Too Close To The Fire/Too Hot To Handle (Montana Men 3) (17 page)

“The
beer and popcorn. Where’s Lace?” He placed four beers in the mini-fridge and
handed him one.

“Doing
something with her hair. It worried me the way it fell so close to the fire. It’s
dangerous.”

“Yup.”
Danger nodded. “I’ve told her a hundred times to keep it up when she’s fiddling
around the fireplace.”

Rafe
frowned at the hint of criticism in Danger’s tone. “I need to talk to you.
Alone.”

“It isn’t
necessary.” Danger leveled his gaze on him, a wealth of silent communication in
the man’s steady look.

“Danger,
I—”

“I
set the fire in your room,” he interrupted. “There’s plenty of wood in the box
near the fireside to run you for the night. It’ll be warm in there by the time
you’re ready for bed. Hopefully the power won’t go in the middle of the night.”

“Yeah,
Lacey said she forgot to buy gas for the generator.”

“I
reminded her
three
fucking times. She
still forgot—too busy developing film in her darkroom to pay attention to what
I said.” He sounded irritated.

“Careful,
man, you sound like an unhappily married man.”

“Do
I?” Danger shrugged. “Guess the honeymoon wore off. I’m looking for someone to
take her off my hands.”

Rafe
swallowed hard. Jesus. What the hell was wrong with the man? Couldn’t he see he
had the love of a wonderful woman?

Had
the Rimrock lawman just given him the green light? If so, why?

“Danger—”

“Relax,
Rafe. It was a joke.”

He
nodded, but he didn’t think Danger had been joking.

“What
are we doing tomorrow?” He twisted the cap off his second beer and tossed the
lid in the fireplace. He’d never in his life had a man give him permission to
fuck his wife. Maybe he was wrong—maybe he was reading more into his friend’s
words than was there, because it was what
he
wanted to hear.

The
image of Lacey sitting there in front of the grate, all that glorious hair
falling around her shoulders, lingered in his mind. It had felt so soft and
alive between his fingers. Jesus, he’d never get enough of touching her.

He
pictured her seated in front of the fireplace on his ranch in Texas, brushing
her long hair, her breasts full and ready to nourish their first child. If he
was lucky enough to win Lacey’s love, he didn’t think the honeymoon would ever
wear off.

“We
aren’t doing anything. Sorry.” Danger took
a swallow of beer, frowned, and set it aside.

“What?”
Rafe blinked, jerked out of the mental image of Lacey heavily pregnant with his
child. He rubbed a hand down his face. God. At this rate, he’d be insane before
Christmas came and went.

“I
planned for the three of us to go riding tomorrow, thought we might spot a
cougar or bear, something interesting.”

“But?”
Rafe turned up his beer and took another deep pull on it.

“I
received a call from the Havre Sheriff’s Office just before I arrived at the
airport to meet you. I have to pick up a prisoner there tomorrow and take him
to Missoula. It’s going to be an all day trip there and back, possibly longer.
You’ll have plenty of time…”

Shit!
Rafe scowled at Danger as the
man’s words trailed away.

Plenty of time?
His brows furrowed with
confusion. Danger planned to leave Lacey alone in the house with him? What the
hell was the matter with the man? Not that he was complaining. Hell, he’d
willingly spend all the time alone with her he could, but this didn’t feel
right.

How would Lacey
feel about her husband abandoning her, leaving her alone with another man at
Christmas? No, it didn’t feel right at all. “Tomorrow’s Christmas,” he said
sharply. “And it’s snowing. Don’t you have deputies who can do it?”

Danger
flicked steel-gray eyes on him. “Half my deputies are off sick. The other half
have already left to join families for the holidays in other states. The
prisoner has to be in Missoula in Federal Court in time for his trial first
thing Monday morning. The feds want him there tomorrow.”

“But
isn’t he Havre’s responsibility?” Rafe grabbed a handful of popcorn and chewed
on it. “Lacey’s pot roast sounds more inviting and filling than this popcorn.”

Danger
laughed. “Come on, I’ll dig out the roast and heat it up. Thank God for
microwaves.” They headed toward the kitchen laughing.

