by Kaliana Cole
Luke saw the instant relief when she plunged the arm into the bucket of water and ice Brody had fetched. Marley chatted on, asking her what had happened, but Luke finally allowed himself to breathe easy and sat behind her instead of hovering anxiously. It felt like heaven when she relaxed back against him rather than sitting stiffly.
Brody cradled Casey’s foot while Marley examined her sore ankle. The nurse declared it was only bruised but gave Brody an ice pack to hold on it. Her smile was more than a little amused as she looked at them cradling Casey between them.
Andy’s face was the complete opposite when he came over. Luke couldn’t remember seeing the deputy looking so grave. He actually looked straight at Marley instead of avoiding her. “Is she going to be all right?”
“A few bruises and a minor but painful burn. I guarantee she will be sore tomorrow, though. She got thrown a fair way by the blast.”
“This could have been much worse. I need to know what happened from the start.” Andy got out his notepad and jotted down everything from Luke spotting the flames to when he arrived.
“Was anyone else here?”
Marley shook her head and so did Casey. Luke felt a sickening heaviness in his stomach. “The headlights. Brody and I saw a vehicle stop out front about five or ten minutes before we saw the flames.”
The screech of brakes heralded another arrival. All three Whelans spilled out of Zach’s dual cab along with Emma. Luke felt Casey brace herself as her sister came barreling toward her with concern all over her face. He couldn’t help but grin when her whispered prayer of “lord, help me” reached his ears. Emma did look like a worried, blonde tornado hurtling toward them.
They were saved when Ty snagged her arm, effortlessly holding her back from throwing herself upon Casey. “Settle down, darlin’. I think Casey’s got enough hands on her for now.”
Emma glared at his hand until the big man dropped it slowly, but it had slowed her down. “Are you all right? What happened?”
“I’m okay, just a few bruises. We’re trying to work out what happened.”
The deputy cleared his throat to get their attention. “Luke, can I get you and Brody to come with me?” Andy turned to the three Whelan brothers. “You lot, too. I’m sure Casey will be fine with Emma and Marley.”
Luke slipped reluctantly from behind Casey and couldn’t resist dropping a kiss on her temple. Brody looked like he was just as reluctant to release her leg from his lap, but they left the women together and followed Andy. He stopped on the other side of the fire engine, where a second man was waiting. Beneath the protective suit and the soot it could have been anyone, but there were only two men that big in Liberty Springs and Luke knew Ty was standing right beside him.
“This wasn’t an accident, guys,” Danny Blake rumbled quietly. “At first it looked as if the car might have combusted and ignited the house, but the point of ignition is actually inside the house. Would that third window have been already open?”
Luke looked at the window in question and realized it was Colby’s old room. The one she had been trying to air the smell out of. “Yeah, she leaves that one open. The room is completely empty.” Luke ignored the sharp looks Colb and Zach were giving him.
“Well there’s broken glass on the floor now and evidence of accelerant. There is not much left of Marley’s car, but it could have only been a separate blaze. Now, a car can combust for any number of reasons, but not one that I maintain. I only had it in for a service last week. There was nothing wrong with that vehicle. These were deliberately lit. You have got an arsonist on your hands, Andy.” It was easy to forget that Danny Blake was more than a small town mechanic with a checkered past. His time in the military wasn’t talked about much, least of all by him, but the discreet Ranger tattoo rarely glimpsed on the big man’s shoulder told its own story.
“Just what I fucking need.” Andy ran his hand tiredly down his face. “Okay, the last problem we had here was mainly because a certain little blonde was keeping secrets. How much baggage did Casey bring with her?”
“Someone was sabotaging Casey’s machinery in Carson City. Dusting engines, stealing fuel, defacing equipment—that kind of thing. That’s why she moved here.” Zach shrugged. “Vandalism is a far cry from arson. Casey thought it was work-related, that someone was lashing out because she got their contract or something. It’s not something that should have followed her here.”
“I’ll get some details from her and chase that angle up.”
