Wyoming Strong

“Just how experienced are you?” he asked bluntly. “Is that innocence real, or is it an act? Something to disarm a man and make him feel protective?”

She wrapped his jacket closer around her thin shoulders. “I live inside myself,” she said after a minute. “I don’t...need other people.”

“I feel that way, too, most of the time. But then there are the long, empty nights when I have to have a woman just to get through them.”

Her face flamed. “Lucky women,” she drawled.

His hand came up, very slowly, and pushed back a long strand of silky black hair from her face. “Yes, they are. I’m a tender lover,” he said softly.

She stepped back, nervously. She didn’t like the mental pictures that were forming in her mind.

“Sara, are you all right?” Gabriel asked from the doorway.

They both turned to look at him. “Yes,” she said.

He gave Wolf a speaking look. “You should come back in. It’s cold.”

“I’ll be there in just a minute,” she promised.

Gabriel nodded and went inside, but with obvious reluctance.

“Your brother doesn’t want me anywhere near you,” Wolf told her.

“Yes. He told me that you’re...” She flushed as she recalled what Gabriel had said, that Wolf was aggressive with women he wanted. “He said that you have a past that you haven’t dealt with.”

“Like you,” he returned.

She nodded. “He said we could hurt each other badly.”

“He’s right,” he replied with narrow, dark eyes. “Past a certain point, I wouldn’t be tender. And I think aggression is what frightens you the most.”

“I can’t...do that,” she said, her voice curt.

“Do what?”

“Sleep...with anyone.”

His face hardened. “Then you shouldn’t send out signals that you’re available. Should you?”

“I haven’t!”

“You lay in my arms like a silken doll and let me have your mouth,” he said under his breath, his voice deep and soft and sensuous. He leaned toward her conspiratorially. “That’s a signal.”

“I was surprised,” she shot back. “Caught off guard.”

“You don’t like men close to you,” he said, thinking out loud. “You were frightened of Ted. But you like it when I touch you, Sara.”

“I...don’t!”

His forefinger went to her soft bow mouth and traced around its outline in a slow, sensuous appraisal that made it tremble.

He moved a step closer, watching her face lift helplessly, feeling the quick, involuntary whip of her breath.

“Your brother was right,” he whispered as he bent. His mouth shivered over her parted lips, barely touching, tracing, tempting. “I’m much more dangerous than I look.”

She wanted to move away. She really did. But the feel of him so close to her, the smell of him, familiar and dear, the hard warmth of his mouth teasing hers, made her reckless. She’d never really wanted a man to kiss her. But she loved it when Wolf did. He made the bad memories go away.

His fingers were tracing up and down her long neck, making sensuous little patterns while his mouth smoothed over her lips.

“You could become an addiction,” he whispered. “That would be the worst thing I could do to you.”

Her eyes opened wide on his face, seeing it harden, seeing his eyes glitter.

“I mean it,” he said roughly. “I hate brunettes. I wouldn’t mean to take out old vendettas on you, but I might not be able to help it.” His mouth crushed down on hers briefly and then lifted. “She liked to make me crazy in bed, then she laughed at me when I lost control and went over the edge.”

She caught her breath at the images that flashed through her mind.

“I don’t think she ever felt a damned thing. But she pretended that she did, at first. She told me she was a virgin. She even acted like one...”

He jerked away from Sara. His pale eyes were glittery on her face. “Just like you,” he said in a rough undertone. “Backing away to make me come close then pretending that I got through her defenses, that I wasn’t like the other men who frightened her.”

She began to understand what Gabriel meant. She felt a sense of loss. This man was far more damaged even than she was.

“Have you ever had therapy?” she asked sadly.

“Therapy.” He laughed out loud. “I had two years of a woman ridiculing me every time I lay in her arms, making me beg for satisfaction. Can damned therapy fix that?” he asked in a rasping tone.

She winced.

“So I date blondes. They don’t come with bad memories, and I can make them lose control, make them beg me.” He smiled coldly. “Payback.”

She had a sick feeling deep inside. He would do that to her, if they ever became involved. He would make her pay for those scars the other woman had given him. She hadn’t realized until then that she felt different with him than she ever had with other men.

“Have I shocked you?” he asked sarcastically.

“Yes,” she replied softly. “I...haven’t ever... Well, that’s not quite true.” She lowered her eyes. “My stepfather tried to have me. He was brutal and vulgar and there was a trial... I had to testify against him. He went to prison.”

“Did you tease him?” he asked coldly. “Drive him crazy until he had to do something about it?”

Why had she thought he might feel differently than other men had? She laughed softly to herself. She took off his jacket and handed it to him. “I’m sure that’s what I did,” she replied. “It must have been my fault.”

He couldn’t see her face. He didn’t realize that she was being sarcastic. “Poor damned fool,” he bit off. “Just don’t think you’ll ever get the opportunity to try it out on me.”

“Mr. Patterson,” she said with ragged pride, “it would never occur to me that you’d be that stupid. Excuse me.”

She brushed by him and went into the civic center. She found Gabriel standing by the punch bowl. She was poised, but very pale.

“I’d like to go home, please,” she said in a haunted tone.