Unleashed: Volume 1 (Unleashed #1)

by Callie Harper

  She dropped a book she was holding. A guy scampered to pick it up, of course, but she leaned over to get it herself. Bent over, ass up in the air, that tiny skirt barely covered a thing.

  I leaned on the horn.

  Startled, Kara looked up and saw me. Her month dropped open a bit, surprised. Pissed off, I motioned to her to get into the goddamn truck. She rolled her eyes and turned her back to me, taking a few slow steps toward the truck while she still talked a mile a minute to a couple of girlfriends.

  I leaned on the horn again.

  Huffy, she turned toward me and finally made her way over. She fumbled with the door handle as she still held her books. A gentleman would have leapt out and helped her, carrying her load while also holding open the door. I stayed put until she figured it out herself.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked as she slid in on the cracked leather seat. Duct tape had worked for a while. Now the edges peeled through. It wasn’t the first time I’d had a girl in my truck. It was the first time I’d wished it were nicer. I didn’t like the feeling.

  “Your daddy asked me to pick you up,” I grumbled, pulling us into gear.

  “I could have gotten a ride with a friend.”

  “Yup, that’s what I said. But someone wasn’t answering her phone.”

  “Oh.” Her perfect lips formed a pout and she searched around in her purse for her cell phone. She fiddled with it while I pulled out into the street. Good, maybe she’d do that the whole ride.

  “So he sent you to get me?” The question seemed to answer itself, me sitting next to her and all, so I let it sit there in silence. I pushed a button on the dash and popped on the radio. Some country crooner came on pouring his heart out over the girl of his dreams. I punched it off.

  Kara crossed her legs, her skirt riding up, her creamy thighs bare. I cleared my throat. The air felt thick and hot.

  “Well, thanks. But you didn’t have to honk the horn,” she complained.

  “You should have run on over the second you saw me.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  “Is that how all the girls are with you, Declan?”

  “That’s how good little girls are when their ride shows up to take them home from school.”

  She pouted. “I could have gotten a ride with a friend.”

  I shrugged. “Like I said.”

  “Or Bruce.”

  I snorted.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “That was not nothing.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You snorted. Do you have a problem with Bruce?”

  “Why would I have a problem with… what’s his name again?” I knew full well but I liked getting under her skin.

  “Bruce. He’s the mayor’s son.”

  “Ooh. That’s a big deal.”

  “It is.” She sat up tall and pissed off. I liked it when she got all huffy.

  “This is a real big town.” I kept it dry and cool.

  “It is a big deal to be a mayor. It’s hard work.”

  “Mmm-hmm. All that hand shaking and baby kissing.”

  “It’s more than that.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “You’re just jealous.”

  “Sure, sugar.”

  “I’m not your sugar. And yes you are jealous. What, do you think you could be the mayor of this town? Not likely.” She huffed back down into her seat.

  I had no idea why, but that last part stung. No way would I ever want to be a mayor of a two-bit town like this. I had bigger plans, all of which involved bigger cities and a lot bigger money. But still.

  I kept my eyes on the road up ahead, my hands on the wheel at 10 and 2.

  “I’m sorry.” Her voice like honey, sweet and warm, dripped over me. She put a small hand to my bicep. It felt good there. “I didn’t mean that, it came out wrong.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t care.”

  “I know you don’t.” She pulled away.

  The gas light popped on. Shit. With this truck, once the light came on you were out. Normally I paid close attention to that kind of thing. Today, Harlan had sprung his favor on me and I’d been too agitated to think much ever since. That was the problem with girls like Kara, they got inside your head. Add it to the list of reasons to keep her as far away from me as possible.

  I turned into the next gas station. After I hitched up the pump to the tank, I headed in to buy a soda. I needed to cool off.

  When I came out, I got a show. Kara in her cheerleading outfit, washing my windshield. Reaching across real far with the squeegee, bending over my truck. What. The. Fuck.

