by Zoey Marcel
“Don’t be. I’m not offended.” He gave her a smile that charmed her socks off and made her want to throw her arms around him and kiss him.
“Why haven’t you told the others?” she asked.
He sighed and reached for the fork.
She glowered at him and smacked his hand away. “Drop it, mister. I’m taking care of the horse crap.”
He smiled. “Bossy little thing, aren’t you? I ought to spank you for being so stubborn.”
“Maybe I ought to do the same thing to you for the exact same reason.”
He grinned at this, and her heart constricted at the six-foot-one paragon of male hotness standing before her. “Darlin’, I would love to see you try, but more than that I would love to see the look on your face when I punish you for the wicked attempt.”
The idea of him disciplining her made her panties dampen and her nipples protrude against the soft cups of her bra. “Well, maybe you’ll get to.”
“Try it at your own risk, woman.” He winked at her, and she wanted to jump his bones right then and there.
“Promises, promises. Now get out of this stall and sit down like a good boy.” She shooed him out of the stall.
His eyes darkened with apparent lust. “Oh, you really are asking for a paddle on your ass, aren’t you, woman?”
She threw him a wink and started skimming the sawdust for droppings. Such a delightful chore…not. Oh well.
At least she was helping him to relax. He had no business huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf at this stage in the game.
“You never answered my question,” she realized.
Doc sat down in a chair outside the stall, heaving a loud exhale and a grunt as he eased into a more comfortable position. “You want to know why I haven’t told my friends yet?”
Jade nodded while she worked and glanced at him occasionally to give him her attention. “Yeah.”
“The same reason I didn’t tell you I was dying. I don’t want to be treated like an invalid during my last days on earth. I want to go about my business as usual and at the same time I want to live like I’ve never lived before.”
“How did they not see you going to treatments and doctor appointments in Winchester? It’s such a small town.”
“I went to an oncologist in Phoenix for my treatments. During the times I had to stay overnight I would just tell them I was staying with a woman. I even made up a name for her. Rosie Green.”
Jade looked at him.
Doc gave her a crooked smile and shrugged. “I had to come up with the name on the spot since they were starting to get curious about all my unexplained trips to Phoenix. There was a vase of roses on the table and Stetson wore a green shirt that day, so it was the first thing that came to mind.”
“You have to tell them, Doc.”
His face became shadowed with grief. “I know.”
“When? When are you going to tell them?”
He shook his head, licking the front of his teeth with his mouth closed. “I don’t know. How do you look someone you love in the eye and tell them that you’re dying and you’re never coming back?”
Her eyes closed and her chest hurt. “I don’t know, but you have to tell them soon. If you died without giving them any warning they would hate you.”
“I know.”
Her gaze darted back to his once her eyes opened. She’d never seen a man look so solemn and downcast before in her life—that she could remember anyway. Her amnesia still harassed her like a lingering relative on an extended visit.
“Do you have a bucket list?”
His features softened as he stared into space, evidently entertaining personal dreams that were near and dear to his heart. “I do in my head. I don’t have it written down, though.”
“You should write it down while I clean this stall. I want to read it afterward.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to help you cross off every last thing on it.”
His face became caring and appreciative. “That’s sweet of you, darlin’, but you don’t have to do that.”
“I want to, really bad, and you can’t stop me.”
Doc flashed her an amused smile as he left the barn. He returned a few minutes later with a small notepad and pen. “Well, I know one thing that’s going on it.”
Once she had finished with the stall, Jade walked over to him expectantly and read the paper he handed to her. “This is quite a varied list. Your top nine must-dos, huh?”
He nodded. “Are you scared yet, darlin’?”
She shook her head. “Nope. I’m going to help you cross them all off, remember?”
The list read
1. Spank Jade for reading my mail
2. Take a woman shooting
3. Ride a bull
4. Share a woman with all of the Brooks brothers
5. Get married
6. Make a baby
7. Have a double vaginal penetration
8. Train Jade as my submissive
9. Tell my soul mates how I feel
Jade looked up at him. “This is quite a list. Who’s your soul mate?”
Doc’s eyes shimmered with some unnamed emotion. “It’s plural, Jade. I have two soul mates.”
This confused her. Two women that he loved? Well, that would be an interesting catfight to watch—two women brawling over Doc’s attention. She could certainly comprehend biting and clawing to win the heart of such a fascinating cowboy who was easy on the eyes to boot.
“Who are they?”
“That’s the last thing on the list. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I haven’t even decided if I ever intend to tell them.” Doc took the paper from her, stuffed it into his pants pocket, and then he gave her a wicked grin. “Guess which one of those I want to do first.”
“Um…” She shrieked when he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her onto his lap. “Would that be the ‘spanking my ass for prying into your personal affairs’ bit?”
“Good guess, and yes.”
“I don’t want to crush you with my weight.”
He swatted her denim-clad ass, and she yipped. “For heaven’s sake, Jade, I’m a man. I’m not fine china. Now pull your pants down and show me that perfect ass of yours so I can make it a nice glowing shade of pink.”
