A Diamond in the Dark

by Sassie Lewis

  “I want to kiss you.” The whole ‘keeping it quiet’ thing was starting to depress her, but she understood why Ax wanted to do it.

  It was going to be a shock to everyone when they found out, so she could see the benefit of keeping their relationship between just them for a while at least. She had loved Ax for years, and this weekend had made that love real. She didn’t want to lose him before he could feel the same way about her. Because if the family didn’t approve, there was a likelihood that Axton would do the noble thing and walk away from her.

  “I feel the same, Tia. Soon. We’ll tell them soon. Okay?”

  “Yeah.” She sighed. “Oh! Don’t say anything about the doctor thing yet. I’m going to see if Leonie can help me fix a nice dinner tomorrow night and get everyone over here to tell them.”

  “No problem. Once you tell everyone, you can start helping out more with the purchasing of stock. And have a more active role in the breeding program.” He jumped out of his truck and carried her bag to the house.

  “Hey, sunshine,” Uncle Jack called out just as they were walking through the door. He must have been coming out of the bathroom; he was still tucking his shirt in. Tia kissed him on the cheek when he leaned down for her. “How was Houston?” he asked while pulling her into the kitchen. “You want coffee, Axton?”

  “Sure.”

  This was how the McGraettys had all their discussions, either over supper or in the kitchen with coffee.

  “So, tell me about all those boys you’re hiding in Houston?” he asked Tia as he poured three cups of coffee.

  Tia laughed. “As I already told you, there is no man in my life, apart from McGraettys.” She stared at Axton, trying not to smile. “Oh, we got to see Alex ride,” she said to change the subject.

  “How is my rodeo-riding nephew doing these days? I talked to his mama on the phone just yesterday. She was bitching about him not coming home for Derrick’s birthday.” Derrick was one of Alex’s three brothers. Aiden was a year younger than Alex, then there was Dylan who was thirty-two, and Derrick who’d just turned thirty. He also had two sisters. Taylor was twenty-seven, and Tegan, who was the closest female family member to Tia’s age, would turn twenty-five in May.

  Tia rolled her eyes. “He’s doing good. Thinks he might be home later in the year, so y’all will see him then. Do you know where Leonie is? I need to talk to her about something. Oh, and when you see the boys can you tell them to make sure they’re home tomorrow night? I want to have dinner with y’all.”

  “Leonie should be in the washroom. Why supper tomorrow night?”

  “Can’t a girl just want to spend some time with her family?” With that she kissed his head, gave Ax a quick kiss on the cheek, refraining from lingering there, and went off to find Leonie.

  * * * *

  “Hey, Leonie.”

  “Tabbitha,” she said, bringing Tia in for a big hug. “How was Houston?”

  “Great. I was wondering if you would help me cook a nice dinner tomorrow night. I just want to do something a little special. I would also like for you to join us.” Leonie didn’t always eat with them, which Tia couldn’t understand. As far as she was concerned Leonie was a part of the family, not just their cook.

  “Sure. Any idea what you want to make?”

  They discussed menu options for a while then Tia kissed her goodbye. As she started to leave the room, she turned back around and said, “Leonie, you do realize you have your shirt on inside out, don’t you?”

  She heard Leonie’s expletive as she walked down the hall laughing to herself. Leonie had seemed a bit flustered while they spoke. Shaking off the thought, Tia headed up to her room.

  She called both Mara and Shelley, inviting them to supper and just having general catch-up. She hadn’t seen either of the girls since last Sunday when Mara had come over to give her a lift to Shelley’s so she could pick up her car that had been left there after her night of drinking. She smiled as she remembered the conversation she’d had with them. God, how things had changed in a week.

  “Where the hell did you go last night?” Shelley screamed at her. “I was so worried. One minute you were there, the next minute you’d vanished.”

  “Sorry, Shel. I don’t know what happened. I woke up yesterday morning at Smokin’ Tom’s. Ax had apparently taken me there to sleep it off.”

