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  Anderson couldn’t help but smile at her lie. Acting as though he might believe her, he took the time to get a good look at her body. She wore the drab gray clothes Daniel had described, but after sitting on top of her, he knew she had curves. In fact, his cock was already primed and ready for a more intimate examination.

  Daniel laughed as he came beside her to touch the scrape on her cheek. “Why don’t I believe her, cuz?”

  “Because you’ve got a thinking brain in your head.” Anderson drew in a long breath and closed his eyes. Damn she smelled amazing. He committed her sweet scent to memory then opened his eyes. “I’m Anderson Holms. Daniel’s cousin.”

  She tugged, trying to get out of Anderson’s grip. “Ow. You’re hurting me.”

  Anderson had to admire her guts. She wasn’t a big woman, and yet she’d tried to take on a vampire and two werewolves. “If I let you go, will you talk to us? We want to know why you’re trying to kill Deacon.”

  Her body shook as the adrenaline left her. Her pulse against his fingers started slowing down. “So you’re not going to call the police? Or give me to the vampire?”

  “Nope. Unless you continue to go after our friend.”

  She dropped her jaw then slammed it shut to sneer at him. “He’s your friend? Why the hell would you have a vampire for a friend?”

  “It’s a long story. But I want to hear yours first.”

  Daniel chuckled. “Yeah. I can’t wait to hear it. Talk, Shannon.”

  She lifted her wrists that were pinned with Anderson’s grip. “Let me go first.”

  Every bone in his body told him he was about to make a mistake, but he didn’t listen to his gut. Instead, he shot her an I’m trusting you look and let go of her wrists. She rubbed the red marks he’d left behind.

  “We’re listening.” Daniel eased closer to Shannon, his body giving off the scent of arousal.

  Anderson hooked his thumbs in his pockets so he could pull his jeans out a little. Otherwise, she’d notice his growing erection.

  Tears sprang to her eyes, startling him. “Hey, don’t cry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. You should come back to the ranch with us and get patched up.” Shit. Did I really hurt her? Remorse swept over him.

  “Can you please get me some antiseptic and bandages from the pharmacy? I’m bleeding.” She held up her sleeve, showing him a long abrasion from her wrist to her elbow.

  He struggled not to touch her, but she was even more beautiful with tearstains running down her cheeks. Plus, he hated to see women cry. He always felt like it was his fault even if he’d done nothing at all. But this time he had. He’d hurt her.

  “Daniel, run inside and get those things, maybe even a first aid kit. I’ll take her into the employee’s restroom and let her get washed up.”

  Daniel, who appeared as unnerved by her tears as he was, nodded and rushed into the building. Anderson followed her, noticed she was limping, and another stab of guilt washed over him. He let her enter before him then motioned to the right toward the door marked Employees Only.

  Wiping the tears away, she nodded and went into the bathroom. He followed her into the cramped space. She checked her face in the mirror and leaned forward to get a better look. Her butt stuck out, pressing against his crotch and sending a message of lust into his cock. His inner wolf howled with his need to take her, and he answered by placing his hand on her bottom.

  She gasped but didn’t move away. Instead, she pushed back against him harder, urging him to squeeze her butt. He moved forward, putting his chest against her back and wrapping his arm around her waist.

  Her breathing quickened as he cupped her breast and squeezed it, too. He could smell her arousal and see it in her eyes. He licked his lips then moved her hair out of the way to glide his lips over her soft neck. She moaned and took his hand to lead it between her legs.

  His cock roared to life, threatening to break through his jeans. He wanted her more than he’d have thought possible. The electricity flowing between them sizzled, making each touch even more sensitive.

  She took his hand again and moved it back and forth over her mons. He groaned and pressed harder, pushing his fingers against the material and between her pussy folds. They rocked together as he massaged her and rubbed his cock against her ass.

  “Turn around.”

  She did as he ordered and thrust her breasts against his chest. He cupped both of them and brought his head down to glide his tongue over the swell of her breasts peeking out from the V of her T-shirt. She arched and placed her hand over his crotch.

