by Sable Hunter
“I’d say so.”
As Tanner finished adjusting his mouthpiece, Bowie got on the radio to confirm their twenty and their instructions. To their surprise, several people were on the shore, watching, sitting around electric heaters with robes and blankets wrapped around them. “Do you think they’re naked under that cover?”
“Heck, if I know.”
Several boats were already on the water and some were a little too close for Bowie’s comfort. “All right, let’s get ready to take a look.” They always hoped they didn’t find anything—not with these kinds of missions. Tanner tipped backward over the side and slipped into the water and Bowie did the same. Despite their insulated suits, the water was cold and murky. The lights they wore on their wrists made thin shafts of illumination. At this point the water was some fifty feet deep. Out a little farther, the depth dropped to over two hundred feet. There was some debris on the rocky bottom and plenty of aquatic vegetation. Making a grid in his mind, Bowie began to swim about fifty feet straight ahead and then crisscross back. Once he thought he saw something, but it was nothing but a big paint bucket.
“Bowie, I got something.” Tanner’s voice came over the radio in his ear.
“What?”
“I think it’s her, tied to a damn tire.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tied to a tire. Dead. Another life, wasted.
Shit. God, sometimes he hated this job. Bowie began to make his way to the surface and just as he did, he saw something Tanner didn’t see. “Tanner, watch out!” Tanner was coming up, Bowie could see the bubbles. He would be slow since he was towing the girl’s body, dead weight, literally. But there was a boat speeding toward them and it appeared he would be on top of Tanner before he knew it.
BAM!
Fuck! Bowie took off, swimming. Tanner had been hit. Pressing the button on his radio, he called for help. “Accident! Man down. Off Hippy Hollow. Victim found.” That was all Bowie took time to say. He made his way to Tanner who was gasping for breath. “Tanner! Are you hit?”
“Prop got my leg. I’m bleeding. Bad.”
Shit.
Bowie reached him and he could see the water was red with blood. Tanner was hurt. Bowie’s adrenaline began to flow. He towed him back to the boat.
“I let her go,” he said sorrowfully.
“No problem, we know where she’s at. Let’s get you fixed first.”
“Don’t know…” Tanner said.
Bowie hoisted Tanner, helping him, pushing him until he was over the side and then he followed. “Let me see.”
The sun was halfway up the eastern sky and Bowie still had his flashlight, but it didn’t take much illumination to see the blood spouting from Tanner’s thigh. His femoral artery had been cut. He was bleeding out. Damn. Damn. Damn. Bowie put his hand over the wound, frantically looking around for something to stem the fountain. He called on every bit of training, instinct and imagination he had to save his friend’s life, when his eyes landed on the straw. Grabbing it, he ordered Tanner. “Put your hand on your leg.” Tanner swayed. “Don’t you damn pass out on me now,” he ordered his friend. Taking his knife, he trimmed the straw, then pushed Tanner’s hand away. Praying for a miracle, he fit the straw into the artery and tried to connect the severed ends. “Please, please, please.” He slipped it in, then grabbed some duct tape to secure it.
“Are you duct taping me up?” Tanner’s voice was weak.
“I’m performing delicate surgery here, shut up.” Applying the tape, he then got a jacket from behind the seat and held it to the injury. Looking up at his friend, he wasn’t surprised to find he had passed out. The sound of a boat motor and a siren was welcome. Bowie breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
God, he needed Cassie.
* * *
“Don’t let me fall!” Cassie yelled, but she was laughing. “This is so wild.”
George and Michael stood on either side of Jasmine as Cassie rode a camel for the first time.
“Don’t wiggle around so much, little girl.” George ordered. This whole thing made him nervous. “If we let something happen to you, Bowie will kill us.”
“Kill you for what?” Bowie was coming around the side of the barn.
“Shit,” Michael whispered. “He’s back.”
“Bowie!” Cassie cried out in greeting. “Look at me!”
Bowie did and he nearly died. “Get her down,” he said the words softly, with emphatic intent.
George didn’t argue. “Come on, fun’s over.”
“But I wasn’t done.” Cassie protested.
