Page 36 of Combust
Castor and Pollux, the ranch’s two Percheron stallions, were hitched to the wagon. They stood patiently as the men worked.
“How can I help?” she asked them.
“Cade could use a hand loading up,” Uncle Ash said. He pointed into the forest, indicating a direction angled away from the loudest sounds. “Text me when you want us to bring Castor and Pollux over and hitch them up.”
She nodded, and led Meringue to the temporary paddock that had been set up nearby in a meadow. She released the mare into the company of the other horses already grazing there, and headed off to find Cade.
She found him working in a clearing several hundred yards away, surrounded by felled lodgepole and Ponderosa trunks, neatly sliced into sections, and piles of thick branches still blackened from the fire.
Dane and her uncles had cut down all the dead trees marked for harvesting in this location, then moved on to the next section of the forest. Chainsaws snarled and whined nearby, the din punctuated by crashing sounds.
An unhitched hay wagon stood in the center of the clearing, with several tiers of wood already neatly stacked on the flatbed.
The air was fragrant with sharp perfume of freshly-sawn pine, and golden sunlight slanted through the surviving trees.
Cade, his woolen shirt unbuttoned and the intricate patterns of his tattoos peeking out from the collar of his t-shirt, was in the process of carrying a huge chunk of wood over to the wagon.
His face and neck gleamed with sweat, and the muscles in his back and arms strained against taut fabric.
Her mouth went dry with renewed desire. She curled her fingers into her palms, fighting the urge to reach out and run her hands all over him.
He froze when he caught sight of her.
“Hi,” she began.
He dropped his burden and strode to her, stripping off his work gloves and letting them fall to the ground. She caught a glimpse of his eyes, and saw that they were hazed with shifter gold.
His bear was very near the surface today.
So was hers.
Without a word, he pushed her against the nearest standing tree. His mouth descended on her, devouring her lips with voracious hunger.
Chapter Eleven - Courtship Strategies
Maggie’s bear surged up at the fiery, demanding kiss.
She found herself consumed with the desire to touch Cade. She pushed the halves of his opened flannel shirt aside and yanked the t-shirt underneath out of his jeans.
As his heated mouth continued to work magic, his tongue boldly explored her. In return, she slid her palms over the warm skin beneath his shirt, stroking and caressing firm muscle and coarse, springy hair.
He did the same to her. His big hands shaped her waist and stroked her stomach before continuing higher. He pushed her sweatshirt up to her armpits and covered her breasts with his palms, cupping and squeezing.
Then he hooked his thumbs under the cups of her bra and pulled down, baring her.
Her sensitive nipples were already drawn taut with need as the cold air touched them, followed by the brush of his callused fingers.
“You are so fucking gorgeous,” he growled.
Maggie moaned as an indescribable sensation of pure, white-hot pleasure jolted through her like a lightning strike. It ran from the tips of her breasts down to the swollen, throbbing place between her legs.
“You like that?” Cade’s voice was rough, and he looked wilder than ever. His eyes were almost entirely gold, a sign that he was balanced precariously on the edge of a shift.
He didn’t wait for her reply. To be honest, it wasn’t as if she could produce coherent words right now. He bent his head and captured one nipple between his lips.
The combination of strong suction, his hot, wet tongue, and the prickling caress from his short beard tore another moan from deep in her throat.
She arched her back, offering herself shamelessly to him. She had never been this turned on before, or so completely at the mercy of her body and her needs.
