Fierce Read online

  Levi’s white T-shirt stretched taut around his muscles, his pecs clearly defined underneath the thin fabric. The cowboy hat was gone, and he must’ve been freshly showered because his square jaw was shaved smooth, and he smelled like soap and rain. In his hand, he held a plate covered in foil.

  “Hey,” he rumbled, his deep voice slipping into my panties like a dark invitation. “I came earlier to take you to dinner at the main house with the others and saw you were sleeping. I wanted to let you rest but figured you might be hungry now.”

  “I am!” I didn’t mean to sound so eager, but now that the smell of the food reached my stomach, I was starved. And I felt as if he could tell exactly what I’d been up to. I practically snatched the plate from his hand, but he held it up high, out of my reach.

  I stilled, confused as to why he offered then yanked it away.

  He shook his head slowly. “Uh uh. There’s a price, Doctor.”

  For a split second, I panicked. A price? Was he trying to blackmail me, too? Then I saw the sly twist to his lips, the humor glinting in his eyes. He was playing.

  I put my hands on my hips, sighed in relief. Compared to the asshole punk who was ruling my life right now, Levi was a relief. Friendly. Gruff, sure. But I felt safe with him. As if there was a connection or something between us. More.

  Which, of course, there wasn’t, which meant I was delirious from low blood sugar or something.

  I couldn’t date Levi, though. Fuck, that was my problem right there. I was here for two weeks. There was no dating. He was the sheriff. Acting sheriff, whatever that meant in this town. He was the law. I was the proverbial outlaw. I couldn’t take care of Pops if I lost my license or was in jail.

  But right now, he wasn’t the sheriff but a guy who was thoughtfully bringing me dinner. I needed to stop reading into everything.

  “Whoa, there. Where’d you go?”

  I blinked, realized I’d been in my head again. Smiled.

  “What’s your price, big man?” Oops. That came out way more flirty than I intended. I wasn’t sure I’ve ever flirted before in my life. Never so blatantly.

  “Mmm.” He backed up, still holding the food out of reach. I was tall, but he had several inches on me. The only way I was going to get that plate was to climb him like a monkey. While that idea sounded appealing, it probably wasn’t the best thing to do. “For one thing, you should definitely call me big man again.” He winked and turned down the hall. “Trust me, I’m big all over.”

  Oh lord. He had taken it as flirting. Why were my nipples getting hard? Was my mind really thinking about how big he was in other places. If the size of his hands were any indication…

  I followed him and the plate of food, as he’d surely intended.

  “And the other thing?” I asked, eyeing how well his jeans molded to his butt.

  “You gotta sit with me.” He tipped his head, friendly-like, in the direction of the living-slash-game room.

  I arched a brow. “Sit with you?”

  Ordinarily I wouldn’t need to clarify, but I wasn’t sure if he meant sit with him or sit on him. I knew which one I’d rather do.

  He smirked. “Or you can do other things. Your choice.”

  Holy shit, I’d been right.

  I rolled my eyes and smacked his arm. I didn’t know when I started smacking guys so playfully, nor how he managed to make me feel comfortable enough to do it, but honestly? It felt good. So had the hard muscle beneath my palm.

  I’d been keeping myself closed off from men for way too long, as my best friend Keely always told me. Now, with my Dax situation, I couldn’t even think about it.

  Except I was.

  The Cooper Valley sheriff was all but inviting me to sit on his flipping lap, and I was actually considering it.

  Except I had no game. No experience. Was way too up in my head when it came to guys. Instead of going with it, I wondered how I got from professional, clothes-on, respectability to naked and horizontal with this guy? Sure, I’d felt up his forearm, but what happened next? I just couldn’t picture the steps in between or Levi doing them with me.

  He looked at me with heat. Interest. I was smart enough to recognize the signs.

  Maybe I could do this. Flirt. Have fun. Get laid.

  It started like this. Right? My belly suddenly fluttered. Oh, damn. What was I doing?

  No law enforcement officers. Shit.

