chapter 11.

Three a.m. The small alarm clock beside Maia's bed blazoned the time in bright glowing numbers.

It seemed she was always awake at 3:00 a.m. in this house. She wasn't used to the creaks and strange noises, although, she had to admit with a great deal of satisfaction, the aura of the house was undergoing a change.

She shifted restlessly in the bed, sighed, giving up on sleep, and threw back the covers. Cole had partic.i.p.ated in decorating the tree, but he'd been thinking of something else. She'd watched him closely.

He had made a dozen excuses to go outside. He'd checked the windows and doors in the house, and for the first time since she'd been there, he'd turned on a security alarm, after first changing the code. And that told her something. Cole was worried about an intruder other than the ghost of his father.

She was falling madly in love with him. She hadn't expected it, and the depth of the emotion was terrifying. She needed to get off the ranch. To go far away. She couldn't stop thinking about Cole. She dreamt of him. Longed to touch him, to take away the shadows always present in his eyes. She'd known from the first moment she'd laid eyes on him that she wouldn't walk away unscathed, but she hadn't counted on the intense attraction she felt for him. He never said a word to her about his real feelings. He never said a word about love or indicated that when she left he wouldn't be happy or even that he might want to see her again.

A sound penetrated through the walls, echoed down the hall. A cry of despair. A tortured protest Maia stood for a moment, her hand to her throat, hearing the tormented groan of despair. If she went to him, she knew she would never be able to resist giving him what he needed, yet making love to him would only make leaving more difficult for her. She heard a string of curses. Unable to resist his terrible need, she hurried out of her room.

Cole's door was closed, but she pushed it open to see him raking his hands through his hair. His body still shuddered with the aftereffects of his nightmare. As she entered, he swept a gun from under the pillow, pointing it straight at her heart.

"d.a.m.n, Maia." He pushed the gun out of sight, struggling to slow his heart rate. "I told you it was dangerous to come downstairs when I'm like this. You think it's any safer in my bedroom?" Cole sat up.

The sheets were tangled around his legs and hips, covering part of him but leaving his thigh bare. He knew it looked as if he'd fought a battle and lost.

"I don't care." She crossed the room to his side, pushing the hair from his forehead, her fingertips lingering on his face, tracing a path to his mouth. "I don't want you to be alone tonight, Cole." She knelt on the bed, the light from the snow spilling through the window to bathe her in silver.

Cole's breath caught in his throat, his lungs burned, and he could only stare as her hands went to the b.u.t.tons of the soft flannel shirt covering her body. She slid each one open. Slowly. One by one. He caught brief glimpses of her body. A soft expanse of skin he ached to touch.

His fingers curled into two tight fists. "Not like this, Maia. You don't have to come to me feeling sorry for me because I had a d.a.m.ned nightmare." What the h.e.l.l was he saying? He wanted her. Ached for her. His body was so d.a.m.ned hard, he was afraid he might shatter. "I don't want you like this." It was a total lie.

He wanted her any way he could have her.

Maia flashed her killer smile, the one that sent his body into overdrive and caused him to turn into a jealous idiot if any other man was within several hundred feet of her. His breath left his lungs in a rush when she allowed the flannel shirt to slide from her shoulders to trie mattress. The silvery light played over her body, caressing it lovingly. She looked like a temptress there, kneeling on his bed, her hair tumbling around her face, her eyes enormous and s.e.xy and looking at him with hunger. Her body's feminine curves invited his touch.

"You're killing me."

She leaned forward, her tongue swirling over his chest. "I hope so."

The action exposed the enticing curve of her hip and b.u.t.tocks. His hands trembled as he reached to cup her bottom, sliding his palms over her smooth skin. She did that to him, made him ache and tremble with the intensity of his hunger for her. He burned from the inside out, a rush of fire that engulfed his body and heightened his senses until he was afraid of losing his control.

Her tongue licking so delicately at his body nearly drove him out of his mind. She pushed the sheets away from him, exposing him to the cool air, but it only hardened his body more so that he was thick and bulging with his desire for her. Maia murmured something against his chest, her tongue tracing a path to his belly. Every muscle in his body contracted. His heart shuddered in antic.i.p.ation.

"Maia, what the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing?" His voice was strangled as his lungs labored for air.

"Exactly what I want to do," she said, and wrapped her fingers around his erection.

