by Gemma Snow
But before Micah could give in to any of those fears or panics, his feet touched down on the other side, grounding him against the dirt and mossy leaves, and there he was, at the entrance to the cave.
“Chloe,” he called, his voice soft and gentle. “It’s me, Micah. Do you want to come out of there now?”
She emerged, her movements slow and wary. Her clothes were dirty and her hair had all manner of sticks and leaves tangled in the curls, but she appeared otherwise unharmed, and Micah let out a low breath of relief. “You did a good job hiding here, honey,” he said. “Now, I’d like to bring you home to your mom and dad, okay?”
She nodded and sniffled. “Okay.” It seemed that the bravery that had gotten her so far was just about tapped out. Well, fine, she was allowed to be a kid again. It was no longer her responsibility to get home safely.
“Okay,” he repeated. “Now, I’m going to hook you into this harness, then we’re going to slowly walk across that gap. My dog, Axel, he’s on the other side, waiting to meet you.”
She nodded and, before either of them got the chance to freak the fuck out about trekking across that massive drop again, Micah had her hooked into the front section of the harness built for rescue missions just like this one, and he was scooting them alongside the mountain’s sheer face, shuffling his feet and trying to keep breathing.
Then, mercifully, they were back on solid freaking ground, both inhaling more breath than necessary. Micah slowly, carefully, stood and picked Chloe up, hoisting her onto his hip. He unhooked the harness from the tree and whistled for Axel to follow before beginning the trek back up the hill to where their point camp was located.
It only took a few minutes. Axel kept a good pace and Chloe weighed about as much as a couch cushion, and before he knew it, the blue tent from their rescue rendezvous camp loomed into sight. A brief, weighty silence stretched across the mountain. Then all hell broke loose.
Her mother screamed then both of Chloe’s parents were sprinting toward them, Police Chief Cade Easton and two of his deputies hot on their heels. Mr. Robinson took Chloe from Micah’s arms and both of her parents were hugging her and touching her and making sure she was still in one piece. Micah tried to fade back, but Chloe grabbed the arm of his windbreaker.
“Thank you, Mr. Micah,” she whispered, her bright eyes shining. Her parents both looked up at him with the same glowing adoration.
“Thank you, Micah,” Mrs. Robinson said, as Mr. Robinson stuck out his hand and shook it hard, before bringing Micah in for a bear hug. Then they were gone, carrying Chloe over to the medic tent, and Micah stepped back to watch them walk off into the distance. He should have been relieved. They hadn’t expected such a happy ending for Chloe and they’d been lucky, more than lucky.
But still, the ache in his chest didn’t dissipate and he knew it was no longer fear that made him feel so heavy and forlorn. Axel whimpered at his side, and Micah dug into one of his pockets to give the dog a treat. He loved Axel and Rosie and the other search dogs they kept at the Black Reef Survival Camp, but dogs were a poor substitute for family, for parents, for children, for people who loved a person unconditionally. Well, dogs were what he was going to get, a truth he’d come to terms with a long time ago. Family wasn’t in the cards for him, not the kind of family Chloe Robinson had. No, Axel and Rosie, they were what he got, so he’d damn well better be happy about it.
“Hey there, Superman,” Dec said, coming up behind him, Rosie hot on his heels. “Or should I say Spider-Man? That was some gravity-defying shit you did down there.”
And Dec McCormick. Of course. He counted as Micah’s business partner, search partner, family and best friend, all rolled into one not-giving-a-damn package of good-old-boy humor and charm. Dec was one of the few people in the world who knew just how much Micah hated heights, but, as with most things, he played to the lighter side of the situation.
“I can’t be out-balled by a six-year-old,” Micah said, suddenly feeling very weary. He followed Dec away from the camp and toward their cabin a little way down the mountain. If Cade needed them to give statements, he knew where to find them.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Dec said. “Come on, let’s get a beer.”
Micah nodded, but glanced back up at the Robinson family one more time. Growing older with a houseful of dogs and their business and Dec McCormick by his side definitely wasn’t the worst life a guy could have.
