Page 31 of Feral

“Sure.” Something in his tone told me he understood he was getting the brush-off and didn’t much like it, but he took my phone when I handed it to him and entered his digits.

I texted him back, so he had mine—something I didn’t usually do. I didn’t want to be a jerk, so now he at least knew he could call me, too. I really did want to be with him. Hell, I wanted him to tug me to his bed right now for round two. I had to be level headed, at least for a little while. Focus on something besides mind melting orgasms.

“See you later, then.” I picked up my bag with the pistol in it and left to find my way out.

Rob followed me down the stairs and out the door, being the perfect host and gentleman. He’d gone silent, but I got the feeling that he wasn’t a man of unnecessary words. Except when it came to dirty talk. Then, he wasn’t a gentleman at all.

“Bye.” I turned around one more time to give him a kiss, and he snatched me up against his body and kissed me hard. It felt like a warning. Or punishment for leaving. Or… something.

A promise.

My toes curled in my shoes, and I came away breathless.

“See you later—tomorrow.” Dang it— I sounded like a teenager. This guy was getting to me in a big way. I definitely needed some space to get my head back on straight.

I was here for a job.

A job.

Not to fall in love with the sexy cowboy next door.

15

WILLOW

I blow-driedmy hair and freshened my lip gloss before I headed down to Markle’s. I wanted to get a look in his outbuildings, but I doubted that was possible in broad daylight. I’d have to sneak back at night to see if I could get in although my plan was to watch for a pattern in the trailer shipments. Once I had enough intel, I could ask Vaughn for a warrant and bring in a team to search the place, but until then, I could find out more undercover. And that meant pandering to Markle’s ego while my pussy ached from the pounding Rob gave it.

Rolling my eyes at myself in the mirror, I gave up. I was trying to keep him interested but not too eager that he’d think I wanted sex. I frowned as I went down the steps. He’d think I wanted sex with him because his ego was a mile wide.

This time, instead of cutting across the field, I drove. I wanted an escape route in place and not on foot. It left me vulnerable to Jett’s whims, and I liked having my Glock in the car.

Taking a deep breath and pasting on a fake smile, I rang his doorbell. The fancy sound of Pachelbel’sCanoncame through the door. Figured.

The door opened thirty seconds later. The cloying cologne preceded Jett.

“Natalie,” he said. His smile wasn’t as warm as before, so I laid mine on a little thicker.

“Hi. I wanted to say thanks for dinner the other night and wondered if you’d help me. I don’t have a bottle opener.” I held up a Chardonnay I’d found at the grocery store when I first arrived. I didn’t take Jett for a beer drinker, and while he probably drank scotch, it was the expensive kind and my expense report probably wouldn’t look good with a twenty-five-year-old bottle as a line item. Wine it was.

He studied the bottle and sniffed, not as if he was smelling it, but as if it were rancid. “Wolf doesn’t have an opener?”

My heart thudded in my chest, but I’d been trained to keep my smile from slipping. “Wolf?”

“Rob Wolf.” The words were followed by a sneer.

“What… what about him?”

“He should have a corkscrew… or is the only thing you’re interested in getting from him a screw?”

“Jett… I don’t know what you’re—”

He held up his hand, and I instinctively stepped back with my right foot to make myself narrower, but also in readiness. He was an alleged middleman with connections to an international drug kingpin. On paper, Markle was clean. But he had a lot of land, though, to bury bodies. “Stop. Cooper Valley’s a small town. We’re neighbors. There are no secrets here.”

Besides the drug running he was doing after hours.

“Rob Wolf is just a friend,” I admitted.

“Call it what he really is: a fuck buddy.”