by Robin Gideon
“Don’t mind me,” David said as he slipped past the couple and into the building.
The young lovers hardly gave him a glance, so entranced were they in their little game of you-first.
David felt an eerie sense of déjà vu as he walked down the hallway toward the elevators. The last time he’d been in this building, two policemen had wrestled him to the floor, put him in handcuffs, and sprayed him with pepper mace.
His heart was starting to pound as he walked closer and closer to Katie’s apartment door.
It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t make her pay for what she’s done to me. It’s for her own good, so she knows she mustn’t ever do anything like that ever again.
He knocked on the door, his hand remaining clenched into a fist. Presently, the door opened, and an elderly woman looked at him above the security chain.
“Yes?”
“Hi. I was wondering if Katie is available.” David tried to keep his tone friendly, but he could hear the suppressed fury in every word.
“She moved away.”
The door was unceremoniously closed in his face. David heard the deadbolt lock being thrown into place.
When her phone had been disconnected, he hadn’t been surprised. It was what he had expected her to do. What he hadn’t expected was for her to move out of her apartment. Finding a nice apartment that was affordable was a real trick in San Francisco.
If it takes a day or a month or a year, I’m going to find her. Not letting me know where she’s moved? That’s just one more thing I’m going to have to talk to her about. That woman’s got to learn to listen and do what she’s told. He smiled, liking the way his mind was working.
He was almost out the front doors of the apartment building when the bank of mailboxes caught his attention. He stopped, and for a moment tried to figure out just what it was that had triggered his unconscious curiosity.
It took a while, but he finally saw it. A letter protruding from the overstuffed mailbox, addressed to Katie, from some culinary society. Written in longhand, probably by the old woman who now lived in the apartment, were instructions to forward the letter to an address in Elk’s Crossing, North Dakota.
“Elk’s Crossing?” David said aloud. “Where the hell is Elk’s Crossing?”
He stuffed the envelope into his back pocket, already making plans to travel out of San Francisco, even though his parole officer had made it quite clear that he wasn’t to leave the city.
* * * *
I’ve got to go on a diet.
Katie was standing naked before the full-length mirror in her bedroom at her grandparents’ house. She had just showered, and was now getting ready for her evening shift at the Mountain View Saloon.
Thirty-five pounds would be about right. No, maybe just twenty-five. Thank goodness I mostly carry it in my boobs and hips. That way it gives me curves.
The thought made her smile, but not for long. A moment later she did the classic pinch test at the side of her stomach, and she didn’t like the results.
I wonder if the McGowan men like their women to have curves, or if they like them petite and dainty? They’re all such big men. Maybe they’d like....
She cupped her breasts from the underside and lifted them slightly. Katie had struggled with her body image her whole life. Sometimes she felt good about herself and how she looked, and other times she did not. What she found most frustrating was that her positive or negative feelings were almost always tied to other factors in her life. Like David, who at one time had made her feel like the most precious woman in the world, and later made her feel dirty, defiled, and worthless.
Think about the McGowans. When they look at you, there’s warmth in their eyes. They’d never hurt you. The twins almost swoon when you serve them their suppers. And Aaron likes it when you give him a little peek at the girls.
A half smile tugged at the right corner of Katie’s mouth. Yes, Aaron liked to look at her all right, and so did his brothers. When they looked at her, Katie felt appreciated and attractive, not just lusted after. They could make her feel pretty without ever saying a single word about her appearance.
And they’d never resort to violence. If Katie was certain about anything regarding the raw-knuckled Irishmen, it was that they wouldn’t use violence.
Katie told herself that flirting with the McGowans was all just harmless fun. Though none of them had been overt in their desire for her, Katie knew in her heart that she would always have to resist them. If she ever succumbed to Aaron’s charms, then it would surely have a negative effect on his relationship with Blair and the others. Katie hadn’t done many things that she was ashamed of, but being a divisive element in a family as close and cohesive as the McGowans would surely leave her feeling a bottomless guilt.
But there’s nothing wrong with a little harmless flirting.
She chose a black skirt suit with a ruby red blouse that, when buttoned properly, showed a little more of her ample charms than Katie normally allowed. She completed the outfit with black thigh highs and a pair of stilettos that she was convinced made her legs look longer and thinner.
She buttoned her blouse, checked herself in the mirror, unfastened a button, frowned, and then refastened it.
Flirt, don’t flaunt!
But the urge to flaunt her charms, even though she wasn’t a woman prone to doing such things, was getting stronger the more time she spent with the McGowans. They made her feel more daring than usual.
* * * *
Blair watched Katie as she spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Stackhouse, and asked himself whether she’d secretly been putting something in the food to bewitch him. He’d enjoyed the charms of his share of women and more. He was thirty years old, so it wasn’t as though he didn’t know how to behave around women.
That didn’t stop him from reacting to Katie in ways that surprised and embarrassed him enormously. When she’d stepped between him and Aaron earlier to set their plates of food on the bar, he’d caught the faintest hint of her perfume. It was a delicate, feminine scent. Almost immediately, Blair had felt his body tighten in response to her nearness, and the front of his jeans grew quite tight.