  He’d know, somehow, what I was doing. I might have driven five hundred miles, but Dax had already proven he’d keep bothering me here. And if Levi found out I was ordering drugs under the premise of them being for Mr. Claymore’s horses but were really being given to Dax?

  Handcuffs and not for sexy times.

  “I swear I can see your mind working overtime.” He studied me. “No wonder you needed a nap.”

  He was joking, but it stung. He was right. My mind never shut down, especially freaking over the mess I was in.

  “Hey, there.” He lifted my chin with a finger, so I met his eyes. I didn’t see anything but concern. Understanding. “That smart brain of yours works all the time, huh?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, how about you take a little mental break? Seraphina’s all settled for the night. I checked on her myself. There’s nothing for you to do but have dinner with me.”

  If he only knew. No! He could never know. Still, he was being kind. Thoughtful. Gentle. And it was true, the horse was settled, and there really wasn’t anything I could do tonight, even for Dax. With a few words, he’d smoothed it over and made me feel better. Maybe it was the soft tone of his voice. Somehow it was soothing. He didn’t make me feel bad for being in my head all the time.

  “Like a date?” I picked the light banter back up. The direction we were headed had been too revealing.

  He grinned and turned away to head downstairs.

  I followed him into the living area, where he plunked down on a couch and patted the spot beside him.

  “Yup, a date. Just the two of us over dinner.”

  I laughed because this wasn’t a romantic candlelit dinner for two in a fancy restaurant. This was the two of us on a couch with a covered dish.

  I settled beside him, just far enough apart so our thighs didn’t touch.

  “There’s my girl. See? That wasn’t so hard.” He gave me a wink. My heart fluttered at how he called me his girl, but he ruined it all by adding, “But the offer for sitting on my lap still stands.”

  I gave him the primmest of looks. “I’ll have to decline that offer, generous though it may be.”

  I held out my hand for the plate of food, and he unwrapped it and gave it to me.

  “Oh, it’s generous,” he said, and my body heated at the blatant innuendo.

  He then got serious about seeing me fed. “Hope you like burgers. If not, I put a little of everything on there for you.” He produced silverware wrapped in a cloth napkin from his back pocket. It was true, the plate was piled high with food—fresh salad, a burger, a slice of watermelon, and scalloped potatoes. “Marina made those buns fresh today. They’re to die for.”

  “Marina?” I asked before taking a giant bite of the burger.

  “Oh sorry. She’s Audrey’s sister. Believe it or not, she married Boyd’s brother, Colton.”

  “That’s crazy,” I said, mouth full. It was delicious, and I was shoveling it in like a growing teenage boy, which was another thing I didn’t usually do in front of people I didn’t know. I had better manners than this, but Levi didn’t seem to mind.

  He reached out, swiped a little ketchup from the corner of my mouth.

  I stared at his mouth as he sucked the tip of his thumb. Oh my.

  I didn’t remember feeling so attracted to a guy before. Maybe it was because I felt strangely comfortable with him. I barely knew him. Why was there this… feeling between us? It was weird and thrilling and a little exciting.

  This wasn’t the hang-out-with-friends comfortable.

  No. I didn’t think I’d ever cons
ider this big guy with the gorgeous eyes and the potent personality as a friend.

  A huge zing of sexual attraction ensured the flutters were ever-present. My nerve-endings were alight, even scarfing down a hamburger. It was disconcerting to be so wrapped up in this man’s attention. Maybe it was the sexy dream I’d had that was bleeding over into being awake. With him.

  No. He was just hot. Attentive. Considerate. Gorgeous.

  And a lawman.

  I demolished the burger and moved onto the salad with the plate settled on my lap. “How many people live on the ranch?” I asked because I’d already met too many to remember. “How big is it?”

  He shifted, settled back further into the couch, as if he had no intention of going anywhere. “Rob and Colton live in the main house with their wives. As I said, Colton’s married to Marina. Rob’s wife is Willow. I think Colton’s going to build another house on the property sometime soon, like Boyd and Audrey have. Clint—the guy you’ve been chatting with about the breeding—his family has a place up on the mountain, but he used to live here with us before he mat—married. His wife’s Becky, and they had a baby in April.”