“Actually,”
Danger continued, “the prisoner is Rimrock’s responsibility. Havre has been holding
him for me because Rimrock’s Sheriff’s Department is getting a much needed
facelift. I’m sorry about the change of plans, but Lacey and you can ride
anyway. No reason why you shouldn’t. Take a rifle. You never know what’s out
there.”

Rafe
accepted the plate of roast and assorted vegetables Danger handed him, shoved
it in the microwave and set the timer. “I can go with you in the morning. Ride
along as shotgun.”

“It’s
the holidays. I don’t want you to spend your off-time riding around with me,
hauling a prisoner from one end of the state to the other. Besides, I have a
deputy riding shotgun. No room for you.”

“I
don’t mind. Let the deputy stay home.” The timer dinged on the microwave. Rafe
opened the door and snatched a bite of roast and groaned. “This is good.” He
slipped the plate out and slid in the next one.

“Yeah,
Lacey’s a great cook. You two go have fun tomorrow.”

Rafe
swallowed his food and sliced off another chunk of the roast. If he didn’t know
better, he’d swear Danger was handing Lacey over to him, no muss, no fuss.

Damn
it, he knew the man loved her. He’d seen how Danger looked at her, like he was
mentally stripping her every time she walked into a room. His eyes always
softened when he saw her. So why the hell was the man willing to go off for an
unspecified amount of time and leave her with another man and actually
encourage the other man to sleep with his wife?

He
had to be mistaken. It was his imagination. It was what he wanted, so ergo, he
heard what he wanted to hear in Danger’s words.

Slow down. Think before you do or say something
you’ll regret the rest of your life.

He
believed he’d been very discreet with the way he felt about Lacey, but even so,
if she was
his
wife, he’d never leave
her alone with another man for an indeterminate number of hours. If it was him,
he’d never abandon her on a holiday or leave her to open presents with someone
who wasn’t family. It was crazy.
His
good luck, but crazy all the same.

Lacey
joined them in the kitchen. Grinning, she grabbed a slice of roast from the
platter, smeared a generous dab of mayonnaise across two slices of wheat bread,
added lettuce, a slice of tomato, and dill pickle. She slapped it all together
and took a healthy bite. Around her bite, she said, “So, from the scowl on your
face, I guess Danger told you you’re stuck with me tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”
Rafe chugged down another hit from his bottle and finished off his plate of
food. He couldn’t think of another woman he’d rather be stuck alone with than
Lacey Blackstone.

“The
roast is too salty, Lacey,” Danger snapped. He set his plate of food aside,
barely touched. “It’s overcooked and too damn dry. I hope you manage to get the
turkey right and not ruin Christmas dinner for Rafe.”

Lacey
glanced uncertainly at Rafe, then back to Danger, and swallowed hard. “I…yes,
of course, it should be fine.” She turned a watery smile on Rafe. “If the roast
tastes bad, you don’t have to eat it, Rafe, just to be polite. I’m so sorry. I
haven’t tasted it before now. I didn’t know it was too salty or dry. ”

“The
roast is delicious, Lacey,” he said gently. “I cleaned my plate.”

“The
man was starving,” Danger put in, “he’d have eaten a raw dog and not
complained.”

Lacey’s
mouth gaped. She turned to Rafe, her eyes watering. “Thanks. We don’t have to
go riding tomorrow if you don’t want to.” She made a nervous little gesture
with her hands. “We can hang around here, play checkers, drink hot chocolate,
and roast marshmallows. Danger should be back before dark tomorrow night, and
we can open gifts then. Won’t you, hon?”

Danger
shrugged and offered Rafe a slab of pecan pie. “Lacey was stingy with the
pecans, but it’s almost as good as store bought.”

Rafe
eyed the man carefully. Danger had to know he was embarrassing her. He clenched
his jaw to keep from taking a swing at the sheriff. “It looks good to me,
plenty of pecans.” He took a bite of the pie and moaned. “Delicious. You’ll be
back by tomorrow night?”

Danger
locked eyes with him. “Depends on the highways and how clear they are. I might
have to stop off and get a room.”

“Oh,
sweetheart.” Lacey sounded stunned. “It’s Christmas. I thought you said you’d
be back before dark tomorrow night.”

“Don’t
nag, Lacey,” he said sharply. “It’s just another fucking day. You and Rafe can
go ahead and open presents. I’ll open mine when I get back. No big deal.”

