James shook his head. He watched as confusion slammed into a river of uncertainty and what he could only define as disappointment in her expression. “It’s too much, darlin’.” Too much for both of them. He let her turn herself between his legs, finding it equal parts torture and relief when the pressure of her body against his groin eased. Tension tightened his muscles even as her hands came to rest on his upper thighs, as she leaned in to brush her lips to his.
“What’s too much?”
Everything. His need for her right now would tear them both apart. The tightness in his chest, the clawing in his gut, told him he was walking a thin line between control and total surrender.
“Your body needs time to adjust.”
Her lips tilted in a wicked smile. “Felt like it adjusted just fine when Billy was inside me.”
James slid his gaze to his brother, knowing Billy would see the battle in his eyes and understand just how close he was to losing. Billy’s hands closed around Sarah’s shoulders, but he didn’t offer James any help in the form of pulling her back.
Instead, he dipped his head, whispering to Sarah loudly enough James could hear him.
“He’s concerned you might be too sore, that being your first time and all.” Sarah flattened her hands on James’s chest, pushing herself back even as she wriggled against the hold he had on her hips. He let her move, thinking better of the decision when she slung first one leg and then the other over his until she straddled his waist. With his own legs still spread, the position opened her pussy wide. The scent of sex, of lingering arousal, and the sweet promise of salvation tormented his already-teetering control.
Her expression softened, every emotion settling into one of unmistakable surprise. “You certainly do take your dear sweet time about things.” James hung his head. The last time she’d said those words to him she’d been about to hang from the end of a rope. “A man’s got more to see to than his own pleasure when he’s takin’ care of his woman.”
“And a woman can make the earth stop spinnin’, if only for a little while, when she’s taking care of her man.”
James met her gaze and couldn’t hold back the grin. “You learn fast.” It was dangerous to let her know that, to let her see the power she had over him.
“I’m aimin’ to learn a whole lot more, too.” She wiggled again, this time inching her hips down until he felt the head of his cock graze the satiny flesh of her clit.
Fuck! James tightened his hold on her hips, feeling the last of his resistance snap. He could’ve lifted her off him, could’ve set her aside and won the battle of keeping his animal in its cage. While tonight was about winning, that wasn’t the victory he’d had in mind. Showing her the pleasures of belonging to him and Billy forever, delivering insurmountable ecstasy and utter satisfaction, was what he’d aimed to do.
“You lower that sweet pussy on my cock in this position and you’ll know what it feels like to be well and truly filled,” he warned her even as she tilted her hips forward a fraction of an inch. His cockhead pressed at her wide opening. Only his hold on her kept it from sinking inside.
“Then stop holdin’ me so tight and fill me.”
The challenge in her voice did him in. He loosened his grip on her hips and let her lower herself on his cock. A tremor went through her as she sheathed his cock with her sodden heat, taking every inch inside her. Her head fell back, eyes closing as a low moan of pure rapture escaped her slightly parted lips.
James watched her, enjoying the sight of her pleasure as much as the feel of her body taking him inside. Her inner muscles gripped his shaft like a vise, stroking and milking his cock as she began to ride him.
“Am I doin’ this right?” She rocked on his cock, controlling her hips much like she would if she’d been riding a horse, and every synapse in his brain short-circuited.
James couldn’t answer her. He wrapped his arms around her, gathering her close as her hips continued to sway, as she lifted herself ever so slightly only to let herself down again, beckoning him with her pussy to move with her. He tunneled the fingers of one hand in her hair and pulled her face to his, crushing his mouth to hers.
She trembled in his embrace as he plundered her mouth, thrust up with his hips, and met her stroke for stroke. She was so hot, so slick, so perfect. It was heaven holding her, being inside her, knowing for that single moment the pleasure between them was the only thing on her mind. He’d thought he was saving her, chasing after her all these years, going to her rescue when she nearly got herself hanged. He’d been a fool. She saved him with her spitfire resistance and stubborn reasoning, with her never-ending sparring and her devilish touch.