  “That’s what I heard. Well, that someone had seen Ax carrying you out of the bar. So… You spent the night in a hotel room with him,” Shelley said, her mood completely changed, her perfectly arched eyebrows rising up and down.

  “Yeah. Don’t get too excited. He was an absolute prick to me.” Tia didn’t mention the whole lack of underwear fight. Really, the entire thing had been ridiculous.

  Now that she’d been intimate with Axton, she could tell he had a penchant for her not wearing any. Well, if the fact he kept ripping them off her was anything to go by.

  After a shower to wash away the evidence from that morning’s romp under the big oak tree, she headed down to do some bookwork. You’d think with her IQ, she’d be a whiz at accounting. Wrong. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it; it just happened to be one of those things you did but really didn’t want to. Like ironing. Tia managed to burn something every time she ironed.

  After ruining three of her shirts, she’d given up. She’d brought Leonie a big bunch of flowers and an even bigger box of chocolates, begging her to never let her touch an iron again. Shame the same thing wouldn’t get her out of doing the books. She would rather be looking through a microscope or reading over DNA sequences than staring at debits and credits.

  She spent a good forty minutes staring out into space, thinking about Ax, while enjoying the small breeze coming through the window, instead of actually doing what she had come into the office to do.

  Rick walked in, bringing her wondering mind back into focus. “Hey, smelly butt.”

  “Hey, Rick. Did your dad tell you about dinner tomorrow night?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be there,” he replied while searching through his own shit heap of a desk, looking for God only knew what.

  For someone so serious and rigid in most other aspects of his life, when it came to the office, he was one of the most disorganized people she knew. His room was spotless, but his desk looked like a paper-mill had thrown up on it.

  “Tiny will be back tomorrow. He’ll be here for supper too.”

  Tiny was Rick’s best friend. They’d served in the Green Berets together for six years. Some top secret shit that he couldn’t talk about. But when he came home, he brought Tiny with him.

  Tiny was one of those nicknames that implied the complete opposite. Tiny was a massive, six foot ten native Hawaiian. He was almost twice as broad as Ax across the shoulders and was covered in tribal tattoos. He was also one of the most intimidating looking, gentle giants she’d ever met.

  “That’s great. How’s his mama doing?”

  “Not so good, but he has to get back for the clubs. And his sister is driving him mental. Something about bringing over every available female to see if they were compatible.”

  “She’s still trying to marry him off so he moves back to Hawaii to live with her?” What Tiny’s sister Delilah couldn’t grasp, even though he’d told her several times, was since their time in the army, he and Rick shared everything. And Tia meant everything.

  Not that they flaunted it. They did live in a small town, after all, but the fact that they owned a few fetish clubs in the surrounding towns was well known. Putting two and two together, most people came up with five. In this case they were pretty accurate in their assumption.

  Not long after her twenty-first birthday, Tia and a bunch of girlfriends decided to spend a weekend in Mason to celebrate in style. No overgrown men bothering them, and after the mess of watching Ax with yet another woman at one of her parties, she hadn’t wanted any male company to remind her of Axton.

  Tia snickered at the thought. He’d be spending this year’s birthday with no other wom
an but her.

  But that weekend in Mason had been a blast. Stacey, Shelley’s younger sister, had managed to get into the club they were at. The girl had spunk. She’d only been seventeen, but sauntered straight to their table like she owned the place, no one taking any notice of her. Tia wasn’t bothered. Stacey was always up for a good time, but didn’t drink, so it was no problem her hangin’ with them that night.

  It was while Shelley had been at the bar that Stacey had pointed out the threesome on the dance floor. Recognizing Tiny—because, seriously you couldn’t miss the man—Tia went to say howdy. But as she’d walked toward them to do just that, she noticed Rick’s hand on the woman’s breast, his tongue down her throat, and Tiny’s hand up her skirt.

  Tia and her friends had moved to a different club after that. Not that the scene had bothered her, it had more to do with the fact that she was pretty sure Rick would be upset if he knew she’d witnessed it.