Chapter Two
“Madison…” Lily hoisted her duffel bag higher and shouldered her way into the kitchen. When she’d called her sister to ask if she could use the Triple Diamond Ranch for her research project, Madison—Maddy, as she went by now—had been overjoyed. Lily had been pretty freaking happy herself. Not a month after sending the email to her once-upon-a-time research advisor, Lily had gotten the go-ahead to start a new project.
She had been one semester away from finishing her master’s thesis, a single research project she had never started away from getting her degree when the shit had royally hit the fan. It had been five long years, but Lily had a hunch that Montana had something good waiting for her, and Maddy had been all too willing to accommodate. She’d even mentioned a Welcome Lily party she was arranging, not that Lily needed anything of the sort. Still, she’d been out of the city just long enough to hop on a plane and drive from the airport, and already her mind had calmed some of its maddened racing and her chest had loosened a fraction of an inch.
It was a start. Though she was more than happy to see her sister, who had officially moved out to the ranch at the end of June, a little over three months earlier, the fact that Lily had brought her field kit, from which she had literally had to dust an inch-thick layer of grime, meant that this wasn’t entirely a social visit. Or an easy one. The last time she’d opened that kit, Daniel had still been alive. The last time she’d gotten knee-deep in the dirt, instead of just finger-deep in flowerpots, she’d still believed he had a chance.
But this painful step was also a necessary one. She had left the flower shop in the capable hands of her best employee, Mia Halton, and taken three weeks of leave to both see Madison again and set up Wolf Creek, Montana as her research camp.
It certainly was beautiful. As she backed through the swinging kitchen door to the much smaller of the two main houses on the estate—the larger one, Holmwood Manor, having been converted to a B&B over the summer—Lily stared out at the grounds. The air was crisp and fresh, the sky wide and the far-off mountains a rainbow of golds and reds and fiery oranges. Nothing could beat fall in the mountains. Even if the research element didn’t work out, she could at least enjoy her time away from the city.
But first, to find her errant sister.
She dropped her duffel in the mudroom and pushed through the door to the kitchen. And stopped dead in her tracks.
Madison was there, all right.
She was sprawled out on the counter, her mouth wrapped around one man’s cock and her fingers tangled in the dark head of hair currently buried between her spread thighs. Holy fuck. Oh, holy fuck. Jesus fucking Christ on a chocolate cupcake.
Logically, she knew she needed to leave, but her feet couldn’t seem to figure out how to move and, for a moment, Lily just stayed planted where she was. Madison had an…unorthodox relationship with two of the men who worked and part-owned the ranch, as she had explained over the phone on several occasions. Lily wasn’t one to judge her sister’s decisions, given her own veritable vow of celibacy, but to see the truth of her relationship with the two men right before her eyes was startling. Shocking, even.
And a little bit erotic, too…especially when the blond man buried his hands in her hair and tugged her head down, a low moan of pleasure caught in his throat.
No. Not erotic. Madison could keep her two lovers all to herself, because Lily didn’t want any part of that kind of way-too-much-work relationship. She’d take her flowers over those kinds of complications any day.
Finally, somehow, her feet unglued themselves
from the floor and Lily darted through the kitchen door, back through the mudroom without pausing for her bag and out into the yard. She threw a glance back at the house, as if expecting it to somehow look different from the outside. She was so distracted by the scene she had just witnessed that she didn’t pay any attention to where she was going—until she collided head first into a wall.
A very muscular wall. A very muscular, solid wall that appeared to be laughing at her. Had she taken a wrong turn at Helena and ended up in Wonderland?
“Are you okay?” the wall asked and Lily got enough sense knocked into her cracked-out brain to tilt her head up and look the wall in the eyes. Of course, it wasn’t a wall, but a man. A dark-skinned, dark-eyed man with black hair that came down past his shoulders and caught on the wind, whipping dramatically. He looked to be full Native American, with thick, slanting cheekbones that made her revise her statement. He wasn’t a wall—he was carved from a freaking mountain.