She stood, trying not to blush as she unfastened her jeans and lowered them down her legs along with her panties, exposing her bare cunt to him.
His eyes flashed a wild shade of green when he saw it. “Well, isn’t that a peach of a pussy.”
She sighed when his fingertips teased her sensitive mons. “That feels good.”
He grinned. “The next part won’t. Well, not at first anyway. Lie down on my lap like a good girl.”
She nearly moaned at the thrilling sensations the term “good girl” inspired and laid across his manly lap like he wanted her to. The bulge in the crotch of his jeans was most distracting.
“You won’t be prying into my personal affairs again, will you?” he asked, delivering a sudden smack to her raised bottom.
She yelped, amazed at the force behind the slaps as he continued to spank her. The man could certainly pack a nasty punch with his open hand. “No. I won’t.”
He swatted her ass harder, making it sting with heat and pain. “That’s ‘no, Sir’ to you, woman. Now let me hear you say it.”
“No, Sir. I won’t spy on you anymore or be nosy again.”
“Good girl.”
Her slit dampened at the hushed praise he lavished on her and the prickles of sensation that flared on her sore ass when he teased it with his callused fingertips.
His tone became serious, but he kept it low even as his voice hardened with the unfeeling coldness of reality. “I want you to promise me something, Jade.”
“Anything.”
The softness of his timbre sounded private and intimate. “I’ll let you help me cross off my bucket list under one condition.”
“Name it.”
�
��I want you to promise not to fall in love with me or try to make me fall in love with you.”
Her lips parted and the words devastated her. “People can’t help it when they fall in love, Doc. What happens if I can’t stop myself?”
He swatted her ass for that one.
“Damn it, Jade, don’t say that. I need you to control yourself and assure me that I won’t fall for you either. Please.” The broken plea in his voice shattered her heart. He sounded afraid, but not of dying. He was afraid of feeling and then losing everything he cared about.
She swallowed painfully and fought back the imminent tears. “I promise.”
Chapter Two
He answered his cellular device, pleased when he saw the female of all things enchanting beckoning to him from the other side.
“Hello, my sweet intoxication,” he greeted her, eagerly anticipating the sound of her treasured vocals.
“Hi, Brutus. It’s me, Ivy.”
The sound of her sweet, adorable voice put a smile on his face. He wanted to hear that same pleasant voice plead with him for sexual release and cry out with pleasure when he demonstrated his inherent carnal prowess in the lady’s boudoir.
Evidently I am acquainted with the French dialect. I shall use it to seduce the female of her principles and crowd out the memory of Jade Flowers with my magnificent beast of a manhood.
He returned from his thoughts to ascertain the reason Ivy Covington had contacted him. “What service might I provide your holiness with?”
Let it be my rigid phallus and a generous donation of my sperm into your vagina.
“I’m just outside of Winchester, Arizona. Do you mind coming to get me?” she asked, seeming strangely timid.
“I will be by your side at the soonest possible moment, and I will engulf you in the muscular bulk of my manly arms,” he vowed with no small amount of glee.
He heard her snicker on the other end. “Even after all this time your speech mannerisms are still funny to me. Text me when you’re close.”
“I will text you once every two minutes until I arrive at your destination.”
The svelte goddess of untold pleasures giggled on the other end, and the sound caused a hedonistic stirring in his loins. Her brilliance was unfathomably gorgeous when she laughed.
He wanted to tickle her until she became so distracted by her giggles that she failed to see him tearing the clothes off of her lush, slender body. Her ladyship would gasp and try to cover up when she realized she was naked and vulnerable to him, but he would use his strength to ensure she couldn’t run or hide from him. She would faint when she saw his nude champion’s body and the godlike magnificence of his phallus. The thrusting inside her basically virgin depths would awaken her, and she would melt into the bliss that only he could give her.
No other man would get the chance to touch his mistress of glory. He would kill them if they tried.
* * * *
“So who do you know that owns an untamed bull?” Jade asked from the passenger’s seat.
She felt lively and refreshed from her run with Kellan Brooks earlier that morning. They’d started running together in their wolf forms around dawn each morning.
“Well, the Darks run a cattle ranch. They’ve got plenty of them,” Doc said while he drove. “I called them this morning. Boston said he’d have a bull penned in for me when I got there.”
She studied the pleasing features of Doc’s face, trying to be discreet. His hair was a dark shade of blond, and the irresistible allure of his face was set with pale-green eyes that often danced with mischief and suggestive beckoning. He had a tiny Fu Manchu and a soul patch that gave him a Western quality like a cowboy from the olden days.
But all of this was nothing compared to when his soft, inviting lips curved up into a naughty smile that could charm his way out of any mess. Her stomach knotted and her panties dampened whenever he smiled at her.
She needed to get control of herself. Today was about helping him cross off a couple of things on his bucket list, not fucking the sexy cowboy’s brains out.
“Where is the Darks’ ranch?” she asked.
“It’s a few miles outside of town. We’ll head out there after I give you a tour of Winchester.”
“Sounds good.”
