Something Sinful This Way Comes [McQueen Was My Valley 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (8 page)

Nathan glared at him, snapping a crease into the front of his windbreaker. “You may
not
add,” he seethed. But Julian had a feeling his ire was temporary. “Well, don’t think you can repeat that performance again. I’m not getting into it with anyone, male or female.”

Julian chuckled. “I wasn’t asking anyone to ‘get into it.’” He shrugged. “It was just a damned hand job. Mighty
spectacular
hand job,” he added, just to rile Nathan and be ornery at the same time.

Hands on hips, Nathan was looking up at Sam’s Steeple. “What do you think about this spire for a BASE jump?”

When he looked over his shoulder at Julian, Julian’s heart melted. And after sticking to his guns for a full one minute about not hitting on Nathan again, that determination was already out the window. Julian knew that at the first opportunity, he’d be putting his hands all over that glorious body again. “BASE jump? You’re into that crazy, deadly sport? Sure, why not? You’re just a hair into BLM land. As long as you’re off Triple Play land, I don’t see why not. You wouldn’t want to rile up Xandra McQueen’s insurance adjusters.”

“Yeah, that was the intention with choosing a platform that was
—”
Nathan stopped, frowning. “You know Miss McQueen?”

Aha
. Julian had scoped out that pretty southern gal immediately when he’d met her a few weeks back. Her syrupy drawl was like melted chocolate to the ears, and it was impossible to take one’s gaze from her voluptuous, pert figure. Julian knew she’d have her pick of every eligible man within a three hundred mile radius, but he’d also gotten the vibe that she wasn’t interested in that fact. A lesbian? He doubted it. There was something else Julian couldn’t put his finger on… “We met briefly when I had to express mail something else. Nice, innocent gal, though she has a lot to learn about the hospitality business.”

Nathan was looking at something in the distance, past Julian’s shoulder. Julian turned and saw a horse heading their way. “Hmm. That’s odd. The lodge doesn’t rent horses, and the cattle ranch is on the other rim of Prism Canyon. Ho, Jesus.” Julian’s acute Native American eyes had instantly discerned it was Xandra McQueen herself heading their way. Predictably, her tentative horse riding skills had her mount picking its way around enormous standing rocks, boulders that seemed to balance on just creaky threads of sediment without toppling over.

Nathan even came to stand next to Julian. “Jesus what?”

“Xandra.”

He was surprised by the intensity of Nathan’s response. “She shouldn’t be riding alone. She shouldn’t be riding
anywhere!
”

“Why not? What happened?”

Nathan grumbled, “Some burglar broke into her suite, no one caught him…Stole nothing, so we have no idea what he wanted. In the meantime I told her to go nowhere alone!”

The spark between those two became more evident when Xandra reached them. Smiling sunnily, she even wore a straw cowboy hat. She waved but had to grab her reins again to balance herself. She dismounted with difficulty, Nathan even going so far as to take her forearm as she stumbled to the ground. Julian tethered her mount alongside his to the piñon pine tree while Nathan hovered over her. He was practically stepping on her toes, and she attempted to get around him. She darted first to one side of Nathan, then to the other.

At last Nathan clapped his hands to her shoulders to still her, demanding, “What are you doing out here, Xandra? Don’t you have a hundred tasks to do at the lodge? I thought I made it clear I don’t want you doing
anything
alone. Your stepbrother should be shadowing you at all times.”

“Or you, but you’re five miles out here.” Xandra’s sunny smile faded, and she seemed truly irritated when she bodily lifted Nathan’s hand from her shoulder and finally stepped around him. “Good morning, Sergeant Longtree. Nathan, I never said I wouldn’t go anywhere alone. And I needed to learn to ride this damned horse.”

“You should’ve had Doug or one of the ranch hands ride with you.”

Nathan was irate beyond all reason, for someone who had only arrived at the lodge yesterday. Julian grinned to see the fire kindled between them. This was amusing. It completely belied what Nathan had just claimed—that he had no interest in women or men.

Xandra turned when she was between the two men, and she addressed them both. “It’s no big deal, Nathan. The burglar hardly wanted to capture
me
, or he would’ve broken in when I was in my suite. I wanted to ride out to find you, to tell you…I realized one item missing from my suite.”

