Rugged Texas Cowboy Read online

  He knew twins—the August twins, especially. Men whose battles had left them, for a while, scarred and almost broken. But they had always protected each other, and their older brother, Cade, had protected them all. They were brothers; there were no questions of loyalty or determination to help each other. It was a part of them. How had Maria managed to be born without that innate love for her sister?

  And Melina. How had she endured it? To be betrayed, not just by her twin, but by her parents? They had left her in that fucking jail cell while they vacationed in the Bahamas, accepting Maria’s word that her sister had been released. Accepting, without question, the word of a known liar, thief, and drug addict.

  Melina had nearly died. He stared at her, horror streaking through his system as he noted the almost fragile build of her slender body, the delicacy of her bones. She had been beaten so badly that she had suffered two broken ribs, internal bleeding, contusions, and scarring that might never heal. She had been only minutes from death when Joe had carried her into the emergency room of a local hospital. For days, it had been touch and go.

  Hell, what had made her even fight to live? What did she have to hold on to at that time?

  One of the inmates heard her scream your name … It had surprised Luc when Joe told him that. Why would she scream for him? It had been his fault she was there to begin with. But she had screamed his name, cried out for him.

  He wiped his hands over his face as fury consumed him. God help him, he prayed he never had a chance to wrap his hands around her father’s neck, or her sister’s. He feared he’d kill them himself for what they had done to Melina.

  Rising to his feet, he shed his pajama bottoms and returned to the bed. He pulled her gently into his arms, surrounding her, holding her to him. She moved against him with a murmur of satisfaction, pillowing her head on his chest as he pressed his lips to her hair.

  She was where she belonged. In his arms. His bed. His life. He’d be damned if he ever let her go. She might as well get used to being his captive, because she had stolen his heart and there wasn’t a chance he was going to let her leave with it.

  EIGHTEEN

  Melina slipped out of bed the next morning, aware of Luc’s stormy eyes opening, his silence as she gathered up her clothes and headed for the shower. He didn’t speak and she was thankful for that. She wasn’t entirely certain she could handle a conversation with him right now.

  Never in her life had she experienced a pleasure as astounding as what she had felt in his arms the night before. Sex had never been one of her favorite pastimes, even before she met Luc. Her few experiments into it had left her disappointed, wondering why she bothered. Last night had shown her why she should bother with Luc.

  She shivered beneath the pounding force of the hot shower, her eyes closing as she fought the sensitivity of her own body. She ached in places that she didn’t know could ache. Her breasts were tender, the snowy globes marked here and there with the reddened proof of his passion. Even her hips carried one of the rosy brands from his mouth.

  Her thighs clenched as she felt her pussy ripple in remembered pleasure. His mouth had lingered there, kissing her so intimately she had thought she would die from the sensations. If she wasn’t extremely careful, she could become addicted to his touch, his kiss.

  She shook her head, attempting to dispel the memory of his touch, and quickly finished her shower. She had to figure out what to do now. She hadn’t expected things to progress to this point. She had never imagined she would be so weak as to allow Luc to actually take her while he still believed she was Maria. Yet she had.

  Rinsing quickly, she turned off the shower and dried her body roughly, wondering if there was any way to erase the feel of him from her flesh. The heat and hardness; the strong thighs parting hers; his cock, so hard and thick, working inside her.

  Melina sighed before dressing in one of the soft cotton summer dresses Luc had packed, then drying her hair. She was so screwed, and she knew it. She was falling helplessly, hopelessly in love with a man who thought she was her sister. Who believed to the very core of his being that she was a thief, a drug addict, a woman who would stand by and allow murder to be committed.

  Her fists clenched at the thought as she stared back at the image reflected in the mirror. She didn’t even look that much like her sister anymore. The basic coloring was the same, but Maria’s lifestyle had hardened her, had shaped her face and tightened her mouth until there was little left of the woman she could have been.

