Wyoming Fierce Read online

“So you have to get help,” Mallory finished. “God knows we can afford a private therapist, we’ve been very lucky in our diversified stocks and investments, not to mention the prices we command for our seed bulls.”

  “It’s the same old problem,” Cane replied. “I can’t talk to strangers.”

  “Then we’ll find someone you can talk to,” Mallory promised. “Just work with me.”

  Cane hesitated. “Okay,” he said finally. “On one condition.”

  Mallory raised his eyebrows inquisitively.

  “Get out there and keep Tank away from my girl!” Cane said.

  Mallory chuckled. He got to his feet. “I’ll find something for him to do.”

  “Thanks. And…ask Bodie to come up here, will you?” Cane said, hesitation in his tone.

  “I’ll ask.” He emphasized the last word.

  “Tell her I’m sorry again. Then ask her.”

  Mallory chuckled again. “Okay. Anything for my brother.”

  “You guys really are the best. And I’m sorry I put you through this,” Cane said quietly. “I’m going to try to get myself back on track.”

  “That’s all I ask,” Mallory replied. “I’ll be back.”

  He walked out, leaving the door open.

  Cane stared after him, quiet and reserved. He didn’t know what he was going to say to Bodie, but he couldn’t let Tank muscle in on his territory. Bodie was his. He was never going to let go of her. Somehow, he’d come to terms with the distance that separated them on moral issues. It wasn’t as if he was overwhelmed with women who thought he was the handsomest man in the world. He smiled, remembering Bodie’s soft voice in his ear. This, he thought as he noted the small Christmas tree lit on a table in his room, was going to be a Christmas to remember. One way or the other.

  * * *

  TANK WAS HELPING BODIE feed the chickens.

  “At least I don’t have to worry about putting my hand on a snake in here in winter.” Bodie chuckled. “Of course, I don’t have any eggs, either.” She sighed. “I wish chickens laid year-round.”

  Tank looked around the henhouse thoughtfully. “We need to put a new roof on this thing. Can’t have our girls getting wet,” he added with a chuckle, indicating the mixed flock milling around the yard.

  “I love chickens,” Bodie remarked. “Granddaddy used to keep them, when Mama was still alive, before she married Will Jones. I miss having them. This sort of makes up for it. And these hens are friendly.” She reached down and petted one. It made that odd sound that hens made when they were contented, almost like it was talking to her in a happy way.

  “I like chickens, too,” Tank remarked. “I miss the eggs. Store-bought ones just don’t taste the same.”

  “I do agree.”

  Tank looked out over the huge yard. “I’m sorry Cane was so curt with you. I guess he doesn’t realize you sat up with him all night in the hospital.”

  “Cane’s always curt with me,” she replied softly. “I guess I’m getting used to it. It’s not his fault. He likes beautiful girls.”

  Tank turned to face her. “What’s wrong with you?” he teased, smiling as he studied her elfin features, her pale brown eyes, her short, black hair. “I think you’re dishy.”

  She flushed and averted her eyes. It was the first time Tank had ever said anything personal to her. It was flattering, but she only had brotherly feelings for him. She didn’t know what to say.

  “Easy, now,” he said gently, sensing her discomfort. “I was only making a comment. Even a big brother can comment that his baby sister is pretty. Right?”

  She looked up, relief in her features. She smiled shyly. “Right.”

  “Besides—” he sighed, shoving his hands into his jean pockets and looking wistful “—Cane’s already threatened to pummel me if I flirt with you.”

  Her heart jumped into her throat. “What?”

  “He said—”

  “Bodie?” Mallory interrupted.

  She turned, torn between wanting to know what Tank had been about to tell her and being rude to Mallory. “Yes?” she stammered.

  “Cane wants to talk to you.”

  Bodie’s eyes widened, but she didn’t move. “What, he’s thought up another insult and wants to share it?” she asked, trying to sound facetious.

  “He said to apologize again for his bad manners,” Mallory replied with a smile. “If he insults you, throw it right back at him. He’s a man who walks all over people he can buffalo. Don’t let him get away with anything.”