Relief washed over Nathan’s screwed-up face. “Good, good. That might help. What is it?”

“A framed photograph of me and two of my sisters.”

Now Julian frowned.
That’s not much of a clue. Who the hell runs around stealing family photographs?
Julian looked bitterly at Nathan, sharing his frustration with the robbery case.

“And I want to show you your new cabin. Let’s go back. It’s being cleaned right now.”

“Here’s your private jetted tub, bath toiletries, and you can keep the terrycloth robes,” said Xandra. Ever the hostess, she thought she was doing a good job of introducing the two men to all the amenities of the cabin near the canyon’s rim, but they didn’t seem to be paying attention. Nathan looked extremely agitated, following her too closely with his hands on his hips. And the conservation officer…

Was she crazy, or had the two men been messing around before she rode up? It was more of a feeling she had, but Nathan’s hair was suspiciously mussed and the scent of semen emanated from them. When she stood between the two protective men who hovered over her, she was enveloped.
Yes. That’s it. They were mutually masturbating
.

This idea, far from appalling her, stimulated her. Her skin fairly buzzed with the pins and needles of a woman with an enticing secret. Just the vague image of even one of them jacking off the other made her moist between the thighs. They were so horny they couldn’t even wait to rut? They had to do it on the mesa right underneath Sam’s Steeple? Why, that steeple was named for her grandfather, Wanda’s brother. Then Xandra giggled, because she thought it was sexy as hell.

Of course she couldn’t wait to razz Nathan about it. Sergeant Longtree she’d only met once. She’d given him a complimentary room for half a day so he could shower and sleep before getting up to chase the bad guys again. He seemed a very sincere sort, maybe even overzealous in his pursuit of quagga mussel smugglers. Obviously at least half Navajo with his inability to grow a proper moustache and beard and his high cheekbones any woman would envy, Julian Longtree was the epitome of earnest and sincere.

And now she knew he was gay. Odd, her gaydar hadn’t gone off with either one of the men. Maybe Julian was just desperate, seeing as how the only people he ran into during the course of his day were teens partying or those idiotic BASE jumpers.

“You’ve got your stone fireplace—we replace whatever wood you use. These cabins were designed with an artful play of copper, water, stone, and rich fabric, paying homage to the ever-mutating mountains. Original artwork, humidifier, wireless internet, oh, and here’s your in-room safe.”

Nathan frowned down at her. “Yeah. Speaking of safes, Xandra. Can you think of any reason why anyone would steal a photo of you and your sisters? First he rifled through your intimate clothing, now your photos. It’s obviously personal.”

“No one, unless it’s some way ex-boyfriend from college I’d forgotten about.” Xandra’s tone shifted abruptly. “Maybe it’s one of my
sisters’
stalkerish exes. They certainly have plenty of those.”

Nathan said, “But you’re from Charleston. Aren’t your sisters still back there?”

“Yeah,” Julian piped up. “Why would a stalker come all the way here if it’s really your sister he’s interested in?”

“I’m still suspecting this skeevy ex of Xandra’s,” Nathan told Julian. “I don’t suppose there’s any way you could call him, Xandra, and get the lay of the land.”

“That won’t help,” said Xandra, “because I never know when he’s lying. I could ask him, sure, if he sent some burglar to my lodge. But of course he’d say no, and I would be no further into solving it.”

“If the whacko’s interested in your photos,” suggested Julian, “why don’t we put a GPS tracker in a couple of them? I’ve got a mess of those back in my trailer. We use them on critters’ collars.”

Nathan said, “The smallest GPS would probably be noticed or seen, but I could put ears—a listening device, so at least if he steals another framed photo we can hear what’s being said. We could stick it behind a real obvious photo, a photo placed smack in the middle of her coffee table. Let me go call my buddy to express us a few. They can probably get here by tomorrow morning if we send it rush.”

“Not so damned fast,” said Xandra. “Nathan. Aren’t you participating in the fishing tournament today?”

Nathan looked completely taken by surprise. “Fishing? That’s right. Ah, my event isn’t until tomorrow.”

