Their Ex's Redrock Midnight (Texas Alpha)

by Anders, Shirl

  What! screamed inside Rusty’s brain, while out of her mouth came, “I can’t afford that—”

  Vincent interrupted her by blowing her world again. “Been taken care of,” he uttered, then he walked past her. “Nine sharp at WTSF.”

  Rusty’s mouth opened and closed like a guppy’s as she watched Vincent stride way, while she remained speechless.

  But two minutes later, she wasn’t speechless on the phone to Tess her best friend and Vincent’s woman.

  “You what! Ohmygod, Rusty!” Tess screeched Rusty’s name over the phone so high that Rusty had to pull her cell away from her ear for a second. Yeah, she’d just told Tess the mind-blowing fact she’d slept with Cabe Santos. She could relate to Tess’ screaming astonishment. “How the hell did that happen, babe?” Tess demanded, after it sounded like she’d caught her breath.

  Rusty kind of wondered that too, but she was freaking out and she needed to get to the important (to her) part, so she sucked in a breath and did a drive-by explanation about Cabe and her getting together in maybe under a minute, before she blurted, “Why would Vincent come by and tell me Cabe’s shit with his wife, and then demand I be at WTSF to get my taxi fitted with security?”

  “Throwing badass-ness around, babe,” Tess told her, sounding wise on the subject.

  “Badass? Well, Cabe certainly has badass in him, and through him I’ve experienced it directed at me.”

  “Cabe?” Tess asked, sounding surprised.

  “Oh yeah,” Rusty whispered with shivers, remembering how commanding Cabe was in bed. It was hot, but—“He just left? No explanations. It was rude.”

  She heard Tess sighing. “No way Vincent goes to your house, sweetheart, and tells you that. It had to be from Cabe.”

  Rusty felt flutters around the regions of her expectations. She knew she should shut that down ... not hope. “Still, it feels like a fuck-and-go quickie to me,” she whispered to Tess.

  “I know, but first that was no quickie, babe. A man loves on you like that; it is more than a fuck-and-go. But I agree, Cabe is tangled up and you do not need in the middle of that. But he’s a good man and I can very much see him getting untangled, before he—”

  Rusty clutched the phone so hard her hand hurt. Untangled? Would he untangle? Did she want him that quickly after he’d untangled?

  “—puts his attentions on another babe. It’d be his way of being honorable,” Tess finished.

  That was freaking hard to believe, Rusty thought. They were not young babes; guys fucked and left chicks all the time. Cabe had been dealing with his faithless wife for several years. He could have left her at any time. But he hadn’t.

  “I know, honey, I think all that stuff too,” Tess whispered, reading Rusty’s mind with commonly attuned women’s thoughts. They knew they’d think the same stuff. “But Cabe has honor, and because he does, he is not the type to fuck them and leave them. I’m telling you the proof is the security upgrade on your taxi.”

  “You think?” Rusty breathed, back to hopeful from the pits of reason.

  “It’s not Vincent, so it has to be Cabe.”

  Now the big, huge question. “What do I do?”

  She and Tess never could decide what to do, so compulsion did it for her. Rusty was so curious over the summons to WTSF to equip her taxi to be safer, which she really could use but could no way afford, that she actually did show up at the WTSF offices. But she went too early, at six in the morning; however, she had weird shifts trying to get the best results, as in cab fares.

  Maybe she went so incredibly early so she would miss everyone, but still say she’d been there. Maybe it was because she was wired after being up all night bringing people in to a large convention at Redrock Casino. Maybe she was a coward. Yes. But maybe she was so curious that she’d just leave Cabe a note with her cell number on it. Because maybe he—

  “Ugh!” she exclaimed, trying to stop her incessantly wired thoughts as she pulled up to WTSF. There were trucks and SUVs there, which made her nervous, until she figured out they were just loaners or stored there. So she sat looking at the main office door, wondering how to execute her plan for the leaving of her note with cell number.

  She must have been overly exhausted, because how she thought she could leave a note with no one there was lame and delusional.

