Kansas Nights [Kansas Heat 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jenny Penn

  Hell, he might punish her right here and now if she didn’t stop rubbing those tits against Larry’s arms. Jack might like to share, but only on his terms. Kathy had to see him coming, which meant that smile she beamed so adoringly up at the blushing Larry could only be for Jack’s benefit. Like he’d ever be jealous of a toothpick. He could snap the fucker in two without working up a sweat.

  It certainly didn’t take any effort to yank Kathy back to her feet. Coming up to side of the table, he latched onto her soft arm and pulled her right off her lush ass. Without so much as bothering to explain himself, he turned and started marching away with her in tow. Stubborn woman that she was, though, Kathy held on to the edge of the table, refusing to let him drag her off.

  Jack could have forced the issue, but then he’d probably have to have a moment with the ranch hands casting narrowed glances in their direction. He knew they weren’t fans of his any more than the woman grunting as she clung to the edge of the booth.

  “Was there something you wanted, Mr. Daniels?” Kathy managed to grind those words out as she tensed against his strength.

  “Yeah, a word.” He wouldn’t give her the dignity of calling her Miss anything. He’d read her file, her thick, didn’t-belong-to-any-proper-law-abiding-female file.

  “Well, I believe you just had one.” Kathy forced a smile as her knuckles went white under the strain. While she clearly did not intend to let go, the table itself gave and slowly, bit by bit, started grinding across the floor.

  “Now I want another.”

  Jack eased up his hold for a second before jerking hard and causing Kathy to come stumbling into his side. Before the little woman could try and escape him again, he settled an arm over her shoulders and bound her to him.

  “Besides”—he shot a warning glare at the man still sitting in the booth, looking unsure of what to do—“Larry doesn’t mind. Do you?”

  “I…no…it’s…”

  “Save it, Larry,” Kathy cut across his stammers, showing her true colors with her sharp tone. “He’s just being obnoxious because he thinks all those muscles give him the right to boss the rest of us around. Don’t worry. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Now there was the woman who’d told Amanda the next time she came out to the ranch, she’d bring a rope and round up a few thick heads. Jack had Kathy on tape telling her friend she wanted at least three good studs so she could glow as bright as Amanda. She probably thought that had been a private conversation. It hadn’t been.

  “You know, Mr. Daniels, your pick-up technique needs some work.” Not bothering to struggle as he escorted her back toward the bar, Kathy still managed to preen with the kind of irritated arrogance that made sure Jack knew she thought she was better than him in that moment. “I guess you can’t be blamed, though, as good looking as you are. I’m sure no woman ever bothered to teach you any manners.”

  “And trust me, honey, you ain’t going to. Now sit.” Jack pulled out a stool and waited.

  The beginnings of a smile tugged at the corners of Kathy’s lips, as she glanced from him to the seat. Her hesitation left him feeling strangely awkward and Jack could feel his ears flare with a blush, an occurrence that hadn’t happened in over twenty years.

  The amusement shining in her gaze didn’t ease his embarrassment, but only added to it. Even as Jack felt his cheeks bloom with heat, Kathy stepped in close to bathe him in her sweet, alluring scent. The tantalizing perfume matched the husky dip her tone took. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to teach you anything, Mr. Daniels,” Kathy assured him, pouting her lips with enough of an invitation to have Jack growling as he fought back the urge to give in to temptation and dip his head...or maybe she could dip hers. Jack’s fingers curled into a fist, aching to twine through Kathy’s silky tresses and force her down onto her knees. Then—

  “I wouldn’t waste my time, though.” Heaving a deep, dramatic sigh, Kathy stepped back to cast him a clearly forced frown. “I suggest you not bother wasting yours because trust me, honey, I’m even harder to tame than you.”

  Jack couldn’t remember one time that a woman had had the audacity to walk away from him. That didn’t stop Kathy from doing it twice in less than ten minutes. He didn’t know how it was he got stuck chasing after her again.

  Catching up with her by the exit, he managed to slap the door closed before she even got it halfway open. Leaving his arm resting on the metal surface, he caged her in with his body, making sure she stayed put this time.

