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He’d ridden up ahead of the others to find what was left of his beloved home, the buildings a smoldering pile of charred wood, the livestock either scattered or dead. And the people …
His throat tightened and bitterness worked its way up. A half-dozen ranch hands had died that night, burned beyond recognition. And the foreman. And his mother. His son. His wife.
Or so he’d thought.
But Rose was alive.
Guilty.
While he had no idea if she’d started the fire herself, he knew she’d played a part. Thanks to his younger brother Cody, they all knew the truth now. Rose hadn’t died that night. She’d fled the scene with another man and left them all to perish.
But Colton and his brothers hadn’t burned to death. They’d been saved by a vampire, turned just in the nick of time. Garrett Sawyer had happened on the scene by chance and given them another shot at life.
At revenge.
Ironically, he’d bestowed the same gift on Rose. Unknowingly, of course. The ancient vampire never would have turned her if he’d known that she’d practically murdered her family. When he’d run across her a few miles from the scene, he’d thought her and her partner an innocent couple ravaged by savage Indians.
He’d been wrong.
The past stirred along with images from that night. The burning house. A frantic horse. The limp body of a small boy, his face charred so badly he was unrecognizable.
His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. The metal bent, giving way beneath his strength until his prints were permanently indented.
It had been so long since he’d thought of his son. Too long. But with the memory came the pain and so he tucked it back down deep until the pressure inside of him eased. His grip relaxed, but he didn’t let go.
Not of the steering wheel, or the anger. He held tight, feeling the heat as intensely as the hunger that now lived and breathed inside of him.
He’d lost everything because of Rose. She was a liar. A traitor. She’d sold him out, which was why his pride hesitated to believe that she would show up now in support of her last living relative. But his head … His head knew the truth.
The pattern was clear. Every reported escape mentioned a visit by a mysterious redhead just prior to the breakout. It had to be her.
And if she’d come all those other times, she would come now.
In the meantime …
His gaze shifted to the front window. Through the bars, he watched the deputy pull off her hat and set it on the corner of her desk. Her breasts trembled ever so slightly beneath the stiff blouse, the motion so subtle that he doubted anyone inside even noticed.
He did.
He noticed everything. The slight quiver of her bottom lip. The frantic staccato of her heartbeat. The sweet, succulent aroma of a woman who’d gone far too long without a man.
He fought against a wave of heat, but it was a fight he was destined to lose. He was burning up from the inside out after seventy-two hours cooped up on surveillance. Hungry. Desperate.
For an up close and personal look of the jail, he reminded himself. He’d been biding his time, sleeping during the day and watching all night, waiting for his ticket inside so he could vampire-proof Jimmy’s cell in preparation for Rose.
It wouldn’t have been a problem if Jimmy had been your average prisoner, but the jail was on lock-down with all deputies on high alert and a ball-busting Texas Ranger parked inside. While Sheriff Matt wanted to help the Braddock boys, he couldn’t jeopardize his reputation in the process. Colton needed a believable cover and proper clearance if he wanted access.
Enter Brent Braddock. Colton’s brother was an ex-security specialist with friends in high places. He’d managed to get to the right people and pull some strings. Soon Colton would enter the Skull Creek Sheriff’s Office as a county-contracted security consultant. His job? To evaluate and perform an upgrade on the current system.
His ticket inside would be ready first thing in the morning and he could quit watching and start doing.
Tomorrow.
He just had to hold out a little longer, bide his time a few more hours. That’s what Colton told himself, but damned if he didn’t slide from behind the wheel and start across the street anyway.
3
IT WAS TOO QUIET.
Shelly came to that conclusion the minute she sat down at her desk and realized that Bobby was nowhere in sight. Not hunched over his computer or playing video games on his phone or standing in front of the coffeemaker. Her gaze shifted to the men’s room.
No doubt the double cheeseburger he’d had at noon had finally caught up to him.