  The little enforced stay on Luc’s ranch had been nice. It had given Melina a chance to think, to find her bearings after her parents disowned her. It had given her precious days to find a balance between the child she had been and the woman she was. Time to figure out the chaos that had existed in her heart and in her mind.

  She loved Luc Jardin. She had known, two years ago, that she could love him.

  When she had first stared into the dangerous depths of his stormy eyes, saw the flicker of pain and rage that chased across his expression, she had known she could love him.

  Had known he could become the most important person in her life. If she wasn’t who she was. If Maria hadn’t gotten to him first.

  But she wouldn’t let her love turn her into something or someone she wasn’t.

  Taking a deep breath she opened the door, stepping into the bedroom with every intention of confronting Luc. Instead, she drew up stock-still. He was still in the bed, the sheet pulled to his hips, and on his chest sat Mason.

  “This black mouse chaser of yours is holding me prisoner.” She saw his banked smile, heard the amusement in his voice as his fingers ruffled the cat just under his wide chin.

  Could any man look sexier than he did at that moment?

  “Thought you didn’t like cats, Mr. Hardass,” she grunted as she walked over to the bed and lifted Mason into her arms.

  The animal purred in contentment, settling into her hold as he stared back at Luc with a hint of feline arrogance.

  “I don’t.” There was that controlled quirk to his lips again. “I hate the little beasts.”

  He stared up at her, his gaze becoming drowsy, suggestive. “Put him down and come here. You can make it up to me for being nice to him.”

  She couldn’t help the flicker of her gaze to where the sheet began to tent at his thighs. Melina swallowed tightly at the knowledge that he was becoming aroused right before her eyes.

  “Don’t you have work to do?” she finally asked, backing away from the bed and the temptation he represented. “I thought you had horses to train or something.”

  He sighed heavily, though the amusement in his eyes only grew. “Or something,” he agreed, though she had a feeling he wasn’t talking about the horses.

  *

  “Then maybe you better get to it.” She turned away from him, trembling, wanting to lie back in that big bed with him so badly she couldn’t stand it.

  She took a step away from the bed, desperate to escape him and the carnal hunger rising inside her. She wasn’t expecting him to move so quickly. His arm wrapped around her waist, and before she could do more than squeak and release a startled Mason she was flat on her back on the mattress, staring up at him.

  Just that fast the blood was racing through her body, excitement and exhilaration thundering through her system as he stared down at her with a lazy sexuality that had her toes practically curling.

  “Maybe I should get to it then,” he agreed, his husky voice washing over her nerve endings and sensitizing them further.

  With her hands braced against his bare chest, she could do little about the bare expanse of her thighs that his hand revealed as he smoothed the soft material of her skirt further above her legs.

  “That wasn’t exactly what I meant, Luc.” Her fingertips curled against the hard pad of muscle beneath them as she felt his other hand move beneath her head.

  “Do you know how good you felt last night, Cat?” he asked her, stilling the objections rising to her lip
s. “I wasn’t even able to protect you, you stole my control so quickly.”

  Melina stared up at him, seeing a softening in his eyes that hadn’t been there before last night. As though he had eliminated some barrier that had been there previously. He watched her in a way she had thought he never would. There were no hints of accusation, no shadows of suspicion. There was amusement, arousal, and a heat that blazed between them like an inferno rushing quickly out of control.

  “Luc, this isn’t going to work.” She was not going to arch closer to him. She fought the need to rub against him in a sensual imitation of Mason begging for attention. But it was so hard not to. His body was sleek and hard as he lay against her, holding her to the bed.

  His hand rested on her lower thigh, fingertips smoothing an intricate design into the flesh above her knee and slowly upward. Her thighs parted, though she was certain she meant to keep them tightly clenched.

  “Sure it’s going to work, baby.” His head lowered, his teeth catching her lower lip gently as he stared back at her, the hunger in his gaze growing.