  “I thought you had something you wanted to tell me about Will McKinney.”

  “Maybe I changed my mind.” Kathy smiled politely, batting her eyes dramatically as she cast him a coy look over her shoulder. “Or maybe I just realized you weren’t the man I thought you were.”

  There it was again, the subtle accusation Jack couldn’t leave alone. “And what kind of man was that?”

  “One that wanted to get the hell out of this town,” Kathy answered bluntly, but with a little too much of a smirk to be trusted. “Everybody knows that won’t happen until the money Will stole is found.”

  “Everybody knows that?”

  “It’s a small town, Mr. Daniels. If somebody knows something, everybody knows it.”

  Jack couldn’t help but take that comment as a thinly veiled threat. He responded in kind, his muscles stiffening as his tone deepened into its own warning growl. “I’m starting to get annoyed again, Miss Coben.”

  “Did I blink and miss the second when you weren’t?”

  Battling the urge to snatch her up and teach her a few manners, Jack took a calming breath and forced his fingers to uncurl from their fists. He’d never lost his control in the field and never lost it with a woman, but damn if Kathy Coben didn’t test his strength. Worse, the woman knew it, too.

  “Oh, did I upset the big, bad man?” Kathy cooed in a girly voice clearly meant to challenge his manhood yet again.

  “Trust me, darling, you’ll know when I’m upset.”

  “And trust me, Mr. Daniels, it wasn’t my intention to arouse your temper.” Kathy matched that breathless whisper with a wicked smile that had Jack going tense in all the wrong kinds of ways. “However, it seems your foul mood is a permanent disposition. What a shame.”

  With that dismissal, Kathy reached out and slid her fingertips right up under his shirt, tickling his side in an unexpected move that had Jack rearing back. She took instant advantage to slip out the door and left him looking like an idiot.

  Growling as the heat in his ears spread across his cheeks, Jack slammed through the door and stormed after Kathy, who was click-clacking her way down the sidewalk on those ridiculous three-inch heels. By the end of the night that’s all she’d be wearing.

  Hypnotized by the sway and bounce of her luscious ass, Jack decided then and there he’d definitely strip her down to nothing but those heels and make her strut for him. For a second he completely forgot about catching up to her as his mind played out that fantasy, imagining just how good it would feel to walk right up behind her, bend her over, and pump his aching erection deep into the warm, tight heaven of her ass.

  Without thought, his body reacted, and only at the last second did he manage to stop himself from grabbing her from behind. Not yet but soon, he wouldn’t have to hesitate.

  Keeping himself in check, Jack went the safe route to bring her to a stop and simply settled his hands down over her shoulders, pressing down with enough force to hold her still. His own feet didn’t hesitate until he’d stepped in close behind her, ensuring she could not only feel the heat but also the full-length hardness of his cock as his hips brushed against hers.

  “Let’s get one thing straight, darling, I don’t like being toyed with.” Keeping his tone low and his words hard, Jack leaned down to growl directly in her ear. “Or teased, and I get outright mad when my time is wasted. You got something you want to tell me, then tell me.”

  Instead of showing an ounce of sense and caving to his temper, Kathy giggled and wiggled free
of his hold. Jack released her without resistance, too afraid his self-control would snap and he’d give in to the urge to pin her up against the side of the bar and show little Miss Coben he wasn’t kidding.

  The woman had absolutely no idea how close she was from having her skirt up around her waist and that ass glowing as he paddled it rosy. If she did, then Kathy wouldn’t have dared to tempt him with a mischievous little smile and a laughing intimidation of his own threat.

  “And let me be quite clear, stud, I don’t give anything away for free.”

  Kathy’s gaze sparkled with the kind of hungry interest Jack was all too accustomed to receiving as she glanced down his body. It didn’t take but a second for those honeyed orbs to land on the massive bulge stretching his jeans taut. Arching a brow and casting him a smug look, Kathy couldn’t seem to help stoke the fires burning in his balls with her devilish taunting.

  “But I sure would like to make a trade. If you’re interested, I’m heading home.”

