by Nico Rosso
She took his hand and the two of them climbed the three steps on the side of the tub. The water roiled, glowing white with jets of bubbles. A first test with her toe told her it was hot, but not unbearable. As she stepped in deeper, the bubbles danced along her skin, like wrapping her in warm rain.
Jack was right next to her. They still held each other’s hands, balancing each other.
He whispered, “I’ve never seen anything like it …”
“The bubbles are incredible.” They both stood on the bottom of the tub. The water reached the top of her thighs.
His left hand came up to her chin and turned her toward him. “The smile on your face.”
Maybe the bubbles were getting into her head. She did feel a little giddy. Plunging into the unknown.
The water swirled as their bodies came together again. Heat and effervescence rose up, coating them. Skin on skin, they slid, wet. His cock pressed into her belly. She licked along the base of his neck. He ran his hand down her spine and over her ass. She pressed against his thigh, rocking her hips.
They kissed. His hand held the back of her neck for a moment, then pulled the leather thong that bound her ponytail. He dipped into the tub and brought water up along her back and into her hair.
She broke away from the kiss and lowered herself into the water. He scooped more water onto her, rinsing away the trail dust and campfire ash. Her hands gripped his hips to steady herself. His cock was in front of her, angled from his body. She took one hand and raked her fingernails down his chest, along his abs. Lower.
Barely touching him, she drew her nails along his shaft. He didn’t move, gaze fixed on her. When she wrapped her hand around him, he bared his teeth in a snarl. Stroking up and down, she watched the fire blaze hotter in his gaze.
Her wet hair fanned across her back as she stood quickly. Still holding him, she lined the side of his body with her chest. Naked, without their money or guns or status, men thinned. Fragile like moth wings, their egos could break, making them lash out. But Jack didn’t doubt himself. The man was strong enough to let her back him against the side of the tub. He even had a wicked smile of his own.
“There’s never been a woman like you in all the world.”
She brought her hand to circle the base of his shaft. He thrust forward to match her. Surrounded by all this water, she still thirsted.
“Touch me,” she breathed.
He slid his left palm over her breast, then moved the hand down along her ribs and hips.
She shook her head and drew his right hand toward her. “With this.”
Slowly, carefully, he turned his hand over so the mechanism extended the two metal fingers. She could tell that if at any moment she hesitated, he would pull away. But there was no doubt in her.
The heated wet metal glanced along her thighs. Unknown words tumbled from her mouth as the mechanical fingers reached her pussy. He held them in place, allowing her to move against the rigid heat. Back and forth, she ground herself along the slick metal.
One hand gripped his arm. Her other hand remained on his erection. He moved with the rhythm of her rolling hips. Water splashed high on her hips, along her back.
“Can you feel me?” she asked.
“Felt you for years.” His hand ran along her arm, her shoulder. “Even when I couldn’t see you, I always knew where you were.”
He palmed her breast, ran his fingers over her nipple and pinched it gently as a test. Her soft moan encouraged him. He squeezed a little harder. Pleasure sparked, feeding the waves of fire running through her.
Faster, she ground herself along the metal. The rigid fingertips ran from her pearl, along her folds. She even eased them inside of her. Solid heat stretched her. She drew them out and increased the speed with even more urgency.
Everywhere she touched, Jack was solid. His muscles, his erection, his hand. Her pussy was soft, but not weak. She demanded release. Up and back, faster along the fingers. He pinched her nipple harder, a little twist that had her arching her back.
“That’s right,” he encouraged her with a growl. “Take everything from me. I’m all you need.”
A climax built in her, bubbling up like the jets in the tub. Hot metal, warm water, the solid strength of Jack. This wasn’t the world she’d known. Too much pleasure. She devoured it, filling herself. Overflowing.
One more stroke. She pushed hard against his fingers. The orgasm crashed through her. Her short gasps cut through the steam. Trembles of pleasure shook her. Holding her bud against the metal, she savored the fire.
She caught her breath, but still didn’t feel attached to the world. Jack, though, wasn’t in doubt. She gripped his body, his presence. Intense, his eyes remained focused on her face. His mouth grinned wickedly as he basked in her pleasure.
In her hand, his cock throbbed in quick pulses. She stroked it again, drawing him toward her.
She whispered, “I’m taking everything from you.”
“You’re the only one who can track me down.” He brought his metal fingers to his mouth and licked the tips.
“No one escapes me.” She continued to stroke along his shaft.
“There someone else you’d rather catch?”
It wasn’t about bounties or reputation or legends. “No one.”
“But I’m dangerous prey. The hunter can become the hunted.” He kissed her, wrapped his arms around her. Turning quickly, he spun so she pressed the front of her thighs against the edge of the tub. Jack lined her back, arms across her chest. Teeth into the side of her neck.
There were ways of escaping from a man when he held her like this. Her heel to his foot. Thumb to his throat. Foot to the balls. But she didn’t want to get away from him.
She savored each part of him against her. The rasp of his stubble on her shoulder. Arms enfolding hers. His erection lined against her ass. She reached back to take his hips, encouraging him forward.
