Hell on Wheels

by Karen Kelley

  She glanced at the wall. “It’s my job.”

  “It’s mine, too, but I don’t have to live with the bastards.”

  “Could we change the subject?”

  “Okay, talk about something else.”

  What the hell was she supposed to talk about? The weather? It was hot yesterday, it was hot today, and it would more than likely be hot tomorrow. No, that would put the most wide awake person to sleep.

  “You’re not talking,” he mumbled.

  “I’m not the talkative kind.”

  He rolled onto his side and opened one eye. “A woman who doesn’t like to talk. You know, if you’re not careful they might want to clone you.”

  “Funny.”

  “So, what made you want to become a bounty hunter?”

  A fairly safe topic. She sat down in the chair and propped her feet on the ottoman. “It was the only kind of work that I thought I would be really good at.” The years rolled away. “I was twenty-one and thinking I could take on just about anyone.”

  He chuckled, then moaned. “Remind me not to do that. I know what you mean, though. I was the same way. Invincible. Nothing could touch me.”

  “I grew up fast, though,” she continued. “My first skip knocked some of the wind out of my sails when he got the jump on me. He laughed the whole time he was tying me up. Damn, I was pissed, and so embarrassed I wiggled my hands until I got loose, too stubborn to call out for help. Then I tracked the skip. I had him in cuffs and sitting in jail before he knew what had happened.”

  “Why didn’t you become a cop?”

  For a moment, she’d forgotten Josh was in the room. She blinked her eyes to clear away the past. “Too much structure. I like being my own boss.”

  How long was someone with a head injury supposed to stay awake? All this chumminess was starting to wear thin.

  “Who taught you to fight?”

  “You ask too many questions.” She stood. “I’m beat. If you start feeling…sick or whatever, call out.”

  She hurried out of the room before he could say another word. Once she was safely behind her door, she leaned against it. No, bringing Josh home with her hadn’t been the best idea she’d ever come up with.

  For just a little while, she’d been comfortable sitting in the dimly lit living room and talking.

  Too comfortable.

  She pushed away from the door, stripping off her shirt. Josh’s wallet was still in her pants pocket. She tossed it in her bedside drawer. He could get it in the morning. She damn well wasn’t going back in the living room.

  Lord, she hoped he didn’t croak during the night. The last thing she wanted to explain was a dead body in her apartment. The neighbors already thought she was weird. Besides, she sort of liked him…a little. At least enough that she didn’t want him to come to harm.

  He’d probably be sore when he woke up in the morning, too. Especially after sleeping all night in his clothes. She should at least go back in there and help him take off his boots.

  Maybe unbutton the top button of his jeans, slide the zipper down so he’d rest easier. In fact, it wouldn’t hurt to remove his pants. He’d certainly sleep a lot better. All she’d have to do would be to shove them over his hips…Her mouth began to water. Over his hips and down his legs, and if she accidentally brushed against anything…

  Oh, you are so sick, Cody.

  She quickly stripped off her clothes and climbed into bed before she could change her mind, pulling the sheet under her arm as she lay on her side.

  Maybe the itch she had would be gone by morning.

  Josh would make a good itch scratcher, and if she were entirely honest, then she would admit no other man had satisfied her like he had. But she wasn’t quite ready to be that honest with herself.

  It was going to be a long damn night.

  She yawned and closed her eyes, praying for a dreamless sleep.

  He couldn’t stop them. Why in the hell couldn’t he stop them? No matter where he ran, they kept coming.

  Josh flung his arm out; it connected with something cold and hard. His gun? He needed his gun. He reached forward, felt along the hard ground, but he couldn’t find his revolver and it was so dark that he couldn’t see a damn thing.

  “Josh?”

  Her voice. Run! He wanted to scream at her to run, but the words wouldn’t come. It was so damn dark. Where the hell was she?

  God, they were getting closer. He could hear their footsteps tromping through the underbrush. He had to find her…get her to safety.

