by Jane Jamison
She shot them a curious look. “Do you need anything, guys?”
He tried to act as innocent as he could. But being guilty made doing so next to impossible. “Nope. Not a thing.”
“Then why are you behind the receptionist desk?”
“Oh, uh…” He was like a fish on dry land. Sucking for air and fading fast.
“We were checking the work roster.”
Ryce’s answer wasn’t a great excuse, but it was a hell of a lot better than what he’d come up with. Which was zilch. Nada. Nothing.
“But you’re not employees at the club. The ranch’s roster is posted in the barn.” Lindsey narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure I can’t help you with something?”
Ryce turned on his charm as he breezed past her. “Just keep looking as beautiful as you are.”
Owen offered her a big smile, but still couldn’t think of anything good to say. Instead, he hurried after his brother.
Ryce stopped once they were both outside. “Damn, that was close. She knows I was lying through my teeth.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know why. I’m just happy that you’re a better liar than I am.”
“Fuck you. If you hadn’t come up with that harebrained scheme, I wouldn’t have had to lie. I don’t like doing it, either. Especially when your brilliant plan didn’t work.”
“Sure it did. I didn’t find any photos on her phone. That’s good news, right?”
But Ryce wasn’t ready to let it go. “Yes and no.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” No photos meant Jewel wasn’t the culprit.
“All it means is that she didn’t take picture with that specific phone. Or if she did, she’s already downloaded them, then deleted them. Finding photos would’ve given us solid proof. Finding none is doesn’t mean a damn thing.” Ryce shrugged and headed toward the barn. “Can we get our real work done now? We’ve got the herd in the lower forty to round up.”
Ryce was right, even though he hated to admit it. “When the hell did you become such a know-it-all on solving crimes?”
* * * *
Jewel stared at the blue sky through the bedroom window of the local bed and breakfast. Although it wasn’t in Pleasure, it was the best accommodations she could find. If she was actually going to stay, she’d need to find a rental house or another place to rent, but since she wasn’t staying, what did it matter? She pushed the sad thought away. If she could, she’d live in Pleasure for the rest of her life.
For now, she enjoyed the neat two-story home and its ever-cheerful owner, Dorothy Powton. Dotty was in her late forties, bone-thin, and a divorcee who loved joking about the “hundred and eighty pounds” she’d lost when her no-good husband had run off with the town’s “cheapest little whore.” Dotty didn’t sound bitter as she said it. Instead, she laughed whenever she added that “the poor girl, aka the little whore, would soon learn she’d won the booby prize and not the stud she thought she’d lassoed.” Jewel had grown to love eating breakfast on the porch with Dotty and listening to all her stories.
“Jewel, are you listening to me?”
She tried not to bite back when she heard Jacee’s impatient sigh on the other end of the phone. Soon it would be time for her to head to work. After tonight, she was determined she was done with the pictures.
But then what? Send Wilburt what he wants? Once she did, she’d have to leave town immediately.
“So did you get enough yet? I don’t know how much longer I can wait. Wilburt keeps e-mailing me. He’s going to post the video soon if you don’t start sending him the goods.”
Sometimes she felt like Jacee took advantage of her. Her younger sister was spoiled, but she had to take the blame. She’d taught Jacee to count on her, to lean on her big sister for everything instead of standing on her own two feet. Besides, what eighteen-year-old girl didn’t act selfish every once in a while? Her sister was a good kid who had gone through a devastating loss. But she had a good heart and would soon grow into a good woman.
“I know, but I’m doing the best I can, sis.” Her sister wasn’t in Pleasure so she didn’t grasp the enormity of what she was doing. Once the photos came out, a lot of people—good, kind people like the Casing brothers as well as the Killian men—would suffer through a whirlwind of a media storm. Would they come out of it unscathed? Or jaded and resentful? “These people at the club, the employees and the members, haven’t done anything to deserve this. I feel like shit.”
