Jan Springer: In Her Bed

Durango was the least hurt of the three. He’d kept his mouth shut, thankfully, while she’d tried hard to ignore the wicked beating of her heart as her gaze snapped to and fro along the wide expanse of tanned muscles lacing all the men’s chests and arms while she’d dug out the bullets.

Durango knew her fetish for muscles. How they turned her on so hard and so fast that he’d always joked about her exploding like a firecracker whenever muscles came into her view. She detected traces of pain glazing his eyes as he watched her from his perch on a wooden chair that he’d dragged close to the bed. She didn’t think it was the physical pain. Maybe emotional pain? Had he missed her as much as she’d missed him?

No, he’d made his decision about leaving, and now he would have to live with it.

Unfortunately, now with the two men snoring softly in her bed, Durango didn’t appear in the least bit sleepy as he studied her every move with his sultry light blue eyes. She could tell from the heated way he looked at her that he wanted sex. He always wanted sex, and in the past she’d loved losing herself in the pleasure he gave so easily. But she’d booted him out, and no matter how much she wanted him back in her bed, she needed to stick to her principles. Didn’t she? Yes, she did, she added firmly.

“If you want to stay warm you’ll have to crawl into bed between them,” she snapped as she got up off the bed.

She reached out to grab the tray of bloody utensils, but he stopped her by grabbing her wrist, his fingers yet again snapping around her flesh like a handcuff.

She trembled at the strength in those fingers. Fingers that used to stroke so nicely in and out of her pussy. Fingers that caressed and brushed her nipples until they were on fire. Until she was on fire for him.

She gasped as he suddenly pulled her onto his lap. His arms came around her waist, and he held her in his strong, warm embrace. For a split second she thought about struggling out of his tight grasp, but she knew if he didn’t want to let her go, he wouldn’t, and fighting him would be a waste of time. She inhaled sharply at the feel of the large knot of arousal pressed against her ass. She could feel the pounding of his heart as it beat against her left arm. She also realized how easily and instinctively she was curling against him. That pissed her off.

Stupid woman. She couldn’t give him the satisfaction of showing him how he still could so easily affect her.

He must have caught a glimpse of her mood, for he suddenly spoke softly in her ear. “I wonder what you’d do if I decided to kiss you, Doc?”

“Slap you,” she retorted, injecting as much anger into her voice as she could.

“In that case I’d have to spank you. And I know how much you enjoy getting spanked, Doc.”

“Don’t call me that,” Liz snapped.

“Does it bring back memories?”

Yes, his nickname, and his low, seductive voice and talk about spankings brought back those luscious memories. Too many memories. Of what he and his friend Landon had wanted to do with her before she’d sent them packing.

Warmth, unrestrained and wickedly delightful, whipped through her, and she could barely stop the breathless tremors as they raced through her tense body.

“It brings back nothing,” she said coolly, but to her irritation she also sounded husky.

His knowing look angered her, and she forced herself to break his gaze. Wanting to escape him, she decided it would be better to fight him. To her surprise, when she did just that, he let her get up off his lap. She grabbed the tray containing the soiled utensils and stormed toward the door.

“Walking away won’t stop what we both want, Liz.” The softness in his voice almost undid her self-control, and she swore there was a brief hesitation in her walk, but she rectified it quickly by picking up her pace.

The bastard had nerve. She hadn’t seen him in so long, and the last thing she wanted was to fall right back in love with him. She would not be shared by any man. No matter how often or how hot she got whenever she fantasized about having sex with him and other men. Sharing just wasn’t normal. She’d do well to remember that fact.

All you need to do is play it cool with her, Durango said to himself as he watched Doc walk out of the room. But looking at the sexy curve of her hips, and her perfectly shaped ass pressing intimately against her sweetly tight light green nightgown, made playing it cool damned hard.

Ethan Durango had a big problem, and her name was Dr. Elizabeth Brandywine. He’d forced himself to stay away from her after their last argument when she’d given him two ultimatums. Never speak about his sexual desires regarding sharing her again and don’t join the Durango Gang. Hell, if he’d agreed to her terms, she may as well have castrated him. The last thing he wanted was to be tied down like a caged dog and made to feel as useless as one.

Over the months he thought he’d managed to get her out of his system, but of course those lonely, cold nights on the trail with a posse breathing up their asses had made him bring out a photo that he carried on him. A picture he’d shared with the members of the gang. The guys were pretty good where Liz was concerned. They looked at her picture, commented on her pretty blue eyes and her luscious strawberry-red lips or her sexy pose for the shot.

He knew Landon and Tyrell would be the men to share her with. Not because he wasn’t threatened by them. He wasn’t, but he knew both men were trustworthy, dependable, and both had been married. Watching their wives disintegrate right before their eyes during the solar flares had hardened them to love, but he saw the caring in their eyes when they’d looked at Liz’s picture, and he just knew these were the men he wanted to stand by her with him.

With violence rampant these days, he knew it was just a matter of time before Liz was discovered living alone way out here in the middle of nowhere where she chose to practice her trade. He would have preferred her in a city, but cities were probably more dangerous without a man.

Looking out for her was why he made it a habit to send most of the injured members of the gang to her to recuperate. He’d also sent any member wanting access to a decent pleasure girl because Dr. Liz would check each man thoroughly. If he appeared to be in good health and wasn’t carrying diseases, she would give him a name of a professional girl he could spend some time with. Those were a couple of ways he’d been able to keep tabs on her.

He hadn’t planned on coming back to their century-old stone house for a little while longer, but when the gang had been in a shootout trying to rob a bank in a city on the other side of the mountains, Durango had brought them to the closest trusted doctor he knew, Doc.

Now that he was here, hopefully he could win himself back into her graces. Wishful thinking? Maybe. The moment he’d seen her again, all the self-control he’d wrapped tightly around himself had unraveled. He wanted to be back in her bed. Wanted to crack that icy exterior she valiantly tried to portray.

He’d caught glimpses of tenderness splashing across her face as she’d dug out the bullet in his arm. Felt the erotic way she’d melted against him when he’d dragged her into his lap, and yeah, he’d heard her sharp inhalation of breath as her ass came down on his thick erection.

She still loved him, and she loved the way her body reacted when she was around him. A hot love like theirs couldn’t die. He sensed it would only grow if Liz could admit her deepest sexual needs to herself. All he needed to do was hold his self-control just a little harder.

They were such an odd couple. He was a blue-collar worker earning a living as a farm machinery mechanic, living on the outskirts of Calgary, Alberta. Doc had been a respectable family doctor. They probably would have never met if he hadn’t sliced his palm open while working on a piece of equipment and she hadn’t been gassing up her SUV at the self-serve gas pumps right outside the garage. She’d said she liked the rough sound of his voice when he’d cursed and watched him wrap his hand in a dirty rag. Her doctor side had been concerned, yet she’d said it had been the sight of his muscles that lured her into the dark garage. To him.