He hadn’t shared so much as a single kiss with Katie, yet he’d spent more time thinking about her than any other woman that he had met in years. She’d only been in Elk’s Crossing a month, but already there were many more customers showing up at the Mountain View Saloon. Since the foothills of the Badlands in North Dakota was remote cattle country, all of those customers were men. And Blair suspected the new customers were showing up because of Katie.
Word of a beautiful new barmaid at the saloon had obviously spread to the surrounding ranches and farms.
It was difficult enough for Blair to share her time with his brothers, but having to share it with cowboys outside the family was entirely rankling.
No matter how often Blair told himself that he wasn’t the kind of man who pined away for a woman, the rational part of his brain said he was doing exactly that. He didn’t like to think of himself as a possessive man, but with each passing day, he found himself wanting to possess her body, soul, spirit, and heart.
“She’s looking nice tonight.” Aaron’s voice cut into his reverie.
“Nice?” Blair replied with a slight chuckle. “You’ve got quite the flair for understatement, brother. Damn, is it just me, or is she showing a bit more skin than usual?”
“Makes it tough to keep from staring.”
“Tough? I’d say impossible.”
Aaron sighed and said absently, “I wonder what’s going to be on the TV tonight.”
“You’re hoping it’ll distract you.”
“Uh-huh.”
Blair combed his fingers through his longish hair and sighed softly. “Maybe there’s a baseball game on. If not, maybe some whiskey instead of a beer or two might be in order. Hell, I feel like a damned high-school virgin hoping to get to first base with his girl.”
The brothers shared a soft laugh, which drew Ka
tie’s attention. She gave them a smile, and Blair felt his heart and his libido do a somersault.
Chapter Two
“Can I get you another beer?” Katie asked, spreading her arms to indicate the offer was for the entire McGowan clan, all four of whom were sitting at the bar.
“That’s the ticket,” Aaron replied, his tawny gaze warm. “And how about finding a game on the tube?”
The coolers were beneath the bar, and Katie knew that when she bent down to reach into them for the cans of beer, she was allowing the men to get a more intimate view of her cleavage. She didn’t mind. It felt nice to be innocently flirting with such handsome men, knowing that they would keep themselves in check. When the McGowan men looked at her, she felt attractive and appreciated in a way that was different from when other men ogled her.
She put forward the cold cans of beer, popping open the tops with a gadget that her grandfather had made. Without fail, the men thanked her, their smiles lingering just a little longer than necessary.
The dinner rush was over, and aside from the McGowans, only some cowboys from a neighboring ranch remained. Katie’s grandmother, having finished with the dishes, had left for the evening to tend to her bedridden husband.
“Let’s see what our options are,” Katie said, taking the remote and turning on the flat-screen TV behind the bar.
Katie thumbed the remote, thinking she’d find a baseball game, or possibly some NASCAR race. She had quickly developed a fondness for these evenings with the McGowans when the men drank a couple beers and watched a sporting event. It made the evening profitable enough for her grandparents, and she enjoyed the camaraderie the brothers had with each other, and how they interacted with her.
She hadn’t intended on changing to the channel that specialized in movies, particularly classic ones, but when Seven Brides for Seven Brothers came on, the McGowans all laughed.
“That sounds sort of like us,” Aaron said, slapping his palm down on the polished mahogany bar. “We’re watching this tonight.”
Katie was surprised. The McGowans were a raw-knuckled lot, men who worked long and difficult hours, often in the saddle. She’d watched them concentrating on NASCAR races in almost total silence as the cars jockeyed for position. She couldn’t imagine them being entertained by a fairly campy musical about seven mountain men kidnapping seven brides.
But they did watch it. They watched it carefully, and occasionally made quiet comments to one another about the movie, about the similarities to their own lives, and how the brothers on the screen interacted. Katie kept expecting one of them to complain that the musical was boring, but there wasn’t a single protest. Not even Garrett and Flynn, who were usually the quickest to become bored.
There were differences between the McGowans of Elk’s Crossing, North Dakota, and the men in the movie, but there were enough similarities to make Katie feel fidgety inside. Though she kept her back to the men as she watched the movie, she could feel them looking at her. Were they wondering what it would be like to capture her, as the men had done in the movie, to make her a bride?
The movie had started at seven and was finishing up as the clock neared nine. The cowboys from the other neighboring ranches had all headed for their beds after a long day of heavy labor. In all the time that Katie had been working evenings at the Mountain View Saloon with the McGowan brothers in it, she’d never seen the boisterous men so quiet, so obviously introspective.
When the final movie credits rolled across the screen, Katie reached for the remote.
“Now how about some World Championship Wrestling?” she asked, wanting very much to change the unbidden direction of her own thoughts. Individually and collectively, the McGowan men were disconcerting.
“How about turning it off?” Aaron said in his husky baritone. “I can’t think of anything more pleasant to hear than the sound of your voice. Why don’t we just talk?”
Katie flinched and told herself she was being silly to read into masculine, emotional reactions that she may or may not be interpreting accurately.
“You’re a flatterer,” she said. She turned and faced him. “But I’ve said that before.”