“I think you’re done or we are.” Michael helped George get her back in the chair. “We watched after her,” he explained to his nephew. “She wanted to do it.”
“We’ll talk about it later.” Bowie gave his elders the evil eye. “How’s my girl?” He came and retrieved the kiss he’d been needing. “God, I missed you.”
“I missed you too.” She hugged him tight.
“Come with me.” He picked her up. “You two troublemakers bring her chair and put it on the porch for me.”
“What’s wrong?” George called after him, realizing something was amiss.
“Tanner almost died and I need to be alone with Cassie.”
“Is he all right?” Michael asked.
“Yea, I MacGyvered him back together.”
George and Michael wanted to ask more questions but they knew this wasn’t the time.
Carrying Cassie inside, he barely noticed the progress that had been made on the house. Later, he’d check it out closely. But not now.
“You’re upset.” She touched his face. “Tanner was hurt?”
“He was hit by a boat prop, cut his femoral artery.”
“Oh, God.” She kissed his cheek, roughened by a five o’clock shadow. “You saved him didn’t you?” There was no doubt in her mind.
“Maybe, yea. But now I need you to save me.” Carrying her to his bed, he sat her down on the brown duvet cover. She had slept here last night in his bed, he could still see the print of her head on the pillow next to his. “I need you so much,” he groaned. Bowie reached behind his neck and pulled his shirt off, letting her know he was desperate. Flinging the shirt to the floor, he looked at her slowly from top to bottom.
Cassie began removing her own clothes, enjoying the hunger reflected on his face, a hunger for her. When he kicked off his shoes and they fell with a thump on to the hard wood, she quivered a little, knowing what was coming.
Bowie drew closer, narrowing the distance between them. Forcing himself to slow down, he clasped her hands and pressed the palms to his bare chest.
Cassie closed her eyes, allowing herself to touch him, moving her fingers gently through his chest hair, finding his nipples, rubbing them. He jerked beneath her palms and she felt her own juices begin to flow. Leaning forward slightly, she kissed his abs, letting her hands rove lower toward his stomach.
“Cassie, Cassie,” he groaned. “You make me ache.” Despite their few times together, her touch was inherently innocent, yet incredibly eager as she dipped a teasing finger inside the waistband of his jeans before gliding back up to trace the muscles of his arms and side before returning where she had begun, to his pecs.
“You don’t have to ache. I have just what you need.” His obvious adoration emboldened her.
“God, yes, you do.” Pushing her back to the bed, he straddled her, his mouth going to her face, kissing the fragile skin around her eyes. “You’re so soft.” And turned on, Bowie could tell she was as aroused as he was because she was still reaching up, kneading his chest, tangling her fingers in the light dusting of hair, thumbing his nipples. “This dress has got to go.” Impatience caused him to take matters into his own hands and tug the material up and over her head. When he did, parts of Bowie were giving her a standing ovation. That wealth of Rapunzel golden hair flipped up with the yank and flowed back into a sexy muss that begged for his hands. The look on her face was almost his undoing because she gazed
at him with pure lust in her eyes. Through the thin lace of her white bra, Bowie could see that her tits were swelled and nipples were as hard and ready to be sucked.
“Come down here.” She beckoned with one delicate finger. “You’re too far away.”
Following where she led, he bent down for a long, deep kiss. Clutching his biceps, she tried to hold him in place, but he had another agenda. With agile dexterity, he divested Cassie of her bra and panties, leaving her lush body bare for his inspection and enjoyment.
Cassie was so aroused, she was tempted to touch herself. Her clit was throbbing. “Bowie, do something,” she urged.
“I’m pacing myself.” He halfway teased, loving their interaction. Going slow was hard, Cassie had no idea how sexy she was. Lying back, blinking up at him, all of that lickable woman flesh tempting him beyond control. “Damn.” He rubbed his cock which was painfully swollen and demanding attention. “You are so fuckable right now.”
“Well.” Cassie challenged him with a grin. “What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?” In a move specifically designed to drive him crazy, she took her hands and spread her own thighs, showing him how wet and pink and ready she was for him. Shucking the briefs he wore, Bowie stroked his own cock, anticipating what he was going to feel like to sink within her.