That’s what she told herself, but she couldn’t shake the strange feeling that something wasn’t right. Something besides the local diner’s lunch special or the fact that Monty Darlington had left a message on her voicemail asking her if she wanted to get busy back at his place tonight.
Take that, Minerva.
“Bobby?” She tapped on the door. “You okay?”
The only sound that prickled her ears was the steady hum of the air conditioner. She knocked harder. Once. Twice. Her hand tightened on the knob. A loud creak and she found herself inside the one-stall bathroom.
Empty.
Panic sizzled through her for a split-second before she tamped it back down. He was probably out back, talking the hat off the Texas Ranger on duty with Holbrook. Probably shooting the shit and drinking coffee.
She turned toward the containment area, ready to prove her theory when Bobby’s voice crackled over the dispatch speakers.
“Mama Bear, this is Baby Bear. You copy?”
A few swift strides, and she punched the button on the microphone. “Would you stop with the nicknames?”
“It’s not a nickname. It’s code. You never know who might be listening.”
“I know exactly who’s listening. Martin down at the feed store is the only one with a police band radio and he only tunes in on bridge night to make sure his ex-wife doesn’t drink too many mimosas and start streaking again. Where are you?”
“Picking up Honey Gentry. We got a call that she was soliciting outside the Sac-n-Pac,” he continued. “They needed a squad car out here asap, so here I am.”
“But I told you to stay put.”
“And I told him otherwise.” The grizzled voice came from behind her and she turned to see her resident Texas Ranger standing in the doorway that led to the cell area.
Rumor had it Beauford Truitt was the oldest Texas Ranger still on active duty and, some said, the toughest. He had snow-white hair, a weathered face and a pickled expression that said he wasn’t too happy to be stuck in a one-horse town with Texas’s Most Wanted prisoner in tow.
He held a cup of steaming black coffee in one hand and a half-eaten bear claw in the other. “Ain’t no sense in him neglecting his duties. Just go on about your business and leave Holbrook to the professionals.”
“We are professionals.”
Yeah right. His expression read loud and clear and Shelly had the fleeting thought that she was in over her head. It was a feeling she’d had many times before when the job had gotten a little too dangerous or her coworkers a little too condescending.
It was a feeling she’d grown all too familiar with growing up with a mother who didn’t love her half as much as she loved her social life. All those nights alone had forced Shelly to step up and take care of her little sister when she’d been just a child herself. And while she’d done her best, she’d never managed to shake the uncertainty.
Not that this guy knew that.
She gathered her courage and met his glare head on. “I give the orders here.”
“Sure you do, darlin’.” He winked. “The prisoner’s my responsibility.”
“And you’re both my responsibility, at least while you’re in this Sheriff’s office.” She narrowed her gaze, making it clear she wasn’t backing down no matter how many times he called her darlin’ or sugar or sweetcheeks or whatever else his good ole boy mentality managed to cook up.
Seconds ticked by before he shrugged and she gave herself a mental high five.
“Get some fresh pastries in here before I choke to death,” he grumbled, waving the half-eaten goody at her. “This one’s as tough as shoe leather.” He walked over to the white bakery box sitting next to the coffeemaker and rummaged inside.
Shelly shifted her attention back to the radio. “Finish up and get back here,” she told Bobby.
“Yes, ma’am. Baby bear out.” The connection ended and Shelly turned toward her desk, her heart still beating double time.
She blew out a deep, easy breath, careful not to let Truitt know that he’d gotten under her skin. She’d come up against his type too many times to count and she knew the worst thing to do was get visibly rattled. It was all about staying calm. In control. Fearless—
The thought faded into the whooooooosh of the front door and the heavy thud of boots.
“I’m looking for Shelly Lancaster,” came a deep, masculine voice.
Here we go again.
With Truitt eyeballing her from the coffeemaker, the last thing she needed was a potential suitor carrying another bottle of edible body paint. She had to set the record straight right here and now and put an end to all the nonsense.