  I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Some guy with his gut hanging over his belt had his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, too, standing there staring at Kara.

  That girl had no sense in her head.

  “Give me that.” I strode over, took the squeegee out of her hand and plunged it back into the water next to the gas pumps.

  “I was just trying to be nice!”

  “Get in the truck.”

  She did as she was told while I hooked the nozzle back up. She had no idea what she was playing with, what kind of fire would rain down on her if she kept waltzing around like that, teasing and taunting, offering up what men couldn’t have. Someday soon, someone would lose patience with that shit.

  I revved the engine too hard once again, peeling out of the gas station.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she asked, like I was the one with the problem.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I barked.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Prancing around in that tiny skirt. Flashing your ass for everyone to see.”

  “I’m wearing my cheerleading uniform!”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  “I was not flashing my ass,” she pouted.

  “Oh, you were sweetheart, trust me. Me and every other guy in the state noticed. Someone needs to teach you how to behave, or one of these days you’re going to get more than you’ve bargained for.”

  “Behave?” Now she was pissed, I could tell, but I was too. And for her own good.

  “Your daddy’s sheltered you. But men are animals, let me tell you, and if you keep strutting your stuff around like you do—”

  “I do not strut my stuff.”

  “You most definitely do. And if you want men to treat you like a good girl, you’d better start acting like one.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Act like a good girl? What do you think, I’m five years old?” She was yelling now, real fired up.

  “You’re acting like it right now.”

  “I hate you! Where do you get off treating me like this? I’m not a baby.”

  “You’re a spoiled brat.”

  “Am not!”

  “That’s just what a spoiled brat would say. Problem is, no one’s ever taken you across their knee.”

  “Are you insane?”

  Swerving over, seething with pent-up frustration, I took the truck onto a gravel driveway. I recognized it without thinking it through—a short road to a dirt parking area, the start of a few hiking trails and a favorite make-out spot for the locals.

  Three-thirty on a school day, we were the only ones there. I pulled into a spot and jammed the truck into park.

  “What are you—?”

  I grabbed her, all thought gone from my brain. I pulled her across my lap.

  “This is what I mean.” I positioned her square across me, her ass up in the air exposed as her skirt fell forward, her panties riding up on her creamy cheeks.

  “Declan!” her voice sounded breathy as I raised up my hand. I brought it down hard right across her bottom, my palm smacking sharp and rough. She gasped.

  “You need this.” I grit my teeth as I raised my hand up again. She squirmed in my lap. I brought my palm down again, fast and hard on her ass cheek. She gasped, loudly. My hand came down again with
a smack. Her skin instantly turned pink, warming to my hand. Her breath came fast, turning into a pant.

  “Declan!” she called out again. Smack, my hand came down again on her rear, and this time I let my palm linger a moment, caressing that space just between her ass and her inner thigh, so close to her pussy, coming so close but not touching. She wiggled and squirmed under my hand. Her panties had slipped up, exposing the lower half of her luscious cheeks, round and soft under my assault. Smack, I did it again, lingering longer this time, a slight caress to that tender flesh.

  She moaned. Her cheeks pink and hot under my large, calloused palm, she gave the breathy, needy moan of a woman who wanted much, much more. A woman getting spanked and loving it.

  Everything changed in an instant. I stilled, my hand on her skin. She stopped squirming and froze under my palm, as if she’d been caught. My cock pressed hard against the zipper of my jeans, into her thigh. Nothing but the sound of our mingled breathing, heavy, in the closed cab of the truck. But I could still hear it, that moan.

  My thumb was so close, only an inch away from her panties. If I slid them over, what would I find? If I pressed gently against her, my thick thumb along her sex, would she be wet? Was she getting off on this? If I slid her panties down, would her pussy glisten for me, aroused, slick and begging for my touch?

  I almost did it. I almost inched my fingers over, almost slipped my thumb underneath that cotton to stroke her wet, needy pussy. My shaft throbbed, pounded, pressing urgent for more.

