I’d just stepped back inside and kicked the door shut with my heel when I noticed a small envelope stuffed between two coupon ads. My name was written illegibly on the outside in something that resembled a child’s handwriting. Just like the others. I tore it open and quickly read the note inside just as Cowboy called out from the bathroom, “Hey, darlin’, where are your towels?”

My body stiffened. I’d been so preoccupied by the stupid note that I hadn’t noticed he’d turned the water off. “They’re…um, in the cabinet next to the shower.” I hurried to stuff the paper back inside its holder and looked for a convenient place to hide it. “On the top shelf.”

I shoved the envelope down the back of the couch in between the cushions and had just pulled my hand free when Cowboy stepped out of the bathroom wearing only a white towel tucked around his waist. Droplets of water dotted his skin and dripped from his short hair.

“I found them before I even finished the question,” he said, grinning.

Skittishly, I turned toward the kitchen, keeping my back to him as I placed the rest of the mail on the counter in front of me. “I…uh, okay.”

A beat went by before he said anything. “Something wrong?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing.” I closed my eyes as I felt his presence behind me. “You just caught me off guard.” I felt his arm brush against mine, but it didn’t close around me like I thought it would.

“Then what’s this?” My eyes shot open and I saw him holding the note up in front of my face. Fear raced through me at the thought of him confronting the Barlows. Panicking, I made a quick grab for it, but he jerked his arm back. I spun around to face him as he turned the envelope over in his hand. “Who sent you this? There’s no address or anything, only your name.”

“Just leave it alone, okay?”

“Anna.”

I swallowed hard at the stern tone of his voice. “It’s nothing, really. I’ve just been finding some notes in my mailbox on occasion. I guess the Barlow boys are leaving them.”

Cowboy didn’t hesitate. He opened the envelope and pulled out the small piece of paper inside. Even upside down, I could read the horrible scribble. Burn, baby, burn! After a brief pause, his eyes lit up with anger. “Fuck me. Why didn’t you tell me you were receiving threats from them?”

“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing.”

“Where are the other notes?” Cowboy grumbled.

I walked over to the oak desk in the living room and pulled open the middle drawer where I’d been keeping them. Reaching inside, I grabbed the eight envelopes and then returned to Cowboy, placing them in his hand. I stood there staring at him as he quickly opened and read each one.

When he was done, his body was trembling with barely controlled rage. “I’m going to get dressed, go over there, and beat the fuck out of them two idiots.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Oh, yeah? Watch me.” He started to turn toward the bedroom, but I grasped his arm to stop him.

“You can’t just go over there and accuse them of sending these. Besides, they’ll probably just deny it anyway. It’s just words on paper. Sticks and stones.”

Cowboy paced a few steps away and laid the notes down on a nearby end table, while his brows slanted downward in frustration. “Sweetheart, you need to learn a few things about me. I can tolerate a lot of bullshit, but I won’t put up with some asshole messing with my family, my friends, or my woman.”

His words were serious, but I couldn’t help the little smile that crept onto my lips.

And he noticed. “Something funny?”

“No, I just…well, you called me your woman.” Then I grinned again. Surely he didn’t mean that the way it sounded.

But he was still scowling at me. “Well, aren’t you?”

Was he serious? I blinked at him, my heart hammering against the walls of my chest as he stood there waiting for an answer. Oh my God! He was serious. But it wouldn’t work between us. Everything was going to come to a screeching halt the moment I left town.

Then I made the mistake of remembering how it had felt waking up in his arms. Blissfully content. Safe and protected, like no one could ever harm me. And the benefits of having a smoking-hot, insatiable man like Cowboy in my bed for the next few months definitely outweighed the risks to my already fragile heart. For now, at least.

“I…um, guess so.” It sounded more like a question than an answer.

“Okay, now we have a fucking problem,” he grumbled, his eyes flashing with intensity and anger. He turned away from me and picked up his jeans off the floor. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I didn’t want him to leave.

“Cowboy, wait.”

He dropped the jeans on the floor and turned back to me, stalking toward me with a wicked gleam in his eye, while palming something in his hand. His strong, muscular body took on a lithe, almost predator-like posture and I actually had to tamp down the absurd urge to run. That didn’t keep me from taking a few steps back, though. Or him from following. Even when my back came into contact with the wall, he continued to press forward. Wordlessly, he orbited in my personal space and the gravitational pull of his masculinity sucked all the oxygen out of the room.

I flattened myself against the wall and swallowed hard. “What problem?” I asked softly, not sure what had caused the sudden change in his demeanor.

But he didn’t answer me right away. Cowboy stopped in front of me so close I could feel his warm breath caressing my face as I gazed up at him innocently. He pulled the towel gently from my damp hair and tossed it on the ground behind him. Then he gave me a menacing grin as he dropped his own towel from around his waist. His erection sprang free of the terrycloth and pointed directly at me, as if I’d done something worthy of accusation.

Our eyes met, and although I heard the soft crinkling of foil, I didn’t look down to see what he was doing. Slowly, he lowered his mouth close to my ear, then loosened the knot tied in my robe before parting it open. “If you don’t know by now that you’re my woman,” he whispered in a rough voice, “then I am obviously doing something very wrong.”

His hands brushed across my scarred hipbones and his fingers slid just under the waistband of my cotton panties. One little tug and they were on the floor at my feet. I closed my eyes as a shiver shimmied through me. His intense eyes. His sexy morning voice. His imperceptible touch. It was all too much for me to handle.

Without warning, he gripped my hips and lifted me, wrapping my legs around his waist and entering me fast and hard in one smooth motion. I gasped and my eyes shot open at the delicious intrusion of my body. Grasping his shoulders, I tried to steady myself, but Cowboy wasn’t having any of that.

Not giving me any time to adjust my position or even take a breath, he buried his face into my neck, licking and sucking, while thrusting his hips in long, slow motions. I banded my arms around his neck to hold on tight. Over his shoulder, I could see the muscles of his arched back flexing and tightening as the speed of his movements increased and he reached deeper inside me.

Lifting his head, he braced me against the hard surface at my back and supported my weight with his hands under my thighs. He smirked sexily as his pelvis ground against mine, creating a breathtaking amount of stimulation to my clitoris. It was as if he pressed my hot button over and over again and sounded the alarms in my body.

A seed of warmth grew inside of me and spread throughout my entire body. As the heat began to consume me, though, I clenched my inner muscles, stopping myself from flying over the edge. There was a problem. Nothing about this felt like a one-night stand.

He bit back a groan. “Baby, let go. I’ve got you.”

Choking gasps burst from my strangulated lungs, making my chest ache. My body was on fire. Erotic flames traveled through me, licking at my insides, as a burning sensation simmered beneath my sensitive skin. As if Cowboy were holding a branding iron to my heart.