And Jesus Christ better stay on that cupcake, because this man is sexy as hell.
Lily swallowed, her mouth dry and her eyes wide and unblinking. She took a step back, hoping that the distance might knock more sense into her totally overloaded brain and…you’ve got to be fucking me.
A pair of strong hands steadied her around the waist and she took a deep breath before turning around to face the other person.
Montana definitely had something in the water. Because the man standing behind her was the stuff cowgirl fantasies were made of. His skin was golden tan and matched his burnished-brown hair cropped high above the ear—a military cut grown that had grown out just a bit. He wore a pair of low-slung jeans with a loose flannel shirt tucked right behind the big belt buckle and Lily had to fight really hard not to picture exactly what was inside those jeans.
Had she lost her damned mind? Honest to God, she hadn’t thought of another man in over five years and here she was, eyes popping out of her head at the sight of these two strangers—one of whom still had his hands around her waist. Fucking Madison and her fucking… Well, her fucking.
Finally, Lily stepped out of the line of fire of both men and stumbled a few feet away, where she was at last able to get in a deep breath.
“I think it might just be raining city girls this year,” the cowboy said, a slight chuckle to his low voice. Lily bristled. She’d spent more than her fair share of time in the dirt, thank you very much.
“I take that to mean you’re referring to my sister,” she said, but her voice came out just this side of husky and there was a definite blush warming her neck and cheeks. She hadn’t had a day this off-kilter in a long time.
“That must make you Lily Hollis,” Tall, Dark and Mysterious said, holding out one large hand in her direction. Lily took a tentative step forward and shook it.
“I am,” she said slowly. She eyed them both with obvious suspicion. “How do you know?”
“’Cause your sister has been telling the whole town you were on your way for a month,” Mr. Charming teased, his hazel eyes twinkling at her. He really was…pretty, in a head-taller-than-her, built-as-hell, five-o’clock-shadow sort of way.
Lily couldn’t help the low, derisive laugh that escaped under her breath. “Well, she’s damn right happy at the moment, but it’s not ’cause I’m here.”
Both men’s expressions contorted in confusion and Lily finally felt as though she were getting some grasp on the situation. A little, tiny fraction of grasp. Goddamn, had she ever been around so much hot masculinity in her life? It was throwing her way, way off. No, it’s just the scene in the kitchen shorting out my brain.
“Let’s just say I won’t be eating off the counters anytime soon,” she said, trying to stuff the laugh back into her mouth. Now that she was no longer suffering the shock of seeing the threesome going at it right there in the kitchen, the whole thing had an edge of humor to it. And that niggling, complicated desire that had made her curious. But it was one hell of a bad idea to analyze what that meant.
Understanding dawned first on the mountain man then on pretty boy and in an instant the confusion fled their faces, replaced with sheer, unadulterated mirth. The cowboy spoke first, barely able to get the words out around his amused laughter.
“Welcome to the neighborhood,” he said. “If you walk in on the three of them doing something they’re not supposed to, you’re officially part of the Wolf Creek clan. It took me two weeks after Maddy officially moved in. Micah here wasn’t so lucky.”
Lily turned to the man named Micah, the laughter around his eyes making a little of that foreboding mystery fade away, and raised an eyebrow. Micah rolled his eyes.
“I came down from the cabin to borrow some supplies. Found them in the barn.”
Lily sucked on her teeth and tried to keep the laughter down, but it wasn’t easy. Not only was the whole situation funny and weird as hell, but now that they’d established some common ground, Lily found herself already comfortable and at ease around these two incredibly handsome, devil-may-care men. Maybe it was just being out of the city, since no one was ever this nice in the city, but she had the feeling it was actually these two men, themselves, with their charming smiles and contagious laughter. She turned back to the cowboy.
“Where’d you find them?” she asked.
He raised a brow and a spark of the devil shot across his eyes. Even without him saying a word, she knew he was about to try to charm the pants off her. She’d seen that look before and, coming from this guy, she didn’t doubt its success rate.
