“Sex is pretty powerful stuff,” Lexi tossed back, eyes sparkling. “So…we need some steam. Probably at Lily’s or yours. Eli has his office just outside the house and sees cars coming and going so he’d probably come over to see why we were there. Or we could just rip it open and put it in a new envelope. It’s not like they exchange letters all the time.”
Lily looked at Scarlet with a laugh, her head shaking. “She’s right,” she took the envelope and slit the top with a key, offering it back to Scarlet.
“I really don’t like doing this,” Scarlet mumbled, taking the envelope like it was ready to bite back.
“Don’t like doing what?” Lucas looked from one to the other to the obviously deadly envelope in her fingers. One brow rose, more than curiosity in his gaze. Guilt burst out over their faces like small pox. “Did you think I didn’t know what happened around here?”
“I…it isn’t…” Scarlet swallowed hard. He hadn’t made a move to the envelope yet and that seemed off.
“Jesus, can’t you make noise before you come up behind people?” Lily demanded, snatching the envelope back and pulling the paper from inside.
“The three of you look guilty of something. Matt gave me a call,” confusion shifted the guilt a little on their faces. “The guy showing you the building.”
“Snitch,” Lexi mumbled testily. She opened the paper and read quickly.
‘We should discuss some sort of mutual pact and the return of the cougar. She belongs to me. James.’
Lily looked over at Lexi as Lucas took the paper from her fingers.
“Why is he after you?” Lily said quietly, the puzzle making her frown. “You’re cute, you’re funny, you’re smart but you’re also a huge pain in the ass when you want to be. So what is the deal? There has to be something I’m missing.”
“He…Mitch James?” Lexi looked from Lily to the dark cloud forming on Lucas’ face, her voice a little higher than normal. “Me?”
“You. He wants a pact with Lucas and he wants you returned to him,” Lily shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “You aren’t a property. If I were to waiver from my normal feminine stance, I’d say if anything, you belonged to Eli.”
“I seriously hate this politics stuff with packs,” Scarlet shook her head.
“So what was the parlay about the note?” Lucas scanned it and tucked it into the pocket of his jacket, meeting the arched brow from Scarlet with a nod. “Thinking of going it alone?”
None of the women spoke for a long time.
“You only have this problem because of me,” Lexi finally said aloud.
“No. I have a problem with James because he’s using you as a pawn, Lexi,” Lucas gestured to the coffee shop across the street. “Coffee?”
“You do realize that these two have very little fighting in their genetics,” Lily walked toward the coffee shop. “I think that’s why we fit so well.”
“You have enough predator for the three of you,” Lucas remarked with a half grin, accepting the palm Scarlet shot out at his side.
“And she doesn’t take it as an insult,” Lexi mumbled with a sigh. “I don’t like being used.”
“I didn’t think you would,” Lucas made a request for coffee and paid for his and Lily’s drinks. “And you’re not going to like it when I tell you we’re handling this.”
“We being?” Scarlet felt her spine stiffen. They still had an argument to get through, she thought. Why not just add one more thing to it?
“The pack,” Lucas didn’t like the tension between them but wasn’t sure how to separate her long enough to work through it.
“Of which we are now part,” Lexi said firmly, chin up and ponytail flipping like her tail would when she was antsy and pacing the small coffee shop.
“You’re making people nervous, Lex,” Lily caught the glances in their direction.
“And you said she didn’t have fighting genetics,” Lucas murmured, taking Lexi by the elbow and leading her outside.
“A cat in the middle of a dog pound,” Lily said, her head shaking. “I keep forgetting you guys can smell that kind of thing.”
“Right now she could start a war,” Scarlet cleared her throat, watching Lexi pace the more open space outside.
“I’m angry.”
“Yeah, we noticed,” Lily sipped her coffee and looked at Lucas. “Are you going to lock us out of this?”
“Wouldn’t work, now would it?”
