The tension in him radiated through his hand and he still didn’t look at her. “I don’t like to talk about it.”
“Why not?” she said softly.
Zack was quiet for a long moment before his gaze met hers. “Maybe it’s because I’ve gone over and over it in my mind so many times that I can’t stand to say it out loud.”
The twist in Sky’s chest became a deep ache. “Your father beat your mother?”
“From the time we were kids. Probably longer.” The pain in Zack’s eyes made her want to reach out and hold him tight. “And if he wasn’t knocking the crap out of her, it was my brother and me.” Zack’s throat worked as he swallowed.
Sky squeezed his hand harder, the ache in her chest increasing so much that she wondered how she could breathe. This was a part of Zack she’d never known, and she had no idea what to say.
“When we were old enough to understand what was happening, Cabe and I tried to get the bastard to take it out on us instead of on our mother.” Zack took off his hat and set it on the hay bale before he pushed his free hand through his hair. “It never mattered, though. He beat the shit out of her anyway.” What Zack had gone through... Sky couldn’t begin to imagine. She wanted to cry for him. For that abused child who’d had to see his mother beaten, too.
He heaved a sigh. “When I was around twelve and Cabe thirteen, we started trying to fight back, but our father was a big son of a bitch.”
Sky moved closer to Zack so that her thigh touched his. She leaned her head against his shoulder and turned his hand over so that she could lace her fingers with his. She was almost afraid to ask her next question, but she got it out. “What happened to your father? Is he still alive?”
“He was killed while hunting deer with my brother and me.” Zack’s throat sounded hoarse. “Cabe shot my father by accident.”
Sky sucked in her breath and raised her head from his shoulder. The tears inside her were getting harder and harder to hold back. “Oh, my God.”
As his gray eyes met hers, Zack said, “The old man deserved it.” Zack looked away from Sky again. “As usual, he’d kicked us around when he made me and Cabe camp out with him the night before he died.”
Sky laid her head against Zack’s shoulder and this time closed her eyes as his pain washed through her. She couldn’t remember him ever talking so much.
“He wasn’t drunk, so we knew he was serious when he told us how he’d had it with our mother. Called her a whore and said she screwed around and we weren’t even his. Not that we hadn’t heard that one before. But this time he said he was going to kill her when we got home.”
Sky felt wetness behind her eyelids as her eyes stung, and she kept them shut tight.
“Cabe and I didn’t talk that night,” Zack continued in his hoarse voice. “But I’m sure that like me, he was thinking about how we could protect our mom when we got home.”
A tear rolled down Sky’s cheek as they gripped each other’s hand tightly. “It didn’t matter anymore after the accident,” Zack said. “She was safe.”
Sky raised her face and looked at him as a few more tears made their way down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”
Zack cupped her face in his hands and brushed her tears away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry. Please.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this back when we were together?” she asked as another tear escaped.
“What you and I had—it was so clean and beautiful.” He pressed his lips to her forehead before looking at her again. “I didn’t want to smear what we had with dirt from my past.”
The awful words she’d said earlier to him about not keeping his promises came back to hit her like a slap. She was such a bitch. He’d had an awful life as a child and had kept it from her because he’d cared. And here she’d gone and said something so mean.
Zack brought her close so that he held her face against his chest. “What you said earlier was true, Sky. There’s no going back and trying to change the past. All we can do is work on the future.”
Sky paused from mucking out Satan’s stall with a rake to wipe sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. A cool October breeze stirred the loose hair at her cheeks and chilled her skin.
It was Thursday, almost one week since her injury. Her ankle still felt a little stiff and sore, but as far as she was concerned, she had recovered and didn’t need help from anyone—no matter what Zack might think.
Satan stirred beside her in the stall, but thanks to Zack’s help, she didn’t have to worry about the little shit mowing her down. What Zack had done in a week—she had to admit it would have taken her two or three weeks.
Thank God there’d been no more attempts to take Satan or any of her other prize stock over the past few days. As far as they could tell from her ranch hands’ checking fences and the herd, rustlers had left her cattle alone for the time being.
Unfortunately, neighboring ranchers, whose herds had been untouched before, had now lost several head of cattle. Wade had stopped by a couple of times, but she always cut him off.
She’d talked with Sheriff Wayland once and he’d said they were ramping up the investigation but had nothing concrete as of that time.
In other words, they didn’t know anything, or wouldn’t tell her if they did.
When she’d asked Zack if he’d had any news, an expression of frustration had come over his features and he’d shaken his head.
She’d taken that as a resounding “no.”
While she raked manure out of Satan’s stall, it was like dust motes and sunshine tickled the inside of her belly as she realized Zack would be arriving soon. At the same time she felt a twinge of regret that they’d come to the end of their agreement. He wouldn’t be coming over daily to work with Satan now that her ankle was pretty much healed.
No. Not regret. She was thrilled that she didn’t have to put up with Zack’s hero routine any longer. Sky grimaced and swatted an insistent horsefly away from her face. Yeah, right. In truth, she’d miss having him around.