He looked around the truck and rolled his eyes. “Do you want some water? It appears I left our water bottles on the counter back at home.”
Jade smiled. She liked the way he referred to the Brookses’ ranch as home like she belonged there, too. She was only staying for a little while, but it was fun to pretend. “Please.”
“We’ll stop by Ike’s Market on the way.” Doc gestured with a wide sweep of his hand in front of him. “Well, here’s Winchester in all her glory. What do you think, darlin’?”
She grinned, taking it all in. “It’s so quaint. I love it.”
The small town was like stepping back into the past. It resembled an old mining town in the days of the Wild West. The sidewalks were constructed of wide wooden planks that likely made a pleasing clopping sound when cowboy boots made contact with them. If the streets had been made of dust, she would have sworn she’d gone back in time. It also had the feel of a tourist spot.
“That’s Swifty’s Britches right over there.” He pointed down a side street to a swanky-looking building.
“The sex club you guys own?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She grinned. “I like it. It reminds me of a—”
“Cowboy brothel?” he finished for her with a flirtatious smile.
A subtle warmth floated over her cheeks, but it probably wasn’t enough to color them noticeably. “Yeah, actually. It kind of does.”
“We wanted it to have a sort of saloon, Victorian-boudoir feel to it.”
“Well, good job.” With the window rolled down, the pleasant breeze tousled strands of her short black hair about and refreshed her skin with its cool, weightless touch. “So does this town have any special history to it?”
“Well, according to legend it was a mining town founded by demons in 1876.”
She raised an incredulous eyebrow. “What?”
Doc gave her a slow, lazy smile that had Southern charm written all over it. “I kid you not, dear. Winchester was built on an Indian burial ground. That part I believe. The rest I think is just myth.”
“So why did the supposed demons start this town?”
“Well, there’s this town up north in Wyoming called Temptation that was built around 1870. Supposedly in 1876 there was a purge and all the demons got cast out of town. Three of them supposedly came here to Arizona and founded Winchester as a place where demons could run around uninhibited and practice all their dark magic.”
Jade shook her head. “Founded by demons on an Indian burial ground. It’s a wonder you guys don’t have a lot of paranormal activity going on around here.”
“Well, some people claim to hear voices or be visited by ghosts.” He shrugged. “Crazy Ike tops the cake, though. He’s always going on about some sort of crazy bat shit.”
She laughed lightly. “I think you have that saying backward.”
He gave her a devilish grin as his eyes swept over her with wanton hunger. “You look ravishing in those shorts, Jade.”
“Thank you.” The compliment made her giddy, and she squirmed uncomfortably on the seat at the slickness that oozed from her pussy. “So who are the three demons who supposedly started this town?”
“One was a vampire-werewolf named Lucius, the second was his brother, Sutherland, and the other was allegedly the reason why the demons were purged from Temptation in the first place. Nicolai, I think his name was.” Doc parked the truck. “Well, here we are. Ike’s Market. Try not to be too troubled if Crazy Ike starts talking nonsense. He does that all the time to everybody. If he asks to read your palm and you’re uncomfortable with it, just tell him no.”
They got out of the truck and headed inside. She felt short and protected walking next to the tall cowboy, a
nd the hypnotic musk of his cologne got under her skin.
Ike’s Market was small and quaint. It reminded her of a general store in Western times. A blue-eyed, bearded man of about five feet, ten inches came around from behind the counter. “You’re new here.”
“She’s just staying with us for a while,” said Doc. “Ike, this is darlin’. I mean, Jade. Jade, this is Ike. He owns this store.”
“How do you do, Ike.” Jade extended her hand and Ike shook it.
“It’s a pleasure, Jade.” The smile drained from his face when he looked down at their hands and opened her palm. “Oh my.”
“What is it?” she asked.
He studied her palm for a moment in eerie silence. “Trouble’s coming. I see a machine created by a plant.”
She almost laughed but reminded herself to show the older gentleman proper deference. “A machine made by a plant?”
“Yes. He’s coming. Coming for the jewel. He’s gonna smash it to itty-bitty pieces,” Ike said ominously. “Unless the plant can stop him.”
She looked to Doc, and he rolled his eyes and shook his head. “No need to scare the shit out of the poor woman, Ike.”
“No. It’s okay. I don’t mind,” she insisted. “Go on, Ike. What else do you see?”
Ike seemed appreciative of her interest in his psychotic ramblings. “I see a witch coming to Winchester. She’s gonna bring trouble with her.”
“What witch?”
The color drained from his face as he continued to examine her open palm. “The alluring Goth. You know her.”
Her brain would probably break if she listened to too much more of this.
“What are you talking about? I don’t know any…” It suddenly hit her.
This morning she’d heard an Elvis Presley song, and hearing his last name mentioned had reminded her that she had a Gothic friend named Lorelei Presley who claimed to be a witch. Jade had one or two vague memories of associating with the woman. Lorelei had long raven-black hair, haunting gray eyes, and alabaster skin. Jade had a memory of shopping with her and another of Lorelei discussing witchcraft with her.
