Training Rain Read online

  “That just sounds as if you’re a man making an excuse for leaving me.”

  Was it? Was she right? He grabbed another blanket from the back of the couch and covered himself before sitting down. “You said that Adianca rescued you. What did you mean?”

  Rain’s eyes stayed focused on the dwindling fire. Jess got up and added a few extra logs, and waited for them to catch.

  He had almost given up on her responding. Her voice was even and so low it hummed in the dark room and sent its vibration directly to his soul. “My mother left when I was a child. My father did the best he could, but I was a wild teenager. I got into some trouble and Adianca came to the house to speak to me. I listened, but her words made no difference. I was angry. A year later, my father died in a car wreck. It took them three days to find me and tell me that my only family was gone and I was truly alone in the world. By that time his body had been cremated. I never got the chance to see him or say goodbye. The house was foreclosed on a few months later since I went right back to my friends in the street.

  “The day I turned eighteen Adianca showed up and told me it was time to go. I never even questioned her. I got in the truck with nothing but the clothes on my back and a dead heart. She brought me to Nevada and began my education in the ways of the medicine woman and she made me finish school.”

  He tried to visualize the woman next to him as a street kid with no direction, but he couldn’t equate the two. “You must have been pretty tough even then to have survived in the street.”

  She turned fierce eyes on him. “I gave my body in return for food and anything else I needed. I whored myself out for some drugs or booze. I didn’t even like getting high and I sure as hell didn’t enjoy the sex. I just didn’t want to go home and admit I’d been wrong.”

  “I’m sorry, cher.”

  She turned back to the fire. The light glinted on a tear that rolled down her cheek. “Now you can take me down from the pedestal you seem determined to keep me on. You can see I’m just a prostitute who managed to get away.”

  His brain was exploding with questions, none of which he could ask her. She was too upset and there were other more important issues to sort out. “You’re wrong, cher. I see a magnificent woman who overcame a difficult past. It’s you who see the worst of yourself.”

  “Then you must have blinders on.”

  He leaned forward until his body pressed into her and she was trapped against the arm of the couch. He brushed the tear away from her cheek and slid his fingers around the nape of her neck so she was forced to look him in the eye. “I don’t care about your past beyond the fact it has made you the person you are today. Do you think you could have survived the last few days if you hadn’t known hardship? Forgive yourself, Rain.”

  Her face was a mask. She completely hid her emotion from him. “You sound like Adianca. If you say that my father has forgiven me, I’m going to think you are somehow channeling the healer.”

  “If you are anything like your father, he probably blamed himself for your life choices and so there was nothing to forgive.”

  Her full lips bloomed into a sweet smile that actually had his heart pounding. He’d held back, but now his mouth pressed against those soft lips and took everything she was willing to give. Her tongue delved into his mouth, swirling and battling with his. A moan vibrated against his lips and his cock jumped to attention. He broke the kiss. “We are all whores of one kind or another, cher. There is always a price. I want you to stay with me. I want honesty about things you’re used to keeping to yourself.”

  “You may be asking a price that’s too high.”

  He pushed the blanket aside and covered her nipple with his mouth, tugging hard enough to make her cry out.

  Her breath was ragged. “What do I get from you?”

  “What do you want?”

  “I want you to finish what you started. I don’t want to be pushed off on another unwilling psychic whom I won’t be able to trust.”

  He ground his hips forward and his shaft rubbed the apex of her thighs. She lifted to meet him. “You shouldn’t trust me either.”

  She smiled. “Does that mean you’ll stay and finish my training?”

  “We’ll leave the park tomorrow, but we’ll go together.” He shouldn’t have been happy about being manipulated into changing his mind, but his chest filled with elation at the knowledge that he wasn’t leaving her.

  “Then why don’t you show me how fucking is different from making love?”

  His cock immediately agreed to her request, jumping and pressing tighter between them. “It’s not going get you out of my system.”

  “Prove it.” Her hips thrust up, making him groan.

  The blankets had become unnecessary and inconvenient. Jess tugged at them until there was nothing between his skin and her softness. “What are you trying to prove, Rain?”

  “Can’t a girl just ask for a good fuck without having an ulterior motive?” A wicked smile played across her lips.

  He devoured her lips, plunging his tongue deep inside and meeting no resistance. At the same time, he reached for his pack where it lay on the floor next to the couch and dug inside blindly. His fingers seized the foil pack and he broke the kiss.

  Pulling back from her warmth, he stood up, tore the packet and rolled the condom on. Her eyes never strayed from the movement of his fingers over his shaft. “Turn around and put your hands on the back of the couch.”

  She didn’t hesitate to comply. Her smooth, round ass faced him and she lifted it enough so he could see the luster of wetness peeking out between her thighs.

  Jess’ entire body vibrated with desire. He ran his hands from her knees to the swell of her hips where they settled as if she’d been designed to fit him. One step and he was perched at her wet pussy. She leaned back, taking in the tip of him. A whisper of a moan escaped her lips while he held his own in.