He wrenched his mouth from hers, needing more despite knowing he shouldn’t push. He’d let her take control, but damned if he could allow her to keep it.
His hands returned to her waist and he lifted her, loving the sound of protest that rolled from her lips. He caught sight of Billy as he started to turn, saw his brother move out of the way to give him room to flip her on her back beside him.
James covered her with his body, not giving her time to think or anticipate, not giving himself time to hesitate. He caught her legs, guiding her feet to rest on his shoulders as he positioned his cock at her sodden entrance. Thrusting into her sweet heat was like coming home, even though it had only taken him seconds to change their position. He threw his head back, growling at the darts of sheer bliss that traveled through his cock and balls.
Dimly, he heard her cry out, felt her feet push against his shoulders. He tried to stop, to pull back, but all his restraint vanished the instant he thrust inside her again.
“Damn it, I don’t want to hurt you,” he ground through his teeth, but the heavy-lidded eyes that gazed up at him showed only pleasure and nothing close to pain.
“You’ll only hurt me if you stop,” she panted, somehow managing to rock her hips the way she’d done when she was on top even as he pistoned his cock inside her now.
“Christ, you fuck like a dream.” But it wasn’t a dream. All the nights he’d lain awake with his cock in his hand envisioning her luscious body surrounding him crashed into this moment of reality. His balls tightened to the point of pain, spilling pressure into his cock.
“James, please. Oh, God, don’t—” Her back came off the bed and whatever she didn’t want him to do got lost in a sea of pleasured cries as she shattered.
A cascade of contractions tightened around his cock, and he knew he’d never felt anything more amazing. His own release was violent and hot. He buried his face in her breasts, his breath catching as her convulsing pussy milked his cock dry.
Chapter Eight
Sarah floated somewhere between sleep and consciousness. In her dreamworld, she heard Billy softly whisper that he loved her, that she finally and fully belonged to them. She heard James’s whispered words, too, words he’d spoken just before she’d drifted off to sleep.
Soon, we’ll bind you to us even more, together.
It had taken several long moments before she’d understood what those words meant. Even now, in her semiawake state, she found it hard to latch onto his true meaning. Together. That single word opened a realm of possibilities and impending pleasures James and Billy had yet to show her. Together, she realized as her mind latched onto exactly what James meant. They would take her together, both of them inside her at once, Billy in her pussy and James in her—
Even as her dreamland began to take on the images of her being between Billy and James, as she started to anticipate the feel of having both their cocks inside her needy body, something in reality yanked her awake. Icy shards of a fear unlike any she’d ever known raced down her spine. She froze, training all her senses on the room around her. She was alone.
No, you’re not.
She lay still, waiting, listening. James often snored like an ox. Billy tended to mutter in his sleep. Neither sound stirred the silence of the room tonight.
Somethi
n’ else is.
She started to turn her head, open her eyes, but stopped, realizing the sounds of their breathing weren’t the only things missing. The warmth she’d come to know from their bodies on either side of her at night wasn’t there, either.
But somethin’ else is.
Alarm sizzled through her veins as the warnings in her subconscious mind whispered louder. Her eyes flew open as a startled gasp escaped her lungs and she bolted upright in the bed. She saw it then, the big and burly silhouette of a man lit only by the flickering reddish-orange glow filtering in through the bedroom window.
Sarah scrambled back, yanking the blanket with her in a futile attempt to cover her naked flesh as she got as close to the wall behind her as possible. “Who are you?” Strange how the demand came out so steady and forceful when nothing else about her felt that way at the moment.
She narrowed her eyes, struggling to make out the man’s features in the darkness. Not Buck, she told herself. This man stood too tall and was too wide to be the older Cassidy ranch hand. Her mind scrambled over images of the other men she knew who worked the Cassidy land. She couldn’t come up with one that even remotely fit the size of the body now walking to the foot of the bed.