  “Take off your clothes.”

  She nodded and started to pull off her sweatshirt when, all at once, she stopped and moaned. “Ow. It hurts too much.”

  Crap. I should’ve remembered she’s injured. “Maybe we should take care of your wounds first. Then you should come back to our ranch and recuperate.” He couldn’t help but watch the rise and fall of her chest. “As much as I hate to say this, we should wait until you’ve had time to heal.”

  She winced in pain again. “I have to”—sniff—“take off my clothes for some of the places where you hurt me.”

  “Go ahead. I’ll hold them while you clean up.”

  “With you near me?” She shot him an alarmed look. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We might not stop, and you could aggravate my injuries and hurt me again. Ow.” She clutched her side.

  Shit. “And hurt me again.” She couldn’t have said anything worse. “Okay. I’ll knock when Daniel has the medicine and bandages. You’ll have to open the door to get them, but we’ll turn our heads.”

  “But only if you promise you won’t look.” She sniffed, took his nod as his promise, then closed the door.

  Several minutes later, Daniel returned with a tube of Neosporin and a first aid kit. “Where is she? I thought you were going to help her wash up.”

  “Take it easy. She’s inside. She wanted privacy, but she’ll open the door when I knock.”

  Daniel stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. “You do know there’s a window in there, right?”

  “Shit. I forgot. Oh, hell, no.” The realization of how stupid he’d been swept over him as he yanked on the locked door. “Shannon, open up.”

  “Yeah, like she’s still in there.” Daniel pushed him aside, stood back, and landed a hard kick on the door. The door broke off its hinges and fell against the sink.

  Anderson didn’t have to check the bathroom with Daniel to know she wasn’t there. She’d set a trap for him as easily as if she’d pushed him into a cage.

  Chapter Three

  Shannon parked her van at the edge of town behind a clothing consignment store. She adjusted the brunette wig she wore, took one last look in the rearview mirror, then got out of the vehicle. Trying to appear as though she was just another citizen of Forever, she’d traded her gray outfit for faded jeans, a T-shirt with the phrase Cowgirls Do It Better blazoned across her chest, a worn denim jacket, and her favorite running shoes. She completed the outfit with dark sunglasses. But no way was she going to wear cowboy boots. She doubted she could run in them.

  Milly’s Coffee Spot still had a few customers inside enjoying their meals even though it was well into evening. What happened to ranchers, farmers, and cowboys going to bed early so they could get up at the crack of dawn? If her plan didn’t work, she wasn’t sure what she would do. She had to find out where the vampire lived.

  Why had Daniel and his cousin, Anderson, gotten involved? They didn’t act like the kind of men who would take orders from a vampire. At least not a male vampire. She smiled as she remembered how she’d tricked Anderson into letting her go into the bathroom alone. After scoping the place out, she’d known the bathroom had a window. One she could shimmy out without too much difficulty.

  Much as she’d done since she’d met them, she let her mind drift away. They were the two hottest men she’d ever seen. Not only were they hunks, she’d sensed, hell, she’d felt an attraction to them so strong she’d alm
ost forgotten to give Anderson the slip so she could get into the bathroom by herself.

  They were cousins, and they did have a certain look about them. They were both tall, broadly built men with rough hands that spoke of hours of hard labor. But their eyes held an intelligence she found appealing. Smart and hot was very hard to find, and she’d found two at once.

  “Shannon, you’re barking up the wrong tree,” she mumbled. But still she couldn’t force her thoughts off them. Daniel with his long black hair that teased his shoulders and hugged his ears could make her panties wet with just one look from his light-blue eyes. Who had eyes that color anyway? Going against her better judgment, she’d Googled him and found out that he was a well-known architect in Dallas. But he was very choosy about which projects he took and rarely left Forever.

  Anderson was a different matter. His hair was cut short, almost too short to run her fingers through. The style wouldn’t have worked on most men, but it made his face even more rugged. His eyes were almost the same shade as Daniel’s, but at times she’d noticed tiny flecks of amber mixing with the blue. But why not all the time? His body, like his cousin’s, was well built, like small boulders piled one on top of the other then sculpted into flesh.