  “I just need to get him out of my head,” she blurted, grabbing the Styrofoam cup out of the cup holder by her knee to take a bracing slug of cold coffee. She really needed sleep. Like four hours, so she could get back out to Redrock and take advantage of the cash cow the convention was for her.

  The sound of a knock on her side window sent her ballistic, and her coffee flew—luckily mostly empty—as a startled screech left her lips. Her eyes soared to the window and her heart instantly started hammering harder as she looked into Cabe’s mahogany-brown eyes.

  Everything she’d been holding back inside her surged into full arousal upon contact. It was only eye contact—but still, she was that pathetic.

  In her defense, he looked good so she couldn’t totally blame herself. He looked overly rugged with more stubble on his jaw. She wished she didn’t have to face him with wet panties as she tried to recall the devastation of him just leaving her without a word.

  Totally acting, she frowned and haughtily pushed the button to lower her window, while inside she fought the extreme urge to lean out the window and kiss Cabe’s mouth that had no right to be so attractive. No, no, no, she silently admonished. What was he doing there so early?

  “I’m just driving through to leave a note that I won’t be accepting Vincent’s offer for security upgrades to my taxi,” she informed Cabe with a lot of snotty in her voice that she was very happy with. Take that, Cabe Santos!

  His hot, very kissable-looking lips firmed and she tugged her gaze from them. “It was my order, not Vincent’s, and, baby, you’re not leaving here without that upgrade,” Cabe declared in a masculine growl that rumbled through her and stroked those sensitive female bits that should not be interested.

  Rusty’s mouth opened in amazement and to lash back at him, just as Cabe reached forward. His forearm grazing her breasts startled her so much she didn’t realize what he was doing until she heard the jangle of her keys in his hand.

  He’d taken the keys out of the ignition!

  She followed those keys out of her cab. “You can’t just take my damn keys!” she yelled, stomping her foot, covered by a cute red cowboy boot, in front of him.

  “Just did,” he muttered, stuffing her keys into the front pocket of his jeans. She nearly dived for them.

  “Why would you do this?” Her hand swept up ... around, then down. “Fuck me, leave me, then this.”

  Her hand landed on her hip, while Cabe’s eyes traveled over her bare legs, then her shorts-covered hips, then up to her tank top to linger on her breasts. She slapped a forearm across her hard nipples, and his eyes cut to hers with loads of speculation, but a deep frown on his mouth.

  “I can’t fucking ask for you to wait until I’m free, but I will make you safer for my piece of mind and you will fucking accept it.” This amazing declaration was growled out, with the “fucking accept it” part growled in deeper and toward her.

  It took all Rusty’s willpower not to leap at him as tears burned her eyes. “You left me,” she whispered.

  “I know, baby, it’s killing me I did that.”

  She bit her bottom lip, seeing the regret and pain on his face as she waited for more.

  “I was so tangled, I couldn’t even explain it.”

  Was? That hope just leaped out of her even as she tried to squash it in the face of volcanic arousal for him. If she let go, if she let him off that easy, she was a slut. Hell, if they had sex again without a clear divorce, she was definitely a slut.

  Knowing all that, what came out of her mouth was, “Is she okay?”

  His eyes grew more intense on her. “You asking about Vega?” She nodded, and he muttered, “Too fucking sweet to be a bit
ch.” Then outright to her, he said, “Last time I saw her, she was banged up but finally willing to do a rape kit.”

  Rusty winced, going from her heart melting over his muttered words to being horrified. Rape? “S-She was—” she started to exclaim.

  Cabe touched her then, and her emotions riveted to that touch as he clasped her neck. “No rape. She says no rape, but just to be safe, in case she’s afraid to admit it.”

  Rusty licked her lips, looking up at him, feeling his hand cupping her nape through her entire body. A man trying to get away did not cup napes or upgrade taxi securities. “That’s so bad, Cabe. I’m sorry.”

  He nodded stiffly. “It’s always one crisis after another, though, Rusty. They constantly look like ones I cannot fucking walk away from.” He said the last harshly.

  Oh God, she wanted to hold him. To tell him it would be okay and he wasn’t alone. But that was such a deep pit with his still-wife at the bottom.

