Sneak Peek – TEMPTED
CHAPTER ONE
CAITLYN
A human tracking wolves.
There was something backward about this scenario, as my mother frequently pointed out when she was on one of her “your job is too dangerous” rants. It wasn’t wolves I was afraid of when I was out here alone, though.
The sun was just breaking across the tips of the east facing mountains. While it was July, the patches of snow glinted against the rocky terrain. It was beautiful here. Breathtaking. I’d already hiked a mile on public land, ditching my car at the trailhead lot. All I could hear was the sound of my breathing and the wind through the evergreens. The air was cool and I wore a sweatshirt, but I’d be ditching it soon enough. The day was going to be a warm one, even at this altitude.
Excitement spurred me and my hiking boots on as much as the coffee I’d picked up at the all-night gas station. Not to mention the need to keep my grant. I wouldn’t just lose the funding for my research, but I’d be out of a job and most likely out of Wyoming.
I had the tracking chips in my backpack and months of data that showed the wolves—my wolves—were often on a big stretch of land owned by the West family. I’d find them, tranq them and get the chips embedded so I could study the animals’ movements from my office. Keep my boss happy and again, keep that grant.
I walked around a puddle in the trail, then stepped over a large rock. A raptor cried out and I looked up into the canopy of trees. The light was muted, but I saw it swoop by, searching for breakfast.
I preferred it here in the backcountry to anywhere else. Even though Granger, where I lived, was a small town, it still had people. I wasn’t a curmudgeon, but people could be annoying.
I walked and frowned because the top of my annoying people list was Gibson West. The guy who owned the land I was approaching. I’d searched online and got his details, wrote him a thorough email about my wolf research, how it was being compiled for a paper—hopefully to be published with distinction—and asked if I could go on his land to track wolves.
He’d replied and said no.
I kicked a pebble on the path as I thought of the one sentence reply. I knew it by heart.
West land is a pristine wilderness not open to outsiders for research that might impact the delicate ecosystem.
I knew all about the delicate ecosystem. I had my doctorate in the decimation and reintroduction of wolves into the American West. The reintroduction returned the ecosystem to a perfect balance, putting the apex predator that had been gone for so long back in place.
Gibson West had offered nothing to indicate he might be persuaded otherwise. Which was why I hadn’t asked a second time.
Nope. Instead, I was trespassing on his property illegally.
Hopefully I wouldn’t get myself shot.
“I’m helping,” I said to a squirrel that froze when it saw me, then skittered off into the underbrush. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt the wolves. What an asshole.”
An image of Gibson West popped into my head. Sixties, fat, old. He sat on his porch and took out rabbits with a rifle like he was at a shooting gallery because he was ornery. He’d spit tobacco juice into the dirt. Now he didn’t like people.
I actually had no idea what the guy looked like, but it made me feel better when I thought of him missing a few teeth and hadn’t been able to see his dick in a decade because of a huge beer gut.
Then a vision of another guy, a guy I’d actually met, flashed in my mind. My nipples went hard and my pussy ached at what he’d done. What we’d done together. Wade. The one night stand I had two weeks ago. Fourteen days. Not that I was counting.
Hell, I’d picked him up and I’d fucked up. Meaning, I hadn’t actually fucked him.
Somehow I’d gotten him to come home with me. Me. Miss Introvert who knew more about four legged animals than men. Although, the way we’d gone at each other… we’d been wild. Like animals. I wasn’t a virgin, but I’d never felt like that before with any other guy. And we hadn’t even had actual sex!
And that was why I’d been non-stop thinking about it. About him. Because he was skilled with his fingers and mouth.
I stopped on the trail, grabbed my water bottle and took a deep swig because me and my pussy needed it. Wade, the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. And mysterious. And intense. And very talented… ahem, orally.
He’d gotten on his knees and made me come. Then left.
No orgasm for him. Hell, I hadn’t even seen his dick except for the thick outline of it that went down his thigh beneath his jeans. Yeah, it had been that big that it went down. His. Thigh.
Using the back of my hand, I wiped my mouth, whether it was from drool thinking about how insanely sexy Wade was or from the water.
I hadn’t seen him since that night. He’d said he’d see me again, but who was I kidding? It had been two weeks and I hadn’t laid eyes on the guy.