“But you have to do it. Please, sissy.”
“I know. Don’t worry. You come first.”
Jacee sniffed, her way of trying to hold back her tears. “I’m so sorry. I’m so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid.” Just young and foolish. But weren’t we all at her age?
“Please, Jewel. Just give him what he wants. I want this over with.”
“I do, too. And it will be soon.” She couldn’t help but ask the questions plaguing her. “Jacee, how do we know he won’t take the pictures and the article, then use the video anyway? How do we know he won’t make copies or something? You know we can’t trust him.”
“I don’t know, but what else can we do? You have to do it, Jewel. You just have to.”
“I’m working on it.” Yet the knot in her stomach told her it would ultimately prove fruitless. Why wouldn’t Wilburt put the video online and then link it to the e-zine’s website with the article and the pictures? She’d have hurt all the people in Pleasure and still not saved her sister. But she had no choice but to try. “Why does he need so many, anyway?”
“Who knows? You have to give him what he wants. If you don’t…” Jacee’s words became garbled with her sobs.
A fresh wave of guilt racked her. Once more Jacee was the little girl crying after falling off her bike and skinning her knee. “It’s okay, sis. Don’t worry. I’ll get you through this. I promise.”
“Just send him the article and pictures soon, okay? I’m really scared, sissy.”
“I know you are, but try not to worry. It won’t be long now.”
* * * *
Jewel squinted through her dirty windshield at the afternoon sun. She had to have faith that everything would work out all right as far as her sister was concerned. Until then, she’d keep doing what she had to do.
Once she downloaded the last set of pictures, she’d have enough to satisfy Wilburt. She’d never understand why he had to have so many. He wouldn’t tell her, only insisting that she get a lot of them. Was he going to do more than one article? Would he sell the photos to another media outlet? The article she’d written was almost finished and it’d soon be time to send everything to him. She’d have no more excuses to try and stall him.
The same guilt that had swamped her every day since she’d started taking pictures came back. She liked the people of Pleasure Ranch and, to her surprise, she liked working at the club.
To trick them ripped at her soul and twisted her gut. She’d already lost weight from lack of any appetite and from worry. But she was stuck, trapped in an untenable situation. She’d wracked her brain trying to come up with any other way to get her sister’s video from Wilburt, but had come up empty.
Should I go with my gut and trust Owen and Ryce? I should’ve asked Jacee if I could.
But she knew what her sister’s answer would’ve been. Hell, no. Jacee didn’t know them so how could she expect her to trust them? Could she make Jacee realize how special they were? How good and kind and trusting they were?
They were wonderful men. Men who’d stand by a woman, making her their equal while satisfying her need to let herself go free. After hearing others talk about the Dom/sub relationship, she’d gotten a short taste of it on stage. She’d expected to get turned on. Just standing next to Owen and Ryce did that. What she hadn’t expected was to feel the need to please them. And if she pleased them, then it would give her more joy than she’d ever experienced.
They wanted her. They’d said as much. The crazy thing was that she wanted them, too. Not just
a casual fling or a walk on the wild side with two men at the same time. She wanted them to teach her how to be a sub. She wanted them to help her open up, releasing all her worries, freeing her to give as much as she received.
What would it be like to feel the way she’d felt on stage every day? What would it be like to take part in an initiation using the water trough at the back of the club? At first, she’d thought it a strange tradition, but after seeing one initiation, viewing how the woman’s three Doms had taken her in the water, giving and receiving pleasure, she’d thought the ceremony beautiful. She couldn’t help but think becoming Owen’s and Ryce’s sub would be amazing, fulfilling, and beyond anything she could ever hope to have with any other men.
They’d asked her to trust them and she did. She wanted to tell them everything, to ask them to help with Jacee’s problem as well as her own. But it wasn’t her life she’d be trusting them with. It was her sister’s. She’d give them control of her life in a split second, but it wasn’t a choice she could make for Jacee.