  “I know you’ll figure it out,” she muttered. What else could she say? And he knew she couldn’t say anything else as his hand lifted from her neck, then dropped back to his side.

  His other hand reached in his front pocket and brought out a single key on a big ring. “I’m keeping your taxi. Here’s a loner.” His head jerked south. “Keys are to that dark blue pickup truck.”

  Rusty was tired and too forlorn to be amazed. Her body was already crying for the loss of feeling him just one more time.

  “Okay,” she muttered, taking the keys. She wasn’t going to fight him on this, because basically it meant she’d see him again. Pretty pathetic, but it was what she had.

  “When do you start work again?” he asked.

  “Four hours,” she muttered, looking at her boots.

  “That’s bad.”

  Her eyes lifted to his. “Big convention in town. I have to chase those fares. It might put me in the black this month.”

  His eyes drifted over her slowly and he nodded. “Go get some sleep.”

  She did ... without looking back, when she wanted to leap at him, kiss him, and have him put his hands on her, give her orgasms, and cuddle her to sleep.

  Instead, she crawled into her bed alone and very confused.

  FOUR ] TRIED TO STAY AWAY.

  Rusty woke hours later with a desperate moan on her lips.

  “Cabe, oh God yes,” she cried passionately, tightening her fingers in his thick hair.

  Was it a freaking dream?

  “Cabe! Cabe! Oh!” She climaxed so hard she couldn’t breathe, only shudder.

  His mouth was hot against her slit. “Tried to stay away. Fuck, I tried.” He licked her still-shuddering loins as her legs drifted over his shoulders. “Came in. You were fucking naked. I lost it.”

  She arched upward as his tongue spread her slit open and she tried to pull his hair out. Suddenly, he moved from between her thighs and was kneeling over her. He was fully dressed to her splayed out nude beneath him. She was in her bed.

  “Tell me to go. I will. Just tell me,” he demanded.

  Hell! First of all she couldn’t think straight. Second, her pussy was still quivering with that latest hottest orgasm ever and the start of the next hottest orgasm ever. Third, she couldn’t think straight. She grabbed the edges of his buttoned-up shirt that wasn’t buttoned up to his throat and she pulled. Hard. Their lips hit as she made a strangled sound like she might die if she didn’t get him. In. Her. Now.

  Cabe’s cock plunged so deep and hard as his fingers held her throat and he moved inside her, totally taking her as if he possessed her. It was freaking hot.

  “Eyes,” he growled with his face a mask of tense arousal as he drove into her and bounced her hard nipples under his nose.

  Her climax was nearly there with her legs crossed over his back. She whimpered but kept her eyes open and flaming into his as she climaxed so hard. Before she finished, he let go of her throat and grabbed her long hair, winding it around his wrist.

  He pulled, arching her back as he ordered tightly, “On your side.”

  She was still shuddering with the most intense climax ever while he moved her onto her side and he spooned her from behind, then he thrust deep.

  “Cabe,” she cried.

  His leg came over her hip and he thrust hard again, making her cry passionately. One fist planted by her neck, he lifted partially over her, using his fist on her hair to arch her backward, until he could see her eyes. Then he fucked her so fast and deep her buttocks slapped his thighs. His eyes were blazing. Her eyes were begging him to keep going.

  She climaxed again.

  Impossible.

  But she did.

  And when he came, he looked as if he wanted to claw down her throat and be a part of her. She held his neck, backhanded, holding on tight.

  “So hot, Cabe, baby,” she uttered tightly.

  His gaze drilled into hers and she saw every inch of his ejaculation. He showed her without a doubt he was doing it inside her. She blindly wondered if he was this forceful with his wife, because that bitch was an idiot wanting any man but Cabe. Still the thoughts were too raw ... she shoved them aside.

  Cabe kept her arched as he settled behind her and his free hand began fondling her breasts, while she wallowed in a Cabe Being Dominant Sexual Daze. Just the way he laid with her holding her neck arched by her hair, while massaging her breasts and hard nipples, like he owned them, was amazing.

