Shortly after their confrontation, Kennedy stormed back to the guesthouse and Trey and Doc wandered off. Cade and Cole entered the study.
“I was surprised to see you,” said Cade.
“Not nearly as surprised as I was. Clay turned my horse loose and took off while I was in the mine shack making sure it was safe.”
“I don’t think Kennedy is very happy with us,” said Cade. “I don’t want to make things more difficult for you.”
“For me?”
“Look, you may be able to fool Trey and Doc, and maybe even Kennedy, but I know you. That woman is your bonded spirit. It took me a couple of years to figure out why you kept going to Seattle…”
“After a couple of beatdowns, you learned to keep your nose out of my business.”
“Ha! No, what I figured out was what drew you to Seattle and how come you always seemed to have money when we needed it. You still work for one of the intelligence agencies, don’t you?”
Cole sighed. He was tired of carrying his secrets alone. He’d seen what it cost him and Cade and how much happier Cade was after claiming Trey.
“Technically? No. From time-to-time NATO has called on me to work an op for them or do some intelligence analysis. It pays well and I enjoy it.”
“But she’s what draws you to Seattle.”
Cole nodded. “I fucked up when we were in Naples.”
“Trey and I moved past that...”
“But did you outright lie to her? Did you destroy her career and almost cost her a nephew and her brother’s widow?”
“What the hell?” asked Cade, more concerned than annoyed.
“I was able to get her clear of the charges and get her brother’s family safe, but I’m lying about who and what we are and where Clay is.”
“Claim her and make it right.”
“Not so easy with a high-priced lawyer.”
“Then make a deal,” Cade said with a laugh.
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“We got word earlier today that Cash made a deal for that bull you two were so keen to get.”
“I can’t exactly offer to buy her from her firm,” Cole said, exasperated as he sat back.
“Think not? Cash made them an offer that included the purchase of the bull, a number of breeding straws, and Evie LaSalle.”
“What?” Cole sat up.
Cade nodded. “Yep. He told her she either agreed to be bonded to him, or the deal was off.”
“Why?”
“Turns out Evie is his bonded spirit.”
“No shit. What did she do?”
“She agreed.” Cade’s grin filled the lower half of his face.
“Damn,” said Cole with more than a little respect for his brother’s moxie.
“Seriously, Cole, you are going to use this time to try and win Kennedy back, aren’t you?”
“Don’t you think I should want her to focus on clearing Clay?”
“I’m not worried about that. Between Kennedy and Trey, whoever did it will be found and prosecuted. Besides, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.”
“You might be right, big brother. You might be right.”
After dinner, which Kennedy refused to join them for, Cade and Trey headed upstairs, leaving Cole and Doc to enjoy a game of chess. Doc had taught Cole to play when he was a headstrong, hell-bent teenager, hoping to teach him the fundamentals of strategy and how to focus.
“You seem the least worried about Clay,” said Doc.
“One, I know he didn’t do it and two, I’ve seen Kennedy in action. She’ll destroy the prosecutor. He has no idea what he’s going up against.”
“Do you?”
He looked up and Doc’s eyes were regarding him with interest, sympathy, and affection.
“She’s not one of us,” Cole said.
“Neither am I, but I’ve known the secrets of the shifters in town for longer than you’ve been alive. I haven’t spent much time with her, but your Kennedy seems to be a good match for you. Don’t settle for a life of regret, Cole.”
“Did you?”
Doc sat back and took a deep breath. “I think many men live lives of quiet desperation. I wasn’t the first, and I won’t be the last, but don’t you join that group, Cole. Your mama loved you boys more than anything in this world. She would never want to see any of you without your bonded spirit. If that’s Kennedy,” the old man leaned forward, “you make whatever is wrong between you right and make a life with her.”
They finished their chess game, and both headed for their lonely beds. Cole watched as Doc turned and walked down the hall, his shoulders stooped from age and something else. Regret? Sadness? Weariness from life? He felt sorry for the old man. There had been an innate sadness to Doc for as long as Cole could remember. Had there been someone he’d lost before he married his wife? Cole remembered her as bright and vivacious, but as he got older, he’d wondered if Doc had loved her as much as she’d loved him. At the time, he’d chalked it up to Doc being married to his work, but now he wondered. Had there once been a grand, but denied passion, in the old man’s life?
Cole was going to wait until the house was completely quiet, then he was going to go see his beautiful, bonded spirit and make mad, passionate love to her.
Kennedy paced the floor in her bare feet. She was so angry at Cole, she didn’t know what to do. He knew where Clay was, and he had to know the risk that knowledge placed not only him, but potentially on her, and especially on his family. She needed to make him understand. She needed to talk to Clay to see if she couldn’t get him to agree to a negotiated surrender.
Finally, at a little before midnight, the door opened, and he slipped in.
“Naked, now,” he growled without preamble as he stalked across the floor.
His booted footsteps sounded harsh on the hardwood, while the spurs he had hanging off his snakeskin boots barely made a jingle.
Lifting her chin and looking him in the eye, she said, “We need to talk.”
“No, you need to be naked.”