“I won’t let it,” Scarlet told him, casting a glance at her friends. “I’ll meet you in a couple hours at the internet café and we’ll talk. Right now, I need to talk to my mate about this issue.”
Chapter Twenty
Lucas felt one brow rise when she looped her arm in his and led him toward the truck he’d parked in the lot.
“Why do I have the words echoing inside my head: Lucas, I don’t know the first thing about being involved in a pack.”
“I never said that,” she returned petulantly, freeing her arm from his and giving him a slight shove forward. “You can’t lock us out of this. I won’t let it happen.”
“I never said I was locking you out. Females are just as deadly, if not more so,” Lucas told her honestly. “You said you weren’t interested, Scarlet.” He watched the anger flare in her eyes, the male in him recalling the fire and passion in them when they were alone.
“He’s targeting my friend,” she said grimly. “And you. I am involved.”
Lucas put his hands on her waist and backed her against his truck. He lowered his face slowly, inhaling and sighing hungrily at the same time.
“We have things to work out, Scarlet. I don’t want you to leave,” Lucas had decided after the last day, he wasn’t mincing words or taking chances. “I want you. Here. Living with me. Being my mate without limitations or negotiations.”
“People are staring, Lucas,” Scarlet whispered, the sensations coursing through her at his nearness, his touch one she hadn’t found an acceptable explanation for. She wanted him in ways she’d never known before. She knew she was lost to the feelings because he was too aware of what he could make her feel.
“Do you think I care?” He savored her scent, the flames of lust boiling inside them both, regardless of where they were. “I don’t want you to leave, Scarlet,” he repeated softly, his teeth grazing along her throat, his nose shoving the collar of her light jacket to the side and biting down on the soft flesh where her shoulder began.
“I have people who rely on me, Lucas,” Scarlet struggled to think. “I have a business I love.”
“Three hours away, Scarlet. We can make it work,” he told her gruffly, his teeth nipping at her ear lobe. “I want you. Now.”
“Umm…..then we should go home,” she whispered, eyes closed as she let the waves of lust crash inside her.
Lucas peered into the partially closed eyes when he raised his head, eased her to the side and opened the door of the truck. He was behind the wheel as she closed the door, her head turned to stare out the side window. It wasn’t until he went past the house that Scarlet looked at him in confusion.
“Lucas?”
“Connie’s at the house. You might believe otherwise, but I don’t want you feeling uncomfortable in your own home,” Lucas pushed the words between his lips, the hard thumping of his pulse beating a path to his groin. “This is where I go to escape them all for a time.”
She looked up to see the small A-frame house made from logs that she guessed came from the hills around them. It sat twenty feet from the wide creek that ran downhill toward the pasture below now filled with buffalo quietly grazing.
“It’s nice,” she slid to the ground and walked toward the cabin. “You built this.”
“A few years ago,” he admitted, following her inside and setting the lock. He shrugged out of his jacket and dropped it to the chair, his palms and the rest of him aching to have her against him.
Scarlet had walked into the center of the large room, her eyes immediately going to the
wide stairs that led to the loft bed-chamber. Her hand closed on the railing leading up.
“How are you going to handle Mitch James and his pack?”
“You want to talk about this now?” Lucas moved behind her, his hands pulling her jacket free and tossing it to the chair. She couldn’t mask her need, the desire that filled every part of her. The arrogance in him knew it had never been there for anyone else and that realization made him all the more hungry for her, over and over again.
“I want to know what you plan to do. I want to know where this…this sex thing between us is going,” Scarlet worked to keep her voice from shaking when she felt his hot breath against her ear. “Stop that.”
“But you like it,” he answered with a low chuckle. “I can smell it on you. Anyone near us can smell it…almost taste it in the air. It’s a powerful feeling, Scarlet. I can feel your body shiver each time I bite…here…” He nipped the soft spot of her throat and moved to her shoulder. “And here…” he saw her fingers tighten on the banister.
