Page 5 of Rainwater

“Jay, let go!” Her voice was getting more frantic than angry, and in pain and desperation, she brought her knee up. But he turned and the blow just caught the inside of his thick thigh. He laughed with malicious glee, the sound grating her nerve endings.

Just when she thought she would scream from the excruciating pain, his hold loosened and she looked down to see Jay in the dust. Only this time, he was flat on his back.

Her outlaw stood menacingly over him, his boot planted against Jay’s chest, his thumbs hooked into a pair of worn denim blue jeans.

“Jackasses never learn,” he said with such steel-edged derisive amusement she saw Jay stiffen.

“But when you’re dealing with dumb animals, it takes a few times before they understand what you want them to do.

” He shook his head in condemnation, causing his hair to swing around his shoulders.

She was mesmerized as the silky mass slid over the soft material of his deep purple shirt.

She wondered if the color would deepen the hue in his eyes.

Even though he had his back to her, she could see the threat of violence in every line of his body. She could tell he wanted to beat Jay by the way he stood, his hip thrust out as some kind of challenge. A human-male call of the wild.

She wasn’t worried about Jay, he deserved everything he got, but he was vindictive and he could cause a considerable ruckus for this green-eyed man who just wanted to be left alone. But twice now he’d risked his solitude to protect her.

She moved forward, placing the hand with the aching wrist against the steel of his bare forearm.

It was a warm day and he’d rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.

He was hatless and he’d shaved. It made him look more vulnerable and less unapproachable.

Still an outlaw, though, with his firm jaw and the aura of danger that sparked around him.

His face was thunderous, his eyes a dark and stormy turquoise.

The heat of his skin was like a shock coursing through her palm and up her arm.

She wanted to caress his soft hair-roughened skin beneath her hand with a most unbelievable need.

The tenseness of his body, taut like a strung bow, belied the lazy drawl of his voice.

“Mr. Rainwater,” she said, “please don’t. Just let him go.”

Corey removed his boot and stood in a threatening gunslinger stance, as if Jay were suddenly going to draw on him.

Jay cursed a vicious oath and scrambled to his feet, his wary eyes watching Corey with hatred.

Those angry eyes moved to her and a sudden chill of fear brushed down her spine. Clearly, she’d made a powerful enemy. “This discussion isn’t over, Jennifer,” he snapped, brushing the dust off his clothes.

“Just what is it you want from her?” Corey’s voice was quietly cold and raised warning gooseflesh over her skin.

The promise in his tone was a challenge she knew Jay wasn’t ready to take on—at least, not alone.

Corey’s forearm tightened beneath her hand, his own hand drawing into a fist. She exerted a light pressure and he seemed to relax.

“I want her to pay my dry-cleaning bill,” he whined.

Corey snorted in disgust. “What for?”

Jay’s face turned sullen and his eyes darted to hers. “She poured a pitcher of beer over my best shirt two nights ago. I want retribution.”

Corey slid a glance sideways, a smile flashing on his handsome face. “You did that, Jennifer?” His tone was so full of mockery that she laughed, knowing he was gibing Jay.

“I confess. I’m the guilty party,” she replied with mock sheepishness.

His conspiratorial grin widened, and she found herself grinning back.

He held her gaze longer than necessary and she floundered before the hot brilliance.

Far back in his eyes, hunger flickered like heat lightning.

The shock of his hunger ran through her body, beating in time to her own.

Abruptly he stopped being a stranger to her.

The conspiracy and the possessive way he looked at her made him familiar and coveted.

Jennifer’s hand clenched around the warm skin of his forearm.

She needed something to anchor herself right now.

“I’m appalled at you,” he said in a mock-scolding voice.

A shrewd teasing gleam twinkled in his hot eyes before he pulled his gaze away and fastened it on Jay.

“Your favorite shirt? That must have been awful for you. I can certainly see why you’d want to terrorize a woman, especially if your advances were unwanted.

” Corey reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill while Jay called him the most filthy names.

Corey stilled and his eyes narrowed with menace.

“Watch your mouth, or I’ll close it for you.

” He held out the bill. “Here. This should take care of your fancy clothes,” he said with scathing force.

When Jay reached for it, Corey dropped it to the ground.

Jay picked up the twenty, and as he rose, Corey leaped forward and with one smooth motion, pivoted and slammed Jay up against the feed store wall. “Don’t go near her again, cowboy.” His voice was deceptively mild, deceptively soft. Steel couldn’t be harder.

Fear blossomed in Jay’s eyes as he obviously realized that he was dealing with a very deadly, very protective man. In that same chilling voice, Corey continued, “If you’re walking down the same street, you cross over to the other side. Get my drift? If you don’t, you’ll have me to answer to.”

A strangled yes came out of Jay’s tight sullen mouth. Corey let him go and he backed up, rubbing his beefy neck. “I’m not afraid of you,” he said with false bravado, his eyes telling the real story.

Corey didn’t even acknowledge that Jay spoke. Very deliberately, he turned his back. The motion was as good as a slap in the face.