A groan exploded from his throat. He'd had too many erotic dreams of Maia in his bed, his hands on her satin skin. "You'd better know this is what you really want," he warned. Because he wanted her more than he wanted the sun to come up in the morning.

"I always know what I want." Her breath was warm and moist, and his heart stopped beating for one moment, then began to slam with alarming force in his chest. She did the same delicate licking that had driven him wild. Now it was beyond his imagination. He was going to implode if she didn't stop. Just when he was certain he couldn't take it anymore, her mouth closed over him, tight and hot and moist, drawing the relentless ache to a fever pitch.

His hands fisted in her hair, his hips coming off the sheets, thrusting in a rhythmic slide. He swore, the words tumbling out in an animalistic growl. His control was nearly shattered. His muscles clenched so tight he thought his jaw would break.

Maia lifted her head and smiled at him, satisfaction evident "Are you thinking of me yet? Of my body?

Because I want you to know who's in bed with you."

"I know d.a.m.ned well who I'm with, Maia." He pushed her backward until she tumbled onto the bed, her legs sprawled, her body open to him. "I knowexactly who you are. I feel like I've waited a lifetime for you."

His hands pressed into her hips, locking her there, pushing her thighs wider apart for him. "Every time I look at you, I think about what I'd really like to be doing. I want to feel you coming apart for me, Maia."

Before she could respond, he lowered his head as he brought her hips to him. His tongue slid over her heated center, teased and tasted before probing deeply. Maia writhed beneath his hungry mouth, bunching the sheet in her fists, sounds she couldn't prevent escaping, which only fed his voracious need to show her she belonged with him. He didn't have the words, so he used his body to prove it to her. His tongue stroked and thrust and cleverly pulsed until she was consumed with wave after wave of o.r.g.a.s.m ripping through her. He sank his fingers deep, and she exploded again, crying out his name.

Cole lifted his head, kissed his way up her body to the underside of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The cool air was nearly Maia's undoing after his hot mouth. She ached, and still the pressure was relentless in spite of her o.r.g.a.s.ms.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Making sure you know who you're in bed with. I don't want you ever to be satisfied with any other man." His teeth sc.r.a.ped back and forth on the sensitive flesh. Tiny little bites that drove her insane. "I want you to belong to me. All of you, Maia, not just your body." His mouth closed over her breast, tongue flicking her nipple, teeth teasing until she couldn't tell if the pleasure was so great it was painful.

He rose over her, pushing against her entrance, so that her body, so slick and hot reacted with a slow giving of way for his penetration. He paused for one slight moment, their mingled breathing the only sound, and then he thrust hard, driving the full length of him as deep into her as he could go. He discovered he loved her cries as much as her laugh. He thrust again, over and over, hard and fast, long, deep strokes, driving her higher and higher until she was clutching at his forearms, crying his name.

Sensation after sensation rocked her body, heat seared her until she thought she would have to scream for him to relieve the terrible ache. More. She wanted more. Everything he had, everything he was. She gave herself up to him, surrendering completely, her hips rising to meet the brutal thrust of his, every bit as hard, desperate for him to fill up every empty s.p.a.ce.

"Maia, you're so d.a.m.ned tight," Cole's voice was husky, the words torn from his rigid throat. "Hot and tight and dammit all, you belong to me. Like this, baby, just like this." He plunged into her again and again, groaning with pleasure as her muscles pulsed and throbbed around him even more. Until her control was shattered and she burst into fragments, her body convulsing around his, tightening and squeezing and milking him dry so that he called her name aloud, his voice rough with sensuality.

Maia stared up into his face. The harsh lines were gone, the horror of his nightmares replaced with satisfaction. He looked like a well-sated lover, his body relaxed and his piercing blue eyes soft with contentment.

Cole propped himself up on his elbows, looking down into her face, still trying to get his breathing under control. He could feel her body still rippling with aftershocks around his. "You'reso beautiful you takemy breath away."

Her laughter was soft, musical, tightening his body all over again. "That's not what took your breath away. And you lie so wonderfully. I'm ordinary-looking, but I don't mind if you want to delude yourself."

Her hands slid over his body, traced his sculpted b.u.t.tocks and hips. She could see a brand burned into his flesh on the back of his thigh. Her fingertips smoothed over the ridges with a small caress.

"I probably should sneak back to my room," she added.

He stiffened. "This is not a one-night stand, Maia. I told you that."

"You did not. I forget your exact words, but..."