  “Something like that,” Rick answered, bringing her back to the present. “He said to tell you Delilah’s making you some fresh coconut slice.”

  “Yum. Can’t wait. But heads-up, Shelley’s coming for supper also. So could you and Tiny please be nice to her? I don’t know what y’all’s problem is, but it would be nice if all the people I love could be in the same room without bitching each other out,” she said, hands on her hips.

  Tia had no idea why Rick and Tiny gave Shelley such a hard time. And Shelley, being the outspoken person she was, had no problem dishing it back. When there were just two of the three in a room together, you could literally cut the tension with a knife. When it was all of them together, the emotional vibe became a little confusing.

  “I’ll try, but Barbie just rubs me the wrong way.” He kissed her on her head before walking toward the door.

  “I wish you wouldn’t call her that,” she said to his retreating back. Although ‘Barbie’ was a spot-on description for Shelley. She was an honest-to-God living Barbie, she just didn’t have the perky attitude to go with it. She was more of a tomboy than Tia, with a lot more feisty-bitch thrown in.

  * * * *

  Later that night Tia was lying in bed when her phone rang, playing Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy. She giggled, wondering what Ax would say if he found out the ringtone she’d set for him.

  “Hi there, handsome.”

  “Hey, baby. I’ve missed you today.”

  “Same here.”

  “Do me a favor, get BOB out.”

  Tia scrambled under her bed to get her toy box.

  “Have you got it?” Ax asked.

  “Yes. Now what?”

  “Are you dressed?”

  “I have a shirt and panties on.”

  “Lose them.”

  Okay, this was starting to sound really fun. Putting the phone on the bed, Tia stripped, while running over to double-check that her bedroom door was locked. When she picked the phone back up she could hear Ax calling her name. “Sorry, had to put the phone down. Also thought I better make sure the door was locked.”

  “Good. Go over to the mirror.”

  “I’m here. What now?” Tia was starting to like this game, him being all commanding. The bossy tone in his voice was doing interesting things to her. Something to explore later.

  “What color are your eyes?”

  Okay, that was a weird one, but she answered anyway. “A bluey purple color. Why?”

  “Violets! I noticed that when you’re horny, your eyes go the color of violets. It’s good, I don’t even have to touch you to know that you’re wet for me.”

  Tia’s nipples beaded to painful points at that, and a groan of frustration escaped her. They needed to get this show on the road.

  “Lay on the bed, baby. Put BOB on your stomach.” Axton’s voice deepened further, the sound making her pussy cream and pulse in want. “Lick your fingers. I want you to play with your nipples. They’re nice stiff points, aren’t they, Tia?”

  “Yes,” she hissed out. “God, Ax, you’re gonna make me cum just from doing this and listening to you talk.”

  “Stop...I want you to run your fingers through your pussy. Is it nice and wet, or do you need to lube BOB up?”

  “Wet. So wet, Ax.”

  “Fuck, baby! I want you to put BOB inside you, nice and easy. But it’s not BOB you’ve got inside that tight cunt of yours, it’s me. Me that’s forcing my way through those clamping muscles. Me that brings you to orgasm, time and time again.”

  Following Axton’s instructions, Tia slowly pushed the vibrator into her wet pussy. Her brain had no problem replacing the stiff, unyielding plastic with the feel of Ax’s hot, hard shaft tunneling deep inside her. “Oh God, Ax, I can feel you everywhere. You’re so hard. I’ve never felt anything like it. When you’re inside me I forget who I am.”

  “You’re squeezing me so hard, it feels like you’re going to milk the cum from my sac. So good, Tia. Your juices are running down my balls. Fuck, I’m going to cum. Cum with me, baby. I need to feel you cumming on my cock. Now, Tia. Cum now. Fuck.”

  Hitting the switch, Tia let the now buzzing rabbit ears bump against her clit while she increased the speed of her own pumping hand. “Axton,” Tia gritted out as the growled fuck from him rang through the phone.

