Wolf's Vengeance (After the Crash) (11 page)

Snake mounted the third horse. “Stone will hang back a bit to be sure we’re not followed.”

Mel nodded wordlessly and turned her horse to begin the ride home. It would be a few days before she’d have to face Marc and Mord and tell them the truth about their mother. Her fingertips felt strangely cold and weak when she clenched them around the reins. What words could she use to explain their mother to them? Thinking of it made tears threaten, so Mel didn’t think of it.

They rode long after dark. Mel could have gone on, but Mike rightly pointed out the horses needed rest, and in the dark a horse could easily get hurt stepping into an unseen hole. Stone found them a snug little cabin to spend the night in. It was clean and furnished, with a neatly made bed behind a partition and a couch and table in the shared kitchen and living area. It was obviously a home, but there was no one there. Mel peeked into the stove where kindling was laid in readiness for a fire.

“The scent isn’t fresh, but someone’s been living here,” Snake said, standing.

“Yeah. Maybe they’re off visiting somewhere,” Stone suggested. “There must have been a cow in the little shed, but the scent is old. Either it died or they took it with them.”

Mel scratched her scalp under hair matted by sweat and the hat. “Maybe we should find somewhere else. What if they come back and find us here?”

Snake shrugged. “Then we apologize. Mel, you take the bedroom. The rest of us can bunk out here on the floor.”

She sighed. “I can’t lay in that nice bed. I’m filthy.”

Her husband grinned at her. “We all are. I’ll get a fire started in the stove. We can wash up before we go to bed.”

She went to the cupboards by the stove. “They must be coming back. Here’s flour and sugar and some canned goods. Let’s go on. I’d feel like a thief if I stayed here.”

Mike stepped in from taking care of the horses. “We can leave some money to pay for our stay.”

“Money?” Mel snorted. “We don’t have any money.”

“Yeah, we do.” Mike slapped his waist. “That man gave it back to me.”

Bitterness pushed a laugh out of Mel. “At least one of them has a sliver of decency left.” Too bad it wasn’t her mother.

Mike looked down. “Yeah. What’re we going to tell Marc?”

“The truth. Snake, let’s get the bathwater going.”

The sponge bath was heavenly. It wasn’t as good as sitting in a tub, but the rag dipped in hot soapy water made her feel clean again. The encounter with her mother made her feel dirty in a way that healthy sweat and trail dust didn’t. The men decided they didn’t need hot water to wash in, so they were out in the back gathered around the pump. Had talking to their mother made Mike feel dirty too?

As she was pulling a comb through her damp hair, a knock sounded on the door. “Mel? It’s me,” Snake called.

She jerked her last clean shirt over her head. “Come in.”

Lamplight shone on his black hair hanging in damp waves over his bare shoulders. “I’m taking first watch. Stone will be right outside the front door and Mike is sleeping in the shed out back. Is that okay with you?”

“Sure. Are you coming back here after your watch?”

“Do you want me to?”

Mel glanced behind her at the neatly made bed, thinking of the suppressed hurt that ached deep inside. “Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m tired of being alone.”

“Okay. I’ll be a back in a few hours.”

She stared at the door he closed behind him for a minute. Why say she was tired of being alone? She was never alone, and sometimes she’d wished for a little alone time. She turned away from the thought and busied herself tipping the dirty bath water out back and tidying the kitchen area. Whoever lived here kept it nice. They wouldn’t appreciate coming home to a mess.

It was so much easier to keep her mind off her mother while she was busy. Once she blew out the lamp and lay down in the bed, she couldn’t keep from thinking of it. She ordered herself to close her eyes and sleep, but instead she found herself going over everything her mother said.

It didn’t seem like two hours passed when she heard the door open and Snake’s almost silent footsteps walk through the living area and around the partition wall.

“It’s me, Mel,” he whispered.

“I know.” The full moon was bright, shining through the window above the bed, so she could see clear enough to make out the somber expression on his face. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” He dropped his breechcloth and pulled off his moccasins and slipped under the sheet with her. “I guess it’s been a rotten day.”

She shifted over in the narrow bed to give him more room. “Yeah. A rotten day.” She liked the feel of his arm sliding beneath her to pull her against his side. He was naked, but his embrace didn’t feel erotic. It was comforting. She rested her cheek and temple against him where his neck met his shoulder. “I was so excited that we would have Mama back. I couldn’t wait to see her, to hug her. Everything was going to be so perfect once she was home. I knew I’d be leaving her again soon to go with you up north, but I figured at least I’d know she was safe. Without having to make those ransom payments, the ranch would get back on its feet. Everything would be the way it should be. And I hoped you’d bring me back for visits sometimes.”