  “Josh, wake up. You’re having a bad dream. Please, wake up.”

  Chapter 6

  Josh dragged himself out of the dregs of his nightmare. A small light cast shadows about the sparsely furnished room. He blinked several times. These shadows were different from the ones in his nightmare. These were cold, stark…but safe.

  The room swam in front of him, his head pounding as he sat up. He grabbed the edge of the sofa to keep from falling flat on his face on the hardwood floor. A small hand touched his shoulder, adding support.

  “You okay?” a soft voice asked.

  His stomach settled as the last vestiges of his nightmare were swept away by the sweet sound. Nice. He didn’t want to think about the dream. Her voice pushed it back to the far corners of his mind.

  He never wanted to think about the dream. Someday he would have to face what had happened, let all the pain and anguish sweep over him, but he couldn’t do it right now. Just the thought scared the hell out of him, made him vulnerable.

  So he pushed it away and pretended it had happened to someone else—wished it had happened to someone else.

  But it hadn’t. The awful truth was always there, just around the corner, waiting to pounce whenever he let his guard down.

  He drew in a tired breath and looked at the face wavering above him. A few seconds passed. The face came into focus. Cody? What was she doing here?

  Had he gotten lucky again?

  He snorted. Not likely. If he had, he wouldn’t have had the nightmare.

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re in my apartment.”

  “My throat’s dry.” He reached up and massaged the back of his neck. “I feel like someone hit me with a two-by-four.”

  “Actually, it was a beer bottle.” She stood. “I’ll get you something to drink.” She glided from the room like a specter in a silky, mossy green robe.

  He blinked several times to clear his vision. Was he still dreaming? Not a nightmare this time, that was for damn sure. More like a fantasy.

  He took stock of his situation. He was in her apartment, it was the middle of the night and she was wearing a thin robe, and from the way her nipples had pushed against the material, he had a feeling she was naked underneath. At least, damn near it. His body began to throb.

  Not now. All he needed on top of everything else was a world-class boner. His head and his dick throbbing. What the hell was he even doing in her apartment? Especially when he was on the couch and she’d apparently been in her bed and they’d both been sleeping.

  He rubbed his forehead as if that would clear away the cobwebs. The last thing he remembered was shooting pool with her.

  A smile curved his lips.

  She’d looked damned hot. It had been all he could do to concentrate on the game. She’d lost.

  He closed his eyes against a sudden, sharp pain. When it eased, he tried to remember what happened next. Oh yeah, supper. Great steak, lousy conversation.

  Ah, it was starting to come back to him. The man who’d grabbed Cody. Anger built inside him. The bastard had his nerve. Just as quickly, his anger dissolved. She’d gotten in her two cents. That was one man who would think twice before he pulled a woman onto his lap again.

  Josh rubbed his knuckles. He’d gotten in one good punch. Everything was fine until that crazy woman hit him over the head. Ah, right. That’s what had happened to him, why his head continued to pound and why everything after that was fuzzy.


  How had he gotten home? Or at least to Cody’s apartment?

  Cold chills ran up and down his arms.

  Crap! Where was his car? He stood. The room spun. He caught the arm of the sofa and sat back down with a hard thud. As soon as his head stopped pounding, he looked down at his feet. He couldn’t go anywhere. No boots. Vaguely, he remembered tugging them off during the night.

  The light was dim so he felt around on the floor. His hand brushed the worn leather of his boot just under the edge of the couch. He found the other one at the end. Damn it, how could he leave the Mustang parked at The Blue Eagle? He began yanking his boots on, even though his head was splitting in two.

  “Going someplace?”

  Cody stopped in front of him with a glass of water in one hand and two white tablets on the palm of her other.

  “Tylenol,” she explained.

  Pain killers first, then his car. He scooped the pills up, popping them in his mouth before reaching for the water. “Bless you.”