  “Baby, I think—” his sex-graveled voice started to utter.

  “No!” she blurted, snapping out of major sex afterglow to stop his words. “We do not talk about this, Cabe,” she demanded—pretty commanding for her really submissive position. His cock was still inside her. “We don’t think about it. We don’t talk about it. We don’t try to figure it out. Nothing.”

  His fingers held her nipple ... tightening, then making her whimper and move on his cock. “We do this,” he said, and he thrust into her. Amazing he could feel hard after—

  “Yes,” she exclaimed.

  His mouth came down to her ear, biting it lightly, while his hand grabbed the fullness of her breast so hard and tight. So good. “Do it a lot,” he growled into her ear.

  They had a deal.

  A while later, through one open eye as she lay sprawled across the bed on her tummy, totally and thoroughly fucked—pretty pleased about it too—she watched Cabe’s spectacular naked ass moving to her bathroom. Her next outstanding vision was his cock between powerful thighs as he came back out of the bathroom, swung his tight ass at her, bent and pulled on his jeans. Co-mmando. She noticed.

  “We won’t talk about it. I agree,” Cabe said, twisting to look down on her. His fingers lifted to brush the hair from the side of her face. “But we will talk about schedules and doing this again within the next twenty-four hours. Which, boo, is a fucking gift I’m giving you as I’m up for only twelve hours, maybe eight.”

  “Gift?” she whispered, and she turned onto her back to look at him from upside down. He had the nicest-cut torso. Defined abs, muscular pecs, and all dusted with blond hair. Yum. His fingers kept playing with her hair as his eyes traveled down her shamelessly displayed naked body. A body she knew read in neon “just fucked hard.”

  “Boo,” he whispered a nickname he’d bestowed on her. “I’m ready to be deep in your pussy again.” He brushed his fingers over her lips as she squeezed her eyes on the emotion for one second, then reopened them, as he murmured, “Sweetest pussy I ever tasted.”

  So she gave him her cell phone number, her crazy changing schedule, and a promise to text him the second she woke up after her next shift, however long it went. During this time, with her Cabe Daze lifting, she should have started to question what the hell she was doing.

  But anything even remotely close to that in her thoughts she shoved deep.

  “Used my time better in here with you, sweetheart, so you’ll have to figure out the security additions to your taxi on your own. But if anything puzzles you, you give me a call.”

 
; Cabe leaned down, moving toward her lips and, she knew, a kiss. Her hand fisted in his buttoned-up shirt. “No kiss,” she whispered.

  He stilled, his eyes opened, and he looked at her intensely for a long time. “Okay, boo, I’ll give you that for now. But we will fucking kiss when it’s right.”

  Rusty turned her head to the side, not looking at him as she released his shirt. She felt his movement standing, then she heard him exchanging keys as they rattled. Not a word more. He left. Good. Not a word more from her. Good. She wanted to be real, and reality was that she was a freaking slut.

  Cabe walked out of Rusty’s house and locked the door. He stopped and looked at her taxi, which he’d washed after installing emergency locks she could reach from the driver’s seat. There were several ways to lock the taxi now with the press of a button. She could lock only the front or only the back or all of them. There was a clear panel now between the front and back seat, and a place where only a hand could fit through, and then only if the slot was unlatched from her side. There was also a night-vision digital camcorder mounted where passengers could easily see it was there, but not get to it to mess with it.

  He’d installed a new emergency panic button that when pressed sent a wireless alarm to WTSF staff, who were on duty every twenty-four hours and who could call the police. Another emergency button also started the lights flashing and the horn blasting.

  He shook his head. It still wasn’t enough for a curvy and petite, cute-as-hell woman out alone at night ... most nights. But he had a couple more ideas that still wouldn’t make it all right for her to be out at night all alone, but it would make him feel better.

  All of that was a good thing to keep his mind busy on and therefore blank about what the hell he was doing and what the hell he was going to do more of. Yeah, Rusty was right; they didn’t need to think on this—they just needed to do it.

  An hour later, coming out of the men’s showers at WTSF with a towel latched around his waist, Cabe heard Vincent’s voice.