“Gots ta say I do admire your attempt at modesty.”
His voice grated over her skin, and she hugged the blanket closer, looking for protection even as she struggled to get her wits about her. She was Sarah McLaury, strong as any man and capable of taking care of herself. She didn’t cower in the face of danger. She ran at it head-on.
“Reckon it’s useless.” The voice laughed. “Gotta say it’s a surprise, too,
’specially seein’ as how you’re whoring yourself with two men.”
“Those men are my husbands, and they’ll be back in here any minute.” She hoped. Where in the blazes did they get off to in the middle of the night, anyway?
“Naw, I took care of ’em. They’s gonna be busy for a right long time.” The man clucked his tongue, and the sound felt like a dagger of pure evil stabbing into her belly. “I ’spect I’ll be done and gone by the time they get back.”
“Done with what?” Did she really want to know the answer?
“Why, you, of course.”
The icy shards of fear down her spine that had fully awakened her moments ago held nothing in comparison to the river of terror that washed over her now.
“Seems I had a sudden change of plans, if you will.” The figure moved closer, and a flicker of light hit him just right, illuminating him enough for her to catch a glimpse of his hands as they started to work his gun belt free.
Dear God, he’s going to rape me. Frantic, Sarah’s mind raced with options too fast for her to latch onto any specific one.
“First, I’d just planned on stranglin’ ya. Ya know, like what should’a happened to ya outside the courthouse. Figured I could make it look like ya ran off in all the commotion and bury your body somewheres.”
All the commotion outside. Sarah whipped her head toward the window, realizing too late what the reddish-orange glow filtering through meant. “Something is on fire out there.”
She’d been too absorbed by the horror of waking to find a strange man looming over her to think of anything beyond the bedroom walls. Now that she focused her attention elsewhere, she could tell there was a hell of a fire burning in the direction of the main barn. Jesus, that’s how he’d lured James and Billy out of the room.
The man’s gun belt hit the floor with a thud, and Sarah’s heart lodged in her throat. “Now I’m thinkin’ I got better use for you alive.”
“Don’t hurt me.” The plea spilled from her lips, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth as she yanked her focus back to the man. She might be afraid, but showing such weakness disgusted her.
“Aww, now, I don’t plan on hurtin’ ya.” He wanted her begging, crying, scared to death and weak. Sarah could tell from the sound of his voice, the pleased tone that came into it now. “I could use a personal whore on the ranch, that’d keep all my hands mighty happy.”
She narrowed her eyes, listening to what he said, thinking of the men she knew around these parts that owned their own ranch.
“There’d be no need for ’em galloping off to town and gettin’ their asses in a slew of trouble if they had a nice piece of pussy right there on the ranch.”
“McCoy,” Sarah whispered. The realization of the man shimmying his pants down his hefty legs hit her with a force that chilled her to the bone. She’d thought knowing who she faced would make this easier, hoped it would give her an idea of how to get away. She’d been wrong. Rock McCoy was the devil himself, and he’d stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
“Why, yeah, Sarah. ’Bout time you figured that out.” He swayed, ungracefully struggling with something Sarah couldn’t see. When another softer thud sounded through the silence, she realized he’d kicked off his boots.
“It wasn’t hard. You’ve got the only ranch hands in these parts that stir up trouble every time they head to town.”
“Then ya understand why havin’ you there’ll help keep ’em in line.”
“Why me?” Dear God, she had to keep him talking until she could figure a way out of this. As long as he was talking he wasn’t touching, he wasn’t…
“’Cause I want ya out of the way. Ain’t supposed to be you in this bed.” Sarah could just make out his silhouette as he rounded the foot of the bed and came around to kneel on the side. She tried to scurry away farther but, with the wall behind her, she had nowhere else to go.
“It’s high time one of them Cassidy brothers weds Barbara-Sue.” With that, Sarah understood it all. Her memory flashed to Barbara-Sue McCoy in the crowd of onlookers the day James led her down from the hanging platform outside the courthouse. The intense hatred in the woman’s eyes, the cold things she’d said as Sarah passed her.