Cassie lifted her hand to help him. “Looks like it takes two hands to get that job done.”
“All for you, baby.” He let her pump him a couple of times before he had to stop her. “I don’t want to cum in your hand, not this time.”
“Sometimes foreplay is overrated,” she sweetly grumbled, needing him to satisfy her. “I’d chase you if I could.”
The big man-panther who dripped sensuality, chuckled. “I ain’t running.” She was a delight. What had he ever done without her? Taking his cock in hand, he dragged the tip through the cream in her slit, watching her face as her eyes hooded and she licked the bottom of her lip. “Can you feel that?”
“God, yes.”
“Good.” Then locking his gaze to Cassie’s, he propped himself up on one arm, used his fingers to open her up like a flower and pushed in. There was no way he could stem the groan that rumbled up from his throat as he relished the pleasure of the tight, wet fit. God, his damn toes curled!
“I felt so empty without you,” she confessed, her lashes fluttering, a look of shyness coming into her eyes.
“We fit, baby.” He dipped to kiss her. “Open wider for me.”
She reached down to coax her legs apart, a move that would have once mortified her, but Bowie was so easy with her disability that she no longer felt funny about it. When she made more room for him, he sank a little deeper. Watching his face was a study in a man’s passion. She loved to see his jaw lock, him biting his lower lip, the feral sneer of his lip and the devastating hunger in his eyes. A woman could cum just from looking at him, not to mention the exquisite reality of making love with him. “More,” she demanded.
Bowie complied, pushing in. Cassie could feel his invasion and she tightened her inner muscles, hungry to claim possession of him, hold on to him for all she was worth.
When he heard her low whimper of approval, he grew emboldened and began to pump between her thighs, long, slow strokes, thrusting in and out, loving the glide of his dick as she milked him in her tight sheathe.
“Harder, Bowie.”
Bowie stiffened. This was the first time she had asked for more. God, he wanted to fuck her, but he knew he had to be gentle, careful. She was delicate and fragile. It hurt to hold back, but he’d do anything for her—anything. “Are you sure?”
He could love her gently forever, keeping his primal instincts at bay, if he had to.
But she was having none of it. Placing her hand on his cheek, she implored. “I want to feel as much of you as I can.”
God. “And you’ll tell me, you’ll stop me if it hurts?”
She nodded her head. “I know you’re holding back and I don’t want you to.”
Bowie shuddered, shaking with the pleasure of being balls deep in Cassie. “Hold on to me.”
Spreading her thighs with his knees, Bowie drove into her depths fast and hard. Watching her face, he saw her arch her neck, a low keening sound coming from her lips. Bowie felt a thrill—he would please his woman. Before she could take another breath, he pulled out and thrust in, out, in, out, in.
“Yes!” she screamed. “So good.” Cassie wanted to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was craved. And Bowie was showing her that she was.
Over and over again, he slammed into her, shaking the bed. The squeak of the mattress and the bounce of the headboard against the wall was a testament of the erotic pleasure each was giving the other.
Bowie couldn’t take his eyes off her face. She was aroused, enjoying it, loving it, eager and hot beyond measure.
Cassie held on as he pummeled her. “More, more,” she chanted, feeling the tidal wave of a climax rising inside of her. This was what she’d been longing for. This was what she needed.
Bowie gave her more, hammering in and out, his thick shaft appearing and disappearing as he fucked her. The orgasm crashed over her whole body, thundering, roaring, causing her blood to sing in her veins. “Bowie!” She raked her fingernails down his arms, but he didn’t change rhythm, he didn’t slow, he just kept driving into her as she shattered, pulsing and shimmering with absolute rapture.
Bowie watched in awe as she climaxed and the sight combined with the ecstasy of her fluttering around his cock propelled him to explode. He felt the force of his cum boiling up and he let go with a triumphant shout, pouring himself within her.
* * *
“I’m nervous,” Cassie admitted as they pulled under the Tebow Ranch sign. Even though Bowie had welcomed her into his world almost seamlessly, making a place for her, redoing his home, showering her with love, affection and unsurpassed passion. Still…these people were important to him.
“They’re going to love you. Don’t worry for a second.”
