by S Cinders
At long last, we rolled into the farmlands, with miles and miles of stalwart crops all standing at attention like soldiers ready for battle.
Scarecrow wanted to visit his old friend Boq. He reasoned that Boq would be aware of anything shady or underhanded in the area as he was a sports gambling bookie for Munchkin Land and tended to benefit from such dealings.
I had wondered aloud about how a wealthy farmer had become involved in sports gambling.
Scarecrow just smiled mockingly and asked if I knew any other wealthy farmers.
Smart ass.
You could just make out part of Lake Orizon and the Sapphire City. It is said to be second only to our Emerald City. I will admit that I adore their sapphire tower. It’s silver bells ring out to tell the hour.
These lands are not part of my father’s kingdom, but are ruled by Prince Gregory now that his father has passed.
He is tall with a whipcord strength and an incredibly handsome jaw. He is also insufferable. Living as child royalty, my sisters and I were often thrown together with Gregory and asked to play nice.
For the most part, we tolerated him. I only had one sibling that he drove to complete insanity, and that was Glenda of all people. It was strange because Glenda was also so terribly good all the time.
But when it came to Gregory, Glenda could be just as snarky as the rest of us. It was only then that I could see some hint that she shared our DNA.
Boq’s farm seemed to be thriving. The field hands were out picking crops. A few glanced up at the lone motorcycle, but they didn’t seem surprised by it.
When Scarecrow pulled up in front of a large white farmhouse, I was suitably impressed.
Our ride was longer than what I was used to, so my first step on stable ground had my legs nearly buckling.
“Wow, there cowboy!” An amused male voice called out from the front steps.
I had righted my skirt when I dismounted the bike, but hadn’t counted on an audience. I prayed that I hadn’t just given creepy Boq an excellent peep show.
Scarecrow’s protective arm slid around my waist, “Boq, we need a word.”
The little man stepped out from the shade. He had a paunch belly that was giving his pants a severe fear of heights. Did he not own a belt—or suspenders?
Boq smiled, his teeth were almost too white, as he leered at me.
“Anything for you, Scarecrow. It looks like this little filly is just getting used to those colt-like legs.”
I wanted to vomit. It was never happening, Boq.
Scarecrow must have gotten my internal SOS, or perhaps he didn’t like the way Boq was staring me down because, in half a second, he had gone from holding my waist to holding Boq up by the neck.
“You don’t look at my girl. You don’t talk to my girl. You don’t even think about her. Got it?”
Scarecrow’s voice was deceptively calm as the little man choked and sputtered.
“I-I’m so-sorry!” Boq choked out.
He was looking a bit blue.
“Scarecrow, don’t kill him before we talk to him.” I wasn’t above doing away with him altogether, but we did need information.
Scarecrow released his hold on Boq and he slumped to the floor gasping for breath.
“Fuck!” he coughed, “You are one crazy, fucked up, piece of shit.”
Then to my complete surprise, he grinned at Scarecrow, “Come inside, I need a minute to recoup, then we can talk.”
Scarecrow calmly followed the pot-bellied Munchkin, and so I shook my head in amazement and walked in after them.
Boq had left us in an ornate sitting room. It seemed out of place with farming and sports gambling. What kind of a person was this Boq character? I didn’t have a whole lot of time to linger on that because seconds after Boq closed the door, Scarecrow had grabbed me.
His lips tasted of coffee and a hint of spearmint. I hadn’t expected him to kiss me, so he caught me with my mouth already open for him.
His tongue invaded my senses, marking his claim. Each stroke of his tongue left my knees weak. My fingers went into his hair, twisting into the silky strands and knotting themselves so that I could pull him closer to me.
He groaned, pushing a leg between my thighs, but my stupid skirt blocked it. I wished that I had never worn it. His hands were on my ass, and suddenly my skirt was pulled around my waist as his fingers caressed the globes of my ass.
“Was the ride too hard on you?” his words were uttered against my lips.
I smiled into his kiss, sucking his tongue into my mouth.
His hands gripped each butt cheek and I moaned low in my throat.
The next thing I knew, I had been whipped around so that I was facing away from him. One of his hands had found its way under my shirt, pulling down the lacy cups until my breasts popped free.
The other hand was playing with the satin between my thighs. I was soaking wet and he knew it.
Scarecrow’s lips were at the juncture of my neck as he sucked and kissed the delicate skin.
I wriggled in his embrace, needing him to touch me.
“Please,” I begged.
His dark voice sent another flood of warmth to my pussy, “Please what?”
“Please touch me, Sir.”
It was a whispered plea, but my prayers were answered when his fingers slipped beneath the elastic of my panties and traced my swollen folds.
“Fuck, Indy, you are drenched,” he groaned against my ear sending shivers down my spine. “You need to be fast baby. I don’t know when Boq is returning.”
The thrill of getting caught added another edge of excitement to an already erotic scene. I arched my back, thrusting my breasts more firmly against his palm.
“You are so fucking sexy, baby!”
His fingers pushed into my pussy, finding my core. This was what I had been waiting for.