His hot breath whispered past her cheek. “Two hunters catch each other. What happens next?”
“You fuck me, Jack Hawkins.” She dug her nails into his hips.
He ran his tongue over her earlobe, then drew it into his mouth. Never in her life had she been so sensitive, so tuned to a touch. His teeth gently nipped her flesh. She slid her ass against him. He groaned.
Releasing her earlobe, he kept his lips close to her. His voice was inside her head. “You commanding me, or begging me?”
Both, but he didn’t need to know that. “Do it now.”
An unwelcome coolness clung to her back as he stretched away. The room was still incredibly hot, but it wasn’t the same deep warmth without him against her. Leather creaked and metal rang. He unbuckled one of the pouches on his belt hanging on the peg and retrieved something. Quickly tearing through the small waxed paper envelope, he backed away for a moment, then again wrapped himself around her body.
Her breath caught in a gasp. The head of his cock slid between her legs and along her opening. Arching her back, she brought him all the way against her sex. She looked down to see the head of his penis rub past her pearl. He wore a vulcanized rubber sheath for safety.
She reached back again, dragging her nails on his thighs, up to his ass. Hot metal gripped her hip. His other hand cupped her breast. He rolled her nipple between his fingers, pinching just enough to bring out another gasp.
He slid himself along her opening another time, then drew away. With his chest against her back, she felt them both breathing as one. His erection hovered at her lips again. She looked back, searching his face. There were no wicked smiles, no winks. His focus was astounding, searing. Everything for her.
Their gazes drew their bodies together. He entered her. She braced her hands on the side of the tub. If she breathed or spoke, she did not know. There was only him, filling her. Slowly. She savored it all. When he was buried to the root, neither moved.
The embers of her last orgasm hadn’t dimmed completely. Reawakened, she knew it wouldn’t take much to come again. She swiveled
. He moved within her, stirring the sparks higher.
As slowly as he entered her, he drew out. Not completely. Just before he left her body, he plunged back in, a little faster this time. And again, faster. Water splashed out of the tub. She closed her eyes. He thrust in and out of her. She was locked between his body and the edge of the tub. As he drove forward, she pushed back. More sparks swirled within her.
The orgasm rushed up and slammed into her. She cried out, still pressing back to meet each of his thrusts. The climax was white hot. It was her making the steam, as if she could boil away all the water around them.
While it was still crashing through her, she looked back again to watch Jack’s intensity grow. His lip curled in a snarl. He sped his pace, pumping faster into her. She held his gaze with hers. There was no need to beg or command.
Drawing in a breath, he thrust deep into her one more time. His moan was a growl as he came. His cock pulsed in her with release. Small tremors shook his muscles. He sighed, breath hot on her neck. Then his lips were on her back, her shoulder.
He kissed her mouth. Both of their pulses thrummed at the same pace. And they breathed together as he slid out. She turned, not ready for the chill to hit her skin again. The kiss continued. She stoked the side of his face. He held her hip with one hand and smoothed the other along her hair.
Their breath and blood slowed. The sound of the steam and bubbling water returned. They leaned against each other as the world settled like a blanket around them.
He spoke, voice raspy. “You caught me.”
“You had me cornered.” Coils of tension fell away from her body. “You gave me no choice.”
“After that taste, I’m gonna keep hunting you.”
It was too soon to know what had been damaged in the fire. But her body knew what it wanted. Rest, and then more. Was it that easy? It never was.
Her senses screamed, hating the chill, but she forced herself to step back from him. He let her drift away. This was Jack Hawkins, the man with the singular goal of tracking bounties, making money. She couldn’t allow herself to get accustomed to his heat. There’d been no comfort in her life before, and no reason for this one to last.
As she moved through the tub, she stepped on a small lever on the inside edge. The water shifted. Swirls of cool interspersed with the hot. Instead of killing the glow that persisted in her, she felt reinvigorated. Jack too had a small smile on his face, a new light in his eye.
“Franklin Song.” He chuckled. “When we catch him, I’m going to have him build me one of these.”
“We can just use this one.” It felt natural to say it, but as soon as the words were out, Jack’s eyes snapped to hers. Making plans without a thought wasn’t like her. But doing so felt like the cool water in the tub—unexpected, yet thrilling.
She took her foot from the lever and the cold flow stopped. As did the bubbles. The steam in the stones died down, replaced by a mechanical clicking within the structure. Wood creaked. She and Jack both pushed to the edge of the tub, drawing their pistols.
Her barrel swung to a panel in the wall near the tub as it opened—a secret door. Jack stood next to her. Except for their guns, they were both naked.
Jack called out, “One step and I blow you away.”
A single squeak of the floorboard and they’d both let the bullets fly. They waited, straining for sound. Nothing. She took a cautious step forward, peered into the darkness beyond the door.
“Oh, God, Jack, they got the drop on us.” She couldn’t suppress a laugh. “It’s the terry cloth gang.”
Inside the door was a simple cabinet with shelves of folded towels. She pulled one out and tossed it to him, then grabbed another for herself. He chuckled with her, shucking his sheath and stepping out of the tub.