“It was a misprint” died a quick death on her tongue when she turned to face off with the man standing in the doorway.
Her heart hitched and all she could do was stare for a long, breathless moment.
He had cowboy written all over him with his straw Stetson and button-down denim shirt. The cuffs had been rolled up to reveal muscular forearms, the tails tucked in at his trim waist. Soft, faded jeans clung to his long legs. A rip in the material gave her a glimpse of one strong, hair-dusted thigh and her throat went dry.
She eyed the scuffed toes of his brown boots before dragging her gaze back up, over his long legs, the hard, lean lines of his torso, the tanned column of his throat, to his face.
Brown hair streaked with the faintest hint of gold brushed his broad shoulders and drew attention to his rugged features. A day’s growth of stubble darkened his jaw and outlined his sensuous lips. Blue eyes so pale and translucent they were almost gray collided with hers.
No, it wasn’t the way he looked so much as the way he looked at her that sucked the air from her lungs.
“Yes, um, that would be me. At your service,” she finally managed to say, her voice breathless and excited and downright giddy.
She stiffened at the realization. No way, no how, would tough-as-nails Deputy Shelly Lancaster let a man—even one as good looking as this man—turn her into a pile of quivering Jell-O. She frowned and summoned her most no-nonsense voice. “Is there something I can do for you?”
She had to give him credit. He wasn’t the least bit put-off by her tone. Rather, a slow, purposeful grin spread across his face and her stomach hollowed out. “I can certainly think of a few things.”
The deep, seductive words echoed in her ears, slipping and sliding along her nerve endings and Shelly knew in an instant that this was it. This was what she’d been reading about. Dreaming of. Searching for.
This was chemistry. Pure and simple.
Potent.
Real.
She enjoyed the heat zinging between them all of five seconds before she gave herself a mental shake that kick-started her common sense. He couldn’t know that she’d really been the one who placed the ad. No one could. Which meant she’d better start explaining. And fast.
That’s what she told herself, but for a long, heart-pounding moment, she couldn’t actually get the words out. There was just something about the way he looked at her, as if he saw every little secret, as if he liked what he saw, that stalled the explanation on her tongue.
Instead, she breathed in, drinking in the delicious scent of raw leather and virile male. Electricity hummed through her body and sent tiny shock waves straight to her nipples. Her throat went dry.
“I hate to break up this party,” Truitt said, shattering the spell and yanking her back to the here and now and the all-important fact that he’d just witnessed her momentary lapse into desperate female. “But some of us have work to do.” A smirk tugged at his mouth as he turned on his heel, coffee cup in hand, and disappeared into the backroom.
She glared after the old man before turning the same look on Mr. Tall, Dark and Yummy. “I don’t know you,” she finally said, despite the strange inkling that she’d seen him somewhere before. She needed to get back on track. Focused. “And I know everybody in this town.”
“The name’s Colton Braddock.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Any relation to Cody Braddock?” Cody was an ex-bull rider who’d moved to town not long ago. He and his blushing bride were now living happily ever after on the outskirts of town.
“He’s my brother.”
“You’re late. The wedding was two weeks ago.”
Something dangerously close to regret flickered in his gaze before fading into those pale, unnerving eyes. “I didn’t get the invite in time.” He stared at her, into her, and she felt the heat rising up from her feet, whispering through her body and igniting everything in its path. “I’ve got a cattle spread out in New Mexico. It’s a little off the beaten path and the mail isn’t what it should be.” He shrugged. “But it suits me just fine. I like my privacy.”
The words echoed through her head and stirred a completely inappropriate vision of him, the moonlight bathing his naked body as he stood in the middle of a ripe green pasture. He wore the same grin that he was wearing right now and her heart skipped a few beats.
“Privacy is good,” she heard herself murmur and his grin widened.
“Oh, it’s better than good, sugar.” The words stirred another decadent vision and her body trembled. Trembled, of all things. It was a reaction straight out of a romance novel. The stuff of fantasies.
But it was real, she reminded herself again.
