiloh because it had never happened before. Maybe Roan was right: He held a lot of surprises and he was going to share each and every one of them with her. A low, guttural cry erupted from her as he stroked, teased, and triggered an orgasm within her. She stiffened, paralyzed with the radiating heat pushing outward in wavelets throughout her lower body, hurling her off that delicious cliff called pleasure.

  She felt herself collapsing against Roan as the orgasm dissolved into continuing fiery undulations moving outward within her. His hands moved slowly, memorizing her, cupping her cheeks, thrusting deep into her. Roan gripped her, holding her against him, not done with her or her vibrant, throbbing body. She began to heat up once again with those short, sharp thrusts against that knot of nerves near her entrance.

  A low sound caught in her throat as he captured her completely with his strength, guiding her body, milking it, drawing out a second orgasm that surprised Shiloh as it flowed sweetly through her. Roan understood female anatomy, no question, and she lay gasping against him, her fingers dug into his thick shoulders, eyes tightly shut, hurled into a bright universe of stars, suns, and moons. She heard him growl her name, felt him lift his hips, fusing with her, taking her hard and quick. There was no time to catch her breath, her flexing body so much living putty between his hands, hips, and body. Within moments, he grunted, stiffening, hands strong against her hips, arching into her, frozen with pleasure as he climaxed deep within her.

  Shiloh had no idea where time went. Only that she lay on top of Roan with him buried within her quivering body. The sweat between them made their flesh slippery against each other. His hands roamed her body, soothing it, drying it, caressing it and making her feel lazy and indolent against him. Their combined sex scent filled her nostrils and it was a dessert of another kind to Shiloh. She weakly smoothed her hand across his damp shoulder, smiling softly, un
able to speak; she could only feel and absorb him as a man. A very special man. No one was like Roan. No one.

  Roan slowly eased out of Shiloh and then brought her to his side, tucking her in and pulling up a sheet to their waists. The tips of her hair were damp and curled from the perspiration between them. Her lips were slightly swollen from the hungry, branding kiss he’d shared with her earlier. Best of all, there was that Mona Lisa–like smile on her beautiful lips that told him everything. He’d satisfied her completely. Nothing made Roan feel better than pleasing his woman. It was everything. The sharing had been spontaneous, intense and hot.

  Shiloh made a little sound of contentment as he leaned down, moving her hair aside, placing a slow, wet kiss against the nape of her neck. Automatically, she surged against his body, like a cat rubbing herself against him, the act sensual, teasing, and intimate. His kisses were provocative, her skin reacting wildly to his tongue, the small nips of her flesh, and then the kiss following the sensations. Shiloh had never felt so loved, so attended to, as if she were a priceless, fragile, sacred being who was being worshipped by a man who truly did love her.

  Roan knew how to please her in large and small ways. The last thing Shiloh remembered thinking before she drifted off to sleep, exhausted and happy in Roan’s arms, was why did she wait so long to walk into his life? He’d offered it to her before, but she’d been too afraid to take that step. And how much in the last two weeks had she missed by not being a risk taker with this man who was incredible in every way to her?

  Chapter Seventeen

  Roan quietly studied Shiloh as she slept. He had eased away, long before sunrise, to get ready for another day of work. The beginnings of dawn, that grayness between night and day, filtered silently around the drapes, allowing him to see the light softly caress her peaceful sleeping features. Her red hair was a tangled mass, but it only made her look that much more desirable. She was made for him. And he was made for her. Only, he knew that and Shiloh didn’t. At least, not yet. A thick strand had dipped across her smooth brow and he gently lifted it away, allowing it to slip across her smooth, white shoulder.

  She was petite against him. A slight smile pulled at one corner of Roan’s mouth as he sat there, absorbing the shallow rise and fall of her breasts. Once again, he felt himself stir. Even now, as he inhaled deeply, he could smell her fragrant scent. The blanket and sheet had gathered and bunched around her waist and hip, the soft slope of her spine, that curve of her back calling to him. She was so slender against him. And yet, pound for pound, Shiloh was a fearless scrapper and that made Roan’s mouth flex into a tender line. Reaching out, not wanting to disturb her sleep, because they hadn’t gotten much last night, he lightly touched her shoulder, caressing her upper arm.

  Roan desperately wanted to remain with Shiloh. Sleep at her side until she woke him up, those drowsy green eyes of hers filled with such shining love for him. And Roan knew she loved him. He’d seen it last night a number of times, almost as if the words were on her sweet lips to whisper to him, but she didn’t.

  He was content with the progress they’d made with each other, despite the hurdles that still stood between them. He eased the sheet and blanket up across her shoulders to keep her warm. Shiloh stirred, frowned slightly, and then burrowed her face more deeply into the pillow.

  Another day, Roan promised himself. He rose without a sound, picked up his clothes, and opened the door. He’d get showered, shaved, and dressed in the bathroom, allowing her to sleep as long as she needed. His heart felt soft and tender within his chest, happiness thrumming through him as he padded down the hall.

  Throughout the shower and shaving, Roan’s mind leaped over the many issues Shiloh faced. If the stalker weren’t standing between them, always a distracting and dangerous threat to her, he knew he could woo Shiloh into staying here in Wyoming. Even more important, living with him at his cabin. It was almost finished and in another two months, it would be ready to live in. He visualized Shiloh in the granite counter kitchen, looking out one of those large windows at the sink, taking in the beauty of the valley spreading out before the cabin. Or in the office he’d created, working on her next novel, happy and content.