Rafe
choked on a pecan.
What the fuck?
Was
Danger insane? He didn’t much sound like a man who planned to return home by
tomorrow night.

Danger
locked eyes with him again, gave a slight nod toward Lacey, and Rafe knew then,
nothing had been his imagination. Danger was making it clear he had no
intention of coming home in time to open gifts.

Rafe
mulled the information over in his mind. Lacey and he would have the day
together and the night, uninterrupted.

What
the hell—he decided to push forward phase two of his campaign to seduce her.
Not much seduction required when the husband simply handed her to him on a
silver platter. If he managed to get things right, by this time tomorrow night,
she’d be his.

And
he damned well intended to get it right!

Chapter Six

We
may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

~Maya
Angelou

Two Months Earlier

December 25, Thursday

4:30 p.m.

Danger
wasn’t coming home.

As
soon as Rafe knew for certain the sheriff had no intention of returning home
Christmas night, he should have left, no matter how bad the weather, no matter
that Danger practically gave him a green light to sleep with Lacey.

The
entire picture stank. His nerves jangled. On the one hand, he knew he should
go, leave Lacey alone and not force his way into her life any more than he
already had. It wasn’t too late to back off.

On the other hand,
he wanted to fuck her. He simply couldn’t summon the willpower to walk away. To
leave her untouched. Rafe knew in his heart he should have insisted Lacey drive
him to the airport, remove him from temptation’s path, but he’d never been the
kind of man who gave up what he wanted or surrender what small advantage he
had.

Allowing Lacey to
take the risk of sliding off a steep mountain pass in this icy weather wasn’t
something he’d consider, either. Too many perils on an icy mountain highway waited
in this part of the country. The ice and snow, herds of deer on narrow curves
at the edge of the highways was only a couple of things. Longhorn mountain
sheep lumbered down from the higher elevations to the lower ones in search of
food. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be on the highways along the passes.

Too
many things. Too many risks.

He
had a toehold on Lacey, a small one, but he was so in—

“Look,”
Lacey said, excitement
brightening her face. She pulled back on the reins of the black-and-white
spotted mare she rode and pointed to the snow-laden tree limb several yards
ahead of them. Grabbing the binoculars hanging around her neck, she raised them
to her eyes. “Do you see it?”

Rafe
smiled. He saw only her, but he didn’t say it.

The
snow stopped earlier in the day but was beginning to drift down again. Big
flakes peppered the ground in utter silence, peppered them. A veil of quiet
surrounded everything. Crystal snowflakes fell lightly on her hair making it
look as if it were powdered by fairy dust. Her hair lay tousled and tangled
about her shoulders in wild disarray. Her nose glowed like Rudolph’s, and her
cheeks looked as if they’d been kissed by red roses.

To
him, she looked like an angel. He wanted her so badly he could hardly stand the
knot twisting in his gut.

They’d
been riding for at least three hours, but Lacey had been his exclusive property
all day. The intimacy of being alone in the house with her had played hell with
his libido. His body raged with need, worse than if he was a hormonal teenage
boy, but he wouldn’t trade a single second of their time spent together. He’d
been granted a few hours of learning what it’d be like to live under the same
roof with Lacey, and he liked it. Hell, he loved it. Any man would.

Now
he wanted to know what it’d feel like to have the right to touch her as a man
touches his woman, the rights of a husband or lover. He wanted to know what it
would be like to kiss her all over, to suckle her breasts, taste her
intimately, to plant his cock in her silken channel and ride her until they
were both spent and breathless.

Laughing
together and playing checkers and rummy all morning, he’d savored the sound of
her girlish giggles every time she shamelessly beat him at both games. They
squabbled over who got the fattest marshmallows. They roasted them, pressed
them onto squares of chocolate and
squished
it all together on graham crackers.

Cups
of hot chocolate passed between them. His fingers brushed hers each time he
pressed one of the squares in her hand. Eyes met, but her gaze quickly
flickered away. They’d had a pillow fight. She’d beaten him mercilessly until
he tackled her and took her to the floor. He’d fallen on top of her and paid
her back by tickling her until she begged him to stop.

He’d
held her as close as he dared and danced with her to slow Christmas tunes he
couldn’t recall the names of and really didn’t care. Touching. He’d done a lot
of touching, but it had all been subtle, in fun, a brush of his thumb along her
wrist when he handed her back a mug of cocoa, his lips against her temple while
they danced, his hard thighs cradled against hers, light airy brushes to her
shoulders, spine and throat.