He caught her hands, stretched them above her head, pinning her wrists to the mattress so he could bend his head and take possession of her lips. He sank his tongue into the velvet darkness of her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers, exploring, commanding a response. He bit lightly at her lower lip, her chin, blazed a path of fire from her throat to b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

For a moment he breathed in the sight of her bathed in the silvery light as it spilled across her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Her nipples were peaked and hard, already roused. Her soft mounds were rising and falling with every breath she took, jutting upward toward his mouth. His body stirred to life, deep inside of hers, hardening impossibly. He bent to the offering, flicking her nipple with his tongue, feeling her response, the way her hips thrust upward and her body convulsed around his. He drew her breast into his hot mouth, suckling strongly, his tongue teasing her nipple, teeth sc.r.a.ping gently.

Maia gasped and moaned, her body tensing, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s swelling with the attention. His body began to move, long slow strokes that left her moaning and lifting her hips in an attempt to control the rhythm. Cole held her beneath him, pressing kisses between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, nibbling at her chin and lower lip, using his mouth to bring her to another climax while his body kept a slow, lazy tempo.

"Cole." It was a protest. A plea.

He smiled. A genuine smile. He felt it welling up out of nowhere. Cole could make her want him, plead with him, make her body come apart. She didn't try to hide the way she felt such an urgent need of him, and that was more of an aphrodisiac than anything else ever could have been.

"Cole what?" he whispered against her mouth. Her muscles were already suckling at him, so tight and hot he wasn't certain he could keep the slow, languid pace he was setting. "What do you want, Maia?"

The pleasure kept building and building inside of him, starting somewhere in the region of his toes, becoming an excruciating pleasure/pain in his groin and belly. There was fire in her tight sheath, her skin soft and inviting, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s thrusting up toward him with her arms stretched out above her head. An offering to him. Maia gave herself to him completely, and there was so much seduction in that knowledge.

"Hurry up. Nowyou're killingme ." She lifted her hips again, deliberately tightening her muscles around him.

With a groan, Cole gave in, plunging deep and hard, unable to resist the hot furnace of her body. He couldn't resist kissing her, sucking on her lower lip. How often had he found himself staring, enthralled by the soft curve of her mouth? His tongue plunged into her mouth with the same urgency his hips drove into her. It could never be enough with Maia and he knew he never wanted it to be.

Stretched out under him as she was, helpless under the pounding force of his body, she still tried to reach him, to lift herself to meet him. Cole felt her body stretching to accommodate him as with each thrust he seemed to grow thicker and harder, nearly bursting with the pleasure she brought him. He held them there, on the edge of a great precipice for what seemed forever, then both went over, climaxing together, the force of it leaving them shuddering and limp, a fine sheen glossing their bodies.

Cole groaned softly and rolled his weight off of her when he could, but he kept his hand on her ribs, just under her breast, wanting to keep her in his room. "Just stay," he ordered softly. "I need you to stay."

It took Maia longer to catch her breath, to gather her scattered thoughts. "I've never felt that way before, Cole."

He turned his head to look at her. "That's a d.a.m.ned good thing, Maia. I'm looking to be number one in your life. Being a fantastic lover is one of the requirements."

She laughed, just like he knew she would. "Is it? I had no idea. Well, you definitely pa.s.sed that test."

She glanced at the door. "I hope I didn't scream. Please tell me I didn't."

"Unless Jase has a nightmare, he sleeps deeply, and his room is way down at the other end of the floor.

We wanted to give one another a lot of s.p.a.ce when we first moved in together."

"He's a good kid."

"Yeah, he is. All along I've been so worried that Jase might have killed the old man. I wouldn't have blamed him for it, but I didn't want him to have done it. I couldn't find a way to prove him innocent and even in some of our conversations, little things he said made me wonder."

"How awful for you both," Maia sympathized. She reached for his hand, twining her fingers through his.

"Jase isn't naturally violent, Cole. If he killed his father, he would have done it in self-defense. And to be honest, I don't think he could have. He was too afraid of him. And it isn't in him to kill anyone."

"No, it isn't." Cole turned over, his arm sliding around her waist. "But it is in me, isn't?"

The sadness in his voice shook her. Sadness. Distaste. A note of fear. Maia framed his face with her hands, shifting so she could rise above him to look directly into his eyes. "You'renothing like that man, Cole. You're strong and yes, you could be violent if the circ.u.mstances called for it, but you're nothing at all like him."