  “That’s a first. I don’t think I’ve ever been blessed before. Damned a few times, but never blessed.”

  What was she talking about? It didn’t matter. He swallowed the pills with half the water. God, water had never tasted so good.

  “My car,” he explained, setting the glass on the end table and sticking his foot in one of his boots.

  She sat in the chair. “It’s very cherry.”

  “What would you know about it?” He grabbed his other boot without looking up.

  “I drove it here.”

  It took a few seconds for her words to sink in. He could feel the color drain from his face. No one drove the Mustang. No one. His best friend Wade had never driven the Mustang. God, that crazy woman must’ve really banged him a good one if he didn’t even remember someone driving his car.

  “You were certainly in no shape to drive.”

  “What about your Harley?”

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve left my bike with Joe so I know he’ll take good care of it, but I didn’t think you’d want to leave the Mustang in the parking lot all night. I brought you and the car here.”

  When she shrugged, the robe slipped off one shoulder. He sucked in a mouthful of air, causing his head to pound harder. Cody seemed quite oblivious that she wasn’t helping his condition as she casually pulled the robe back into place.

  “I’d better get home,” he mumbled. Either that or he’d be sorely tempted to throw her down on the floor and make love to her. When he stood, the room swayed.

  Cody jumped up, grabbing him around the waist. He grabbed her shoulders, her body pressed against his. The room stopped moving, but now he had a different problem—his body’s reaction to her nearness.

  He swallowed hard. Damn, her breasts were crushed against his chest, her hard little nipples poking him. The only thing separating bare chest from bare chest was his thin shirt and her thinner robe.

  All thoughts ceased as he surrendered himself to the sensations she stirred inside him. It was doubtful he could’ve done anything else.

  He wrapped his arms tighter around her, pulling her closer. “Have I ever told you how great you smell?” He nuzzled her neck as the room stopped spinning and his equilibrium returned.

  “Yeah, you’ve mentioned it a few times,” she said in a breathless whisper.

  “Really? I don’t remember. You smell like coconut and pineapples. It makes me think about a tropical paradise. You take me on a fantasy every time I get close to you.”

  His hands slid over her back and down to her bottom. He was right; she wasn’t wearing anything beneath the robe. All he had to do was pull the belt and it would fall open.

  “Maybe you should sit before you fall down,” she said, breaking into his thoughts, but her voice cracked. He knew she felt the same thing.

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve been hit over the head. I’ll survive that, I’m just not sure I’ll survive being this close to you and not doing anything about it.” Damn, she was going to be the death of him. “I want to make love to you.”

  “I offered you my sofa. Nothing more.”

  He was afraid she’d say something like that. She was running away again.

  “You can’t blame a guy for asking,” he told her.

  Before he let her go, he tilted her chin and lowered his mouth to hers. He’d meant the kiss to be short, but as soon as he tasted her lips, her mouth, it deepened into something more. He caressed her tongue, her heat almost burning him.

  She broke off the kiss, but didn’t move from his arms. “You’re a player, Josh.”

  “Then come play with me. You know you want to.”

  Silence.

  “You’re right, I do.” She looked up at him. “I swear, if I see a notch on your belt…”

  “Never.”

  “I’m a fool, but I want to feel you inside me. I want what we had the last time.”

  He buried his face in her hair. “No more than I do, sweet lady. Damn, I love the way you smell.” He hugged her close to him for a moment, breathing in her heady fragrance.

  It still wasn’t enough. He stepped back, tugging the belt of her robe loose, letting the ties fall to the side. She sucked in a breath when he ran his hand over the soft material.

  His gaze met hers, then lowered as he slipped his fingers beneath the silk, trailing along the underside of one breast. The torture of feeling but not seeing was exquisite.

  And one he couldn’t stand for long. He pushed the robe off to one side, marveling at the perfection of her breast: dusky areola and tight nipple.

  He pushed the other side of the robe off her shoulder. It slid to the floor in a silky puddle and she stood there, gloriously naked.