She knew he was right. She could smell herself and groaned softly because she felt his erection pressing against her behind. The heat soared when his palms gripped her hips and pulled her back hard against him.
“Lucas…”
He wanted his name on her lips, that husky sound of her need filled his mind and blocked out all else. His palms moved up her sides and around front, pulling the tee shirts free and tugging them over her head.
He took all of a second to pull his own shirts off, his chest pressing against her back and palms around her, each cupping a rounded breast. Nipples peaked against his palm, his fingers stroking and pinching until the musk of her gripped him as surely as if it had fingers of its own.
Lucas groaned aloud, turned her slightly and pulled her against him.
“Wrap your legs around me, Scarlet,” he commanded gruffly seconds before his mouth covered hers, drinking both groans when she did as he said. He moved cautiously, carefully up the stairs, letting her feet touch the floor when he held her against the wide column that held up the center beam.
Scarlet heard a tiny voice telling her she wasn’t focused but the voice was very wrong. She was so focused on Lucas right now, it hurt! She heard the zipper of her jeans pulled down seconds before he flattened his hand on her stomach and pushed the fabric wide, his palm cupping her and sending those strong, stroking fingers into her very wet center.
“You’re a tease!” She ground between her teeth, pulling his jeans open and pushing them off his hips, her hands pulling him hard, closer, until she could rotate and tilt her hips for what she wanted.
“I’m hungry!” He growled back, nipping her throat and laughing when she groaned. He liked her hands shoved against his head and dragging his mouth to hers. He broke the kiss long enough to shove his jeans down and grab the packet from a pocket. He had the condom on and her jeans shoved off when he lifted one leg and hooked it on his waist.
“Now, Lucas! Here and now!” She demanded through the ragged pants. She felt him move against her and speared his hair, pulling his mouth back to hers in a long, deep kiss. A kiss that swallowed the scream when he thrust into her, hard and fast, filling her and making them both even hotter.
His taunting and scents and her own lust swept through her all the faster when he nudged her head back, his mouth lowered and taking one nipple in his mouth, biting and suckling, satisfied when she arched against him for more.
He felt her body tightening just before his name was ripped from her lips and the taut walls felt like they were squeezing the life from him. But he let his tongue and teeth play more while he slowed his thrusts, timed them and felt her peeking before taking several long strokes and emptying all inside him, his face buried between her breasts.
They clung to one another, her fingers gently stroking over his head.
“Christ, Scarlet…I didn’t mean to…” For that brief time, he’d forgotten her past. Forgotten he might frighten her and lose her again.
“Lucas…shh…I’m okay…amazingly okay…” Dark lashes rose slowly to meet the concern in his eyes. “You didn’t hurt me. You don’t frighten me. I think I needed you just as strongly. I…” she ran her tongue around her lips. “I can’t be your mate and cower someplace…from anything, but especially from you. From us,” her lips curled up a little. “From this. It’s a nice hide-a-way. Uninhibiting…”
“I like you uninhibited,” he said slowly, lifting her carefully and separating them before striding into the bathroom, trying to keep from falling over his own jeans.
Scarlet swallowed the giggle and stepped out of the one jean leg that was still in place. She glanced from that stack of clothing to the shirts on the lower level and sighed, stretching out on the bed and pulling the pillow over her head.
She gave herself a few points for only jumping a little when his palm began caressing along one leg and onto her ass. She didn’t waste energy trying to understand how he could make her feel so sexy so fast. The sensations were too good to ignore.
“You alive in there?” Lucas stretched out at her side, his palm stroking possessively down the center of her back and around the curved handful of her behind.
“I intended to talk to you before this happened again,” she said with a little sigh, lifting the pillow and meeting his stare.
“This being the…now, Lucas, here…this?”
“Beast,” she growled good-naturedly, tucking the pillow beneath her head and watching his lips curl into that sexy grin.
“That’s a given,” he whispered against her mouth. “I don’t want you to leave, Scarlet. I need you. I want you with me.”