"You don't know that, Maia."

"Yes I do. I saw your face when you touched the mountain lion, when I worked on the horse. I watch you with Jase, how careful you are. Even when you're trying to get him to play, you protect his falls.

There's nothing in you that is cruel. Your father reveled in being cruel. It isn't in your nature, or in Jase's nature. You like to be the boss, but you're not out to control everyone. You encourage Jase to speak his mind and make decisions. That's not wanting control."

Cole slid his hands up her rib cage, cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s in his palms and leaned forward to rest his head against her soft flesh. Maia immediately cradled his head to her. "I read people, just as I read animals, Cole. I would never have allowed myself to become involved with you and Jase if for one moment I thought either of you was cruel to humans or animals. I have too much respect for myself."

She smiled. "I have a little bit of violence in me as well, and a great deal of self-preservation."

His arms tightened around her. "I see him in myself sometimes, Maia."

"He had strength of will, Cole, and he pa.s.sed that to you. He must have had a way with women, and you have that attraction as well. Not everything about him was bad. Some of his traits are useful and, hopefully, both you and Jase have them."

He lifted his head, his blue eyes moving over her face, studying her features inch by inch. "You're a d.a.m.ned miracle, you know that?"

"Of course I do. Temper and all." She laughed, the sound happy and warm, filling the large bedroom.

Cole felt her laughter all the way to his bones. She had the power to shake him with that simple lighthearted sound. Her body was soft and warm and welcoming, but she was so much more to him.She would always be so much more to him . The revelation was no longer a shock. Maia seemed as much a part of him as breathing. She was the joy that had been missing from his heart. When he woke in darkness, she brought light to him. She brought out things in him he hadn't known were a part of him.

How could he tell her these things when they'd only been together so short a time? She wouldn't believe him. How could she? His arms tightened until she stirred in protest.

"You're going to break me in half, Cole," Maia said. "What's wrong?"

He forced himself to let his arms slide away from her, to lie back and lace his fingers behind his head. "I know you've told me about the images the animals have shown you several times, but would you go over it again in detail. Everything you can remember."

"Why?"

"You ought to be over being uncomfortable about it with me," Cole said. There was a soft growl in his voice, a deep note that seemed to vibrate right through her skin. "I'm just thinking about all the images the animals have been conveying to you, and I'm trying to put it together. Maybe the answer to the mystery of what's going on at this ranch is in those images."

Maia sat back, her hand on his chest, right over his heart. She knew he hadn't told her what had put the shadows back in his eyes, but if he wasn't ready to tell her, she wasn't going to force a confidence. "I'm going to let you get away with that just because I know you're worried about something happening on the ranch, and I want to be filled in, but I know that's not what you were worried about."

Maia waited, but Cole didn't respond. "Fine. The owl was very vague. Impressions of dangers, something flying overhead. Flashes of light. Horses moving. I couldn't get a very good take on it because the images seemed faded and far away." She shrugged. "I know that sounds dumb."

"The deer then."

"Blood on the gra.s.s and rocks. Fists. .h.i.tting flesh. More impressions of danger."

"Were the images as vague?"

"Distant. And the wolves were even more so. Something overhead. Blood on the ground. The one I treated was injured sometime ago."

"Someone shot it?"

"No, I think it was kicked by a horse or trampled. The bone was out of the socket, but I'm not certain how the injury actually occurred or how long ago. The poor thing had really suffered."

"All this time I thought my father's death had something to do with his fortune or the ranch or Jase. I couldn't figure out why he was murdered and how anyone other than my uncle would profit and only if he was named guardian, which he wouldn't be. Besides, he wouldn't want the responsibility."

"So if your father wasn't murdered for the inheritance, what was the reason?"

He shrugged, a small sigh escaping. "I'm not actually certain, but I think your animals were trying to tell you something. I'm working on a time line. Tell me how preposterous this sounds. I think your cat, the owl, and the wolves were showing you something that happened a while ago."

"Maybe. It was vague."

"Exactly. The memory wasn't fresh."

Excitement flared. "You're right. When Wally showed me the images of Jase as a boy being beaten, the memories weren't nearly as vivid as when he showed me how he was driven into the fence. I had a very difficult time making out the images from the owl and the wolves, but the mountain lion's images were much clearer."

"You're certain she was shot the day Wally was injured?"

"The wound would have been infected if more time had gone by. Yes, it was definitely fresh."