“It was Marley’s car that took the brunt of it. What if it was aimed at her?” Danny suggested quietly.
“Marley doesn’t piss anybody off but me,” Andy grumbled. “Ty, I’m assuming you’ve got insurance and such?”
“It’s all covered. I’ll make some calls and sort it out. The damage doesn’t look that bad. It’s mainly the siding and Colb’s old room. That’s no loss—fire’d be about the only way to get rid of the smell anyway.”
“We can take a look in the morning if you want a quote for the insurance company.”
“I’d appreciate that, Brody.”
“You’re going to have to wait until I get an arson investigation unit here. Nobody was seriously injured, so it may take some time. It won’t get priority at all, and I have to maintain the integrity of the crime scene.” Andy was clearly pissed. “I don’t need this shit.”
Danny gave the cheeky grin that would have got him in a lot of grief if he weren’t so damn big. “Casey won’t be able to live here for a week at least. Where’s she gonna stay?”
Zach and Colb spoke up at the same time that Luke and Brody did, but Ty put his hand up. “When are you idiots going to learn? It’s Casey’s call, no one else’s. Let’s go and see what she wants to do.”
The smothered, panicking look on Casey’s face as Emma hovered over her gave Luke immediate hope. Her eyes were pleading for him to get her out of the situation. Brody caught his eye and a small smile touched his lips, too. Casey was not happy with her sister’s overzealous attention.
“Tell her I will be fine, Luke. I’m quite capable of looking after myself. There’s not that much damage to the house.”
“Actually, sweetheart, you won’t be able to go back into the house until a crime scene crew does an investigation. And then we have to do an assessment. The fire is the least of the problem. The water damage will have affected the whole front of the house. None of your windows were shut.”
“I can’t stay here?”
“Not for a week at least.”
“You can come and stay with us. We have loads of room,” Emma insisted, but Luke saw Casey cringe at the suggestion.
“Our spare room is empty. You’re welcome to it.”
“She can’t stay with you. She can’t even go in there to get any clothes out,” Emma was quick to protest, pointing at the charred and smoke-stained building.
“And like your clothes are gonna fit me. It’s closer to home and it will be easier for me to come and get what I need. The last time I checked, they were still making clothes and such. I’ll head into town and get enough to get me through. ”
Emma went to protest again, but Ty told her that Casey was a big girl now and she had made her decision. It didn’t go down too well, but between the three of them, the Whelan brothers managed to get her bundled back into the car.
Casey breathed a sigh of relief when Zach’s truck peeled out. “Thank God for that. There is no way I’m staying in their little love nest. I can’t watch Em get all gooey over them, it’s sickening.”
“Let’s get you home then. Can you stand on that ankle or do I have to carry you again?”
“Help me up and I’ll see how it is.” Between them they lifted her to her feet. She placed weight on the injured ankle slowly but was soon standing on it. “It’s fine.”
Marley came over with a gel cold pack. “Take this with you. Keep it on the burn, ten minutes on, ten minutes off until it doesn’t hurt anymore, and don’t pop the blisters.”
; “Thanks, Marley.” Luke looked around. “If you want a ride, come back to our place with us and one of us will run you home if you like.”
“What, and miss an opportunity to rub Andy up the wrong way? You’ve got to be kidding.” Marley flashed him a big smile and headed in the direction of the beleaguered deputy.
“Come on, let’s get to the truck before Emma changes her mind and talks those three into coming back to rescue me.”
“You can’t drive like that, sweetheart. Where are your keys?”
“In the ignition, Luke, and you are not driving my baby. I might let you touch me, but don’t even think of touching that truck. You’re lucky I’m even letting you in it.”
Luke hung his head, suitably chastised, and helped her up into the driver’s seat. And he’d thought men were the ones with unnatural attachments to mechanical objects.
* * * *
“Ten minutes is up. It’s gotta go back on.”