  His fingers dug in enough to hold her firmly, but not enough to bruise her. He pushed forward hard and strong, sinking himself inside her. She took every inch of him and cried out. He groaned as her warm, tight canal embraced him. He tried to hold still and give her a chance to adjust, but she immediately leaned forward, pulling away, and then forced herself back onto his cock. It was too much. He couldn’t hold back anymore. Gripping her, he powered forward over and over again. Her cries grew louder with each thrust. His balls tightened and he knew it wouldn’t be long for his release.

  Reaching around with one hand, he found her clit and rubbed. Rain screamed and jerked after only a few seconds. Her pussy clutched at him and he continued to piston inside her. His orgasm crashed down around him so hard the pleasure was near to pain. His knees barely held him, quaking with the release. His body tensed then went slack and he wrapped his arm around her holding through the rapture.

  She collapsed onto the couch, releasing him. Once he’d disposed of the condom, he rested next to her and pulled her on top of him so they could both lie on the small sofa. Arranging the blanket to cover them, he kissed her as she watched him wide-eyed.

  “For the record, cher, I already want more of you.”

  She pressed her cheek against his chest. “For the record, I need some sleep.”

  He chuckled and closed his eyes.

  Chapter Five

  Rain had dozed off immediately, but a couple of hours later she found herself wide awake and in the arms of Jess McMean. Even in his sleep, his left arm banded around her ribs tightly. Part of her wanted to slip out of his embrace and sneak out of the cabin. She could be back in Nevada in just over twelve hours. She could go back to her life as if she’d never stepped away.

  She snuggled in tighter and let his warmth create a cocoon within the covers. Going back was not an option, it was a last resort. She could live with it, but it was not where her destiny lay. Adianca had tried to tell her that, but until the stampede, she hadn’t understood. She had skills that would be wasted on the reservation. There were other people who could train to take over fo
r the medicine woman and spiritual guide for the people. What Rain could do could not be taught. It was a gift to be used for good.

  Piercing alarms shot through the silence and her thoughts. Yas barked a half a second before the proximity alert sounded. She was up and running for the bedroom in an instant. She pulled on jeans, a shirt and her boots before grabbing a handgun and her shotgun. She tucked the handgun into a holster with a strap that she slung over her head and shoulder. The strap carried an extra magazine. Shoving a handful of shells in her pocket, she ran back out into the living room.

  Yas continued to bark at the loud noise. Jess was up, dressed and holding a rifle while peering out the window.

  Rain moved to the panel near the door and disengaged the alarm with a quick four-digit code.

  “Could be a deer or a raccoon,” Jess said.

  Rain stretched her senses and searched the area. “No. I never got a feeling that anything was near and I don’t sense a panicked animal now.”

  “Do you have the fail-safe codes?”

  Her heart pounded. “You want to blow the place up?”

  “We may need to if we’re going to create enough of a distraction. Who knows, we may kill our pursuers in the process.”

  “We don’t even know if anyone’s out there.”

  A bullet crashed through the window to the left of Jess’ head. He ducked below the sill. Rain got low and pulled Yas down under her as she crawled toward the other front window.

  Dawn was a few minutes away. “Did you get the direction?” she asked.

  “Behind the shed.”

  The earth glowed blue-gray with the first touches of daylight. Rain leaned the shotgun against the wall and pulled out her handgun. Movement in the trees to the left of the shed caught her eye. “I’ve got one in the forest.”

  “I see at least two behind the shed.”

  “What do they want with us?”

  Jess moved toward his bag and stuffed a few scattered items inside. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say they want us dead. If they wanted information, they’d be trying to get inside, not shooting us through the window.

  “I’m going to lay down some cover fire. Take the detonator and go out through the bedroom window. Keep your eyes open. I’ll be right behind you. Give me two minutes. Count it out. One, one hundred, two, one hundred and keep on running. By the time you get to one twenty we should be far enough away.” He crawled to her and held her face between his hands. “Don’t hesitate. Blow this place to kingdom come. Understand?”

  “Yes. I got it.”

  He kissed her hard. “Go.”

  Jess started firing from the broken window. Rain looked back once as she ran through the cabin, grabbed her bag and pulled her coat on. She had the detonator inside the bag. Joshua had told her to keep it close, but he doubted she’d have a use for it. She opened the window, shotgun ready in case they were surrounding the house. A shot hit the frame near her hand. She didn’t think, she shot at the movement to the right. A man screamed and fell to the snow. Hoping that Jess’ continued shooting was enough to drown out his shouts, she lifted Yas out the window and then climbed out into the freezing early morning.

  Silently commanding Yas to follow, she counted and ran as fast as she could. She cleared the ridge. She sensed the buffalo moving away from the gunfire but not in a panic. There was no stampede. Her lungs ached from the cold and she pumped her arms and legs as hard as she could, all the while counting it out. Sixty-two one hundred, sixty-three one hundred.

  Had Jess really followed? She couldn’t hear the gunfire but the trees were thick and could be blocking the sound. No, she would hear it. She ran over the next ridge. One hundred ten one hundred. Sliding to a stop in the snow, she tore at the pocket of her bag and pulled out the cell phone given to her by the head of the Psi Alliance. She dialed the number she’d been ordered to memorize. One hundred twenty one hundred. Great Spirit, let him be out of the cabin. She hit call.