  Instead, I drew back my hand. I grabbed her hips and practically threw her back into her seat. Without a word, I started the truck back up. A cloud of dust rose behind us as I drove back onto the road.

  I ran a hand through my hair. Though I was going nearly 50, I rolled the window down all the way. As if that could cool me off.

  Kara sat stock still. She’d buckled herself and then sat, frozen.

  I couldn’t believe I’d pulled over the side of the road and given Kara Brooks a spanking. She needed one, sure, but that hadn’t been a good idea. My palm itched for more, gripped around the steering wheel so tight I was surprised it didn’t crack under the pressure. Her skin had felt so warm, so right, so ready for me.

  Neither of us said a word.

  But I kept hearing a sound. My mind kept replaying that moan, the moment she’d revealed what lay within. She wanted me, maybe in ways even she didn’t understand. She wanted me to touch her. She liked that spanking. We’d gotten so close, seconds away from some seriously nasty shit. And she would have loved it. I could have had Kara Brooks coming hard on my fingers in a matter of minutes.

  I needed this girl away from me, far away. That had gone too far. All it had taken was one ride in a truck together and we’d nearly exploded. This had to end, and it had to end now.

  I promised myself right then and there that I’d make it through the summer, three more months working on her daddy’s ranch, zipped up, locked down, far away from her. Even if I had to work my way through every slut within a 50-mile radius to do it. This girl was a fire too hot to touch, blue flame that would peel the skin right off. Harlan would literally kill me. And I’d lose my job. And worst of all, with my luck she’d fall in love and start writing our names in her notebooks circled in big hearts.

  It would be a strict no-look, no-touch policy for the remaining three months before I left. First thing I’d have to do was forget all about that moan. That soft, breathy, sound of need that let me know, undeniably, how much she wanted it.

  Now

  Four o’clock Saturday and I was still out in Bozeman, helping my property manager Brett deal with all hell breaking loose. The water main had snapped in two and flooded the 18-hole championship golf course. We’d been slapped with a lawsuit from a neighboring property. And now the head chef, a guy we’d flown in from L.A., famous for his Asian-fusion cuisine, was threatening to kill the grill cook.

  Why, you ask? Do you really have to ask? What turned otherwise perfectly sane men into stark raving lunatics, brandishing knives and swearing in at least two languages? A woman. The same thing that made me antsy as hell to get the hell out of there, back to Billings, back where I could bury myself in Kara Brooks.

  Usually, I kept a cool head, delegated and dealt, eliminating problems before they even rose to the surface. Today, though, in my impatience to wrap everything up, I’d blown a fuse. I’d found myself yelling red in the face at Brett, who sure as hell didn’t need any shit from me.

  His wife was due any day now. After I’d calmed down, I’d brought them both lunch back at their cabin. It wasn’t as massive as the clients’ properties, of course, but those were pretty over-the-top. Members had custom-built (from within a set of five pre-approved aesthetically-integrated designs) 5,000 square foot ‘smart homes’ wired with the latest in home entertainment, automation, comfort and, of course, home security. Your basic log cabin all pimped-out.

  As property manager, Brett’s place topped out around 2,000 square feet and lacked some of the rocket ship-ready technology, but I’d had the damndest feeling when I walked in that afternoon. The smell of bread baking in the oven, the sounds of rockabilly playing low on the radio and laughter coming from the kitchen. It felt like a home.

  After the tongue-lashing I’d given Brett, I’d expected to find him fuming, probably ranting to his wife all about the asshole of an owner. Instead, I’d walked in to see Brett with his arm around what used to be his wife’s waist before she was nine months pregnant, their hands up in classic dance formation, cracking each other up over her gigantic belly as they shuffled around to the beat. Huh. Home dancing with his pregnant wife. He didn’t care about the rest of it. They had their own private world together, the two of them soon to be three, and nothing else mattered.

  I’d cleared my throat and set the lunch down, apologizing for having lost my temper.