Casey smiled in exasperation. Since they had got to their place nearly an hour ago, Brody had been timing her ice-pack rotation to the second. By the way Luke was grinning he found it just as amusing as she did. “He’s like a frigging mother hen. I swear, if he wakes me up trying to get me to put it on or take it off once I go to sleep, he’s going to find that ice pack jammed where the sun don’t shine.”
Luke’s smile warmed her through. He had one of those mischievous, little-boy grins that left you powerless to do anything but smile back. Lying down on their three-seater couch with her legs over his lap, she felt its full devastating potential “Here, he’s coming. You had better put it back on.” Luke passed the gel pack just in time.
Brody strolled back in to the living room looking fresh from his shower and adding to the toe-curling, fuck-me scent of that decadent bodywash that permeated the whole room. His eyes went straight to her injured arm. Casey strove to restrain the grin playing at the corners of her mouth, but it was hard with suspicion so easy to see in his gaze. The sight of his bare chest didn’t help with her powers of concentration either.
Brody’s eyes flicked lower than the hand lying beside her head on the arm of the couch. “That shirt looks better on you than it ever did on Luke.”
Casey glanced down and saw her nipples straining the front of the soft T-shirt. “That’s a matter of opinion.” For her dime, she’d much prefer to see it molded to Luke’s lean, sculpted chest.
“How is your ankle?”
“It’s fine. It’s just bruised, Brody. There’s no real damage. The wrist isn’t much worse. In a couple of days it will just be shiny skin. You’re fussing over nothing.”
Casey saw Luke roll his eyes a second before Brody exploded. It was hard keeping a straight face when Luke was just so amused by it all. “Nothing? A fucking car blew up and threw you ten feet, and it was nothing? My heart fucking stopped. I thought you were gone, Casey.”
“As you can see, I am here and I’m a little bruised, but I’m okay, Brody. Sit down before you pop something. That vein on your temple looks like it’s gonna burst.”
Luke was fit to burst, too, but it was mirth taking hold of him. “You’re not going to win, Brode. If Casey isn’t all upset over it, don’t worry yourself. Just plant your ass and settle down.”
Casey watched him look around at the possibilities. It was clear he didn’t want to be too far away. The look he shot Luke was just plain jealous. Brode had been touching her ever since she’d said she would stay with them rather than go home with Emma. She suspected it was more for his reassurance than hers. There was nothing like a little mortal danger to make a man’s protective instincts to kick in, and for him to make more of that basic male impulse than what it was. He probably fancied himself in love. “For fuck’s sake, Brody, I’m not going to disappear if you stop touching me. Sit down here if you really need to touch me. You can have my good arm.”
Luke clearly found it all hilarious, but there was real warmth in his gaze as he watched Brody sink to the bearskin rug and tug her arm around him until her palm lay on his chest. Crisp hair tickled her fingers, but the heat and hardness beneath caught her breath and closed her eyes. Luke’s chocolate gaze was all but melting when she opened them back up. His big hand caressed her ankle gently, the calluses scraping deliciously across the fine, pale skin.
Even with arousal simmering deep within, Casey felt safe and protected. A girl could definitely get used to this. She swiftly shut her heart before it could succumb to the same after-danger folly that clearly held Brody in sway. Luke’s smile held an almost mocking twist, but Casey closed her eyes and allowed fatigue to overcome her.
She wasn’t sure if she imagined or actually heard the rough whisper that followed her into sleep, “You just keep fighting it, baby. We’ll steal your heart yet, sweetheart, and we ain’t giving it back.”
Chapter 10
Dawn had long since come and gone when Casey opened her eyes and struggled to get her bearings. She ached all over. Not acute, identifiable pangs, but a generalized soreness that felt as if not one inch of her had been spared. The night came back in bold relief. The fire, the explosion, and her subsequent move to the Marshalls’ house were easily remembered. Even in the harsh light of day she didn’t regret that decision. It had seemed the lesser of two evils then and it held up now—Brody and Luke were child’s play to put up with compared to an overprotective sister who was still in the gagging, upchuck, honeymoon stage with her three lovers.
