From NORTH:
I strode toward her,
the timing perfect. A quick glance at Macon Wainright in the casket and maybe I
was stretching it a bit, but I wasn’t turning back now. The wake was the only
time the mansion’s front door was flung open to the town. The burial would be
later, but that was family only. I couldn’t knock on the door and proposition
her.
No, it was now or…
sometime when it’d be a hell of a lot harder.
“There you are,
princess,” I said, sidling up beside North so our shoulders brushed. She wasn’t
a short woman and in those heels, she only had to glance up a few inches to
meet my gaze. I took off my hat. “I’ve been looking for you.”
North’s pale brow
arched and recognition flared in her eyes. Interesting. She remembered me.
I turned to the
minister. “I hope you don’t mind, Reverend, but North’s needed in the study.”
I didn’t know where
the hell the study was, or if this house had one, but it was big and fancy
enough for the possibility.
The older man offered
a kindly smile, one he’d probably practiced for decades to pull out at shindigs
like this one.
I took North’s elbow
and steered her away from the man, turning to the right and into a huge living
room. Animal heads lined the walls and a huge ten or twelve point elk hung over
a cold fireplace. I veered around the guests and into the connecting room.
Another sitting room. How many did this place have? I saw an open door and led
her through, then shut it behind me, only after the dog followed, then dropped
down on the rug and promptly went to sleep. We were in an office with a huge
desk. Smaller animal heads lined one wall, antique and vintage guns lined the
other.
“Jesus, what is this
place?” I asked, taking in the carnage.
“My father’s
sanctuary,” she stated, crossing her arms over her chest. The neckline of her
dress wasn’t flashy, but the motion pushed up her tits and I couldn’t miss the
soft swells.
I blinked, then
looked away. “You planning on mounting him too?” I asked.
Her eyes widened at
the suggestion, then she laughed. Her head tipped back and I couldn’t miss the
long column of her neck.
She was so fucking
pretty.
“I thought about it
over the years, but now’s the time, isn’t it? He’ll be in the ground in a few
hours.”
Her voice was deep
and husky. Sexy and surprising.
“Say the word,
princess, and I’ll have it done.”
She cocked her head
to the side, studied me. “I remember you.”
“I remember you,
too.”
The smile slipped.
“Jock’s older brother.”
“That’s right. Jed
Barnett. You and Jock have a history.” She’d dated my brother. Probably gave
him her V-card. Then dumped him, which had made her daddy dump a deal to buy my
parents’ land.
She glanced away but
didn’t look remorseful. She looked… icy. “That was a long time ago. Heard he’s
married with two kids now.”
“Three,” I corrected.
I might be over ten years older than Jock, but he was the one who’d found
someone and settled down. “Had a baby girl in April.”
“I’m glad he found
the woman he was supposed to love.”
I frowned at her
answer. I was expecting something a little more aloof. Calculating.
“What is it you
want?” she asked.
“What makes you think
I want something?”
“You lied to a
minister and got me in here, Jed Barnett.” She lifted her hand to indicate a
room alone together.
“The whole town’s
here. Half are to see the inside of this place.” I glanced around at the
over-the-top office. “Half are here to see your daddy in a casket.”
“Which one are you?”
she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“Neither.”
Based on the wide-eyed
stare, the answer surprised her. “Then what are you here for?”
“You.” My answer was
simple. I didn’t need to say more. It was the truth since I was doing
Marshall’s bidding. I could tell him about this private meeting. Keep him
satisfied for a stretch.
As for fucking her?
As I’d said, I didn’t
fuck on command.
I wanted to satisfy
North but doing that was only for me. I didn’t usually get so hot for a woman.
Sure, I’d picked up women. What forty-year-old hadn’t? But this was different.
This was North Wainright.
She was going to be a challenge.
Or was she? I
couldn’t miss the way her pupils dilated. Oh yeah, she liked that answer, but
she wasn’t going to let it show. I didn’t want to play poker with this one.
“Seriously?”
I looked her over.
“Dead serious.”
“You’ve had thirteen
years to make a move,” she countered. “Why now? Why at my father’s wake?”
I leaned against the
door so she couldn’t escape, unless she climbed out the big window in that
dress and heels. “Would you have let me onto the property?”
She studied me. “I
don’t know. Are you dangerous?”
“To your panties.”
A laugh accompanied
an eye roll. “That work with other women?”
I shrugged. I might
be undercover and be wrapped up in so many fucking lies, but I was going to be
straight with her. She was too smart for anything else.
“I’m not interested
in other women’s panties. I’m interested in yours. In my pocket.”
She turned and looked
around the room. “You want to get it on in here? Not the most” —she slid her
hand along the back of a tufted leather couch— “comfortable of places.”
“You’d like it if I
bent you over the arm of that sofa.” I pointed. “That desk’s exactly the right
height to lay you on and eat you out. I’d say I could fuck you up against the
wall, but it might be a little crowded with a dead deer on one side and a moose
on the other.”
Her mouth parted and
her breath came in little pants.
“I’m to lift my dress
and let you have your way just because you talk dirty?”
I shrugged, taking in
the garment that probably cost more than my truck. “Only stating facts.”
“Again, why now? I’d
think you wouldn’t want your younger brother’s sloppy seconds. Isn’t that what
guys say?”
My jaw clenched. The
idea of Jock, or any guy, getting his dick in her had me seeing red. All I
could think of was mine.