  She hadn’t doubted he was toned with a body that any woman would crave. Not before she’d touched him and certainly not after. Her mouth dried and her hand tingled as she recalled how large his package was. Her entire hand couldn’t cover it.

  What would it be like to have one of them in her bed? She licked her lips, her pussy clenching with need. What would it be like to have both of them in her bed, either separately or together? She could imagine Daniel between her legs, his tongue raking over her clit as Anderson swept his tongue over her pebbled tits. The image blurred but came back stronger as she imagined Daniel shoving into her butt hole while Anderson plunged his long, hard cock into her pussy. She moaned and reached out to slip her hand over Anderson’s short haircut.

  “Miss, are you all right?”

  She jolted back to reality and found herself standing in the middle of the street. Had she moaned out loud? The older gentleman reached out to touch her arm, but she jerked it back. Ashamed that she’d treated him so rudely, she gave him a weak smile. “Sorry. I guess my mind kind of wandered away.”

  His weathered face beamed. “No problem. My mate was the same way the first time she met me and my brother.”

  His mate? Is that what they call their wives out in the boonies of Texas? “I’m sorry?”

  He squinted at her. “Oh, don’t worry about what I said. You’ll understand in due time, miss, in due time.”

  She stared after him as he shuffled to the other side of the street. Tipping his weathered cowboy hat at her, he ambled into Milly’s Coffee Spot. “Damn. I hope I don’t get caught having to talk to him.” But she didn’t have another choice. If she found out where Deacon Slater lived, she could catch him during the day and stake him while he slept.

  Even in the cooler air of evening, her wig itched. She hated wearing a wig, but she couldn’t take a chance that Daniel or Anderson would recognize her. Once she’d finished taking care of the vampire, she’d burn the itchy thing.

  Steeling her nerves, she opened one of the double doors of Milly’s and stepped inside. The jingle of the bell hanging over the door rattled her, but she pulled her composure together and smiled at the customers who’d stopped to stare at her. She hurried to a stool at the counter.

  The pretty blonde woman behind the counter tossed her towel down and wiped away crumbs. “Hey, how are you? Welcome to Milly’s Coffee Spot. I’m Milly. So what’ll it be?”

  Shannon surveyed the menu on the board hanging on the wall behind Milly. “Um, just a coffee and maybe a hamburger. Rare, please.”

  “That’s the best way to eat one.” Turning, Milly shouted through the pass-through at two very large men in the kitchen, “Give me a hamburger, and keep it mooing.”

  “Keep it mooing?”

  “Yeah. Rare enough that the cow’s still alive and mooing.”

  Eew. She’d never thought of rare in those terms. But the food didn’t matter. Information is what she wanted, and if Milly was the talkative kind, she’d get her real order.

  “Are you new in town or passing through?” Milly rested her elbows on the counter.

  “Passing through.” Shannon leaned forward, trying to give Milly the impression of camaraderie. “Is it true?”

  Milly’s eyes widened with interest. “Is what true?”

  “Does a vampire live in Forever? If you can say a vampire is living.” She had to play it cool. Interested, but not too interested.

  At once Milly moved back, uneasiness apparent in the way her body stiffened. “Now where did you hear a silly rumor like that?”

  “I don’t know. Around. But is it true?” She prayed and waited for Milly to cough up the truth.

  “Look, sweetie, I don’t know what you’re aiming to find out, but you won’t get anyone here to feed your delusions. We’re just plain old farmers and ranchers. There’s nothing exciting like vampires and werewolves or any of that kind of thing here.” Milly laughed, her mood lightening. “I swear, ever since that movie came out, people have decided every small town must be brimming over with supernatural beings.”

  Shannon’s hope deflated as Milly winked then left her to help another customer. She’d fallen flat on her face, but she wasn’t about to give up yet.