Keeping the pistol in one hand, he dried off with the other. “I’ve always heard legends of the terry cloth gang, but I never met up with them.”
She descended the tub steps. “You should take a bath more often.”
“If it’s with you, I’ll do this every day.”
She couldn’t answer. He seemed to understand that. Both kept silent. She dried herself, the towel a finer cloth than she’d ever had against her body.
Something drew Jack’s attention. “Well, howdy to you.” Still nude, he stalked toward a far corner of the room, where it was built into the hill.
Following cautiously, she whispered, “What is it?”
“This room has more than one secret.” Using the barrel of his pistol, he drew a large rectangle on the wall.
Then she saw it. The steam moved differently in this area. It sucked into small gaps in the wall, the same shape he drew. “A door.”
As he searched over the wall, she remembered how that hand felt on her skin, making her come alive. A metallic click brought her back to her senses. The door swung open, just an inch, to let more steam flow in.
Jack hummed thoughtfully. “I’m gonna put some clothes on before seeing what’s in there.”
They both retreated, keeping their eyes fixed on the new secret. Without a word, they traded off watching the door and getting dressed. Once the last buckle was pulled into place, they moved forward again.
She thought the clothes might suffocate the pleasure she’d had. But she was still aware of being naked beneath it all, as if Jack was still surrounding and inside her.
“Do you have a torch?” He tugged at a pouch on his belt.
“In my saddlebag.”
“I always carry two.” In his palm was a friction torch, about the size of a pistol grip.
She took it and started turning the small brass crank on the base. He did the same with another. They sounded like a swarm of hornets in a feather pillow.
“Just like you always carry a rubber sheath?” She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to know. Handsome man like Jack, no ties, thundering through town on his engine-cycle. He could attract a lot of ladies.
“Haven’t needed one in quite a while, if that’s what you’re asking.” The torch lit in his hand, powered by the small crank generator. A yellow spot of light appeared around the secret door. “And now I’m asking.”
“You needn’t.” Though that he did gave her an unusual charge. “I ran down eight bounties in the last six weeks. Who’s got time for tumbles?”
They stalked nearer to the door. He was close to her shoulder, still hot.
“Guess this is an advantage to running with a partner,” he said.
“We ain’t partners.”
Effortlessly shifting positions, she stepped to the door and he stood to one side, gun and torch ready. He nodded, she swung the door open.
Steam swirled into the darkness beyond the door, drawn by air currents. Cool, moist air threaded into the room, scented with deep soil. It seemed to wrap around her, pulling her closer to the doorway.
She and Jack approached slowly, the yellow light of their torches barely penetrating the deep shadows, but revealing a passage. Instead of going straight into the side of the hill, it angled steeply.
Jack muttered, “That’s a hell of a descent.”
“Hell is right.”
The walls of the passage were cut from the dirt with precision, as if by a machine. Instead of stairs, the corridor was a long ramp.
She stepped through the doorway, gun in one hand, torch in the other. “Seems a perfect path toward damnation.”
He was with her, closing the door behind them and stooping a little so he could fit in the passage. “I might be headed there, might not. Ain’t for me to judge.”
The soil under her feet was packed hard, but any loose rocks could send her tumbling down. And there was no telling how far this path led. “Let’s find out.”
The air cooled as they descended. Her nerves chilled. Walking shoulder to shoulder, they had about six inches each to maneuver. Ambush, cave-in—all possibilities. Not the best way to hold on to the afterglow of their sex. Yet somehow, even as the steel of her .45 grew colder, she still hoarded the
warmth of Jack against her, inside her.
Yellow light bounced off the dirt walls, showing just slivers of Jack’s face. “I haven’t been to church in an age. Finding the spirit within four walls don’t make much sense after you’ve flown over the Grand Canyon at dawn.”
“Or sat out a storm in a hidden cave at the top of a mountain.”
“Once I took my cycle over the Pacific, about a mile off shore. Tracked along with the whales migrating for the season. Some were bigger than train cars, just gliding along in the water, then popping up to breathe.”
“You’ll have to show me that.”
“I most certainly will.”
Dangerous business, making plans. The cool air and darkness might suffocate the little glimmer of hope, but it persisted.
Further and further they descended. Neither spoke as the passage reached its bottom and leveled out. Tight and close, the only sound in the space was their boots and the creak of their clothes and gun belts.
The dim torches couldn’t illuminate more than ten feet ahead of them.
She paused to crank her generator again. Jack put his back to the wall and kept watch over both approaches.
He whispered, “This could go on forever.”
Fully charged, her torch was at least able to draw sharper shadows in the rocks and dirt. “Anywhere else you’d rather be?”
His torch flickered against his grin. “Not alone.” He cranked his generator to full power and they resumed their walk.
“With company then.” She was baiting him. And herself.
“Present company only.” He bumped his shoulder against hers. “There’s a little cabin in the hills above Pine Flat Lake. Built it with my own hand and a half.”
“So you’re afraid to be seen in public with this lady?” Though she wasn’t sure she was a lady. Never wore a bustle, and she’d sooner put a tomahawk in a man’s head than cinch a corset around her.