I cried out, and he stopped everything, “You have to be quiet Indy. Can you do that baby?”
He stroked me softly.
I nodded, agreeing, but at that point, I would have agreed to just about anything.
Two long thick fingers went back to fucking me as his other hand pulled at my nipples, twisting, and playing, as I writhed in his arms.
His hand was coated with my juices, I could feel them on my thighs.
I was close. Resting my body against his muscular frame, I allowed him to play me like an instrument. He knew the right places to pluck and strum until I was without words, without thought.
His fingers were relentless, moving faster and faster. I bit my arm to keep from crying out. The smell of my arousal was strong in the room.
And then Scarecrow leaned down and bit my neck as he stroked my clit with his thumb.
I literally lost all sense of time as my orgasm shook me from the top of my head down to my toes.
He pulled his hand away, fixing my skirt and then turned me to replace the cups on my breasts.
I was still gasping for breath when he licked my cum from his fingers.
Shit- that was sexy.
I had a hard time remembering where we were or what we had even set out to do. I just wanted him, naked and pounding his massive dick inside of me.
“Fuck, Indy,” his voice was pained.
I blinked, trying to focus, “What?”
“Your eyes say what I feel.”
Oh, the eye-fucking. Well, I couldn’t help it, he was incredible, and I couldn’t walk around with my eyes closed.
“I hope that you enjoyed your wait.”
Boq the creeper had returned.
CHAPTER 17
“That bitch!” Boq spat on the ground. “Yeah, she was here, at the farm—wanted to know how to get into the Emerald City. She said that she had heard I was the best person to come to for new identification papers. She was right. I am the best.”
The smug little bastard grinned, not even considering for a second that he was telling the daughter of the king that he dealt in forgery.
“Did you give th
em to her?” I demanded to know.
The Emerald City’s security was nearly impenetrable, or at least I had thought it was. I had since learned, on this journey, that nothing is quite as it seems.
He nodded, pleased as punch with himself. I almost struck him down right then and there.
“Sure did, beautiful work, some of my best,” his expression soured. “And then that bitch took off sometime in the night while I was asleep. Didn’t end up paying me for any of the work I had done. If you know where she is, I’d like to give her a piece of my mind.”
“She spent the night?” the words leaving my mouth before I could check them.
Boq lifted his eyebrows suggestively, “If a gal plays her cards right, she might just get a chance for a ride or two on the great and powerful Boq.”
I don’t know what I was expecting.
That’s a lie. I know exactly what I had been expecting. I thought Scarecrow would rip his lips off for talking to me that way. So, when he burst out laughing it caught me off guard.
I whacked his arm with the back of my hand, “What the hell?”
Scarecrow attempted to contain himself, but a wide shit-eating grin was still plastered across his handsome visage.
I cleared my throat, “No, Boq, there will be no rides for myself or anyone else for quite a while. I wasn’t implying that she spent the night as a sexual conquest.”
He looked perplexed, “Well, why else would she have been here?”
I gritted my teeth, not looking at my amused companion.
“Perhaps you know where she had been staying before she came to get the identification papers?”
Boq shook his head, “Haven’t a clue.”
“Why didn’t you get the money upfront?” I was getting perturbed.
“She had nice tits.”
There was a divisive snort from Scarecrow to which I didn’t address.
“So, you essentially gave her the keys to the Emerald City because she sucked on your dick?”
I was done with Boq. And just the tiniest bit sad that Dorothy hadn’t killed him.
Boq flushed, “Well, we never got to that, per say.”
My jaw was on the floor.
Scarecrow stepped in, “Boq, it is always a pleasure. It’s too bad that you didn’t get a phone number or return address. I think she might really like you. A hot chick like that, damn son, you could be tripling what you are bringing in. But you don’t know how to reach her again?”
Scarecrow let out the fakest sigh in history. And slowly I began to see the humor in all of this.
He was one sneaky son of a bitch.
“I don’t,” Boq’s face lit up, “But I know who might! She mentioned something about Prince Gregory. Could be that she wishes to see the Sapphire City first?”
AS I CLIMBED ON THE back of Scarecrow’s bike, I had to be impressed at his interrogation techniques.
The repulsive little creature had helped us.
The only sad part was that we were required to go to the Sapphire city. That and the thought of pigtails trying to get hot and heavy with Boq. I might require psychotherapy to get rid of that image.
“What now?” I asked.
Scarecrow turned on the bike, giving me a killer smile, “Looks like we are visiting royalty.”
Yeah, that is what I was afraid of.
The drive back through the sprawling countryside didn’t seem quite as enticing this time around. I wasn’t sure what appealed to me less, Boq or Prince Gregory.
But I had a dreadful feeling that it might be the former.
Not only that, but we had been out most of the day, and I was starving, tired, and knew that we still had a few hours until we reached the Sapphire City.
When his bike pulled off the yellow brick road onto a gravel path, I wanted to cheer.
Not more than a mile later, Scarecrow parked the bike in front of Hubert’s Tavern & Inn. The painted letters had faded from what I had supposed to be a brilliant scarlet to muddy brown.
I wasn’t even confident that the place was still running.