He was the first one-night stand I’d ever had, but I knew the deal. He hadn’t meant it. It was called a one-night stand for a reason. One night. But why hadn’t he fucked me? Why hadn’t he gotten off? It wasn’t like he hadn’t been into me. He’d been very into me. As if I was a perfectly cooked steak after he’d been two weeks lost in the wilderness.
Yet he hadn’t wanted a blow job.
It was me. I didn’t ask any of my girlfriends, but I was pretty confident that no guy ever turned down a BJ.
Until Caitlyn Shriver.
I’d thought about all of it every hour since. Dwelled on it like a teenager. Why should I be upset he’d fingered me and forgotten? That he’d gotten his mouth on my pussy and made me see angels and rainbows. A unicorn or two.
“Admit it, Caity. You’re horny,” I said to myself. I was horny. The guy was like crack and I’d had my first hit and needed more. He’d win a gold medal in the Women’s Orgasm competition.
So he hadn’t wanted to see me again. It wasn’t like he didn’t know where I lived. He was very familiar with my front door. Whatever.
I had my vibrator, although it was a sorry second to Wade. That made me cranky. My battery-operated boyfriend was no longer doing it for me. I’d had the most amazing not-sex of my life and wanted more, but didn’t know where the guy was to give it to me.
I wasn’t given access to the land I needed for my data.
Dr. Andrews, my difficult boss at the university, was looming and asking for updates on my data, threatening my funding if I didn’t deliver updates.
My parents called frequently enough to tell me how my work was silly and a waste of time and my PhD was wasted–not only in the field I’d done it in but also in research. They were waiting for me to fail so I could return east and to teaching. As if.
I was so cranky!
I took a deep breath and stomped across the trail, using my frustration to fuel a little righteous defiance. Who was Gibson West to keep me out of the wilderness? Sure, he and his family owned the land I wanted to work on, but the wolves didn’t know about property lines. Neither did my research.
I adjusted the canister of bear spray hooked to my belt as I came out of the woods and into a clearing. It was better than a rifle with one and I had no intention of killing any animal out here. The pretty swath of grassland offered a view down into the valley. From up here, West Springs was only a few lights in the distance. The path I was on went to the south but a hundred yards away there was a wire fence, the delineation between public land and private West property.
I might not get more orgasms, but I was going to get on that land. My pussy would be denied, but not my data. I veered off the trail. I was over a mile from the main West house with rugged terrain between, based on my research of the satellite map. This section of their land was remote but this public trail gave me easiest access to the back side. I’d get onto the property, search for tracks and find my wolves. Get the chips embedded and head back to Granger. The Wests would never know the difference.
Wolves roamed.
So did I.
I found the nearest fence post, set my hand at the top and carefully climbed over the split rail fence. My feet landed with a thud and I brushed off my hands. I turned, started toward the patch of woods, my eyes cast down scanning the soft ground for tracks. I stopped abruptly when two pairs of boots came into view.
Then I saw the rest of the men they were on. One of them I’d never seen before. Big, thickly muscled. Dark eyes boring into me. The other… I gasped. My pussy recognized him because it wept for joy.
“You.”
The men weren’t the least bit identical, but they crossed their arms over their massive chests in the same way.
“Me.” It was Mr. One-Night Stand Wade.
“What are you doing here?”
“I told you I lived near West Springs.”
I glanced from him to his… friend?
“I think we can ask that of you, sugar.” It was the other guy who spoke, then took a deep breath. His eyes flared wide before he looked to Wade. Nodded. “This is a fucking problem,” he murmured, but I picked it up nonetheless.
“Told you,” Wade said.
“I’m here to—”
“Trespass?” he finished for me. His dark eyes met mine and I swallowed at the searing intensity.
I swallowed hard. They didn’t seem threatening, although the way they were looking at me, my underwear might be in danger. Yikes, they were intense.
“The wolves don’t know public land from private land,” I replied, tipping up my chin. This was the defense I had built up in my head. Part of the spiel I had planned if anyone caught me out here.
“Neither do you, Ms. Shriver.”
My mouth fell open as I connected the dots. “You know about the email.”
“I’m Landry West. You sent my brother an email. And he wrote you back.” His voice was partial snarl as he took off his hat, ran a hand through his hair, then set it back down. Clearly I was a burden here, otherwise he had bad gas or something based on the look on his face. “I believe my brother replied to your request, denying you access.”
Unless Landry was a much younger brother, Gibson was probably not sixty or paunchy. If he looked like his brother–this gorgeous guy–he was insanely good looking. Rugged. Built. Potent.