  “Yes, he told me about Lily.”

  Levi nodded. “It’s just me and Johnny left here in the bunkhouse.”

  “I figured the sheriff would stay in town.”

  He ran a finger over his lips. “I’m acting sheriff. The previous one had a heart attack recently.”

  “Oh no,” I said. “Is he okay now?”

  “He’s fine. He was shoveling snow when he got chest pains. His wife had been on him to retire somewhere warm for years now. That did it. He resigned, and I was voted by the city council to replace him until the next election.”

  “You have past experience?” I needed to know what kind of background I was facing.

  “Nothing like Willow, Rob’s wife. She’s former DEA.”

  Oh. My. God. My stomach flip-flopped.

  “Willow?” The hamburger felt like a brick in my stomach. There was a DEA agent living in the main house?

  “She’d make a good sheriff although she’s pretty content here on the ranch. I was a deputy, actually, before. Part time. There wasn’t one from this side of the canyon, and it’s good to have resources in all areas since the county’s so big. Back to your original question, I’ve lived here for years. Sometimes other ranch hands will stay in the bunkhouse. Rand, who is Clint’s brother. Nash. Or guests like you.”

  “I’m not going to remember any of those names,” I admitted. Well, I’d remember Willow’s, that was for sure. Holy shit, I was staying on a ranch with the county sheriff and a former DEA agent. And now mail service was going to drop a box of ketamine on their doorstep. This was a big freaking problem.

  Levi spoke of them as if they were family. If I had it right in my head, most of them were related, but others were accepted and included, like Levi. They were all… good.

  “Only one name you need to remember,” he murmured.

  I slapped his thigh and gave him a knowing look. “Let me guess. Yours?”

  His hand settled atop mine on his thigh, not letting it move. His quad was like concrete beneath my palm. Rock hard.

  “That’s right, Doc.”

  “And why is that?” I whispered, looking up at him through my lashes.

  “Because I am your personal host. Anything you need, just ask. I’ll take care of you.”

  It’s my job to make you comfortable at Wolf Ranch. And it starts like this…

  Oh God. I pressed my inner thighs together to alleviate the slow burn his presence produced. That his words, the suggestion of what he was offering, made me feel.

  His gaze tracked the movement. The corners of his lips turned up with a satisfied smirk.

  He couldn’t possibly know I was horny right now, could he? Why did he look like he did?

  Damn his size and rugged cowboy good looks. His dark manly scent. The eyes that seemed to see past every barrier I’d raised over the years. I hadn’t known I’d be so susceptible to virile ranch hands.

  “I need a shower,” I blurted, setting my plate down. Because I did. Not just to freshen up but because of this pulsing between my legs. The need I had for this guy. He was so close. I could reach out and grab him, pull him in for a kiss. Climb onto his lap, straddle his thighs and take a cowboy for a ride. There were so many things I could do, but I just didn’t know how to go about it. Kiss him, Charlie!

  No. I’d die of mortification if he wasn’t into it. I had to stay here for the duration of the breeding process, and I couldn’t live with myself if I screwed up. And I definitely couldn’t let him in my bed where he might learn too many of my secrets.

  Frustrated, I stood. I’d never needed one of those massaging showerheads so badly before. I sure hoped they had one here.

  His grin widened, showing a row of perfectly white, straight teeth. If it weren’t for his size and initial gruffness, I would’ve called him All-American. But no, underneath the good looks was something a little grittier. A little more dangerous. Animalistic. Fierce, even. He played at casual, but something made me feel like there was more afoot here than flirtation.

  He didn’t seem like a player to me. He seemed more like a loner. He might have a pseudo-family here on the ranch, but he was still alone.

  Same with me. I had Pops. My co-workers, colleagues. Friends. Besties, even. But I still felt alone. Especially since I couldn’t share the biggest secret of all with any of them.

  So what was Levi’s interest in me? A wild romp with the visiting vet? He was a guy. Of course, that was his plan.