“You didn’t need me to handle those girls, Lucas,” she felt her heart thumping wildly, the dark green of his eyes intense and piercing. “One good snarl and they’d have taken off scared to death.”
“Those two are daughters of two of the higher council members,” he answered with a sigh. “If I had reacted the way I wanted, it would have caused problems,” he saw understanding in her eyes. “They were questioning why I hadn’t canceled the pair bonding for the last few years.”
“That is a little puzzling,” she said softly.
“I didn’t want them. I wanted you. I’ve wanted you since we were kids,” he laughed, amazed at how big her eyes could get. “And I also knew that you’d run for the hills if I’d come out and told you that in the beginning.”
“You don’t know me. You didn’t know me. Why should I believe…” She shook her head and tried to push back, only to find herself pulled back against his chest.
“No. You’re not running now. You’re listening. I didn’t search for you because I knew we both needed time. I’ve known where you were for the last five years, Scarlet. I’ve been visiting and watching you,” he watched his words register.
“Why didn’t you just come talk to me?”
“Would you have listened? I knew you shut down for the winter and decided we needed to spend time together. I needed to know if what I remembered was real,” he felt his heart laid out on the ground. “I remembered the girl who defended Jess. You used to hide behind this mass of long, dark curls. The day I found you standing over the kid beating on Jess…you had such a fierce look in your eyes,” he brought one hand up, fingers toying with the thick curls at the side of her face.
“I don’t know if it was you I was afraid of or coming back here, Lucas,” Scarlet said after a long minute, her eyes on the line of his jaw. “Maybe both, a little. I know it’s stirred up a lot of old gossip…my being here.”
“One of many stories being thrown about at the moment,” Lucas said with a laugh. She wasn’t running were the only words echoing in his mind.
Scarlet laid her palm against his chest, letting it slide higher. Amber coils slipped over her finger nails and beneath her hand as it moved to his shoulder and across the expanse to his throat.
She stared at the uneven strands of straw, fingertips brushing them behind his ear. She’d been questioni
ng not only the attraction she felt, but the interesting sense of power inside her. Her touch had his body reacting. Her kiss had his temperature rising, along with his cock. It pressed hotly between them, begging for her attention.
Lucas closed his eyes. A shudder ran through him when she leaned closer, soft, full lips kissing over his chest to his throat. He didn’t offer resistance when she pressed against him until he lay flat on the bed.
“You want me to stay here,” Scarlet trailed kisses over his chest, her fingers trailing over the flat of his stomach to curl around the hard shaft. She laid her head on his ribs, staring at the shape, the thick pulsing veins her fingers stroked ever so lightly. She felt him shiver. “You want me to stay with you. Not because of the pack of some females with designs on you.”
“I want you. Period, Scarlet,” Lucas let the sensual shiver flow through him.
“I don’t share, Lucas. I’ve never felt the way I do when we’re together.”
“I’m not asking you to share, Scarlet…because believe me, I sure as hell don’t,” those last words came out in a low, needy growl when her palm tightened around him, moving in a slow, seductive stroke along the length of him. He felt the sharp edge of her nails, her fingers cupping him gently, dragging them over his flesh.
“And I’m not breakable. I’m not a child. I’m not a fixture,” she whispered, her hot breath stroking over him seconds before her tongue followed.
One of his hands was trapped by her body, the other rose but she took him firmly in her mouth and pulled him deeper, her tongue snaking around and down and over each ridge and indent. His palm fell to the bed, fingers wrapped around a clump of blanket.
“Christ…Scarlet…”
“My turn, Lucas…I might be slow learning, but I do learn and I want all of you because I’m giving you all of me,” she murmured against him, kissing down the length of him to the thick base. “But you need to do some learning, too,” she said firmly, quickly sucking him deep into her mouth, satisfied that he was too distracted to comment at the moment.
Devil Hills: #1 Scarlet, Lexi & Lily Page 17