  “No worries,” Brett assured me. “Good to know you’re human.”

  That’s what I thought about as I drove back to Billings, sometimes hitting 90 miles an hour before I’d force myself to slow down a touch. Human. What did that mean? Had I not seemed human before?

  Maybe that was a good thing. Human was messy. The whole “you’re only human” thing meant you’d screwed up. I felt dangerously on the brink of doing exactly that. Kara belonged in that kitchen scene I’d walked into, pregnant by some loyal, devoted husband, building a life and family together. I belonged back at the club I’d gone to last night, kinky and perverted, extracting pleasure from flesh and then walking away.

  Like oil and water, I shouldn’t try to mix our worlds. It didn’t work. It hadn’t worked six years ago. It wouldn’t work now.

  I still had time. Nothing had started, not yet. Kara had given me consent, but we hadn’t yet begun our bargain. I could set her free.

  But how could I, when I had what I’d most coveted finally laying before me, eager with need? The sight of her in that stockroom, ass up on a shelf, hands grasping the metal, thighs spread wide apart for me with her head thrown back in ecstasy. How could I not drive 90 miles an hour back to that? After all, I was only human.

  Showered, changed and down at the bar I saw her instantly. Across the crowded room, she stood out like a swan in a flock of pigeons. In a skimpy, sexy-as-hell waitressing uniform.

  What the fuck?

  Sure enough, Kara held a small pad of paper, pencil tucked up behind her ear as she spoke to a group of guys. An interested group of guys. I fought a sudden urge to have them all thrown out of the bar. As the owner, it was within my rights. Probably not the best idea for business, though, since their only offence was flirting with my girl.

  Not my girl, I reminded myself, deciding to let this play out for a few minutes. So she’d somehow started waiting tables at my bar. Why did that seem to make sense? She was making it hard for me, as she always had. Had I really thought she’d be sitting there at the bar, demure and docile, awaiting her orders? Kara always bucked against me, pushing my buttons, never mak
ing things easy. Why should anything have changed? Just because she’d sent that text last night, it didn’t mean she’d changed who she was. Spirited. Feisty. It drove me wild.

  Back up against the wall, I assumed my usual position. Watching, waiting, taking it all in. I liked to keep an eye on everything and everyone. I watched Kara flit about like a butterfly. If butterflies looked sexy as sin.

  She had mile-long legs and I could see so much of them, stretching up from her cowboy boots to the edge of her tiny skirt. That strip of black cotton didn’t cover her up so much as reveal, calling attention to those long, tone legs leading up and up. Every luscious curve outlined in intimate detail, her small waist flaring out into such generous hips and a high, tight ass. Curves like that bordered on illegal. My thoughts definitely crossed right on over.

  “Your usual, sir.” A waitress appeared beside me, my preferred drink offered up on a tray.

  “Thank you, Trish.”

  She glowed, maybe reading too much into my knowing her name. I tried to know the names of everyone who worked for me, especially the good ones. She’d been working there for over a year, reliable, moved things along nicely.

  “You need anything you let me know.” She added a little wiggle to her walk, but I had eyes for one woman and one woman alone. Right now she was laughing at something the bartender said. I wanted to wipe the smirk right off that tattooed hipster’s face.

  I gripped my drink tight in my hand, watching Kara through narrowed eyes. She wasn’t mine, I reminded myself. Not really, not yet. But I’d get my week. For seven days I’d have her all to myself. Now I’d let her have her fun, let her bop around waiting tables or whatever game she was playing here. I could wait this out. I’d already waited a cruel number of hours since her text message agreeing to our arrangement. In the end, though, I always got what I wanted.

  Across the bar, Kara made her way to a table with two couples. I watched her from my dark corner. She had such an easy way about her, so gracious. A natural beauty.

  I wanted her all to myself. Screw sharing her with this room full of people, I wanted to drag her down to a dark cave and keep her there with me for days on end. Seven to be exact.