“Your daddy’s laying
in a casket out in the foyer. I haven’t seen your other brothers, but East
didn’t seem like the consoling type. Figured you might need a shoulder to cry
on.”
She laughed again,
although she wasn’t all that amused. “Why should he console me when I have no
reason to cry about my father dying? Besides, eating me out is a lot different
than offering a shoulder.”
She was blunt. I
liked it. I’d think about why she wasn’t mourning her father later.
“Whatever you need,
princess,” I offered.
Her eyes narrowed and
she studied me. I remained still as she raked her gaze over me, from the tips
of my buffed work boots to my dark hair.
“Anyone else ask you
what you needed?” I doubted it. She had that cool control thing going for her.
Untouchable.
She didn’t respond,
but the way her shoulders rolled back, I knew the answer was no. Interesting.
She was a princess, but she was in a high tower all alone.
“Typical. A guy
thinks a woman could only feel better if she gets laid. You want to what…
soften me up with a few orgasms?”
Exactly that.
“The only woman who’d
question that is one who doesn’t get laid very much,” I countered.
A flush rose up from
the neckline of her dress and traveled up to her cheeks. She spun away.
“What do you really
want, Jed?” she asked as I admired her perfect ass. “Money? An in with one of my partners? A job?”
It was my turn to
bristle. I wasn’t sure if my down-on-my-luck cover was paying off and she
thought I needed something to pay my bills, or she’d been hit up before. “I told
you.”
She spun back and
wondered how she didn’t tip over in those heels. Women in Montana didn’t often
sport business wear and stilts. The state was casual about everything. But the
look did it for me. I wanted to get my hands on her and knock some of that
shine off her business veneer.
“You came to the wake
to pay your respects. You saw me, your dick got hard, and you want to do
something about it. No guy comes on this strong.”
“You’re right. I saw
you. My dick is definitely hard.” Her gaze dropped to the front of my pants and
her eyes flared wide. Yeah, I was big. It pleased me to know she was impressed.
“I want you. Want to watch you come screaming my name.”
She frowned, eyed me
as if I’d come from another planet, one where men didn’t only think of
themselves. “You want to get me off.”
It was my turn to
narrow my eyes. “Princess, you say that as if no guy’s ever put you first. I’m
not sure if I should beat the shit out of them or thank them.”
“I get off.” She said
that, then bit her lip as if the words slipped out. It seemed North didn’t like
to give any piece of herself away, even the smallest sliver of truth.
“With a man?”
She shrugged a slim
shoulder. Sniffed and looked down her nose at me, even though I was inches
taller. “Who needs one when batteries and high-grade silicone can do the job?”
I shook my head,
pushed off the door. “Now that’s a crying shame. A princess like you should be
riding dick whenever she’s running hot.”
She wasn’t appalled
by my words. She hadn’t smacked me. I’d call it a win… so far.
“And you’re here to
be that dick?”
“You’re impressed by
mine and you’ve only seen it in my jeans.”
She paused, closed
her eyes and slowly shook her head. “This is insane. There are probably two
hundred emails in my inbox waiting for a reply. My assistant is around here
somewhere, hovering and waiting to update me on all the ways things are falling
apart at the office since I’ve barely been in since I got the news about Macon.
On top of that, I have a house full of people and a dead body in the other
room.”
Dead body, not dead father.
I shook my head at
her, as if her excuses were petty. I could only imagine the shit she
accomplished in a day. In high heels. I stepped close, stroked her cheek.
Watched the way her blue eyes went dark. Her skin was like silk beneath my
knuckles. My thumb brushed over her lower lip, back and forth. Then, when she
didn’t knee me in the balls, I lowered my head and kissed her. Watched her face
until the last second when her lids fell closed. For a second she was stiff,
then she melted like wax in the hot sun. She tasted like sunshine and
sweetness, completely opposite of the image she intentionally offered to the
world.
I didn’t linger even
though she kissed like a fucking dream.
“You’re North
Wainright,” I murmured. “You want my dick, you want it now, make it happen. You
remember me and by the way your nipples are poking against your dress, you
liked what you saw then and what you see now. You don’t need an assistant to
pencil this into your planner.”
She blinked, as if
coming out of a trance.
Then she studied me
for a minute, her shrewd, blue-eyed gaze raking over every inch of me once
again in my jeans and snap shirt, my Stetson in my hand.
Turning, she went to
the wall of guns, grabbed a shotgun off the lower mounts. I stepped back,
raised my hands in front of me.
Shit, I’d gone about
this fucking wrong. I liked my balls attached and it seemed she intended to
remove them with a twelve gauge.
But she didn’t even
look my way. She opened it to see if there were bullets, then snapped it shut,
handling it like she knew what she was doing. Walking past me, she flung open
the door and marched out of the room. I followed right on her heels, guests
clearing a path for her.
She went over to her
daddy’s casket, raised her arm and knocked the lid down with a resounding
crack, then went through the open front doors.
Standing on the
porch, she raised the shotgun like she was a skeet shooting champion and fired
into the air. The boom shook the crystal in the chandelier over my head. There
were a few screams, many gasps and some panic.
“Wake’s over,” she
called. “Everyone out.”
People scurried out
of her house like rats being caught in a spotlight. No one questioned a woman
wielding a shotgun at her daddy’s wake.
Hell, no one questioned
North Wainright.
She turned and looked
over her shoulder, her gaze meeting mine as guests streamed past. “Except you.”