  After several minutes, Milly plopped her plate in front of her but didn’t stay to chat. Shannon scooped up the plate and searched the room. Spying a likely prospect, she slid into a booth where a cowboy was hunched over his bowl of chili.

  “Hi, I’m, uh, Shannon Miller.” Where had she heard the name before?

  “Naw, you ain’t.” The cowboy couldn’t get enough of her body, but he finally lifted his gaze to her face.

  “I’m not?”

  “Nope. Shannon Miller’s a little bitty girl up in Oklahoma. She did the Olympics in gymnastics.”

  “Oh. Right. Well, you know there’s more than one Shannon Miller in the world and I’m the other one.”

  He grunted an answer and dove into his chili again. Using the back of his hand, he wiped away the trail of chili tracking down his chin.

  “Anyway, I was wondering. Do you know where the vampire who runs the pharmacy lives?” She hadn’t planned on using the direct approach. It had just burst out of her mouth. Now all she could do was make the best of it.

  The cowboy dropped his spoon into his bowl, splattering chili onto the table. “What the hell would you want to know that for? Maybe you should run on back to wherever you came from. We don’t like nosy people.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Ignoring her apology, he stood up, carried his bowl to the counter, and slid onto a stool. Most of the other customers had heard his outburst. They stared at her, many of their stares turning into hostile glares. She slid down farther in the booth.

  This is not going well.

  “Hey, good to see you again, Shannon.”

  Daniel pushed against her, making room next to her. She scooted as far from him as she could. Adopting what she hoped would pass for a New Yorker accent, she pulled the strands of the wig in front of her and tried to hide her face. “Yo, dude, get the hell out of my booth. No one asked you to sit your ass down.”

  He laughed but didn’t budge. “Good one. A New York accent, right? But I would’ve sworn I heard a touch of Beantown in your voice yesterday. Of course, that was when you had blonde hair instead of this nasty wig.”

  “Nasty wig? Hell, I paid two hundred dollars for this wig.” She slapped a hand over her mouth once she realized her mistake.

  “Girl, you got taken,” snapped Milly who had just passed by their booth.

  “She’s right. Besides, your natural hair is so beautiful. Why would you want to hide it under a wig?”

  She started to respond, but her mind got hung up on the word “beau
tiful.” He thought her hair was beautiful. Or was he playing her?

  “Would you like to tell me why you want to kill Deacon Slater? Nothing against Patrick, mind you, but Deacon’s a better pharmacist, and, let me tell you, it’s hard to get a good pharmacist to stay in a small town like Forever.” He thrust out his chin. “Are you going to eat your burger or what?”

  She shoved her plate in front of him. “Now that you have my food, will you let me out of the booth?”

  He took a huge bite then closed his eyes and groaned. “Damn, but this is a good burger. Juicy and rare, just like I like them.”

  “Look, Daniel, I don’t know what your game is, and I don’t care. Get out of my way right now, and stay out of my way. Do you understand me?” She’d lowered her tone, but she still got the feeling everyone had heard her. The people in Forever were different. She just didn’t know what was different about them. On the outside they looked fairly normal, although a few of them had extra-long teeth. So what was it?

  Daniel swallowed a second bite then shifted to face her. “You want me to get out of your way so you can stake Deacon? Is that what you mean?”

  She ducked down again, knowing the customers had to have heard his booming voice. “Will you shut the hell up? Or at least lower your voice?”

  He grew serious, his bright blue eyes showing flecks of the strange amber color. “Did you forget that I was there last night? And I’ll be there again tonight. Deacon is a friend, sort of, and I’m not about to stand by and let you kill him.”

  “Why not? You obviously know he’s a vampire.”

  “Yeah, he’s a vampire, but he’s one of the good ones.”

  “So you admit it? You believe vampires are real?”

  “Of course they are. But I don’t lump them all together any more than I lump all blondes together and call them bimbos. They’re just like the rest of us. Some of them are good, and some of them are bad. If they were horrible human beings before they were turned, they make horrible vampires. I don’t think their personalities change much because of the transformation.”