  She drew in a long breath. “I do try. He’s very forceful.”

  “We all are.” Tank chuckled. “But you can cope.”

  “You think so? I wonder.” She handed Tank the container with the chicken feed. “Can you finish feeding the girls?” she asked. “And watch out for Charlie.”

  He blinked. “Charlie?”

  She indicated a preening red rooster nearby. “I always carry a stick when I come out here. He’s spurred me a couple of times. Lucky for me, jeans are thick.” She indicated the stick, which was a small broken limb. “I use that for protection. Doesn’t hurt him, but makes him back off,” she said.

  “I’ve had to use it a time or two, because Morie and Mavie have stopped coming out here at all,” Mallory confessed. “Until you came along, I had to feed the girls. Nice to know Charlie’s met his match.”

  “You should give him to somebody and get a nicer rooster,” Tank commented.

  “No such thing as a nice rooster,” Mallory said dryly. “I’ve never seen one who wouldn’t attack anything moving, especially around a flock of hens. They’re very protective.”

  “Also very tasty,” Tank said with pursed lips. “Remember when we were kids and that big white rooster attacked me and drew blood?”

  Mallory laughed. “Dad went right out and wrung his neck. We had him for supper that night.”

  “He said ‘wasn’t any rooster hurting his baby,’” Tank reminisced. He sighed. “Best chicken dinner I ever had.”

  “Well, you can’t eat Charlie,” Bodie said firmly. “The hens would mourn.”

  “We can always get another rooster,” Tank teased.

  She made a face at him. “I’ll go see what Cane wants.” She sighed. She glanced at Mallory. “Should I take the stick with me?” she wondered aloud.

  Both men laughed.

  * * *

  CANE WATCHED BODIE ENTER the room. She hesitated at the door, her brown eyes worried and uncertain.

  “I won’t bite,” he said quietly. His black eyes scanned her face with an intensity she didn’t remember from any past encounters. “Come on.”

  She moved into the room, to the foot of the bed and stayed there. “How are you?” she asked softly.

  “Better. Ribs still hurt, head’s still rocky, but I’m better.”

  She nodded. “I’m glad. Everybody was worried.”

  “You left me.”

  She flushed. The way he said it was like an accusation, as if it mattered that she hadn’t gone back to see him in the hospital after the night she’d stayed by his bed. That was sheer fantasy. Cane didn’t care about her. He never had.

  “I was just upsetting you,” she stammered. “You didn’t need that.”

  His black eyes stabbed into hers. They narrowed with speculation. “You talked to me.”

  She went scarlet. She swallowed, visibly upset. “The nurses were worried, I think,” she hedged. “I just told you to get better. That’s all.”

  “Is it?”

  She didn’t like the look on his face. It was different. She felt suddenly vulnerable. How much did he remember? Had he heard her embarrassing speech?

  He took pity on her. He didn’t want to make her feel any worse than he already had. She thought her feelings were a well-kept secret. He decided it might be better to let her keep her illusions, especially since his own feelings were so conflicted. He didn’t really know what to say to her. He just liked looking at her, for some odd reason. She gave him peace.<
br />
  “I don’t remember any of it,” Cane lied with a straight face. “Mal told me you sat with me most of the night.”

  She looked relieved. “Just for a few minutes. The nurse let me in. I think they were concerned that you were slipping.”

  “I was,” he confided. “I felt it. Then I heard your voice,” he added in a deep, velvety tone, “telling me not to give up. I remember that, at least,” he said to reassure her, because she was looking threatened again. “It brought me back.”

  She smiled. “I’m glad.”

  “You don’t have any excitement in your life past dragging me out of bars, huh?” he teased, and laughed.

  She shrugged. “It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.”

  Cane shifted on the bed. “Come around here, will you? I’m getting a crick in my neck trying to see you.”

  She wasn’t keen on getting any closer. He made her nervous and he would be experienced enough to know the signs if he got a good look at them. She was more vulnerable than she’d ever been before. But she went because he wanted her to.

  “Sit down, Bodie.”