She looked around, slightly disconcerted. She remembered falling asleep on the sofa and had no recollection of relocating to the spare room—the very room in which she had first sampled the forbidden, carnal fruit Luke and Brody had to offer. Movement at the door snared her attention. Luke was propping up the doorjamb, his stance as lazy as the grin that curled his lips. Faded jeans clad his legs, leaving his chest and feet sexily bared. “Morning, Case. How are you feeling?”
She stretched to ascertain the extent of her soreness. “A bit stiff and sore, but my wrist doesn’t hurt much anymore. How did I end up in here?”
“Brode decided you would wake up with a sore neck if you slept on the couch.”
“He carried me again, didn’t he?”
“Yep. I don’t understand your reluctance about that, sweetheart. You might be a big girl to those boys you were used to back in Carson City, but you don’t weigh much more than a feather to us, Case.” He pushed away from the door frame and ambled toward the bed. “Now what would make you feel better, Tylenol or a rubdown?” He pushed her hair back from her eyes with a gentle touch, his smile tender.
“How about both?”
“Greedy wench, aren’t you? I’ll get pills and some oil.”
Casey watched him walk away with more than a touch of avarice in her gaze. Luke Marshall was fucking irresistible, and he had the cutest ass on God’s green earth.
He returned before long with coffee, juice, pills, and a bottle of baby oil, but Casey found her indolent gaze was reluctant to leave his broad chest with its dusting of dark blond curls. “Don’t be looking at me like that now. I’m trying to be a good boy and ignore that you look like a sleepy, little sex kitten just waiting to purr. Here, have your pills and a drink and I’ll give those sore muscles a rub.”
Rolling to her stomach, Casey tossed the pills back with a few swallows of juice. “I’ll have the coffee later. I don’t feel like waking right up quite yet.”
Luke smiled and put the tray aside. The mattress sank down as he knelt atop it. “Okay, sleepyhead, lose the shirt and you can go back to sleep.”
Somehow, Casey doubted that. The last thing she felt like doing with Luke’s big rough hands on her was sleeping. Instead of reaching for her shirt, she extended her hands above her head in mute request. Luke chuckled as he complied and tugged her shirt off. It was a struggle with her lying down, but he was exquisitely gentle as he removed her burnt wrist from the soft material. Casey nearly melted when his hand caressed the length of her spine from the small of her back above her sheet-cover
ed ass to her nape. He gathered her hair, twisted it into a long rope, and lifted it out of the way. She felt like purring just like the kitten he’d accused her of being as she buried her head deeper in the pillow.
He must have warmed the oil because there was no jarring cold as he spread it over her back, just the heated touch of his callused hands sliding frictionless across her skin. Aches and pains melted beneath his strong touch as he worked every inch of her back and shoulders. Casey’s eyes fluttered closed as she floated in a pleasurable haze, absorbing his heavenly slow hands. They heated even as they soothed, enticing and lulling all at once. “God, you’ve got magic hands.”
“My horses have always thought so. You’re a lot less hairy than what I’m normally rubbing down. You purr a lot more, too.”
“Mmm.” It was the best Casey could do in the circumstances.
“Are you sore all over, or do you want me to stop at your back?”
Stop? Was he mad? “Sore everywhere.”
“Everywhere, huh?” She could hear the heated amusement in his rough voice.
“Everywhere.” Casey didn’t care what he did as long as he kept touching her.
The sheet skimmed down her bare legs, and she could actually feel the hot weight of his gaze following. His breath exploded from his throat, “Shit, sweetheart. You ought to give me a little warning. Men have had heart attacks over less than this.”
His hand stroked over the bare globe of her ass and a smile grew on her lips. It had actually slipped her mind that she wasn’t wearing any panties. Well, Luke was a big boy, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it before—he’d get over it.
“I’m gonna kill Brody for that stupid promise he made. I can’t behave myself with you looking like this.” Casey felt the caress of his breath a heartbeat before he pressed a kiss to her ass cheek. “Oh, Christ! You smell so good, like warm, wet, woman. How the fuck am I supposed to be good now?”