“Bed of Ryder’s truck,” he said on a grin, a thousand-watt smile spreading across his face. “They got the bed part right, at least, if nothing else.”
It took a minute for the three of them to compose themselves, but soon the laughter subsided and Lily got a deep breath in.
“Okay, okay. I’m glad I’m not the only one who got a private show, then,” she said, clutching at her side in an attempt to alleviate the cramp all her laughter had caused. “I was a bit disoriented when I ran into both of you, so let’s start again. I’m Lily Hollis and that promiscuous wench in there is my sister.” A flash of the image she had walked in on crossed Lily’s mind and she wondered, for the briefest of seconds, what it would be like to be the kind of promiscuous wench who fucked two gorgeous men on the kitchen counter.
It would be bad, Lily. Very bad. Shut that dirty trap of a mind.
“Welcome to Triple Diamond, Miss Hollis,” Micah said. “I’m Micah, Micah Ellison, and that’s Dec McCormick.” He tilted his head in the other man’s direction. “We run the Black Reef Survival Camp and work animal search and rescue for Lewis and Clark County from the compound just up the mountain. We’re here for your welcome to Wolf Creek cookout, but I think Maddy and those vagabonds did a pretty good job with the whole welcoming thing.”
His smiles were subtle, subdued, nothing like the broad, charm-the-pants-off-ya smile that Dec was now giving her, but, oooh, there was something to be said about the hint of danger and mystery at the edges of those dark eyes, even sparkling in amusement. These men, for all they were different in looks and initial personality, were undoubtedly cut from the same wicked, tempting cloth. Not why you’re here, Lils.
“Thanks, I think,” she said on a laugh. “I’m not quite sure what to do with myself now, since I can’t go into the kitchen…”
“Now, you drink.” Dec indicated the box of beer at his feet. “Come on, we can get the fire started while those guys screw on the kitchen counters…” He said it like it was so totally normal that Lily couldn’t help but ask, following the two men toward the fire pit located on the back patio.
“So, is everyone just…like, cool with this? I mean, I’m from San Francisco, so I don’t judge, but Wolf Creek seems like a pretty small town…”
Dec put the box of beer down at the edge of the large stone fire pit and nodded. God, her skin vibrated with each step Micah took closer to her, his presence like the smooth, thick caress of honey over her fingers, just as Dec’s was
the spice of whiskey on her tongue. That scene in the kitchen must have screwed with her head even more than she’d thought it had. She hadn’t thought anything like this in years.
“It’s a bit unorthodox,” Micah said, settling several large logs into the fire pit and arranging them in a cabin formation. “I mean, personally, not my cup of tea, right? But Ryder and Christian…” He paused and pushed some of that silky dark hair out of his eyes to look up at her. Lily’s heart stopped, just for a moment, at the sheer masculinity of the movement and she wrestled her wicked subconscious back to focus on his words. “But those guys are completely cooked when it comes to your sister,” he finished.
“You should have seen them back at the fair over the summer,” Dec cut in, handing her a beer from the box then giving one to Micah. “We broke up some big fight they were having before all three had their ‘come to Jesus, I love you’ moment. Ryder and Christian did a real number on each other. I’ll tell you one thing, they’ll do anything for Maddy and I think that sits all right with the folks around here.”
He practically threw himself down on a cushioned bench seat near the fire and nodded to her. “You’re allowed to sit. You must be tired from traveling and I can promise you won’t find any more kinky orgies going on over here.”
Lily laughed and walked over to the bench seat, settling against the arm and as far away from Dec McCormick as possible.
“Ain’t that a shame,” she murmured, before taking a long sip of beer. It was crisp and refreshing and hinted at apple and October spices. Of course, it wasn’t nearly good enough to distract her from the weight of two very intense gazes homing in her direction.
“Something you wanna tell us, honey?” Dec’s voice was way too smooth and charming, and he even managed to make that usually trite term of endearment enticing and decadent, but Lily just laughed. God, she’d been laughing more in the half-hour she’d been out in Wolf Creek than she could remember in a far too long time.