  With a wink and a sassy toss of her hair the woman walked away from him for the third damned time. Jack still didn’t have any damn choice but to follow. Even if Kathy’s so-called information turned out to be pointless bullshit, Jack had an obligation to every man out there to set the woman straight. Somebody had to before she ran into the wrong man and ended up getting hurt. Jack couldn’t let that happen, wouldn’t let it happen.

  * * * *

  Kathy breathed deep as she watched a set of headlights trail her right into her driveway. Up high and menacing in the pitch black of the night, the bright glare had shadowed her all the way home. If it had been any other night, she’d have driven straight to Tony’s house and let the sheriff deal with the devil following her.

  Only she’d invited this devil to give chase. Taking another steadying breath, Kathy glanced at her own reflection in the rearview mirror. “You can do this. Just hold steady.”

  Trying to feel the confidence those words should have given her, Kathy pushed open her door and headed straight for the curved walkway that led up to her front porch. Small, with faded and peeling paint clinging to the warped wooden boards, Kathy’s rented house had never made her feel poor.

  Right then, though, with Jack’s expensive truck parked bumper-to-bumper with her ancient and multi-colored compact, Kathy couldn’t help being self-conscious. She caught his reflection in the mirror as he stepped down from the truck in fluid motion of strength and power and couldn’t help but wonder what the hell she was doing. This man was so far out of her league in just about every way.

  Sexy as sin, he filled out his clearly expensive clothes to perfection. Kathy, on the other hand, had to make her own dresses if she wanted something to fit right and look fresh. She also needed control-topped panties, push-up bras, three inches of heels, and the right hemline to make herself look like a winner.

  Worse, she had lift up out of her car seat like an old grandma, worrying that her skirt wasn’t stuck into the back of her pantyhose. Even as she lifted up, the rusted hatchback that Kathy had scraped enough money together to buy whined and bounced on its squeaky suspension, making it sound like it had just been released of a great burden.

  Kathy didn’t know which was more embarrassing, the hint that her ass was indeed that fat or that her car was actually that cheap. Jack’s truck sure as hell wasn’t. That was only the beginning of where their differences started.

  Kathy had a grim feeling that while she’d been reading tales of espionage and murder, Jack had been dodging real bullets as he chased after real-life monsters. Actually, if half of what she suspected were true, Kathy figured she might actually end up being arrested.

  This time the charges wouldn’t be something stupid like indecent exposure or vandalism. This time she could actually end up in a prison instead of the county lockup.

  She couldn’t worry about that now, though, not when she had to concentrate on staying a step ahead of the hand Jack used to guide her up the front steps. His presence reinforced the reality of what was about to happen, or would once Kathy managed to get the door open. “I’ve got my key right here…somewhere,” Kathy muttered to herself, all too aware of Jack’s dark gaze tracking her every motion. She tried to still the nerves getting the better of her and focused on plucking the right key. “Here it is.”

  “Allow me.” Before Kathy could object, Jack snatched the ring out of her hand and slid the key into its lock. Her door clicked open, and he pressed it inward with a smoothness that spoke of supreme confidence. One thing for sure, she didn’t have Jack Daniels shaking in his boots.

  “Welcome to my humble abode.” Kathy tried to match his arrogance as she stepped into the doorway and gestured to the living room beyond. “Do come in.”

  Kathy quickly moved out of his way, not wanting to get too close. She remembered all too clearly how it’d felt when he’d rubbed up against her outside the bar, remembered how good he felt, all hot and hard…Closing her eyes, Kathy fought back against the trembling in her muscles, forcing her mind to focus on anything other than the lust thickening in her veins. She needed strength for what came next.

  Fortunately, Jack didn’t appear concerned with her in that moment. His gray gaze swept over the room with a critical eye as his lips thinned in obvious distaste. “You have a, uh”—Jack cleared his throat and glanced about the little-old-lady furnishings—“nice home.”

  “No, I don’t,” Kathy retorted instantly. Dropping her keys and purse on a side table, she headed for the hutch tucked into the corner by the very small fireplace. “But it’s affordable and it came fully furnished. Won’t you have a seat?”