  When he released her, his tongue smoothed over the curves. Melina parted her lips for him. She wanted his kiss, wanted his touch. What was the point in lying to herself or to him? She was weak and he was so damned tempting. Her time here would come to an end soon enough, surely there was no harm …

  “No, Luc.” She shook her head, pulling back. There was more harm awaiting her if she gave in to him. He already held her heart; soon he would hold her soul.

  “Hmm. Captives aren’t allowed to say no,” he told her, his voice rumbling playfully in his throat as he moved closer to her.

  His hard chest raked over her cloth-covered breasts. The cotton did nothing to stop her nipples from peaking, growing hard and tight as they pressed demandingly against the bodice of her dress.

  “Aren’t you taking this too far?” She tried to still the weakening desire that flooded her pussy. God, she needed him.

  “Nope.” His fingers clenched in her hair as his lips moved to her neck, smoothing over the sensitive flesh just beneath her ear. The shudder that rocked her body would have been embarrassing if Luc hadn’t groaned so roughly. “Taking it too far is tying you to the bed and listening to you beg while I paddle that sweet ass until it’s rosy.”

  Her thighs clenched. This should not be turning her on. “Then parting the pretty little red curves and watching as I work my cock inside your tight little ass.”

  She could feel her pussy creaming, her anus clenching. This was perverted, she told her traitorous body. Not that it cared. She was fighting to breathe now, panting beneath the fingers that had moved to unbutton the bodice of her dress.

  “Maybe that wouldn’t be going too far, though,” he mused as he folded back the material and bared her swollen breasts. “Do you know how hot, how hard, the thought of that makes me, Cat?”

  No one had ever talked to her so explicitly. Especially not while they watched her face, hands moving over her body, gauging the depth of her arousal.

  “Would you beg me?” he asked her as his fingers gripped a hard nipple, working it between them, tightening to the point that pleasure and pain blurred and sent her body rioting into a plane of sensation that she had never known existed.

  “You’re killing me.” Melina was well aware she didn’t have the experience to combat the sexuality he was turning on her. “You know you are, Luc.”

  His smile was sensual, tight, a grimace of extreme lust and hunger.

  “Tell me what you want,” he whispered, his fingers tightening on her nipple again as she gasped and arched to him. “You like it, baby. See how much you like it.”

  He repeated the move and Melina swore she was going to orgasm from that sensation alone.

  “Yes,” she moaned brokenly. “You know I like it.”

  “What else do you like?” His head lowered, his tongue curling around the reddened peak of her breast. “Tell me, baby. What else do you like?”

  He didn’t give her time to answer. His mouth covered the tip of her breast, drawing it deep inside his mouth and suckling at it with sensual abandon. His teeth rasped the delicate point; his tongue licked until Melina dug her fingers into his hair, holding him to her, arching closer as he insinuated himself between her legs.

  Traitorous body. She whimpered as her thighs parted for him, her hips rising, a keening cry of need echoing around her as his cock pressed full-length against her pussy.

  “This isn’t fair,” she panted, but she arched her neck as his lips moved around to her throat, then her collarbone, growing inexorably closer to her swollen breasts. “You’re supposed to hate me. You can’t hate me and want to fuck me.”

  He stopped then. His entire body stilled for several long seconds before his head raised, his eyes blazing into hers.

  “Oh baby, hatred is the last thing I feel for you,” he said, the dark cadence of his voice throbbing with lust and something more. That something more, undefined and yet hidden, had her senses reeling.

  How could he do this to her? Was it fair that love should weaken her even as it made her feel stronger, taller, more able to face whatever she must to hold his heart? Even when she knew his heart would never be hers.

  “You’re dangerous,” she whispered, her hand moving to touch the swollen pad of his lips as she stared back at him, knowing she couldn’t turn him away, knowing she couldn’t do any more than love him while she could.

  His tongue swiped along her fingers an instant before he gripped them with his teeth.

  “Let’s see how dangerous we can get together, then.”