He was real. And he was here right now.
Thanks to a disastrous misprint.
“I didn’t advertise for sex,” she blurted, the denial tumbling out before her hormones could block the way.
Surprise gleamed a split second before fading into the pale blue depths of his eyes. A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “That’s good to know.”
“The ad was for a girlfriend of mine,” she rushed on. “I placed it for her and the paper accidentally listed my e-mail instead of hers. But if you knew me, you’d know there was no way I would ever do something like that. I’m not the type.”
“And just what type are you?” he asked, and she had the distinct feeling that he really wanted to know. That he wanted to know her. The fact seemed to startle him if the frown that tugged at his mouth was any indication.
For the first time, she noticed that he wasn’t carrying edible undies or massage oils or anything else out of a Naughty Nights catalog. Rather, he carried a duffel bag and a clipboard. Realization struck, along with a rush of disappointment.
“You’re not here about the personal ad, are you?”
He shook his head. “I’m the private security consultant hired by the county to analyze your current system. I’m sure Sheriff Keller must have mentioned me.”
“He did. He also said to expect you tomorrow.”
“I finished up my previous job a little early so I thought I’d get a head start.” He gave her a disarming smile. “We’re not talking any major changes. Just a few added precautions to keep you guys on the transfer schedule with the major prisons. You do take transfers, don’t you?”
She nodded. “We had one delivered a few days ago. There was some confusion with his paperwork. He’s sitting here while they sort out the transfer details and then we’ll be handing him off to El Paso.”
“Perfect. I’ll take a look inside, make sure he’s safe and secure.” His gaze slid past her and for a brief moment, without his full attention fixated on her, she felt a niggle of doubt.
There was something slightly off with Colton Braddock. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
“It’s really late,” she heard herself say, “and I’ve got a lot of loose ends to finish up before my shift ends. Why don’t you come back tomorrow? I can show you around then.”
“And give you time to check out my credentials?” He arched an eyebrow.
“I have to follow procedure.” She shrugged. “I’m sure you understand.”
He swept a gaze around the room, seemingly memorizing every detail before his attention shifted back to her, his gaze a brighter shade of blue this time, and she forgot what she was about to say.
Instead, she found herself wondering what he would taste like. Sweet and intoxicating and addictive? Dark and dangerous and forbidden? All of the above?
And then some.
The sound of his voice floated through her head, but his lips didn’t move. Instead, they tilted in a sensuous grin that did wicked things to her self control. Her hands trembled and her mouth watered.
She wanted to kiss him so badly.
And he wanted to kiss her.
She could see it in the way his eyes darkened and the muscle in his jaw twitched. He wanted to close the distance between them. Just a few feet and bam, they’d be toe-to-toe.
Touching.
Kissing.
“Tomorrow it is,” he murmured. And then, just like that, he vanished. No creak of the door. No click of the knob. Nothing. It was as if he’d disintegrated into thin air.
As if.
She’d been on the job for twelve hours straight, pulling a double shift yet again to prove to Matt that she was more than capable and dedicated. She was starting to get punchy. That was the reason she hadn’t seen him turn and walk away. Even more, it explained the crazy disappointment whispering through her.
A kiss?
Seriously?
She hardly knew him and he hardly knew her. Even more, she wasn’t going to get to know him because he was only here to tweak their security system. It was business and everyone knew that the town’s first female deputy didn’t mix business with pleasure.
No matter how hot he was or how sexually frustrated she was.
Rather, she was going to go home just as soon as Bobby got back, drown her troubles in a hot bath and get some much-needed sleep before she came face-to-face with Colton Braddock first thing in the morning.
Until then …
She walked over to the box of pastries, unearthed a chocolate-covered donut and took a big bite. The sugar melted in her mouth, sending a rush of satisfaction through her, albeit a temporary one. They weren’t that stale. At least not to a desperate, deprived woman.
It wasn’t sex, but it was definitely the next best thing.