  Jack eyed the couch, and she could almost read the thoughts going through his head. They weren’t original. More than one cowboy had pointed out that her seats were all sized for ladies and not the bulk of a real man. Despite their egos, though, none of the chairs had collapsed under their weight.

  Not that they’d been as big as Jack. Kathy watched him lower himself gingerly onto the worn seat, half hoping he would go straight through the cushions. He didn’t, and she turned back toward the cupboard to find something that would drop him on his ass.

  “So, you rent?” Jack asked politely, though Kathy expected he could honestly care less. Actually she suspected he already knew the answer.

  “Yeah, from Denny Carroll. After his mom, Mattie, died he put the house and everything in it up for sale. Nobody was interested,” Kathy explained absentmindedly as she decided to go with rum. At least if she lost this game, she’d go down drinking her favorite drink.

  “So he put it up for rent and you came along.” Jack filled in the rest of the story as she turned back to him, bottle in hand. “We’re drinking?”

  Remember, sexy, confident, and in charge. You’re too good for Jack Daniels and you know it. Rolling out a slow smile she hoped was filled with naughty promise, Kathy plunged into phase two of her plan with a silent prayer to her maker that this wasn’t a suicide mission.

  “Well, it seems to me, I have something you want.” Letting her eyes slip down to the massive erection straining against his zipper, Kathy tried to gaze at it indulgently instead of just with rapt fascination. Not daring to linger for more than a pointed second, she forced her smile wider as she met his narrowed look once again.

  “And you have something I want. What better way to negotiate a trade than with a drink?”

  Jack’s gaze dropped dubiously to the bottle. He appeared to consider her offer for a moment before he gave her another one of those rough promises that Kathy couldn’t help but think was a hidden threat.

  “I perform better without booze.”

  “How ironic that I perform better with it.”

  “Then maybe you haven’t been playing with the right men, honey.” No arrogance or smugness shined in his smoky gaze as it pinned her beneath that blunt assessment. “Tell you what, I’ll trade you one command for one drink.”

  Setting the glasses down on her coffee table, Kathy hesitated to join him on the
couch, concerned about his use of the word “command.” “And how exactly would that work?”

  “I command. You obey. No hesitation, no questions, no denials.”

  “And what do I get?”

  “Well, since you apparently want to get me drunk”—Jack smiled, a hard, dangerous twist of his lips—“I’ll take that drink every time you live up to your end.”

  “And what about my turn?” Kathy asked, knowing she surprised him with the idea. “Are you going to obey my commands?”

  “Doubtful.” Jack shrugged, pulling the bottle forward. “I don’t want to get you drunk. I want you fresh, alert, and aware, otherwise it’s no fun.”

  “Then I’ll drink every time you disobey.”

  “Fine. I’ll go first.” Jack agreed, but she could see he didn’t like it. Tipping back the bottle, he filled the two shot glasses before picking one up and settling back into the cushions. “The dress, it comes off in the next thirty seconds or I don’t drink.”

  Chapter 2

  “W-T-F, Kathy?”

  “What?” Kathy blinked dumbly as she stared back at Rosy’s outraged expression. That phrase had to mean something bad, because there was nothing good about this situation. Kathy just didn’t know exactly what Rosy had said. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “What the fuck? Is he dead?”

  Kathy glanced down at the man Rosy pointed to. Jack “Daniels” Harrington lay slumped over her couch. Bent at an odd angle, he’d grouched his way into that position before giving over the deep baritone snores that grumbled out of him every few seconds.

  “Would he make that noise if he was?” Kathy shot Rosy a look only to find her friend studying Jack. Passed out, he didn’t look nearly as intimidating. In fact, sleep softened his features enough to make him look almost boyishly sweet.

  It was a lie, like everything else about the man. At least this one was unintentional. Awake, Jack had made no secret of what kind of man he really was—a demanding master who enjoyed making women scream…and beg. Kathy’s pussy pulsed, weeping over the memories so fresh her body still burned with the need he’d driven her to. Blocking out those thoughts before they could completely derail her, Kathy focused on her main problem—getting rid of the man.