Montana Sky

through her dry throat. So she took the other option, and brought her knee up, fast and hard.
    She had the pleasure of seeing him go dead pale before he collapsed on her.
    “Get off me. Get off, you goddamn idiot. You’re crushing my lungs.” Desperate for air, she arched, bucked, making him moan. She managed to gasp in a breath before she grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked.
    They rolled off the couch and crashed to the floor. She saw stars as her elbow hit the edge of the table. It was pain and fury that had her tearing into him. Something shattered on the floor as they wrestled over it, grunting and cursing.
    He was trying to defend himself, but she was obviously out for blood. And proved it by biting his arm just under the shoulder. Yelping, certain that she was going to take a chunk out of him, he managed to get a grip on her jaw and squeeze. Under the pressure the tear of her teeth loosened.
    They rolled, boots clattering and digging for purchase, elbows jabbing, hands grappling. Willa didn’t realize she was laughing until he had her pinned. She kept right onlaughing, helpless even to stop for breath as he stared down at her.
    “You think it’s funny?” He had to squint, then huff out a breath to get the hair out of his eyes. But all in all, he was grateful she hadn’t managed to tear it out of his head by the handful. “You bit me.”
    “I know.” Her voice hitched as she ran a tongue over her teeth. “I think I’ve got some of your shirt in my mouth. Turn me loose, Ben.”
    “So you can bite me again, or try to kick my balls into my throat?” Since they were still aching—more than a little—he narrowed his eyes, sneered. “You fight like a girl.”
    “So what? It works.”
    His mood was shifting again. He could feel that hot, slick transition from temper to lust, from insult to interest. The way they’d ended up, her breasts were pressed nicely against his chest, and her legs were spread with his snugged between them.
    “Yeah, it does. You being female seems to suit the situation.”
    She saw the change in his eyes, teetered between panic and longing. “Don’t.” His mouth was barely an inch from hers now, and her breath was gone again.
    “Why not? It’s not going to hurt anybody.”
    “I don’t want your mouth on me.”
    He lifted a brow, and he smiled. “Liar.”
    And she shuddered. “Yeah.”
    His mouth was only a whisper from hers when she heard the first piercing screams.

FIVE
    B EN ROLLED , GAINED HIS FEET . THIS TIME , AS WILLA RAN behind him she could admire the speed with which he could move. The screams were still echoing when he wrenched open the front door.
    “Christ.” He muttered it even as he stepped over the bloody mess on the porch and gathered Lily in his arms. “It’s all right, honey.” Automatically he shifted so that he blocked her view and, with his hands stroking easy down her back, looked over her head into Willa’s eyes.
    The shock was there, but it wasn’t the quaking, glassy-eyed horror of the woman he held. This one was fragile, he thought, whereas Willa would always be sturdy.
    “You ought to get her inside,” he said to Willa.
    But Willa was shaking her head, staring down now at the mangled and bloody mess at her feet. “Must be one of the barn cats.” Or it had been, she thought grimly, before someone had decapitated it and cut its guts open and left it like a gory gift at her front door.
    “Take her inside, Will,” Ben repeated.
    The screams had brought others running. Adam was thefirst to reach the porch. The first thing he saw was Lily weeping in Ben’s arms. The quick hitch in his gut had almost as much to do with that as what he saw spread on the porch.
    Instinctively he stepped up, laid a hand on her arm, soothing when she jerked. “It’s all right, Lily.”
    “Adam, I saw . . .” Nausea churned a storm in her stomach.
    “I know. You go on inside now. Look at me,” he murmured, carefully easing her away from Ben and leading her around and toward the door. “Willa’s going to take you inside.”
    “Look, I’ve got—”
    “Take care of your sister, Will,” Adam interrupted, and taking her hand, placed it firmly over Lily’s.
    Willa lost the battle when Lily’s hand trembled under hers. With a mumbled oath she tugged. “Come on. You need to sit down.”
    “I saw—”
    “Yeah, I know what you saw. Forget it.” Willa closed the door with a decisive click, leaving the men to ponder the headless corpse on