Easy for him to say, Cassie thought as he helped her out of the truck. Even before he shut the door there were people on the porch calling out a welcome.
“Bowie!”
Cassie looked up to see a handsome young man, perhaps fourteen or fifteen come out in the yard to greet them. Not shy, this one. “Hey, I’m Nathan.” He extended his hand and Cassie took it. “I’m glad y’all are here. Cady cooked a boudain stuffed pork loin, Libby made gumbo, Avery made roasted asparagus and Skye fixed some kind of weird salad with pecans and smelly cheese.”
“Sounds great,” Cassie said, a bit surprised.
“Hey, Nathan.” Bowie patted the boy on the shoulder. “No dessert?”
“Oh yea, we always have dessert. Jessie made a chocolate cake yesterday.”
“Nathan McCoy, this is Cassie Cartwright, my girlfriend.”
Dang, Cassie still blushed every time he said it.
“Nice to meet you.” He smiled. “My girlfriend’s inside. She’s in a wheelchair too.”
Nathan’s announcement came as a surprise to both Bowie and Cassie, but Bowie recovered first. “Is this Tina?”
“Yea.” Nathan brightened as they cut across a big yard full of flower beds planted with pansies. “She was in a car accident. How did you get hurt? Or were you born that way?”
Bowie coughed, but Cassie didn’t hesitate. This young man had no guile, so neither would she. “I was accidentally shot by a young boy in a hunting accident. It was before I’d even started to school and he wasn’t much older I think.”
Nathan’s face grew troubled. “How terrible, I’m sorry.”
“Me too, for both of us.” Cassie offered the words casually, yet they fell on Bowie’s ear like Balm of Gilead. She would forgive him, he knew it, he needed to tell her soon.
“Come in this house!”
Bowie laughed. Aron called to them like he was calling up a dog. The man was such a piece of work. One of the best men in the world, but hard-headed didn’t ev
en begin to describe him.
“We’re coming!” Bowie bellowed. “How you ever got a lady like Libby to marry you, I’ll never understand.”
Cassie leaned her head back to look at Bowie. “Remember, don’t say ‘we’re coming.’ That’s sex talk.”
“Shhhh.” Bowie snorted. “You’ll have me hard and antsy if you don’t hush.”
“How’s Tanner?” This question was from Jacob. Bowie maneuvered Cassie through the sea of McCoys.
“He’s gonna be fine.” When they had finally entered the living room, he stepped back. “I’ll tell you more about Barron in a second but right now let me introduce all of you to Cassie Cartwright.” He began pointing at the half-moon circle of people that surrounded them. “Cassie this is Aron and Libby McCoy.”
“Hello. It’s so nice to meet you.” She couldn’t help staring at Libby who was very pregnant. What Bowie had said about not being able to father children came back to her. If they had a future together, maybe he would want to adopt. Cassie thought she could be a good mother.
Bowie stood closer to the bigger man in the group, a veritable giant. “And this is my best friend Jacob and his wife Jessie and my name sake, little Bowie.”
Jessie smiled at her and even before she could say anything, Jessie saw where Cassie’s eyes were going and placed the baby in her lap. Cassie was astounded. “He’s so beautiful.”
“Looks just like his dad,” Jacob said with pride.
Bowie ignored him and continued the introductions. “This conceited jackass is Joseph and his beautiful wife Cady.”
Joseph tipped his hat and Cady gave her a gentle greeting. “We’re honored, Cassie.”
Cassie was a bit overwhelmed. All of the men were big and the women were gracious. “No, I’m the honored one.”
“This roughneck in leather is Isaac McCoy and his lady Avery.” It touched Cassie to see how the intimidating looking man held his wife so tenderly.
“Hello,” she spoke to Avery and Isaac. Avery looked familiar, but she couldn’t seem to place her. Maybe later she’d remember where.
“Cassie, this is Noah and his fiancée Skye Blue. And you’ve met Nathan and this is his friend Tina.” Cassie shook Tina’s hand first. The little girl looked to feel right at home. Then, she greeted Noah and Skye. They were a beautiful couple, him with his blond hair and she with her distinctive Native American ancestry. God, everybody was good-looking. She felt overwhelmed.