  “I can definitely help you with a shower,” he said, and I cursed the heat that flushed up my neck. Yeah, wild romp.

  “No help needed.” I jumped to my feet. “I’ll, um, just help myself.”

  Oh God. Had I really just said that?

  Please let him misunderstand me. Please, God. When I heard his laugh as I bolted up the steps, I knew he hadn’t.

  5

  LEVI

  * * *

  Charlie was naked. Just on the other side of the door.

  If I’d had any decency at all, I would’ve gone to my room and shut the door. Given her some privacy. Instead, I stood in the hallway imagining exactly what she looked like with water running over that beautiful dark skin of hers. I wanted to lick the droplets off her nipples. Would they be big or small? Her breasts were on the small side—perfectly sized to cup in my palms, of course—but what was the diameter of her actual nipples?

  Why was it so fucking important that I know?

  Why was a stupid question.

  Because I wanted to know every damn fact about her. Not wanted, needed.

  I needed to learn where every freckle rested, memorize every dimple, crevice, fold. I couldn’t wait to get her on her back moaning my name as she came and came and came again. Back? Hell, up against the wall, bent over the arm of the couch, even in one of the horse stalls.

  It was my job. Bringing her to pleasure was definitely my job.

  She’d come, just as she was right now. Naked, wet. Just on the other side of the fucking door. Yeah, I knew exactly what she was doing.

  My keen shifter hearing picked up the sound of the water splashing around her body, but it also heard the catch of her breath, the irregular panting, the intermittent soft moans. When she’d said she’d take care of her needs in the shower by herself, she’d meant it. She was using that fucking showerhead to get herself off right now.

  I envisioned her legs parted, the spray hitting those dark folds just right so her clit was hard. I’d bet my left nut it was so swollen the hood was pulled back. The thrum of the spray must be getting her hot, getting her close to coming. My mouth watered to take over, to suck and nibble at that little pearl, to feel her fingers tangle in my hair as I made her come. Made her knees weak. Her breath catch.

  Fuck me.

  A muffled cry and then—shit… fuck… holy fucking fuck—my name, came through the door. I had to reach
into my jeans and squeeze the head of my dick, so I didn’t come right there in my pants because she was thinking of me as she orgasmed. I dropped my forehead against the door as I tried to catch my breath, but all I picked up was her scent along with the soap I used. The combination made me growl.

  Thank fuck the water was still running.

  It stopped soon enough though, then I was thinking of her drying off, that soft towel running over every inch of her skin.

  I set my palm flat on the door. “Charlie,” I said.

  The quick inhale couldn’t be missed.

  “I’ll be out in a minute,” she called, as if I wanted to get in there to take a piss.

  “Was it enough, doll?”

  She was quiet for a minute as I stared at the painted wood right in front of my eyes.

  “Wh-what?”

  “That little bit of pleasure you got. I bet it wasn’t enough. I can help with that. I can help you wring it all out.”

  She gasped then was silent. And silent. I had to turn my head to even hear her breathing.

  “You okay in there?” I asked. My dick punched against my jeans, eager to get to her.

  “I’m… I can’t come out. Not with you there. Not well, ever.”

  I grinned at the door. I love that I got her all flustered.

  “I’ll walk away. This time,” I added. “Don’t be ashamed, doll. You never have to hide anything. Not from me.”

  I pushed off the door and went to my room, closing the door loud enough, so she knew where I was, that I’d given her room. Just as I said, I walked away. My wolf was pissed, which was odd, but I did it. This time.

  6

  CHARLIE

  * * *

  “We’ll let them be for now,” Clint said. “Whenever you want, we can do an ultrasound and check follicle growth.”

  He was walking with me up the hill to the main house for breakfast. The sun had been up for an hour, but it was still early. Still cool. Dew coated the grass.

  We’d met at the stable at five-thirty to do the first hand breeding of Seraphina and Eddison, their prized stallion. It had taken less than an hour, and everything had gone as expected. Seraphina was in the pasture grazing, which was like a post-sex cigarette for horses. Eddison was back in his stall, getting some extra grain for his hard work.