  His lower body remembered her ability to love him fiercely, freely, like that wild filly he thought of her as. Never had he met a woman so uninhibited, so fully confident of herself, her sexuality, as Shiloh. Whatever her wounds, they weren’t in that direction. What they’d shared last night was beyond anything he’d ever experienced with another woman. He wondered if it was the same for her.

  By the time Roan walked down the hall and to the kitchen, his mind was kicking forward into reality and what had to be accomplished this morning. As he made enough coffee for both of them, he decided he was going to eat over at the dining hall and then pull Steve and Maud aside, explaining the stalker issue in detail with them.

  “Roan?”

  Turning, he saw Shiloh rubbing her face, her thick red hair tangled around her shoulders, standing in her lavender bathrobe.

  “Hey,” he murmured, walking through the living room, sliding his arms around her waist, drawing her into his arms. “I thought you were asleep.”

  Shiloh nuzzled her face against his neck and jaw, her arms sliding around his waist. “I woke up and you weren’t there,” she mumbled sleepily. “I missed you. . . .”

  Her drowsy, whispered words sliced right through Roan’s heart and he pulled her close, inhaling her scent, her hair tickling his nose and cheek. “I didn’t want to get up this morning and leave,” he admitted gruffly, taming some of her hair away from her features, smoothing it across and down her small, capable shoulders. “You smell so damn good that I want to lift you into my arms, carry you back to the bedroom, and stay in there with you for the rest of the day.” He felt Shiloh’s arms tighten around his waist, a wordless agreement. Felt her lips brush his jaw as she looked up at him through sleep-ridden eyes.

  “Would Maud get angry if you took the day off?”

  Roan smiled a little. “She’d figure it out pretty quickly. She wouldn’t get angry, but it would leave the crew short-handed and that wouldn’t be fair to the team.” He heard Shiloh make a muffled sound of protest, pressing her face into his chest, her hands sliding across his shoulders, his flesh tightening. Wanting her.

  “We’ve just found each other. . . .”

  More like he was waiting for her to discover them, but this wasn’t the time to bring it up. “Darlin’, I’ve got a lot on my plate today. As much as I want to stay with you, tie you to that bed so you can’t leave it, it isn’t going to happen.”

  Lifting her chin, Shiloh smiled drowsily into his darkened, narrowed eyes. “Then some other time? Maybe at your cabin? You almost have the bedroom and the kitchen finished.”

  He chuckled and dropped a quick kiss to her smiling lips. Because if he really, honestly kissed Shiloh deeply and hungrily like he wanted, there would be no turning back. Roan would take her to bed and pay the consequences for his selfish decision with Steve and Maud. “Sounds like a plan to me, wild filly.”

  She laughed, content to be held, burrowing into his chest. “My new nickname, no doubt.”

  “No doubt. You earned it last night,” Roan promised, his voice thick with emotion. Shiloh was so damn warm, pliant, and curvy beneath that flimsy, silky robe she wore. His hands itched to pull it off her shoulders and allow it to fall to her feet, so he could hungrily stare at her beautiful, proud body. And then run his hands all over her in exploration, missing nothing. Nothing. Already, his erection was painful, pressing against the fabric of his jeans. “Would you like some coffee? It’s about ready.”

  Nodding, Shiloh reluctantly allowed Roan to ease away. “That sounds good,” she said, wiping her eyes, yawning.

  Roan gave her a tender smile. Shiloh looked hauntingly fragile when waking up. How Roan ached for the time that Shiloh would be beside him in the mornings, and he could watch her pull from the arms of sleep and open her eyes to see him.


  Getting a hold of himself, Roan led her over to the table and pulled out a chair for her to sit upon. He had a lot of things on his mind, chief among them to talk to Maud and Steve this morning.

  * * *

  Maud sat in her office chair, Steve perched on the corner of her desk, listening to Roan. The morning was young and they’d just opened up the office when he stepped in to ask them for their help.

  “That’s it,” Roan said, standing, hands on his hips, the door closed behind him so no one could accidentally come in and hear them discussing the stalker issue and Shiloh.

  Maud scowled and sat up. She twirled her baseball cap around on her desk, lips puckered in thought. “Okay, no problem getting that list of people who came for the Wildlife Drive from yesterday. If Shiloh recognizes a name, that’s easy enough to show to Sarah Carter over at the sheriff’s department.”

  Steve grimaced. He looked over at Maud. “Is Shiloh given to drama? Is she the kind of gal who makes up things?”

  Maud considered his question. “No. Remember? I’d known Shiloh’s mother, Isabella, for many years before she was murdered. I traveled back and stayed with them at their New York apartment. And I watched Shiloh grow up. She was always a quiet child, intense, but responsible. She wasn’t one of these flighty little girls who was overemotional, crying or begging to be the center of attention.” Shaking her head, Maud muttered, “No, I’m inclined to agree with Roan that when Shiloh had that threat reaction yesterday, her stalker was here among us. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

  Steve nodded. “Okay. I have to rely on you because I don’t know her that well.” He rubbed his hand down his Levi’s, scowling. Looking up, he asked Roan, “What if she doesn’t recognize any of the names? That group was the only outsiders on the ranch yesterday. We have another group coming in”—he looked at his watch—“in two hours.”

  “With your permission, I’ll ask Sarah about it. Explain what happened. Get her take on it. Her suggestions.”