“You’re right. But you’re the kind of woman who deserves flattery. Besides, you only told me what I was. You didn’t say you wanted me to change.” His eyes took on a sudden bright intensity, and Katie had to look away. “I’m telling the truth. You deserve nothing but golden words.”
Katie picked up a damp towel and began wiping the bar. She felt the warmth of embarrassment coloring her cheeks and ears. This wasn’t the light, bantering flirtation that she’d enjoyed for the past month. This was more personal, more serious.
It was Garrett who lightened the mood by saying, “If she gave me a single kiss, she wouldn’t speak to any of you. One kiss and Katie would know that I’m the best kisser of the McGowans. One kiss and her heart would belong to me.”
Blair issued a disrespectful growl and replied, “Does that wet-behind-the-ears whelp really think he knows better than his elders what a woman wants in a kiss?”
“Yes,” Garrett shot back, getting defiantly off his barstool, a teasing grin on his lips. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you!”
Katie exhaled a sigh of relief. The McGowans began challenging each other, each voicing the virtues of his own skills at kissing. Katie was pleased that the men were now paying far more attention to jostling with each other than they were to her. With a smile curling her lips, she walked away from the men and set about making sure there wasn’t an inch of the mahogany bar that hadn’t been wiped down.
“There’s only one person who can vote,” Katie heard Aaron say, “and that’s the lady.”
Turning, she asked, “What vote is that?”
“On which of the McGowan men knows best how to kiss a woman.” Aaron smiled and shrugged his wide shoulders in what Katie suspected was supposed to be a gesture of innocence. She didn’t believe in the innocence for a second. “Seems to me talk’s awful cheap. The only real way we’ll ever know is if we have an objective woman taste a kiss and make her decision between good and bad.”
It had never happened quite so distinctly or so swiftly before, but upon hearing Aaron’s words, Katie felt her clit suddenly throb with tension, and the lips of her pussy become creamy with the slick lubrication of excitement.
“Just one kiss,” Blair said, getting to his feet. “One harmless kiss.”
“Harmless?” A slender eyebrow arched. “I find myself deeply suspicious.”
“A kiss from each of us,” Aaron said. “You’ll have to keep your eyes closed so you stay objective. You mustn’t know which of us is kissing you.”
Warning bells started clanging noisily within Katie. What kind of a woman would accept a kiss from all of them? And not knowing which one she was kissing made it all the more scandalous. She was venturing into territory where she’d never before gone, but as frightening as that was, it was also exciting.
It was also innocent, she reminded herself. It was just one kiss from each of them. And like Blair said, the kisses would be harmless.
She looked at Aaron, the eldest of the men and their unquestioned leader. “It won’t be fair,” she said. “I’ll know when you kiss me because you’ve got a mustache. You’re the only one who does.”
“If you’ve got a razor handy, I’ve got an answer to the problem.” Aaron smoothed his downturned mustache with a forefinger. “Never thought the ’stache would keep me from kissing.”
“You can have a kiss,” Katie said to Aaron without being consciously aware that she’d just agreed to be judge to the absurd competition. “I’ll do my best to be objective.”
She stepped around the bar, moving closer to the men, all of whom were now standing. To Katie, the men all suddenly seemed to be much larger than they had been just moments earlier. Though she was wearing her customary four-inch heels, the men towered over her, especially Aaron, the tallest of them all.
“Close your eyes,” Aaron in
structed. “You’re not to know who’s kissing you.”
“Just one kiss?”
She felt the pounding of her heart now, the quickening of her pulse, and the tingling of her clitoris. Katie told herself that she wasn’t the adventurous type, that she wasn’t a woman who casually kissed men. The tip of her tongue came out to moisten her lips, and after inhaling deeply once, she closed her eyes.
She heard the thud of boot heels against the floor as Aaron walked until he was standing beside her.
“Keep your eyes closed now,” he said. Then, to his brothers, he said, “Okay, you first. Nobody say a word or she’ll know who you are.”
It’s just a kiss. This is just a little harmless fun.
She heard the approaching footsteps. She tried to swallow, and discovered she couldn’t. A moment later, broad palms rested lightly on her shoulders, then warm lips were pressed against hers.
Unable to resist, she opened an eye. It was Garrett who had been chosen to kiss her first.
“She opened her eyes,” Aaron announced.
Garrett straightened immediately, ending the kiss.
“I’m sorry! Really I am,” Katie said quickly, looking first at Aaron then over at his brothers. “I’ve never kissed anyone when I didn’t know who I was kissing.”
“That’s the point of this,” Aaron said as he began unknotting his neckerchief. “But since you don’t have the discipline necessary to play by the rules, I think a blindfold will help ensure the confidentiality of the contestants.”
The twin emotions of skepticism and erotic acceptance shot through Katie’s system in a heartbeat. It had been more than a year since Katie had felt anything even remotely resembling passion, but her clit was itching now, and her panties were getting damp with her juices.
With his neckerchief neatly folded, Aaron stepped behind Katie. He put the blindfold over her eyes then carefully knotted it into place. When he put his hands on her shoulders, Katie felt the heat of his body go straight into her blood. She very nearly moaned.