What was it with Scarecrow and seedy bars?
He pulled my helmet off, “You hungry?”
My stomach answered for him, and he laughed. Taking my hand, he tucked it in his, and we approached the door. It came sprawling open, and two drunk idiots came flying out on their asses.
“If you come back, you won’t be leaving!”
The commanding tone of the bouncer had me taking a closer step into Scarecrow. He chuckled as he wrapped an arm around me.
“Hey, Steele looks like business is booming,” Scarecrow lifted a brow in amusement.
He was always amused about something. I was beginning to love that about him.
Love—that word had a very inconvenient way of popping up when I least expected it.
“Scarecrow, what are you doing out here?”
I turned to get a better look at the giant of a man when I locked eyes on his face.
All of the colors seemed to leach out of it, “El?”
His voice cracked, and his jaw hardened.
I shook my head, “No, I am her sister Indy.”
The relief was evident as his harsh features softened. The man had thick brown hair with the bluest eyes imaginable. His square cut jaw had a cleft in and when he smiled, two dimples appeared, making him seem much more accessible.
Scarecrow frowned pushing me slightly behind him, “We need a place to stay for tonight and something to eat.”
Steele grinned, “My door is always open for you Scarecrow, you know that. I am sorry, Miss Indy, for startling you. I had no idea that El had a sister, much less a twin. You are startlingly alike in image.”
I smiled at him, “Yes, we often traded places as children, causing our parents and tutors a great deal of grief.”
Scarecrow scoffed, “You are nothing like your sister. I have known you for years and have never had trouble telling you apart.”
He had surprised me. Even our parents sometimes still confused us. But as I thought back over all the time I had known Scarecrow, he was right. He had never called me by her name nor her by mine.
Steele shrugged and invited us inside, as he turned I whispered up to Scarecrow, “How?”
“Hmm?” he said absent-mindedly as his hand lingered on the small of my back.
“How can you tell my sister and I apart?”
I didn’t know why it was so crucial to me. But right at that moment, I needed to know.
Scarecrow’s cheeks pinked a little, and he scowled, “She’s not you, Indy.”
“What does that mean?”
He pressed me up against the door frame.
“It means that I don’t have the slightest desire to fuck her the moment she walks in the room. It means that I don’t dream about the sounds she makes when she is begging for my touch. I know you, Indy. I know your scent, your smiles, your insecurities, and your heart. Your sister is great, but she isn’t you.”
His minty breath mixed with mine as he pressed his forehead against mine.
“She isn’t mine—you are.”
CHAPTER 18
“No sex in the lobby.”
Steele’s droll tone jerked me out of whatever spell Scarecrow had been casting.
I flushed, pushing against his broad chest, needing room to breathe.
The inside of Hubert’s Tavern made Scarecrow’s dive look like a hole in the wall. It was like stepping back in time. The slate tiles on the floor ran the length of the room, meeting up with dark stained wainscoting. Above that, rock walls surrounded the interior.
I counted four large fireplaces in the main room alone. The bar of mahogany stretched along the entire west side of the room. The selection of wines and liquors was astounding.
I turned a questioning eye on Scarecrow.
His smirk warmed me to my toes, “Learning not to judge a book by its cover yet?”
“Did the same witch that spelled your apartment do this place?”
&nb
sp; Scarecrow looked a little uncomfortable. But Steele saved him from answering.
“Your sister helped me refurbish the Tavern when I inherited it last year,” his blue eyes were unnerving. “It really is almost uncanny how much you resemble her.”
“Identical twins,” I shrugged, not knowing what else to say. Then it dawned on me, if El did this, which is incredibly tricky magic, maybe she did Scarecrow’s place.
I rounded on him, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
His dark eyes widened, “Does it matter?”
“Hell, yeah it does,” I accused before stomping over to the bar where Steele was standing.
“Rum and Coke,” I demanded.
He didn’t hesitate before pouring my drink. I took the lime that he had placed on the side and squeezed the juice into my glass before stirring it with my straw.
I felt Scarecrow stand behind me, “Whiskey.”
Steele poured Scarecrow a shot, and he threw it back.
“I’ll take another,” he rasped. Turning to me, he continued the conversation, “Look, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you taking it the wrong way.”
“How could I take it the wrong way?” panic raced through me. “You deliberately lied to me.”
Scarecrow arched a brow, “I did not lie, I omitted her name. It was a long time ago, and I don’t see why it’s a big deal that El helped me with something.”
Steele’s hand, which had been rubbing down the bar with a cloth, stopped, “Tell her the truth.”
“Stay the fuck out of it, Steele!”
My heart had dropped to my toes. What truth? Did they have a relationship?
“I need to sit down,” I choked out, grabbing the bar, and sliding onto one of the stools.
I took a big swig of my drink, but it wasn’t enough. Images of the two of them together kept washing over my brain.
“Indy,” Scarecrow sounded distant, “It was nothing, a few kisses and she stayed with me one night, but there was no sex.”
“I need to get out of here,” I pushed away from the bar, knocking my stool to the ground in the process. “I’m sorry, Steele, it was nice meeting you.”
