She ambled over to him—and that’s what it was, an amble—until she reached the bed. Her body close to his, she touched the back of her hand to his forehead.
“Good Lord.” With a worried frown, she put one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his cheek. Such cool, soft hands. “Oh, you poor baby. You are on fire.”
She had no idea.
“I better get the doc.” She took a step away from him, but he grabbed hold of her arm.
“What’s the matter, darlin’? Worried I won’t come back?” She smiled and it almost ripped his guts out. He’d never seen anything prettier. “Well don’t you let it bother you one bit. I’ll be right outside talking to the doc.” Her hand stroked his cheek and he briefly closed his eyes, nuzzling her hand and purring.
“Hhhhmm. That fever must be bad if you’re making sounds I never heard before. The only sounds I usually hear from you cats are roaring and hissing. I better get the doc.” Again she tried to pull away, and Brendon wasn’t having it.
With one good yank, he dragged her onto his lap.
“Hey, hey, darlin’! Now wait a second.”
Brendon pulled her around so she straddled his waist, her generous tits right in his face. To keep her where she was, he gripped her ass and pulled her hard against his growing-by-the-second erection.
“Look, hoss, I don’t want to hurt you…”
He growled, kind of wanting her to hurt him. Within reason, of course.
“…but I will if you don’t get those big cat paws off my ass.”
Ignoring her, Brendon buried his face between her breasts and breathed deep. Wow, she smelled so damn good.
“You need to stop that. I know you’re sick and all but—”
He nuzzled one nipple then the other.
“Stop that!”
“Stay with me,” he groaned against her breast, his voice sounding more animal than human.
“I am with you, and if you’d just let me go—”
“Fuck me.”
“Okay. That’s it.”
Strong hands slapped against his shoulders and she pushed herself away from him as much as she could. He still had her around the waist, but her tits were suddenly out of his reach. He didn’t like that one bit.
“You need to get control of yourself, hoss. Right now.”
“Kiss me.”
“No.”
“Kiss me and I’ll let you go.” For the moment, anyway.
Even though her hands were strong against his shoulders, she didn’t give the immediate “no” he would expect.
“I promise,” he persisted. “Just kiss me.”
She pushed away from him again, testing his strength. He held on tighter, not willing to release her. If she thought the fever would make him weak, she was very much mistaken. Instead, it had only made him dangerously strong.
“Dammit.” She let out an exasperated rush of breath. “All right. Fine. But make it quick.”
Reluctantly releasing her ass, Brendon slid his hands up until they braced against her back. He pulled her forward and he leaned in, those pretty eyes watching him, wary and a little bit curious.
Brendon brushed his lips against hers. A small, completely nonthreatening move. She didn’t do anything back. Merely stared at him. Since she didn’t try and rip his throat out, he came in for another pass, this time lingering a bit.
Still, she didn’t make any moves one way or the other.
Pulling her close to his body, Brendon closed his mouth over hers. Her hands remained on his shoulders, tense like the rest of her, ready to push him away at any moment. He licked her bottom lip, the tip of his tongue tracing a line between. Her hands tightened on his shoulders but instead of pulling him off, she gripped him tight and kissed him back.
And holy hell…what a kiss!
Rhonda Lee Reed, you are a whore!
Yup. She could hear her momma’s voice clear as a bell in her head. Telling her the same thing she told her when she found Ronnie in the backseat of Johnny Patterson’s Pinto with Ronnie’s favorite pair of red cowboy boots plastered to his roof.
And here she was again. Involving herself with the wrong kind of guy. Actually, the wrong species. Plus sick. The man had a horrible bout of fever.
He should be resting. He should be sipping fluids to keep his temperature down and moaning in agony. He should not have some stranger’s tongue down his throat.
So she needed to stop this. Now.
But damn if the man wasn’t an amazing kisser.
Ronnie should have known as soon as she looked into that gorgeous face the night before she was in trouble. Even bloody and broken from the beating he took, absolutely nothing could take away from his raw beauty. Sharp cheekbones and an almost muzzlelike nose did nothing but enhance the man’s sinfully full lips. Lips Ronnie had no problem imagining all over her body.
It was when he opened his eyes and looked at her, though, that she felt every female hormone in her body suddenly zap to life. Those astounding dark gold eyes framed by coal-black lashes completely did her in. Add in that six-foot-six, nearly three-hundred-pound, muscle-bound body and Rhonda Lee Reed was in hog heaven.
So not surprisingly she’d lost utter control of this situation.
One second staring at the blindingly boring Engineering 101 textbook, wondering if her plan to go back to college continued to be one of the better ideas she’d recently had, and the next—in the lap of a damn cat with his tongue in her mouth.
At the end of the day, though, she blamed Sissy Mae Smith for this. Her best friend since she’d turned three, that evil female had gotten Ronnie into more trouble than seemed possible for two good ol’ She-wolves from Tennessee. There were rock stars with cleaner pasts than her and Sissy. Not that they ever did drugs or anything run of the mill like that. Hell, who needed drugs when Sissy had no qualms about getting her drunk on tequila, wrapping a bungie cord around her waist, and shoving her off the side of a building with Sissy’s famous “Would you just trust me” yelled after her? Then there was that slight run-in with the Mexican police, and that little town in Germany that ordered them never to return…
Oh, and those Vegas cops—yeah, they wouldn’t be going back to Nevada anytime soon either.
Honestly, Sissy Mae could start a knife fight in a convent.
Still, Sissy wasn’t the one tussling with an overgrown house cat. She and the rest of the Smith Pack were off enjoying Christmas day while Ronnie stayed behind to babysit. Which, in the big scheme of things, was definitely something his Pride should be doing. Where were those damn females anyway? One had shown up, seeming extremely “put out,” and once the doc told them Shaw would live, she’d skedaddled right out of there. Didn’t even go in to check on him. And that’s when Sissy Mae sucker punched Ronnie.
“We can’t leave him alone,” she’d said. “No one wants to wake up in a hospital alone,” she’d said.
“And?” Sissy’s big brother, Bobby Ray, had demanded. “What are we supposed to do about it?”
Ronnie knew how this would play out and had quickly ducked behind Mace Llewellyn to hide. Like Shaw, Mace was a big buck. So maybe if Sissy Mae couldn’t see her…
“Ronnie Lee will stay. Won’tcha, Ronnie?”
If Ronnie thought she could get away with it, she would have spit the water she’d just gulped down, right in Sissy’s face. Because now that Sissy had picked her specifically, no other She-wolf would stay. So either they all left and Shaw would wake up alone in a strange hospital or Ronnie would have to stay.
With an entire Pack to protect her, plus three big brothers, her pain-in-the-ass momma, and of course Daddy, Ronnie would never wake up in a hospital alone. The thought anyone would have to go through that, even a cat, made her feel like she had to do something.