The lawyer in her wanted to take control and put him in his place, but the woman who had yearned for him for years, who had experienced paradise once more in his arms last night, only wanted to yield.
Taking hold of the edge of her red, angora sweater, the woman prevailed over the lawyer. She pulled the garment over her head, then stripped her jeans down to stand before him naked and completely vulnerable.
“You’re gorgeous. Have I mentioned how gorgeous I think you are?”
She smiled and the feeling of vulnerability was replaced by confidence and arousal. “I know that’s how you make me feel.”
He pulled off his own sweater.
“Aren’t you planning to remove those jeans?” she asked and pointed at the bulging denim.
“No, baby. Once I unbutton my fly, no power on earth is going to stop me from shoving my cock as deep inside your cunt as I can possibly get it.”
The light in his eyes was almost ethereal, but she’d come to understand what it meant. He wasn’t in the mood to play, wasn’t in the mood to not have his way with her. With another man, that might be something to worry about. With Cole, it meant that yes, he planned to fuck her hard, but never had he not been dedicated to providing her with more pleasure than he took from her. Never had he failed to satisfy her in a way no other man could.
“Get up on the table,” he growled.
“Let me get it cleared,” she said.
He swept the table, knocking away everything in its path. “Table is clear.”
He lifted her off the ground and then set her on her ass. He dropped to his knees, slid her legs over his shoulders on either side of his head, and tugged her to the very edge. As he leaned in, he inhaled her scent, and Kennedy was mesmerized by the sight. When he licked his lips, she leaned back and arched her spine, offering her sex to him. His tongue came out and licked from slit to clit, then swirled around her swollen and sensitized nub.
Kennedy could feel her core softening, getting ripe and ready for his possession. His tongue moved all around and speared her cunt repeatedly. She cried out as her body began to shiver and shake. Sensations washed over her in waves, one following after the other in quick succession. It felt as though her body began to float, ascending higher, the only thing tethering her to the earth was the touch of his palms on her thighs.
As he sucked her clit into his mouth, his finger invaded her pussy like some kind of menacing marauder. She leaned on her arms, raising up so she could see his dark hair as he worked her over. He lifted his hungry eyes and focused on her, daring her to look away as he suckled at her sensitive flesh.
She was reminded that her memories and fantasies of sex with him were but a poor imitation of the ecstasy that now engulfed her. There was no pretense, no shyness, only a bliss that he alone could create, and he alone could satisfy.
The intensity of his stare was mesmerizing, and she couldn’t look away. She surrendered her heart, body, and soul to this man who stroked her pussy while laving her nub with his tongue, and briefly giving her the edge of his teeth. She tried to hold out, tried to make it last and stand on the cusp gazing into eternity, but eventually she couldn’t. Her head fell back, and her body arched as she cried out, pushing her sex into his face as the orgasm shook her to her core. She was barely aware of him standing, unbuttoning his jeans, and dragging her primed and ready sheath onto his engorged staff, impaling her with it as she cried out again.
She rose once more and opened her arms to him, clasping him to her as he lowered his head to kiss her in a way that made her dizzy. Kennedy could taste her own essence on his tongue as it surged in to claim what had always been his. The proof of her orgasm coated his tongue as it entwined with hers.
Kennedy wrapped her legs around his waist, and she could feel his groin as it rubbed against her pussy. His cock filled her up, swelling and grazing her walls as she contracted along his length. Again and again, he slid into her pussy, surging in and out in a perfect rhythm that sent her flying again as he rained kisses down the line of her neck.
His hand tangled in her hair, tugging her head back, lighting up her scalp. Cole kissed her as he thrust his enormous cock without abandon. He released her hair and both hands grasped her ass; the mouth of her pussy was just off the edge of the table as he hammered her relentlessly. The rhythm of his thrusting became brutal and raw. Her pussy clamped down on him as he fucked into her over and over again.
Kennedy felt the rush of her orgasm overtake like an oncoming train. She felt him lose his control when he gave a final savage thrust and ground against her, flooding her with his cum. In near perfect unison, she cried out and he roared.
Without withdrawing, he lifted her off the table and carried her to the already turned back bed. He rolled them under the covers, allowing her to take his weight, then nestled his head next to hers, refusing to let her go and holding her close. She stroked his back and held him tight even as she felt him relax, losing some of his rigidity.
When Kennedy tried to squirm out from beneath him, he reached for her and said, “No.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Cole. Let me make you more comfortable,” she said as she slipped off the bed, grabbing one of his boots and staring at the buckles of the intricate sterling silver spurs.
“Just pull them off with the boots.” He watched her with hooded eyes.
She pulled each of his boots off, then shimmied his jeans down until he was as naked as she was.
“Cole?”
“Baby, please. Can we fight tomorrow? I just want to hold you.”
“First, I would point out that it is tomorrow.” He groaned. “But yes, we can fight about all of it tomorrow. There’s just one thing you need to know.”
He rose on his elbows. “And what might that be?”
She crawled up the bed and lay down beside him, pulling him to her, spooning his front to her back and curling his arms around her.
“I love you too.”