He’d
rested his hands at the base of her spine, and they’d slowly swayed to the
music—a long, slow seduction that made his dick hard and kept him so horny he
could hardly breathe. He held her close and savored the feel of her full
breasts against his chest, and the occasional bump of his hard cock against the
slender notch of her feminine cradle.

She
hadn’t pulled away from his touches, but neither had she acknowledged them. He
knew she was aware of the hardness of his body from the way her breathing
increased, her soft gasps every time his cock brushed against her—quality
seduction at its finest—nothing better to heighten the senses or titillate the
nerves than a slow tease of the senses. She was his. It was just a matter of
wearing her down and knowing the right moment to claim her.

When
she suggested they get out of the house awhile, saddle up, and go for a ride,
he was itching with cabin fever and more than ready to escape. It had been
something of a relief to get out in the open air. He’d needed the breather. While
the foreplay felt utterly delicious, at the same time, it was killing him.
Another thirty minutes in the house alone with her, and he knew he’d blow
everything—literally.

Rafe
leaned close to her now, his hair touching her face and throat, and took the
binoculars from her.

She
looked around at him, surprised.

“You
mind? I left mine in Texas.” He hadn’t. He had a pair in his duffle, but she
didn’t know that. He had a new box of condoms, too, but she didn’t need to know
that either—yet—or know that within the next twenty-four hours, he intended to
make a damn big dent in the box of two dozen.

“Sure.
Help yourself.”

He
leaned closer, allowing his warm breath to feather her cheek, and lifted the
binoculars to his eyes. Rafe nudged his horse closer to hers. Yeah. He’d help
himself—very soon.

In
the meantime, he wasn’t about to let up hammering her senses with the feel of
his body against hers. His left thigh rested against the curve of her right
hip. He slid one arm around her waist as though to steady himself and leaned
just that much closer. His fingers touched the soft underside of her left
breast. In spite of the cold, his cock swelled and pressed tautly against his
zipper. He shifted in the saddle to ease the pressure.

“Do
you see it?” she whispered.

Rafe
swallowed hard. If she turned her head a quarter-inch, their lips would touch.
If she did that, he didn’t know if he could stop from taking her mouth
completely and owning it. His body vibrated like a tuning fork. His dick
pointed straight up, ready to fire.

He
couldn’t wait much longer. He
wouldn’t
wait much longer. Her time was running out—the hunt almost finished.

Soon,
he’d make his play.

Let
the chips fall where they fell.

There
had to be a loser. A winner. He intended to win.

Her
fresh scent filled his nostrils. She smelled like the forest, the snow, and all
things clean. His gut clenched. Rafe ached to drag her into his arms, tilt back
her face, and bury his mouth against hers—show her how he felt, how he wanted
her. Given the chance, he’d lift her off the mare she was astride, set her on
his lap, free his hard shaft and impale her. He’d let her ride him until they
were sated.

“Look-
look!”
She pointed, laughing.

Her excitement
captured his heart. The sound of her soft, melodious laughter held his
attention like nothing ever could or would again.

“There’s
an elk a hundred yards past that large boulder. See it?”

He
caught the sweet scent of her breath. It smelled like the chocolate they’d
shared at the house, chocolate, and the sweetness of melted marshmallows. God,
he wanted to taste her. The need wrapped around him, so urgent he had to clench
his fists to keep from punching through the barriers, and yanking her against
him, to keep from molding her mouth to his and never letting her go.

“Jee-sus.”
The groaned word had nothing
to do with the cougar she’d spotted or the elk, and everything to do with the
tight ache in his groin. He wondered if she ached for him as much as he hurt
for her. Surely he wasn’t alone in his desire.

“Rafe?”

“Huh?
Oh. Yeah,” he choked. “The cougar’s a beauty.” He lowered the binoculars and
eased back from her. Hell, at this point, he didn’t know any longer who was
seducing whom. “I…uh, missed the elk, though. It probably caught a whiff of the
lion and took off. Big cougar, though. Glad he’s not hungry.”

“He?”

“Or
she.” He shrugged.

