Page 93 of Close Quarters

Yet as Reno began to pick up a rhythm and depth that sparked stars in front of my eyes, I realized he was the longest-running, consistent sexual partner I’d ever had…and I wasn’t losing interest. I wanted these moments for as long as possible. I wanted it to be him inside me, gripping my wrists and closing his mouth over mine as I cried out while I came. And I wanted it to be him I felt swell inside me as he buried himself completely, growling fiercely as his orgasm washed over him.

Then, when it was over, we lay there on our sides. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him. Our legs twined through each other, one of his hands on my hip and one of mine splayed on his chest. I could hear him, the way his breathing slowly eased, first from the orgasm and then the deep, steady breaths that signaled he was quickly falling asleep.

I lay there, feeling a sense of peace I didn’t think I’d ever felt, well, not as an adult. I let his breathing take me deep into my own relaxation, carrying me toward the gentle abyss of sleep and hopefully peaceful dreams.

The soft whinnying was annoying at first. That was until I felt something move, jostling me and making me aware that I wasn’t asleep. The whinnying wasn’t a product of my dreams but reality. Cheyenne and Coyote were carrying on, not quite panicked, but there was no denying the nervousness and fear in their sounds.

“What is it?” I asked in a low voice as I felt more than saw Reno sit up.

“I don’t know,” he said in a quiet, tight voice. “We need to find out though. Something tells me those horses wouldn’t fuss if it was just the wind.”

My nerves tightened, and I grabbed my clothes and began to pull them on as I felt Reno doing the same. We both froze when we heard a crunch of hard dirt nearby, my eyes traveling toward the sound…which was almost opposite to where we’d tethered the horses.

“That…sounded heavy,” I whispered.

“Shh,” he chided almost too quietly to be heard. “We don’t?—”

“Alright,” a rough voice barked, so loud in the quiet that I jerked. I probably would have scrambled upright if Reno hadn’t put a hand on my chest. “We know you’re in there. So c’mon out. And don’t do anything stupid. We’re armed. And we don’t need too much of a reason to shoot you dead.”

“We?” Reno hissed quietly in a grimace.

Well, apparently, we weren’t as alone out here as I’d thought.

RENO

Shit. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else out here. Someone would have mentioned it before we left, that was for sure. Max wasn’t the type to leave a detail like someone else from the ranch or someone from one of the neighboring ranches being on patrol in the area. And if it was anyone like that, they definitely wouldn’t have ordered us out under the threat of being shot.

I could hear the accent in the man’s voice. It was clear English, there was no doubt about that, but there was a roll to his r’s and a rhythm to some of his speech. I’d lived long enough to know better than to slap labels on people, but I’d also lived in Texas my whole life. I’d heard enough to recognize someone who was good with English but hadn’t learned it as a primary language.

“What do we do?” I heard Elliot whisper next to me, which was pointless. There was no telling how close the people outside the tent were, so there was a chance they could hear.

“Probably what the man with a gun tells us to,” I said between gritted teeth, wishing I could cast him a look that would tell him to keep his mouth shut. The last thing I needed was for him to have one of his moments and piss someone off.

“Shit,” he grunted, and I reached to open the tent.

“We’re coming out,” I called in a thankfully steady voice.

The clouds must have faded while we slept because the moonlight was strong enough for me to see, considering the tent's darkness. There were five guys, and it seemed they weren’t lying. Every single one of them had a weapon. Three of them had rifles, but only one had theirs drawn. Another had a handgun on his hip, and the other was holding his loosely in his hand, apparently not bothered in the slightest.

“You were right. There were two of them in there,” one of the men with a rifle said. He was sitting on the rock I’d been using for a seat earlier, and I immediately recognized his voice as that of the one who’d spoken just a moment ago.

“Told you,” the guy holding his gun loosely said with a pleased smirk. “I still got some brains knocking around in there.”

I glanced toward our horses, still tied up by the rocks, and then down at the two packs outside our tent. It probably would get us shot, but God, was it tempting to prick the ego of that little bastard. Putting together the most basic clues wasn’t exactly difficult.

“Some, yeah,” the original guy said, and I had to guess he was probably in charge. “You two are an awful ways out here…and in such a small tent.”

Before I could say anything, Elliot blurt out in a shaky voice. “We took too long with the first one. We’re shit at this camping stuff.”

I bristled as laughter rippled through the small group as the leader snorted. “Yeah, we can see that. Came strolling out without a whole lot on. Gets pretty cold around here at night.”

“Yeah, well,” Elliot said with a nervous laugh that tightened my chest. He’d always done fairly well under pressure before, but the sight of guns was clearly working against him. Not that I blamed him, but I’d been on the end of a few guns in my time, so I knew that if they wanted to use them, they would have by now. “It’s pretty cramped in there, made more sense that we would go shirt and sockless. Figured two of us crammed in there would keep it warm without us having to fry in the morning.”

“Elliot?” I asked softly.

“Yeah?”

“You’re rambling.”

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