She was caught between the needs of everyone else. Her sister’s, Owen’s and Ryce’s, and as selfish as it was, her own.
If she could submit to them again, could she use the experience to rid her of her guilt? At least for a little while? Would she gain new insight into what it would mean to be their submissive? And if she loved it as much as she thought she might, would she have the nerve to go for it? To turn her life over to them? To trust them with not only her body, but her heart?
Yet to do that seemed like a faraway destination she’d never reach.
She steered the car down the two-lane road leading her toward the large gated entrance to Pleasure Ranch and the club. Cattle and horses dotted the landscape on both sides of the road. She’d love nothing more than to pull over and sit on the top of her hood just to watch them. The animals always seemed so serene, so at peace with the world. She envied them.
“Why not?” She still had plenty of time to get to work and it was unusually warm for an early October day. Besides, maybe the brief reprieve would help clear her head. Walking into the place every night knowing she was going to deceive everyone weighed on her more tonight than it ever had.
Pulling her car off to the side, she turned off the ignition then swung her feet out of the car. Taking a deep breath brought in the fragrant aroma of livestock mixed with hay. A light breeze stirred her hair and the late afternoon sun made her wish she could go skinny-dipping in the pond that lay in the distance. The pond wasn’t very clear, but then again, most Texas dirt ponds weren’t. Water moccasins were a concern, but she wasn’t too worried about the snakes. They usually left humans alone as long as the humans did the same.
She put her foot on her car’s bumper, then hoisted herself on top of the hood. Lying back against the windshield, she closed her eyes and listened to the rustle of the leaves on the nearby trees and soft mooing of the cattle. The heat from the motor warmed her back.
Why couldn’t life be that simple all the time? She’d like nothing better than to move to Pleasure, live in a small but cozy house, and spend her days helping out on the ranch and her nights working at the club.
If the cloud of Wilburt Flaxsom and her sister’s sex video wasn’t hanging over her head, could she get into the club scene more? If she became a real employee of the club and not someone masquerading as one, would she like doing scenes?
She let her mind wander, trying to imagine playing out a scene with one or more men. Yet she found she wasn’t interested. At least, not until the men’s faces were those of Owen and Ryce. Fantasizing about them made the entire experience light up. She could easily see herself kneeling at their feet, a collar around her neck, and obeying their every command. The warm sun heated her skin as the hood of her car cooled, but it was met with a more intense burn sparking to life inside her.
She stretched her arms above her head and soaked up the sun’s rays. “I could get used to this.”
“I hope so.”
She jerked to a sitting position. Ryce slung his leg over his horse, then looped the reins over the barbed-wire fence separating the pasture from the road. Owen stayed on top of his mount.
“You’re looking really good today, Jewel.”
“So do you.” The compliment was out of her mouth before she’d given it any thought. But it was the truth. They were the epitome of sexy cowboys with their hats pulled down to shadow their faces. Stubble ran along their jaws and their eyes, even while shaded under the brim of their hats, gleamed with interest. They had on their usual jeans and long shirts, and yet, there was nothing usual about them. Their chests stretched the limits of their cotton shirts while the belt buckle, caught in the glint of the sun, drew her eye to Ryce’s crotch. She would’ve sworn he had a fast-growing erection. Still, it was only fair considering she had her own throbbing going on between her legs.
“I could think of better places to get a suntan.” Ryce edged his way between the wires and strode toward her.
If he got any better looking, she’d have to call a foul on him. Too much testosterone mixed with cowboy sexiness wasn’t fair. She was, after all, only a woman. A woman who had lusted for him and his brother in her dreams from the first night she’d met them.
He ate up the distance between them fast, giving her no time to think. Yet thinking wasn’t what she wanted to do anyway. She’d done enough thinking to last a lifetime. Throwing care to the wind, she slid off the hood of her car and into his arms.
“Kiss me, Ryce, and make it a good one.”