  His hand reached down, gripped the side of her panties, and ripped them from her body. Melina’s eyes widened but before she could snap out a derogatory comment about cowboys and manners he was sliding his cock inside her.

  Melina stilled, her eyes closing as she fought to breathe and to concentrate on the slow, sensuous glide of his flesh. Inch by inch he pressed his cock inside her, stretching the sensitive tissue, searing her with a heat and hunger that stole her sanity. It was a pleasure unlike any she had ever known before. A pleasure she couldn’t deny.

  “You’re killing me.” She was fighting to breathe, to survive the white-hot lash of pleasure streaking through her.

  “Then I’m killing us both,” he growled. “Damn, baby, you’re so hot, so fucking tight it’s all I can do to hold on.”

  He was buried in her to the hilt. A hot throbbing presence that filled her pussy to overflowing and sent her senses spinning. Then he was moving. Thrusting hard and deep, his hard breaths echoing around her as she held on to him with desperate fingers.

  Her senses were spinning, her body blazing.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips, crying out beneath him as the tension began to tighten, the conflagration threatening to destroy her.

  “Luc!” She screamed his name as he nipped at her shoulder, almost growling against her flesh.

  “I have you, baby,” he groaned, his voice rough, hard hands holding her to him, his lean hips moving harder, faster, plunging his erection through the tight muscles and delicate gripping tissue that enclosed his cock. “Fuck. Fuck. I have you, baby. Always. Always.”

  She shattered. Every cell in her body exploded in a fury of ecstasy at his words. Her pussy convulsed around him, clamping down to hold him deep, tight, as he began to jerk with his own release.

  “Sweet Cat.” He lowered his head to her breast, his big body trembling with pleasure. “Sweet. So perfect. So fucking perfect.”

  And it was. Perfect.

  The aftermath was a gentle easing, a soft glide from chaos to the peace of Luc’s bed where he had rolled to his side and pulled her into his arms. One hand held her head against his chest; the other clasped her hip. His heart was still racing, but so was hers.

  “It can’t last forever,” she said aloud, a somber sadness threatening to disturb the cloud of pleasure that enfolded them.

  “It can.” He sighed. “But only if you w
ant it to, baby. Only if you want it to.”

  NINETEEN

  Now that he knew the truth, Luc found it harder and harder to hold back from Melina. He could see her emotions clearly in her beautiful eyes, in her soft face. She was falling in love with him; he refused to accept any other alternative. But he also knew the time was swiftly approaching when he was going to let her know that he knew the truth. He would have already, but he had a feeling she would pack her bags and head out just as fast as he had kidnapped her to begin with. That, he couldn’t allow.

  Whatever the hell Maria was up to, it couldn’t be anything good. Joe was worried sick, more concerned with Melina than with the threat Luc had made to rip off his damned head for lying to him. Had Joe told him the truth, he would have been more than willing to help. But not like this. Not in a way that threatened every shred of happiness Luc had ever dreamed of.

  He sat on the wide front porch, watching as Melina tried to stand between Lobo and Mason. The wolf hybrid was amazingly patient with the feline invader to his home.

  Not that he didn’t harass the fat-assed cat. He did, on a daily basis. But only if Melina was around.

  Mason was growling from Melina’s arms, staring down at the huge canine with a smug feline expression. Luc almost believed the wolf just wanted Melina’s attention rather than a chance to harass the cat. Not that he blamed him.

  “Lobo, you’re as aggravating as your owner,” Melina laughed as she pushed the animal back when he made a mock lunge at the cat in her arms. “Mason is not lunch. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

  Neither was warm, willing woman, but Luc had taken her for lunch before he ever got around to the sandwiches and soup she had fixed. She was addictive, he thought, watching the bunch and sway of her sweetly curved ass beneath her jeans.

  Her laughter echoed around the ranch yard as Lobo grabbed at her jean leg, growling playfully as he stared up at her.