Satan butted her thigh and she paused raking to scratch the bull behind his ears. “You’ll miss him, too, won’t you?” she murmured. The devilish spark was still in Satan’s eyes, but he was no longer bent on plowing down anyone who came near him.
Sky sighed and got back to work cleaning the yearling’s stall.
Barn smells of hay, horse, and manure comforted her. Much more so than Zack’s masculine scent. When she was near him she felt at ease, yet she also felt wild and restless, and more than a little reckless.
Every day Zack had shown up any time from dusk to dark, depending on how his day had gone. Sky had expected—had wanted—him to take advantage of the time they’d spent together by trying to get her clothes off.
But to her surprise and dismay he hadn’t.
She’d asked him a couple of times if he wanted to go into the house for a glass of iced tea. He’d look at her and ask if she’d changed her mind about giving their relationship another chance.
“No,” came to her lips each time so fast, so automatically, that she hadn’t even paused to think his question over.
“Then there’s your answer,” he said the first time, then went to the back of the barn and got a water bottle, and brought her back a bottle, too.
She’d wanted to throw it at him for being so stubborn. They didn’t have to have a serious relationship to enjoy each other’s company a little more intimately.
Sky gripped the smooth wooden handle of the rake tighter as she paused in cleaning out the stall and tried to figure Zack out. He seemed so serious, wanting a relationship with her and refusing to take it any further until she agreed.
Instead, he’d spent time with Satan, made sure the stalls and aisles were mucked out, and asked her if there was anything else she needed help with. Then Zack would brush his lips across hers and go.
And she’d missed him. Wanted to be with him intimately but wanted to enjoy his companionship, too.
But promis
e to start their relationship over? She just hadn’t been able to do that.
While he’d spent time with Satan, they’d talked about everything and nothing at all. Zack would share his day at work and talk about his mother, whom he’d stop by to check in on as often as he could. Every now and then he’d bring up his brother, Cabe, and tell Sky about some of the stunts they’d pulled as kids.
They never talked about his father again.
Sky in turn would talk to him about her sister, Trinity, and how she seemed to love her job in England. Sky would confide in Zack her concerns about the rustlers and tell him more about her plans for upgrading the herd and breeding championship stock.
Talking with him was easy and natural. It made her realize how immature their relationship had been ten years ago. They’d talked, yes, but their relationship had been fiery and passionate, based more on sex than substance.
She sighed and leaned on the rake for a moment as her eyes un-focused and she could only see Zack in place of everything else.
This past week, about the only thing they hadn’t talked about was the future of their relationship.
Friendship, she reminded herself.
“Bad girl,” Zack’s deep voice rumbled behind her.
Sky yelped and spun around, almost clobbering him with the rake. “Don’t scare me like that!” She punched him in his muscled biceps.
“The deal was a whole week, sweetheart.” He took the rake from her hands and set it against the side of the stall, then placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’ve got one more day.”
His stormy gray eyes captured her, and she felt as if she was hovering on the edge of a precipice. Just one step and she’d throw herself over.
She swayed toward him, intoxicated by his earthy scent and potent sexuality. “My ankle’s fine,” she murmured, amazed she’d found her voice.
He rubbed her arms through the light material of her T-shirt, setting her skin on fire. “Humor me.”
Oh, she’d like to humor him all right. In the barn, in broad daylight—anywhere.
Zack brushed his lips over her hair and released her to grab the rake. Muscles in his arms and back bunched as he worked, and she barely contained a sigh.
She frowned and moved away. While Zack worked with Satan, she busied herself brushing down Empress. The sorrel mare whickered her pleasure and lipped Sky’s braid. She couldn’t help glancing at Zack, watching how gentle he was with the yearling.
For the first time in the week she and Zack had spent together, they said little. It was a companionable silence, but because he wouldn’t be coming over every day to tame Satan she already missed Zack.
When they were finished, Sky walked him to his truck. She only had a limp now.
A breathtaking sunset rode the horizon, gold, pink, and purple streaking the sky above the Mule Mountains.
They stopped in front of Zack’s truck and he leaned against the hood and into her line of vision. “Why don’t we celebrate?” he said in a low rumble.
Sky snapped her gaze from Zack’s truck to his face. “Celebrate what?” She slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and tilted her head.
“Taming Satan. Your ankle being better.” Zack reached around her to catch one wrist, easing her hand from her pocket and clasping it. His touch electrified her through what felt like every single nerve ending.
“Dinner, tomorrow,” he said, his voice deep and serious. “I’ll pick you up at eight.”
She swallowed. “As friends?”
“Whatever you say.” Zack squeezed her hand. “How’s Mexican food sound?”
“O-okay.” Sky pulled her hand away from his, afraid he’d feel her trembling. She made her tone light and teasing. “Don’t be late, cowboy. I’ll be hungry.”
He gave her a dark, sinful look that turned her stomach inside out. “I’m already starving.”
Chapter 17
Friday night, Zack drove the last mile between the ICE office and Sky’s door. He and the junior agent he worked with, Eric Torres, had spent the day tracking down leads on the rustlers, but they just kept dead-ending, frustrating the hell out of both of them.