Lacey
smiled and glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late. We’d better head back. The
turkey’s waiting. I need to pop the dressing in the oven.” She looked at the
sky and frowned. “Looks like more snow. Maybe Danger will make it back before
it starts to get heavy.”

“Yeah.
Maybe.”

He
didn’t have the heart to tell her that her husband had all but abandoned her to
him and that Danger wasn’t returning. Not tonight, maybe not even tomorrow
night. Rafe suspected he and Danger were enough alike that one of them would
get hurt, physically hurt, before this all ended. They were both strong, dangerous
males, both territorial, both alpha, and both held what they claimed.

He
also suspected Danger wasn’t spending the night alone, but he didn’t know it
for certain. Rafe frowned. He didn’t want to know. He might suspect that for
some crazy reason, the lawman was pushing Lacey away and into the arms of
another man, but when the final showdown came, Danger would fight for her. It
wasn’t going to be pretty.

Rafe
kneed his horse and rode a little ahead of her, giving Lacey a breather from
his close proximity. He hadn’t wanted to, but he backed off because she looked
flustered and a little wary when he took the binoculars from her. It didn’t
mean he’d given up. He
wasn’t
giving
up. The seduction scene was set. Now it was just a matter of timing and action.

He
could no more stop loving Lacey than he could stop breathing. He knew it was
wrong, but just because it wasn’t moral didn’t mean his heart stopped loving
her. He’d tried to remain honorable, tried to do the right thing and stay away,
leave her untouched.

Damn
it, he’d argued with his conscience. What he planned, what he wanted, was immoral.
God help him, he loved her, and in matters of the heart, sometimes honor
crumbled to dust. When it came right down to it, he was human. Humans made
mistakes.
He
made mistakes.

But
he’d never convinced himself loving Lacey was a mistake. Even though he knew he
was too close to the fire, and he fully expected to get burned, he couldn’t
wait to taste her passion, couldn’t stop pursuing her even if he wanted to.

And
he didn’t want to.

They
might only ever have this one night, but he intended for it to be a night
neither of them ever forgot. Not touching Lacey would be like trying to rope a
lightning bolt. If he didn’t win her, there was only one finale, and it all
ended in heartache.

He
couldn’t breathe when he was near her. His lungs froze. His heart stuttered to
a standstill. Hell, he could barely string two words together to make a
sentence. He adjusted the front of his jeans for at least the hundredth time,
but nothing was going to ease the pressure until he sank between Lacey’s thighs
and rode her to fulfillment.

His
thoughts circled back to Danger.

Yes,
Danger loved her. No matter what the man said or did, in Rafe’s heart he
accepted that Danger was crazy in love with Lacey, too.

Someone
had to lose.

Rafe
couldn’t help that fact, and he had a strong dislike of losing.

By
the time the house came into sight, giant snowflakes bombarded them and the
ground.

They
rode inside the barn side by side, laughing.

“You
let me beat you,” Lacey proclaimed.

Rafe
slid off his mount and helped her off the mare. “Guilty, but it was still a fun
race.”

She
giggled as her feet touched the barn floor. “Yes, it was.”

Immediately
her boots slipped on a patch of ice. She stumbled straight into his arms.

“Watch
it!”

Rafe
locked his arms around her waist and toppled back in the pile of fresh hay he’d
scattered for the horses before they left for their ride. She sprawled
helplessly on top of him, her laughter soft against his skin.

He
twined his long legs with hers. Face to face, eye to eye, mouths scant inches
apart, breasts to chest, and thigh to thigh, he locked his gaze with hers, and
knew there wasn’t one damn thing he could do to prevent her from feeling the
full blown hard-on behind his zipper. He didn’t want to. It was the second time
in less than twenty-four hours his straining cock betrayed him and pressed
snugly against her body. Some things just couldn’t be concealed.

He
heard her sharp intake of air, felt the full softness of her breasts as she
inhaled and exhaled against his mouth. Rafe locked his arms around her a little
tighter. “Are you all right?”

“I’m
fine.” She laughed nervously. “That was graceful. I bombed like a stork with a
broken leg.”

His
hands rested above the sweet curve of her butt in the small of her back. Rafe
clenched his fists to keep from dragging her tighter against him. “You bombed
just fine, sweetheart.” He brushed the damp curls back from her face. “Lacey.”