Where was Gibson West if he was so hell bent on keeping me out? Why did he send these two instead? I wasn’t that much of a threat, was I? It didn’t matter. I wasn’t getting to the wolves. I could hear Dr. Andrews complaining in my head. I could hear my parents clapping for joy that I had a one-way ticket back to New York City. My crankiness grew.
“Fine,” I said on a huff. Turning around, I headed back to the fence, to leave where I clearly wasn’t welcome.
When I looked up again, they were in front of me once more.
“Wha—”
“I told you I’d see you again.” Wade wore a little smirk. He wasn’t looking at my eyes, but my lips. With eager intensity. I licked them and I swore I heard him growl. Landry West, too.
I processed his words.
“You knew.”
He nodded. “You told me you were going to defy the email. I just had to wait.”
“Because you live here.” Oh shit. That meant… “You’re a West?”
He shrugged those big broad shoulders I remember clinging to as he ate me out. “Close enough,” he replied. “You’ve been a bad girl, Caitlyn.” His sexy smirk was growing.
A shiver slid down my spine. “I’ll go. I’ll… I’ll stay off your land.”
“Too late for that.” The glint in his eye was predatory.
I gulped. The bear spray would work on them, right?
Wade tipped his head. “I told Landry about you and our time together.”
“Okaaay,” I said, drawing the word out into several syllables.
“He said your pussy tastes so sweet,” Landry told me. “Like sugar.”
My eyes widened and my mouth fell open.
Oh. My. God. This stranger is talking about how I taste? Wade told him about our time together? Landry was licking his lips like he wanted to tug down my jeans and find out for himself. Right here. Right now.
I held up a hand. “Wait. You’re mad at me for being here and yet you want to… what? Have sex with me?”
Wade and Landry gave each other a look I didn’t understand.
“Wade told me how special you were and I didn’t believe him. I had to wait two weeks to find out. Turns out, he’s right.”
It was creepy and… hot. Because that meant both of them wanted me. Two guys. Two. I’d rarely had one guy interested because I’d always had my nose in a book. Or my mind on wolves.
Why did the idea of Wade and Landry desiring me make my panties damp? Was I crazy? Had I fallen down and hit my head? Was I actually into two guys, which was something I’d never even considered before? Why did the idea not have me hopping over the fence faster than an Olympic hurdler?
A slow smile crept across Landry’s face as he looked over every inch of me. Yeah, he wanted me. And I kinda liked it.
Yet I looked to Wade. “But you didn’t want me… to… to—” I blushed, not able to finish the sentence. I’d been mortified for two weeks that I was a bad lay. Or had tasted bad. Or something.
“Oh, I wanted that blowjob, sugar,” Wade clarified as he adjusted himself in his jeans. “But we do things a little differently up here.”
I frowned. “Okay.” I glanced between them, then caught on. “Oh. Ohhh. You’re into each other.”
Wade looked to Landry, then they both turned their heated gazes on me. “We’re into you. Together.”
I tried to get my head around what he was saying. “You mean…”
“We share.”
We share.
I gasped, set my hand on my chest. “Me? You want to share me? I thought you wanted me to leave.”
I took a step back.
“We didn’t want you to sneak onto the land,” Landry said.
They took a step closer.
“That’s right,” Wade added.
“What are you going to do to me?” I whispered, afraid of the answer. Going out into the wilderness alone had dangers. Falling off a cliff. Dragged off by a mountain lion. Mauled by a bear. I’d never imagined two hot guys. I wasn’t sure if I was afraid they’d hurt me or if I’d like his answer.
“Oh, the list is long. And pleasurable. But first, I think you deserve a little punishment for what you’ve done,” Wade said.
My gaze flicked to him as I took a step back once more. He held up his hand. “Don’t be afraid, sugar. We’re not going to hurt you.”
“We’d never hurt you,” Landry repeated. “All right? You’ve got to feel the attraction between us.”
I licked my lips and nodded. Somehow I knew they wouldn’t hurt me. They might not want me on their land and mad that I’d snuck on, but they were here specifically because they wanted me. Knew where I’d be and generally, when. They’d been waiting for me.
“That punishment? This is the kind you’ll enjoy receiving as much as we enjoy giving it.”
I stilled. Frowned. “Huh?”
“Eventually,” Landry added with a sexy flick of his brows. “Since we do things in pairs around here.”
All I could do was gulp as my panties went up in flames.