Page 63 of River Strong

He could feel Cooper’s gaze on him. “If you thought she might try, why would you get in that car with her?”

Stuart chuckled. “That’s a good question. I keep asking myself that same thing.”

“Maybe you should talk to someone, you know? A trauma like this...” Tilly offered.

He suspected that they both knew he was struggling long before Abigail Creed tried to kill him. “Maybe I will...talk to someone.”

An aide came in with his dinner tray and they left him alone. He wasn’t hungry. He was still in a lot of pain that not even the drugs seemed able to knock it down.

His door opened again. He looked up to see Bailey McKenna step in. “Up for a visitor?” she asked as she came over to his bed. “Might help that hideous food go down better.”

He smiled through his pain at just the sight of her. Her wild, dark mane was pulled up in a ponytail, making her look like a teenager. Her blue eyes sparkled as usual with mischief.

“You just missed your brother and Tilly,” he said.

“I was waiting for them to leave,” she said as she sat down on the edge of his bed, forcing him to move over a little. He hardly felt the pain. “So tell me. Why do women want to kill you?”

OAKLEYANDPICKETThad gone back to her apartment after returning to town and her telling him she didn’t need to think about what she wanted. She wanted him. The moment she closed the apartment door, Pickett said, “There’s something I need to tell you. I’m not who you think I am.”

She put a finger to his lips and shook her head. “You’re exactly who I think you are,” she said and kissed him.

He let out a moan, circling her waist with his hands and dragging her to him as the kiss deepened. He knew he should break off the kiss, tell her everything, but he’d wanted this for so long...

They moved together, lips locked, toward her bedroom. She shrugged off her jacket but quickly stepped back into his arms. That she wanted this as much as he did had his blood rushing hot through him. He’d dreamed of holding her, kissing her, making love to her, but it had only been a dream.

Until now.

She pulled off his jacket and tossed it aside, then jerked his Western shirt snaps open. Easy, he wanted to say, but he couldn’t slow this down. He fumbled at the buttons on her blouse. She laughed and pushed his hands away to quickly free the buttons and toss off her blouse.

“Oakley.” He said it on a sigh, the sight of her standing there in nothing but a bra and jeans was his undoing. He could see her erect nipples pushing against the thin fabric of her bra. He pulled her to him, releasing the bra and bowing his head to nip and suck and tongue the hard tips of her breasts.

She arced against his mouth, her hands moving over his shoulders, his back, his chest. He swung her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. He lowered her slowly, his gaze locking with hers.

The stark need so like his own made his heart beat faster. She grabbed the waist of his jeans and drew him closer. He watched as she unbuttoned his jeans and dragged them down. Kicking off his pants he reached for her jeans. She had them almost down to her ankles. He laughed and tossed them in the pile with his own and took her in his arms again, their kisses fevered, their desire like a runaway horse they both knew how to ride.

This was not the way he’d seen their first time. But he should have known this was how it would be with Oakley. She had a passion for everything. He shouldn’t have been surprised that they would make love with wild abandon.

LATER,THEYLAYbreathing hard, both spent, wrapped in each other’s arms. They might have stayed like that the rest of the night if Tilly hadn’t returned home.

“I should go,” he whispered.

Oakley hesitated as if like him, not wanting to let go before she heard her sister calling her name from the living room and nodded. “Be out in a minute,” she called back.

He dressed quickly as she pulled on panties, a large T-shirt and socks.

She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “Can we do this again soon?”

Pickett chuckled. “Very soon.” He opened her bedroom door, picked up his jacket from the floor where it had been discarded, then his Stetson. Tilly watched him, arms crossed, doing her best to look stern like the big sister she was.

He tipped his hat as he left and smiled, getting a half grin out of her before she closed and locked the door. He heard her call her sister’s name as he started down the stairs.

“TURNSOUTPICKETTdid want to kiss me,” Oakley said as she stepped from the bedroom. Tilly shook her head. “Save the lecture. It won’t do any good anyway.” She curled up on the couch to look at her sister. “I knew the moment he kissed me.”

Tilly groaned as she took the other end of the couch. “You look...happy.”

She grinned. “I am.”

“I hope you’ll be this happy tomorrow,” her sister said, true to form.

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