“You expect James or Billy to marry your daughter.”
“Should’a done it a long time ago. Damn Cassidy brothers’ve had designs on you for years. Can’t see the logic in front of their noses for the hard-ons they got for ya. Wouldn’t’ve cared so much if it’d just been one of ’em. They ain’t turnin’ my Barbara-Sue into no whore like they’ve gone and done with you, but I’m damned tired of waitin’ for one of ’em to claim her.”
Sarah didn’t bother to ask why. The reasons were obvious. With James or Billy married to McCoy’s daughter, McCoy could slip in and take over the Cassidy land. He’d been trying for as long as she could remember. It looked like he’d finally set his mind on a way to accomplish his goal.
“You set me up.” She wasn’t surprised, but she felt stupid for taking so long to figure it out. “You framed me to be hanged, tore up my place, and sent the law after me.”
Sarah sensed, more than saw, him move. She felt the weight of his hand on her knee through the blanket she held for protection. She jerked away, shifting and turning until she faced him. She no longer had the wall at her back this way. If she could just get off the bed without losing her footing, she could run for the door.
“Almost worked, too, though I wish I’d just thought of takin’ ya in myself sooner. Once those Cassidy boys see what a real whore ya are, they won’t want nothin’ to do with ya.”
The bed shifted as he walked toward her on his knees, reaching for her again.
Sarah prepared herself, waiting for the right moment.
“How many men you got on your ranch these days?”
McCoy laughed, a truly evil sound that she knew she’d hear in her nightmares for the rest of her God-given life. “I knew I’d pegged ya right. Ya gonna want a cock in ya all the time, ain’t ya?”
“A whore does love a good fucking.” She wasn’t a whore, but the more she let him think he’d won, the closer he would get. She wanted him close now, knew exactly what she had to do just as soon as she got the chance.
“Ya ’bout to get one right now, too.”
She held he
rself still as she felt him close the distance between them, hugging her legs to her chest even as she flexed the muscles in her right leg, readying it to strike. Her legs were the strongest part of her body, and she’d put all her faith in that strength now to get her away. “Bring it on, big boy.” He laughed, a full, from-the-gut, devilish bark, and lunged for her.
Sarah braced her hands behind her, kicking out with her right leg with all her might and connecting right where she intended. Rock McCoy doubled over, howling in agony from the blow she laid to his cock and balls, and she didn’t waste a second.
She scrambled off the opposite side of the bed and ran.
* * * *
“There’s not much more we can do besides standin’ back and watchin’ it burn.” Billy crossed his arms over his bare chest and nodded toward the fire.
James sighed, watching the flames lick the night sky, already thinking of the man hours it would take to rebuild the barn. “Yeah, I reckon you’re right.” He tipped his chin to his right, indicating the group of hands gathered between the house and the barn. “They got that area protected so the fire doesn’t spread to the house?”
“Best they can. We’re lucky the wind ain’t blowin’ tonight. Helluva fire, ain’t enough water on the land to put it out, but a good wind would’ve made it a whole lot worse.”
James let his head fall back, his gaze raking the sky. Stars twinkled through the fog of smoke, giving evidence to the clear night it had been before the fire started.
Billy was right. They could be thankful for that. They also couldn’t look to the weather for the cause of the blaze.
“Someone started this, James.” Billy put voice to the knowledge already settling in James’s mind. “And I ain’t got a hunch who.”
“Neither do—” James broke off when the conversation between the ranch hands near the house grew in volume. He spun around, immediately catching sight of Sarah running buck naked and full speed toward him. “What the hell?” She vaulted herself into his arms, quivering so violently he felt it in his own bones. “Billy, get behind her.” He barked the order, knowing every ranch hand on the land was out here and seeing her gorgeously naked backside.
Her Dominant Saviors Page 11