  Several beeps sounded inside the cell phone. Rain pulled Yas in close and covered his ears. The ground rumbled as an enormous explosion rocked the trees. If she had not already been on her knees, she would have fallen from the reverberation even at that distance. A plume of smoke pushed up high enough that she saw it over the ridge.

  Yas quaked, but he didn’t bark. She’d not given the dog a command to stay silent, but he seemed to know how to behave.

  Tucking the detonation phone away, she grabbed the bag and continued to move away in the same direction, Yas tight at her heels.

  The heavy sound of footfall behind her made her dodge behind a large oak. She didn’t know if it was Jess or one of the people hunting them. She tucked the shotgun tight against her shoulder. She knew her buckshot would probably only wound a man at any distance. Still, it might buy her enough time to get away. A low whistle made her heart slow. It was Jess’ signal that it was him and to stay in place. She waited, and two seconds later he ran into view.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked.

  “No. You?”

  “Miraculously, we’re okay. How the hell are we going to get out of here? I think I just blew up the four wheeler.”

  “You most definitely did. Good job. Come on, we have work to do. Those bastards got away. I saw them loading into a couple of big four-seat ATVs. They’ll try to track us and with all this snow, it won’t be hard to do.”

  He’d barely gotten the words out when they heard the sound of an engine, and it was getting closer. The forest stretched out for a few miles but it was an advantage to them to be on foot since the large all-terrain would have to pick its way through the heavily treed area.

  Slinging her pack over her shoulders, she took off at a run, following Jess. Yas stayed close at her heels. The trees were topped with heavy snow that in the bright sun dropped in large clumps from time to time. A stream, which had probably gurgled happily in the other seasons, was stilled by the months of below-freezing temperatures.

  Rain looked for options to aid in their escape. She was not panicked. That was perhaps the biggest surprise of all. A few weeks ago she had been living a quiet life in Nevada and in the past week she had done things she could not have imagined in her previous life. Yet, now she could see that all the grueling training and mental focus Jess had tortured her with had been for a purpose. In only the past twenty-four hours she had nearly hyperventilated with fear, made love to Jess, decided to continue her training, shot a man and blown up a cabin.

  She was running for her life and all in all, she felt great. If she’d had the breath to spare, she would have laughed.

  Jess grabbed her hand and they jumped into the gully cut by the stream. She watched silently as his eyes narrowed in the direction of the approaching vehicle. A wad of snow fell in the space followed by a loud cracking.

  Her heart pounded as she watched as a long-dead oak crash to the ground, blocking the path. The ATV had to swerve and ram a smaller tree to avoid colliding with the newly felled tree.

  “Did you do that?”

  He nodded and grabbed her hand. “Come on, that won’t hold them long.”

  As soon as they climbed up the opposite bank of the creek bed, gunfire followed them. They split up to draw off the fire. The gunmen were shooting at Jess and she was free to run forward without much darting. As soon as they were out of range they heard the engine gunning behind them. She could hear them gaining on them in spite of their full run and the thick forest.

  Jess ran toward her and pulled her behind a trunk large enough to give them both cover. He pulled the rifle off his shoulder as he spoke. “Listen, cher, we can’t outrun them. They’re already gaining on us.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I didn’t want you to have to do this, but we’re going to have to fight.”

  Her heart raced with excitement and she leveled her shotgun in the direction where the enemy would approach. It was clear to her now that these men were not after her, but they definitely wanted to kill Jess. She c
ould not let that happen. “What do I do?”

  “Wait for my signal and then fire.” He started to move away.

  “What’s the signal?” She heard a quiver of panic in her own voice.

  He stopped and turned back toward her. Mischief lit his eyes. “You’ll know it when you see it.”

  Two seconds later he disappeared into the backdrop of snow and trees. Yas whimpered and she sent the dog a message to be still. Immediately he fell into a resting position and put his head on his paws.

  The engine drew closer. The crunching of leaves and dead tree limbs broke the silence. The enemy was getting close. Her finger rested near the trigger and she found herself wishing she’d trained with a rifle. The shotgun would not be as accurate but it would allow for a wide spread of buckshot.

  If only she could still her racing heart, but that wasn’t going to happen as the green ATV came into view. Where had the other vehicle gone? Was it going to roar in from behind them? Jess had said to wait for his signal. They were getting too close. She could almost make the shot. Just a little closer and she could take out the man in the passenger side. Jess’ words made her hold her position but she put her finger over the trigger.

  Where’s the signal?

  So close. They were in range and the angle was right. A shot rang out. The ATV hobbled. Another shot. Both tires on the passenger side must have been shot out in quick succession because the ATV started to tumble away from her. She couldn’t get the shot.

  “Damn.”

  The vehicle was upended and the men started to emerge. Rain opened fire. Blood spread across the neck and chest of the front-seat passenger. No time to think, she took a second shot just as she heard the rifle fire off to her right. She hoped that was Jess and not the men from the other ATV. She took a second shot. A second man crumbled to the forest floor.