Xandra frowned. “You can just jump into the middle of it like that? Why, they’ve already started without you.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Nathan didn’t seem to want to discuss the tournament. “It’s no big deal. These are
private
devices, so we won’t worry about using Julian’s state devices,” he added hurriedly.

Of course Xandra wondered why Nathan had access to private devices when he was a public cop, but that probably wasn’t so unusual what with budget cuts and all. Cops probably had to resort to a lot of private sources to do their jobs. She said, “We’ve got about two hundred fifty guests at the lodge. Chances are the burglar is a guest, since the next nearest motel is Blanding.”

* * * *

Nathan knew he could do something about this, too. “I have a friend who could run background checks on all the guests. That’s assuming the culprit didn’t use a fake ID to check in.”

Xandra sighed. “Fake passports were a popular aspect of my ex’s business. But you could try, if you don’t think it’d take excessive work. Marcus or Cass could get you the information.”

“Not at all. It’s all automated, for the clearance level my friend has.” Yeah. Nathan
was
“his friend.” In his work for the private military contractor, it was routine to put someone’s identity through a check, see what popped up. Lots of hilarious things would probably pop up with this group of fishermen. He’d find more people bouncing checks or driving too slow than haunting the Interpol watch list.

But it made Nathan feel better offering to do it, so he went to the upper parking lot to bring his rental car down to the cabin. Xandra had brought his bag to the cabin earlier, so he took his laptop back to the cabin. Xandra and Julian were getting chatty, having already opened a bottle of wine. They were on the cabin’s deck that overlooked the ancient layers of sedimentary rock that made up the canyon walls. The canyon was so majestic and deep that a soaring golden eagle swept up over the lip of the crevice, probably more surprised to see Xandra and Julian than they were to see him.

Out of habit, Nathan paused in the kitchen to eavesdrop on the pair. This wasn’t a loathsome habit of his—just part of his daily job routine.

“He seems like a good man,” Julian was saying. “Of course I consider myself a good judge of character.”

“Because you’re half Navajo?”

“No, because I’m a game warden,” Julian laughed. “But you need to trust your safety to someone, and I’d go with this Officer Horowitz.”

Unless you run a background on me
.
Or
especially
if you run a background on me.

“Yes, I feel safe around him,” Xandra was saying, contrary to all reason.

Ibn himar
. I could’ve mauled her in my sleep last night, and she feels
safe
with me?

Now she asked, “Do you have any clue who your poacher might be?”

Julian snorted. “There are all sorts of suspicious characters out there, Xandra. I went down to the res and talked to the tribal police. ‘Longtree,’ he said, ‘I got one officer for seventy square miles of land, land that’s chock-full of alcoholic, drug-smuggling wife-beaters. Any one of them could be your man.’”

“So he’s not going to help?”

“This asshole’s making sure not to poach on res land. I was going to stake out one of his traps he’s set out with bait birds inside, but Nathan made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“Wish I could go on the stakeout with you. Cody, my ranch manager, told me that asshole has been cutting my fences, letting my cattle out. I’ll warn Cody to keep an eye out for poaching, too. In fact, I can do that now.”

Xandra walked to the edge of the deck to raise Cody on her radio. Today she had dressed in what she must’ve considered to be a “western” mode. Brand new cowboy boots under a flouncy country-and-western skirt cinched by a fake turquoise-studded belt, and she even wore a checkered shirt with snaps up the front.

This was a good time for a shower. The sweat that had slicked Nathan’s body from the run had now dried on his skin, and he was shivering.

He stepped into the enclosure once the water was warm enough.
Ah
.
Much better.
Nathan washed away his shame from the perverted homosexual encounter underneath Sam’s Steeple.
Really, Nathan? Truly? So soon?
You just couldn’t hold out, couldn’t resist the charms of a Navajo game warden who just dug a bullet out of a deer carcass?
His partner and lover was barely cold in the grave—no, he would not think about it now—and already he was permitting some damned
game warden
to jack him off on the edge of a cliff? What a fucking slut he was! First, he’d stripped naked and grabbed that poor lodge owner, Xandra, last night. Lord knows what else he had done. Then he just spread his thighs for the first deviant twinkie who grabbed his dick?