4
COLTON CLIMBED BEHIND the wheel of his truck and tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.
He’d tried to glamour her and it hadn’t worked. Not a lick.
Sure, she’d looked as if she’d wanted to fall under his spell with her parted lips and her smoldering eyes and her take me now vibe. She’d even leaned toward him once or twice, as if she meant to give in to the pull and cross the room. But then …
Nothing.
Not a damned thing.
She hadn’t launched herself into his arms and begged him to come closer, to make himself right at home.
Hell, no. She’d stood her ground and told him to come back tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
If he hadn’t been so irritated, he might have actually smiled. It had been a long time—over one hundred and fifty years to be exact—since a woman had faced off with him and actually won.
Women typically melted at his feet when he looked into their eyes. Not that he was proud of that fact.
It was simply the nature of the beast that he’d become and, he had to admit, it had its advantages. He didn’t have to worry about showing his true nature when he was having sex. All he had to do was stare deeply into his partner’s eyes and will away her memory of him.
But there was too much riding on this moment and he needed inside of that jail too badly to be the least bit amused right now. Or turned on. He needed Shelly’s cooperation more than he needed her luscious body.
The thought struck and conjured all sorts of images and he damned himself for thinking with his dick. But that, too, was the nature of the beast.
He wanted her the way he wanted all women.
Okay, so he wanted her a little bit more. She was more sexually frustrated than the average female which meant she had all that sweet, succulent energy bottled up inside of her, just waiting to be unleashed. That made her all the more attractive and damned if he didn’t want to peel away her stiff exterior and see the delicate curves hiding beneath.
Hiding. That’s what she was doing.
He knew because he’d been doing it himself for more years than he could count. Living in the shadows, protecting his true nature, surviving.
For revenge.
That’s the reason he’d kept going all those years ago when he’d lost everything. The reason he kept going now. He’d dreamt of payback, lusted after it, and now was his chance to have it.
He didn’t have time for some stubborn female with a badge. No time for touching or kissing.
Especially kissing.
He played the scenario over and over in his head for the next few minutes. The desperate urge to cross the distance to her, lean forward and touch his lips to hers.
To distract her. Persuade her.
It certainly hadn’t been because he’d wanted to kiss her. Sex was one thing. It was all about survival. Sustenance. But kissing? Talk about personal. Colton had no intention of getting personal with any woman.
No matter how much he suddenly wanted to.
“There’s no reason to sit out here all night.”
The deep voice shattered his train of thought, thankfully, and he turned to see his brother slide onto the seat next to him.
“She’s not even close.” Brent Braddock closed the door and eyed his older brother. “So why don’t you give it up and come home with me? Abby really wants to spend some time with you.”
Colton arched an eyebrow. “Abby, huh?”
Brent shrugged. “Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t mind catching up myself.” He met Colton’s gaze. “I know Cody and Travis wouldn’t mind it either. In fact, Cody really wanted you to stay out at his place.”
“The hotel is working just fine.” Or it would be if the eightysomething-year-old woman who ran the place with her grandson would stop banging on his door throughout the day, wanting to change his sheets.
“Suit yourself, but it seems a shame not to take advantage of the fact that we’re all together.”
“We’re here for a reason.”
“She won’t show up for a few more days at least,” Brent reminded him. “My contact at the prison did the transfer really fast and on the fly. Holbrook isn’t due in El Paso until the day after tomorrow. If Rose has already figured out he’s being moved—and that’s a big if—she’ll be waiting there for him. Add twenty-four hours for her to trace the transfer and identify exactly where he’s been delayed once she figures out that something is up. Another twenty-four for her to reach Skull Creek since she can only travel at night. That means we’ve got at least a week to sit around and wait.” He caught Colton’s stare. “I can’t think of a better way to spend it than getting re-acquainted with each other.”
“I’d rather not take any chances.”
Brent looked as if he wanted to argue, but then he shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He opened the passenger door and paused. “I could hang out here for a little while.”