His lips brushed over the top of her head. “We can visit every year.”

“Mama won’t be there.” She thought of why her mother wouldn’t be there, and an ice pick coated in flaming oil jabbed through her chest. Her mother lied to them for money. She didn’t care that her children had been frantic with worry for her. “How could she do that to us?” she whispered.

Snake pulled her more firmly against him. “I don’t know,” he murmured into her hair, sounding troubled and soothing at once. “I just don’t know.”

“We would have given her money if she’d asked. She could have married that man and lived wherever she wanted. There was no reason for her to make things up like that.” Clean anger, so much better than tears, burned. “The boys did everything they could to earn money for her ransom, but I married Rob Fosse. He contributed lots of money for Mama, but it wasn’t worth it. I did all those foul things for nothing.” Her throat hurt with the secret she never told anyone, even her brothers. Could she tell Snake? “He made me…I mean…”

No, she decided, it was over, so there was no use going into it now. Under her, Snake’s body tightened ever so slightly. His hand smoothing over her hair was gentle, a contrast to his voice. “What did he make you do, Mel?”

She swallowed to be sure she could speak evenly. “I wasn’t going to tell anyone except Mama. I can’t tell her now, so I’ll tell you.” She swallowed again. “Because I trust you.”

Snake wrapped both his arms completely around her and pulled her to lie on his chest. “Tell me,” he said gently, tenderly.

She hesitated, breathing in the clean scent of his skin, not looking at his face. “Well, it wasn’t so bad at first. I mean, he was rough in bed and that kind of scared me, but it wasn’t so bad. Then it was things I didn’t like. The more I didn’t like it, the more he offered to pay. I don’t want to talk about it!” she added sharply when she felt his chest rise in preparation to speak. “Okay? We needed the money for Mama more and more as the ranch failed to bring in as much, so I did what he wanted, but I hated it. Then he wanted his brothers to watch us while we…And then he wanted me to do things with them. That’s when I started saying no, and Rob didn’t like hearing no. That last afternoon, Jim cornered me in the kitchen. He ripped my shirt open and bit my breast so hard I screamed.”

Snake made a sound exactly like one his wolf would have made. She hid her face against his throat. “I punched him so hard I broke his nose,” she confessed.

“Good,” said Snake in a very, very sweet tone. “And which one is Jim?”

Her giggle was just a bit hysterical. “You killed him back in Ellsworth.”

“Good.” Snake’s tone was no longer sweet at all. “And bad. Because I really need to kill him again.”

She sighed. “Anyway, I complained to Rob. That’s when he started to hit me. He said he and his brothers expected more for their money than they were getting from me. He wouldn’t stop hitting me. I thought he might kill me. So I shot him and ran home.”

“And they chased you back to the D and threatened to burn the ranch, kill your brothers, and rape you.”

“Yeah.” She shrugged, and felt how the movement of her body against his affected his cock under her belly. “Uh, Snake?”

He groaned. “Ignore that. I can’t help it, but we don’t need to do anything about it.” She saw him swallow. “I said that a couple of nights ago too, didn’t I?”

She lifted her head to stare down at him, gaze following his black hair spilled over the white pillow. “Yeah, you did.”

A gentle heat glowed deep inside her, a hesitant sexual awareness of the naked man she lay on top of. Snake was nothing like Rob. Rob had been very handsome, and she had been entirely willing to fall in love with him, but the willingness faded almost immediately. The all too brief carnal side of her marriage with Danny didn’t give her much experience with lovemaking, but Rob’s cruelty destroyed her curiosity about sex. But Snake was different. Wasn’t he?

“I don’t think you’d ever do anything to hurt me.” It was a cautious statement, almost a question.

“Never,” he agreed, emphatically.

“Then I don’t want to ignore it.”

He went utterly still for a moment. Then she was on her back, and he was above her. The hair she’d admired a second ago was a wavy mess silvered by moonlight, hanging around his face to brush over her throat.