When Zack had called Clay Wayland, the sheriff had been out of the office, and Zack had ended up talking with Deputy Woods instead. Woods hadn’t been much help. The deputy was far too relaxed about the whole rustling situation.
But the memory of Woods dancing with Sky at the rodeo dance had Zack grinding his teeth. Would he ever get over this desire to pound every man who even looked at Sky?
Zack parked in front of her house wondering if any of the local ranchers could be involved in the rustling. Or was this strictly an outside job?
Whatever the answer, he couldn’t give it any more thought. For the moment, his mind needed one thing and one thing only.
He got out of his Silverado and headed up the steps, determination in his stride. He had waited long enough. Tonight, Sky was going to give him what he wanted. All of her. No holding back.
The past week had been hell, forcing himself to keep a certain amount of distance from Sky. He had intended to take things slow and easy this time. Give her a chance to trust him again. But he saw that wasn’t going to work. Sky was damn stubborn and he was going to have to remind her just who her man was.
Zack paused for a moment before he knocked on the door. The rapping sound echoed in the evening air as his knuckles hit the wood.
Yeah, he damned well was going to get that promise from her if it was the last thing he did.
But when the door opened and he saw her standing there, almost every shred of his good intentions vanished and all of the blood in his body went rushing to his cock. He clenched his hands and swallowed real hard.
Sky smiled, her green eyes wide. She’d piled her copper hair on top of her head and immediately he wanted to set it free and bury his face in the silk of it to draw in her scent and hold it inside him forever.
The tiny black dress she wore only reached mid-thigh, revealing her long, sexy legs. Legs he wanted to have clamped tight around him as he thrust his cock into her wet core. From head to toe, his entire being vibrated as he held himself back from grabbing her, pushing her inside her house, and taking her now.
As if she could read his thoughts, Sky sighed and ran the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip.
The woman has no fucking mercy.
He reached up and hooked his finger under one of the delicate straps securing her dress. “God, but you’re gorgeous, sweetheart.”
Sky’s smile was seductive. “You clean up pretty nice, too.”
Her hand went to that sensitive spot at the base of her throat. His gaze followed, then dropped to the very generous amount of exposed cleavage. Her nipples peaked below the thin material, and he had to force himself not to let his hand wander from her shoulder to her breasts.
“Just a sec.” Her voice was low and husky as she drew away from his touch. “Let me get my purse.”
When she walked to the kitchen, he just about groaned out loud at the sight of her sheer black stockings hugging her shapely legs. A line ran down the back of each stocking— stockings that were probably outlawed in forty-six states for what they did to a man. Not to mention those high heels she was wearing. Her outfit screamed sex and he had the erection to prove it.
Trying to gain some control over his body, Zack took a deep breath and thought about as many things as he could that would cool him off. The cattle rustling and the frustration of nothing but dead ends. Someone trying to steal Satan. The asshole group supervisor of Zack’s new duty station.
Yeah, that did it.
Relief relaxed his tense muscles as those images made his lust fade. It allowed him to breathe, and as his erection lessened, the pain of his swollen cock against his zipper eased.
But the moment Sky returned to the living room and smiled at him, no image of any kind came to mind to replace the erotic ones of her.
God, he was going to die if she didn’t agree to his condition
. Like now.
Sky’s skin tingled where Zack touched her elbow as he guided her into Los Dos Hemanos, a popular restaurant in Douglas. Sounds of laughter and voices, clinking plates and mariachi music filled the air. Tantalizing smells of Mexican food caused her stomach to growl.
The place was crowded, but they didn’t have long to wait before the hostess escorted them to a corner booth. Serapes and sombreros decorated the walls, strategically arranged baskets of colorful gourds complemented the room, and pinatas swayed from the ceiling’s exposed beams.
Zack slid onto the bench next to Sky, his presence solid and virile. When she glanced up, he gave her a sinfully devastating look, and she quivered with awareness from head to toe.
He looked so delicious dressed all in black from his western shirt to his boots. He’d already taken off his black Stetson when he’d walked into the restaurant and had set it on the bench seat beside him.
After they had ordered and the waitress had returned with their drinks, Sky took a long sip of her margarita. The mixture of salt from the rim and the citrusy taste rolled over her tongue. She needed to relax and enjoy the evening, and she was hoping the margarita would help her mellow a bit.
Zack’s eyes swirled stormy gray as he watched her, filled with passion—and something else. Something that made Sky wonder if there could be a happily ever after.
Not likely. She wasn’t Cinderella.
Though lately Zack had been kind of like a Prince Charming. A devastatingly handsome, untamed cowboy of a prince.
A smile teased the corner of her mouth.
He trailed his finger over her lips. “What’s that smile for?”
She shook her head. “It’s silly.”
“Tell me.” His tone was both coaxing and demanding.
Sky dropped her gaze to her margarita, picked it up, and took a healthy swallow. She rarely drank, and she could already feel her body relaxing from the alcohol. Maybe it would loosen her inhibitions, too, and she’d get Zack where she wanted him.
In bed. Naked.
Heat flushed her cheeks as she looked back to him. “I was just thinking you’ve been a cowboy Prince Charming this past week.”
Zack (Armed and Dangerous Book 1) Page 13