* * * *
Jewel didn’t have to tell Ryce twice. He hesitated, his mind letting it sink in, before he tugged her to him. Her lips tasted sweet, as though she’d just taken a bite of a fresh strawberry. Or would it have been an apple, making her Eve to his Adam? If so, he would’ve gladly taken on all the sins of the world for just one kiss.
She moaned, spurring him on, driving his cock from a simple awakening to a burst of lust-filled hardness. Her tongue swept into his mouth until he forced it back, determined to catch her flavor first. He was torn, wanting to explore her sweetness, yet dying to nibble on her lower lip.
He cupped her nicely rounded butt and got another moan that was just as tantalizing as the first. Bending her over the hood of her car, he let his hand skim over the peaks and valleys of her body, pausing when she lifted her leg to wrap it around his. Since she was dressed for work, he found easy access to her pussy and delved his finger into the wet moistness. Her pussy clenched around his fingers, holding him inside as he pressed his thumb against her hardened pebble.
She was his for the taking, an offering he’d never refuse. Going insane from a need yet to be sated, he kissed his way down her slender neck, then buried his face between her ample breasts.
She clawed at him, whimpering when she had trouble tugging his shirt out of his waistband. He helped her, hating to let go of her, but wanting to feel the scrape of her nails along his skin. She arched, tempting him to pull her halter top aside and latch onto her nipple.
“Eat me, Ryce. Please.”
Her word was his to obey. For now. Later, he’d show her what it meant to obey his commands.
Letting go of her nipple, he bent lower. The scent of her overwhelmed him until his knees almost buckled from the want for her. Her pussy was beautiful, pink, and shining with the sun lighting on it.
Casting his gaze toward her parted lips and closed eyes, he lowered himself and eased her folds apart. The second he touched her she came apart, writhing so hard he worried she might slide off the hood. Holding her legs apart, he planted his palm on her stomach and held her in place.
She was so tender, so succulent. A ripe fruit ready for the plucking. Her skin was soft and pliable as he captured her clit in his mouth and pulled on it, sucking hard. She bucked as though trying to get away, but he knew it wasn’t what she wanted. He drank from her, pausing only when he needed to draw a breath.
“Damn it, Ryce. Not here.”
Hearing his
brother’s warning didn’t stop him. Whatever Owen wanted wasn’t important. Nothing was important except his mouth on her pussy, his fingers deep in her sheath.
“Ryce. Not here.”
A hard yank later and he lost his hold on her. He stumbled backward, but caught his balance in time to bring his arm up at the same time he spun toward his brother. The punch was good, connecting with Owen’s jaw.
Caught by surprise, Owen fell back, then went to his knees. He rose slowly, glaring and ready to swing. They met head-on, fists already striking toward the other, when Jewel shouted.
“Stop it! Stop it now!”
He had Owen by the shirt when a dirt clod hit him in the head. “Fuck! What’d you do that for?”
She was magnificent, standing with her feet planted apart, and another dirt clod ready to throw. She’d tugged her clothes back together, but one nipple peeked out from between the V of her halter. “I had to do something to get you two to stop acting like teenage boys.”
He rubbed the sore spot near his temple. “Why didn’t you throw one at Owen?”
Owen didn’t help by snorting.
“I did.” She arched an imperious eyebrow. “I missed.”
It was his turn to snort, but she ended that quickly enough when she aimed and sent the dirt clod flying toward them. He ducked, narrowly escaping.
“Jewel, baby, I’ve got to warn you. We’re giving you a lot of leeway here, but as our submissive—”
“I never agreed to that.”
“Maybe not in so many words, but you are. You’re ours.”
“Listen to Ryce. We’re both tired of pussyfooting around. Tell us you want to be our sub. Let us show you what you’ll gain with us as your Doms. Trust me, darlin’, you’re going to love it.”
Ryce glanced at his brother and, as though by silent agreement, they moved toward her, side by side. “We screwed up the other night, but we’re going to make up for it now.”
