His face blurred above me as his head bowed back and his neck tightened. The biceps braced on either side of my head quivered and his nostrils flared. It was primal and so goddamn hot that I orgasmed just from watching him hit his release. Pride chased pleasure and desire from my head to my toes. I made him look that shattered and satisfied. I made him look that soft and replete. I wasn’t sure if that was what broken was supposed to look like, but if it was, it looked a lot like love.
I whimpered and shook my way through my own climax with his name on my lips and his body surrounding mine, inside and out. It was brilliant and unforgettable.
He lowered himself so that he was lying over me like a gigantic, muscular blanket and rubbed his bristly cheek against mine. We were still joined in a way that felt unbreakable, and he ran a hand down my thigh and lifted it to rest on his hip. I used my foot to help him get his pants the rest of the way off and caressed his spine as he yawned loudly in my ear.
“I’m ready for that kiss.” Sleepy humor colored his tone so I turned my head and met his lips with my own.
“Let me up and I’ll let you sleep.” His arms tightened around me and his scruff scraped my skin as he shook his head in the negative.
“Not letting you go.” His eyes were closed and he was already breathing slower.
I sighed and wrapped my arms across his wide shoulders. “You want me.” I still couldn’t fully absorb the full impact of how much that meant to me.
He let out a long breath and kissed my temple. “I deserve you. I deserve the way you make me feel even if it’s only temporary. Stay with me for a little bit. We don’t have a lot of time.”
The reminder killed but it also settled me into a more comfortable position in his arms when he turned us on our sides as the sorrow for everything I would leave behind hung over me like a rain cloud. Sex with Cy didn’t break me; it made me feel whole and renewed.
I wiggled away from Cy an hour later when his grasp finally loosened and his arms went limp around me. It took some effort to get dressed without bumping into him, especially considering he took up the majority of the space, but I managed even with my weak wrist. I made my way over to where the morning fire was already going with a pot of coffee resting on the coals. Sutton stood on one side and Em sat on the other. They didn’t seem to be talking to each other but it was obvious something awkward was going on. Very interesting. It was something I was going to ask her about. When I finally reached them, whatever sexual, tension-filled vortex they were locked in broke.
Em gave me a quick grin and Sutton greeted me with a lifted cup and his typical scowl. Em offered me a cup of coffee and brushed her shoulder against mine as I sat down next to her.
“You look . . . well rested.”
I rolled my eyes at her but couldn’t hold back a grin, a grin that died when Sutton muttered, “Another vacation fling that’s going to crash and burn. I keep waiting for him to find a woman who might actually stick around.”
I cocked my head to the side and considered him for a long minute. “Maybe he purposely picks women who can’t stay because he doesn’t want a repeat of what happened with his wife. When you know the other person has to leave it hurts less watching them go.”
The coffee cup in his hand lowered and his brows lowered. “He told you about Selah?”
I nodded but didn’t get into any more detail as he continued to watch me, speculation and curiosity clear in his leafy green eyes, because Em turned to me with wide eyes and told me, “Sutton said that while he was in town picking up his daughter he heard a rumor that the park rangers pulled a body out of the river a few weeks ago.”
I looked back at Sutton who shrugged. “I took Daye to the Big Horn, one of the only restaurants in Sheridan, and while we were having dinner, no less than five people stopped by the table to ask if I’d heard about the body. The ranch is far enough out of the city we usually miss all that kind of gossip and talk unless the guests bring it with them. I assumed it was a hiker who got turned around and lost or a kayaker who got into a bad part of the river. Rodie Collins, who just happens to be with the sheriff’s office, mentioned that the body had bullet holes in it.” He grunted. “Not appropriate dinner conversation for a five-year-old but we don’t usually have violent crime like that around here. I think he was excited to actually have a crime to solve. He said they couldn’t identify the guy but they’ve been working on it.”
I pushed some of my hair off my face and frowned. “When Boss bolted through the woods we stumbled into a massive pot farm cleared out in the middle of the trees. Cy thinks the people who put it there are the ones doing their best to get us to move on in a different direction. I wouldn’t be surprised if that dead body and hidden drug fields go hand in hand.”
“Probably, which means whoever wants to keep people away isn’t afraid of using violence to keep their grow site safe. We need to get a move on it so you guys are out of the line of fire and we can get you someplace more controlled.” Those were almost Cy’s exact words, which meant the middle Warner brother also thought this was a situation that could quickly get out of hand.
Shivering, I ran my hands over my arms and inclined my head toward the tent. “Cy was up all night, give him another hour to sleep and then we’ll go. We should get everyone else up and fed so that we can hit the trail as soon as he gets up.”
Finally, the harsh expression on Sutton’s ridiculously handsome face lifted. His lips quirked up in a sideways grin and I heard Em suck in a breath next to me. The Warner men were hard to resist, that was a fact.