“Are you sure?” he asked in a low, raw voice. “Be very sure, Mel. Today was hard on you. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

She reached her hands up to grip his hair. “Today was hard,” she agreed. “And I’m feeling pretty hurt by what Mama did to us. But that’s not why I want to make love with you. Kiss me, Snake.”

His eyes squeezed closed, as if he were in pain. “I don’t want you to hate me in the morning.”

She couldn’t keep the strangled laugh in. “Snake, please kiss me.”

His lips were gentle, careful, exploratory. Instead of the dread she felt when she was with Rob, Mel felt yearning, a hint of arousal heating her blood. His hair, still a little damp from his bath, was cold on her skin. She felt her nipples pucker against his chest. She liked the way he kissed. She remembered that from the morning after the rainy night a few nights ago. His hand slid from her shoulder and passed over her breast with exquisite pressure. The cotton of her shirt abraded her nipple and sent heat racing through her.

He slid his mouth from hers to nibble on her neck. “Why do you want me to make love to you tonight?”

“You’re asking me this now? Now?”

He nodded, sending his hair over her throat in a caress that teased her arousal even hotter.

“Because you’re my husband.” That was lame. She blew out a frustrated breath and tried again. “I know you won’t hurt me like R—I like the feel of you against me, skin to skin. I want you.” She paused, trying to find honest words. “For me, sex is kinda scary. But I want to try it with you. Is that wrong?”

“No.” His teeth glowed in a brief smile. “I just wanted to be absolutely sure this is what you want.”

“Good grief,” she muttered. She opened her legs, and he slid into the cradle of her spread thighs. His weight pressed deliciously against that one needy spot. She bit off a faint moan. “Do you want me?”

He pushed his cock against the thin cotton of her underwear. “What does it feel like?”

It took effort to keep from moaning again. “It feels really nice.”

“Okay, since we’ve figured that part out, let’s keep going.”

She laughed out loud, something she’d never expected to do in bed. “Okay.”

She thought he’d jerk her shirt and underwear off and plunge inside her, but he went back to kissing her. Soon his hand stroked down her belly, and then slid up under her shirt. His fingers were hot, touching her bare skin in gentle but thorough exploration. Mel found herself panting against his mouth, wanting his hand on her breast in the worst way. When his thumb brushed over her nipple, she jerked in a breath that came back out in a groan. She clenched her teeth to keep from doing it again when he lifted her breast in his palm and gave it a gentle squeeze. Her head dug deep into the pillow, her arched throat a perfect target for Snake’s mouth. He didn’t ignore it, licking and nipping his way from her chin to her throat and to her collarbone. Mel fumbled at the buttons on her shirt, eager to feel the wet heat of his mouth on her nipples. She realized in a vague, distant sort of way she might have torn a button or two off her shirt in her haste, but right now she didn’t care. Snake helped her get the shirt off and throw it on the floor.

“Snake?” she whispered, voice soft and hoarse with need. She plumped one breast for him. “Kiss me here.”

It wasn’t exactly a kiss he gave her, but an open-mouthed devouring. It felt so good she almost sobbed, and when he drew her into his mouth and sucked, she couldn’t control a short, choked scream. Danny had done that to her, but it hadn’t felt nearly so intense with him. “Oh, Snake,” she moaned. “So good. I didn’t know it could feel that good.” As soon as she said it she snapped her mouth closed. How embarrassing!

“It gets better,” he promised.

It made her feel less embarrassed to hear the panting quaver in his voice. He lifted off her, and cool night air kissed her damp breast when he tossed the sheet off. She opened her eyes to see him kneeling between her thighs, gaze fixed on her panties. A faint sense of loss passed through her. Now he would push inside between her legs, and it would be over. Disappointed but resigned, she squirmed to ease her panties down her legs. He helped and tossed the panties on the floor with her shirt. She was pretty sure the crotch of her panties was wet.

For a long moment he did nothing but stare down at her.

“What are you looking at?” she demanded, trying to close her legs.

He stopped her with gentle but firm hands. “Like this, Mel,” he said, pulling her legs up with a hand under each knee so her heels were on the bed, her knees wide apart.

Mel closed her eyes and waited for him to ram into her. It had been fun while it lasted, and he probably wouldn’t hurt her. At least she had gotten some pleasure out of it. His hands smoothed up and down her calves for several seconds, and then up and down the backs of her thighs. Confused, she opened her eyes and raised her head to look at him. He was staring down at the nest of blonde hair between her legs with fascination. She tried to close her legs again.