  She started to drop into a nearby chair.

  “No,” he said, his voice lowering an octave. He patted the bed. “Here. Right next to me, so that I can see your eyes.”

  She was almost trembling with excitement. It was disturbing, that look on his face, that dark interest in his eyes. She sat down beside him. His arm went across her lap, his hand resting gently on her hip.

  “What was Tank saying to you outside?” he asked pointedly.

  “Oh. He was—he was just helping me feed the chickens,” she stammered. His hand was smoothing over her rounded hip with some odd familiarity. She should probably protest. His thumb was moving against her belly where it joined her hip, and the sensations it caused were becoming visible.

  “Was he now?” Cane asked. He smiled. He could see what his touch did to Bodie. She couldn’t hide it. She wasn’t pretending because he had money. She was really, violently, attracted to him. It didn’t matter to her that he was missing an arm. She wanted him. His heart jumped as he realized just how deep her feelings went.

  His thumb moved down in the furrow between her thigh and her hip, more intimate now. “What did he say to you?” he asked, his voice almost purring.

  Bodie was slipping away into some sensual fantasy while he touched her in a way that she should protest. “He, uh, he said…”

  “He said what?”

  She shivered. She really should say something. This was getting…intimate!

  She gasped. She grabbed his hand. “Cane,” she whispered uneasily.

  “Too far too soon? Okay.” His hand slid up, but under the hem of her sweatshirt, around her rib cage. His fingers lingered there while his thumb eased under the band of her bra. “How about this, then?”

  She was shaking. His touch reduced her to melted flesh. “How about…what?” she faltered, her mind centered on the sensations that thumb was arousing as it moved ever closer to a very hard nipple.

  “Bodie?” he whispered.

  “Wh-what?”

  “Lean closer, baby.”

  She obeyed him mindlessly, one hand going to the pillow next to his black hair, to prop herself up so that she didn’t fall.

  As she moved, so did he. His hand pushed the bra out of his way and cupped her full, firm breast hungrily.

  She moaned so harshly that he felt his body go rigid with desire.

  “Good…God,” he whispered again reverently, shuddering. “Bodie!”

  He pulled her down beside him, ignoring the sharp pain in his ribs as he rolled over and pushed up her sweatshirt and her bra so that he could see her soft, pink, perfect breasts. “Beautiful,” he breathed roughly. “God, you’re so beautiful, honey....”

  He bent and smoothed his mouth over her breast, lingering where the hard tip thrust up into his open lips. He drew it inside, working it with his tongue, while Bodie stiffened and gasped and made noises that almost pushed him over the edge. He was so hungry that he forgot the door was standing wide-open.

  Footsteps on the staircase went unnoticed by him, but Bodie, even in her dazed state, heard them.

  “Somebody’s…coming,” she said, pushing at Cane’s head.

  “Somebody’s about to, really,” he whispered blatantly, and suckled her, hard.

  She had to fight to draw away from him in time, and he protested, shuddering. She got to her feet and jerked the sweatshirt down just as Mavie came in the door with a tray, mercifully concentrating on not spilling the coffee so that she didn’t pay attention to a flushed and very embarrassed Bodie.

  Cane was quick. He groaned and held his rib cage. “God it hurts!” he moaned, diverting Mavie while Bodie got her bra fastened again and smoothed her ruffled hair.

  “You poor thing,” Mavie said worriedly. “Don’t you have something for pain?”

  “Yes, on the table here. Can you open the bottle for me?” he asked, and sounded so helpless that Bodie had to fight back a shocked laugh.

  “Of course I can,” Mavie cooed. Even she, at her age, wasn’t immune to Cane’s charm when he chose to exercise it. She smiled. “Here you go. I brought coffee and a slice of pound cake, too. Bodie, I didn’t realize you were up here. Wouldn’t you like coffee and cake, too?”

  “Yes,” Bodie said. “But I can get my own, no need to make you climb that staircase twice. I’ll see you later, Cane,” she added quickly, without looking at him.

  “You bet you will,” he replied, and his voice was like brushed velvet in her ears as she fled from the room.