  Luckily, she had enough wit about her to turn her head into her pillow, muffling her scream. What a buzzkill it would have been to have one of the guys come running into her room to see what was wrong. Breathing hard, she started to giggle and couldn’t stop. She had dropped the phone when she had cum, and could just make out Axton calling her name.

  With a trembling hand, Tia picked up the phone, hearing his voice get louder as he called out her name. “Sorry, I’m back,” she answered, still giggling at their antics.

  “Baby, giggling at a man when you’re cumming is a bit of a ego killer.” He sounded so serious she couldn’t help but laugh harder.

  “It wasn’t that. I was just imagining someone breaking down my door to see who was killing me,” she said, still in the grips of laughter. “God, Ax, I’ve never cum that hard by myself before.”

  “Me either. I’m going to have to change my sheets before I can go to sleep. I better get going or I’m going to be dog tired tomorrow. You wore me out this weekend, woman. Sweet dreams, baby. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Night, Ax. Dream of me.”

  Tia heard him answer “always” as he disconnected the call.

  Chapter 8

  The rest of the week had been fun. Tia and Axton had talked on the phone every night. Actually talked, not just had phone sex, although it generally ended that way. The few times they had run into each other when there was no one else around had resulted in him forcing her onto the nearest flat surface with his tongue down her throat, and on the odd occasion he would bring her to orgasm with his fingers. They had almost been caught once by one of the ranch hands.

  Tia had been helping out with a downed fence that morning. She didn’t mind the hard labor, but it was a scorcher of a day and all she could think about was getting home for a cool shower.

  Having ridden Thunder out when she had gone to help meant that her own shower had to wait while she rubbed her horse down. For a moment she was tempted to strip off her clothes and hose herself off at the same time. But anyone could walk into the barn. So she was just going to have to wait.

  She bent down to pick up a piece of tack she had dropped. Two strong hands landed on her hips, drawing her back into some impressive thighs. She squealed in surprise at the sudden movement. She had known it was Axton almost immediately. She knew those hands.

  Standing her upright, he placed kisses on her shoulder, then up her neck, turning her head to get to her lips. She was breathless when he spun her around and pressed her into the wall of the stall. Thunder stood nearby, happily eating his grain.

  Ax placed her shoulders against the rough wood. Lifting her shirt to access her beaded nipples, he suckled at them through her bra. All the while undoing the buttons of her jeans
with one hand and his own with the other. She couldn’t hold back her scream of pleasure at the first touch of his fingers against her cunt.

  Ax must have heard feet running their way, because in the next breath she found herself on her ass, looking up at Ax, and thinking ‘what the fuck’. When Larry, one of the younger hands, came charging into the stall to see what had happened, Ax said something about Tia being clumsy and tripping over her own feet. He spoke without ever turning to face Larry. It was then that Tia looked down to see that all his buttons were undone and his cock was proudly pointing straight at her. She rolled to her side, clutching her stomach as she laughed, which also hid the fact that her jeans were undone.

  It had been fun, but her body pined to have him beside her at night. Who knew you could get addicted to something so quickly?

  The night she’d told everyone that she was now a doctor had been a bag of mixed reactions. Mara, the overly sensitive one in the bunch, had broken down crying because Tia had never told her about it. Shelley and Rick, seemingly unfazed by her announcement, had spent the evening glaring daggers at each other with Tiny egging them on. Uncle Jack was as proud as punch, already talking about setting up a lab on the ranch so she could go over blood samples there instead of having to go to Mason. Leonie had hugged her to death, and Luke had given her a noogie, telling her off for not calling him on Saturday like she’d said she would. Oops.

  When she’d finally gotten back up to her room, there was a big box sitting on her bed. Opening it, she found a bright white lab coat and a gold chain with a gold Rod of Asclepius hanging off it. It showed Ax had paid attention when she’d gotten her tattoo done.

  Bob had first drawn the design for the medical symbol as a rod with two wings and two snakes twining around it, which was what a lot of people thought was the universal symbol for medicine. But in fact, it was a five-pointed cross with a single snake winding up a rod. She had made sure to get Bob to change it before he started inking up her skin.