  “I think I could stare at you forever.” He brushed his knuckles over her shoulder and down one breast before cupping them in his hands.

  She grabbed his shoulders to steady herself.

  “I love the way you feel—soft in all the right places.” He tweaked her nipples, tugging on them while gently massaging.

  “You make my knees weak.”

  He liked knowing he could do that to her. He sat on the sofa, tugging her onto his lap, but at the last minute she straddled his legs, her hands tugging at his shirt.

  “If you think you’ve seduced me, then think again.” She pulled his shirt over his head. “I want you as much as you want me.”

  “Ah, sweetheart, you can be the seducer.”

  She tossed his shirt on the floor. “No, we’re equal. Nothing more, nothing less. Then when we walk away there’ll be no regrets. Agreed?”

  He opened his mouth, then closed it. Damn it, why did she have to be so tough all the time? Why did she have to guard her heart? But then, he didn’t think he’d find her nearly as exciting if she were any different.

  “Equal,” he said, rubbing her shoulders. He felt the tension drain away from her.

  She smiled, running her hands over his chest, brushing across his nipples, stoking the flame that already burned deep inside him.

  “You’re right. This is nice.”

  Temptation beckoned. He nudged her closer, his mouth covering first one breast, then the other. She moaned from deep in her throat, as if everything inside her had been building since the last time they’d been together.

  What was it about this woman that he couldn’t get enough of her?

  His hand tangled in her hair, pulling her mouth down to his. She tasted like peppermint toothpaste: clean, fresh. He couldn’t get enough of kissing her, but she pulled back, nipping at his bottom lip. When he started to reach for her, she took his hand.

  “Equal.” Her words were raw with hunger.

  She raised his hand to her mouth, lightly biting his fingertips before drawing his index finger into her mouth. Her tongue curled against it as she sucked, cupping his finger and sending spasms of pleasure through his body.

  He could imagine her mouth somewhere else, drawing him deeper, enclosing him in heat. Her tongue was like a flame, li
cking and sucking.

  She released his finger and leaned forward. “Do you like that?” she whispered close to his ear before she nipped at his earlobe, then tugged on it with her teeth.

  Raising up just slightly, she brushed her breasts across his face. When he opened his mouth, she laughed lightly and leaned down to his other ear. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

  “Do you like it?” she whispered, dipping her tongue inside.

  The blood pounded in his ears. “You know I do.” He reached for her again, but she stood, moving just out of his reach.

  Was she building him up only to let him down like a stone being dropped from the top of a ten-story building? She must have guessed his thoughts because she turned and gave him a saucy smile.

  “I won’t be gone long.”

  Take your time, he thought to himself. Of course, I’ll just be a pile of ashes when you return.

  Closing his eyes, he leaned his head against the back of the sofa, forcing himself to regain control of his body. It wasn’t working. All he could think about was Cody, naked and sitting on his lap.

  Screw it. He undid his pants and kicked out of them, along with his briefs.

  The emptiness of the room surrounded him.

  What if she didn’t return? Surely she wouldn’t be that cruel. He closed his eyes, expelling a deep breath.

  Music began to play from hidden speakers. Soothing, like the sound of waves rolling into shore. Some of the tightness left his body. He heard a slight noise and opened his eyes.

  She came toward him, her body moving across the room with a hypnotic sway. His gaze swept over her, slowing when he got to the thatch of curls at the juncture of her legs. Damn, he wanted to tangle his fingers in those curls, rub his thumb over her clit before tasting what she had to offer.

  When she straddled him, he noticed she had a bottle in her hand. Her gaze moved down him; a smile touched her lips.

  “I see you’re in a hurry,” she commented, eyeing his nakedness.

  “And what exactly are you up to?” he asked.

  Her smile was wicked. “You said you like the tropical scent I wear. I just…warmed up a little for you,” she said in a husky voice.