  * * *

  SHE POURED COFFEE WITH a shaking hand and took it, and a slice of cake, to the dining room table. She wasn’t going back into Cane’s room unless she took somebody with her for protection. Good heavens, the man was potent! He’d lured her close, touched her, kissed her, and all she’d done was help him get her clothes out of the way.

  So much for trying to resist him. If he put on the pressure, she was going to go under like a sack of sand. She’d never be able to save herself.

  That being the case, she was going to have to be inventive, and find ways to keep him at bay. It had been a near thing. If Mavie hadn’t shown up when she did, things might have gotten completely out of hand.

  She finished her cake and washed it down with black coffee, just as Mavie came back down the staircase, smiling.

  “He is such a charmer!” The older woman laughed. And Mavie hardly ever laughed. Bodie had to fight down a twinge of jealousy, despite the fact that Mavie was old enough to be Cane’s mother.

  “Yes, he is,” Bodie agreed. She forced a smile. “This is great cake, Mavie.”

  “Thanks. I’m glad you liked it. Cane wondered if you’d go back up and talk to him for a while.”

  Bodie swallowed, hard. “I’ll go in a few minutes,” she said, and smiled. “I really have to finish my chores outside.”

  “Oh, Mallory would do them for you, or even Tank. It’s so nice of you to help out, child. You really pull your weight here.”

  “I try to. I like working around the animals,” she said softly. “I’ll just finish up and then I’ll go see Cane.”

  “I’ll tell him.”

  Bodie bolted for the back door. She would go back, but not until and unless she could persuade someone to go see Cane with her. No way was he luring her into a physical relationship. She wasn’t going to join the notches on his bedpost, even if she was head over heels in love with him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHRISTMAS EVE WAS magical. The whole family gathered around the Christmas tree in the living room and turned on a holiday special on television. They were all singing along to the familiar carols, drinking hot chocolate and eating cake. Mavie and Darby Hanes joined them for the evening.

  Cane sat on the sofa with Bodie beside him. Once in a while, his fingers tangled with hers, unseen by the rest of the family. His black eyes searched hers, looking for secrets, caressing, mysteri
ous and thrilling.

  Since their encounter in his bedroom, Bodie had carefully avoided being alone with him. He’d been irritated at first, but he seemed to be all right with her caution once he understood that it wasn’t coyness. She wanted him. But she wasn’t willing to compromise her principles by sleeping with him. He found himself oddly proud of her for that attitude, even as he was frustrated by it. His body was hungry for hers. It was all he thought about lately. He became aroused if he got close to her, even when she met his eyes from across the room. It had never been like that before in his life. Women had aroused him from time to time when they came on to him. But Bodie could do it from a distance.

  She noticed Cane’s changing attitude. It thrilled her, even as it frightened her. Was he looking for new ways to complicate their relationship? Was he still focused on seduction, with no thought of a future between them? She didn’t know. She was just living one day at a time now, watching him, wanting him, but hoping for a miracle that would make him love her. She could see that she was attractive to him. That was thrilling, flattering. But attraction didn’t necessarily involve any finer, deeper feelings. A man could want a woman without loving her. Bodie was aware of that, and it made her more cautious. She didn’t want to join the ranks of Cane’s one-night stands.

  Even so, the way he touched her, the way he looked at her, melted her.

  Meanwhile, Tank, for reasons nobody understood, was keeping close to Bodie, as well, teasing her and flattering her at every opportunity. It irritated Cane and made him snap at his brother. Tank just grinned, as if Cane’s frustration and jealousy amused him.

  Cane’s ribs were still giving him fits. He couldn’t do anything that he really wanted to, and that, unfortunately, included seducing Bodie. A man with fractured ribs wasn’t in any condition to become a lover. That frustrated him, too. He wondered if Bodie knew that he couldn’t manage intimacy in his condition. The way she kept people around indicated that she didn’t. He was constantly amazed at how naive she was for a woman her age.

  He liked it, too.

  When the others filed into the kitchen to bring back more coffee, Bodie was left momentarily alone with Cane.