Cody Walker's Woman

She resisted at first—a token resistance—but then she surrendered...by inches. Desire flooded him as her body softened against his incrementally. Then her hands gripped his shirt, and at that point the kiss changed. The yearning, the aching need rose to the top, and he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her as if he could make her his woman that way. As if he could stake his claim to her just by kissing her.

He wanted. Needed. Yearned. His hands clasped her hips and pulled her closer so she couldn’t help but feel his desire. But this wasn’t about sex. Not at all.

He wanted to lay Keira down in a field of grass with a breeze rippling through it, the wide, blue Wyoming sky arching overhead and the sun warming their skin. He wanted to undress her slowly and have her do the same to him, as if they had all the time in the world. He wanted to kiss away every bruise he’d inflicted and swear to her there would never be another. He wanted to stroke her skin, to caress her until she cried his name and pulled him close, needing him as he needed her. He wanted to watch her eyes with their gold-tipped lashes as he came into her, wanted to make her face come alive with the same desire he ached to share with her. And he wanted to lay with her afterward, his head pillowed on her breasts, passion spent but still waiting to reignite.

But all he could do was kiss her. Endlessly.

She pulled away from him so suddenly that at first he tried to force her back into his arms. Then he heard it, too—a loud yawn from the bed in the corner that indicated Callahan was waking up—and he abruptly let her go.

They stared at each other for timeless seconds, their breathing ragged. Cody saw a pulse beating in Keira’s throat, and he longed to put his hand there, knowing the pulse beat for him. But he couldn’t do that to her, not in front of Callahan.

She turned away first, her hands gripping the countertop for a moment before she got herself under control. He watched, amazed at how quickly she transformed from warm, vibrant Keira to cool, collected Special Agent Jones. He didn’t realize he was doing the same thing, that the face he was showing her held nothing of the turmoil inside him.

Movement from the direction of the bed made him look away from Keira and watch Callahan come awake and alert; Cody realized with a jolt just how close he and Keira had been to having a witness to the interlude between them. He suppressed a surge of unreasonable anger at the other man for being there. It’s not Callahan’s fault, he reminded himself. You had no business starting something with Keira you knew damn well you couldn’t finish.

His body didn’t want to hear it. He was still hard and aching, his arousal obvious...and painful. And however much he willed it, he couldn’t make it go away. With a muttered curse under his breath, Cody turned and headed for the back door, the only escape available to him. He slammed out the door, and the cool outside air washed over him as soon as he walked out, a welcome relief to his heated body.

Spring came late to the Big Horn Mountains, although earlier than to the Rocky Mountains in the western part of the state. But Cody had been here when it snowed in July, and it was only the end of May. He breathed deeply and adjusted the fit of his jeans. He tried to drag his mind off thoughts of Keira, needing to regain the control he’d let slip so badly. But it wasn’t easy.

The back door opened behind him, and Cody turned to see Callahan descend the steps, stretching a little to work the kinks out. He looked better than he had before he slept, but nothing would ever make him look anything but what he was—a hard man willing to make the hard sacrifices he’d made in his life. And one of those sacrifices had almost cost him Mandy.

“Get enough sleep?” Cody asked.

“Enough for now. I’ll sleep again tonight.” He rotated one shoulder, then the other. “Anything happen while I was unconscious?”

Cody shook his head. He wasn’t about to tell Callahan anything about kissing Keira, and other than that... “No, but I didn’t tell you something you probably need to know,” he said. “Something that happened in Denver yesterday.” He succinctly relayed the story about being followed, about recognizing the tail as someone who’d been following him even before Callahan’s call.