Allister, J. Rose - Displaced Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Online Free Page B

glance straight on. There was a smolder in his gaze that brought her simmering insides to a full boil. No man had ever looked at her quite that way before. Not a full grown, hot-as-hell man, anyway. Plenty of teenage boys had horned after her once upon a time, an unpleasant side effect of having been on the cheerleading squad. This was utterly different.
    Words couldn’t get past the pulse hammering her throat, and her lips cemented themselves shut. Connor didn’t seem to mind, though. On the contrary, the knowing, lazy grin that slid up one of his sculpted cheeks indicated he’d taken her wide-eyed silence as an encouraging sign.
    Her heart was skipping beats like wild when he suddenly whipped his attention back to the road he’d neglected for a millisecond too many. “Shit,” he said, punching the button to slide the window down.
    She scanned the road with wild eyes. “What is it?”
    He inhaled the rush of air through the window and slammed on the brakes without warning.
    “Jesus!” she shouted.
    The squeal of brakes—oh, God, she thought, that awful squeal —tore through the thin layer of calm their banter had painted over her fear of the hazardous road. Her hands flew to the dashboard, where she braced herself with her eyes shut tight to await the sickening crunch of metal that would surely follow.
    Instead, the car halted in silence. “Stay here,” Connor said.
    Her limbs were shaking when she opened her eyes. “What the hell, Connor?”
    He was already out the door and sprinting around the front of the car, headed for a sparse section of woods on her side of the road.
    “Connor?” she called after him, but he ignored her.
    The car idled while the open driver door dinged an alert through the interior. Terra’s pounding heart threatened to jump out after him. What the devil was the man doing?
    “Thought you said you don’t jump and run easy?” she asked, too low for him to hear.
    When he paused to crouch over something not far off, however, she frowned and reached over to twist the ignition key off. She slid out of the car on legs that wobbled as much from the adrenaline of the drastic stop as from whatever chemical madness Connor seemed to think she was experiencing. She sped up when she realized he was kneeling over someone.
    “Oh, my God,” she said, stopping at the man’s feet. He was another cowboy, no doubt, complete with rugged jeans, pointy-toed boots, and a gray hat that had been knocked to the ground near his head. His denim shirt was torn and stained with dirt. Blood flowed from an ugly, gaping wound near his shoulder. Dirt and small sticks littered his matted, dark hair as he lolled his head from side to side. He was moaning and gasping for breath while he clutched at the front of Connor’s sweater.
    “I ain’t never seen no wolf like it before, Connor,” he was saying.
    “The wolf was injured, too, wasn’t he?” Connor asked. “ Wasn’t he?” he added when the man didn’t answer. His voice echoed into the woods beyond.
    Terra hugged herself tight. “You know this guy?”
    “I thought I told you to stay in the car,” Connor snapped over his shoulder.
    She raised her chin and stepped around the side of the other man. “My teachers always said I never follow directions.” She ignored his glare and nodded to the man. “Who is he?”
    “Nash Walden. He was my boss until this afternoon.” Connor paused. “When he fired me.”
    “I said I was sorry ’bout all that, cowboy,” Nash ground out between stilted, heaving breaths. “You know I hated to do it.”
    “It’s in the past now,” Connor said. “You’re gonna be all right.”
    Connor’s dark glance at Terra seemed to indicate otherwise, though. She swallowed.
    “A wolf did this?” she asked, looking around the woods for signs that it might return and possibly bring along some hungry friends.
    “It weren’t no ordinary wolf,” Nash said. “I know it sounds crazy, Connor, but what I saw weren’t in no way