With his back to Jay, Corey didn’t see the vindictive, hateful look that crossed Jay’s face before he left, but Jennifer did and she was suddenly afraid for Corey. A thin shiver of warning trailed down her spine.

“This is becoming a habit with you,” she said while she tried to massage some feeling back into her hand.

“I could say the same thing for you, darlin’. It looks like you do have more than one life, huh?”

He moved the hand that was rubbing her wrist and swore softly when he saw the beginning of a bruise. Very gently, his fingers caressed the sensitive flesh and goosebumps shivered over her skin. He continued to rub her injury, a distant look on his face.

“You should have let me teach him a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget,” he said, his voice thick.

“It wouldn’t have made me feel any better,” she countered as she tried to slip her wrist out of his big capable hands. But he gently held on, his thumb moving over the palm of her hand with smooth distracted strokes.

“I would have felt a lot better,” he murmured as if in a daze. He brought the abused flesh close to his mouth.

The warmth of his breath had her stomach doing tiny flips. Tenderly he kissed the red skin, his hand sliding down her arms, around her back as he urged her close to him. “Better?” he questioned, the concern in his eyes warming her. “He didn’t hurt you anywhere else, did he?”

It didn’t take much urging from him to get her closer.

He’d showered and smelled of soap and shampoo and a tantalizingly delicious aroma that was completely his own.

Jennifer couldn’t answer. The tenderness in his eyes jammed the words in her throat, a tenderness and aching loneliness that left her emotions raw.

Then it happened. The deep need to hold this man in her arms stole over her.

Hold him tight and rock him until the wrenching pain in his eyes went away and never came back.

Oh, how she wished for that right. The right to put her arms around him.

He knew what it was like to be abused.

With that realization, she lost another little piece of heart to this man she’d met only hours before. “No,” she said softly.

He moved his head closer, his eyes focused on her mouth. “Are you sure?” His voice thickened with a longing that tore at her heartstrings. He gave her ample time to evade him if she wanted to.

“My mouth.” Her answer was just a puff of air as his lips dropped to hers. His kiss was gentle warmth moving over her mouth, a sweet insistent pressure that she couldn’t resist.

She was certain that he never meant to deepen the kiss, he’d only meant to brush her mouth. But unable to stop herself, her mouth softened beneath his seeking lips, broadcasting to him loud and clear her surrender, her invitation.

With a soft moan, she tangled her fingers in his long silky hair, searching for the sensitive nape of his neck.

He moaned softly into her mouth. How could she know that he loved being touched there? A shiver of pure pleasure jolted along his nerve endings.

His tongue touched the corner of her mouth and she parted her lips, giving him access to such sweetness he thought his knees would buckle.

Their tongues entwined, tasting each other with a fierce need that left them both weak.

He drew her closer, his arms closing around her while he kissed her with a deep hunger that was surprising in its immediate force.

One hand came up to cup the back of her head, his mouth moving frantically over hers.

His body shifted to accommodate her soft curves until she was close to him as two bodies could get without actually joining.

It was an intimate kiss, a kiss of two souls who had long since been apart and were finally discovering one another again.

With a small sound, she clung to him, unnerved by his desire and silky demands of his tongue, reacting to him as she had never reacted to any man. Just as she knew she would. The intimacy of the kiss was stunning in relation to the short time she had known him. She couldn’t help wanting more.

When his mouth moved from hers, she was weak in body and reason, barely able to stay upright. My God, the man could kiss the socks off her. She couldn’t seem to think this close to him.

There was just this deep abiding fire that he had lit inside her with that toe-curling kiss, so deep that she felt she had just been taught by a master.

She was feeling things now for which she had no labels.

A powerful wanting that shocked her, the implications frightening, the impact of such recklessness terrifying to a woman who didn’t want to lose control of the wild, reckless nature she held rigidly in check.

Especially to a loner. A man who would break her heart.

His voice was husky, almost bereft. “Does this mean that you now owe me two home-cooked meals?”

He caught her off guard, but only for a moment. She had expected him to apologize for kissing her, but she should have known better. Outlaws never apologized. Her smile was pure mischief. “How about a home-cooked meal with an apple pie thrown in?”

His eyes rolled and he smacked his lips. “Offer me a scoop of vanilla ice cream on that pie and you have yourself a deal and a friend for life.”

She didn’t want to be his friend. He slowly let go of her and she felt suddenly disconnected as he stepped back. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.

Once again the distance was there in his eyes, and maybe a flash of regret. Quickly she gave him directions to her home and he promised to be there at seven sharp.

“I do have to warn you,” she said with a little lurch in her stomach. “I have a mildly precocious thirteen-year-old daughter.”

The only indication of surprise he gave was the lifting of his eyebrows. He cocked his hip and raked his hand through his hair in such a knee-melting sexy motion that Jennifer couldn’t concentrate on his words.

“You don’t look old enough to have a thirteen-year-old daughter, but I’ll look forward to meeting her.”

He walked away then and left her with the lingering taste of him on her lips and his hunger burning in her blood.